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canmom · 2 years

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Toku Tuesday 47 - Michelle Yeoh

Hi friends!

Very quick intro to Toku Tuesday tonight, since we’ve basically already covered what is to be said of Daniels on Toku Tuesday 45 and the followup post; moreover I wrote about Everything, Everywhere yesterday. Now it’s available on streaming services, which means in turn it can spread to the pirates, and that means it’s taking up about half the remaining space on my SSD.

I should probably do something about that...

To accompany that, let’s make our theme tonight the cornerstone of the film, lead actress Michelle Yeoh. Which makes this also an excuse to watch the film we didn’t manage to watch on TT #45: Yes, Madam (1985), her debut film. Yeoh would of course go on to be a huuuge martial arts star taking an enormous variety of roles in both China and the US.

Conveniently, Accented Cinema, go-to ‘youtuber who knows about the Chinese film industry’, just released a video about her...

youtube

So, as Accented discusses...

Yeoh got her start in beauty pageants and then shooting ads - starting with one alongside Jackie Chan! - but she was eager to take on action roles at the time nigh exclusively male; and got her opportunity when D&B Films decided to make an action film starring two women to set itself apart from the other ‘heroic bloodshed’ films of the time (c.f. TT #32). Hence Yes, Madam; Yeoh did all her own stunts and generally made everyone sit up and take notice.

She performed in a few more films with D&B, in each one wearing a similar short-haired look in contrast to her previous image. In this period, there was a heavy expectation that women movie stars in Hong Kong should marry and retire early, and Yeoh accordingly married the head of D&B films... but divorced him five years later to return to acting, landing alongside Jackie Chan once again in Police Story III (1992) as a military commander. This set up an extraordinarily prolific 90s; at first mostly action movies but starting with The Stunt Double (A Jin de gu shi) in 1996, increasingly more drama-oriented roles, leading up to going to Taiwan for her famous performance as conflicted matriach (and elite martial artist, some things don’t change) Yu Shu Lien in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000.

Parallel to this, there is another strand. I hate to talk about James Bond in any capacity whatsoever, but hey, it’s part of this story. James Bond movies, one of my country’s most odious exports after like... colonialism, have a tradition of ‘Bond girls’, (at least) one in each movie; the designated Hot Girl who inevitably ends up getting fucked by the avatar of aspirational British masculinity. So, Accented reports, in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), they attempted to cash in on the kung fu trend by hiring Michelle Yeoh for the role; a love interest but in a new model of more action-oriented Bond girl.

The positive upshot of this is that, well, it established her internationally in the role of ‘glamorous ass kicker’ as Accented puts it. But from this point it seems she ascended to a power level where she could play pretty much anyone, and tracing her filmography at this point sees her playing in both US and Hong Kong productions pretty much equally: wuxia, historical dramas, quite a lot of sci-fi, even animated films (from comedy-wuxia to... minions, huh?)...

OK, what more to say than ‘dang, this actor sure acted in a lot of films over her acting career’? Usually when I write these things I end up focusing on directors, or perhaps studios or countries, perhaps since you can tie the story to the content of the art in a fairly direct way. Yeoh’s definitely had her influence: from the very beginning she pushed hard for, as an example, women to get more action roles, and was extremely successful not just in getting her own career out of it, but in that ugly mercenary system, establishing that this could sell to help open the possibility of other women getting such roles. The same goes for, well, the more-than-a-little fraught history of Asian characters in American movies; she’s evidently made quite a point of not getting pigeonholed. (Something relevant to Everything, Everywhere, which is in part about reintroducing depth to such limited roles.)

If you watch the video essay above, there’s a really interesting part at the end where Accented contrasts two superficially similar performances, one as the experienced geisha Mameha in Memoirs of a Geisha, the other as rich matriarch Eleanor in Crazy Rich Asians, and highlighting the different kinds of confidence that Yeoh performs in e.g. walks. I really like this kind of observation, because it’s the kind of breakdown I’m going to need to learn to perform more and more if i’m gonna git gud an animator. Anyway, it’s not merely that she insists on getting cast in different roles, but that she has the immense skill needed to give those distinct performances appropriate to each one.

Still, does the success of one actor really make that much difference to the ebb and flow of the ~film industry~, let alone society at large? Well, maybe. Perhaps more so than anyone in a film, even the director, actors are not just the people themselves, but elaborate clusters of symbols build up by the reproduction of their image and insertion into narratives. Michelle Yeoh isn’t just the flesh-and-blood human, who very likely none of us will ever meet, but the constructed icon ‘Michelle Yeoh’ built by the camera and the marketing machine who comes to represent certain things in the world. Is the magic power invested in this supervening egregore the result of the personal choices and talents of Yeoh herself, or did the historical moment of the mid 1980s with its various gender, economic etc. dynamics have a slot in it for someone a bit like her, and she’s the one who had the luck to get selected by history? Well, probably something of both, eh.

Regardless of what contingent history led us to this point, she’s really fucking good at acting and it’s a joy to watch her in movies.

So!! If you’d like to do just that, at around 8pm (ish) UK time, roughly five hours hence, we will gather to observe the two ends of Yeoh’s career (so far!) with Yes, Madam (1985) and Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (2022) at twitch.tv/canmom !

(considering switching to picarto but let’s stick with what we know for now since i’m not sure how copyright enforcement works there).

#toku tuesday

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rigelmejo · 3 years

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Some September 1st Updates

the READING SPEED difference of a novel at my level! I read the first chapter of 撒野 yesterday and this author is at exactly my reading level right now. I hit 0-2 new words each pleco page, which is usually the sweet spot to either guess the word or if I look it up I can pretty quickly adapt to recognizing it in context. Its also the sweet spot where if I only rely on guessing for new word meanings, on a second pass through I can fairly well guess the meaning quickly.

It was a 32 page chapter in pleco and I read it in 20 minutes. Compared to the 20 pleco page per chapter pingxie fic i just finished (like 124k characters! WOW I read and FINISHED that much!), which was taking 30-40 minutes per chapter (mainly because of number of new vocabulary per chapter being a bit higher). If I’d wanted to speed read saye I could have, I’d have missed some small details but I could have tried if I wanted.

Then I did a second pass later in the day with the audiobook just following along with the text. Realized 1. I knew most words in the audiobook and did not follow as well as i thought - but those first listen throughs without having seen the chapter I did manage to figure out the main character just broke up, just travelled somewhere, ran into a girl and somehow the girls brother showed and the two guys interacted a little and someone was being somewhat helpful, then the main guy met his father trying to ‘pick him up.’ Which is a true but very rough summary of what happens in the first chapter. By reading I could confirm the words I thought were names AS names, figured out WHY the girl was interacting with the main guy and that there were actually two girls in chapter 1, and figure out who helped who and who was the girl’s brother. Also somehow before I looked at the chapter text I never caught that the audiobook mentions a motorcycle despite me knowing that word and it SOUNDING like mota-che/motorche! it sounds like the word and i knew it and didn’t hear it! Then later following the audiobook with the text I realized another issue I had, is I’m not used to listening to soft voices with such faint pronunciations of the final sounds. I’m much more used to deeper crisper pronunciations and being able to rely clearly on initials and finals AS much as tones to recognize the words, whereas this particular audiobook i needed to mainly rely on tones and initials to figure out what word was what - that probably threw me off a bit. It’s probably good for me to get practice listening to such a different voice to what I’m used to. I have definitely learned the deeper the voice, the more I have a far easier time figuring out what’s being said. Also standard accent more like beijing but without a huge amount of ‘er’s just some, and taiwan accent are the easiest for me to hear when i’m not pa

For anyone curious, here is the audiobook for SaYe I’m listening to: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2w27tfjeeaySbMK272NpXwUtsBc-e3YN

Also here’s a chinese audiobook youtube I found: https://www.youtube.com/c/%E6%9C%89%E5%A3%B0%E5%B0%8F%E8%AF%B4%E5%90%AC%E4%B9%A6%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8Cyoushengxiaoshuo/playlists

Which includes The King’s Avatar: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTJaWZoVPdT1ZhIQIKxVci7fVEHr-oX6k

And ErHa: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsxEOGKlBMaFa6CS6Hf5ndy6qTtUL0Au_

Anyway, its a great book right now for reading practice. It’s very much around my level. I will probably stick with this author for a little while and solidify what I know/my base reading level.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am apparently living proof listening-reading, heavy emphasis on re-listening a TON in the background as you work or type or walk/drive whatever, works for learning new words.

