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p-and-p-admin · 4 years

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Writers’ Weekends Lesson 2.

Welcome to the second class in our Writers’ Weekends series.

Lesson 2. Plot Beats

What do we mean when we talk about story structure?

A story is a complex thing comprised of many interconnected parts. To turn those pieces into a narrative, some sort of organising principle must be imposed by the author. The result of the organising of the material is the story structure.

Certain structural markers are obvious to the audience, such as chapters in novels. Elizabethan plays are typically divided into five acts. A film script is broken down into acts, sequences, and scenes.

The beat is the smallest unit of story, below the scene in the structural hierarchy. It is the space between an action and the reaction it causes within a scene.

Beat

Scene

Sequence

Act

Story

Scenes and acts are defined in screenplays, like chapters in novels. But stories have structures that are not usually made obvious or explicit.

This lesson’s focus is on setting out the bare bones you are going to going to hang the flesh of the story on. For the purposes of this lesson, I will be talking about stories that follow a three-act structure.

In screenwriting, it is often called “beating out” the story because you are making sure your story hits the key beats in a three-act structure required to be psychologically satisfying to your audience. The beats have various names depending on which text you read (looking at you “Save the cat”) but ultimately it doesn’t matter what you call them - so long as they are there!

The key beats you should have for a story to feel complete are:

1. Opening image and The Set-up.

In screenwriting, we always like to have a super-strong “opening image” that sticks in the mind and looks great in the trailer, but in terms of fanfic, I say it is important to weave a really vivid image into that first chapter so it sticks in the mind of the reader - enough so they will click into the next chapter, or hit follow. It is often an image that relates to the tone of the story and might provide a “snapshot” of the problem the protagonist will face once the adventure begins.

The other part of this beat is The Set-Up (sometimes called “The world at rest”), and it establishes for the reader the general world and situation of the protagonist before the events of the story enact change. This beat will often (but not always) include some iteration of the story’s central theme to the protagonist, who as yet unchanged by the coming story does not understand or accept it.

2. Inciting incident or Catalyst

The moment where life as it is changes. This is the point in your piece where the events of the story begin to change for your protagonist. It is the visit from Hagrid saying “you’re a wizard Harry”, It is allowing the killer into the house to use the phone, or meeting the true love of your life or discovering the body of a missing person etc. The “before” world is no more, change is underway.

3. First act turning point and Break into Two.

Some people separate these as two distinct beats and you are more than welcome to do that if it makes your planning easier. I tend to find in my writing the first feeds pretty naturally into the second so I tend to beat them together.

The first act turning point is the beat in which your protagonist debates which way to go in reaction to the inciting incident. It is the moment for the protagonist to choose a course of action the consequences of which will play out through the rest of the tale.

For example, if the inciting incident was the bombing of Pearl Harbour the turning point might be the protagonist debating whether or not to enlist in the army and leave their family or not.

The Break into Two (meaning Act Two) is when having made the choice we see it go into motion.

So again using the above example, having decided to enlist, the protagonist says goodbye to his family and leaves for Boot Camp. It is where the protagonist leaves behind the world of The Set-up and enters the unknown world of Act Two.

4. Subplot and B story

This beat is not always included as key, but I like to use it as a check-in point for myself.

A common complaint about subplots - especially romantic subplots - is that they feel shoe-horned in or tacked on. This is because they are too often added without thought for how they prove (or disprove) your premise (see lesson 1.) Every scene, every sentence, every bit of dialogue should serve to illustrate the premise of your tale. It is a common error to write the romantic elements as a completely unrelated thread to the main thrust of the plot.

To avoid that, I use this beat as a palate cleanser. It gives your reader a moment to switch gears between the world of the first act and the coming onslaught of action in Act Two.

It often manifests as a discussion which features the theme of the story – the central nugget of truth. Usually, this discussion is between the main character and the love interest. It is often the moment you look back on in a movie or series as “the moment” the two characters begin to see one another differently or even start to fall in love. Obviously, it need not have romantic connotations. Say if your premise is about family bonds, this moment might be a reunion of a father and son through shared labour building a fence etc. but its purpose is the same.

5. The Plot in Motion. (Sometimes called The promise of the premise)

This is where you get into the meaty, juicy part of your plot! Fun! It is where your detective will find the most clues or your action hero will dodge the most bullets. The protagonist is fully engaged with the changing world and the audience will be entertained by the events the protagonist encounters so long as they deliver on the premise.

6. Midpoint

The middle point of any story is (almost always) one of two extremes.

Everything is “great” or everything is “awful”.

The main character either gets everything they think they want (“great”) or doesn’t get what they think they want at all (“awful”). But not everything we think we want is what we actually need in the end. (E.g. The heroine wants the promotion overseas, it isn’t until she has it she realises what she needs is the support of her small hometown community and the love of the boy next door.)

Generally, the tone of your intended ending will indicate which option you are looking for here. If you are writing a romantic comedy with a happy ending, for example, this is the moment your heroine has a fight with her date, goes back to the office and due to her upset, blows her presentation to the Boss and then goes home to find her beloved dog has gotten out of the yard and run away. The remainder of the story is the climb back. However, if you are writing a tragedy this is the moment when victory is so close and everything is wine and roses and the remainder of the story is the protagonist’s fall into darkness.

7. Second Act Turning point.

The forces of the villain and/or antagonist begins to be brought to bear. Physical and emotional obstacles appear to defeat the main character’s goal, and the main character’s “great”/“awful” situation disintegrates. They face a second choice in course of action, the consequences of which have high stakes and drive the story forward into the final act.

8. Break into Three

Thanks to a fresh idea, new inspiration, or last-minute Thematic advice from the B Story (usually the love interest), the main character chooses to try again.

9. Climax or Finale

The villain and protagonist meet head-on (figuratively or literally depending on genre). This time around, the main character incorporates the lessons they have learned throughout the story. Having gained insight and strength from discovering the truth of the premise their fight for the goal is a more even and winnable fight because they have experience from the main plot and context from the subplot

10. The New World (Sometimes called Epilogue State) and Final Image.

This is the symmetrical beat which opposes where we began. It shows the world and the protagonist in their new state of normal, changed by the events of the story. It does not need to be a literal epilogue it can just be the closing paragraphs of a tale which gives the audience a sense of the future that awaits our protagonist and cast of characters. It closes the loop of your story and creates a sense of balance and continuity.

The final image is your last chance to leave something imprinted on the mind of your audience.

It’s Thelma and Louise driving off the edge of the cliff or the “What’s in the box?” ending of Se7en.

It is a well-accepted truth of screenwriting that audiences go away remembering the first few minutes of a film and the final few minutes of a film and that those “hooks” are what they tell other potential viewers about. I think this is similar to the way people discuss fanfic - you can’t necessarily differentiate by characters so saying “The one where Hermione hits Bellatrix with a blood-boiling hex” etc. is common. Giving your audience a couple of memorable images will help with expanding the ability of people to find your work when it is recommended.

SUGGESTED TASKS FOR LESSON TWO.

Write a sentence or two for each of the key beats of your story.

Be firm with yourself, don’t try and cram in too much plot. This is just a signpost for each KEY beat. We don’t need every bit of plot or story yet.

#fanfic #fanfiction

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4n0th3rm3 · 5 years

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Who has control over a story? Or: presidency as a metaphor for authorship

So… I have read the meat part of the Homestuck epilogues and I have to say, I am impressed. I have to admit that I was initially wary of the experience because the first opinions I’ve read on tumblr have been controversial, to say the least. But before I talk about the epilogue itself, I have to make some things clear. I haven’t read Homestuck in my formative teenage years. I started reading it when I was 18, so I had a lot more distance to the main characters and their experiences than I would have had if I was younger. This was also an age when my English could have been considered „good“ enough to even understand what was going on since it’s not my mother tongue. Additionally, I was just starting my degree in literary studies, so the interest in narrative structure has always been on the forefront of my reading experience, so that’s what I’ll focus on in my analysis. And hoo boy does Homestuck deliver in that regard.

First of all we have to ask: in what situation are the epilogues written? Homestuck is „officially over“, the fans are more or less satisfied, the „canon“ is supposed to be finished and can now be looked at in its entirety. This is not only important for the creators of fanworks, but also for Hussie himself. In a lot of ways, when a work is canonically finished, the author has distanced themselves from the story and the writing process. So how to write epilogues, when you have given up control over the narrative? It’s at this point that Hussie decides to make the problem explicit in the work itself: he changes the medium. What has been a narrative element in Homestuck before now becomes once again necessary for understanding the story. By changing the webcomic format to an Ao3 fanfiction format he shows the reader that these are indeed „tales of dubious authenticity“.

Now, finding the tone for the continuation of a finished work can be difficult (and we have to keep in mind that Homestuck has been over for three years). When we take a look at the Harry Potter series, where lots of fans were disappointed by a seemingly overly saccharine epilogue, we see how much can go wrong in the fans’ opinion. Actually, Harry Potter is also a good example of the consequences it has for a work of art and its fanbase when the author tries to uphold their control over the narrative after the work is finished — it can be disastrous (case in point: jkrowlings borderline surreal twitter presence). The expectations readers have are repeatedly mirrored in the epilogue itself:

And all of us are definitely the „devoted fans“ who show up to any new content, even if it’s bad. But is it bad? Whether there is too much meat (brutality, tragedy) or too much candy in it, both will be unsatisfactory. This is a thing that Rose, in the process of becoming a aware of the whole canon herself, comments on:

Even before the epilogues, Homestuck has always had lots of both, it varied in tone and regularly switched between tragedy and comedy, most often depicting tragedy through the lens of comedy. That was one go the things that made it unique. The way that Karkat reacts to the fact that Jade didn’t know that Obama was a real person shows how important the framing of events can be:

How comedy and tragedy are received respectively is very subjective to the reading experience. The reactions of the characters to canon and post-canon events mirror different fan behavior. Take for example Calliope, who seems to obsess over overly saccharine fantasies, mixed with gore and pornographic content:

The way it is framed here, it seems to sum up the fanfiction side of the Homestuck fandom pretty well. It frankly reminded me of the times when a lot of the fandom was pretty obsessed with the dark and horny parts of Homestuck - and unapologetically so. I mean, remember the 4chan „raids“ on Tumblr? That’s what they had to say about the Homestuck tag:

Now, please keep in mind that I haven’t read the candy part yet, so if Calliopes behavior is directly referring to it, it partly goes over my head at this moment. That the different perspectives and reading experiences can clash with each other and even canonical events itself is shown in John's own discomfort at the reunion with his friends:

It reflects on the way that the whole of Homestuck has been perceived by the readers not only while it was running but also after it has ended. Looking at a story after it’s been finished and at the sum of all its parts leads to some problems - for the author and the creators of fan works alike. From a distance and after three years, everyone is „stuck somewhere in the harrowing nexus between canon, post-canon, non-canon, outside canon, and fanon.“ Or as Rose puts it:

Rose realizes at this point that, much as we, the reader, the characters (especially Rose and Dirk) have also become readers of their own, their whole story. This forces them, much as us, to confront every aspect of every character that has been written in the Homestuck canon, what Dirk then calls the Ultimate Self. How do you for example characterize a person like Dirk when you know how different aspects of his personality play out in different scenarios? I mean, Bro is very much a character that exists in the Homestuck canon and — shitty as he is — shares Dirk’s genetic information. Dirk on the other hand is a person who has always tried to overcome the negative aspects of his personality that are realized in other versions of him. The convergence of personalities that happens when the characters become readers of canon themselves is in Dirk’s case as much a tragedy as it is for us, who have also seen the positive potential of his character. ultimate!Dirk then goes — in the manner of an overly sarcastic megalomaniac — from reader to narrator:

So it’s not surprising that looking at the whole of canon itself, different characters show different reading behaviors. This is as much true for Dirk as it is for every single reader, especially every creator of fan works. We take the elements that are given to us and try to create something from it. In one way or the other, by interpreting a story, everyone tries to take hold of the narrative. This is especially true for a story like Homestuck, where the interaction with fans and fan culture have been a central element of storytelling and has lead to the inclusion of multiple contributors to the work itself.

In ultimate!Dirk’s case, it is made very explicit how his particular perspective influences the narrative structure. The lines between reader and author blur even further than before:

But not only ultimate!Dirk and muse!Calliope, who tries to take the narrative away from him, have conflicting views and agencies, other characters also start framing actions and people in a certain way. It’s no coincidence that Hussie decided to make an election the setting for the epilogues. In meat, Jane runs for presidency and is then rivaled by Karkat, who decides to take a stand against her „xenophobic“ views. While Karkat says:

It quickly becomes clear, that a lot of what we think about Jane in the meat epilogue is framed on the one hand by ultimate!Dirk’s manipulative narrative that influences the behavior and events, and on the other hand by Dave and Karkat’s political campaign. (Both of whom don’t leave their house very often and have probably not spoken to Jane in a long time.)

We think that Jane is xenophobic because ultimate!Dirk and Karkat tell us she is. Not to say that Jane doesn’t have some problematic views, but she seems to be far from a fascist dictator.

