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girlactionfigure · 4 months

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I had to backup quite a ways, because understanding the Arab Israeli conflict without the wider context of the Cold War makes no sense.

Yeah, so, after World War 2, the former big swinging dick countries of the world were too stressed out to manage any of their colonies. So they threw up their hands and walked away. Power hating a vacuum, the US was prevailed upon to take over, though having an empire seemed like a lot of bother to us. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was sucking countries close to them into their stupid-ass idea that if we all pool our resources and sing Kum-By-Ya, everyone will get rich. This idea was invented by a Joo, Karl Marx, number one crime of the Joos of all time.

I could go on for a bit about how stupid this idea was, but let's just throw out the tidbit that they didn't have any weekends for 11 years.

One of the things the British "owned" was this area formerly "owned" by the Ottoman empire, that had about 17 different names. Because the British Foreign office was a hot-bed of the flavor of anti-semitism that believes Joos were secretly running the world, they felt if they proposed this area as a "homeland" for the Joos, the secret masters, the Joos would favor them. (See The Peace to End All Peace, a boring ass book, but explains a lot of why the Middle East is all screwed up.)

So after WW2, there were a bunch of Joos and some Arabs living in this area.

In the meantime, the Arab nations in the Area, annoyed at the presence of these Joos on their doorstep, looked at their own Joos and said "See Ya, oh and leave all your shit behind, so we can give it to some of the Arabs after we take our cut". Some more Joos came from Europe, but not as much as you might think. They said See Ya to some of their own Arabs too, but the Arabs got to keep their stuff, and got some of the Joos stuff (I'm a little fuzzy on where the Palestinians came from exactly, but it seems like everyone is.) It was sort of the reverse of Exodus where the Joos are leaving Egypt and the Egyptians give them a bunch of stuff to get them to leave faster, except this time it was the Joos giving stuff to the Arabs.

The Joos and the Arabs didn't like the British being in charge, so they started doing shitty things to each other, and the British. The British had at that point decided that "owning" this particular patch of dirt wasn't worth it, it was a bunch of desert with no resources, except this one spot that had a magic rock that someone touched, but you had to leave the magic rock there.

So they went to the UN, the newly formed revision of the League of Nations, and said "Hey, get us out of here". So the UN came up with a plan that gave most of the Arabs in the area most of the land. The Arabs in the area didn't like the deal, because they figured they could kill all the Joos when no one was looking. Except at this point, the local Joos were pretty stubborn and pissed off at being robbed by Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabic, etc., and they had an influx of Joos from Europe, so you can imagine that "pissed off Joos, willing to die where they stood" versus a bunch of spoiled Arabs who had been told "Just go over there, and we'll give you free stuff", didn't go so well for the Arabs.

So the British leave, the Joos take over after killing a few Arabs, and they declare independence. The US got on the Israel side early, because we're suckers for folks that say "Hey, we want to be a democracy like you, you're our hero.". Israel gets invaded by all the Arab nations around her, and fights them back, because they're all pretty grumpy, and they feel cornered.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union, they want to get people on their side. They don't really care about truth, because if they cared about truth, they'd have to admit this idea of Karl Marx, the Joo, wasn't working out so well. Turns out when everyone pools their resources, well, who decides how to divide it up? Also, they didn't believe in God, so they were obviously not very observant.

So the Soviets want the Arab nations on their side, so they went up to the Arab nations and said "Hey, the US is on Israel's side, we want you to be on our side, we'll sell you weapons and stuff, those US folks are colonialist, they just want more colonies." This sounded good to the Arabs, not realizing that as hard core atheists, the Soviets had no shame about lying. So the Soviet Union traded some obsolete weapons to the Arabs, told them they were the best weapons ever, and got the Arabs to give them cash.

Ironically, in the meantime, Israel starts transforming large swatches of the desert into usable land, by organizing farms around a system very similar to that Joo Karl Marx's idea, but it was local, tied to a single extended family, and didn't extend to the whole country, just one farm. The Joos from Europe who went to the US instead of Israel send them money, which helps, though that's strictly voluntary and unofficial. But American's like people who work hard so they even get some money from non-Joos in America.

The Arabs get some money too, from the other Arabs, but mostly their leaders steal it.

Time passed, eventually the Arabs got bored or something and decided to invade Israel again. Or maybe, the Soviet Union encouraged them? I dunno, never made much sense to me. I was a baby, don't remember.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had recruited a prominent Egyptian, Yasser Arafat, living among the Arabs in Israel. Having a real sense of history would be too confusing to get the Israeli Arabs to rally behind, so the KGB, past masters of making shit up, came up with this whole imaginary history for the Palestinians so that Arafat, despited being from Egypt, could claim history in Israel, and so the Palestinians could whine about how mistreated they were.

The Arabs learned the hard way "buy American" when their fighter planes wouldn't work because the planes the Russians had sold them actually needed a part they stole from America, because they couldn't make it themselves. So after 6-days, the second war was over.

The imaginary history the KGB had written stuck around, even though Arafat eventually died as we all must someday. It's taught to Palestinians so they can feel properly victimized and oppressed. Though its easily disproved if you browse around Wikipedia for a bit, with a skeptical mind.

Did that help?

#Israel #KGB #palestine #History

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emotionallychargedtowel · 1 year

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The Eighth Sense episodes 9 and 10: All we can do is try

Wow! I think for the most part the showrunners of T8S did really well with the final two episodes. I have a few quibbles, but they managed to tie up most of the loose ends convincingly and do something worthwhile with the therapy part of the story, so I’m calling it a win.

These episodes don’t include a lot of further development of the psychological themes of the show, and for good reason. They’re too busy resolving everything that has already been brought up. But they do portray some shifts and make some statements about the characters and the larger themes they’re engaged with. Some fall a bit flat, most are good, and a few are really outstanding.

Below are the subject headings I’ll be getting into under the cut:

The final therapy scene

Being selfish

A shift for Jae Won

When it’s OK to expect “too much”

All we can do is try

Miscellaneous lingering thoughts

Tagging you again, @waitmyturtles!

The final therapy scene

Jae Won’s therapist has always had a style that is informal and blunt, plays around with boundaries, and uses humor. I would have expected her to be willing and able to use confrontation in therapy as well, because that strategy really goes along with that overall style. Well, in this episode she confronted Jae Won quite directly. She definitely didn’t pull any punches but I think she stayed within the range of reasonable therapy strategies. One thing I can say for this show’s portrayal of therapy: they have created a three-dimensional therapist character who has a specific, consistent style that is cohesive and realistic. So, a little background about therapists directly sharing their unvarnished perspective with clients. In most types of therapy work and in most styles of doing therapy, the therapist develops a conceptualization of a client early on in their time together, then revises or adds to it as they learn more. Often, certain things seem very clear to the therapist that are hard for the person themselves to see. (Of course, if you’re doing your job well, you kind of keep a mental asterisk next to any and all of these conclusions and don’t consider them confirmed until the client agrees.) The conceptualization includes not only diagnoses (which may be provisional) but also thoughts about how the client’s difficulties probably came about (a.k.a. their etiology) and thoughts about what sort of changes are needed in order for them to feel better and function in a more adaptive way.

Most of the time it’s not a good idea to just blurt those things out to the client. They usually need to come to certain conclusions on their own. There are ways of helping them toward those conclusions or feeding them small bits of them in a way that helps them to cobble together their own version of that insight on their own. But to a great extent, they have to figure it out themselves.

Still, there are some times when it makes sense to directly hand a piece of your conceptualization over to the client, even if it’s challenging for them to hear. This is what Jae Won’s therapist does. At a point where some therapists would be keeping their ideas to themselves, she comes right out and tells Jae Won he’s being selfish. In real life, this degree of confrontation would only work if the therapist was leveraging both a strong rapport and a strong base of knowledge about the client (preferably, these would have been built up over the course of years). This would be hard to show specifically in a tv series, but I’m assuming that Jae Won’s therapist has those resources in hand and is using them in this way.

And she doesn’t pull any punches! If anything, she might be intentionally putting things in a way that’s critical toward Jae Won. Why would she do that? Well, I think what she’s after isn’t just a chance to be direct with Jae Won about her viewpoint on his situation. I think she’s also hoping to give him a kind of jolt that will wake him up, so to speak. It’s related to something I wrote about in my last T8S post. There’s a theory that in order to go from a depressive, dissociated type of PTSD expression (associated with an acute “freeze” response to trauma) to a more healthy engagement with life, you have to pass through a more activating kind of PTSD symptoms (associated with a fight and/or flight acute response). This is a great example of that. Jae Won’s PTSD is very much of the freeze-y, depressive type. Getting irritated with his therapist helps him to start connecting with his emotions again, and that sort of snowballs into him getting increasingly un-frozen.

As usual, it’s hard to situate the therapy session shown at the beginning of episode 9 at a precise point in relation to other events in the story. But wherever its exact chronological position is, it definitely seems to inform the choices Jae Won makes from that point on. It’s funny how human beings can defend ourselves against the things others say to us and seem so sure of ourselves but then, perhaps after more thought, can still take in what they said. Jae Won protested that this was how things had to be, at least for now, when his therapist pushed him. But he wound up taking what she had to say to heart.

One of the things I appreciated most about this therapy scene was the fact that it seems to have actually made an impact on Jae Won and on the story more broadly. I’ve been worried pretty much from the start of this series that even if therapy was portrayed in a complex, realistic, but positive way, it still wasn’t likely to be shown as an agent for change. But this portion of this session seems like it at least made a significant impact. I found it really encouraging to see that.

The next part of episode 9 is the conversation Ji Hyun has with Joon Pyo and then, once she arrives, with Ae Ri. I found this scene a little bit clunky. Suddenly it’s as if Ae Ri is Ji Hyun’s therapist and not a fellow college freshman. It didn’t really seem realistic as a discussion between people their age. But it served its purpose. Ji Hyun needed a nudge to consider how Jae Won’s trauma history played into his reaction to the accident and his treatment of Ji Hyun, and this conversation got him there.

