#whichever one has the role of the storyteller is going to be the last

[erin-gilberts]

I have a firm belief that the only way Yellowjackets can end is with the death of each of the remaining survivors and [redacted] was just the first (second, really) of what will be all of them in time. "The wilderness" will reclaim them one by one because they weren't supposed to leave. But also they will be swallowed up by their own darkness in their refusal to acknowledge it and that will be the great tragedy of it. All of their deaths will be preventable, but inevitable in light of the cycles they keep on repeating.

[stageyrebecca]

My theatre wishes for 2023

No doubt the year ahead will be another year of financial recovery for the arts. The majority of shows we're promised in the West End, around London, and across the country, are sure fire crowd-pleasers, jukebox musicals and family friendly productions.

And it's necessary at this time.

So I'm going to share three stagey wishes for theatregoers, bloggers and the wider industry for 2023 so we, as a theatre community, can continue to support the arts.

For the theatregoers

Hear me out. Instead of seeing the same show for the 100th time, why not try something new that you'd never ordinarily see?

For example, you may love Heathers. You may pop down to Heathers two or three times a month to catch the various understudies and covers that are stuck in The Other Palace's revolving door. But, for just one of those times, switch it up. Try a new venue that isn't owned by Bill Kenwright and encourage popularity from your probable youth to another show. Perhaps, if you see one show 10 times a month, see it nine times and treat yourself to a new show for the 10th.

I think of it like this: some of the first shows I ever saw, I hold near and dear to my heart. Like We Will Rock You - it was a great show that served a purpose and brought so many people to the world of musicals. But, since seeing other shows, I've learnt to appreciate other types of storytelling, composition, characterisation and production level. It doesn't make me any less of a fan for trying other shows and developing a taste for something else, and I'm not in competition trying to see the most amount of people in the main role.

Ultimately, nothing will ever recreate the magic of one of your first shows, or one of your favourite shows, but I couldn't appreciate how much I liked musicals until I saw other shows.

Variety isn't just who's on for whichever character in one show that day, it's finding shows of different styles, age ranges, spaces and so much more that allows theatre to become diverse. We joke that Heathers will run forever, but ultimately it's owned by someone who has the cash over other venues.

So, if you like Heathers, why not try Oklahoma? It's a completely different musical, yet reimagined for the modern age. If you're a fan of Six, why not try Sylvia at The Old Vic? A modernised retelling of historical figures yet its composition is more than enough to be trying something new. If you like &Juliet, why not try The Bodyguard on tour? A jukebox musical of powerhouse anthems yet ignites a different set of emotions.

But even better – support your local theatres, community projects, amateur dramatics and not for profit theatres across the country by buying tickets for their shows.

Oh, and stop being over-familiar online and at stage door to your favourite actors.

For the theatre bloggers and critics

This year, I wish for theatre bloggers to just do more.

I'm not overly interested in reviews (I personally am not swayed by them at all - unless they're through the lens of theatre studies). Plus, there’s so much territory that bloggers don't cover in reviews because it's taboo, they think they'll upset the PR company, and a variety of other things. But reviews serve a purpose.

And that's fine.

But if you’re not contributing worthwhile reviews, the odd tweet about a free trip you went on is lazy.

Telling me, a paying theatregoer, that I should spend £50 or more on a ticket to a show you got for free, when all you can tell me is that you had a "fun time" in lieu of a review is borderline insulting. Of all the things bloggers and critics review, why should I go to this one instead of the ones they saw last week for free?

Add something.

You're a fan, aren't you? You're just like us, right? Make content surrounding the experience; tell me that you did your research before on how this production fares against the iteration from ten years ago, tell me, or show me, why I should spend £50 on this show over another show I'm angling for.

I've been lucky to score some press tickets in the last year, so I know how much these theatres shell out to get theatre bloggers to come and give social media coverage, so make it bloody worth their while. Make interesting content that people want to come back for.

Importantly though, theatres actively lose money to hopefully make some out of the content YOU make. They want your social media skills and competence, plus your dedicated following that you've grown, to help them, in exchange for you to have a nice jolly at the theatre, with your free programme, free sweets and free bubbly. So at least don’t insult them and your followers with lazy content.

Oh, and declare your freebies because it is a legal requirement to do so.

For the theatre industry

I mean, there's no real way to start, is there? There's so much that the last few years alone have exposed.

I was thrilled we’ve kicked off 2023 with Equity’s increased pay agreement and that new working conditions must be met. This includes the responsibility for touring producers, who now must provide accommodation for their staff (something that particularly worried me as it would turn star talent away from the decaying touring market).

But there’s a few other things I’d like to see in 2023 – they’re not necessarily the most significant or the ones that will drive huge change, just things that would be nice.

I'd like to see drama school audition fees abolished as it will astronomically help those who can't afford to drop that much on two minutes of their life.

I'd like to see dedicated effort in supporting new work, specifically new British musicals, that allows the general public beyond London to come (i.e. not a concert staging on a Monday night).

Theatres supporting their fans – perhaps through a loyalty scheme or asking vocal fans to produce social content in exchange for gifted tickets (basically bloggers but with a motivation to showcase the production).

And it’d be nice to see earlier start times for shows so people have more options for public transport. Literally starting at 7pm and finishing at 9:30pm makes a world of difference. If they can prove it, I’d argue it could make a decent “green” PR campaign.

So, with so much new theatre heading to our stages, let’s do what we can to support it!

[heybeybey]

I just came across your tumbler, so I hope you still do Rivetra pieces! I had one in mind of perhaps a Survey Corps annual celebration party or something where everyone gets together and in the midst of the party, somehow Levi and Petra sneak away after a while and have a first kiss? It’s so cliche I know lmao. Could even make Levi drunk if he does that hahaha

Hi @ramqueen098! Thanks for this ask ❤️ I'm still writing for Rivetra on my Ao3 profile. Just not that active here on Tumblr as before 😅

And uh... this isn't exactly what you asked for but close enough I guess im sorry in advance

Words: 808

Rating: General

“Sneaking away from the party again, sir?”

Levi looks up from his glass and meets his subordinate’s cheeky smile. He rolls his eyes at her dramatic entrance, always the one to try to gauge a reaction from him in whichever way she can whenever they’re alone.

“Tch, you know I never enjoyed all these fuckery, Ral,” he answers as the woman comes closer to him. “Too fake. Waste of resources.”

The answering chuckle reverberates through the empty ballroom, her voice a melodic balm to the pounding on his temples from a rising headache.

Their elbows touch when Petra saddles closer, her hand reaching over to take away the heavy liquor he’s currently swirling in his hand.

“Can I at least get a dance from my captain before he starts ranting about the military’s top brass?” she teases him, her hands smoothing down her simple, cream-colored dress. She still looks elegant and as enchanting even without the jewelry adorning the necks he'd often seen from nobles. “You did promise in the last midwinter ball that you’ll be my first dance for the next one we go to.”

He rolls his eyes and gestures to the empty room. “There’s no music here Petra.”

“Of course there is, sir,” she refutes before boldly raising her hand to settle it on top of his thumping heart.

He swallows at the touch, used to her fleeting touches over the years even when they’ve never gotten past quick clandestine brushes of skin.

She molds herself against him, her hands sliding on his shoulder as she starts to hum. He recognizes it as one of the songs that boomed a year ago, and Petra would often hum it while the whole squad was cleaning the castle. He’s attuned to her every movement, every cue, twirling her around whenever her hum calls for it.

“You’ve done well, Captain,” Petra says after a moment, her lips against his jaw. Her hums had died down and their dance had settled into a simple sway to the quietness of the night. He turns his head slightly to meet her eyes, her own cheek currently resting on his shoulder.

“I only did what's needed to be done.”

“Yes, and because of you, Paradis will have a fighting chance,” she says, her thumb caressing his undercut. “A future. We’re so close, Levi.”

Are they? The more he thinks about it, the more he feels that everything has been for nothing.

But these moments with Petra are rare. He can barely get a second with her where they can both explore beyond the safety net of their roles as captain and subordinate.

Social gatherings such as this had always been the perfect opportunity for illicit glances. It helps remind them that even though they’re soldiers to their very core, they’re still humans vulnerable to longing looks and regrets.

The last thing he wants is to burden such a moment with his worries.

“Do you think I could share that future with you, Petra?” he finally admits to her, his breath fanning against her cheekbones with their proximity. There was a slight stutter in his voice—never the one to put his heart out in the open.

She gives him a melancholic smile then and Petra closes the gap between them. Her lips were as sweet and as soft as he’d always imagined, and he thinks he can taste the vanilla lip balm hiding underneath the pink lipstick she has on. He allows himself to revel in the kiss, his should-have-beens dying every time she deepens their contact.

“I did tell you that I’ll be there until the end for you, sir.” Petra promises as she pulls away from the kiss. Always the one to first leave.

She graces a finger along the frown lines between his eyes, the dark circles heavy under his eyes making him look decades older than he actually is. Her feather-light touch did the trick of softening the stress on his face, even drawing a content quirk on one side of his lip.

He doesn’t give her a reply, opting to lean down to give her another kiss instead. Her eyes beckons him, her fist gently tugging on the green pendant of his new bolo tie, while her lips are eager for a second taste—

“Levi?”

He snaps up, a foot stepping back at the thought of getting caught with his subordinate. He turns to find Four Eyes—excuse him, the new Scout commander—marching over to him.

“Hey, shortie! This isn’t the time to get drunk,” Hange scolds him, pulling on his military coat to drag him through the double doors and out of the ghost-silence of the ballroom he’d considered a momentary sanctuary. “One of the newspapers wanted to interview you about what happened at Shiganshina with the Beast titan. Floch’s a shitty storyteller—”

Levi drowns Hange out, eyes straying back one last time to the empty ballroom. His heart sinks with bitter but familiar acceptance when he sees that no one’s there.

[theuntitledblog]

Avengers: Endgame (2019) - REVIEW

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

SYNOPSIS

5 Years after Thanos, an intergalactic warlord, disintegrates half of the universe, the Avengers must reunite and assemble again to reinvigorate their trounced allies and restore balance.

Avengers: Endgame had a mighty job to do and a lot to live up to. It couldn't just be an Infinity War copy cat; it needed to build upon THAT ending while trying to avoid the more obvious storytelling routes that could end up feeling more like a cop out. While Endgame does go down one of those routes, it's delivery ensures it is far from a cop out and the story makes sure that the ending of Infinity War remains impactful with the consequences lasting. Endgame is not the film you might expect it to be either; there aren't as many action set pieces, for half the movie there isn't really a villain to go up against and it doesn't quite have the same elegance as Infinity War. But Avengers: Endgame is a euphoric, emotional and a satisfying conclusion to the Infinity Saga as a whole.

For such a huge blockbuster event, one of the bravest things that Avengers: Endgame does is that it's willing to be patient and take its time. Other films like this might be tempted to open with an impressive action set piece and then steadily give the audience more as it progresses. Endgame isn't that type of film as the action set pieces are few and far between but when they do happen they are suitably thrilling, have meaning and have consequence. Endgame sticks to its role in this planned story and the thrills and emotional stakes are rooted in different areas. Infinity War was action packed and the ending was a major talking point as the villain won, Endgame is about the consequences. The post-Thanos world is depicted as run down and depressed as the grief caused by The Snap has had far reaching consequences not just to the population but for the remaining Avengers too. The Russo's and co. use that twist ending to reshape the world of the MCU which has given them new storytelling opportunities for the long standing Avengers. For characters who have been around for 10 years, it is quite an achievement to be able to do something fresh with them even now.

This is a slower and more character focused affair than Infinity War and the time jump allows the filmmakers to reset the board somewhat and take these characters down different routes. Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton in particular are found to be on respective downward spirals which gives each actor a chance to portray their character a bit differently. But there are welcome additions as well; Paul Rudd's Ant-Man brings a lot of comedy but for me it's Karen Gillan's Nebula who really gets to break out and shine following her supporting roles in the Guardians of the Galaxy. Endgame also serves as a swansong for the original line up of Avengers and it's a lot of fun spending time with this group of characters for, possibly, the final time. Despite the somber elements to the story, Endgame never forgets to be very funny and entertaining in a way that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been when at its best. It may lack the urgency or sense of threat of Infinity War, but here the years of character development and investment is allowed to flow freely and it is their struggles and insecurities where the real stakes of this movie rests upon. It feels well and truly earned.

The set pieces of are somewhat different. The obvious storytelling route the writers selected is time travel which poses the usual questions and issues if you think about it too much. It's inelegant definitely but there are two benefits; it firstly allows events of previous films to be revisited from different perspectives, usually to hilarious effect. Sure there's a risk that this could be pandering to fan service somewhat but whichever side of that you lean, some of these scenes are incredibly fun none the less. The second is that by seeking to undo rather than prevent the Snap, it means that the consequences of the ending of Infinity War are retained. But there are outstanding dramatic scenes that wouldn't have been possible without it; Thor's reunion with his mother gives weight to this previously underdeveloped relationship while Tony Stark's encounter with his father, Howard, brings his journey full circle. The reintroduction of Thanos half way though injects the film with some needed actual threat and the character development from Infinity War, plus the consequences from that film, means that Thanos poses just as much as a threat here.

Alan Silvestri's score for these films has always hit the mark but here he's at his best and his score is why many of these moments work so well. Portals is an incredible cinematic moment and is best experienced on the big screen; it's exciting, incredibly euphoric and helps bring Endgame to a satisfying conclusion. The Russo Brothers and the cast hit all the right notes to avoid cliché and melodrama and there are touches in here that elevate this beyond the standard blockbusters we are used to. Particularly satisfying for me is the resolution to the one out of 14 million plus scenarios that Doctor Strange spoke of in Infinity War. The ending is an emotional affair and of course is bitter sweet; Avengers: Endgame for me really sticks the landing.

VERDICT

Avengers: Endgame lives up to the hype and builds upon Infinity War in crafting something different that balances a character focus approach with fan pleasing time travel elements. Emotional, thrilling and euphoric; Avengers: Endgame delivers some of the standout moments of the MCU and brings the story arcs of a number of its main characters to a satisfying, if sometimes bitter sweet resolution.

5/5

[echotovalley]

hello i am very much here for your klance + blue lion meta ☕

I cannot believe my browser crashed the first time I typed this up and nothing was saved. I tried my best to remember what I could - there are parts that I know are missing that can’t remember right and it’s so frustrating because I was really proud of them. nonetheless -

okay, everyone get comfortable because this is gonna get lengthy

I’ve always been interested in episode one, when everyone is standing in front of Keith’s conspiracy board and Keith is talking about hearing/feeling something calling him out into the desert, that’s it’s the Blue lion. He has no idea what it could be, but it’s all encompassing and he can’t ignore it.

Just this voice that’s maybe not even a voice in its completed form, the whisper of something that wants him to find it. He probably hopes against hope that it’s something about the Kerberos mission attempted to be covered up by the Garrison, something that will link him to finding Shiro.

He’s always gone with his instincts.

((there was a great transition between these bits that is forever lost to the sands of time and I weep))

Dial back 18 or 19 years (maybe even more), when Unnamed Kogane and Krolia find the Blue lion and even though they can’t interact with or enter her, they decide to protect her together. She’s the key to peace and protection for more worlds than could be counted and of course they’re going to do everything they can. The form a bond with her that way - words aren’t always needed.

You can tear Keith’s dad and Krolia showing Blue bby Keef from my cold, dead hands. But I think the Blue Lion knew what was up. Perhaps when she stood guard behind her shield and they made the pact to protect her. But definitely the second she saw this shock of dark hair peeking out from a big blanket, she knew. There’s the familiar curl of warmth she hasn’t felt in so long, a small spark in this new life. The flicker of the spirit of an old friend, Red.

The Galra are tearing apart galaxies and this tiny baby is the bridge between worlds and he doesn’t even know how special he is. How so loved he will be as a paladin. What Krolia and Keith’s dad know for sure is that they would in time teach Keith to look out for her too.

But things don’t always go as planned, do they? Thing have a way of coming apart at the seams and no matter how much restitching you do, it never comes back the same way it did before.

Krolia leaves - to protect the Blue lion and keep the Galra away from earth, away from the family she has made (something she possibly never thought of having because of her career withing the Blade). In an effort to not ruin the work they’ve put in to keep the Blue lion safe and to protect their son, Keith’s dad stops taking Keith to the cave. Maybe stops going all together. His son is his shadow and follows behind him even when he’s specifically told not to.

Besides, he trusts and believes in Krolia to keep the Blue lion and them safe.

So, Keith would have no memory of the Blue lion or her location.

Wouldn’t have the faintest idea that it’s a 10k+ year old sentient lion from outerspace that never forgot him and knew the someday they were meant to see each other again was fast approaching.

I have a separate headcanon that Krolia thinks about being selfish, she should have brought Keith’s dad and Keith with her and hidden them on a safe planet where Keith would grow up knowing he had a mother that loved him more than words. If Keith was always meant to be part of the war she fought so hard to keep away from him, then she could have taken that chance. Maybe his father would still be alive, but if he wasn’t meant to live in this timeline, then at least she could be there for Keith.

But if he was with her, then he never would have met his team the way he did.

Now Keith wasn’t the sole person to bring everyone together, the universe put a lot on this boy just from being born, but everyone had their part in bringing each other together featuring the seven degrees of separation between the Kerberos crew and the Garrison trio.

Pidge had her suspicions, broke into places for documents and created an entirely new identity to infiltrate the Garrison to get the answers and the proof and find her family.

It just so happens that she winds up on assignment with Lance.

Lance who is nosy and wants to figure out what’s going on in that funky, little dude’s head to have him breaking curfew and sneaking out into the desert in the middle of the night with enough tech and equipment on his back to trap a ghost.

And because Pidge isn’t the only Garrison cadet Lance is trying to figure out - their destiny is spelled out the second Lance recognizes Keith also breaking curfew and government laws to infiltrate the pop-up tent of lies.

Things start to fall into place

Lance only knew Pidge as Pidge, he had no idea that his new teammate was the direct family of Sam and Matt Holt undercover. He and Hunk didn’t have a reason to question the fate of the Kerberos crew and the official ruling of the Garrison. It didn’t occur to him to suspect that there was something bigger going on.

Now we’re going to get into the promised klance part.

The lore of the lions is unquestionable and will not be rewritten or overridden. They’re sentient beings whose purpose is to bring peace and protection through means that surpass race and species and time. They won’t let just anyone into their world, into the pilot chairs of giants.

The connection between a lion and their paladin is definite and all-in.

Isn’t it interesting that the Blue lion called out to Keith?

Or that he felt her presence, whichever way you want to look at it.

I will take A:TLA’s ‘friendships can last more than one lifetime’ everywhere I go. Add to that, season one was very deliberate and concise in it’s storytelling, there weren’t coincidences. I’m not saying the Lions are psychic, but I think they know who would be destined to be their paladin. Maybe they didn’t have names or a solid time frame locked down, but there would be the sense of that person on the edge of their conscious - a blip of light down the path of their future.

Maybe she knew Lance wasn’t ready to answer if she tried to reach out to him. But she knew Red.

She trusted Red, as varied and nuanced as their connection could be, to bring her paladin to her.

Of course it would be in an unconventional manner and never so straight-forward.

Not to be that guy, but the reveal in later seasons that the bond between a lion and their paladin transcends space - literally and figuratively - didn’t surprise me. The importance of that connection and how it’s built up episode by episode just makes it obvious that they would have some kind of homing beacon that wasn’t bound by a particular radius. If Keith could sense a lion that wasn’t his then, that tether between the color coordinating paladins and lions would be immeasurably magnified.

When the team entered that cave and approached the Blue lion, she reacted instantaneously to Lance and invited him in with zero hesitation. That was her paladin. This big moment of ‘Oh, there you are.’

Whether any of the other lions would have called out to Keith, we don’t know. Since the team split up to find the other lions and those timeframes were wholly dedicated to the paladin and lion connection to sync up, we don’t know if the others would have felt the lions too. Once the team all has their lions and they begin the adventure of mindmelding, 100% they could feel the presence of the other lions as they felt each other.

Pidge had the data anomalies, hacking into encrypted files and studying radiowaves. And bringing it all together to hone the information Keith had collected.

Keith felt and heard the disturbance in the force, if you will.

The Blue lion and its paladin aren’t just the guardians of water, they’re the glue that holds the team together. Who else other than Lance could bring so many different people together? 

I wasn’t super into The Great Lion Switch, but all of this still applies to that. When Lance’s role changed, it didn’t mean the Blue lion stopped having a connection with him. It was a mutual acceptance that his place on the team evolved and who else but Red to trust with her paladin? She acknowledged how much he cared about Keith.

This leans heavily on the ‘friendships last more than one lifetime’ - despite times and species, race, and age, this team would have always found its way together and the relationship of trust and respect and care between the Red lion and Blue lion were always there and would always level itself out.

Even if their paladins don’t know it yet.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

**I don’t really talk about Shiro or Hunk but they are also very, very important and I love them dearly.

[keyofjetwolf]

Just when you thought it was safe to be a piece of shit

I jumped into Season 5 of BoJack this morning, fresh from my rewatch of the entire series, start to finish. I’d already seen all the previous seasons, but it was a couple years ago; S4 was just wrapping up, and I hadn’t touched it since. Not for lack of interest! Quite the contrary, I thought season 4 particularly was some incredibly strong storytelling all around, and I was completely blown away by its penultimate episode “Time’s Arrow”. But there was Life And Things, and I didn’t make the time for S5, so I also didn’t watch S6 when it aired, and by the time I thought about picking it back up, I knew I’d want to rewatch the whole thing to put it all in context, which meant MORE time, and anyway, you can see where @docholligay​ was finally “Fuck it, I’m sponsoring this.”

All the impetus I needed, clearly. That rewatch I did, and I’m glad for it, as I’d forgotten so many details, AND how fucking good this show is. It’s funny and dark and incredibly uncomfortable in ways that aren’t always flattering, and I love it. I didn’t RE-rewatch “Time’s Arrow” before starting today, but I had to wrestle myself out of it, that’s how much I wanted to.

So it was with some surprise that I found myself not really enjoying Season 5 as much as was expecting.