It mostly shows how politics is very much about presenting a certain narrative to your potential voters. And whoever controls the political narrative has a hegemonial perspective on cultural narratives as well. This is an idea that has probably been best presented in the texts of the philosopher Walter Benjamin. In his essay „On the concept of history“ he remarks on the way a ruling class presents history and historical events as a legitimization of their power, and ultimately concludes that historical methodology is also a question of politics and questioning narratives that are presented to us. In 1940, when the essay was written, it was the conflict between fascism and socialism that influenced Benjamin’s work, but today his ideas are just as relevant.

By presenting the election and conflicting narratives (ultimate!Dirk vs. muse!Calliope, Jane vs. Karkat and Dave) side by side, Hussie builds a bridge between those two. It is not only that the text is a metaphor for the current political climate, it is a metaphor for the way that current behavior in general is shaped by controlling narratives. We live in a time when fake news and callout culture are two sides of the same coin: especially in America, these two intersect more and more, in political campaigns and online. Not to say that this kind of discourse isn’t developing in Europe as well, it’s just that the American one seems to be central for the discourse and views that shape sites like tumblr. On Earth C, in the „post canon victory state“, we can see these methods of political strategy developing from the very beginning.

This becomes especially clear as Vriska comments on Hussie’s behavior (as in: Homestuck-character Hussie): „not to mention your flawless defeat of an obstructionist, hectoring, orange man, who for reasons you cannot begin to comprehend seemed to be obsessed with you.“ While the whole world sees itself confronted with the weird views of a megalomaniac orange man (Trump), so does the readership of Homestuck: Hussie and Dirk’s text are both orange and are a constant obstacle for the fans who try to take hold of the narrative, to make their perspective the right one.

Actually, ultimate!Dirk’s perspective is skewed by numerous biases, mostly concerning women and gender issues. Jade is repeatedly called „bitch“ in a derogatory way and Kanayas behavior is framed as being „hysterical“. Roxy’s transition goes straight over his head, he can’t read her intentions because he is blind to gender issues that don’t fit his limited understanding of the concept of gender. He reminds me of a member of the alt-right, shutting women out of conversations and disregarding their opinions. This quote especially:

This sounds like it’s ripped straight from an alt-righter defending his free speech while at the same time trying to shoehorn his dubious political intentions in. In contrast to that, muse!Calliopes way of telling the story seems to be fairly neutral.

So it’s no surprise that the people he tried to shut out before (women and trans people) are realizing that his narrative behavior is trying to manipulate them and they take action. Especially Terezi seems to be immune to his narrative manipulation:

The moment that they break the hold ultimate!Dirk has over the narrative, they are beginning to feel like the old „canon“ characters.

Up to this point, we had to look at genuine character moments through the lens of an unreliable narrator. Homestuck has always been a parody that got unintentionally serious, so I think we have to look at the epilogues the same way: genuine character moments under the layers of parody, commentary on fan behavior and politics.

Ultimate!Dirk ultimately fails to create a cohesive narrative, one that favors only one perspective. This is reflective of the way Homestuck has been written and perceived these last ten years. He has to fail, because the author has lost control and interpretative hegemony over Homestuck canon — no one has it.

That is why it’s so important that the voice of the epilogues is not only Hussie’s voice, but was written in part by Cephied_Variable and ctset. While Hussie was responsible for writing the dialogue, the surrounding prose is entirely in the hands of fans. It’s a decentralized narrative that refuses to acknowledge one perspective, one reception as the right one.

And much like the kids in the juju, we are now stuck in a place outside of canon, after Homestuck ended. And it just happens that everyone is starved for new content: We all wish we had brought something to read. Be it the epilogues or fanfiction, we are all stuck in a place that no longer really affects the narrative:

And look at me, how I desperately try to take hold of the narrative in this long ass meta post. This is what Homestuck means to me and this is my perspective, my narrative.

#homestuck #upd8 #homestuck epilogue #homestuck meta #andrew hussie #long post #sorry this got like reeeeaaaaaally long #but if you want to read my hot takes on politics and authorship be my guest #(please be my guest)

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eddycurrents · 5 years

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For the week of 29 April 2019

Quick Bits:

Angel #0 spins out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer #4 (the ending events of which are presented again at the beginning here), giving us a flashback of Angel in Los Angeles and a case involving a werewolf. The tone here from Bryan Edward Hill, Gleb Melnikov, Gabriel Cassata, and Ed Dukeshire is bleaker than the Buffy series, but it’s fitting.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Barbarella/Dejah Thoris #3 is a whole lot of flirting. Gorgeous artwork from Germán García and Addison Duke with some impressive lettering from Crank!

| Published by Dynamite

Batman #70 wakes up from its “Knightmares” for the first part of “The Fall and the Fallen” by Tom King, Mikel Janín, Jorge Fornés, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles. It throws down a gauntlet of Bats’ rogues as he fights to escape Arkham Asylum.

| Published by DC Comics

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #1 is the first of these series that I’ve picked up, so I didn’t initially clue in that this wasn’t necessarily how this crossover had played out previously, but this first issue features a world of the two properties mashed-up in a combined reality. It’s an interesting start from James Tynion IV, Freddie E. Williams II, Kevin Eastman, Jeremy Colwell, and Tom Napolitano with some gorgeous artwork.

| Published by DC Comics & IDW

Black Hammer ‘45 #3 features a guest-spot for a young Abraham Slam, who seems to rub the Black Hammer Squadron the wrong way through trying to follow through with ideals and principles. It’s an interesting underlining of whatever potentially grey area operation the squad is on, as Jeff Lemire, Ray Fawkes, Matt Kindt, Sharlene Kindt, and Marie Enger continue to let that plot point simmer.

| Published by Dark Horse

Champions #5 is a tie-in to War of the Realms and also serves as a bit of glue to hold together different parts of the event, building upon things across different areas of the Marvel universe. It also gives us a very heartfelt reunion of Ms. Marvel and Cyclops, wonderfully told by Jim Zub, Juanan Ramírez, Marcio Menyz, and Clayton Cowles.

| Published by Marvel

DC’s Year of the Villain Special #1 gives a trio of teasers, two largely for the two sides of the Justice League/Legion of Doom stuff that has been going on, providing a backbone for the Year of the Villain event, and the third for Brian Michael Bendis’ brainchild of Event Leviathan, which unfortunately feels kind of out of place with the rest of it. As though the two separate stories are competing for resources, rather than being part of a cohesive whole. That said, all of the teasers do their job fairly well, piquing interest in what’s to come.

| Published by DC Comics

DCeased #1 is basically DC’s answer to Marvel Zombies by way of Stephen King’s Cell, but it’s damn entertaining work from Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, James Harren, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo, and Saida Temofonte. The set-up for the series with Darkseid meddling with the Anti-Life Equation and winding up with something worse is perfect.

| Published by DC Comics

Deathstroke #43 is kind of the conclusion to “The Terminus Agenda”, on paper at least. There’s still an epilogue over in the next issue of Teen Titans and the final page of this one sets up something huge going forward.

| Published by DC Comics

Descendent #1 begins another new conspiracy thriller, building off a child abduction and a “truther”, from Stephanie Phillips, Evgeniy Bornyakov, Lauren Affe, and Troy Peteri. It’s a bit of a slow build, working to develop the characters nicely, but there’s an intriguing mystery here.

| Published by AfterShock

Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #7 continues the hunt for the Stilean Flesh Eaters as the Doctor and the team cross paths with some familiar faces. Gorgeous layouts and art here from Roberta Ingranata, Enrica Eren Angiolini, and Viviana Spinelli.

| Published by Titan

Eclipse #15 reaches a boiling point in this penultimate issue. Zack Kaplan, Giovanni Timpano, Flavio Dispenza, and Troy Peteri have at least partially turned this arc upside down, causing us to have some serious questions about the morality of either side in the conflict. It adds a great depth to the characters’ actions and makes me unsure as to what exactly I’d like to see in the finale.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Elephantmen 2261: The Pentalion Job #1 begins a new digital original mini-series from Richard Starkings and Axel Medellin. Burba sees himself released from prison early, only to be set up to do a new enormous heist. Starkings builds this one greatly out of what’s come before in the series and the art from Medellin is gorgeous.

| Published by Comicraft

Fallen World #1 is a very welcome return to the future of the Valiant universe, spinning out of the changes made to the world in 4001 AD and War Mother, with Dan Abnett, Adam Pollina, Ulises Arreola, and Jeff Powell weaving gold out of the fallen threads of the fallen New Japan. You needn’t have read anything prior to this, Abnett does a wonderful job filling in necessary details of the world and the characters. The art from Pollina is probably the best I have ever seen from him, there’s detail, grace, and expressiveness that has leapt so far beyond even the beautiful work he’s done before. He and Arreola make this a damn impressive book to look at. Highly recommended.

| Published by Valiant

Giant Days #50 features a cricket match, including an explanation of the game that makes more sense than I’ve ever seen it explained before. John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell deliver another hilarious issue, with one hell of a final page.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

The Girl in the Bay #4 is the end to this mini from JM DeMatteis, Corin Howell, James Devlin, and Clem Robins. It answers what happened in order to create two Kathy Santoris, and her murderer’s deal, but it maintains the weirdness set from the beginning.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Gogor #1 is an entertaining start to this fantasy series from Ken Garing. The set up for the Domus taking over is interesting, as is the introduction of the seemingly Hulk-like saviour in the titular character. Gorgeous artwork throughout.

| Published by Image

Green Lantern #7 is a standout issue in an already astounding run, as Hal Jordan and a friend he finds in Pengowirr try to escape from Hal’s dying power ring. Great twists and turns throughout from Grant Morrison, Liam Sharp, and Tom Orzechowski. The layouts for many of the pages, playing with the shape of the Green Lantern symbol are very impressive.

| Published by DC Comics

Harley Quinn #61 is the first of this series I’ve picked up, due to Otto Schmidt taking over regular art duties, and I quite like this. This is the first part of “Role Players” from Sam Humphries, Schmidt, and Dave Sharpe, porting Quinn off to an alternate realm steeped in Dungeons & Dragons fantasy tropes. It’s pretty entertaining, with great art from Schmidt.

| Published by DC Comics

Hashtag: Danger #1 is another entertaining addition to the second wave of Ahoy’s comics, with Tom Peyer and Chris Giarrusso’s humorous take on the Challengers of the Unknown formula graduated from back-up to series. It’s rounded out with the usual back-up strip, text piece, and prose.

| Published by Ahoy

Justice League #23 has one hell of a gut punch for an ending (granted, it’s a little undercut by the DC’s Year of the Villain Special, but how could we expect something like that to remain anyway?). Absolutely stunning artwork from Jorge Jimenez and Alejandro Sánchez who only seem to outdo themselves with each subsequent issue.

| Published by DC Comics

Marvel Team-Up #2 continues the team-up between Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man in this Freaky Friday take from Eve L. Ewing, Joey Vasquez, Felipe Sobreiro, and Clayton Cowles. Interesting exploration of Peter and Kamala as they navigate aspects of each other’s lives.

| Published by Marvel

Meet the Skrulls #4 unveils what was a the heart of Project Blossom as fractures continue to develop between the Warner family. Great twists and turns from Robbie Thompson, Niko Henrichon, Laurent Grossat, and Travis Lanham as the series winds up for its conclusion.

| Published by Marvel

Nobody is in Control #1 features some very dense storytelling from Patrick Kindlon, Paul Tucker, and Wallace Ryan in this debut issue that goes down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and seemingly random information. It reminds me a bit of the structure of Steve Seagle and Kelley Jones’ Crusades from Vertigo ages ago, but with a more likeable protagonist and a decidedly different narrative.

| Published by Black Mask

The Punisher #11 is the explosive conclusion to “War in Bagalia” from Matthew Rosenberg, Szymon Kudranski, Antonio Fabela, and Cory Petit. When I say “conclusion”, though, I only mean it’s the end of the arc, it doesn’t really conclude anything with Jigsaw or Zemo. Great art from Kudranski and Fabela.

| Published by Marvel

Red Sonja #4 delves a bit more into Sonja’s past and training, seeding something interesting, while the first assault after being resupplied takes place. Mark Russell, Mirko Colak, Bob Q, Dearbhla Kelly, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are continuing to tell an engrossing, thought-provoking story with this series.

| Published by Dynamite

Savage Avengers #1 is a good debut from Gerry Duggan, Mike Deodato Jr., Frank Martin, and Travis Lanham. It spins out of Avengers: No Road Home, but only inasmuch as depositing Conan in the Savage Land. We’re getting a bit of a gathering of the team here as an ancient cult tries to summon a bloodthirsty deity from a planet past Pluto.

| Published by Marvel

The Six Million Dollar Man #3 is another hilarious issue from Christopher Hastings, David Hahn, Roshan Kurichiyanil, and Ariana Maher. The comedy of errors increases as Steve tries to recharge himself through acting as a lightning rod. Just wonderful stuff.

| Published by Dynamite

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #8 sees Seanan McGuire continue to absolutely nail the character development and interpersonal interactions between the characters in a compelling and intriguing way that hooks you well on their drama, even amidst all of the action, mystery, and excitement. Also, the art from Takeshi Miyazawa and Ian Herring remains incredible.