I re-listened to guardian chapter 1 audiobook at least 20-30 times by now, just a tremendous amount. Chapters 1-10 I’ve listened to at least 5 times by now random chapters at random days, and some probably also 20 times.

I have listened to these chapters enough, that I can officially follow so much that I know nearly every freaking word I hear, I know it immediately on hearing in at least 3 different audiobooks, and the few ‘less familiar’ words I recognize a second after hearing (like hearing ‘audacious’ or ‘glum’ in english it just takes me a second to re-remember), and the very few still forgotten words/specific details I learn From those words I can actually pick up from the context of listening.

I hear ‘powei’ and somehow forgot it AGAIN? Oh it means ‘rather’ in this context. ‘anli’ well i always hear ‘anlishuo’ as in ‘people say/generally speaking’ so ‘anli’ in this context must mean ‘generally/generally speaking.’ chuanghu? can’t remember it because i was just typing this JUST now and only hearing a few words from the audiobook in the background - well in context its obviously window, but out of context my brain said window and i just couldn’t remember if it was window or curtain but felt curtain had something more complex than ‘hu’ as the second half - just looked it up and my guess was right, even with no context which i’d have had if i’d been listening better and it had been clear it’s window, it still made me think ‘window’ immediately just hearing the sound. ‘xiang yi ge ren’ sounds like ‘looks like a person’ which is the next phrase i just randomly heard. ‘hua le yao ming’ shouted for their life/in awful terror? or that would be ‘huo’, so maybe ‘streaking toward him to take his life’? would make sense in context of a horror scene - i just looked it up and 划了要命 would be the second one. even IF i heard the wrong line, both of those are pretty close to a good guess in context and hua is the only unknown because without context i can’t place if it was hua or huo. i still confuse the words wu and wo for hold etc, but in context i can tell which one it is (wo is hold a hand, hold a face, etc).

I’m genuinely at a point where I can just completely follow the plot through at least the first 20 chapters from listening. And for most scenes, follow every detail too including stuff like guo changcheng spending half a year not working at home after he graduated, being so afraid of the phone, da qing being fawning to shen wei when they meet and rubbing against his leg, the specific conversation details when da qing runs across zhao yunlan’s car in chapter 2, what zhao yunlan’s room exactly looks like, etc. Its super cool to be able to follow the audiobook so well I can follow the story and details even when I don’t have time to read! It’s so fun! And it was not very hard!

It took 40 minutes of upfront study where you set time aside to focus: 20 minutes to have a program read the chapter aloud while you either see unknown word definitions pop up (like in Pleco) or look them up with some click dictionary as you listen. 20 minutes to go through and listen to the audiobook as you follow along with the text. Then after that, just play the audiobook chapters you’ve done this with whenever you want, either paying attention like when going to bed soon or walking, or in the background like when cleaning or doing busy work or driving. Since background listening can be done easily whenever all you have to do is remember to click play when you want something to listen to.

I’m honestly blown away by how much 3 months of studying mainly like this (which is quite fun and only requires me to carve out a small amount of actual study focused time) has improved my listening skills. I can now also listen to the 2ha audiobook okay and follow along (provided its a chapter I’ve read before so I have at least some prior context to help me out) - at least so far as that’s what I’m listening to right now. Basically, I can tell Guardian has both upped my vocabulary significantly and also improved my automatic recognition of many words I half-knew and learned since.

I recently found a new Guardian audiobook read by a deep voice and its lovely (and utilizes music and echo for effects, its lovely to listen to) I hope the poster keeps updating: https://fm.qq.com/show/rd002ED4aN0mYz2L__

I’ve been listening to it lately.

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Also! Directions for using Pleco Android for screen reader:

1. To get any page bookmarked online:

Open a page in your mobile web browser you want to read. Click the menu, click share, click Pleco Reader (or ‘more’ or ‘...’ then Pleco Reader).

Go to Clipboard Reader. Now when you click text, dictate text megaphone will be an option.

*Since Clipboard Reader is free, you can do this to read in Pleco and have things spoken aloud with no money spent. (Though I find the Reader tool worth the money and add ons).

2. To have any text ‘dictated aloud’:

Go to Pleco’s menu, Settings, Audio, click ‘use TTS if no recording,’ then for Sentence Audio section area System TTS Setting click Speech Services by Google (you can also experiment by clicking other options I am just stating what worked for me, it didn’t work at first I had to make that my default TTS in my Accessibility-Talkback Settings menu on my main phone first and restart my phone before all this).

Then click the area right below to mess with speed and sound of the TTS voice.

(Note, to test if TTS is working you can go to any dictionary entry sentence, click the speaker next to the sentence and see if it plays audio. If it does not, you will get an error message and directions on what to change in your phone settings. That is what initially happened to me: I had to go to phone Settings, Accessibility, Talkback, TTS Engine, TTS Engine voice and settings. Pleco recommended I choose Speech Services by Google, and uninstall then reinstall the Chinese voice. Then restart the phone. That worked for me. An additional note: I have Talkback setting on ‘on’ and just have it in my toolbar to use if desired but am not actively using it. If you turn Talkback setting ‘off’ in the actual Settings area of Accessibility, I am not sure if it will affect Pleco’s ability to dictate).

3. How to put it together:

Now go to Clipboard Reader and read the page from the internet you wanted or text you pasted, or go to Document Reader and open the document you wish to read.

Click a word as a place to start. Now you should see both the loudspeaker (for pronouncing the single word) and the Megaphone next to it to start dictating all text. (If your phone is weird like me, you may need to press the megaphone a couple times before the audio works).

If you wish to change dictation reading speed, simply hold down the megaphone and select the speed desired.

Now that I’ve figured this out I really want to take pictures of my print book, make a pdf, and listen to all the changes.

(Now I just have to fix my weird dictionary in Idiom app and I’m all set on the new phone!)

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All I’ve been doing the past august study wise is just reading pingxie fic and finishing, and listening to audiobooks. It’s been a busy time for me ToT

I do think it proved you can be lazy and still make some improvements though:

1. Reading in Pleco (or click-dictionary tool of your choice): pick something and read a chapter a day (that’s what I did, obviously the easier this is the less time you’ll need, but aim for around 30 minutes a day and reading material closer to your level if you don’t want to read too long)

2. Listening-Reading Method something above your reading level that you enjoy. Should take 40 minutes a couple times a week to several times a week to hours a week, depending on how intense you want to get with it and how much you’re going to alternate/include the reading portion. I did like 1-2 chapters a week so I was only spending 40 minutes to 1.5 hours a week doing this, or 3 hours one week no time another week. This is definitely something where you can do 6-12 hours one month then coast on it for another month just repeating older material’s audio/re-reading sections (which is what I did with guardian, doing 22 chapters then switching to just listening to audio a lot).

Once you’ve done a little L-R steps 2 and 3 (in either order, whatever works for you - and doing step 1 if you want more context prior to steps 2 and 3), then just make time during your days to play the audiobook chapters you’ve studied. You don’t need to be focusing every single time (although focusing on actually trying to follow the audio the first time you listen without text to aid you will probably speed up your comprehension a lot by giving you a lot of basic-context to help you comprehend more later). Aim to listen whenever you’ve got down time! Or time where you’d play music or some background youtube video or podcast - walks, exercise, drives, when cleaning, when browsing the web goofing off, when working if you have times when you’d listen to music with lyrics or a podcast in the background without issues, times when you don’t need to focus 100% on listening just putting it on to hear in the background).