Ae Ri also exhorts Ji Hyun to be patient and careful and not try to rush things with Jae Won. Events in the story seem to show that her advice was correct. But I have some quibbles with it, which I’ll explain further below.

Being selfish

In both Jae Won’s conversation with his therapist and Ji Jyun’s conversation with Ae Ri and Joon Pyo, there’s a theme of selfishness. I want to dig a little deeper on that. Jae Won’s therapist tells him he’s being selfish. A lot of what she mentions is more along the lines of being self-absorbed. He simply isn’t considering how Ji Hyun might feel. Trauma often causes people to be more self-absorbed, so this stands to reason. But there is also an element of actual selfishness at work. Jae Won frames his avoidance of Ji Hyun as protecting his friend, and he does sincerely think he’s doing that. But he’s also trying to protect himself--in fact, I’d say that is a bigger factor for him. Avoiding Ji Hyun allows him to avoid his memories of the accident (and the reminders of his brother’s death that come with them). He thinks it will allow him to avoid suffering another loss and feeling the pain that comes with that (though in fact, for the period where he pushes him away, he’s actually causing himself to lose Ji Hyun). He doesn’t want to feel all of the difficult emotions that come with everything that has happened, and he makes that a priority over being there for someone who loves him and who has also just experienced something traumatic.

(By the way, does this dynamic--saying you’re putting another person first but not really considering their perspective, staying in your safe zone within your own head and abdicating your responsibility to someone who loves you--sound like another BL character you know? Yep, it’s a different version of the Hira Kazunari maneuver. It has a very different spin on it but there’s also a good deal of overlap. Thanks to @jemmo for pointing out this and other parallels between T8S and Utsukare, though it’s possible I’m taking this in a different direction than they would.)

At the same time, Jae Won is a survivor of trauma. And I’d bet dollars to donuts he also experienced complex trauma in the form of physical abuse by his dad. He just got out of the military and is still adjusting to that transition. Meeting Ji Hyun and facing the feelings he has for him is a mostly positive thing, but at the same time, it shakes up his whole world and his way of relating to others. He’s going through a lot and has a limited amount of insight into his own situation. Personally, I’d hesitate to simply label him as selfish. But his therapist’s interpretation is valid, and may have been intentionally expressed in a simple and confrontational way in order to get through to Jae Won.

What about Ji Hyun? Ae Ri doesn’t say he’s selfish, but he says during they’re conversation that he thinks he’s been selfish and she says, “What’s done is done,” seeming to tacitly agree with him. It’s true that he has been focused on what’s happening between him and Jae Won and hadn’t considered how Jae Won’s prior trauma history might be playing a role in his behavior until that point. But he’s just a kid, he just went through a traumatic experience himself, and it’s totally legitimate for him to be preoccupied with the Jae Won situation under the circumstances.

So, are they both being selfish? Kinda. Is it that simple? No. Did they come by their self-absorption honestly? You bet they did. But they both benefit from getting a wake-up call, so it seems there’s no harm done even though that label is rather reductive.

While I’m talking about Ae Ri’s sudden turn toward sounding like a therapist, there’s another big thread in her discussion, and that is the need to approach Jae Won very carefully and gently. Honestly, I don’t really get this. It’s not a bad idea. It’s often a good idea when dealing with anyone who’s experiencing a lot of distress. But it’s also not some kind of well-known principle of relating to or repairing with a trauma survivor. I would say that it depends on the survivor and the situation. Ji Hyun has already struck out while being more overt in his pursuit of Jae Won at this point, so changing his tack makes sense. But Jae Won’s therapist got some mileage out of confronting him. I guess I just find this kind of random. Well, it figures that a freshman fine arts major might not have the most flawless psychological insights. But this, along with Ae Ri’s abrupt shift in tone, ends up feeling like another way in which this scene seems kind of half-baked.

A shift for Jae Won

Throughout episode 9, Jae Won seems to be “thawing out.” His affect starts to be less blunted from the start of the episode. I think he comes back to himself a bit more after Eun Ji tricks him into kissing her in front of Ji Hyun. I had said before these episodes dropped that his protective feelings toward Ji Hyun could get him out of freeze mode, and although I was picturing something more clear and dramatic, I think some degree of that may have played a role once he saw what seeing them did to Ji Hyun.

For a second, when Yoon Won meets with Ji Hyun and Jae Won to talk about writing a report for the university on how the accident happened, I thought they were actually going to sit down and hash out what happened and try to sort through the roles they played. Honestly, I think it could have been great. It could have functioned as a form of exposure, which counteracts the temptation to avoid that fuels PTSD. It could have been an opportunity to expose the cognitive distortions that Jae Won was harboring in his attempt to blame himself for the accident. They had a neutral, but kind, third party present that could have kept them from being so reactive toward each other that they couldn’t accomplish their task. But they the story went another route. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it was a missed opportunity. There was still an important moment here, though--Ji Hyun reaching for Jae Won’s hand and persevering even after Jae Won initially shrugs him off. The way it was filmed was so evocative.

I loved that Ji Hyun bought Jae Won a new camera. I don’t particularly think he knew the connection between Jae Won’s old camera and his younger brother, though it’s possible. It seems like he was more motivated by wanting to, as he put it in his card, “support [Jae Won’s] dream.” Then he ended up re-enacting Jae Won’s brother’s gift in a way. I wouldn’t have assumed that would be helpful in real life, but it could be, and in this instance it seems that it was. There was definitely a nice full-circle aspect to it, narratively speaking.

All of this, together, made for a pretty convincing progression leading to Jae Won opening back up to and finally responding to Ji Hyun. Pretty convincing, within the realm of fiction. And I desperately wanted a happy ending for this show, so I’m definitely not complaining there. But relative to the can of worms the showrunners had opened up in the last two episodes, I felt like the change in Jae Won that was needed for a happy ending wasn’t quite earned. Maybe I have a little too much background knowledge of trauma for my own good? I’ve seen, and experienced, how much time and work it takes to come back from the state Jae Won was in during episodes 8 and 9, but if I knew a little less maybe I wouldn’t perceive a disconnect here. I guess if I could change something I would either have made things a bit less extreme when Jae Won hit bottom or I would have included a more dramatic plot twist to get to the resolution, one that could have balanced out the intensity by giving him some sort of huge motivation to get out of his rut. Which probably would have involved torturing both him and Ji Hyun even more, which of course I didn’t want. But I guess I’d still prefer something that seemed more realistic to me.

In the end I’m reminded of Utsukushii Kare again (”what doesn’t remind you of Utsukushii Kare, Towel?” you may ask, and you’d have a point). At the end of season 1, UK led the audience down a path toward a well-composed ending. But when I rewatched it and looked at it more closely, it seemed a little convenient, and more than a little bit sudden, that Hira finally got his head out of his ass when he did. And then what happened when we got to season 2? He’d reverted to form in a lot of ways. It was frustrating to an extent, but I was glad. Because it made more sense for that character to have to put in more time and work to earn that degree of change. If we get more of The Eighth Sense--and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened, since the showrunners have already dropped hints--I think we might see them doubling back a bit into those pieces that don’t seem fully resolved here.

When it’s OK to expect “too much”

I wrote in my last T8S post about Ji Hyun’s comment about wanting to help Jae Won heal. Basically, I said that there was likely some degree of naïveté on display there, but at the same time, I think that those of us watching the show from the United States and other places where individualism is the rule have a bias against the idea of wanting, asking for, or expecting a certain level of care from the important people in our lives--a level of care that is actually quite reasonable. One of my favorite things about the last two episodes of T8S is that there are moments when the show makes a strong case for normalizing expecting a lot from--and being willing to offer a lot to--one’s partner.

This gets shown metaphorically in the “game” Ji Hyun introduces to Jae Won toward the end of episode 10. Here’s how I wrote it down in my notes:

JH: Hyung.

JW: Yes?

JH: Do you know that game?

JW: What game?

JH: Take two steps back. (JW's hesitant.) Come on.

(JW steps back, looking just a little bit forlorn.)

JH: If you take two steps away from me, I'll...take three steps towards you.

(He does, then steps back to his former position again.)

JH: Take two steps forward.

(JW does.)

JH: If you take two steps forward, I will be here waiting.

This was without a doubt my favorite moment in the last two episodes, possibly of the series as a whole. It’s a really meaningful statement of commitment. I’ve written about the pursuer-distancer dynamic in BLs in the past. I didn’t see a lot of it in this series. I think that’s because we just barely get to see Jae Won and Ji Hyun’s relationship get off the ground and there are so many other obstacles they have to overcome that they don’t get that many chances to run into challenges in that area. But i think that framework is useful for talking about the “game.” In a very real sense, Ji Hyun is saying, “if you distance yourself from me, I’ll pursue you. If you pursue me, I won’t distance myself.” The healthiest way to handle pursuer-distancer roles in a relationship isn’t to avoid ever pursuing or distancing. It’s to stay flexible enough that either partner can pursue or distance at different points when it’s needed without getting calcified into one habitual, exaggerated role. That’s part of what Ji Hyun describes here. He’s also describing a determination to stay steadfastly emotionally available even in the face of the kind of circumstances that drive both pursuing and distancing. It’s beautiful.

