#LIKE MAKING A CHARACTER FROM 0 INSTEAD OF FROM A CONCEPT OR TO FULFIL A ROLL IS HARD!!!

[troutfur]

Tossing out ideas for a hypothetical rewrite of The Power of Three

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been rereading Po3 and, of course, as is usual within the fandom, I’ve been having lots and lots of thoughts on how I’d go about taking a crack at doing better. The likelihood of me actually writing out this whole thing is pretty close to 0 as I don’t have the discipline or interest for such a long writing project, but I’m constantly writing about these characters and this time period so you might see some of these concepts reoccur in my writing. But as with all my other ideas, I'm releasing them into the wild for anyone to do what they please with them. I just ask to be credited and sent a link to whatever you end up using them for.

So, without further ado!

As I mentioned with my other post on rewrite ideas, the arc is going to be split in two halves. The first half serves to explore the relationships between the three siblings while the second half focuses on them as individual characters as they face off one by one with Sol.

The Sight:

This one is a Hollypaw and Jaypaw book, focusing on their swapping of careers as a main plot, while Lionpaw’s chapters introduce us to other key players in the story such as Ashfur, Heatherpaw, and Breezepaw. I’m undecided how to make that into a compelling subplot but there should be something there.

I want the career swap plot to be something that’s built up to be more a mutual recognition by Holly and Jay that their interests and skillsets are better utilized in the other’s chosen path, by means of helping each other out with what they find difficult in their training. Though I also want to stress in Jaypaw a lingering disappointment in himself  that will be brought up later.

Also rather than this all happening over the course of like, a moon, space it out over a season. In canon they each had like. A week of training which kind of portrays their mentors as not even giving them a chance. Not to mention the absolute wasted opportunity it is to not have Hollypaw attend a half-moon meeting.

Dark River:

This one can remain mostly intact. The throughline of Lionpaw and Hollypaw having both out of Clan friends they find hard to part with is solid. The main changes are to the Jaypaw part of the plot.

There’s a couple main ideas I want to explore with Jaypaw: 1) his lingering disappointment in himself, even as he finds himself better suited and more engaged with his new role, 2) a growing distaste for StarClan’s cryptic ways, and 3) his conflict with Leafpool over how she’s handling Cinderpaw’s injury.

This all comes to head when he finds the stick and goes into a past life regression. This is where the Jay’s Wing plot from Long Shadows goes in this hypothetical rewrite. It’s very important that Jay’s Wing is blind here and that instead of a time travel journey it is essentially a flashback sequence.

Through living through Jay’s Wings’ memories, Jaypaw thus learns of the society pre-Clans and how they lived a life he finds more fulfilling as he doesn’t need to chose a role but like all other ancients he does a little bit of everything. He also finds fulfillment in the easygoing nature of their society as they don’t have to be on edge with constant conflict on their borders and in the fact that he can be heard as an equal in their democratic system.

When the climax rolls around and the littermates set out to find the missing WindClan kits the plot progresses as normal. However instead of having a ghost guide in Fallen Leaves, Jaypaw is able to tap into the memories of his past life as Jay’s Wing and leads the group by himself. The day is saved, but the roots of a divide have begun to grow within the littermates as Hollypaw and Lionpaw grow more entrenched in the warrior code while Jaypaw gains an ambition for completely overhauling the system.

Outcast:

The core concept of a journey that forces Breezepaw to interact with his half siblings is good, but I don’t like that they had to force the Tribe into it or that it ended up in Clan cats chastising this other group for not being more like them. I don’t have a concept for an alternative journey for the cats to be taking but I think it should be something where: a) Breezepelt interacts with all the siblings, not just Hollypaw and Lionpaw, and b) the focus of the book is in building up some sort of relationship between Jaypaw and Lionpaw.

Also, I’d suggest that by the end of this book, Hollypaw, Lionpaw, and Breezepaw get their warrior names.

Eclipse:

In this one I think we should cut to the chase with the battle as soon as possible. Obviously some buildup of Sol is necessary beforehand and perhaps have something about Cinderpaw’s recovery too, without having the whole of the second part of her subplot. I’m sorry, it’s a nice part of the arc, but is not all that essential and in the interest of giving Sol’s plot more time to develop is the most obvious cut.

But anyway, as Sol is going about doing his thing trying to build up a following in the clans so he can lead through soft power, I think we should focus on Lionblaze and how he’s reacting to Heatherpaw’s betrayal. As Sol searches for recruits, he eyes Lion and gets him to spill about his desire for vengeance. Sol tries to manipulate him but he ultimately rejects Sol.

It seems everything’s well and that Lionblaze has been able to move past his violet impulses, but just as things seem to be going smoothly Sol reveals he’s got ShadowClan wrapped around his finger and he’s got a medicine cat ally: Jaypaw, now the self-named Jaywing.

Long Shadows:

This book is an expansion of the saving ShadowClan from Sol’s influence plot. We see how Sol is acting as a despot, treating ShadowClan as his play thing and maintaining his power by a combination of fake displays of power and Jaywing’s collaboration lending him legitimacy. While Jaywing maintains an ideal of using this power to improve Clan society, Sol tries to tempt him into exploiting his power for personal gain. This eventually causes Jaywing to try and look for a way to expose and oust Sol.

Meanwhile in ThunderClan, Tawnypelt and her kits have arrived. The cousins have some good bonding time, but it becomes clear the kids don’t want to be ThunderClan, they want to be ShadowClan. They all want to do something about Sol but they don’t know what. That is until Jaywing reaches out to them and offers them a plan. It’s with their help that they stage a situation where Sol is exposed and Jaywing publicly denounces Sol.

Following that, Jaypaw takes on his apprentice name again and after helping Leafpool through a really bad outbreak of greencough he earns his legitimate medicine cat name of Jayfeather. It seems all’s well that ends well until Ashfur opportunistically seizes the situation with the thunderstorm and the fire and gets Squirrelflight to confess something he’d figured out ages ago: she didn’t give birth to her own kits and she hid it from them.

But his plan was not only to get her to confess to them. Now that he sets out to reveal it at a gathering, Hollyleaf does her thing and murders him. When Leafpool prepares his corpse for burial she of course finds the incriminating evidence but only reveals that another cat must’ve murdered him. Thus the search for Ashfur’s murderer is on.

Sunrise:

With the backdrop of Ashfur’s murder being investigated, our siblings set out on their own search for answers. Is Ashfur’s murderer their mother who was warned by Squirrelflight about the secret? Or perhaps it was Squirrelflight herself to protect her reputation? What of the possibility they’re not Clanborn? What of the possibility they were born out of a half-Clan relationship?

The questions hang heavier in no other than Hollyleaf’s mind, so she seeks out Sol, who has been hanging around the lake still, hiding as he tries to think of a new plan of attack. She hopes that, even if his power over ShadowClan was based on manipulation, his knowledge of things not even StarClan seems unaware of may be genuine.

Sol agrees to give answers on the condition she do certian small tasks for him. These eventually are adding up and Hollyleaf figures out Sol is trying to frame a ShadowClan cat as the murderer of Ashfur so he can step in as a herald of peace in the middle of a ThunderClan-ShadowClan war, thus gaining power for himself. As soon as she learns of this, she rebukes Sol.

Jayfeather meanwhile has figured out Leafpool’s secret and through asking around she’s learned who the only person who could possibly be his father is. He informs his siblings and this ends up breaking Hollyleaf. She confesses to all her crimes at a gathering and ends up fleeing.

Thus, the events are set in motion for the next part of the story.

#warrior cats #wc #warrior cats au #rewrite #woo #this was a long ass thing #I think this counts as my writing for the day don't ya think?

[wickedheadache]

the more I learn about Ingrid, the less interesting of a character she becomes. initially the concept of a Snow Queen that isn't Elsa was very intriguing to me, but literally everything they do with her is so dumb. they try to give them a tragic backstory, but they fail at making her descent into "villainy" gradual and natural to who she was as a character.

she is looking for a family that loves her. for "what she deserves." and yet this entitlement feels like it comes out of nowhere. she literally thought of herself as a monster for most of her life, and purposely deprived herself of joy because of it. not the actions of an entitled person. she accidentally kills her own sister (one of the few moments since S1 that has made stare at the screen in horror) and is imprisoned in an urn by her other sister because of it. someone that actually believes themselves to be dangerous and a monster and had that belief proven to them by their own actions would probably believe their imprisonment to be deserved. instead she escapes that urn feeling betrayed and having complete control over the powers she was so terrified of.

and what's even weirder is that her first impulse is to replace the sisters she lost with newer better versions of them, as if all that she cared about was that they fulfilled their roles as her sisters instead of who they were as people. which makes no sense considering she's supposed to share the strongest purest bond with them. why would they be so easily replaceable in her eyes?

it's like she goes from 0 to 100 out of Nowhere, one second she's a poor little victim of bigotry and circumstance, and the next she's full on scheming to control destiny and destroy multiple lives. it makes no damn sense

#ouat rewatch #ouat s4 ep11 #me

[butterflies-and-fishermen]

Magpie Bridge Immortals

In one world, Shen Yuan died cursing out Proud Immortal Demon Way for being the stupid novel of a stupid author. In another world, he was slightly more specific. Su Xiyan had had so much potential! A woman fierce and wilful enough to love a Heavenly Demon and bear him a child despite knowing that she would be called a traitor to humanity! A cold and ruthless beauty who acted like one instead of some interchangeable demoness who surrendered at the first sight of the protagonist’s Heavenly Pillar!

The new chapters got his hopes up. Was this going to be a subversion of common tropes? Would Su Xiyan turn out to have been alive all along and plotting revenge? Were some of the plot holes actually hints at her existence in the background? Come on, Airplane, earn your subscription!

…And then she turned out to have been fridged and no more than another cheap source of tragedy for the stallion protagonist, at which point he typed out a furious, thousand-character review instead of ordering takeout.

I had already given up hope for a three-dimensional wife, but I can’t believe I thought you would actually write a complex female character. Stupid novel, dicks-for-brains author!

Hitting the post button with righteous fury, Shen Yuan bit down on a steamed bun of dubious providence, and the rest was history.

Or maybe not.

【Connecting…connecting…connecting…Upload complete! This system welcomes you to the world of Proud Immortal Demon Way!】

【Operating on the concept of “you can you up, no can no BB”, the System endeavours to aid you in fulfilling your desire to fill in plot holes and develop “complex female characters”! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ】

【Binding your role: Qin Wanrong, Huan Hua Palace disciple. Little sister of Qin Wanyue. Weapon: Your cute puppydog eyes! (≧◡≦) Starting B Points: 100】

【Please make sure total B points do not fall below 0. Otherwise, the system will automatically deliver punishment~】

There were plenty of things wrong with his situation. Holographic screens! Life after death! Everything being far too big! Silk sheets! So much gold! He had to close his eyes again before he turned blind.

But Shen Yuan managed to focus on the most important problem: sister!?!?!!!

Why was he a girl?

【The User expressed a desire for “more complex female characters”. Operating under the philosophy of “let girls help girls!”, the User has been bound to the account of Qin Wanrong. As compensation for the sex discrepancy, OOC Locks are disabled. We wish User a pleasant transmigration experience (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b!】

Shen Yuan spat blood. That—! The holographic display winked out, and he opened his eyes to a horribly gilded room.

As a girl. A tiny, elementary school girl. Who would grow up to be one of the wives the Protagonist married, a lively, cheerful beauty who would nurse the just-emerged-from-the-Endless-Abyss Binghe back to full health and restore his sunken spirits with rounds of badly written papapa!

If the System thought he was going to go along with that, then ha! It had another think going! Shen Yuan was going to run away at the first opportunity, find one of Airplane’s shitty gender-bending plot devices, and start a new life far away from the Protagonist and his drama! You hear that, System? No harem life for him, thank you very much!

【We appreciate Host’s enthusiasm! (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b】

【Generating New Mission: No Harem Life for Me! Avoid marrying Luo Binghe or prevent Luo Binghe from forming a harem. 】

【Reward: 250 B Points. Penalty: 500 B Points】

【Accept? Y/N】

A penalty of 500 B Points? Double the reward and more than enough to put him into the negatives?

No one can stop a stallion protagonist from gathering a harem! Reject! Reject! Reject!

【QAQ】

【Reward: 1000 B Points?】

No! Never! How the hell was he supposed to avoid Luo Binghe’s stallion protagonist attribute activation?

【Honoured User could avoid marrying Luo Binghe!】

Not when I’m risking 500 B Points! I don’t even have 500 B Points!

【(⌒‿⌒) The System understands! Mission status: on hold. Activation condition: Acquiring 500 B Points! Work hard, Honoured User! You’ll get there in no time! 】

Shen Yuan let out a soundless scream.

#scumbag self saving system #svsss #shen yuan #mxtx #ficlet #Su Xiyan #Qin Wanyue #Qin Wanrong

[scoutception]

My ranking of the Science Adventure (Steins;Gate series) visual novels

Among the many visual novels that have been released over the decades, the Science Adventure, or SciAdv, series, developed by 5pb./MAGES, holds a pretty special place among them. Focusing heavily on more or less ordinary people who unexpectedly become involved in serious scenarios having to do with various concepts such as time travel, SciAdv VNs have many distinguishing traits that help set them apart from many others in the genre. From the protagonists of each title, who have very strong and often unlikeable personalities to start, but receive large amounts of character development and often end up among the best of their respective casts, to their unique take on multiple endings, as conventional dialogue options aren’t used, with endings instead being influenced by bits of interactivity throughout the stories, such as choosing to send a text message or not, to the soundtracks, done by Takeshi Abo, whose philosophy of reading through the stories of what he composes for makes for very fitting and memorable soundtracks, to even the visuals of each installment, as the series has made use of several different artists, giving most titles their own distinctive looks from each other. So far, six main series titles have been released, Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes, Chaos;Child, Steins;Gate 0, and Robotics;Notes DaSH. As a series that is very special to me now, having played Steins;Gate towards the end of 2019 and most of the rest of the series in 2020, I figure it’s time for me to make a ranking of each title, from my least to most favorite. This only covers the main series, so this does not take any spinoffs into account, and more than anything, these are just my opinions, biased as they very likely are. The amount of detail I go into will also often be a bit limited, whether because of certain titles being very spoilery sequels or from me having written full reviews of others in the past. With that in mind, though, there’s not much more to say, so let’s just get started, and be warned this’ll be long, even by my standards. 6. Robotics;Notes DaSH

This first title is actually the most recent entry in the series, having released in 2019, and it’s actually fairly notable for being the only entry in the series to be a normal, direct sequel. Anything past the most basic parts of its premise is quite spoilery, but it stars the original Robotics;Notes cast while also throwing Itaru Hashida, a character from Steins;Gate, into the mix. However, it’s also easily the most disliked title in the series among fans, and it’s quite understandable why, because there are quite a few problems to be found. It’s very unambitious, both as a sequel and as its own game. It introduces no new characters, with every character returning from a previous title, it’s actually quite short, with only nine chapters in total, with five of them being character focused alternate endings that don’t actually tie into the storyline, leaving the actual plot very minimal, and overall a lot of it is just rehashed from the original Robotics;Notes. Additionally, Itaru’s presence is, to me, a detriment rather than a selling point. A large amount of the game takes place from his perspective, and not only does it somewhat distract from Kaito, the actual protagonist of Robotics;Notes, but his perspective is often just obnoxious. He’s less one dimensional than he could be in Steins;Gate, but his perverted humor is even more one note than it was previously, with an unfortunate amount of the comedic scenes being influenced by it, the outsider perspective he lends feels unnecessary when DaSH’s story is so reliant upon R;N’s, and he doesn’t really add anything to the cast dynamic, as his personality was already fulfilled by Frau, and better at that, and even being the adult of the group was already taken by Nae. A lot of what happens is also just very weird, far more than any other main series title, making it hard to take seriously at times, and the soundtrack is probably the least memorable in the series, not helped by a large part of R;N’s soundtrack being reused, a first among the series.

