#tune back in eventually for when I draw the dragons from the actual series - I have Ideas but it's going to take a bit I think

[chiropteracupola]

the inevitable sharpe and temeraire crossover in my mind of course involves teresa moreno as a dragon-captain.

[miaclemeverett]

Wilbur, Fundy, and Purpled were interviewed for this great article on the Dream SMP and the Minecraft community! Full article below the cut. 

"Minecraft" launched over a decade ago and the video game is as popular as ever. With over 126 million players worldwide, the voxel-based survival game drops adventurers into a world where they can craft, build, explore, destroy, and create to their heart's content. Aided by tools, blocks, and creativity, the simple sandbox world allows anyone on PC, console, or smartphone the chance to project their own feelings and creations directly into their virtual space.

"As long as you have the mind for it, you can really just do anything," 17-year-old "Minecraft" YouTuber Purpled, who has 700,000 subscribers, told Insider. "Because of how simple Minecraft is and how easy it is to build with it, you can create whatever you want."

In recent years, Microsoft's never-ending game has evolved into a tool for content creators to express themselves, leading to high-profile collaborations with some of YouTube's biggest personalities. By creating their own private "Minecraft" servers, creators have been able to craft ornate worlds and stories that they can explore in streams and videos, immersing fans in a cinematic-style universe.

Minecraft has a long history on YouTube

"Minecraft's" versatility has made it an incredibly popular game for content creators and influencers. In 2012, a change in YouTube's algorithm promoting watch time over video clicks led to a renaissance of "Let's Players" who recorded themselves reacting and playing their favorite games. "Minecraft" was one of the most successful, spawning some of the largest channels of the time like SkyDoesMinecraft (11.3 million subscribers) and Tobuscus (6.25 million subs).

Though the popularity of "Minecraft" remained fairly steady, content about the title waned a bit over the next decade either due to content fatigue or newer titles like "Fortnite" taking the spotlight. 2020 flipped the title back into the forefront, with both streamers and YouTubers capitalizing on the title's popularity.  

The biggest breakout star for "Minecraft" in the past few years is Dream, an expert, faceless player with a neon-green avatar with over 17 million YouTube subscribers. YouTube labeled him the second overall content creator of the year and his streams consistently pull in a quarter of a million people.

In May of 2020, Dream decided to create a small, private server for his friends to play around in. This SMP server, or "survival multiplayer," started off with only a handful of content creators being invited. Soon, the server would expand to over 30 members, bringing in millions of views from fans who chronicle every moment of the lore the creators eventually created.

Viewership on Twitch of "Minecraft" content went from 17 million hours watched in January 2020 to 74 million in January of 2021, according to data from analytics company Rainmaker.gg.  

How the Dream SMP grew from a private server with friends to a cultural milestone

Purpled has been playing "Minecraft" for the past eight years and is a high-ranking player in a multiplayer game mode called "Bed Wars." He had started talking to Dream in the summer of 2019, when the pair were both small, mutual fans.

"When the SMP was in its infancy, I just asked him if there was any room because he said how it's just for friends and if a friend wants to join, they can," Purpled said. "So I asked him, he said, 'Sure.' He sent me the IP and I was in."

The server was originally just a place to create and hangout, with no intention of creating an overarching story or plot.

Fundy, a 19-year-old Dutch YouTuber with 2.7 million subscribers joined when only a handful of other creators were on."I had talked to Dream on a few occasions, out-of-the-blue Dream sent me a message about a survival world that they had going on. It was very small at first," Fundy said. "I thought it could be a fun little side-project I could stream every now and then on Twitch, so I decided to join."

Fundy joined in the early days alongside Wilbur Soot, a 23-year-old YouTuber with 3.8 million subscribers. Soot, after attempting to create an "illegal potion shop" on the server, decided to establish a nation of non-Americans players called L'Manberg. Soot said he wrote a "treatment" for how the formation of his country would go, creating an official canon that fans could follow along with.

"I was invited into the Dream SMP near its inception but I only joined fully when I had an idea for building a country in 'Minecraft'," Soot said. "I write up a series of plot hooks and points that should tie together, however we improv dialogue and comedy throughout to take us from point to point."

These streams and pieces of content all had a canon that could be followed and consumed like a television show. L'Manberg eventually started a war against Dream for its independence, staging a rebellion chronicled in YouTube videos with millions of views.

These streams and videos aren't just randoms in "Minecraft" trying to defeat the end-game Ender Dragon — these are performers putting on a show that their fans can't miss. As the lore expanded, so did the rules needed to keep a sense of continuity and order. For example, each player only has three lives before they are removed and deleted from the server.

"It went from a casual survival game to a whole story-line filled with plots and twists," Fundy said. "Role-playing at this point is a key-feature of the Dream SMP, some parts are scripted, some parts are improv, and some parts are 'non-canon,' where it is just counted as a standard 'Minecraft' server."

The fan communities have risen up and made their voices heard

Over the next few months, the lore and world would continue to grow and so would the fan base. Hundreds of thousands of viewers would tune in for these streams, trying to keep up with the lore and content. To help catalog the story, a network of fans established themselves as lore keepers, documenting each moment for those that had to miss a stream.  

The "DREAMSMP UPDATES!" account on Twitter has established itself as one of the most popular locations to find all this content and lore on social media. Starting in December 2020, the account has grown to over 147,000 users with just a team of seven administrators, ages 14-17, in different locations around the world, posting updates and stream notifications for fans. "Minecraft" is a game that appeals to all ages, but the audience for this content tends to skew younger, with 41 percent of Twitch's user base being 16 to 24, according to GlobalWebIndex.

"You can tell they're all friends and it's a lot more lighthearted in general and it shows," mod on the "DREAMSMP UPDATES!" Twitter account eclaire said over chat app Discord. "When it's not lore you see them actually having good chemistry and it really pulls you in because it almost feels like being pulled into a friend group."

User SamHQ first started the fan account with a couple of friends from high school but the group quickly expanded after the account tweeted that they needed more fans of certain streamers to join. She is online and runs the account "24/7" but "it's just like answering a text."

"When I started the account I knew lots of people who couldn't catch up because of work or school," SamHQ said. "So I gathered friends to help and now people rely on us when someone's streaming or to catch up with the lore when they can't watch."

For the fans that run the update account, keeping up with the Dream SMP isn't dissimilar to following the Marvel Cinematic Universe or a long-running television show. Characters come and go, but the improv and roleplay stay.

"The Dream SMP did something really special — taking an original idea, creating new things that have never been seen on 'Minecraft' and incorporating them with humor and characters that you can become easily attached with," mod NotAlex said.

Though other SMP roleplay servers, like EarthSMP and SMPLive, have been created over the years, none have been as successful or popular as the Dream SMP.

Finding a fan base on the Dream SMP can lead to major growth.

For the performers on the server, addressing fans and their responses comes with the territory.

"The Dream SMP viewers are very important to the Dream SMP, and the fact that they openly speak their mind about how a certain stream went only helps the streamers improve," Fundy said. "It's basically an instant review of what was liked and what wasn't."

Like most major fandoms with a young audience, fanfiction of these streamers has popped up online. Dozens of Dream fics and drawings exist online, some going a bit far and putting underage characters together. Dream responded on Twitter to those "ships," writing that they shouldn't "ship creators that are uncomfortable with it, and especially not minors."

The Dream stans, or the super fans, also tend to be very vocal online about the SMP. Hashtags on Twitter like #dreamnotfound and #dreamfanart consistently break-through to the trending page, confusing those who have no idea this world exists. The most ferocious of stans sometimes overstep the boundary between polite disagreement and outright harassment. This vocal minority has sent death threats and waves of harassment at those who criticize or disagree with their favorite content creators.  

The growth and future of these channels is in large part due to the Dream SMP server

The popularity of Dream SMP has helped grow the content creators that take part in it. Since joining the server, Purpled is gaining three times as many subscribers a month on YouTube and has been introduced to an entirely new fan base. His streams used to pull in 3,000 viewers but now his average is closer to 35,000 to 40,000 viewers.

"Some people think of them as obsessive or stalker fans, but those are people that really like to talk about certain creators and really get invested in things," Purpled said. "And it's really nice because they care a lot more and connect more with the creator than the content."

These creators understand the power of the fan base and know that they come for the content.

"I think the Dream SMP is popular thanks to the brilliant creators and funny improv moments," Soot said. "I think we'll be seeing the emergence of a huge wave of roleplay-centric gaming communities."

[songofwizardry]

paint stains

part 2 of a motley crew, a series of nine (nein!) ficlets to celebrate the end of critical role campaign 2

(set between episodes 21 and 26) Molly borrows Jester's paints, and Jester gets a preview of Molly's newest cards.

Molly and Jester having tiefling art club together was so much fun to write! you can find the fic on ao3, or under the cut.

It was not a nice day outside. One of the best things about Nicodranas, in Jester’s opinion, was that it didn’t get weather like this. And sure, Jester didn’t really feel the cold, but these sorts of days – wind making horrible sounds and knocking over carts, cold rain hitting the windows at odd angles – were still miserable, on principle. She liked spending them indoors. Anyway—the point, Jester thought, turning away from the window (closed tight) and back to her sketchbook, was that Nicodranas was way better than the Empire in lots of ways. Weather was only one of them.

She turned the sketchbook around on her lap, twisting so she could get a better angle, and she was working on a particularly tricky fold on a robe, when she heard a knock on the door. She paused – couldn’t be Beau, they were sharing and she never knocked – maybe Fjord?

“Come in!” she called.

The door creaked open, and a purple head poked in.

“Molly, hi! I thought you’d gone shopping with the others.”

Mollymauk pulled a face. “Not in this weather, darling. I let Caleb and Fjord go on their own. I’m not made for these elements.”

Jester couldn’t help laughing. “Me neither.”

“Anyway, can I come in? I need your help.”

“Sure!” Jester swung her legs off the bed, and patted the space next to her. Molly shut the door behind him and dropped onto the bed, coat fanning out behind him, a bright splash of colour. “What do you need?”

Molly pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket with a flourish. “Your artistic input!” he declared, grinning. “Also, your paints? If you can spare them, please.”

“Ma-aybe,” Jester said, just to watch the way Molly’s brows knitted together. It was kind of adorable. She leaned over to poke him in the side. “No-o, I’m kidding, of course! Can I see what you’re painting?”

Molly’s face brightened, and he fanned the cards out on the bed, flipping them over, one by one. “Definitely.”

Jester wasn’t too impressed with her current paint levels. Another thing Nicodranas did really well – or at least, that her Mama always made sure she had – was art supplies, but it turned out that finding paints while adventuring and going between middle-of-nowhere Empire towns was really hard. She was running low on blue and yellow, and she’d lost her last nice paintbrush somewhere in the Labenda swamp, and she’d never had to ration her supplies so carefully, but she had no intention of telling Molly that.

Anyway, it was totally worth it for the smile on his face as she placed the little pots in a neat row before him.

She watched as he picked up one of his cards – it had a sketch of two dragons, locked in battle with each other, all teeth and wings – and started painting one of the dragons red. “You’re really good at this, Molly,” she said, after a few moments, seeing the dragon come to life under his purple fingers.

Molly glanced up, briefly, grinned, then looked back at his cards. “I haven’t been doing it for very long,” he admitted. Jester was pretty sure he hadn’t been doing anything for very long, what with the whole amnesia thing, but she wasn’t gonna bring that up. “But I like the cards,” Molly was saying, “And I like, you know, being able to tell stories with them? So…” He looked up at her, shrugged. “Making more of them felt natural. And it’s fun.”

“I get it,” Jester said, and she did. It was sort of what she did with her sketchbook, too. Part of it was talking to the Traveller, but part of it was talking to herself too. Telling herself the story. “What’s that card gonna mean then, Molly?”

Molly finished off the tail of the red dragon with a flourish. “It’s called The Tyrant.”

They passed a good hour like that, together. Jester turned back to her sketchbook, finishing off the tricky cloak, adding features to the face, shading in the scales. Mollymauk hummed as he worked, snatches of tunes she vaguely recognised from their one night at the circus, finishing one card and starting on another. Outside, the wind grew wilder, the sky got darker.