I SHOULDN’T have expected to. That was my first mistake. We left BoJack in a really good place, with a smile and a hope and the opportunity to maybe maybe maybe finally crawl out of the pit he’s constantly trying to bury himself in. He didn’t have the responsibility of fatherhood, but the promise of brotherhood. Hollyhock is a pretty alright kid, fundamentally fucked up juuuust enough to remind him of himself, and with the kind of love and support he’s always craved. If she can be okay, then maybe he can be okay, too.

Or, from another angle, if she can be okay, then he’ll have the proof he’s always wanted that every bad thing he’s ever done wasn’t REALLY his fault.

OH BOJACK YOU ABSOLUTELY SHIT WILL YOU NEVER LEARN

Maybe at the end of the series you finally will, I don’t know. But certainly not right now. You can’t learn. You never learning is the point.

One of the strengths of the show, though, is how BoJack gets opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to NOT be a piece of shit. To be a better person, to not be so selfish and self-centered and lazy and spiteful and BAD. We know it’s in there! We get these incredible little flashes of the sort of person he could be, if he’d just try a little harder, if he’d just put in the effort to be better today than he was yesterday.

That was my mistake, coming in: BoJack ended Season 4 with the high, and like any good roller coaster, it’s the slow tip at the top that makes the plummet to the bottom so heady.

That’s these beginning episodes of Season 5. Setting the stage(s), arranging the pieces back on the board, getting everything in motion for the drop to come.

WHICH I THINK WE JUST HIT HARD

First, yay Ana Spanakopita! Second: OOO

I love SO hard how this is NOT GOING AWAY. Both in how the show has never played any of this as remotely okay, but also in how it haunts BoJack. It’s his lowest moment, and he’s using it as a finely crafted weapon to bludgeon himself. But WHILE ALSO taking a perverse sort of ... pride isn’t the right word, but desire to have MATTERED in some way, even if it was a truly awful way. His insistence that he’s ruined Penny’s life, despite all apparent evidence to the contrary (see also the incredible “That’s Too Much, Man!”, ps what is with this show and penultimate season enders??), carries a perverse need to have impacted her life, even if that impact was traumatizing for her. The idea that BoJack could have mattered so little is MORE abhorrent to him than the actions themselves.

THAT IS INDEED TOO MUCH MAN I SEE YOU SHOW

So now we have what I think is the last tip before we go into free fall. BoJack is trying (kinda) to drink less and be sober more. He’s trying (kinda) to be a good friend to Princess Carolyn and Diane. HE ACTUALLY CONNECTED SOME DOTS ALL ON HIS OWN ABOUT FEMINISM. That I put that in caps, by the way, further makes the show’s point about how low our bar is for men on this, and well fucking done, by the way, kudos.

Will all that ACTUALLY mean BoJack is going to do better? Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? He’s about to be tested again, another opportunity is approaching. What he’ll do with that is the entire show premise. But whichever path he takes this time would mean so much less without these slower episodes establishing for us where he, and everyone else, are standing. It’s a thing I dearly love about Bojack Horseman: it takes the time it needs to give you insight into where the characters are and what’s around them.

It gives the characters enough rope to hang themselves.

SPEAKING OF HOW’S THAT GOING FOR YOU DIANE

Diane is such an interesting character, in a show pretty much overflowing with interesting characters. She makes such a good compare/contrast with BoJack, in that it’s easy to look at Diane and say “What a good person!” She’s smart and funny, if awkward and plain (by Hollywoo standards). She’s socially and politically aware and cares about important issues. She wants to make the world better!

Only, does she? Much like BoJack, Diane is given opportunity after opportunity to Do Good, both personally and professionally. And she tries! (Most times, sort of.) It often blows up in her face, or isn’t what she expected, or it gets really hard, but she tries! Until she doesn’t. Until she runs back home, and can’t face her husband and the reality of her giving up, so she hides at BoJack’s house and stays drunk for months. Until she gets what she wants, and keeps getting what she wants, and then ruining it all because she never actually wanted it. and doesn’t know what to do once she has it anyway.

Like I said, she and BoJack can be frighteningly alike.

If I had to pick an overall favourite character, though, it’d probably be Princess Carolyn. 

Oh she’s fucked up too, but in a much more together sort of way. She’s as much the voice of reason as is anyone in this show, and I want her to get her little family SO MUCH. (Jesus wept, I forgot all about “Ruthie” until my rewatch and it PUNCHED ME IN THE FUCKING GUT.) These first few episodes though didn’t really do a hell of a lot for PC though, save for basically having her ONE AGAIN wound up in BoJack’s terrible, terrible orbit.

If that sounds like a complaint, it isn’t. I love the way the show explores the push and the pull, how it’s one thing to want to leave someone, to know you SHOULD leave someone, and yet how hard that can be. How even when you make that break, the potential to fall back into bad habits never really leaves you. EVERYTHING about this show is difficult, for everybody, all the time, and nothing good happens without effort.

Unless, of course, you’re Mr. Peanutbutter.

If you thought I’d love Mr. Peanutbutter, well, YOU’RE RIGHT I DO. And I’m DEEPLY interested in where ultimately his character is going to go. Of all the main characters, I feel he’s the one with the least depth to him, but then I think that’s the point, too. Every protagonist needs a foil, and for BoJack, that would be Mr. Peanutbutter, the guy who life has basically handed everything, including being generally too stupid to feel bad about anything, especially himself.

But that’s not entirely true. For all that he’s BoJack’s bright, sunny, charisma-filled opposite, no matter what he tried to do for Diane, it wasn’t enough. And as his third wife, it’s probably safe to say he tried hard with his previous wives too, with equal success. The show plays up the dog element of Mr. Peanutbutter a bit harder than it does many of the other animal people on the show, and included in that is how “his person” is the true center of Mr. PB’s world. But he can’t hold them, he can’t keep them wanting to be around him, and while it’s quickly undercut with a laugh, he more than once expressed genuine fear that Diane would leave him. Now she has, and while we’ve not yet seen any fallout from that (focusing instead on how he’s immediately found a new girlfriend), I strongly suspect we will.

I’m not sure if this “tough guy role” situation is going to go further than the episode in which it featured, but I DO think it has long-term potential as the latest in a string of things Mr. PB has wanted, but couldn’t make happen for himself, and how unusual that is for him. He’s the cheerful optimistic one, sure, but what does that mean when he’’s also never really felt any of life’s pressures to be otherwise?

Then there was Todd.

Todd, I pretty much never know what the fuck they’re going to do with you, and after these four episodes, I see we’re not going to change that now. I did some thinking on Todd though, on his place in what I feel are the show’s overarching themes, and I THINK Todd is by and large an example of what we should strive for. He’s kind and generous, he loves to help and is always there when people need him, and perhaps embodying what I think is the show’s greatest message, even when Todd fucks up, he keeps trying.

Of all the main characters, I think Todd has grown the most, to the point where he pretty much doesn’t even INTERACT with BoJack any more. (NOR SHOULD HE.) Todd is getting really good about setting (and enforcing!) his boundaries, to the point where he’s developing his own circle of characters outside of the show. They even make a fucking JOKE about it.

Every season, Todd is feeling like he fits in less with this show, but I don’t think that’s the show not knowing what to do with him, I think it’s by design. Todd is outgrowing this story, he’s moving on, and it’s hard not to be happy for him for that.

We’ll see, of course. We’re only four episodes in, and if we stick with my roller coaster analogy, there’s a whole lot of track left ahead of us. Wherever we’re set to go, the one thing I feel pretty confident in is that it won’t be a smooth ride for anyone.

[animebw]

Gankustuou: Series Reflection

There’s a tendency among some critics to value so-called “serious” storytelling over more “juvenile” forms. It’s a concept I’ve talked about a lot of times in this blog, and I suspect this won’t be the last time either, but the idea that a piece of fiction has to carry itself in a certain way to be deemed “respectable” has always felt like bullshit to me. Storytelling shouldn’t segregate into kids’ tables and grown-up tables or treat that distinction as any sort of value judgement. Stories that are simple, straightforward and emotionally driven can be amazing. Stories that are subdued, methodical and even cynical can be amazing. Hell, stories that do both at once can be amazing as long as they find out how to pull those two strands of thought together. But whichever route you end up taking, what truly makes the difference between a success and a failure is how well you commit to that route. Don’t promise your audience one thing and end up slipping into another, unless that subversion of expectations is part of the point. Because stories can survive a lot of flaws, but the one thing they can never survive is audience confusion. If your audience struggles to connect with what level they should be taking your tale on, no other positives can save you. And if there’s one issue that’s truly stymied Gankutsuou for me, no matter how excellent it is in other respects, it’s that exact fundamental confusion.

Make no mistake, there’s a lot about this show that really, really, really works. That visual style is still one of the coolest fucking things I’ve ever seen. In all honesty, there’s no way it should even work at all; it meshes so many conflicting aesthetics and textures and patterns and even entire mediums together that everything sticks out like a garish sore thumb. And yet, that utter dissonance somehow loops back around to feeling cohesive in its lack of cohesion, a carnival stageshow of a world built from utter chaos that sucks you into its mesmerizing sheen. It’s a true work of wonder, and I can’t imagine how much work it must have taken to keep it all holding together. Meanwhile, Dantes’ labyrinthine revenge plot never ceased to amaze me with just how damn good this bastard was at stringing his little puppets along exactly where they needed to go. At its best, Gankutsuou was a fascinating spiral into indulgent madness and mirthful insanity, punctuated by the warm glow of Albert and Franz’ relationship at the center. Had it the same level of manic drive and focus as Death Note, I think I’d feel comfortable ranking it among anime’s best thrillers.

But as good as Gankustuou could get, once the story got going, I just could not get over that one major stumbling block. The dialogue, the situations, and the characters’ attitudes all seemed to speak of a sinister, darkly disturbed 19th-century melodrama, while the design and overall attitude more favored a straightforward anime-ized face-off, and those two halves just could not find common ground where it really mattered. The melodrama was let down by weak character turns, the anime earnestness suffered under the lurid, sensationalized twists, Andrea just mucked around making both sides of this problem worse, and by the time it reached the finale, it all fell apart into an unsatisfactory mess. So many of the show’s best ideas- the exploration of the meaning of love outside of rigid definitions, the conflict between revenge and its collateral damage- never get the conclusion they deserve, left floundering and mushy by a story that can’t figure out if it wants to be cynical or sincere so it tries to be both and ends up being neither. There’s a lot I really like in here, but it all deserves better than what it got. Danes deserved a more fitting end to his revenge plot, Eugenie deserved a more fitting role in the show’s back half, Albert deserved a better chance to prove himself or crumble trying, and the entire story deserved a more thoughtful, lasting conclusion than the one it got. At least Franz was wonderful all the way through, but there’s only so much damage a single character can repair.

I don’t have Gankutsuou, and I don’t even really dislike it. Like I said, there’s a lot of good to it, enough that I’m glad I saw it. I’d certainly recommend it for the style alone, because you’re never gonna see anything else like it. But I’m always going to be disappointed that a tale with so much potential never figured out how to fully live up to it. Thus, I give Gankutsuou a score of:

6/10

Well, at least Peppo’s happy in the end, and that’s all that matters. Thank you all for sticking with me, and in case you missed the memo, I’m going to be devoting the rest of September to Haikyuu and assorted movies/shorts until my schedule finally clears up a bit. So if you have movie/OVA/short recs, let me know and I might just get to them. Thank you all, and I’ll see you back in October for the return of Symphogear!

[qm-vox]

So You Want To Run A Summer Court

Previous articles: So You Want To Run A Winter Court & So You Want To Run An Autumn Court

My endless thanks to SSG Jacob Karpel, US Army, for his advice and perspective on this article as a member of the Armed Forces. He helped enhance quite a few sections and clean up quite a few more; any errors are mine, not his.

The Court of Wrath. The Crimson Court. The Iron Spear. Summer is the second of the Seasonal Courts, the second of the Rising Seasons, and the Court with what is perhaps the greatest clarity of purpose, both as an individual political body and as a part of the wider Freehold. Summer prides itself on its utilitarian vision, its apolitical culture, service to its fellow Lost, and commitment to discipline, honor, and courage.

All of which is, to greater and lesser extents, bullshit.

The following article provides advice on designing and running your own Summer Court and Summer Courtiers, as either a player or storyteller, and draws primarily on Changeling: the Lost, Lords of Summer, and Swords at Dawn. Other books, if referenced, will be cited.

Disclaimer: I’m gonna be real, Summer is a Court near and dear to my heart, and may be my favorite of the Seasonal Courts. Obviously any source of information is going to have biases and even as a reader of something for enjoyment like Changeling it pays to be aware of those biases, but ah. I may be more biased than usual when it comes to my angrah children and how they screm. You have been advised; do as thou wilt.

Knights of Wrath - An Overview

Summer is associated with Wrath in all of its forms: anger, fury, hatred, frustration, malice, and more. The Iron Spear rarely lacks for recruits; the Lost are often angry, and forming a Summer Mantle is relatively easy as a result. To advance one though, to grow in one’s mystic bond to the Crimson Court, is not just to nurture blind rage but to relate to your Wrath, the Wrath of others, and to utilize it in your life.

Broadly, Summer serves as the soldiers of its Freehold (more on this later though). Like most military forces, that role is wider than one might expect. Unlike most military forces, your average Summer Court may be as little as a dozen guys and a truck. Compromises get made; rare is the knight of Summer that is not pulling double or triple duty in some way. Still, Summer takes on these duties both out of a sense of duty or obligation to the wider Freehold, and because as a Court it values strength in all of its forms: strength of body, strength of mind, strength of purpose, character, and will. Summer utilizes that strength in place of the social manipulations and magical trickery of the other Courts; in directly confronting the often labyrinthine machinations of the True Fae and other enemies of the Lost, the Summer Court represents an out-of-context problem that many fae and Fae are simply unused to dealing with.

The Chain of Command

All but the absolutely most self-aware Summer Courts tend to sell themselves as apolitical meritocracies. It isn’t a lie exactly - they certainly see themselves that way - but it is still bullshit. Any society has politics, and Summer is no different. Where Summer differs from the maneuverings of its sibling Courts is in how those politics manifest, starting with the Crown.

The one universal constant of how all Summer Courts from Tokyo to New York City govern themselves is the manner in which the Crown settles on the head of a ruler, which is built into the pacts that define the Court; that is, Summer doesn’t have the option to not rule themselves in this way. When the Court of Wrath takes power (typically on the day of the Summer Solstice until the Autumnal Equinox, though local customs may vary), the Crown manifests on the brow of whichever Summer Courtier is most seen by the others as their leader.

The candidate in question does not have any say in the matter.

This enforced democracy lasts for at least the reign of Summer, and it means that in theory Summer could change monarchs every year. In practice this is a lot less likely to happen; the Lost offer their trust with their whole hearts, so someone they pick with their hearts and minds to lead them is going to have to fuck up pretty mightily to not have the job again next year. While this is prone to the usual issues of democratic election (the Lost people want is not necessarily the best one for the job), it does help ensure unity in the Court, and Summer’s utilitarian culture does help offset the possibility of an incompetent monarch. Option two for becoming King is to murder the reigning monarch and take the Crown from their brow. Assuming you can get away with this (after all, this is the guy everyone else chose, and they’re likely to be ever-so-slightly annoyed that you murdered him), it makes you the monarch for the remainder of that Summer - at which point you’ve got the rest of the year to earn the Court’s hearts and minds, or you’re right back at this ‘regicide or no regicide’ decision point.

Those with doubts about Summer’s abiding friendship with the Spring Court are usually cured of them when they examine the remainder of Summer’s titles that serve beneath or alongside the Crown. The following titles and their functions are sourced from Lords of Summer and expanded on.

Wroth General Calescent  - Summer’s greatest strategist and military leader is given the title of Wroth General. In Courts that maintain a General (which is not necessarily all of them; many Summer monarchs are expected to fill this role, and may be saddled with the Crown specifically because of their strategic and tactical prowess), the individual in question may be equal to or greater in power than the Crown. Generals are more likely to flourish if Summer is politically powerful in its Freehold, if the Freehold is unusually populous, or ideally both; their broader strategic focus makes them an excellent candidate for creating and executing policies that involve the cooperation of the Freehold as a whole. In a Court with a politically powerful General, the Crown is likely to fill the role of embodying Summer’s ideals, setting grand strategy, and ensuring internal discipline and morale. A politically weaker General (either in comparison to a strong Crown or because the General is legitimately uninterested in politics) will serve in a more advisory capacity to the Crown’s overall command.

Iron Adjutant - In some ways the opposite of the Wroth General, the adjutant serves as the Crown’s majordomo; they handle the day-to-day running of the Court and attend to its logistics. While some monarchs offload this entire job to the Adjutant, it’s rarer than you might think, both because Freeholds are small societies and because, again, the Crown generally gets selected to do some actual leading. Still, a talented Iron Adjutant is vital for the smooth running of the Freehold during the Season itself, and for keeping Summer’s swords sharpened, its guns reloaded, and its armor in good repair. A wise monarch values those services quite highly.

Red Victor - The other title given to someone whether they like it or not, the Red Victor is the Crimson Court’s greatest champion, a Lost whose list of heroic deeds are both numerous and insane - Keepers struck down to the dirt of the mortal realm, slaves rescued from durance vile, horrors from the Hedge leashed and made to serve the Freehold, and more besides. She is the living embodiment of the triumph of Summer’s ideals, likely a beloved figure through the entire Freehold, and quite possibly one of the single-most personally powerful Lost within it. It’s not an easy job. Getting here can take a toll on your Clarity, and the duties expected of you are extremely public, to say nothing of continuing to serve as the Court’s champion. The death of the Red Victor sends her Court into magically-enforced mourning that can core the strength of Summer for weeks, creating a vulnerability in her Freehold. A good Victor recognizes this and acts accordingly, as the leader she may not have wanted to be but definitely is; a poor one is likely too busy with hookers and blow to care.

Hunter of the Longest Day (Jaeger) - The Jaeger is the Court of Wrath’s premier bounty hunter, tracker, and sometimes assassin. While Summer’s MO is to directly confront deception and labyrinthine plots, every now and again you need a single target taken out or dragged back in alive, or the Court requires a personal touch to move in alongside Autumn or Winter intelligence operatives. The Jaeger is valued for these talents more than their potential to contribute in a stand-up fight, and while the position is one of the most apolitical of the Court (and the most apolitical at its level of resplendent Mantle) it does net the bearer quite a bit of glory and pay if they can keep up the good work. More broadly, the Jaeger represents a living reminder to Summer that every now and again it’s better to hold back so that your devastating charge can hit the enemy from the side instead of right in the teeth of their defenses.

Sun’s Tongue - The full version of this title is, I shit you the fuck not, The Song Sung by the Sun’s Told Tongue, and if you don’t think Spring trots that out at the tiniest excuse to say the whole thing out loud you’d better think again. The Sun’s Tongue is Summer’s formal diplomat, tasked with interfacing directly with the other Courts, representing Summer’s interests to them, and bringing their interests back to the Crown. As the Court’s strongest primary social role, the Sun’s Tongue tends to be an odd duck in comparison to their fellow Summer Courtiers, but they still embrace the Court’s ideals of direct action and strength, often with a strong grounding in the philosophies of realpolitik and mutually beneficial arrangements. Unlike the Legate of Mists in Autumn, the Sun’s Tongue is only rarely a buffer between horrifying Courtiers and people justifiably worried about said Courtiers; instead they serve to facilitate the negotiations of the Crown and the Wroth General, and to keep a finger on the wider pulse of the Freehold.

Arrayer of Distant Thunder - The hidden hard mode of Summer’s social roles, the Arrayer of Distant Thunder has the “commission of array”, the right and responsibility to speak to any member of the Freehold from Queen to pauper and draft them for war. If that was all they did, the Arrayer position would be quite empty except in the largest of Freeholds (where their person-to-person interaction with Lost outside of Summer itself makes them an absolutely invaluable resource to the Wroth General and the Crown); the Arrayer of Distant Thunder is also responsible for ensuring that these other Lost are ready for war. Though it falls out of the formal scope of the title, that means that a good or even middling Arrayer either trains Lost in combat or arranges for them to be trained, negotiates with the other Courts to ensure they maintain armories in the event of an emergency, and is tasked with reaching out to even the most isolated and short-tempered of their fellows to bring them into the fold for battle. Where the Wroth General dictates grand strategy and the overall expense of resources, the Arrayer is expected to know the individuals involved and to advise their superiors on where best to place their talents in war or in preparation for the same. Rare is the Arrayer of Distant Thunder without a scattering of Court Goodwill across the entire Freehold.

Constable of Calefaction - The sheriff of the Summer Court, who for some godforsaken reason is called “the Calefactor” instead of Sheriff in your usual case (Summer: “We are serious adults.” Also Summer: This, constantly, in every fucking title). The Calefactor’s primary responsibility is maintaining internal discipline and keeping the peace in the Summer Court; as a society of people who encourage each other to get mad and kill things, they are somewhat prone to, you know, getting mad and killing things. Most Summer Courts are small enough that the Calefactor is the only formal member of any kind of law enforcement, which means that they often share skills in common with the local Jaeger, including tracking, investigation, and a certain distressing insight into the psychology of their prey. However, in an unusually populous Freehold, or one with strong intimate relationships between the Courts, the Calefactor may fill a more general role of law enforcement and informal counseling, working closely with figures such as the Verdant Advocate (Spring), the Ashen Notary (Autumn), and Winter’s Iceclad Armigers.

Man-At-Arms - A cut above the standard grunts, Men-At-Arms (local titles vary, inevitably into something more dramatic like ‘Crimson Knight’) are the minimum tier at which the Court pays for your upkeep. Expected to fill the role of primary combatants, Men-At-Arms have their mundane equipment seen to by the Court, and depending on the situation in their Freehold may also have concerns such as rent and food taken care of so that they can focus their attention on the full-time needs of soldiering. Of course, no Freehold is on a war footing all the time, so without the attendant responsibilities of higher ranks one will find the Men-At-Arms hiring themselves out to their peers in other Courts and supporting their Motleys in personal projects, as the desire and need strikes them.

