#where he is king visual novel review

[ebonysplendor]

psst 👀 you should check out “Where He is King” by mellowbile on itch.io

Hmm...heard 👀

TL;DR: He's a joker, a jester, an absolute clown...but the pain that he puts us through is no joke

That was horrible, I know. I couldn't think of anything else. Plz let me live ._.

Game Link: https://mellowbile.itch.io/where-he-is-king

Notable Features: Nameless MC, Female MC, Demon/God LI(?), Yandere LI(?), Choice-heavy story Spiciness: 0/5 -- Unless you're into the whole dismembered from the inside out thing, then 5/5. No kink shaming here LI(?) Red Flags: 5/5 -- Physically abusive, Torture, Sadist. That's about it, but it's pretty gruesome/vivid stuff

Wanna know more? Not if you're not at least 18! Y'all were good until it got updated a few days or so ago due to the gore. Anyways, if you're part of the 18+ club, let's get into it!

!! C O N T E N T !! !! W A R N I N G !!

He looks more like a jester to me, but it may trigger that whole fear of clowns thing...just a heads up

So, this one was a request, which I'm always excited about, so of course I had to give it the old college try. To be honest, I saw and played this the same day that I had gotten the request (hence why I wrote the whole "y'all were good until a few days ago" thing, because it was a few days ago at the time), but I really wanted to get that Trembling Essence review out first, and then, I started adulting and lost track of time, and then a month went by, and yeah. Not to mention that I was looking FOREVER for a particular ending; I'll get into that more once the review portion comes along. Anyways.

Now, admittedly, this one wasn't too much of my style but...actually, just take a look at this:

I actually appreciate the disclaimer because, admittedly, the first thought I had was "This feels gorey for the sake of being gorey", but after remembering what they had said about it being more emotionally charged writing, I realized that it actually was pretty emotionally charged. Like, the writing itself was actually pretty solid and the art? Ugh, I loved the visuals. Those of you who have been rocking with me for some of my reviews know that I get completely undone over sprites, CGs, and all that visual stuff.

Admittedly, I don't really have too much to say in the intro. All that I want to say seems more appropriate for the review portion, so I'm going to go ahead and jump into talking about the game itself. As per typical, I'm going to tell you as much about the game without ruining the game itself.

So boom.

We're on the run. Well, let me rephrase that: we were on the run, but our ankle is kind've AFK, at the moment, and running isn't really an option right now. Just as a little backstory, the reason why we're trying to get away from him is because everything is literally going to shit, or Hell, more accurately. Villagers are disappearing, children are either becoming runaways or being abducted, and there's this hypnotic music that's (assumed to be) always playing in the background from a taunting distance, being just barely heard. Not long after, a devil -- that was intentional, by the way, because he's not the devil, but a devil. He ain't that special, but he's still dangerous -- catches up to us.

Friedrich "JunJingl" Marchosias. Yeah, I jumbled the pronunciation of that last name, too, but just know that that's his name lmao.

Naturally, he starts to taunt us, calling us a "broken toy" because our ankle is sprained, and we aren't much for running right now, which makes his pursuit less amusing for him. This wouldn't be such an issue if, one, Sir Jester Douche wasn't a literal psycho and a pretty serious threat, and two, we weren't literally the last human alive. That's right folks: we're what remains of humanity. Okay, well, maybe not that dramatic, but it seems that way because the people that would've been in the surrounding area are either dead or they were a part of his army, but that's not reassuring either because he only took the children for his army -- we're a full grown adult, so our fate isn't looking too good.

At this point, he's getting pretty pissed at us. That's because he's been talking mad shit this whole time, but we've been silent throughout his whole lil' speech. Like, oh, pardon me for my brain shutting down and putting survival at the top of the list, my good sir.

We indulge in his arrogance briefly, but just long enough for us to stall him while we make a gameplan. Now, here's the thing: if we make a run for it, we're probably going to die because our ankle is pretty messed up, but if we stay and keep talking to this psycho clown...we're probably going to die.

Huh. Okay then. With that being realized...

We bolt. We are outta of there. Point blank period, because it's like, if our chance of death is pretty much inevitable, we may as well make him work for it.

That's kind've falling flat though, because he's right on our tail, and he's not even putting in the effort while doing it. We can't worry about that for too long though, because we hear this music playing and...oh shit.

It's going from bad to worse. Now, we have to worry about his entire army chasing after us, too. It doesn't matter though because survival is still at the top of the list, no matter how slim or nonexistent the chance may be; we keep running. We run and run and run and run until we get to this well. Granted, it may have been a stupid move, but we actually managed to get a good bit of distance, and we stop to get a drink from the well. Like I said, probably a stupid move, but shit, we don't have much of a chance of survival if we're dehydrated. ...Actually, we don't have much of a chance of survival if we are hydrated, either, but a bitch is thirsty, so we get that damn drink, or so we thought we were going to. What we were expecting was a well full of rainwater.

It's full of blood.

We don't even have time to be scared before Friedrich pops up behind us. With our survival instincts kicking in, we get on our gangster shit. We notice that the bucket was silver and recall how a lot of the things in the village had been replaced with silver dupes because it could ward off evil. When I say that we got a good ass grip on that silver bucket...

And absolutely knocked his shit in?! We blasted the hell out of him with that bucket. Look at this man's face.

Lmao, no babes. Not that face.

Lol not that one either...

Ah, yes. We...might have just plummeted our inevitable chance of death to an inevitable certainty of death...

And the story continues from this point, my friends! Actually! This is only one route of ten! Which ending is this you ask? Lol like I'm going to tell you. You'll have to play the game for yourself to find that out. Just be cautious, because it does get a little...messy.

Okay, so! ...Wasn't really my cup of tea, not gonna lie, but it wasn't bad!

First and foremost, let's get into the visuals of this game. The art was definitely pleasing to look at. Like, ugh, I love CGs and sprites and visual effects and all of that, and this game had a looooot of them. Like, take a little lookie look.

Chef's kiss work right there. I really, really, really loved the artwork. Definitely my favorite aspect of this game.

Now, like I said in the beginning, the gore was pretty "in your face" and definitely gives the initial impression of being gorey for the sake of being gorey; however, I made sure that I read it with the "emotionally charged" disclaimer in mind. Pleasantly enough, I actually could get that vibe. The dev gave the go-ahead for personal interpretations but, mmm, nah. Even though I'm not the most analytical person, I was going to let you all in on my weird thoughts, but nah, I think I'll pass on that for another day.

Put it this way though, obviously, I took it as a metaphor for being in pain, but hear me out (TRIGGER WARNING FOR SUICIDE BY THE WAY): it's not just physical pain, but that pain that you feel from the inside. You know, that internal pain that's so intense that it feels like it's literally tearing you apart from the inside out. The worst part about that type of pain is that, even though you want to die, there's something that's keeping you alive, and it feels like literal torture. To me, the game was a huge metaphor for fighting to survive but staying alive feels like torture, and you're just left constantly wishing for it to just end -- maybe a sprinkle of being haunted by past mistakes and a possibly wavering faith? (TRIGGER WARNING END). Anyways, that interpretation may make more sense if you decide to actually play it for yourself. Lol I guess I did let you guys in on my thoughts after all. Guess we're getting kinda close at this point, huh?

Also anyways, another reason why it took me so long to post was because for the LIFE of me, I could not frickin figure out how to get ending number 7!! At the time, the game was extremely new. Like, still in the box wrapped in plastic new, and I was like "Shit, I'm on my own, and I'm dumb". I spent so much time and literally revisited the game on different days to see if I had accidentally skipped something and found nothing new. I looked through the files, and I was like "Bro, I've literally seen all of these sprites and CGs. What am I possibly missing?". When I say that it was driving me nuts... BUT THEN! I WENT TO THE GAME PAGE AND I SAW THIS

OH BLESS IT. I WASN'T BEING AN IDIOT; ENDING 7 JUST DIDN'T EXIST. THE RELIEF THAT I FELT. At the same time though, I was like "...why was there no ending 7?" But minor concern. Very minor.

Overall, the game was pretty damn solid! Lots of gore for sure, and I definitely didn't mind it, but the initial reaction was gore just for the sake of gore; however, when you really give it a chance, the writing's actually pretty okay. My favorite thing about it was by far the art and my other favorite thing was that we got to blast Friedrich's ass with that bucket. That was so satisfying. I mean there were consequences, yeah, but we still got our lick in lmao.

Welp, that's pretty much all from me! I recommended giving it a solid playthrough or two! I recommend it so much, I'll put the link right here so that you can give it a try. Also! Apparently they have a tumblr page for their art, and I'll link that here as well! I didn't see anything for a donation, but if you find otherwise, I'm sure they'd appreciate the monetary support. If you're broke, like me, send them some encouraging words and let them know "Hey, you did a thing, and I think that you should continue to do that thing because you're pretty good at it!"

But yeah, I'm going to end it here so that way I can FINALLY get this posted! Sorry for being MIA for a little. Adulting really be adulting, and I am ill-prepared for it a lot of the time ^^;

Anyways! Remember to drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Where He Is King

Dev's Art Tumblr

[graytrailcam]

Indie Xenofiction; Data Lion

"Data Lion is a short visual novel about a lion who gets a camera collar put on him by a group of scientists wanting to document his journey. It has choices, 2 love interests, and many alternate endings including bad ends (game overs)!

The idea was inspired by masterpieces like The Lion King and the manga/anime Kimba The White Lion."

Found this game while searching around on Itchio, the game is completely free to download and can be completed within just a few hours. It is described by the author as being unfinished in its current state, but I think it can be played through completely with a feeling of some satisfaction. Here is the link for those interested

More in depth review under the cut featuring spoilers. If you're looking to play I do recommend going in blind, it's fairly simple and the fun is really found in unlocking the CGs, which isn't too hard to do.

This is a short game that reminds me a lot of media I grew up with on dA back in the day, so it was very entertaining. I can definitely tell this takes a lot more inspiration from Kimba than it does TLK with a lot of its story concepts and overall character design. The game itself runs on a seven day cycle so it's fairly short.

I enjoyed the main character's design, he's an intersex, mostly maneless lion that you can name, though the default name that pops up is 'Lion McLionface' (your character was supposedly named via an Internet poll made by the scientists attaching your radio collar)

You're also able to choose your stats, as this game does have (extremely basic and limited) combat. For my playthrough I named the lion 'Lasaga' to be a bit silly and I dumped all my stats into strength.

I'm not really sure what the stats of Skill and Speed do for you. I completed the game by getting all the CGs and didn't encounter anything that was explicitly skill or speed required, perhaps it has a factor in combat that I'm unaware of.

You make a series of choices, some meaningful some not as most of them lead to the same exact events playing out. You can acquire the only pickable item, a thorn you can use in combat, in the game earlier on based on where you choose to make your home if you pick the Acacia Tree.

At some point a Safari Car will come by and observe you, if you make the right dialogue choices you can get some exposition on the setting you're in.

The animals in this particular section of Africa are apparently Bio-Engineered to have heightened, near human intelligence. The author of the game, Caveboy Tup has elaborated in a comment on the game's itchio page which I'll leave below;

This is definitely something that shows a lot of Kimba inspiration though it goes in a different direction that has some interesting implications. I would have been interested to see this explored in a more elaborate narrative.

The two love interests in this game are Jetsway and Rrred;

Their routes are very straight forward, I'd say you would have to really go out of your way to not pursue either of them, which makes it easy to pick and choose which one you 'romance', as it's also pretty bare bones in that regard too.

The one most advertised is definitely Rrred the lion who is featured more prominently on the game's page. He's not got a whole lot of depth, you have the choice to fight him or join up with him in a coalition immediately upon meeting him.

I do like the game's expression work, I find the animals emote in ways that are fun to look at and easy to read.

If you defeat him he will simply retreat and will show up again later to give some brief exposition on Jetsway's character.

Joining up with him starts his short route, which mostly consists of him scaring off crocodiles at the watering hole for you, which you are able to avoid without him regardless (The only time my character got a bad end was when I chose the wrong evasion option at this point in the story) The other portion is an encounter with a clan of hyenas that was pretty comedic, this got a good laugh out of me. It was the only time the game was particularly vulgar.