When her hand started aching from making dozens of little scales, Jester stopped to shake it out, and looked up to find Molly watching her.

“What?” she asked.

Molly smiled, and there was something smaller, and softer, about this smile. “Did you know you stick your tongue out while you draw?”

Jester was definitely not somebody who blushed, so she definitely did not blush. “Yes, actually. My Mama always told me that.”

“It’s very cute,” Molly said, without a trace of embarrassment. “Anyway, what are you working on?”

Jester turned her sketchbook round so it was facing him. “Can you tell who it is?”

Molly pulled the sketchbook closer, eyebrows shooting up. “Fuck, that’s really good, Jester. Calianna, yeah?”

In spite of herself, Jester felt a swell of pride in her chest. “Yes! I’m glad you like it. What about you?” She leaned over, trying to get a look at the card on his lap, but he immediately flipped it over.

“Nope, nuh uh. Some of these are a surprise.“

“What, for me?”

Molly laughed. “Not just for you, darling. For all of you. You’re not going to see them till they’re done.”

Jester attempted her best pout. “I’m excellent at keeping secrets, Molly! I wouldn’t even tell the others.”

“Nice try, but no.” Molly glared at her, but the effect was slightly ruined by the blue paint-stains that had somehow ended up across his cheek and chin. “You’ll have to be patient. You’ll see them eventually.”

“Ugh, fine. You better finish them soon.”

Molly rolled his eyes. “I’m a busy tiefling, but I’ll do my best.” He pushed the sketchbook back towards her. “Now come on, if you’re that desperate for me to finish, let me continue.”

He flipped the card back over, pulled out the charcoal stick that was stuck behind one ear, and continued sketching on the card. Jester picked up her own sketchbook and stretched her fingers once more (still aching, she was never drawing scales again). Molly started humming again, and this time she recognised the tune as a sea-shanty Fjord had sung when he’d had too much to drink. He seemed engrossed in his drawing.

Slowly – holding the sketchbook up as an excuse in case she needed it – Jester edged closer to him, leaning over, little by little, until she could see the card Molly was (poorly) trying to hide.

It was a man, with long hair and a scruffy beard, holding a book open. There were spheres – lights, Jester realised, noticing the rays stretching out from them – orbiting him, and Molly was currently drawing a cat, winding between the man’s feet. It was just a sketch, but Jester could already tell it was going to be beautiful.

She couldn’t help the smile, thinking of what Caleb’s face would look like when he saw it. He’d probably go completely red. As sneakily as possible, she scooted back to her end of the bed, took one last look at Molly (he hadn’t noticed her snooping, excellent) and went back to drawing the scales, still smiling.

[braincoins]

for DA Shallura

I’ve been doing a series of posts about basic Dragon Age canon for my DA fic series, Dragon Age: Schism. HOWEVER, my Dragon Age AU for Shallura has slightly different background (it takes place before DA:O, and thus before any of DA:S) and I include headcanons and whatnot for DA:S in those info posts. 

So I thought I’d make One post with all the info that @tybalt-tisk​ or anyone else could need to make sense of what’s going on in that fic specifically. Some of this will be copy-pasted from what I’ve already done for DA:S because c’mon why write it twice? But everything here should give the necessary bgd for that fic. If you want/need to ask me other questions, feel free!

With credit, as always, to @yslanam​ who started this by first suggesting a DA AU for Shallura. And if you make it to the end, there’s pretty Mitz art! (Or you could skip to it, I know, but... be good, hm?)

Our story takes place in the country of Ferelden on the continent Thedas. Ferelden is basically Fantasy England (though not an island and not shaped that way), and is about the same size and climate (though it’s south of the equator, not north of it).

Shiro was born Takashi Shirogane in a small village where everyone knew everyone else and he liked it there. Loved it there, really. He signed on to be in his bann’s (the noble who ruled the land and its village) army, as did another young man from his town (whose name Shiro rarely speaks now). They served honorably and well and fell in love. 

And then they were called to battle. Shiro survived: plus a scar and some new white hair, but minus his right arm, which was too badly injured and had to be amputated. Shiro’s lover didn’t make it, though. Shiro was discharged with pay and a small bonus, but that money would run out eventually. He’s not sure what to do with himself, and he overhears people talking about what a shame it is, such a young man now destined to just wither away because, well, he’s basically worthless now. Can’t work a farm, can’t fight in wars. It hits him hard. He wants to prove himself worthy of... of something, anything, just to prove them wrong.

That’s what brings him to the Grey Wardens. 

Allura is a city elf. Elves are second-class citizens - at best - amongst humans, and the city elves live in ghettos called “alienages.” Her father was the Elder of the Highever (a city in Ferelden) Alienage: the man in charge, basically. That didn’t mean Allura behaved though; even as a child, she would rant about how elves were people just like humans and they deserved better treatment. This didn’t win her a lot of friends; most city elves learn quick that yelling about the truth just draws a whole lot of unwelcome - and often armed - attention.

But then it was discovered that Allura had magic, and she was taken off to the Tower of the Circle of Magi to be trained... and supervised. If there’s anything worse than being an elf in Ferelden, it’s being a mage. Mages, if they aren’t careful, can basically be possessed by demons and then they kill a bunch of people and it’s a bad scene. Therefore most people fear mages, and the Chantry - the main religious organization on the continent and damn near the only one in Ferelden - has created Templars to watch over the mages of the Circle. 

The Templars are also known as “mage-hunters” because that’s one of their main duties: running down mages who try to flee their gilded cage. They also kill any mage suspected of being demon-possessed. And they’re posted all throughout the Tower, watching... always watching...

Allura liked learning magic but hated that this is how it’s done. She’s just been moved from one cage to another, and she wasn’t silent about that either. Things came to a head after she became an official mage; she saw a Templar about to force himself on a fellow mage, who was terrified of the man. She got angry and killed the man, straight out. She should have been killed, made Tranquil (basically magical lobotomy) or sent to Aeonar, the mage prison, but Duncan, the Warden-Commander, was there visiting and recruited her away, instead. 

That’s what brings her to the Grey Wardens.

And that’s where she meets Shiro.

So, really now, what is a Grey Warden? Well, that depends on who you ask. To most people outside the order, the Grey Wardens are a glorious order of noble heroes! And why is that? Well, they’re immune to the darkspawn taint (which usually kills people) and so they can safely slay darkspawn! They’re also the only ones who can stop Blights!! …though this last bit of information is often forgotten, given that Blights happen once every few centuries.

If you ask me, the Grey Wardens are the biggest dick move in Thedas, which is actually part of why I love them. Here’s all the downsides to joining this “glorious order”:

First of all, the Right of Conscription. Ferelden has it; not sure if other nations in Thedas do? Anyway, it means that Grey Wardens can recruit anyone at any time. In practice, they have to be careful how they wield this tool (especially in Ferelden), but the RoC has been used to save people from hangings or other deadly fates… on the condition that they become a Warden Recruit. So… didn’t want to be Warden Recruit? TOO BAD, YOU ARE NOW. And no, you don’t get a say in the RoC. (Allura was RoC’d, to keep the commander of the Templars from killing her.)

Second of all, there’s the Joining. It turns out that, in order to become a Grey Warden, you have to drink darkspawn blood. And a bunch of other stuff in there, but really now, DRINKING DARKSPAWN BLOOD. You might recognize this as a stupidly dangerous thing to do, given that darkspawn blood KILLS THINGS. But your options are drink it or die, because the Grey Wardens present at the Joining will kill you if you try to back out after learning about this. If you drink from the Joining chalice, you also might die, but your name will be remembered as a Grey Warden at least? Even though you’re dead. And hey, if you live, you… become “immune” to the darkspawn taint, which is to say you’re already fucking tainted so it’s not like it can get worse. Want to know why the Grey Wardens don’t tell people they’re gonna make them drink darkspawn blood? Well, if they did that, people wouldn’t want to join, and we need Grey Wardens.

Supposing you survive the Joining, there’s the shortened lifespan (10-30 years depending on your sources) and the nightmares (that maybe you can learn to tune out). Again, they don’t tell you this until afterwards. Why? Because then people might not want to become Grey Wardens… yadda yadda. (Shiro might not speak Adam’s name anymore but he sure does yell it some nights, jolting out of a night terror and back to reality.)

Oh, and forget about having kids! It’s very difficult if not impossible to have children as a Grey Warden! (Not like they let mages have kids in the Circle. And Shiro’d been in love with a man, so he was okay with not having biological children anyway.)

At some point, even if you were able to tune the nightmares out, they’ll come back and there’ll be nothing you can do about it. That’s the first sign of The Calling. Because it turns out that the Joining is really just turning you into a ghoul, except very, very slowly. You’re getting close to Ghoul-dom now. Most Grey Wardens choose to die in battle against the darkspawn rather than waiting to be turned. It’s tradition.

And if there’s a Blight going on? Oh, well, it turns out that the only way to kill an Archdemon is to sacrifice a Grey Warden. Why didn’t they tell you? DO YOU EVEN HAVE TO ASK NOW?!

The motto of the Grey Wardens is “In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.”

So what I’m saying is that Grey Wardens are SUPER TRAGIC BADASSES. They also wind up pretty cut off from their former lives, so the Wardens become their family. So, basically, SUPER TRAGIC BADASS FOUND FAMILY. 

Shiro and Allura get close because it turns out they work well together as a fighting pair: he as a warrior, she as a mage. Even with only one arm, Shiro can at least protect Allura as she takes shit out. They’re quickly a unit, just the two of them, always sent out together. It’s no wonder it starts to blossom into love.

But Allura sees that Shiro wants to do more than just protect and shield bash, so she starts trying to figure out how to make him a prosthetic: one worthy of a Grey Warden. One... worthy of him. 

There are different schools of magic: Creation is the healing branch, and it seems natural to try to work with that some, but in the end, Allura has to also dip into a forbidden school: Blood Magic. Blood Magic has the reputation of being evil because you’re using people’s blood - people’s life forces - to power your spells. After growing up in the Tower, she’s understandably nervous about using it.

But she talks about it with Shiro, and although he might otherwise be scared of Blood Magic, she tells him she doesn’t need a lot of it, it won’t kill him, and... well, it’s her. He trusts her. And she works hard to be worthy of that trust, she goes over this spell she’s created several times. It should work to attach the arm - made of silverite, a very powerful and durable metal - to him so he can use it.

She just forgot about the darkspawn taint coursing through him. His blood is not normal. And there are some... side effects from messing with it.

I do recommend reading this post (it’s kinda 1/2 meta, 1/2 fic) but if you don’t want to, the short version is that Shiro has trouble controlling his arm at first and so he pushes Allura away because he’s afraid of hurting her. She takes that as a well-deserved rebuke because she did this to him. 

Eventually they scream it all out at each other: he loves her, he was afraid for her, she feels guilty and is so afraid he’ll leave her, etc. They settle down and start working together on figuring out how Shiro can better control this thing. At the beginning of this fic, he’s gotten the hang of it now.

I’ll put up pictures of their uniforms when I can, and other than that, you should be good to go! I know this was long, sorry. Here, have some pretty @mitzoco​ art:

[twistednuns]

February 2021

Irises and purple, lavender and white hyacinths. For merely three bucks. What a gorgeous bouquet.

My own thai curry recipe. It's THAT delicious.

A pep talk from Manu. Realising I really need to take more chances. And get rid of that dude I've been hanging out with. I've been feeling so stuck lately. I'm toying with the idea of giving it all up. Quitting my job. Leaving the country. Just to see what happens. Because I'm pretty sure I'll love what happens next. / Whatever worlds you live in, there are other worlds out there. If you are uninspired living life a certain way, it’s your duty to change. Nothing, not a relationship or job or housing situation, is worth sacrificing your ravenous hunger for life for. X

I feel my obsession with artificial cherry flavour creeping back up on me. Cherry-flavoured diet coke is one of my guiltiest pleasures.

I keep seeing those multicolour graffiti tags everywhere and I finally found out what kind of pen they use for this effect! I ordered one, I just had to, and it's fantastic. So beautiful and vibrant! I've already asked around how illegal it is to walk around the neighbourhood signing my tag on random surfaces...