Dust Grunt/Mud Grunt - The bottom of the barrel; Summer’s youngbloods are trained in battle and small-unit tactics and then put on the front lines to soften up the enemy. Chances are you start here when you sign onto the Court (but see below), and these irregulars can more often resemble a militia rather than the greater standardization of the warriors above them, with equipment ranging from nickel-plated revolvers to sharpened shovels. These decisions are more pragmatic on the part of the Court than they are malicious, though even the most hellbent fuck-up of a Grunt is part of Summer’s brotherhood, to be defended by their fellows.

Lords of Summer presents two more bottom-tier titles, the Sentry of Summer’s Vigil and the Mule Squire. Both of these are redundant to the Grunts; the Sentry’s work of guarding locations or people, and the Squire’s work of essentially doing the Court’s cleaning and make-work are both great uses of spare Grunts that need something to do, and a way of teaching or forcing discipline on them. Even in a modern military apparatus like the United States military, full-time guards are an incredible rarity and are mainly a position of honor rather than an immediate and intense need that craves filling. I encourage you to ignore both of these titles entirely.

So, how does one advance in Summer? Not dying is a good early step, as is putting in the work. Summer joins Winter in being one of the more utilitarian and pragmatic Courts, and that means demonstrating that you can fill the position you’re seeking. Its internal culture of cultivating strength and training means that someone who aspires to climb the ranks can often find someone else willing to teach them, provided they haven’t lost the respect of their own Court somehow. Given the reality of Summer’s limited numbers, it can pay to build a relationship with the current holder of the title you’re seeking so that they can teach you directly. Unlike Autumn, which often has the practical problem of its apprentices going full Sith Lord on their masters, Summer’s often quite happy to teach you what it knows; after all, they have a much higher than average chance of leaving a vacancy through no fault of your own.

But there is also the matter of the Tribulum.

By virtue of ancient tradition, a certain repressed sense of drama, and a not-insignificant amount of malice, those who seek title and authority in Summer must petition to be tested. Collectively, these tests and the process of them are the Tribulum, which in theory threshes the wheat from the chaff. They can be fantastically cruel; an aspiring officer might be forced to win back-to-back chess games for days on end with no opportunity to eat or sleep, or an aspirant to become the Arrayer of Distant Thunder timed on runs through the Freehold that demand death-defying feats of parkour. In a healthy Summer Court, these tests have more benefit than the cruel amusement of the higher-ups (though they definitely provide that benefit); they help those in power gauge how the aspirant performs their duties under pressure, and see how they relate to their own Wrath and how that Wrath is expressed in the job they seek. Someone seeking a social role such as the Sun’s Tongue may be expected to navigate a party or conference while the Court embarrasses, undermines, or demeans her; a potential Jaeger may be kidnapped and thrown naked into the Hedge with a command to bring back the head of a dread beast. Those who survive these trials emerge with the respect of their peers and the confidence of their superiors, with the obvious downside being that sometimes, people don’t survive them and the Court is then deprived of their talents.

Once the chain of command is established, Summer organizes itself and the Freehold (during its reign) along militaristic lines, with clearly established authority and duties. Lawful orders are to be obeyed for the greater good of the Lost around you and the things you, and they, care about. The Crimson Court can be somewhat clannish, though not nearly to the extent of Winter. Aside from its essentially selfless mission statement, Summer tends to frame the Freehold as a whole as an army in which everyone helps everyone else, with Summer and a select few members of other Courts as that army’s core combatants. They take pride in the dangerous work they do, and offer their respect to others willing to take it on. This does mean that Summer, like Autumn, only rarely has its internal logistics established; they rely on Spring and Winter for income and political interfacing with much of the mortal realm, and on Autumn to help provide magical backup and Goblin Fruits, to say nothing of capabilities like Spring’s powers of healing, Winter’s intelligence work, or Autumn’s mind-shattering powers over Fear that Summer simply cannot match on its own even if it has internal specialists that can support those roles.

The Promise of Summer

Summer tends to be loud and proud about its high ideals, and those ideals can be very attractive to potential recruits. On the practical level, Summer offers skills such as combat training and self-defense, and the self-confidence to use them. Lost who have strength can often flock to Summer, but so do those that crave strength, who want the power to change the narrative if their Keeper comes back for them again. Ogres, social Beasts (especially those that run in packs and herds), and Elementals are often natural adopters of Summer for these reasons, though you’ll find people in every Seeming who look at the circumstances of their Durance and conclude that if they’d been stronger, faster, or more decisive, they might have been able to make a difference.

Beyond practicality though, Summer offers the Lost that join it something to fight for beyond just survival. Ideals like justice, honor, and duty are near and dear to Summer’s heart. The most compelling promise of Summer to many of its recruits is the idea that they can take the evil done to them and make something good out of it. Summer is well aware that the world is unjust, that the honorable are taken advantage of by the deceitful, that people shirk their duties. That knowledge can turn toxic in some Summers, resulting in elitist braggarts or callous killers jaded by the dark world around them, but many other Summer Courts accept the reality and work on changing it. Maybe you can’t fix the world, but you can fix your part of it, and in a world of darkness holding forth a light to guide others becomes all the more important.

Most Summer Courts romanticize a knightly ideal of some kind, or another militaristic one, which enshrines the values to which they aspire. A certain amount of self-awareness goes into this even if Summer doesn’t talk a lot about it. Violence is not an easy thing to practice, and it can do things to you if you don’t have people to help you through it, don’t have rocks to hold onto, don’t have values to guide you. Though published material is rife with Summer Courts in a hard failure spiral (arguably, White Wolf has never published a Summer in a success state, not that I’m FUCKING BITTER), a successful Summer Court is as much a support group for its members as its peers are. Even beyond valuing a code of honor in itself, questions like “is this what a true knight would do?” can help ground a soldier of Summer before they make an angry choice that leads to regrets.

Ultimately, the core of Summer’s promise for your healing and recovery is bringing good out of evil. The Lost who join Summer were hurt and abused; Summer can help them ensure that others are not. They may struggle with self-discipline, self-control, or self-confidence; Summer can offer them the training they need to have these things. The weak and fearful can be raised into strength and courage. The Court of Wrath may tempt new recruits with vengeance against the Fae who wronged them, but those that stay do so because they want, or need, what Summer has to offer them.

Fury Oh Fury

Like Fear, Wrath is a passion that can very easily turn toxic. Summer knows this. Whether Summer does anything about that is another question, but for the most part even a Summer Court in a tight failure spiral isn’t stupid enough to simply let loose their brimming Wrath at-will. No one can be angry all day, every day, but you can cultivate anger, both in yourself and others. How Summer relates to its Wrath and what it uses that Wrath for defines it as a local Court.

Not all Lost are cut out for Wrath; as a passion, it is often one that grows out of another. Wrath at the loss (and thus Sorrow) one has endured, Wrath at the object of one’s Fear, Wrath that stems from frustrated Desire. While Summer is willing to help recruits find their anger, it can’t make the decision to seek and build a relationship with Wrath for a Changeling. For those who are angry, and seek validation or explanation for their anger, joining Summer provides them with the support and context needed to ask the foundational question, “Why am I angry? What am I angry about?”. From there, they can start on their journey towards relating to their own anger, and that of others.

While Summer values Wrath in and of itself, it tends to be more practical about that than its companion Courts do. Wrath is the tool with which Summer does its job; it sparks the protests that Summer uses to correct injustice, drives home the blades they use to put down True Fae, spurs on the athletes they take to competitions. It can provide the foundation of Summer’s camaraderie and brotherhood, and encourages Summer to defend those who cannot defend themselves. While some Summer Courts can be clannish and dismissive of the other Courts, most recognize that they choose violence in the hopes that others can have the opportunity to not make that choice. When mortals or Lost trying to live peaceful lives become the prey of the wicked, Summer’s Wrath is there to intercede.

Summer takes care to keep the fires of its Wrath ready. It’s not about constantly blazing with Wrath, which no one can do, but in recognizing the causes of their own anger and bringing it out. It can be bitter and hurtful work, remembering the pains you’ve been caused, deliberately nursing grudges, but it also provides Summer with a boundless source of energy and motivation. In a healthy Summer, this also means that the Court, so famed for its heights of berserk fury and unending rage, is also a paragon of proportionate response. “You wanna fight about it?” is less of a threat from Summer than it is an offer; two members of the Crimson Court knock each other around for a bit to vent their Wrath, to gain the satisfaction of taking action, and then sit down to shake hands or to negotiate a formal peace. It can look needlessly macho from the outside (and, in fairness, it kinda is), but it’s also an acknowledgement of each other’s Wrath; in resolving personal conflicts directly, Summer accepts the grievances that cause them as valid.

When it comes to the Wrath of others, Summer can have a dividing line between causing Wrath (which they must do to sustain their magical reserves) and relating to that Wrath. Malice is a kind of Wrath, and it’s a useful one for a Summer Courtier who needs Glamour because ultimately it means pissing people off. The ability to be a dick about just about anything on demand is a handy one for Summer, whether it’s by holding up a busy line during the lunch rush, insulting someone in front of their friends, or deadass eating someone’s burrito while they’re walking by and legging it for the hills like a hungry, burrito-deprived person is about to kill your bitch ass. The Fleeting Summer Contract also helps Summer seek out large sources of anger they themselves did not cause, at which point Summer has a choice to make about what they find. Joining a protest or demonstration for a just cause can both feed Summer the Glamour it needs and advance its ideals, but Summer also sometimes finds people rioting, attacking abortion clinics, or forming lynch mobs. Summer’s remit is to defend the innocent, and a healthy Summer will value that remit over the potential power they could gain, but not all Summers are healthy, and horrible things are done in the name of strength. For those that do choose to stand by their principles, becoming the target of the ambient Wrath - say, by standing up for those in danger - is a great way to gain the Glamour they’re about to need to defuse the situation.

In relating to the Wrath of others, Summer often practices solidarity. Only rarely will you hear a knight of Summer saying you’re angry for a stupid reason (and if they do, chances are your reason is stupid indeed); they can make fantastic listeners about the woes of your life that have made you angry, and excellent counselors on how to handle that anger. Making Wrath and war their business also means that Summer excels at practical self-care. A Summer Courtier is often going to be the first person to tell their friends and Motley that they’re mad because they’re hungry, overstimulated, exhausted, or other sources of non-productive Wrath, and to encourage those same people to, y’know, grab a Snickers. It can take a bit for Summer to catch up to the things that make mortals angry (the Lost can have awkward relationships with labor protests, for instance, because for many freshly escaped Lost the idea of safe work practices is alien), but once they do you’ll find Summer soldiers supporting all manner of causes. “What do you want to do about it?” is the common follow-up question when Summer hears that one of its friends is angry, and the Court can be both a great enabler of direct action and a sort of safety valve to help keep responses proportionate, or the situation safe for those who seek to take that action. Many of the Lost struggle with feelings of guilt or doubt about their own woes and their own Wrath, and Summer stands to validate that Wrath for them, to remind them that they have a right to be angry about what they went through and a right to seek resolution to their anger. For many, being asked the simple question of if they’re willing to be the sort of person who takes the revenge or retribution they claim to desire can defuse a lifetime of regrets before they happen.

Shit’s On Fire Yo - Hedgefire Wars and Summer’s Day-to-Day.

The majority of this section is drawn from Swords at Dawn.

No society can stay on a true war footing for long. Even modern giants like the United States of America can only really, emotionally, rev up for armed conflict for about five years before the fight is just gone from the general populace, even if the actual state of war persists. While Freeholds live in a world of constant danger from the Fae, from the Hedge, and sometimes from each other, they are also much smaller than the communities they live in, and much less able to maintain a state of armed conflict for an extended period of time. The Lost can have trouble coping with stress on the best of days, but even if everyone is ready and willing to fight, there are logistical issues. Soldiers need feeding and if they’re constantly combat-ready they’re not actively contributing to the wealth of the Freehold that is used to feed them. Shields need forging, armor needs repairing, guns need ammo, rent needs to get paid, Glamour needs harvesting, Goblin Fruits need collecting, and the longer a conflict drags on the harder all of those get.

Thankfully, these logistical issues seem to exist on both sides. The Gentry do not gather grand armies, and neither do hobgoblins. The Lost, of course, can’t; a Freehold might be as small as 19 people total, and the world’s largest is barely 200 soaking wet. As a result, so-called Hedgefire Wars tend to be brief, excessively violent conflicts with strong similarities to conflicts between gangs or criminal organizations, often decided in a single battle or a series of ambushes and traps. Summer makes a point of excelling at these conflicts, which can tip the balance when they occur. The True Fae, masters of deception and indirect action, are often simply not prepared to even imagine a troop of Iron Spear soldiers kicking their door in and starting to shoot.

So what does Summer do with all of the time it’s not conducting Hedgefire Wars? Train, for one; being able to conduct a military action at the drop of a hat like that means personal and collective training, drills, and putting in the work. Summer’s soldiers assist their Motleys or hire out to other Courts for dangerous work such as escorting messengers through the Hedge, clearing the site of a proposed Hollow, or body-guarding nobles during tense negotiations in order to keep their edge sharp. Summer supports causes in the mortal world with varying levels of legal-to-vigilante activity; it’s not unheard of for a local Summer Court to take on an organized crime family out of sheer moral outrage, personal vendetta, or literally just to keep their hand in the game. A Summer with a strong Arrayer of Distant Thunder, or in an especially imperiled Freehold, may fill some of their time training reserves from the other Courts in this manner as well. Summer soldiers volunteer or are assigned to guard Hedge Gates or care for vital, communal Freehold assets that might otherwise be vulnerable to theft or destruction.

Beyond that, Summer creates and participates in competitions of all kinds. Wrath dwells in the heart of the competitive spirit, and athletic events, esports, and other contests can be a fantastic magical investment for Summer, but they also host competitions inside of their Freehold to build camaraderie and encourage themselves and others to diversify their strengths. Yeah, Autumn is probably going to win a contest of sorcerous innovation hosted by the Court of Wrath, but by throwing the contest to begin with Summer not only gives Autumn the chance to show off its might and feel good about its choices, but encourages all who participate in the contest to improve their witchcraft and thus become stronger, more capable Lost. The soldiers of the Iron Spear are often the first to sign up for competitions thrown by the other Courts, and some of the first to offer or accept formal duels, especially those that do not end in death.

Brothers in Arms - Organizing Summer

Alone in Lost society, the basic unit of Summer is the Court; Summer’s internal culture of brotherhood and solidarity can make it difficult to divide into discrete chunks or turn against itself, because quite often, unless the matter is wholly personal, to deal with one knight of the Iron Spear is to deal with all of them. While internal titles (both the near-universal ones listed above and local ones created to serve the needs of a particular Freehold) denote a place in the chain of command and specific responsibilities over which a particular Lost can claim authority, in general Summer Courtiers help each other out for the asking, safe in the knowledge that they will be helped in turn. Summer’s claims of being apolotical might be bullshit (no society is free of politics), but its offer of mutual support is as genuine as they come.

The small nature of Lost society and in particular being one Court out of four in such a society means that Summer Courtiers live in each other’s metaphorical pants. While they’re expected to obey the chain of command, the upshot of this is that even the lowliest Mud Grunt can reasonably expect to voice an opinion about a proposed plan of action, or reveal their specific expertise that might assist in an operation or proposal, and have that voice heard by the Crown and luminaries such as the Wroth General. They may not be heeded, but they will be heard. The bickering and backstabbing that can attend to small-town politics exists here, of course, but Summer strives to keep that to a minimum and to respect the contributions of its soldiers. Even if it didn’t value solidarity as a virtue, any given Summer Court often doesn’t have a choice; there’s only so many bodies to go around, and the Court can’t afford to hemorrhage men to disrespect.

Still, loose groups do form, generally composed of the holder of a particular title (say, the Jaeger) and those Courtiers they trust to assist them and/or are being trained to take that position in the event of a vacancy. These informal cliques are more about the specialized work done by those in them than they are about politics, with the collective identity of the Iron Spear taking precedence, but they can and do often represent divisions of ideology within the Court. The Jaeger and her apprentice are naturally going to be among those who prefer indirect attack and ambush; in contrast, a friendship between the Sun’s Tongue and the Arrayer of Distant Thunder can form on the basis of being the only social roles in a Court that largely does not value such roles. In cases where the Court divides against itself, such as revolution, one likely finds these cliques collectively on either side of the line.

A Girl Worth Fighting For

I went there and I regret nothing!

There can be a disconnect between Summer and its companion Courts, mainly because Summer by its nature is composed of people who respond to some, many, or all negative situations by getting angry, and this is not necessarily or even often the case for their peers. Still, Summer - like Winter - has an appreciation for how friendships with members of other Courts can help balance out their own life, and the lives of the Lost around them. Winter doesn’t just keep Summer stocked with bullets, it reminds Summer of what has been lost and what remains left to lose. Autumn provides a whisper of caution that tempers Summer’s valor, and counsel away from the pit of darkness that violence can lead them to. The deep and famous friendship between Summer and Spring exists because quite often, while Summer fights, it is Spring that builds something worth fighting for. Summer, in turn, offers not just their own services to these other Courts but a reminder of the courage, honor, and valor of which they are capable. A knight of Summer defends their friends, and a good one inspires those friends to stand up for themselves too.

Summer’s straightforward approach and generally honest culture makes them seem easy to be friends with, though that same straightforward honesty can also be a frustration in their friendships and romances. A knight of Summer who’s still struggling with their Wrath and with self-control & self-discipline soon finds themselves without friends outside of their own Court, and for good reason. Anger is the tool with which you are supposed to do your job, not a curse to visit upon those you love. The Court exists to try and help those unfortunates, but they need to accept that help or it won’t do them any good.

Summer’s romances can be internal for a lot of the reasons that Winter Courtiers tend to date other Winter Courtiers; both people understand the shared struggles of those who practice violence, as well as the day-to-day things such as bruises from training that can be awkward to explain to outsiders. Summer also often falls in with Spring when they become attracted to the joy, verve, and glad-hearted acceptance that Spring has to offer (Spring, for its own part, is often fascinated by the sheer passion of Summer’s Wrath, and many Spring Courtiers can find something romantic in loving someone protective and nurturing). Courtships with Autumn happen at times as well, which go better than it sounds on its face; Autumn’s self-awareness is often good for a Summer lover, and they have a lot of the understanding that Summer/Summer romances bring to the table. The opportunity to let their hair down, stop being spooky, and be honest with someone can be a great relief to an Autumn Courtier who otherwise struggles with self-doubt and Clarity.

The Ranks of the Raging - Making Summer Courtiers

When making your own Summer Courtier, think about why they chose to make the honestly-unusual decision to become a knight of Summer. Most Lost lean away from direct confrontation and direct action, favoring tools such as theft, conspiracy, and avoidance; even an Ogre who joins Summer has made a somewhat unusual choice in the grander context of the Wyrd. Does your character already have great strength of some variety, or have they joined the Iron Spear seeking such strength? Is Summer their first Court, or have they come here from another? How do they feel about the high ideals at the heart of Summer? Some other considerations include:

What Is Worth Fighting For? - In a society with a pretty high mortality rate, Summer’s is higher than average. What does your character seek, or want to protect, that encourages them to put their life on the line? How do they relate to violence and what do they think of those whose relationship to it is different? Has there ever been a moment of great courage or cowardice in their past that still motivates them?

What Are You Angry About? - Everyone’s traumas and tragedies are different. What is the burning heart of your character’s Wrath? Do they take a genuine interest in the Wrath of others, or are they consumed with their own pain and resolution? Will they accept Lost society’s vision of justice for the wrongs done upon them, or will only revenge soothe their fury? Could their Wrath ever burn out?

What Do You Offer The Court? - Summer could use all kinds of specialized roles, especially if you’re willing to teach them to others. Are you a hunter and tracker, able to bring down dangerous foes by yourself? A classic Grunt or Man-At-Arms, ready to throw down? A teacher and motivator, being groomed by your local Arrayer? Do you have unusual skills such as stunt driving or engineering that the local Court might have recruited you explicitly for?

How Do You Relate To Others? - Summer’s brotherhood is a place where the Courtiers can let their hair down and relax. That solidarity does not necessarily automatically exist outside of Summer; how do you relate to members of other Courts and their differing ideals? Do you take pride in fighting to defend their diverse viewpoints? What friendships and connections do you have outside of your Court and why are they important to you? Are any of them mortal?

Stand Together - Summer In Your Freehold

Unlike Autumn, Summer has a pretty clearly defined role in the Freehold, which helps to keep its direct political relationships with the other Courts relatively simple. Summer has needs (guns, ammo, blades, armor, food, space for their armories, medical care, emotional support, etc) that the other Courts can provide, and in exchange for those needs they provide military service, advice, and support, as well as services for which physical strength and speed can be invaluable such as labor for construction projects or hauling in big-ass boxes of decorations for Spring’s parties. The cold fact of the matter is that Summer is good at spending money and bad at making it (almost like they’re combat-ready soldiers or something, who would have fucking guessed), so the Court of Wrath needs some kind of positive relationship with at least Spring or Winter, and ideally with both. Some Summers try to resolve this with a military coup, but that’s how you get Miami and no one wants Miami.

Summer tends towards extremes, either being very healthy or very toxic, and can be sensitive to the attitudes of its leadership about where it falls in that divide, though not for the reasons people think. It’s not that a toxic Crown creates a toxic Court, it’s that toxic Courts end up electing toxic Crowns, and then the cycle reinforces itself quite a bit. Often the only way to resolve this problem is for the Crown to die for some reason and for a better leader to change things while Summer is temporarily without a king. Unfortunately as trained warriors and hateful bastards, Summer leaders can be somewhat difficult to kill.

The situation the Lost find themselves in can make authoritarian leaders appealing, which means that regardless of season, Summer’s relative political power goes up during times of strife and chaos. At the same time, the Lost are sensitive to oppression and enslavement, and have a strong tradition of taking dictators and nailing their skin to a door in case some other asshole gets Ideas. During its own season, Summer extends its chain of command to include the other Courts, in part because that’s how Summer thinks and moves, and in part as a sort of yearly drill for wartime that lasts the entire Summer. When battle comes calling, the Lost of your Freehold should already know what’s expected of them.