That said, it’s not like it’s all bad. While the story may be lackluster, the handling of the actual R;N cast is great. Nobody is out of character, and even at the start have visibly developed since their last appearance. As well, while most of the character endings have no real relevance to the plot, they do good at helping develop their respective focus characters, with highlights to me being Subaru’s chapter, which, along with being one of the most grounded in the game, gives Subaru a lot of backstory and development that he missed out on in R;N, and Nae’s chapter, which, while not as focused on Nae herself, gives her a good extra bit of backstory and depth, and is one of the few parts of the game predominantly seen from Kaito’s perspective, which both makes it more tolerable and helps give him some more development. Visually, DaSH is actually quite stylish. Not only do the models from R;N still look great, but there’s much more effort put into how individual scenes look. Lighting on the models is much more prominent, characters who are entering a scene will occasionally visibly run in, rather than simply fading in, the positioning of characters has more depth, instead of them simply being lined up in a row, and so on. It may not sound impressive, but for a VN, it’s quite well done. The only downsides are that the animations aren’t nearly as elaborate or entertaining as in R;N, and some of the redesigns aren’t too memorable, though Kaito and Akiho’s new designs are great.

In the end, I don’t think Robotics;Notes DaSH is bad, just underwhelming, especially having it as the most recent game out as of now. If you enjoy the Robotics;Notes cast a lot, like I do, then you can certainly get some enjoyment out of it, but it really feels more like a spinoff that somehow got made into a main series title than anything else. If you temper your expectations, playing it might go fine, but otherwise, this is honestly the only one that’s really skippable.

5. Chaos;Head

Released in 2008, Chaos;Head is the first installment in the SciAdv series, and by far one of the most unique, for better or worse, and is also the only mainline title to not have an official English translation. Instead, the original PC version, which is outright incomplete compared to what was planned, has a fan translation, and Chaos;Head NoAH, the updated, complete version, is currently being translated by the talented Committee of Zero, though it’s unfortunately still a ways away from being complete. With that in mind, it’s inherently a bit unfair to judge this version, but this is all we have right now, so that’s how it is. I’ll gladly revisit NoAH in full once it’s finished. Chaos;Head focuses on Takumi Nishijou, a paranoid, reclusive, and cripplingly socially anxious high school student who accidentally witnesses the latest of a series of strange serial killings called the New Generation Madness, with Takumi afterwards finding his life slowly invaded by bizarre people and incidents that seem to affect far more than his own life.

I wasn’t much of a fan of C;H when I first went through it, but I’ve come to appreciate it much more since. This is a horror visual novel more than anything else, and in that sense, it works very well. There’s many effectively tense and disturbing scenes, the buildup to many of them is done quite well, and it weaponizes ambiguity in a way that only makes the experience that much more disturbing. Aside from moments within the main story, Takumi has a tendency to experience vivid delusions, with you often having the option to experience a positive or negative delusion in the middle of a scene. Many of these are simply silly, exaggerated scenarios, but others make it much more ambiguous as to whether they’re actually imaginary or not, making for some very clever scenes. It overall results in a very well done atmosphere and a compelling sense of weirdness. The soundtrack, though not one of my favorites among the series, is very appropriately lowkey or disturbing as the mood demands.

That said, there’s still several problems I have with C;H that keep it from being one of my favorites in the series. Most notably, Takumi himself. He’s creepy, entitled, aggressively antisocial, and overall obnoxious. Unlikeable protagonists are par for the course in SciAdv, but Takumi takes it to such an extreme that he singlehandedly drives many people away from C;H, and when he spends most of the story slowly getting worse instead of improving at all, it can be hard to sympathize with him or get invested in his story despite the genuinely awful things he goes through. Additionally, many of his tendencies cause other problems with the writing. All Takumi ever wants to do is be by himself and avoid getting involved with anything else, meaning he’s involved with surprisingly little of the actual plot, with perspective changes to other characters being the main source of it, and that he spends a large amount of the story alone, meaning instead of having other characters to play off of him like in the rest of the series, you’re just stuck with his repetitive, self pitying thoughts.

As for the rest of the cast, underdeveloped is the word that comes to mind for a lot of them. Many of the main characters only have a handful random scenes to them, either with Takumi or from their perspective, and they have very few interactions with each other. This is because many of them are supposed to come off as mysterious, but it still leaves few characters to actually care about easily. That’s not to say there aren’t any winners, as characters like Nanami, Takumi’s justifiably disrespectful little sister, the delinquentish Sena Aoi, and especially the deuteragonist, Rimi Sakihata, definitely got me liking them, but it’s still the weakest cast in the series to me. As for some smaller complaints, the artstyle, though not bad, and producing some pretty good sprites and CGs, is pretty generic, the voice acting is really only decent most of the time, and there’s only three endings, with one being a shorter version of the true ending and another only being unlockable after the true ending, which isn’t necessarily an issue, but it’s disappointing when the endings are one of the most interesting parts of the series. Overall, I do think C;H is at least worth checking out, especially due to many entries in the series directly referencing or depending on it in some form, and I do eagerly await being able to play through NoAH, but it’s overall just not my particular cup of tea compared to the rest of the series.

4. Steins;Gate 0

Here’s where we get into the really good stuff to me, with this somewhat difficult to talk about 2015 sort of sequel to Steins;Gate. Since going into the premise with even the slightest bit of detail is extremely spoilery, this’ll be somewhat short, but for a sequel to something as acclaimed and self contained as Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0 does very well, doing many things to help differentiate itself and standout as its own entry without being alienating. Most importantly, instead of being a direct continuation to Steins;Gate’s ending, S;G0 is instead an alternate scenario, which gives it much more freedom to tell its own story without having to invalidate anything from the original’s ending. It establishes a noticeably different, very melancholic atmosphere, switches between perspectives very often whereas S;G takes place entirely from the perspective of Okabe, its protagonist, and has a genuine and fairly extensive nonlinear structure, with single, though thankfully usually obvious, decisions sending you between several different branches comprising of several chapters each, with several of the endings themselves being some of the most memorable parts of the whole series. The original cast have great redesigns, several of them, most notably Itaru, get a good deal of character development, and it introduces two of the most memorable characters in the series, Maho Hiyajo, who establishes herself as a very likeable character as soon as she appears and fits with the cast perfectly, and the genuinely hilarious professor Leskinen. The voice acting is quite strong, and the soundtrack is also my favorite in the series, having many melancholic or lowkey tracks that fit perfectly, along with some of the most memorable vocal themes in the series.

That said, there’s also noticeable issues that drag the experience down a bit. While the nonlinear structure is a cool concept and unique for the series, it also means there’s not nearly as much of a focused plot. The branches will just go in wildly different directions, and while most of them are still interesting, their mutually exclusive nature means you’ll just be going right back to the status quo once an ending is finished. Additionally, S;G0 is noticeably shorter on the shorter side of SciAdv VNs, which isn’t necessarily a problem by itself, but it is when it tries to juggle way more subplots at once than S;G does. Some of them never get properly followed up on, and some are just not as interesting as others, which can make a few parts something of a drag. Aside from Maho and Leskinen, the rest of the new characters are either quite minor or just not compellingly written, most notably Kagari, and some of the original cast, most notably Luka, are very much put to the sidelines. While the artstyle isn’t bad, and still looks good most of the time, it’s definitely a downgrade from the artstyle of S;G, and a few sprites are very jarringly reused from S;G. That said, while the issues it does have do stick out, S;G0 is overall still a strong entry in the series, and a worthy sequel. It’s absolutely worth checking out for anyone who enjoyed S;G.

3. Robotics;Notes

Released in 2012 as the followup to Steins;Gate, though only released in English back in late 2020, Robotics;Notes is honestly the entry my opinion has changed on the most since finishing it. I had certainly enjoyed playing it quite a bit, but it wasn’t among my favorites in the series. As time has gone on and I’ve thought about it more and more, though, I only found my opinion on it improving. However, since I’ve written a full review on Robotics;Notes before, which can be read here, I’ll just try to summarize my thoughts on it. Robotics;Notes splits its focus between two main plots, those of the Robotics Club the cast belongs to attempting to build a life size robot of their own, and that of Kaito, the protagonist, searching for the Kimijima Reports scattered around the island of Tanegashima, which warn of a conspiratory plot that threatens the entire human race. It admittedly does not balance these two plots the best, but I still found both compelling. The Robotics Club plot contributes to a large amount of the character development among the cast, and the Kimijima Report plot, or at least incidents related to it, has several memorable moments to it, especially later in the story. Though Robotics;Notes is overall lighthearted and the writing more than a bit chaotic, in a legitimately funny way, it never feels over the top, and it still handles its different moods very well. The endings are actually all parts of one linear story, and while accessing them can be annoying, it does allow for one of the most developed stories of the series, with the final few chapters in particular being downright great, and doesn’t invalidate any character development that occurs like in DaSH or S;G0. The 3D models used are actually very good, with elaborate and expressive animations that are always fun to watch, the CGs are well done, and the soundtrack is quite good, with the title screen theme, Robotics Notes -2nd theme- being one of the most beautiful tracks in the series.

But more than anything, what really makes me like R;N so much is the cast. I just plain love it. The characters are all well developed across the story, whether very visibly such as with Junna or Frau, or more subtly, like with the protagonist himself, Kaito, have several great dynamics with each other both individually and especially as a group, to the point I’d say they work the best as a group out of all the SciAdv casts, are lighthearted and inoffensive enough even at their worst to make getting attached to them over the course of the game quite easy, and have very well done voice acting that makes them that much more charming, making for easily my second favorite cast of the series. As much as I do like the more serious plot, seeing them develop and come into their own is just as, if not more interesting, and makes the ending one of the most satisfying in the series. Even the side characters, who normally don’t mean much, are much more distinctive in their own rights, especially the almost surprisingly prominent Nae Tennouji, grown up from her appearances in Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0. R;N definitely isn’t for everyone, as it’s quite slowly paced and places the majority of its focus on the characters and away from the main plot, and just from being the technical sequel to Steins;Gate, it can seem very underwhelming by comparison. All the same, though, I think R;N is genuinely great, and worth a fair try by anyone interested in the series.

2. Chaos;Child

Released in 2014, this is undoubtedly one of the heavier hitters of SciAdv, and a common choice for favorite in the series among fans. This is another one that I’ve written a full review on, which can be read here, but I’m not one to hesitate to sing Chaos;Child’s praises again. This entry is unique in that it’s a “thematic sequel”; it has the same setting, basic plot concept, and overall themes as Chaos;Head, but with a fresh cast and a vastly different take on many aspects, following the perspective of Takuru Miyashiro, an extremely arrogant newspaper club president investigating a new string of serial killings similar to those that occurred in Chaos;Head. While some aspects of Chaos;Child are more conventional for the series compared to C;H, I simply think that helps it tell a vastly superior story. The cast is flawed, odd, and more than a bit unpleasant in the case of a few of them, but at the same time are quite complex, developed, and very sympathetic, especially in the case of Takuru. The story is very dark, but it has enough tender moments to keep you from being pushed into apathy. It’s actually a very genuinely emotional experience, to the point the true ending got me crying multiple times, which isn’t something that happens often at all for me. The mysteries and reveals are some of the best in the series, but the cast is really what pushes C;C into something fantastic.

Honestly, there aren’t many complaints I can really bring up with C;C. There’s smaller things like delusion triggers not being used as cleverly as in C;H, some of the alternate endings being kinda odd, and so forth, but nothing that significantly detracts from the experience. While the artstyle is about the same as in C;H, the quality of the sprites and backgrounds is high, the CGs are fantastic, and lighting shaders are used to enhance different moods very effectively. The voice acting is strong, and the soundtrack is one of the best in the series. There’s very good reason as to why C;C is so acclaimed, and there was a brief point where I was even debating naming it as my favorite. That said, ignore anything I may have said in my full review about being able to play C;C without C;H. Appreciating it fully absolutely requires experiencing C;H first. It’s definitely worth the payoff regardless of what you may end up thinking of C;H itself.

1. Steins;Gate

Yeah, this was probably expected, all things considered. Released in 2009, Steins;Gate is very popularly considered one of the best visual novels ever made, focusing on Rintaro Okabe, a self proclaimed “mad scientist” who, through a chance meeting with a teenage genius named Kurisu Makise, accidentally develops a method to send emails to the past. This is another title I can’t go super in depth with, not because I’ve written a full review, but because I don’t like talking too many specifics about the plot, simply because so much of the plot and atmosphere relies upon the mystery of the unknown. I can, however, certainly talk about elements around the plot that I like. Time travel stories are certainly nothing original, and at that they’re not something I’m a fan of most of the time, but Steins;Gate is a very different type of time travel story, one as much about the concept of time travel and the ramifications it holds as it is one about actually putting it to use. Characters reflect upon the existential questions the very idea of it brings up as much as ideas on how to actually develop it, and it’s very gripping. The actual mechanics of time travel themselves are also very unique, and make the gradual exploration and reveal of them fascinating.

Having a unique take on a time travel story is already a pretty good foundation, but that’s nowhere near the only strength of the writing. The cast is just plain great, and my favorite of the series. While some are absolutely more prominent than others, almost all of them are memorable and well developed in their own rights, with some standouts being Kurisu, who is quite possibly the most understandable and well written tsundere out there, Mayuri, whose bright personality is extremely charming and makes her by far the easiest to like early on, when most characters appear inconsistently or otherwise come off as very odd, and Okabe himself, who is a fantastically developed protagonist, and a pretty unique take on the chuunibyou character. The atmosphere is fantastic, in no small part due to how it handles perspectives. Steins;Gate is the only entry in the series to only follow the protagonist’s perspective the entire way through, and while it can be irritating, due to how offputting a character Okabe’s antics can make him, it also manages to be extremely immersive, getting you very familiar with his thoughts, the ways he views the rest of the cast, and ensures that you never definitively know anything more than he does, enhancing the mystery of the plot. The multiple endings are by far the most fascinating in the series to me, as while they’re actually quite short, and more just extensions of the chapters that they can be entered through, they’re all very distinctive, from each other and in their own rights, never go on more than they need to, and give genuine conclusions to both the story and Okabe’s character in different ways. The story is also very, very emotional, with several of the endings especially getting me crying, and pretty hard, at that. This is all helped by a superb translation, by far the best in the series.