Fresh pineapple.

The ocean. Talking about diving. Watching documentaries about marine life like My Octopus Teacher and Blue Planet. Drawing nautical objects, sea dragons and mollusks.

Learning more about apophenia.

It actually smells like spring in the forest and the days are already so much longer. I even saw a deer jumping over the path last night. I even got Frank to join my on my walk for the first time.

A little glimpse of summer. The south of France is my happy place I keep going back to. But there are more little reminders of the world out there, of travel and summer, that I thoroughly enjoy. Like watching Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat with Samin Nosrat. Not only do I really want to try making my own Tahdig now but I also kept smiling throughout the whole show because they filmed episodes in Italy, Japan and Mexico. Just imagine walking across a citrus market in the Yucatan right now. Or making Pesto Genovese with an Italian nonna in a Ligurian castle. Maybe even learning how to make your own miso in a remote corner of Japan. There is so much longing within me at the moment. What made my virtual culinary travels even better was Netflix's Street Food series. I especially enjoyed the episodes from Bolivia and Mexico.

I May Destroy You. Different, and very relevant.

This year's Valentine's Day happened to be pretty rad. So I've exchanged the boring nerd I had been dating with an exciting artist from Colombia. John is a painter, a poet, photographer and filmmaker who gave me a Spanish copy of an Oscar Wilde book with a poem he had written for me. My cold and cynical German heart is not used to wooing on this level but I love it. On Sunday we walked through the English Garden and Schwabing in the sunshine, took photos, looked at some art and antiquarian bookshop windows. We saw two cats inside the cat café, bought fancy macarons at Maelu and just kept talking. I even found a few interesting books about dream interpretation on my way home. John has a reference to Kleist's tragedy Penthesilea tattooed on his collarbone - Küsse/Bisse ("das reimt sich, und wer recht von Herzen liebt, kann schon das eine für das andre greifen"). He is a Scorpio with impeccable taste and sends me songs he plays for me on the guitar / Cocteau Twins tunes upon waking up. I really needed this.

Having my students create English comics with Pixton. I love how much their avatars actually look like them! I hope they had fun, too.

The smell of cherry-flavoured candy wafting through the air.

Semolina pudding with banana. The subtle heat does something to the bananas; the combination is simply delicious.

I watched the first season of Chef's Table and was really impressed by Francis Mallmann. I admire his courage and lifestyle. The constant change he craves. The way he speaks foreign languages and just bravely does his very own, unique thing. I want to live like that, too.

A crystal clear view of the Orion constellation.

Very fine snow powder against the sunlight. As if it was raining glitter.

Feeling cool and confident. A fleeting feeling but it makes such a big difference.

When we practice forgiveness, we let go of shame. Embedded in our shame is always a sense of being unworthy. It separates. Compassion and forgiveness reconnect us. / reading bell hooks' all about love.

Mustering up enough motivation to go through all my stuff in the basement and put a few items on eBay. I'd been putting this off for years now.

I'm amazed how good my phone camera is. I took some pictures in the pitch-black forest and you can make out the moonlight on the path and even see star constellations on the photo.

Spending quality time with a cuddly kitty boi.

Blue corn quesadillas prepared for me by a bloody gorgeous Mexican metalhead.

Writing that message I should have written weeks ago (letting Simon know that I wasn't particularly  interested in dating him anymore).

Trolli burgers. The best gummy candy out there. Arguably the most fun. I love being able to disassemble my food and eat it layer by layer.

John's story about that acid trip on a boat somewhere in the ocean off the Colombian coast. They lay under the bright moonlight and were suddenly surrounded by Gray whales communicating with each other through song.

The spicy smell of a fresh, moist loaf of rye bread. Eating it with soured butter and salt.

The first snowdrops of the year.

Another one about the moon: walking home late one evening there was a lunar corona in the fog. I loved how the light illuminated my arms in that cool, white light.

The morning after the worst weekend in months or maybe even years (with both a mental breakdown and a medical emergency because misery loves company, eh?) Waking up early, pain-free. With a little spark of excitement and motivation. Just lying around for an hour in the darkness. Meditating. Falling back asleep for a little while. Getting up eventually, brushing my teeth and hair, painting my nails.

Painting more. Just experimenting with colour, intuitively. Without putting pressure on myself. The other night I painted with oil pastels and chalky pastel crayons while watching Dawson's Creek (I successfully avoided this series for 20 years and now, in my thirties, I start watching it?).

Bananas with nut butter, dark chocolate and sea salt.

Meditating with the blanket covering my nose. Breathing in fresh laundry smell.

Riding home from school with Anastasia, talking about diving adventures.

Reading Jill Heinerth's book Into the Planet. Her career as an explorer and cave diver is breathtakingly exciting. I couldn't put that memoir down. And it made me even more antsy. I'm really unhappy and bored right now - I wanna go out and learn something new, explore, live a little more.

Going to work without make-up. In the last ten or even fifteen years I put on make-up every single day I went to school. I'm done. Lockdown made me come to terms with the look of my bare face.

Learning about Antarctica cruises. It only takes about 24hours to reach the area from Argentina! I'd really love to go but the cruises are crazy expensive.

My house plants sprouting new leaves.

The moment the pain suddenly stops and you can breathe again.

Tropical breakfast. Banana, kiwi, mango, pineapple. And plain yoghurt. Decidedly non-tropical.

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: Jeff Trammell Speaks on Craig of the Creek and its Anime Influences

  In celebration of Black History Month, Crunchyroll is releasing interviews with prominent Black figures across the anime world! Stay tuned for more announced features, or donate to Black Girls Code, which educates young girls of color to encourage careers in computer science and technology!

  Anime has had and continues to have a huge impact across the globe, and that impact can be found more and more in Western animation! Kids who watched anime on Toonami are growing up and creating series of their own that take with them that seed of affection for the medium. One such creator is Jeffrey Trammell, the head writer of Cartoon Network's Craig of the Creek. Cameron Trentalange, our Associate Manager of Social Video, was lucky enough to talk with Jeff about his work on the series, his love of anime, and how the two are intertwined. See the video interview below, followed by a complete and uncut transcription of the full interview!

        Crunchyroll: Thank you for taking time to meet with us. We’re really excited to be chatting with you today. To get things started, if you could just introduce yourself to our audience, your name and what it is that you do.

  Jeffrey Trammell: My name is Jeff Trammell and I am the head writer, as well as a voice actor, on Craig of the Creek.

  How has anime influenced or inspired your work?

  How hasn't anime influenced my work? It’s been such a big part of everything we do. Everything I do as a writer … We're constantly thinking back to the storytelling, the kind of one arc, one-off episodes, as well as arc-long stories ... it’s really allowed us to use anime as a bit of a blueprint for the stuff we wanna do on Craig. Anime is a big part of the show. A lot of people on the crew grew up watching things like Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon and Evangelion. Samurai Champloo gets brought up a lot, too. So, any chance that we can get to kinda pay homage to those classic shows as well as the other stuff we’re into, we kinda jump at the chance to do.

  via Cartoon Network

  That’s awesome. Are there any other specific elements that reflect your experience with anime in Craig of the Creek or your other works? I know the Elders of the Creek seem to be very pulled from people you might meet in the fandom.

  I would say I'm a bit more of a casual fan. There's people on the crew that are certainly closer to the Elders of the Creek. I'm more like Craig in that I have my own certain fandoms that I'm into. But yeah, anime is such a big part of the show in the weirdest ways — every episode has something we're sneaking in. Our crew early on would meet to do anime nights, so we would watch The Castle of Cagliostro or Totoro ... stuff like that. It's very ingrained in our crew.

  That’s awesome. That sounds like a super fun environment to be a part of.

  It’s really great when your workday ends and you’re just hanging out watching anime and playing D&D. Like there’s no complaints on our end.

  Craig of the Creek often dips its toes into referencing anime, whether it's a background gag or, as you mentioned, an entire episode-long narrative like "Bring Out Your Beast." It sounds like, as a community, you and the team are largely inspired by anime. Was that kind of a coincidence that everyone was into anime or was that intentional in the structuring of the team?

  Our crew consists of a lot of younger writers and creators, so naturally the stuff we grew up watching included so much anime and the stuff aired on Toonami. Even the co-creators, Matt Burnett and Ben Levin are like, really big into this stuff. You go to their office and there's like the entire Evangelion set, or all of Dragon Ball. I think they really created a show full of people who they wanted to be around, who were all going to tell really fun stories. I think it just happened that anime was such a big part of everyone's life on the show.

  It’s kind of amazing to see how much anime has influenced so many people throughout the industry. You mentioned that you guys would do different movie nights for watching anime. Do you have any specific anecdotes or moments from working with the teams where you intentionally wrote an anime reference into the script and someone pointed it out later, or maybe an animator just added something entirely without it even being in the script? Are they any fun little kind of instances like that?

  Yes. There’s a lot of instances where I’ll write something in the script and then at the boarding stage, the boarders would take it so far out. We did an episode where the Elders get trapped under Elder Rock and there's a bit about them having a very cool replica shovel from an anime called Shovelmaster Gorobi Q that I put in there. Immediately, it just became this whole other thing where the basis of the show was that this person's soul is trapped in the shovel, so if you use it, you can tap into their spirit. One of the Elders is in love with the character who inhabits the shovel ... it's wild! I never expected that whole story to come out of this one line I wrote.

  via Cartoon Network

  That's incredible. One of my favorite little background gags is one of the posters for a show called Sadboy Pilotgeddon.

  Yes.

  Was that written into the script, or was it an element someone else wrote in?

  That was our storyboard artist Ashley Tahilan who is usually the impetus for those crazy moments in the show. She put in Sadboy Pilotgeddon really early on, and I think she's also the reason Shovelmaster Gorobi Q became the absurd thing that it is.

  I love it. In one of the very early episodes, there was a character who was holding up a volume of manga and says, "you read manga backwards." I feel like I have said that verbatim as a kid!

  via Cartoon Network

That was a really fun moment. We were trying to introduce the ninja kids who just hang out and read manga. We thought  when you're introducing someone to manga, you can't start without saying, "Well, ya read it backwards!" We decided we NEEDED to put that in the show.

It was very true to life. I love those little moments. Speaking more generally, what does it mean to be a head writer on a TV show?

  Being a head writer means a lot of different things depending on the show. On Craig, it's nice because I get to be the link between the writing and the storyboard artists. Our show is very cohesive in that it's very storyboard driven. That means we take the premise and outline and then hand it off to the storyboard artists, and they draw everything, including dialog. Then we come back together and they'll pitch their work to us. We'll make sure that we pitch ideas and jokes, and really punch it up to make it stronger. We have this kind of cohesion where everyone gets to really leave their stamp on the episode. Being a head writer means overseeing that process, the writing room, recording, assisting with directing, sometimes getting in on editing. It's so much more than just running the room. It's been a really cool experience for me. I get to follow the stories not just from their initial creation, but all the way to their end, which has been really cool.

That sounds so incredible. So, how did you break into being a head writer, as opposed to different writing roles?  

I actually have only been a writer here in LA for about five years. Before that, I was a security guard at Target, oddly enough. I've always had an interest in writing, and I wanted to break in, but I didn't know how. I was able to find out about a yearly contest called the Nickelodeon Writing Program, where you would enter scripts and, out of around 2,000 applicants, they choose up to four people every year. They move you out to LA, and you get to work at Nickelodeon as a writer. You get to learn, you get paid, and you get all these amazing perks. I got to take improv and sketch writing, just all of these incredible things. When I moved out here once I finished up at Nickelodeon, I eventually found my way to Cartoon Network. I started working with Matt and Ben on Craig of the Creek. I was a staff writer for the first year, and by the second season, I was promoted to head writer. I've been very fortunate, the way I got in. I think it was a lot of "right place at right time," but also luckily having the skills to back it up that led to this quick rise. 

  That's amazing, what an incredible journey!

  Thank you!

  To be selected from over 2,000 writers — I think that says a lot about the talent you have.

  Thanks, that's really cool. 