All we can do is try

There’s one thing The Eighth Sense has over Utsukushii Kare (season 2, specifically), and that is that Jae Won and Ji Hyun openly acknowledge something that Hira and Kiyoi never state directly (and maybe haven’t even figured out yet at the end of season 2). In the last scene, Ji Hyun asks Jae Won if he thinks they’ll be OK, and he replies, “All we can do is try.” He’s echoing both Ji Hyun’s boss and Yoon Won here, as both have made this point in different ways. (It reminds me of the old-fashioned screenwriting convention of having any really important piece of information repeated three times.) There are no guarantees and there’s no ironclad way to make sure things will work out. In fact, things are bound to not work out in some respects. The trick is to be able to sit with that and keep going anyway. I have a few last unwritten Utsukare posts living in my brain and one of them is about the “contradictory” or “bittersweet” feeling both Hira and Kiyoi talk about in their voiceovers during season 2 and how I think what they’re describing is just the inherent contradictory nature of loving someone. Loving someone means being drawn to them, wanting to be with them, feeling willing to put yourself out there for them, but it also involves a risk that can be deeply scary (even scarier if you have as much baggage as Hira and Kiyoi). But this never gets stated--it’s like neither of them quite figures it out. But by the end of The Eighth Sense, Jae Won understands this. He may still need some more time to fully take it in, but at least he’s aware of it on an intellectual level. Love is risk and there’s no way to avoid that aspect of it, but it can be more than worth it. “Let's try it together,” Jae Won tells Ji Hyun, “even if we're afraid.”

Miscellaneous lingering thoughts

I’m not entirely happy with the way Dae Hyung and Eun Ji were redeemed. Jae Won’s discussion of Dae Hyung’s genuineness took me by surprise and made a degree of sense. I’m not entirely sold on it, but I’m more sold on it than I would have expected. But Eun Ji? It’s like by the end of episode 10, she’s had a complete personality transplant. And then she makes that nonsensical comment about the five senses? I found it all a bit ham-fisted.

I loved the “don’t just treat me cute” scene. It was (sorry, Ji Hyun) cute as hell, and it introduced some additional complexity to the characters and their relationship. But I think it was also a deliberate response to BL tropes, especially tropes that many have noted are particularly widespread in Korean BLs. Jae Won is pretty clearly a seme figure in the story. He does most of the pursuing. He also has some of the more stereotypical seme qualities. He’s older, he’s a bit taller, and he has a broader build than Ji Hyun. He’s the “hyung” in more ways than one. But whereas we might expect Ji Hyun, the younger, somewhat smaller uke, to become like a “blushing maiden” type in the bedroom, he shows a completely different side here. “Don't just treat me cute,” he says. “You don't know what's coming.” He smiles during that last part, and it’s at least partially lighthearted. But that line is also sincere. And it acts as a kind of commentary from the showrunners. “You don’t know what’s coming,” they tell us. “The seme/uke role split, age, and relative size of these characters doesn’t predict how they’ll relate to each other sexually.” Good for them! More BLs should include gestures like this one.

I love that Yoon Won and Joon Pyo hooked up. They’re both such straightforward sweeties that it makes sense that they didn’t waste any time wondering if the other was into them or worrying about the implications and instead just skipped ahead to hardcore making out. Also, heaven forbid an older woman take an interest in a younger man! That aspect seemed like another way of pushing against conventions.

I’ve made quite a few critical comments about the final two episodes here, but I want to make it clear: I thought these episodes, as well as the series overall, were really well done. I enjoyed the series a lot. It stumbled in places, mostly because it’s so ambitious. But the result is really admirable.

#The Eighth Sense #the eighth sense meta #the eighth sense discussion #the eighth sense analysis #psychology of bl #jae won x ji hyun

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dogtoling · 1 year

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Ok, with Kraken coming what's your explanation for it returning considering the whole debacle from your Kraken post?

incredibly good question. for context, at the end of my years-old Kraken post explaining what the Kraken is (a deimatic display, which was harnessed as a turf war special through the use of cool steroids for fun), I explained that it was discontinued because use of the drug that triggered the special made the body more responsive to the natural, emotional triggers for the Kraken over extended use. That would make natural Krakening easier to trigger over time for people who are already used to Krakening very often, even through unnatural means (the drug), and as the Kraken is a self-defensive reaction to extremely dangerous situations normally, that is Very Bad. So, once cases of this happening became more common and more known over time, the drug and Kraken with it was promptly banned from Turf Wars alongside the other current Specials during the Special Weapon Overhaul. And at the end of that post I specifically said it's VERY UNLIKELY that the Kraken will ever return to the battlefield.

Well, here we are! The Kraken has returned! HOORAYYYYY!

back to the topic at hand. WHY?

There's multiple options, honestly. First off, we're in the SPLATLANDS now. Splatsville is the city of chaos and they clearly don't give a shit about some "special weapon overhaul" over there! They're probably not bound by laws of the Inkopolis turf scene. So this is the theory that Splatsville Turfers Simply Don't Care and the Kraken is still objectively REALLY, REALLY COOL and they want to be Krakens! A lot of Splatsville's turfing culture and weapons seems to have been inspired by Inkopolis' early turfing culture, so it wouldn't be surprising that Kraken made it in eventually - whether they know about its cons or not.

So the theory has one pretty obvious flaw, that being that Splatoon 3 also has Turf Wars that take place in Inkopolis maps. Um, in that case yes, actually the Inkopolis Turf Laws actually DO apply. So, we could extend the meaning of the Order vs. Chaos Splatfest and say that since chaos won, the Special Weapon Overhaul might have been seriously revised or just... undone, and the rules loosened overall. It would make sense given that really powerful special weapons like the Triple Inkstrike and Trizooka are ALSO being used on Inkopolis grounds despite those weapons already being banned once before pretty much, but seems like kind of a huge oversight...

There is also the chance that the drug used to trigger this Kraken is a different, improved one - it's called the Kraken ROYALE now (i think) after all, not JUST "Kraken". I have no idea how they would've made an improved drug that just makes involuntary Krakening not happen over time, assuming the drug itself wasn't the problem... the Krakening itself was the problem. Or they were both part of the problem. But the point is, not sure how they'd manage to make a drug that accomplishes the exact same thing without triggering a third thing that directly correlates with repeated Krakening using an outside trigger. But like, there's the chance that they somehow did?

And, you know, when we're talking about capitalism and monetary gain there's always the chance that the people selling the drug in the first place are trying really hard to push the New Version really hoping that everybody forgot what happened last time. It's been a few years.

Of course, the final theory is not a theory, but the brewing fear that now that the Kraken is relevant again, Nintendo will give a canon reasoning as to what the Kraken ACTUALLY is and I'll have to rewrite all my OC lore.

#mailbox #kraken #squidthoughts #since people are probably wondering this

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r-rook-studio · 8 months

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Writing and Rewriting Bracknell Horror

So here's a terrible secret: in 2019, hot on the heels of the original Moonlight on Roseville Beach zine, I put some notes for a little adventure called "The Bracknell Horror." I had no illusions that it was a great investigation scenario. Still, it showed off a few things about Roseville Beach, including places and people in the town as well as the queer people who lived/visited there. It went to a location inside the setting without requiring deep lore, added some jokey Easter Egg references to Lovecraft's The Whisperer in Darkness, and included some comically easy to use alien tech.

The problem was, I didn't really like it.

People at con sessions had fun, but there was nothing particularly special or interesting about the scenario itself, and any scenario would have been great in its place. Also, while I like to say Roseville Beach is a game of "horror comedy," there wasn't much actual horror here other than some Lovecraft references. That's also true of my other Roseville Beach scenario "The Haunting of Flora Bly," though the book has four more scenarios that are richer in horror potential.

But this summer, just before running it at A Weekend with Good Friends, I rewrote it. I talked about some of those rewrites on my blog just after the first run-through, but more have come up as I've continued to playtest this.

First, while the initial scenario centered around a wealthy occultist-adventurer named Simon Mathers, the revision has greatly warped him from that initial vision. In the early drafts, he was an occultist willing to give Dreamlands entities the bodies of Roseville Beach residents in return for access to the Dreamlands. In the new one, he's returning to our reality after 20+ years in the Dreamlands, hoping to find a body for himself (the temporary one he constructed is collapsing) and his two Dreamlands familiars.

In the original, the cult-like group of followers worked for Mathers and planned to keep doing so. In the new, none of them like each other, and each of them have their own reasons for working with him (and one might even try to kill him).

Third, I let some of my OSR influences show. Beyond making each of the named NPCs a faction of one, I've also added some NPC rivals (all of whom might end up becoming collaborators) who also all have their own motivations and agendas for finding out what Mathers' cult is up to.

Finally, while the original notes told GMs to pull from the PCs troubles and connections to determine who Mathers' cultists have captured, the new one includes a chance to target the PCs themselves, giving at least some of them a chance to sneak in and explore the Bracknell while the cult is setting up the ritual, adds some specific NPCs the cult targets, asking instead how the PCs and their contacts/troubles connect them with those people, giving their troubles and connections a motivation to insist on coming along whether they'll be helpful or not.

Dai Shugars, Roseville Beach's art director and visual designer, has put together some incredible maps that allowed me to spend less wordcount describing the space and more giving info on NPCs, creating news stories and book snippets that can serve as physical clues, and creating a better sense of how the Doom Clock progresses.

The text will come to Itch for slowfunding next Tuesday, and the final zine will include the adventure, pregens, new strange events that tie to this mystery, and the basic rules of play, so you can try it out even if you don't already own Moonlight on Roseville Beach. Think of it like a horror-comedy investigation version of a Fighting Fantasy Game Book, but maybe gayer.

This is my chance to draft and preview some of what's coming. You can pick up Moonlight on Roseville Beach (Itch | DriveThru | Spear Witch | IPR) and the current two-issue zine bundle (Itch | DriveThru), or just follow-along with the zine project that will get bundled up in Dim All the Lights. Or you can back our upcoming reprint and hardbacks Kickstarter!

#moonlight on roseville beach #roseville beach zine series #tabletop gaymes #ttrpgs #tabletop rpgs #tabletop game design

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iplaywithstring · 1 year

Text

In 2020 my daughter (then 13) told me she had been looking at some stuff and she thought she might have ADHD. I had not considered this possibility before she brought it up, but with about 5 minutes of reflection, it made sense. We were already running on the assumption that my husband (her dad) has ADHD and our home had a lot of adhd-friendly ways of doing life and honestly some signs (time blindness, fidgeting, hobby-hopping, distraction) were overlooked.