But really, one of Steins;Gate’s absolute biggest strengths is just how focused of a story it is. All of the main characters are relevant to the plot in one way or another, and outside of them, there’s very few side characters, with most of them being family members or people otherwise only known through association, like Tennouji, Okabe’s landlord. While some say that the story is slow for a while, I disagree, as outside of perhaps the first one or two proper chapters, every chapter and part of the story serves its own purpose, whether it be revelations about the plot or cast or just helping slowly build up the atmosphere, and when the plot does ramp up, it never really drops off. It’s also a very complete and standalone story, and outside of a few ultimately minor references to Chaos;Head, there’s really nothing explicitly connecting it to the series as a whole by itself, which makes it a fantastic entry point.

S;G other aspects don’t disappoint either. Visually, the game is a treat. The artstyle is very unique and downright beautiful, giving it one of the most distinctive looks in the whole visual novel genre. The sprites and CGs look fantastic, and the character designs are both very memorable and almost shockingly grounded, to the point only one main character has a blatantly impossible hair color, and even then is clearly invoking it. The soundtrack is also one of the best in the series, with many memorable tracks such as the upbeat Cycle, Mayuri’s beautiful theme, Quiet Air, and the chilling title screen theme, Gate of Steiner -Piano-, which perfectly captures the atmosphere of the game by itself, along with the various vocal themes, such as the insert song, Technovision, the bad ending theme, Farfalla of Fate, and the theme for the true ending, Another Heaven. The voice acting is fantastic as well, with every VA capturing their characters perfectly, especially the great Mamoru Miyano as Okabe.

I’ll be honest, Steins;Gate was the first “true” VN I ever played, with all my experiences prior being ones like Ace Attorney or Zero Escape, those with much more interactivity than the norm, and it singlehandedly made me want to dive into the genre as deep as I am now. It’s one of my favorite pieces of media ever, if not my favorite, period, and nearly two years after I finished it, my passion for it has still remained strong. There are some problems with it, for sure, like accessing the true ending being unnecessarily complex and difficult, but on a whole, Steins;Gate is genuinely just an exceptionally solid work that’s more than earned its fame. Playing it is something I really can’t recommend enough, not just as an entry into the SciAdv series, but also as its own work, or even an entry into visual novels as a whole. The only thing real warning needed is that the original version, most easily available on Steam, is very much the recommended way to experience is, as opposed to Steins;Gate Elite, which uses animation from the anime instead of the original art, and is an inferior experience for a variety of reasons I don’t want to get into here.

Regardless, that there is my ranking of the SciAdv series. If I had to give a few recommendations, it would be to buy the versions of the games available on Steam, as they all have improvement patches done by Committee of Zero, which helps clean up translation issues, various bugs, and generally just makes the experiences that much smoother, especially in the case of Robotics;Notes. Steins;Gate is absolutely the best one to start with, and you can safely play Steins;Gate 0 afterwards as well, but for every entry after that, experiencing Chaos;Head becomes heavily recommended. While every entry except DaSH has an anime adaptation, the only case where I’d say it’s a sufficient alternative to the source material is Steins;Gate’s anime, as Chaos;Head and Chaos;Child have awful adaptations, Robotics;Note’s anime is decent, but still missing quite a bit, and 0′s anime suffers from trying to condense a very nonlinear story into a single storyline. All the same, though, the Steins;Gate VN is the best way to experience it. On one last note, as someone who’s experienced every entry in the series available in English as of now, I can’t help but wonder what kind of future the series is now heading in. DaSH was an underwhelming experience, Occultic;Nine, a spinoff of sorts, is still incomplete to this day in every form it’s available in, Anonymous;Code, another sort of spinoff, has been in a development hell that really makes me worried about how it’ll turn out when it finally actually releases, and a thematic sequel to Steins;Gate similar to Chaos;Child is supposed to be released after Anonymous;Code, which is intriguing, but also feels against the point of Steins;Gate to begin with. There’s a lot of worrying ways this could go, but honestly, I feel regardless of how it turns out, I’m already satisfied with my experiences with the series. This was all just an excuse to vent my feelings about an important series to me, and hopefully encourage someone else to give even one of these VNs a try. No matter what, these will stay in my heart for a long time. Anyway, with that uncharacteristic venting of passion over, it’s time for this post to come to a close. I’m going to make a separate review post on the Steins;Gate spinoffs, and another for Chaos;Head NoAH as well, once its translation is out, but those are for another time. Till next time. -Scout

#steins;gate #visual novel #steins gate #steinsgatezero #robotics;notes #chaos;head #chaos;child #long post

[sheepibum]

{ Re:Zero Fic Masterlist }

I said I'd make one to keep track of all my projects for this fandom, since it honestly got me through most of last year's lockdown. I will be super slow in getting anything done, but this is probably one of the series I've found easy to write, so there's hope!

The list is pretty damn long so it's under the cut.

[Standalone]

⚜ please don’t call this ‘gardening’ [Complete]

Summary: Love rattles in his lungs.

A hanahaki AU, bc I love suffering.

⚜ this purgatory between hells [i have bits and pieces]

Summary: While Subaru builds ladders out of his own mortality, those who wish to save him are doomed to slide down the snakes born from their failures. (Or, the various failures of the Subaru faction.)

Written mostly for me, might count as attempt #1 at writing some sort of ‘reaction’ fic, except for the part that, instead of a theater we have an empty, blank space in which some characters relevant to the plot, rather than see what Subaru has been through, are allowed to have their memories from the if timelines and their goal is to keep Subaru from going off the rails like that, which, as you can probably guess from the number of existing ifs, doesn’t always work. It doesn't make much sense if I explain it, huh? :/

⚜ a little glow and dance [concept only]

Summary: Subaru dies, a minor spirit wakes up and falls in love too many times to count, Subaru returns to fulfill a promise; in that order.

To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,

Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—

T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Right, so I don’t want to spoil the whole thing, but basically after Subaru dies, a minor spirit is adopted by people who miss him because it reminds them of him.

⚜ To Sin, Perchance to Grieve [concept only]

Summary: In a familiar, unfamiliar dream, Subaru is confronted by those who made different choices. A madman, a despot, a coward, a pervert, a tool, an idiot—all of them wearing Subaru’s face.

Subaru has a ‘conversation’ with the if’s assortment of Subarus, who blame him (of course) for not becoming them.

⚜ The Days of Our End [concept only]

Summary: This is just an ending, not the worst, not the best, not even truly worth writing about. But it’s the ending Subaru achieved, after all his sacrifices; an ending he’s not sure he’s satisfied with, with the thrumming in his chest constantly beating ‘you should have done better’ against his ribs.

Well, at some point before finishing Arc 6, I got thinking about a ‘neutral ending’, as in videogames good/bad/true ending, this was one when you don’t complete all the missions you should and get stuck in a meh ending. Lots of consequences and weird ships bc I decided I wanted to have fun with Lugunica’s views on relationships.

⚜ The WC Insider (Issue #664 How To Live Love Laugh With Your New Archbishop!) [concept only]

Summary: Subaru is feeling a terrible cocktail of pity, second-hand embarrasment and morbid fascination, because he knew everyone who had made a conscious decision to join something like the Witch Cult had to be a bit touched in the head, but how are these people still alive? That title alone should be grounds for execution via firing squad.

Otto, accurately interpreting his silence as only a friend, nay, a best friend could, cringed in his chair.

“Please don’t mention the title, I tried bringing it up, but apparently is all they have left of their deceased leader so they don’t want to change it.”

“Wow, their leader was an asshole.”

Just pure crack. AU, most likely taking place right after Arc 3, where Subaru decides to infiltrate the Witch Cult, which somehow is a bigger mess than he is. Inspired by a discord conversation!

⚜ Kindertotenlieder [0/2]

Summary: Songs on the Death of Children, and the nightmares that haunt (as they should) those who do not know that the child in question should be mourned.

A second attempt at not writing a react fic, sort of. So, basically, a bunch of characters have nightmares about some of Subaru’s bad endings without any context whatsoever and don’t exactly take it well. That’s it, that’s the whole plot.

⚜ for those lost and those lesser [3/3] [Complete]

Summary: Crusch loses herself, Subaru loses Rem; briefly, they find each other.

In the end, everyone is aware of this: nobody keeps any of what he has, and life is only a borrowing of bones. Pablo Neruda, “October Fullness”

My Crusch/Subaru fic for the Re:Zero Gift Exchange. It's another sad introspection stream of thoughts, tho. :/ At least it was fun to try to write Crusch.

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[Multichapter Fic]

🌠⚡ Start, From Minus [3/5]

Summary: Freshly isekai’d Subaru runs into a master swordman who saves him, and gets involved in the Royal Selection of Lugunica in order to help his employer. All of that sounds the same, save for the fact that everything is different.

Or: six months before his supposed otherworldly adventure should have begun, Subaru ends up being summoned to the Vollachia Empire, meets a Divine General and starts hacking away at the plot.

This fic came to me in a vision.

No, but really. I had just finished reading the if stories, with Wrath being my favorite by far, when I had the fortune of stumbling upon a comic with a small AU ft. Subaru and Cecilius (thanks, pixiv); I, of course, have no idea what the comic was about bc I can’t read Japanese kanji, but it made an Impression on me and next thing I knew I had devoted a few hours every day for a week in a draft that was the most complete draft I have ever put to paper; for reference, my ‘drafts’ tend to look like this:

While the draft I wrote down for this thing looks like this:

I need to revise and edit the whole thing, but I have a good 18k words written already, so it’s definitely happening at some point. Also, no wonder I have such a hard time cleaning up my drafts, huh? Ugh.

update: I have finished posting the chapters that I had in my draft, so updates will be very slow, unless I get another vision or something, idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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[Series]

🌺 flowers for you

💐 for you to be spring [10/10] [Complete]

Summary: Soul marks appear in pairs and each pair blooms only once; these are the things Subaru learns: an important person, an important event, an once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. As if Subaru should be so lucky.

A soulmate AU, bc it's one of my weaknesses. Also, flowers as soul marks bc flowers and flower language are two other weaknesses I have. The last chapter should be up in a couple of hours or so.

🍁 I’ll dig a grave for fall [7/7; in hiatus until we get more Ifs]

Summary: These bouquets of poisonous flowers bloom whether he wants it or not because such is the nature of the world he has been summoned to—it is only fair that Subaru answers in kind.

Soulmate AU, but for the If stories. It should be fun, but like in the masochistic sense. But this is a re:zero fic, so it's pretty much expected.

I have tentative titles for at least another 3 ifs (envy, vainglory and melancholy, if we ever get them), and titles for the next two installments of the series for Arc 5-6 and Arc 7 and beyond (if we ever get them animated).

◾◽◾◽◾

🍒 the minor sin of indulgence

🌙 the difference between starlight and moonshine [0/5]

Summary: The shenanigans of Natsuki Subaru and friends when they’re not busy fighting for their (but mostly his) lives. (Or: a collection of self-indulgent minifics using the overused tropes and AUs I should despise, but am actually weak to. )

Well, this one’s exactly what it says on the tin. My parody ABO fic is going to be here.

🎭 I’ll find you believing I’ll be found [4/10]

Summary: These may be different worlds, but they still manage to find each other, for better or worse.

Crossover AUs, in which I shove the Re:Zero cast into the world of some other series and watch them struggle with it, so far with terrible results, but at least one of these AUs will be sort of happier, I promise.

🌟 just a little bit of blood in your hands [0/5]

Summary: A medley of heroes and villains and everything in between with familiar faces, where anyone can wear a mask whether it suits them or not, and not everyone manages to be on the right side of anything for long.

Heroes & Villains Aus, mostly with superpowers, Subaru-centric and Reinhard-centric because I say so. At least one is heavily inspired by the Tiger & Bunny’s brand of heroics.

👑 Coins in a Wishing Well [3/5]

Summary: It’s common knowledge by now that stories repeated a thousand times are like an invasive species; they can dig their roots where you least expect it and wrap their vines around whichever actors they fancy to be retold.

Fantasy AUs! From ghosts to gods to fairy tale retellings, and probably my favorite stories so far. A couple of these are already half-written.

update: finally posted what is my favorite chapter so far! It's a Beaty and the Beast retelling! I worked very hard on it!!

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💟 the shameless raisuba major sin of decadence

Right, so this 'series' is just to have somewhere to dump my raisuba fics, no-plot-just-feels raisuba fics, mostly AU raisuba fics. Low effort/high shipping needs fics written by me for me about my rarepair of choice for this fandom :)

💗 To Have and To Hoard [i dunno, i have exactly one scene and a half and it feels like it’s half done]

Summary: So maybe falling in bed with his overpowered knight friend wasn’t the best idea Subaru had ever had, but he really couldn’t think of a safer place to hide for a little while before he died horribly again. Of course, in true Subaru fashion, Subaru goes on to not die like a champ after that.

This is the first bad plotbunny I had for this ship and now I must write it. Please expect it to be every bit as bad as it sounds. Sorry in advance.

💖 The Broom Waltz [i have the beginning and the end and no idea what to do in the middle]

Summary: A story in which Subaru is a loyal servant and Reinhard is looking for the next Queen, but with a twist (or: the Cinderella remix).

I mean, it is inspired by the fairy tale, but there’s technically no magic in this one so I couldn’t put it in my fantasy AUs.

💘 someone will call you love (this is how it begins) [Complete]

Summary: Reinhard gets lovingly smacked into next week with the holy frying pan of smitten (not to be confused with the holy frying pan of smiting).

Because once, while watching the end of the first arc for the hundredth time, I thought to myself: one day I am going to writea shippy retelling of this shoujo worthy second meeting, and that is a threat. And here we are.

I managed to finish this one for the 2022 Iridescent Pride event, but it unfortunately lost all the crack it was supposed to have in the process; it got kind of sad, sorry.

💝 with all the pieces of the broken-hearted [1/5]

Summary: Their hearts and the ways they both have broken are entirely different, but there’s something to be said for how they still manage to build something out of their wreckages.

This is the self-indulgent pit, the bottom of the barrel for my need to ship these two, low brain/low effort minifics with terrible plots and more ‘well I think it’d be funny’ than sense. Like, if someone was going to arrest me for fic crimes, it’d be because of this thing. One chapter is finished, so I will be uploading something soon-ish.

There, first chapter is up and it's all downhill from here.

#re:zero #the sheep writes #sheepibum does more than rant #raisuba #reinsuba #updated post

[northernscruffycat]

ALL THE HADES OCS

OH HERE WE GOOOO~ (gonna put most of this under a cut, because it'll get long) Momus: Sexuality HC: Gay. He thinks he's bi at this point in the RP, but he is gay.

Favorite ship(s): Momus/Heracles, obvs, but I also like Momus/Morpheus and the awful Momus/Theseus stuff as well

Brotp: Momus, Hypnos & Icarus

Notp: Uhhh... Momus/Asterius?

Happy HC: Momus thrives in the modern era and has basically been waiting his whole existence to live in this time period so he can drive everyone mad by becoming a memelord. I also love describing his awful outfits too much.

Angsty HC: Nyx never acknowledges him and this hurts him more than he admits.