You escape the hyenas, as you are outnumbered no matter how high your strength stat is. The rest of the route is pretty uneventful, you travel together and it's implied there's some romantic interest between the two of you.

I will admit I found Rrred to be the less interesting of the two routes but I can see what appeal they were going for here.

The other route is Jetsway's which I found to have slightly more meat on its bones.

You meet Jetsway first in fact while looking for food but he only says that the radio collar you have on means you aren't one of his 'targets' before sprinting away.

Encountering him later finds him injured in the middle of the night after a fight.

There's more lore exposition with Jetsway regarding the largely left out bio-engineering aspect. He's some creature part of Glo's work that was created by them, it's specified he has some sort of Tech in his eye that isn't explained very much.

Poking around the dialogue options with him will give you the option of fighting him once he reveals he got these injuries fighting and killing lions, which explains why he specified you weren't a target earlier.

Upon defeating him, you can kill him here which I found interesting. But you can also choose to stay the night and nurse his wounds until he recovers.

You are given the option to walk him back home, and doing so will trigger an interaction between you two and Rrred, who calls Jetsway a murderer. Pushing Jetsway for more answers will only get you this in response.

There is no further elaboration on this plot point after this. I assume given the larger narrative that was mentioned by the creator that he's killing lions that are either human aggressive or resistant/unsuccessful in the Bio Engineering stuff. But that's only an educated guess.

Walking him home will after lead you to Utke town, where he says the humans will give him more medical treatment but that your character cannot stay.

You're able to stay the night, where you'll find Jetsway gone in the morning, but you are spotted by a Glo operative prior to this who takes this photo of you and Jetsway to 'share on the internet'.

After these two CG's, the final day is always the same. Your radio collar falls off on the seventh day and the scientists come to retrieve it. You have two options after this, to hide in wait to observe the humans at first, which will lead to you being tranquilized again while they retrieve your collar.

You can also attack the scientists, which will result in you ripping off the arm of one of them, the one named Saito.

They escape you after this, and leads to the final CG where Saito has been given a replacement prosthetic arm.

This concludes the game as currently published. I found it very charming to play and a nice way to spend part of an afternoon. It was definitely worth sharing since I haven't seen anyone discuss playing it or knowing it exists.

[spearmintyy]

Introducing myself through five favorite books!

Favorite Classic: Bram Stoker's Dracula

There's so many reasons why this is one of my all time favorites, but the part that really sticks with me is the characters. Each of them were so different from each other (a cowboy, a professor, a doctor, a school teacher, and an aspiring lawyer!) but their friendship still felt so true and genuine. One of my favorite adventure novels, so hopeful and sweet but not afraid to take dark twists. To me, this book is the definition of classic.

Favorite New Book: Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

I know I'm using "new" loosely (can't believe 2017 was seven years ago...) but at the very least, this book is new to me! I thought this was such a clever take on the fantasy genre, which is my favorite. It kept all the classic aspects of wizards, flying ships, and even owl bears, while reframing them in terms of the modern music industry. I love old and new music, specifically punk and nu wave, so I really enjoyed all the little nods to it. Plus, the storyline of aging heroes reconvening to relive their glory days was just amazing.

Favorite Nonfiction: On Writing by Stephen King

To be totally honest, I'm not usually one for nonfiction. But this book was genuinely a page turner. While it's often touted as a must-read for aspiring writers, I don't actually think that's where this book shines. For me, personally, the most interesting parts were the beginning and end, learning how Stephen King grew up to be such a successful author, and learning about how he overcame the accident he was in and got back into writing afterwards. Also, his prose is just so entertaining I think it'd be hard not to enjoy.

Favorite Graphic Novel: Uzumaki by Junji Ito

I'm a horror lover, and this manga might be the most unique horror media I've ever experienced. Junji Ito really makes the most of the visual medium, and his art is incredible. I wish I could plaster my apartment with these pages, seriously. Beyond that, he finds such creative and fresh topics to explore, I think I left this book with all new fears. Seriously, my terrarium (as seen in the pic) is full of snails, and ever since I read this book I've been scared they'll escape.

Favorite of All Time: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

No book has impacted me so much as American Gods. It'll be hard to keep this short, as I genuinely think I could write a thesis on the complexities and lore of this book. But overall, I'll say I love folklore, and reading this book, I could genuinely believe Neil Gaiman knows more folklore than I could ever hope to learn in my entire life. Every scene and inclusion is so well crafted and thought out; reading this book probably took my twice as long because every chapter I finished made me want to read at least three wikipedia pages. Also, Shadow is one of my favorite protagonists I've ever read. Between his appreciation for the bigfoot magazine cover and constant attempts to entertain kids with coin tricks (which doesn't work out as often as it should!) I absolutely fell in love with him.

Thanks everyone for reading! I plan to use this blog as a space to share reviews of the books I read (as well as share favorite music and movies on occasion). Feel free to send in asks, comments, and questions. Nice to meet you!

[understandableparadox]

Bottom of the barrel isekai review #2

Today's title: I was reborn as his highness the prince’s little evil dragon. 

The understanding of cringe is an abstraction of the same feelings of those in Salem dragging literate women to a lovely communal barbeque where they will be served. Is that an exaggeration? Yes, am I making a ham-fisted reference to a sci-fi short story? Also yes, very clever you are, go get yourself a cookie. I will wait. 

Anyways that is to segway to the idea that sometimes our ability to consider a story bad is based on the ideas it presents. Sometimes these ideas are weird, that weirdness becomes correlated with the cultural idea of cringe. 

Anyways that is a segway from a segway to talk about omegaverse. That is a concept that exists, where did it start? Im staring down a deep and scary rabbit hole that i'm simply not prepared to delve down into. So let's skip that and get into the basics. ABO or Alpha Beta Omega is a setting in which the genders are changed as thus: alphas are sexually and socially dominant, male and female may share the same genitalia for the concept of sex. Betas are either normal humans or hyper submissive socially and sexually, male and females usually share the same genitalia in this instance as well. In some fictions the omega may take the spot of the beta and the beta will become the average human within the setting. Beta and omegas emit a pheromone that can set people into estrus and attract alphas, alphas can bite the base of a beta or omegas neck to mark them as theirs. 

That's the bare bones basics and also a segway of a segway from a segway into the story we are talking about today. 

The titular title is a manhwa, if you are a rock dweller that's a korean manhwa. Don't let the country jump fool you, we are still dealing with the normal rules of an isekai so let's keep moving. 

We start by examining the main character, shown to us to be the ubermensch of gamers. The true pinnacle of mankind, tall, strong, powerful, athletic, mewing like his god damn life depends on it to ensure that his jawline is capable of splitting atoms, causing mass destruction to the immediate area. 

He gets shanked at a gaming event by im assuming a rival gamer who went insane and thought that he was irl stream sniping. 

He bites the dust and awakens as the shell of an egg breaks around him, staring up into the soft eyes of the main romantic interest, the crown prince. Oh, he's a little dragon now and also still a 18-19 year old man stuck in the body of a lil baby dragon. The two cavort around jovially, well one acts in a jovial manner, the other is trying to figure out what the fuck is happening and why hes stuck on a leash instead of cranking sick 90s in fortnite.

They then remember what game they are in. The game is apparently a visual novel/rpg in which the crown prince raises a dragon that turns evil and he must slay it with the power of friendship and the god nuke spear he found in a cave. Cool, he decides to not be an evil dragon that gets hit with the god nuke spear. A wise choice. 

We get some more exposition before the world decides to run a fucking truck into my head by haveing a possible pre-pubescent child introduce the idea that this is infact omega verse. The wicked step brother pops in shouting “omegas lives are easy”.  

Which hit me with an absurd level of whiplash but ok, let's try to keep moving. 

The story meanders around a bit more, we are introduced to the wicked step mother who is an alpha which yeah feminism, the queen pegs the king. 

She does the wicked stepmother bit and leaves and we are treated to a few too many shots of this toddler-esque character cuddling up to this baby dragon which if I must drill into the soft gray matter hidden away within your domed ivories is a full grown man who plays video games for a living. 

I am unfortunately well acquainted with the trope of Middle aged japanese business man in the body of a baby because god damn if freud did not hit a societal nerve, and I would never dream of being so crass as to say that this is equally creepy but I hope you can forgive me if I inch this close to the same rung. 

Gamer god decides to start speed running the game, assuming that if he gets to a certain event within the game in which the main character helps a goddess and gets a wish, deciding to yoink that wish for himself and get back to begging markiplier to do a nude calendar with him, bro just a quick twelve picks, its for charity bro, come on, tasteful buns out for charity bro. 

Anyways more meandering, quick break to have one more bed scene where gamer god in baby dragon form sniffs again this kids pheromones because hell is real and the only torture is the one we inflict upon the world with our thoughts and ideas. 

They get the fuck out of the castle and go to the spooky woods where they meet the princes arranged fiancee, an alpha who is drawn as a full grown man. 

Anyways he is utterly nothing to the story and serves to explain why they are able to beat the random cabal of cultists in the middle of the spooky woods who have the goddess trapped. 

They free her, she hands out some random shit and then fucks off. The paladin, prince and dragon then decided to go on magical adventures for a bit where we learn that the dragon's gift turns him back into a facsimile of his human form which carries around the prince again. Cue badly drawn fight scene with with trolls, cue yet another mention of the princes pheromones because the author has decided that I need to be shot a few more times and let's be honest, im asking for it, tying myself up on the shooting range like i am, drawing an assortment of red dots on myself, beckoning any wayward bullet to find purchase in all the soft supple flesh they can burrow in. 

More magical adventures and they find the magic sage, oops it's actually not the magic sage its the evil sage who after tricking our party tries to use mind control to seduce gamer god which leads me to believe that the author has some straight guy x gay guy fics in the same hard drive i believe should be turned into the police. 

Prince goes ape shit and despite showing little magical affinity suddenly has the skills to summon the god damn grim reaper who saves the dragon. Gamer god passes out and in the meantime the real sage pops up and promises to teach the prince white magic and to train the dragon by chasing and fighting his familiar, a transforming rabbit. 

This is how the dragon meets mushroom fujoshi who does a lore dump and scares everyone in my discord because we were not familiar with Korean and Chinese internet slang and how it gets translated, please see below. 

It's not what it looks like, it means “Couple Pairings' '. Which yes, i know, holy shit why would they translate it like that???

Who the fuck knows. They explain how shits happens. They were the true creators of the world. After playing the game in its entirety, they decided the ending lacked luster so they decided to create an omegaverse fiction in which the prince and dragon Bone Expeditiously. 

Now this either means that god themselves in all of their infinite wisdom and power was placed in their own schrodingers box. Either so enraptured with the true beauty of this fiction or infact so repulsed by its contents that they decided to trap multiple innocent souls along with the stories creator to force it to play out to its logical possibly bloody end.

She also states that the prince must kill the dragon if they wish to escape, but also how the fuck do you know that? Anyways she fucks off. 

We now reach the time skip, where thank the fucking gods everyone is now drawn like a fucking adult and its not only slightly werid when they sniff at each other. 

And nothing happens for ten chapters as these two twinks run around each other playing grab ass until the last three chapters where they introduce the concept of a marriage party, as the paladin broke up. 

Two affronts to decent racial design and orientalism pop up to create a bit more plot, they send the dragon off to be able to be human without a trinket and that's the end of it. 

Is the story anything to write home about? Not entirely. It's very standard BL fair with twinkish men cavorting about and an absurd amount of flowers being drawn around them. The story is very much interested in the slow burn yet sporadically intense budding romance between gamer god and the prince. It seems scared to interact with its own premise of omega verse, only gently playing into the themes or using the fantasy sexism of alphas vs omegas to create shoehorned drama between certain characters or to create societal roadblocks for the character that teach about an inch high. If I must surmise my criticism, it's not cringe enough for me. 

What about art? Its standard, most manhwa you will read will be expertly to competently drawn. The art is serviceable to the story itself, though i will note that the author is fucking deathly allergic to anything that resembles the color brown or drawing anything aside from eurocentric pretty boys that look like they belong onto a old german propaganda poster. 

