#Prelude to After the Hero

[thecurioustale]

Art Begets Art and the Law Should Respect This

I believe in the tradition of folk art, which is to say: Borrow liberally and lovingly.

It's a practice we've been mostly sterilized from embracing in our modern corporatist society, where all of the big-name, commonly-recognizable "IPs" are imprisoned behind layer after layer of obnoxious lawyers with nothing better to do than torment the innocent. It's a terrible thing, a deprivation of our cultural oxygen—a crime against art and ethics.

As an artist myself, I often have to thread the needle of building upon the inspiring works of others while still remaining within the letter of our outrageous IP laws. It's something I think about a lot.

In Galaxy Federal, for instance, I mentioned last time that the name "Galaxy Federal" was inspired, among other things, by the mention of the "Galaxy Federal Police" title screen of the original Metroid game. When I was settling on this title for my series, I also found that Galaxy Federal is the trademarked name of a bank. I spent considerable time and mental resources, years ago, to determine to my satisfaction that it is permissible under the law for me to use this title.

I have to do way too much of this bullshit, and I know it'll still be for naught: If I ever do become an even remotely successful author, I'm sure I'll be sued anyway, probably for something I never even realized was an "infringement" despite all my vigilance. Because, at the end of the day, for big corporations and for IP trolls, our IP laws are just a racketeering scheme—a side hustle. I mean, Best Western trademarked the word "seniority." If someone wants to sue you, they're gonna find a way.

I am not really a "from scratch" writer. I don't sit down at a blank page and just come up with prose from first principles. My art is almost always inspired by things that I experience in my life, or by the ideas that result from those experiences. Sometimes—frequently, even—my inspirations come from things that are copyrighted or trademarked. I have written in the past about the influence of the video game The Secret of Mana on me as a kid. Among many other inspirations, that game has a neat sandship in it, and that's why the desert easts of Relance are prevalent with sandships.

Over the years I've become a pro at reinterpreting IP-blocked inspirations into usable, original ones—both in terms of the legal research I've done and the skills I've developed at transforming an IP-blocked inspiration into something usable. I've also become more knowledgeable about what I can get away with quoting directly: Certain things cannot be copyrighted, and trademarks have a finite zone of applicability.

It's all a very needless and skill-intensive ballet to achieve something that should be directly accessible. Obviously, there do need to be limits. As an artist myself, I am keenly aware that I wouldn't want to have no special claim to my own work. But if I were to rewrite our outrageous IP laws—and over the years I have amassed considerable material for a book on this—I would make it vastly easier for artists and the public in general to "borrow liberally and lovingly" from the sources that inspire them. Our current IP laws are like a crime-ridden police state: The security is in all the wrong places and just doesn't work. We could relax the laws considerably without hurting artists, and potentially even tighten them in other respects to better combat trolls and thieves.

But in the meantime, here's my advice: Don't let it daunt you. Dance the friggin' ballet. Get good at transformation. Liberate intellectual property from its prison in spirit if not in substance. And, when you're fearless and/or sufficiently obscure, just straight-up pirate. I think society has a duty to reject unjust laws through word and deed.

I don't usually don my pirate's hat, but I do sometimes. When I published the Prelude in 2015, for a limited time I also published a free companion soundtrack consisting entirely of, gasp, copyrighted music. Nowhere is the horror of our modern IP laws more evident than in the realm of music. What I did was basically create a curated playlist, to help set the mood of the story. I don't know if anyone even availed themselves of that soundtrack, yet for me to license all of those pieces to make my limited-time links lawful would have cost me thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars! All for something that it's possible nobody other than me even listened to. That's a crime against art. And it's a crime against artists. Our draconian IP laws hurt small artists the most. If I had had thousands of fans, I'd have been able to pay to play—and I would have done so, or perhaps I would have spent the equivalent money to hire composers to write an original soundtrack. But, as a nobody-artist and a poor person, whose own Curious Score musical compositions are long in the making, the lawful avenues are all unassailably closed off to me. This too is an injustice, of another sort.

Doing the companion soundtrack was the right thing to do in the tradition of folk art. None of those other artists (or, let's be real, the corporate goliaths that hoard most of this "content" in their treasure-vaults) was deprived of a single penny; in fact that's one of the great lies of the IP lawyers and their corporate masters: Cultural interchange usually improves income for people whose work is quoted by others. Borrow liberally and lovingly—and give credit where credit is due.

That's the way it should be.

And, one day, that's how it will be again.

#IP law #IP law is a fucking joke and painfully Orwellian and we should all be praying to the Bermuda Triangle to disappear these corporate lawyers #Prelude to After the Hero

[celaenaeiln]

I want to talk about Dick Grayson's beauty, sex symbol status, and how it all connects for a moment.

This is a prelude to an upcoming post but I needed to include this separately because the other was getting too big.

First of all Dick Grayson is a beautiful man.

And you're probably thinking "well, no duh. Everyone knows that." but what I mean is Dick Grayson was intentionally made to be beautiful.

For a little historical context, around the late 1950s the culture in the US was changing. It was around this time, that people began exploring and accepting what they called a "feminine man".

This was really taking place in cinema and stuff where they began to show softer versions of men doing "typically female roles" as heroes.

One example is the movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", a 1962 Hollywood film. In summary, it takes place in the midwest and is centered about Cowboys, gunslingers, the shebang. But the point is, there are two male leads in the movie - Ranse Stoddard (played by Jimmy Stewart) and Tom Donophon (played by John Wayne). Ranse and Tom are both the heroes in the film but with a key difference. Tom is like the sheriff of the town, loved by all and focusing his time on practicing his gun skills. The savior of women and normal people, he's the typical masculine hero. His face is rough and handsome. Ranse however was the new wave. He doesn't care about carrying the gun, he thinks it's uncouth and focuses much of his attention on sending the evil guy (Liberty Valance) to jail through laws. He doesn't want to kill and he takes a more advocative approach. He is also loved by everyone despite not being super masculine. Ranse's face is clean and almost dainty in comparison to Tom and Liberty Valance's.

Despite the complete opposites they are, both men are considered heroes. On one hand, you have the very male typical hero but on the other hand, you have the feminine male hero. At one point the evil guy laughs when Ranse walks in wearing an apron because serving tables is a "woman's job", but Ranse doesn't let it bother him.

How does this connect to Dick Grayson?

Dick Grayson is the feminine hero of DC. DC jumped on the pretty boy hero train.

That's also why in the Teen Titans (1966) comics, Dick keeps being referred to by endearingly feminine pet names by the titans which they seem to only use on him.

Standard gender roles: Men were expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold while women were expected to be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Sound familiar about a certain duo?

But Dick? He plays both male and female gender roles in a time period where it wasn't socially acceptable to do so.

So my point is, Dick was created to blur the lines between gender and the way his character has progressed - he's meant to be the definition of a man opposite to male toxicity.

He can cook and do laundry whereas Bruce, the image of male dominance cannot.

This also falls into another role of Bruce and Dick's but it applies here as well in hindsight.

One thing people need to understand is that Dick was created to be the antithesis of Bruce Wayne. For all the gloominess that Bruce is Dick was meant to be the joy. He is the light to Bruce's darkness.

Which is why Dick often acts as the loving mother to the batfamily while Bruce acts as the stern father. Because Dick was created for the female role.

Part of the reason why I love Dick and Kory is because they do this at a time where girlbossing and malewifing wasn't a thing. Kori is consistently the dominant one when it comes to love in their relationship while Dick plays a softer, more "wife like" role. The way Kori is taller than Dick and buffer than him ✨

He is quite literally a queen consort - that is the role that Kori begs him to take after she is forced to marry someone her father picks out for her. But Dick refuses in tears because his morality cannot bear becoming a mistress and ruining someone else's marriage.

I know this is a long tangent but here's where the sex symbol comes in. Dick was created to be the most beautiful figure in DC but him being beautiful is not supposed to be confused with him being objectified.