| Published by Marvel

Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Han Solo #1 gives us a sweet smuggling run set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back as Han and Chewie are still carving out what their place happens to be in this world, from Greg Pak, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Tamra Bonvillain, and Travis Lanham.

| Published by Marvel

Transformers #4 maintains the slowburn for this story arc, delivering a bit more information, a Cyclonus that might be insane, and Brainstorm’s funeral. Also, I’d swear that the story is hinting that the newly forged Transformer is the murderer, but that may just be me putting together dots that don’t actually align. It’s really nice to see art here from Sara Pitre-Durocher and Andrew Griffith as they join Angel Hernandez this issue.

| Published by IDW

Volition #5 throws a boatload of betrayals and twists at us as Amber and Hale continue to try to track down their creator...and her dog. Ryan Parrott, Marco Itri, Leonardo Paciarotti, and Marshall Dillon are very nicely raising the tension levels in this issue.

| Published by AfterShock

The War of the Realms #3 sees Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Sabino continue to juggle the massive amount of characters and threads going into this event (even if some of the tie-in mini-series don’t seem to line up with the main event book itself). Gorgeous art from Dauterman and Wilson.

| Published by Marvel

The War of the Realms: Strikeforce - The Dark Elf Realm #1 is a one shot from Bryan Hill, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Matt Hollingsworth, and Joe Sabino further exploring the team of Freyja, the Punisher, She-Hulk, Blade, and Ghost Rider before they ride off to Svartalfheim in War of the Realms #3. Some interesting character explorations and the nightmare of thousands of fluffy kittens.

| Published by Marvel

Young Justice #5 is huge, potentially exponentially huge, as it seems to pull at the fraying threads of the New 52 and Rebirth to hearken back to the pre-Flashpoint DCU. Brian Michael Bendis, John Timms, Kris Anka, Doc Shaner, Gabe Eltaeb, and Wes Abbott may be playing with fire but it’s a very welcome warmth. Bring marshmallows.

| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics

Other Highlights: Amazing Spider-Man #20.HU, Battlestar Galactica: Twilight Command #2, Beasts of Burden: The Presence of Others #1, Black AF: Devil’s Dye #3, Devil Within #4, The Dreaming #9, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark #5, Female Furies #4, From Hell: Master Edition #5, Goosebumps: Horrors of the Witch House #1, Grumble #6, Hillbilly: Red-Eyed Witchery From Beyond #4, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #9, Marvel Action: Avengers #4, Marvel Action: Spider-Man #3, Outcast #41, Paper Girls #28, Self/Made #6, Star Wars #65, Star Wars Adventures: Flight of the Falcon, TMNT: Urban Legends #12, Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale

Recommended Collections: Aliens: Dust to Dust, Amazing Spider-Man - Volume 3, Art of War of the Realms, Bloodborne - Volume 2: Healing Thirst, Bone Parish - Volume 1, Doctor Strange - Volume 2: Remittance, GI Joe: A Real American Hero - Silent Option, House Amok - Volume 1, Killmonger, Man Without Fear, Midas, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - Volume 8, Olivia Twist: Honor Among Thieves, Princeless - Volume 7: Find Yourself, The Quantum Age, The Silencer - Volume 2: Helliday Road, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Terra Incognita, Stranger Things - Volume 1: The Other Side, Takio, TMNT - Volume 21: Battle Lines, Wonder Woman & Justice League Dark: Witching Hour, The Wrong Earth - Volume 1

d. emerson eddy would like to remind you that it’s Free Comic Book Day. Get out there and free some comics from the shackles of oppression. May the fourth be with you.

#This Week in Comics

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azersam · 7 years

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Favorite Summer Albums of 2017

summer is almost over ;-; but these 10 albums made this summer v special for me and i highly recommend all of them :)

10. Aminé - Good For You

I’m not a big fan of Aminé but this album proved that he’s not a one hit wonder and has a LOT of potential. the album is very colorful, at times it sounds like the band fun. made a rap album tbh. also i personally care a lot about album covers and they actually affect the way i judge & listen to music, and this cover art is absolutely one of my favorite album covers of the year as it perfectly visualizes how the music sounds.

9. Haim - Something to Tell You

ok maybe this album is not as strong as their first album but it’s the most “dream-girl-californian” type album that I’ve heard in a very long time, it’s like a soundtrack for all these tumblr blogs dedicated to highly stylized pictures of California and California girls and it’s amazing.

8. Calvin Harris - Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1

honestly, i never expected to like this album as much as i do but it’s like literally the definitive American summer album. and like it’s like one of those albums that no matter how much they tried to fuck it up, they couldn’t make it any less good than it is with the list of artists that are featured on it. i mean Frank Ocean on the first fucking track?? and then the rest of the album being equally good? double amazing! “Faking It” is one of my fav song of the year despite the fact that i almost threw my headphone the moment i head Lil Yachty screech at the very end of it to compliment Kehlani, smh.

7. Brockhampton - Saturation

Kevin Abstract is amazing. American Boyfriend is an amazing album and Saturation is like Brockhampton’s take on that album and beyond. extremely fresh sounding, the rapping of every member is unique and exciting, the band knows their audience and so their lyrics resonate extremely well in a genuine way which makes the album very relatable for people in their late teenage years/early 20s.

6. Mura Masa - MURA MASA

the cover art is great but clearly a rip off of The Life of Pablo. but that doesn’t change the fact that Mura Masa is consistently amazing. despite releasing half of the album before the official release, the non singles - particularly “Who Is It Gonna B” , “Nothing Else!” and “Messy Love” - are phenomenal and it has such a London sound, and he even described the album as a love letter to London. every time I hear it, it makes me wanna move to London <3

5. Queens of the Stone Age - Villains

okay i can’t really judge this yet because i only listened to the shit quality leak, but MAN, even with that shit quality, this album fucking RIPS. less accessible and more experimental than “...Like Clockwork” and heavier too. lyrically and conceptually, though, it sounds like it comes from the same headspace that resulted in “...Like Clockwork” but this album to me is like a very epic epilogue to the previous album. “Villains of Circumstance” is a masterpiece and a strong contender for the best closing track of any album this year.

4. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

i’ve talked about this album before but the more rap albums i heard these past few months, the more amazing this album became for me. i mean just go listen to Mike Will Made-It’s new album (or any other generic trap album from 2017) and Big Fish Theory back to back, and the difference in production and atmosphere says it all.

3. Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy

i’ve also talked about this album before but this album this summer is what Blonde was last summer for me. it’s Tyler’s most defining work, and it only makes me excited to see how he will follow it up.

2. Lorde - Melodrama

this masterpiece soundtracked a lot of my sad & happy summer afternoons and nights. every time I listen to it, it reminds me what’s like to be 20 years old, and “Supercut” is the ultimate Lorde song ever tbh; amazing dance beat + intensely emotional lyrics. and that applies for most of Melodrama, every single emotion and feeling that Lorde expresses is actually felt.

1. Arcade Fire - Everything Now

believe it or not, in 2017, it’s unusual to like Arcade Fire. I’m still trying to figure out if the disappointment that this album brought to fans and critics is as a result of power of our absurdly high expectations, or the marketing campaign that pissed a lot of fans and critics off. either way, what matters for me is that I loved both the album promotion and the album itself. this is the best summer album (and potentially my favorite album) of 2017 for various reasons. for me a great album is an album that creates a world that makes me feel like I’m living in it for the duration that it has, and if it’s great enough, it makes me wanna live in that world forever (no matter how good or bad that world is). Arcade Fire are masters of teasing and promotion, and through a genius marketing strategy, they created a world for this album before it came out and after listening to the album few times after my initial disappointment with the singles, everything about it just made sense. the great irony about it is that despite its ridiculously complex and seemingly confusing promotion, the album itself is extremely direct and heartfelt. yes, the songs are extremely well produced and multi-layered, but what makes it amazing is just how personal it is. even in a song as colorful as “Everything Now”, there are some really dark lyrics. “Peter Pan” is about reaching an age when you start losing your parents (Win wrote it after realizing his dad is sick). “Put Your Money on Me” is a song where Win directly references his religious family and the dissatisfaction of his mother at his wedding, since Regine is apparently not of their faith. “Creature Comfort” and “Good God Damn” are both about a suicidal person (Win’s close friend) and why life is always better, even at its worst. and finally, “We Don’t Deserve Love”, an amazing heartbreaker about the simple concept that no matter how much we rely on people of higher status, whether our parents or religious figures, for love and connection, love and connection are inside us right from the start without us even realizing it sometimes. i think this album is the one that makes the most sense to me along with Father John Misty’s “Pure Comedy” - as both albums talk about the absurdity of our modern lives, yet in the end, both albums conclude with the statement that love is what matters the most at any stage of our life.

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rubyleeray · 7 years

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Several Shades of Sadism Game & Routes Review

This is something a bit different for me but I always look for these before I start a game/route, so I hope this will be informative/helpful to someone else!

Game Overall - The game overall is really fun and one of my favourites for sure! It operates much like every other Arithmetic game but you can really tell they put a lot more into this one. The addition of the voice actors is really cute and interacting with them multiple times a day made me very giddy (the voice actor for Minami is the same as Yuri from Yuri on Ice!!!). This game has everything I look for when deciding if I love a game and whether or not I recommend it to others. Those being: 1. Good Stories/Plot - Absolutely! There is a great mix and variety of funny and devastating moments with real relevant issues being addressed at times. I looked forward to my 5 tickets every day and there were several occasions where I spent because the cliff hangers were too intense! I just had to know what happened next!

2. Good MC - with the exception of Murayama’s and Minami’s MC - This MC is one of the best I’ve ever played!

3. Interesting/Hot Guys - Yessss! The art in this game is amazing! Every guy (even the evil dad!) is gorgeous. I will say that the secondary sprites are just blue and pink outlines and that seems like a waste opportunity.

4. Sex? - I’m not shallow enough to say this makes or breaks a game for me, but as an adult playing a game with adult love interests, this matters to me. Yes there is sex, but only with some characters in their main story (Event stories differ in that they often feature sex with every character). I’ll tell you below who has sex in each route description because that’s something that helps influence my spending.

5. Can I have a good time if I don’t spend any money/Will they force me to spend/make me wait weeks to progress? - Absolutely you can have a great time and achieve all endings without spending money! I played 3 full routes before I decided to spend money and the money I spent was on story tickets and an event after ending. As for having to build up free cash/experience/skill points for road blocks - it happens very easily and as long as you do it at least once a day you should never have to wait long to advance past checkpoints.

TLDR - You need to play this game! It’s so well written and fun! You’ll find the perfect mix of romance, comedy, angst, and sex within this game but the best part is the MC who feels refreshingly modern and truly representative of a young woman of this time. There are other incentives like generous daily logins and frequent events that aren’t impossible to full clear without spending so you really feel valued as a player and a person. I highly suggest starting with Chiaki or Mei and then moving onto the others.The game is alive and well and new routes are still being released.

Full breakdown of each guy and route spoilers below!

The MC - The MC is what made me fall in love with the game. She is HILARIOUS and she has motivations and dreams of her own. She is still my favourite MC ever despite her behaviour in Minami’s route ( much more on that later). She is just a super funny, goal oriented, mature (for the most part but aren’t we all) woman who speaks her mind and isn’t afraid to put the men in their place. I felt like she was a good representation of a real woman in an otome game.

In order of release:

Chiaki Kira Route

- Chiaki was my first route! I chose him based on appearance alone really - Tall, dark, handsome - giving off real Jumin Han vibes you know? Chiaki is an adorable lazy idiot who says offensive things but is really sweet. He will also give you lots of attention which is something I look forward to! His route is very similar to Jumin’s in the sense that it centres around his resentment of his father but it’s a good story that really develops a good relationship between Chiaki and the MC. Sex? Unfortunately not but it’s still super cute! In the happy end they have confessed their love and are finally able to give themselves to each other fully. (The ending CG involves Chiaki climbing on top of you telling you he loves you and asking you to not give him blue balls lmao).

Sequel to Chiaki - This is a real fire & ice route. When it’s hot, it’s very hot! But when it’s cold, it’s freezing! This route suffers from the typical MC doesn’t speak up when she’s depressed and being bullied which drives a wedge in her relationship. Chiaki isn’t exactly innocent here, he can be a total dick when times get tough but the route overall is great and the ending CGs are GORGEOUS! Use your gacha tickets on his epilogue... a CG of Chiaki wearing a wedding ring as he licks your wrist? GIRL I’VE GOT THE VAPORS!

Pick Chiaki if you love attention, romance, and a witty/sassy relationship between love interests. (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Nobunaga, MM Jumin + Zen, TCC Claude, Ikemen Nobunaga + Masamune)

Toma Kira Route - Toma was my second route and while Toma is drop dead gorgeous - he is kinda dead inside? His story is a dark one but it is very interesting and the climax is intense! Excellent character development here from both the MC and Love Interest. Sex? Hell ya! Toma does have sex with you towards the end a couple times and they are DETAILED scenes (The happy ending CG has a naked MC and Toma in bed after a night of sex as they are about to have even more sex!). But! He does something super hurtful to the MC during a sensitive time, so you have to have a bit of a thicker skin to play through this. Thankfully, he apologizes and more than makes it up to you! I\ll be honest, I wasn’t enjoying Toma’s route as much as Chiaki’s initially, but his ending retroactively made everything better!