As always, I welcome feedback, discussion, and criticisms on this article. Thank you for your time in reading!

Next up: Spring.

[pagerunner-j]

Before I begin, the obligatory disclaimer: the following is a bit of a feelings dump, and it’s more personal than I meant to get, especially since I’d intended to avoid posting personal stuff here at all. When I say “please don’t reblog,” I mean “PLEASE LISTEN THIS TIME AND DON’T REBLOG.”

But there’s a lot I’m trying to process about last night’s story, the friction between narrative and game mechanics, and the emotional repercussions of this sort of scenario. It’s been a long build-up that all kind of came to a head for me last night. Ergo, this post.

To give proper context, though, I need to back up a bit to the first campaign and explain why Percy’s second death, brief as it may have been, was ultimately worse for me than the first.

—

2017 did not start well. One January day I got a call from my audibly ill father saying that both he and my mother were in the emergency room. She’d been admitted for congestive heart failure. He was diagnosed within the day with what turned out to be stage 4 colon cancer. He’d been avoiding appointments, ignoring symptoms, and putting off the inevitable, until the doctors went in only to find that the tumors had spread to the point that there was nothing they could do. I still have a clearer mental image than I’d like of my dad’s scars, along with bags and tubes hanging out because what was left of his system couldn’t do its job anymore. They stitched him back up as neatly as they could, but there was no fixing the real damage. It was done.

I didn’t have much room to breathe for quite a while. My life was pretty much consumed with trying to figure out how the hell to handle any of this. I did manage, for better or for worse, to keep carving out a little bit of time each week to watch Critical Role, because I needed something good to think about while everything else was falling apart.

Unfortunately for me, it took less than two weeks between the day all that began and the final battle with Raishan.

I was braced for possible bad outcomes, considering the severity of the fight, but what I wasn’t prepared for was for someone to get felled in a way that was basically mundane. Sure, it was a dragon that did it, so much of the situation was fantastical: an enormous mythical monster, and a swipe of larger-than-life claws. But what I had to deal with, because it was, of course, described in detail, was an evisceration. It was, to be blunt, my favorite character getting his guts ripped out. And because Pat had to go and up that ante, writer that he is, I found myself sitting numbly through a scene afterward of Kerrek beside Percy’s body, trying uselessly to put the ruined mess back together.

I still can’t think about that scene without feeling sick. I couldn’t even feel properly relieved when Percy got revived. I wanted to. Obviously I was glad that he was there for the rest of the campaign, because I wanted to see his story find a less abrupt end. I just didn’t feel any better about the idea that well, sure, he got a magic fix. It just kind of ended up spotlighting the futility of what I was staring down.

My dad died in May that year, on a Thursday night. I got home very late after hours of trying to deal with things, and found myself alone, overwhelmed and unsure what to do with myself. For lack of anything else better to do, I pulled up that night’s VOD. I couldn’t really focus on it; I kept drifting out and only sort of coming back to. I let the episode keep running for a while, though, at least wanting some friendly voices to listen to.

Then I realized what everyone was doing, and I looked at the timestamp, and I counted backwards. And I froze.

While the party was playacting at speaking with the dead, I was sitting in a hospice room listening to my father pleading with us to let him go.

I only got a few seconds further in before I stopped the video and turned away.

Despite the fact that I’ve watched almost everything Critical Role has ever done, I still have no idea how that episode ends.

—

After all this I went in for my own medical tests, since my own heretofore-handwaved-by-my-doctors health concerns suddenly seemed more pressing. It turns out, unsurprisingly, I inherited all the fun stuff. Fortunately, none of the growths were cancerous yet, because at least my unfortunate genetic legacy is something that, with proper screenings and care, it’s possible to stay ahead of. But I was told they’d need me to come in in another six months, and probably every year after that forever — or until something finally goes nuclear, whichever comes first.

Guess we’ll see.

My shorter term problems were enough to deal with on their own. The day after the test, I found out I was losing my health insurance. Two days later I found out I was losing my job. Everything since has basically been trying to patch things together from scraps. Sometimes things are sort of okay. Sometimes it’s a bottomless pit of uncertainty. Obviously, nothing in the wider world has exactly improved since, either. In sum total: fun times, especially considering I was already struggling with severe anxiety before all this began.

I wasn’t really sure how to emotionally process the ratcheting stakes in Critical Role at that point either. When you’re still watching the show because you need a breather from months of continual crisis, but your beloved characters are facing down things like, oh, a dread god and the very real possibility of everything going straight to hell, it’s…not exactly something you can turn to for relief, per se. I kept on going, because the bright spots were still so good, but I can’t exactly say I was enjoying myself for significant parts of the run, either. It was also where I started to feel a very real frustration with D&D and the inherent capriciousness that can creep in.

In short, I desperately, desperately did not want this battle to go wrong. I didn’t want to have to face a story that I’d become so invested in going completely south not because it necessarily made narrative sense, but because the dice (as they always have the opportunity to do) said “fuck you.” Yes, the feeling was probably more selfish on my part than anything else. But I still hope it’s understandable for emotional reasons, and it also got me thinking again about the entire logic of “that’s just how the game works,” and how far you can run with that before you finally trip and hurt yourself.

I’ve always had problems with a few common things in game design. One of them — usually less of a problem when we’re talking about high-level D&D, although it can still surprise you — is when things arbitrarily become harder in the game than they would be in real life. (Floor/jumping puzzles in video games where you can’t step diagonally For Reasons, I’m looking at you.) Another is any kind of gameplay mechanic that robs you of your turn or otherwise puts you out of play. Varying degrees of success or failure is one thing, but I could never understand what’s ever fun about being stopped from participating in the thing you’ve come to do. Still, one way or another, there are so many ways for that to happen. Failed dice rolls, getting stunned or disabled, outright death: there are so, so many ways.

And it’s one thing if that’s happening during the course of, say, an everyday board game, but it feels different if it starts changing the course of a full-blown story.

Part of this is the editor in me talking (who will have words with me about this post, I’m sure), because she has Opinions about it all. She always wants to keep the story on track, not go off on useless tangents, and not drop things without getting proper resolution. She’s big on structure and pacing, suspicious of too much chaos. She does not get along well with D&D. This isn’t to say that this forms the entirety of my opinion, mind; I can still appreciate the way the game works, and the fact that so many interesting and unexpected things can be born entirely because of the random element, improvisation, and decisions you have to make in the moment. But dropped threads, unfinished plots, interrupted ideas, the things that get lost, or the characters that do…those can end up haunting me.

Honestly, and this is probably always going to be a fundamental disconnect between me and any D&D game: I’ve discovered both through watching CR and playing the game a bit myself that I don’t really care about the game as much of anything except as a skeleton for storytelling. If it supports the narrative, if it gives structure, if it enables activities, if it provides opportunities for play, I’m all for it. If it yanks the rug out from under you just because, again, the dice decided to say “fuck you,” or the rules get weird, or there’s something else that just doesn’t mesh between player and scenario and/or DM, I have a harder time with it.

And it’s crushing when stories I care about collapse or turn sour because the game says so, and for reasons that feel almost cruelly arbitrary — particularly when I’m getting more than enough of that in real life.

So for CR, the ending of campaign 1 was an exercise in protracted anxiety. I was in a space where I needed something to work out, but even the entertainment I’d been turning to was becoming dangerously precarious. Wasn’t the best feeling.

In the end, luckily, it ended about as well as it could have: not without consequence, but without everything crashing down. I felt relieved, and satisfied, and glad we got a chance for resolution with the characters we’d been following for months. If anyone had to permadie, the character who was already bound to the goddess of death was not a shocker, and in many ways it’s the kindest choice; he got more resolution than any human being in the real world ever will. It barely even registered as a sad ending. I envied him, really.

I’ve watched far worse go down.

Meanwhlie, i was also thinking that even though it would be tough to say goodbye to these characters, it could also be a refreshing reset. We’d get new characters needing to find out who they are, what they want, what they’re good at, how to relate to each other, how to begin. Smaller stories, with not everything having to be about the END OF THE WORLD (again). Lower stakes. I was fine with the idea of lower stakes for a while, and less threat of impending death and pain.

Well. Like I said. It was an idea.

That brings me around to Molly, and to story decisions and gameplay decisions that both broke my heart seven ways from goddamn Sunday.

—

It took me a while to come at this part, because it took some time for the thought to crystallize that I wasn’t only reacting to the rolls of the dice in last night’s scenario. That was part of it, absolutely. Luck is a thing, strategies work or don’t, fate is capricious. I wish that several things had played out very differently, and I’m especially upset that the way things fell out, it stopped a story in its tracks that had barely even started. (I’ll come back to that.) So the start of the thought was still game vs. narrative, and it’s part of why I wrote that whole run-up you just read.

That said, the more I poked at it, the more I got upset that we were playing out a scenario like this at all.

I was thinking aloud about this in another post, but to preface it a bit better: There’s an entire meta level to three players being gone last night that everyone knew about. I understand the impulse to avoid metagaming, but it also creates some odd situations, like everyone trying (and failing, because — yep — the dice said “fuck you”) to investigate the area and find out why their friends were gone. So we had to start with a big, clunky process of the characters figuring out what the audience and the cast already knew: that Matt had written Jester, Fjord, and Yasha out by having them get kidnapped. The story is streamlined enough. The gameplay around it, not so much.

But here’s what I got hung up on once it all sunk in: why did this have to be the story in the first place?

I’m not thrilled with how a situation that arose in real life because of pretty much the prototypical joyous event (i.e. a new baby) and something that had been mundane on the show until now (Ashley being away) got turned into a brutal story about a triple kidnapping and trafficking, which promptly resulted in a death. And it says a lot about the underlying plot they’re dealing with, which is not something I’m sure I’m willing to ride with much further. I’ve been leery for a while – starting off with mutterings about an evil god only a few episodes in put me on edge from the start – and then there’s the political unrest and the religious conflicts and people disappearing…it’s all going somewhere really unpleasant really fast.

It’s also derailed a story I wanted, which hurts like hell.

We’d barely even gotten to know Molly. Molly had barely even gotten to know Molly. We got tantalizing hints, and plenty of suggestions that there was more to discover — probably an entire character arc’s worth of material. And then…this. My inner editor? Yeah, she’s screaming with frustration. In any traditionally structured narrative, this would not have happened, because even if a death was in the cards, ether it would have been timed differently so that you could get further down the road with him, or if the character was always meant to die early, any decent edit would have trimmed out most of the details that suggested at things that never got payoff. But it’s D&D, and so it’s the push-pull at work: game vs. story, plus a(n un)healthy dose of “unavoidable meta circumstances vs. the apparent need for A: drama and B: to barrel right ahead into a crisis even though there were other choices that could have been made in the light of said meta circumstances.” And…here we are.

Here we are, with a dead character who should not, let’s be honest, be dead, and a story left hanging, and far fewer obvious options for fixing it than we had at any such crisis point in the previous campaign, and lots of miserable, hurt people.

One of them being me.

—

There’s a reason this shit hurts. Personally speaking, it would hurt even if I didn’t have over a year’s worth of unfortunate circumstances making narrative swerves like this even harder to take. It hurts because the story and the characters are so engaging, because they’re worth the investment, and, yes, because when things go wrong, sometimes they’re for reasons that make me want to flip a goddamn table. And yes, maybe it’s silly to get worked up when they might — might — be able to do something about it. But we can’t count on it, and so yes. It hurts. It hurts to have a source of joy becoming something else, especially when there were so many other options. It hurts to watch favorite characters get hurt and killed, yet still be expected to write it all off as “that’s just how the game works!”, as if having emotions about it is a weakness and to be scorned.

Honestly, I found myself screaming “FUCK THE GAME” aloud last night (and probably upsetting the neighbors), which sums my feelings up succinctly enough that I should have started right there. :\

But…again, here we are, and here I am, struggling with feeling hurt and sad and exhausted with so many things veering toward pain again when I was hoping for something different, and writing big long word-vomits of posts about it.

Because D&D.

(Memo to Editor Brain: I’m tired, and I’m not going to give you another three hours to edit this post into something more manageable, so you will just have to cope. Not everything or everyone gets good endings anyway. Apparently.)

[thisiscomics]

Here’s another nod to the fact that things are not quite right in the DCU timeline. Brother Eye somehow knows of pre-Rebirth/pre-New 52 continuity and isn’t afraid to show it.

In this case, it has a point- Cassandra Cain was an excellent character when she was introduced in No Man’s Land back in the late 90s, before gaining her own Batgirl series (the first ever series for that character). Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott’s creation encouraged a more visual storytelling style, cutting back on words because Cassandra initially could not speak, so she could neither converse nor narrate, forcing the story to be told through visual cues. Her verbal skills gradually increased, but she always remained an interesting version of Batgirl, never a mere copy of an existing property.

Stephanie Brown/The Spoiler dates from the early 90s, and had a brief run as the fourth Robin, and then picked up Cassandra’s mantle by eventually becoming Batgirl and starring in her own Batgirl comic.

Neither character made it through the more recent reboots intact- Stephanie now appears again as The Spoiler, evidently in the early days of her career, wiping out any of her prior Bat-Family associations. Cassandra keeps some of her origins (daughter of an assassin, raised to be mute), but is given the superhero identity of Orphan, rather than any Bat-related title, since Barbara is Batgirl again. Yet it seems that some of the stories they were integral to still happened- it seems like there have been references to No Man’s Land, Tim has moved on from being Robin (which is what allowed Stephanie to take on the role), and Barbara was Oracle for a time, which would have left the Batgirl position free.

As with pretty much all continuity in the wake of these large scale reboots, something doesn’t quite add up. Batman stories are lucky in that this doesn’t seem to impact them so much as it does others- they are populated by relatively constant, almost archetypal roles, which don’t even need to be filled by the same person under the cowl, and they don’t tend to be continuity heavy tales. As such, Batman is still Batman, whichever continuity we’re in, for the most part. But some of the supporting cast are problematic because they rely on time passing- Dick has to grow older and become Nightwing. Barbara has to have been crippled because Oracle was a great character and no one can quite let The Killing Joke go, even though it’s place in continuity has always been questionable. Both Stephanie and Cassandra had to work to inherit and maintain a legacy identity, and much of their appeal and the strengths of their stories were based on this struggle- they are simply less interesting without this. Both were leaving behind a criminal father figure, and seeking to atone for their pasts, using the shadow of the Bat as their symbol of redemption. Taking this away from them means that Orphan is significantly less interesting than Batgirl, and Spoiler feels like a character that is at the start of her journey, but still being used as one with more history than this would suggest in terms of her relationship with Tim, since it was a key part of her previous incarnation.

That’s not to say that they can’t be interesting, and that these stories are lacking, just that it feels like the characters have lost something as a result of wider changes, and it’s impossible to avoid the sense of this loss of potential in their appearances. So it is interesting that Brother Eye actually brings up what readers may be thinking, almost as though the script is trying to acknowledge this and perhaps offer a solution. One can’t help but wonder where this is going to lead- is it part of the wider continuity questions that are still bubbling under in the Rebirth universe; are they some of the others mentioned in Iris’s recent question in The Flash? Or is this just a hint that the enemy in this story is not from their future, but has crossed over from another reality? Even if it is the latter, it is unlikely that this glimpse won’t affect the status quo of these two characters- surely seeing what was/could have been has to affect them and lead them to make changes to their current situation? The Batmen Eternal storyline seems epic enough that it could have such a lasting impact, so here’s hoping this wasn’t just a brief reference to please the older fanboys and instead has some impact on two characters that deserve to regain some of their past standing in the DCU.

From Detective Comics 980, by James Tynion IV, Scot Eaton, Wayne Faucher, John Kalisz, Allen Passalaqua & Sal Cipriano

[saintlucianonoir-blog]

“Good Enough”

Have we ever truly wondered what that truly means?

What is it about the ever wondering feeling if we are good enough that makes life grand? Am I good enough for one person that life will show favor upon my life? If the one person I want doesn’t feel I’m good enough will life cast me aside? What if someone else sees my worth and sees me good enough, but the one I want doesn’t see me as such.... will life doom me as a failure? Does my own feeling of self worth and if I’m good enough not play a factor? Should I allow someone else’s views of me define who I truly am?

Normally, I don’t write for this but it has been a question over the ages. That and the fact it’s a good one and I’m high...enlightened. Do we not love ourselves? Like honestly, think about it! We worry too much about the one thing that never mattered in the first place truthfully.

Now before you quit this read. For a second think about that last statement!!!

We love ourselves more than enough to honestly care. We just need to remember that at times. Do you not go out and buy the food you love? Do you not buy the outfits you love and makes you feel you? Do we sip whiskey when we desire wine, simply because we don’t feel like we deserve a good glass of vino? Hell No, we don’t! We do and live our own lives chasing dreams, chasing goals, maximizing our efforts towards a life of raging adventures, wild nights and a consistent level of successes.

We love ourself more than anyone in this life can ever possibly love us. We know we are good enough to have that job. We know we are good enough to have the photographer of our choosing, and not think twice. We know we are good enough to attend a certain school we want. We would never let anyone tell us we are not good enough for what we want. So why do we let what we want to tell us we aren’t good enough for them? ... I wonder why? Why would we allow someone to make us feel we aren’t good enough. I’m good enough for success. I will never let someone else tell me I’m not good enough for what I want, neither should anyone else.

God, or whichever higher being one chooses to follow, sees you as good enough to show you life and favor. If we weren’t good enough we wouldn’t share the same sky, sun and green earth as one another.

Truth is we are all good enough for the same love and happiness as we all so desire. Just because one doesn’t see you as worth it and good enough to share this life with, doesn’t mean someone else that truly does see what amazing and beautiful blessing God has created isn’t out there waiting to find you. I mean truthfully, he or she might be out there on a bench somewhere right now feeling amiss in their spirit. Listening to “Superhuman” singing in their mind

“Everything is new to me

Sleepless in a distant dream

Slowing up the speed of time

Don't let me crash down tonight

I just want to feel what I feel, what I feel

When it's just you and me

I'm fallin' on my knees, on my knees

Just to see if I can still bleed

'Cause with you I'm superhuman

Hope it's not a grand delusion

So keep me in this state of mind

Tell me that it's real life

'Cause with you I'm superhuman, superhuman

'Cause with you I'm superhuman

Hope it's not a grand delusion

So keep me in this state of mind

Tell me that it's real life

'Cause with you I'm superhuman, superhuman”

Just thinking about someone as good enough as you to share the wonders of this life with. We settle for what someone else thinks and never think about chasing the one that cries out “I don’t wanna live in a world without you!” Someone that truly desires to make memories to keep treasured for long years. Have any of us taken the time to pay attention and recognize the signs when that which we desire manifests itself. Prime example: When is the last time anyone actually watched “Beast and the Beast”? I mean literally watched it and seen the hint of connections to the lives we currently live in this society. Put yourself in the roles of each character and tell me you don’t see it.....

Now, this is not high ramblings... I’m a photographer and visual storyteller. I base my entire being upon telling the truest of stories of one’s own heart’s inner desires and longings. I feel everyone deserves to find that one and as long as we keep our eyes and hearts open it will manifest itself upon us.

Truth is, we all have but a limited time on this earth to fully enjoy it. If we get caught up forgetting the truth that we too deserve to be made to feel worth it, by focusing on what someone else feels we are. Would this not in turn self sabotage ourself to being the very thing they made us out to feel? Not good enough knowing deep down inside we are all more than worth it.

How will you stop this destructive cycle?

[bloodontheclocktower]

November 2021 - Update to Completion & Delivery Timeline

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a suitably spooky Halloween and are looking forward to a similarly enjoyable festive season. It’s going to be a short update this month, so let’s get straight into it.

The only production update of note is some information from our handler at Panda Manufacturing. I’ll reproduce her words exactly as we received them:

“The MPC should be finished and ready to send on January 15th, and the estimate EXW has slipped a little to March 5th 2022.”

What this means in layman's terms is as follows:

Completion timeline should now conclude in early March - specifically March 5th.

This projects most global delivery to be late April.

The MPC will be finished and ready to send in mid-January. (‘MPC’ stands for ‘Mass Production Copy’, which is the final copy we review and check before the game gets assembled.)

Obviously, this is subject to change based on the factory’s status with regards to the previously mentioned power generation issues, but Panda has a solid track record and we trust that they know what they’re talking about.

In other news, we’ve decided to upload a quickstart guide of sorts for Blood on the Clocktower. This is something that a lot of companies do, particularly RPG developers, and given that Clocktower shares a lot of similarities with pen & paper RPGs (namely the need for a GM and the playing of an individual role for participants) it seemed like a sensible move. It also hasn’t escaped our attention that a very large number of people are playing online, so we hope this documentation will make it easier for prospective Storytellers to run smoother games over Discord, Zoom and the like. You can find it, as well as more nuggets of wisdom, from Steve’s post on the BOTC blog:

Some Rules to Help You Get Started

Finally, I’d just like to point everyone towards the wiki again, which now has entries for all but one of the experimental characters included in the Kickstarter version of the game, with the last one expected to be up within the next three weeks. It’s a great way to get acquainted with those characters ahead of running them and a good source of tips and tricks for both Storytellers and players.

Thanks for checking in and be sure to stay wrapped up warm or reasonably hydrated, whichever hemisphere your needs arise from!

- Ben

[getoffthesoapbox]

[VKM Spec] Investigating VKM 14

We’re starting the year off on much more solid footing than we began last year--with VKM 13.5 and now VKM 14, the story seems to be headed in a better direction than before. I, for one, am relieved to see this, and hope this trend continues for the remainder of the story. We only take small steps forward this chapter, but the good news is, as far as I can tell, we don’t take any steps backward either. 

The irony hasn’t escaped me that not three days after I complained about Hino’s storytelling tanking, she put out what is arguably the best action/suspense chapter she’s written since the end of the Rido arc. Either someone put a bug in her ear, or we’re headed in a direction that she’s actually excited about writing. Whichever it is, this is a distinct improvement to the lackluster writing and artwork we’re accustomed to, and it’s a welcome change. The old girl’s still got it in her. Let’s see if she can keep it up.

That being said, let’s get to it. Scanlations can be found in the usual places.