"Is the underlying story, barring any other concept, good?" 

It is decent, it's fine. It's a standard romance fair, if you are diving into this for something hot, spicy, something you would be loath to be caught reading then my apologies, this is not it. 

"on a sliding scale of min to max, how much is the author using this to explore fetish" 

Low. The author clearly has some fetishes but they only somewhat clash into the main story. Mostly through gamer god pretending he's straight to the author can have the multitude of gay men attempt to coerce him into something “taboo”. 

"How many story crutches does the author use to explore the story" 

I think the story avoids the vast majority of major crutches, though it does rely heavily on the video game trope which allows the dragon to suddenly push the game into a random direction due to knowing how to skip a part of the level or knowing where certain in-game items relevant to the plot are hidden. 

 "Is the author attempting to use the story as a way to explain why he is not weird."

The author is not saying anything, but interestingly I believe they are attempting to pass themselves as being weirder than they actually are. Do with that as you will. 

Do I recommend this? Read on your own time, dont feel bad if you dont wanna read it.

[litcityblues]

'The Blade Itself' --A Review

Joe Abercrombie is another fantasy author that's been on my radar for quite some time and I'm only just now getting around to breaking into The First Law Trilogy with its first volume, The Blade Itself.

The book opens with Logen Ninefingers running from enemies known as The Shanka somewhere in the mountains of the far north. His companions are dead. He's alone. He's fighting for his life and he goes over a cliff and into a river and then we're off and running. Ninefingers has quite a reputation as the most feared man in the North and after double-checking to make sure his companions are dead. (Turns out, they're not, but they seem to be from Logen's point of view.) He decides to head south to consult with the spirits and see what to do next. They tell him to seek out Bayaz, First of the Magi.

Across the sea in the Agriont, we meet Jezal Luthar, Major West, and Sand Din Glokta, an Inquisitor, and get our introduction to the government of the Union. Luthar is gearing up for the annual Contest to prove how good of a fencer he is. West is assisting him and dealing with the arrival of his free-spirited and rebellious sister, Ardee. Glokta- who was tortured and crippled by the Emperor of the Gurkish as an Inquisitor doing the bidding of his masters, unearthing corruption and trying to navigate competing political agendas and discovering what they all mean.

Logen eventually finds Bayaz and the First of the Magi reveals his plan: they are to travel across the sea to the Agriont, the warn them not only of the impending invasion of Angland from the North, thanks to the self-proclaimed Northern King Bethod (who has had some run-ins with Logen before). Bayaz has his own plans, which are slowly revealed throughout the rest of the book.

Everyone gradually comes together in the Agriont, where the plans of Bayaz are at last revealed, where war is threatening the Union on two fronts (in the north where Bethod is invading Angland) and in the South where the Gurkish Empire is preparing to move against the Union in Dagoshka. Many people believe Bayaz to be a fraud, but he gathers a company- including Jezal Dan Luthar, Logen, Maljinn, his assistant Quai, and the Navigator Longfoot and a mission to go and confront an ancient evil behind the power of The Eaters.

Overall: So, the word on my particular street before I read this book was that Abercrombie was great with fight and action scenes, and great with dialogue, but people could take or leave his prose overall. I can understand where people are coming from with the fight and action scenes- really great, tight, taut writing that moves at the right speed and keeps the pages turning. His dialogue is also really, really great I love how the characters interact with one another and more importantly, how distinct their voices/personalities are and how they develop throughout the book. His prose...

I don't see the criticism of his prose. It didn't bother me at all-- if anything, you could argue that he's got a very visual writing style that would make translating this book to a graphic novel really easy. (Actually, I might check and see if that's been done yet because it seems like low-hanging fruit just sitting there for the taking, as it were and for sure if Netflix or Amazon or a movie studio comes calling this would be a no-brainer to adapt.)

Halfway through this book, I was worried were getting into Rothfuss territory-- it was interesting and felt like it was going somewhere, but I was starting to worry that the payoff wasn't going to be worth the trouble, despite the excellent characters/dialogue/fight scenes. Happily, it comes together very nicely- and in a nice touch, you get to see the characters react to meeting one other in a very genuine way. So Logen, from Jezal's point of view is just this big, hulking Northerner he gets stuck with at first. Similarly, when Maljinn arrives from the South- she is sneering at 'the pinks', because she doesn't yet know them. It's a small, subtle thing, I know, but I noticed it and I really liked it. It was a nice touch seeing how they meet each other from opposing POVs.

I don't know if it brings anything particularly new to the table, genre-wise, but then again, it doesn't have to! The world-building is simple and not complicated. Abercrombie drops you right into the story with a bang and keeps things rolling throughout. It wasn't a chore to read by any stretch of the imagination and I was *this* close to jumping right into the next volume just to keep on going.

My Grade: **** out of **** Fast, funny, compelling characters, wicked bloody fun this was a great read. Will absolutely check out the next two volumes.

[denimbex1986]

'All of Us Strangers feels like the film Andrew Haigh has been waiting to make. Whether it’s his breakout feature, Weekend, or the HBO series Looking, this director is clearly interested in the idiosyncratic, lonely lives of certain gay men. There is a bittersweetness that comes with so much progress won in such little time. While many men are still reeling from the AIDS crisis and institutional discrimination, a new generation of voters has sprung up that takes gay prom kings and same-sex marriage for granted. All of Us Strangers is at its smartest when bringing these truths to light. It’s a little too polished for such raw subject matter, but this tender film deserves acknowledgement for spotlighting an overlooked – but very real – struggle.

All of Us Strangers may borrow its premise from the 1987 Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, but it’s a loose adaptation. For maximum delight you should go in knowing as little as possible, but here are the basics: Andrew Scott is Adam, a screenwriter in his 40s just muddling through. His friends have all left London with their partners and children, and he spends his nights watching old TV and downing biscuits. Change presents itself in the form of Harry (Paul Mescal), Adam’s hot neighbor, and a new writing project. But as Adam mines his own youth for material, specters of the past step forward. Literally. Adam begins to spend much of his time with the ghosts of his dead parents, played by Jamie Bell and Claire Foy, who have manifested in his childhood home.

As he grows close to people — or spirits — again, Adam reflects on the culture that taught him to isolate himself. Too old to call himself “queer” instead of “gay” and too young to have spent much of his adulthood worrying about the AIDS epidemic or Section 28, Adam recounts a life colored by mundane discrimination. A classic “sensitive boy” with no athletic talent, he was alienated by peers and even his own father for not being manly enough.

There were seeds of this in Weekend, where the leads debated the drawbacks of flamboyance and blending in, but it’s satisfying to see things spelled out so clearly. With no cultural roadmap for growing up gay, Adam is stuck in arrested development, standing still in a hollow London high-rise while his friends happily embark on “real life.” His rendezvous with the past only emphasizes that inertia.

I’m not saying All of Us Strangers is a film about how sad it is to be gay – just a realistic one. There’s joy to be found in Adam and Harry’s budding relationship and the funny bumbling of Bell and Foy. Haigh’s signature visuals are almost unbearably pretty, with no golden hour left un-filmed. This film celebrates the good and bad of life rather than lamenting it. That’s mostly a lovely thing.

I say mostly because, well, it should be easy to make a raggedy, sad, bitter gay movie in 2023. And yet All of Us Strangers, Haigh’s first feature with a mainstream awards push – also his first with major distribution, via Disney’s Searchlight Pictures – plays nice. We already know Scott can volley from cynical to romantic on a dime (hello, Hot Priest), but while Adam has plenty of reason to be hard-hearted, he hardly acts it. In fact, the one time he does, the universe delivers him a brass-knuckled dick punch that, sure, makes sense for the plot – but still feels downright mean. Maybe Haigh wanted to make a more pleasant gay movie this go-round, but All of Us Strangers is a film that Glen, the sardonic, in-your-face protagonist of Weekend, would probably sneer at.

The film’s pat niceness is most glaring in its final scenes, as Adam’s story resolves in a way that is both too neat and also not really about Adam anymore. There’s nothing wrong with a gay movie with a broad, existential message, but damn. All of Us Strangers spends most of its runtime generating empathy for a guy who has shut himself off from the world, only to visit horrors upon him when he loosens up. Let a gay indulge.

Verdict

All of Us Strangers is all the things that will be trumpeted in its marketing: gorgeous, necessary, poignant. The cast is stacked, the visuals are breathtaking, and the subject matter is important. You’ve likely never seen a movie that tackles the specific loneliness many gay men still face today, and this one is laudable for that alone. However, All of Us Strangers airs on the side of saccharine, especially towards the end, and it would benefit overall from some more human ugliness.'

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Landslide by Adam Sikes

A Mason Hackett Espionage Thriller #1

 Excellent debut novel by an author that has a bright future – I am sure that as more books are written they will get even better.

 What I Liked

* Mason – banker, businessman, trouble shooter, travels to difficult locations to meet with shady characters, ex-Marine, has survivor’s guilt and PTSD, trust issues, closed off, provds to be more than I first expected

* Delgado – Mason’s friend and colleague in the marines, has a hold on Mason, plays a big part in this story

* The plot, pacing, writing and international setting

* The intrigue and international travel

* The fast-paced rollercoaster ride provided

* That the story is pertinent to current world events

* That I easily visualized the story as it was

* The direction the story is moving

* That there will be another book in the series

 What I Didn’t Like

* Who and what I was meant not to like

* The twists and turns along with surprises that kept me guessing

* The loss of life that occurred reminding me of war and the evil it truly is

 Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more in this series? Yes

 Thank you to NetGalley and Oceanview Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

 4-5 Stars

     BLURB

 International Arms—Private Military Companies—Corruption at Every Turn U.S. Marine veteran Mason Hackett moved to London to start his life over, and he’s done his best to convince himself that what happened fifteen years ago doesn’t matter—the people he killed, the men he lost, the lives he ruined. But when Mason sees the face of a dead friend flash on a television screen and then receives a mysterious email referencing a CIA operation gone bad, he can no longer ignore his inner demons. Driven by loyalty and a need to uncover the truth, Mason launches on a perilous journey from the Czech Republic to Romania toward the war-torn separatist region in eastern Ukraine to honor a fifteen-year-old promise. The answers he seeks—the fate of a friend and his connection to the underworld of international arms dealers and defense corporations—throw Mason into the cauldron of a covert war where no one can be trusted.

 Perfect for fans of Daniel Silva and Brad Thor

       AUTHOR BIO

 Since I was a little boy toddling around Boston, I’ve loved reading, writing, great fiction, history, current events, and piles and piles of books. However, becoming an author has been an unorthodox journey.

In addition to diving into J.R.R. Tolkein, Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, and Bernard Cornwell long before I truly understood what I was reading, I wanted to be a US Marine. I blame my grandparents and parents for this, and for the first ten years of my professional life, I was a Marine infantryman serving around the world both in and out of warzones. But whenever I went overseas, the books and notepads came with me.

After ten years I left the Marines, worked as a consultant for a time, and then was recruited by the CIA to be a paramilitary officer. I won’t go into the details of my time with the Agency except to say that this was when I started gravitating toward becoming a professional writer.

Since then, I co-authored Open Skies: My Life as Afghanistan’s First Female Pilot with Niloofar Rahmani, and my debut novel, Landslide, released on 20 September 2022. I’ve also worked with other writers as a developmental editor on books concerning the Kennedys and the Vietnam War, as well as forthcoming science fiction novels. I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Robert Ludlum’s former editor, Richard Marek, and the professionals who brought Die Hard, Death Wish, and American Sniper from print to screen. To say I feel lucky would be an understatement.

I received both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgetown University and now live on the West Coast. You can find a list of my favorite books and those I consider noteworthy under The Reading Corner. Feel free to check back frequently for updates and new reviews.