Being beautiful is just something he was born as. What people do as a result has nothing to with DC

Take this for instance

He's literally just showering and comes out of the shower to find a random little girl singing about his and batman's identities. Creepy? Yes. Very much so. So he chases after her and finds her gone. Well there's nothing he can do now, he needs to go back and analyze what's going on and contact the other titans-

Crap.

Look at all the women that are ogling him, and even the ginger looks as if he doesn't know if he's jealous or wants to join - but there's nothing Dick did to make them do that. He's literally minding his own business and got caught outside. Did he hit on the women? Did he seduce them? Did he purposefully show off and make a loud commotion because he wanted the attention? No!

Arguing that Dick Grayson shouldn't be a sex symbol just seems wrong to me considering that it's not a fault of his.

It's like telling Kori not to have large breasts and telling Dinah not to wear fishnets.

People still ogle them regardless of how they dress because they're just that attractive. You can't tell someone to look a different way because you don't like the attention they're receiving...that's literally the opposite of everything people should be fighting for

Arguing that Dick Grayson being a sex symbol is a problem because he's too beautiful and blaming the actions of other characters for thinking so is just...

it's wrong.

He was created to be beautiful to fight male toxic masculinity. He's woman coded for a reason.

We should be embracing him. He represents everything male freedom should be about. He constantly placed in a female role, in female positions-

In queer positions-

He's acrobatic, slender, and sensual. He's gentle, loving, and beautiful.

When has the beauty of a person ever been a reflection of their character? The way fandom is going, it's implying that because female characters make sexualized comments about Dick's body, it's somehow Dick's fault for looking that way. We're blaming him for his "womanizing" ways as if he hasn't put his heart and soul into every relationship he's had. And while we're busy calling him a womanizer, we conveniently forget that the women he's in relationships with have significant personalities of their own. We inadvertently reduce their beings to plastic bags, ignoring that they have broken up with each other because of being unable to resolve conflicting beliefs, different career paths, different lifestyles, and more. It's not a one way road with our treatment of Dick. It's a two way street because we're harming both Dick and strong women like Kori, Barbara, Bea, Shawn, and Helena by pretending what they believe in and live for is unimportant in love.

Instead we should be exploring how the objectification might have an impact on Dick's mental health rather than blaming DC for using characters to describe how hot Dick is.

All the beautiful traits of Dick Grayson - his ambiguous sexuality, his overwhelming love for people, his affection for his friends, the way he cries and feels for others - all of it is beautiful, is it not?

From his very creation Dick was meant to be someone who breaks gender roles. The constant attraction he receives from both men and women in all of DC's media is evidence of that. The Grayson comics push the boundaries of his sexuality as much as DC will allow. To be queer without coming out with it. He is the feminine hero.

Everyone seems to hate that he's being called a sex symbol but why does that bother you? Dick Grayson IS the pretty girl of the comic universe. He IS the babygirl of DC.

DC has created the perfect view of what it's like to be a woman through Dick Grayson and we're spitting on the most accurate representation of a female that comics have ever created by blaming them for expressing what it's like to live as a woman.

#dick grayson #nightwing #I would love to hear people's thoughts on this bc I genuinely don't get the problem with him being portrayed as hot #bruce wayne #batman #dickkori #my thoughts on the sex symbol thing #prelude to my next post #koriand'r

[navybrat817]

Prelude to a Kiss

Pairings: Camboy!Bucky Barnes x Female Reader, Camboy!Steve Rogers x Female Reader, Bucky Barnes x Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes x Female Reader x Steve Rogers Summary: A chance encounter with two handsome men at a bookstore brings some much needed excitement to your normal routine. Word Count: Over 2.3k Warnings: F/lirting, slight insecurity if you squint, slight feels (it's me), pet name, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers being both gentlemen and menaces (they're warnings, okay?). A/N: Welcome to my Showtime AU! Excited to share my first "actual" Stucky x Reader AU and for our reader to come into her own. ❤️ Beta read by the wonderful @whisperlullaby ​, but any and all mistakes are my own. Thanks to @sgt-seabass, @rookthorne, and @targaryenvampireslayer for letting me scream about this introduction. Please follow @navybrat817-sideblog for new fics and notifications. Comments, reblogs, feedback are loved and appreciated!

It was a normal afternoon when you went into the bookstore, the familiar quiet greeting you as the door shut. You ventured into the shop every couple of weeks to find new books to read. The man behind the desk didn't bother to lift his head long enough from his phone to greet you. You would think after your first few visits he'd at least offer you a smile or suggestion, but he never did. You were used to guys not giving you much attention.

Too ordinary to stand out, I guess.

No, you wouldn't think of yourself that way. Just because most guys tended to gravitate toward your friends instead of you didn't mean anything was wrong with you. The right person would come along and take notice.

"I am a catch," you whispered to yourself as you walked through the shelves.

And a bit lonely.

Your phone dinged before you could dwell on that thought, smiling as your best friend's name popped up. It faded quickly when you read her message. The two of you had a dinner date, but the new guy she was seeing had tickets to some show. You understood. You really did.

Except you were the friend who always seemed to get ditched when a guy came along.

"Have fun!" you sent back. "We'll catch up later."

At least you could get a jump start on a new book and curl up on the couch for the evening. Like you did most nights. Lather, rinse, repeat. When did your life become so monotonous?

"Romance it is," you mumbled as you reached for a blue book on the shelf.

You turned it over to read the blurb on the back, a small smile on your face as you walked down the aisle. From the simpering heroines to feisty protagonists, you enjoyed immersing yourself in the emotions that poured from the pages as the heroes fought to get their girls. Confident, broody, flirty, alluring, you loved them all and wondered if such men you read about existed.

"Oh!"

For a second, you thought you walked into one of the shelves before you realized you bumped into a person. A very large person who didn't budge, even as a couple of books fell to the ground. You dropped to the floor immediately to retrieve them. Why hadn't you been paying attention?

"Oh, my god. I'm so sorry," you said as the guy crouched down to help.

"Nothing to be sorry about," he said, his velvety voice making you lift your head.

In front of you was one of the most handsome men you had ever seen. Long, brown hair, close to his shoulders, framed his face and your mouth went dry as you found yourself staring into his bright blue eyes. You couldn't help but notice the smile on his face as he offered you his hand and effortlessly pulled you to your feet, your cheeks hot as he steadied you. He took up more than half the aisle with his muscular frame and you knew then that a god existed among men.

Like he stepped right out of one of these novels.

"I-I'm sorry," you said again, your gaze going to his hands as he fixed the stack of books he was carrying. "I should've been paying attention to where I was going."

"It's okay," he smiled, looking you up and down with a slow and steady gaze. "You can bump into me again if you want. I don't mind."

You nearly dropped the book in your own hand as you stepped back, his smile shifting to a smirk. If you didn't know any better, you'd think he was flirting with you. That couldn't be the case though.

"Oh, you are fucking adorable," he said in a low voice, quickly looking behind him. "Stevie, get over here. Found something special."

"What did you find?" The deep timbre that rang out made your knees weak.

You let out a shaky breath when an Adonis walked around the corner. Just as large as the brunette, but with shorter blonde hair, a smile didn't reach his brilliant blue eyes as he strode over. Instead of light scruff like the man you bumped into, he donned a trimmed beard. He had to shift just to fit beside his friend and you nearly shrank under his gaze. You tried not to openly gape, not knowing which one of them to concentrate on.

So, two gods among men. Like something out of a wet dream. Do I look at the veins in their arms? Do I stare at their chests? How do they even fit in their shirts? Did they purposely choose something that matched their eyes?

The brunette smirked again and gave a single nod toward you. "This precious gem here bumped into me."

You nearly melted to the floor as heat rushed to your face again. The pet name had your head spinning. Or maybe it was the intoxicating scent of their cologne. "It was an accident and I apologized."

The blonde softly smiled at that, but his eyes held a spark of mischief. "I'm sure it was, but I know Buck is not sorry that you bumped into him."

"Not sorry at all," he confirmed.

You shifted your weight and wondered if the bookstore was always so hot or if it was just them. Your skin heated up more under your clothes and your heart beat faster under their attention. Part of you wished you had a bottle of water to dump over your head and cool off. You didn't even want to think about being sandwiched between them because your legs would likely give out.