Pick Toma if you like a challenge, don’t need constant attention, don’t mind a teacher/master relationship, and you enjoy good smut. (I’m still shook from Toma’s sex scenes). (Think of characters from other games like Ayato from 7HAMH, Isuka + Asena from TCC, SLBP’s Kojuro + Masamune, Ikemen Hideyoshi).

Minami Kira Route - Ugh...let me just tell you based on every event and item scenario I got of Minami, I was REALLY looking forward to his route - like a lot a lot. It started off alright, but I quickly realized there wasn’t going to be much of a plot which was really disappointing. Minami is a fun and intelligent yet immature guy. He’s constantly pulling pranks and showering you in false affection. Unfortunately Minami does something completely unforgivable (I’ll write the spoilers at the bottom if you really want to know) and because of this and the combination of the lack of character depth and the worst iteration of the MC in the entire game - I can’t happily recommend his main route. His event routes are fun but his main route is the one of the most disappointed I have ever been in an otome game and I’m not sure how Event Minami and Main Story Minami can be so different. The MC in Minami’s route is completely different than the MC in Toma, Chiaki, and Mei’s routes. She has no ambitions of her own and she never puts Minami in his place even though he deserves it and needs it the most. She’s so scared of hurting his feelings and making him not like her that she becomes a shell of her former self and that was seriously disappointing. Minami’s past was very sad and dark but it wasn’t really fleshed out. It’s confusing. There was so much potential and it feels like it all amounted to nothing. I would have rather seen a route where the MC teaches Minami how shitty it is to treat women like toys and have her fix him, or a route where the MC helps Minami accept and control the darkness and anger within him instead of just pretending to be a happy prankster all the time. Sex? Yes but at this point I was screaming “Don’t do it!” to MC through my screen. It didn’t feel like anything good was going to come from it and surprise, surprise it didn’t.

Do not pick Minami unless you have the thickest skin and an infinite amount of patience.

Mei Tarantino Route - Mei’s route reminds me of why I fell in love with the game in the first place. Mei is the sweetest tsundere there ever was and I’m still smiling about his Happy Ending. His story was wonderful (motivational and inspirational) and the relationship that develops between him and the MC feels natural, believable and is absolutely beautiful. They really support each other through their trials and tribulations and work to achieve both their dreams. There is a tragic past that explains a lot but doesn’t try to justify poor behavior in the present. His route is far superior to Minami’s and has even helped wash the bad taste Minami left right out of my mouth! Mei is everything you want from the perfect Tsundere route. The MC is funny as ever and back to her intelligent strong self. Sex? No but there’s a lot of satisfaction to be found elsewhere in this route.

Pick Mei. Just pick him. He’s so sweet. He has creative insults but the more creative they are the more you realize he’s falling in love. Plus the red blush on this boy is TO DIE FOR!!! (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Mitsunari, DTL’s Takasugi, RB Aito, Ikemen Ieyasu)

Rei Shindo Route - Okay this is seriously one of my favourite routes I have ever played in any otome ever. It is extremely emotional and the Sweet End is the most beautiful thing - paired with an absolutely BREATHTAKING pair of CGs that I think about on the daily. This route has angst, romance, comedy, and tragedy in HEAPING spoonfuls. I genuinely SOBBED twice.

I can’t write much as I don’t want to give too much away because you genuinely need to experience this route and see how fantastic and touching otome writing can be. Basically, you are roped into a revenge plot by a version of Rei that is far different than the man you have come to know in the other routes. The more time you spend together, the more you find out his reasons and what his end game is. It is A LOT TO TAKE IN but it is so rewarding! Please play it and tell me all of your thoughts and feelings.

Save him for last (if you can wait that long) because I feel like if you start with him, the other routes won’t look as good in comparison - and they don’t deserve that (except you Minami). I will say it’s important that you achieve his Sweet ending. I did not like his Normal ending at all in comparison. It was fine but it was much different and lacked all of the emotional depth of his Sweet End, so in playing Sweet first - I had high expectations of his other end as well but that was unfortunately not the case. Sex? Oh god, forgive me but I really don’t remember! I was so stressed out and emotional during this route that sex was the last thing on my mind!)

Pick Rei if you have a thick skin and don’t mind being put through an emotional ringer. (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Ieyasu, + Saizo, TCC’s Lugar + Yuri, MM’s V + Saeyoung, 7HAMH Soichiro + Ayato, Ikemen Mitsuhide)

Shizuka Kira Route - Okay I loved Shizuka’s route, I really did BUT it is the most hollow of them all. Shizuka is a sweet heart but his story isn’t very exciting or memorable (Save for the sex scenes!). It’s not a bad route by any means! It it full of genuinely funny and romantic moments so I really enjoyed it and him as a love interest, the problem is that it is the most formulaic and predictable so it’s not necessarily a unique story. One of the best parts of Shizuka’s route is the more mature and level headed MC compared to the other brothers’. She was also very in touch with her sexual wants and needs which I really appreciated and found refreshing! The biggest surprise in this route for me was how big of a role Minami had and how amazing he was in it! This is the Minami I want to romance!

Rintaro Murayama Route - Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I didn’t think I could hate a route more than Minami’s but HERE WE ARE. This route was so so so bad! I’m shocked! I took a week off from thinking about to to see if I was just being dramatic but I’m still just as mad as I was when I finished it.I’m so mad that I went back and CHANGED MY MIND about Minami’s route. That’s how bad this was. The thing about this route is everything is bad. The story makes no sense and they make NO ATTEMPT to make him a desirable love interest! The MC starts off strong and I felt for her inner struggle but then she just becomes flat-out stupid and not the fun loving hilarious witty MC this game has offered us from day 1 #notmymc. Murayama’s motivations make 0 sense and contradict themselves often. He’s supposed to be doing everything he does for his sister but he’s also supposed to not know anything about her these past 10 years?! So then why is he ruining little events that the hotel runs? To get back at his sister’s adopted brothers even though he might need them to be organ donors? What? And then that Happy Ending. No. That “Happy Ending” made everythign the MC did and put up with worth NOTHING. I have no idea how someone approved this. Murayama blackmails you constantly and at one point - late into his route - he starts trying to raping you while recording it. Not only that, he insists he’s going to show the video to her bosses and everyone else at work. Like - enough is enough in general but Murayama’s route was enough by chapter 3. It was like a cycle of dumb that just kept repeating.

Murayama route is inexcusably bad, don’t play it.

Sex? Another great part of Shizuka’s route is that it has the most sex and all of it was free sex (I also got to view the CGs for free? I’m not sure if this is a bug that may be fixed by the time you read this). The sex scenes were all INCREDIBLY HOT and I was sweating and taking screenshots while trying to remind myself to breathe. Out of all the Kira Brothers - Shizuka has sex with you the most. I believe it is 3-4 sex scenes vs Toma’s 2.

Pick Shizuka if you want a romantic route with a plot straight out of a romantic comedy and/or if you like sexxxxxxxy routes. (Think of characters from other games like DTL’s Haru, MM’s Zen, 7HAMH Haruto + Shizuki, Ikemen Shingen).

***Minami route spoiler*** Minami goes on a bender after kissing you where he stays out for days getting drunk and not coming home. One night a random guy brings him home and they accidentally end up in your bedroom instead of Minami’s. Minami flops down onto a chair by your bed and then gives permission for the guy to start raping you - he even says he doesn’t care. Only after the guy has began his rape of you and like the equivalent of 6 story tickets later - does Minami stop and actually do anything about it. This was seriously disappointing and you’d think that would be the end of Minami’s bullshit but it’s not - not even close. I just found it so unforgivable that near the end of the game after you both have fallen in love, that something like this happens and it’s not even vague/implied - it’s full on clothes tearing & body violating and Minami watches the whole thing!!! His apology after doesn’t even make up for it. The writer’s really disappointed me here. It would have been just as hurtful for Minami to say he didn’t care if the MC slept with the guy but for him to sit back and watch her get raped wasn’t something Minami could come back from for me, especially with such a lackluster plot. Minami also never really apologizes or makes up for referring to women as his toys and he treats women really poorly overall. There is a really heart wrenching scene where a woman who was in love with Minami confronts him politely and he screams at her and belittles her and the MC just kinda forgets about it.

#sss #several shades of sadism #chiaki kira #toma kira #mei tarantino #minami kira #otome game #otome game review #several shades of sadism review #Rei shindo #Shizuka kira #ruby reviews

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literaryinspiredwebserieslove · 7 years

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LIW Review: Twelfth Grade (or whatever)

Twelfth Grade (or whatever) aired for much of 2016, with the first episode on January 6 (twelfth night) and the epilogue exactly one year later.

Source material/premise:

Based pretty closely on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or what you will, one of Shakespeare’s darker comedies, a story about twins, cross-dressing, and love triangles. In this version, Viola Messing disguises herself as a cis guy, Sam, in order to attend the all-boys boarding school that rejected her trans brother, Sebastian. If you’ve seen She’s the Man, you know the basic plot already.

Spoiler-free plot overview:

Viola/Sam’s roommate and best friend, Oren, has a crush on local girl Olivia “Liv” Belcik and sends “Sam” to be his wingman, which results in Liv’s developing a crush on “Sam.” Meanwhile, Viola definitely doesn’t have a crush on anyone... All sorts of adventures ensue.

Format:

Uploaded without any sort of regular pattern on three different YouTube channels: S Messing (Viola/Sam, Oren, and their other friends at school), Liv Belcik (Liv and her family and friends), and S-messing around! (Sebastian). The whole thing is available in one playlist, which I will link below. All of the videos exist in-universe, but there’s quite a lot of creativity that goes along with that: there are a couple gaming videos, one filmed entirely in the dark, and one that, in-universe, was deleted shortly after being uploaded.

Realism:

Fairly strong. A few things stretch belief, but those issues ended up actually being dealt with (like why people weren’t watching each other’s videos and what happened when they found them) and actually became part of the plot. Though the lack of communication between Viola and Sebastian was a little hard to believe. The different types of videos also helped improve the realism factor, but something else that took away from it was the fact that many of the actors seemed to be looking at the script in several episodes. The characters themselves, however, are very realistic as both high school students and Shakespeare characters, and all of the casting and acting was great.

Representation/diversity:

So, so good. So many characters are played by minority actors, and race is just a total non-issue. Liv has agoraphobia (Confirmed! They use the word!).

LGBTQ+ representation is almost at an all-time high here. The series starts out with everyone being straight and ends with no one being straight (also no endgame heterosexual relationships whatsoever, which meant that both my ship and Shakespeare’s were wrecked, but I was still happy with the ending).

Sebastian is trans and interested in men. Viola is bisexual and demiromantic and probably a demigirl, though she doesn’t end up finding the right label for her gender before the end of the series. Liv is also bi. Oren is eventually questioning/(spoilers). Drew is gay. Vic and Curt are assumed to be gay. Tammi is a lesbian. Maria is pansexual. Foster uses they/them pronouns but I am unsure of their official gender label and so won’t use one here. Viola and Sebastian also have two moms (named Hermia and Helena because this is a Shakespeare webseries after all). Malcolm might be straight but we don’t care about him.

Film quality:

Not great. They only had one camera, and it wasn’t a very good one, but it was pretty realistic to what the characters would have realistically had, and it’s hard to make visually high-quality content without a budget.

However, what they lacked in camera, they made up for by having very creative episode titles (lots of references to SO MANY THINGS) and actually utilizing the description boxes, which is still not done nearly often enough. Sebastian’s titles are very in-character. The others are relevant and could potentially have come out of the heads of the characters, though it’s nothing on the level of NMTD/LLL episode titling.

My three favorite things about 12gw:

1) The first episode. Everything about it is perfect and sets the tone so well for everything to follow.

2) All of the internal shipping that happens in this series. These people come up with occasionally intentional, occasional accidental ship names for themselves, they talk about ships in ways that torture the audience to extremes, there’s an episode called “Ship Steer” – need I say more?

3) Oren Douglas. The acting, the character development, Julian Hermano’s face (sometimes I’m shallow). I love the man so much.

Less great things about 12gw:

The low film quality and the actors’ occasional script glancing are definitely the big ones here. Another negative aspect is that the actor who played Sebastian couldn’t be in the same location as the rest of the cast, so he isn’t in any group scenes, which is extremely disappointing. I personally am also sad that they changed Shakespeare’s endgame so much in this particular series, just because I came into this with a ship already formed, but regardless you will ship everything and be disappointed by something, because they can’t all be endgame.

Viewing time: about three hours, easily bingeable in a day.

Verdict:

3.5/5 stars, edging toward 4. I highly recommend this series to lovers of bisexuality, crushing the patriarchy, extreme sassiness, and shipping absolutely everything with absolutely everything else.

AWARDS!