 Website: https://www.adamsikes.com/about/

 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Adam_R_Sikes

 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adam_r_sikes/

[dempseylivingston3]

Supernacularfiction Cultivation Chat Group - Chapter 1722 - This is the difference between the group founder and the group members chop curve suggest-p2

Jakenovel Cultivation Chat Group read - Chapter 1722 - This is the difference between the group founder and the group members thrill upset recommendation-p2

Novel-Cultivation Chat Group-Cultivation Chat Group Chapter 1722 - This is the difference between the group founder and the group members stove kill Young Excel at Phoenix az Slayer: “? Then where’s the image with the kitten brain?” Direct sun light Splitting Halberd Guo Da: “[Angrily rubs the cat’s go above].” Since there was clearly no reason to things dumplings, he happily scanned Song Shuhang QR computer code and added in him like a buddy. This period, there seemed to be an cumbersome silence. Small Master Phoenix az Slayer: “…Guo Da, aren’t you expected to send out a dog head visualize very first?” Dharma King Production laughed, and explained, “Thrice Reckless is somebody that is really able at analysis. Don’t ignore the fact that ‘battery asking technique’ from the group of people was reviewed by him. Thrice Reckless, end causing us holding. Rush up, and inform us the outcomes you bought.” This has been the largest distinction between him to be a ‘group founder’ along with the other other daoists who are just ‘group members’. The heart-stifled Senior Yellow-colored Hill temporarily place the ‘list name’ aside on his intellect, and started to research the ‘Dragon Network’. Jewel Forging Incredible Mansion’s Yang Xian: “I identified the element where Thrice Reckless could place his heart into looking into things a lot more appealing.” Senior Yellow Hill was glad. Due to the fact there was no need to information dumplings, he happily scanned Track Shuhang QR program code and put in him like a companion. Just what is this Dragon Community that might attach absolutely everyone with tiny close friend Music Shuhang? In addition to the purpose of introducing friends, can this ‘Dragon Network’ have other attributes? Cave Lord Snowfall Wolf: “Stop making us hanging, and inform us what’s the effective use of these two substantial dumplings. I want to consider scanning the QR program code.” Just then, one more motivate sounded. As you can imagine, it was actually definitely Senior Thrice Reckless, who obtained determined that his ‘QR code’ could certainly be scanned, that informed the other one older persons on the 9 Provinces Number One Team. And then, everyone began to put him for a pal out from desire. [Beep~ Little Become an expert in Phoenix, arizona Slayer has put in you as a companion, and it has been included in the ‘CPU cheat’ listing.] Just after both these surf, his 3 rd and 4th little fantastic cores had also turned into Nature Lakes. On top of that, both turned into Nine-Level-Serious Spirit Lakes, related to Nine-Dragon-Designed Glowing Cores. ❄️❄️❄️ Absolutely sure sufficient, several windmill rotates were definitely not enough for Thrice Reckless and Copper Trigram. Cultivation Chat Group On Nature b.you.t.terfly Island. But Song Shuhang sensed really drained, and it wasn’t because the incredible tribulation. Cultivation Chat Group Song Shuhang had gone through two even more surf from the incredible tribulation, and was suddenly amazed. Track Shuhang claimed, “This is fine also. I became originally planning on including them in any case. It’s only that it taken place earlier than I arranged.” [Beep~ Sun Splitting Halberd Guo Da has additional you being a close friend, and also has been part of the ‘black-skinned friend’ collection. Beep~ Girl Kunna has become transferred from the ‘allies’ record towards the ‘black-skinned friend’ listing.] Younger Excel at Phoenix az Slayer: “You do not should items anything?”

[topknotstrunk]

Review Everything 13 - Lisey’s Story on Apple TV

Content Warning: Assault, Murder, Mental Health, and Cosmic Horror.

I do not understand this adaptation. I don’t get why it is the way that it is. Before I delve into the baffling choices made in turning this novel into a limited run TV series though, I want to talk about the stuff I did like.

I think making the way of getting to Bo Ya Moon always being through water was a great visual through line. I like how that made Lisey’s swimming pool also kinda “The Pool”. I really like Lisey’s memories overlapping with reality, particularly the scene in “Jim Dandy” when her wedding singer is in her yard, unable to see her, while she processes the beating she’s just had at the hands of Dooley. The weight of her grief is evident in this scene, in a way that’s super true to the story’s overlapping chronology, and it illustrates the alienation that she’s dealing with really well.

The show’s version of  The Long Boy was a little disappointing to me at first, but I don’t think the thing I imagined when reading about it could really be made visual. In my mind it's this reality spanning, long worm, scary in a cosmic horror, Oh God my mind can’t fully comprehend this kind of thing. If something is scary because your brain can’t understand it, it’s not really something you can make visual and retain the unfathomableness that made it scary. Making it into a huge [humanoid?] monster made of all the people it’s ever killed is spooky and still evocative of something you’d read in a Stephen King book. There’s also how Lisey asks Amanda, by putting the question in front of her eyes, if she wants to come home. Lisey gives her that choice. There was something gut wrenching for me about that act. Lisey loves her Sister but doesn't seem to want to force anything on her. That was a really well done scene.

The kid they cast to play Paul was great. He played his role well and did a good job of embodying the character. The Dad was great too. Joan Allen as Amanda was sublime. I love in particular her habit of not making eye contact, and often sitting and facing a wall instead of her TV or a window long before she’s Gone in the “now” of the story. That’s a wonderful little bit of foreshadowing, having her not really looking at the reality around her but sort of zoning out in the direction of images [like her wall mural] that she’s probably not even seeing. Dane DeHaan playing another crazy man drunk on his own power was a good choice in casting too, though my trepidation on turning this story of a woman’s grief and relationships mostly with other women, where the only time we get a perspective outside of hers are stories told to her by the man she’s grieving, into... I don’t even know what you’d call it. A “school shooter” type? A crazy man who hates women and films himself for his fans type. From deep space cowboy crazy obsessed fan to incel was an odd choice. And shifting so much of the focus to him when there’s so much of Lisey’s own story that’s left out of the adaptation all together was both puzzling and disappointing. The trepidation I had at this change was unfortunately met out in the text, I think these changes overall made the story and Lisey’s character weaker.

Okay into my ranting.

I unfortunately don’t buy either Julianne Moore as Lisey nor Clive Owen as Scott. Scott is the better of these two, the actor at least has the right look, but I just don’t like the way Lisey was played. Scott’s lines are all delivered in this half slur, half sleepy tone, like Scott is constantly either a little drunk or has just woken up. It flattens the actor’s delivery, so there’s never any “big emotions” when he speaks. He wakes Lisey from her first trip to Bo Ya Moon in the exact same tone he asks her to marry him in, which is also the same tone he apologizes for their first big fight in. Lisey doesn’t seem like a lady who thinks she has all her shit together but finds out that she’s wrong. She’s played half like a woman in an action flick, sort of a Sarah Conner type which felt weird.

And then there’s just a ton of little choices that don’t seem to have been made to better the story, but just for... Reasons?

Like, why was the lighthouse added as a visual motif? Why did they change Scott’s music collection in his study from Rock and Roll and Country to classical? Why is Bo Ya Moon so dark all the time when almost every time Lisey goes there in the book it’s at Sunset? Why is Lisey’s other sister, Darla, such a focus in this adaptation? What was the creative intent behind switching the weapon Jim Dooley attacks Lisey with from cutting her with a can opener to beating her with a pizza cutter? Why was Scott confirmed to be one of the shrouded figures, and not just a thing Lisey imagines may be so, and further, why make him still an active player in the story outside of Lisey’s memories of him? Watching him float away into the pool at the end of the show was really fucking goofy. Why leave the “I brought you ice” line in if you had Scott get shot not in the suck oven heat of Summer, but in the what, Fall? Winter? Coat wearing time. Why does Scott’s gunshot wound suddenly reappear when it’s his time to die instead of him getting sick with something from Bo Ya Moon? Has he just been going back and forth all these years keeping it closed? Why was this change made? To make the story more violent? So that he can puke up his pool water on stage?

The ending of the show is straight up baffling. Why the fuck did Dooley get ripped to bloodless shreds, his body end up in the swimming pool back on earth, then those somehow bloodless parts get packed back up into a blanket, into Lisey’s car, and then tossed over a bridge? Hiding his body in Bo Ya Moon was the only reason Lisey was able to get away with killing him in the book. Why take this perfectly good, solid, well thought out ending and turn it inside out? Why force Lisey to have to deal with that? And the part where she just hands the shovel to the Long Boy? Why did that work? Why was that written? How come the part where she has to deal with the Long Boy for the rest of her life, a lingering portion of her grief and the madness of her Husband’s family, was completely deleted from the story? Why take away her agency, good coping skills, and smart planning like this?

These changes are frustrating because they don’t make sense to me. I understand that part of adapting a written story into a movie or TV show is making changes, but those changes are supposed to be so that written elements that would not translate well on the screen are made to make sense for the screen. These changes almost feel like they were made just for the hell of changing things.

I don’t normally care about shit like this. Really, I am usually just really happy to be able to watch a movie or TV show based on a thing I read that I liked. But it seems like the changes were made with no consideration for making the story either A, more interesting or B, work better for the screen.

What really sucks is that visually I think a lot of the show works. Parts of it can be gorgeous. Partiality Bo Ya Moon, I mean look at the gifs I included.

There are lots of small visual details that are really great too, like being able to see a reflection in Scott’s eyes when he’s Gone, as if he’s looking into The Pool.

I think this has cemented for me a suspicion I’ve had for a long time. When a story is mostly the character thinking thoughts to themselves, that’s either impossible to adapt well or so difficult that I’ve personally never seen it done well. It also reminds me that the vast, vast majority of Stephen King Movies are not great adaptations, and sometimes not even good movies on their own.

In Summary: There were a few small parts of this that worked really well, but most of it was so weird that it made the whole show just straight up not enjoyable. Which really sucks because Lisey’s Story is my favorite standalone Stephen King book, right next to It.

Overall: 4/10.

An additional note. This is the first time I watched something on Apple TV. Their player doesn’t work on Firefox, it never remembered where in an episode I had left off, and I had to Google Search to find the show most of the time. I give Apple TV a 2/10.

🌟 Check out more of my Review Everything Project here.

[likopinina]

welcome to Detective Review where i rate entertainment value of my fav detectives based mostly on their wetness (i.e. how pathetic they are), gay vibes, and human disaster-ness

-

Larry 'Doc' Sportello

from: Inherent Vice (film)

type: private investigator

Okay, starting strong with this one. Immensely wet, gay vibe medium, disaster levels through the roof. Highest disaster levels on this list, in fact. It's only gonna go uphill from here. 7/10 bonus points for sick sideburns and saying "groovy"

-

Special agent Dale Cooper & sheriff Truman

from: Twin Peaks (tv series)

type: fbi agent & sheriff

Classic. Not much disaster or wetness in them tbh. Top tier teamwork. Can argue for gay vibes. 7/10

-

Paweł Zawadzki & jr inspector Kędzierski

from: Belfer (tv series)

type: literature teacher & cbś officer

wet looks. not together on screen very often, but when they are, the homoeroticism is through the roof. 6/10 would be higher if they had more scenes together. bonus points for Kędzierski roasting everyone he lays eyes upon

-

Mikael Blomkvist & Lisbeth Salander

from: Millenium trilogy (books)

type: journalist & hacker

low on disaster and wetness scale. no gay vibes emanating from Blomkvist, but Lisbeth is revolutionary lgbtq rep, so it's okay. good teamwork, great dualism theme. 7/10

-

March & Healy

from: Nice Guys (film)

type: private investigator & muscle for hire

great enemies-to-friends, solid teamwork. gayness questionable, they are the type who wouldn't need gay to marry each other. very wet, strong disaster. 8/10

-

Commissaire Adamsberg & Commandant Danglard

from: Adamsberg series (books)

type: cops

Two dads. Very sweet, your honor I love them. There's drama, but overall they seem competent. 8/10

-

HDB & Lieutenant Kitsuragi

from: Disco Elysium (game)

type: cops

Most interesting competent-to-disaster ratio I've ever seen, meaning they work surprisingly well, considering what they're working with. Close proximity to sea and booze ensures high wetness in HDB. Kitsuragi gay in canon. 9/10 bonus points for sick sideburns and saying "disco"

-

Jayjay Falcon & Sparrowson Sparrowson

from: Aviary Attorney (visual novel)

type: lawyers

19th century French furry lawyers who are also broke. Do I even need to say more? 10/10 Bonus points for Sparrowson eating a piece of evidence and Falcon's literal wetness (he falls into a river). Double bonus points for being able to save your rival and then together you take down king Louis Philippe

thanks for tuning in or sorry it happened, have a fun day

[vintagegeekculture]

The Chinese Cultural Inspirations for Dragon Ball Z and Super

Journey to the West was only the beginning. 