"Buck and Stevie?" you asked.

"That's what we call each other. I'm Bucky and that's Steve," the brunette smiled, nodding to the blonde. "Can call us Sarge and Cap if you want."

You couldn't put your finger on it, but something about them seemed familiar. Like you had either seen them somewhere or heard of them in passing, but that couldn't be the case. No, you would have remembered them.

Men like them were unforgettable.

"It's nice to meet you," Steve said, giving you an expectant look.

You told them your name after a second and you hoped you didn't look weird when you blinked a few times. You were trying to make sure you were awake and not dreaming. Because who bumped into two gorgeous men like this in a bookstore? That wasn't your life.

Except, today, it was.

“I really should have been looking where I was going. I mean, you're not hard to miss," you said, doing your best not to ogle at Bucky. "Neither of you are. I mean that in a good way."

"You aren't hard to miss either. I also mean that in a good way," Bucky smiled.

"I agree," Steve said, his eyes sweeping over you before you glanced at yourself.

You wondered what they saw exactly. It wasn't that you looked bad. You always left your place with confidence in your appearance. You just weren't used to most guys looking anymore.

Or maybe, just maybe, some are and I'm the one who isn't paying attention.

Bucky gently pried the book from your hand, his fingers lingering against yours. "And I'd like to pay for that."

"Oh, no. You don't have to," you argued as he added the book to his pile.

You noticed then that he held a couple of science books while Steve had novels on art. It intrigued you as both were fascinating subjects in their own way. You had a feeling both of them were the same way: captivating, wondrous, and deep.

"I want to."

"A gentleman would ask to get her a drink, too," Steve teased.

"I don't know if I'm a gentleman," Bucky mused as he looked at you. "But I would also like you to have a drink with us. Then I'll accept your apology."

What would the sassy heroine say in this situation?

"I-" you almost sputtered.

Not that.

"Now you're just being mean, Buck. It was an accident and she apologized," Steve chastised, but he smiled at you.

"I'm not," Bucky swore, clutching his chest with one hand. "Hurts right here where you bumped me. A drink with you would make us both feel all better."

Steve regarded you carefully. "Unless you have a boyfriend you need to get back to. Or girlfriend."

You couldn't help licking your lips, not knowing just how enticing the gesture was. It was dizzying to be on the receiving end of their stares again, yet you couldn't tear your eyes away as you looked between them. Was it wrong to enjoy the attention these strangers were giving you?

"No, I'm not seeing anyone," you said.

And no rings on their fingers, but no way can they be single.

Instead of turning to walk the other way, Bucky moved forward and bent his head. "Lucky us," he whispered against your ear before he brushed past you. "Mmm. You smell sweet. Like flowers," he added over his shoulder.

You bit back a whine before Steve gave you an assuring smile. You admitted to yourself earlier that you were lonely. Had you sent out some sort of vibe to the universe to get them to talk to you? Or did you manifest them into existence?

"I hope we aren't making you uncomfortable. Buck can come on a little strong when he sees something he wants," Steve said as he gently put a hand on your back to guide you. "Though I can't say I blame him in this case."

“No, it’s okay. He seems nice," you said, smiling to yourself at the compliment. "Even if he needs a drink to accept an apology.”

Steve's chuckle had you shivering as you made your way to the front of the store. "A drink he plans to pay for along with your book," he said, adding his small stack to the pile on the desk.

Standing behind them was a mistake as your gaze went right to their asses. You wondered if your friends would believe you if you told them about the two perfect specimens who could be models if they wanted to. Maybe they were since you had no clue what they did.

Stop staring. Don't think about grabbing their asses. Did they paint their jeans on? God, I need to get laid.

As if Bucky knew you were looking, he glanced over his shoulder and winked. You averted your gaze after that. He was clearly the more playful of the two, but something in his eyes told you he was a man you should take seriously. And Steve? You didn't ever want to be on the receiving end of upsetting or disappointing him.

Not like I'll ever find out. They're not actually taking me for a drink. They'll go their way and I'll go mine.

Bucky thanked the cashier before he turned and handed you your book with a card on top. "Stevie and I are gonna grab a drink at The Howling Commandos in a half hour if you wanna join us. It's just around the corner," he explained as you moved away from the counter. "If not, there are our numbers if you ever wanna chat. Just spare me the heartache and wait 'til we leave before you throw it out."

You curiously ran a finger over the card. It had both Bucky and Steve's names on them, but no business listed. It intrigued you even more now.

Who are you two?

"Thank you for buying my book. You really didn't have to do that," you said, touched that he was kind enough to do that. "And I'm not going to throw your card out."

No one in their right mind would do something like that.

"Thank you. I would've had to listen to him whine all night," Steve said, nudging his friend.

"Not all night. Most of it," Bucky teased. "And it was nothing. Does that mean you'll join us for a drink?" he added, his tone casual, but his gaze hopeful.

I would let you both devour me and I wouldn't object.

"You're really asking me?"

"Yeah, we are," Steve answered, his gaze almost as soft as Bucky's.

You wondered if it was a good idea. As charming as they were, you didn't know them. They didn't give you bad vibes though or the impression that they were playing a prank. Your gut told you to take a chance. Because your couch and books would always be there, but how many opportunities like this would you get?

Maybe they see that I'm a catch. And if it's just a drink and nothing more, it's nice to make new friends.

"I'll join you," you replied, your heart racing when they both smiled. It gave you the boost of confidence to flirt back a little. "If only to spare your feelings."

Both of their eyebrows shot up when you giggled and you took great pleasure in them laughing with you, like the three of you were sharing a private joke.

"Careful, little gem," Bucky smiled as he held the door open for you. "You might just make us fall in love."

"Might?" Steve smiled as they headed out, too. "Oh, I'm looking forward to it."

You managed not to stumble onto the sidewalk at their words. They were just being charming. It had to be. God, they were lethal.

How am I going to survive having drinks with them if they keep flirting like that?

"See you in thirty minutes," you said as you regained your composure.

"Don't be late."

"Otherwise Steve will have to punish you," Bucky winked before they turned and walked away, leaving you awestruck where you stood.

Welp. There go my panties.

So, how long before it takes them to ruin you? And how long before you find out what they do for a living? Hehe. Love and thanks for reading! 💙

Masterlist ⚓ Stucky Masterlist ⚓ Ko-Fi

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[howtofightwrite]

Speaking of martial competence, do you have any examples of characters that are actually written with this in mind?

Loads. Some actually even make good on that.

So, there's different kinds of martial competence. There are characters who are proficient in combat directly, there are well written strategists, there are characters who excel at military leadership, and when they're written well, you can actuallylearn some things from them.

I'm going to give some examples, and at least one cautionary example.

For, just, raw combat prowess, I still go back to Robert E. Howard's Conan short stories. It's easy to meme on the character, especially 90 years after the fact, with the cultural persona that's grown around him, but Howard's original writing is excellent. The character would not have survived Howard's early (and, frankly, tragic) death if it was just the one note gag you might expect, if your only exposure to the character was through cultural osmosis and the films.

Howard's fight scenes were shockingly well written. To the point that it is still absolutely worth reading if you want to write a fantasy fighter.

For strategists, three characters come to mind, but only two are literary, and all are Science Fiction.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is probably one of the best villains Star Wars has ever produced, it's part of why he's one of the few characters that's migrated from the original EU to the Disney era. My personal take is, as a character, he's lost a lot over the years, but the original incarnation from the early 90s novels is a very solid model for a strategist. Particularly in how he takes time to understand his opponents while looking for potential weak points to exploit.

His practice of studying a culture's art to understand their psychology might sound a bit goofy, but the concept does have a real basis. (At least, until it metastasized into a superpower, in later adaptations of the character.) Being able to psychologically assess your foe is an incredibly valuable element of strategy, and one that you probably want to consider when you're writing a character who is supposed to be a “strategic genius.”