  In addition to Craig of the Creek, I know you have also worked on shows like The Owl House, and you mentioned that you spent some time at Nickelodeon. What is it like to write specifically for animation?

  Writing for animation is tough because there's a lot of visual storytelling you have to be aware of. You are also writing for someone else. I think if you're writing novels or similar stuff, you can write the story exactly as it is in your mind and someone else can read it and see where you're coming from. When you're writing for animation, though, you have to be aware that whatever you write, someone else has to draw. Someone else has to design. Everything you write is going to be on someone else, so it's tempering all of those expectations you have for your own writing. You have to tell a fun, captivating story without pushing it too far, or making every shot a crowd scene. Then people would have to animate 50 people running by in every shot. It's a very intricate level of storytelling where you have to really see what the most important parts of the story are and convey that.

  That's an interesting point. I think there's this sense with animation of like, "Well the options are limitless because I can just draw it!" But then there's the realization of, "Ah, well that burden is laid on a bunch of people who actually have to animate the thing."

  Yes.

  I imagine there's a good amount of give and take there. Did you always want to break into animation, specifically? Has animation been a passion for you?

  Yes and no. I mean, I've always wanted to work in animation because I've been a fan my whole life. A lot of people have that teenage phase where they think, "I'm too adult for cartoons," and they kind of move away from it, but I've never done that. I've always appreciated animation. But I also appreciate live-action. The first time I got to work on an animated show was Harvey Beaks at Nickelodeon, and I really got to work with that crew and see everything that went into creating 11 minutes of television. It's so much work from so many people. It's like watching a conveyor belt in action. Seeing those things really laying out in front of me gave me a brand new appreciation, even more so. Since then, I've known animation is definitely where I want to be. 

  via Cartoon Network

  That's so cool. Craig of the Creek features such a wide cast of characters. How do you and the team approach writing for so many different voices from different backgrounds? I think the thing that's been really successful for us has been to reach beyond our writing room. At the end of the day, we only have so many experiences and can only write from so many perspectives. Our crew is dedicated to representing perspectives people may not have gotten to see growing up. So, we reach beyond our room to the crew. People are welcome to share their stories, welcome to pitch ideas for stories and characters. We really want to make sure that at the end of the day, we're making a show that people are not only proud to work on, but that they're excited to show it to their family and friends. 

Is it common for writing teams to be structured in a way where they have opportunities to work across other departments, or is that harder to find?

  It really depends on the show. I've been on shows where the writers only hang out with writers and the artists only hang out with artists. Coming from Harvey, which was a very closely connected group, I knew that was something I wanted when I was starting on Craig. Matt and Ben had come from Steven Universe, so I knew they wanted the same things. Early on, we really made an effort to make sure our group was close and our crew was excited to hang out, to talk and share ideas. It's kinda been ingrained from the very beginning of the show. 

  I love hearing about the kind of collaborative environment. So, I know you've lended your voice to one of the characters on Craig, and that you've done voiceover for other cartoons as well. Did you always have an interest in voice acting, too?  

I've wanted to be a voice actor since I was a kid! I was definitely that one kid who recognized voices in shows. I was like, "Oh that's Phil LaMarr!" I immediately knew! I always thought it was cool — it was this way to embody a character. You really get to step into their shoes and become someone else in a way that's similar to writing. I've wanted to be a voice actor forever, so it was fortunate that I finally got that opportunity on Craig. It was really nerve-wracking, though! You go into the recording booth and it's really quiet, and you're immediately aware of every single noise, like the weird click your tongue makes when you speak. Everything is hyper-focused. But it's been really cool. I appreciate them giving me the opportunity to really get to do it on Craig. I was able to transition into other opportunities by doing voices on this show called The Fungies! at Cartoon Network. I have a blast every time!

You touch on something really interesting, which is how writing and voice acting both go hand in hand in terms of getting into the head of a character. What have you learned about writing through voice acting and vice versa?  

The thing I've learned about writing from voice acting is that, even if I'm not sure of a joke while writing it, actors are so talented that they can usually deliver it in a way I wasn't expecting. They'll usually knock it out of the park every time. It's also really taught me to write to someone's strengths — just knowing that one actor is really good at these frantic moments lets me know that I can really play them up in the writing. Or maybe another actor is great at delivering heart and emotions, so we can make sure to nail their speech. Being in the booth really taught me that voice acting is so difficult, so I want to make sure we're setting up everyone who enters that booth for success with the best script we can give them, the best lines we can give them, and really set them up to knock it out of the park. It's this weird sort of symbiosis where you each try to prop one another up. Going from each side, from one side of the glass to the other, has shown me that I think we both just want to make sure we're. giving the actors the best material we can, and actors just want to provide us with the best performances that they can. 

  via Cartoon Network

  It's really interesting to hear how that all comes together, and how both of those perspectives are sort of similar in some ways. I'm curious, how did the conversation about you voice acting in Craig of the Creek start?

  I was able to find my way into the booth by begging a lot! Haha, not really, but it's one of these things I had to speak up early about and just say, "Just so you guys know, this is something I'm passionate about. This is something I've really wanted to do." I couldn't be afraid to take those risks, even in a room where I'm pitching a character, putting myself out there with a goofy voice, hoping that I'm impressing them with the passion I'm giving these characters. Luckily, it worked out, and I think they appreciated my drive and how much respect I have for the craft of voice acting. I was also taking voice acting classes as well, so I was really not shy in letting them know that this was something I seriously wanted to pursue. 

I know on Rocko's Modern Life, one of the writers just kept inserting his voice audition in the pile, and finally, someone was like, "This one is really good, who is this?" and he was like "It's me!" I'm always curious about those little moments for everybody. 

  I wish I had known about that story, I might have gone that route!

  The sneaky route!

  Plan B, you know.

  Another question I wanted to ask is, how does it feel to know that people resonate with your work? Your writing and acting contributions to the show are excellent, and the series is a lot of fun for both kids and adults. There's something about it that just captures the charming innocence of being a kid with a big imagination. Everything is whimsical, but there is a lot of grounded humor and references to pop culture we all love. What does it feel like to have your work reach so many people?

  First, thank you for all of those kind words about the show, I really appreciate that. It means so much. I think it's one thing when you're working on something and you get caught up in it and think of it as a day to day gig. But Craig has never felt like that. Early on, it felt very special. The crew felt special, and we were all proud of what we were making. We were all hoping that people would relate to it and really have fun watching it. So, seeing everybody watch all of these moments where we have Sparkle Cadet and people really resonate with a black magical girl in a Western animated show ... Seeing people resonate with our various Slide the Ferret gags which may or may not be related to Sonic — I cannot say legally. Seeing the very heartfelt stuff, the family stuff, the stuff you don't see a lot, and watching people see those things and feel good and feel validated ... it's been incredible. It means so much, more than I can really put into words. It's just a really good feeling, and I feel proud of the stuff we're doing and continuing to do. 

via Cartoon Network

  You and the team are doing awesome work. One of my friends recommended the show to me a while ago, and once I started watching I was like, "Yeah, I get it." There's just something really nice about it. Also, Jeff Rosenstock's music is just great.

  Jeff's the best! Jeff's the absolute best. Every time he sends some music in, I'm like, "How do you do it?"

  Do you guys work together at all? Is there a "meeting of the Jeffs"?  

Oh, all the time. I'm very fortunate to call Jeff a friend. He's one of the coolest people I know. I think we're constantly in awe of each other, which makes for an interesting friendship. He's so talented and so funny, and he makes everything look so easy. It's kind of unfair how talented he is, but I couldn't be a bigger fan of Jeff, he's great. 

  Something I was curious about is if you had any influence on the music. The music really makes the scene sometimes, and then you have the opening and ending songs. Do you work with the music at all as a lead writer, like finding the right vibes for a scene or writing lyrics with Jeff? There's an episode where Craig sings in front of a live crowd, and I was curious what the creative process was like on an episode like that.

  Jeff and I worked together on a musical episode called "In the Key of the Creek," where Jeff came to town. He was living in New York at the time and came to town for a week, and would sit in the writing room while we were breaking the story. He would just write these songs or he'd go home and like three hours later send us a demo saying, "Yo! I came up with this today." And it's like ... how?! This is incredible! Usually, Ben Levin, one of the co-creators, works directly with Jeff, but he's been very open to working with the rest of the crew. The episode you mentioned, "Vulture's Nest" ... I believe Tiffany Ford, one of our directors, wrote that song with Jeff. He's very open and accessible to working with the crew for songs and different episodes, which has been really cool.

  via Cartoon Network

  I have to circle back to this ... you mentioned Slide the Ferret — who may or may not be related to any other legal entity — but UNRELATED TO THAT ... As someone who is a huge fan of Sonic the Hedgehog (and also ferrets, coincidentally), Slide the Ferret really speaks to me. I was like, "This rocks. I love everything about this." I'm curious, was Sonic a big part of your childhood? Or the childhoods of the rest of the staff?

  Yes, Sonic 2 was the first video game I ever beat, actually. I would always get to the plane level and then have to hand it off to my sister. I remember when I finally beat Metal Sonic and Robotnik, and I felt like I was the greatest gamer in the world. So much of our crew has similar feelings about Sonic. Slide the Ferret came into the show very early. I think Matt and Ben came up with the character very early into the show. And then, I think the second the crew was like "oh, this is our Sonic and we can create all the lore?" it just got out of hand. There's like this show within the show loosely based on Dragon Ball where there's these things called the Chaos Orbs that you collect. They're like the Chaos Emeralds but we treat them like Dragon Balls.

  It's been great! It's been so cool to watch our design team really take that world and expand it even more. There's this character named Claus the Badger who is the coolest looking character I've ever seen. I keep pestering them to let me voice him, so we'll see how that goes. 

  That sounds like so much fun! I always love whenever there's a Slide moment. I'm just like, "Yup! I'm here for it." I'd like to know, what are some of your favorite anime?  

Oh man, okay. One of my favorites is My Hero Academia — shout out to my buddy Zeno who plays Hawks as well as The Green Pancho on Craig of the Creek. I've been enjoying Fire Force, The Promised Neverland, I love Dragon Ball Z, of course. What else ... Samurai Champloo — I used to watch that one every week with my dad, so it's special for me. I could name stuff all day, and I know I'm forgetting some. After I'm done, I know I'll be like, "Aw crap! Why didn't I mention this ..." But these are the ones I'll go with.

  Is there any message you want to share with fans of your work?

  Yes! If you want to see more, please find me on Twitter @MrJeffTrammell. I post about my work too much there. I would also say that there is so much more fun stuff on the way. If you are a fan of Craig of the Creek and you love anime, there may or may not be an episode coming up in which the Elders do an anime convention. It may also feature Slide the Ferret and a cavalcade of characters from that video game. Definitely keep your eyes peeled for that.

  This has been wonderful! It's been really cool to hear about your background with the show and how you broke into the industry. Thank you. 

  Thank you so much to Crunchyroll for having me!

  via Cartoon Network

    You can follow Jeff Trammell on Twitter @MrJeffTrammell. Craig of the Creek airs on Cartoon Network and is available on HBOMax and Hulu.

  By: Guest Author

[theyearoftheking]

Book Fifty-One: Everything’s Eventual

“There comes a time in most lives when we must face the deaths of our loved ones as an actual reality... and, by proxy, the fact of our own approaching death. This is probably the single greatest subject of horror fiction: our need to cope with a mystery that can be understood only with the aid of a hopeful imagination.” 

I had dinner once with a guy who was trying to either relate to me, or impress me... the jury is still out. Once he found out I was from Milwaukee, he told me how he had once seen Ted Bundy’s apartment in downtown Milwaukee. 

Slow blink.

Ted Bundy was never in Milwaukee, dumb ass. You’re obviously talking about Jeffrey Dahmer, and comparing the two is like chalk and cheese. Completely different victim populations, MO’s... basically the only thing they have in common is both being white men. Oh, and Bundy is considered more conventionally attractive. If you were to listen to the Parcast Serial Killers podcast on Dahmer, they described him as, “good looking, by Milwaukee standards...” So, there’s that. 