That’s all I’ve done for study since May. It takes me about 30 minutes 5 days a week, plus 1-2 hours listening-reading actively a week. So 2.5 hours plus 2 = 4 hours of active study a week. Sometimes more like 8-10 if I got really into reading something or Listening-reading to several chapters. Then after that (very easy to fit into my life 4-10 hours per week of study) I just play the audiobook whenever I have downtime at work (that’s usually 0.5-4 hours where I just let it play because I forget its on while working on spreadsheets, updates, emails, etc, or play the audiobook while messing around on the internet in my free time at home, sometimes I put on music instead), while walking so 15-30 minutes maybe 3 days a week, while driving far so maybe 20 minutes - 2 hours per week. maybe lets say 2 hours*4 days a week (I don’t remember to listen every day) so 8 hours random listening+1.5 hours walking+1 hour driving per week. That’s 11.5 hours listening in the background or paying attention plus lets say 4 hours of active study a week. So 15.5 ‘study’ hours for chinese per week - an average overall of ~2.21 hours of chinese ‘study’ per day. This isn’t counting when I get into weibo and goof off, get into some chinese show with no english subs and just start watching it (I watched 16 episodes of Humans cdrama in August which is ~10.66 hours for a total of at least (15.5*4 weeks = 62 hours + 10.66 hours -> ~72.66 hours spent ‘with chinese’ in August at minimum. 4 weeks*7 days = 28, so over around 28 days or most of august I did 72.66 total hours/28 days -> or ~2.595 hours of chinese per day as an average. So... my guess that I spend at least 1-2 hours on chinese per day as the average was a decent guess. Looks like I’m usually 2 hours to 2.5 hours daily as an overall average. It’s not that hard to get in that much without a ton of time in the day once you get some listening skills built up ToT Deciding to build up my listening skills has been one of the funnest goals in chinese so far.

Notes on Listening Reading Actively - it also doubles as increasing your exposure to listening to your target language, and the more hours the better even if its passive in the background, just more hours adding up toward your mind getting a better ability to parse the sounds of the language is going to help your overall listening comprehension in general. So even if you don’t pay attention much and can’t follow the whole plot and only catch certain scenes, you will be improving at least comprehension of: hearing words you know, hearing colocations and common phrases and recognizing more automatically which will help with speaking/writing indirectly and reading recognition of those things, overall ability to hear things correctly in different combinations and getting used to the common combinations.

You will be surprised how much more you can pick up of plot and details the 3rd listen compared to the first, the 5th listen, the 10th listen. It’s wild. Like... I’m listening to the 2ha audiobook and even having never read it in chinese, just knowing basic context, the 2nd read through I caught so much more of the plot throughout just because I had forewarning of when scenes change a lot, what audio plays during some parts I recognized in previous listens, and so I have more focus for figuring out the new details I missed. Whereas the first listen, I didn’t always know WHAT the scene context was until I heard a familiar line or description I remembered from the english version of the scene, but on a second listen I now have a better guess at the scene the lines are probably taking place in before and after those lines I recognized in the first listen. And this continues etc each time you re-listen to something. (So yes, that initial context of knowing what you’re listening to with a previous read of its translation or target language transcript will definitely speed up comprehension pick up - but if you just wanna test what your basic listening comprehension to new content is then it works fine just going into new audio with no prior context its just more difficult at first lol until you build an idea of the context from listening).

The original Listening-Reading Method person did like 40+ hours a week, 8 hours most days, no wonder they made fast progress! They often included reading in some form (hence the name) and later translation, so they also were constantly working on listening AND some reading skills AND eventually often some speaking/writing skills. Doing it my way results in mostly listening comprehension of stuff you could already read to a degree, more automaticity in recognition, and for picking up new vocabulary both in listening and reading. I do extra reading on the side with other stuff to get more reading practice in an isolated way (since I’m trying to push my reading speed up above speaking speed). I always try to do it the way the creator originally intended, but I am not able to focus on things for more than 20 minutes at a time, 40 to a couple hours if I take a break every 20 minutes. So doing it 8 hours just doesn’t work out.

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I’m fairly happy!

I am on plan for my main goals that started this style study plan:

1. Improving my reading level to get to start being able to extensively read actual danmei novels - we got there! I am at a reading level appropriate for SaYe at 98% comprehension when I checked, and at a bit above 95% comprehension for Guardian! I’m now continuing with that goal while adding on increasing reading Speed in general.

2. Improving listening skills so I have better automatic recognition of partly-known words from reading (working super well so far - I can tell because ability to watch cdramas in only chinese has improved noticeably and gotten much easier), and so I can start following the main plot and key details of audiobooks of things I’ve read before (working great for guardian, starting to work with other audiobooks provided I listen to the chapters a few times or several times if its brand new material I have no context for, however reading level matters and while things I have prior familiarity with are going very well - brand new materials are still quite challenging in that they require multiple listens for the full plot and several listens before I start picking up most non-plot-critical details).

#rant #september #september progress #august #august progress #listening reading method #pleco #rec list #audiobook #guardian #take all my study advice with heaps of salt #do what feels right for YOU #this is just the study plan that's been working for me recently #for my main goals: increasing base reading level and improve listening comprehension

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nanierose · 3 years

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I kind of love that Liam made it clear that while Caleb still cares for Essek, Astrid and Eodwulf he still doesn't trust them, because that makes way more sense. For him to trust them just based on those feelings would be wildly out of character for him. Let's be real, right now they aren't trustworthy.

Astrid and Eodwulf are still very much enigmas and Caleb doesn't know what their true end goal is. It could be good, but he also remembers what they were like as teenagers. Maybe back then their ambition outweighed the love they shared. What was that ambition geared towards? Right now it's 16 years later and he doesn't know them anymore. Eodwulf seemed happy with what Trent gave them magically, and Astrid seems very much a 'means justify the end' person atm though that could be changing. They still probably hate or dislike Trent but that doesn't necessarily mean they want to change the system he came from. Caleb hasn't interacted with them enough to fully give that trust, and a couple instances of help won't change that. Remember, the three of them were trained in manipulation something Caleb knows well. So while Astrid and Eodwulf do seem to care for him he can't be sure there isn't something going on behind the scenes.

As for Essek, like Liam said it's only been 2 months since they found out everything he's done and he's only just started on his path to redemption. Before they met in Eiselcross Essek didn't seem to regret any of his actions apart from those that hurt the M9. Even then though he says he still would have done them. Currently there's a man in the Empire, who may have been executed for all we know, who went down for Essek's actions. He's never seemed to show remorse for that, it's more of a general regret. Plus his way of redeeming is similar to what Caleb originally wanted, which he now recognises as incredibly selfish and narcissistic. Caleb was burned by Essek, and it's going to take more than one speech and offer of help to regain that trust. I mean he thought Trent of all people might come to help against the TT so I don't think Essek coming along is a massive sign of improvement to Caleb. Stopping the end of the world is something hopefully anyone would do. It's a start but it isn't enough quite yet. So yes, he doesn't trust Essek and he has very valid concerns as to why that is.

The thing is though that makes his relationships with them so much more interesting, and makes their characters so much more interesting too. It's so complicated and there are still so many facets of them that we don't really know, including Essek. There are so many shades of grey and different directions they all could go down. A sudden switch from morally grey intentions to good intentions is not a compelling narrative to follow. Caleb is only just coming to a place where his goals are good and based on the needs of others, and this is after months with the M9. Realistically it makes no sense for his fellows to be at the same place he is. And I don't want them to be. After all the time and effort Caleb has put in to reach that place it seems cheap for his fellows to just suddenly have that too. None of them have been in an environment for that to start or develop sufficiently. I'm not saying they're irredeemable, evil beings. I'm saying that currently they're three people who have complicated backgrounds and their road to redemption is going to be as equally complicated, which is much more enjoyable. We break trust with people we care about all the time, and it takes time for that to be restored. We can work with people we don't trust when other things take precedence. Why would it be any different here?