When writing fiction, you want to consider all of your characters as if they were people, rather than as hollow, plastic toys. And, yes, the obnoxious villain who knows exactly what your heroes will do because of authorial fiat is going to be a more compelling character than the ambulatory goldfish villain who exists as a prelude for your heroes showing off how badass you think they are.

Granted, even in Heir to the EmpireThrawn was already drawing strategic insights that strained credibility, but understanding your foe is an element of strategic thinking that is often forgotten in literature. So, even as a villain in a tie-in novel (we're not done with tie-in fiction yet), he is worth looking at. At least when written by Timothy Zhan, Thrawn was a well written character, and even if he bordered on a Mary Sue at times, he escaped a lot of that stigma by justifying his competence.

It's also probably worth mentioning in passing that he's one of the few Imperial leaders in Star Wars who isn't also criminally incompetent.

The non-literary example of a strategist would be John Sheridan from Babylon 5. Unlike Thrawn, Sheridan's main strategic focus is on situational exploitation. A little of that comes from his knowledge of enemy procedures and psychology, but at lot of it comes from a rather ruthless approach to technical limitations. An alien race is using technology that blocks human targeting systems? Set up a nuclear mine and then send out a fake distress single to lure them in. Need to deal with a significantly larger, more dangerous ship? Lure them into a gas giant and and let the planet's gravity well drag them past crush depth. Bruce Boxleitner's performance helped sell the character, but Sheridan is a really solid science fiction strategist, who really exemplifies how technical limitations can have enormous strategic considerations.

I'm not citing Sheridan as an excellent example of a leader per se,it's certainly there, but it is harder to unpack from Boxleitner's performance. It does have some good payoffs much later in the series when he starts making some orders that cause his subordinates to sit up and stop what they're doing. And that is a consistent theme even back to his introduction, but, it's a tangible consequence to an intangible cause.

The last example is a negative example, both for strategy and leadership. And, as much as it pains me to say this, at least Orson Scott Card understood that Ender was a bad leader. At least in the original novel. To be blunt, Ender is a mediocre strategist at best. His highlights in the book involve, “inventing armor,” and creative movement in micrograv. That's setting the bar exceptionally low, and while it is reasonably within the range of what you could expect from a pre-teen, that's not much of a justification.

Again, I'm not a fan of Card, and I'm reallynot recommending Ender's Gameto anyone. However, if I didn't mention it, you know there'd be a reblog going for twelve hundred words about how Andrew Wiggin is the best strategist in literature, which, yeah, no.

Do you want a goofy, tie-in fiction, literary suggestion for the best leader in sci-fi? Too bad, because I'm pretty sure Ciaphas Cain is not that person. The Ciaphas Cain novels by Sandy Mitchell are unusual as leadership recommendations, because of how much Cain internally processes the social manipulation involved in military leadership. He's not a great leader, but he is exceptionallygood at explaining to the reader how he's creating that illusion to motivate the soldiers around him. In fairness, some of that is an intrinsic character flaw, he is incredibly insecure, and desperately trying to hide that fact. And the difference between being a great leader, and effectively creating a comprehensive illusion of a great leader is: There is no difference. As a serious complement, it is one of the few times I've seen an author treat leadership as an actual skill, and not simply an extension of a character's charisma. Which is why I'm singling this one out. It might sound like a joke inclusion initially, and the books are quite funny in a Warhammer 40k kind of way, but there is quite a bit of  value to be had.

-Starke

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#writing advice #writing reference #writing tips #how to fight write #starke answers #Babylon 5 #Grand Admiral Thrawn #Ciaphas Cain

[beaulesbian]

I was only today years old when I realized that Trafalgar Law's names are probably references to two battles that led in our real life history to a certain emperor (Napoleon)'s defeat.

*arrives 10 years late with a meta post because of a realization*

uhh Dressrosa spoilers, I guess.

Trafalgar and Waterloo... Water Law.

In One Piece world that emperor being Doflamingo, who suffered two major loses thanks to Law's existence:

First being cca 13 years ago from the main storyline - at the Minion Island where Corazon managed to get the Op-op devil fruit for Law and saving his life from Doflamingo. On that island, Doflamingo lost both Corazon and the devil fruit he wanted to much to get his hands on, as well as Law, someone who he wanted to use as the sacrifice to get the immortality via the devil fruit's powers.

Tbh I haven't really heard about the Trafalgar battle before today. When I first heard about Trafalgar Law as character while I started to read One Piece only cca 5 months ago, I only thought "huh, isn't that a square in England, I was there on a trip once" but didn't look more into it now.

So I just skimmed throught the wiki pages of those battles, I don't know all the details, I don't want to compare it too much, but some maybe similarities/parallels that piqued my interest:

The Battle of Trafalgar were the spanish-france forces against english navy, and Donquixote/Dressrosa arc including all those spanish themes, as well as Law being from the North Blue (where Sanji and Mont Blanc Noland are/were also from) being a bit influenced by France, plays interesting role when this happened in North Blue as a prelude to what would 13 years later happen in Dressrosa (the birdcage, Doflamingo's rule, the puppets, etc).

This part of the Trafalgar battle describing the british was at first outnumbered, that the spanish had more ships along with one of their biggest one:

reminded me of how Corazon himself faced with the whole Donquixote family, including Doflamingo:

and some more interesting similarities how the "hero" of the battle died even before it ended:

but thanks to his informations, the Navy later arrived, and Law got away.

(even on the wiki of the Trafalgar battle there were mentions of some false informations, previous pursuits of the ships and admirals etc, so that vibe kind of fits.)

I haven't read much about the Waterloo battle, except how known it is for being the final defeat of Napoleon, by Coalition armies - which would nicely parallel to Law and Luffy starting their own Alliance during Dressrosa, and thanks to that it caused for Luffy to be there to beat Doflamingo once and for all.

Some other small details I noticed:

The Don Quixote book was apparently first published in two parts, one in 1605 and the other in 1615.

The battle of Trafalgar happened in 1805, and the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

I found one person even connecting the date when was published the chapter of Doflamingo's deafeat in Dressrosa - 18th of June, 2015, which is the same date only 200 years later after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.

I love that in some sense both battles have in common water, and for the One Piece world that is connected with pirates and ships - with the historical aspects the battle of Trafalgar being a naval battle, and Waterloo for the Water in Trafalgar D. Water Law - he concealed his full name from Doflamingo for all those years, his secret name as well as the will of the Ds. - for our world a possible reference if one looks more that he really was meant to be Doflamingo's downfall.

There's just something beautiful about Law's whole existence to be a sort of a foretelling of the fall of one of the emperors of the sea, just by having these names. And it's not just the names of his, but the parallels to the situations and results of the incidents taking place at those locations.

It's literally a middle finger to Doflamingo:

#anyway.. i had some law feels bc of this #trafalgar law #trafalgar d water law #one piece #donquixote rosinante #donquixote doflamingo #donquixote corazon #one piece meta #gif:op meta #mine #long post #there could be so much more said about this connection to how law saved luffy and luffy in turned saved him. #how law carries Corazon in his heart as someone that needs to be remembered #how small doflamingo was told that because of his lineage and haki he's meant to be the king of all seas #this was all bc of a book i wanted to start rereading that has nothing to do with one piece. but the first sentence was a setting opening #'93 years after trafalgar' and just that made me remembered oh! naval battle on the seas with the same name as a beloved character! #now i can hopefully go back to start rereading that book lol

[mask131]

A guide for reading The Sandman: Part 1

People will discover the television series and want to read “The Sandman”, the original comic books.

Some people are already reading “The Sandman” and are getting a bit confused about where to go with oh-so-many titles, extensions and expansions.

And some people already think they read all of the Sandman until they discover a new issue they never heard of. 

Well this guide is here for you! A small guide to explain the reading order of The Sandman, what to expect and where to go!

Part 1 will be dedicated to the original Sandman series, aka the “main story”, the “main series”, the original numbered issues going from Sandman 1 to Sandman 75 ; the original series running from 1988 to 1996. 