Random HC: If he existed in the actual game, he'd be a character who screws over the player late into a run (probably only spawning from Elysium onwards). He takes any perks you've gotten from gods and makes it so instead of doing plus the base damage, it does minus the base damage (although obvs caps before ur doing no damage at all). Because I'd want players to reeeally hate him. Like "I was doing so well, but then I ran into Momus and he ruined it!" Seems fitting for the God of Mockery.

General opinion: I am highkey obsessed with Momus in a way that I've never been this invested in one of my own OCs before. How dare he do this to me. OKAY, EVERYONE ELSE UNDER THE CUT:

Heracles: Sexuality HC: Bi, also a furry

Favorite ship(s): Momus/Heracles again, though I love how soft he is for Morpheus in the recent RPs

Brotp: I feel like him and Icarus could be this once they know each other better

Notp: I mean, there's a lotta ppl who deserve better than this guy

Happy HC: Like, you've already set him on this path of awesome character development to the point that I actually want good things for him for the first time. I hope that the clown parade have an excellent world tour together and that he can start to trust himself again.

Angsty HC: His canon is angsty enough

Random HC: He has a preference for twinks, whether he wants to admit it or not.

General opinion: I can't believe you've made me stan Heracles now. He's shot up my fave characters roster. The banter that him and Momus has is top tier, but then the genuinely emotional moments between them hit just as hard. You can actually see how much they've been through together and how, now they've got their feelings out in the open, they genuinely love each other and want this to work. UGHHH I LOVE THEM Pasithea: Sexuality HC: I mean, she's your OC, but I assume she's bi

Favorite ship(s): Pasithea/Oizys

Brotp: Pasithea & Zagreus

Notp: None really? Even after everything, I don't really dislike Pasithea/Momus, although it's best they both realised that wouldn't have worked out

Happy HC: She becomes queen and everyone respect her like they should!

Angsty HC: Her whole situation with Thanatos and that she didn't get the closure she deserved.

Random HC: She do be liking them goths tho

General opinion: I love Pasi! I think she's just as much the main character as Momus is at this stage and I'm glad that her whole arc showed her giving the middle finger to everyone who oppressed her and coming out on top. Morpheus: Sexuality HC: I honestly don't know :0

Favorite ship(s): Momus/all of his simps (Icarus, Momus & Heracles)

Brotp: They only had that one short scene, but I like Morpheus & Pluteus

Notp: None yet

Happy HC: He gets to travel the world and everyone simps him like he deserves

Angsty HC: There has been enough angst in this man's life. The time for angst is over.

Random HC: He is an unsuitable replacement for owning a thesaurus and should not be used in such a way.

General opinion: Another top favourite! I love the directions you've gone in with him, the whole "he's a doll come to life so Pasithea and Hypnos could cheat the Fates and not have kids" angle is brilliant and he's definitely a character who I'm always keen to see what will happen to him next. Icarus: Sexuality HC: bisexual and sweaty

Favorite ship(s): Icarus/Morpheus and Icarus/Momus so far

Brotp: Icarus, Momus & Hypnos, also potentially Icarus & Heracles

Notp: Icarus/Zagreus LMAOOO

Happy HC: He might not be an inventor, but he eventually finds his true calling in being a technician and becomes incredibly successful with his skills for improving upon inventions that have already been made.

Angsty HC: He's fuckin icarus. everyone knows that story lol

Random HC: His whole existence is one big joke that Momus will never stop laughing at.

General opinion: He's still finding his feet as a character, but I have high hopes for Icarus and think we'll get a lot of mileage out of him. Oizys: Sexuality HC: Obstinately gay

Favorite ship(s): Oizys/Pasithea

Brotp: I mean, she had a good friendship with Pluteus before the timeskip, so hopefully she still does

Notp: Oizys/Pluteus as a romo ship

Happy HC: God I hope she can be happy someday.

Angsty HC: She's not as co-dependent as she claims to be and played up needing Momus's help when they were growing up so that he wouldn't leave her.

Random HC: Oizys gets a slight kick out of the concepts she's goddess of, but doesn't realise when they overwhelm her.

General opinion: It's complicated, but I want to hope she figures it all out. Pluteus: Sexuality HC: Ace/Aro

Favorite ship(s): Maybe they'll figure it out with Aphrodite again one day

Brotp: Pluteus & Oizys, also Pluteus & Pasithea is funny

Notp: Pluteus & depression

Happy HC: Pluteus is happy to be a terrible actor who believes that they're a great actor.

Angsty HC: I feel like there's a sense of not being fulfilled inside Pluteus, but they don't want to address it.

Random HC: Pluteus will always refer to Pasithea as their mother, whether she likes it or not. Sorry Pasi.

General opinion: I like Pluteus as the occasional support character and they're excellent for comic relief, but they're one character who I don't think needs to be part of a bigger story. ...Okay, so there's also Daedalus, Nemesis, Eris and a few others, but I think that I've covered most of the ones who've had a lot of focus for now? Let me know if I missed anyone :0

#thank you so much!! #*Talking #*OCs #*Hades OCs #*My OCs

[browniesnivy]

I’m not going to pretend that Dartz isn’t easily the weakest villain in the series, but I feel like there was at least some effort put in to giving him some interesting contrast with Yami (even if, like most decent or even good ideas in Season 4, they ended up diluting the message in the paper-thin writing). Unfortunately, before I explain what I mean I have to go into excruciating detail about Atem’s character arc, so buckle up because it’s essay time. 

One of the things that Season 4 touches on that I actually rather enjoy is Yami’s obsession with destiny and how this affects his perception of victory and of himself. Though people complain that Yami had nothing to lose in his duel with Raphael before he activated the Seal of Orichalcos, I actually think this was intended to highlight how he perceives winning and losing. To lose for any reason is (at least to him) not just a personal failure that will injure his own pride, but one that will put the balance of the entire universe in danger. He has no memory of who he was or even who he is now, but his past follows him around everywhere he goes and dictates every second of his afterlife (just as it did when he was alive, although he has no idea about that at this point). He is told by Ishizu and many others around him that he is responsible for everything, that it is his job to fix everything wrong in this world, and thus he has developed a complex of thinking that it is his personal responsibility to eradicate every evil in this world and any failure is an apocalyptic catastrophe. That mindset is obviously terribly unhealthy, but Yami’s destiny is the only shred of his identity that he even knows. It might require him to constantly endanger himself, but it’s the only thing that anyone seems to understand about him and is certainly the only thing he understands about himself, so he continuously throws himself in front of Ra’s attack again and again and again...

Unlike the major story arcs in the show that proceeded it (and sadly the one that follows), Season 4 treats this as a major flaw in Yami’s mentality. Raphael is able to manipulate him into activating the Seal by convincing him he will lose everything if he can’t defeat him, and the fact that there is no actual danger involved at present might actually help convince Yami of his point even more. We see in Season 0 that Yami often puts himself in unnecessarily dangerous situations for what appears to be no reason, but to him every situation with even a possibility of “failure” is dangerous. In this instance, the fact that he could lose at all is dangerous enough, and he invents all sorts of imaginary reasons why he has to play the Seal of Orichalcos no matter what the cost. Raphael is expertly manipulating his opponent’s insecurities here. Of course it was a huge mistake for Yami to play the Seal, but with all this in mind it is a mistake that I could at least easily see myself making if I were in his shoes. 

In the end, Yami ends up paying for this mistake. He loses despite his best efforts, but unlike before he played the Seal and was on the verge of defeat, he actually has something tangible to lose now. Yugi didn’t deserve to have his soul stolen for a mistake his partner made, and yet that is exactly what ended up happening. Yami is able to see that this is unfair when it happens to Yugi, and yet he still is at first unable to see that same principal applies to him when he tries to brazenly sacrifice himself for other people’s sins. Yami is forced to confront this nasty part of himself and realize that his life is worth more than it’s use to the universe at large. Only by the lose of his closest friend, the only one who sees him as a real person and not as a Messiah or an extension of someone else, can he come to the realization that he isn’t meant to single-handedly solve every single problem in the world. That emptiness when his friend isn’t around makes him realize that it isn’t his destiny that fills the void in his soul but his connections, and that he doesn’t have to constantly throw himself under the bus in order to make the world a better place... because there are people who love him and who want him to love himself too. 

Of course this is basically ignored by the fact that the show ends with Yami being forced to abandon all his meaningful connections in order to fulfill his depressing and lonely destiny, but in isolation this is a pretty nice character arc that honestly should have been carried over into future seasons. And before you ask, I don’t take constructive criticism. 

Now, back to Dartz. There are several surface level similarities between Atem and Dartz, most obvious being that they are both ancient kings who wield the powers of darkness. What I think often goes unnoticed is the fact that they have nearly identical views of the world despite being on opposing sides. Dartz desires to consume everything he deems evil by fulfilling the destiny given to him by the Orichalcos, not just because he was instantly brainwashed by it (because that would be stupid) but because after his kingdom crumbled he realized that he was the only one left to stop the destruction of Atlantis from happening to the rest of the world. This is basically exactly what Yami is trying to accomplish: Yami was unable to stop the consequences of his father’s sins from bleeding into the future and now seeks to use the last of his remaining strength to completely purge the world of sin. One major difference in Dartz and Yami’s thinking is that Yami seems to be focused on destroying the very concept of “evil” while Dartz just wants to get rid of the people that do evil things, but nonetheless both of them have personally taken on massive responsibilities spanning generations in an attempt to stop something they aren’t even responsible for themselves. It isn’t Dartz’s fault that Atlantis was full of unrighteous people in the same way it wasn’t Atem’s fault that his father committed genocide an entire village, but they both think it’s up to them to face the consequences head-on regardless of what that means for them. 

Dartz sacrifices himself to the Great Leviathan in the end to achieve his goal, an action which I believe is the final culmination of all of Yami’s self-worth issues and the logical extreme of his mistake to play the Seal of Orichalcos earlier in the season. Yami can not be fooled into blindly sacrificing himself after what he learned on this journey, not after he realized that he had value despite the darkness inside his heart. He is able to defeat the Leviathan by calling upon his friends to help him accept his flaws and learn to work past them instead of force himself to constantly atone for them. It might have been corny, but it gets the point across that Yami will not become Dartz (ignoring the fact that he ends up basically doing just that even if it is “for the right reasons” later on which drives me INSANE) and will no longer treat himself as something less than human, as just a vehicle for destiny’s righteous judgement. Dartz tried to fix a fundamental evil of the world by sacrificing his own humanity and ultimately became the very thing he sought to destroy, just as Yami became dangerously close to doing in his duel against Raphael. But he knows better now and for once, he actually puts his past behind him and moves on towards a better future alongside his friends. (I know I keep bringing this up but take notes, Ceremonial Duel.)

I’m not going to pretend that I’m not thinking way to hard about this, or that the way the show handles this is done expertly. I already acknowledged that Dartz is as bland as an unsalted cracker, but I also have to mention that Yami still basically has to defeat Dartz alone even after all the set up with Kaiba, Joey, and the Legendary Dragon Knights, which I really have no excuse for. Season 4 definitely isn’t perfect (I don’t think I’d have such a soft spot for it if it was) and I still have a lot more to say about it, but I just wanted to bring some attention to this contrast since I only noticed it on my fourth complete rewatch of the season. I think Dartz could have been a much stronger antagonist if his similarities to Atem were made more pronounced, and I hope I explained that in a way that was at least slightly thought-provoking in this essay that took me far too long to write.

#GOD that turned out way longer than expected #i sound so pretentious in the middle hrngggggh i got caught up in the melodrama sorry #nonetheless this made me waaaaaay to stimulated not too write about so i hope you could get something out of it #i'll probably be posting more essays about season 4 in the coming weeks so buckle up buttercup it's shrimp time #and mai time... mai noon if you will... #yugioh #Yu-Gi-Oh! #yami yugi #pharaoh atem #waking the dragons #yugioh season 4 #ygo #Dartz

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

top ten things comic writers fucked up

Marvel

10) House of M ending with NO MORE MUTANTS, fucking up years of continuity and shattering the whole community and shit. Given the circumstances I add Wanda and Franklin Richards suddenly losing their status as Mutants for bullshit reason (In the case of Franklin it was due to that bitch Dan Slott being a petty bitch).

9) The Ultimate Universe, but, like, not all of it, just the worst parts. Like that one time the Blob ate Janet Van Dyne alive for starters.

8) That one time Peter Parker was sexually assaulted by the Spider-Queen or some shit, which lead to him getting pregnant with himself, turn into a giant spider before dying and giving birth to his human body. This is also here because his wife MJ berates him for being, again, sexually assaulted, which is bad.

7) House of M having Peter's big wish be about him being married to Gwen with kids and MJ is a rich famous actress (homo sapiens actress in a pretty much mutant ethnostate? A testament to her skills I guess). Like, just the whole "Peter doesn't REALLY want to date MJ and thinks he's be happier with Gwen" and "MJ would be happier and more fulfilled in her career if she was single" propaganda bullshit Marvel keeps to spout.

6) I'm pretty sure there was a thing with Arcade and underage people dying during some death games? Either that one or Sins Past but that would make this a bit too much Spider-Man centric tho.

5) Dan Slott killing off MC2 Peter as well as several happy MJ X Peter couples from different universes during comic book Spider-Verse because he is a petty bitch.

4) Civil War being pretty much a allegory of the Patriot Act and still trying to paint it as a good thing, while also enforcing shit like concentration camps and bomb collared villain slave cops and also child soldiers programs and shit.

3) That one time Dan Slott almost had Felicia get r*ped in a woman prison post Superior Spider-Man because he has a issue with women. In fact, Dan Slott general treatment of female characters really, with how he treated Silk (his creation too mind you) in the context of Peter, The way he treated MJ and had Superior Ock almost r*pe her, the way he writes whatever sexually liberated woman in general, and I guess him trying to pull the same thing he did with Silk and Peter, but with Johnny and Sky, but instead of using spider-pheromones he used magical alien bracelets of love instead.

2) Avengers 200 attempting to "kill off" Carol from the narrative by having a extra dimensional being r*pe her via mind control and get her pregnant with himself so they can remove her from the team and have her "retire" in the extra dimensional being's dimension without ONE avenger raising objection to that.

1) One More Day and One Moment in Time as a concept. Period.

0) The Clone Saga as a whole I guess? Like, pretty much nothing surpasses that in fucked up shit, so here it is as special mention.

DC Comics

10) Amazon Attack. Like, as a whole, but especially the Female Concentration Camps the US President set up during the invasion. With trains running on time and all that.

9) That one time Kyle Rayner's girlfriend got cut to pieces and stuffed in a fridge for pure shock value.

8) Like, I get the story Moore was trying to make, but The Brutalisation of Barbara during the Killing Joke was unnecessary and also dumb (who the fuck doesn't check the peephole of their door in FUCKING GOTHAM). The animated adaptation was also bad.

7) That one time they fucked up Cass' whole character. You know, the one where she implied she wanted to bang Tim and shot her dad with a magical flintlock pistol with two bullets in it for some reason.

6) I guess that one time they had Wonderdog be revealed to be a hellhound and have him murder Marvin in front of Wendy before traumatizing and paralyzing her for life, and just to do some edgy "this is NOT your grandpappy super friends!" Or some shit.