Being that it was 2020, everything was slowed down and backed up, but being people with privilege, we were able to pay for a private psychologist to do a full assessment. It took about 3 months and ended up with a generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis and an evaluation that boiled down to "she probably has ADHD but she does really well in school so deal with the anxiety first and see if that fixes things". Took that to our GP, who basically said "I don't know what to do with this" and prescribed Prozac, which increased her anxiety so we stopped it and asked for a referral to a psychiatrist.

It took almost 18 months to get the appointment - meanwhile she had no supports, no treatment, and no follow up from her GP. At that appointment, the Dr revised her diagnosis - she absolutely has ADHD, but she's good at school, so no need to treat it. However, because she didn't respond well to the prozac and she "gets really sad sometimes" (that was actually the question he asked, no probing, or clarifying, just "do you feel really sad sometimes", to a 15 year old!), prescribed a mood stabilizer because she might have a mood disorder (bi-polar disorder). My husband (who was there for the appointment - I wasn't able to go) was so shocked and confused he just said thank you and left.

We did not fill the prescription for the mood stabilizer. No issues with taking medication when needed, but she showed no signs of excessive mood swings - she had also just had her first break up a couple weeks before the appointment. While waiting for the follow up (where I planned to advocate for treatment for the actual thing he said she had, not the theoretical maybe thing she might struggle with) I saw ads for a private clinic specifically for ADHD diagnosis and treatment. I was nervous - I've got medical trauma (it comes with chronic illness) and did not want to be seen as shopping around for pills for my kid, or ignoring medical advice, or any of the other things that would make getting her treatment more difficult.

So my husband went first - made an appointment, filled out the forms, got a diagnosis and treatment plan. It was so easy and affirming and validating for him, and since starting the treatment he's been so relaxed! He might also be able to stop his anxiety meds (he also has a GAD diagnosis, which might be wrong based on how inattentive type ADHD works).

My daughter had her first appointment this week, it felt so good. She was heard and understood. Her experience and struggles weren't overlooked. She was validated. The NP doing the appointment even mentioned how it's harder for intelligent kids to get diagnosed because they are able to mask so well and too many people just look at school performance. She has a follow up next week to go over a treatment plan. The NP even said she would look at medications not in pill form as my daughter has issues swallowing pills.

I can't express how excited I am. She's 16 now, in grade 11, and things have been so much harder on her in the last year. I'm hopeful that between the treatment plan and coaching, the transition to university will be gentle and she won't face the same breakdown so many people (especially women) with ADHD go through in early adulthood. I'm hopeful this will help her to see her strengths and to not feel so overwhelmed and broken most of the time.

It took far too long and was much more difficult (and expensive!!!!) than it should have been to get to this point, but I am so glad we have a plan now and that she feels good about it!

#this is my life #adhd #parenting

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mariana-oconnor · 1 year

Text

The Cardboard Box pt 1

An uninspiring title, but apparently it's controversial? All my brain is thinking (I am still le tired) is 'Big fish, little fish, cardboard box' over and over again.

If you don't get that reference, that's probably for the best. the early noughties were weird.

Anyway. I hereby do swear that this time I shall read the text more carefully and all my claims, accusations and harebrained ideas will be based in textual evidence and not mere vibes alone. One cannot thrive on vibes alone!

I'm going to try anyway. I may still dislike characters on principle, though.

He did however take a particular fancy to some of the paragraphs at the beginning of the tale and urged me adapt them for later revisions of my story ‘The Resident Patient’, which I sent to you in January.

OK, so is this going to be an AU version of The Resident Patient? Because I feel like that gives me a head start on the guessing.

I did a side by side of the two and overall it seems pretty much the same, except we're now in August and it's blazing hot. I shudder to think how Watson would have described August in the UK last year. Then we have the discussion about Holmes reading Watson's mind body language. Until we get to the first significant difference:

"Have you observed in the paper a short paragraph referring to the remarkable contents of a packet sent through the post to Miss Cushing, of Cross Street, Croydon?” "No, I saw nothing."

Aha, the titular cardboard box, one wonders?

Watson is really falling behind in his paper reading duties. Holmes is doing all the legwork here. Honestly. You just can't get a good chronicler these days! But he's still making Watson read it aloud.

Holmes does like hearing things read aloud. He'd be all over audiobooks, but he's got Watson for that so it's all good.

I picked up the paper which he had thrown back to me and read the paragraph indicated. It was headed, “A Gruesome Packet.”

Ooooh, I think I might remember a bit of this one. I might remember what's in the box, anyway.

Sorry, that was my contractual obligation.

“Miss Susan Cushing, living at Cross Street, Croydon, has been made the victim of what must be regarded as a peculiarly revolting practical joke unless some more sinister meaning should prove to be attached to the incident."

If it's what I think it is then practical jokes were significantly more aggressive in the Victorian Era. I don't think even TikTok has graduated to this level. We're getting a pretty weird look at the 1800s English sense of humour: beating other children with sticks and... this.

"A cardboard box was inside, which was filled with coarse salt."

Everyone needs some seasoning on their... "two human ears [...] quite freshly severed".

Okay, poor taste, poor taste. I know it's there for preservation. Also weirdly I thought it was going to be fingers. Don't know why I thought that. But yes, this is quite the jape, my friend. I just cut off some human ears and sent them to you.

How is this a practical joke? These are genuine freshly cut ears. Even if they're from a cadaver, that's theft and criminal damage at the very least. Isn't it? And I thought they were particularly strict on stuff like that in the 1800s. We're a little late for the Resurrection Man and Burke and Hare, but they did not like people messing around with corpses.

Okay, research research: 'The Anatomy Act of 1832 made it legal for corpses from workhouses that remained unclaimed after forty-eight hours to be used to satisfy the demands of the anatomists.'

Welp, I guess it was okay to do anything to corpses if they were the corpses of poor people with no friends or family (or at least no friends/family who could afford to claim them).

I mean, on one hand it stopped people from being murdered and science needed bodies to learn how bodies work better (good lord did we need to learn how bodies work better) but on the other hand, this does make me uncomfortable. Workhouse in life, still put to work in death. Also, from a purely scientific viewpoint, your sample is biased. You need some rich people bodies in there, too.

"There is no indication as to the sender, and the matter is the more mysterious as Miss Cushing, who is a maiden lady of fifty, has led a most retired life, and has so few acquaintances or correspondents that it is a rare event for her to receive anything through the post."

So, either she's secretly running an underground crime ring. Or the ears were meant for someone else with the name S. Cushing.

"...she let apartments in her house to three young medical students..."

Oh, yeah, fine. All makes sense now. Medical students are fucking feral. I have met literally one in my life who I would have been comfortable to have as a doctor, and I think he was just really good at hiding it. Guy once got 'kidnapped' by an entire female hockey team and ended up in an entirely different city. Another one I know just kept a dead squirrel in the shared freezer so he could do dissection practice on it.

I'd put the Dead Dove, Do Not Eat gif, but he didn't even label the fucker.

"...their noisy and irregular habits..."

Medical students... yeah.

"In the meantime, the matter is being actively investigated, Mr. Lestrade, one of the very smartest of our detective officers, being in charge of the case.”

Oh hai, Lestrade!

At least the police are putting an actual detective on the case and not just saying 'oh it's a silly prank' and ignoring the transportation of human body parts. Was it illegal to send human remains by the royal mail at that time?

“I think that this case is very much in your line. We have every hope of clearing the matter up, but we find a little difficulty in getting anything to work upon."

'We're totally going to do this, we just don't have... any idea how. But we totally could!'

"The box is a half-pound box of honeydew tobacco and does not help us in any way."

Did somebody say... TOBACCO?

A specialist subject has entered the chat.

If Holmes doesn't use his extensive and very detailed knowledge of tobacco to help solve this case, I will be v. disappoint.

Lestrade, as wiry, as dapper, and as ferret-like as ever...

Watson is contractually obliged to remind you that Lestrade looks like a ferret every time he appears. His publisher insists on it.

I'm informed that an antimacassar is an arm cover for an armchair or sofa. My Nana used to have them. They had tassels and I'd get told off for plaiting the threads in the tassels together. Good times.

“Why in my presence, sir?” “In case he wished to ask any questions.” “What is the use of asking me questions when I tell you I know nothing whatever about it?”

Miss Cushing has very strong Done With This energy and I am here for it. Those are not her ears. She has perfectly good ones thank you very much, and she does not need any more. Why are you still bothering her?

“Quite so, madam,” said Holmes in his soothing way. “I have no doubt that you have been annoyed more than enough already over this business.”

Holmes once again showing that he does have emotional intelligence no matter what people might think.

“The importance lies in the fact that the knot is left intact, and that this knot is of a peculiar character.”

Oh, not the tobacco knowledge, but the knot knowledge. I see 'peculiar' and 'knot' in the same sentence and I immediately think 'sailing'.

Address printed in rather straggling characters: ‘Miss S. Cushing, Cross Street, Croydon.’ Done with a broad-pointed pen, probably a J, and with very inferior ink. The word ‘Croydon’ has been originally spelled with an ‘i’, which has been changed to ‘y’.

Our sender has poor handwriting and poor spelling, then. The 'wrong person' theory is growing stronger. The likelihood that Miss Cushing is a criminal mastermind diminshes. Shame.

He took out the two ears as he spoke, and laying a board across his knee he examined them minutely.

Is he wearing gloves? Please tell me he's wearing gloves.

“Bodies in the dissecting-rooms are injected with preservative fluid. These ears bear no signs of this. They are fresh, too. They have been cut off with a blunt instrument, which would hardly happen if a student had done it."

This feels like something the police should already have noticed. If the questions are 'Where did these ears come from? Has a crime been committed?' you would think someone would have considered whether they were from a preserved corpse or someone fresh. I know that policing has changed a lot since then and forensic medicine wasn't really a thing, but clearly they suspected foul play was a possibility, because Lestrade called for Holmes.