This series is divided into “volumes” (of course, those didn’t exist originally as the series was published issue after issue, the volumes were collected afterward - but each volume corresponds to an “arc”, a “step”, an “episode” in the wider story). The volumes in The Sandman actually alternate between volumes that contain a full story (basically “arc volumes”), a neat and clear story with a beginning and an end that together form the main story of Sandman ; and volumes that I would be tempted to call “expansion” volumes or “illustration” volumes - volumes that do not contain one overall story but rather a series of small stories, scenes, vignettes, “anthology” volumes whose role is to expand the world of the Sandman, and make the reader learn more about aspects or backgrounds of several characters, elements or details of the “arc stories”. 

Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes (arc-volume)

Contains issues 1 to 8. Preludes and Nocturnes is the start of The Sandman series, and what corresponds to the first half of the first season of the TV show. It is the story of how Dream of the Endless was imprisoned by a human wizard, the damage this imprisonment caused, and Dream’s quest to find back his items of power: his pouch of sand, his helmet and his ruby. Preludes and Nocturnes is quite noticeable, in comparison with the rest of The Sandman, as being HEAVILY relient on the DC Comics universe, with a lot of references to the DC Universe, its super-heroes and super-villains (something the television series massively avoided in order to be easier to access to newcomers). 

Volume 2: The Doll’s House (arc-volume)

Contains issues 9 to 16. Corresponds to the second half of the first season of the TV show. Another “arc volume”, this story is the one of Rose Walker, the discovery of her past and her quest to find back her missing little brother ; but it is also the story of Dream hunting down missing dreams and nightmares that left his realm to dwell into the world of humans ; and it is also the story of the mysterious “dream vortex” and of the disasters it can cause - three stories that in truth are mingled together in one mystery. 

Volume 3: Dream Country (anthology-volume)

Contains issues 17 to 20. The first “anthology volume” contains four separate and different stories. Three of them are related to Dream: they each explore a different facet of him (Dream the lover, Dream the deal-maker, Dream the world-changer), and they each talk of the different powers of dreaming in itself (inspiration as a blessing and culture, Dream’s influence on culture and reality...), plus expand the world of The Sandman to other “levels of existence” (such as animals and fairies). The fourth story is  around Death, and is basically exploring an obscure DC heroine (well, she had become obscure at the time of the publishing. It was something Neil Gaiman did a lot with “The Sandman”, and it was what made the comic book famous: he kept searching and hunting for the coolest, and yet most obscure and forgotten characters, heroes and villains of the DC Universe and “resurrected” them here to give them decent role and proper storylines). 

Volume 4: Season of Mists (arc-volume)

Contains issues 21 to 28. The story of how Dream of the Endless, after a meeting with the rest of his family, decides to save Nada his former lover from Hell ; but a story which also leads to (SPOILERS AHEAD SPOILERS AHEAD) Lucifer retiring from his position as ruler of Hell, and giving the Key of Hell to Dream. The story then covers the chaos, manipulations and conflicts that ensue.

Volume 5: A Game of You (arc-volume)

Contains issues 32-37. This story is centered around Barbie (a character that appeared in “The Doll’s House”). As Barbie discovers the fantasy world she dreamed and played in as a child is real, and ends up back into it, friends of Barbie are caught in supernatural conflict between a mysterious “cuckoo” that can send body-stealing birds in the human world, and a grumpy neighbor who turns out to be an immortal (and bloody) witch from Ancient Greece... This is one pretty weird story, I have to admit I always was very confused by this story and never fully got it - but it introduces key characters of The Sandman, and had some of the most iconic moments of the whole series.

The bizarre case of Volume 6: Fables and Reflections (anthology volume)

You might notice I skipped a few issues above. Well it is because when the sixth volume was created, Fables and Reflections, it was a compilation of several stories taken from across the series. As a result it kinds of break the chronology of the series, as it contains issues 29 to 31, issues 38 to 40, issue 50 and two “special” story. In fact, when I read The Sandman series, I never had this volume because I read the series in order (and the French “volumes” and compilations are quite different).

Originally there were two “sub-volumes” or “small volumes”. The first one is “Distant Mirrors”, containing issues 29 to 31 plus issue 50 (which was conceived as a continuation of the original trio) : this anthology of four stories is linked by the theme of “rulers and their relationship to their realm”, and the stories are recognizable due to being named after “times” (Thermidor ; August ; Three Septembers and a January ; Ramadan). The second “volume” was “Convergence”, the compilation of issues 38 to 40, three issues united together by the fact that they are “stories-within-a-story”, and fit the theme of “meeting and encounters”. 

But when the big volumes were created, it was decided to unite “Distant Mirrors” and “Convergence” as one big volume, alongside a third block made of “special” stories not included in the numbered series : one taken from the “Vertigo Previews” comics, and one story that was originally published on its own as “The Sandman Special”. The result of this union was “Fables and Reflections.”

Volume 7: Brief Lives (arc-volume)

Contains issues 41 to 49. This volume tells the story of the quest Delirium and Dream end up undergoing (at Delirium’s request) to find back their missing brother, the “Prodigal” Endless. 

Volume 8: Worlds’ End (anthology-volume)

Contains issues 51 to 56. Several travellers from different parts of the multiverse are trapped at the “Inn at the end of the world” due to a gigantic “reality storm”. Across the issues, each of the travellers tell their own story, each wildly different as they come from very different universes. While being an “anthology volume”, its ending is actually an introduction/a mystery set-up for the next volume.

Volume 9: The Kindly Ones (arc-volume)

Issues 57-69. All the plots and elements laid out in the previous arcs converge. The biggest threat the Dreaming ever faced arrives, and Dream has to fight it.

Volume 10: The Wake (arc-volume)

Issues 70 to 75. The consequences of “The Kindly Ones” and the ending of The Sandman. 

This is the full list of Sandman “volumes” when it comes to the main, numbered series. This is the full story as originally conceived by Neil Gaiman. From beginning to end.

Or... almost everything. Because I haven’t covered the... “specials” yet. But that will be for part 2.

#sandman #the sandman #comic book #reading order #neil gaiman #dream of the endless #dream #guide #comics

[dailyadventureprompts]

Adventure: Do no Harm

Gangs of brigands attacking along the trade roads in a series of bloody, near suicidal raids. An increasing spree of violent incidents in town that seem to be spreading like a sickness. Folk in their feverbeds rambling about a war out of time. These seemingly unrelated incidents are the violent signs that have been laid before Prior Rupak, healer and priest of Pelor, who sees them as the prelude to a far greater evil. The good healer cannot treat the victims and investigate the cause of their suffering at the same time, and so seeks allies to help stem the tide of blood before it pours over into the streets.

Hooks:

The party may first encounter Rupak after seeking out his infirmary, usually open to all by grace of the dawnfather’s altruism but recently closed off so that the priest and his acolytes can triage an ever mounting number of injured. Ushered in to receive treatment in payment for their aid, the party is briefed on the strange occurrences in town and sent on their way. Alternatively, should their reputation be great enough, Rupak may send a runner to ask for the party by name.

Merchants are always wary of bandits on the road, but this latest swath of reckless attacks has them especially worried, shilling out good coin for caravan guards that may get the party to tag along. Gossip by the watchfires says that the attacks are originating from a tumbledown old fortress out in the countryside, though why any self-respecting brigand would choose to lair in that haunted place is anyone’s guess.

Untangling the different attacks in town leads the party through a gauntlet of civil strife: lovers’ spats, disagreements in the market, tavernbrawls, all turned bloody and in some cases lethal. Investigating the matter reveals that each perpetrator was at one point a victim, all still bearing a fevered and borderline infected wound (if only a scratch) from a previous altercation

Background: The origin of all this chaos is a dark spirit known as “I Bear Thee Unto Glory”, a demon of war that sustains itself by sowing confusion and suffering during peacetime. Weapons touched by Unto-Glory’s influence grant their bearers the manic strength of dying warriors, even as their minds and the metal they hold begin to corrode. That corrosion is the key, as each cursed weapon leaves behind tiny slivers of demonic rust in their victim, leaving their body and mind to fester with fever and anger until they too lash out, passing the curse to another.