Edit: Also should probably add that I do think the three of them can reach the place Caleb is. With Astrid and Eodwulf coming from the same place and background Caleb has there's always hope for them. They were abused and brainwashed to become who they are, but they do have the ability to move past it. It's just going to be incredibly hard for them. Essek too had a father who he disliked and wasn't good to him (it may have been abuse but i don't know too much about it). Either way he has the capability as well, but will similarly be hard. Their background doesn't define them and won't always, but what Caleb knows about them and their actions means they can't be implicitly trusted right now.

#critical role #caleb widogast #i love stories like this #give me those morally grey wizards #and all the baggage caleb has with them #let me see him grow to trust them or decide it's too late #show me that progression for these characters that i've seen in caleb #i want that intrigue #hope #and fear of giving trust again #also thanks to liam for confirming my belief he felt betrayed by the die because of all the juicy drama he missed out on #talks machina

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bestworstcase · 3 years

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Hey, me and my friend are developing our own Tangled History Lore the involves the Saporians, and in our instance, Demanitus helps Corona take over Saporia by stealing Zhan Tiri’s created memory wand and wiping their memories of the invasion except for the Saporians who helped Corona.

Now, Saporians have grown up with no history of the past other than small events, barely care about their heritage, and are still somewhat against Corona.

So what would happen to the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, who may have been previously allied with Saporia, if they found out Corona and Saporian treasonists took over and wiped their memories

so if i'm following, corona rapunzel's returned the entire nation of saporia and all of saporia's allies ~two thousand years ago when demanitus and zhan tiri were still kicking around and this massive magical conspiracy then went undiscovered for however long—i assume until around the time of the series itself?

which. hm

backtracking a little from your actual question i think it would be worth taking into consideration the limitations of the wand of oblivium—bc in rapunzel's return it's shown that the wand is powerful but can't really be used on a wide scale: the saporians managed to wipe the memories of the coronan king and queen, and being generous perhaps a handful of other aristocrats and important courtiers whom we just don't see on screen bc they're not necessary to the story, and then just relied on the coronan culture of absolute obedience to the king to control the rest of the populace while waiting for varian to figure out a potion that could... either directly reproduce the effect of the wand on a dramatically larger scale or else somehow serve as a conduit for disseminating the wand's magic to many people at once. (personally i think the latter solution was more likely what the goal was, i.e., clementine uses the wand to curse batches of varian's potion and then they suffuse the water supply with the potion or start gassing people with it or whatever the method of distribution ended up being and the curse is transmitted through the material of the potion—but that's a tangent)

the question is how did demanitus and his coronan conspirators get around the problem of the wand needing to—as rapunzel's return implies—individually curse every single person whose memories the caster wants to alter? conquest by brainwashing is arduous to the point of impossibility if you're trying to do it one person at a time, esp. when it's possible for cursed people to fight off the magical amnesia with support from loved ones whose memories are intact. and then add to that it being a wand he stole from zhan tiri and his own self-admitted unfamiliarity with magic—this is the man who shoved his soul into a monkey with a spell he knew he barely understood after all—and theres the additional problem of did the coronans even know what they were doing the way a real witch like clementine or zhan tiri would?

and then all magical considerations aside you have the further complication that massive conspiracies are difficult to pull off simply because they require a lot of people to be in the know to make things happen, and you start running into the two-can-keep-a-secret-if-one-is-dead principle. stuff gets out

ANYWAY

this is cynical but assuming there is indeed a two thousand year gap between the memory wiping and then modern day corona, in line with the canonical timeline of tts—which i recognize is not necessarily a reliable assumption with an au but you didn't specify—i honestly dont think a lot would necessarily change if the brainwashing was retroactively discovered somehow. bc by now the hegemony of the seven kingdoms in a world where saporia doesn't exist is well established and... people in power cleave to the status quo. what's going to happen to this sprawling trading alliance if we take corona to task for this enormous violation of human rights that happened literal thousands of years ago? when saporian culture was eradicated so thoroughly that it might as well not ever have existed? who benefits from tearing this system apart now, and who benefits from leaving things as they are and shrugging at past wrongs? (it's so much easier to just say well... that was a long time ago... oh well.)

except for, of course, the saporians themselves, because it was their identity and their home and their culture that was utterly stripped from them—they lost everything, and even the knowledge that they'd lost anything at all was stolen from them too, like, it's hard to fathom a scenario where this information comes out and doesn't lead directly to outrage and unrest from whatever saporian communities are still left—how else can one even respond to something like that?

and from there i mean. it depends on where you want to take the story and how you want to handle it, like, theres a lot of variables beyond "corona did this horrific thing x centuries ago and now we know about it" that could or would shape the direction of events subsequent to the conspiracy being broken up to—like assuming all other things being equal how do zhan tiri and cassandra and the moonstone fit into this, with zhan tiri being (i assume) a saporian sorceress whose work was stolen and then used to eradicate her home? how does varian's partnership with the saporian separatists go when theres this underlying element of them just doing to corona what was done to their ancestors in a desperate bid to maybe scrape back together some semblance of a cultural identity for themselves? how does rapunzel—who has herself run afoul of saporian memory magic, albeit accidentally—feel when she learns this about her nation's history and what does she do about it? etc etc etc and then all these individual character decisions have ripple effects that shape the broader societal and political responses there's not a one size fits all answer, here. it's dependent on the specific shape and structure of the story itself

#but also i would think abt maybe workshopping that conquest idea more #to either nail down the exact details of HOW such an enormous conspiracy could even work or #like refine it away from 'and then they brainwashed the entire continent'

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glorytoukraine2022 · 3 years

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Hi! I‘m new here, and, if anybody has read my blog, I said to expect a lot of character analyses, salty, or otherwise. Well, here comes the first one.

I want to make one thing clear to a lot of TTS fans out there. When we criticize and express our problems with Rapunzel and how she mistreats her friends, we’re not saying that her trauma and negative upbringing isn’t important. We are well aware of how Rapunzel was raised, who she was raised by, and the results of her negative upbringing. We are well aware that Rapunzel’s treatment of her friends results from the behaviors she observed from Gothel or that Gothel instilled in her. Rapunzel learned her behaviors from Gothel the same way we all do from the people we are raised by. We are not saying that Rapunzel needs to be perfect. We are not saying that Rapunzel isn’t allowed to make mistakes.

What we are saying is that none of this is an excuse.

The reason so many of us are frustrated and angry with Rapunzel, in some cases even hate her, isn’t because we have overwhelmingly high expectations of her. It’s because she never LEARNS from her mistakes and corrects them. She doesn’t GROW from them. She never makes the effort to unlearn the unhealthy behaviors that stem from 18 years of an abusive upbringing. And nobody with more experience who should know better (Eugene, Arianna, etc, etc) ever try to help her in unlearning them.

Rapunzel should not be coddled. She needs help. She needs to deal with her trauma and unlearn these unhealthy behaviors in order to be a good Princess, a good Queen, and just a functioning member of society in general. But she never does. She continues to believe that the way she treats people is okay. That she’s in the right. But she’s not.

As I said before, her trauma is NOT an excuse. Her trauma is NOT an excuse to hurt her friends and cause THEM trauma! Because that’s what she’s done! Rapunzel’s trauma is not an excuse to throw a panicking child into a fatal blizzard that could have killed him. Rapunzel’s trauma is not an excuse for leaving said child alone for months. Especially when said child was an orphan and his father, whom he was completly reliant on at the time, was trapped. Rapunzel’s trauma is not an excuse for not allowing her best friend to have her own life and disrespecting her boundaries at every turn. Rapunzel’s trauma is not an excuse for refusing to own up to her actions and admitting when she’s wrong. Her trauma is not an excuse to hurt others. It’s not an excuse for Rapunzel refusing to do the right thing. Over and over.

While Rapunzel letting Cassandra go at the end of the series gives me hope that maybe she’s moving in the right direction or that she realizes that she has a lot to learn about friendship, Rapunzel still has a LONG way to go before she becomes the friend and ruler that she needs to be. Until then, I do not have very high opinions on Rapunzel or high hopes for Rapunzel’s future as a friend or ruler of Corona. I’m not saying this because I am unaware of her trauma or have unrealistic expectations of her. I am saying this, because she has made no effort to change her ways. 18 years of abuse don’t go away easily. But until Rapunzel acknowledges her wrongs and makes a real effort to unlearn her behavior, she will only continue to fail as both a Queen and a friend.