Obligatory disclaimer for the sensitives: This post is “zeki criticism” and “anti ky”. Please blacklist those tags accordingly.

Marking Time

The first thing that struck me when I saw the opening page of this chapter was the teaser line. I couldn’t figure out what it was about the line that gripped me, other than the obvious: it’s clearly a reference to the significant amount of time Zero’s been waiting for Yuuki to say something to him. But when I was flipping through volume 19 the other day, I realized what it was that had caught my attention--this teaser line in VKM 14 is a direct reference to Zero’s request from the original epilogue of Night 93, a request that apparently narratively is still unanswered from Yuuki.

So this teaser line is a callback to that chapter, and it also tells us several things:

Zero is still waiting for Yuuki’s reply to his request from Night 93. 

VKM 9′s confession was not the answer to that request. 

We are not going to be ignoring the events that took place at the end of the original series in order to move Zero and Yuuki’s story forward.

We will likely be revisiting the original series to sort out why Yuuki still hasn’t given Zero an answer after all this time.

While it’s disheartening to recall how long Zero’s been waiting for a response to his request in Night 93, at the same time I’m quite heartened by the fact that he (and Hino and her editor) does not consider his request properly responded to by Yuuki. This is a huge relief to me as someone who was not happy with Yuuki’s manner of confessing to Zero in VKM 9. One of the weights from my shoulders as far as this story is concerned has been lifted with this reference, at least for now. I’m now hopefully optimistic that we’re not finished with the revelations on Yuuki’s side about her past and her past choices, and I’m also more hopeful that we might actually get a legitimate confession from her about her true feelings for Zero in the future. 

So as far as I’m concerned, this little teaser line was a great way to start the chapter. If this was all the chapter contained, I’d be happy enough, but lucky for me this is only the beginning of the goodies.

The Usual Suspects

This chapter really expanded the possibilities for the suspects behind the Vampire King bombings, but it also threw some of my theories right out the window, which is rather interesting. There’s a lot to unpack on this side of the plot, so buckle your seat belts and get ready for the ride.

We begin the chapter with a secret meeting in the underground area between Maria and Kaien. @jadedmemories mentioned to me that if we take the title page as a canon “scene”, it’s quite possible Zero was listening in on what Maria and Kaien were discussing, as in, potentially he doesn’t trust either of them. It’s an interesting possibility, and one worth keeping in mind as future chapters unfold, I think. For now there’s not much to be done with the information.

It’ll probably be easiest if I separate this section by suspect and work through what we know and don’t know of each one. I made a funny list of suspects here for anyone who wants a more thorough review of each one, but for now I’m only going to discuss the most likely suspects and the ones that are relevant to this chapter in particular. First, we’ll start with some general observations:

The Vampire King’s True Purpose

Before this chapter came out, I was hesitant to make any guesses as to what the Vampire King mastermind was aiming for. But with three bombing incidents under our collective belts, a few potential purposes are starting to rise above the others. 

With only the first two incidents, I was torn as to who the target of the Vampire King’s ultimate “message” was--I thought it could be Zero, Yuuki, Zero and Yuuki together, or the general efforts of Yuuki/Zero/Aidou/Takuma/Kaien to make the world more accepting of vampires.

With this third incident, I believe the target of the Vampire King’s message is either Yuuki or Zero specifically and individually. The rest is smoke and mirrors to give the group legitimacy and to act as a screen for the true purpose. I’ll break down the two options for now and explain which one I’m leaning toward currently, but we can’t make any positive conclusions until we get more information:

Target A: Yuuki - Yuuki being the ultimate target for the Vampire King’s mastermind is on the surface the most sensible conclusion. The name “Vampire King” itself is a direct reference to Kaname that would strike her heart more than any other’s. The first attack happened to Yuuki’s friends, the second attack happened to her pseudo-partner, the third attack both threatened something she holds dear (children’s safety) and also stole her pseudo-partner from her (Zero’s kidnapping). If she’s the target, the Vampire King likely a.) wants to use Zero’s safety as leverage to stop her from doing something (likely the cure research, since she’s in charge of Aidou) or b.) wants to separate her from Zero for some reason or c.) wants to harass her and cause her pain out of a misguided attempt to “get even” for Kaname’s past actions, since she’s connected to him. 

Target B: Zero - Although I think the Yuuki option has potential, ultimately my gut is telling me Zero is the true target of all of this insanity. And by target I mean he’s both the person to capture (literal target) and the person to whom the message of the group is meant to be delivered. The group’s name “Vampire King” will still reach Zero just as much as it would reach Yuuki--Yuuki, in this variant, is the “bait” to get Zero involved, rather than vice versa. So the first attack happens to Yuuki’s friends, which gets Yuuki involved, which gets Zero involved. But the second attack is deliberately for Zero, and the vampire who commits the action has an insult specifically for Zero, despite Zero not even knowing the guy. The third incident, in this scenario, is actually a decoy and a set up--whoever the Vampire King mastermind is, they know Zero will be in charge of the investigation, so they pick a target he’s sensitive to (children) and set up landmine explosives in an obvious location where he’s sure to be the first to try to help anyone who gets caught up in it. They may or may not plant info with Kain to get Kain to bring Yuuki (though right now I think Yuuki’s presence was a mistake and unintended by the Vampire King mastermind), and then while Zero’s distracted “saving” whoever gets caught up in the mines, he either dies or gets kidnapped (the true objective). If this is true, then the kidnapping is actually to get Zero before the Vampire King mastermind to allow the mastermind the opportunity to talk to him without a certain nosy pureblood’s interference. Likely, if Zero is the true target, the Vampire King mastermind is going to use Zero’s desire to save people as leverage to get Zero to do something for him/her: either a.) stop Aidou’s research, b.) separate Zero from Yuuki, or c.) help Aidou’s research to get Kaname back sooner, depending on the ultimate goal. They’d get Zero to help them by blackmailing him, using a threat against future targets as bait. Then they’d likely release Zero so that he can return to Yuuk on his own, but with the blackmail hanging over his head. For an example of how fun this type of plotline is, see Sherlock BBC’s The Great Game episode. 

The reason I’m currently leaning toward Zero as the ultimate target of the mastermind is simply because Yuuki’s for the most part a fairly passive character and because of how long it’s been since the forge was created. If the mastermind was after Yuuki because of some grudge over Kaname, well, it’s been 50-70 years depending on how old Yori was when she died. That’s a long time to hold a grudge against someone who’s just related to the person in question. It’d be far better to just plan an attack against the forge itself, if the forge was the problem. As for other reasons to go after Yuuki’s loved ones, there really aren’t any other than maybe a bored Pureblood wanting to start a war and stop the coexistence efforts. Even if that’s true, this particular style of Vampire King activity doesn’t seem particularly effective toward that end. Especially when it’s highlighting the vampires as the problem, rather than simply being a declaration against Yuuki herself or her comrades. 

If Zero is the person the mastermind is after, we have a lot more room to play. Zero has more enemies than Yuuki, and more people with animus toward him for his role as a Hunter and as Yuuki’s pseudo-partner. Zero also has unresolved pot threads about his special status as the only hunter twin to ever be born a twin, not to mention Takuma’s secret in reference to the Shizuka incident. On top of that, it’s been made very clear that his relationship with Yuuki is not approved of in most quarters, and the hunters (who would go after Yuuki, rather than Zero) for the most part seem accepting of his situation, thus they’re unlikely to be part of the problem. Zero also is potentially a cure component, which may be a factor, and he’s part of the reason the hunters aren’t killing vampires anymore (so if this is an action by the anti-vampire faction, Zero might be a prime target as an agent of improving the lot of criminal vampires and thus seen as an enemy to their agenda). 

Again, at this time this is only speculation at best; we simply don’t have enough information to make any firm conclusions either way. I’m honestly not sure anymore how smart Hino is, so perhaps the most obvious conclusion is the best in this situation. 

Kidnapped!

Zero’s kidnapping this chapter brings up a few questions: 

Was the purpose of the bombing threat a decoy to lure Zero out and to kidnap him?

Is Zero’s kidnapping part of the Vampire King’s plot or is it from a second party?

Was Zero the intended target or was he captured by accident?

If Zero was the intended target, why? If he was captured by accident, who was the real target?

Did Zero orchestrate his own kidnapping for a reason?

It may seem kind of silly to bring up the idea that Zero might have had himself kidnapped but given how peacefully he departs from Yuuki’s side, it’s quite possible. There’s no sign of a struggle, and although he does look over his shoulder before he disappears, his expression isn’t anxious or shocked. Whatever he sees isn’t unexpected. 

I’m not sure how likely this is, however, but if his kidnapping was a genuine kidnapping that leaves even more questions. Why was he not shocked to see the person kidnapping him? Why didn’t he struggle? How did the kidnapper surprise him and knock him out without a struggle or even a word of warning to Yuuki? How did Yuuki not notice another person was there?

There are a couple options I can think of. One is that the person who approached Zero was one he expected to be there (limiting our options to Maria, Goggles Guy, or Mimi), who perhaps covered his mouth with something like a chloroform-soaked cloth to knock him out. The other is that a person didn’t approach him--a pureblood blood creature did, such as Sara’s spiders or Kaname’s bats. If it’s the latter, he could be easily whisked away the way Kaname did for Yuuki in Night 60 or the way Touma did with his bats in Night 59 and 60. This would imply a pureblood is working with the Vampire King, though they may not be the mastermind. We know Yuuki has a hard time sensing the pureblood creatures, as it took her a few minutes to figure out the fake Kaname back in Night 76; it would be entirely possible for a pureblood to whisk Zero away quickly using these creatures rather than their physical selves.

All of this brings up some very interesting questions, which unfortunately we’ll have to wait two months (or perhaps more) to get answers. 

Suspect A: Kaien

In my review of VKM 13, I mentioned Kaien as a potential suspect. After VKM 14, I’m leaning toward him being a red herring, as much as this pains my Kaien-detesting heart. =P 

On the surface, he’s still a great candidate for mastermind of the whole operation. Here’re the points in his favor:

He meets Maria in secret and spills a “secret” to her.

He has time to plant the bombs.

Although he’s not at the scene of the crime, that could be because a.) he already planted the bombs, b.) the Zero kidnapping isn’t part of the Vampire King activities, or c.) he planted the bombs and his associates kidnap Zero, leaving him free to attack other towns.

At the mayor candidate rally, he talks about his ideals and runs off with a suspicious bag in his hand. (Thanks, @jadedmemories for pointing that out to me.)

That being said, here are the reasons I feel he’s a red herring now:

Yuuki got caught up in the mess, which I don’t feel he would have intended, and surely he’d know that this particular style of target would get her attention.

The target was a bunch of kids, which isn’t his style--although he has no problem putting teenagers in danger, he still looked after and cared for Yuuki and Zero as children and likely wouldn’t threaten kids.

Although we don’t find out Kaien’s secret, we do find out that he asked Maria to reach out to the Academy alumni, which (while perhaps a decoy) implies whatever he’s working toward is ultimately altruistic or at worst benign in nature and something he thinks other people will support.

Hino made a point in VKM 11 of showing Kaien has some regrets about how he handled his life, and she reiterated this in VKM 6 when he was talking with Yori’s dad. 

His motives for committing these attacks (especially now that human children have been involved) seem fairly weak and counterproductive to his other stated goals.

All in all, while it’s still certainly possible that Kaien could be the ultimate mastermind or part of the Vampire King group, in the end I think he’s probably a red herring whose activities will end up helping Yuuki and/or Zero in the end. He does have access to a pureblood, Isaya, who could have helped him kidnap Zero, but there are also other purebloods who could do the same thing with potentially more motive.

Suspect B: Maria

Hino conveniently decided to bring Maria back after all this time in VKM 14. I don’t think she was brought back just to resurrect Yuuki’s limp jealousy over a man she’s been pushing away romantically for over 50 years. Depending on whether or not Maria has a role to play in the Vampire King group, the reason for her return will change.

It is possible she’s part of the Vampire King group, and we’re meant to suspect her. If she is a part of the group, however, I don’t believe she’s the mastermind. Before we get to that, let’s start with why she might be a potential suspect:

She randomly decides to help patrol the tunnels despite this being out of character for her, which Zero (being the most intuitive character of the cast) immediately points out.

She has a secret meeting with Kaien where she’s framed suspiciously.

When she talks about people being on the move thanks to the academy in the first scene with Kaien, Hino puts her speech bubble over the crime scene from later in the chapter. The framing is rather ominous. 

She’s working with a human we’ve never met before, who has some ambiguous connections to the former academy.

We know nothing of her whereabouts during the last few years since Night 93. We only know at some point there was a scene where she sadly watched Zero walking away, which was during the original Night 92 epilogue and where she had her original hairstyle. When that scene was and what it was about, we still don’t know.

Hino makes rather a big deal out of her wish to protect “what” she loves like Ichiru. This might imply that, if she is involved with the Vampire King, she is doing it out of misguided altruism. 

She’s clearly still interested in Zero romantically, even if she’s not actively pursuing him.

She and her human partner were patrolling the area near where the landmines were, yet neither of them noticed the landmines. 

Her human partner has a suspicious line about suspicious things “lying around” right before Yuuki and Mimi step on the landmines.

It’s quite possible that the reason Zero isn’t shocked or startled by whoever approaches him from behind is because it’s Maria herself, who he expects to be in the area. He likely wouldn’t struggle against her initially if she was the one who kidnapped him.

I think it’s certainly possible Maria might be involved with the Vampire King, but it’s also possible that she’s not and her partner is, and that it’s a huge coincidence that she happened to be there at the time. If the latter, then her role will likely be to cause some small trouble for Yuuki and make Yuuki question some things about herself, as Maria’s role has been since arc 2.

If Maria is involved in this whole business, she’s certainly not the mastermind. She doesn’t have nearly the motive or connections to mastermind this. While she does care for Zero and has certainly worked with shady figures in the past (Shizuka), she usually is on the side of right or good--though she was Yuuki’s rival for Zero, she still helped her against Kaname and Sara. The only way I can see her being involved in this is if the mastermind has convinced her that Yuuki is bad for Zero and needs to be separated from him (hearkening back to her wish to protect the things she loves like Ichiru). Maria doesn’t love the kids at the kindergarten, and as far as we know she only cares about two things: Ichiru (who is inside Zero) and Zero. This makes it likely that the thing she wants to protect is Zero. If that’s true, then it’s quite possible she’s involved in his kidnapping. 

However, it’s also possible that she (like Kaien) is merely a red herring. If she is just a red herring, then her open and honest confession of her goals and feelings is actually in the story to serve as a foil to Yuuki, who lies about hers. Maria’s open and honest affection stands in contrast to Yuuki’s inability to be truthful about her own feelings, something she’s struggled with for the entire story. Even if Maria isn’t involved in the Vampire King organization, she still serves a vital purpose in both making Yuuki reassess herself in the canon itself and also stands as an ideal to contrast Yuuki for the reader. 

Suspect C: Goggles Guy

Maria’s human companion, who I have dubbed Goggles Guy in lieu of a proper name, has a few points in his favor as being partnered to the Vampire King group, but if he is partnered with them, that opens up a whole different can of worms as to why a human would be partnered with Level C and potentially noble/pureblood vampires to sow chaos and drag the vampires through the mud. His involvement with the Vampire King group muddies the waters of potential motives, but he’s suspicious enough that I can’t write him off simply because he makes things difficult. 

Points in his favor as a potential member of the Vampire King group:

We’ve never seen him before, yet he knows enough about the tunnel threat to volunteer for the vigilante group.

Although his story about his grandmother may be true, we know nothing about the remainder of his background. He could potentially be from a hunter family and be bearing some kind of grudge.

Hino has him speak a suspiciously prescient line about suspicious objects being set up and returning to an “original objective.” On the surface, this line is innocent, but as a foreshadowing technique it may implicate him as the very one who set the landmines.

This is intuitive on my part, but Hino drew his goggles to be deliberately provoking--whenever a character’s eyes are hidden, that’s usually a sign to pay attention. There was no reason to remove his goggles when we first meet him and then put them back on his face right as he speaks his most suspicious line.

If the above points are true, he is, just like Maria, probably a pawn being used in the Vampire King mastermind’s ultimate plan. This guy just doesn’t seem to have enough going for him to be a mastermind in his own right, and certainly not one who could organize kamikaze Level Cs/Ds to bomb themselves.

But as with Maria and Kaien, Goggles Guy may also ultimately be a red herring. Points against him:

His motive for joining the vigilante corps seems legitimate and sincere; Hino doesn’t use any paneling or screentone tricks to make his story feel suspicious.

Even if he’s an angry member of the anti-vampire faction, it seems strange that he’d join an organization that utilizes vampires and looks down on humans (if we assume that the second suicide bomber was an accurate representation of the people involved with this group).

He’s a human, and should have more trouble kidnapping Zero than a vampire might. 

His motives seem weak, despite how suspicious he looks. 

We know nothing of this guy, which narratively renders him fairly innocuous, much like the evil purebloods in volume 19. Hopefully Hino isn’t going to repeat that mistake again.

Of the characters presented this chapter, Goggles Guy is the most likely to be involved in some way, though I doubt he’s anything more than a pawn ultimately.

Suspect D: Mimi

The last suspect really highlighted by this chapter is Mimi. I’ll cover the other options in the last sub-section together. Mimi’s only appeared in two chapters so far--VKM 6, where she annoyed Yuuki at the vampire lounge and later attacked Yori with the yankee doodle vampire, and now in VKM 14. Of the potential suspects this chapter, I feel she’s the weakest, but she is the last known person to have seen both Zero and Yuuki, and that can’t be discounted entirely.

Points in her favor as an accomplice to the Vampire King plot:

She has a known animus against Zero in particular and humans in general (Yori).

She’s a petty criminal and knows the tunnels very well.

She appeared suddenly this chapter after not being mentioned at all for a while.

She’s in the last panel showing Zero and Yuuki fighting the bomb. It’s quite possible she’s the one who runs up to Zero and knocks him out.

That being said, I really don’t think she’s involved at all. Reasons why I lean this way:

Mimi’s dumb as a box of rocks and can’t keep her mouth shut for two minutes flat.

Her narrative role appears to be filling in as the Yuuki sidekick character since Aidou is being used for other purposes and Zero has been removed. 

She’s being used to help Yuuki articulate her thoughts in a sincere way, and these conversations would be seriously undermined by villainous activity.

She steps on the damn landmine. What conspirator steps on the landmine? Yes, it offers authenticity, but there was no guarantee she’d escape unscathed unless it was a dud she stepped on which we know it wasn’t. 

Unless she’s speed running in that last panel that shows her head, she’s too far away to be the culprit who kidnaps Zero. The shot we see from behind her is also potentially a perspective shot of the person who DID attack Zero, and who IS running past her to get to him (hence the angle and speed). 

Hino never paints her suspiciously in the chapter, unlike Kaien, Maria, and Goggles Guy. 

There’s an interesting moment where Mimi points to Zero with Maria/Goggles Guy and demands to know why he’s not on Yuuki’s team and is on Maria’s. This is a potential narrative device foreshadowing the arc that’s about to come, with Zero “on the Vampire King’s side” due to blackmail, and Yuuki/Mimi having to figure out why. A device like this normally isn’t used for or by villainous characters.

It may be my bias toward Mimi talking here, but honestly she’s the most refreshing character in this story since Ai lost a lot of her charm and flatlined, and I’d hate to see her used for villainous purposes when there are plenty of other, superior candidates.

Suspect X: Everyone Else

I won’t go too deeply into the other options for the Vampire King mastermind this chapter, but a quick list of characters who are still potential masterminds despite not being directly involved this chapter:

Ai - Ai’s an unlikely candidate, but since we know she can wake up and go back to sleep, it’s entirely possible she’s somehow involved, rendering this whole Vampire King thing a big sham. Given how violent it has been so far, I think she’s an unlikely choice, but we can’t rule her out yet.

Isaya - Isaya’s not normally an active character, but he can be in the right situation. Perhaps he’s off his rocker.

Takuma - My favorite option, and the one who appears the most innocent and has the most potential for juicy narrative twists. He’s not in this chapter of course, but “someone” had to tip Kain off on what was going on, and we don’t know who that someone was.

Kain - An unlikely option, given he was one of the earliest victims, but still possible since he’s the one who gave Yuuki the intel.

Kaito - With the return of Maria, the first of the two anti-Zeki characters, it’s not a stretch to imagine Kaito might return as well to be a foil to Zero, especially if in the interim between Night 93 and VKM 14 Kaito was attacked and turned by a pureblood. Kaito has a distinct animus against vampires and purebloods, and he is not supportive of Zero’s relationship with Yuuki. There’s also a scene in Night 93 of Kaito watching over Zero hugging Yuuki which might feed into this possibility. Hino hasn’t shown us what happened to Kaito for a reason, and what that reason is may be relevant to this new plotline.

Other random purebloods/nobles/level cs/humans/hunters - The Vampire KIng mastermind could certainly be someone we’ve never met yet. I would be disappointed if this were the case, but it’s entirely possible. Who knows who or why this group has been cobbled together. 

So as is evident, we have quite a bit of potential for who the Vampire King culprit is. Hopefully the next few chapters will give us some new information, but for now we can enjoy the speculation. ;)

A Breath of Fresh Air

Mimi is a complete delight this chapter. She brings back some much-needed humor in a natural way. She’s not enabling Yuuki or interested in babying her. She’s dumb, but has a sharp intuition, if pointed incorrectly. Hino’s incessant need for comedy plays off well with this character, in a way it didn’t with Ai. As someone who is uninvolved in all the drama of Kaname’s interference in everyone’s lives from the previous series, Mimi has a refreshing outlook that helps break the story away from the bleak shadow Kaname cast over all the characters.