This conversation still upsets me years later. It should have upset me more that the “Bundy in Milwaukee” guy went on to talk about his wife’s STD, but that’s a conversation for another time. 

I didn’t choose the Dahmer life, it chose me. When he was captured in 1991, I was my daughter’s age, and it was the most sensational piece of news to hit Milwaukee... well, maybe ever. The details about the half-eaten corpses, the body parts in the freezer... I couldn’t get enough of it. Had I not stumbled across my mom’s copy of Small Sacrifices years earlier, it’s possible Dahmer could have been the catalyst for my murderino obsession. Sadly, Diane Downs got to me first. I was obsessed with the pictures in the middle of the book... it was the first time I realized monsters are real, and human monsters are scarier than anything Stephen King or Dean Koontz could dream up. 

Sidebar: check out the Two Face podcast, told by the daughter Diane put up for adoption. I’m obsessed. 

But, Dahmer is my local serial killer, so my knowledge is complete and wildly inappropriate at dinner parties (remember when those were a thing?). There’s even a local neighborhood bar that does a Dahmer walking tour; where my sister talked me out of buying this especially cool t-shirt... she felt it was too on-the-nose. She might be right. I even dragged a friend with me to see My Friend Dahmer... because I was scared of looking like a creeper at the theater alone. Every time we drive past Columbia County Correctional, I make sure to remind my (very annoyed) daughter that Dahmer was killed there. 

My point is, I know a lot about Jeffrey Dahmer. What’s one of the key things I know? HE’S NOT BURIED. HE DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE. HIS PARENTS HAD HIM CREMATED AND SPLIT HIS REMAINS. 

Once more for the cheap seats in the back: 

JEFFREY DAHMER DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE. 

Why all the shouty caps? 

Because Steve doesn’t know this. Steve is blissfully unaware that he has a character bragging about sleeping on Jeffrey Dahmer’s non-existent grave. I can’t even give you a good review of Everything’s Eventual, because this bothers me so much. It’s like the fucking Starbuck’s cup someone forgot to remove from the Game of Throne’s scene. It bothers me that much. 

Here was my reading process on this short story collection...

Autopsy Room Four: Creepy! This is the shit that haunts my dreams. Good start to the collection!

The Man in the Black Suit: Fun! A Castle Rock mention

All That You Love Will Be Carried Away: Are we to the Little Sisters short story yet? I need a Dark Tower fix...

The Death of Jack Hamilton: I love a good mobster story. And this one mentions the Dillinger gang shoot-out at Little Bohemia, so yay for a Wisconsin reference! Great story. 

In the Deathroom: Escobar. Meh. If we’re going to do back-to-back mobster stories, the Dillinger one was better. 

Little Sisters of Eluria: Swoon. Double swoon. Steve uses the line, “tintinabulation of the bells.” Tintinabulation is a word Edgar Allen Poe completely made up, but it’s an excellent example of onomatopoeia. This is an example of what I have to show for all my student loan debt (thanks, Cares Act for the deferment!): the fact I can both recognize and give an obscure example of onomatopoeia. And spot Poe like a boss bitch. This story is set post Wizard and Glass, and ties back into The Talisman; and almost makes up for the Dahmer slippage. 

Everything’s Eventual: Thought provoking, but I’m really looking forward to finishing this collection and diving back into The Dark Tower universe. 

L.T.’s Theory of Pets: Trigger warning for violence towards animals. I once had Blood and Smoke- an audio book collection Steve did; and this story was included. I’ve never forgotten it. It’s a classic. 

The Road Virus Heads North: A Derry mention! Oh, and Dahmer too. That’s fun. 

Lunch at the Gotham Cafe: Weird. This is the second story that includes a Dear John letter, and a jilted husband. Wonder what was going on with Steve and Tabby... Oh gross, a Donald Trump and Ivana line. *Swallows vomit*

That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French: Oh good, 1408 is next! 

1408: DAHMER DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE!!!!!! 

Riding the Bullet: Oh, a Castle Rock mention. But, um, DAHMER DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE!

Luckey Quarter: Why is lucky spelled wrong? And also... DAHMER DOESN’T HAVE A GRAVE!!! 

So, yeah. Full disclosure. Re-living the Dahmer’s grave story just made me crack open a juice box full of sangria. Fun fact: the friend who made this sangria, is the same one I dragged along to My Friend Dahmer. She is a lovely, wonderful, generous human being; who is not the least bit fazed by my serial killer knowledge. And her sangria is delicious too. 

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 35

Total Dark Tower References: 51

Book Grade: B- (generous, considering the Dahmer gaffe) 

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

The Talisman: A+

Wizard and Glass: A+

Needful Things: A+

On Writing: A+

The Green Mile: A+

Hearts in Atlantis: A+

Rose Madder: A+

Misery: A+

Different Seasons: A+

It: A+

Four Past Midnight: A+

The Shining: A-

The Stand: A-

Bag of Bones: A-

Black House: A-

The Wastelands: A-

The Drawing of the Three: A-

Dolores Claiborne: A-

Nightmares in the Sky: B+

The Dark Half: B+

Skeleton Crew: B+

The Dead Zone: B+

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: B+

‘Salem’s Lot: B+

Carrie: B+

Creepshow: B+

From a Buick 8: B

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: B

Storm of the Century: B-

Everything’s Eventual: B-

Cycle of the Werewolf: B-

Danse Macabre: B-

The Running Man: C+

Thinner: C+

Dark Visions: C+

The Eyes of the Dragon: C+

The Long Walk: C+

The Gunslinger: C+

Pet Sematary: C+

Firestarter: C+

Rage: C

Desperation: C-

Insomnia: C-

Cujo: C-

Nightshift: C-

Gerald’s Game: D

Roadwork: D

Christine: D

Dreamcatcher: D

The Regulators: D

The Tommyknockers: D-

Next is Wolves of the Calla. I am so stupid excited to finish off The Dark Tower series. Only 18 years of Steve left to go, and a little over 3 months to get it done. Stay tuned.

Until next time, Long Days and Pleasant Nights, Rebecca

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 288

So between Episodes 287 and 289, you’ve got this ten year gap, spanning the wish to erase the world’s memories of Buu, to the first appearance of Uub, which marks the epilogue to Dragon Ball Z.     Over the years, there’s been a lot of material created to fill in that “ten year gap.”  The last ten minutes of Episode 287, this episode, Movies 13, 14, and 15, all 131 episodes of Dragon Ball Super and the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie.  Uh, what else?   That Yo! Son Goku and his Friends Return special.   There was some crossover special with One-Piece and another anime I forget the name of.  Also, both of the Xenoverse games, while set in the future, feature Goku pulled from this general time period.

I can’t blame people for trying to fill in this period with new stories.  The question is whether there’s really a story worth telling at this point.  I like Movies 13 and 14. Movie 15 was okay, but hardly worth the trouble, and Dragon Ball Super didn’t get good until the Tournament of Power, which I wouldn’t call essential viewing.    The action was good, but the story doesn’t hold a candle to classic Dragon Ball and DBZ.

In a lot of ways, Episode 288 is sort of a prototype for a lot of what Dragon Ball Super ended up doing: these slice of life, quiet moments in between the big adventures.  This is mainly because Super had a really hard time cooking up an antagonist worthy of the franchise.   Beerus and Golden Frieza were borrowed from movies, Champa, Hit, and Jiren weren’t really bad guys, and Zamasu was absolutely fucking awful.  When I watched Super, it was honestly a relief to see that the next episode would be the gang screwing around at a basebal field or a movie set or whatever.   At the same time, it was always frustrating to me.   They went out of their way to bring these characters back, and they never seemed to have a plan for what they wanted to do with them.  I’ll watch the Tenchi Muyo! gang hang out in a mall or something, that sounds like a good time.   But Goku?   I expect a little more from him.

In this episode, everyone’s having a party at Bulma’s place, but Goku went off to watch some pterodactyl eggs hatch.   So it’s pretty similar to a number of one-shot DBS episodes, except DBZ hasn’t done this sort of thing very often, so it’s a lot more effective.  

Here’s the problem: One of the four eggs fell out of the nest and is stuck in this precarious-looking branch.    Goku wants to move it back, but the parents won’t let him, and I guess he’s not eager to force the issue with his powers.   He’s worried that the baby will fall once it hatches, so he sticks around to keep an eye on the situation.

Anyway, Chi-Chi got all dolled up for this pary, so she’s decided to just go without Goku’s broke-ass and leave him to his nature hike or whatever.    There needs to be more fan-art of Chi-Chi in this getup.  

If I’m not mistaken, Goten’s outfit in this episode is a callback to the clothes Goku wore in that one episode of the Fortuneteller Baba Saga.   Let me just pull that up...

Eh... close, but not quite.   Goten’s got the tie and the hat, but he’s wearing suspenders instead of a vest. 

Anyway, everyone arrives at Capsule Corp.   Yamcha’s got a new car Bulma had made for him at a discount, and Krillin’s thinking of asking for one of his own.    The Son family shows up and Chi-Chi gets miffed when anyone asks about Goku.   Chi-Chi says he’s waiting for his eggs to hatch.

Anyway, they’ve got a nice spread here.    This looks like the place where all of Dr. Brief’s animals run around, but that seems like a bad place to hold a party, so maybe they have more than one indoor park.  

Anyway, Tien and Krillin have some pizza, and Master Roshi laughs at a “photo album” (it’s porn).

Buu wants Vegeta’s hot dog, and he’s in a good mood so he gives it to him.   I always liked that.  It shows that they managed to get along at some point.     This is the sort of thing Dragon Ball Super should have done.   Buu never got a chance to interact with most of these guys in Z, and they killed him off in GT, so they could have gotten some mileage out of him in Super, but they didn’t.

Chiaotzu drinks exactly half of one soda and leaves.  

Piccolo’s just chillin’ out in a flower bed.    Character arc, complete.

Oh, you thought this was the smug Goku macro?   Tell me again how you didn’t know it was from this scene where Goku reminisces about his grandfather.

I guess the place where his space pod crashed wasn’t too far from this pterodactyl nest.   I’m surrprised the crater grew over so fast.    Also, this is like the third or fourth time they’ve shown this location in Z, and it never looks the same twice.

Anyway, Grandpa Gohan was strict but also very kind, and I always like how Goku remembers him here, as the series is drawing to a close.  

Then a DINOSAUR FIGHT happens, because this show rules! Not sure why the two-legged dinosaur has hippo ears, but okay.   It’s like Toei thought the rights holders for actual dinosaurs would sue them or something.   

This scene also features the Ginyu Force song from the early portion of DBZ.   You know the one.

Thirty-two seconds into this video.    They ran this song into the ground in the Namek Saga, and then slowly weaned themselves off of it in the Frieza Saga, until eventually it fell out of rotation.   I think it got used a couple of times in the Androids/Cell arc, and this might be the first time it’s been used since then.   And you know, it’s a great song when it’s used sparingly.   Once I got used to expecting it in every episode, it got really grating, but here, it works perfectly.    I found myself sort of missing it.   

Anyway, Goku totally in favor of cool dinosaur fights, but he doesn’t want them near this nest, so he carries these rowdy boys to another spot and tells them to fight there.  

But that sort of kills the whole mood, you know?

Never mind that, because it’s TIME TO DANCE.

In the Japanese version, the score uses the rock music Tank Clerk was jamming to in Fusion Reborn.   I guess this is the only rock music in all of Dragon Ball, sort of like how Cold Slither’s music is the only rock music in G.I. Joe or Transformers.

We’re tired of words!   We’ve heard it before!

We’re not gonna play the game no more!

We’re Cold Slither, heavy metal  machine!

Through the eyes of a lizard in you will dream!

When the venom stings, a new order brings our control!

Anyway Chi-Chi rules the disco floor until she throws out her back.   

Then Dende mentions Goku and it brings down the mood.   This is why no one invites you to these things, Dende.  Even Tien thinks you’re a buzzkill and he just spent the last half hour explaining the Haber-Bosch process.   

Bulma is worried about Goku, but Chi-Chi playfully suggests that Bulma is sweet on him, but that’s just too bad, because Chi-Chi’s too pretty for her to steal him away.    Is she drunk?   Maybe, but this is still less awkward than the dub version, where she suggested they trade husbands.   “No, I was only kidding about swinging, Bulma.... UNLESS...”