#She’s got a long way to go before becoming the wise Queen the movie claims she becomes #Unless we learn otherwise #we have no reason to believe she’s grown #Given where she left off during the series without apologizing to Varian or other people she’s mistreated #If I’m missing any tags let me know this is my first post #anti-rapunzel

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thebartallenblog · 4 years

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You guys are aware that Bart was never really Wally's sidekick?

I mean the fact that Impulse itself was not a sidekick of The Flash, to begin, Iris Allen brought Bart into the 20th century so Wally could stop his accelerated growth and better teach him to control his powers, but really that was the furthest thing that would become the relationship of "Teacher-Student" of Wally and Bart, for 2 main reasons:

1. Bart and Wally just couldn't stand each other for the fact that well ... they were both very alike in their attitude:

2. From the beginning, Bart's destiny was to be trained and cared by Max Mercury:

In fact Impulse and Flash were not partners more than they were for example: Jesse Quick and Flash, Impulse and Max Mercury, Jay Garrick and Max etc, that is to say they were teammates in the Flash Family but they did not have a direct relationship "Heroe-Sidekick" not like Barry and Wally had it back in their Kid Flash days.

Impulse actually acted most of the time alone, in other ocassions supervised by Max and acting in a team with either Young Justice or the other speedsters.

To think more about this, there were people who literally believed that Max Mercury was Impulse's sidekick, although it was used as a quick joke you could say that Bart also believed it a bit:

You can't really blame people too much for believing it or directly assuming it, as DC's own writers have already done so in the past and in the present.

But this is simply ignoring the previous writing of a character (in this case) or in other cases simple ignorance.

As I say I think it is more appropriate to think of Bart as either Impulse or Kid Flash as Wally's teenage counterpart as Flash (or the young protege of The Flash at least) , because actually when DC turned Bart into KF ironically it was when Bart and Wally almost didn't work together (they barely interacted in general), besides it was the same time that their relationship was at its lowest point in history. (I would put pictures of those TT issues but I really don't like too much that series to do it, neither it’s the best representation of either of the two characters)

But no, they never really had a, major hero-sidekick relationship in any comic.

#Bart Allen #Impulse #Wally West #The Flash #Max Mercury #Flash Family #Young Justice #DC #DC Comics

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year2000electronics · 4 years

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HLVRAI takes place in a video game- but how does it work?

(a headcanon masterpost)

in the world of hlvrai, half life vr is in fact an actual new game from valve (released in 2020 because of coomer’s line that one time)

HOWEVER, it’s an experimental beta tester copy given to the player

more likely, however, considering the player’s insistence to roleplay and general confusion of features, the player isn’t an actual game tester themselves- they probably got a copy off the internet or from an outside source

in this universe, valve is probably still as big as it used to be in its hayday- taking all holly’s gags about extra features like a hunger meter and a staff ghost gives off the impression that valve grew as a company and wanted more stuff to advertise for what’s admittedly a clunky game for 2020 standards

the player is aware this is a game- however, they wanted to roleplay as gordon and act accordingly (most likely thanks to the influence of machinimas like freeman’s mind)

they’re known to get a bit “too into it” though- they not only act as if this is real, but the player eventually ends up caring deeply for the npcs, which is why the player is GENUINELY MAD about the betrayal etc etc

some of the anxious confusion also comes from the fact that this is just not how the games supposed to be

(benrey ended up actually sending a shock through the right vr controller to simulate the betrayal- so the players right arm did hurt for a bit)

should add that the player here isn’t wayne. with the fiction rtvsolutions has brought to the table, the “player” and wayne being one and the same is impossible from a storytelling standpoint, as wayne knows it’s just him and his friends in gmod

the player, to contrast, is played only by wayne as “gordon”, but gordon also expresses the fact he knows he’s in a game.

so it’s a player who would have HLVRAI as a real game, basically.

part of why the AI becomes so self-aware and breaking the laws of the game is because this is still a beta tester copy- this specific copy would likely designed with the early stages of “self-aware AI” in mind, meaning most testers would probably stick to basic yes or no answers or greetings

it’s because also the ai encounters two personalities it wasn’t expecting: gordon’s and benrey’s

benrey himself was never supposed to be the way he was

despite barney being one of the iconic half-life characters, the real barney calhoun is canonically only seen by gordon near the beginning of the game

benrey is somewhat of a “cancer cell” in the game- he was originally a mistake, a glitch- but being around the other NPCs not only caused them to become more “off the rails”, but made benrey more powerful in terms of the game

the longer the game went on, the more benrey ruined it-

unintentionally, he corrupts the NPCs of the game just by being near the plot trigger (that’s gordon)

every mistake and bad line of code the game does is thanks to benrey existing and fucking the source up

intentionally, he’s become so powerful/made the game’s code so weak that he’s able to just rip it open and assign himself as the final boss

since half life 1 has close ties to the source engine, benrey is able to break the game’s rules and borrow gmod assets (ie the wowozela, and changing his model to be a skeleton)

he also switched gordon’s model to an armless one to “add some excitement”

his final boss form is when he discovered packs on gmod and had a field day

he is able to look at files in the player’s computer, which is how he knows all the stuff he does

however his power isn’t enough to escape the game completely until the acab stream (which puts a whole different spin on the HLVRAI game)

although benrey is a glitch, he was still originally an NPC. his NPC quality is somewhat like cleverbot or ai dungeon- his stories are wild, nonsensical, and may come out of nowhere if gordon says even one thing a bit oddly. like cleverbot, benrey’s AI also has trouble registering when stories are his- although on a fundamental level, benrey is aware gordon is asking him about “when were we friends”, he can’t comprehend enough to say an answer that isn’t “whuh?”

(his repetition of “can i see your passport?” and “you’re not supposed to be in here” may also be his default lines- being a glitch, he would either not have any or be able to ditch the usual guards’ “what the hell are these things?”

tommy is arguably the least NPC-like, but that’s because he is the most important NPC.

he’s the g-man.

in a technical sense, i mean. the g-man was upgraded code-wise to be able to be a “self-aware ai” of his own, but somehow (most likely thanks to benrey being there), the class “g-man” was duplicated- and that’s tommy.

tommy has all the same abilities as the g-man, but since he registers himself as his own being, he’s not really aware of them

all his “seeing faster” from soda is actually the g-man’s timestop

this is why the g-man sees him as his “progeny”- he sees duplicate code but it’s a different person entirely

tommy never fully realizes he’s in a game until the acab stream- it’s not really distressing to him, considering he’s found the news right after gordon’s rescued him from a finished game

he didn’t pick up on the cues that it was a video game because he is an “important NPC”- story events and maps work smoother around him

this is also why he’s the least talkative of the group- unlike tutorial NPCs, it was never tommy’s job to help gordon around the maps

tommy found sunkist after benrey left him laying around from messing around in gmod, and he used the in game science equipment to effectively make him immortal lore-wise

bubby was supposed to be another tutorial NPC, like coomer, but the game messed up and he was assigned both “tutorial NPC” and “hostile NPC” (eg. what happens to a guard whenever anyone bumps into them). that’s why he’s so grumpy. his nature of overconfident attack, only to run back screaming, is a direct result of his two AIs conflicting

dr. coomer is pretty much spelled out from holly’s great performance- a tutorial npc who is also busted

as for why he got busted? too much unpredictable things happening around him. it mostly blossoms from the resonance cascade itself

coomer’s code indicates that RESONANCE CASCADE means ONLY GORDON SHOULD BE HERE

but that’s just not what happens, so he just gets a bit... busted

darnold appearing so late is a result of the bugged game being played for so long that it starts accepting the crazy lore the glitched AI has been feeding it

effectively, the NPCs have the power to change the game because gordon keeps going along with what theyre saying and treating it like fact

which leads to a feedback loop of “yes, and” that causes the game’s cybernetics department to bust and darnold to throw out the complete non sequitur of a mixology department

thanks to this it’s really hard to say why darnold is what he is

however, he still has NPC traits- like the devil gun spiel and how log says he was supposed to break down as soon as they stepped through the door- that’s his dialogue trigger

effectively, he’s a tutorial NPC for a broken area of the game, making him a “self aware AI” just as much as everyone else is

forzen speaks as casually as benrey does, but that’s because they’re “best friends”

forzen used to be a regular soldier NPC who had a pretty run-of-the-mill “mean soldier” AI, but benrey got bored after disappearing time and time again, and decided to make a friend

after copious use of the wowozela and making forzen his “plus one” for looking around the computer, forzen decided being a soldier was lame and he just wanted to graduate

he’s basically “benrey junior-“ a cell infected by the cancer cell that benrey is

the g-man somehow remained pretty spot-on throughout this whole debacle, but once again benrey ruins things

g-man has the level of awareness that tommy does, but since he already has the programmed personality of “the G-man”, he goes about his lore-breaking ways exactly as the g-man would

which is somehow going to chuck e cheese.