"We know that this woman has led a most quiet and respectable life at Penge and here for the last twenty years. She has hardly been away from her home for a day during that time."

Oh, Lestrade. The things you can do without leaving your home. She might have anyone buried under the floorboards. She might have been sending blackmail letters to her neighbours. She might have been doing any number of things. I still think the wrong person got the parcel, but saying that she's just too respectable for this is very optimistic of you.

I do agree that if she knew what the ears were about, she probably wouldn't have told anyone about them. Unless she's in such a secure position that she doesn't think anyone would ever trace anything back to her. In most situations, it wouldn't be the best move.

"One of these ears is a woman's, small, finely formed, and pierced for an earring."

Did no men wear earrings in Victorian times? Admittedly, probably not 'respectable' men, but the knot's already pointing me at sailor (as is the tarring on the string, tbh) and it used to be a thing that tattoos were mostly a sailor thing over here, and piercing is a similar kind of body art. So a woman or a sailor with small ears.

omg. pirates.

"The other is a man's, sun-burned, discoloured, and also pierced for an earring."

Oh, okay, so the earring wasn't the thing. Doesn't prevent the first ear from belonging to a small pirate, though. Sunburned also makes me think sailors. They have to be outside a lot with no shade. Sunburn on your ears is the worst. They have my sincere sympathy.

Also, y'know, cause they got their ear cut off - with a blunt blade, which... eesh.

"These two people are presumably dead, or we should have heard their story before now."

I mean, they could have been kidnapped and this could be proof of life. These days if you get an unsolicited body part in the real life mail the mind does go to kidnapping. Maybe that originates here - but they have no way of knowing whether the ear was detached ante or post mortem at this point, do they? So it's more proof of having, rather than proof of life. And I don't think I'd recognise my friends or family by their ears, so it's not even really that. If the earrings had been attached then I might recognise them.

Yeah... s'weird. But it doesn't necessarily mean they're dead. Although... Victorian hygiene and understanding of germ theory.

...

Yeah, they've got sepsis. They're dead.

Question spiral! Holmes just asking himself question after question is very relatable. And bringing up all relevant points about how if Miss Cushing knows what's going on, taking the ears to the police but telling them nothing is the weirdest possible response.

I'm assuming that the subject of this email is wrong, because if this is part 1 of 1, there is no conclusion to this story and so without further evidence, I am forced to believe that one large pirate and one small pirate, genders unknown, are currently dead/dying of sepsis and the true recipient of these ears, M. S Cushing (any or all letters interchangeable) has heard nothing of their fate. Although, given it was in the newspaper, they probably have heard about it by now. So maybe they don't need the ears.

No idea why the ears were sent though. Proof of a hit? Proof of life? Just a creepy serial killer who likes to send the ears of their past victim to their next victim? Probably not that one, seems a bit Criminal Minds for a Sherlock Holmes story, but you never know.

#Letters from Watson #Sherlock Holmes #The Cardboard Box #Modern Sherlock this is a live unboxing video gone wrong #long post

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seth-shitposts · 4 months

Text

[Making some organization of our WIPs, so might as well do a WIP post while im at it-]

Feel free to ask any questions about ones that poke your interest or if you'd like bits from them or let us know which ones are your fave or that you're pulled toward.

---

For the longest of the long AU WIPs, there's

-Defectors AU - AU in which Kallus was assigned to the Bridger Raid and finds Ezra.

-The Aphelion Waltz - AU where the empire never came to be. Trouble in the lower levels of Coruscant sends the entire galaxy into an uproar.

-Sense of Faith, Self, & Valor - AU in which The Grand Inquisitor and Tua lived and Kallus convinces/inspires them to join the rebellion.

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For long fics and multi chaps, we have

-The Renaecense of 264 -Kallus finds a droid abandoned by the empire out in the cold.

-Change In Plans -Prompt fic in which Kallus comes across a young lasat child in imperial custody. (Has been in our docs for MONTHS- I don't think we've spoken much on it)

-Salticidae -prompt fic where Kallus finds a lovely little creature and Zeb has to try and get over a fear before his partner gets home. (Might be a one shot, might be a multichap)

-Eyes of the Ashla -a prompt fic au. Kallus can see specific ghosts

-Insomniac Art Attack - Prompt fic. Sabine putting restless energy into good use.

-Pull You Into Dark Corners - heavy revisions needed. Nsfw. KalluZeb

-All Of Me -secret relationship. Not a slow burn, but something adjacent. This one might be scrapped and fused into other works. We'll see.

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One Shots!

-Baby Its Cold Outside [Defectors AU AU Edition]

-Jealousy Ft. Alexsandr - AU of sorts (mainly because time line doesn't line up with the concept but it makes me giggle). Kanan has a very Oblivious Moment and is jealous of Kallus.

-Bite Me, Love -something that was originally just a silly little thought but then 3 of you within a span of 5 minutes said I should do it. Like damn alright ig (I look forward to it hehe)

-[Unnamed Gift for Lost in Derry] - In the rebellion, Kallus being loyal to Hera. (I'm so excited about this one)

-[Unnamed Gift for GreyGhost] -After a major victory and an even bigger celebration, Kallus cares after a very drunk lasat.

-"Kiss The Girl" fic - Ezra and Kanan do a few shenanigans in attempt to get Kallus and Zeb to confess to each other. Ends in disaster every time. ... or maybe not.

-Morning Haze -nsfw kalluzeb

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Ideas/Prompts we have that we haven't had the chance to start yet. But am eager to get to.

-"I would rather set myself on fire in an attempt to burn them from daring to try and touch me than let them do as they please." - Sabine Wren (We have 2 different ideas for this one. One that's early on in Sabine doing ghost crew, between her and Kanan. And the other is her and Kallus being assigned to a negotiation together, and it's one of the first missions they have together.) (Might make them be in the same timeline, like the second being a reflect to the first and time passing. The first being far more reckless and self destructive while the second is a promise of fight, a continous call to action.)

-so so so many fulcrum trio things. You have no idea how badly HOW BADLY I need these three to be on missions together.

-in addition to the above, Jealousy ft Cassian & Ahsoka.

-sentient glimmer fics

-Sentient Bo-rifles

-Kallus surprising Zeb by making him some of his favourite foods. So much fluff.

-Fulcrum Kallus dealing with the severe isolation of being so deep in the empire.

-Kallus keeping Every Item someone gives him.

-nsfw - service top Kallus & pillow princess Zeb

-6 More Prompts we've been given that we haven't started yet but are waiting for us once we get through a few more wips first.

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These are the ones we have thrown up on Ao3 rn that we are half way through

-Conversationalist - an Ezra Fic

-Jealousy ft Lando - KalluZeb nsfw

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Staying in hiatus until I have the availability to bring it out is

Force User Zeb - this is a long au fic we haven't been able to touch in awhile (😭😭😭)

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dduane · 2 years

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Hello there Ms. Duane!

Since you’re a published author of both original fiction and of fiction based upon existing fandom universes, I was wondering if you could answer a question for unpublished writers out there.

How do publishers select an author to write a story based on an existing fandom universe? I’m thinking of course of Star Trek, Star Wars… any of the stars, all of the stars… and even non-star-focused expanded universe stories. ;) Are new authors ever selected for those sorts of things? Or do publishers reach into their lists of their own authors? How does that work, in your experience?

Thanks so much!

Sure! A pleasure to assist.

First of all, let's shift the terminology a little. There's too much possible misunderstanding inherent in the term "fandom universe". To describe the works we’re talking about I’d rather use the name the owners of the big ones (and people negotiating with them) use in discussing them: “licensed properties”. This term means that some corporate entity—could be small,* could be big—owns the (copy)rights to the intellectual property on/in which the storytelling is based, in whatever format, and licenses people to come and work in/with it.

I started working in other people’s universes in the early 1980s, when the concept was beginning to ooze more energetically out of film and TV, where it was born (and where I first ran into it), and into other media such as prose and comics. For the moment, let’s stick to dealing with Star Trek, as it’s not only one of the older licensors, but the one I have the longest affiliation with and know the best.

Bantam Books acquired the license from Paramount Pictures to publish Star Trek prose works in in 1966. Having initially commissioned the well-known SF writer James Blish to adapt the individual scripts of Star Trek’s original series into prose, Bantam then began commissioning original works of novel-length fiction in the Trek universe.

What the Bantam editors would have done was look around the SF field for writers who they thought would work well with the franchise (in terms of tone, voice, style, and availability), and approach them to find out whether they’d be interested in writing for a licensor. (Some of them might have been writers the editors had previously worked with in other fiction-publishing venues.) Alternately, writers might approach the editors through their agents (once they heard that the publisher was interested in commissioning work of this kind) and pitch novel projects to them. I got in through the door the second way, having been profoundly annoyed by one of the Bantam-published books and feeling pretty sure I could do better.

The salient point to note is that whether one was being approached by the publisher, or doing the approaching—even at that relatively early state of affairs—at least 95% of the time, the writer in question had previous credential in published fiction. This makes sense because when you’re writing for a licensor, they need proof that you (a) can come up with a strong enough idea to support the weight and length of a novel, (b) will be able to finish a novel once commissioned, (c) will be able to cope professionally with accepting and correctly implementing notes you’re given on needed revisions, and (d) have demonstrable strengths of writing skill that have been concretely confirmed by previous sales figures.

In my case, I came into the Bantam offices (virtually speaking) with all four of the above, as well as various award nominations and other prizes for my first two books. Paramount looked at the outline and initial three chapters I’d submitted to Bantam through my agent, and more or less immediately gave me the go-ahead (though there was a brief pause while Paramount changed licensed publishers, withdrawing their license from Bantam and passing it to Simon & Schuster / Pocket Books). The deal then went ahead, leading to the publication of The Wounded Sky in December 1983.