I love Mimi’s assessment of Zero. It tickles me pink that she thinks he’s a cheater and off wooing all the ladies and that he “seduced” Yuuki. This just shows how off-base she is, but I do believe she is picking up on his dissatisfaction with his current relationship, and is just reflecting it back to Yuuki in her own unique way. What I love about her perception of Zero is that she has no idea that in reality he never even tried to steal Yuuki--Yuuki chose him, Yuuki latched onto him, and Yuuki wouldn’t let go of him. The only “seducing” Zero ever did was simply be a hurt and fragile boy who stood in front of Yuuki on a dark night. The rest was all Yuuki. But of course Mimi wouldn’t know any of this, so it’s cute to see her misread the situation. ;) It also is a nice reminder of how charming, handsome, and attractive Zero is--that he is a catch and one who rightfully should have his pick of the ladies, even if Hino won’t give that to him because, well, they’d clearly outshine our “heroine,” who wouldn’t be able to compete with a proper rival. =P

I also love that Mimi has no reverence for Yuuki at all, despite dubbing her “Yuuki-sama.” She also cuts through Yuuki’s bullcrap in a way none of the other characters seem capable of in recent chapters. She honestly is a better friend to Yuuki in this single chapter than Yori was in the past 13--and I don’t mean better as in better person, but simply better in the fact that real friends don’t enable bad behavior for an entire lifetime, and Yori enabled Yuuki whereas Mimi reminds her to stop moping and dwelling and just do what she thinks is right. It’s so refreshing, and I’d love to keep this girl around for a while. 

Her simple foolishness is charming and fun in a way Yuuki’s false obliviousness is not anymore, and it acts as a good contrast to Yuuki’s fake attempts at playing such a character. With Mimi around, even more than when Ai was near, Yuuki is forced to step into the adult role she’s meant to have and stop playing the eternal child who doesn’t know her adult responsibilities. All I can do is tip my hat to Mimi and thank her for channeling the true spirit of the Eternal Fool, the very person who lights the way for heroes to become heroes. All heroes step through the Fool’s Way first, and it’s long past time for Yuuki to get her own journey started. If Mimi can light the way for her, I’d be quite pleased.

Welcome Home

I won’t cover Maria as a potential suspect in this section, but I do want to talk about her role as a character and why she has returned at this time to the story. This section will assume Maria is not a suspect, but even if she is, her function in this chapter doesn’t change all that much, it just gains additional layers. Assuming she’s innocent, though, she still brings some interesting and much-needed layers to the table.

Maria is an active foil to Yuuki this chapter. In many ways, she is Yuuki’s superior and is closer to living as Yuuki’s “ideal” than Yuuki is, and this is a factor that I feel is not lost on Yuuki. Here are the ways that I feel Maria is acting more heroically than Yuuki this chapter:

Maria finds out on her own about the terrorist attack using her own intelligence-gathering abilities. (Assuming she is innocent of being part of the Vampire King plot, of course.) Yuuki, on the other hand, is sitting on her thumbs at home and the information has to be brought to her. Maria is active, Yuuki passive.

Maria is acting in the memory of her beloved and without his direct involvement and without any direct recognition from anyone. Yuuki only acts when she feels social pressure to do something, because it looks good in front of her friends.

Maria helps form and collect the members of the vigilante group. Yuuki sneaks around and drags uninvolved parties into danger. 

Maria takes action despite the risks to her. Yuuki remains passive and uninvolved despite having immense power and political clout.

Maria is honest and forthright about her reasons for stepping in. Yuuki is cagey and unable to articulate why she is doing what she’s doing. 

Maria’s activities bring the sincere admiration of Zero, while Yuuki’s bring only his irritation and concern. 

Maria responds to Zero openly and sincerely, while Yuuki remains unable to express her true feelings honestly, despite knowing she should follow Ruka’s example.

Maria is acting out of a sincere desire to help, Yuuki to get attention and show off. 

Again, the points above are assuming Maria is not a suspect. If she’s a suspect, some of the sincerity of her actions is diminished, but her role as a foil to Yuuki still remains intact because Yuuki believes she’s sincere.

I was chatting with @vampireknightmeta about why Maria comes across to me as sincere this chapter and why Yuuki doesn’t, and she brought up a brilliant point about the difference between the two (and the difference between Zero and Yuuki). I felt her point was very relevant and explains the difference well: Yuuki is the type of person who deep down knows that her natural inclination is not to do the right thing, and so tries to “act” like a good person. Maria (if she’s not acting duplicitously as a member of the Vampire King group) and Zero are the type of people who instinctively do the right thing because they are good people. They don’t have to act like good people, they are. This isn’t to say Yuuki isn’t a good person or doesn’t have the potential to be a good person--rather, it’s the difference between a person who follows laws because they’re “afraid” of the consequences of breaking them (and who, if there were no consequences, would do the acts that the laws warn against) and a person who follows laws because they genuinely believe the laws are good and are of benefit to themselves and others (and even if the laws never existed would choose to follow them on principle). The outcome is the same--both types of people follow the laws and would be viewed as “good” and “innocent” by bystanders looking in, but in their hearts the two are very different--one type is genuinely good and altruistic, the other is not but wishes they were. 

I do believe Hino is trying to help Yuuki grow into such a person, a person who--although she is fully capable of great evil and great caprice--deliberately chooses not to be because in her core she truly has embraced altruism and genuine love. This hearkens back to VKM 3, where Yuuki talks about the seed of desire and her fears about it. Yuuki has never truly faced herself and the darkness within herself and the darkness she’s capable of creating, and because she hasn’t incorporated her shadow, she can’t actualize her full potential as a person the way Zero and (potentially) Maria can. Until you face your shadow, you don’t really know who you are, and I believe Maria’s return to the story (assuming she’s not part of the Vampire King plot, or even if she is) is meant to help Yuuki identify where she’s failing as a person, and why her relationships never unfold correctly. Maria’s role is always to help Yuuki course-correct, and I believe she is reprising that again this time. She represents a woman who isn’t relying on a man as a crutch, but who is using a past love as inspiration for moving forward, a direct contrast to Yuuki who is both using one man as a crutch and using a past relationship as a reason not to move forward. 

By using Maria as a foil, Yuuki’s flaws as a heroine come into stark relief, and we can see more clearly where she needs to go and what she needs to do in order to achieve the happiness that surely she desires somewhere, deep down inside. 

Closer to Shadow than Light

I’m feeling pretty darn ambivalent about Yuuki this chapter, and this section will reflect that ambivalence. There are aspects to what we saw unfold this chapter that I enjoyed and am pleased to see, and there are other things that I’m not so pleased with when I pull back to the macro level. Unfortunately they’re all kind of meshed together, so I’ll have to talk about them together. If anyone reading this is the kind of person who is defensive of Yuuki, I’d recommend just skipping this section and going to the next one. There’s a lot to deal with here, and I’m not going to be going easy on the girl.

Yuuki is more talkative and friendly this chapter than she has been in any chapter since Night 89. It almost seems like she’s had a personality transplant, honestly. She is actively trying to learn a new skill with Ruka, she opens up about herself and her feelings to Kain and Mimi, she’s more proactive and adventurous, she even openly admires and talks about Zero. It’s like we’ve been transported back in time to the Sara mini-arc, where she was running around doing her Night Class restoration thing. She treats Kain and Mimi better than she’s treated anyone since Night 89--she’s genuine and honest with both of them. While this is nice to see in general and is certainly a step forward from the lifeless doll she’s been recently, for me it feels like too little too late and makes me genuinely angry on behalf of Zero, Ai, Aidou, and Yori. Yuuki’s been dishonest and cagey with all of the people dearest to her for decades, yet all of sudden she’s now blabbing everything about herself to two people who aren’t even her friends. It’s frustrating that she’s kept this habit from her teen years, and it’s a sign of how little she’s grown in the decades since the final volume of the original series. And this is just the tip of the iceberg that is the mess that is Yuuki in VKM 14. 

When we first encounter Yuuki in this chapter, she’s in her own home having a cooking lesson with Ruka. This fact is glossed over lightly due to the scene beginning in medias res, but it brings up some interesting questions:

Why is Yuuki suddenly interested in cooking? She’s never been good at it or interested in it in her over 70 years of life.

Does Zero know about these lessons, or are they a secret?

I wouldn’t find this lesson remarkable if this was during Ai’s childhood or right before or right after Yuuki and Zero became official. But it’s arguably several months after VKM 9′s official announcement, and the timing is suspicious for Yuuki to suddenly take an interest in being domestic where before she was content to leave it to the servants/Ruka (when taking care of Ai) or leaving it to Zero. It seems too coincidental that this sudden interest in being a more attractive and useful partner comes directly on the heels of VKM 13′s final scene; we don’t know how much time has passed since then, but clearly whatever transpired afterward led to Yuuki taking a sudden keen interest in improving herself. I’ll discuss the ramifications of this more later on, but for now it’s fair to leave this as a point of interest.

We begin the scene with Kain informing Yuuki of the next potential plot of the Vampire King group--to plant bombs under the sewers of the kindergarten and daycare centers. Why this group would broadcast their plans should be the real issue for the investigators--that alone should have been a red flag that their goals weren’t the bombing itself--but that aside, Yuuki gets herself worked up into a rage over the issue of children being targets. There’s an distasteful element of hypocrisy in Yuuki’s sudden desire to protect children that bothers me deeply as a reader. Yuuki declares very forthrightly that she won’t forgive anyone who targets children. Yet this is the same woman who spared not a single moment of regret for what Rido did to her real baby brother, the real Kaname, and free-passed and ignored what Kaname’s own crime of targeting Zero and Ichiru as children. For her to run around screaming that she won’t forgive anyone who targets children now, when she’s already done such a thing in the original series, is less than convincing and is outright distasteful in my opinion. I can only hope Hino recognizes this herself and doesn’t think Yuuki’s outrage in this scene is merely a cute way to show how altruistic and kind Yuuki is--because if that’s true, then that shows that Hino (and Yuuki) both think only criminals one doesn’t know are evil, and that the criminals one does know are excusable especially if they’re romantic interests, and that is reprehensible in the most vile manner. It’s okay for Kaname to target two innocent twins for Yuuki’s sake, but it’s not okay for the Vampire King group to do the same for their own reasons. The hypocrisy is a little too thick to be ignored on this one, and I hope Hino has Yuuki get called out on this later on in VKM. 

On top of this, Yuuki’s outrage is rather out of proportion to the threat, especially with so many good people (including the man she supposedly cares about) on the case. It’s clear something more is going on beneath the surface than concern over the safety of children. Even Ruka, who is one of the most maternal characters in the story besides Yori, has a much more reasonable reaction to the news--she calls the perpetrators out for being despicable, but doesn’t let it steal her chill. Yuuki flies off the handle melodramatically and is rightfully stopped by Kain--she’s out of control, and her involvement isn’t going to help matters. Ruka’s solution works out well for Yuuki, but it read more to me like an adult stepping in to keep the peace rather than a genuine compromise. Still, Yuuki trying to be proactive is better than Yuuki sitting on her thumbs, so baby steps I suppose. The most damning news, and likely the real reason why Yuuki wants to get involved, is because Zero didn’t tell her this was going on and concealed it from her. She’s upset that he’s not involving her in the case, but also knows she has no right to get her nose out of joint because it’s his job. Sneaking in and sniffing around gives her an excuse to keep an eye on him. Trying to protect children is most likely a cover up for her real reasons for going. Yuuki always tries to look good in front of others to hide her real motives; typical pureblood activity.

This scene with Ruka and Kain isn’t just to establish Yuuki’s reasons for trespassing into Zero’s territory; it’s also meant to serve as a mirror, with Ruka and Kain’s relationship reflecting Zero and Yuuki’s. Remember, Ruka and Kain are a settling relationship, the one Zero and Yuuki should be if Yuuki genuinely loved Kaname and is just moving on with Zero as her second best option. If Ruka and Kain, who are a settlement pairing, are shown in a more positive light than Yuuki and Zero, it should serve as a red flag to a careful reader. 

And that’s exactly what Hino does with this section--Ruka, the woman who settled for Kain, is shown behaving like a proper wife to him. She gets upset when he dismisses the importance of their time together as a married couple, she encourages him to do his best at his work, she expresses her explicit faith in and admiration for his abilities, and then she sends him off to do his duty while going about her day, having absolute confidence that he’ll return to her in the end. This woman, a woman who held favor for Kaname for nearly as long as Yuuki, is capable of being such a wife to a man she settled for, a man she clearly cares deeply about but who wasn’t her first choice. If Yuuki’s issues with Zero are simply her failure to move on from Kaname, she should be more like Ruka, not less.

Instead, Hino casts Yuuki unfavorably in contrast to Ruka. Unlike Ruka, Yuuki has no faith in Zero as a partner. Though she does admire him behind closed doors, she never openly speaks of her pride in him when he’s present, as Ruka does to Kain. She doesn’t appreciate his hard work or his efforts, she doesn’t nag him for time together, she doesn’t support his endeavors. Instead she frets over his safety and looks down on him because he’s not immortal like she is. She doesn’t trust that he’ll return to her, as she admits to Mimi later on in the chapter. Where did all this fear and distrust come from? It certainly didn’t come from the original series, at least not before she herself destroyed their bond in Night 88--she held a deep trust for Zero before then and didn’t fear for him during the Sara arc. In fact, she even said as much openly to him back then--she “wasn’t worried about him” even as she sent him to drink Sara’s blood. That same girl now has no faith in this man at all, despite all he’s done in the meantime. Something has gone terribly wrong, and from her conversations with both Kain and Mimi, she knows it too, even if she’s unwilling to face why. 

Yuuki has her first semi-breakdown around Kain in this chapter, but she’ll break down around Mimi as well. She admits that she’s all scrambled, because she knows she should be more like Ruka but can’t quite get herself to that point. Instead of taking the time to sort herself out, she focuses on irrelevant things that won’t solve the real problems--such as interfering with Zero’s investigation. She basically says that rather than deal with the snakes in the garden, she’d rather go out and hunt the wolves howling outside the walls. This section reveals her real intentions for going out on this case--she’s not interested in protecting the children, but in preventing Zero from being involved. This mindset, as her own narration implies, will come back to bite her in the future. From some point in the future, she admits that during this period all she could do was eliminate the immediate fires, rather than preemptively planning for them. 

What’s interesting about the way Hino frames this discussion with Kain (if it can even be called a discussion; it’s more like Yuuki talking to herself in front of Kain), is that Kain is clearly uncomfortable with Yuuki suddenly blabbing to him about her inner worries. This tells the reader a few things: 

Yuuki and Kain are not normally close enough for these kinds of conversations to be normal.

Yuuki’s starting to crack under some kind of internal pressure to the point where she’s talking to people she normally doesn’t talk to. 

Notice she doesn’t talk to Ruka about her worries, despite the fact that Ruka is a far better option for this sort of discussion than Kain. In the past, she did the same thing to Yori--when Yori tried to ask her about herself, she’d clam up (as she does in VKM 13.5) or deflect. Yuuki hasn’t talked about herself openly in decades, and so for her to start blathering her true thoughts now, well, that can only imply something...unusual...has triggered this sudden need to talk to everyone who’s not involved with Zero. 

She does another thing that’s rather interesting during this whole scene with Ruka and Kain--she brings Zero up when no one else brought him up. Kain never once mentions Zero, only the hunters in general. Yuuki brings him up twice on her own when no one asked her to. This also implies that whatever it is that’s spurring her into action, it’s related to him and nothing else. Coming on the heels of VKM 13, I smell a rat that’ll need to be buried in future chapters. 

This all would be more than enough to chew on if the chapter ended there, but there’s still more to unpack once Yuuki gets herself into the sewers. She’s joined by Mimi, the culprit of the attack on Yori in VKM 6, who has “reformed” (so she says) thanks to Yuuki’s intervention. Mimi’s a charming girl, and she brings some of Yuuki’s flaws and failures as a person into stark relief for anyone with a knowledge of the original series. 

The first thing we find out about Mimi is that Yuuki’s helped her get her life back together after her crimes, and Mimi’s grateful to her. Yuuki flat out tells Mimi that the only reason she helped Mimi was to keep her from returning to her criminal ways. When Mimi acts like she probably hasn’t, Yuuki asks her if she’s really gotten her act together. 

While this is a cute scene on the surface, and if this was any other character (Zero, Aidou, Yori, or Ai, for example) who helped Mimi, it would be just a funny character-building scene for Mimi; unfortunately Yuuki’s past history with a certain other criminal highlights another aspect of her hypocrisy this chapter: she judges Mimi for her unlawful actions, but she refuses to hold Kaname accountable for his--instead she blames herself, rather than Kaname, for his crimes in order to excuse him and absolve him of them. For her to judge Mimi, whose crimes are much lower on the scale of criminality than the man who fathered her first child, is a pretty classless and hypocritical move as far as I’m concerned. I’m sure Hino just meant this scene to be a cute example of Yuuki helping people, but it was a fairly tasteless choice in my opinion. As I said earlier in the Kain section, I can only hope Hino knows how tasteless this is going to come across and accounts for it with a reckoning later.

While Mimi herself is adorable, Yuuki is fairly gruff and curt with her in the first part of their scene together; it’s clear she doesn’t like Mimi and finds her to be useless at best, irritating at worst. Mimi’s worth as a character won’t appear until later, but we can already start seeing the role she’s going to play for Yuuki in the upcoming chapters: she’s taking Aidou’s place, since Aidou is now a serious character who can’t play the fool for Yuuki, while Zero is gone from Yuuki’s side. Mimi is here to point out the things Yuuki won’t say, and to hint at resolutions to the things Yuuki is running from, just as Aidou was before her during the second arc of the original series.

When Yuuki realizes Zero is one of the three people she’s sensing in the tunnels, she aborts her mission rapidly--her hope to capture the culprits before Zero gets involved is immediately quashed. She tries to backpedal before Zero notices her, but of course no one escapes the greatest hunter who ever lived, and certainly not two girls as blockheaded as Yuuki and Mimi. But the mere fact that Yuuki tries to avoid Zero highlights a few issues right away:

Yuuki doesn’t want Zero to know she’s there.

Yuuki didn’t tell Zero she’d be there.

Yuuki knows she shouldn’t be there. 

Interestingly, earlier on in the scene with Mimi, Mimi mentioned that running into the association members is what she really doesn’t want to do, likely because they’re the most dangerous for vampires. Yuuki carefully ignores her comment, but we see here that Yuuki had the same intention, if for very different reasons. 

Hino uses screentones to show Zero’s none-too-happy about the appearance of his pseudo-girlfriend in the tunnels. He and Yuuki look like they’re about to get into it, but then Mimi distracts Yuuki by insulting Zero, which pisses Yuuki off. Any ensuing argument is cut short by the sudden appearance of Maria, who Yuuki clearly hasn’t seen in a while. The two teams chat for a bit, and Yuuki grows increasingly tense the longer the discussion goes on.

As I mentioned earlier in the Maria section, Maria is another foil for Yuuki, much as Ruka is, in this chapter. Beyond being a general foil, she highlights some of Yuuki’s deep insecurities specifically about Zero. Yuuki’s jealousy in this chapter, while funny on the surface, actually serves to highlight some of the true sources of her real fears about Zero, the ones she conceals behind fear for his safety, which is a more appropriate fear than her real ones. The first moment that worries Yuuki is when Zero openly admires Maria for doing something brave that is out of character for her. Zero then tells Yuuki about information he learned from Maria, implying that he and Maria have a “world” together that Yuuki’s not a part of (of course, this only because Zero just ran into Maria, so this is just Yuuki’s perception, and Zero’s being very upfront and honest). 

Yuuki watches (as does Mimi) this little world Zero and Maria are creating between them and becomes increasingly anxious with each moment. Mimi serves to highlight this for the reader, because Yuuki’s unwilling to let her true feelings be known other than some leaky facial expressions. Zero makes a comment showing he resents Yuuki hesitating about whether or not he’s cheating (the guy has waited patiently at least 70 years for this girl to have a real relationship with him; he’s no cheater and she shouldn’t be fretting over that--it’s insulting to him), and Maria quickly steps in to try to resolve the issue. Of course, the manner in which she does it just digs the hole further--she elicits a gentle response from Zero that continues to create a “world” around them that Yuuki isn’t a part of. 

Maria’s interactions with Zero establish a few things for Yuuki:

Zero honestly compliments Maria, yet he doesn’t compliment Yuuki or appreciate her efforts.

Zero respects Maria, yet he doesn’t seem to respect Yuuki.

Zero openly shows affection for Maria, but not Yuuki.

Maria is open and honest with her feelings for Ichiru and Zero, while Yuuki remains closed.

Zero relies on Maria, but not on Yuuki.

Yuuki is diminished standing next to Maria; her efforts to be helpful all pale in comparison to Maria’s. Zero’s admiration and affection and attention are all directed toward Maria; Yuuki is an irritation and an afterthought to him (from Yuuki’s perspective, though of course that’s likely not true in reality). Zero is warm and affectionate and openly speaks about his beloved brother with Maria. The reality of all of this makes Yuuki surly, and she brushes Zero off with a curt goodbye rather than wishing him well as Ruka wished Kain earlier. Even now, Yuuki’s still failing to fully take her place at Zero’s side. 

Maria stands as a symbol of what Yuuki should be: a woman who openly speaks of her affection for the ones she loves and who acts to protect not only the ones she loves but all the things she holds dear. Yet Yuuki’s failing to do any of this, and this is why Maria receives the reward Yuuki wants--Zero’s affection, respect, and admiration. But Yuuki hasn’t done anything to earn those things from Zero, and we’ll see this continues to be true even to the very end of the chapter. 

Before I leave this section, I just wanted to mention one thing I found incredibly irritating about Yuuki’s reaction in this section. Yuuki’s spent 70 years moping over a guy who is “dead” in name only by Zero’s and Yuuki’s own choice in VKM 8; Zero’s spent the same amount of time silently holding his own losses in his heart without complaint. The reason Zero is affectionate and kind to Maria in this chapter is because of her connection to his own loved one, and he actually has a chance to talk about his loved one with another person who loved him, unlike Yuuki. Yuuki can’t even handle this much; she’s too busy focusing on herself to see how good this is for Zero, how healing it is for him, and how much he’s needed this. Yet, she gets to mope about Kaname and talk about Kaname to her daughter and all Kaname’s friends and Zero, but can’t even afford a single tiny conversation about Zero’s brother to Zero because *egads* Maria has feelings for Zero and Zero might find a girl who lets him talk about his interests more attractive than a girl who whines to him about his mortal enemy in nearly every conversation for the past however many decades. It’s absolutely preposterous and honestly I hope Yuuki pulls her head out of her rear sooner rather than later because I’m getting hellaciously tired of her narcissistic naval gazing.

