#yeah i skipped a bunch of dialogue

[for-a-longlongtime]

About shooting Triple Frontier, singing Moana songs on set, and The Hat

(disclaimer: this post includes some pap shots at the end, sorry. I'm conflicted about sharing them, even though these are really old at this point, but just given you a heads up in case you want to skip it - I've cropped them to show the hat on Oscar)

I've been meaning to make a post about this sooner, because a while ago I came across the Happy Sad Confused podcast (2019) where Oscar talks about shooting Triple Frontier - and it had some interesting things in it that weren't in the group promo for the movie. E.g. he talks about how he has videos of Pedro and Garrett singing Moana songs while holding assault rifles, "that's quite a bit of a mindfuck" (that tracks, I remember Bella talking about singing Moana songs with Pedro on the TLOU set).

About making the characters their own and bringing the story to the screen:

"There was not a ton of dialogue or backstory that you get to see about these guys. So there was an element of how do you show these people, how do you not make them anonymous? That didn't necessarily just jump out of the page. So a lot of that is trusting JC, and particularly trusting him in the edit. That's where he just, he really shines a lot - you can feel and trust that you can try a bunch of stuff. Things might not go great when you're shooting your production - the other was definitely a lot of like wrestling with ideas and things -, but in the edit, he sticks with it and he stays at it, and he is relentless."

At one point Oscar is asked about the Standard Heating Oil hat in the movie. For those of you who do not know the background story there; several years before Triple Frontier, Oscar worked with JC Chandor on a movie titled A Most Violent Year. He played Abel Morales, a Colombian born businessman who lives in Westchester, NY and owns the Standard Heating Oil company.

And we all know the hat Frankie (Morales...) wears in Triple Frontier:

Josh Horowitz from the Happy Sad Confused podcast is a real movie nerd, so he asked Oscar about it mentioning the JC Chandor Cinematic Universe. Here's what Oscar said:

"I know. That was, I gotta say, that was me, because I was like 'Can I, can I wear the Standard Hat?', and then he [JC] started thinking like 'Yeah, maybe', but then he was like 'It's too much, but Pedro can wear it'. And I was like okay, alright!"

Which brings me to my last point...

We know about those beach pics that were snapped of Oscar, Garrett, Charlie -- and then another set of them with Pedro and Tom Ben -- when they were in Hawaii to shoot Triple Frontier, right? As Oscar mentions in the interview, it seems like someone from the team [I'm assuming he means crew] ended up tipping off the paps for those photo ops.

I just randomly came across a much bigger set of those photos than I've seen before, and my heart suddenly stopped. Because...

...Oscar is wearing Frankie's hat?

Oscar is wearing FRANKIE'S STANDARD HEATING OIL HAT.

I mean.

I know it is/was Oscar's hat first, and I think it was @legendary-pink-dot who mentioned that a bunch of people on the crew had them, but as far as I can see, this was the only moment he was captured wearing it - so I love it. I'm having a moment.

If you haven't heard Oscar on Happy Sad Confused before, check out the podcast here.

tagging some folks for heads up: @sin-djarin @legendary-pink-dot @magpiepills @perotovar @romanarose @penvisions @prolix-yuy @writefightandflightclub @ezrasbirdie @astroboots @pimosworld @alltheglitterandtheroar @nerdieforpedro @wardenparker

ok my brain is asleep at this point, so consider this a tag for everybody

#triple frontier #pedro pascal #oscar isaac #garrett hedlund #charlie hunnam #Spotify

[thenixkat]

I do wonder how that one scene is gonna go down in the anime where in one of the few places in the series it happens Laios expresses how damn deeply upset he's been about the whole situation with Falin and the party nearly dying to dragon.

Since the anime has been skipping or shortening a bunch of the character-building, relationship-building, worldbuilding, moments from the manga especially if they're more dialogue heavy.

I still think it wasn't great idea to cut the part of the dragon fight right after Laios kills the dragon and is not doing great between the blood loss and shock where he tries to stand on the leg that got bitten off and falling but not really noticing while he's muttering about what he *needs to do* (check on everyone, search the dragon's guts for Falin's body, learn healing magic...). Cause like yeah letting folks be fucked up for a little bit longer would show better how dire the situation was. And just lil character stuff.

#nix meows #dungeon meshi #just I really wanna see Laios fully express how upset he was and how relived his is about how things turned out #with someone who actually understands him #and also i hope the anime includes the bits that implies that he's been scratching his reatteched leg raw #b/c its bothering him even if he doesn't make any further complaints about it

[lonicera-edulis]

do u have any advice for someone downloading lotro for the first time??? u make it look so cool!!! 🌸

Well, I am not very sure I am playing right. I can't speak to people nor offline nor online somehow, so I am missing a lot.

• First, you will have to type password everytime you go to play.

• Then, choosing a server to play on. Each one has their own purpose, there are American and European, some are RP oriented, some are for raids, etc. Although I've heard people there are insufferable with particular rules. (I play on Landroval and I like it so far).

• There are lots of setup to prepare. For graphic options there are videos and articles.

In Options you will find UI settings, where you will be able to change size of various elements (map radar, quest tracker, etc.)

• For a good time I didn't know how to change size of a text in quest dialogue.

• You can look up how to set up chat as well, and text there can be colored for you to notice stuff easier.

• And once you set everything for your use, you can save it by typing /ui layout save [name] in chat. If you change something accidentely, you can make it look like before with /ui layout load [name] command.

• Then there are useful plugins to help with better game experience:

I have Deed Tracker, Emotes Helper (to have all emotes automatically in a separate window) and Lotropad (very useful for saving commands so you can just copy/paste them, other game details; and you can upload images (maps with specific locations for example, but I put funny backgrounds for my text xD)

I also have Opaque Quest Tracker and MoorMap.

And SongBook for those who want to be musicians. But I only play My Little Pony and TF2 Soldier Theme xD

• Another things I was unaware for a good time are cosmetic outfits (I don't remember why but I couldn't slot anything there so I assumed it's a pay-for-thing, there happened this funny screenshot though) and one bag instead of 3 separate ones (opening one bag is more comfortable for me, and to make one you just need to drag slots from other bags to the first one while in edit mode).

• There is also a Filter Panel, to filter out some loot, quests and sounds. For items you need to drag it into a panel (I put lootboxes there).

• There are things like LOTRO points you can get through doing deeds in game rather than transfering your money (I spent my first good bunch on making steeds faster for the whole account, but you can also save some for buying a game content expansion).

• Folks in chat also remind of codes sometimes that give you useful stuff (to redeem a code you will need to go to the LOTRO store).

• Yeah, since I am a f2p player, I have to write down destinations to navigate easier in Middle Earth. I am writting them down to not forget:

• Finally, there is also https://lotro-wiki.com/, quite useful. And if something is unclear for me, I go to search for answers in websearch or on YouTube.

• And, I see people do play the game differently, you can skip quests and do whatever, but I am personally here for going through LOTR story and watching the stories of LOTRO characters too (even if I am mostly interested in dwarves and hobbits, but oh well). There are also seasonal Festivals in game, they are fun! You will be able to get a good looking outfit and a beautiful steed.