5) Deathstroke seducing Terra, a literal underage girl, and the narrative presenting it as either Normal or as her being evil or some shit, like, the whole thing was icky especially how they treated her and the fallout of it all.

4) The whole "Batman can't be happy AND Batman" bullshit they used to fuck over Bruce and Selina's wedding.

3) The treatment Wally West got at times. Like, him becoming a mass murderer recently for starters. Not him being best buds with literal Fidel Castro tho that was extremely "based," as the youngsters these days say.

2) Hal Jordan as a whole, either him being even more of a republican compared to the LITERAL CEO Oliver Queen (Socialist compared to him, him dating a minor and saying it's fine since her ring aged her up to "legal" age, or that one time some jackass wrote he had a threesome with two members of the Gail Simone's Birds of Prey because they were projecting.

1) That one time an Apokolips Dude used mind powers to shoot a porno with Big Barda and Superman, pretty much committing r*pe on them.

0) You know that one time Sue Dibny was pregnant and they had her get killed for dumb reasons and shock value? Yeah, this isn't about that. I mean, it's ALSO about that, but more specifically, this is about that one time they had Doctor Light become a r*pist and then fucked his mind to turn him into a joke. That whole thing was trash since it also had Deathstroke solo the new Justice League as if that's how it works. Also the whole "villains can't change it become better unless mind fuckery is involved" bullshit shit like this and similar stories did, which is indeed less serious than this mind you, but is still related.

#marvel #dc comics #... #tw: rape mention

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: The Moonchild

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

I feel like this one was inevitable. As soon as I decided to bust open the doors on literary mediums like books and comics, this guy was always going to loom over me. Well, let’s just bite the bullet and talk about him. 

In the final portion of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Centuries, we are introduced to Oliver Haddo’s ultimate creation… a creation he is incredibly disappointed in. You see, the Antichrist or Moonchild is a whiny, miserable young adult strung out on prescription drugs because he went mad after realizing what he was being manipulated into. He is the subject of derision by all who know him, and is treated like a punching bag by most of the narrative, up to and including God literally telling him he’s a bitch. Our villain here is just a miserable, whiny, kind of misogynistic brat who doesn’t even want to be a villain, and in general is just unpleasant and ineffective save for a school massacre he pulls off.

Oh yeah, and his real name is Harry Potter. Kind of an important detail, that.

Motivation/Goals: So as the antichrist, you’d think Mr. Potter might, you know, maybe want to bring about the end of days and all that. But no! He actually pops pills and isolates himself in Grimmauld Place so that he doesn’t do that! He doesn’t want to be the Antichrist and, really, who would? Most of his screentime is thus spent whining, until he ultimately decides to embrace being the Antichrist because he feels  he has no other choice. We’ll get into all of that in a bit, but honestly, his motivation is extremely weak despite the incredibly graphic setup we’re given to his downward spiral: when he first discovered he was being manipulated by Satanists, he went on a magical school shooting, shown to us in a first-person perspective to emulate the games that were often blamed for real school shootings. We get to see Harry slaughter Ron, Hermione, Snape, Dumbledore, and so on, we get to see what he did to Hogsmeade and the Hogwarts Express, and absolutely none of it is pleasant. 

With setup like that you’d expect maybe a little more intrigue and indecision, maybe some sort of conflict between fate and choice or something beyond Harry sitting around half-naked, high off of antidepressants, being a whiny little bitch, but you might be giving the dude who wrote a porno where the kids from Peter Pan engage in underage incest a bit too much credit. 

Final Fate: So Harry has gone absolutely bonkers and it seems that nothing can possibly stop him; our heroes seem to be written into a corner. So what does Moore do? He has God - who in this universe is Mary Poppins - descend from the heavens and have her say how she protects the imaginations of children and how she just straight up hates Harry. Never mind that Harry is quite literally an abused child who was twisted by the cruel machinations of a body surfing wizard, apparently he’s a child not worth protecting or caring about and is unworthy of sympathy. Anyway, Mary Poppins just turns him into a chalk drawing and that’s the end of that. 

Great writing, Alan Moore, critically acclaimed creator of Watchmen!

Best Scene: Saying Harry here had a ‘best scene’ is seriously pushing it, because literally every moment he’s on the page the comic just beats you over the head with Moore’s biases. I wish I could put the school shooting sequence, because the idea behind it is legitimately intriguing, but the whole sequence is just interwoven with Moore whacking off his hateboner for the series. But on the subject of boners… well, I think there’s only one panel that can truly and adequately sum up this entire character and how much of a miserable failure he is. Those who have followed me for a long time knew this was coming, but for the rest of you, behold - Harry Potter Dick Lightning:

Final Thoughts & Score: Quite frankly, this is the worst thing Alan Moore has ever done.

I’m not even mad as a fan of Harry Potter; Moore was honestly ahead of his time in hating the franchise to this level. The issue I have is that he doesn’t really deconstruct or criticize in any meaningful way, he just is doing edgy “take that” stuff that you’d expect from a chump like Garth Ennis. Like, the concept here is incredibly solid and intriguing - this version of Harry has been groomed from birth by Satanists to become the Antichrist, with all of his adventures fabricated and all of his relationships manufactured to keep him under the illusion he is a hero to mankind. Upon discovering the truth, he snaps, massacres everyone at his school for their role in his manipulations, and went into exile to stave off the apocalypse, although he ultimately and bitterly accepts his role because he feels he was never given a choice… and he wasn’t! He’s an incredibly depressing and miserable deconstruction of the concept of “The Chosen One,” and yet the whole thing falls apart on multiple levels.

The first is that the Harry Potter franchise already deconstructs the concept of “The Chosen One;” the text goes out of its way to point out that Voldemort’s own actions are what is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by targeting someone with the will and drive to fight back against him. Harry’s not so much chosen by fate so much as forcibly chosen by an evil manipulator… and that’s basically what we have here, but with less substance. Moore doesn’t really comment on anything, instead leading into the second big issue - Harry’s whole role is to be a strawman punching bag villain so that Moore can complain about modern fantasy franchises. Moore seems to view Harry as the epitome of the lazy regurgitation of the same story over and over that modern blockbuster culture so often falls into… except that Harry Potter was an original product developed by one person and had no artificial longevity slapped onto the franchise in the form of unneeded sequels or spinoffs to extend the lifespan of the franchise at the time Moore wrote this. Throw in the fact Moore just in general seems extremely contemptuous of any post-70s pop culture in Centuries and how Harry is ultimately taken down by crusty old characters from older literature really just leads to Moore coming across as a grumpy old man who hates anything new, not helped by his tired criticisms of millennials and their perceived lack of culture. Maybe Moore would have had more of a point if he created this storyline today, but he didn’t. Thus, he has no point and he just looks like a miserable old fart.

Sure, you can argue that maybe Moore’s basic parody of the character by exaggerating his tendencies to their logical extreme and attacking elements of the plot that had been criticized to death by fans to begin with has its place, and perhaps you could even say that the take in the comic is just an extreme take on how Harry acted in the fifth book, what with the lashing out at his friends and his general feeling of a lack of control, and there is some merit to that, or there would be if Moore’s own unrepentant bias didn’t undermine everything. Look, you can hate Harry Potter, but then why slap it into your work? It’s supremely cringey when people insert characters they hate into fanfiction and just completely derail their characters so that they can treat them like garbage with the narrative, and is that not what Moore did here? Is League not just public domain fanfiction? There’s a reason why I coined “Harry Potter Dick Lightning” as a phrase used to showcase a moment where a fanwork’s contempt for a character becomes so extreme that it not only jumps the shark, it rockets over it into the upper atmosphere. Any criticisms or messages Moore is trying to convey is tarnished by his blatant, seething contempt for the character, and that gets in the way of good writing and good storytelling. Having two characters express pity at having to murder an abused child who was warped by Satanists into being a tool of the apocalypse does not make up for how the narrative constantly mocks, belittles, and treats him like garbage to the point he really can’t function as an effective villain that can be taken seriously.

All of this adds up to what I’d argue is the absolute worst villain in all of fiction, bar none. There is just not a single redeeming quality about the Antichrist as a character. None. Nothing. I cannot think of another villain that so completely fails on every single level as this one does. He doesn’t work as an antagonist because most of the bad things he does are offscreen and he doesn’t come into conflict with the heroes until the very end, and most of his screentime features him doing nothing of note. He doesn’t work as a critique, because he is acting as a criticism for things his character never really represented in the first place. He only really functions as the sort of garbage you’d see in My Immortal, where the characters you know and love are turned into evil jerks because the writer hates them - but he even fails at being that, because at least My Immortal is funny about it! 

I am going out on a limb and saying that there cannot possibly be a villain that so utterly fails at everything it sets out to be as hard as Harry does. I don’t even want to try and believe it. And so, without hesitation, I am giving Moore’s shallow Potter parody a 0/10. And I pray to Mary Poppins that this is the only one of those I ever dish out, because I really don’t want to imagine what could possibly be worse than Harry Potter Dick Lightning.

#Psycho Analysis #Harry Potter #the league of extraordinary gentlemen #Alan Moore #Centuries #The Antichrist #The Moonchild

[dredreadsdrawing]

Oc-tober Day 7: Fear

Hoohoo i suck at shading :'0 The second pic was the firdt concept art I drew of these gals. Then came the pencil sketches and lastly the one on top.