Twelfth Grade (or whatever) is up for the Literary-Inspired Webseries Awards this year! Go nominate them by April 15th and then vote for them afterwards! Eligible categories (plus the full cast list) below:

Best Actress: Sarah Taylor as Viola Messing and Kristen Vagahos as Liv Belcik

Best Actor: Julian Hermano as Oren Douglass

Best Supporting Actor: Jon Steiger as Drew Aguecheek, Andres Cordoba as Vic Caius, and Eliot Barnhardt as Sebastian Messing (you may also recognize him from The Adventures of Jamie Watson and Sherlock Holmes).

Best Chemistry: Sarah Taylor and Julian Hermano or Sarah Taylor and Kristen Vagahos

Best Script

Best Ensemble Cast

Best Set and Costume Design

Best LIW

The rest of the cast:

Justin Linville as Curt Slender

Derya Celikkol and Michelle Persoff as Tammi Belcik

Adriana Figueroa as Maria Waites

Evan Neiden as Malcolm Volinsky

Jeremy Stewart as Anthony Capozzoli (this beautiful man also played Henry Tilney in Northbound)

Daniel Golden as Foster Page

Cathie Boruch as Hermia Messing

Created by Quip Modest Productions @quipmodestproductions

Mainly the brainchild of Jules Piggott @threeminutesfast

Watch the whole thing here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7Aos6cZ-mUxgWreHGvC1S5dY5IHq3Am6

#twelfth grade or whatever #12gw #liw #literary inspired webseries review #liwas #vote for these adorable little people #LIW Review

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dyemelikeasunset · 7 years

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Naf, what are your favorite animes/mangas? Also, happy new year!! :)

Happy new year!!

So I had an old list of my favorite anime/manga but it’s a bit outdated so I’m gonna make a new one. Yeah!

(this is a long as fuck post, apologies!)

Comics/Manga:

Otoyomegatari (eng: Bride’s Story): so I know this series is already pretty renowned but IT’S JUST SO GORGEOUS. The detail and research that goes into this series is so! frickin’! good!! The characters are subtle but full of personality, the humor is delivered in a very human way, the pacing is slow and gentle but full of interest, the story telling is refined. And the cultures are not demonized?? While there are “outsider” perspectives everyone works realistically within the confines of their societies and it’s really respectful. The age gap of the main couple (the groom is 12 and the bride is 20) has so much potential to be squicky but it’s healthy and not framed in any gross way. I love the way the series jumps to different areas and explores small arcs outside the main storyline, all staying within the theme of cultural marriages. Among these side stories, there is one with a majority dark-skinned cast, and the main characters are these carefree and fun-loving twin girls who are so much fun to read about! There’s also another story with a healthy polyamorous story that is, again, actually very accurate!! (Some people could argue it’s “platonic” but the way it’s executed really, really drips with romance lmao.) Highly suggest this series!!

Boku no Hero Academia (eng:My Hero Academy): I’ve completely fallen into the BnHA pit. I didn’t expect to like this series THIS MUCH but it is really, reeaaalllyyy damn good. I’ve never read a shounen series that had so much thought and good editing put into it. Like, it has incredible reread value! There’re a lot of small jokes (like single-panel but still very effective! jokes), unbelievable attention to detail, and it’s very obvious the characters were all worked out before the story was kicked off. The pacing is great, the momentum never feels sacrificed, yet there are still good chunks for breathing and emotional development. The characters are all very well-written even if they’re not “likeable,” you always have someone to root for, and the superpowers are refreshingly executed. The action is fucking FANTASTIC, and the story itself is intriguing with a lot of emotional impact without becoming hamfisted. There are still some issues with it, especially with the small amount of female characters and some unneeded romance undertones, but overall those criticisms do stay as “undertones” and probably weren’t done intentionally. A lot of the potential “fanservice scenes” are usually subverted in a hilarious way

Gakuen Babysitters (eng: School Babysitters): OOH BOY. This one’s a story about a high school with a daycare attached to it (mainly for the teachers’ kids). The main character is a high school student with a toddler-age younger brother, they’re new to this school and have to meet all the other kids… who are fucking adorable. All the toddlers at the daycare are really fleshed out, they all have set personalities and aren’t unrealistically angelic and some are bratty and most are CUTE AF, and they all have their moments to shine. Sometimes the characters border on caricatures or one-note jokes, but it works well for comedy and is generally kept fresh. There’re also some typical romance-y things but they’re totally glazed over in favor of the toddler-plots and YES A STORY WHERE KIDS AREN’T USED AS A PLOT DEVICE TO MAKE SOMEONE MORE ROMANTICALLY APPEALING AND seriously this series is SO CUTE you all should read it.

Bokura no Hentai (eng: Our Transformations): the “hentai” here is “transformations” not porn lmao. Anyway this series is about three kids who meet through an online “cross-dressing” community. The main character is actually a trans girl!! The other two mains are both cis, one gay one straight. The straight boy does say homo/transphobic things at the beginning but properly apologizes for his actions later. The series also deals with death in the family, mental illness and recovery, gender (obviously) as well as gender expectations and even addresses hypersexuality as a result of trauma. That being said, there is a heavy warning on this series for noncon situations and molestation. However it’s thankfully not treated in a romantic or rose-tinted way in the least. Some of the character growth is a little sudden (esp straight cis boy, I felt his turnaround was too fast and drastic) and some of the endgame couples (or implied couples) have some meh undertones, but overall a good story.The series is finished now and ended on a pretty good note, but the epilogue is incredibly sad. I suggest maybe not reading the very last chapter if you’re in a bad place mentally right now.

Kase-san: If you’re looking for feel-good wlw media, Kase-san is the shit. It’s sooo sugary and sweet, but still has good character growth and story development. It generally deals with real-world teenager stuff, but the couple is very healthy and progresses at a realistic but still romantic pace. Warnings for intense butterflies lmao this series is seriously so gentle and high-school romance-y in the best way. The biggest surprise is how the main girl grew on me so much? Like I have a huge pet peeve for cookie-cutter protagonists, but Yamada has so much personality and strengths! Even though the story is told from her perspective and generally follows her pining after the titular love interest, Kase, there are enough glimpses into Kase’s personality and motivations too (which helps to balance things out), and just Yamada herself is very vibrant and sweet! This series puts me in such a good mood

Tamen Di Gushi (eng: Their Story): Another good wlw series! I know this series is already pretty popular on Tumblr, but if anyone was still on the fence about it, I really think you should give it a shot. The romance is sweet and adorable but what really gets me is the HUMOR. The gags in this series are fucking out of this world, I can’t explain it well but the timing, expressions, and circumstances are SO FUNNY and the artist pulls it off so well!! I always look forward to the updates just because they’re so funny

Anime:

Idolm@ster: ugh don’t even talk to me about this one it’s a total guilty pleasure but all the characters and even the sides are GREAT (I love the faceless president lmao). It’s a story about a start-up idol agency, and how all the adults are working to help each of the girls become famous. It was originally a video game (with some questionable content) but the anime is REALLY GOOD and very endearing and each of the girls has a moment to shine and grow. The songs are cute and the dances and performances are so rewarding to see esp after all the characters go through, and UGH It’s all so adorable, esp 2nd season. I love this show.[A NOTE: don’t watch the movie. Just don’t. It’s awful. Bad production value, unnecessary drama, A USELESS SIDEPLOT ABOUT A GIRL LOSING WEIGHT it’s awful don’t do it.]

Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls: New cast of idols, new agency, very different pacing. The beginning 7 episodes are a little hard to get through, but after that first trudge, the quality skyrockets. I actually think there were some things I enjoyed more about CG than the original im@s– there’s a bigger focus on the actual work they do (like their idol theming), company politics, and a MUCH BETTER VILLAIN introduced in the second season. This series doesn’t focus as much on each individual character, but the ones that do get development really hit home strong.

Escaflowne: one of the first animes I ever watched when they were dubbing it in fox kids. I rewatched the subbed anime when I got older and I gotta say it’s really lasts the test of time. Aside from the geek factors (high fantasy!! tarot cards!! dragons! MAGIC MECHS!!) the story and characters are really great. The main character, Hitomi, is just such a strong baby who’s never outshined by the other characters. She goes through a lot and still is allowed to feel vulnerability, it never quite feels like she has to “prove” herself worthy of being a hero just “because she’s a girl” etc, she’s allowed to be strong and courageous while also weak and in need of help, very multi-layered! And that’s only the main girl HAHA don’t even get me started on the other characters.Some of the later story can be a little weird? There’s some weird real-world references and one of the characters has an interesting(?) gender issue. I don’t personally know how I feel about it but it’s worth having a mild precaution to anyone thinking of going into this series.

#Anonymous #recs #long post ///

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nyxelestia · 7 years

Text

What I Didn't Write in 2016

Plotbunnies that I never ended up writing (and, if I'm going to be honest with myself, probably never will).

Ghost Allison - Death wasn't enough to stop Allison from protecting her friends. (ETA: Never Mind.)

Jordan and Derek, Guilty (BR)OTP Fic (Unrequited Marrish and Sterek) - Jordan and Derek hate themselves for loving Lydia and Stiles. >:)

Post Season 2 Allison/Lydia, with Pregnant Lydia - Jackson impregnated Lydia just before he died in the Season 2 finale. Allison steps in.

West Wing Sterek AU - Stiles as the First Son, and Derek as the President's assistant. They are basically Zoey and Charlie. That's it, that's the plot.

Stiles-Centric AU (Witch!Claudia -> Warlock!Stiles) - A completely plot-less AU/idea about Claudia having been a powerful witch, and Stiles having inherited some magical ability from her.

Sheriff Stilinski Was Once Johnny Cage (Stallison or Gen) - altered to fit the Teen Wolf universe, the events of the Mortal Kombat movie were the manipulations of the nogitsune, before it was re-imprisoned back in California. When it escapes again, it intentionally possessed "Johnny Cage's son".

Avatar Scott AU (Sciles) - Scott is the Avatar, and Stiles is his non-bending best friend who he doesn't go anywhere without and who helps him learn. The Swamp Tree is called the Nemeton, and the academic fox spirits at the library are getting corrupted, which leads to one possessed Stiles.

Werewolf!Sheriff (Sterek) - The Sheriff gets Bitten, comedy and angst ensue. Let's be real, if I wrote this, it would mostly be angst.

Teen Dad Stiles (Pre/Post Sterek) - Babies don't make everything better, and in fact can ruin your lives, especially if you're a teenager.

Chris/Melissa/John Fic - What was originally a farce just to fuck with Rafael blossoms into an actual relationship. Their kids...try not to think about it.

"Seraph Stilinski" (Gen) - Claudia was a demon, the Sheriff is an angel, and all the forces of Heaven and Hell are deadset on making sure the world never finds out they had a kid together - the best way to do that being to kill the kid.

Stiles Number 7 (Clone AU, Derek & Stiles, Derek's POV) - Stiles is one of several clones, who are all based on Dylan O'Brien's other acting roles.

Trans Scott Fic (Scott & Stiles - Possible Sciles?) - Scott was born female, but is a boy. Stiles was his first and fiercest advocate, which is why the nogitsune acts like a transphobe the moment it possesses Stiles.

Details below!

Ghost Allison

ETA: So I ended up not only writing a fic for this one, but making a fanvid as well. Go figure.

Exactly what it sounds like: Allison is a ghost. I play around with various ghost mythologies, but the end result is that the pack realizes that Allison never left and she's been with them all along (which is why no one in the pack ever died after 3B). She sent Scott back after Theo killed him, she nudged Lydia in the right direction when she was in Eichen House, and she intentionally made Scott think of her when her own ancestor, Sebastian, tried to claw him for the memories.

This one, though, I'm actually not writing because I have an idea on how to make it a fanvid, instead. ♥

Jordan and Derek, Guilty (BR)OTP Fic (Unrequited Marrish and Sterek)

Basically, a fic which takes the age differences seriously. It's a lot of Jordan and Derek slowly realizing the other one is also, like themselves, attracted to a teenager (who, even while "legal", they just do not feel comfortable trying to start a relationship with, for many reasons, age merely being the biggest one).

It oscillated between humorous (the boys commiserating over the snarky teen geniuses they're in love with) and dark (the boys sleeping with each other and openly using each other as a "distraction" from the kids they are in love with). It was going to end with these two working behind the scenes to set up Stydia, figuring that Stiles and Lydia were better off with each other than with them, and then Derek and Jordan kinda parting ways and moving on, better able to love their respective teenagers from afar.