Tracking the infection all the way back we’re left with the brigands, a group of desperate foreign soldiers making an unwitting deal with Unto-Glory which drives them to attack the caravans. These attacks are repulsed, but the guards and drivers who survived with only minor injuries became carriers, getting into town just in time to start a tavernbrawl, lashing out at the townsfolk with their now rusted weapons. If you wanted to sow a few clues into the party’s investigation, mention how the weapons seized by the constables in the different incidents are all varying levels of corroded, or how the tavernkeeper had to replace a whole bevy of cutlery all of a sudden as a good portion of their knives, forks, and even soup ladle were suddenly rusted through. 

All of this comes to a head when the party report back to Rupak only to watch as he’s stabbed near lethally by one of his patients. Strengthened by an unholy fever, the formerly bedridden attacker brandishes a rusty scalpel and rants as Unto-Glory’s presence overwhelms them, speaking of the slaughter that is to come once the good doctor and the heroes too join them in the bloodbath. The violence will spiral out of control until the army is called to do something about it and likewise join the dance. Infection and bedlam will spread across the countryside until war is inevitable, and Unto Glory will ride at the head of it awful and resplendent.

With the realm at risk and their greatest ally now at risk of succumbing to the curse, something must be done. A risky summoning in the hopes of binding the fiend perhaps? Seeking some blessing or answer of the dawnfather? Regardless, the party must act fast... there’s a very good chance that they too have received a rust-cursed wound in their numerous scuffles, and its only a matter of time before they succumb aswell.

#low level #mid level #mystery #demon #Cleric #bandits #caravan #town #Village #seeking healing #Dungeons and Dragons #d&d #d&d 5e #pathfinder #ttrpg #Curse #healing #pelor

[whipbogard]

do you have a bruharvey comic reading list ?

Lmfao I personally feel like every Harvey-centric comic is somewhat a BruHarvey comic if you squint 🤣🤣🤣🤣

This list is in no way exhaustive and I'm pretty sure I've missed out some very important stuff but nevertheless, this is what I could think off at the top of my head:

Disclaimer: I'm bad at continuity. And I won't call some of these excellent writing but they did give me all the delicious bruharv moments.

Batman - A Lonely Place of Dying - Some nice parallels between Batman and Two-Face were made in here when they're busy trying to outwit each other. This is mainly focused on Bruce's angst post-Jason's death and it is rather delicious for the angst-lover. And also origin story for Robin Tim.

Batman: Year One - That infamous scene where Batman hid under Harvey's desk. That's it. That's big reason enough for you to read it. (Harvey is also exceptionally hansum in here. Will always be one of my fav Harveys).

Two-Face: Year One - Chummy college days, Bruce hanging out at Harvey's office late and night and also the one where 2F didn't listen to the coin and spared Bruce's life :^)

Batman: Eye of the Beholder - The one where Jim introduced Harvey to Batman and then they started hanging out together and left Jim out. JK JK JK LOL but it sure felt like that 🤣 In all honesty though, this is one of--if not--the best Harvey story out there so please read it anyway!!!!

Batman: Face The Face - This takes place sometime after Batman: Hush (where if you recall, Harvey betrayed Tommy to save Bruce's ass uwu). Harvey is somewhat "cured" now that his face is fixed. He go about protecting Gotham in Bruce's absence. And oh, Harvey recalling the 30 days whirlwind of a romance with Bruce where they trained together and also went for dinner dates and movies (I KID YOU NOT)---and obviously got 2F very upset LOL.

All-Star Batman: My Own Worst Enemy - The one where Bruce and Harvey went on a cross-country trip while being handcuffed together. Also a look into their childhood together at that very weird school lol

Batman and Robin #24 - #28 (The Big Burn) - This is 2F's origin story for current continuity. The one where Harvey called Bruce a Prince (while looking at his own reflection on a knight armour) and Bruce called Harvey "dummy" affectionately. Also here we learn that Harvey had known that Bruce is Batman since forever and has been protecting that secret from 2F.

Detective Comics #989 - #993 (Deface The Face) - My beloved Gotham Justice Triumvirate reuniting and working together!!!! The ending to this arc truly fulfilled my love for that chasing game between a hero and a villain tbh uwu

Detective Comics #1020 - #1024 (Ugly Heart & Prelude to Joker War) - It started out weird enough with 2F having a cult of some sort and having real weird erotic ritual involving the coin (lbr you know I'd join this cult in a heartbeat LOL). Again, this arc emphasized on Harvey's struggles to protect Bruce and his identity from 2F. And Harvey teaming up with Bruce to beat Joker's talons!!!!! It ended with 2F being suppressed and a somewhat "reformed" Harvey in Blackgate being visited by Matches. I like this arc for a lot of shippy reasons lmfao ("Promises, promises" hehe)

Detective Comics #1062 - present - The current craze. An excellently written Harvey by Ram V and Simon Spurrier. I look forward to where this is heading! (As of now, seems like Harvey has stopped making an appearance but I sure hope he'll come back again!!!)

ADDITIONAL MENTIONS

The Doom That Came to Gotham - This is a depressing Elseworlds story with Lovecraft elements but the BruHarvey in here is absolutely golden and even more so in the movie version.

Batman 1989 Newspaper Comics - I have yet to go through this tbh but there are a lot of good bruharv moments in here and thIS ONE RIGHT HERE I s2G GETS ME ALL THE TIME

THAT IS ALL!!! Thanks for asking me this because now I have a proper record to refer to since I'm so bad with arc names and issues etc 🤣

#whew this got longer than expected LOL #bruharvey #twobats #harvey dent #bruce wayne #wppyrec

[punkeropercyjackson]

Okay but y'know who would've been the perfect character to use as a secondary foil to Dabi in addition to Shouto being the first instead of Bird Bitch?Momo.Their upbringings are significantly different but not entierly-Momo was abused by her parents with adultification and verbally abused by them in a way that's so normalized that she has no clue of either of those things even happened to her,Dabi was abused by Endeavor in the classic way with constant verbal degragation and physical assaults.And they both had the same motivation and justification behind them:They wanted them to be the perfect child.Momo's abusers in the sense of her becoming the ideal proper 'mature' woman,Dabi's abuser in the sense of the most powerful hero.They parallel eachother in a contrasting way and so do their trauma responses by extension and their dynamic has so much untapped potential that i genuinely think it's one of Horikoshi's dropping the ball moment's that he never had them share a bond or at least pointed out their different similarities

It's shown that despite his lack of care for strangers generally,Dabi looks out for his own.He treats Toga like his little sister because she had a rough childhood due to her quirk too and his best friendship with Jin is so tender and strong that it borderlines on romantic and we all saw what he did and said to Hawks for his ableism motivated murder of him and it's not a coincidence that he's even more brotherly to Toga and unhinged after that event specifically.In addition to their shared history of parental abuse,Momo herself also has a bunch of disorders which unlike with Jin were not intentional-Let's be honest,if Horikoshi had made her autistic,adhd,anxiety and ocd intentionally,i don't even wanna think about how horrifically she would've been treated by both other characters and the narrative-but are too intertwined with her story to remove them and still have her be in-character so it's fun and interesting to think of Momo and Dabi having to interact with eachother due to her being a heroine in training and him a villain who's team's main enemies are friends and mentors

Both of them have also not fully escaped the treatment they got growing up-Momo was given a costume that was blatantly meant to sexualize her and gets put in charge of leading her classmates into war as literal child soldiers,Dabi still dosen't get believed as a victim of his father because he's 'too mean' to count as one.I would love to see stories of them slowly accidentally befriending eachother right after the Bakugou rescue arc and Dabi helping Momo see hero society isn't fair or kind to her either and Momo realizing just how often it is that situations like Dabi's happen-Hell,she helped rescue someone who's the same as Endeavor,only on a smaller scale.I don't think she'd instantly go villain nor that Dabi would force her to but the prelude to the war arc has her getting kicked out by her parents for standing up to them and because they found out she's been doing vigilanteism so she joins him because she knows he's right and because he's treated her better than almost every other adult in her life and in turn,she's made him realize that not every hero is thrown into it willingly and are just hurt kids like he used to be and that they're the real ones.'Creati' becomes 'Destruct' but before this all unfolds,we get Shouto and Momo being closer than ever as the series progresses due to the differences in Momo's plot and Dabi's involvement in it pulling Shouto into their orbits and Todomomo goes from a subtle but potent romance to a constant and in your face 'They're soulmates by choice' type of beat in the best and healthiest way possible