basically, benrey is responsible for most of the AI being fucked up- tommy being a dupe plot NPC, bubby being two NPC codes combined, coomer being flat broken, darnold being a sequentially generated NPC, forzen being benrey’s little sith apprentice, and g-man being a father

to end this off: the player has a son named joshua but it’s a little robot gifted to him by a friend who rigged it to have a terrible tts voice that talks about cowboys a lot

#hlvrai #long post #SERIOUSLY LONG POST #im sorry i dont have a readmore im on mobile #but! i wanted to get across my feelings of the hlvrai universe #like #the way the improv is played has some very real enotion and weight to it #that makes you want to believe black mesa is REAL-#but coomers entire arc wouldnt make sense if it was #so heres my solution!#dr. coomer #benrey #tommy coolatta #bubby #darnold #forzen

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iatheia · 3 years

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EDA reviews Part 6 - books 47-55

Previous part 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

47) The Slow Empire - Uh, couldn't really follow this one at all. There are books when the first person narration works, but not here - too many jumps in setting, too little connective tissue, most of it told from the POV of a person who is barely connected to the protagonists? And that's even before they started repeating chunks of text wholesale between various parts - and I couldn't figure out if it was intended, or if it is the ebook was acting out on me. More than half way through the book, I still couldn't entirely tell what the story is supposed to be about, or if the plot has even started yet. Even having finished it, I find myself somewhat aghast. There are a few glimpses of something interesting, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what. 4/10

48) Dark Progeny - Also not really feeling it. It's not a bad story, but I do rather prefer a Doctor Who story to actually feature the Doctor and the companions front and center, whether they are POV characters or not. Here, though, they are barely in it - it's even more egregious than the previous one in actually giving the supposed protagonists stuff to do, and even on rare occasions we do switch back to them, it is all pretty generic. Anji developing telepathic abilities and the Doctor trying to calm her down all the while Fitz is freaking out in the background? Yes, please, more of that. Following around 20 interchangeable OCs that have nothing to do with the trio? No thank you. 6/10.

49) The City of the Dead - If you are invoking magic in a sci-fi universe, you need to be able to handwave it. It doesn't need to be awfully complex, "something something aliens, something something energy" is usually enough, but without it, you can't just throw magic about willy nilly. There are rules.

There are moments when it is a beautiful story, evoking a lot of dream-like wonder, and if it managed to remain a hazy dream, it probably would have been better for it. At the same time there is something very uncomfortably cynical about it, to the degree it left a bad taste in my mouth. There is a narrow line between not shying away from the ugliness of the world and deliberately making something ugly just for the sake of it, and often it felt like it was leaning towards the latter. Dunno, I started out wanting to like it, and feeling rather conflicted about it, but by the end became utterly indifferent. 7/10

50) Grimm Reality - Pure crack. Mind Robber wishes it could be as hilarious and off the wall as this story is. It throws every cliche fairy tale narrative device in the book at the characters and expects them to take it with the straight face, all the while realizing that the rules of the world are completely bonkers. And it manages to sustain this energy throughout, which is a no small feat. It's actually pretty exhausting by the end of it. Fairy tales stories do not belong to a lengthy literary genre, and even taking time deconstructing them, at 95K words becomes it becomes just too much - figuratively, and, on occasion, literally. Still, pretty great, I wish more books had its energy 9/10.

51) The Adventuress of Henrietta Street - *sigh*. My expectations were pretty low to begin with, and I still am somehow disappointed. Credit where credit's due - it is probably most coherent of the books from Miles. And at least it's better than Interference. That's really not saying much, though.

Honestly, if you've read any story about prostitutes, murder, satanic sex rituals bordering on blatant pornography, eastern culture and "mysticism of female sex" used for fetish fuel, written by a dude who clearly gets off on all of this - you've read all of them. There is really nothing revolutionary or compelling about it. On the list of "plots I never want to see in Doctor Who", they are definitely up there. And the Doctor is dying again, because it wouldn't be Miles's book without it. And he's, uh... living in a brothel, trying to marry someone, in order to, uh..... ritualistically tie himself to Earth, for, reasons? Did I read that right? After over 100 years of living on Earth and wanting to do nothing else than seeing the back of it, right. And writing books not quite about sex but definitely about sex. Because that's the thing the Doctor apparently does now. Self insert what self insert. And Fitz and Anji are just... there. On an occasion. All of it exposed on in a dull faux academic style without a shred of characterization, all the while absolutely nothing of note is happening, despite being a singularly longest EDA.

Just, if you hate the characters so much. If you don't understand what makes them tick to this degree. If you don't even care to learn. If you consider any established emotions they should have about the plot you are putting them through beneath you. Why are you writing in a shared universe to begin with? 2/10

(I did have an unintentional moment of hilarity with it, though. There is a character that is referred to as Lord ______, as if his name is censored. TTS would always pronounce it as Lord Underbarunderbarunderbar. Always gave me a chuckle).

52) Mad Dogs and Englishmen - A hilarious story, a very easy read, flowing from scene to scene. There are several occasions of fridge horror treated with levity that I would have rather have avoided. Plus, it is as incestuous as a book about books can get, and yet.... It is just absurd enough to work.

Plus, the whole, “His books are full of black magic, mind control...and perversion - moral and ethical and sexual. He is polluting the atmosphere of our group”, “What’s next? Rewrite War and Peace so it’s about guinea pigs?” - Oh, the shade. It is a good book in its own right, but just for this alone, 10/10

53) Hope - It's a pretty average book. Not outstanding, not horrible. Would have made a decent episode, all things considered, in a bread and butter sort of way. It does have some great ideas - the refuge of humanity, the conflict between Anji and the Doctor finally coming to light - not quite the type of conflict I was hoping for, though. If only it had a bit more nuisance, without neatly delineated black and white, if the antagonist didn't end up being a mustache twirling villain, if the Doctor didn't end up strong-arming everyone in a much more macho manner than he normally goes for (with a rather clunky dialogue). It had potential, even if it didn't end up being realized in full. 8/10

54) Anachrophobia - Very meh. The set up was fairly contrived, it never made me care about any of the characters, including whatever the hell the Doctor and co were doing, not to mention any of the secondary characters. Not terribly engaging, after a point I was mostly flipping through it. There is some big conflict brought up at 95% mark, and it is resolved in just couple of pages via a deus ex machina and a paradox. Overall, I might have said that I would have liked it better if I was in a mood for existential horror, but I took a break in the middle to listen to the Lease of Life - and it actually touches upon several similar themes, but with and outstanding character drama and much more graceful execution, which made this book look even more poor in comparison. 5/10

55) Trading Futures - I will give the author all the points for keeping an eye on the future. Perhaps, in 2002, predicting tablets being used as menus in fancy restaurants wasn’t that big of a reach, but I absolutely had a spit take when TTS has read to me something about “eye-phones”. There are some modestly clever moments throughout the book. Too bad that the rest of it is a complete rubbish. Not terribly original, either - a lot of ideas are copied directly from other books and other franchises. Reasonably entertaining, all things considered, but in a much more slapstick sort of way than was probably intended. 7/10

Overall impressions so far - This batch is, for the most part, fine. Some stories are worst than others, some better. With one exception, nothing horrendous, but nothing to write home about, either. They are, for the most part, serviceable. Individually, they have decent enough plots. But. There is very little character work. They can generally be read in any order, or dropped entirely, and you wouldn’t miss anything. The Doctor is mostly coasting from the excellent streak in the last batch, always in a spot light. I am starting to tire of the whole amnesia arc, though - it was good, but it ran its course, and at this point, with everything functionally back to norm, with barely a stray mention of it here and there, we are starting to be overdue for some semblance of resolution of all that. Henrietta Street is entirely a step in the wrong direction - not only it does nothing worthwhile for the characters, it’s just getting unnecessarily further into the weedworks, adding yet another plot thread that is forced on other writers to carry (they mention it occasionally, but it’s not like there is much to build upon) - rather viciously reminding of the previous mess of an ark “don’t you dare to think that it is over”. And I am so over it. Just, move on.