Post Season 2 Allison/Lydia, with Pregnant Lydia

Inspired by this gifset. Jackson actually died in the Season 2 finale, and Lydia found out she was pregnant with his baby soon after - and with Jackson dead, she refused to abort it. My twist is that Lydia's pregnancy is progressing against the backdrop of canon (though in an AU where, because Allison stayed to help Lydia through the pregnancy, she helped find Erica and Boyd, meaning they lived, and the Hale pack was more cohesive by the time Deucalion made his move). Lydia is explicitly targeted by the alpha pack because of her pregnancy (since the pack is an actual pack in this AU, practically everyone sees Lydia as family, and thus her baby as their future niece/nephew). The nogitsune tried to make her miscarry - though thankfully, it failed, if only barely. The fact that it was distracted attempting to cause the miscarriage meant Allison survived, though also only barely. Lydia was with Derek when Kate attacked, so the baby was born prematurely. Allison - at this point fully in love with and dedicated to Lydia and the baby - is furious, so when the pack goes to rescue Derek, she kills Kate for hurting Lydia and potentially killing the baby. Luckily, the pack comes back to Beacon Hills to find Lydia and her baby daughter are safe and on the path to recovery. The baby is named Jackie, after her lost father, and everyone loves her and all the bullshit of Season 4 never happened. The first full moon even reveals that the baby is actually going to be a werewolf, which Lydia is - much to everyone else's surprise - delighted by. Lydia is grateful to have the power to protect her friends, but being a banshee is traumatic and she's glad to know that her baby won't have to suffer through it. The epilogue is Satomi introducing herself and her pack to Scott and his pack - not from the fear and death of the deadpool, but to celebrate the new arrival to Scott's pack.

West Wing Sterek AU - First Son Stiles

Derek comes to the White House looking for a mailroom job, needing to support himself and his sisters after the rest of his family is killed in a brutal housefire. Due to a series of shenanigans, he gets hired as President Stilinski's body-man/personal assistant, instead. He eventually ends up dating the First Son, Stiles, and life seems good for him...until the First Family, the staff, and Derek are shot at by Neo-Nazis, because they object to the First Son being in a gay relationship. They stick together through that, though they split up later for personal reasons...yet Derek still loses his mind when Stiles' new boyfriend's stupidity gets Stiles kidnapped. As such, they eventually reunite (with only a little bit of meddling from Stiles' dad.) (This based off the Zoey/Charlie arc in The West Wing. Charlie's mom was a cop killed in the line of duty, and the Neo-Nazis attack because Charlie is black while Zoey is white. After they split, Zoey's new boyfriend gave her some E despite her already saying she didn't want it, and while he had no nefarious intentions beyond that, this made her vulnerable and led to her kidnapping.)

Stiles-Centric AU (Witch!Claudia -> Warlock!Stiles)

AU where Claudia was actually a very, very powerful witch. Stiles and the Sheriff have known about the supernatural world all along (Scott only found out after he was Bitten), and this somehow nebulously led to no real change in the events of Season 2, but after it, Erica and Boyd were saved from the alpha pack, and Allison stuck around town instead of leaving, so come Season 3 - when the story starts - the pack is a more cohesive pack, Allison is rebuilding her Hunting group/"family" with a new code, and Stiles is formally training to become Derek's emissary (and then Scott's, once Derek gives up his spark to save Cora, while Scott becomes the True Alpha). This one, I chose not to write because while I had some individual scenes and such planned out, I had no actual plot in mind.

The closest was some weird rom-com bullshit in which a coven comes into town and accuses the pack of breaking into their stuff/breaking some old wards of theirs. It's about to turn into a fight until Scott and Stiles show up and recognizes "Stiles's mom's book-club friends", and the witches recognize Scott and Stiles. They have trouble believing that the little boy who used to play with Stiles is now a True Alpha, but they do realize Stiles' "breaking" the wards/shields were genuine accidents - those shields were originally set up by Claudia, and the only thing more powerful than them are talismans she gave to Stiles and the Sheriff (made out of the Sheriff's old dog tags). They actually want Stiles to come with them, but they shrug it off when he declines and chooses to stay with his pack. One of the witches who is new to the coven tries to instigate a fight, but they're all like, "we can't fight them, we helped potty train them!" That's quite literally the extent of my planning for this fic. :P

Sheriff Stilinski Was Once Johnny Cage - Mortal Kombat (Stallison or Gen)

AU where "Stilinski" is actually Claudia's family name, which the Sheriff changed his name to in order to escape the fame of his movie days - he was actually born as Johnny Cage. Kitana was 'merely' a thousand years old, and a kitsune (halfway through the story, we find out she's Noshiko's older sister). Liu Kang is like Deaton, a Spark/Emissary/monk/user-of-magic (he grew up learning it, ran away from it, and the events of the movie were him coming back to that heritage). Sonya Blade is a Hunter from a Russian/Russian-descended family that has a testy relationship with the Argents (though she's not the leader yet in the events of the Mortal Kombat movie). The events of the Mortal Kombat movie were altered, so that it turns out the sorcerer Shang Tsung wasn't working for some other-dimensional demon, but the nogitsune (which Kitana accidentally released in the process of looking for her long-lost sister). The "tournament" was an elaborate human sacrifice ritual to superpower the sorcerer (and then/thus the nogitsune). Luckily, this original badass quartet managed to put a stop to the preceedings, and put the nogitsune back in its prison in California. Unfortunately, they were not able to capture Shang Tsung (which is why he later turns up leading a Yakuza ring right under Johnny Cage's nose in Beacon Hills - the actor playing Silver Finger is the guy who played the evil sorcerer in the Mortal Kombat movie). The story starts a few decades after that, though. Stiles is still very much the guy we all know and love, except that he grew up learning martial arts from his dad, his godfather "Uncle" Liu, and his godmothers "Aunt" Sonya and "Aunt" Kitana. (It's mostly just a hobby for him, something he does with his dad on the weekends.) The Sheriff and Stiles are both attempting to figure out or solve the supernatural drama, but from different directions. Both are attempting to protect each other from it, so neither of them know that the other one is involved until Matt's attack on the station, when they both know the kanima when they see it. Stiles learns the truth about his Uncle and Aunts, with Liu and Sonya even coming to town (though they don't really make it until after the Season 2 finale). Liu helps Stiles get started on learning how to be an Emissary, while Sonya (now the leader of her Hunting family) helps Allison clean up the Argent family and its mess. Kitana doesn't show up until the events of Season 3B, which is when it comes out that she and Noshiko are estranged sisters. Since Stiles genuinely sees Kitana as his aunt, this leads to him and Kira viewing each other as something akin to long-lost cousins. The joy of newfound family is short-lived, since the nogitsune has escaped yet again - and it wants revenge, which is why out of all the people it could've taken, it chose to possess Johnny Cage's son. >:) This fic was going to have a lot fun parallels between two quartets - the "original" quartet of Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Liu Kang, and Princess Kitana, against the "new" quartet of Stiles, Allison, Lydia, and Scott. However, it wasn't a fic I could really write about a single event or short period of time. Conversely, I didn't want to start yet another long, drawn-out, and heavily involved AU, when I'm already writing three of them.

Avatar Scott AU (Sciles)

From this post. Avatar AU, where Scott is the Avatar, and Stiles is his non-bending best friend and companion. Scott had many earthbending masters, though his most valuable lessons came from Stiles' father, the metal-bending Chief of Police. The Fire Nation hasn't attacked yet, but aspirations for world conquest are simmering in its royal family, the Argents.

Allison - a Yu Yan archer - has been exiled, ends up befriending the Avatar, and finds him the best fire-bending teacher possible: Kira, a lightning-bender. Monk Deaton teaches him airbending, as well as how to take care of the air-bison and all the other creatures of the Avatar world. (He is also an avid Pai Sho player, and taught Stiles how to play - and gave him a White Lotus tile when the boys finally left the temple after Scott mastered air-bending.) The Hales are the chiefs of the Water Tribe, who have always lived by the moon, and Derek is the one tasked to teach Scott water-bending.

Scott's first "mission" as the Avatar is to find out who is trying to attack the most spiritual tree in the world, the Nemeton. Before he tries, though, he has to go to The Library to learn about it. Unfortunately, something has been corrupting the fox spirits there, which no one realizes until one takes Stiles away from Scott. This was a premise, but there no actual plot to this, hence why I didn't write it.

Werewolf!Sheriff (Sterek)

In an AU where Erica, Boyd, and Allison all lived, and Isaac, Jackson, and Cora never left. Stiles has been instrumental in training all of them (especially once he sees what a disaster at it Derek was.) Werewolf shenanigans leads to the Sheriff getting Bitten by some rogue alpha, so now he has to learn how to be a werewolf. There are some good sides - he's loving how useful his new, enhanced senses are in his investigative work, and Stiles lets him eat whatever he wants. Unfortunately, he doesn't react well to the news that he can never drink again, and his first full-moon is trauatizing for everyone.

It was a lot of themes about how growing up can change your relationships with your parents and other parental figures around you. A big part of the story is that the Sheriff largely sees Scott as something akin to another son, but Scott has to be the Sheriff's alpha in order to protect him and everyone around them - and Stiles often unwittingly follows suit, as the Emissary. So their relationships kinda get flipped on their heads. And remember all the psychological nastiness of Scott's first full moon, and the physical violence of several other characters' first full moons? Yeah, imagine the Sheriff doing that, directed at his actual son and his adoptive son. >:)

(Despite not having enough of a plot to bother writing this, I did somehow develop plans for a sequel where this happens all over again because Melissa gets Bitten, too. However, in her case, she just asked Scott to Bite her, so she made an active choice to become a werewolf, well-aware of all the strife that would come with it.)

Teen Dad Stiles (Pre/Post Sterek)

Stiles and Malia didn't exactly use protection when they screwed in the basement of Eichen House in 3B, and Malia gets pregnant. In this AU, though, she never wanted to stay in the human world, so after she gives birth to the baby (toward the end of summer, just before senior year), she regains her coyote shift and returns to the wild - for good. Stiles is left with a baby, and the whole pack is supportive, and Derek in particular chips in a lot, since the baby is family (via Malia), and he's feeling a little bit responsible (for a variety of reasons). However, this isn't a feel-good fic where babies make everything better. Even with all the support in the world, being a parent is tough, and being a teen parent especially so. Stiles struggles with being a teenage father, and affects his social life, his ability to handle supernatural problems, and his grades - and with them, his career aspirations. He resents being a teen father, and slowly starts to resent the baby. Babies not only don't make everything better, but Stiles starts to feel like the baby ruined his life. Derek - seeing what could happen to the baby if she were raised by someone who resented or even hated her - demands full custody, and even threatens to sue for it. Stiles is resisting mostly because of what a massive blow to his pride and his sense of self this is, though also because he feels like Derek taking the baby out of obligation wouldn't be much better. (His resentment of being a teen parent is so deep, he doesn't realize that Derek - in a much better place in life to raise a child - actually looks forward to having a kid to take care of.) Derek is about to force the issue, but everyone remembers that while Stiles is the father, he is still a teenager, which is why the final say/official custody actually fell to the Sheriff - who saw the same thing Derek did, and thus agreed that the baby should go to Derek instead of staying with Stiles. The fic ends with the epilogue, which takes on the baby's first birthday, and when Stiles is getting ready to head off to college. There are no promises that Derek will wait for Stiles, nor that Stiles will ever "come back" or reclaim the baby. But Derek will always be there for Stiles, and while Stiles may not raise the baby, he will still be a big part of her life and try to do right by her in his limited capacity.

You can probably see why I didn't write this. Look, I'm sorry, but no matter how cute they are, sometimes babies not only don't make things better, they really do ruin people's lives.

Chris/Melissa/John Fic

This was a pretty cutsey fic idea, set in some nebulous post-S4 world, but where Allison lived and Isaac never left - and where Rafael McCall did, indeed, come back to Beacon Hills like he said he would in Season 4. However, he seems to be trying to 'reclaim' his place in the McCall family, refusing to see that Melissa has no interest in reuniting with him or that Scott neither wants nor needs him. (I consider this to be very OOC for him, though, which is a small part of why I didn't bother writing this.) The story actually begins after some minor supernatural scuffle results in Chris and the Sheriff crashing at Melissa's place for a night while the kids are out and about. The next morning, Rafael happens to barge into the house unannounced, sees Melissa making breakfast for Chris and the Sheriff (with Chris and the Sheriff in boxers and tee-shirts, since Melissa didn't have anything that could fit them), and jumps to the wrong conclusion. Rather than disabuse him of the notion, though, the three pretend they did, indeed, have some kind of threesome, leading to Rafael to storm off in disgust. They actually continue this facade for a while, much to the kids' amusement - it seems like the perfect way to throw people off their tracks, while making Rafael (and a few other interested parties) not think twice about some strange behavior. However, the fake relationship eventually grows into a real one, the three of them banding together to take care of and protect the kids in the face of all the supernatural crazy that is Beacon Hills. Their kids do find out that this "fake" threesome has become a real one. They struggle with it at first, for different reasons, but eventually come to be glad for their parents. (Mid-way through college, the two men knock up Melissa. The kids' reaction mostly boils down to teasing the parents for getting into an accidental pregnancy after having spent years lecturing the teenagers on practicing safe sex specifically to prevent something like this from happening. But when their baby sister is born, they spoil her to bits.)