Momo gets to be written as a multidimensional teen girl character with no demonization for being an anti-heroine and not be erased as the second real first friend Shouto made in favor of a lifelong bully who told his number one victim to kill himself and Dabi gets to redeem himself by being the good older brother he never got to be as Touya and entering rehibilitation after the war ends because he refuses to die after getting to save Jin from Hawks so they can live out the rest of their lives together.Breaking the cycle of abuse is a much better story than shonen fuckery bullshit disguised as superhero homages when in reality it's disrespecting the history behind and core of comics

#it's been four years and they've never left my left.the found siblings ever #s'mores siblings #momo yaoyorozu #dabi #anti hawks #antidabihawks #anti endeavour #jin bubaigawara #twice bnha #anti bakugou #todoroki shouto #antitodobaku #dabitwice #t4t dabitwice #todomomo #t4t todomomo #group:freezerburn wonder woman and jason todd #with a side of twice #blasian latina momo #half bangladeshi rei agenda #pastel punk momo yaoyorozu #bnha geekery #bnha salt #two heroes #world heroes mission #my heroine academia #ultra impact #💌 #summerposting

[pinkeoni]

What the Upside Down Means for Will’s Narrative

(and why it’s so important for him to go back)

For this post, I’ll be using my own handy-dandy little Hero’s Journey chart that I made for this post.

Quick summary: The Hero’s Journey or the monomyth is an idea proposed by American writer Joseph Campbell that all stories follow this similar structure, using Homer’s The Odyssey as a guideline for naming different parts of the cycle.

So! With every story, there is a divide between the “Known World,” the world that the heroes feel comfortable in, and the “Unknown World,” or the world that the heroes must “cross the threshold” in to that they must learn to navigate.

Not every story is going to follow this structure, although I know that this show took inspiration, considering that their Known World and Unknown World has a very literal interpretation in this universe.

The Known World being the Rightside Up, and the Unknown World being the Upside Down.

But of course, elements of the Hero’s Journey (or monomyth) are meant to be transformative. For El, her Unknown World is the world outside the lab, and for the rest of our protagonists in season one, I would describe the Known World as “The World With Will Byers In It” and the Unknown World as “The World Without Will Byers In It,” considering that his disappearance is what kickstarts the story in the first place.

But still, the existence of this literal Other World is still present

And yet the one character who actually crosses the threshold into this Other World… is Will.

Well that’s untrue… kind of. There are other characters who spend their fair share of time inside the UD. Nancy goes on a little jaunt through there in s1. Jopper go in to rescue Will at the end of s1. The teenagers have their little mission in there in s4.

The difference between all of these examples has to do with when in the story it occurs, creating a different meaning for each of their respective narratives. With all of the above examples, the threshold has already been crossed, making the Upside Down more of a trial to be conquered.

I guess I should mention El’s brief appearance there in the beginning of s2, although I would argue that while yes the UD is connected to her, her story tends to revolve around the lab and the outside world.

This means that the Upside Down is more narratively significant to Will than to any other character

I just lied again.

While we don’t see Vecna enter the Upside Down until the end of s4, chronologically speaking, it does mark the beginning of a new chapter of his story, and preludes the rest of the show as we know it. (Yet another similarity between Will and Vecna)

Why does he have to go back?

Considering the confirmation that season 5 is going to focus on Will…

There’s a step in the Hero’s Journey called “Master of Both Worlds” where the hero becomes, as the name suggest, a master of both the Known and the Unknown world. Will may have been able to outsmart the Upside Down by hiding, but I wouldn’t say that he’s really a master of it.

Furthermore, there’s another step in the Hero’s Journey that comes before crossing the threshold and after the initial “call to adventure,” which is “refusal of the call,” where the hero turns away from what the story calls upon them for, before crossing intentionally. Will was taken by force into the Upside Down, so all of that agency was taken.

Will needs to master the Upside Down, in whatever form that may be, and he has to want it

The term “coming of age” is used a lot when describing Will’s journey in season 5, which is interesting considering that the Hero’s Journey is often closely associated with coming of age stories.

My prediction is that Will is going to be following this cycle very closely and very literally next season, crossing the threshold from the Rightside Up back into the Upside Down, becoming the master of both worlds and finally coming of age.

#this is what insomnia will do to a mf #okay going back to bed now #will byers #stranger things #my analysis #the upside down

[benzjr]

The 2024 reboot no one was expecting...

Those of you who have been around for a while might just remember back when I did fanfiction, and if you do, you might remember the story of my Supernoobs OC Josh Carter, the aspiring social butterfly, future superstar and reluctant superhero whose life was getting way more complicated these days...

Back towards the end of 2019, I was really starting to lose steam with him; the inspiration I had for him was really starting to wane, especially given the fandom seemed to peter out and my previous partner-in-angst-crime Pumpkin (@whynotzoidbergdotorg) moved on to other creations. I've definitely missed creating fandom work over the past few years, but between not really finding anything to grab my attention in the same way and a series of setbacks in my life (not to mention the grind of growing my YouTube channel), things just happened to fall by the wayside.

But it seems I wasn't posting into the void after all! Josh and his story left a huge impact on the small but surprisingly resilient Supernoobs fandom, and over the past few months I've been pulled back in, thanks especially to @ghostlyapivorous' @superastral-official and @jaspydunks' @noobs-rewritten. So much so, that I've been re-motivated to return and at least continue (I don't think I should be presumptuous and suggest "finish") Josh's story. In addition to a few unreleased chapters from the original run, I've been working on continuing the story, and I've almost gotten to the end of Dancefest, where we originally left off.

We'll be picking up from there soon, but it didn't seem fully right to go back to using the old 2016 designs of our main cast — my artistic workflow has completely changed since then. So, it was time to give them all a glow-up. The primary goal was mainly to get them looking closer to the show's style, though I've also taken the opportunity to resolve a few longstanding annoyances with some of the characters and change some things up. Despite not being part of the main cast, I also decided to do an image for Zoey, given she's a pretty recurrent character in the series. Just like the first time around, expect to see new art of these kids in the future (though I don't think I'll spin up @joshcartersblog again).

Look out for the continuation of Josh's story very soon, but in the meantime, catch up on how Josh got here:

A Future Super-Something, the first story: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Perfect Disasters, the second story: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Over and Out, the third story: 1 & 2 3 4 5

Diamonds on the Rebound, the fourth story

Reminiscence, the fifth story

A Hero’s Prelude, the sixth story: 1 2 3

Dancefest, the seventh story (so far)

Text versions of everyone's descriptions under the cut.

Josh Carter

Josh Carter has only one goal in mind: becoming one of the popular kids. Enamored with fame and starry-eyed about celebrity, he's chasing the top of the Cornbury Middle School food chain with the help of his friends. Clever, ambitious, and seemingly carefree, he'll stop at nothing in his quest to rise to the top without losing himself, while making plenty of buzz along the way.

…But will something bigger and more destructive than the current popular clique or a mortifying social mishap stop him in his tracks?

Dreams of a social media-perfect lifestyle

Friends with Jock Jockerson despite not being a jock

His "walk-in closet" is practically a department store for one

The Yellow Superdude

As elusive as he is mysterious, the Yellow Superdude is the newest addition to Cornbury's local team of intergalactic virus warriors. But he doesn't seem too happy about having the opportunity of a lifetime; honestly, it seems like he doesn't get along with the other four at all. With the heroes already building local recognition and facing even bigger battles, can he ever become the hero the Earth needs — and does he even want to?

Alias: ???