That aside, we come to the most revealing part of the chapter--after this new stress on her psyche, Yuuki breaks down to talk to yet another person she’s not close to, because apparently that’s how Yuuki works through things. She admits to Mimi that she knows her fears for Zero’s safety are potentially overblown, but that she can’t seem to have faith that he’ll return to her. Mimi, being a bit dumb but a good girl at heart, thinks the solution is as simple as Yuuki just letting go and having faith, rather than focusing on her anxiety. But obviously Yuuki’s anxieties aren’t about Zero dying--oh, no, they’re about him leaving. Yuuki clearly is aware she’s not the best girlfriend and that there are other women who are superior to her, and that if she doesn’t take action soon, after VKM 13, Zero might actually start to consider at other opportunities that are definitely out there. Maria clearly still is an option, Yuuki’s own daughter is an option, and we know from VKM 5 that Zero has had other opportunities. This is the first positive sign that Zero’s outburst in VKM 13 has made Yuuki realize not all is well with him, and that the status quo is no longer good enough to lead him on into the future. Her “restart” plan is starting to fail, and she has to figure out why. This is the real reason she’s talking to random people like Kain and Mimi, rather than her friends or Zero--she doesn’t want anyone to know how bad things have gotten, or how close she senses Zero is of realizing he doesn’t need her or her Kaname baggage anymore. 

She clinches this with a thought that Zero smiled for Maria. That means Zero hasn’t smiled for her in a loooooong time if she is struck by his basic polite smile to Maria. He probably hasn’t smiled since Ai grew up, as we see in VKM 10 that Yuuki loves his smile for Ai and thinks that things are well because of it. But Yuuki doesn’t make him smile, and rightly so--she’s honestly a terrible girlfriend, and worse--a terrible friend. She can’t even do friendship properly with Zero anymore, much less the relationship and intimacy he clearly needs. For her to get envious over Zero smiling politely and even a bit fondly at another girl, she has to have robbed him of his smile for so long that even that sad sorry state of a smile seems brilliant to her. It’s pathetic, but perhaps it’s the wake up call she needs to get her act together. 

Sadly, we don’t get any more reflection from her because of course Mimi just has to step on a landmine, and Yuuki follows suit. This yet again highlights the fact that Yuuki can’t seem to do a single thing right and always needs Zero to save her--far from saving him, he’s the one saving her. Mimi wonders if Yuuki will save her, to which Yuuki replies in the affirmative. But in Yuuki’s mind, her first instinct is to panic--rather than immediately dealing with the threat and expelling Mimi herself, she stands frozen, trapped in thought, until she senses Zero coming for her.

Despite my complaints about Yuuki in this chapter, this section is my favorite. Her fear and her love for Zero are actually palpable in this scene, more than we’ve seen since Night 88. She actually seems to care about Zero’s wellbeing here, which is more than could be said about her in previous chapters. Unfortunately, her care for his wellbeing has a darker underbelly--she stands around wasting time yelling at him rather than being useful and dealing with the threat before he gets there. 

Mimi is clearly in danger (the bombs could actually kill her, unlike Yuuki), and rather than immediately getting Mimi out of the blast zone (the way Yuuki will do as soon as Zero arrives), she stands around shouting at Zero like a spoiled child. Their bombs could go off at any minute if Mimi or Yuuki moves at all, yet Yuuki’s wasting time yelling at someone who isn’t even at her side yet or in danger. Clearly it doesn’t matter to her if Mimi’s head gets blown off, so long as she “proves” that she can protect Zero. It’s foolish and stupid, and it just goes to show how much growing Yuuki needs to do and how useless she is unless she has Zero as a crutch. 

When Zero reaches her side, instead of thanking him for coming (because, as always, his presence calms her mind and helps her focus), she goes all tsuntsun on him and snaps that she was going to deal with it herself. But she clearly wasn’t dealing with it--she was panicking and frozen and wasting time yelling at him and spinning her useless brains instead of focusing and doing something. She comes across not as a capable woman who is a good partner to Zero but rather as a petulant child who was testing Zero to see if he’d come running for her despite her protests. And as she surely knew, he came running to her side to save her, abandoning Maria in the process despite Yuuki playing the “bigger person” and telling him to stay by Maria’s side. If she were truly the capable woman she wants to pretend she is, she’d have already begun dealing with the bomb before he arrived to support her--that would have earned his admiration and praise. Instead, she’s uselessly standing around until he’s at her side, and then suddenly her brains work. Magical.

I do want to stress that it’s not at all that I truly believe Yuuki isn’t capable of courage, bravery, and being a useful member of the team. It’s the very fact that I know full well she’s capable of great courage and bravery (the Rido arc, the Sara arc) that makes her behavior this chapter so grating on my thinning patience. That’s the very reason why her behavior is so frustrating here--as soon as Zero is at her side, she instantaneously transforms into the capable woman she’s always been. She gets Mimi out of danger and starts dealing with containing the blast. If she’d just do this and trust Zero to support her and back her up, she’d find she likes herself a lot more, I think. That’s how they’ve always worked together, and for her to forget that after all these years shows how far she’s fallen. 

There’s a weird moment when they’re bickering with each other where he touches her arm and her eyes go wide with shock. This to me says they’re really on the rocks if she’s shocked that he’s touching her. Their bickering itself only reveals surface-level issues which by now I think is clear aren’t their real issues. Yuuki does reveal she resents Zero not telling her about the investigation, so likely she’s upset that he’s not wanting her as a partner in crime anymore. But given how reckless and unreliable she is, and how for a long time she made them do things separately due to their bench agreement, it’s hard to blame him for not being a mind reader and knowing she wanted back in on the action. Really she’s just being unreasonable, and she knows it. 

Of course, Zero then disappears before they can work through anything. Whether he’s been kidnapped or he disappeared of his own volition remains to be seen, but whatever is about to happen is surely to test Yuuki at last. It’s time for her to face being alone without a man to use as a crutch--no Kaname, no Zero, no Aidou. She might even grow from the experience. Wouldn’t that be something extraordinary? 

The thing that bothers me a bit about how Hino’s handling Yuuki this chapter is that this sudden “action heroine Yuuki” is too little, too late. Yuuki’s failed as an action heroine since the second arc of the original series began. This girl spends more time sitting on her rear than she does helping anyone in this story or doing anything useful. Most of her “activities” are pointless and result in no lasting consequences. It’s honestly laughable that Hino wants to try to go back to the Yuuki who stood against Kaname and Rido at the end of the first arc of the original series, but we’ll see. Maybe she’ll surprise me. I doubt it though.

The Solitary Sun

The flip side of Yuuki this chapter is Zero. While Yuuki’s thoughts are laid bare for us to see, Zero’s are, as I predicted, hidden. No surprise there, because Hino probably doesn’t want any Zeki fans to run away, and a peek in Zero’s head would probably send the remaining readers bolting for the hills. Better to stick with Yuuki for now.

However, we have enough clues to theorize where Zero’s headspace potentially is this chapter. We learn that he’s actively hiding intel from Yuuki, including information about the vigilante groups, which Maria (her rival) is a part of. While the likelihood of him cheating is low, this does demonstrate a lack of reciprocal trust in Yuuki’s maturity and judgment.

It’s likely that Zero’s concealing of intelligence from Yuuki is partially motivated by the outcome of VKM 13. There are a few hints that he’s still unhappy about the unresolved issues from VKM 13--he becomes angry with Yuuki the minute he sees her in the tunnels (inappropriately so; despite Hino trying to play it off as a comedic moment, there’s really no reason for him to be that angry at an immortal woman taking part in vigilante activity), and he’s the first one to bring up Yuuki’s VKM 13 request that he not die during their bickering fest as they disarm the bomb.

Given that Yuuki wanted to avoid him this chapter and he’s displeased to see her, this implies he’s at the very least been stewing on VKM 13 for an indeterminate amount of time, even if he hasn’t yet taken any action or made any decision about them as a couple yet as a result of it. It does appear that publicly he’s still holding his position in their relationship--he’s openly bothered by her pause before she rejects the idea of him cheating, and he openly calls her the woman he loves during the bomb disarming. However, these also may be signs that internally he’s starting to wonder about their relationship and is over-emphasizing it in order to keep legitimizing it. His doubts may be crumbling the foundation of the relationship beneath his feet faster than he can rebuild. Not once in all of VKM has Zero called Yuuki the woman he loves. For him to be saying this now, on the heels of VKM 13, strikes me as a red flag, and not of the “Zero’s about to be kidnapped” foreshadowing flavor. If Zero’s pulling out all the stops and openly declaring his feelings before he’s happy with Yuuki, we’re at the end of the line. This strikes me as the last desperate push to make things right before they all fall apart and he has to at last admit the experiment was a failure. But we’ll see. The kidnapping might give him a reprieve. 

I don’t have any evidence for this, but his behavior with Maria vs. Yuki this chapter brought up some questions for me. He openly admires Maria’s courage, despite her actions being against her regular character. Yet when Yuuki does the same thing, he doesn’t admire her actions or her attempts at bravery--he doesn’t encourage her, as he does Maria. I’m not sure if he’s doing this deliberately or if he’s just tired of Yuuki in general and thus can no longer be a supportive figure in her life. I think what he admires about Maria too is that she’s putting her life on the line in a genuine way, a way Yuuki can’t do because she’s a pureblood and thus doesn’t have to fear those things anymore. That’s something Zero may deep down wish he still had--the ability to walk the same lifespan with Yuuki, and to take risks together with her, as opposed to being the only truly vulnerable one of the two of them.

I also was struck by how he handled the moment when Maria was explaining how she had to insist he abandon her. Zero’s obviously a kind person, but it was a surprisingly manipulative move on his part to express his concern in the manner he did in front of Yuuki. It reminded me a little of an insecure man slyly trying to make his girlfriend jealous more than a sincere question. The rest of his interactions with Maria felt platonic and sincere to me, but that particular moment struck me as odd. 

Overall, in the initial scene with Maria, Zero doesn’t give Yuuki much warmth at all. Mimi even picks up on it, though she immediately assumes he’s cheating (in other words, she misreads the energy, but the energy does exist). He’s deliberately warm and supportive to Maria. This might be genuine, or it might be manipulative on his part, I’m honestly not sure yet. A Zero who is capable of what he did in VKM 13 is a different Zero than i’m used to, and so he may have some new snakes in his heart than before. Hence, he might be capable of new behaviors that he wasn’t capable of previously. If Zero is sincere in his admiration of Maria, it shows that he can tell the difference between her efforts and Yuuki’s. He knows exactly what Yuuki’s up to (spying on him and snooping), but Maria (as far as he’s aware, of course) seems to be genuinely working toward a higher cause, which Zero admires.

That also says something about the state of how Zero feels about Yuuki that is truly heartbreaking for me. Zero used to admire her straight-forward gaze and her inner courage and strength and kindness throughout all of the original series. For him to now be at a point where he’s not even acknowledging what she’s trying to accomplish, that leads me to only two conclusions: 1.) he doesn’t believe her sincerity due to his suspicions about her true motives, or 2.) he’s so angry with her he can’t appreciate her right now. It could also be a combination of the two, which is particularly unfortunate. 

The other thing I feel is lurking under the surface in Zero’s interaction with Yuuki this chapter is a sense that he feels resentful of her inability to trust him. He wants her to have faith in him and his abilities, as she once did when they worked together in the original series. I think he resents (on multiple levels) her obsession with his death--she’s not appreciating his life and is myopically focusing on something that may or may not come to pass. This comes out in his deep frustration with her at the end of the chapter; he hates the idea of being her damsel in distress that she has to rescue simply because she happens to be the longer-lived of the two of them. He still has his pride as a man and wants to protect her with his own skill, even if she’s technically stronger than him.

Some of this comes back to what I feel his true issues are lurking deep beneath the surface, which I mentioned in my review of VKM 13. His real issues center on a deep insecurity about his place in her heart versus Kaname. Kaname, on the surface, is a far better partner for her--he’s immortal, like she is, he’s older than she is, he’s more mature than she is. Zero is all these things as well, but he’s not “immortal,” only long-lived. If Zero is beginning to fear that Kaname (and Kaname’s lifespan) is what’s really at the center of Yuuki’s “fears” about Zero’s lifespan, then his outburst at the end of VKM 14 may be due more to his own insecurities than any genuine fear about the trouble Yuuki might get herself into. Of course, he loves her, so he doesn’t want her to suffer, but if he had faith in her (as he wants her to have faith in him), he’d know she could get herself out of any scrape she got herself into. So this to me indicates he’s really worried about something else, and that her “arms getting blown off” is more of an excuse than the real reason. 

I want to do a write up on this separately at some point, but for a long time now (since before the original series ended), I’ve had this sense that Zero is the real shoujo heroine of this story, and that the traditional “character roles” have been gender-reversed. This chapter added fuel to that suspicion, because normally the shoujo heroine is the one who gets kidnapped so the hero can come valiantly rescue her. However, I don’t think this particular kidnapping is going to play out that way--honestly I still believe this kidnapping is meant to isolate Zero so a deal can be struck with him; I don’t think Hino wants him to be seen as the damsel in distress. But with everyone targeting him in particular, and with the purebloods wanting him in the past, and with him being labeled as special far more than Yuuki ever was or has been, the chips are stacking in his favor that he’s the “real” shoujo heroine of this story, and thus many of the heroine character beats are going to him rather than to Yuuki. This makes for a difficult road for Yuuki as a heroine, because she’s not traversing the masculine beats very well--she’s just not capable enough. The Hooded Woman was a much better character for those sorts of beats, but Yuuki’s just too damaged, fragile, and flawed to play them out correctly. We’ll see how it unfolds, but for now I’ll keep mulling this over. 

Ships Passing in the Night

I don’t want to talk too much about Zeki as a couple, simply because they’re in a very frustrating spot and I’ve already labored over them enough separately. However, I do want to point out a few things about their situation together this chapter that struck me.

First is that I think it’s fairly clear that underpinning the whole chapter is VKM 13, which indicates a lack of resolution on the part of that chapter. I think it’s safe to say that nothing was resolved between them, and that Zero’s words to Yuuki (that her fear was her own curse on herself, rather than anything legitimate) hit home to her, while Zero is confirmed to not be buying any of the snake oil she’s selling with her “fears” for his life. We can see this in how they both behave in the chapter:

Zero’s behavior: 

Zero’s the easiest, because the best way to prove he didn’t buy what Yuuki was selling in VKM 13 is to look at his behavior. If he’d bought into her fears as legitimate, he’d be doing a couple things this chapter that we don’t see: 

He’d have told her what was going on with the investigation.

He’d have asked for her help in securing the scene of the crime.

He’d be making sure she was emotionally okay with the idea of him doing his job.

He’d be kinder to her for sneaking around to check up on him.

He would be taking precautions to ease her worries.

Zero does none of this in VKM 14. Instead he:

Hides what he knows about the investigation from her.

Gets outright angry when he finds her in the tunnels.

Is not taking any precautions to protect himself, and is instead protecting other people.

Throws her “curse” and her “worry” in her face in the middle of their bomb disarmament.

Flat out rejects her worries by pointing out that he hates the idea of her getting her body parts blown off, implicitly admitting that he’d rather die than witness that.

This all points to Zero not buying what Yuuki was selling in VKM 13, which I think puts to rest the idea that his “behavior” in VKM 13 was in any way shape or form genuinely a response to her fears and a “taking on” of her fears--he was mocking her then and taking out his frustrations on her, not “empathizing” with her or giving her what she wanted. If he genuinely felt her fears were legitimate, he’d be taking them into consideration in this chapter. I feel the case is closed on that at this time; now all we have to wait for is to find out what he was really upset about in that chapter, because now we know he was upset about something unrelated to her preposterous anxieties.

Yuuki’s behavior:

Yuuki’s behavior this chapter implies the opposite of Zero’s, another point in favor of Zero’s accusation that her curse was her own and not legitimate during VKM 13. If she felt her behavior in VKM 13 was legitimate and that her fears were legitimate, we should see some different outcomes from her this chapter:

She would be angry at Zero for getting involved in another case despite her fears. She would be upset with him for not taking her feelings into consideration. (Ironically, this is why she comments to Kain that she should be “worried” like Ruka--the fact is, she isn’t worried for his safety; her fears have nothing to do with whether he’ll get blown up or hurt or killed--they’re about something she’s not willing to face.)

She would be hunting Zero down in the tunnels openly to yell at him and drag him off the case.

She would immediately deal with the bomb herself without shouting at Zero when she and Mimi step on it, because that would prevent him (and Mimi) from being in the blast zone if she handled it promptly. 

Instead of this, what we get is the following:

Yuuki suddenly wants to improve her cooking skills! (That’s a bit of an odd reaction to fearing for your man’s life.)

Yuuki has a sudden “need” to be part of the investigation just because she overhears what the target is, when she wasn’t interested before other than in passing. 

Yuuki suddenly starts talking to random people about her issues, as if she realized she needs to work through them and get to the bottom of them. (She even flat out admits she’s a mess and can’t work through that mess easily.) This alone confirms she knows she’s full of horse manure and that Zero was right when he called her out in VKM 13.

She immediately has anxieties about Zero and Maria, despite all she and Zero have been through since the original series. Her anxieties aren’t even about Maria--they’re about Zero! 

She envies Zero smiling at Maria! If her true issue was his safety, who he smiles at shouldn’t bug her in the slightest because she has a good relationship with him and is being genuine and sincere with him.

She admits to Mimi that she doesn’t even have faith he’ll come back to her. This is not about him dying--this is about him leaving her. 

We see from Yuuki’s actions this chapter the first true hints (which her actions in VKM 12 support) that she’s afraid Zero is finally fed up and is thinking of leaving. That all she’s done to string him along and “keep” him is no longer enough--her blood’s not enough, sleeping in bed holding hands isn’t enough, being “platonic friends” isn’t enough. He has finally hit the end of the road with her “I won’t let you go but I won’t do anything with you” declaration in VKM 9. 

What she’s afraid of isn’t Maria per se--Zero isn’t going to leave her for Maria. But what about some other girl she doesn’t know about? There are thousands of women for Zero to choose from--thousands who, like Maria, would openly appreciate him and react warmly to his advances rather than shutting him out and clinging on to the memory of a man who hurt him deeply. Yuuki’s real fear isn’t that he’ll die--it’s that he’ll live, but not with her. 

Yet for her to keep Zero, she has to “clean up the mess,” which she herself admits is “hard.” So instead of doing the real work of dealing with her own issues, she goes off to play investigator and spy on Zero and play “hero” when she has no right to. Basically, this kidnapping is quite good for her, in my estimation, because it means she’ll have to start facing those things she doesn’t want to face--the real reasons Zero is unhappy with her and their relationship isn’t progressing. What’ll come of that is anyone’s guess at this point.

Zero and Yuuki’s mutual issues from VKM 13 bleed into their teamwork this chapter--although they still work together well, it’s not seamless like in their younger days. Yuuki trying to test Zero doesn’t help much, either--your partner isn’t going to respect you if you’re testing their loyalty when you yourself have been disloyal for 70 years. Seriously, why is Yuuki always one step forward, fifty back, I have no idea. It’s very frustrating for a reader, and I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for Zero to have to live with that. 

Ultimately, I’m pleased as punch they’ll be separated for a while. But more on where we’re going from here next.

Past Reflections Echoing into the Future

If VKM 13 was VKM’s version of Nights 61-64, VKM 14 picks up as the inverse of the Kuran Manor mini-arc’s Nights 65-67. I suspect the parallels will continue into the future, which is why I expect Zero to “return” of his own “free” will after he’s been blackmailed by the Vampire King group’s mastermind to act “against” Yuuki (and thus parallel the Rogue Kaname mini-arc from the original series). 

Because Zero was kidnapped, unlike Kaname in Night 67, this gives a different general atmosphere to this parallel to the original series, but ultimately the point is to separate Yuuki from the crutch she’s leaning on (Zero now, Kaname back then) and send her on a journey of self discovery, which hopefully this time will actually lead to growth rather than regression as it did in the original series in Volume 19. 

I see us being set up for a new arc where Zero’s return gives Yuuki initial relief, but because he’s being blackmailed he has to protect her by pretending to break things off with her. In this process, he will likely say quite a few “true” things that actually do reflect his true feelings--the best way to fool your enemies is to fool your loved ones, and the truth is the best way to accomplish that. So while Zero is saying these things to keep her safe and in the dark about what he’s about to do for the Vampire King (and in order to keep other innocents safe, because Zero’s lovely and altruistic like that), Yuuki will “believe” what he’s saying, because he’ll be speaking the truth from his heart at last. 

I suspect we’ll finally see that he has been afraid that she truly loves Kaname, despite what her blood tells him. We may see that he’s been contemplating bringing Kaname back for her again once the cure is in place. We may see that he’s open to the idea of disappearing from her life, because he feels he’s brought her nothing but misery. We may see that he feels Kaname was wrong in Night 93--that he doesn’t believe he and Yuuki were meant to be at all. All these fears and more are what could potentially be revealed on Zero’s side via this arc, and I would feel so relieved to see him finally speak these oppressive thoughts he’s clearly been suffering under for so long. 

Even if none of this comes to pass and Hino has other less interesting reasons for these events, Zero’s kidnapping is the best thing that’s happened to this story since Night 87. Even though I didn’t get Zero walking out on Yuuki (which I would have preferred), the kidnapping still forces them to separate and (hopefully) will force Yuuki to begin to examine what’s wrong in herself and her relationship and why it’s gotten to this point in the first place. 

This will work especially well if Zero does come back and is forced to act cold to her in order to protect innocents due to blackmailing from the Vampire King group’s mastermind. This would force Yuuki to have to examine how much she trusts Zero, how much of his words are true, and what all of it means for her. It’s a far greater test than what Ruka put her through when she gave her the illusion of Zero shooting her--because everything Zero will say to her here will be truth--perhaps incomplete truth, but still truth that she needs to acknowledge and deal with at last.