A lot of people are vaguely aware that Dragon Ball was inspired by Chinese culture and Hong Kong Kung Fu movies and novels, but are unaware of how deep and long lasting it goes. The Japanese spent the 1980s fascinated by China, which opened up from being a closed society for decades in 1978; the most famous human being in Japan in the 80s was either Michael Jackson or Jackie Chan. 

In fact, a lot of people commonly believe that the Chinese action movie and Kung Fu novel cultural and media influence on Dragon Ball ended very early on. This is untrue. Sure, we started to see qipaos and cheongsams less frequently when they headed to West City, but it absolutely did not finish, because there’s tons of influence to see even as impossibly late as Dragon Ball Super. Interestingly, I don’t think any of these point of inspirations have been pointed out before, mainly because a lot of Chinese adventure novels are simply not available in English. 

 The Piccolo/Gohan plot was inspired by the Chinese action novel “Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre.”

Okay, tell me if you’ve heard this story before: a truly demonic, weird looking monster villain is defeated by a martial arts hero, but by circumstance, is forced into training his greatest enemy’s young son. The villain trains the young boy, the son of his enemy, in martial arts and over time, becomes like a second father or uncle to him and his family, putting the boy in his “evil” sect, and thanks to his love of his rival’s son, this baddie turns over a new leaf and goes from evil to just…grumpy, and becomes a loyal, though gruff, ally of the boy.

Of course, the events of Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre are a bit different from Dragon Ball in details. The Lion King becomes Wuji’s teacher because they are both stranded together on an island after a shipwreck, for instance, and he is blinded and made vulnerable. Also, the Lion King wasn’t so much evil so much as he was misunderstood by the orthodox martial world. However, in broad outlines, this trajectory for a face turn (becomes friends with his greatest enemy’s son, and becomes like a second father to him as he trains him, causing the villain to become a gruff good guy and ally) is essentially from one of the most famous Chinese novels ever written in the 1960s. 

Oh, and while we’re at it, Gohan is likewise inspired by another character from a Louis Cha novel: the Prince of Dali Duan Yu in the Kung Fu novel Demigods and Semi-Devils. The Prince in that novel is a naïve, pacifistic scholar who prefers books to fighting, and who was raised to be timid and avoid combat, absolutely out of step with his family, all of whom are martial artists and warriors. In fact, the beginning of the story is the prince gets incredibly lost in the wilderness, where the hopelessly naïve prince is utterly out of his depth, with all the robbers and scary beasts, and needs to be saved by real martial artists that protect him like fairy godparents. He spends the first part of the story running away from everything, scared as hell. However, by circumstance, he has naturally high power he cannot fully initially control, and eventually realizes that even scholars and others who hate fighting have to sometimes become fighters to protect those they love.

The Duan Yu part of Demigods and Semi-Devils was made into a film, the Battle Wizard, which was reviewed by PewDiePie. The Dragonball similarities went over his head because, honestly, PewDiePie does not strike me as a perceptive person. 

 Hit was based on the screen persona of Chow Yun Fat.

Chow Yun Fat was a Hong Kong cinema superstar who was to director John Woo what Robert de Niro was to Martin Scorsese. There are three giveaways that Hit was based on Chow Yun Fat. One, he’s an assassin, same as Chow Yun Fat’s character in the Killer, and is even given a sequence that’s a John Woo homage with an assassination in an office building with guns pulled on an empty elevator in an act of misdirection. Second, he’s wearing the single piece of clothing Chow Yun Fat is associated with, a black trenchcoat (fun fact: in Hong Kong today, trenchcoats are called Brother Mark Coats, after Chow Yun Fat’s character in John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow). Third, his power is essentially bullet time, a visual technique refined by John Woo in Hong Kong in the 80s and 90s in his gunplay triad movies starring Chow Yun Fat (what, you think the Wachowskis invented it?).

 The Goku/Vegeta relationship is from “Legend of the Condor Heroes.”

Here’s a story you might have heard before. It’s about two rivals, but by circumstance, one is raised in the wilderness beyond civilization, where he becomes an honest and goodhearted, though overly naive bumpkin, martial arts prodigy. The other is raised a wealthy prince by a conquering enemy, who grows up to also become an armor wearing martial arts expert, but also a cunning, arrogant, emotionally distant sociopath.

The similarities go into their love lives, too. The unsophisticated bumpkin hero is betrothed to a daughter of a powerful bearded barbarian king against his will, while the one hint of vulnerability and loss of emotional detachment in the otherwise sociopathic prince, the crack in his smirky arrogance, is that he loves a girl he otherwise pretends to hate, and even fathers a child with her who becomes a main character later.

This is Guo Jing and Yang Kang from Legend of the Condor Heroes. The most fascinating similarity, and proof that female psychology is the same all over the world, is that the fangirls love the emotionally distant, arrogant, and sexy/evil prince (remember when Rhonda Rousey said her first crush was Vegeta?). Girls everywhere love bad boys and sexy villains, and oh boy, do they love Prince Yang Kang. I think you can probably guess who all the fan art is about for Legend of the Condor Heroes, and what ship is the most popular.

I have to emphasize that Legend of the Condor Heroes, which came out in the 1950s-60s, is possibly the most widely read novel by the most widely read novelist on earth - the sales on that dwarf Twilight and Harry Potter. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say nearly every Chinese person, even if they never read it, knows who these characters are. In fact, Yang Kang and Guo Jing from Condor Heroes are basically repeated over and over in Asian, Chinese, and Japanese culture. Does the unsophisticated but gifted martial arts prodigy bumpkin hero, and the glib, arrogant wealthy prince rival remind you of….another duo of rivals?

Gohan/Videl comes from Little Dragon Maiden

One of the most important and influential Martial Arts novels of all time is “Return of the Condor Heroes.” A sequel to Condor Heroes, this time, the main character is the teenage son of one of the main characters from the first novel. It gets even more familiar from there.

“Return of the Condor Heroes” was about a martial arts couple who are also master and student, the same age but vastly different in experience and skill so one somehow seems “older,” and they fall in love because the circumstances of training together requires they spend lots of time together and become intimate. The training story and the love story are exactly the same in “Return of the Condor Heroes.” The dead giveaway one story inspired the other is that in both, the most significant training sequence is one where the master teaches the student how to fly (though Return used a chamber of sparrows for lightness Kung Fu).

There are some differences of course – obviously in Return of the Condor Heroes, the genders of teacher and student are flipped from Gohan and Videl (it’s the Little Dragon Maiden who is a powerful teacher, and the boy who is the student). It was the girl (Videl) who was a rebellious delinquent in Dragon Ball Z, when it was the opposite in the novel, true. But it was obvious this story was in the back of the creator’s mind as a way to combine Kung Fu with the love story, by making teacher and student lovers.

Addendum: hey, remember that awesome movie Kung Fu Hustle, the one Hong Kong movies normies have seen? Well, remember the landlord and landlady? The landlady was named Xiao Lung Nu, or Little Dragon Maiden, and her husband was named Yang Guo – the same as the main characters in Return of the Condor Heroes. It was a joke that went over the heads of Westerners, by giving these names of attractive and naïve young people in love with each other to a surly, bitter, arguing and chain smoking middle aged couple who don’t give a damn.

 Going Super Saiyan comes from “Reincarnated” aka “Bastard Swordsman.”

Stop me if this sounds familiar: a terrifying warlord tyrant prone to killing underlings who displease him has achieved a level of skill and cultivation so tremendous nobody can stop him. But there is one, and only one, thing he fears and that can defeat him: a long-lost legendary skill that nobody has achieved in recent memory, that includes a supernatural combat power transformation that turns the hair light to indicate it worked.

This is “Silkworm Skill” from Reincarnated aka Bastard Swordsman, a novel and TV series from Hong Kong in the early 1980s. Of course, there are differences. To get the power boost and new hair color, the hero has to jump in a cocoon he weaves himself. In fact, the scene is so well known that they actually have it on the poster.

(To those saying “Super Saiyan turns your hair blonde, not white” my response is that it turns hair white, or uncolored, in the comic book.)

The idea of your hair turning white to indicate a new supernatural combat transformation or martial state wasn’t created by Bastard Swordsman, though – though it is the best example and probably the one most familiar to a 1980s audience due to the hugely popular books and TV series. For an older example, a famous Chinese movie based on a folktale is “Bride With the White Hair,” about a bride who’s hair turns white when she is betrayed, in her anger, she becomes less a woman and more a supernatural creature of vengeance (interesting that anger should be the means to unlock it).

[phoenixtakaramono]

Hi! :) I was reading your post about SQH in TUT and it got me thinking. Since this version also wrote SVSSS, when he transmigrates does he realize his "dream" was real? Also, you hinted that he recognizes SY as the same person who transmigrated into SQQ, so now I'm wondering if he tells SY that, and how SY would react to learning he's the protagonist of SVSSS in another universe. I just love thinking about how meta this could potentially get, haha.

Can't wait to find out more! Keep up the good work!

(Follow-Up Post to: Part I, Part II)

@the-legend-of-chel 👏👏👏 Luv, good to see you in my Asks! I’m glad to hear that you’re looking forward to finding out more in The Untold Tale! And thanks for your support and encouragement. 💖

(TUT ch1 - Excerpt)

You’re right. There is a lot of meta potential with older!Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky being the MXTX equivalent in this AU—or, rather, I like to imagine him growing up to be the Stephen King equivalent of modern day China with a prolific portfolio of written works (novels and short stories, and extras). In canon, he churned out a great number of words per chapter and in a speedy amount of time! Do you guys know how miraculous that is, as a writer? I envy him so much! To be able to churn out that much content in a short amount of time, and in a scheduled regimen, is amazing! That’s basically my angle having written this into the prologue of TUT. That’s partially the reason why I wrote ch1. I liked the idea of paying homage to SVSSS and saying that it’s an actual book series in TUT universe that Airplane wrote (as funny as the idea would be, I wasn’t about to let SY be the one to write it, lol, for intellectual property reasons since the PIDW characters belong to Airplane, which would necessitate SY changing names and character appearances if he published what we know as irl SVSSS, so the best I can give SY is saying he wrote his own PIDW fanfic which basically launched his novelist career because he’d realized, hey, I actually have a knack for writing and the ever so spiteful I feel like practically every writer has had this thought before: fine, if I don’t see what I want to read, then I’ll write it myself!)

(TUT ch1 - Excerpt)

We’re approaching TUT spoiler territory so skip below if you don’t wish to be spoiled.

TUT (Meta) Spoilers

I personally love meta. If I’m to be writing a lovestory to SVSSS, there will be attempts at meta thrown into TUT. And this is one of them:

Airplane did “dream” about canon SVSSS. He basically “dreamt” about his favorite black powder fan, Peerless Cucumber

changing events of Airplane’s biggest regret Proud Immortal Demon Way. (As a writer, it embarrasses me to read my old writing. So I imagine it could be the same for Airplane.) As an author, Airplane recognized what he dreamt had potential to be a commercial success as a danmei transmigration story so basically every time he woke up, he would write pieces of what he remembers in a dream journal when the memory was fresh in his brain. It also allowed Airplane the opportunity to show his readers through the perspective of SY! Shen Qingqiu what Airplane had originally wanted to write, but integrated in a way that blends seamlessly into the reading experience. He would’ve thought it was a bit weird and strange that his brain dreamt about his past critic—whom he’d considered a small celebrity in the PIDW forums back then—aka his anti-fan-turned-accomplished-novelist in the writing industry, so he felt embarrassed that his unconscious brain must have thought very highly of the man.