The companions fare rather worse. They are decent enough, they participate in action, in each book, they are mostly staying in character, with a handful of neat moments here and there (in a blink and you’ll miss it sort of way, though), they aren’t written off as an unnecessary burden to carry, which is an improvement. There is nothing meaty given to them though - they ask the necessary questions, do the things required of them, and generally stay out of the way when they are not needed. I guess Anji has at least some character driven moments, even though most of them are reduced to “I miss my dead boyfriend”. Which is... fine, we’ve all lost people, we all mourn them in our own way, but it has been 14 books since her introduction, and she is leaving in another 10. To have her character reduced to just that bit from her first book, with barely anything else to offer.... Plus, all the while, she rarely felt like she integrated into the team - because she is constantly eying her exit and returning to normality (even though she always decides to stay just a little while longer due to circumstances), it’s like from the very beginning she had one foot out of the door.

But while Anji is a bit of a one trick pony, at least she has that much. Poor Fitz gets absolutely nothing to do. The last meaningful book that addressed his character in any way was all the way back around book #42-43, and even that was just catching up on plot after his prolonged absence. He’s been essentially frozen since early 30s books. He is generally a fun character to have around, and does good supporting work, but can he please get something more impactful any time soon? Heck, by this point I’ll even take the recurrence of “finding a new love interest number 20 who will inevitably die by the end of the book” - it has been overdone, and it is certainly not a very exciting plot, not to mention reductive, but at least it’d be something. Though, I guess only one companion is allowed to carry that staple at the time, and right now Anji is it, two dead lovers is just an overkill.

And it is an absolute shame - especially when considering that on the other side, Big Finish was in the middle of streak of some of the best stories. Over the same time that these novels were published, we had audios such as Project Twilight, Eye of the Scorpion, Colditz, One Doctor, Chimes of Midnight, Seasons of Fear, which were full of character.

#doctor who #eighth doctor #eighth doctor adventures #eda

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nullanythorm-ao3 · 4 years

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Just Some Random Fanfic Concepts

So I was going to wait and see if anyone else was interested in me posting up some of my general fanfic ideas. However, I’m bored and struggling to work with the CiM update I’m working on right now. So I’m just going to do it? Also, a heads up to look out for another post coming later, because I want to share some of my Variro YouTube playlist, too. BUT FIRST, story ideas. You’ll get some working titles for the ones I HAVE working titles for, but otherwise I’m just winging it cuz there are a lot of them. These are in no particular order. Things being higher or lower on the list doesn’t mean they’re more or less likely to be worked on.

#1 - A continuation for Land or Sea (title pending)

So a little background on this one. I got the idea for this one at the same time as I got the idea for Trust is Something Earned. I put which one I worked on first up to a vote on the Tangled Amino.

It’s a mermaid(merman/boy??)!Varian AU that centers on the idea: What if, in Queen for a Day, instead of coming up with a solution that created the amber when interacting with the rocks, Varian creates a different one and winds up getting himself turned into a mermaid instead?

It’ll feature 4 OCs: two created by me, and two created by a friend. The perspective will shift between Varian and an OC that belongs to a friend of mine named Charlotte, Varian’s childhood friend and love interest.

Without spoiling too much, it takes place primarily during the events of season 2 (and maybe stretches into season 3). It switches perspective between Varian, who’s sent to live in the ocean after the accident and becomes friends with an adventurous merboy named Caspian who helps him rediscover his passion for science and alchemy, and Charlotte, who’s left behind in Corona and is trying to rediscover her sense of self and direction after losing her best and only friend. Charlotte’s perspective will help show how the premise changes events in Corona, while Varian’s is wholly original.

The other OCs that will be involved in the story will be my OC Adrian Claire, who followers of TiSE will know, and my friend’s OC Henry.

#2 - Stitched Together (originated from Ragdoll)

Okay so the original premise for this was for it to be a Variro story. The focus was Hiro living a double life: a college student in San Fransokyo who realized the existence of the several magical realms that ran parallel to his home after discovering he had magical blood passed down from his mother (maybe even throwing in superhero and making it a triple life - poor Hiro). He finds what’s known in the multi-realm as a living doll - a doll that gained a soul either through devotion and affection of a previous owner and desire to become more human, or having a human soul literally shoved into it.

Varian, his doll, is the latter. Due to crimes against his home realm of Corona and his own uncontrollable magical talent, they forced him into having his soul magically “stitched” into a rag doll, until Hiro’s magical talent allowed him to awaken. However, because of his nature as a living doll, Varian now depends on and is subservient to Hiro, but the two soon grow a bond much closer than expected.

Now, after working on the lore and world of the story, I’ve grown its scope a little. Rather than simply being a crossover with Tangled and Big Hero 6, I want Stitched Together to be a bigger-scale crossover, including How To Train Your Dragon and the Tales of Arcadia series as well.

It’s going to be Hiccup/Hiro/Varian, along with Jim/Claire from ToA being close friends with the trio. They’re all going to be young wizards from different realms, with different magic specialties studying in Arcanum, the central realm that connects all magically advanced realms. Other characters from each series will show up as well! You’ll see a bit of all of them, it’s a pretty enormous project.

#3 - Maybe some Hogwarts Shenanigans?

I’d really like to do a short, maybe 7-chapter story on the Hogwarts Headcanons for the OT3 I did a while back. The big issue is I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on posting Harry Potter/Hogwarts content after the whole J.K. Rowling thing.

It’d be a chapter focusing on each year the three spend at Hogwarts together, some key moments through the years, and things like that. Just a small, random story about some kids at Hogwarts having fun.

Might do it, might not, we’ll see.

#4 - Time Travel Variro Fic (title pending)

This is another one sort of meant to run alongside season 2 of TTS, and maybe s3. It also replaces the S3 of BH6 the series. Just cuz.

Basically Varian escapes after being put in prison, and decides the best way to save his dad is prevent the amber from capturing him all together. Vindictive, feral little villain raccoon decides that if he can’t have his happy ending, he won’t let Raps have hers and plans to make a time machine so he can go back and prevent Eugene from rescuing Raps.

Unfortunately, a slight user error and hiccup in his plans (namely the fact that Ruddiger doesn’t appreciate being left alone and hops in the machine with him and all the noise and flashing lights of a steampunk-medieval time machine spook him) causes him to catapult into the future instead.

Meanwhile, Hiro’s dealing with his friends moving on to find work, his own internship at KreiTech while attending school, and being fifteen and struggling with hormones and his sexuality finally starting to rear its ugly head after being dormant for 15 years of being in an ongoing relationship with SCIENCE (aka he’s seeing guys, thinking ‘he’s cute/handsome’, and he’s PANICKING). Then, as he’s on his way home from internship one day, a random af raccoon tugs at his pants leg until he finds a boy in weird clothes unconscious in an alley somewhere

Varian, after being woken up, and unsure if he should bring up that he’s from the past or not, makes up a fake story about running away from a small town. Hiro, feeling there’s something more but empathetic to Varian’s story, invites him to stay with him at the Lucky Cat and introduces him to Cass.