I've already got a Quickie summary of this story in my writing blog explaining who these characters are and what's going on, link HERE. So for this piece, I'll write the scene I drew lol. In it, only Kylee and the Wrath kid are left, but before they get a showdown, God gives them one last mercy. A night without worries. Anything they want, they will grant. Btw, I have decided on official names for these gals. Kylee the fangirl and Paloma the patient ghost.

~~~~

This was it.

Tomorrow, everything was bound to come to an end.

It felt unreal to Kylee. How far she's come, her numerous near death experiences, how nice their room was. God really knew how to treat em when they weren't being careless.

Still, God's assurance of a last peaceful night was a load off their shoulders. A blessing, you might even say.

Chevre left the scene immediately, deciding to spend their last day as a ghost doing their own kooky things. They felt robbed for not dying sooner to do it.

That left Kylee and Paloma, the original duo, to spend the night alone. Just like the good ol days.

They tried the hot tub, snacked on expensive sweets, watched Kylee's favorite episodes of her favorite shows, and had a great time.

Just like normal girls their age would spend a sleepover.

When it got super late, the magic of the tranquility was wearing off. Reality settled back in. Tomorrow was the end. No more fighting, no more floating. The ghosts would be reborn and someone new would be God.

A child. Both contestants left were underage.

And they had to fight eachother to the death. Kylee and Paloma agreed that if she won, she would pick older candidates next time. No kid should go through what she's gone.

Circling back to the competition, they talked about their opponent and his many helpers. They'd seen how ruthless he was. Opportunistic and never one to hesitate. He was a tough rival for sure.

Kylee got quiet for a bit, and Paloma squeezed her shoulder.

"Come on, cookie. Let's sleep early."

They snuggled onto the bed. Two had been accommodated for them, but they were used to sleeping in the same one. It was their piece of comfort.

After settling down, Kylee worded her next question carefully. She had already asked it before, when she first saw Paloma as a ghost, but it didn't hurt to have the answer retold.

What was it like to die?

Paloma stiffened. Her eyes softened. Her voice cracked a bitter smile.

"It hurts. Especially when you start struggling back. But once it's done, all you get is wave after wave of relief. Like when you ace a test you didn't study for." She laughed. It ended breathily.

Kylee didn't like her expression. She had seen it come up a lot in the past few days. And she knew exactly what it meant. She brought Paloma closer and held her face. Looking into her eyes, she asked as quietly as she could.

"... have you regretted it?"

Paloma shivered. Her eyes burst. She whimpered, and Kylee immediately brought her to her chest, letting her cry. Not a single tear stained her shirt.

"I was... So sure I did the right thing..."

"You did..."

Kylee remembered those first days. How surprisingly proud she seemed to have taken her own life. To be done with life and humanity. But as time wore on, her sentiments changed.

"I couldn't help it... I wondered... What would have happened if..."

She paused as sge choked on her words. Kylee gave her a pat. "It's ok..."

"No, it's not!" Paloma got up, her face a darker shade. "We could have been a team. We could have stuck together for as long as we could. Or- I could have been in your shoes right now. I could have been the one that made it to the end. Instead of putting all this pressure.... For you to do the right things."

Paloma was calming down, she rubbed her eyes. Kylee helped brush a tear from her cheek.

"I'm sorry I died so fast."

The words stung. Kylee wasn't taking this.

"Don't say that! If one of us is the bad one... It's... Me."

Kylee rubbed her arm. Paloma shook her head. "Not this again, Kylee-"

"I was a jerk. I admit it. I knew what was going on with you but I never stepped in. Really, Palo," Kylee started hyperventilating. Paloma rushed to embrace her. Their roles had effectively switched.

"If I had reached out to you sooner... If I was more involved... Someone better..." Kylee took Paloma's hand. Together, they squeezed them.

"If I was someone like you..."

"Stop it..."

So many what ifs lingered in their minds. So many paths they could have taken. Together.

But here they were, stuck. One as a ghost and the other possibly becoming a deity. About to fight for the right to be.

"Atleast... I got to show you my favorite stores. .." Paloma laughed at the memory of Kylee dragging her around unwillingly.

"We didn't even buy anything. You just had us people watch the entire day."

"But you had a good time anyways, didn't you?" The smiles are back. Paloma tilts her head and rests it on Kylee's shoulder.

"I did..."

While her death was premature, she had to count the small blessing that was her ability to stick to Kylee as a ghost. She got to see more than the bubble she knew. She got to make friends. And...

Kylee couldn't help the kiss she gave Paloma's forehead. Paloma's face burst and she laughed.

She got to feel so loved.

"Okay, Ms. God, settle back down. Tomorrow is... A big day."

Kylee snickered as she laid back down, Paloma following. After another small silence, Kylee's big mouth continued asking.

"If I win... What kind of life do you want?"

They hadn't touched the topic of Paloma's reincarnation.

The reality of her living without Kylee was too much.

Still, now that it was a serious possibility... This was a talk they needed to have. Paloma moved away a bit.

"Well, you're so creative Kylee, I'm sure you'll give me the best life..."

"But... I want to know what YOU want!"

Paloma was stunned for a bit, touched. Kylee really cared for her opinion. The selfish onlooker she first met was long gone.

"I'm being honest..." Paloma looked away. "I want whatever you give me. I trust you."

Kylee's stomach sank. She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders, now more than ever.

Paloma looked back at Kylee's serious expression, and she laughed some more. This was too serious for their last night together. "Stop worrying about it, cookie." She laid back down ans snuggled to her side. "Worry about surviving tomorrow. Only you can guarantee me that happy ending."

Kylee's gut sank further. It was the truth, but the pressure was on. She watched Paloma close her eyes and over time, drift away, her sleep as sound as when she was alive.

But Kylee couldn't follow, couldn't even stand to blink. Her anxiety was at an all time high. She had to win. She had to make it up to Paloma. She would be a good god, and rule like her girlfriend would.

Kylee's eyes watered again, mourning prematurely the departure to come. She looked to the ceiling. She would make Paloma happy. She knew her favorite foods, her favorite books, her favorite everything. She would give her the world on a platter, make her have the most fulfilling life. From wealth, to friends, to health and romance. Romance.

Yes.

Kylee was a multishipper. Kylee knew people could mesh well with more than one person. She could find Paloma another lover, a better one!

She would be fine.

Her stomach's knots stayed in place, no matter how long she repeated that phrase.

Yeah, Paloma would be fine.

But Kylee wouldn't.

Kylee had gotten what she wanted.

She would be alone now. Free from societal conventions. Free to do what she wanted. Free to people watch, free to bend wills, free to mess around and turn her ideas into reality.

She will find her own happiness. Somehow. The sentiment felt hollow in her chest.

Panic set in again.

What was she doing? What had she done?

She turned and looked at Paloma's face once more.

If she didn't win... There would be no more world. No more Kylee. No more Paloma.

These were her only options. Stay alone forever, or lose everything.

For the first time since the start of the game, she felt afraid of the outcome.

#traditional art #October #Oc tober #Oc-tober #Ocs #Kylee #Paloma #God is a fangirl #Digital art #oc tober day 7 #My art #Lesbians #Ace #Asexual #Kylee is ace lol i have decided #Paloma is too #Ace queens #Cries #Original writing

[redspiderling]

MCU Breakdown: That b-roll called Endgame, part 2

This mess has been swirling around my mind all day and I can safely say that once I managed to block individual offences and look at the greater picture, I was able to reach a conclusion that might bring some peace to my mind and, hopefully, yours too.

We’re not here to once again simply exhibit how this movie failed to express itself in a visual way, we’ll go a step further because I’m an asshole like that.

We’re here to explain why the failure of visual expression cheapens the story-telling process and leads to an unfulfilling cinematic experience.

I’m adding a “read more” this time because I actually remembered to do it.

Let’s ease ourselves into this.

Exhibit 1: Not using any visual storytelling elements.

This is the moment Pepper realises Tony has figured out time travel. That they can -potentially- travel back in time and save trillions of lives. And it’s shot, like this

Like a picture from a furniture catalogue. I’m saying furniture catalogue not only because the shot is 80% furniture and 20% character. Not just because it is quite dark, and the pieces that are drawing the attention of our eyes are the various lamps and candles, bright and shiny in an otherwise brownish, muddy frame. 

This moment hasn’t earned its existence in our minds as an emotionally charged one. 

It’s not just that Tony was never the character who envisioned himself as someone capable of “settling down”. It’s that our brains have been trained for centuries to look for visual clues. The wringing of hands, the beads of sweat on a forehead, nervous gestures, restlessness. The symbolism of a storm in the horizon that trouble is coming. They’re all simple things but they’re layers upon layers of meaning.

The trouble isn’t just that the Tony we know is not the Tony we’re looking at. It’s that the way the story unfolds, visually, doesn’t fill us with dread. Instead we are left looking at an image of a somewhat peaceful existence void of any emotional charge. 

How this scene represents the “enormous scientific revelation will restore balance to the universe but will potentially ruin our family” sentiment, is an enquiry for me to make and for the Endgame show runners to never explain.

Exhibit 2: Using visual storytelling elements wrongly

To move forward from that significant for all its insignificance moment, it’s old news in the fandom that Endgame took the concept of found family and kicked it to an alternate dimension. 

What we are looking at here, is the New “But Actually Really Damn Old” Dream of the MCU: Typical affluent white heteronormative Heaven. 

And yet that’s not the problem. It is a problem, in the general “this is the 21st century and it takes a bit more to impress us” sense, but it’s not a problem from the perspective of a story. You can tell good stories for us all to enjoy that begin and end with this narrative, as long as you do it well. 

It is quite obvious that the basic concepts of visual storytelling are known to these people. And they do attempt to use them on occasion. We’re talking about visual clues that will help nudge the viewer in the right direction, so that when the moment comes, the viewer will have seen it coming and won’t get annoyed. 

Thus one could easily assume any form of foreshadowing is better than no foreshadowing, right?

Perhaps. But from my experience, certainly not in this instance. This is one of the big problems with this film, it is not certain where to draw the line on just how much does the viewer know? Is this their first MCU film? Second? Did they see Cap 1 and skip the rest?

Our story tellers don’t use all the information they have provided us with, and that creates traps for them. Even when they do attempt to warn us for what is coming they create more trouble for themselves. Because foreshadowing needs to be consistent. And dead ex girlfriends who got married more than 50 years ago, are not a likely candidate for a love story in the mind of the viewers.

Visual story telling is crucial and it needs to be consistent. You can show me hints that I will pick up on. 

Here's Steve in the Avengers. He's certainly a man out of time, with his old man clothes.   

Thankfully, by the time the Winter Soldier appeared, he was fitting in quite well in the world. A modern man now, with a modern attire.

So I'm left to watch in bewilderment and wonder, why is Steve back in his old man clothes in Endgame? 

When did this regression occur? Viewers are not idiots. Like I said, we are trained to pick up on visual clues, it's crucial to our survival in the world. If I see a monkey eat seeds from a tree and then die, I'll remember not to eat from that tree.

I see the attempt here. The lack of colour and hope in the frame where Steve gazes longingly at the old compass, the soft, dream-like orange of his perfect life with his little wife. I can take a hint. Do I want it though? Have you prepared me for it? Does it make sense in terms of the other visual clues you've provided me with over the years?

Exhibit 3: Shifting the responsibility

Did I mention how much Marvel lucked out with the casting?

There’s 0 visual language employed. There’s no symbolism, no light, colour or perspective of happiness, or hope, or hopelessness. The only thing between those two pictures that says Tony and Natasha are not having some really strange conversation with each other right now, is the expression on their faces.

The fulfilment Tony found in parenthood and Natasha’s heartbreak over Clint’s crimes is visible only through the talent of the performers, not through any visual clues the show runners left behind for us. 

Natasha stressing

Professor Hulk and Dr Strange paying their respects

Clint’s guilt

Wanda remembering her dead loved ones

Complex emotional moments laid entirely on the shoulders of the actors. Which isn’t entirely a condemnable thing, talented actors can pull strong emotions from their audiences, but they can only do so much. 

Lets reference a pop culture legend most of you will understand

We don’t remember Luke finding out the truth about his father just because  Mark Hamill is a really good actor. We remember it because in that moment, Luke had been brought to his lowest point. He was worn from battle, his life was hanging from a thread. Darth Vader was looming over him, the personification of everything he hated and in that moment he found out that a part of him came from that evil. 

That build up was the result of a well written script, of a masterful piece of music, a visual tone that brought us to the brink of a revelation. The performance was part of the tale that will be retold for generations. 

In conclusion 

While there have been literally dozens upon dozens of articles about fans and viewers and critics having “issues” with this or that in Endgame, the truth is that our real problem, is this mixed bag of hardly ever used, or wrongly used storytelling elements. One that has been building up to a disastrous result for years.

And while all that is the least of Endgame’s crimes in the eyes of a Natasha fan (I have a personal vendetta against the film at this point) I still can’t help but bemoan the loss of a singular opportunity for creating a milestone in cinematic history. 

Because if we can’t revisit Endgame for its story due to a complete lack in originality, and we can’t revisit it for its visuals, we won’t revisit it at all. And with it most of the MCU will go down as a piece of popular media that took the world by storm, but won’t have much to recommend it 10, 20 years from now. And isn’t that a shame. Edit: If you’re wondering why they messed up this badly, there’s a long list of reasons:

This wasn’t actually planned ahead. They didn’t write all the films from the beginning, they were making things up as they went along, so they created pitfalls for themselves.

They ignored the visual language.

They went along with weak scripts.

For Endgame specifically, they did ridiculously extensive re-shoots, which resulted in messy set ups (misplaced items on set, badly lit scenes, bad special effects) and bad editing.

They bit off more than they could chew with the amount of characters presented on screen, and never managed to create complete and fulfilling storylines for them.

Finally, they allowed bigotry and sexism to affect their judgement, thus placing the viewer against their narrative.

#I think this is the kindest post I've made for this tag #endless endgame bashing #MCU Breakdown #I did not spend money on Disney products i.e. paying to watch this film when writing this post #the theatre ticket is shameful enough

[ihavethoughtsplural]

Blood and Chocolate: An Adaptation in Name Only

Previously:  Section 0 – Introduction, Section 1 – The Book, Section 2 – Adaptation Challenges

Section 3 – The Adaptation

Preface:  The 2007 adaptation of Blood and Chocolate directed by Katja von Garnier and written by Ehren Kruger and Christopher Landon did not receive critical acclaim.  It stands at 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a New York Times review by Jeannette Catsoulis called it “uninvolving and cliché-ridden”.  The box office returns were similarly underwhelming, grossing $3.5 million domestically and $6.3 million internationally against a $15 million budget – an $8.7 million loss for a production company used to receiving at least a modest return on investment for other, similar properties. 

(Ahem.)

But, does it have any merit?   It may have failed by the metrics of profitability and critical response, but that does not mean that the film was an entirely, or even partially, failed endeavor.

Summary:  Following a surprisingly faithful Romeo and Juliet plot, the movie Blood and Chocolate centers on Vivian, the werewolf Juliet, an orphan living in Bucharest with her Aunt Astrid, who serves as a rough Nurse analogue.  They are ruled by Gabriel, the Paris, a tyrannical pack leader with romantic designs on Vivian.  The human Romeo, Aiden, is a wandering American artist who encounters Vivian anonymously in an empty church, whereupon he becomes determined to find and court her. Meanwhile, tensions are rising with the Tybalt character, Vivian’s cousin Rafe.  He discovers Vivian and Aiden’s romance, threatens Aiden, and is eventually killed by Aiden in self-defense.

Eventually, Vivian gets poisoned and she and Aiden attempt to escape the city.  She is captured and locked up in Gabriel’s headquarters, where Aiden arrives and rescues her.  In the process, Vivian kills Gabriel.  Afterward, they escape, steal Gabriel’s car, and drive off into the sunset.

Also, there’s a prophecy about Vivian? More on that later.

Themes: The themes of the movie deviate sharply from the themes of the book.  No longer does Vivian struggle with what she wants as opposed to what she needs, because the movie removes any such opposition.   In the movie, as in the book, Vivian wants to be with Aiden, but the movie rearranges the rest of the plot and the characters so that what she no longer needs to accept (and find a partner who also accepts) her dual nature as a werewolf to find happiness and fulfillment. Instead, what the film version of Vivian needs is to get away from her creepy, possessive pack leader and forge her own destiny.  This “need” no longer stands in opposition to her “want”.  On the contrary, the two share a resolution – run away from Bucharest with Aiden. The tension between the human and the animal sides of Vivian’s nature is also reworked.  In the book, she can’t pretend to be human, but she also can’t lose control and give in to her animal side.  She needs to balance both.   The movie, on the other hand, has Vivian definitively choose her human side by choosing Aiden.  Actually, no, it’s not just that she chooses her human side – the movie shows her actively rejecting her werewolf side throughout the movie. And, well, given the way that werewolf society is treating her, I can’t really blame her.  I wouldn’t fight to stay with these people either.  They were ready to pair her off with a man old enough to be her father without her consent.  

Honestly, I wasn’t really wondering why she wanted to leave with Aiden, but more wondering why she hadn’t left already. 