As for what else is coming our way, perhaps we might finally start seeing some movement on the cure. I’m quite looking forward to how that plotline mixes with this one, if indeed that’s what Hino intends for these two plotlines.

All in all, I think we’re still on track for things to unfold happily for our two star-crossed lovers, as long as Hino stops setting us back with detours. It’s time for Yuuki to get her act together and decide which man she wants in her life and what she actually wants for herself. It’s time for her to decide she prefers happiness to misery, whether or not she deserves it, and that Zero deserves happiness from her if she wants to stay with him or freedom from her if she wants to be true to Kaname. And since we know that he dies in her arms, I’d say chances are higher for the former happening than the latter. 

And that, as they say, is that. Until next time!

[natsumiyateirintheauthor]

A story inspired by various things;

Songs sung/covered by Luz; Queen Of Hearts, Bittersweet, Magic Ring Tale, Reflexion, and Lost In a Maze

Alice In Dreamland, sung by Vocaloid KAITO

And Heart/Clover/Joker/Dia no Kuni no Alice.

Compiled and archived from a fictional ancient newspaper from a fictional society of generally androgynous and genderfluid people, and formatted in Microsoft Word to reflect that.

Of course, that's subject to change as I share it on Tumblr.

In the meantime, here's the summary and preface- I'll share the first chapter/issue/week/whatever later.

Twins Alice and Lorina Liddel find themselves in Wonderland, on opposing sides of a regicidal war.

To keep Wonderland stable, Alice must act as a pillar and marry the eight rulers of its four countriea.

Lorina just wants to go home with her twin, and somehow that means getting involved with Ace- a revolutionary group seeking to overthrow the ruling figures of Wonderland and obsolesce the role of "Alice".

When different sides take different paths to reach the same goal, is there even a "right" way to achieve peace in a place as chaotic as Wonderland?

The Adventures of Alice

Written by Petra Rox, Chey Kutz, D. Sira, Harold Harodd, and Erica Mondae

Compiled by Lord Marciel Clemedine von Blauflam,

Edited and restored by the Solarian Literary Institute,

Audio narration by Iridia Mondae (leading storyteller of the Solarian Literary Institute)

 

Preface

 

The Lunar Star Chronicles is a paper that existed several hundred years ago, back when the sixth realm- known today as the Night Sky Realm and known back then as Noctuse- was still sealed off from the remaining five. At the time, while no people were allowed entry or exit, material goods could still be exchanged through the gateways.

The editors of The Lunar Star wished to inform foreigners of their culture, so they each wrote articles detailing different aspects of Noctusian culture. Over time, a few of them got together on the side and wrote a collaborative story- a darker, more adult sort of rendition of the familiar story, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and What She Found There, using elements and devices from Cinderella and Aladdin alongside other Noctusian norms.  

The story was never meant to be published, but perhaps through a filing mishap, it was- and it became so popular that it was continued as a weekly serial.

What you are about to read is a collection of these weekly serials, as compiled and edited by Lord Marciel Celedine von Blauflam of the Fire Realm.

In an effort to preserve continuity, Lord Blauflam cut out the cultural notes in his original compilation, however, the Solarian Literary Institute- who was responsible for the restoration of this work- has decided to add in the relevant notes here, in the preface.

** Though some might appear more feminine than others, Noctusians as a whole are androgynous in appearance, with no defined sexual characteristics.

** Due to this androgyny, concepts like gender are largely in flux. A Noctusian's gender can only be determined by the colors of whichever bracelet they might be wearing on any given day.

*** having said that, there are four types of bead combinations; bracelets made from cold colors (blues, purples, and greens) signify the wearer is identifying as male, regardless of his overall appearance. Warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges, certain shades of pink) are for females. Noctusians who choose to identify as both male and female, who tend to prefer singular "they" pronouns, wear bracelets made from black beads, and those who identify as neither- going by xie/xey, or else a different pronoun of their choice- wear white.

**** naturally, every Noctusian has one of each type of bracelet, so they may change their gender identification at any given time.

** Noctusian reproduction is quite different from other races, except perhaps Solarians. Noctusians are followers of the deity Heba, who it is said to have overseen the birth of the universe. Thus, there are many shrines dedicated to Heba all throughout Noctuse. If two or more people desire a child, they go to a shrine and pray. If the love between these people is at least present, Heba will send them a child- or two, or three; it depends on the strength of the participants' love for each other- within the next few months, on the back of a messenger wolf.

*** sometimes the rival deity Gift might try and steal the child as it is being delivered. While Heba often prevents this, in such cases the child in question will often have some sort of irreversible handicap, either physical or mental- Gift seems to act randomly.

** While marriage as a concept is normalized in Noctuse, the ritual itself varies from region to region.

*** polygamous marriages are often seen as more beneficial than monogamous ones, so it's quite common to see families with more than one set of parents.

** Noctusian children are essentially genderless until the age of four, when their brains are developed enough to think consciously for themselves and develop memories. At that point, the parents gather together and present the child with their identification bracelets. This doesn’t necessarily have to coincide with the child's 4th anniversary of arrival, but for some families it's easier.

** In Noctuse, the age of majority is twenty-eight, since that is typically when the brain is completely developed.

** On average, Noctusians have a life span of about three hundred years.

*** with such long lives, it is generally believed that Noctusians die without any regrets. As such, funerals are more like parties, wherein the family of the deceased will spend a week celebrating that person's accomplishments rather than actively grieving their loss.

**** in certain circumstances, such as the death of a minor, the celebration will last two days, and for the remaining five days, the child's direct family will lock themselves away and intermittently fast; it is believed that fasting is offering a portion of oneself to Heba, and that by using those offerings, the spirit of the child can either pay to be reborn to the same family later on, or else pay Doro the spirit guide to take them to Estellune, a mythical kingdom of eternal night.

** Noble children within Noctuse debut between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, at which point people may choose to court them- if they can get the parent(s)' blessing(s), of course. Once those children reach majority, a parental blessing is no longer required for their hand in marriage- though it is still encouraged and recommended by general society.

[aion-rsa]

How Shadow and Bone’s Jessie Mei Li Grounds the Grishaverse

https://ift.tt/3t78Uxh

If you’ve watched Shadow and Bone, then you’re probably curious about the literal sunshine at its center. Her name is Jessie Mei Li (she/they) and, though she’s a relative newcomer to the world of mainstream entertainment, that seems poised to quickly change. Between Shadow and Bone‘s current status as one of the biggest TV shows on the planet, and Li’s upcoming appearance in Edgar Wright’s psychological horror Last Night in Soho later this year, the 25-year-old British actor is surely at the start of an exciting storytelling career. We had the chance to sit down with Li prior to the release of Shadow and Bone to talk about where she’s come from and where she might be going.

“I really don’t think I’ve considered this show and the fact that people will actually watch it,” Li says, with a laugh, when I talk to her ahead of Shadow and Bone‘s April 23rd global release. “So much of what I’ve done hasn’t come out yet. So I guess the way I’ve been working is just having fun. Then I sort of just follow that, just get really immersed in it.”

Li has to be downplaying the skill and work that went into her warm and grounded performance as Alina Starkov, the orphan-cartographer at the center of Shadow and Bone’s excellent first season. It’s not easy to play a likable “Chosen One,” a character type that is often strapped with all of the angst and none of the fun of a fantasy epic, but Li makes it look like it is. She never makes the mistake of conflating fierceness with apathy, infusing Alina with an emotional intelligence and complexity that is apparent in every scene, whether it involves our protagonist light-heartedly teasing new Grisha friends or fighting for agency over her own body and power after a visceral betrayal. 

“[The actors] have to infuse the character with truth and the honesty, and they have to be brave,” says Mairzee Almas, who directed Li in episodes 5 and 6 of Shadow and Bone. “Jessie has a huge part in creating this character. Yeah, it’s in a book series and, yeah, here we are, it’s in the script—all of that’s true, but she has to bring her own humanity and her own fear and her own bravery and all of those things to the character.”

When talking to Li and looking back at her career so far, it’s clear just how much the actor’s bravery and humanity, focused by a joy of acting and a love for people, has driven her path so far. It wasn’t so long ago that Li was studying languages (French and Spanish) at university, unsure of what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, but increasingly sure that it wasn’t uni life. “I always loved playing dress up and doing little scenes and puppet shows and things with my brother and friends growing up,” says Li, who grew up in Surrey to an English mother and a Chinese-born, Hong Kong-raised father, “but I never really thought of it as something that I could actually do as a job.” 

Read more

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Shadow and Bone’s Alina is What a Modern Feminist Fantasy Heroine Looks Like

By Lacy Baugher

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Shadow and Bone’s Best Change From the Books is Mal & Alina’s Relationship

By Lacy Baugher

It’s easy to understand why Li grew up without considering acting as a viable career path. While we’re encouraged to think of acting as one of the more egalitarian professions, it exists in an unequal society that privileges certain groups of people above others—and some U.K. actors, like James McAvoy, who do not come from the kind of immense economic privilege as the Benedict Cumberbatches or Tom Hiddlestons of the world, have become increasingly vocal about the class ceiling, while British actors of color, like John Boyega, has spoken about the barriers that exist for BAME actors, even when they’ve been cast in one of the biggest film franchises in the world.

Li, who doesn’t come from an acting family nor from the elite Oxbridge world that churns out a disproportionate amount of the U.K.’s best-known actors, is also multiracial in a majority White industry. She might not have seen a clear path forward for her acting career, but she followed her passion nonetheless. After two years, Li left college before completing her degree and began working as a tutor, a waitress, and then as a teaching assistant. “During that time, I wanted to just do things that I liked doing,” says Li. “And one of those things was doing a bit of acting and then slowly over time, I was like, ‘Oh, this really makes me happy. I can really express myself doing this.’”

Li’s first foray into more formal acting training came in a summer course at the National Youth Theatre, a youth arts charity with a mission of “giving accessible opportunities both onstage and backstage to young people aged 14-25 from all corners of the U.K.” Li wasn’t intending on auditioning, but when the eldest son from a family she used to babysit for went to audition, the family encouraged Li to go along as well. While at the four-week program, Li learned about the Identity School of Acting, a part-time drama school in London “with a mission to disrupt the industry with a new, diverse generation of talent.” In addition to Li, its alums include Boyega, Letitia Wright, Sabrina’s Chance Perdomo, and Hanna’s Áine Rose Daly. For Li, the experience was as much about the relationships she made there as it was the skills honed.

“It was just so nice to meet people,” says Li. “I think that’s what really made me want to do these classes. It was to make friends who were like-minded. I’ve met some real lifelong friends through the National Youth Theater and Identity. So, yeah, it was definitely worthwhile for the relationships I made.”

Li might say the same about her experience working on Shadow and Bone, which filmed in Budapest from October 2019 to February 2020. Suzanne Smith, who did the casting for the Netflix adaptation and whose previous work includes Outlander and Good Omens, brought together a cast that is much more representative of the world than the average TV ensemble. Though the production includes veteran actors like Ben Barnes and Zoe Wanamaker, the vast majority of the series’ stars are younger newcomers, and they are delightful.

“This is a story about young people who have been overlooked and who’ve never had the chance to show people what they can do, who have all this talent and all of this power,” Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo tells Den of Geek. “So it made a lot of sense in terms of the soul of the books for us to have all these incredibly gifted young people that arrived on our doorstep, like a magical gift in the show.”

It’s also a cast that seems to genuinely love and respect one another, as the many, many seratonin-inducing clips from the Shadow and Bone virtual press junket have made apparent. When speaking about what she is most looking forward to about the show’s release, Li immediately and enthusiastically shines the spotlight on her co-stars, saying: “I think everyone is amazing in this show. I can’t wait for people to fall in love with whichever character is their favorite.” (If you were wondering her favorite characters are Mal and Inej: “I think both of those characters just made me cry.”) This cast are each other’s original #1 fans, and, in an time when Hollywood is getting slightly better at discussing abuses of power on set and in executive offices, it is important to celebrate the shows that prioritize supportive and collaborative work environments as vital to the artistic process.

When I ask showrunner Eric Heisserer if it was a priority to cast good people, he says: “Absolutely. I mean, you can’t always be sure of something like that, but there are certainly flags or behavior patterns that let you know a little bit more about that. And it was vital to me in a show where you’re building long-term relationships to begin with.” Heisserer says it is especially important to cast kind people when working on a (hopefully) long-running TV series versus a feature, which is usually a one-and-done production.

“Here, this is a pretty long-term group monogamous relationship,” says Heisserer. “And I’ve seen on the sets of shows I’ve shadowed on before that one bad apple can really turn the whole place toxic. So it was a careful set of choices here and a not insignificant amount of luck. I count my stars that we found the people that we did because the alchemy here… they’re so good to each other and they’re so good in their hearts.”

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This sense of gratitude for the opportunity and experience is reflected in how Li speaks about the project: “I’m so lucky to have had the opportunities I’ve had,” she says, when asked if there has been a point at which she feels like she “made it.” “I know so many actors who are far more talented than I am, who haven’t quite had that break yet. So I do feel really, really blessed to be where I am.”

While it’s not necessary to see this kind of behavior modeled in order to embody it yourself, when Li talks about what she learned from her first “big break” project—a West End production of All About Eve starring Gillian Anderson and Lily James in which she played a small role (as Marilyn Monroe)—she doesn’t speak about the lead actors’ performances but rather their professionalism.

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“They really set the bar for how much hard work goes in,” reflects Li. “Those two and the other cast members worked so hard and must’ve been exhausted and were just really great leaders in terms of bringing everyone together and getting us all cakes and doughnuts once a week and things like that. It was lovely to see these two women at the helm of this cast and how strong they were.”

After early 2019’s All About Eve, Li’s career continued to take off. She got confirmation she had won the lead role in Shadow and Bone just before production began on Last Night in Soho. Li will play the minor role of Lara in Wright’s 1960s London-set period story about (via Deadline) “a young girl [played by Jojo Rabbit‘s Thomasin McKenzie] who is passionate about fashion design, who mysteriously enters the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer.”

“Reading the script, I was like, ‘I’ve never read anything like this,’” says Li. “And it was such a great experience because I love Edgar Wright. I think I’ve watched Hot Fuzz more than any other film ever. So it was really great to meet him and work with him and see the way his films work. Everyone works so hard and it’s really set the bar. I keep saying that, but then going to do Shadow and Bone, I was like, ‘That’s the level of professionalism I want to bring to our set on Shadow and Bone.'”

While Shadow and Bone Season 2 has yet to be officially announced, the Netflix fantasy series debuted in the streamer’s Top Ten and was met with critical and fan acclaim. We’ll likely be seeing much more of Li’s Alina in the next few years. That’s good news for us and good news for the actor, who genuinely seems to love her character and can’t wait to see what happens next: “I think I’m really excited for us to see how Alina deals with everything,” she says. “It’s kind of how I feel at the moment in terms of: we’ve got this show coming out and now people might know who I am. And I feel like that happens to Alina too.” 

Shadow and Bone is now available to watch on Netflix.

The post How Shadow and Bone’s Jessie Mei Li Grounds the Grishaverse appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[dgsagasblog]

Twitter: A Digital Landscape of Opportunities!

Introduction

Your idea or business needs to be seen and heard in order to grow. If you find Social media  more lucrative than the conventional form of advertising, then Twitter  is probably the best place to be. With more than 80% of Twitter users mentioning a brand in a Tweet and the average Twitter user following five businesses, Twitter marketing is a growing place for brands to engage and build an active community.

I would like to call myself a curious explorer ,  an innovator, and a digital storyteller, who likes to connect with people and that is exactly how I began my journey on Twitter. It may sound clichéd, but Twitter opened a world full of opportunities for me.  It became a virtual window through which I could learn, share ideas, and  reach out to people – not just locally, but from all over the world.  For me, Twitter is an effective digital landscape that connects like-minded people and accelerates learning and individual growth.

In fact, the world of Twitter is so vast that whichever niche of business you pursue, marketing on Twitter, or simply building your personal presence on Twitter will guarantee an audience who can eventually turn into customers!

Why Take My Word for It?

Read the below statistics and watch out for yourself how Twitter can play a pivotal role in your marketing mix.

             Data says that there are 340 million monthly active users on Twitter

     Total number of Tweets sent per day 500 million

     Twitter is used by 22% of all online US adults

     It is equally popular with men and women (24% and 21% of online Americans respectively)

 77% of Americans who earn $75,000 or more use Twitter

 27% of B2B content marketers used Twitter ads in the last 12 months

 Twitter ranked 4th globally for web traffic in October 2020

 66% of brands with over 100 employees use Twitter for marketing purposes

 Twitter’s user base is predicted to grow by at least 2.4% in 2021

 Twitter is currently valued at $36.48 billion

 Twitter is the number #1 social networking platform in Japan

 Twitter ads can reach 5.8% of the world’s population over the age of 13

(source: @omnicoreagency.com, / @similarweb / @eMarketer )

So, before you Jump on to the Twitter  Bandwagon and try Twitter for Marketing here are few tips that can help  your business gain credibility:

 Use Powerful Content: Grab  eyeballs with powerful content. Sell your business’s credibility with  interesting and powerful ideas. Do not deviate from the truth but make  things as interesting as possible. Try to avoid the beaten track and use  the information to tell a story that captures the attention. For  instance, a video about robotics and how it aids our daily lives will  surely stop you in your tracks.

 Ensure Visibility: The age-old adage ‘out of sight, out of mind’ cannot be more apt while marketing your brand or business on Twitter. Twitter marketing  is all about staying alive and in action. The more you tweet and engage  with your followers, the more visibility you stand to gain. The’  tweets’ do not necessarily have to be related to your business or brand  promotion all the time. Build interest, by sharing interesting content  and when you have your audience engaged, then divulge your service or  merchandise. Research says you can post, tweet, or re-tweet up to 15 times a day.

 Building Twitter Community: As  much as broadcasting your thoughts and ideas about your brand or  business, marketing on Twitter is important. Twitter marketing is also  about establishing personal connections with an individual or  prospective customers. Earlier it may have only been about servicing or  networking in response to a particular tweet or request from a customer,  but now you can connect with anyone with your line of interest. You can literally track down tweets, post an interesting response and consequently expand your network. Building trust by delivering services,  maintaining transparency, and connecting with prospective customers can  surely take your brand credibility a few notches higher.

 Use Twitter Hashtags and Trends:  Blend in with the Twitterati!  As important it is to make your voice  heard it is equally important to be in sync with the ongoing trends and  hashtags. To comment on important topics and trends and engage with  fellow followers, trendsetters and influencers is an absolute must.  Sharing your point-of-view across, will help you gain visibility and  connect with prospective customers, influencers, who in turn can further propagate your brand’s message. Keep an eye out for the important days and events on Twitter- which garners phenomenon traffic and action, in-process giving marketing on Twitter a shot in the arm.

 Influencers can make all the difference:  Every social media has its band of influencers. In Twitter, you can  find influencers ranging from top-shot world figures to  micro-influencers specific to industries like food, fashion, travel,  technology, and so forth. Influencers with their millions of followers-  set trends, break news, endorse brands, and support causes. If you can  share your proposition with an influencer who relates to your brand or  product or is an industry thought leader, it can open a world of  opportunities for your business. Including Twitter as part of your  marketing will enable you to reach out to people who will be interested  in your product or brand.

 Ad on Twitter: Posting paid  advertisements on Twitter may be a good Twitter marketing strategy for  newcomers to promote brands or businesses. Your profile is promoted by  Twitter and can even be seen and found by people who do not follow your  brand, business, or hashtags. This is a great way to create visibility  with people who show interest in some type of products or services. For a monthly fee, you can get a lot of exposure that organic Twitter marketing may not reap!

All set to start your Twitter Journey? Here is how you can build a noticeable business account on Twitter:

Once you have signed up for a Twitter for Business account, you need to organize it and put your best foot or in case of personnel branding like @curieuxexplorer, don the best image forward to establish your brand.

 Profile image: The profile image should ideally be  your brand logo, make sure it is clear and fits well into the small circular space designated for the profile image. Remember this will feature as an icon every time you post a tweet!

 Profile Picture/ Banner: The banner image is the best visual representation of your company. You can put up your most recent activity here, a product launch or show you have hosted or the image of any up-coming product- anything that you think deserves to be known as part of your brand promotion. Make sure you upload photos that  are clear and high quality.

 Your Display Name and Account @ Name: Your account  name is what comes after the @. The Twitter world will recognize you by  this name. Everything you do on Twitter, your tweets, re-tweets,  follows- will be linked to this name. This name also appears in your  profile URL. It may contain up to 15 characters and should be directly  associated with the name of your business. The display name appears  right above the account name and can be changed at any time, unlike the  account name. Ideally, this name should contain your brand or business  name.

 Your Twitter BIO: This is your introduction to the  world. In about 160 characters you will have to put forward your pitch  and ideally pack in a punch about your brand or business. Your business  ideals, values, and what you have on offer are ideally the things that  should feature in the bio. Additionally, you should put in your website URL, location, and the business hours if you have a shop or a store.

 Your Pinned Tweet: The pinned tweet is the first thing a visitor will when they visit your tweet stream. This should be the focal point, the biggest piece of news you wish to display on the Twitter platform. This could be an upcoming product launch, a seminar you are going to conduct or even a charity you are raising money for- your pinned tweet should reflect your pivotal business interest.  You can post interesting images or videos in your tweets, even post important links- also make sure your pinned tweet does not stay stagnant  for a long time- schedule your posts accordingly to capture maximum  interest.

Conclusion

To sum it all up- if you are a small business or a start-up struggling to find your footing in the world of business or an established brand impacted by the COVID -19 situation re-thinking your business strategy – Twitter is the place to be. Twitter marketing is one  of the most authentic ways to build your business presence and connect  with a world full of customers. It may not be easy or a one of a task,  but it is hardly rocket science. Moreover, Twitter marketing is inexpensive and mostly organic. A little bit of patience, consistency, and well-thought-out Twitter marketing strategy can translate into phenomenal business success in the long run. Twitter is perhaps the only  place that allows you to go from Micro to Macro. Connect with your  customers or followers on an individual level, deliver appropriate solutions and grow your follower base to move on to the next level!

Source — https://dgsaga.com/blog-twitter-a-digital-landscape-of-opportunities/