Back at where Goku is, all these other animals show up to watch the nest, because I guess animals do that in this show.  

Then it rains, and Goku shores up the nest with a bunch of logs.  Not sure how this improves the situation, but okay.

He tries to work on the branch the fourth egg is sitting in, but it falls into the river first.

Goku saves it, but then a fish tries to eat him.

But the egg is okay, so victory for Goku.

Kind of an ominous shot of Capsule Corp.   Looks like something out of Revenge of the Sith.

Everyone’s playing cards, and that looks like a lot of fun.    Well, not if I have to play with Roshi and Oolong.    Take me to the non-sex-offender table, please.

Krillin and his family prepare to head out, but they walk out the door just as Goku shows up.

This part here is great.

Chi-Chi gives him a hard time, but she can’t be too mad, because he does this sort of crap all the time.

So she takes Goku back to where the food is, and Goku gives Gohan the wink like “Yep, life of Riley.”

I almost wonder if they tried to do some sort of Last Supper thing with this, except they couldn’t fit everyone into the shot on a 4:3 TV.    Anyway, Goku explains how things turned out with the pterodactyls.

They all hatched.   Don’t really know what else to add to that.  Weird how some of these animals watching were causing trouble earlier.   That snake tried to eat the eggs until Goku tosses it away.

Goten asks if he was cuter than the pterodactyls when he was born, and Goku explains that he was dead when Goten was born, so he doesn’t know.   Awkward.

Then he invites Vegeta to come over and join them, because he’s sulking over by the window.   

i think Vegeta’s just enjoying this vaporwave sunset outside, but okay,

Then the narrator observes that everyone just has more fun when Goku’s around, which, true, but this is the sort of lionizing of Goku that made GT really irritating.  

Then the Looney Tunes thing happens to him and that’s all, folks.  

[drawbauchery]

So, overall thoughts on HTTYD-3?

novel-length thoughts under the cut with spoilers for the book series as well! and i can’t believe i have to say this but if anyone tags this as “httyd critical” or something equally stupid i will end you

things that were BLEH

toothless left hiccup way too easily. you cannot convince me that this dragon would up and leave that boy for any reason and intend to never come back. it happened so quickly that it looked like he chose a dragon he just met over his best friend, like he lost interest in hiccup now that there’s another night fury, or something close to a night fury. obviously that’s not all there is to it, and the scene was still good, but…….the pacing…….

the fact that he left hiccup at all is going way against the book’s ending, which they did nicely in all other ways. (it was their plan from the beginning to mirror the book ending, hence the comparisons!!) “toothless will never leave me” is a line book!hiccup says with confidence, backed up by the fact that while the other dragons are in fact going into hiding, toothless keeps coming back to him. he stays away longer and longer each time he goes, but they both know they won’t be separated forever. but in the movie it’s just…i don’t want to think about the fact that toothless can stay away from hiccup for ten years.

the light fury. just. the light fury. even before the second movie came out the last thing i wanted was a Girl ™ night fury to conveniently show up and get with toothless but WELL. there are so many old fanfics out there of toothless meeting a white night fury with eyelashes and having babies and ugghhh

i didn’t trust her?? throughout the entire movie??? they said she was bait, and i thought, ok, she’s meg from hercules. she’s gonna act seductive but then she’s gonna change her tune later, right? but the whole time i was expecting her to turn on them or something. we never learn about her or what she was trying to do, really. so it was jarring for me that ultimately toothless did choose her (and the hidden world) over hiccup. 

she was fine by the end when she saved hiccup and made a goofy face. and her design/animation is beautiful. but she could’ve been funnier and less….shady

toothless taking too long to recognize hiccup in the epilogue. i guess some people interpreted that as him forgetting about hiccup, but i!!! can’t consider that without getting depressed. i personally think he should’ve hopped onto the boat and tackled hiccup without a second thought. actually, i think he should’ve done what he did in the book and fucking visit once in a while why did you just leave your boy like that toothless what’s wrong with you in this movie 

(a lot of these gripes come from the fact that hiccup and toothless’ friendship is one of the most important things ever to me and them being apart for any reason at all is just not something i can handle asldkfn)

the fact that snotlout and eret didn’t end up together. we know the real reason snotlout’s crushes never work out

hicCUP’S HOUSE BURNING ;-; poor house.

the fact that my favorite scene in gift of the night fury, when toothless destroys his new tail because he only wants to fly with hiccup, is going to be almost tainted knowing that he’ll eventually use a new tail to leave and NEVER COME BACK fuck

you expect me to believe cloudjumper would ever leave valka? foolish.

0/10 no dagur

things that WEREN’T bleh

like everything else

the pacing sans at the separation scene was SO MUCH BETTER than the second movie. it really felt more like the first one. there could’ve been a few more quiet or slow scenes, but i liked seeing hiccup act more dorky and nervous and working on the tail. and his insecurities being addressed was nice.

HICCUP SWORDFIGHTING YESSSS

they actually added tears to hiccup’s face this time. remember when he looked up after sobbing over his dead father and his face was just. dry

tuffnut and ruffnut having bigger roles! and i shipped tuffcup back in the day so it was a nice surprise to see them sharing scenes alksdnf

and..ruffnut and fishlegs? is that canon??? pls? 

the flashbacks. lord help me. all i ever wanted was to see a flashback of kid hiccup and they decided to give me two and murder me in the process

i’m like 9999999999% sure that hiccup’s stuffed animal was the one he reunited with in the show

stoick was so fuckin gentle and affectionate with his tiny son and i can imagine him just holding hiccup 24/7 and kissing his head and doting on him and promising to protect him forever and. and. hhh

toothless’ chicken dance

toothless’ bear hugs

ASTRID’S HAIR

fishlegs and the gronkle baby i want a spinoff 

actually give me a spinoff of ALL the babies. i turned into a waterfall when the hiccstrid kids showed up they were the cutest things ever and so were toothless’ babies (if only funko didn’t spoil those) 

hiccup and astrid eye fucking each other while setting off an explosion, while the score mirrored the moment in the first movie when astrid epically walks away from an explosion. love on the battlefield indeed

“what are you gonna do about it?” “probably something stupid.”

“get rid of the limp!” “i hAV e a p RO S theT IC Le G”

“who died and made you chief?!”

“oh, NOW you can draw”

the hidden world blew me away like jesus christmas take me there

hiccup’s wedding suit made him look like a prince!

gobber being fatherly. he always was like an uncle, and it’s nice to know he’s kind of stepping in and looking after hiccup more closely, as if to reassure stoick that hiccup’s doing fine.

hiccup being CHIEFLY and all his friends up in front with him during the meeting!

dat villain tho. any villain that sneaks into the hero’s house and nonchalantly makes tea automatically wins in my book

the fact that grimmel is what hiccup could’ve been. that was a nice subtle comparison there.

me internally moaning and groaning at how it looked like astrid was gonna be captured by one of grimmel’s dragons in the escape scene but instead she swung around and kicked its face. that’s my GIRL

hiccup’s face

hiccup’s voice

hiccup’s outfits 

hiccup

and for all my griping, the fact that toothless and hiccup find each other in the end is the most important thing. this movie made up for..almost all the heartbreak i went through after i saw the second one. at least i left the theater crying happy tears instead of shocked and horrified ones :DDDDD

ALSO WTF END CREDITS THAT WAS SO UNFAIR I’M SUING DREAMWORKS I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THAT

[thecartoonuniverse]

The Truth about Aaravos: The Dragon Prince Theory

(This script will soon be turned into a video. Let me know if you spot any factual errors so I can fix that for the final video!)

Not only will I be discussing the future of Aaravos, but also what we know about his past and how that shaped him into the elf he is today.

So, let me cover my bases if you can’t really remember what went down in season 2. Bad dad Lord Viren had long been trying to figure out what made the mirror he found in the layer of the Dragon King so special. He tried a ton of spells to get it to reveal its secrets, but it wasn’t until he got rid of all the light in the room that he was able to discover that he could view into a completely different room.

After waiting long enough, an elf appeared! But this elf could not see Viren at first. Eventually the elf was able to see Viren as well, and made him do a series of tasks to be able to speak to him. We learn his name is Aaravos and he promises he can provide knowledge and power. Of course, Viren agrees to work with him, which eventually leads to Viren getting captured, but Aaravos promises to stay with him.

At first glance we really don’t know much about him. Aaravos was able to enchant all books that mentioned his name, so before Viren could get a good look at them the words turned into a jumbled mess.

I will get to what we do know about those texts in a minute but we do actually know a few more things about him.

As is pretty clear, he is a Startouched elf. This type of elf is very rare and are associated with the heavens. While they don’t live forever they live a very long time, as it was compared to the time scale stars experience... Which honestly is pretty close to immortal if that is the parallel they are drawing. The type of magic star elves can do is also quite mysterious and involves divination, cosmic vision, and seeing into the beyond.

However, Aarvos is said to be different than other Startouched elves, and it’s not only because he is stuck in a magic mirror. In episode 6 of Season 2, we learn that the cube Callum found at the Banther Lodge was called the Key of Aaravos and is said to unlock something of great power in Xadia.  As is probably obvious, we learn that Aaravos originally owned the cube. He is called an Archmage, and he even mastered all six primal sources. Definitely getting some more Avatar the Last Airbender vibes here.

Combine all this with the fact that Runaan said that whatever was in the mirror was worth than death, and we already have many reasons not to trust this good-looking elf.

To learn more about his past, we need to look at things that were not said, but shown in season 2.  

In the eighth episode of season 2, the book of destiny, Viren takes a look at a few books to find out more information about Aaravos after he learns his name. But as I mentioned before, we only get a quick glance at them before they get blurred and they are not in English.

Luckily, they are translatable! So, the translations I am about to show you are a combination of a few sources, all of which I will link at the bottom.

The first passage we have is in Danish. It is cut off at the end but there is quite a lot to gather from this.

It says: “Finally, he told me his name. I had never heard a name like his, but neither had I imagined an elf like him either. He is stronger, older, and wiser than any other magical creature in Xadia. Yet he is a friend to all humans. Where others look down on us, call us inferior, he sees great potential in us. When we receive the gifts Aaravos promised us, they will pay for their conceit and become forced to see us as equals. And when we are equals, we can take our destiny into our own hands and build our future. I can see it before me-”

So that was quite intriguing! We can see here that this isn’t the first time Aaravos has befriended a human, and a long time ago he gave them a gift that allowed them to become more powerful than the elves and dragons. But just what that gift was is something I will get to later.

The second piece we got about Aaravos is a poem written in Arabic. The Dragon Prince social media accounts actually confirmed a single stanza of this, but the rest is up to interpretation. And once again Viren’s hand gets in the way and makes it hard to translate the whole thing.  

She cried when the stars of the sky turned black

They donned their masks

They turned their backs on her

And left Elarion to die.

Elarion, while her vessel fought death

Withered and suffered in darkness

Until the last star

Communicated from afar

She touched it: A fire, a gift, a spark

Elarion, with her pure whiteness

Embraced the night’s great dark flame

And when she bowed

She declared her faith

A whisper. His name was Aaravos.

Elarion, black-eyed child,

Her twisted roots spread deep and far,

The humans’ might

Sparked by the light

Of Aaravos, her midnight star.

Elarion, shaking to her core,

Laid on the ground on an icy night

And in the cold

Pulled her roots close

Daring winter’s deadly bite

The rest of the poem is obscured but some more lines from the poem include:

Her flowers blossomed

Fears withering and darkness

Has searched

For

It lit with flames

A spark

The eyes of a hungry dragon

So this is quite confusing as it focuses on a totally new character named Elarion. I have a couple of interpretations, which I will share.

It could be that Elarion was a human that did something where the rest of the humans turned their backs on her and left her for dead during a cold winter night. But just before all was lost, she saw a star shining above her and it told her it would save her if she pledged allegiance to it. She did, and we learn the star’s name is Aaravos. From there it seemed she lived once again, and she was gifted with the power to do dark magic, as denoted by her black eyes. Or perhaps Elarion was already a dark mage to begin with and that is why the other humans abandoned her.