So Airplane omitted any mention of Peerless Cucumber from the final draft of SVSSS (if he mentioned both “Shen Yuan” and “Peerless Cucumber,” then even SY would be like, Hey, wait one moment....). This detail will be included in a later chapter, but did you know the name “Shen Yuan” has come up in other works? Let’s ignore the variations on the Chinese written characters for the name “Shen Yuan.” There was the evil older brother character Shen Yuan from The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage, a side character named Shen Yuan from a C-drama (I think he was an old minister?), and there’s even an irl visual artist named Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan (Shen Garden) is also a famous romantic garden in Shaoxing, known for the love story between Lu You and Tang Wan.

(Shen Yuan Garden - Trip Advisor Review)

Basically “Shen Yuan” in itself is not a particularly uncommon name in China (imo I would not say it’s super popular either). So when SY saw his name mentioned once or twice in Airplane’s SVSSS—aka rebooted PIDW—during his read-through, he was like, Huh, what a strange coincidence. And then dismissed it as circumstantial and thought nothing of seeing his name come up in a cutsleeve novel as the new protagonist, haha. It’s like a book written by Anne Rice; one of the titles coincidentally has the same name as mine. Now, obviously the book and main character is not based or inspired by me; I just coincidentally share the same name. If I see books which have characters with my same first name, generally I like to read them and sometimes even collect them for my bookshelves. Because there’s something just so fun and interesting about seeing your own name in a fictional piece of work.

There’s also meta joke potential about Airplane dreaming of himself being transmigrated into the cannon fodder Shang Qinghua and seeing the romantic miscommunications between the younger version of himself (his self-insert essentially) and the fictional Mobei jūn character. I can certainly say seeing such dreams would make Airplane question his sexuality and awaken something dormant in him, haha. He’d realize he might not be not as straight as he thought he was, if his brain was capable of dreaming of SY!SQQ being crushed on by LBH, and SQH being crushed on by MBJ and essentially following MBJ around calling him “my king” this and “my king” that. He’ll be sweating bullets when he meets this world’s version of MBJ, because Airplane will definitely remember how the younger Self-Insert version of himself acted toward MBJ in the SVSSS world. (It’s the classic “Just because I dreamed about it happening doesn’t mean it’ll happen here, right? ...Right? Cucumber brother, you’re a fortuneteller! Please check our eight characters for me! I have to know my marriage compatibility with Mobei jūn!”)

In a later chapter, there will be the reveal where Airplane tells Shen Yuan that he “dreamt” of a universe where a younger version of Shen Yuan—having choked on mantou (馒头) (paying homage to the donghua) or just being transmigrated in general after raging at a younger ASTTS’s writing (paying homage to the books)—transmigrated into the Shen Qingqiu we know from SVSSS who married Bing mèi. Because I think it will be hilarious when TUT’s SY finds out about the true source of Airplane’s inspiration, and he’ll naturally freak out over the fact that this is the very same Bing gē from Airplane’s Bing-gē vs Bing-mèi extra and that he’s essentially somehow stumbled on the same path as the alternative younger SY!SQQ “from Airplane’s imagination.” I will leave this open to interpretation if this does show up (it’s just an idea I’m playing with) but I might hint that there might be a higher power at play which allowed Airplane a peek into another universe—which manifested as his dreams.

I very much like this dynamic (we might see this exchange, verbatim, in a future chapter in TUT):

SY/ LBH —> He gave him a disdainful gaze.

Airplane cried inwardly at the oppression and the feeling of being wronged.

Haha, none of this is really Airplane’s fault^ though. It’s a fun parallel and if I’m still motivated when we get to the wedding and consummation chapter, we might see an epilogue where SY and Bing gē from TUT meets SY!SQQ and Bing mèi maybe. Because I think it’ll be funny with the two LBHs getting into a shouting/ fighting match about who has the “superior Shen Yuan” while the two SYs just shake their heads at their silly husbands (and potentially TUT’s SY, as the older party, can impart his fortunetelling wisdom and advice to SY!SQQ).

Personally I can’t wait when we get to those chapters, because I know it’ll be entertaining to write, haha. Personally TUT is a fun project because there’s just so much meta potential that can be incorporated and I have a lot of fun imagining the scenarios.

*Note: like always, keep in mind that these are just my current thoughts. Details are subject to change; things aren’t considered official until they show up in the final draft on AO3. :)

The Novelists’ First Impressions

The first impression SY and Airplane will have of each other will be fun. Because in their perspective, written in my notes it’s essentially like:

(Airplane seeing SY):

His first reaction was shock. Shock because the mere mortal he used to be could not conceive so much charisma being emitted by this guy.

This is definitely a man who had put all of his stats into CHARISMA.

(SY seeing Airplane):

He's suspiciously good looking in ways that normal people are not.

Ah, the Cucumberplane friendship in TUT is going to be so much fun. Not only are these two older souls who transmigrated (both are mid-aged in this universe), they’re both accomplished novelists in their own right in the writing industry. Which means with these two being celestial beings, there’s so many clichés we can playfully poke fun at.

It also makes me laugh because imagine being SY, and seeing a guy (mortal!Airplane) who exudes the same energy as these two imperial princes GIFs:

[beneaththetangles]

Sasaki and Miyano, Vol. 1

Miyano is a Boys Love (BL) manga fan and Sasaki is an older boy who seems to constantly get into trouble. When they meet, Sasaki realizes pretty quickly that he has a crush on Miyano. What follows is an leisurely-paced first volume featuring the flirty Sasaki and an oblivious Miyano, who sometimes brushes off the advances as a joke. The chapters vary from longer form story-telling to quick, 4-koma bursts of bite-sized moments between the characters. It’s a slow burn story about a blossoming friendship as they share an appreciation for BL manga, with romantic overtones strewn throughout. It’s cute and innocent so far, and I may give the next volume a go when it drops. ~ MDMRN

Sasaki and Miyano is published by Yen Press.*

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement, Vol. 2

It took a while, but we finally got volume two of this series. It’s a FUNA story. In case you’ve never read the author’s other works—Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! or I Shall Survive Using Potions!—then you should know that a FUNA story means absurd, comical isekai adventures with a nerdy, wisecracking heroine who wishes she had a larger bust (no, seriously, why is this a thing with every FUNA protag? I don’t get it?). The unique aspect of 80k Gold is that protagonist Mitsuha can freely, effortlessly jump between our world and the fantasy world. She exploits this for all its worth—literally. While pursuing profit, she also has a chuuni moment where she calls herself the “Lightning Archpriestess,” helps a family restaurant, brings in otherworldly backup to defeat dragons, starts a blog, promotes rural economic development, and trolls Russian spies in absolutely magnificent fashion. Like FUNA’s other stories, 80k Gold is a generally lighthearted, silly tale; don’t expect especially deep characters, world-building, or plot. I had a blast reading this volume, and happily recommend it (but start with vol. 1, obviously). ~ JeskaiAngel

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for My Retirement is published by Sol Press.*

Penguin Gentlemen

Do you like penguins? Would you like to read an educational manga that teaches you more about different species of penguins with window dressing of pretty manga boys running a restaurant? But mostly, do you really, really want to learn about penguins? Then Penguin Gentlemen is the manga for you. This single volume is mixes in gags while educating readers about the different kinds of penguins in the world, all the while beefy gentlemen serve as anthropomorphized versions of the individual penguins. That’s about it. There’s not really a plot to speak of—the manga is almost entirely interesting facts about penguins. But I do mean interesting! The writers provides information about mating practices, different head shapes, the differences between an Emperor and King penguin, and more. I never knew there were so many different kinds of penguins in the world! Definitely recommend even if you are only remotely interested in penguins. While it’s a Teen-rated manga, there really wasn’t any content that was problematic enough that I wouldn’t let my 9- or 11-year-olds read it if they were interested. ~ MDMRN

Penguin Gentlemen is published by Yen Press.*

Ride Your Wave

This adaptation of the lovely Masaaki Yuasa film is extremely faithful to its source material—even more so than most anime-to-book adaptations. Despite essentially being my third experience with Ride Your Wave, however, I found Mika Toyoda’s novel to an engaging read as he capably rearranges and moves the movie to narrative form, thereby creating a story that stands on its own—quite a feat considering that Yuasa’s film is visually sumptuous. Explaining the tale of the love that develops between admirable firefighter Minato and bumbling surfer Hinako, Toyoda’s writing is most effective in its gentle, funny, and sometimes weepy material centered on the relationship between the two, and particularly in how each moves the other (and others around them) to grow. The fantasy components that make up the latter half of the book never quite feel right—they’re less whimsical and moving and more disquieting and awkward—though the earnestness of the story, those elements included, pushes it forward toward a satisfying conclusion to this lovely romantic tale, which perhaps is the perfect, quick read as summer approaches. ~ Twwk

Ride Your Wave is published by Seven Seas.*

Turning Point: 1997-2008

Between 1997 and 2008, Hayao Miyazaki directed perhaps his four biggest hits: Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo. Focusing on this period of unmatched success, during which Miyazaki challenged himself thematically and creatively while receiving international acclaim, Turning Point: 1997-2008 is at once a rich collection of essays, poems, interviews, and other documents by and involving the master that animation historians can bury their heads into, and a work that provides sharp insight into some of the most beloved of Studio Ghibli’s works and the director himself for those desiring a less academic read. For instance, it was fascinating to read how historic ironworks and the Emishi people fed into Princess Mononoke, but just as intriguing is Miyazaki’s philosophizing on a variety of other related subjects, from how parents and the education system do a poor job with Japanese youth to his thoughts on (and sometimes criticisms of) those he admires, like Osamu Tezuka, Akira Kurosawa, Roald Dahl, and Gary Cooper. As a collection of pieces divided by film, Turning Point sometimes lack the flow of a secondary work, but like his films, Miyazaki’s words—yes, sometimes accompanied by a grumpy, old man vibe—are imbued with an immense heart for children, the environment, and Japan, making for a work that equal parts enlightening and inspiring—much like the films of the master himself. ~ Twwk

Turning Point is published by Viz.*

The Ancient Magus Bride, Vol. 1

Purchased at a disreputable auction and spirited into the home of an imposing, demon-like entity, Chise is surprised to discover that her purchaser’s plans for her aren’t nefarious at all. In fact, she is to become the mage’s apprentice, and her natural talents and ability to see magical creatures will be honed and developed under his awkward but warm tutelage. Volume one of The Ancient Magus Bride sets the stage for a magical tale with beautiful illustrations of faeries, dragons, and Elias, the ancient mage, himself, whose character design is one of manga’s most memorable. The rest of the volume isn’t quite as outstanding as the art and design, particularly with the mangaka struggling to convey the dialogue of Britain and the language of the isle’s mythical beings, but there’s enough here, particularly with a beautiful interlude involving dragons and a conflict that ends volume one, for me to anticipate future volumes—even without personal experience from watching the anime informing me that this series is headed toward somewhere magical. ~ Twwk

The Ancient Magus Bride is published by Seven Seas.*

=====

Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

*Thank you to Yen Press, Seven Seas, Viz Media, and Sol Press for providing review copies.

[mikazuki-juuichi]

2021 tv

*

Assorted tv shows and other stuff I’ve finished this year so far (and that I did not do a longer review of for one or another reason):

ANIMATED

- DC Superhero Girls (Season 1). Terrific action-comedy, one of the very few recent superhero shows I’ve actually enjoyed. Loosely adapted not from the previous incarnation of “DC Superhero Girls”, but rather from the animated shorts “Super Best Friends Forever”, part of the DC Nation animated shorts —all of them worth a look (well, the assorted Nation shorts are of VERY different quality, as you can expect. Still…).

- This Duckburg Life (Podcast). Spin-off from the 2017 Ducktales cartoon. Every bit as engaging as the show, with near-perfect comedic timing. Also, pretty much the end of that particular incarnation… for now at least.

- My next life as a villainess: All routes lead to doom! (Season 1). One the most popular recent Anime (it just got a second volume), sort of a… if not “Deconstruction” then subversion of the “Isekai” genre. Also noteworthy for fans of Visual Novels, both romance and mystery.