I think I wrote down most of what brought confusion to me first time. For sure I forgot something important, but I hope you will be able to find answers. Good luck.

#gaming tag #apologies for the late reply #it was a bedtime for me

[oneinathousand]

I recently found a pdf of an alleged Blood Meridian movie script written by a guy named William Monahan for Ridley Scott's attempt to make the movie, and let me tell ya, it is truly something else. At first, I refused to believe that it could be real because of some atrocious dialogue and truly baffling changes from the novel. I thought that it MUST have either been written as a prank or it was an amateur trying to pass it off as real, but on Twitter I talked to the guy who leaked the script online in the first place and now I'm more inclined to think that, unfortunately, it was legitimate.

Below are screenshots of some of the worst parts. You'll notice that a lot of the text is in red, but I think it must have been somebody on the Cormac McCarthy forums, where this comes from, highlighting some of the differences from the book, but this was the only pdf I could find so whatever. I also put in a few handwritten notes to express my frustration haha.

If you want to look at the full thing yourself, you can find it here, but I should warn you in advance that on top of the usual Blood Meridian type of violence that you would expect, the screenwriter also put in a sprinkle of random homophobia and underage sex which was NOT in the book and I will be showing those screenshots last with another warning so you know where they are in the script and can avoid it if you want to.

Okay, this part gave me a chuckle. Maybe it's not the best time for a joke from the Judge, though:

These next two come from the ending, which, if you were already aware of this script's existence, you probably heard about because it's the most infamous part. For those who don't know, the screenwriter decides to put in a bizarrely happy ending where the Kid slays the Judge in the jakes and adopts Randall, the brother of the boy that the Kid killed in self-defense (and there's no significant time skip in this version, so the Kid is in his late teens at most probably):

This random fucking nugget of homophobia is on page 32 of the script. I have no idea what this was in here for since it never comes up again and the script leaves out most of the children going missing or being found dead along the way:

And here's the Kid having sex because the screenwriter in their infinite wisdom decided that was missing from the Blood Meridian experience, it's on page 70:

So yeah, good thing this particular adaptation never got made. I just picked the screenshots that were the most obviously awful, but the biggest problems with the script are a very rushed opening act that compresses a bunch of story elements and character introductions to the point of confusion plus the cringy saccharine happy ending that was part of the reason why I thought the script was a joke at first. When the script adheres closer to the book, mostly in the middle, it's not the worst thing in the world. It has a few clever bits of streamlining the book and most of the characters sound like themselves, though the biggest problem there is that the Judge feels like a different character.

Someday I hope to read other scripts trying to adapt the movie from Steve Tesich, James Franco, and Tommy Lee Jones to see how each of them tackled the book, though to my knowledge none are publicly available online, but do let me know they are somewhere and you can lead me to it. This particular effort has set the bar very low.

Most of all I want to know if Cormac McCarthy wrote a complete draft of his attempt before he died. If this latest attempt to make the movie falls through, I hope that the script, if it exists, is released to the public so we can see what would certainly be one of the last things he wrote.

#blood meridian #cormac mccarthy #tw sex mention

[mcflymemes]

NO STRINGS ATTACHED PROMPTS *  assorted dialogue from the 2011 film

i'm warning you. if you take one step closer, i'm never letting you go.

so what's up with not calling me back?

it's perfect. will you read it for me?

did you think we had sex? we did not have sex!

i know it's over.

are you having sex?

that is a terrible, self-destructive plan, and i'm behind you a hundred percent.

when we met, you weren't wearing pants.

can we not tell everyone?

how long have you two been together?

what i need is someone who's gonna be in my bed at 2AM who i don't have to lie to or eat breakfast with.

yup, i'm definitely gay.

look, i'm not really an affectionate person.

go on a date with me.

you are such an overachiever.

look at my face.

we're sex friends. friends with benefits. fuck buddies.

i can't keep doing this. i'm not gonna see you again.

look, i know i'm supposed to want to be in a relationship, but i just end up with a broken heart and a bunch of their old t-shirts.

if we were in a relationship, i would become a weird scary version of myself. my throat starts constricting. the walls start throbbing. it's like a peanut allergy, like an emotional peanut allergy.

hey, someone call charlie brown! we found the great pumpkin!

don't make fun of me!

i'm gonna call everyone in my phone until someone agrees to have sex with me.

i'm pretty good at archery.

let's smoke some weed.

i sprained my wrist punching a wall.

i'm not good at this stuff.

the box of fifty donut holes is $5.79. you're gonna need two boxes.

we fell asleep and we were spooning.

try to stay away from women who want to fuck you.

that was really mean.

don't do that. don't just disappear like that on me.

how much money do you have on you?

do you wanna do this?

well, i can't date you either.

you're very talented, but fuck you!

i guess i wanted to hear your voice.

i want you to know that i respect you.

you shouldn't listen to me.

thank you for what you did back at the restaurant.

do you want to get out of here?

it's not really possible.

you left your socks in my room.

if you're lucky, you're never gonna see me again.

congrats? for what? having sex with you?

i'm so sorry. i love you.

hey, you can't call me and tell me that you miss me.

if you really miss me, you need to grow up and get in your car and come and see me.

people aren't meant to be together forever.

i don't want to freak you out, but i'd love to hang out with you in the daytime sometime.

i thought you just said it.

i'm going to start peeing with the door open. it's going to get weird.

i can't focus on my porn with all this real sex going on around me!

i don't want to have that conversation on the phone.

we don't get to pick who we fall in love with, and it doesn't happen like it should.

we didn't break up. we never started.

you did a good job, so i thought you deserved a balloon.

you make my heart skip a beat.

yeah, i could do that.

can i say something? and don't take this the wrong way because you know i'll be your friend no matter what.

okay, where's that?

oh, by the way, it's the best sex of my life.

are you still there?

i made you a valentine's day card.

i'm assuming that's a good thing.

things were getting too intense so we decided not to see each other until we hook up with other people.

that's really sweet.

you always do this. you always find something wrong with everybody who likes you.

we were spooning with our clothes on which is like. ten times worse.

we are getting laid tonight!

is this about me not having a date?

god, i am single as fuck.

i understand what's going on.

you have to come with me.

i can't stop thinking about them.

this isn't really my place.

i'm telling you to be hurt. i can take it. the world can take it.

sometimes my neck gets sore because my brain is so big.

get in your car and drive away.

i know this is random. i just... um. i miss you. i miss you so much.

i don't know what to say.

you're fucking my ex-girlfriend?

i'm not gonna meet your parents.

don't list me as your emergency contact. i won't come.

you know i worry about you sometimes.

i think monogamy goes against our basic biology.

i just worked fourteen hours.

no one threw up on me today.

that was such a fail on my part.

if i catch you taking pictures of your dick one more time, i'm taking that thing away.

watch and learn.

you want to go with me to this stupid thing?

did i just pass out on your couch?

did you look at it?

oh my god, i love you so much.