Or maybe Elarion may have also been another Star elf, since they have black eyes. The rest of the elves banished her and  

But I am seeing it more likely that Elarion was a human.

I have a feeling that the rest of the poem might discuss how Elarion got revenge on those that turned their backs on her once she got her powers.

In addition, the poem calls Aaravos Elarion’s midnight star. I feel like this could be taken that they could have been in love, which if this was love between a human and an elf it would be extremely taboo.

I do find it interesting how it seems that Aaravos literally came from the sky as a star, meanings Star elves are literally born from stars and that’s why they live so long.

With all this said and done, it is clear that Aaravos is a gift giver. He not only gave powers to Viren, but also to Elarion and to many more humans in the first passage.

And for the former two, it’s pretty easy to see that the gift they got was the power to wield dark magic. From there the first dark mage used it, which scared the elves enough to cast the humans out of Xadia.

How this knowledge of who gifted humans dark magic became completely lost is a mystery.  Perhaps once the elves forced the humans out, they no longer wanted to remember Aaravos, even though his gift to them was passed on through the generations.

Or, since Aaravos is the one who narrated the opening scene of the show, he made sure this secret was covered up. Any passages containing his name are unable to be read, after all.

I realized that this is also what happened in the show RWBY, with the big bad narrating the beginning monologue. But this time around Aaravos is turning out to be an unreliable narrator.

But of course, whatever he had planned the first time around with humans did not work out, as they were sent away from their home and later split into 5 kingdoms. Now he is back, and by teaching Viren his secrets he may be giving his plan another shot. This time the forces in Xadia are weaker since the Dragon King has been killed. Obviously, I don’t know his plan, but as a preliminary guess I think maybe he is trying to get rid of all elves by teaching humans dark magic. They probably did not like his quest to seek out as much power as possible, and punished him for it.

Or maybe I’m making our Aaravos out to be a worser elf than he actually is. Perhaps he also saw how unfair it was that humans were treated as weak by the elves and dragons when they had so much potential, and felt the need to level the playing field.

While not confirmed, there are already a lot of parallels between Aaravos and the Greek Myth Prometheus. One of the creators of the show, Aaron Ehasz, already stated that this is his favorite greek myth so it’s really no surprised it is showing up in TDP.

As he mentions, the myth is about Prometheus, a titan that stole fire and gave it to humans, elevating them. But he was punished by the gods for this. He was a divine messenger who shared these gifts with humanity, and from there the humans have to choose what to do once they obtained these gifts.

That definitely sounds like what we learned about Aaravos from these passages.

Star elves seem pretty close to god-like with how long they live and their powers. And Aaravos may have been the most powerful Startouched elf ever. Meaning, if he gets out the mirror, we have a lot to worry about.

Before I end this I would like to give a small guess about the cube that Callum has. The Key of Aaravos is something only a master of all six primal sources can unlock. The only one that is currently able to do that is Aaravos. But as some people have been speculating, Callum may be next on that list.

While I am not the biggest fan of the theory currently, since Callum just seemed so in tune with Sky magic, there is a definite possibility this will happen. It is likely that only a mage that also wields all six elements will be able to defeat Aaravos. So yeah, once again... Avatar.

Or if six different creatures with all six arcana touch the cube, it can also unlock something. I am hoping another elf joins Callum and Rayla on their adventure next season, so maybe this will happen!

I also wrote a smaller theory about this image we got in the end credits for one of the S2 episodes. There may be some parallels between Aaravos’s story and that of the Great Gatsby. Check it out here.

So that pretty much wraps up everything I wanted to say about Aaravos, and I want to know what you guys think! Do you think he’s just plain evil, or is there more to him than that? Let me know!

Sources: [x][x][x][x][x][x]

[queenofmoons67]

the wingbeats carry on: chapter 2, hunting

Aaaaaah I am so sorry it's taken me so long to update! I hope the length makes up for it and that you all enjoy!

Fandom: Akatsuki no Yona

Summary: When all the dragons are turned into actual dragons, Hak and Yoon have to figure out how to turn them back.

SPOILERS for anything after the anime, including the OVAs.

Word Count: 2784

Links to the first chapter and to the AO3 version are in the reblog!

Credit to Nickelback for the original lyrics “just like a heartbeat / the drumbeat carries on.” I do not own Akatsuki no Yona.

When the sun rose on the seventh day, Zeno woke up to find himself and the rest of the dragons exactly as they had been the last six mornings: Zeno’s own body encircled their camp, his long neck stretching alongside his tail; Jae-ha, also too big to fit inside a tent, had claimed the spot next to the fire; the other dragons refused to leave the older dragons outside alone, and so they had split between them, Yona tucked in-between Jae-ha’s shoulder blades and Kija barricading Shin-ah between his own stomach and Zeno’s.

The feeling of their scales scraping against his own as they breathed tickled a little, but he had grown used to it and, as he had proudly told them the other day, quite fond of it. Shin-ah had disappeared under his old furs and Kija had blushed red enough he rivaled Yona in color, but they had both returned to his side that night.

Suddenly, there was pressure on his tail, and Zeno opened one eye to find himself staring at Hak. The Thunder Beast froze and stared back at him, then waved his glaive in greeting. Zeno blinked back. Hak finished climbing over his tail and headed into the surrounding forest, quiver full of arrows bouncing on his back, so Zeno closed his eyes to meditate.

Hak wouldn’t be back for a while. With five dragons to feed, breakfast had become a bigger ordeal than usual. Zeno himself would go hunting later on—as big a dragon as he was, he had adjusted his eating habits to gorging on the surrounding animal population about once every two days, and relying on Yoon’s cooking for snacks. Jae-ha did something similar, though he did it once a day. But the others were too small to go hunting on their own, and so Hak had taken the task upon himself—one deer for Kija, and two to go in Yoon’s pot to share between him, Hak, Shin-ah, and Yona. Or, at least, the equivalent meat-wise, because if he killed three deer a day they would quickly go through the surrounding herds.

“Zeno,” a voice chirped.

Zeno purred—one of the only noises, he had discovered, that he could make without serious consequences for those around him—but kept his eyes closed.

“Zeeeeno.” A pause. “Zeno, I know you’re awake. Where did Hak go?”

Zeno opened his eyes to stare at Yona. “If you think you’re going after the mister on your own, little miss—”

“Please, Zeno?” She looked up at him with wide eyes, and he froze. Yona’s eyes had been an effective weapon before she turned into a teeny tiny dragon, but that power had at least tripled after her transformation.

Zeno closed his eyes and murmured, “The mister has gone hunting.”

“Thank you, Zeno!” She pressed her body up against his muzzle in a pseudo-hug, then bounded up and over his tail.

Zeno kept his eyes closed. Despite the fact that only the dragons themselves could understand each other, he just knew he was going to get in trouble with Yoon and Hak anyway. He just hoped Yona didn’t run into any trouble on her way to the Thunder Beast.

Yona trotted through the underbrush of the forest, half her attention on how brilliantly the dew shone in the morning sun, and the other half on walking. Coordinating her limbs had been the biggest thing to adjust to—she had to walk on four legs instead of two, while also keeping her wings tightly folded so she wouldn’t glide out of control.

Hak had made fun of her at first, cooing at her and saying ‘look, Yoon, Yona’s taking her first steps!’ as she first stumbled towards him. He had changed his tune when she pointedly veered towards Yoon instead, though.

But she had gotten better at it, and thankfully so had the others—though more than one tree had been sacrificed to a falling Zeno. Unfortunately, the two things she hadn’t done now that she was an actual dragon were breathe fire or fly. Yoon had sighed in relief when it was revealed that only the three oldest dragons could do those, but to her those were the only point of being a dragon. Though, granted, she could make smoke, so she could only assume that if she was stuck like this for a while, her body would eventually develop fire.

And the sharp teeth were a nice bonus.

The sound of a branch cracking drew her attention, and she looked over expecting to see Hak. Instead, she found herself making eye contact with a man about Jae-ha’s age.

His grip on his axe loosened as his eyes went wide, but not for long as he visibly shook himself and tightened his hold. Bringing the axe up into a swinging position, he called, “Hey, Pa! Come see what I found!”

Yona bristled and hissed. She wasn’t a ‘what’.

The man eyed her, but didn’t back up. In fact, as an older, balding man approached them, the first man took a step closer.

“It’s a dragon, Pa! Imagine what we can sell it for!”

Baldy grunted and cocked his head in interest. “Only a baby, too.”

Yona hissed again and added a snort for good measure. Unlike Zeno, hers wasn’t big enough to create wind, but it did send smoke curling out from her nostrils.

“You take the left, I’ll take the right,” Baldy said, moving as he talked. “And watch those teeth. She might be a baby, but those look sharp—”

Yona didn’t give him the chance to take another step. With the two of them now separated, she flared her wings out and charged. As she had hoped, the wind lifted her up into a fast glide and, remembering how she had accidentally taken down Yoon and Hak when she had first transformed, Yona bowed her head down.

Her horns collided with Baldy’s stomach, and his breath whooshed out of him in one long, satisfying noise as he crumpled to the ground and his son shouted out behind them. Making a note of how well that had worked, Yona hopped off and spun to face the son—or at least, she tried to.

As she moved, the wind that had helped her before pushed into her from the side and pressed that wing in until it folded. Off balance and still somewhat unused to four legs, she stumbled over one of her own feet and fell to the ground, other wing still awkwardly out and muzzle snuffling in the dirt.

Shaking her head and snorting, Yona caught the son moving in closer with the axe out of the corner of her eye and quickly folded her second wing in. Something told her it was a weak point, useful when in the air but to be protected on the ground.

“Come on, little dragon,” Baldy cooed, and she backed up until her tail tip brushed a tree, eyes wide to take in both of the hunters at once. The father had managed to stand. Now he approached from one side and his son from the other, but unlike last time, they were close enough to cover each other.

“Come on, little dragon,” the son echoed, a sneer on his lips and his attitude changed after her successful attack, however brief it had been.

Yona’s wings ached with the desire to take to the wind. But she wasn’t big enough to fly, there was no opening for her to glide past them, and while she imagined the head butt would work well eventually, her previous attack had shown her its downsides. She did the next best thing instead. Opening her mouth, she called for help in a series of chirps and barks.

Hak had been enjoying a nice, peaceful morning of hunting when a high-pitched noise startled the deer herd he had his eyes on. He cursed and made to follow them, but then the noise just kept on going. Hak paused to listen more closely. Was it just him, or did that noise sound familiar? With no crunching leaves or thundering herd in the way, the next noise came through clearly as a chirp.

Hak cursed again and broke into a run. One of the dragons was in trouble.

Baldy took a step forward, saying, “We should hurry. We don’t want to be here when help arrives.”

Yona faked a lunge at him, lips pulled back in a snarl, and he jolted back.

“How much do you think we could sell those teeth for?” the son laughed, too focused on her to pay attention to any warnings. “We could easily sell her without—”

A familiar leg swept the son’s legs out from under him, and when he fell to the ground with a shout, Yona charged Baldy. Back up had arrived.

After Hak took out the younger of the two men attacking Yona, he stood back in bemusement and just watched. The older man, rather than facing Yona head on, looked between Hak’s glaive and the dragon’s bared teeth, grabbed the other man’s arm, and ran away. That was it.

“That was the easiest fight ever,” he remarked. A flash of red caught his eye, and he looked down to see Yona still charging after the men. Hak yelped and hurried forward, blocking her way with the glaive and then sweeping her into his arms. “Woah, where do you think you’re going! They’re gone, you scared them off!”

Yona chirped at him, a distinct note of annoyance in her voice, and wriggled her body around. Thankfully she didn’t try to use her claws or fangs, though, so Hak simply tightened his arms.

“Let’s check on the others, ok? We’ll need to move quickly, so that if they come back we’re long gone.” Yona froze and peered up at him, purple eyes wide. “Maybe Zeno will let us ride him… he’ll draw attention, but there’s not really anything we can do about that.”