The main issue here, though, would have been one of previous credential... and what having that says about the writer’s ability to complete work as expected, hit scheduled turn-in and revision dates, and not screw up the rest of what can be a complex publication schedule with (sometimes) significant money riding on advertising and promotion. Even then, there was very minimal presence on the Bantam roster of writers without previous credential in published fiction. Later on, there would be almost none.

You see where this is going, I suspect. These days, right across the field, increasingly large amounts of money are at stake in the publication of licensed works… and as a result things have tightened up a great deal. It seems likely to me that there are almost no writers for major licensed properties who don’t have previous published-fiction credential. So the answer to “are new authors ever selected?” would have been “Absolutely!” I mean, I was. “...But new never-previously-published ones? Highly, highly unlikely.” (I’m not saying impossible, mind you. If some major name in Star Wars publishing ran into their commissioning editor’s office one morning shouting, “Wow, you need to see this fanfic, we need to solicit this person...!!”, then... who knows? But this isn’t exactly going to be a commonplace occurrence.)

There is only one possibly-effective way around (or through) this situation: get out there and publish something else, something of your own, in a universe that is not the (licensed) one you’re interested in pitching to**… and something that will generate sales figures. This is fortunately easier than it used to be, because even self-publication can serve a purpose here. Either self-publication or traditional publication (if you can make it over that bar, which admittedly is not easy) can serve to prove to an editor that you can plan and outline a book, that you can not just start a novel but finish it, and that (afterwards) someone will buy it and read it.

But most to the point, either form of publication will display to a potential publisher that most difficult of things to convey in shorter works: the sound of your unique voice, the tone of your storytelling at novel length, and the quality of your prose. If you can put something of sufficient quality to demonstrate these into an editor’s hand, your odds of a successful pitch suddenly escalate from almost-zero to “Hmm...”. And a whole lot can come out of something that makes the editor say “Hmm...”. 😄

So my advice to you: get out there and write something in your world. Because anybody can write for Star Trek (or Star Wars, or all the other stars...). But right now only you can write the You-iverse... and until you do, we’ll never have the pleasure of experiencing it.

...Hope this helps!

*For example, the Young Wizards universe is an IP, with one owner: me. If I decided I felt like inviting people or companies into the universe to play there officially—anybody from individual authors to big companies—then (depending on the contractual situation) they would be my licensees, and their works in-universe would be licensed properties.

**Or any other.

#writing #writing advice #licensed properties #Star Trek novels #and others

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friendlessghoul · 6 months

Note

Why do you think that they (whoever was responsible) decided to make Buster first sound movie a story where he doesn't get the girl he loves and also ends up alone? I've watched Free and easy/ Estrellados and honestly, I felt really sad with that ending. Perhaps I'm just used to films where everything works out in the end, idk. Just curious about other people vision on this one.

Free and Easy is such a hard movie for Buster fans to watch. I've heard it's not as rough for those who are casual watchers or aren't as invested. Most fans also do not like the ending, finding it very bizarre that he would not get the girl. What kind of ending is that? What was the point? She gets with the jerk?

To be honest, she doesn't deserve Elmer. But there are a few that do enjoy the fact that he does not get the girl, *something different* (sorry I disagree).

The ending is sad. You just feel bad for the guy who has done everything for this girl, and she's blind to it all and gets with the jerk. (Is this a, nice guys always finish last, type situation? Women always like the bad guys etc. etc.)

As with Everything, I think context needs to be explained. What was happening before and during filming, to get a better idea. (Which means this is very long and I'm so very sorry)

While Thalberg supervised Buster's films, it was during the filming of Spite Marriage that he passed the responsibility to his new brother-in-law who was a former publicist, Lawerance Weingarten (formerly producing Tim McCoy westerns). Thalberg was still the producer, but Weingarten was uncredited handling day-to-day responsibilities (Curtis, A Filmmakers Life, pg 366) Weingarten had little experienced with script development, and nearly none in talkies. Thalberg was distracted. What eventually happened was lots of ideas that were hopeless, but many of them were considered and then abandoned because Weingarten had little sense of what he was doing. "And it wasn't only the twenty-two writers who were eager to help me out. The executives and studio big shots also turned into gagmen overnight, adding greatly to the confusion. With so much talk going on, so many conferences, so many brains at work, I began to lose faith for the first time in my own ideas" - Buster Keaton Curtis, A Filmmakers Life, pg 386)

Then came the constant script changes. May, Thalberg and Weingarten briefly settled on a musical-comedy -His Royal Highness. A month later Ed Sedgwick dictated an original of his own- The Three Act. Richard Schayer was brought on to write the scenario, which took two rounds of revisions by the time Thalberg Okayed it. But it still wasn't right. Schayer had to come up with an entirely new story line, incomplete draft in Sep. Then another story line was developed in early Oct, then they changed it yet again. Which was finalized in Nov 22. Buster was regarded as an actor, writer, director, or creative team (sometimes not allowed to do stunts as well). (Curtis, Pg 387) Weingarten lacked an understanding of Buster's screen character or the qualities that made his comedies unique. Saying "If Buster Keaton had been still a big commercial thing for Joe Schenck, he wouldn't have turned him over to MGM" then saying "We found stories and if they suited...they might not suit one, they'd suit the other, or we make them suit"(pg 388) - Buster was, to me, the one they chose to 'make suit'. When talkies started, the way they casted was different, they really only cared about how someone sounded on film. Which is the primary reason Anita Page was chosen for Free and Easy. While they were filming Free and Easy, the script was incomplete, and they were fixing the dialogue as they went. They were often sitting around waiting for dialogue to be written.

As far as I can tell, there really is no explanation as to why they chose what they chose (there might be some information out there, I just haven't seen it. Anyone can chime in with that.) I know Buster never spoke about the movie once filming was done. Buster was MGMs only comedian. They had no clue what they were doing, and they wouldn't listen to Buster. Weingarten for whatever reason, seemed to think he, who had no experience, thought Buster incapable. With his comment about Joe Schenck passing him to MGM because he wasn't a money maker, it appeared that he thought he could do better. They loved to tell him that his talkies made more money than his silents, therefor meant that they knew what they were doing, and he didn't (and it totally wasn't because talkies were new, and people wanted to hear what everyone sounded like). Like Buster said, it made him question himself and his ability. I've seen comments about how ironic it is that he's a puppet on strings (which is one of the hardest parts to watch), and how his character loses everything that he cared for (what was happening IRL). That it was MGMs way of saying- you're ours now. Maybe it was because of the absolute chaos that was the script and lack of experience. The too many cooks in the kitchen. I'm not really sure what the answer is. I know many people have their own opinions on it. (I have read many comments on forums that irritated me, and I had to stop reading :) )

I would say most people feel the same as you. We like that he gets the girl in the end, how could you not? You always root for his character to get the girl, and everything works out in the end. It's a way to escape and imagine everything will be fine in the end. Plus, it's Buster, you want the best for him.

I don't know if this has answered anything, if it gave you more insight, maybe confused you a bit (I tend to go on rants), but I hope it helped? I'm by no means an expert, and as always can be wrong. Anyone can always correct me, add information or add in their opinion.

#ask #i yammer on a lot #again sorry it took a bit of time #I wanted to try and look around for info but it was basically all the same stuff #and someone on IMDB gave it a 10/10 what a loon #free and easy

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thatoneguy031 · 10 months

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Okay, DnD fans, can I get a bit of criticism here? I'm reading the 5e handbook, and I'm still a little confused about some things. Here's my character so far(I didn't even want to touch the stats yet, in fear that I have to use the guidebook's stats for his species).

Meet Blackthorn, often known as just Thorn. He's a young, red kobold(He's a kobold's equivalent to about 16 or 17 years old) that is also a sorcerer(For now, anyway. I might make him a fighter or rogue). He's gained his power from his dragon(Who is now unnamed, I'll come up with one later), who acted primarily as his guardian/babysitter, for him as well as many other kobolds in his den. The only two worth mentioning in his backstory are Hydra and Armari.

*Their names are based on the three primary colors: Red, yellow and blue. If you get pricked by a thorn, you're likely to bleed, so that's how Thorn earned his name(Along with the fact that he's a pit of a pain in the neck due to his sense of adventure). Hydra is short for Hydrangea, which is seen as a blue plant on occasion. And Armari sounds a little like amarillo, a translation of the color yellow if I'm not wrong. Yes, they also appear as their respective colors.

Their alignments: -Thorn is Neutral Good(He's pretty willing to break the law if he knows it's for the better, but tends to avoid that option if he can) -Hydra is Lawful Good(He often scolds Thorn for doing stuff like that) -Armari is Chaotic Neutral(She is the most likely to become a full-blown psychopath out of the three of them. She's basically Thorn's devil in most situations, and Hydra is his angel).

They're pretty good friends, and if something does happen to go wrong, you can almost always blame all three of them for it. They do have their own friend groups, but they most often hang out with each other for some chaos.

One day, Armari wanted the three of them to have a competition: Whoever could not join a party and become a proper adventurer, but also complete a total of three missions, would win... something(I'm not too sure on what yet. Let's say they'd win bragging privileges for now).

Of course, Thorn agreed, wanting to go on yet another adventure. Hydra also agreed to it, but he was way more reluctant about it because he didn't want to get put in an early grave.

With that, they headed off, and would meet up with each other every few days to check how they were doing.

After a while, Thorn thought that the adventurer's life was pretty sweet, and continued on his journey, even after the competition was over(He won, by the way, but no one ever learned that, not even him).

Thorn(At least, how he is now), is a pretty solid magic user. He's either gonna specialize in fire or plant magic(Or whatever it's called, I honestly have no clue). His only real downside is that his spells aren't very... good? Like, they're fine, but they're just fine, you feel me? They do their job, but that's it.