This leads into the theme that was added for the movie: destiny vs. choice.   As a girl from “the line of Kings,” Vivian is destined by a nebulous prophecy to lead the Bucharest pack into the Age of Hope.  Who prophesied this?  If she’s from the line of Kings, why is Gabriel leading the pack?  Does Vivian even fulfill this prophecy?  We never really find out.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for a prophecy storyline.  It just – it has to matter.  And the prophecy in this movie does not matter.  You could cut every mention of it, and nothing substantial would change. One of the biggest mysteries about this movie is why the screenwriters added a prophecy element if they weren’t going to bother to pay it off.

She is also destined (either by the prophecy or because Gabriel says so) to be Gabriel’s next mate, continuing the tradition of the pack leader choosing a new mate every 7 years.  Vivian does not appear to have a choice in the matter.

Throughout the movie, Vivian feels chained by this destiny, leading her to keep Aiden at a distance and warning him away from her.  Aiden, however, ignores her boundaries and her clear wish to be left alone.  He tells her that she needs to ignore her family’s plans for her and make her own choices, mostly because he’s hoping that she’ll chose to date him. In the end, Vivian accepts Aiden’s outlook, choosing to defy Gabriel’s wishes by saving Aiden and escaping Bucharest with him.

Highs: There are two major elements that I like about this movie, and I do honestly like them. I’ve watched this movie a lot, and, no, it’s not just hatewatching.  I genuinely enjoy this movie.

o   The Cast: I really like Agnes Bruckner.  She was great in the slasher movie, Venom, and I think she made an admirable Vivian.  Despite some of the cheesier lines, she turns in a decent performance.  I believed that she felt guilty about her family’s deaths.  I believed that she felt torn between her attraction to Aiden and her duty to her pack. I even believed that moment in the ending where Vivian can’t bring herself to kill Gabriel, despite the threat that he represents.  

Of course, the script ruins that seconds later when she just… shoots him anyway?   Also, and this is a violently American thing to say, but did they have to use the wimpiest sounding gun possible? 

I think that Hugh Dancy as Aiden was the standout performance of the movie.  He portrayed Aiden as playful, sweet, and resourceful, and his switch from sensitive artist to unlikely badass is nicely set up with his story about defending himself against his abusive father.  I also think that he and Bruckner have some decent chemistry.  Say what you will about the romantic fountain montage - they look like they’re genuinely enjoying each other’s company.  

Also, he spends the last half of the movie bruised and slightly bloody, and I don’t mind that at all.

As for the rest of the cast, I think they gave fine performances despite the material that they had to work with. When movies fail, there seems to be an impulse to blame the cast and rip their performances apart – but I won’t. I don’t blame the cast for the commercial and critical failure of this movie – I blame the people who had actual creative control (the producers, director, screenwriters, etc.).

o   The Concept: An ancient dynasty of werewolf leaders extending from primeval Europe into the modern day?  Yes fuckin’ please!  This is exactly the kind of canon expansion that I was craving from the book!   And, okay, yeah.  The book’s version of werewolf society is very different from the movie’s version.  In the book, werewolf packs are moderately sized clusters of families and individuals ruled by an alpha pair.  Other werewolf packs exist, but there doesn’t seem to be any person or group governing werewolf society as a whole.   This would seem to directly contradict the movie’s take on werewolf society, but it doesn’t have to.  The book’s werewolves originated in western Europe, and from there emigrated to the US in the 1600’s.  The movie’s werewolves originated in eastern Europe and stayed there.  There’s no reason why those two groups of werewolves couldn’t have started with or evolved two different social structures leading up to the present day.   In fact, if you can ignore the shared titles and character names, the movie Blood and Chocolate can be viewed as a new story set in the fictional universe established by the book Blood and Chocolate. And that’s how I choose to view this– it lets me get past my nerd rage and enjoy the movie for what it is.

Lows: While I do honestly enjoy this movie, I would be lying if pretended that it was flawless.  Blood and Chocolate didn’t get its reputation by accident.  Here are my thoughts on some of the more egregious missteps. o   The Script:  Okay guys, we need to talk.  I’ve seen people defending this movie, saying that it’s an unfairly maligned gem, and I CAN’T.  Guys, the dialogue.  Have you LISTENED to the dialogue?

Aiden, pleading:  “I’ll take the train, I swear it.  I’m gone.  I’m on that train.”

Rafe:  “I AM THE TRAIN!”

(Boy, WHY are you crouching on the railing like a heterochromatic gremlin?)

Like I said in the last section, I don’t blame the actors for the movie’s failure.  I don’t.  They had no control over this shit.  I do, however, blame the screenwriters; all SIX of them.  This film had SIX separate people working on the script and was still released with Hugh Dancy shouting, “If you cared a goddamn thing about me, you would have left me before we ever met!” 

This is astonishing for its misunderstanding of linear time if for nothing else.  

Seriously, though – Hugh Dancy, cinnamon roll and internet darling, cannot make these lines sound good.  When even the best actor in your movie can’t make it work, you know that the script is baaaaad.

o   The Wolves: Remember the bit about practical effects vs. CGI in the previous post?  Yeah, the filmmakers went hard on the CGI.  It made sense given the relatively small budget to go the CGI route as a money saving maneuver.  However, the director, Katja von Garnier, decided to use the CGI in the most ridiculous way possible.

(🎶 FIGHTING EVIL BY MOONLIGHT! 🎶)

The werewolves jump into the air, turn into an ethereal glow, and emerge as wolves.  While this is not an inherently bad idea (it’s different, and it could, in theory, look cool), the execution was a huge misfire.  Seeing the actors leap forward into a sparkly, pastel shimmer was never anything but ridiculous, and the Sailor Moon aesthetic of it just did not fit with the grungy, realistic look of the rest of the movie.

(Hey, cinematographer: if you want these transformations to fit with the rest of the movie, maybe make the movie LESS F*ING BROWN?) Additionally, the transformed werewolves were simply real wolves.  Listening to Katja von Garnier’s commentary, you come away with the impression that she is suuuuuper proud of getting the cast and crew to work with live animals.  However, the wolves that they used are a bit on the smaller side.

As a result, they didn’t really inspire much fear.  For example; in the scene where Rafe murders the girl he’s been stalking, you see both the girl and the wolf in the same shot, and it absolutely kills the tension. Like, girl - roll up a newspaper and boop him on the nose.

o   Rafe:  The screenwriters desperately wanted Rafe to be menacing, and bless Bryan Dick for trying, but it does not work at all. Rafe in the movie is petulant, sleazy, definitely an asshole, and explicitly a murderer, but I never believed him as a threat.   In the confrontation at the chapel, Hugh Dancy stands half a head taller than Bryan Dick, and while neither of them are exactly musclebound, it’s pretty obvious who would win in a fight.  For me to buy Rafe as a legitimate danger, he needed to be less foppish, more unhinged, and just physically bigger.

(FFS, Vivian is taller than he is!  How is he supposed to be intimidating?)

o   Gabriel: I don’t know who decided to turn the romantic lead of the book into the jealous villain of the movie, but they need to be slapped across the face with a trout.  It’s been over a decade since the movie came out, and I have learned to shrug off most of the bizarre adaptational choices, but this one still just pisses me off.  The evisceration of Gabriel’s character is the biggest betrayal of the source material.  

In the book, Gabriel was a foil to Aiden, and Vivian choosing Gabriel symbolized her acceptance of her dual nature. It meant that she wouldn’t have to compromise her identity to be accepted and loved.   The adaptation could have provided an opportunity to rework Gabriel’s character arc.  It could have cleaned up the age-gap ickiness, removed the non-consensual kiss, nixed the prior relationship with Vivian’s mother and generally made Gabriel as a love interest more palatable for movie audiences. But, whatever.  The filmmakers already threw out the core of the human vs. animal theme from the book, so why not just utterly warp Gabriel while they’re at it?  Plus, the clueless human love interest vs. the lecherous supernatural stalker dynamic worked for Underworld, so it’s going to work here, right?  

The Stuff I’m Choosing Not to Nitpick (in depth):  I just- I don’t know, man.  I used to get really worked up about this stuff, but I don’t really feel like devoting any real analysis to these points.  Take these potshots and do with them what you will.

o   The Parkour: Time has not been kind to parkour.  The filmmakers gambled on it being cool for the long haul, and they lost that wager.  I get that it takes a lot of skill, and I get what the filmmakers were trying to do with it, but it just looks silly. o   The Hunt: I mean, it directly violates the most important werewolf law from the source material, but I’m willing to believe that this ancient werewolf faction in Romania came up with a sanctioned way to hunt humans, so I can forgive this. o   The Eye Thing: The early-mid aughts were really impressed with the power and symbolism of colored contacts, weren’t they?

o   Astrid: They mashed Astrid and Esme’s characters together and called the resulting chimera Vivian’s aunt.  I don’t hate this change as much as I used to. I mostly just wonder why they bothered.  The movie had already changed the book’s storyline so much that neither Astrid nor Esme were necessary for the new plot.  They could have cut this character out entirely and no one would have missed her.

o   The White Wolf:  Of course the main character turns into the only white wolf in the movie.  ‘Cuz symbolism!  

o   The (implied) Sex Scene:  Sure, she’s dying of silver poisoning, you’re both hiding in a decrepit film warehouse and the werewolf mafia is hunting you, but GO AHEAD.  This is the ideal time AND place to bone!

(This woman is clearly DTF.)

Verdict: I want to be really clear on this point – I love this movie.  I mean, let me remind you of my cinematic tastes.

Here’s the thing - there is a difference between movies that are “good” and movies that are “enjoyable”.  Blood and Chocolate is not a “good” movie. The plot is formulaic as hell, the dialogue is laughably inept, and any actual potential it had to do something new and innovative with the werewolf genre was squandered.   Seriously – one of the remarkable things about the book was how it centered a monster story on the monsters and made them sympathetic.  The movie? Turns the monsters back into one-dimensional bad guys.  But, hey, at least they made the transformations maaaaaaagical! That said, Blood and Chocolate is absolutely an “enjoyable” movie.  I have watched this thing dozens of times since it came out, and each time I find something new to amuse me.  The dialogue is hilarious, the special effects miss the mark so badly, and every time you find a new plot hole, an angel gets its wings.  What’s more, it contains enough genuinely good elements to balance out the bad.  It is a delightful example of low camp, and a worthy addition to any “so bad it’s good” film collection.

I’m not alone in that assessment, either. If you look at amateur reviews of the movie, you’ll find a lot of people defending it despite its flaws.  It has an audience!  

So, why didn’t it make more money?  

Next Week:  Section 4 – The Autopsy

#blood and chocolate #annette curtis klause #werewolves #katja von garnier #agnes bruckner #hugh dancy #olivier martinez #B&C-AAINO

[queenofthefaces]

kyle for the character thing!!!!

Buckle up bc I’m extra af and love talking abt characters. Be aware this is like, entirely personal opinion and personal interpretation and also it’s almost 2am so LETS GO

1) sexuality hc: I’ve always really liked bi Kyle ahsjdkfk and tbh I’ve always found the idea of his attraction to other ppl really interesting

The way I characterize him is that he’s someone who’s like, typically very passive with his attraction. He’ll kind of glance at someone and think they’re attractive but he doesn’t necessarily have any strong feelings towards them or desire/drive to want to pursue anything with them. If he does want to pursue them it’s usually out of a sense of obligation or expectation—like a “well I might as well” or “this is what I’m supposed to do” kinda thing

Except Kyle DOES have exceptions—when he finds someone he feels passionately about, someone he’s emotionally and mentally invested in, it’s like 0-100 in terms of difference, bc suddenly he can’t stop thinking abt that person, how much he wants to be with them, etc. and a lot of that characterization, for me, falls in line w the specific ship I have for Kyle (which is obvious if you’ve followed me for a few but I’ll get Into That in the next section)

2) OTP: KYMAN by far my fave Kyle ship and one of my all time fave sp ships overall. I’ve always LOVED rivals/enemies to lovers ships that specifically have 1) characters who are equals 2) characters who are incredibly intimate and close w one another even if (or because of) it’s in the context of the rivalry 3) the characters have either some level of co-dependence or a need for the dynamic or one another in some way bc the relationship is fulfilling to them and bonus if 4) they’re the only ones that really understand each other

And I jus. Love that. Esp w kyman it’s so much fun taking that dynamic, the codependency and obsession, and just. Playing with it, on a storytelling/character analysis level. And then making it healthy, having them work through issues, bc the idea that “we’re both in way too deep with each other, we can either destroy each other or learn to get along” is jus 👌👌👌

And w kyman I love having Eric be Kyle’s exception. Kyle feels basically nothing towards his other s/o’s in contrast to how deeply he feels about Eric, and for Eric to have just as much depth of emotion in return. It’s fascinating and really fun esp when written from a kind of duo-redemptive story—they both start out toxic towards each other, and their relationship is toxic to other people, but they can’t bring themselves to put an end to it so they finally make it to that middle ground and come out as better peoole, together

This applies to a lot of my rivals/enemies to lovers ships but w kyman in particular there’s the added Funkiness of the childhood friends dynamic which is TASTEY like some nice sprinkles to jus add that extra Flavour. I love the concept of Kyle and Eric forming parts of their entire identities around each other from the time they were in diapers and everyone accepts that they’re always gonna he crazy for each other bc no one has the bond they do it’s so much fun

4) brotp: I should think more abt Kyle friendships tbh I don’t give those as much attention ahsjdkfkfk—tho I definitely have a soft spot for the super best friends kyle + Stan, I just have to work some development into it.

I love exploring their friendship as smth that deteriorates bc they grow apart as people, but then they realize they don’t WANT to grow apart and have to work to stay friends bc being friends isn’t as easy as it was when you were 8. It brings this really cool development that confronts Stan’s passivity towards his friends/his nihilism and Kyle’s entitlement and lack of emotional sensitivity and how they both need to make some compromises (but esp Kyle, bc I can see Stan as someone who tries very hard to not get much feedback).

In terms of Kyle being friends w other people I’m thinking it would be pretty situational. I can see Kyle getting some really eye opening perspectives from other ppl if he opens himself up to their views but that requires knocking Kyle down a few pegs lol, it’s fun to have him learn to recognize his own assumptions abt ppl and learning to value them as individuals yanno?

3) notp: honestly? Any other kyle ship. I can personally only see Kyle w Eric ahsjdkfk kyman endgame all the way. For me, a lot of other Kyle ships like, don’t make any sense, a lot in part bc I see Kyle as someone who has a lot of issues w socialization, entitlement, and selfishness along with his UNENDING OBSESSION w Eric Cartman (which also somewhat stems from those issues bc of Kyle’s sense of self identity vis a vis the rivalry)

Like, I can’t see Kyle sitting down and forming a meaningful romantic relationship w anyone else bc like, no one can provide the fulfillment, engagement, drive, and push/pull of Kyle’s relationship w Eric. Kyle would leave at the drop of a hat to confront smth Eric was doing and I don’t think he’d ever compromise with that. And someone who does compromise on that probably isn’t someone Kyle would want to be with in the long run.

I think the only ship I can see would be like, poly m4 bc that draws on pre-existing dynamics and doesn’t break or try to divy up Kyle’s attention. (Even tho like I said I don’t like Kyle w anyone else romantically)

5) 1st hc that pops in my head: my Kyle is autistic as fuck. Characterizing him as autistic gives a lot of insight into how his mind works and why he acts the way he does—a lot of his thought processes are just. What makes the most logical sense to him. It’s just that those trains of thought are on KYLES logic and that’s when he struggles to realize when he’s crossed a line or overstepped a boundary. Or how his brain is usually always “self-centered”—not in a morally negative way, just in that it’s not a natural reflect for him to remember other people.

And a ton of other things as well( including a fun hc of Kyle trying to use his autism as an excuse for being a dick, until Also Autistic Craig steps up like, no dude you’re just an asshole bc you’re not trying to do better). And bc as an autistic person, I really relate hard to Kyle to the point where if he were real I’d probably hate him bc we’d be too similar lmao; I think esp when I was a kid I acted a lot like Kyle—the self righteousness, the bossiness, the belief that my way was the only way that made sense and everyone else was just Wrong, the anger issues, etc.

It’s why I’m tough on Kyle a lot of the time, but it’s also why I love thinking abt his development, bc I know firsthand that he can mellow out, change, become a better, more wellrounded and emotionally aware person, and how he can make an effort into doing so

6) oh shit I didn’t even mean for this but obviously one way I relate to Kyle is the Above autistic hc and how I characterize him. Like I said, I acted a LOT like Kyle when I was a kid, so I know he’s an irritating little shit, but also brilliant and too thoughtful for his own good sometimes.

But another thing: I characterize Kyle as someone who is a natural leader, but hates being in official leadership positions. And this is also smth I’ve kinda written due to personal experience. But also from the way kyles often portrayed in canon—in the games, he’s always a support role, always a healer, ranged fighter, or someone who boosts and buffs allies

I see Kyle as the type of person who can easily take control in, for example, a group project situation, or when he’s hanging out with Stan and they’re only doing what Kyle wants to do bc Kyle comes up with all the ideas and Stan just goes along with them

But I can’t see Kyle as someone who’d want to be, like, student counsel president. (That’s more Wendy’s wheelhouse) Mostly bc there’s too much responsibility that it’s just exhausting, and more than that, those official positions are STIFLING. They run on someone else’s schedule and they’re creatively constructive. You can’t fully do your own thing bc you have to be constantly aware of how the group works and what the group wants. I can’t see Kyle as being happy in that position bc he’d get sick of having to conform his ideas to what other ppl want—he just wants to do his own thing.