The dragon huffed smoke, but Hak felt every muscle in her body relax as she decided to stay. He grinned and started walking back towards the camp.

Zeno was the first to spot them returning, and his head shot up to stare at them. “Yoon! They’re back!”

Three other dragon heads immediately shot up, a green-white-blue trio. Yoon turned more slowly, not able to understand Zeno’s growl but interested in what the dragons saw.

“Hak!” he called, the relief clear in his voice. “And you have Yona!”

Hak, unable to acknowledge him with his arms full of dragon, opted to pick up speed instead, and Yona held back a yelp as she began to bounce. Reflexively, she dug her claws into his cloak and wrapped her tail around his shoulder to steady herself.

“Hey!” Hak shouted back. “Start to pack—!” He jolted to a stop next to Zeno’s tail instead of climbing over it. “—up?”

Yona twisted her long neck around to see what he was looking at, and joined him in staring at what had been their camp, utterly perplexed. The tent had been taken down and the fire stamped out, while the cooking supplies had been bundled up into packs. In short, there was no packing up to do because it had already been done.

“We all heard Yona’s call,” Yoon explained. “Shin-ah managed to reassure us that she was fine, but I didn’t know what had happened, so I figured it was best to be prepared.”

“Yona almost got dragon-napped, so we should leave,” Hak agreed. He bent to put her down, then paused and met her eyes.

She gazed back as innocently as she could, making them go wide as she cocked her head to the side. She wasn’t about to race after her kidnappers again, so she definitely deserved to be able to stand on her own. Definitely. No chance of her going off on her own again. … Probably. She wouldn’t mind being able to take an actual bite out of them. But still! Come on, Hak, let—

Hak straightened up again and tightened his grip. “If you think I’m going to believe that look, Princess, you obviously think I’ve forgotten about how every time I leave you on your own, you manage to find trouble. Oh no. You’re stuck with me for at least the rest of the day.”

Yona huffed a puff of smoke in his face and rested her head on his shoulder, pointedly ignoring Jae-ha’s sniggers. Poor Hak. Worrying like that couldn’t be good for his health.

They hiked towards the Water Tribe through the rest of the day, only stopping when the moon came out. While the dragons could now all see well in the dark, their eyes peering out of it like dual stars, Hak and Yoon couldn’t. They had reached a good stopping spot, anyway—Suiko shouldn’t take them longer than another day or two to reach.

Zeno padded in a circle, his huge feet stamping the grass down into a soft pad.

Yona giggled, “You’re like a dog, Zeno!”

He snorted smoke in her face—and Hak’s, as he had yet to let her down—and simply lay down, nose to tail.

Hak waved the smoke away and coughed, “Really, Zeno?” This time, the Yellow Dragon simply blew air carefully in the Dark Dragon’s face, knowing that Hak couldn’t understand them in their current forms.

Not that Jae-ha cared. Easily hopping over Zeno’s tail, he flopped down, back to Zeno’s side, and heaved a full-bodied sigh. Kija chirped and followed as fast as he could, wings flapping furiously. In his excitement, though, his legs tangled with Jae-ha’s. The White Dragon fell with a thump.

“Idiots,” Yoon snorted, and scrambled after them, feet placed carefully.

Yona peered backwards over Hak’s arms at the one remaining dragon not in Zeno’s nest.

“Do you want to join them?” she asked.

Shin-ah blinked up at her.

“What are you two— oh,” Hak said. His arms tightened around her as Shin-ah flapped his wings, first slowly, then faster, to try and fly over Zeno’s tail. “Shin-ah, you know you and Yona can’t fly.”

The Blue Dragon let out a low trill, echoed by the squirrel sitting between his horns, as he landed on the ground. Yona trilled back, and Hak sighed.

“Fine.” He bent down, sending all the blood rushing to her head, and when Yona reoriented herself, she had been tucked under one arm, with Shin-ah next to her on Hak’s other arm. They blinked at each other. Yona could see her eyes reflected in Shin-ah’s, both of them wide in shock. Hak, oblivious, moved carefully up and over Zeno’s tail.

The Yellow Dragon churred at them, the worry clear in his voice, and Yona knew that if Hak was able to, he would have patted Zeno’s scales. As it was, he was a little busy carrying two dragons and a squirrel.

“We’re good, Zeno,” he grunted.

At his words, Yoon looked up, yelped, and tried to stand. He only managed to grunt and fall back down, trapped as he was in the mix of Jae-ha and Kija’s legs.

Hak sniggered. “Don’t worry, Mother, we’re coming to you. No need to get up.”

Yoon bristled at the title, but as Hak slid down the other side of Zeno’s tail with both Yona and Shin-ah in his grasp, Yoon reached out to brace them the best he could when they hit the ground.

Yona licked his cheek as a thank you, then gave a full body wriggle. Understanding her meaning perfectly, Hak leaned down, set both her and Shin-ah on their feet, and then sat down next to Yoon, back to Jae-ha’s stomach and legs draped over Kija.

The White Dragon side-eyed his legs and huffed at him, but Hak just smirked.

“I’m not movin— Yona!” he yelped, breath leaving him in a whoosh as she jumped on his stomach. Jae-ha cackled and Kija smirked back at Hak the best he could, head tilted up so he could stare him down.

“Oh, stop it,” Yoon sighed. He stared at them all through half-lidded eyes.

Shin-ah chirped softly at him, circling once before lying on top of all of them, Ao perched on his shoulders.

“Exactly,” Yoon nodded, and his entire body visibly relaxed. “I guess we can forgo a proper camp tonight… but just this once…”

Zeno churred and stretched one of his wings out over them, shifting his head under it, too.

Yona looked around at all of them—at her family, happy and sleepy and warm together—and closed her eyes. She could hear rustling as everyone settled down, and the entire pile moved steadily with Zeno’s breathing.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Please let me know what you think!

P.S. I am accepting prompts for future chapters!

[yeonchi]

Doctor Who Series 11 Review Part 9/10: It Takes You Away

Air date: 2 December 2018

The end of the series is upon us, but this is the last hurdle we have to get through. I should tell you that there is a New Years special coming (how it got moved from Christmas we may never really know) and of course, I’ll be reviewing it as part of this series.

I’ve got to say, after the mediocrity of the past couple of weeks, this episode is a pretty good pickup, even though some things came out of nowhere.

This week’s spoiler-free thought: “If you do not fight, then you will not survive!”

Spoilers after the break, along with an explanation of the obvious tokusatsu references that are more complicated when you think about it.

Character development out of nowhere

The focus for character development goes back to Graham and Ryan this episode. My main question in that regard is, “Why does Ryan start calling Graham ‘grandad’ now? What made him gain his respect when he was barely involved in the main story?”

If you recall at the start of the series, Ryan doesn’t properly recognise Graham as his (step-)grandad, even after his father abandoned him, his mother died and his grandmother (Grace) died. We’ve seen Ryan and Graham working with each other at various points, but his fist bumps weren’t reciprocated. However in this episode (from what I saw), it took Graham recognising how the real Grace would never let him leave Ryan in danger for him to be finally recognised as his grandad. Even then, Ryan presumably heard a recount of the events from Yaz, who got sent back through the portal before Graham’s realisation.

Personally, I think Ryan has gradually come to respect Graham as a family member throughout the series, which would be a better explanation for this, along with the fact that Graham misses Grace just as much as Ryan does. In a way, Ryan and Graham’s relationship has become a mini-arc in this series. As we heard in Episode 4, Ryan seemingly prefers to be with Graham than his birth father; this has come full circle in this episode.

Ryan has a slip of the tongue when he accidentally offends Hanne by bringing up the prospect of her father, Erik, abandoning her, having himself had his father “do a runner” on him. There is a bit of tension between them during the episode, but their animosity is resolved when they go into the anti-zone, eventually parting on good terms at the end.

Just smash the hatred-reflecting mirror!

Given the premise and events of this episode, this episode is basically a lighter version of Kamen Rider Ryuki in a nutshell. This Kamen Rider series was adapted in 2009 as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, but I’ll be focusing on references for the former because I’m more familiar with that series.

At the start, I thought Erik and Hanne were like Shiro and Yui Kanzaki, but deep into the episode, I realised that the Solitract was more like Shiro, with a hint of the Great Eye of Kamen Rider Ghost and DJ Sagara of Kamen Rider Gaim. The Solitract universe is like the Mirror World of Ryuki, but there are some elements taken from the Gamma World of Ghost and the Helheim Forest of Gaim.

If you don’t know about Ryuki, the series is about Shiro starting a Rider War to save his sister, Yui, who would cease to exist on her 20th birthday because she was her other self from the Mirror World; the real Yui died when their abusive parents confined them to their attic. Shiro used his and Yui’s childhood drawings to create the Mirror Monsters and the Advent Decks. He gave the Advent Decks to people who would become his Riders so they would fight each other and the monsters to be the last Rider standing for a chance to have a wish granted. Shiro’s intention was to face off (through a representative Rider) against that last Rider and win so he could get that wish for himself and save Yui. Shiro orchestrated the Rider War because he didn’t want to be lonely, while the Solitract wanted to be with the rest of the universe despite its disruptive nature - you can see the connection here.

The plot with Graham having to face a deceased friend or loved one has been done several times in the Kamen Rider series, with the characters concerned eventually realising that their resurrected friend or loved one is not real. This was done with Haruto and Koyomi in a movie following the end of Kamen Rider Wizard and in Kamen Rider Taisen, albeit horribly (to repeat from last week’s review, watch this video from 15 minutes in).

As for Grace’s appearance in this episode, the comparison is basically the same as I stated in the Episode 4 review, though she reflects Ex-Aid’s Saki more than Build’s Kasumi.

Solitract - a better misunderstood villain

There isn’t necessarily an enemy for this episode, though you could really count the Solitract as a misunderstood villain. This time around, the misunderstood villain premise is done better because there is no actual villain in this episode.

So the Solitract is a consciousness that was exiled because it was preventing the rest of the universe from properly coming together. It attempted to create a portal to the universe because he wanted to learn about and be a part of it. The Solitract lured Erik and Graham into staying in its universe by creating images of their deceased loved ones, namely Trine and Grace, that they could not reject. However, the Doctor managed to convince them that they were not real, leading it to send them back through the portal.

It was weird to see the Doctor talking to a frog with Grace’s voice, which was apparently the Solitract’s preferred form (because that’s the next best thing to having Kermit the Frog on the show and I would probably have liked it better that way). In the end, the Solitract lets the Doctor go as well and they part as friends.

Some people may see parallels between the Solitract and human relationships in society, but I don’t agree because while there are lots of fish in the sea, as humans like to say, the Solitract hasn’t got anyone else due to its disruptive nature.

Other general thoughts

Graham hears mirror noises, but they’re not that kind of mirror noises, if you know what I mean.

Before Erik disappeared, he barricaded his house and left Hanne to fend for herself, placing monster recordings that would play at a certain time each day so that she would not leave the house (implying some animals don’t leave their offspring to fend for themselves in the wild). To that point, Erik can also be perceived as a misunderstood villain because of that.

I’m pretty sure that the Doctor has a thing for Yaz at this point; just look at the favouritism she has been getting throughout the series. To be honest, it’s starting to get annoying because unlike Graham and Ryan, she hasn’t had a lot of character development.

Also, where did Yaz get the idea to “reverse the polarity”? This is the point where I can officially say that the line has become misused and overused.

Summary and verdict

I didn’t need to point anything out about diversity and representation because everything else in the episode overshadowed it. No SJW red flags, either (a reviewer has compared the encounter between the Doctor and the Solitract to lesbian representation, but I don’t agree with it).

Graham and Ryan’s character development reaches a climax in this episode. Tokusatsu references were aplenty. The misunderstood villain plot points were written better in this episode. Even better, Grace O’Brien can be confirmed to have been a recurring character for this series. The Doctor talking to a frog, however, was a bit weird.

Rating: 9/10

Stay tuned next week as I review the tenth and final episode, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. There will also be an epilogue post summing up my thoughts on the series as a whole and as I said at the start, I will definitely be reviewing the New Years special when it comes. Speaking of next week, could a certain someone be returning?

[lincolnmorehead-blog]

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