#rp starters #rp memes #rp prompt #rp meme #rp musings #roleplay memes #roleplay prompt #roleplay meme #writing prompt #askbox meme #ask memes #rp asks #ask meme #inbox meme #inbox prompts #inbox prompt #rp inbox meme #sentence starter #sentence starters #sentence starter prompt #rp prompts #no strings attached #movies #mcflymemes

[aughtpunk]

A03 Questions Tag Game

I got tagged by: @coffincrows

I tag: @ventela1 @autumn2may @farshootingstar

1 – How many works do you have on AO3?

70

2 – What's your total AO3 word count?

552,955

3 – What fandoms do you write for?

In no particular order: Cult of the Lamb, Welcome to Night Vale, Disco Elysium, Good Omens, Overwatch and a bunch of series I've only written one fic in

4 – What are your top five fics by kudos?

Points on a Circle (Overwatch, lots of ships, mainly Yeehan)

Now Streaming: Love! (Overwatch, lots of ships, D.va POV)

White is Not the New Black (Good Omens, Ineffable Husbands)

Fusion is Just a Cheap Tactic to Make Weak Angels Stronger (Good Omens, Ineffable Husbands)

Welcome to Cyber Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, Cecilos)

5 – Do you respond to comments?

I may accidentally skip a few (sorry) but I try to respond to everyone!

6 – What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Another Pyramid, although I'm not sure I would call it angsty. The fic is about two robots (omnics) discussion an opera and the play based on it, and it ends with one of the robots wondering if the more opened-ended play could possibly be about the endless cycle of tragedy and romance, and how that's very fitting in the current war for robot rights.

7 – What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably To Forgive is Divine since it ends with the Bishop family back together AND Narinder and Lamb as a couple AND other happy spoilers

8 – Do you get hate on fics?

Okay so I wouldn't call it hate but I will take a moment to talk about the weirdest comment I ever got on a fic: Someone once posted in the third chapter of a fic that they hadn't read the first two chapters (on purpose) and they were only going to read every-other chapter from then on. And then every other chapter they kept posting about how the fic made no sense and kept asking questions that were answered in the parts they skipped.

Yeah I ended up blocking them and deleting the comments. Like, the fuck?

9 – Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I have written smut. I would describe it as "bad".

10 – Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Probably the Good Omens/Pokemon crossover fic The Evils of Truth and Love. Sadly I couldn't figure out anything to do with it plot-wise so it's only just three chapters of silliness.

11 – Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No idea. Imagine someone stealing my work. It'd be like someone stealing my twelve year old hyundai. Like, why?

12 – Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I know Cyber Vale got partially translated, and one of my Disco Elysium fics was translated into Russian!

13 – Have you ever co-written a fic?

No, I'm not into co-writing.

14 – What's your all-time favorite ship?

Probably X/Zero. Which is funny considering I've never written a ship about them.

15 – What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Dear Notes in a Line and Five Shalle Ryde fans:

I swear I'll come back one day to finish these. Pinky-swear.

16 – What are your writing strengths?

Apparently I have a real knack for writing immortal God/God-like beings/Immortal Robots and I don't know what to do with this power besides writing fanfic.

17 – What are your writing weaknesses?

I am so, so bad at smut. I've tried, you guys. I've really tried. But writing it feels like someone is sandpapering my brain. In another timeline where I can write smut I'm probably making bank on a terrible amazon published erotica series.

18 – Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I try to avoid it myself because I can barely handle English most days. Never mind other languages Do you know how many times I've failed French 1? Six. SIX TIMES.

EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that I've written multiple characters in multiple stories that use ASL. I am not a clever person.

19 – First fandom you wrote for?

NiGHTS Into Dreams! It's called TWiNS and I actually dug it up from the depths of FF.net to post on Ao3 because I'm so proud of my teen self for writing it.

20 – Favorite fic you've written?

Probably As Mayflies, which I wrote one beautiful summer morning while I was feeling very emotional over Sir Terry Pratchett's passing and wrote a little story about how the humans Crowley and Aziraphale meet live forever in their hearts.

[doubledyke]

hey, i’ve read some of your writing and i really like it. do you have any tips?

aw dude that's really sweet. i'm really self conscious about everything i write so i appreciate hearing that. i'm still learning myself, so my advice is probably gonna be kind of obvious yet nebulous (much like my writing). oh and im not great at following my own advice, but we can ignore that.

first and foremost i'd say try to have fun. get weird with it. don't stress too much about it. it's supposed to be an enjoyable pastime, so write what YOU like, how you like. the "rules" of grammar and composition are helpful, but you're allowed to be a lot more lax with creative writing. i know i am 👀

in my humble opinion, you can never have too many details, even- or especially- oddly specific ones. personal experiences are a great way to inject some minutiae, and i enjoy the insight they provide into the author's perspective, background, thought process, etc.. there are infinite other tools at your disposal too. like the number of times i've found myself browsing ancient, niche forums just to confirm one insignificant bit of information is ridiculous.

don't be afraid to take your story as seriously or unseriously as you want. sometimes i'll be snapped out of focus with the thought of "am i really writing this rn" 😂 but i just try to remind myself that i'm (usually) having fun, i'm not hurting anyone and someone might even enjoy the final product.

for eene, try to listen to the voice acting as much as you watch the animation. and don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone when writing a character. i'm neither comfortable, nor very good at writing for ed, but i nutted up and gave it a shot recently and yeah it's nuclear level cringe but i suppose it can't get any worse, right? RIGHT???.... i love learning new words, so when i'm writing for edd (and in general) you know i keep that thesaurus tab open. with eddy, there's always room for more irreverence. i'm also one of those people that cannot help but drop almost every g when i write eddy. and it's just as important to get their idiolects down, which can be tricky. BUT that's mostly if your goal is to stay close to the source material, which is definitely not necessary. i'm just not a very creative person 😂

if you're in a rut, skip to another section, or hell even another chapter. the fic i'm working on rn was hatched from a simple premise several months ago, so i started at the end and have been building on that. an unconventional starting point can be really helpful when you're struggling to start at all. because i'm me, it's turned into a nightmare beast that i can't seem to contain, but i still have a general idea of where we're going and we'll get there eventually lmfao. to that point, outlines, bullet points, notes, etc. are all very useful.

take breaks, let her sit for a while. i'll write a whole bunch, leave, come back to review and be like girl what the hell is this. fresh eyes make a big difference! however, don't be like me and get too caught up in the weeds. i make compulsive little tweaks of my shit up to the point and even after i hit post. more often than not, it's more stress than it's worth. i just can't help it 🥴

and then of course, read other people's stuff. i'm not much of a fiction reader but i make exceptions for the sake of my hyper-fixation. it truly does help to see different perspectives and styles of writing. everyone has a unique voice that really comes through in creative writing, which i love. i've gleaned a lot from reading other people's work as well. i frequently come across new and creative ideas for changing up sentence structure, dialogue tags and narration by reading stuff from fellow fans.

aaaaaand yeah idk what else really. like i said, i'm not the best at writing but i think as long as you're getting your ideas across in the way that you want to, you're golden. anyone who makes shitty remarks about someone else's writing can sit and spin honestly.

#thank you again for the kind words #i have not even the slightest clue what i'm doing but we're rolling with it ✌️

[veeagainsttheday]

After some discussion in a gc I ranked the OFMD soundtrack choices for each season.