"Seraph Stilinski" (Gen)

A kind of very dark Good Omens crossover/AU, with a lot of Saga undertones to it. Heaven and Hell have long been at war with each other, a conflict as old as humanity itself. One of the most powerful Arch Angels and another very powerful demon left their respective sides after falling in love with each other. They became human, which hid them from their former comrades, and spent multiple lifetimes together like this. Eventually, they even had a child together, taking great pains to make it look like that child was adopted, should someone unfortunately discover them. However, they realized too late that the process of having a child would doom the mother - which led to Claudia's human form deteriorating. She probably could've been cured just by undoing the human body and returning to her former self, but to do that would've been to reveal her location to the depths of hell, and possibly the truth about her child, so she died rather than put her husband and Stiles at risk. Supposedly, the Stilinski family happens to have been in Beacon Hills for a long time, and have passed down some uncanny resemblances, which is one no one questions it on the rare occasions they could swear they see John (or, I guess he's Noah, now?) in some decades-old photograph or century-old painting. However, some things aren't adding up, and by the end of Season 2, Stiles knows his father isn't human, and is a lot older than he looks. But the Sheriff is keeping remarkably tight-lipped about it all, which doesn't make sense until Stiles is possessed by a demonic fox-spirit...who the Sheriff says is, in the closest approximation to human terms, Claudia's brother - and thus, Stiles' uncle. And to think Derek thought he had it bad!

I also didn't write it because it was sprawling into some multi-million year angelic/demonic conspiracy. The reason why Claudia and John tried to hide that Stiles was their kid was because a angel-demon child was taboo, due to myths that such a child would be tremendously powerful. They were very confused when their baby was human, though relieved to see this would make him easier to hide. However, various "higher ups" in both Heaven and Hell still want this kid dead, and eventually, everyone figures out why. It's not that Stiles is particularly powerful, but that all humans are - they are not bound to any concept, object, element, or natural entity like angels, demons, spirits, and most supernatural creatures are. Things that devastate other creatures - iron, salt, silver, etc. - humans cloak themselves in, and powerful roots or herbs like mountain ash have zero effect on them. Despite humans being so physically weak and slow and their senses being so dulled, they've taken over the planet, and they can even leave it, a concept that up until recent was deemed impossible by everyone on and around Earth. In the purely physical sense, humans are "weak", but from the supernatural standpoint, humans are tremendously powerful (and/or rather, invincible). So why to the "higher ups" want him dead, if all humans are powerful? Well, Stiles is proof that all humans - all of humanity - are descendants of angels and demons. That thing about the conflict between heaven and hell being as old as humanity? Well, Heaven and Hell - angels and demons - predate humanity. Stiles - a confirmed child of an angel and a demon - is living proof that they weren't always at war, and that in fact there was so much fraternizing/uniting between these two sides, they created enough "demon/angel children" to create a whole new species: humans. Stiles is living proof that angels and demons can coexist peacefully, so of course everyone wants him dead before word of this gets out. This got very convoluted and extremely Sheriff-centric (with surprisingly little of Stiles or the pack in it), so I never bothered writing it. The Sheriff is popular, but not that popular/not on his own, so I doubted this would get read much, and if it's just for myself, why bother writing it when I can enjoy a story in my head?

Stiles Number 7 (Clone AU, Derek & Stiles, though surprisingly not necessarily Derek/Stiles)

A Clone AU, loosely based off of the tween novel series Amy Number Seven (which is like the middle school version of Orphan Black, but focused on the character coping with the clone background after finding out about it, rather than the clone mystery itself). Mostly Derek's POV. Basically, Seasons 1 and 2 are largely unchanged, except there are multiple implications that Stiles was kidnapped as a child and only recently returned home, but Derek doesn't know or figure out the details. Meanwhile, throughout these events, Stiles and Scott make a lot of references to Stiles getting help from mysterious "cousins" and "brothers".

After Matt's attack on the police station, Stiles calls in those mysterious cousins. Derek meets this AU's version of Minho, Brenda, Theresa, and Newt when Stiles goes missing after the Championship Game in the S2 finale. They are Stiles' "cousins", and despite the fact Stiles has been kidnapped, everyone agrees Stiles was kidnapped by "someone local", so the problem isn't big enough to warrant calling in Stiles' "brothers" just yet. Derek still had no clue what the fuck is going on, but not only are Stiles' cousins clearly child soldiers, Stiles himself actually manages to disable Gerard in that basement, and he's the one that frees Erica and Boyd. The warehouse battle still happens, and Stiles' mysterious cousins vanish soon after, and Derek is still very confused - even more so because Stiles is disturbingly competent and militant when it comes to finding and rescuing Erica and Boyd. (And also because Stiles disappears to "go help his cousins/brothers" once or twice throughout the summer.) However, the nogitsune is a BIG problem, which is when Derek gets to meet Stiles' "brothers" - clones.

These clones are all basically OC's inspired by/based on Dylan O'Brien's other roles. In this universe, the kids were made by some evil organization trying to produce soldiers, and these kids were the experiments/subjects. They survived, escaped, etc. - and now this story is about their lives afterwards. (The "cousins" were various experiments in how to amplify certain human strengths, while the "brothers" were just an experiment to successfully clone human beings. The next step was basically to "combine" these two experiments - clone people with those amplified traits - but these kids escaped and destroyed the organization doing this before that could happen.)

This was going to be fun once Stiles' "brothers" roll into town, because neither the pack nor the "cousins" are willing to kill Stiles - but his brothers are, and in fact are setting out to do that, leading to the clones working against the pack and the "cousins". The clones are all completely normal humans, while the pack are obviously supernatural, and the "cousins" have some superpowered traits (amplifications of hints of what we saw in the books), not to mention they've got the law and Hunters on their side (via the Sheriff and Allison). Despite this, the two sides are pretty evenly matched. Later, Stiles thinks that his "brothers" should very easily have been able to kick everyone else's asses, so he thinks they just didn't try hard enough because they didn't want him to die, and doesn't believe they were actually outmatched; some of his "brothers" are...not disagreeing. :P

Trans Scott Fic (Scott & Stiles - Possible Sciles?)

A fic where Scott had been born genetically female, but is transitioning to male - and has been for quite a while by the time he is Bitten. There is a lot of dysmorphia because the werewolf Bite interferes with the transition process, but Stiles learns magic specifically to counteract these problems. There was also a big plot arc where this interfered with Scott's ability to completely turn into a wolf (but once he does, the wolf form is male). To be honest, there wasn't much of a plot, just a lot of smaller ideas or scenes I had in mind. The ones I originally came up with - and at the center of the story - are something which I expect would be extremely controversial at best.

Stiles has always been Scott's Number One advocate, and his first defender in the face of transphobia. Where Scott tries to assume the best of people and educate everyone, Stiles thinks Scott shouldn't waste his time and that transphobes should just go die in a fire. Stiles was the first person Scott ever told, and he was the one who helped Scott talk to his parents to get the transition process started, when Scott was too scared to.

So when a thousand year old chaos spirit intent on causing as much emotional pain as possible possesses Stiles, what does it do? Deadnames Scott, constantly calling him by his birth name and intentionally referring to him with female pronouns as much as possible. This is directly parallel to Scott's transphobic father coming back into town and doing the same thing, insisting that Scott is his daughter, deadnaming him and misgendering him. What Rafael is doing to Scott out of transphobia, the nogitsune is doing because it knows how much it hurts Scott (and Stiles). What transphobes insist is "natural" or "right", the nogitsune is using as a weapon in its psychological warfare - because it's just that bad, that painful, and that devastating.

#teen wolf au #teen wolf fanfic #or at least ideas for them #teen wolf #nyxie writes things #or rather #nyxie DOESN'T write things

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drink-n-watch · 5 years

Text

Genre : Supernatural, drama, psychological,

Length: 32 minutes

Studio: ufotable

You know how life is. A bit like. A large sea of boredom punctuated by seconds of intense terror. It’s also a bit like love, a mish mash of uncertainty and worry interrupted by moments of utter bliss. The trick is simply in finding those moments that make very thing else seem worthwhile and making sure they last as long as possible. You can’t get around pain or loss, the only way out is through. But you look hard enough, can find a light at the end of the tunnel. In the past few months, a number of young women have been wandering through the dark and now, it finally time to come out into the light.

As far as I know The Garden of Sinners – recalled into summer – extra chorus is the final installment in the franchise. At least I hope so. It felt very much like an ending. A little icing on the cake prologue to the entire the Garden of Sinners saga. If that sounds familiar, there’s a reason for that.

yay! First time we get a Touko puppet

This movie is only 30 minutes long and revisits a lot of the characters and events of previous movies. As such, the emphasis was given to clarity over creativity on the production side. A smart move if you ask me. Flashbacks have muted colour palettes to instantly distinguish them from current events. Linework and palettes are sharp. Voice acting is a touch more intense than usual but there were a lot of feelings to convey and a short time to do it in.

I have to say, visually, this movie looked a lot like the Fate franchise to me. I mean all the Garden of Sinners movies do up to a certain point but this time it seemed undeniable. I figure if you like the look of Unlimited Blade Works, you’ll most likely like the looks of The Garden of Sinners – recalled into summer – extra chorus as well. And for once, that’s really all I have to say about it.

for a second I thought this was a young Touko…it’s not – I was sad!

Like I said above, The Garden of Sinners – recalled into summer – extra chorus feels like an epilogue, which it is. It’s well made and it fits with the tone of the series while giving us just enough new information to not be completely redundant. It’s basically 3 short stories.

The first revolves around Shiki having to take care of Mikiya’s cat for a few days. Azaka also drops by. It’s very short but it allows us to see all these characters in a new light and Shiki has an uncharacteristic yet perfectly fitting emotional reaction. It was nice and added a layer of mundane realism to all three characters that really helped flesh them out as potentially real people.

she’s no Touk but Azka is always fun

The second dealt with the aftermath of the events at Reien Girl’s Academy from the point of view of a student we didn’t get to know before and the return of the improbably alive Fujino. This is the first time that we’ve got a chance to see how the waves of destruction Shiki leaves in her wake affect everyone else. It also showed us a matured and changed Fujino who manage to add such complexity and depth to her character in the few minutes she was on screen, that I sincerely wished this had been her character in movie 3.

Finally, a quick Christmas scene between Mikiya and Shiki, with a little comedy relief cameo from the lovely Azaka, wrapped everything up on an unexpectedly sweet note that nevertheless fit in well. The insistent of the start of a soft snowfall at the very end of the episode was a beautiful way to bookend this series where rain and snow have played such an important and omnipresent atmospheric role. It was a cautiously optimistic promise of happier days to come.

this was a lovely scene

What I’m saying is that this movie was good. It was well executed, nicely paced and just pleasant. It was also completely useless.

This is arguably the 4th ending to this franchise. the Garden of sinners Chapter 7: ……not nothing heart. (Murder Speculation Part B) had a saccharine Disneyesque ending that I personally thought did not suit the series well but nevertheless did provide closure. Final Chapter (8) was an actual epilogue both chronologically and spiritually which answered all my gripes about the previous ending and in my mind, put a cap on the series. Then, the Garden of Sinners – recalled into summer, gave us a new adventure with a decade flashforward that would give fans everything they could possibly want in ways of “what happened after” and at this point, was already somewhat unnecessary. Now this one just seems excessive.

It’s a shame because it’s not a bad movie. Maybe if I hadn’t watched them all so close together, it wouldn’t have felt this repetitive and I could have enjoyed it more. Like I said, the movie is decent on its own merits. You absolutely need to have seen a few Garden of Sinners movies to understand it, especially 3 and 6, but otherwise, I have no real complaints. But it’s also superfluous to it’s on franchise and I have to wonder why it was released.

so much lazing around in this franchise

This was a confusing review. Do I recommend The Garden of Sinners – recalled into summer – extra chorus? Maybe! I’m getting better at this!

Favourite character: Touko!

What this anime taught me: it really is all a matter of perspective

If everyone just treated each other like drunk girls do in public bathrooms, the world would be a better place

Suggested drink: White Christmas Mojito

Every time Touko smokes – take a deep breath

Every time Shiki is lazing around – take a sip

Every time anyone yawns – take a sip

Every time we see returning characters – take a snack

Every time events from past movies are mentioned – take a sip

Every time we see Yuko Andou – pour some out

There are no pics of either Shiki or Mikiya in this post. Let me fix that!

The Garden of Sinners – recalled into summer – extra chorus Genre : Supernatural, drama, psychological, Length: 32 minutes Studio: ufotable You know how life is. A bit like.