Varian is stand-offish at first, absorbed in his “pet project”, as he calls it around Hiro. Basically, the machine didn’t time travel with him, he’s stuck, and is determined to get home and continue his plan. Hiro, however, is drawn in by the mysterious boy and tries to reach out to him and open him up.

Varian catches on to modern technology and science pretty darn quickly. He’s a smart boy. He also stays holed up in Hiro’s lab or the room they allowed him to borrow reading all day. Until finally Hiro cracks him out of his shell, he starts attending SFIT, and meets the rest of the BH6 crew.

There’s more to the story than this but that’s all I’m saying for now. Lots of drama, tension, etc, and just a fun time as boys discover their sexualities, learn where they can call home, and all that good stuff.

#5 - In Someone Else’s Shoes (Time Travel Team Awesome Fic!)

So this one is kind of meant to work in tandem with the Variro fic. While the Variro fic explores Varian failing in his plan and getting catapulted into the future, this fic shows the results of what would happen if the time travel worked.

It centers around Team Awesome! Varian travels back to the past, and tells Eugene that he dies if he hides in the tower. He convinces him that he’s his partner in his future, by knowing his name and stroking his ego a bit. But inform him that the crown will lead to nothing but trouble and his death (conveniently leaving out the part where he meets the love of his life and gets brought back from the dead because of a magical healing flower).

The alteration to the timeline erases the former Varian’s existence and overwrites the Varian of the new timeline with his memories - giving him the memories of both the former and current timeline. He wakes up in bed at the palace, being woken up by his personal attendant Flynn (Eugene, who only allows Varian to call him by his proper name when they’re alone) and told to get ready for his coronation as crown prince. It turns out, in this timeline, because Eugene and Rapunzel weren’t there to stop him from his running water experiments, the devastation on Old Corona caused the death of his dad and several others. Since he was the son of an old friend, and they longed for their missing princess, Frederic and Arianna take him in as their son, and monitor his scientific hobby to prevent him from causing more trouble.

Of course, this won’t do. He confides the truth to Eugene, that he was trying to save his dad by returning to the past (but again, keeping out key elements), and the two decide to work together to rebuild the time machine and alter the past without the catastrophic results.

Won’t spoil too much, there are some wild twists and turns here. But it’s one I’m really looking forward to, again!

#6 - Maybe some Percy Jackson/Camp Half-Blood shenanigans

I’d just really like to make some Camp Half-Blood AU stuff. It’d be more a series of one-shots, or just a story that jumps around in time in the course of it.

Crossover with Tangled, Big Hero 6, Tales of Arcadia, and How to Train Your Dragon with a focus on (as usual) Hiccup/Hiro/Varian.

Not going to say too much about it though, because I want to do an AU Headcanons post with some details on this one! I have lots of ideas.Some you might expect, some you might not.

#7 - Hercules Inspired Variro Fic (Title pending!)

So this one is wild. Basically, after the events of BH6 s1, Obake escapes. He stays on the run, escaping to Germany, and finds a young boy of genius on par with Hiro, but in the field of Chemistry, and takes him under his wing.

Varian is distraught after his father, who’d contracted an incurable disease, falls comatose. The government does nothing to help him, even though he has friends that hold political power, and Obake uses that to lure him into becoming his protege.

The pair lie low for a while, wreaking a little havoc in Germany while Varian looks for a cure for his father. The boy dabbles in all manner of fields while trying to help his dad, and before long finds out that the last component he needs is in America, in San Fransokyo.

Varian, now in his early 20s (which means Hiro is too!), Varian travels to America. He’s currently working as a villain under Obake while daylighting as the head of a German medical research company.

He meets Hiro by chance. He flirts a little, but tries his best to keep his distance while trying to achieve his goals. Unfortunately, Obake notices how flustered Hiro gets around Varian, and has Varian continue flirting with and pursuing him as a form of distraction, and confides in him about Big Hero 6 and their identities. Varian is against it at first, but goes along with his mentor.

Varian continues flirting with Hiro, gets in with the group as a friend, and begins distracting Hiro and sabotaging Big Hero 6 while working on a plan to steal the last component he needs for his cure - a solution being stored under high security at KreiTech - where Hiro works, partnered with Krei.

It’s Hercules inspired so there’s a bit more to it, but that’s all you need to know for now!

#8 - Phantom Thief Varian! (Title Pending)

Similar to the time travel one, this one KIND of links with the Hercules-inspired one. It’s not necessarily meant to link narratively or thematically, like the two time travel fics, but it has some similarities.

Namely the fact that Varian came to America after forming a company to research a cure for his terminally ill father. Whether or not Quirin is comatose in this one, I don’t know.

But it’s hard for a small company to get the influence or money Varian would need for his research. So, he steals valuables and rare compounds and materials to fund his research and keep him going, under the name “der Waschbär”, which Google Translate tells me means “the Raccoon” so I’m rolling with it.

He meets Varian in a business meeting with KreiTech, or one of those fancy business parties or something along those lines. They become infatuated with each other pretty quickly (as adults that are more sexually aware, I always picture these two precocious kids being pretty flirtatious when attracted to someone so they just kind of click pretty quickly).

It’s basically the story of Varian, the charming phantom thief who worms his way into Hiro’s life, and Hiro, the superhero aiding the cops in his capture. All while being completely oblivious to each other’s identities and flirting/pursuing each other constantly on the side xD I just like phantom thief stories okay?

#9 - POKEMON!!!!!

Yeah, I still want to do something with these pokemon headcanons

I’m still not entirely sure what kind of pokemon thing I’d want to do. Similarly to the other ones centered around my headcanon posts, it would probably be something I write in short bursts or one-shots and such.

I’m not sure if I want to do something focusing solely on Corona as a region and the Tangled Characters, or continuing the Hiccup/Hiro/Varian that the headcanons focus on.

#10 - The VTuber AU

Yes, I’m doing this! I’ve fallen neck-deep into the VTuber pit, and I love the idea of a VTuber Varian. I feel like his avatar is probably a combined effort between him and Rapunzel, who would probably be the artist behind his character. He’s probably an independent VTuber, streaming on his own with his own model - either because he was genuinely curious about the boom and wanted to try it, or due to the influence of his friends (whether a bet or something along those lines).

As stated in a previous post, I feel like his vtuber character is super steampunk, and probably raccoon-temed. There are a lot of VTubers that use the animal-ear look after all. His VTubing character is super chaotic, and tends to fly solo when streaming.

Hiro is a pretty big gamer himself, but never got big into VTubers. He felt it was just a fad attached to regular streamers, and never really got into watching other people play games, so vtubers make it even weirder really.

He was looking for help getting past a certain point in a hard game, though, and in his search came across Varian(in the fic, his VTuber identity will have a separate name! I just haven’t htought of one yet) streaming the game, and stuck around to see what he did in that part, and wound up staying because he was chaotic and fun to watch. Before long, he realized he was watching clips from previous streams and catching his streams regularly. The others start teasing him about it.

Meanwhile, Varian, who’s recently joined in with the group after having started SFIT the year or semester after Varian (maybe Year, since Hiro can be watching it while the others graduate and start looking for work, since he doesn’t really have any other friends in SFIT so he just kind of falls into it to pass time)

Still dunno how he figures out Varian is a VTuber, and whether it’s before or after they start planning though. I just rcreated this one it has work to do.

Anyway that’s about it. There’s probably a few smaller ones I put off to the side of my brain for the time being that didn’t get added here. I forget which ones I start planning a lot and I almost never write them down, I just plan them in my brain as I go and the ones that stick are just keepers. Hope you like these though! Curious to see what everyone things and which of the ideas the, like, 20 of you that follow me like.

#fanfiction #concepts #fanfic ideas #TTS #Tangled #Big Hero 6 #How To Train Yoru Dragon #Tales of Arcadia

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