Season 1:

Gnossienne No. 5: I have a Pavlovian response to this song now. I hear it and a little movie reel in my mind starts up with The Kiss (Season 1 edition). 

The Chain: This was my most played song of 2022 on Spotify for a reason. The choreography: immaculate. That shot where the small boats are approaching the Revenge and it skips to the beat? Should have won an Emmy on its own. And Stede and Ed looking at each other as the music and the world fades away leaving only their love? Yeah, that’s the good shit. 

Avalanche: This music overlaying Ed’s transformation into the Kraken, the shots of Stede’s books falling into the water? “I have begun to long for you/I who have no greed/I have begun to ask for you/I who have no need/You say you've gone away from me/But I can feel you when you breathe” It takes a scene that could have been campy or funny and with the power of Leonard Cohen elevates it to the most emotionally devastating shit you’ve ever seen.

Our Prayer: It’s so brief but it’s SO good. The blissful music overlaying Stede’s smile at being known. 

Miles from Nowhere: Beautiful song, beautiful sentiment, Stede is finally, truly free of his old life and is on his way to discover what his new one will be: “I have my freedom/I can make my own rules/Oh yes, the ones that I choose”

High on a Rocky Ledge: I loved this choice as an opening and hearing it over the shot of all the flags always makes me so emotional. 

Perfect Day: I can’t believe I’ve put my dear Lou Reed so low on this list but that’s what the impeccable choices above do for me. Obviously the crucial lyrics here are, “You made me forget myself/I thought I was someone else/Someone good” and juxtaposed over Ed rowing alone and Stede returning to discomfort in a married state it’s just so much. 

The Empty Boat: I actually LOVE this choice, the lyrics are so good for Ed’s expression and feelings in this scene, but it just doesn’t feature as strongly as the others. 

Bonus shoutout to Il triello: Olivia, give him the old fuck eye!

Trailer interlude:

Because the Night: This choice made me absolutely deranged. Hearing this was when I was like oh they are going to fuck and I am somehow going to be seeing it in a few weeks on my screen. The night before the premiere I was so full of emotions that I took a drive and played this over and over again while screaming along to try to get some of them out. 

The Beautiful Ones: My brain became an endless loop of Baby baby baby for a week with Stede’s words and the cake toppers overlaid. 

Season 2:

This Woman’s Work: This is THE song of the season to me. We all wanted a reunion, we wrote something like 10,000 versions of it, I personally wrote something like 10 versions of it, and then the actual reunion was SO gorgeous and SO perfect and soundtracked by this and “all the things I should have said that I never said, all the things we should have done that we never did” and that piano and the build and and and I will never recover. 

Pygmy Love Song AND Seabird: I put these two as one because they’re the crux of Ed’s journey in this season and they work so well together thematically. First, the Impossible Birds - imagine hearing that there’s a piece of media about Blackbeard, infamous pirate, where one of his lines of dialogue is, “We’re never going back to land. We’re gonna sail, rob, raise hell, forever and ever without end” and instead of these words being delivered as a tough war cry they’re instead spoken in utter grief in a voice made nasal from tears. Taika’s delivery is so good it makes me want to eat through a brick wall (and all shout outs forever to Joel Fry for playing off him in this scene and several others). Playing in the background, its music lilting and warbling just as much as Ed’s voice? “My heart, my heart is full of love, I have nothing else.” So then a bunch of stuff happens (see the aforementioned reunion above) and we’re in episode 4 and Ed sees Buttons turn into an actual Impossible Bird, choosing to transform himself for love, and as Ed says “Fuck yeah brother, fly,” his face shining with revelation, we get, “There’s a road I know I must go/even though I tell myself that road is closed/like a lonely seabird/you’ve been away from land too long” MAGGIE PHILLIPS YOUR MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Run From Me: I was already a big Timber Timbre fan so when I read that one of their songs was in the show, I got very excited, and this did not disappoint. Its use to bookend this episode was incredible - the jilted wedding theme and the slow beginning of the song at the beginning as Ed is clearly in such a low place contrasted with the faster end of the song at the end of the episode as Ed enters this manic state during the storm - double Maggie Phillips your mind!!!

Strawberry Letter 23: The opening chords of this starting right after Ed introduces himself as the devil - just perfection. Ed’s sending 88 letters in his own way. 

Road to Moscow: This one feels like a real “I just heard it last night and if anything happened to it I would kill everyone and myself” situation. Fascinating use here because the song is about a Russian soldier witnessing the ultimately-failed German invasion of Russia in WWII - a notoriously bloody campaign with massive losses on both sides, which is of course what happens to our crew and the soldiers they encounter as well. This line gave me chills in the context of the crew fighting through the trees: “Ah, softly we move through the shadows, slip away through the trees/Crossing their lines in the mists in the fields on our hands and on our knees/And all that I ever was able to see/The fire in the air glowing red, silhouetting the smoke on the breeze”.

I Love My Baby: Perfect double use. Also further wedding foreshadowing: “Just say you love me

And we'll go to the preacherman/Just say you love me/And before him we'll stand/We'll live our lives together/As we go hand in hand.”

Baby: Can’t believe this is so low but the other ones were all so good!! 

The Times They Are A-Changing: Great use, loved that they used the Nina Simone version, it’s just not as significant to me as the others. 

Callback Gnossienne No. 5: this playing while Stede’s looking through the cabin in episode 3 made me want to lay down in the road. 

#ofmd 2 #ofmd music

[azsazz]

what is ur writing process like? do u plan things out a bunch before u start or do u dive right in?

My process is chaos 😭 I wish I were more organized (ikr an unorganized Virgo never heard of her) lol but it’s kind of different every time.

Sometimes I’ll think of a title and will be like oh shit this is dope I have to write something for it

Or sometimes I’ll think of a one liner and the fic just builds out from that point. It could be the middle of the fic and then I go back and write the rest.

Sometimes I’ll write the beginning and get bored so I’ll skip forward in my doc and write something more exciting and then I dread coming back to the beginning to link the two parts haha.

I’d love to be like Chlo someday who plans her stuff out to a T. We’re writing a fic together and she has this whole process and I’m in lala land and she’s got bullet points and dialogue and scenes planned out lmao. I love it. (Maybe writing my book is so hard cuz I don’t do this lmao)

But uh yeah, my process is having no process or plans 😅

#ask azsazz

[flowerparrish]

20 questions for fic writers

@evilwickedme didn't technically tag me but tagged me by mentioning a podfic I did of one of their fics, so I'm counting it!

How many works do you have on ao3?

846, but of those only 184 are fanfics (so ~20%)

what’s your total ao3 word count?

840,858 but that's inflated from pod + fic combos where I podded, so take at least 100k off of that

What fandoms do you write for?

Marvel, Star Wars, The Old Guard, AFTG

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

that's the kind of love i've been dreaming of (Marvel, Clint/Bucky/Steve, rated E, 45k words)

Across the Stars (MCU, Steve/Bucky, rated E, 37k)

when I watch the world burn (all I think about is you) (Marvel, Clint/Bucky/Steve, rated E, 29k)

(would you) rescue me (Marvel, Clint/Bucky, rated M, 26k)

we can haunt each other's dreams (The Old Guard, Joe/Nicky & Andy/Quynh (past), rated M, 26k)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, almost always! If it's something that I really can't figure out a response to or someone leaves a bunch of comments and I don't want to just say "thanks!" 10x in a row in their inbox then I might skip a few, but almost always.