#anime #atmospheric #drama #Garden of Sinners #philosophical #supernatural

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eddycurrents · 6 years

Photo

For the week of 24 September 2018

Quick Bits:

Amazing Spider-Man #6 kicks off a new arc with art from Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, and Edgar Delgado (along with a special sequence from Steve Lieber and Rachelle Rosenberg), with Nick Spencer playing up Peter’s problems with his super-villainous roommate and thereby the humour. Really quite like the art for the flashbacks.

| Published by Marvel

Beasts of Burden: Wise Dogs & Eldritch Men #2 takes a bit of a breather as the dogs try to figure out what’s going on. I love the measured pace that Evan Dorkin and Benjamin Dewey are taking to telling this story. For one you get to bask in Dewey’s beautiful art, but at the same time it’s building a bit of ominous tension. Events are still occurring, but we’re still being left in the dark as to what exactly is going on. It’s a nice mystery.

| Published by Dark Horse

Beyonders #2 is more bizarre conspiracy theory and pseudoarchaeology fun from Paul Jenkins, Wesley St. Claire, and Marshall Dillon. It’s rather entertaining to see these disparate bits of history and quasi-history come together and be twisted into this new and strange kind of adventure.

| Published by AfterShock

Bone Parish #3 sees the proverbial excrement hit the fan as the pressure gets turned up on the Winters family. The tension, action, and drama are being cranked up on high by Cullen Bunn, Jonas Scharf, Alex Guimarães, and Ed Dukeshire. Also, the art from Scharf and Guimarães is getting even more elaborate, especially in its depictions of the trips the Ash users are taking.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Cold Spots #2 is even better than the first issue, and the first issue was stunning. The story is still light on explanation and heavy on creepy atmosphere, but when the art looks like this, I’m willing to just bask in it. I love what Mark Torres is doing here with the art. He has a style that feels like a blend of early Matt Wagner, Ted McKeever, and Phil Hester and it is perfect for this kind of eerie horror. Torres and Cullen Bunn are creating something very compelling here.

| Published by Image

Cyber Force #6 begins branching out more, more explicitly building up the team, rather than just focusing on the individual origins amongst eventual team members. It’s a welcome shift in this reimagined timeline, as Bryan Hill & Matt Hawkins begin to develop the world past Cyberdata.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Die!Die!Die! #3 may have had its physical print run pulped this week due to a printing error with the cover, but it still came out digitally. It’s more over-the-top violence and action as Robert Kirkman and Scott Gimple still seem to be trying to channel Garth Ennis’ style of action/satire. You reach a saturation point after a while, so it’s thankful that they’re developing the characters fairly well and coalescing a larger kind of plot. Also the great artwork from Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn helps considerably.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Domino Annual #1 has a very loose framing sequence from Leah Williams, Michael Shelfer, and Jesus Aburtov, but it’s mostly a collection of four short stories, presenting Domino at different time periods and in different situations with different people. The only common bit is that they’re all really well done. There’s a story from Gail Simone, Victor Ibáñez, and Jay David Ramos continuing the fun from the regular series, spotlighting how Domino’s Posse came together. A reflective piece on Cable by Fabian Nicieza, Juan Gedeon, and Aburtov. A gonzo action bit trying to cheer up Colossus after he was jilted at the altar by Dennis Hopeless, Leonard Kirk, and Aburtov. And finally, a humorous, but heartfelt, showcase of some of the unlovable but loved obscure and sometimes hideous “freak” X-Men from Williams, Natacha Bustos, and Aburtov.

| Published by Marvel

Edge of Spider-Geddon #4 may be the weirdest one of these yet, featuring a world where the natures of Spider-Man and the Green Goblin have been inverted, and the world has seemingly been subjugated by Oscorp. Aaron Kuder, Will Robson, Craig Yeung, Andres Mossa, and Cory Petit give us an interesting endgame here for this world, but in doing so also potentially set up the catalyst for the entire Spider-Geddon event.

| Published by Marvel

Extermination #3 doesn’t get us any closer to understanding what’s going on with Ahab or young Cable, though in the latter’s case there seem to be hints that he’s gathering the time tossed original five X-Men to “repair” them and send them back, but that’s a guess. At the mid-point, I would have expected more crunch to the story, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Great art from Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia, though.

| Published by Marvel

Faith: Dreamside #1 resumes Jody Houser’s excellent and humorous take on Faith, picking up on threads from the last series, joined this time by MJ Kim, Jordie Bellaire, and Dave Sharpe. You don’t need to have read any of the previous material (though I do recommend reading it anyway) as this does a good job of getting you up to speed of the relevant details for the story at hand.

| Published by Valiant

Fearscape #1 is a magnificent beast. Ryan O’Sullivan’s narration for the overblown, pretentious author Henry Henry is so incredibly perfect and enthralling. I know this aspiring writer, I may very well have been this aspiring writer at times. Damn good voice here. Overall, love the premise of a storyteller having to save the world, and the art is just gorgeous. Andrea Mutti and Vladimir Popov make this beautiful, especially as the art shifts to a more soft focus as the story wanders off into the Fearscape. Imagination, form, style, and structure are all at play here and it’s just wonderful.

| Published by Vault

Friendo #1 is the other debut from Vault this week, going in for a kind of contemporary sci-fi with Friendo™ glasses offering up a digital assistant tailored to you, like a more personable Siri seen through Google Glass. It’s an interesting concept, brought forward in a humorous fashion, but I get the impression that Alex Paknadel and Martin Simmonds are going for more sociopolitical commentary here. Beautiful art from Simmonds and Dee Cunniffe.

| Published by Vault

Harbinger Wars 2: Aftermath #1 is a decent epilogue to the event from Matt Kindt, Adam Pollina, Diego Rodriguez, and Dave Sharpe. Basically it checks in on all of Valiant’s heavy hitters as they put the pieces back together following the event, establishing Livewire as the world’s number one target. Very nice art from Pollina and Rodriguez.

| Published by Valiant

Hillbilly: Red-Eyed Witchery From Beyond #2 continues to be entertaining, violent, and humorous as Rondel finds himself in more precarious predicaments trying to solve what haunts the land. I really like the art from Simone Di Meo and Brennan Wagner. Di Meo’s style here reminds me a lot of James Harren’s on the first volume of Rumble and it just works incredibly well for this kind of action/horror.

| Published by Albatross Funnybooks

Infinity Wars: Iron Hammer #1 is the second of these Infinity Warps mini-series to start up and it’s really rather good. As an origin story for the Iron Hammer, you really don’t have to be reading the rest of the Infinity Wars story here, so it works well as its own thing. The mash-up here is obviously Thor and Iron Man, with Al Ewing, Ramon Rosanas, Jason Keith, and Cory Petit telling a story that expertly grafts a variation on Tony Stark’s origin into the mythological trappings of Marvel’s version of Norse Mythology.

| Published by Marvel

Jessica Jones #3 concludes the arc with Dia and Elsa Bloodstone in the first part and then has a rather runny comedy of errors in the second part set around getting ready for Danielle’s birthday party. This is great stuff. Kelly Thompson, Mattia De Iulis, Marcio Takara, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Cory Petit are doing wonderful things with this series.

| Published by Marvel

Man-Eaters #1 reunites the Mockingbird team of Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Joe Caramagna, along with Lia Miternique, Stella Greenvoss, and Katie Lane, to kick off this new series about menstruating women who turn into man-eating big cats. It’s...an odd premise to say the least. There are certainly layers of subtext in the story that I still need to unpack, but on a surface level this is an interesting mix of police procedural, horror, and humour. If you think Cat People, you’re probably along the right line of thought. What it does do extremely effectively, however, is utilize comics as a medium. How the pages are lain out, the differing types of content, basically just how the story is told is impressive. This is something that can only be told as a comic and it’s just a wonderful use of the medium.

| Published by Image

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #31 is not quite a fresh start, spinning out of the events of the “Shattered Grid” story-arc, but at the same time it is the start of a new Power Rangers team and creative team in Marguerite Bennett, Simone Di Meo, Alessandro Cappuccio, Walter Baiamonte, Francesco Segala, and Ed Dukeshire. Confusion, chaos, and uncertainty definitely seem to be the goals of the story, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing if you’re coming in blind. It’s also interesting to see Di Meo’s style here, somewhat different from what he’s doing with Hillbilly. Still dark, and scratchy, but I’d probably compare this more to Sean Gordon Murphy, as it’s a bit more streamlined, better suited to the brighter colours of the Rangers’ world.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Old Man Logan #48 begins the final arc for the series before it goes out in a blaze as Dead Man Logan. Great art here from Ibraim Roberson and Carlos Lopez.

| Published by Marvel

Paradise Court #3 is interesting in that we’ve reached a bit of misdirection in the story, although kind of obvious misdirection since the exposed serial killer doesn’t look a thing like the other killer we’ve seen, which raises some interesting questions about the full nature of this gated community. Also, some really nice work this issue from colourist Leonardo Paciarotti. The change of flushness of the red in Amy’s face while she’s recounting her encounter is a really nice touch.

| Published by Zenescope

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #310 brings Chip Zdarsky’s run on the title to a close, with this single issue tale of what random people on the streets of New York City think of the threat or menace, illustrated by Zdarsky himself. It’s damn good. And a fitting end to what has been ultimately a very entertaining run.

| Published by Marvel

Regression #11 returns from the trade break with a new arc and a drastically changed status quo. Cullen Bunn has been great at setting up this insidious quality to the cult claiming Adrian for their own and that evil, disturbing nature comes to the forefront this issue.

| Published by Image

Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #2 continues the fun of the first issue as the family goes off to a holodeck simulation of a campaign, only to spotlight that Rick’s idea of facerolling a munchkin dungeon crawl isn’t their idea of fun. Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Zub, Troy Little, Leonardo Ito, and Robbie Robbins are delivering just the perfect crossover here.

| Published by IDW & Oni Press

Star Trek vs. Transformers #1 is the start of a limited series crossing over the Transformers with the animated series Star Trek characters, including M’Ress and Arex. The animated series was always a bit ridiculous, but fun and weird, so it fits well with incorporating the Transformers cartoon (though there do seem to be additions). Absolutely love the artwork from Philip Murphy and Priscilla Tramontano, who perfectly capture the style of the cartoons.

| Published by IDW

Stranger Things #1 begins a four issue limited series from Jody Houser, Stefano Martino, Keith Champagne, Lauren Affe, and Nate Piekos following Will Byers’ perspective during the first season of the Netflix series. It’s great. Jody Houser uses the boys D&D playing to frame out Will’s actions, lending some interesting survival tactics, as well as opening up an opportunity for Martino, Champagne, and Affe to utilize different styles for the variety of narrative frames. Also, Martino’s likenesses are rather well done.

| Published by Dark Horse

Transformers: Lost Light #24 is the second-to-last issue of this series as IDW’s Hasbroverse winds down to its conclusion. It’s really starting to feel final, with the crew’s epic battle against the Functionalists. James Roberts pens one of the most heartfelt and stirring speeches for Hot Rod this issue.

| Published by IDW

Vampirella/Dejah Thoris #1 sets this series off to a good start in a relatively straightforward manner. Vampirella is searching for a cure for the problems on Drakulon and it brings her to Mars. Erik Burnham, Ediano Silva, Dinei Ribeiro, and Troy Peteri do good set up work here.

| Published by Dynamite

Witchblade #8 drops a bit of exposition on us, filling us in on how Johnny is alive and a bit on the shadowy organization and its operatives trying to kill Alex and take the Witchblade. Still loving this series and the depth that Caitlin Kittredge, Roberta Ingranata, Bryan Valenza, and Troy Peteri are giving to it. It’s starting to develop some of the more traditional hard-tinged horror/superheroics, but still feels like a fresh and reinvigorated take on the Witchblade concept.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

X-Men Blue #36 concludes the series and with it Cullen Bunn’s tenure with the X-characters, running from Magneto through to now. He ties up a few missing plot threads and allows the characters to say a few goodbyes, nicely illustrated by Marcus To and Matt Milla.

| Published by Marvel

X-O Manowar #19 begins a new arc picking up the pieces in the wake of Harbinger Wars 2. It’s good. Very good. Matt Kindt gives us a perspective for Capshaw that was kind of missing from the event, as to why she continues with GATE and the government after how insane some of their actions seem to have been (valid points about uncontrollable psiots notwithstanding), resulting in a very strong start to this arc. The art from Juan José Ryp and Andrew Dalhouse is also stunning, especially when showing a different visual perspective as to how Capshaw sees her situation.

| Published by Valiant

Other Highlights: Betty & Veronica: Vixens #10, Black Panther #4, Gasolina #12, High Heaven #1, Invader Zim #35, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: The Coronation #7, The Long Con #3, Marvel Two-in-One #10, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer #4, Modern Fantasy #4, Moon Knight #199, Old Man Hawkeye #9, The Punisher #2, The Realm #9, Red Sonja #21, Redneck #15, Rick & Morty #42, The Sentry #4, Spider-Geddon #0, Spider-Man vs. Deadpool #39, StarCraft: Scavengers #3, Star Wars Adventures #14, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #24, Star Wars: Poe Dameron #31, The Thrilling Adventure Hour #3, Venom: First Host #5, Wayward #29, The Wicked + The Divine: 1373, Xena: Warrior Princess #8, X-Men Red #8

Recommended Collections: Astonisher - Volume 2, The Crow: Memento Mori, Cyberforce: Awakening - Volume 1, Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins Complete, Dejah Thoris: Gardens of Mars, Encounter - Volume 1, Exiles - Volume 1: Test of Time, Hulk: World War Hulk II, Infidel, Klaus: New Adventures of Santa Claus, Lucas Stand - Volume 2: Inner Demons, Medieval Spawn & Witchblade- Volume 1, Port of Earth - Volume 2, Red Sonja - Volume 3: Hell or Hyrkania, Saga - Volume 9, Songs for the Dead, Usagi Yojimbo/TMNT Complete Collection, Wasted Space, X-O Manowar - Volume 5: Barbarians, You Are Deadpool

d. emerson eddy does not represent the Lollipop Guild.

#This Week in Comics

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