So instead, Kyle would be more comfortable in a supporting role. Bc in a position like, for example, secretary or VP, he can still have a lot of influence, power, and knowledge, but he’s free from those restrictions that come from being the face of a group. And he’s also free from the social obligations of being a leader, esp in having to deal w other groups in like a business sort of way. AND if the group falls, Kyle won’t take as much of the blame, bc it’s probably not his fault anyways so why should everyone point fingers at him. It’s much less pressure.

(And it’s also kinda inspired by his role in the CBAA??—Cartman’s perfect in the CEO/face of the company position bc Cartman is comfortable with and relishes in the attention and social aspect of being the face/leader of a company, and Kyle can reap all the benefits of being a part of that company, including being an integral pillar of the company, w/o the deficits. If Eric and Kyle ran a company they’d work together, sure, but Eric would crumble without Kyle’s support, and Kyle would hate the stifling pressure of the head position, which makes them a perfect pair.)

(And again this is based on personal experience—I’m a natural leader. People listen to me, I can organize groups, and I’m a good mediator, but I hate when it becomes Official bc I can’t just. Do my own thing as I want to and it’s far too much to keep track of and most of it doesn’t interest me. It always irritated me when my parents tried to push me into like running for student president bc I just kept thinking abt all the work I’d have to do that I wouldn’t care abt)

7) what gives me secondhand embarrassment about Kyle? Well. Just......how much he reminds me of when I was a stupid kid. He’s such a little shit oh my god Kyle shut the fuck up YOURE NOT GHANDI. When Kyle’s being entitled and stuck up, when he thinks he’s better than other ppl, and when his own big mouth and pride are what fucks him over I’m just oh my god. Oh my GODDDDDD SHUT UPPPPP.

Mostly it’s secondhand embarrassment bc I’m jus oh my god ur an idiot—but again bc I know he has the ability to grow out of that and look back on himself with a grimace at how dumb he was ahsjdkfkfk

8) cinnamon roll or problematic fave? Definitely the latter, I love Kyle and I love when he’s happy and contented but him as a cinnamon roll kinda character feels so flat to me. I love him as a problematic fave he’s so much fun as a disaster. He’s complex—he’s tough and caring and angry and compassionate and an absolute fireball of EMOTIONS but he tries to act like he’s a logical rational person and I jus? He’s so much more fun and dynamic when he’s allowed to be messy

(Of course this is long why wouldn’t it be AHSJDKDKKFKGLGLH)

#long post #kyman #south park #kyle broflovski #fl5k #creo talks

[mikekingslcy-blog]

sup, you beautiful people ?? it me, ya girl, ella. i’m from brazil, i’m 19, i really like buzzfeed unsolved and i’m bad at conversations. i really love angst and ?? i don’t know what else to say about myself so let’s just move on to my son. i’m really excited to play him. it’s been a really long while since i had a chance to and honestly i love this dumbass. he thinks he is 15 even though he is 50.

JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN, CIS MALE, HE/HIM — Have you seen MICHAEL KINGSLEY around Aspen Creek? He is a 51 year-old P.E. TEACHER and has lived on the SOUTH SIDE for 51 YEARS. He is a GEMINI, so they can be CHARISMATIC, but also SELFISH. I heard that they HAVE BEEN CHEATING ON HIS WIFE, but that could just be a rumor started by the hacker.

such an asshole i can’t even 

an absolute dumbass

also a dork. 

and also really caring

i would say he is trying his best, but he really isn’t

would coach every kids sports team ever because he just .. loves to watch kids learning to love sports and winning and getting excited about the thing he loves

just loves kids okay? all kids of all ages. from 0-18 years old. might not be the greatest influence aka would probably buy teenagers beer in the interest of looking like the Cool Uncle but ya know, like i said, a dumbass

he thinks he is funny which spoiler alert he isn’t 

he also thinks he is tough which spoiler alert he absolute isn’t either

so much self confidence 

lowkey loves romcoms but shh it’s a secret for some reason

loves baseball more than he loves himself which let me tell you, it is a Lot

really likes dangerous things and things that are outright wrong because of the thrill of sneaking around and not getting caught

it’s good the 80s have been making a comeback because his concept of what is cool was created in the late 70s/early 80s and it just stayed there. it’s honestly a surprise he doesn’t go around combing his quiff grease style

introduces himself by his nickname because his name/Mr. Holloway makes him feel old

cares for people as long as it doesn’t clash with the things he wants for himself. when it does he just … quietly ignores it and goes around doing whatever is best for him regardless of either or not it hurts/hurts the feeling of people around him

this dude is so self destructive honestly it’s a surprise he has any friends at all. he can’t deal with good stuff in his life so he just goes around making friends and then pushing them away when they get too close/he gets angry/he gets sad.

‘dealing with feelings ?? nah. better to alienate everyone from your life and channel every mildly uncomfortable feeling into unhealthy habits. long term happiness is a sham, look for temporary fulfillment’

aesthetics — baseball games in the middle of a sunday afternoon, reading glasses forgotten in a drawer at home for the fifth time, loud rock music playing through the speakers of an old car, staying out until late, forgetting what matters to you, leather jackets and black combat boots, trailing drunk kisses down her neck, feeling lonely even when you are surrounded by people who love you, 

                                                                                         p o s s i b l e   c o n n e c t i o n s

his wife — pls i’ll die for it. it’s in the wanted connection page and i just,,, i need,,,, this level angst ,,, 

the person he’s cheating his wife with — it could be a guy or girl or a non-binary pal. he’s been lowkey cheating on his wife to push her away, but i also think he really likes them/cares for them. they could be with him for their own selfish reasons as well or they could falling for him. i just want to explore it and see where it goes ?? there are so many possibilities here.

one night stand — maybe they are co-workers or they play baseball together every sunday or he coacher their kid sports team ?? they ended up getting drunk one day and oops a one night stand and now they gotta keep seeing each other ?? it could be awkward, it could be angst-y, it could be funny. he could be constantly teasing them about it or he could be too afraid to be bring up so they don’t tell his wife about it. honestly ? i live for this type of shit.

a former friend he has wronged — they could have been best of friends and then at some point your character said ‘mike pls don’t do x thing’ and then surprise, surprise, michael did x thing. hurt ? betrayal ? angst ? hate ? michael being an even bigger dumbass and trying to pretend nothing happened in order to try and bring them back into his life instead of apologizing ? pls

unlikely friendship — michael is really super nice to everyone at first ? maybe they are like this really quiet bookworms or just super responsible focused person. he could be a bad influence on them, they could be a good influence on him? i’m open to anything honestly

best friend — just... someone that looks past all the stuff he does and is able to stand him. he could always be there for them when they need and they are always there for him. maybe they call him out on his bullshit and mike shows up when the other thinks no one will be there. i live for platonic ride or die shit. 

#aspenooc #pls plot with me

[kisaragizan]

Gaming Rant [Blazblue Cross Tag Battle]

I posted this in my team chat on discord and just wanted to share the message with everyone else who was interested in the game: so the good ole copy and paste came in handy. Mostly good stuff to say about the game honestly.

My initial approach to the game was rather lukewarm because while it was a Blazblue game, it wasn't from what I heard and saw from gameplay of both seasoned fighting gamers and those new to fighting games. Many adjustments to characters, move properties, controls set up, new systems, and more threw myself and many others for a roller-coaster trying to find our place in the game, especially coming off of Dragonball FighterZ - DBFZ, a game similar in concept to XTB. Day One of the Online Beta was about me understanding that this game should be treated as it's own and not like anything before it. However, my impression of this game has greatly started to favor the game for more than just the franchises through it’s concept, it’s purpose and what it could mean for the fighting game franchise as a whole. Starting from the characters, I feel they were well represented, fighting wise, from what I could see between fighting them and listening to feedback of people who mained said characters from their original games, especially since I only played two characters, which I feel were handled properly. There were some major changes but only to accommodate the system but not enough to feel like "oh this character is unplayable/bad". When asked "Who did I think was the worst character in the trial?" I'm still, even now, am unsure because I feel so far there's not a character that's outright bottom tier - all of them felt really solid and with the auto-combo system, felt very encouraged to try new characters & team combinations. Defensive’s in this game is probably my favorite part and that the part that makes this game fulfill it's purpose more than DBFZ. When I finally learned all three, my time spent being juggled in combos was significantly lessened which is the fear when playing fighting games. My only gripes towards this game is the movement, distortion/special command, and button lay out. Button lay out can be mitigated by customizing controls, the distortion command is linked to your grab button which serves as an issue because grabs do a run up to close the distance; which in turn if you mistime the motion, you will run up towards your opponent which can fuck you up big time. Having your only movement be running instead of walking is a bit of an inconvenience when it comes to approaching the opponent when running was originally just tapping forward twice. However, even with these issues, I feel the game even from a demo was a great learning experience in both understanding the game and even improving myself without feeling overly taxed, physically. The challenges right now from what I can see is really just defensives (both when and how) and understanding your team composition both individually and mutually, of which you can learn at your own pace without feeling left behind.

The Mission of Cross Tag Battle!

This game is really the first step easing the barrier of entry that many people had with fighting games (disregarding online gaming subscriptions like PS+ and financials to purchase it and DLC) in which it required so much time investment to learn your characters and the game itself which can take weeks, months, sometimes even years before you could fully understand it, to a point where a portion of your life must be dedicated to it. Of course the fighting game community - FGC, is very helpful and will support you but it really requires a consistent drive and patience to make progress in competitive fighting games. That being said, the game does just that and perhaps even better than DBFZ in specific areas. Don't get me wrong, not saying either game is bad or better than one another, I acknowledge the pros and cons of both game and value them equally on a personal level. However, regardless if you plan to play competitively or not, XTB is a good entry level game to the fighting game franchise; it's systems are simply enough to not require a ridiculous amount of time to even scratch the surface but with enough depth to keep seasoned fighters happy and rewarded for their time invested - especially in the team combination. It's something I feel was needed to make fighting games welcoming to just pick up and see yourself doing something, such as block strings, punishes, and even combos from a single button or two instead of just throwing jabs at the air. Whereas in Blazblue Centralfiction, Tekken, FighterZ (at times): I couldn't really enjoy myself playing against people who were new/learning unless I played a character I had 0 knowledge so that games wouldn't be one-sided, discouraging people from even wanting to play (and even then it's still one sided due to understanding the system, better fundamentals, etc.). I do 100% recommend this game to anyone who has never played Blazblue (or any 2D fighter) and would like to especially to just play casually, flail around, have a good time, experiment etc etc.

#blazblue #jin-kisaragi #rwby #persona 4 #under night in birth #hyde-kido #bbxtb #cross tag battle #arcsystem

[deathghost8]

Adventure basics module 0 ~ the zen paradox crash course via Alan Watts

The first version of this is 4 hours and a half, nearly. Here are the notes from the stream session where I ran the entire playlist. 1- there isnt anything else to think about except here and now. thinking about the future has no value, its value is an illusion, bc future is an illusion. 2- skull glee "laughing everlastingly []~[] death was but the good king's jest, it was hid so carefully " 3- to stop clinging to the value of survival, practice thinking deeply about what is real. something that happens "only once" doesn't happen at all. there is not just one cosmos. all stopping implies starting. 4- we're looking at the terror that nothingness may "Win" this game. it's something to look at, as we look at stories in the arts. 5- Watch This: what happens when accomplishing Shutting up 6- the point of anything is arrived at Only in the moment. Now. 7- the point is... Play. Enjoyment of the Vibe of now. 8- you don't have to try to understand anything. you just listen to the sound. but you can't help naming what is heard and seeing thoughts appear which are words. Listen to them, they are part of the total general noise. 9- how to contact your higher self - no, it contacts you. all you do is Watch This. You are here. Now. 10- we are gonna figure out some paradox states that deal with what it means to stop Wanting to do Good / be better. 11- this question is, how can i outwit Me ? The quest for satisfaction just changes, what is Good just changes as we quest. 12- why do you want to know about Becoming better? Doing good even to oneself can be amazingly destructive. How do you know what's good for you? 13- we are going to pay for all of the improvements that have been made as we have interfered with nature. until we have become a plague of virtuous people, all in all. 14- watts and carlin both manage to describe how humanity is absolutely horrifying as soon as it's more than one, more than an individual virtue. ()hour 2 begins 15- with the most elementary lesson. about sensation, the core dual aspect of On / Off, vibration. life is this system of now you see it, now you don't. 16- here, we are beginning truly to describe universe symmetry, mutual arising, and the negative principle. particles of truth we are going to see about absolutely all things. 17- there is no road to here, because you're already there. we are all here. Now. 18- all of the observable energy / electricity transactions have to do with a circuit closing point. the motion doesn't start until the circuit closes. it takes time for the circuit to form, then time for the energy to transfer. 19- we are in the nature of god segment, which gets us to consider how the Father Authority figure is a problematic culture element of religions other than those of Zen. -this segment is about the thought that there IS authority to existence - and it's NOT you. 20- the page that words are written on, the space wherein dance and music unfolds, fabric, the Sub Stance. Underneath. existence is Being this substance. -COnsciousness thereby represents the most Elusive Whatever it is that we know about 21- the BLANK is absolutely necessary for there to be Anything. The []Kali is representative of horrible, unthinkable badness. We have made death scary with monsters. 22- The []coincidence of opposites - basically what a mutual arising construct is. Zen Paradox. 23- Neti Neti. THE void. God who has No image. 24- Not formal atheism. The luminous Darkness. Total trust attitude, letting go. REAL paradox zen. 25- The ability to STOP chasing fulfillment and instead inhabit the only Anything that there is. Now. 26- We are always in a hurry to get things finished, and so the things that we finish weren't worth finishing 'cause they were done so fast.* 27- We don't have TIME to sit... to sit and listen to the water. REally? I've been questioning this since like age 3. 28- at 2 hour mark -we are going to think about work as play, everything as play, the concept of accessing our spontaneity. 29- now we fully weigh what does it mean to untie the knot that coercion thought patterns is. it's not necessary to go on living. raising all the kids to think of their Duty to go on makes everyone miserable. 30- the disruption against coercion, it is like parable. slyman, the joker. Scoundrel, ourselves. 31- there is no way out of the bind of doing any actions but not thinking of them first.... [ THIS is a zen paradox structure I first encountered when it was about how the characters in hitchiker's guide to the galaxy learn Flight.[] 32- This is going through a door, then turning around and seeing there was never a door. You're not trapped. You just step over the prison. [] ()third hour beginning, some comedy about zen masters now 33- the zen student is one who has checked out of the status game. focusing on the real value of reality and sensation instead. 34- it takes two to make a quarrel. 35- Zen cannot be explained - you have to use words to describe within a language that it has a limitation. the limitation is what we are trying to describe. 36- Watts directly calls out the trauma caused by coercion in childhood and education. No subtlety about how prepared are we to undo the damage caused to kids by education. 37- mutual arising is the evidence of the difference between absence, Tone, decay back to its absence. it's a stone falling into liquid 38- Sensation is the good term to directly refer to real existence content. 39- to be awake is to be watching existence, watching the vibration. to see the spontaneous action after succeeding at not inhibiting it. - and everyone has the ability to wake up from the illusions to instead just watch real existence, the basic energy sensation in the core of all. 40- Ego is a social institution, like words are a Noise to indicate something that exists. 41- if you would like to be anxious it's alright, you can, you don't have to chill. but if you get to the point u no longer enjoy the game, you don't have to do it. 42- the whole fun within a game is you don't know the whole outcome. watts explains this regarding life. an aesthetic about trusting the game is the core Play attitude he is trying to teach. 43- you cannot take the risk out of human connections and social goings on. it becomes impossible. 44- Secure "safety" where whole system "Watches" itself, elaborately self conscious - surveillance state, you are tied up in that process and literally cannot act. Halted. To have freedom, Risk is present. A community that doesn't trust itself does not function to wellbeing or chill. 45- last few segments on this playlist are the Structure built out of the prior particles. Upper level. about social systems, currency, interaction, and Love itself. they are about sharing and Sovereignty of the WHOLE which requires the framework, the mesh vibration. 46- he totally takes the time to rip on rushing around in automobiles. it's stupid. hurrying is so completely LAME, and so is being furious. 47- he literally describes that its absurd for money to be issued out then re collected in tax. the system would be simpler to be a money issuing system to install spending power across the population, while first keeping what budget needed. -that distro failure is where we are now in dehumanism system. we've generated a shit load of revenue on behalf of people, using the tech, but that gain has been hoarded and used in ways that have ruined the Mesh of our human community. instead of distributing the gains to humans' behalf.