If it's possible, I'm basing Thorn's spells on moves you'd find in Pokemon, like Absorb or Fire Spin. His level-up moveset is going to be very similar to the Joe-Schmoe's starter.

I didn't think about it for more than 30 seconds, but I feel like Thorn would have an Outlander background. He's technically a wild dude, not knowing what a true civilization looked like, but he'd still be able to speak Common well enough to be generally understood, although he'd be more fluent in languages like Draconic(Again, he lived with a dragon). He'd probably not understand how human things work, but Arceus dang it if he isn't gonna try.

Again, if there's something wrong, or if I missed anything, I am DESPERATELY accepting revisions.

I'll add more things in future reblogs, as I progress more with his character.

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #dnd 5e #dnd 5e character #kobold #help

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sailormoonandme · 1 year

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In Act 3 of the Manga Mamoru is confirmed to be a 16-year-old high school student whereas in the anime he is a college student. Whilst this might mean he is 18, according to the Sailor Moon R Movie Memorial Album, Mamoru would have been 17 at the very start of the anime and turn 18 later on. Fans often point out/complain about Mamoru being aged up in the anime and have struggled as to why for years, often presuming bad faith on the part of the anime staff.

There has never been a confirmed reason to my knowledge, but I have come across something that seems to make a lot of sense to my mind.

Ultimately, this hinges upon the production realities of the Sailor Moon anime, which were atypical for how most manga-to-anime adaptations work. Whilst an episode of an anime can be produced from scratch in about two months, usually the manga the anime is adapting is many months, maybe even YEARS ahead of the anime. That wasn’t the case for Sailor Moon.

The Sailor Moon anime began airing on a weekly basis on 7th March 1992. But the first chapter of the manga (which episode 1 adapted) was released on 28th December 1991, the manga then being released monthly thereafter. This accounts for why there were SO MANY filler episodes in Sailor Moon, but it also speaks to the insane deadlines the anime were operating under.

Whilst I couldn’t find the original sources for this, this article by Tuxedo Unmasked explains that Naoko Takeuchi was involved in the production of the anime, at least somewhat early on in the first season. How involved is a little unclear and it is likely that as the manga pushed forwards and Sailor Moon became more popular she became busier.*

It is extremely likely that Takeuchi was giving the anime staff notes before the first episode even aired, the better to give them stuff to work with to generate filler episodes. It just so happens we have access to some of Takeuchi’s early notes for Sailor Moon in the form of the Materials Collection:

Note how Shingo’s note lists ‘Mika’ as one of his weaknesses. In the manga, no character by the name of Mika ever appears, at least not affiliated with Shingo in any way. However, a classmate of Shingo named Mika does appear in episodes 5 and 18 of the anime and he does in fact have a crush on her.

Whilst specific release dates for the manga are not confirmed (merely publication dates which are not the same thing), if we presume Sailor Moon kept to a regular monthly release schedule the character of Reika Nishimura would have appeared in late October 1992, specifically in Act 11 of the manga. This would have been around the same time that she debuted in the anime, specifically in episode 29 on 24th October 1992. Regardless of which came first, obviously the anime staff wouldn’t have made an episode from scratch in such a short space of time. They clearly knew about her ahead of time.

So, to some degree Naoko Takeuchi was feeding the anime staff ideas and notes on her story. Here is the problem though…her story was an evolving process. Case in point, Takeuchi originally intended Ami/Sailor Mercury to be a cyborg and there is even a hint of this in Act 2 of the manga

Clearly she changed her mind about that, and this wasn’t an isolated incident either.

In her linear notes for Act 3, Naoko Takeuchi herself states that she pitched three different ways Jadeite could become involved with the Hikawa Shrine in the anime. But when it came time to make Chapter 3 of the manga, she changed her mind last minute so that Jadeite was never involved with the shrine in the manga, but was nevertheless working there in the anime.

The Materials Collection is perhaps the ultimate example of how Takuechi revised the story she was telling as she went along.

Remember how Sailor Mars occasionally didn’t wear gloves and shot lasers from her fingernails?

Me neither.

With all this in mind, lets take a looksee at Mamoru’s pages from the Materials Collection:

Oh me oh my. As you can see, early on, Naoko Takuechi herself intended Mamoru to be roughly the same age as he was in the anime.

In other words, what seems to have happened was that the anime didn’t not age Mamoru up. They simply depicted him in line with the original intentions of Naoko Takeuchi. And then at some point before or during the production of Act 3 of the manga, she simply changed her mind.

*This in turn might account in part for why the anime gradually deviated from the manga more and more, to the point of not bothering to adapt anything after chapter 4.

P.S. Check out how Mamoru is depicted on the next page of the Materials Collections:

Yep…he is holding a red rose.

Could it be the other major difference between Manga and Anime Mamoru was also thanks to Takeuchi’s early ideas?

#sailor moon #sailormoon #naoko takeuchi #tuxedo mask #tuxedo kamen #mamoru chiba #chiba mamoru #my essays

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zombeebunnie · 7 months

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Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello guys and welcome new followers! I have another update to share! I also would like to make it be known that since it's officially spooky month, updates about the game might be shorter and/or a bit scattered around so I can't guarantee they'll be weekly. :]

Anywho, I wanted to give myself a break from the other route I was working on last week to focus on some other things within the game starting off with a fairly large change to a ending/path!

Back in April/May, It was originally planned to be a ending you could get depending on how you interacted with Noah but, it was too similar to something I had already written. I then got an idea and turned it into a very long and extended situation you could get in Day 3 that would lead alllll the way into Day 5(+?).

I put a pause on it and went back to writing everything else because I didn't want to get too far ahead. When I came back to it I realized it had a good amount of spoilers that got thrown way too early at (Y/N)the player just on Day 3 and it ruined the flow I was trying to go for. I didn't get rid of it and instead, moved it somewhere else and placed it later into the game.

The path now leads back to an ending I settled on that I think really nails the whole survival thing and what would actually happen! I don't have any CG's to show for it right now but hopefully in the next update post it'll be done! :,]

Speaking of endings, another one also got adjusted! You could get it if you picked a specific choice and had a certain amount of closeness with Noah. When I was testing things, I found a unique variable you could get that would still let you continue into Day 4 when you technically weren't suppose to and I couldn't write anything to make it fit without messing up the flow of the other variables that were already in place. Now you'll automatically get this ending depending on how you go about playing! Here's a preview of it!

Lastly, I got to working on a different route I had already finished up and added a few more choices for you to make.

The beginning of it was fairly empty and I wanted to give it more life since there was more reading than actual decisions. Nothing was too outdated or anything but some parts really needed better transparency so I went and fixed up certain sections.

For example, some of Noah's and/or (Y/N)the player's reactions to certain situations didn't make enough sense to me so hopefully that shouldn't be a issue anymore! It also really helped me get a better idea of how I wanted a event to play out easier for me. :]

I let my play tester see the revised version and I explained what all was changed/fixed after they went through certain parts.

One thing they mentioned that really stuck out to me was a specific part that they suggested to be done 'in the dark' and that there should be some CG's shown for when you make certain decisions instead of just seeing the window CG. I went and made some adjustments and overall, I think it adds a lot more to the stealth and suspense I was trying to go for! :]

With that being said I think that just about covers everything! Thank you guys very much for all your support and interest in what I'm working on, I wholeheartedly appreciate the encouragement! Also happy spooky month! :,]

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foodandfolklore · 5 months

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The Little Red Hen

I had an random memory pop into my head of my mom reading the Little Red Hen to a group of children. It's weird cause I'm not sure how old I am in this memory. My mom did a lot of volunteer work with our schools and helped out in field trips. I feel very young in this memory since the children around me are so young and I am so enthralled in the story. But the longer I think on it, the more I think this is when I was in my teens or early 20s working with her at a not for profit daycare.

So, with this brain worm going on, I figured I'd share the story of the little red hen. Story was first written in a US Children's Magazine by Mary Mapes Dodge in 1874. It was a short story, meant to communicate the idea that hard work will pay off. A full illustrated book version was published in 1918 by Florence White Williams. Since I wasn't able to find any copies of the story from the Magazine, I'll instead share Williams's version.

A few things about this story stood out to me, where if you look at the time it makes a lot of sense. Most modern versions of this story don't have the Little Red Hen have any chicks to look after, but in this version she does. And the mother hen struggles with the balance of looking after her chicks and making her bread. Even pointing how how the chicks feel neglected.

But the Mother Hen is not shamed by the author for it in the story. This story came out right after a massive war. Millions of people had died. Husbands and fathers were not all returning and Mothers were left to figure out how to be the new breadwinner. I think the author felt a great amount of empathy for these families, and had the opinion that communities should work together to help.

There have been lots of revisions and story tweaks over time, based on what the time period and culture expects from workers. For example, there was a version made in the 70s where the Hen was forced to share her bread with the lazy animals who did not help to make it. Soon, she lost the incentive to work and poverty hit the farm. It was written with an anti communism mindset.

Wheat Bread have good grounding properties, as well Kinship, Abundance and Prosperity. The breaking and sharing of bread is an action that invokes Peace and Friendship.

The Little Red Hen

A Little Red Hen lived in a barnyard. She spent almost all of her time walking about the barnyard in her picketty-pecketty fashion, scratching everywhere for worms.

She dearly loved fat, delicious worms and felt they were absolutely necessary to the health of her children. As often as she found a worm she would call “Chuck-chuck-chuck!” to her chickies.

When they were gathered about her, she would distribute choice morsels of her tid-bit. A busy little body was she!

A cat usually napped lazily in the barn door, not even bothering herself to scare the rat who ran here and there as he pleased.

And as for the pig who lived in the sty—he did not care what happened so long as he could eat and grow fat.

One day the Little Red Hen found a Seed. It was a Wheat Seed, but the Little Red Hen was so accustomed to bugs and worms that she supposed this to be some new and perhaps very delicious kind of meat. She bit it gently and found that it resembled a worm in no way whatsoever as to taste although because it was long and slender, a Little Red Hen might easily be fooled by its appearance.