- Vivid Strike! Spin-off of the successful Anime franchise “Lyrical Nanoha”… of which I have to admit I have never seen a single episode yet. Vivid is a fantasy-action series that is notable both for the intense action scenes… and for the often alarming focus on preteen girls getting pounded in increasingly vicious ways. And I’m told this one is actually one of the mildest entries of the Nanoha franchise! So maybe not for all tastes, but if you know what you’re in for…

- Beastars (Season 2). The Netflix Anime adaptation of the excellent furry manga takes a few liberties with the source, most of the for good. Some for not-so-good, managing to make the characters a lot more unreasonable. Still buoyed by the genuinely gorgeous animation.

- DC Showcase: Death (animated short). Remarkable tale that would fit right at home with the original Sandman comic or the Death spin-offs. Maybe a touch hurt by the insistence of placing it squarely in the DC universe (that damn Arkham Asylum shot), but otherwise more than worth a look.

- Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (animated movie). An entertaining enough showcase of 21-st. Century Wonder Woman storylines, drawing as much from the comics as from the live-action movies —and in this case set on the “DC Animated Movies” continuity which once again creates far more problems than it solves. Between this and the Wonder Woman shorts also included on DC Nation, I get to the by now probably common question: When do we get a “Wonder Woman: The animated series” proper?

(Note: Been reading “Historia”, a series of articles by Riteshi Babu which chronicle the entire history of Wonder Woman comics. Very much recommended, in part to get an idea of how that animated series could go. Look them up online)

- Masters of the Universe: Revelation. One of those shows that people online love to whine about yet people in real life enjoy a lot. Very entertaining, whether you take it as a sequel of the He-man cartoons or a, this word again, sorta Deconstruction or just subversion of it.

- Trese. Terrific horror fantasy yarn adapted from a famous Filipino comic. Great world-building, animation and overall storyline.

- Onyx Equinox. Another terrific horror fantasy yarn, in this case drawn from assorted Mesoamerican mythologies woven into an original story.

I really do hope these two last will continue.

LIVE-ACTION

Without planning to, all are YA thrillers, hehe:

- The Wilds. It’s tempting to say “Lord of the flies + Lost, but with girls” —but that is really underselling this neat little show about troubled teenage girls stranded in a mysterious island.

- Panic. Adaptation of the Lauren Oliver book (“Before I die”), about a small town with a summer tradition: A very high-risk game where the prize is millions and the worst outcome is death.

- Al-Rawabi School for Girls. Teenage revenge yarn from Jordan, by turns darkly humorous, vicious and dramatic. Quite the surprise.

And three movies:

- A simple favor. Virtually every 21st Century domestic thriller (From “Gone girl” to “Desperate Housewives”) run through a blender. Far more implausible than its fans want to believe, and yet undeniably entertaining.

- 1922. Bleak Stephen King adaptation (but current-day King, which, you know, accounts for the bleakness in question), generally more grim than horrific.

- The woman in the window. Competent thriller that’s as skillfully made as ultimately, and sadly, forgettable.

WHEW!

[jadelotusflower]

July 2021 Roundup

Discussed this month: The Once and Future King, The Good People, The Secret of Kells/Wolfwalkers/Song of the Sea (aka "Irish Folklore" Trilogy), The Matrix Trilogy, the John Wick Trilogy, Space Jam: A New Legacy

Reading

The Once and Future King (T.H. White) - I've actually read this before, but it was a long time ago and I remembered very little of it so it seemed time for a revisit. Written between 1936 and 1942, this is a surprisingly meta retelling of Arthur and Camelot, very obviously and heavily influenced by WWII, with much academic pondering on the concept of humanity and war and ongoing conflict against Might=Right - looking to the past to try and understand the present. Some familiarity with the legends is assumed, White occasionally making reference to Malory, and there is a strange anachronistic feel - Merlin lives time backwards and talks of Hitler and other 20th Century references, White frequently refers to Old England and the way things were "back then", but also calls Arthur's country Gramarye, the narrative taking place an a kind of alternate history/mythology where Uther was the Norman conqueror of 1066, and yet reference is also made to the Plantagenet kings.

Comprising five volumes (the first four published separately at the time, and the final posthumously), it struck me on this read how each of the first four are structured around the childhood of a major player -Arthur (The Sword in the Stone), Gawain and his brothers (The Witch in the Wood), Lancelot (The Ill-Made Knight), and Mordred (The Candle in the Wind), and how their upbringing played a part in the inevitable tragedy of Camelot. In the final volume, The Book of Merlyn, it comes full circle as Arthur on the eve of his death is taken to revisit the animals of his childhood for much philosophising (at one point Merlyn argues at length with a badger about Karl Marx and communism.)

The Sword in the Stone is the most engaging, with young Arthur (known as "the Wart") and his tutelage under Merlin, being turned into various animals like an ant, a goose, and a hawk to learn about each of their societies (political allegories), and meeting with Robin Wood (Hood) and Maid Marian to battle Morgan le Fay, and the climactic pulling of the sword from the stone. This was of course the source material for the Disney film, although missing the wizards duel with Madam Mim (appearing in the original publication, but removed for the revised version).

The Ill-Made Knight is the longest volume and was honestly a slog to get through, because honestly Lancelot is pretty dull/terrible, and the Lancelot/Guenever love affair less than compelling. Ultimately it's Lancelot's hubris that dooms them - he is warned that Mordred intends to catch him out in Guenever's room, but he goes anyway, and doesn't leave when he tells her to, because he is stupid.

It’s no surprise that the female characters are given the short shrift, but there’s an uncomfortable vein of misogyny running through the book. To wit:

Elaine had done the ungraceful thing as usual. Guenever, in similar circumstances, would have been sure to grow pale and interesting - but Elaine had only grown plump.

And then later:

Guenever had overdressed for the occasion. She had put on makeup which she did not need, and put it on badly. She was forty-two.

Morgause (the eponymous witch in the wood/queen of air and darkness) is a negligent mother whose sole motivation is revenge, Elaine rapes Lancelot by deception, Guenever is hypocritical and shrill (but achieves a sliver of nuance in Candle), Nimueh is a nonentity, and Morgan le Fey is a monstrous fairy. If only White had turned his academic pondering inward and in order to examine the role of women in his worldview other than as damsels or instigators.

But Arthur also gets the short shrift - after all the focus in his childhood, he becomes almost a peripheral figure in the rest of the story until the very end, and we're not actually given much to show why he is the once and future king, other than that he tries to institute a slightly less brutal system.

Ultimately, White is more interested in philosophy than character, and so Camelot's inevitable tragedy feels more clinical than visceral.

The Good People (Hannah Kent) - If the Irish Folklore Trilogy (discussed below) is the beauty and wonder of Irish myths and legends interacting with the human world, this book is the cold danger of superstition and the devastating affect of folklore used as an explanation for life's ills. Set in 1820's rural Ireland, Nora is widowed and left with the care of her young disabled grandson Michael, believed to be a changeling. The local wise woman Nance, who feels the touch of "the good people" sets about to drive out the fairy from the child, believing that the "real" Michael will return, much to the growing dread of Mary, the teenage girl Nora has hired to care for him.

Here fairies are seen as a malevolent force, "sweeping" away women and children, causing bad harvests, and bringing death to the village - to be respected and feared. And then there's Nance, bartering traditional cures for ailments and troubles - some work, some do not, and some pose great danger. On the other hand, this is a remote village where a doctor must be fetched from Killarney, and only one priest who is less than charitable. Neither provide any help or support to Nora.

SPOILERS It's an upsetting read dealing with dark subject matter - grief trauma, child abuse and accidental infanticide, a kind of slow burn horror. If it takes a village to to raise a child, it also takes one to kill a child, as mounting fear and superstition moves through the population like a contagion, heightening Nora's desperation for the "return" of her grandson, and Nance's to prove her knowledge. It's an impeccably researched novel (based in part on a true event) but very unsettling - poor Michael is never really given humanity, and I feel this book would be hugely triggering in its depiction of disability and neurodivergence.

Watching

The Secret of Kells/Song of the Sea/Wolfwalkers (dir. Tom Moore) - I've been meaning to watch these films for absolutely ages, and I finally got to them this month. I’m pleased to say that the many people who recommended them to me were absolutely correct, because they appear to have been made to specifically cater to my interests. Some mild spoilers ahead.

I watched these in internal chronological order as suggested by @ravenya003, starting with The Secret of Kells, set in 9th Century Ireland where the young monk Brendan helps illuminate the to-be famous manuscript and befriends a forest sprite Aisling, under the threat of a Viking raid. Next was Wolfwalkers, jumping forward to 1650 Kilkenny where the English girl Robyn, daughter of a hunter, is drawn into the world of the forest and Mebh, who turns into a wolf when she sleeps. And finally we go all the way to 1980's in Song of the Sea for the story of Ben, who must help his younger sister Saoirse (a selkie) find her voice and bring back the faeries who have been turned to stone by the owl witch Macha.

Although the stories are completely separate, they've been described as Moore's "Irish Folklore" trilogy, and it’s easy to read a through line from Kells to Wolfwalkers in particular - both deal with fae of the forest, and Aisling appears as a white wolf at the end of the film (having lost her ability to appear in human form). I like to think that Aisling is in some way the progenitor of the wolfwalkers - after all, Kells and Kilkenny are less than 200 kms apart.

Song of the Sea is distant from the other two in both time and subject matter, dealing with selkies, creatures of the water. In many ways, Kells and Wolfwalkers feels like a duology, with Song more its own thing. On the other hand, an argument could be made for common fae spirit/s in different forms across all three films - Aisling is a white sprite, Robyn takes the form of a white/grey wolf, and Saoirse a white seal.

The strength of these films other than the folklore is the visual style - I really love 2D animation, and while I appreciate the beauty of cg animation, I often find in the latter’s focus on hyper-realism the artistry can be left by the wayside. These films not just aesthetically beautiful, but the art is used to tell the story - from the sharp angles that represent the darker or harmful elements (Crom, Vikings, the Town), to the circles and rings that represent safety and harmony (the Abbey, the forest, Mebh and her mother/the wolves healing circle, the holy well). The exception is probably the home of Macha, the owl witch, where circles are also prominent and represent magic, and this is often the case in folklore (fairy rings, fairy forts, etc).

Kells is the most stylised, resembling tapestries or pages and triptychs from medieval manuscripts, playing with perspective. I actually saw pages from the real Book of Kells years ago in Dublin, and remember them being very beautiful. We only get glimpses of the Book and the stunning Chi Rho page at the very end of the film, but the style of art is present throughout the film and particularly in the forest where Brendan finds inspiration for his illumination, and on the flipside his encounter in the dark with Crom Cruach, represented as a chalk-drawn primordial serpent.

This style is also present in Wolfwalkers, particularly stark in the way the birds-eye grid of the town often looms over Robyn in the background and in her work at the castle. The depiction of the forest has more of a storybook quality however, as does Song, where almost every frame resembles a painting, particularly the sequences of Saoirse's selkie trip through the sea and Ben's fall through the holy well.

Rav points out in her review that there is the ebbing away of myth and magic in each successive film, contrasted with the rise of Christianity/modernity. But there's circles and rings again, because while the ultimate power of the faerie world is fading away, the interaction between our human protagonists and faerie actually increases with each film. In Kells, we have only Aisling and Crom, in Wolkwalkers, we have Mebh and her mother whose ranks grow to include Robyn and her father, and finally in Song we have Saoirse, Bronagh, Macha, the Na Daoine Sídhe, and the Great Seanachaí.

Watching in the order I did, it does give the impression of the mythological world opening up to the viewer, gaining a deeper understanding and exposure as time progressed. On the other hand, that is also because the human world is gradually encroaching on the world of Faerie, from isolated settlements like the Abbey of Kells, to growing town of Kilkenny and the logging of the surrounding forest, to a modern Ireland of motorways and power lines, and industrialised Dublin where the remaining fairies have moved underground. It makes the climax of Song, with the fairies restored but returning to the land of Tír na nÓg, rather bittersweet.