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending

Probably "we can haunt each other's dreams" (above)

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Days Like This (Marvel, Clint/Bucky, 7k words)

Do you get hate on fics?

Sometimes on the ones with neopronouns

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, sometimes kink and always consent oriented with excessive feelings

Do you write crossovers?

Yeah! Mainly Marvel/DC

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

One of my Venom fics!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah! A handful. One of my oldest fics (on my old ffn account) was co-written

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Clint/Bucky probably

What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

love like fools

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and introspection

What are your writing weaknesses?

Description of physical things (scenery/setting, body placement and gestures)

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Fine with it but always love it if there's someone who can check it to make sure it ... makes sense (if it's a language I don't speak)

First fandom you wrote for?

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (and then shortly after Supernatural)

Favorite fic you’ve written?

many but this is the first I came across amongst them: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23381920

tagging: @hoebiwankenhoebi @themisfitthrone @claraxbarton @cacodaemonia @seascribbling @marbled-polecat @indira-korr if any of you want!

#tag game

[genericpuff]

an essay post about LO's dialogue problems (MILD FASTPASS SPOILERS AHEAD)

Lately a lot of the dialogue in LO, particularly from S2.2 onwards, has felt INCREDIBLY stiff and doesn't feel like the characters are having a real conversation, they're just talking "at" each other or "at" the viewer the same way an actor would talk "at" the audience during a commercial. For the sake of clarity, I'm gonna call it "Truman Show talk", and once you start to see it, it's pretty hard to unsee it.

That's not even touching on the dialogue exchanges that feel like they're coming out of nowhere or have ZERO setup whatsoever.

seriously I feel like we skipped a panel, wtf lol

she's literally referring to Apollo, y'know... the guy that sexually assaulted her. Why is this being played off for a laugh now? It's been 10 years, yeah, but we've had barely any progression on that plotline, so she went from talking about it at therapy once to making jokes about it? It just feels so tone deaf.

i literally feel nothing from this exchange because RS has done nothing to earn this heartfelt reunion moment between hades and zeus

hades literally cut off the underworld from olympus over his 19 year old crush that he knew for like, a month, like c'mon.

lmAo sO rAnDuM

hades, you already knew she wanted you, that's been established like 275903257 times already

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON.

seriously, all that weird ass dialogue and contradictory statements for what? A Beauty and the Beast reference? Was it worth it Rachel? Because this scene makes zero sense and the dialogue is the worst part of it.

Literally so much of S2.2 and S3's dialogue is so stiff and lifeless, it often feels like it's falling under one of two things:

1.) It's being ripped off from other stuff (so it's being limited to specific words or sentence structures to make the reference "work", like the Beauty & the Beast one above; but this also includes the "how do you do fellow teens?" type of dialogue that's often referencing meme culture or trying WAY too hard to be "lolz so randum and relatable")

2.) It's being used as a replacement for actual storytelling, i.e. "telling not showing."

And then there's the secret other third thing:

3.) It's being used as weird commercial/PSA-style dialogue to talk at the reader with Rachel's own opinions or backpedaling to make her seem like a better writer/person.

None of the characters ever feel like they're talking to each other, they're just reading lines off a script with zero nuance, feeling or motivation. Maybe S1 had these problems too, but the dialogue really feels like it's gotten worse alongside the art and writing.

I hate to make the comparison to Truman Show here because Truman Show did it on purpose, the whole point of the dialogue in the majority of that film was to make it obvious that Truman was in a simulation, a made up reality filled with actors reading from a script... but that brilliantly written script-like dialogue is literally the only thing I can think of whenever I see Hades going into corporate-speak mode or Persephone preaching at the audience about vegetarianism. The only difference is that LO's dialogue isn't trying to be ironic or make a statement in that same way, it's just... a bunch of words. No voice.

#lore olympus spoilers #lore olympus critical #lo critical

[raptorsaurusmelain]

Let me show you... Youtube - chapter 10

GUESS WHO'S BACK ??? Me.

My trip to Helsinki went well, I had a fun time with my friends. I went to a drag show there, it was very interesting ! It was my first one.

Warning : no proof reading, English is not my mother tongue.

If you are interested in reading this fic, the tag "#twst lmsyy" will give you all the chapters.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

Ace explained the situation : he ate a piece of the cherry pie for the unbirthday party, Riddle got angry, he got collared and he got here to ask to change dorms.

Yuu and Victoria looked at each other. Yuu then said, “You need to apologize.”

Victoria added a good. “And quickly on top of that.”

Ace began his long rant about how Riddle was a tyrant, that he was evil, gna gna gna… Really it was old news and sadly, compared to the game, you can’t skip the dialogue…

At the end of the rant, Yuu said. “You still need to apologize.”

Victoria added. “And still quickly on top of that.”

Ace grumbled and said. “You are both killing me !! You didn’t listen to a word I said !”

Victoria sighed. “Listen up buttercup, you did something foolish and you are harvesting what you sow. Plus, do you really want to live in this run down dorm ? It is called Ramshackle for a reason.”

Ace tried his best to convince the adult. “I can help restore it !”

Victoria arched an eyebrow. “Really ? You seem to be the kind of person who run away from your homework and complains about having to do it last minute. Or, you seem to run away from things that are not funny, and restoring a building is not funny, it is hard and very long. Still want to pass your weekends to restore the dorm with us ?”

 Ace flinched and laughed. “Yeaaaaaaah maybe not my jam. Can I at least sleep here tonight ?”

Yuu thought before speaking. “Yes you can but you need to sleep in the lobby, unless you want to clean a room right now ?”

Ace was definitely not having it. “We… could sleep together ?”

Yuu cringed at the prospect. Victoria, seeing the subtle movement, interfered. “No you’re not. You either sleep on the couch, or you go back to your dorm.”

And with that, she ended the discussion. While Ace was defeated by the prospect of sleeping on an old couch, Victoria and Yuu went to her room to search for some bed sheets and a pillow.

Yuu interrupted the silence. “Thank you, I didn’t know how to say no…”

Victoria had a small smile. “You’re welcome, Baby. It is not an easy word to say.”

Night was a charm, except for Victoria who slept approximately 3h. She was going to need a lot of tea to go through her day. 

She went to the kitchen, surprised that Ace was still sleeping despite the Sun shining through the window. She arrived in the kitchen and turned on the kettle. She also prepared a bunch of nutelli (again, an equivalent) sandwiches to satisfy her craving of sweets.

When the kettle whistled, Ace woke up grumbling and Yuu arrived, already in their uniform, followed by a sleepy Grim. Victoria put on the table everything they had for breakfast. Yuu settled for their fruit square cereal, Grimm for a bowl of milk accompanied by some nutelli sandwiches and Ace opted for some cherry jam on toast.

Victoria was filling her gourd and said. “Today you have to apologize, Ace. It is never good to let those types of bad blood going on. He can destroy your years in the dorm.” Before he could speak, she added. “I know you don’t see what you did wrong, but it is important for some people to respect their habits and ‘rules’.”

Ace answered her statement “Urgh… You truly don’t know him, there are too many rules ! I can’t remember all of them !”

Victoria then remembered the fact that there were 800+ rules. “Yeah maybe it is too much… Anyway, try to find a middle ground with him, ok ?”

Oh boy she knew where this was going and she didn’t like it… She will need to buy a whole lot of antiseptic and bandages. 

She straightened Yuu's tie. “You look ravishing, like always Baby. Believe in yourself and you will do great things. Now, go and crush the world.”

She knew it wasn’t much, but some words of encouragement will be better than nothing.

She looked at them go to the Heartslabyul dorm and dropped her shoulders. She didn’t need to fake the fact that she was well now that their little eyes are away.

She knew her state would degrade soon. Too much excitement and information for her brain to compute them correctly during her sleep. For the moment she could just hope for a quick relapse, so she wouldn’t need a doctor appointment with no social security.

She inhaled and exhaled loudly. [Everything is going to be alright, we just need time and rest.]

Sadly, instead of resting she had to work.

While she swept, she found a door slightly open. It was from one of the lecture halls.

She got closer and lent an ear. A deep masculine voice could be heard about a very boring subject. She had to swallow her laughter to not be heard by the teacher. She stayed there a few minute before she heard a scratch on the door and a deep “meeeeeow.”

Lucius was a four paws snitch.

“What can I do for you Mrs Devi ?” Trein opened the door a few moments later.

 Lucius was definitely a fur baby snitch.

Victoria looked at him with pleading eyes. “I am sorry to interrupt your class, the door wasn’t shut entirely and I got interested in your lecture.”

Trein grabbed the meowing snitch and sighed. “I admire your pursuit of knowledge but you should have just closed the door. Not eavesdropping.”

[Ooch, live ammo here.] Thought Victoria.

She bowed “I am truly sorry, it won’t happen again…” She turned and grabbed her broom, defeated.

He closed the door despite Lucius wiggling to go to the young lady.

It hurted Trein to see someone who so earnestly wanted to learn and yet couldn’t, just because she wasn’t a student here.

At noon, Yuu went to see her to talk about their plan for the afternoon and warn her that they would be late. Victoria nodded and they went to eat with their friends.

At least Yuu had some friends to help them in their story…

Tag : @boba-tea-fish @hipsterteller

#disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland #twst #disney twst #twst lmsyy #twst fanfic #twst yuu #mozus trein #twst mozus trein #twst trein #finally going into chapter 1 #i hope this is a nice pace #I am lost on how to do chapters

[aprillikesthings]

HELLO EVERYONE

it is Thursday night which means it's my weekend which means IT'S SHE-RA TIME

On a related note a bunch of the stuff for my cosplay (like, clothes) gets here tomorrow and then I can put it all together and look in front of the mirror and make weird noises at myself and take terrible selfies, so stay tuned for that yeah? Yeah!

OKAY

I'M STARTING SEASON FIVE oh god

s5 ep1 Horde Prime

My semi-frequent reminder that these are a re-watch, spoilers ahoy, I make a lot of dumb jokes

I'm going to tRY to scale back on how much of the episodes I like, describe. Those last two eps of s4 I ended up just telling the whole thing, to the point of copy/pasting a shit-ton of dialogue from the damn fan transcripts.

BUT THERE WAS SO MUCH LORE AND STORY AND SHIT and I want to remember everything uggghhhhh

okay I just noticed the rating, and I can't screenshot it bc it disappears when I pause, but the show is rated for age 7 and up and says "fantasy violence, fear"

Fear??? I mean that's...not wrong. But it feels like a weird way of wording it?

This was pretty, but then the damn Horde Prime ships showed up.

you broke the sword, girly

(for good reason! but still. also the music actually starts the little rah-rah transformation tune and then cuts off)

I hate it when creepy dudes watch me via bot soldiers

I remember reading that there are parts of the intro that change multiple times across this season, and I know Daci and I just skipped the intro every time when we marathoned this season back in 2020, so I'm watching them all this time, and

O_O

And she's not She-Ra! Just Adora!

the shards of Narsil....wait wrong fantasy story

Ohhhh they're all hiding under some kind of invisibility/protection shield constantly maintained by sorcerers. That makes sense.

ALSO I remember noticing this the first time, but you can tell they got a higher budget this season.

ugggh let it go

Everyone else says the same thing lol (along with "literally we can't because we don't have She-Ra anymore")

Adora's obviously still engaging in her self-sacrificial bullshit and Perfuma's like "no u gotta take ppl with u" but then

NOT. HELPING.

I mean Glimmer's room on the ship is nice (if sterile and too brightly-lit) but oof

oh, are you also lonely? do you also long for someone at least a little familiar? Hm????

;_;

Horde Prime just like "yo my bro hated your guts when I showed up lol did u know that"

(referring to the Heart of Etheria) yeah sweetie that's not gonna save your ass for long

He's so fucking creepy!!

Also I know they were inspired by megachurches and conservative Christian stuff when making Horde Prime's ship, but the music here even sounds kind of like an organ!

(...which is funny when you remember that megachurches usually have, like, rock bands)

Stop doing your self-sacrificial bullshit....without us!!

Does anyone else always wonder what they use for bathrooms?? The ones in the Fright Zone didn't have obvious restrooms either. Anyway.

So I know people were shipping Glitra for obvious reasons before this season but this whole storyline was just fucking great on that front lol

But also look at how fucking SMUG she is!

bahaha the "how's it going, Princess?" line is said almost as unnecessarily sexy as the "hey, Adora" thing

HAH. Glimmer is RIGHT.

Catra: nah man I'mma kick my ass to the top like I did last time Glimmer: u will get crushed like a BUG you DIPSHIT Clones: COME TO DINNER

oh sure, NOW you're looking at her for sympathy pfft

Clone: PRAISE THE LORD Everyone else: oh please shut the fuck up

("April aren't yOU Christian" yes but like, not that kind.)

Who else read A Wrinkle in Time? Remember that meal they had on Camazotz where everything tasted like sand to Meg because she was the only one who was completely resistant to the hypnotism bullshit IT did? Anyway that's what I'm reminded of.

the little she-ra doll :(

Even Catra's not thrilled to see this. (That or she saw Scorpia fighting and feels guilty)

When says "Adora," Catra scratches the table

GLIMMER GOD DAMMIT (but also look at poor Catra's face)

OH RIGHT because if he knows this he has no reason to keep Catra around.

But she can't stop looking at the screen where Adora just was ahahah

YOU COULDN'T DO IT ALONE BEFORE

lol Bow says it. "You're not alone. You've never been." But he's nicer about it than me.

Catra: oooh, princesses and their *~feelings~* Horde Prime: lol you're not any better

I am actively resisting the urge to make a BBC Sherlock reference. IYKYK.

"Adora means something to you." 👀

His little speech about "you Etherians are all alike, such strong connections to each other...it's what makes you weak," is such a great way of contrasting him to the actual Good Guys. Empathy and compassion, caring for others--those aren't weaknesses!

But if your goal is ruthlessly destroying everything in the universe for your own power, then yeah, they would be.

And of course, Catra does think her connections to others is what makes her weak, at this point in the story.

augh

"Now that I know about She-Ra and the weapon, what purpose do I have for you? Your little ploy of parsing out information like a bartering chip was never going to last long out here... I see all. I know all. But fear not. I have great plans for you. Every part of the machine is of value. Even you...little sister."

AAUGH

(and that's why the rating for this show warns for "fear" lol)

And then Adora has one of her weird dreams about She-Ra and shattering the sword but while awake, and clearly it pains her--and then she passes out, end of episode.

Anyway I managed to make it all fit in one post but only barely, I had to go back and delete a few, lol

TBH I should probably just assume these are all gonna be two-parters, there's so much plot.

#april rewatches spop #horde prime

[sollucets]

ok so. so i made it out of midnight museum e3 alive but im gonna have to do something normal and calming for a while now because oh fuck me too many moths even like skipping scenes and cringing away from the screen. im unwell. many disorganized thoughts go here

so i Was right about dome frankly. i mean the hints were there (jib dialogue last episode + the long time no rent thing from e1) but for me it was that hes too stupid to be a full person (sorry baby i love u). like saying ‘is this normal’ about resurrection and lit. just going with whatever happens to him and running headlong into stupid situations. he literally Only just woke up. he has no brain head empty hes just doing the One thing hes been told hes good at and useful for. oh no baby :( they really keep putting him through it every episode LMAO.

got a Lot more worried khatha this episode plus a bunch more face touching. and sitting by his bedside. tor is So good with those shiny eyes of pain like … i dont know how he does that but its incredible. his face. his little tsundere look away / posture adjustment when dome woke up like you didnt literally die for this man recently. they are getting gayer each episode. again ive established i dont care about “bl status” it doesnt matter to me if they kiss but boy its just so…. they HAVE to know what theyre doing with this

i really like this show i Would Not have put myself through this for less agh. i still almost quit multiple times

that opening flashback scene with triphob’s grandfather was really good. by the way. i love immortals i love immortality. i love the moon (showing up just barely in blurry flashbacks)

bright did fucking Great this episode. im not too familiar with him, mostly from f4 thailand bits but he was so fucking creepy!!!!! tragic little murdery sadboy. what a mess. the whole house invasion scene was Sooooooooo. augh. freaky. everything he did was fucked up

i have some…. thoughts…. about the girl in this episode, rin, and her agency / lack thereof honestly. combined with the bride’s “men writing her story” thing….. its. hmmm. but i’m not sure i’m equipped to express that properly without rewatching and frankly i dont know if im capable of rewatching this episode

if i turn my lizard brain off also the vampire moths are a great horror concept and they were very aesthetically cool to someone who does not have. a lifelong fear of those fucking things

also yeah ‘cycle of death and rebirth’ confirms the reincarnation thing but i’m thinking that not only did khatha enounter past life dome / “that person” / “chan” but also like. present life pre-memories dome? and that’s why he was surprised when dome didnt remember him. it wouldnt make sense for him to be surprised a reincarnation didnt remember him. they definitely met pre-wipe

v fun to learn that june is immortal too??? but like. frankly im still so confused about her lmao. she was an immortal museum worker before this?? but she became the bride?? but they all forgot her past but she remembers being immortal and the artifacts? but she has bride magic now??? dont get me wrong i like her a lot shes great for wisdom and being the only one nice to dome but hoo boy

ok. theres all the bits in no particular order

so. yeah!!!! yeah i was so proud of myself for being mostly chill with the first two episodes of murder and body horror but uh i was NOT good with this. gods fuck why moths

#long post #mm #mm spoilers #fuck it ill put it in the tag. i want someone to talk to about this #midnight museum

[cttrajan1206]

When you get this, answer one of the questions (or all if you really want!) then pass it on to 5 writer friends! 🥰 If you have more than one WIP, pick at random! We want you to talk about your works, and celebrate with you! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

ok lmao so i had to go and ask you for the questions but i'll answer them now <3

What are you most excited to write with this WIP?

How has this WIP changed since the “daydream/brainstorm” stage?

Who is your favourite character in this WIP and why?

Ok so unfortunately for everyone involved i am not a novel writer-

WAIT I JUST REMEMBERED MY SHORT STORY!! DIGRESSION REDACTED. Literally. i actually had an explaantion typed out but you'll never see it now bc tumblr is a fuckwad <3

I'm gonna tag my writer friends to continue this because it's easier sdfogushdfg but thank you matt!!!

To follow the challenge (with fanfic or original):

@tsukiomoon @lovinglystrawberrycrepe @bea-writes-sometimes @genderlessfish @asadnerdtm @jawbone-xylophone @a-little-chai @blacksoul333 @hiddenarina @monoshii-wasu

(I kinda went crazy tagging a bunch of peolpe here because i'm genuienly curious for what you've all been up to and what you're writing!)

ok ahem ahem

Sheltered

What are you most excited to write with this WIP?

The ending. As a writer who loves to build up to specific moments and gestures, this story requires SO MUCH planning and care to achieve the effect I want which will hopefully be a mindblowing one. And also a very sad realisation I hope. I want the reader to be SHOCKED. i need them GASPING. i need them HORRIFIED. but i can't do that until i write everything else first </3 but god yeah i really really really want to skip to teh ending

How has this WIP changed since the “daydream/brainstorm” stage?

Initially in the daydream stage, I modelled this as a short film script! But I don't write scripts often so I scrapped it and made it a short story instead. Additionally, as I wrote it I realised extra motifs and secrets to add! For instance, Kanto tells you something and will always draw back to that point but as I wrote this in, I realised it would add to the plot twist to have Nafiz never acknowledge this explicitly until the very end! Little things liek that which will require extra planning but contribute so greatly to the payoff.

OH YEAH AND LIKE. ITS CHANGED A LOT FROM ITS FIRST DRAFT. MOSTLY BC THE FIRST DRAFT WAS 9 PAGES OF HANDWRITTEN STORY WHICH I THEN. LOST IN BANGLADESH </3 But honestly i really love the rewrite more so tbh alhamdulillah that happened. Taught me to save my work properly too sdfogushdfg

Who is your favourite character in this WIP and why?

So few people even know about the wip but even fewer know that the two main characters, Kanto and Nafiz, are just my Twisted-Wonderland self-inserts re-contextualised to be humans of different ages to their ogs. This is a little on purpose though since the story is very close to my heart ;D

But in that regard, my favourite character is actually Kanto!! She's a really young girl in Sheltered but her dialogue, mannerisms and actions are so fun to write and most importantly of all, she is integral to the plot twist. I love how much depth I need to pour into her and she's the expositional character!

Who doesn't love their beloved tutorial?

#cttrajan #sheltered #drabbles #kinda #writing game #matt #many many friends being tagged but if they reblog and do it ill tag them then

[dynamite-derek]

Super Mario RPG: An effective trojan horse

In 1992, a game called Final Fantasy Mystic Quest released. Despite being a Japanese game developed by Japanese developers, it had an English language target audience. Role Playing Games, specifically of the turn based variety, were all the rage in Japan. Dragon Quest in particular was so popular that kids would skip school to pick it up. You see, back in the stone age, there were no digital games. If you couldn't secure a physical copy, you were out of luck. So what does a young man who wants to fight slimes do? Skip school. According to an interview with Game Informer, police asked Enix to release their games on the weekend to avoid this. So they did.

But this sort of hysteria for role playing games was not seen in America. Yeah, there were definitely people who would camp out and try to snag a copy of Super Mario Brothers 2 or something, but there wasn't a bunch of nerdy kids trying to bum rush the store to see what the hell Cecil and Kain were up to. So Squaresoft wanted to fix this and their solution was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. It was supposed to be a trojan horse into the genre. Instead of being overly complex and dense, it was simple and easy to approach. You get a small taste...but you still crave more. Yes, JRPGs are crack cocaine.

While RPGs would eventually find a foothold in the states, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest wasn't exactly successful in its mission. Whenever you hear people reminisce fondly about Super Nintendo RPGs, you very rarely hear someone wax poetically about Mystic Quest. In fact, I would argue it is one of the more 'obscure' Final Fantasy games despite its mission to act as an entryway for children. Square's intended trojan horse was a dud, but there's one other game a suspicious number of people think fondly of. It also goes for the same 'simplistic approach to a complicated genre' thing Mystic Quest went for.

That game is Super Mario RPG. I speak of it in a similar 'trojan horse to the genre' way as Mystic Quest because that was quite literally the case for me. I had never heard the letters "RPG" together before. I was an eight year old and all I knew about the game was that it starred Mario and the screenshots in gamepro looked cool as hell. I remember playing this game for the first time vividly. My eyes had just gotten dilated because they were testing my vision and my dad decided to rent me a game to make my suffering less apparent. I saw Super Mario RPG and the choice was obvious. Everything about the world charmed me.

I loved the music and the quirky dialogue. I felt there were a lot of mysteries in the world to see that were just beyond my reach. For instance, I spent hours trying to figure out what Toadstool's "???" was. I tried to figure out where Toad's bazooka was because if he mentioned it, that must mean he has one somewhere and maybe he could join my party! Hell, some kid at school told me about a weird glitch in the beginning of the game where if you pressed a bunch of buttons in some sort of order you would trigger three hidden characters who would join your party. I spent hours trying to figure out how to get Yoshi to leave Yoshi's Island and come with me. Things like hidden treasure boxes and the lazy shell actually existing in game helped propel these wild theories.

Basically, if you experienced the Pokemon phenomenon of the 90s, you know where I'm coming from. It was impossible to be on a school ground and not hear about moving the truck for Mew or learning about Bill's Secret Garden or Pikablu. Mario RPG was that for me on a much smaller scale. I had never seen a game with such a fleshed out story before. In short, I was hooked.

This discovery led me to many other video games I might not have tried otherwise. It led me to renting Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV (2), Final Fantasy VI (3) and basically anything that I thought had turn based combat. Basically this simplistic game featuring Mario fighting a scary blacksmith kicked off my lifelong fascination with a genre. My excursion to a rental store as an eight year old probably led Squaresoft (now Square Enix) to profit thousands of dollars from me alone. And given the reverence surrounding this game, there's just no way I'm alone.

If you go back and play Super Mario RPG as an adult, it's still a really good time. As someone with a great deal of nostalgia for it, it's hard for me to look at it objectively. But when I compare SMRPG to its contemporaries, I really don't think it measures up. The gameplay is simplistic and laughably easy - the game's super boss Culex would probably be seen as a mid tier boss in Final Fantasy IV - there isn't a whole lot of depth to how you build your characters, the item inventory is extremely simple and easy to manage and the game's stages are very easy to navigate. SNES RPGs could feel labyrinthian at times and that's before I get to stuff like Shin Megami Tensei, which released in 1992.

This isn't to say that SMRPG is a bad game. It absolutely isn't. While it is simplistic, I think there are four things that carry it a long way. The things that make it a game that hooked countless children and made them RPG addicts.

First is the undeniable charm of everything. Super Mario RPG is bursting with personality. The story does not have a lot of depth, but the character dialogue is all interesting and quirky. If you compare it to the NPC dialogue of something like Final Fantasy IV, I think it's a lot more interesting. Children's media tends to be brightly colored and loud and I would suggest SMRPG fits in with that. Even the volcano world is full of personality and color. Who could forget the Axim Rangers? I remember thinking it was hilarious that you had to sleep on the boxes at the volcano Inn.

Second is the music. As is typical with most Squaresoft RPGs of the 90s, the soundtrack is excellent. If you pull up a random youtuber's videos, odds are you will hear a Super Mario RPG track at some point. The music is distinct and memorable. Honestly, as far as SNES RPGs are concerned, I think it hangs with Chrono Trigger and Earthbound in the sound department. This is insanely high praise and if this is your first experience with a game like this, you will remember these tunes.

Third is the fact that it is a Mario game. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest's main character is Benjamin. Not exactly a memorable name like Cloud or Cecil. His Japanese name was Zash though, I guess that's kinda cool! This game stars Mario. As a child, you could slap that plumber's face on anything and I would instantly buy it. Recruiting Princess Toadstool (before everyone knew her name was Peach) and Bowser into your party was just the coolest thing. This wasn't the first Mario spin-off, but it was probably the first one that didn't make you shove your head in a history book. People love those characters, so sticking them in a quirky and colorful world is going to make for a beloved game.

Lastly is the difficulty. It's no secret that RPGs used to be a lot more grindy than they are now. It's something you either love or you hate. SMRPG does not require a grind at all. You certainly *can* if you want to, but you don't have to be anywhere near the max level to finish off the game and even then, I think on my most recent run everybody was fairly close to it anyway and I assure you I did not go out of my way to fight goombas. This is a game that was designed to be beaten. No matter how much a kid runs into a wall, they will probably find a way to come out on top. So you leave this beautiful colorful and quirky game feeling good about yourself because you beat it. There is maybe one non-Culex boss that could be defined as 'that boss' and it's a monster wedding cake. ...Ya see what I mean about a world full of personality?

The things surrounding the actual game take what could have just been a ho-hum average experience and elevates it to the next level. You will see RPG snobs turn their nose up at this game because of its simplicity, but I think SMRPG accomplished exactly what it was trying to do. It created a horde of people invested in RPGs. Even if they didn't stick with other games in the genre like I did, they probably tried at least one or two others.

Whether intentionally done or not, Super Mario RPG achieved what Final Fantasy Mystic Quest set out to do. While I don't think there's any chance the remake will be able to capture that same magic, I would bet that a lot of 30+ year old men and women will be sitting in front of their televisions this weekend feeling that they've gone back in time. Cursing Sakurai for not placing Geno in Smash. Feeling like they need to figure out how to get Luigi to join your party because that one star in star road was clearly written by him and god dammit he is probably stronger than mallow at least right?

It's not the best game. But it is a beautiful one.

#Super Mario RPG #video games #nintendo #nintendo switch #retro games #gaming #jrpgs. #rpgs #Geno