Carrying it about, she made many inquiries as to what it might be. She found it was a Wheat Seed and that, if planted, it would grow up and when ripe it could be made into flour and then into bread.

When she discovered that, she knew it ought to be planted. She was so busy hunting food for herself and her family that, naturally, she thought she ought not to take time to plant it.

So she thought of the Pig—upon whom time must hang heavily and of the Cat who had nothing to do, and of the great fat Rat with his idle hours, and she called loudly:

“Who will plant the Seed?”

But the Pig said, “Not I,” and the Cat said, “Not I,” and the Rat said, “Not I.”

“Well, then,” said the Little Red Hen, “I will.” And she did.

Then she went on with her daily duties through the long summer days, scratching for worms and feeding her chicks, while the Pig grew fat, and the Cat grew fat, and the Rat grew fat, and the Wheat grew tall and ready for harvest.

So one day the Little Red Hen chanced to notice how large the Wheat was and that the grain was ripe, so she ran about calling briskly: “Who will cut the Wheat?” The Pig said, “Not I,” the Cat said, “Not I,” and the Rat said, “Not I.” “Well, then,” said the Little Red Hen, “I will.” And she did.

She got the sickle from among the farmer's tools in the barn and proceeded to cut off all of the big plant of Wheat.

On the ground lay the nicely cut Wheat, ready to be gathered and threshed, but the newest and yellowest and downiest of Mrs. Hen's chicks set up a “peep-peep-peeping” in their most vigorous fashion, proclaiming to the world at large, but most particularly to their mother, that she was neglecting them.

Poor Little Red Hen! She felt quite bewildered and hardly knew where to turn.

Her attention was sorely divided between her duty to her children and her duty to the Wheat, for which she felt responsible.

So, again, in a very hopeful tone, she called out, “Who will thresh the Wheat?”

But the Pig, with a grunt, said, “Not I,” and the Cat, with a meow, said, “Not I,” and the Rat, with a squeak, said, “Not I.”

So the Little Red Hen, looking, it must be admitted, rather discouraged, said, “Well, I will, then.”

And she did.

Of course, she had to feed her babies first, though, and when she had gotten them all to sleep for their afternoon nap, she went out and threshed the Wheat. Then she called out: “Who will carry the Wheat to the mill to be ground?”

Turning their backs with snippy glee, that Pig said, “Not I,” and that Cat said, “Not I,” and that Rat said, “Not I.”

So the good Little Red Hen could do nothing but say, “I will then.” And she did.

Carrying the sack of Wheat, she trudged off to the distant mill. There she ordered the Wheat ground into beautiful white flour. When the miller brought her the flour she walked slowly back all the way to her own barnyard in her own picketty-pecketty fashion.

She even managed, in spite of her load, to catch a nice juicy worm now and then and had one left for the babies when she reached them. Those cunning little fluff-balls were so glad to see their mother. For the first time, they really appreciated her.

After this really strenuous day Mrs. Hen retired to her slumbers earlier than usual—indeed, before the colors came into the sky to herald the setting of the sun, her usual bedtime hour.

She would have liked to sleep late in the morning, but her chicks, joining in the morning chorus of the hen yard, drove away all hopes of such a luxury.

Even as she sleepily half opened one eye, the thought came to her that to-day that Wheat must, somehow, be made into bread.

She was not in the habit of making bread, although, of course, anyone can make it if he or she follows the recipe with care, and she knew perfectly well that she could do it if necessary.

So after her children were fed and made sweet and fresh for the day, she hunted up the Pig, the Cat and the Rat.

Still confident that they would surely help her some day she sang out, “Who will make the bread?”

Alas for the Little Red Hen! Once more her hopes were dashed! For the Pig said, “Not I,” the Cat said, “Not I,” and the Rat said, “Not I.”

So the Little Red Hen said once more, “I will then,” and she did.

Feeling that she might have known all the time that she would have to do it all herself, she went and put on a fresh apron and spotless cook's cap. First of all she set the dough, as was proper. When it was time she brought out the moulding board and the baking tins, moulded the bread, divided it into loaves, and put them into the oven to bake. All the while the Cat sat lazily by, giggling and chuckling.

And close at hand the vain Rat powdered his nose and admired himself in a mirror. In the distance could be heard the long-drawn snores of the dozing Pig.

At last the great moment arrived. A delicious odor was wafted upon the autumn breeze. Everywhere the barnyard citizens sniffed the air with delight.

The Red Hen ambled in her picketty-pecketty way toward the source of all this excitement.

Although she appeared to be perfectly calm, in reality she could only with difficulty restrain an impulse to dance and sing, for had she not done all the work on this wonderful bread?

Small wonder that she was the most excited person in the barnyard!

She did not know whether the bread would be fit to eat, but—joy of joys!—when the lovely brown loaves came out of the oven, they were done to perfection.

Then, probably because she had acquired the habit, the Red Hen called:

“Who will eat the Bread?”

All the animals in the barnyard were watching hungrily and smacking their lips in anticipation, and

the Pig said, “I will,” the Cat said, “I will,” the Rat said, “I will.”

But the Little Red Hen said, “No, you won't. I will.”

And she did.

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releasemefromthevoid · 2 months

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MY ATLA LIVE ACTION S1E4 THOUGHTS

EP3 - EP5

Oh boy do I have things to say about this one.

Firstly, the way they wrapped things up from last episode was good enough, I guess. I think they might have tried to push too much into these two episodes this time, so hopefully they don’t bite off more than they can chew in the back half of the season. There’s something to be said about how early some plot lines seemed to get resolved and new ones were introduced, one even being more or less forgotten until the final few minutes of the episode, to make way for other story threads that just didn’t hold up to me.

Next, I have problems with Bumi. I think with Aang’s new character arc, the themes with Bumi makes sense, and I understand its inclusion as a whole, but Bumi was NOT the vehicle to present that with. The correct mannerisms are there, but I’m just not buying him as Bumi.

Lastly, there’s something that was partly introduced in this episode that has me concerned, which I will make clearer under the cut for spoilers, along with something that decidedly Wasn’t introduced.

Overall, there’s some sense of disappointment around this episode for me, here’s to hoping it gets better.

Live reaction and spoilers under the cut

shit i lowkey forgot they arrested aang? too busy writing the last review ig

this dungeon visually kinda has ba sing se lake laogai vibes. could be cool to draw parallels in later season(s)

cell mate iroh lets goooo

i’m not entirely sure i like the inclusion of the mechanist at omashu. i feel like his motives for helping the fire nation are a lot less believable to me in this location, since omashu is a stronghold and bumi is No Pushover. then again, we don’t know that yet, bc bumi has Just been introduced. considering we cut to iroh talking about how omashu is so impressive. idk

Other than “it is I who owe him” about zuko, idk if iroh is really hitting for me. this is the first time this season where i’ve been like “yeah that’s iroh”. he’s just sort of uncanny iroh most of the time

BUMI TIME

bros asleep hahaha

bumi: “tea?” aang: “okay,,” the inflection on that was great. great delivery dfksjdh

oh we’re skipping the whole trials thing. i’m not angry about that, but Where is flopsy???

okay bumi is good. we love live action bumi in this house.

jet jumpscare

hell yeah katara get his ass

so this choice for zuko to make is def a parallel to the winter solstice episode where iroh was captured, right?

is bumi. angry at aang? that doesn’t feel right. i revise my earlier statement. his mannerisms are perfect, but blaming aang is Not bumi. this does Not vibe

SECRET TUNNEL GUYS?????? the guys are here what??? i wasn’t expecting them

that zolly shot though

please just stop talking and sing secret tunnel i need it so bad. i don’t even care that it’s a season early

THERE IT IS

omg i was right with the whole zuko winter solstice episode conflict. almost a one-to-one in visuals

bumi aang does not need this right now. i appreciate the rock candy growing crystals, but god. bumi is being so mean

i have to say, i like sokka being the one to figure out the cave of two lovers path. they seem to be highlighting his intelligence more overtly in a way the original show didn’t do until later in book one.

also liking the conflict between sokka and katara making a return. i knew that ended too fast during the jet arc.

so this is a scene where it’s nice to have the perspective of some random earth soldier from ba sing se, but iroh shouldn’t need this conversation. it might have been better to be given this explanation a different way? or i guess. it’s to give exposition about lu ten?? is that needed right now?

loving the white mourning clothes. loving that not everyone is wearing them, too. it would have been really interesting if one of those people who wasn’t wearing white was ozai. a little visual conflict for those who happen to know the significance of the color. weird that we’re getting iroh backstory before zuko though

ohhhh leaves from the vine instrumental. good, good inclusion there. for people who know from the cartoon, that really elevates that moment, and for people who haven’t seen the cartoon, it might elevate a certain moment from tales of ba sing se later since the association is already there

okay so the crystals literally don’t matter, fuck me AND sokka i guess

i need bumi to stop actually

goddam, zuko, just yank that knife out why don’t you. no concern for blood loss then

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S NOT ABOUT THE CRYSTALS. they sense feelings??? what do you mean 😭😭😭 what happened to earth sense

literally shut up bumi

this is not the wise old bumi that we know

thank you cabbage man, you really rounded out the episode

okay, i’m starting to see iroh. thank you.

also the leaves from the vine backing is still nice. it has the connotation of iroh claiming zuko as a son this scene in my mind

likes: environment design, visuals, the mechanist, leaves from the vine placement

worried about: the lack of introduction to the war balloons, the slight retconning of earth sense (what will this mean for toph in a potential season 2??), overlooking a perfect setup for a white lotus introduction

dislikes: bumi >:( (and he was most of the episode), changing the glowing crystals in the tunnel to be useless??

#atla #atla live action #avatar the last airbender live action #avatar the last airbender #long post #NOT vibing with bumi #hope we can come back from this :(

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