I also credit the strength of the voice acting - the adult roles are minor but with greats including the dulcet tones of Brendan Gleeson and Sean Bean, and the ethereal Maria Doyle Kennedy (who I wish had gotten to do more). But the child roles are all performed so well, particularly Honor Kneafsey as Robyn, whose growing desperation and distress is just heartbreakingly palpable.

The Matrix Trilogy (dir. The Wachowskis) - I usually don't post rewatches in the Roundup, but I really, really love these movies. I will never forget seeing The Matrix at the cinema as a young teen, knowing nothing other than the tease of the enigmatic trailers, and just being completely blown away by it, and then becoming completely obsessed a few years later in the leadup to Reloaded.

It wasn’t my first fandom, but it was probably the first time I took fandom seriously. I was very invested in Neo/Trinity in particular as well as all the mythological/literary references that fed directly into my interests. I haven’t however gone back and read the fic I wrote, for fear that it is very, very cringe. I know where is is though, so maybe one day before the ff.net is purged.

This is Keanu Reeves at his most handsome, and while he doesn't have the greatest range (as many actors don't, although they don't get as much grief for it), when he's in the zone there's no one else who could do it better. He just has a Presence, you know? A vibe, and it compels me.

This is particularly present in Neo, a character whose conflict is almost entirely internal, burdened by the weight of his responsibility and destiny, both before and after he learns it is a false prophesy. He’s not your typical quippy macho action hero, but much like my other fave Luke Skywalker, is a character who is ultimately driven by love and self-sacrifice. I definitely have a Type of male hero I adore, and Neo fits right in there.

I also really love the sequels, flaws and all, because you know what, the Wachowskis had Ideas and they weren't going to deliver Matrix 2: Electric Boogaloo. Each film goes in an unexpected direction, and not in a subverted expectations ha ha silly rabbits way, but one that does have an internal logic and pulls together a cohesive trilogy as a whole, and how often does that happen these days?

The sequels are so…earnest, with none of the cynical cool detachment perhaps some would have preferred - at its core a trilogy exploring philosophy and the nature of prophesy vs choice, determinism vs free will, and the power of love. Maybe it can be hokey, and some of the dialogue a bit overwritten, but I don't care, there's so much I still enjoy even having seen the trilogy many times over the years.

Not to mention the great female characters - while I'm not sure any of the three strictly passes the Bechdel Test, we have Trinity and Niobe in particular who I love with all my heart. It does kind of annoy me that the Trinity Syndrome is so named, because it only applies in the most reductive reading possible, and Trinity expresses agency (and badassery) every step of the way, saving Neo just as much as he saves her. I mean..."dodge this"/"in five minutes I'll tear that whole goddamn building down"/"believe it"? Niobe piloting the Hammer through the mechanical line in Revolutions? Iconic. There are criticisms that can be made, sure, but the trilogy ultimately loves, respects, and appreciates its female characters (and important to note that the avatars of The System, the Architect and the Agents, are all white men).

Then we have the Oracle, who ultimately holds the most power and is the victor of the human/machine war. There's so much going on with the Oracle I could talk about it all day. It's that fate vs free will question again (“if you already know, how can I make a choice?”), but with the wrinkle of manipulation (“would you still have broken it if I hadn’t said anything?”). Choice is the foundation the Matrix is built on, the unconscious choice for humans to accept the system or reject it - the Architect can't control that, he can only manage it, and the Oracle can't force Neo onto the path she has set out for him, only predict the choices he will make based on her study of the human psyche ("did you always know?"/"No...but I believed"). But she plays with the concept of fate in a complicated web of prophesies for outcome she wants and trusting the nature of Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo to bring it about.

And then there's the visual storytelling - there is so much meaning in almost every frame and line of dialogue. The mirroring and ring cycles not only in the constant presence of reflective surfaces and central metaphor of the Matrix as a simulacrum, but the androgyny of Neo and Trinity, bringing each other back from the dead in successive films (and ultimately both ultimately dying in the third), Neo and Morpheus’ first and last meetings, Smith who is ultimately Neo’s dark mirror, the Oracle/the Architect, just to name a few. I just…really really love these movies? Maybe I’ll do a full post rewatch sometime.

I am however reserving judgement on the Matrix 4 - already there are a few things making me uneasy. Lana is the sole director for this one (Lilly is not involved), and Laurence Fishburne apparently wasn't even asked back, even though Morpheus actually survives the trilogy (as opposed to Neo and Trinity). But I’m interested, and don’t want to go in with any expectations, but rather ready to be surprised again like I was when I watched the first film (and hope I can stay away from spoilers).

John Wick Trilogy (dir. Chad Stahelski) - It was a trilogy kind of month! This genre is generally not my thing, as I don’t have a high tolerance for graphic violence and pure action bores me after a while, but I was in a Keanu kind of mood and I'm always hearing people go on about John Wick so I wanted to know what (if anything) I was missing. While still a bit too violent for my tastes, if nothing else I could appreciate the dance-like fight choreography, even if the worldbuulding is absolutely ridiculous - I mean, literally thousands of assassins across the world chilling in sanctuary hotels, supported by a vast network of weapon suppliers, tailors, surgeons, spy networks, etc? It’s silly, but hey, I was happy to go along with it.

What I do appreciate about Keanu Reeves, and this seems to be a common thread, is that even when in action hero mode (Matrix, Point Break, John Wick, and to a lesser extent Speed), he consistently plays a man who is completely in love with his partner/wife - like, completely, unapologetically devoted to them, and I think that is a big part of the appeal - it's that Keanu energy that is often the antithesis of toxic masculinity, even when in roles that would ordinarily rely on those tropes.

Wick is in many ways the spiritual successor to Neo - insular, taciturn, and even as he's dispatching death with clinical precision. Much like Neo, Wick is a character who is somehow Soft (tm) despite all the violence. I once listened to a podcast where they amusingly discussed the Reeves oeuvre as simulations of Neo still trapped in the Matrix, and it’s very easy to make the case here and imagine John Wick as Neo plugged back in after Revolutions, mourning Trinity and set on mission after mission to keep his mind active (and it would certainly explain why the guy hasn’t dropped dead after being stabbed, beaten up, strangled, hit by a car, shot, and falling off a building). It’s a fun little theory.

Stahelski was Reeves' stunt double and a stunt coordinator on The Matrix and there's plenty of homages in the visual style and reuniting Reeves with costars Laurence Fishburne and Randall Duk Kim (who played the Keymaker).

I did also find it amusing that Wick is also often referred to as babayaga (equated in the film to the bogeyman). Well, Wick is in many ways a witch who lives in the woods, just wanting to be left alone with his dog, and there is a supernatural energy to the character, so...I guess?

Space Jam: A New Legacy (dir. Malcolm D Lee) - I took my niece to see this at the cinema and it was…pretty much what you would expect. I thought it was fine for what it was, even if a bit slow in parts (it takes a looong time for the looneys to show up) and I wonder if they have the same cultural pull they had in the nineties (the age of Tweety Bird supremacy). But the kids seemed into it (my niece liked porky pig) and that's what counts I guess.

This time, the toon battle royale takes place on the WB servers, where evil A.I. Don Cheadle (having the time of his life chewing the cg scenery) wants to capture Lebron James for...reasons, idk. James and Bugs have to find the rest of the looneys scattered across the server-verse, a chance for WB to desperately remind people that they too, have media properties and a multiverse including DC comics world, Harry Potter world, Matrix world, Mad Max world, Casablanca world etc. Some of it feels very dated - there is I kid you not an Austin Powers reference, although it did make me smile that Trinity was on James’ list of most wanted players (skill: agility).

Unfortunately, nothing it really done with this multiverse concept except “hey, remember this movie? Now with looneys” six times, and the crowd for the game populated by WB denizens including the Iron Giant, Pennywise, the monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, Scooby Doo and the gang, etc. But still, it's fun, and hardly the tarnishing of a legacy or whatever nonsense is driving youtube clicks these days.

Writing

The Lady of the Lake - 2335 words.

Against the Dying of the Light - 2927 words, Chapter 13 posted.

Total: 5272 this month, 38,488 this year.

[fearsmagazine]

THE GREEN SEA - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: Trinity Creative Partnership, Reel 2 Reel Films

SYNOPSIS:  Simone is an American writer and former musician living a secluded life in the Irish countryside. She is haunted by visions of her past. They’ve begun to intertwine with the fantasy world of the novel she is writing, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. Her life changes when the protagonist of her book, known only as “Kid”appears to her as a victim of a drunk driving incident that forces the pair together. Their meeting is the beginning of an unlikely relationship that will ultimately set off a chain of events that will force Simone to face her sinister past.

REVIEW: THE GREEN SEA is a film set in a writer’s world of magical realism. In many ways the film reminds of the 1947 film “The Bishop’s Wife,” wherein an angel comes to assist a Bishop who is struggling with several issues, including his faith. The central character here, Simone, is dealing with darker demons and scarred by personal trauma.

Filmmaker Randal Plunkett’s screenplay is focused on his main character Simone. The other characters serve as catalysts whereby the viewer comes to understand Simone, where she is at this point in her life, and causes old, painful memories to surface. I enjoyed the way the screenplay weaves elements of nature into the story that ultimately payoff in the film’s climax. Plunkett crafts some excellent dialogue that fits Simone perfectly. I can’t help but wonder if he didn’t know someone like this in his daily life. There are elements that have a more organic feel then something you'd find in a Stephen King novel and I think Simone is a bit more complex and darker. Plunkett sets up the viewer for certain expectations that he is able to manipulate in surprising ways. While he has many short projects to his credit this is his first feature film and it’s an impressive and compelling narrative.

Bringing Simone to life on the screen is veteran actress Katharine Isabelle. Genre fans will remember her for her role in the 2000 female werewolf film “Ginger Snaps.” She has a career of at least 121 projects that include film and television projects prior to and after the werewolf film. You can understand why she obtains so many roles as she does an outstanding job of creating this complex character on screen. She presents this portrait of a tormented artist that is both a writer and musician. You believe the facets to the character of mother, wife, musician, writer, alcoholic, etc. that make up this role. You feel the tension and torment of this character who has just about hit rock bottom and the potential for a glorious train wreck of an end to it. In contrast, rising star Hazel Doupe plays “the kid.” Doupe presents this character that is on a journey and has ventured off her life’s path. She comes across as a lost pilgrim and there is an innocence and lightness that provides excellent contrast to Isabelle’s performance. Finally there is actor Michael Parle, who is referred to in the credits as “The Collector.” He has very few lines of dialogue, and he does have a bit of a creepy voice, but his screen presences, body language and smirk create a chilling, memorable character.

The filmmakers have some excellent locations, the costumes add a lot to the character, and Darius McGann’s score adds a dream-like quality to the film. There are some compelling moments where the filmmakers use multiple shots and a variety of angles to create dreams and flashbacks that hint at Simone’s past and her current struggles. They employ a very rich palate that borders on extreme shadows and lighter, brighter moments given the locations.

THE GREEN SEA is an impressive first feature film by Randal Plunkett. He presents a contemporary fairy tale supported by strong performances and nicely shot visuals. The story is set in Ireland, a place of magic and wonder with a rich folklore of all types of mythical creatures. Instead of presententing a tale of humans beset by mischid creatures trying to bring about their demise, he spins a more positive yarn about hope and redemption, and a different type of benefactor that is as helpful as requiring help. An overall delightful viewing experience that baited my anticipation as to what Plunkett does for his next feature.

CAST: Katherine Isabelle, Hazel Doupe, Jenny Dixon, Dermot Ward, Michael Parle, and Zeb Moore. CREW: Director/Screenplay/Editor - Randal Plunkett’ Producers - Edwina Forkin & Stephen Lordes; Cinematographer - Philipp Morozov; Score - Darius McGann; Editor - Chris Gill; Production Designer - Ger Wallace; Costume Designer - Sonja Mohlich; Special Makeup Effects Artist - Fionnuala Coffey OFFICIAL: thegreenseamovie.com FACEBOOK: N.A. TWITTER: twitter.com/TheGreenSeaMovi TRAILER: https://youtu.be/VaA2NlGGZsg RELEASE DATE: VOD and Digital Platforms July 13TH, 2021

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay),  or 👎 (Dislike)

Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri