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skullchicken · 14 days

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it is a Saturday and I am high on caffeine and sunlight - time to make a miscellaneous "comics I love" list! (Note: I'm grouping by layout, not country of origin)

Manga:

Aharen-san wa harakenai (Aharen-san is unfathomable): gag-comedy about a very stoic school girl and the equally stoic classmate who wildly misinterprets what she does. (Very sweet, absurd humor, a bit of romance, you will learn so much trivia)

Angel Densetsu (Legend of an Angel): gag-comedy with some martial arts tropes. A guy with the face of a thug and the heart of a saint stumbles into many a misunderstanding (and gains a few true companions along the way) - Bonus: you get to see the artist grow as the series goes on

Kouishou Radio (After effects Radio) - a collection of horror vignettes around a "God of Hair" which start coming together slowly to a very "oooh Fuck" effect.

Seihantai Kimi wa Boku (You and I are polar opposites) - very sweet and funny, cozy rom-com slice of live. A gyaru and a stoic loner fall in mutual love and navigate this first relationship together, helped by their friend group.

Radiant - action-fantasy. Imagine One Piece with witches, an inquisition, curses and it taking place in the sky. The MC is a lil shit for 1 1/2 volumes but my god if you like shounen-style fantasy-action, you're in for a treat.

Webtoons:

Cursed Princess Club - fantasy-romance-dramedy. "you're ugly" having her heart broken by these words, the sweet but not traditionally attractive youngest princess of the pastel kingdom runs into the forest and stumbles upon a club full of cursed princess. Deals with finding self-love in many, many forms. It is also "send screenshots to friends"-HILARIOUS.

The Dummy's Dummy - urban fantasy with horror elements. A monster of the week style story with a psychic girl and the monster-fighting marionette at her side. Has a lovely goth vibe.

... oh no the caffeine has ran out, so I'll add a few shorter entries:

Webcomics:

Fairmeadow (fairmeadowcomic.com): ex-soldier Orc meets pacifist commune. Hilarity(?) ensues. If you like dissecting interpersonal conflicts and gorgeous nature drawings, you will have a field day (hah).

Tiger, tiger (tigertigercomic.com): seafaring adventures with eldritch monsters, some romance and a great cast of characters (absolute nerd for sea sponges, a pirate with very healthy self-esteem, a mustachioed himbo and an anxious boye who does not deserve any of this)

Other comics:

Beautiful Darkness - hey, wanna remember how fucked-up yet whimsical childhood was?? NO??? well too bad, get shrinked to 2 cm size and try not to die in the wilderness.

Une semaine the bonté - surrealist collage work. Makes no sense and I love it. It feels like someone is pouring melting butter over my brain.

Hitman (DC) - vampires, superman, family drama back in ireland, zombie seals, demons and a surprisingly hard-hitting (and surprisingly funny) comic series. Gritty, grimy, tasteless in its humor... and very unapologetically so. Very of its time, but also very entertaining and varied.

#comics #angel densetsu #radiant #beautiful darkness #hitman #fairmeadow #tiger tiger #the dummy's dummy #aharen-san wa harakenai #ptsd radio #you and i are polar opposites #cursed princess club #une semaine the bonté

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inked-out-trees · 3 years

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⭐ for The Keep Going Song? Thanks! :)

(anh i would die for you)

Thank you for asking! I am going to be talking about the whole thing because it's fun, and because there's not really many ~secrets~ within the text to ramble about, just little fun snippets!

I'll do it under a cut because I will definitely ramble. Woohoo!

I came across The Keep Going Song (the song) after my Lookout 3 Companion Playlist (& my spotify discovery) introduced me to the Bengsons. The effect was almost instantaneous - it's the kind of warmth I try to encompass in everything I do, and for the next few days I had it on repeat as I worked. This was around the time I was finishing my Lookout script, and I had been toying with the idea of writing a Cornleyverse fic after absolutely devouring all 10 fics in the tag. What I knew was that I wanted it to be sweet, I wanted it to pull them all together, and I wanted it to be a progression. Despite only having seen the Goes Wrong Show, jumping into the fandom made me want to dimensionalize these characters and give them a story beyond everything that had already occured.

I also watched Christmas Carol before / during the writing process, but to date I have not watched Peter Pan or the full-length TPTGW. My prior knowledge comes from Wikipedia, the delightul amateur TPTGW production on YouTube, a friend's excellent transcription of the Haversham Manor script, and tumblr meta analysis. I think I did a reasonable enough job pretending I knew what I was doing.

Let's get going!

I knew off the top that it was going to be vignettes - they would give me room to spread the story over the long period of time it takes for a group of people to grow into something resembling a family. Like I said in the original author's note, there was supposed to be more of the early, snippy days - but I got so focused on making them kinder that I found I couldn't properly write a fight. In hindsight, it probably would have been easier if I tried writing that first, but, well. Once I realized that it was too late. The alphabet idea came later, once I had them all finished: I wanted to organize them somehow, but numbers felt too open, too infinite - closing the story on an organizational endpoint was just really satisfying.

a - Every good story needs a good beginning.

c - Starting with the end of Peter Pan is my sneaky way of slipping past the fact that I haven't seen the earlier shows! The Max and Sandra storyline is just so sweet, and I wanted to let it exist a little bit in between our jump from Peter Pan to Christmas Carol. This vignette came so easily when I wrote it and I love love love the feelings and the tentativity about the whole thing.

f - This was actually the last vignette I wrote. I realized I needed some front-end padding because otherwise my angst plot came rather abruptly, and what better way? At this point, too, I was trying to bring in POVs from each one of our characters, and when deciding on Trevor's POV I thought the exasperation-excitement combination would be an excellent choice. It turns out Trevor is my favourite to write, mostly because I can find his voice a lot easier than some of the others - and probably also because I hold a lot of fondness and nostalgia for stage crew work. Also, I wrote most of this one on a long evening walk in the notes app on my phone. Fun fact.

h - I did my original idea slam in a draft tumblr post, and this one just says "birthday party but one without all the drama of christmas carol". And what do you know, that's exactly what it is! I definitely took the birthday party (in CCGW as well as in this fic) as a kind of proof that they really do like each other, if they're doing things like this and if they want to do things like this - and that theme of okay, they want to be here formed the basis for this part. I think it's exceptionally sweet that Dennis came looking for friends and ended up finding, well, something. And I popped in a little MMNI reference with "one of the Janines" - Backwards Janine? Frontwards Janine? Original Janine? Who knows! It's one of them!

l - The thing about this plot is that it's actually one of the first ideas I had when dreaming up this fic, and I couldn't quite let it go. The point was, what if I somehow split them up? How can they get on when half the society is out of commission? And the most reasonable way I could find to actually get half of them out of commission was the car accident. To be honest, this one is mostly filler - it's also the second vignette I wrote, and it found its birth in the email drafts of my work laptop.

m - Trying to map out this little plotline without overdoing it might have been the most difficult part of this fic, and I'm still not 100% sure I succeeded. This is our explanation for the unease from the vignette above, and it took me 3 rewrites before I finally found something that settled in my brain. "Dennis gets chased by a goose" might be one of my favourite lines in the fic though.

Also, putting these letters right next to each other made me feel really clever for no reason.

n - My Jonathan perspective also took a few stutter-steps in its beginning, but this one ultimately came from the promo video's reveal that Robert and Dennis live together, and me playing with the continual idea of the remaining cast members being rather unmoored in their injured castmates' absence. Robert in particular because I love his character and I love making him Feel Things(TM) (fun hint: this will also be a small theme in the new cpds fic I have in the works!) and I want to see so much from this odd relationship between him and Dennis. Obviously they have to tolerate each other if they are willingly roommates - how far can I go with that? I love how this one turned out.

o - All I have to say about this one is that I still really love the sweetness between these two, and they deserve the world. Also, at some point during writing this I was really caught up with how striking Dave's face silhouette is (don't ask) so that ended up making it in somehow.

q - Girls' Night is SO important to me. After all the work they've done to make these gals friends I needed to capture it, and a pleasant night in just made a lot of sense. This one is the home of a few of my headcanons - Annie has a chef roommate and Max does a lot of the cooking, thus the "neither of us are the usual household cooks" comments, and I also think they're at the point where they can joke about their previous failures (especially with these three together) so the nod to A Trial To Watch (my favourite gws episode) was so fun. Also, Waking Ned really is a silly pick-me-up of a movie - would recommend. Special thanks to CBC for giving us Canadians quality British TV alongside our occasionally questionable homegrown programming.

r - It wouldn't be a fic about progress and growth with this crew without a disheartening moment turned into gold. I wrote this one while barbecuing, another fun fact, and no joke the hardest part was figuring out what to name the play they were doing. I kept pace with the whole "Jonathan can't get onscreen" gag, which was personally hilarious and made me cackle as I wrote it, and the rest of it just felt good. I will always have a soft spot for comfort and reassurance in a story and getting to write it has just been an absolute delight.

t - This was one of my other unplanned vignettes. It was originally to fill out Robert's POV, but also to express a bit of how things have changed in Chris's attitude towards his cast - if there's one thing I would change from Mischief's characerisation thus far, it's this brand of almost-kindness that I consistently need to write him with. It takes the aftermath of the car accident and uses it to kind of make him understand - this is a valuable group of people and I don't want to lose it. But of course he's not the type of person to actually express that in any way, so I thought the frenetic hovering was a good way to get the point across. As well, the kind-of-bonding between Chris and Robert - the two of them are such powerhouses of insistent personality that conflict so easily but they've also got a more secret kind of friendship that deserves to be explored a little more. I really like this vignette and how it ended up portraying how they are around each other, how they really do know each other, especially when they're not fighting. Makes me soft.

w - This is the first vignette I wrote! I honestly didn't realize until writing this just how much I identify with Annie - best of both worlds re. crew and cast, a bit of tenacity regarding getting through things, overall personality - I just love her so so much. She also seems like the most sensible of the cast, so the collective "why are we really here?" moment with Trevor really spoke to me. I love their friendship, I love the kind of quiet vibe this vignette gives off - this is one of the ones I can feel most strongly, the one I can step into and exist inside. I also spent most of my old drama rehearsals and classes without shoes, so that had to make it in just by virtue of the sock brigade (me).

z - One thing I knew for sure since the inception of the fic was that it needed to end on a victory. I took the images I had of this victorious adrenaline, everyone together having a good time, kind of getting smashed, and karaoke (I really wanted the karaoke, for some reason) and went the obvious route: the wedding. Ending on Chris POV also felt so right - possibly because he's the one with the most growth in this fic - and getting to finally feel this triumph with him after all these other trials and tribulations was an absolute joy. The wedding hall, in my head, looks like the one my cousin used (it was at a zoo... my sister and I went on a night walk and heard a lot of screaming peacocks) and I definitely threw all my wistfulness, all my love for the characters I'd developed, and all my love for this fantastic fandom into this part. The incorrect lyrics that Annie sings are exactly what I think every time I hear that song, because I've never looked up the lyrics before and my brain likes to play Mad Libs with my super-questionable auditory processing. And the image of the ballroom staff getting really exasperated with them and shutting all the lights off came to me at night and is hastily scribbled on a sticky note (it's a wonder it's legible) but I still strongly believe that it's the perfect, perfect way to end. I still get the warm feelings when I reread this part, even now, after so many reads.

And, finally - our end quote is exactly what started this whole thing. What is this drama society if not a rough beginning? But the concept that we'll make it through, that we can just take a step and then another and it'll be okay because we're together... it's hard to describe just how much it means to me, to my place in the world, to the world itself. I think one of my rather consistent aims in writing, no matter what it is, is to be able to have this collective - characters that become family, people that are important to each other, this constellation to lean on - because it's all I can say for the human experience. It's probably quite a bit of wishful thinking (as I said to another friend, "I am apparently letting loose on all my repressed social feelings of the past year and shoving them into fics") and a sort of subconscious confirmation that if I write it, I can be it. So this force of understanding and kindness and ultimately good people helping each other through the world is something I can't help but include, something that means the absolute world to me.

I'm so glad to have been able to share this fic with everyone, and extra glad that it's been able to touch some people along the way. I've found such an incredible community in Mischief and coincidentally I think The Keep Going Song represents that warmth, too - the community I've been so lucky to exist inside, how we're helping each other along, step by step. What a beautiful thing to be a part of! Thank you for reading and allowing me to give you a bit of my heart. 💖💖

#director's cut #the keep going song

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cynthiaandsamus · 3 years

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Bulbamun’s Top Ten Simpsons Episodes!

So now that my new smart tv has Disney+ on it I’ve been watching a lot of Simpsons lately and started thinking about just what are my favorites, this is by no means a definitive list, I may change my mind immediately after posting this but I do tend to hover around the same era when I watch and I just thought about which ones I keep coming back to or otherwise stick with me

10. Round Springfield

So this one fucking makes me cry every time, I don’t watch it as much as I have most of the others on this list but watching Bleeding Gums Murphy die and leave Lisa so distraught always gets me, they do the crazy James Earl Jones cloud ending and it never fails to have me in tears by the end. Also Bart’s small character arc with Lisa believing he’s telling the truth when he wrecks his appendix leading into the end is a very nice touch (and is something that happens in reverse later on in the list).

9. Lemon of Troy

On the other end of things, Lemon of Troy just always makes me feel kind of good, it’s really funny, there’s so many subversion gags that work really well and it’s a neat little adventure story that changes the setting up a bit. Shelbyville is mentioned a lot in various episodes so it’s neat to just go there and see the people are just as weird and freaky as in Springfield despite Shelbyville always seeming to be the better option in most conversations. Also, lemon-shaped rocks.

8. Homer Badman

So this is here for a couple reasons, first of all the Candy Expo in the beginning is an amazing setpiece and I love all the gags they get out of all the crazy candy convention shenanigans. And then the episode just kind of pivots and we get a pretty dire take on media sensationalism that just gets more and more relevant every year. It’s a weirdly nuanced take too since none of the original parties are particularly at fault since they both don’t have the full story but they get swept up into a media whirlwind. (Though the more I think about it, Homer DID still technically grab the girl’s butt even if it wasn’t intended as sexual harrassment there’s still a case to be made that he did do it, but she seems fine to drop it after finding out about Gummi Venus De Milo so I guess it’s okay)

7. Lisa’s Substitute

This is the other episode that never fails to make me cry, like every time I watch this episode I end up having a huge headache from crying so much. This one admittedly relies a lot on its ending and isn’t quite as funny or touching throughout but what an ending, everything from the train scene and Lisa getting the note to how the family wraps up at home and Homer proves he can be a good parent in his own way while relating to all three of his kids on various levels, it’s just really great.

6. Homer the Heretic

So this one is on the list for its atmosphere (and it won’t be the last one) I really freaking love how it sells the lazy Sunday morning feel in the first half, how Homer crafts a fun day off for himself with all these silly little events and snacks and such (which is also how I spend my days off so it probably hit a little close to home). The religious commentary is pretty good too, Lisa the Skeptic was very close to making the list for how it handled respecting people’s faith even when you don’t share it but I kinda like how oddly inclusive this message is for a show that’s usually pretty Protestant-focused, it kind of gets to a message about the intention of faith being more important than the dogma, but also that something like church can still have value.

5. Bart on the Road

This one and the next one are more atmosphere pieces, admittedly the vaporwave meme may have influenced my opinion on this a bit but I find myself coming back to this episode a lot just for the breezy attitude it has about the whole road trip aesthetic and how well Bart organizes this thing on the fly even though none of them have any idea what they’re doing, plus Nelson and Martin are always good to drag along together (see Lemon of Troy) and Lisa’s subplot about connecting with Homer and that being the final test that connects it to the resolution of Bart’s plot I always thought was really cute.

4. Bart’s Comet

Like I said, this is another atmosphere pick. The parts of this one that always get me are the beginning when Bart’s getting up at 4am and everything’s so quiet and still and the day hasn’t really started yet, and then the quiet anxiety that hangs over the town as their waiting for the comet to come crashing down (which if I remember high school earth science it’s not a comet if it enters the atmosphere but whatever). It’s got some really funny jokes and a variety of townspeople to play off each other and a really sweet and poignant ending with Flanders but the early morning scenes and the apocalyptic dread are my favorites here.

3. Bart Sells his Soul

I guess I’m a sucker for the theological/philosophical episodes of classic Simpsons because I love this episode. Just like in an inverse of Round Springfield, this one wraps up with Lisa giving Bart something that solves his grief, and her point about Bart earning his soul through desperation and effort and prayer is really touching. The Moe stuff for the B-plot is really cute and I like the setting of turning Moe’s into a TGI Fridays type deal, plus the oddly heartbreaking scenes of Bart walking around feeling like something is missing, it’s all really good and wraps up in a surprisingly touching way.

2. One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish

I feel like nobody talks about this episode as much as they should. Like it’s an episode about Homer Simpson facing his mortality and how that cuts to the core of his relationships with literally everyone in his life. It strips him bare and makes him thoughtful and introspective in a way we don’t really get to see while we take a quick jaunt through all his connections he’s made with the people closest to him. The scene of Homer mustering up all his dignity and listening to The Bible on tape and waiting to die really kinda touches me, I remember first seeing it as a kid and wondering what was going to happen, I knew they couldn’t kill Homer but part of that moment really sold it in a way I wasn’t expecting and approached mortality in a way that few others that use this stock plot do.

1. 22 Short Films About Springfield

Okay, Steamed Hams, you know it, I know it, Steamed Hams is one of the funniest things The Simpsons has ever done, but the whole episode is pretty great. The fact that it doesn’t have a central plot means that it can basically just be a gag factory and get a ton of variety, sweeping around the whole town and just punching in joke after joke of varying types. And despite its name and structure, it doesn’t feel like they’re isolated vignettes, it does feel like they’re going places since the shorts are decently tied together with good visual segues and some plots that continue throughout like Lisa’s hair story. Aside from the Cletus story and maybe a couple others there aren’t any hard cuts that divide one of the stories from another and it’s just really funny. Seems kind of weird to put all the touching and memorable episodes on the list and then top it off with a nonsense collection of hilarious gags but here we are.

#ooc #long post #The Simpsons #Top Ten

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laughingpinecone · 3 years

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17 Yuletide recs in the exact order I found ‘em in my bookmarks

They’re so great please read these fics

A Dreaming Art (Piranesi), 5k: a look into other worlds from a different cultural perspective, aka just what I needed for canon expansion

Two Winged Angel and a Bell-igerent Honk (Untitled Goose Game), 3k: not a full-on crossover but almost exactly what it says on the tin, and having fun with it every step of the way

Snakes and Snakes (Snake fight portion of your thesis defense), 1k: my fave out of the many snics (snake fics) due to two hilarious elements of worldbuilding

The Only Place That's Real (Thomas Kinkade cottage painting), 1k: delivers on treating Kinkade’s paintings as horror prompts and also features a Coop, as cool things sometimes do

Learn to Fly (Pyre), 8k: Liberation, Revolution and Union as seen by ae and Ti’zo, with gusto and plenty of details

For the Trees (The Prisoner), 4k: daaaaaaamn that’s an episode and a cool one at that. Beautiful setup, beautiful dog.

Houses Built in Years and Miles (Vagrant Story), 2.5k: meditative postcanon time with Ashley&Sydney, very chill, great sense of this strange bond

Haze (Night in the Woods), 1k: dream road trip dream road trip dream road trip! Fun cool approach to liminality

while it burns (Night in the Woods), 1k: stunning Gregg vignettes adding up to a cool day

Hilda Shelters in Place (Hilda the plus-sized pinup), 3k: lockdown references warning. I’m feeling this pin-up-ness in modern times, Patreon and all

on placid shores (Hollow Knight), 1k: Quirrellllllllllllllllll ;o;

Three Lights to a New Dawn (Ghost Trick), 1k: drabbles collection for the good ol’ OT3, good and cozy and occasionally sad but looking at better futures

A Test of Tempered Steel (FFV), 1k: spunky early days party bonding. Fun fun fun!

The Well-Informed Traveller (chapter 26, Octavia) (Le Città Invisibili), 1k: suspended worldbuilding in cool & hip travel guide format

Amazing! This Secret Meeting Between President Nixon and the Apollo 11 Astronauts Was Almost Lost to History (some clickhole article apparently), 1k: ............what it says on the tin but more deadpan

And I have already recced my gifts but please look at them again they’re still the be(e)st:

Transcript of the lines that were found in the sand (Strandbeest), 9k: history and individual inclinations in a complex, incredibly beautiful tapestry traced on the sand

Inertia (Strandbeest), 1.5k: reframing death, rebirth and community and shooting off beyond imagination

#yuletide recs #still missing a couple of longfics...

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ucflibrary · 5 years

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November in the United States is Native American Heritage Month, also referred to as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. It celebrates the rich history and diversity of America’s native peoples and educates the public about historical and current challenges they face. Native American Heritage Month was first declared by presidential proclamation in 1990 which urged the United States to learn more about their first nations.

Join the UCF Libraries as we celebrate diverse voices and subjects with these suggestions. Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured Native American Heritage titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These 20 books plus many more are also on display on the 2nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators.

#NotYourPrincess: voices of Native American women edited by Mary Beth Leatherdale and Lisa Charleyboy Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous women across North America resound in this book. In the same style as the best-selling Dreaming in Indian, #Not Your Princess presents an eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse, humiliation, and stereotyping are countered by the voices of passionate women making themselves heard and demanding change. Sometimes angry, often reflective, but always strong, the women in this book will give teen readers insight into the lives of women who, for so long, have been virtually invisible. Suggested by Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko More than thirty-five years since its original publication, Ceremony remains one of the most profound and moving works of Native American literature, a novel that is itself a ceremony of healing. Tayo, a World War II veteran of mixed ancestry, returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. He is deeply scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese and further wounded by the rejection he encounters from his people. Only by immersing himself in the Indian past can he begin to regain the peace that was taken from him. Masterfully written, filled with the somber majesty of Pueblo myth, Ceremony is a work of enduring power. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services, and Rachel Edford, Teaching & Engagement

Embers: one Ojibway's meditations by Richard Wagamese

In this carefully curated selection of everyday reflections, Richard Wagamese finds lessons in both the mundane and sublime as he muses on the universe, drawing inspiration from working in the bush—sawing and cutting and stacking wood for winter as well as the smudge ceremony to bring him closer to the Creator. Embers is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of grief, joy, recovery, beauty, gratitude, physicality and spirituality—concepts many find hard to express. But for Wagamese, spirituality is multifaceted.

Suggested by Mary Lee Gladding, Circulation

Facing East from Indian Country: a Native history of early America by Daniel K. Richter

In the beginning, North America was Indian country. But only in the beginning. After the opening act of the great national drama, Native Americans yielded to the westward rush of European settlers. Or so the story usually goes. Yet, for three centuries after Columbus, Native people controlled most of eastern North America and profoundly shaped its destiny. In Facing East from Indian Country, Daniel K. Richter keeps Native people center-stage throughout the story of the origins of the United States.

Suggested by Jason Delaney, Information Technology & Digital Initiatives

Hidden Cities: the discovery and loss of ancient North American civilization by Roger G. Kennedy

In Hidden Cities, Roger G. Kennedy sets out to recover the rich heritage of the earliest North American peoples and to trace their influence on the leading citizens of a young United States, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, whose missions of exploration and inquiry brought them face to face with the remnants of the past.

Suggested by Megan Haught, Research & Information Services/Teaching & Engagement

Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie

While a serial killer stalks and scalps white men in Seattle, John Smith, an Indian adopted into a white family, becomes dissatisfied with his life, and, as the killer searches for his next victim, John descends into the madness of Seattle's homeless.

Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Interpreting Native American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites by Raney Bench

Interpreting Native American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites features ideas and suggested best practices for the staff and board of museums that care for collections of Native material culture, and who work with Native American culture, history, and communities. This resource gives museum and history professionals benchmarks to help shape conversations and policies designed to improve relations with Native communities represented in the museum. The book includes case studies from museums that are purposefully working to incorporate Native people and perspectives into all aspects of their work. The case study authors share experiences, hoping to inspire other museum staff to reach out to tribes to develop or improve their own interpretative processes. Examples from tribal and non-tribal museums, and partnerships between tribes and museums are explored as models for creating deep and long lasting partnerships between museums and the tribal communities they represent.

Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

Ishi in two worlds: a biography of the last wild Indian in North America by Theodora Kroeber

The life story of Ishi, the Yahi Indian, lone survivor of a doomed tribe, is unique in the annals of North American anthropology. For more than forty years, Theodora Kroeber's biography has been sharing this tragic and absorbing drama with readers all over the world. Ishi stumbled into the twentieth century on the morning of August 29, 1911, when, desperate with hunger and with terror of the white murderers of his family, he was found in the corral of a slaughter house near Oroville, California. Finally identified as an Indian by an anthropologist, Ishi was brought to San Francisco by Professor T. T. Waterman and lived there the rest of his life under the care and protection of Alfred Kroeber and the staff of the University of California's Museum of Anthropology.

Suggested by Larry Cooperman Research & Information Services

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

The first of Louise Erdrich’s polysymphonic novels set in North Dakota – a fictional landscape that, in Erdrich’s hands, has become iconic – Love Medicine is the story of three generations of Ojibwe families. Set against the tumultuous politics of the reservation,the lives of the Kashpaws and the Lamartines are a testament to the endurance of a people and the sorrows of history.

Suggested by Rachel Edford, Teaching & Engagement

Ojibwa Warrior: Dennis Banks and the rise of the American Indian Movement by Dennis Banks with Richard Erdoes

Dennis Banks, an American Indian of the Ojibwa Tribe and a founder of the American Indian Movement, is one of the most influential Indian leaders of our time. In Ojibwa Warrior, written with acclaimed writer and photographer Richard Erdoes, Banks tells his own story for the first time and also traces the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM). The authors present an insider’s understanding of AIM protest events—the Trail of Broken Treaties march to Washington, D.C.; the resulting takeover of the BIA building; the riot at Custer, South Dakota; and the 1973 standoff at Wounded Knee. Enhancing the narrative are dramatic photographs, most taken by Richard Erdoes, depicting key people and events.

Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services

Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie

In Reservation Blues, National Book Award winner Alexie vaults with ease from comedy to tragedy and back in a tour-de-force outing powered by a collision of cultures: Delta blues and Indian rock.

Suggested by Rachel Edford, Teaching & Engagement

Smoke Signals directed by Chris Eyre

Though Victor (Adam Beach, Flags of Our Fathers) and Thomas have lived their entire young lives in the same tiny town, they couldn't have less in common. But when Victor is urgently called away, it's Thomas who comes up with the money to pay for his trip.

Suggested by Megan Haught, Research & Information Services/Teaching & Engagement

The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

The Education of Little Tree tells of a boy orphaned very young, who is adopted by his Cherokee grandmother and half-Cherokee grandfather in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee during the Great Depression. "Little Tree" as his grandparents call him is shown how to hunt and survive in the mountains, to respect nature in the Cherokee Way, taking only what is needed, leaving the rest for nature to run its course. Little Tree also learns the often callous ways of white businessmen and tax collectors, and how Granpa, in hilarious vignettes, scares them away from his illegal attempts to enter the cash economy. Granma teaches Little Tree the joys of reading and education. But when Little Tree is taken away by whites for schooling, we learn of the cruelty meted out to Indian children in an attempt to assimilate them and of Little Tree's perception of the Anglo world and how it differs from the Cherokee Way.

Suggested by Athena Hoeppner, Acquisitions & Collections

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden … but what they don’t know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.

Suggested by Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday

The paperback edition of The Way to Rainy Mountain was first published twenty-five years ago. One should not be surprised, I suppose, that it has remained vital, and immediate, for that is the nature of story. And this is particularly true of the oral tradition, which exists in a dimension of timelessness. I was first told these stories by my father when I was a child. I do not know how long they had existed before I heard them. They seem to proceed from a place of origin as old as the earth. "The stories in The Way to Rainy Mountain are told in three voices. The first voice is the voice of my father, the ancestral voice, and the voice of the Kiowa oral tradition. The second is the voice of historical commentary. And the third is that of personal reminiscence, my own voice. There is a turning and returning of myth, history, and memoir throughout, a narrative wheel that is as sacred as language itself.

Suggested by Rachel Edford, Teaching & Engagement

The Small Shall Be Strong: a history of Lake Tahoe's Washoe Indians by Matthew S. Makley

For thousands of years the Washoe people have lived in the shadows of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. At the center of their lands sits beautiful Lake Tahoe, a name derived from the Washoe word Da ow a ga. Perhaps because the Washoe population has always been small or because it has been more peaceful than other tribal communities, its history has never been published. In The Small Shall Be Strong, Matthew S. Makley demonstrates that, in spite of this lack of scholarly attention, Washoe history is replete with broad significance. The Washoes, for example, gained culturally important lands through the 1887 Dawes Act. And during the 1990s, the tribe sought to ban climbing on one of its most sacred sites, Cave Rock, a singular instance of Native sacred concerns leading to restrictions. The Small Shall Be Strong illustrates a history and raises a broad question: How might greater scholarly attention to the numerous lesser-studied tribes in the United States compel a rethinking of larger historical narratives?

Suggested by Megan Haught, Research & Information Services/Teaching & Engagement

There, There by Tommy Orange

As we learn the reasons that each person is attending the Big Oakland Powwow—some generous, some fearful, some joyful, some violent—momentum builds toward a shocking yet inevitable conclusion that changes everything. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and loss. There There is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen.

Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Tribal Strengths and Native Education: voices from the reservation classroom by Terry Huffman

In 1889, Sitting Bull addressed the formal, Western-style education of his people. "When you find something good in the white man's road, pick it up," he intoned. "When you find something that is bad... leave it alone. We shall master his machinery, and his inventions, his skills, his medicine, his planning, but we will retain our beauty and still be Indians." Sitting Bull's vision — that cultural survival and personal perseverance derive from tribal resilience — lies at the heart of Tribal Strengths and Native Education. Basing his account on the insights of six veteran American Indian educators who serve in three reservation schools on the Northern Plains, Terry Huffman explores how Native educators perceive pedagogical strengths rooted in their tribal heritage and personal ethnicity. He recounts their views on the issues facing students and shows how tribal identity can be a source of resilience in academic and personal success. Throughout, Huffman and the educators emphasize the importance of anchoring the formal education of Indian children in Native values and worldviews — in "tribal strengths.”

Suggested by Megan Haught, Research & Information Services/Teaching & Engagement

When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz

In When My Brother Was An Aztec, Natalie Diaz examines memory’s role in human identity. Each section filters memory through specific individuals and settings. Bigotry against Native Americans is confronted throughout the collection, and the speaker’s wrestling with identity is carefully woven into each poem. Faithfulness to and departure from tradition and culture are ever-present. Each poem is stitched into the reservation’s landscape, while many consider Christian identity. Natalie Diaz experiments with form, from couplets to parts, lists to prose poems, and explores the terrain of poetic predecessors, yet strikes out into new territory, demonstrating her adventurous spirit.

Suggested by Mary Lee Gladding, Circulation

Whereas by Layli Long Soldier

WHEREAS confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations. “I am,” she writes, “a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, meaning I am a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation―and in this dual citizenship I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live.”

Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

#featured bookshelf #ucf library #native american heritage month #booklr #reading

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recentnews18-blog · 6 years

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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/dean-goes-to-college-on-a-funny-low-key-venture-bros/

Dean goes to college on a funny, low-key Venture Bros.

After the tightly-plotted highs of the season’s three part opener, “The High Cost Of Loathing” slows things down… a bit. The episode is still jam-packed with stuff, following the adventures of the Monarch, Hank, Dean, and Rusty as they go about their various routines, intersecting in some places and not intersecting in others. It doesn’t build to quite the same high as last week’s entry, but that’s neither a surprise nor a criticism. This is the sort of half hour that does the necessary work of re-establishing the current status quo, and setting up what’s going to be important for the rest of the season. It may not have a high concept holding it together, but it helps ensure that the reality of the Venture Bros.—the impression that these people are all going about their lives even when we aren’t watching them—persists, and it’s damn funny to boot.

The Venture Bros.Season 7

Really, if there’s any serious criticism I could make here it’s that everyone’s doing more or less what you’d expect. The Blue Morpho odyssey finally reached its comic-tragic conclusion, but the Monarch is still doing the same thing that got him into trouble in the first place: desperately trying to earn the Guild’s approval so he can go back to arching Rusty. That makes sense on a character level, but it’s kind of a disappointment on a narrative one—all that time and effort, and really nothing has changed. Hopefully the Monarch has learned his lesson and will follow the proper channels to get himself back on Doc’s bad side, although that might not make for the most dynamic storytelling.

The Monarch going through the same motions adds to the continuity between this season and last; it’s been a couple of years in our time, but everything we’ve seen so far in season 7 has more or less directly followed from what happened in 6. And while I was disappointed to see Monarch back in the same hole, I like the sense of continuity overall. There’s a strong sense of world-building here, and it speaks of the show’s transformation from a collection of vignettes to something more connected and consistent. Of course, the mythology and the lore has always been a concern on the series; one of the most important, and tragic, jokes is how much all of these characters are fixated on the past. But there’s a coherence here that’s at once limiting and kind of fascinating.

From that perspective, the Monarch’s determination to keep doing the same old shit is more of a feature than a bug. (Oh god, that pun wasn’t intentional I swear.) He’s not the only one stuck in a rut. Rusty is still trying to hold on to Ventech; his big power play this week is to introduce a rip-off of his brother’s hover belt. It’s maybe my favorite gag in an episode full of good jokes: a riff on the opening of Hudsucker Proxy that has Rusty bolting down a table and diving through a window, only to float back up to everyone’s amazement—before succumbing to the massive bleeding caused by the lacerations from, uh, diving through a window.

The consequences of his attempt to show-off have him hospitalized for the rest of the episode, which gives Hank a chance to try and bond with him later; it also means he’s out of the house when Hank decides to make some spare cash by operating his very own B&B. This takes a turn for the violent when Sgt. Hatred and Brock get alerted to strangers in the building without knowing the context, although we don’t see if the poor innocent tourists get killed or not. (I’m hoping not, but y’know, the odds aren’t great.) While the Monarch kicks things off, Hank and Dean are probably the real focus here, with Hank trying to spread his wings a bit after Dean goes to college. Both boys are frustrated with their father: Hank, because he doesn’t think anything he does will ever satisfy his old man; and Dean, because Rusty is determined to make his (slightly) nerdier son into a spitting image of his old man.

There’s something deeply tragic about Dean—hilarious, and tragic. Out of everyone, he’s the closest to actually being aware of how mucked up his life is. He’s still mopey and dorky and helpless with women (Sirena kisses him briefly at the end of the episode, and the boner joke that follows is pretty cringe-inducing), but he’s just clever enough to realize how ridiculous it all is, albeit maybe not clever enough to ever actually escape. He arrives at college to room with Jared, aka the Brown Widow (still Nathan Fillion), and immediately finds out that despite his intentions, his dad has signed him up for a ton of science classes. When he tries to drop them, his advisor, Professor V. Von Helping (son of super-villain Von Hellfire) convinces him to change his mind. Which leads to Biology class, and an unexpected confrontation with the Monarch.

“The High Cost Of Loathing” plays out ultimately more like a piece of a larger story than anything conclusive in and of itself. Which, as I said at the start of the review, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are good jokes throughout, and everything is rooted in a gratifyingly strong sense of character and place. It sets everything in motion, laying the groundwork for any number of potential conflicts (Hank vs. Dean over Sirena is something I’m kind of dreading, but we’ll see), and works as a pleasant reminder that this show can be good even when it isn’t throwing out super-hero gags three layers deep. Good character stuff, nice table-setting, and there are jokes about David Lynch’s Dune. What’s not to love?

Stray observations

In addition to Fillion, “Loathing” also has Gary Cole as Dean’s idealistic-with-a-temper professor. Always good when the show can get more voices on it.

This is all set two months after the opening trilogy.

I like how much of the Monarch’s opening dream is centered on Gary being a badass.

Dean gives the Monarch a million dollar check to get rid of him, which seriously ups the Monarch’s standing with the Guild.

Many thanks to Drew for his excellent review of last week’s episode. It was a good one!

Source: https://tv.avclub.com/dean-goes-to-college-on-a-funny-low-key-venture-bros-1828614819

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dustedmagazine · 6 years

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Listed: Robert Poss

New York has been the ground zero for the intersection of American avant-garde art music and rock and roll for half a century, and Robert Poss has made that his creative zone since 1980. That’s when he co-founded Trace Elements, a label that documented early work by electronic composer Nicolas Collins. On the one hand, Poss led the hard-rocking Band of Susans from 1985-1996. On the other he has composed incidental music for films and dance companies, done audio recording for films and TV, and collaborated with Rhys Chatham and Phill Niblock. Frozen Flowers Curse The Dayis his latest solo album; earlier today Jennifer Kelly said of it, "even the most familiarly structured guitar rock compositions take on the hallucinatory bend and stretch of Poss’ experimental inquiries."

The New York Dolls—The New York Dolls

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Unlike the Ramones, who had a demented comic book Beach Boys mentality, the New York Dolls were musical revolutionaries of another sort, giving us The Audacity of Dope, the urban life of fey dissipated dandies married to a dirty yet glittering hard rock of the streets. Johansen/Thunders gave us an updated off-kilter Jagger/Richards with anarchy, and tongue-in-cheek nihilism added to the mix. The guitar playing was revolutionary. The lyrics were urbanely urban or maybe vice-versa. This record changed my life. I bought it the week it came out, and saw the band perform it live a few months later. It blasted my teenage mind into the future. Magic.

The Rolling Stones—Beggars Banquet

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One of the most electric and electrifying records of the 1960s, Begggars Banquet employed mostly acoustic guitars, piano, dulcimers and brilliant electric bass parts in a dark harmonic onslaught of major chords and suspensions. The dark devilish mood of protest, sex, violence and bravado was tempered with remorse and humor. I keep coming back to this record for its stringy harmonic density, layered drones and drama as well as its brilliant Nicky Hopkins piano. It is a force of nature, and the urgency and poignance of the lyrics mark a key high point for the Stones.

U2—Boy

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Laugh if you want, but David Evans (The Edge) took Keith Levene’s two string PIL tambura drones to a new level of arpeggiated melodicism. These are simple stripped-down song structures often with a bass line as a lynchpin holding it together as a repeated guitar figure loops and rotates. Best of all, Bono had not yet discovered or realized his full persona, and his grandiosity is kept somewhat in check. There is purity here and majesty.

The Kinks—Kinks Kronikles

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These small vignettes of English life, humor and pathos still amuse, move and inspire me. Ray Davies had the greatest range of any songwriter of the era, including Lennon/McCartney, capable of impromptu rockers, tender reminiscences, boozy tales, sardonic social commentary and pointillistic character studies. Dave Davies’ voice and guitar adds a delightful tension and twang. This is a collection spanning several years and several styles, but it captures some of the best of the band. All wheat, no chaff.

X-Ray Spex—Germfree Adolescents

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The exuberant brilliance of Poly Styrene’s vocals and the hilariously on target lyrics make me almost forgive the wailing saxophone. This teen girl/woman’s perspective was such a breath of fresh air amidst the suffocating machismo and latent (or not so latent) misogyny of Punk. These melodies and scenes stay in one’s mind. Social commentary with a youthful yet world-weary screw-you-if-you-don’t-get-it vigor. Buzzcocks-tight song structures. This LP always puts a smile on my face. Love saves the day.

Wire—Pink Flag

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I was late to this party, I admit. After writing and recording Band Of Susans' Blessing And Curse (1987) and Hope Against Hope (1988), there was talk of a summer tour with Wire that Paul Smith (Blast First) was going to try to work out. As this solidified, I got hold of some Wire records. I think I first got The Ideal Copy and A Bell Is Like A Cup, since that was the material they were touring on, and then I got Pink Flag, which I absolutely fell in love with. It seemed like the missing link between Punk and the future, and it was so smart, so catchy and so inscrutable. I didn't learn the song titles or decipher the lyrics; I listened to it as one long suite of songs -- I didn't always know when one started and one ended. But suddenly I saw how bands like R.E.M. and Mission Of Burma and so many others had clearly been influenced by them. And it always makes me want to play guitar, write songs and write lyrics when I listen to it, and that’s a good thing. This is an absolutely impeccable LP.

The Rolling Stones—Their Satanic Majesties Request

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Imbued with hashish mysticism wedded to medieval futurism, this is one of my most beloved Rolling Stones efforts. The blend of Mellotron experimentation, cutting guitar parts, science fiction lyrics and dark Eastern-tinged psychedelia keeps me returning to this most misunderstood masterpiece.

Tom Verlaine—Dreamtime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBGR5hJ9760

Majestic, inscrutable, moving and fecund, this record is comprised of mini-masterpieces. “There’s A Reason” is one of the most perfect guitar songs ever recorded. Verlaine’s Television promise is exquisitely delivered on here, and his band is superb.

The Clash—The Clash (U.K. Import version)

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Another record that changed my life. The discovery of a smart politically charged band employing gruff guitar minimalism and raw, acerbic but clever vocals had me a convert from the first few chords. I think this record is more appreciated in the U.S. than in the U.K. It put down a marker for me and woke me up out my post-New York Dolls slumber. There is humor here as well as earnestness, and a bit of self-aware mockery and self-deprecation amidst the societal critique. It mentored some of my work with the band Tot Rocket.

Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper—The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper

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Bringing together my love for Albert King, The Blues Project, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Highway 61 Revisited-era Bob Dylan and the legacy of Muddy Waters, this live record excited me to no end as a teenager. Kooper and a cast of mostly West Coast characters (including Carlos Santana subbing for a an out-of-commission Bloomfield) provide a backdrop for the main event: the lyrical, singing melodic lead guitar of one of my musical idols, Mike Bloomfield. There are some sublime blues moments here, with a bit of drama, pop and rock thrown in. It is perfectly imperfect.

#dusted magazine #listed #robert poss #the new york dolls #the rolling stones #u2 #the kinks #x-ray spex #wire #tom verlaine #the clash #mike bloomfield #al kooper

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mdwatchestv · 6 years

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The Magicians 3x09: The Musical

Last week The Magicians brought us a collection of magical vignettes, stepping outside regular television story-telling structure to further the plot in an inventive way. As I talked about last week, one of The Magicians greatest strengths is it's ability to continually reinvent and reimagine itself. If you have ever made it to the fifth season of a drama, you will understand this is a vital (and rare) ability. But one outside of the box episode was not enough for The Magicians, oh no, for this week it gave us something just as special. Last season we were treated to the surprise One Day More sequence, as Margo summoned a spontaneous musical interlude to serve as a pep-talk for Eliot. I remember my sheer delight at watching that scene unfold, the feeling of "Is this really happening? Are they really doing this? Are we going full Les Mis??" It was, they were, and we did.

This season the writer's decided not to let the Fillorians have all the fun, and topped last year’s paltry ONE musical number, with an episode jam-packed with song, dance, and even a bit of burlesque. At the beginning of this episode we rejoin our magical friends already in progress with their various crises. Penny is trapped back at the Library, Eliot and Margo have been sentenced to death in a Fillorian peasant overthrow, Julia and Fen are grappling with their horrific fairy powder revelation, Victoria and Harriet are likely dead, and everyone else is hanging out with Quentin. With key #4 retrieved from the Underworld, the Book of the Seven Keys reveals the next chapter, which happens to be sheet music. Honestly I had been wondering how long it was going to take them to delve fully into key/key pun territory. I was not disappointed.

Musically minded Kady is able to play the notes correctly, transporting her, Quentin, and Alice into a an alternate party universe! This brightly-lit version of the Physical Kid's House is filled with party people, a rather domineering Todd, and presided over by Josh (who we have not seen in quite a while). I would like to point out that even though none of the other Magicians have noticed Josh has been missing from the show for weeks, I 100% did. Always here for you Hoberman. Even though everything seems happy and musical, and there is even magic (!) something is definitely rotten in the house of physical kids. For starters, any deviation from the good vibes results in an intense stare down, which escalates to an even more intense physical beating. While Kady distracts Todd and the rest of the party crew with a sultry strip number (that I was LIVING for), Quentin and Alice confront Josh about just WTF is going on here. Josh for his part has been trying to get in contact with the main Magicians crew for weeks, but after being continually rebuffed and abandoned, turned back to his party ways in order to numb the pain. Supes relatable. His particular sensitivity to abandonment stems from an incident in his youth when he and his brother were supposed to see David Bowie together, but instead his brother ditched him in order to take a girl instead (bummersville). With a chip on his shoulder, and an affinity for partying, Josh is more than a little reluctant to help his former comrades.

Meanwhile back in the real world, Julia convinces Fen that the two of them need to help Skye. Fen is conflicted, her hatred of all fairy kind butting up against her strong morale sense of justice. Eventually she agrees to help, and Julia comes up with a plan to teach Skye that she is magical, and not a helpless creature. With Fen's help, Julia is able to get Skye in touch with her inner mojo, but Skye immediately begins to bleed from all of her face holes! Evil Jaime Ray Newman has forced Skye to wear a necklace triggered to kill her if she attempts magic. Real dick move. However just as Skye seems doomed to a bloody ooze death, Julia freezes her in time with golden magic from her eyes!

Speaking of life and death, over in Fillory Margo and Eliot have been sentenced to death in their Trial by Wombat. I found that joke HILARIOUS and I am still tittering about it. Get it guys, wombats! Sorry, sorry. Margo and Eliot select death by infinite waterfall, as infinite suggests there will be more time for a dramatic rescue/escape (seems like they have seen the show). However on board the Muntjac on the way to the falls, there is a shocking Tick Pickwick twist. Appearing as the loyal servant all these many...however long they have been in Fillory.... Tick has really been waiting for his moment to strike back against his monarchs. Citing a constant stream of incompetent Children of Earth rulers (I mean, he's not wrong) Tick wants to rule a Fillory for Fillorians (again not so bad), but he also wants to push my beloved Eliot and Margo over a waterfall and THAT is simply unforgivable. Commanding the Muntjac to go to the Infinite Waterfall, he leaves our fabulous forever friends to confront their pasts and attempt to make peace with their imminent doom.

Back on the ranch, Alice, Q, and Kady discover the 5th key in the back of a piano. Get it, key. Upon touching it a neon sign lights up pointing to this "world's" exit. Handy! But Q won't leave without Josh, who is now being beaten to death. This is when our heroes discover they can all hear one another! It's unifying, it's electrifying, it's the UNITY KEY! This was quite a nice way to get the whole gang back together again, as we haven't seen our core group all in one place in a long LONG time. Possibly not even since season 1 since Julia has been such an outlier (correct me if I'm wrong, I also have a goldfish memory). And what do they do once reunited in such a way? Why use the opportunity to sing Under Pressure of course! This magical melody winds up saving the day for Josh by healing his David Bowie-related abandonment issues, spurs Julia's god-eye magic to save Skye, and even propels the Muntjac over the waterfall - and INTO THE AIR. I am a liar if I said my heart did not grow three sizes when I saw that majestic Margo-loving boat take to the sky. Bless.

The musical key puzzle cracked, "Todd" reveals himself to be a middle-aged German fun-demon (because of course). He also reveals though that someone put him up to setting up this particular puzzle for Q and co. This implies the quests are not simply problems to solve in the world, but rather specifically tailored trials for our magicians. Curiouser and curiouser. The episode also left a number of other pleasing questions over which to mull. What will Eliot and Margo do now that they have dodged death and now live on an intelligent flying ship? Knock a Tick Pickwick out, that's for damn sure. How powerful IS Julia now exactly? Her increasing abilities have been hinted at all season, but the power to stop and reverse time and death is a whole ‘notha level. Also now that she's saved a fairy, will she be the one to perhaps bring peace, or at least broker a better deal, for Fillory? Meanwhile Penny is just chillin' re-shelving at the Underworld Library. Carry on.

With only two keys left to go what could tonight's episode possibly hold in store??!? I hope Queen.

XO MD

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agentnico · 6 years

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Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Review

So, I find myself in a conundrum. I have seen the big flick of the year, Avengers: Infinity War, however I have no idea how to go about reviewing it. “How so?” you ask. “Just give it a score and be done with it, you silly tot!” you exclaim again. “Well,” I reply. “Firstly don’t call me a tot, who uses ‘tot’ these days anyway? Secondly, let me explain.” Then I take a deep breath, look around wearily at the eager swarm of Marvel fans, and begin my tale of woe...

I hated Avengers: Infinity War... Wow, that was not that difficult to explain actually! Alright, alright! Hang on, hold your “f*ck” screaming crusade back, I haven’t finished yet. Basically, I simply am not the right target audience for this film it seems. And I say ‘it seems’ because in all fairness I used to really enjoy Marvel films. But in the past year I began developing this illness called superhero fatigue! Yes, yes, I hear your shocking screams, it’s a terrible terrible illness, worse than what the Black Death did back in the day. The truth needs to be faced though, I have been infected, like in The Walking Dead, only better, cause that show sucks now! I mean really, what happened to that show??...............*sob* anyway, that’s a rant for another day. Having become more and more bored with superhero flicks, with certain exceptions like the first Deadpool, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther actually surprising me, and especially following those last two I was hopeful that this new Marvel entry was not going to be affected by my disease filled mind......okay, that’s a lie, I wasn’t optimistic about this film whatsoever from the start, my friends Paul and Josh would confirm how not-excited I was for this film (hey, I guess this is what a shout out is, cool, hello you guys!!!). But I went into this film with an open-ish mind......and yeah, bloody hated, didn’t I. So here I am wondering how to go about reviewing this film (if I can call it that), because as I said, I hated it, but that doesn’t mean its a bad film. For a casual movie goer and most definitely for Marvel fans I’m sure it a great time, I’m sure people will love it..........holy mother of crabs, this movie has a 9/10 on IMDb? What in the actual a**?? Sorry, sorry, I promised to be calm. Who am I kidding, I didn’t promise jack sh**! But where was I? Ah, yes, the Avengers: Infinity War. So yes, this is 100% Marvel fan service and I understand why people like this film, it has everything a popcorn movie needs going for it, so it’s not my place to give this film a proper review or score as I am not the right demographic and it’s not my place to stray away casual movie-goers from enjoying this film. However who cares what I say, we all know this movie is going to make over a billion regardless what I say. *looks at phone* Oh bloody hell, it already made a billion! Well. Well then. I guess I’m just going to leave some of my personal thoughts on the film down below, I know that I usually don’t do spoilers but, you know, f*** it, SPOILER WARNING!!

Plot: The big purple dude finally gets of his chair after taking the big giant 10 year dump and goes to collect a bunch of stones to shove up his anus. Okay, not his anus, but who cares about this plot description, if you’re reading this you should have already saw the film or, like me, don’t care about it. Once again, SPOILER WARNING. Don’t read anymore, as I’m going to spoil everything in 3, 2, 1...

Thanos dies!! Alright, I’m kidding, Thanos is fine, but seriously, spoilers ahead.

MAGNOLIA YOU ARE NOT - There are too many characters in this film which the story does not manage to balance well, so many of them are under-used. And yes, I did a Magnolia reference, even though this is not the kind of film to compare to Magnolia, but I don’t care, I’m being biased, deal with it!!

THE PLOT - What plot?? I’m kidding, but seriously, what plot?? The film is made up of an escalating series of fight vignettes all under the motto of “We have to stop Thanos!” Especially to the end of the film, we keep cutting to these various locations with different characters that it is hardly possible to engage with any of the stories.

AGE OF THANOS - Yeah, yeah, I know, everyone loves Josh Brolin as Thanos. Well sorry to disappoint, folks, I didn’t like him. C’mon now, get on the trend with this ‘review’, it’s obviously a negative one, stop getting surprised at everything I didn’t like! Obviously if you liked his character, good on you, but I didn’t. In my eyes it was yet again another big CGI villain like the one-note Ultron from the last Avengers flick, only bigger and, in all fairness, had a better motivation, but I found that Brolin played him quite monotone. Yes, you see his tears when he has to kill Gamora to receive the Soul Stone, but I didn’t find that emotional whatsoever. But that’s just me. Or is it?......no, no, it’s definitely just me. I feel your hatred towards me soothing through your body as you are reading this.

THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES - Oh look, it’s another massive battle with CGI monsters! Wooo!!

DEADPOOL...ONLY IT’S PG! *GASP!* - MCU films are known to incorporate humour into all their films, but in this one it felt too forced. With the amount of jokes they had it really took away from the gravitas of the darker more emotional moments. As an example, Gamora’s death is straight away followed by a joke about Starbucks. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll happily laugh about Starbucks any day, but still.

“AMERICA, F*** YEAH!!” - Of course the first time aliens arrive on Earth it’s obviously in America! How else are we gonna feel patriotic, eh?

SILLY-LORD - Star-Lord messing up the whole plan at the end with taking the gauntlet of Thanos’ hand could have been done much smoother. Like I get why he was annoyed and angry, but Tony was literally shouting in his ear saying for him to just wait one more minute so that they could take off the glove and then he would have had full right to Fight Club him to his full heart’s desire. But nooooooo, let’s have our characters make dumb decisions. And I’m not just talking about Star-Lord! P.S. Yes, I understand that the whole Star-Lord shtick is a set-up towards Doctor Strange’s ultimate plan of what he saw in the future, but it still feels like a deus ex machina cop out nonetheless.

THE TRUE HEROES - Okay, so I’m sure out of all the complaints on this list I think with this one you might actually agree. Where in the world were Valkyrie, Korg and Miek at the beginning with the Asgardian ship? It’s not like the credits rolled after Thor: Ragnarok and Korg and Valkyrie decided to jump out of the ship into the cosmos in search of coffee? Right? Right??

#TEAMDRAX - Oh, Drax, if only you were.........actually, I don’t have a problem with Drax. No, I’m serious, this one actually is not a complaint. I know, I surprised myself! I do have to give props to both the writing for and performance of Drax. He was actually hilarious in this film and his jokes were actually well timed. From the awkward spying on Gamora’s and Star-Lord’s intimate moment and him being convinced that he’s invisible saying “I have mastered the ability of standing so incredibly still that I have become invisible to the eye....my movement, is so slow that its imperceptible....I’m sure I’m invisible.” to his description of Thor “It’s like a pirate had a baby with an angel.” to the misunderstanding argument where Quill is asking where Gamora is, Iron Man then questions who Gamora even is and then Drax’s logistical, but at the same time misinterpreted response “I’ll do you one better - WHY is Gamora??” In my eyes, Dave Bautista (with his dead-pan delivery of the lines) stole the show as Drax, though Chris Hemsworth as Thor and his buddy-ing up with Rocket was a nice dynamic.

“FREEDOM! I SAID FREEDOM!” - Not going to lie, when Heimdall was killed I actually felt happy for him. You could see in Idris Elba’s eyes how happy he was that he finally full-filled his contract and was freed from his Marvel obligations. We all knew Idris didn’t want to be a part of this franchise, blame his agent.

HAHA, MIDGET! - No, I’m serious, that’s an actual joke in the film.

“WAS THE MUSIC TOO LOUD?” - And we’re back with Marvel films having generic unmemorable scores/soundtracks. Just a bunch of dramatic noises to keep the crowd pumping. Unlike Thor: Ragnarok or Black Panther (and in all fairness the Guardians of the Galaxy films, though I do have a personal vendetta against Vol.2), which actually had good music accompaniment, but now we’re back where we started. Dang it.

“REST IN PEACE, WHY WON’T YOU LET ME REST IN PEACE??” - Those of you who get what I’m referencing with that sub-title, full respect to you. Any-hoot, half of the Avengers die at the end of this film. And it’s the lack of consequence that annoys me, especially with the knowledge of future films on Marvel’s slate. We know some of them will be back. In all fairness, we do seem to have a few proper permanent deaths (then again, this IS Marvel...) in this film with the likes of Loki, Heimdall (good on you, Idris!), Gamora and Vision, but Marvel does have a problem with killing off characters, which is evident at the end of this film. And yes, you can say that its based off the comics and its supposed to be like that, but it does take away any kind of stakes.

GAME OF STONES - The MCU would work so much better as a high budget TV series, since Infinity War seems both rushed and at the same time drags on so much at 2 hours 40 minutes. It’s overstuffed like Thanos’ gigantic purple jawline!

In all seriousness, if you enjoyed Avengers: Infinity War, I’m glad. Truly, I am, and I totally understand why so many people do indeed like it. For me it has definitely proved that I am more of an indie film fan, as to me this endless array of ACTION, ACTION, ACTION with, in my opinion, no deeper meaning or message, is just not my kind of thing. I have lost any kind of excitement for any upcoming superhero films, minus Deadpool 2, I actually think that one will be a good laugh, but otherwise I should stick with independent cinema. I’m not going to give this film a score, as if I would have, it would have been quite low and would have not been fair on the film since I’m not the right person to rate it.

Overall score: N/A

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purplehairedhero · 7 years

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A Fen/Femhawke Baby Fic List

A Fenris/FemHawke family/pregnancy/baby fic lists. Still a WIP. Only criteria is that it is FemHawke/Fenris, and it can’t be sad/depressing (I’m looking at you “Here Lies the Abyss” fics). Send me recs! Edit: 10/19/17 New stories added, Natural by Cannibal Kats and several at the bottom.

“Hiding, Not Quite Hidden” by Brosca-Pride. Hawke and Fenris, together forever, even if it means hiding themselves and children from everything.

“Was it Worth it:?” by CannibalKats. Just a short piece about Fenris and Dahl Hawke during Inquisition. Bonus Papa Fenris.

“Take Care of Her” by CannibalKats. Anders, Hawke, and Fenris are the only members of the Kirkwall crew still on the run. Fenris catches Anders leaving in the middle of the night and promises not to let Hawke follow.

“Natural” by CannibalKats. A short bit of fluff. The birth of Fenris and Dahl's first child. While not graphic childbirth is described from Fenris' pov.

“Wander Wild and Far.” by Spirrum. After Adamant Hawke leaves for Weisshaupt as planned, but finds instead an entirely different adventure, a stray Fereldan Queen, a dragon, and that being pregnant wile the world is ending is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

“So Much Hinges on a Maybe.” by Spirrum. Hawke and Fenris, and trying to get pregnant.

“Frostling” by Spirrum.You can grow to love a great many things.

“Smaller Flames.” by Spirrum. Their youngest discovers her magic, in true Hawke fashion. With an explosion

Broody Porcupine Snapshot Series by TheFlamingNymph. An AO3 collection.

“Little Monster” by TheFlamingNymph. Hawke just wants a nap. Just one.

Fenris and Hawke’s Family Series by SassyOrlesian. An AO3 collection.

“What I was made for” by MiaCousland. Hawke and Fenris’ child is brought into the world.

“Steal and Shadow” by MiaCousland. Hawke has to find her way throught the Frostback Mountains to answer a letter that has been sent by an old friend from Kirkwall. Note: Haven’t read this one personally yet.

“The Elf and the Babe” by Gaqalesqua. Fenris, romanced by a female Hawke, turns up at Skyhold wearing a baby sling with a baby in it. Trevelyan investigates.

“The Life We’ve Wrought” by ClockWorkSymmetry. Hawke x Fenris is adorable.

Wil and Cro Hawke Series by NovemberOcean (TwilightHawke). An AO3 collection.

“A Change in Principles” by K4t3yk4t. He hadn’t expected things to end up like this. Of course, there had been signs, and of course, they’d planned for it, but he had never expected anything like this to happen. Not to him. He feels rooted; an immobilization worse than any command had ever caused, worse than seeing Hawke nearly die, worse, so much worse. And yet...

“Ardently” by Uniqueinalltheworld.When Marian Hawke decided to leave her children with responsible adults before helping the inquisition, she had counted on being able to find one somewhere. Unfortunately, it seems like Anders and Fenris will have to do.

“Dawn” by Alistairweekend. “Mm...your kid before five in the morning.”

“Hawkquisition Series & other Stories” by Rannadylin. Most of her work has a baby or pregnancy existing somewhere. Special mention goes to Sapling.

Misadventures of Mari Hawke Series by Wintryone. An AO3 collection.

“A Different Kind of Magic” by sevanderslice. Fenris’s thoughts after the birth of his children.

“Finally together, Birds of a Feather, part 1″ by Hatsepsut. Fenris and Hawke are together after three years, and their relationship evolves. Moving in together, falling even deeper in love, going through the paces that are life, having a family, while the world crashes around their ears.

“Come Back to Me.” by Hatsepsut. Fenris leaves he City of Chains after the night he spends with Hawke; heavy words had been exchanged and everything between them looked hopeless. Eleven months later, he is back, determined to win the affection of the woman he can't forget again. But she seems to have a secret...

“On Waking” by loquaciousquark. Years after the events of Act III, Hawke and Fenris’s six-year-old daughter tries to figure out her mother’s past, her place in the tiny town of Wilhaven, and why her father never wakes up. AUTHORS SEAL OF APPROVAL.

“No Labor Like Love” by loquaciousquark. Hawke is pregnant. Fenris copes as best he can; everyone else laughs from a distance. A series of unconnected vignettes spanning the pregnancy of a Champion. AUTHORS SEAL OF APPROVAL. The quintessential pregnancy/family fic.

“Given Respite” by loquaciousquark. Dorian meets Fenris. An interlude set after “Here Lies The Abyss.” Same universe as On Waking? AUTHORS SEAL OF APPROVAL. Honestly anything written by loquacious is amazing but this is a BABY fic list but seriously do yourself a favor and devour their work. Has a “sequel” written by Jade_Sabre called “Memorare” but not very related to this list either.

“A Deafening Sound” by loquaciousquark. Fenris and his newborn daughter.

“Whats that Holiday fic” by loquaciousquark. Carver meets his newborn nephew. This. THIS. This is the story I started this list looking for. I knew I wasn’t crazy! But on tumblr of all places???

“More Beach fic” by loquaciousquark. The fam is at the beach.

“I Mourn your Absence.” by loquaciousquark. Fenris and Leda go after Hawke.

“In Retrospect, a chicken was a bad choice.” by jadesabre301. The title says it all. Features laquaciousquark’s Leda Hawke.

“Always Safe with Us.” by Tadeusz. Hawke thought raising a baby with a trio of parents would be easier than with just two. That’s hilarious, Hawke. Totally cute that you think that. All it does is create more confusion about who has to get up when that baby cries at night.

“Hands and Feet” by Toffle. The revelation does not come in ice, or fire. It comes only with a gentle touch.

“Celebration” by Scurvaliciousbay. Fenris wakes up to Katra making a cake for their daughter’s first birthday. “Three Words” is a sequel. Fenris is putting his daughter to bed when she says something unexpected.

“New Beginnings” by onemooncircles. Heading home after concluding his business with the Inquisition, Varric pays a visit to some friends he has lied through his teeth to protect.

“The Wolf Within” by Ivy_Adair. Five years after Fenris left Marian Hawke behind in Kirkwall, he returns to discover that some things never change but others, like the addition of a little girl with black hair and green eyes, change completely. He mush come full circle to realize that he isn’t his past and that the wolf within him won’t be his future. A modern!AU.

“Medela” by mahuika. It surprises him, as it always has, how resilient a heart can be when he’s so used to seeing them ripped out and half-beating in his hand. Or, Varania is invited to meet her niece. AUTHORS SEAL OF APPROVAL.

“Exhale” by Chalahandra. Rhonwen gurgles, pushing herself up from the quilt. It’s a sunny day, with birds chirping and people talking quietly - and for the first time in a very long time, Fenris lets himself smile.

“A Cold Winter Day.” by Pinkwebby. Hawke has been pregnant for nine months, and she is ready to give birth to this child. Is she really ready to have a kid though?

“Playing in the Rain” by servantofclio. Hawke watches her partner and children in the rain. Has sequal “A Reunion and a Reckoning.” Fenris catches up to Hawke at Skyhold.

Dragon Age: Generations Series by DancingMantis. Roots and Wings more relevant to list.

“She Came Back.” by LittleWritings. Fenris finds Hawke at Weishaupt. Its a little rough but different than most.

While you were Sleeping Series by hollandmarie. VERY CUTE.

“The Hawke Child.” by CaptainStornChaser. "Am I the father?" He asked her, standing from where he had been waiting for her inside the entrance hall of her estate, reminiscent of the night the child may very well have been conceived.Marian merely stared at him evenly for a few moments. "You should go home, Fenris."

“What If.” by RaddishRodya. Hawke and Fenris have a discussion about what would happen if they had children. Also, Fenris learns how to play dictionary tag.

“Hesitations” by wiltedartist. Dehlian Hawke knows one thing and thing only: She has no idea as to how she will inform Fenris he will be a father. Sequel “The Empty Thirst.” How strange, he realized to himself, that he never knew just how much he needed one thing. Control. Fenris!F!Hawke, pregnant sex and dominant Fenris

“Mama Bird” by sparkyarcher. Elia comes home to a suspiciously quiet estate. Adorableness ensues.

“Another Heart” by aryadeschain.One sleepless night turned out to present Fenris a pleasant surprise.

“For What it’s Worth” by Nyessa. Years after Isabela runs away from Kirkwall with the Tome of Koslun, Imogen Hawke catches up to her in Denerim to settle some unfinished business.

“Dragon Age Prompts” by Jawbones. Chap. 4 “Lullaby” "The way you said 'I love you': Not said to me" Might be more in series.

“A Hawkling Tale.” by Sportsoma. Hawke surely does, and there's a little memento in case she wants to forget. However, being a mage and fearing the Chantry will take her expected bundle of joy, Hawke flees Kirkwall. Also a series sharing same name.

“Under the Skin.” by Lavender_Seaglass. After all that she's been through, Hawke doesn't plan on going anywhere else, let alone leaving him behind. This is, however, not something she's sure how to face. Doing things is easy; it's the regrets that kill you.

“Unplanned Consequences.” by Dragondreads. When Hawke finds herself in the awkward position of being pregnant after the only night of passion she found with Fenris, she turns to her friend Varric for help

“Sweet Vermouth” by AngelicSentinel. Fenris would do anything for Hawke—Even conquer the Fade itself.

“I remain at your side.” by Lourdes23. When Kirkwall fell so did its Champion. Changed by betrayal, hunted and outcast, Hawke must find the strength to rise up once more in defense of a world gone mad. Yet humans can only withstand so much before desperation drives them beyond reason. When she's at her breaking point, and the weight of her duties seems too much to bear, who will stand with her and share the burden?Who will champion the Champion?

“New Beginnings.” by Jessica Pendragon. He has dealt in death for so long and now only wants to hold life in his hands.

“Find Your Own Way Back Home.” by locketofyourhair. These books are slim, without names on the covers, and when he opens one, he can see that some of the pages are blank. Others are covered with small handwriting that he knows well, and it feels like a blow to see it again. They are journals; they are Hawke’s journals.He reads them as he finds himself adrift without her.

“Of Sausages and Surprises.” by RedIn. It was one of those evenings when her mother tried to make a noble fragile flower of her. She invited Comtesse Berauear and her two cocky daughters; Lizzeta and Pavetta. It was meant to be a boring, annoying evening or so Hawke thought.Sandal was the last person who she thought would interrupt the boredom of their well-mannered Hightown style party.

“Foxes on the Run” by ms45. Hawke gives birth whilst on the run from the Chantry.

“Milk” by Persephone. Hawke/LI - Lactating. Smut.

“Only You.” by kellbelle. This is a story of Hawke fleeing Kirkwall alone, having never romanced anyone and believing the man she loves could never love her back.

“Isabela and the Dread Pirate Captain Hook” by Dakoyone. Isabela tells a story from her grand pirating adventure days to the littlest Hawkes. No actual mention of Fenris but all her other stories are Fenhawke and there is a father so...

“That Which is Lost” by Niamh_St_George. A decade after the events in Kirkwall, Amelle Hawke and Fenris have made a quiet life for themselves. But when their idyll is shattered, Fenris discovers that while men are dealt with easily enough, it is once again magic standing poised to take everything away.

#fenhawke #fenfemhawke #fenhawke fic list #fenhawke fic rec #fenhawke kidfic #papa!fenris #mama!hawke #dragon age 2 #dragon age 2 fan fic #fenfemhawke fic rec

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oodlyenough · 7 years

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oodlyenough’s completely inexhaustive list of tftbl fic recs

So I mentioned the other day that because I have read Everything in the Borderlands AO3 tag, I was happy to compile a rec list.

@auraofdawn had specifically asked for Rhys/Sasha and/or gen, but I added some others. I didn’t include any of my own fics, but fwiw I’ve written a number, usually either Rhys/Sasha as the focus or gen with Rhys/Sasha in the background. You can find mine on AO3 under the pen name thirty2flavors.

I wanted to be relatively detailed in the recs, so this is by no means exhaustive even of my personal faves, but it’s a starting point. Here’s a bunch of recs for:

Rhys/Sasha

Gen

Rhys/Fiona

Rhys/Vaughn

WIPs

Rhys/Sasha fics

For Luck by pagerunner 1.4k, teen Author’s summary: Rhys and Sasha share a little private moment before heading off to face the Traveler. Or in other words: Page indulges a few more of her romantic impulses, 'cause these two deserve it. Episode 5 interlude. Notes: I love this author’s stuff and this fic is so damn cute. Great characterization, great prose, adorable missing scene.

Different Worlds by kaletra7 5k, explicit Author summary: She slides the door a little further, and Rhys sees a naked shoulder and then an expanse of fluffy, cream towel. He, very nobly, stops himself from looking too closely, because she’s not holding the towel very tightly and there’s a slit (deliberate or not) that exposes a lot of thigh. There’s something in Sasha’s face that reads like a challenge. Like she’s daring him to approach, the way a predator might wait patiently for its prey to wander curiously into its trap. “Can you come in here for a minute?” Notes: I honestly usually don’t really care for smut because it all kind of bleeds together and sounds the same, but I really liked this piece precisely because it avoids that by giving them both such vivid characterization and by using this as a way to explore their different backgrounds. Sweet and funny and sexy.

i really really really really really really like you by WoodenDuck 1.6k, teen Author’s summary: and I want you. do you want me? do you want me too? - carly rae jepsen, 2015 Notes: Adorable post-Vault first kiss fic. I think this was the first Rhys/Sasha fic I read? Endearingly awkward and believable dialogue from both of them. Plus: bonus art!

(Sasha Hates) Pet Names by melenafrey 4k, teen Author’s summary: Rhys is intent on finding a pet name for Sasha that the both of them can agree on. Sasha is skeptical that one such pet name even exists. Notes: Funny, fluffy and adorable. I like their teasing relationship in this and it’s always nice to see Rhys/Sasha from Sasha’s perspective. I think this is set in some kind of undefined non-Pandora AU.

Bad Egg by WoodenDuck 5k, teen Author’s summary: Rhys thinks about what he wants to do and who he wants to do it for while rolling around in the garbage and eating fried eggs. Set during the Episode 3 road trip. Notes: I love episode 3 road trip fic. A sweet and funny excerpt from the getting-to-know-you stage.

Gen fics

The Pieces We Hide by pagerunner 7k, teen Author’s summary: No matter how many tales they may have told during their time in captivity, Rhys and Fiona didn't tell the Stranger--or each other--everything. Now, on the eve of their mission to rescue Gortys, Rhys decides there's a few more things about going back to Atlas that he wants Fiona to know. Notes: This is probably my favourite Borderlands fic full-stop. Love this piece. Fills in canon I wanted filled in, packs an emotional punch, great characterization, and juuust a couple hints of Rhys/Sasha to make me especially psyched. Love it. Choices and Consequences by pagerunner 5.5k, teen Author’s summary: Rhys might be having second thoughts about getting those ECHO upgrades. And Vaughn might be getting nervous for a whole lot of reasons. It's time for these two to talk it through. Set pre-game, no particular spoilers. Notes: I adore this author’s writing and this is such a good take on Rhys making the questionable decision to get a bunch of cybernetics. Rhys and Vaughn are very well characterized and the prose flows so well.

Interim by MovingPen 2k, general Author’s summary: Raising the Children of Helios was no easy task. Notes: I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Rhys, Sasha and Fiona after Helios, and not much time thinking about Vaughn, and this fic did it for me. Great character study for Vaughn.

in my skin indigo blue by lucyrne 1.5k, general Author’s summary: Rhys shows off his tattoos to the group to prove that he’s cool. Takes place during the Episode 3 road trip montage. Vaughn isn’t paralyzed because I said so. Implied Rhysha, but mainly a fluffy, comedic gen fic. Notes: Hilarious group shenanigans.

The Pre-Teen’s Guide to Crime by clefairytea 6k, teen Author’s summary: “Fi?” “Mm?” “Are you happy like this?” Fiona turns to look at her, a strange look on her face. As though she’s looking at Sasha for the first time ever, and is surprised by what she sees. “I guess. I mean, I never thought about it. This is just what I am. A smart-alec who steals whatever’s not bolted down." -- Growing up on Pandora is complicated. Growing up on any planet is complicated, but Sasha thinks that most kids don’t grow up forging bank notes and running from the authorities. Notes: I literally haven’t even read this because I took one look and thought “this is going to be good, I am saving it for a rainy day” and uh haven’t gone back yet. (I like to hoard things, alright? My “marked for later” is a mess.) Plus I want to finish my own WIP fic about Sasha and Fiona before reading this But Sasha and Fiona gen!!! My girls!

Of Choices and Their Repercussions by Banji 7k, mature Author’s summary: Hyperion always gets their property back, no matter what or who it is. Alternate events where the team gets apprehended by Hyperion at the Atlas Facility after assembling Gortys (with allusions to the 'Trust Fiona' outcome). Notes: Oh my god please read the author’s tags, this piece so dark, so much body horror and medical trauma/torture. There’s a lot of body horror in the game that kind of skims by unremarked on and this dives right in there and then some and, uh, nothing gets better. Well-written and super effectively skin-crawlingly horrible, if you’re up for it.

Rhys/Fiona

things you said when you thought i was asleep by gortysproject <1k, general Author’s summary: fiona internalises everything until rhys is asleep. Notes: A good look into Fiona’s head and all the stuff she isn’t saying while she and Rhys are with the Stranger.

Winging It by Claranonn 24k, mature Author’s summary: The Company Man and Con Artist open the Vault of the Traveler thinking their journey together has come to an end. Little do they know just how tied together they're about to become... A series of dialogue-only vignettes exploring Rhys and Fiona's relationship post-game. Notes: I haven’t finished reading this yet, just read a couple chapters before putting it aside to get back to, but the dialogue is funny and I literally can’t think of a ship better suited to “fake married” than Rhys/Fiona. It’s hilarious even to think about. Ready to Suffer, Ready to Hope by meltokio 5k, mature Author’s summary: A collection of complete Rhyiona garbage. Notes: It’s hard to describe but there’s an atmospheric feel to a lot of these that I like a lot. I also like the take on Fiona.

Rhys/Vaughn

Safe as anywhere by queerly_it_is 20k, explicit Author’s summary: Vaughn went through his entire first year and a half of college without going to places like this, except for maybe two or three incredibly awkward attempts to socialise in the first few weeks. He’s been just fine without trying it again since, thanks, but now here he is, for the second night this week, after the two times last week. After whole semesters of literally never leaving the campus. And why? A bright cry of, “You’re here!” flies out from behind the bar once he finally, minus a few compound fractures, reaches the front of the tidal wave of people. The words hit him a split-second before Rhys’ neon grin, and Rhys’ floppy hair, and Rhys’ shirt with the sleeve cut off around his cybernetic arm and the collar stretched down enough to show the beginnings of the tattoos on his chest, the whole handkerchief’s worth of fabric generally clinging obscenely to his body. Right. Notes: The fact that I super enjoyed reading a 20k College AU about a ship that isn’t even my favourite is a good indication of the author’s talent for writing. Really good prose, good characterization, good world-building within the AU, and for once it being a Rhys/Vaughn AU wasn’t an excuse to have no mention of Sasha and Fiona. Hooray!

Taking Back Hope by fleurdeliser, ohnoktcsk, tuesdaysgone 16k, explicit Authors’ summary: The first message comes while he’s in the middle of calibrating the laser on one of his latest guns. He ignores it until he’s done, then straightens, holding out his palm and reading the message that comes up on the holoscreen. ‘Helios remembers and so will you.’ Notes: Rhys/Vaughn is the core relationship here but the whole ensemble shows up and they’re all well written which I really appreciate. Plus kidnapping/rescuing drama, everyone’s fave!

WIPs Down the Skag Hole by ShepardCommander 6.5k, 3 chapters and counting, teen Author’s summary: Rhys and Fiona are gone. Sasha and Vaughn are not. Now the kid sister and the best friend must work together if they ever want to see their sister/friend and best friend/boyfriend(?) ever again and become that which they never thought they would or could-Vault Hunters. Notes: Love this characterization of Sasha in particular, especially immediately after Rhys and Fiona disappear. Action and emotional drama and this fic seems to have gone woefully unnoticed. Should Have Said by spectre_anon 16k, 8 chapters and counting, teen Author’s summary: He should have told her. Could have, anytime... all those opportunities he's shied away from now far beyond his reach... and here he was, hands tight around Fiona's throat while Sasha shrieked in the background. And he couldn't say anything. Couldn't let them know it wasn't him, couldn't tell them he was sorry, that he screwed up... all he could do was scream in his own head while Jack laughed. (Rhys never told Fiona and Sasha about Jack. Now he's paying the price for that mistake.) Notes: All the melodramatic Jack-takes-over-Rhys drama you could want. This is the kind of scenario that I’m more or less happy we didn’t have in the game but also totally eager to explore in fic, and this iteration was a good one. Obviously, angst and tension and melodrama ahoy. Strong characterization for everyone and I think the author does a good job of making the main cast sympathetic even if they are making some poor decisions. Oh pineapples, what have you done?

Not a Maniac by Mindful Wrath -- this one is officially discontinued 25k, 11 chapters and discontinued, rated as teen but imo probably mature Author’s summary: Rhys had expected consequences for turning down Handsome Jack's offer to rule the universe side-by-side. Just . . . not these consequences. Fiona had expected Rhys to double-cross them. Just . . . not like this. Notes: So this one is officially discontinued and I haven’t even actually finished reading all of it yet because knowing it’s discontinued means I’ve been slowly parcelling it out, but I’ve liked what I’ve read, which is maybe 3/4. This is the, uh, extra dark iteration of the “Jack controlling Rhys” ep 4 scenario, so, angst angst angst, but well-characterized gutwrenching angst. The real stand-out in this fic for me was probably the ways Sasha and Fiona were written; they don’t respond identically to things and I loved them both. Various trigger warnings, check the author’s tags on AO3.

#auraofdawn #fic recs #tales from the borderlands #valoscope #i think you were also interested in this lol

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mobianflame · 4 years

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‘Christmas Vacation’ Fans Can Now Own A Ceramic Replica Of The Griswold House

You can get all your favorite ‘Christmas Vacation’ scenes this holiday

If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be as surprised as I am to find out you can buy an entire Christmas Vacation village on Amazon this holiday season. The collection has all of the famous moments memorialized in ceramic so when you aren’t watching it (again and again) on TV, you can enjoy it on a shelf near you.

National Lampoon’s Vacation franchise are iconic films that gifted us with characters like Cousin Eddie, Todd and Margot, Aunts Bethany and Edna, and of course, all of the Griswolds. But Christmas Vacation seems to stand out from the rest because it centers around the chaos of the holidays and the ups and downs of spending so much family time together. Now, thanks to Amazon and Department 56, we can have our own little slice of the movie to cherish forever.

The centerpiece of the collection is a hand-painted “Griswold Holiday House” which is an exact replica of the Griswold’s abode (though Clark would be disappointed with the lack of Christmas lights). It’s got the wreath-covered front door, snowy roof, and there’s even a setting so the little lights actually twinkle.

Amazon

Of course, if you’re going to start a collection, you’ll need Cousin Eddie’s RV. This piece also lights up so it’ll look good on your mantle until you move it next month. Plus, anytime someone comes over and asks what it is, you can say with confidence, “That there’s an RV.” For that, it’s pretty much worth the $60.

Amazon

Of course, if you’re gonna purchase the RV, you really need Cousin Eddie himself — and what better figurine to represent him than the “Merry Christmas. Shitter’s full” pose? All we need is another figurine of Todd’s face seeing Eddie in all his glory to really make it complete.

Amazon

There are many other pieces you can collect over the holidays, including a Clark Griswold figurine trying his best to get the Christmas lights to work, a “Freezing Our Baguettes Off” vignette that showcases the entire family gathering to watch Clark turn on the lights, a Clark and Rusty set trying to unknot the lights, Eddie holding a moose mug (complete with the dickie itself), and many others, including the infamous Griswold family truckster and oversized Christmas tree.

Amazon

Once you see the entire collection, it is impossible to pick a favorite piece because they remind you so much of one hilarious scene after another. Regardless of which ones you choose, you’ll be the talk of every holiday party.

Amazon

The pieces range in price from $19 to $123, so they’re an investment for sure. But, considering all the movie has given us over the years, I’d say it’s an investment worth making.

The post ‘Christmas Vacation’ Fans Can Now Own A Ceramic Replica Of The Griswold House appeared first on Scary Mommy.

This content was originally published here.

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terryblount · 5 years

Text

Octopath Traveller – PC Review

I am one of those weirdos who loves to buy JRPG’s off the Android store rather than taking refuge in the haven of emulation. Many frown when I tell them this, and some check if I remembered to take my medication that morning. Fact is, the store has built up an excellent collection, and these days I can often be found curled up on the couch, working my way through the classics on my tablet.

Through sheer luck, I just finished Dragon Quest IV, and it was fresh off this experience that I fired up my review copy of Octopath Traveller. After making my way through close to fifty hours or so in Octopath’s unforgettable world, I kept noticing the striking similarities it shares with the fourth Dragon Quest game, but also with many JRPG’s of the mid-nineties in general.

Initially I thought the developers, Square Enix and Acquire, had intended to pay homage to their successes in the early scene. After playing Octopath Traveller for myself, however, I realise this game is something more. It has everything we loved about the early days, but with a few tweaks, refinements and innovations that turns the experience into a ‘love letter’ for the genre as many have said.

If this does not impress you then I am done trying!

This game is truly exceptional, and now that we finally have a chance to play it on our favourite platform, I feel like no collection will be complete without it. I finally get why Nintendo insisted on Octopath Traveller as a timed Switch release since I know people who bought their console just to play this game. This is a stellar and accessible JRPG, and you should go try it as soon as you can.

Octopus caliper

I wasn’t being cute when I mentioned there are some hilarious resemblances between DQ IV and Octopath Traveller; one could easily write a whole article just comparing the two. Basically, Octopath Traveller takes the character driven chapters from the opening sections of DQ IV, and inflates it to fill an entire game. As such, this is certainly a JRPG driven forwards by its protagonists rather than its narrative.

When the game opens, you are asked to pick your first-in-command, who from then on represents the hero/heroine in your party. I measure a game’s consistency by opting for unconventional characters, so I selected Primrose, the dancer and former noblewoman (and nearly an exact copy of DQ IV’s Meena, but that’s another story). Turns out she is also an escort with the ability to ‘allure’ people… definitely a first for me.

Be that as it may, Octopath’s wholehearted committed towards developing its characters is clear from the start. As the story of Primrose’s life began to unfold, it was a heart-braking tragedy of seeking her father’s murderer. She has to descend to the lowest, most sordid pits of society to gain clues about the killer. Dignity means nothing in her task, nor does the appalling abuse from her handler.

Each character’s story has this deep, evocative writing.

Okay who was cutting onions in here, dammit!? In any case, the player then takes over her story when she finally makes a break in her search, and I helped her to escape the crummy pleasure house. From there, you can set off to any of the nearby villages to encounter seven other heroes and heroines that match Primrose’s story of ambition and self-completion.

This is the modus operandi for Octopath from there on in as you will steadily take each of the eight protagonists through the story of reaching their main obsession. As you probably guessed by now, this little companionship eventually begin to recognize how their paths are intertwined. The gang of misfits soon figure out that they are being set on a course by higher powers in order bring about the resurrection of a powerful force, and the destruction of the world.

Better get going!

The side-missions are rather dull, though. They mostly involve talking to one NPC, and then going through a trial and error system of trying each character’s unique ability on another NPC. For instance, the thief can steal something off them, the merchant can buy something off them, or the warrior can duel them.

While it was strangely hilarious challenging a bent-over old woman to a sword duel, I feel like these little side tasks could have been cut altogether. The payoff for their completion was rarely worth the squeeze.

En guard, you old bat! Give me the recipe for that potato pie or I stick you!

It all comes together

When protagonists themselves have to carry the show, they had better be interesting. While I agree that the eight narrative threads are not the most unique – bordering on cliché even – they have all the heart and depth to match Primrose’s tale. Each character has been given a well-written and interesting story that the player will complete over four chapters for each.

This is how Therion’s story begins.

This had the pleasant upside of keeping things fresh narrative wise. RPG’s tend to make the player work to keep up with their narratives and lore which is nice when it works, but there is always the risk of shattering the player’s immersion in the game’s central plot. By moving the story forwards one character at a time, Octopath finds a welcome alternative to this hazard. By the time the player has filled up the gang, they will know each character like an old friend.

Unfortunately, it is here where Octopath also makes its biggest mistake. Namely, characters feel almost completely isolated and at odds with one another. They never appear in each other’s cut scenes, and your party will be limited, in most cases, to four players at a time. Jason Schreier in his Kotaku review made the remark that the game might as well be called ‘Quadpath Traveller,’ and I feel inclined to agree.

I get that having eight people crowded together on screen might not have worked, but the interactions between the heroes themselves are far too sparse. The game gave absolutely no reason for why a thief, merchant, apothecary, exotic dancer and a hunter would want to work together.

You might wanna stay home in that case, Tressa. Also, you can see the resemblance to Torneko’s story in Dragon Quest IV.

Worst of all, the experience you get from completing quests and defeating enemies is not shared with idle party members. I can imagine many players will find themselves swinging around a broad sword with a level 50 fighter who has to babysit a level 18 merchant or apothecary towards the home stretch. At least this compels the player to circulate more often between party members, which prevents sinking into that grinding slump where the same attacks are used over and over again.

These are few of my favourite things

I do not own a Nintendo Switch, so up until now I had to get by with play-throughs on YouTube. I never realised how these videos utterly failed to translate the beauty on display in this game. Perhaps it is the fact that my modest PC can run it in 4K at buttery-smooth frame rates, but now that I actually have it playing out in front of me, I must say I have never experienced anything quite like this.

Damn this game is pretty!

Octopath really is a landmark game in terms of how modern tech can fuse 2D sprites with 3D visual effects. The characters and in-game assets are virtually indistinguishable from what was on our screens in the late nineties, however the shadows, depth of field and lighting effects are all in 3D. It makes that old, pixel art style come to life in a way that dropped my jaw, and when you add the vignette effect on the edges of the screen, the overall look is almost dreamlike.

Then there is the audio. Boys and girls read this carefully because I do not say this lightly: This is the best music I have ever experienced in a role-playing game. It ranges from enthralling, up-beat, folk style guitar jingles matching the lawless cliff side landscapes, to lonesome, harp-infused overtures in the mystical forests scenes. Then there are full, orchestral symphonies to heighten the more sharp and intense moments during battles and dramatic plot moments. It makes for a stunning, aural backdrop to your gameplay, and it is worth the price of admission alone.

youtube

I should point out that I found the cast far too chatty during battles, though. Perhaps this would have been more bearable if not for how often they said the same thing. I can only hear Olberic yell “My blade is UNBENDING!” so many times, and the same goes for that awkward giggle Therion makes every time it comes to his turn to fight. Just turn down the dialogue I guess, which is a shame in light of the solid voice acting.

The combat

There is no need for me to go into the specifics of how the combat mechanics work as it is bog-standard, turn-based battles. Players attack enemies with either a melee weapon or a selection of abilities, and then wait for the opposition to make a move. The developers have gone through considerable lengths to make the menus and sub-menus streamlined, which I found to be a nice touch.

Typical combat scenario. Notice the little blue shield indicating how many hits until the enemy breaks, and that the vulnerabilities of each character has been displayed underneath.

What is actually worth explaining are the three distinct layers Square Enix and Acquire have built into the combat encounters. One layer is the offensive or defensive moves you act out towards enemies, the second is the boost points.

In Dragon Ball Z style, you can boost offensive or defensive moves by ‘charging up’ a character very much like Goku. Every turn grants you a free boost point for a maximum of five, and you can augment your character’s abilities up to a maximum of three levels. Whereas a sword attack or a lightning strike attack might normally do 20 damage for instance, it might do 35 at a level two boost, or 45 at a level three boost.

Little small, sorry, but the yellow dots in the top right corner show boost point available to that character.

Then there is the ‘break’ system which is the game’s strategy to familiarise the player with enemy weaknesses. Each enemy appears on screen with a shield displaying a number. When the player attacks this enemy’s weaknesses directly, this number drops steadily to zero. This is when the enemy experiences a resistance ‘break,’ meaning that they are stunned for a whole round of turns.

All three layers add up to a really engaging combat experience that ensures skilled turned-based veterans can refine the protagonists into a death squad without the risk of newcomers being overwhelmed. I just wish that battles were somehow not random since they occur just a tad too frequently. I would be hard pressed to call Octopath grindy, but repetitive certainly springs to mind.

One of the classics

I never intended to make Octopath Traveller sound like the perfect game. It’s not, but I must say that I think its first reception back in July 2018 was overly harsh. ‘Squeenix’ and Acquire have done a great job with bringing the unforgiving and cryptic JRPG’s of the early nineties forward a few generations. Best of all, they have somehow kept the essence of these games alive in a palpable way.

Boss battle. Bet you cannot tell which one the boss is…

Octopath Traveller looks absolutely gorgeous, is a musical masterpiece and never tries to overcomplicate things. It is rare that the hard-core Final Fantasy and Persona fanboys can sit at the same table as the more casual players who only dabble in this genre from time to time. In this case, Octopath makes one heck of a conversation piece, and it only weighs in at 3.5GB!

Beautiful music

Unique visuals

Character development

Overall simplicity

Somewhat repetitive

No character exchanges

Lackluster side quests

Experience only affects active party

Playtime: About 54 hours . Admittedly this was a bit of a rushed playthrough, and I would recommend investing in leveling up

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox One Controller

Octopath Traveller – PC Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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casualarsonist · 7 years

Text

Watch_Dogs review

The life of a developer that works for a publisher must really suck. You spend years studying your craft, training yourself and learning new technologies, perhaps being involved in research and technical innovation, putting your heart and creative mind and many, many hours into a project while knowing full well that all your work might be completely undermined by shady business practices enacted by the publishing and marketing teams in order to shift as many copies of your game as quickly as possible, with little regard for the good of the consumer. And thus we have Watch_Dogs, the poster child for the latest generation of terrible marketing stitch-ups - a bubble of greed and malpractice that only recently seemed to start deflating with the colossal outrage that followed No Man's Sky. Released a week or so after Assassin's Creed: Unity, the consumer blowback that followed the release of these two games proved to be a nail in the coffin of Ubisoft's ability to trade on hype, and after Assassin's Creed: Syndicate's luke warm reception the next year, it finally became clear to Ubisoft that they had milked the cow dry. Which is interesting, because after waiting more than 2 years to play Watch_Dogs for the first time, separated from hype and expectation, and given respite from fatigue of the Ubisoft-style sandbox tropes, I find that this isn't a bad game. Watch Dogs (I'm not going to stylise the title any more) actually succeeds in a few key areas that several so-called 'better' sandbox games fail. First and foremost, its world feels alive. Because of the nature of the hacking system, you will see into the private lives of the inhabitants of near-future Chicago. Some of the little vignettes of the people you spy on are hilarious, and some are shockingly disturbing (the old lady spying on her neighbourhood drug dealer, thinking aloud that she hopes he gets r.a.p.e.d and murdered is one particularly unforgettable example). You'll find people playing soccer in the park, making out in alleyways, arguing with their spouses on the phone, having lunch, or trying out new rhymes with their friends. If you pull out a gun, passers by will sometimes call the cops, and sometimes tell you they're on your side, but that you better leave before someone less sympathetic spots you. There's a great deal of spontaneity and character in these interactions, and they don't often feel forced or unnatural, which is a credit to both the writers and the actors, as they've managed to inject a personality into the city that is both quirky and believable at the same time. Complimenting this are the wonderful environments, and whether you're in quiet, leafy, rustic lakeside fishing village, or the clean, bustling courtyard of a university square, or darting round in the shadows and through dirty back-alleys beneath the towering CBD skyscrapers, the game world feels like a real living place. The second major win for the game is that it gives you a rather high degree of freedom in how you deal with any given situation. There are interactive 'hackable' objects littered around most of the city, so if you want to scope out a group of enemies through the CCTV cameras and blow up nearby generators and power boxes to thin their numbers you can, but you're also more than welcome to shut off the lights and sneak in to stealth attack them in person, or run in guns blazing if you so choose. Luckily, the combat is enjoyable enough that the latter feels fun. Similarly, if you're tasked with a car chase, you can ram your foe off the road or into oncoming traffic, or trigger any one of a number of traps, such as upcoming traffic lights, and send them careening into the oncoming pileup in order to disable them. While this constitutes a large majority of what you'll be doing in the game, it's kept me well-enough entertained for 30 hours so far. I rarely feel like I'm just doing that I'm told to, rather I feel like a cat amongst the pigeons - let loose in the birdcage to cause as much havoc as I like. The game falls down most predominately in the story and character department. Watch Dogs is ultimately a grim story about how killing solves all your problems, regardless of how many lives you ruin along the way, but it takes at least half the story missions for the direction of the narrative to reveal itself, and this has a lot to do with the fact that the backstory of the game feels like a first act that's been left out. The first few minutes of the game drop you into a cutscene at the very end of a mission gone wrong for reasons that aren't well-explained, with characters of whom you know nothing about. Then a child dies, and this is supposed to be the catalyst for a revenge story, which would be a fine premise if you could relate to any of the characters or their motivations at this early stage. The game doesn't give you enough backstory about the characters in order to care about them - it simply insists that you should. It really feels like the most interesting part of the story at that point exists in a prequel somewhere, and the game gives you little chance to catch up as it races on. From then on, it's a lot of gravelly-voiced technobabble, and importance prescribed to the names of characters that you've never met before. In short, it fails at Story-Telling 101 - there's no set-up, so there can be no satisfying pay-off. This eases up about half-way through, when the plot unravels enough for you to begin to follow, but for the large part, I didn't have a clue why I was doing what I was doing in the story missions, and I felt I was simply following the game's instructions. Other than that, the game is pretty standard Ubisoft-fare. I've intentionally left out talking about the graphics, because it's a non-issue. The game looks great. Does it look as great as the trailer? No. Does it look great regardless? Yes. The nighttime lighting effects are particularly impressive, and nighttime is almost photorealistic - walking under dim sodium streetlights feels so real you can almost smell the grime of the city. The water effects are quite nice too - particularly its semi-opacity as it interacts with light. There are some bugs here and there, and occasional lapses in detail that pull you out of the moment, but these were rarely game-breaking. Content-wise, there's a bit of collecting, which can seem quite pointless, but the side missions are fun for the most part. Also, I've never really been one for online interactions, but some of the online missions are really fun, such as sneakily tailing another player and trying to mimic the behaviour of the NPCs to avoid being made (likewise, it's fun to be tailed yourself, and have the other player panic and break character, exposing them for who they are as they sprint down the street, or barrel into other cars in traffic). These also transition rather seamlessly in and out of the offline world. TL;DR - This is not a bad game. If you can free yourself from expectations and just be open to what's on offer, I think you'll enjoy yourself. Sadly, Ubisoft's business practices, and the trail of similar games that preceeded Watch Dogs left it with no chance at the time. I'm pleasantly surprised by the game, and I'd say that it's one of a small pool of games that manage to build a world that doesn't feel totally artificial. Sadly, the main characters and story are far from engaging, and that means that the core of the game is noticably lacking. Get it cheap.

8/10

Very Good

#watch #dogs #video #game #review #pc #ubisoft

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terryblount · 5 years

Text

Octopath Traveller – PC Review

If this does not impress you then I am done trying!

Octopus caliper

Each character’s story has this deep, evocative writing.

Better get going!

En guard, you old bat! Give me the recipe for that potato pie or I stick you!

It all comes together

This is how Therion’s story begins.

You might wanna stay home in that case, Tressa. Also, you can see the resemblance to Torneko’s story in Dragon Quest IV.

These are few of my favourite things

Damn this game is pretty!

youtube

The combat

Typical combat scenario. Notice the little blue shield indicating how many hits until the enemy breaks, and that the vulnerabilities of each character has been displayed underneath.

Little small, sorry, but the yellow dots in the top right corner show boost point available to that character.

One of the classics

Boss battle. Bet you cannot tell which one the boss is…

Beautiful music

Unique visuals

Character development

Overall simplicity

Somewhat repetitive

No character exchanges

Lackluster side quests

Experience only affects active party

Playtime: About 54 hours . Admittedly this was a bit of a rushed playthrough, and I would recommend investing in leveling up

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox One Controller

Octopath Traveller – PC Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

0 notes