Powers: Energy blasts, stretchy body, shapeshifting, possibly more if he ever actually went to training

Always has messy hair for some reason

Simon Parker

Josh's best friend since forever, Simon is the realist of the group. As much an inventive strategist as an easygoing wingman, Simon's a true ride-or-die in Josh's popularity adventures, turbocharging their social game while keeping his starstruck bro down-to-earth. They've been there for each other even in their lowest moments, including Simon's brutally public one last year. It's a trust that makes Simon unafraid to be honest with Josh. But despite all this, is Josh keeping a super-sized secret from him?

Enjoys the outdoors with his parents

Still recovering from a 7th-grade incident where he was dubbed "The Whale"

Maintains countless inside jokes and references with Josh

Rebecca Hewitt

Rebecca is a punchy wildcard who's garnered her own notoriety. Since stumbling into Josh's high-flying life in sixth grade, she's been looking to find herself somewhere in the many aesthetics Josh's influencer adventures bring into her world. Rough around the edges but fun at heart, she's not one to mess with, but worth having in your corner.

Recovering horse girl

Still throwing out Mini-Horse Friendship Force merchandise

Best dodgeball player in the class

Zoey Miller

Zoey is the intrepid reporter behind The Cornbury Hound Dog, Cornbury Middle School's unofficial school news blog. Zoey can be eager and persistent to a fault, the perfect attitude for hunting the next big story. She keeps up on all the gossip around the halls — especially Josh's ambitious search for teenage stardom. Totally not because she has a crush on him or anything…

An ace at alliteration

Has a venerable collection of visor hats

Elaborately daydreams of meet-cutes with Josh

#supernoobs #supernoobs oc #josh carter oc #fanart

[thecurioustale]

(Re)introducing The Curious Tale

As I mentioned last time, I have two main series that I am working on which I'll be doing my introverted best to hype up here on Tumblr sometimes: one fantasy series and one sci-fi series. Here is a refresher, or for new readers a primer, on my fantasy series: The Curious Tale.

The Curious Tale is the flagship of all my creative writing. It is 24 years old, having begun in July of 1999 as a no-engine online RPG on a message board for an online game that was called Utopia and which is unbelievably still going today. I had played the game itself for a while, but gradually found myself spending more time on the message boards, especially the Politics and Roleplaying boards, and that's where I would end up planting the seed that would grow into my life's work.

That RPG, known as After The Hero: A Curious Tale, tells the story of a powerful mate named Galavar and his Galan people, who, in league with the God of Logic and Wisdom, Sourros, rise up to attempt to conquer the world in the name of changing it for the better; and the story tells also—and indeed mainly focuses upon—the many peoples who resist the Galans along the way. The RPG ran for over a year and was performed by roughly half a dozen core cast members and another dozen or so peripheral cast who were much less involved and mostly stuck around only briefly. I am very proud to say that the RPG lasted all the way to completion—a feat few RPGs ever achieve! I credit my own vision and persistence in this, and the excellent enthusiasm and passion of the core cast. When the RPG ended, I moved almost immediately into a novelization phase of the story which has lasted ever since.

The Curious Tale is not an open franchise, like Star Trek, with different productions and incarnations. Rather, the whole thing is built around one central story: After The Hero, or ATH—the story told in the RPG. As a novel, ATH has been vastly modified, overhauled, rewritten, and improved over the years; it has grown up with me and it can scarcely be called the same story at all. Many characters and plots are completely different.

Set in the magical world of Relance, After The Hero in its modern form still tells the story of the Galan Conquest to attempt to take over the world, and we still explore both the Galans and those who resist them. It isn't really a war story, defined by battles and military grit, although these things do show up from time to time. It also isn't a typical political intrigue story, like Game of Thrones or what have you, driven by treachery and political posturing per se. In fact I might say that ATH is essentially genre-less, frequently drawing from but never substantively conforming to any of the various genres within fantasy. I would like to think that ATH reads as though it were a bardic account of a real-world event in history, except in Relance rather than Earth.

The title of the story comes from the fact that ATH intrinsically subverts the core fantasy trope of a hero who must rise up to stop a great evil: In ATH, the so-called hero is defeated right at the beginning (in fact this actually happened already, in the Prelude); and the so-called great evil—Galavar in this case—is not necessarily evil at all. ATH is, thus, an exploration of the premise: "What if the villain were free to pursue their plan without a meddling hero to stop them, and what if, for good measure, the villain weren't actually saddled with all of the petty traits of villainy? What if the villain were wise and well-intentioned and not truly a villain at all?" This idea was a lot more radical in 1999 than it is in 2023, but it's honestly still pretty provocative, given that, underneath all of the mainstream applications of layers of grittiness and grayness in contemporary fantasy, there usually are still clearly-coded heroes and villains, or else everything is completely "amoral"—neither of which is the case in ATH. In ATH there are neither heroes nor villains, narratorially speaking. Everyone in the story has their own take. But there is still good and evil. It's just not seated in the protagonist and the antagonist respectively (or vice versa). There are some truly horrible people in the story, conventional villain types, but they usually dwell on the sidelines. They aren't the drivers of events, not in the grand scheme. Most characters are meant to be relatable and sympathetic (if not always truly likable), and it is my sincere hope that you will be able to genuinely root for or root against any of them depending on your personal worldview and character.

After The Hero in its current form has three elemental purposes:

Most noticeably, it is a gigantic worldbuilding story—as is the rest of The Curious Tale supporting it; more on that in a bit. ATH is a classic case of a story written to bring to life a proverbial encyclopedia. Here is the gleaming City of Sele, the seat of Gala, upon the Shos Plateau—the Plateau of the Moons—at the top of the world, roughly fifteen thousand feet above sea level. There is the thriving sanctuary metropolis of Soda Fountain, the great jeweled city of the broiling hot desert of the Sodaplains in the Easts Beyond the Edge of the World. And so on, and so forth. ATH is an opportunity to explore the world of Relance and meet its people, and to fall in love with Relance as surely as so many of us fall in love with the Earth when we bother to look upon it. The Curious Tale is extremely deliberate and intentional and bespoke; its allusions and homages to the many influences on my work are endless, but Relance and all its contents are painstakingly created to the contours of my own vision. I have my own way of storytelling, and do not follow fantasy genre conventions in most cases. If I have done my job correctly, you shouldn't be able to predict the story on the basis of tropes and stereotypes.

The second elemental purpose of ATH, and actually the most important one, is that it organizes itself around the character Silence Terlais, the closest thing to a sole main character that ATH has, even though Silence is offscreen more than onscreen. Silence is a Guard of Galavar—one of Galavar's inner circle. She is tasked with peacefully swaying the hearts and minds of the nations of Relance as a preferred alternative to military conquest. Amid this task she is also grappling with the treachery of the Gods, the growing hubris of Galavar himself, and her own past secrets and unanswerable dreams. After The Hero inevitably follows Silence's undertakings, her personal growth, and her many adventures and conflicts. Silence is also the central character in The Curious Tale as a whole, not just After The Hero, inasmuch as all plots flow through her and she is at the center of the ultimate question of "Why?"

Finally, the third elemental purpose of ATH is to genuinely and fairly test the so-called Galance Ideal, the political–ethical vision that Galavar and his Galan people have of taking over the world to change it for the better. Like so many others, I have been frustrated and bewildered from a young age by the intransigence and injustice in our real world of Earth. ATH is my life's best attempt to present a viable solution. I know how audacious that is, and I am not promising a solution that will actually work. I'm just giving it my honest best shot. ATH can, if desired, be read critically as an enormous political manifesto wrapped in an illustrative story.

Supporting ATH are most of the other stories of The Curious Tale. These are called The Interludes, so named because they are standalone stories which are nevertheless connected to and interspersed among ATH at strategic points to flesh out specific characters or events where ATH itself would be too heavily detoured or would otherwise be unable to turn its attention. The Prelude to After The Hero, the novel I published in 2015, is an Interlude, and, as the front-side bookend to After The Hero, is named "Prelude" instead of "Interlude." Another Interlude is the incomplete and long-on-hiatus story The Great Galavar, which I published in the mid-2010s as a weekly serial (and which I will get back to at some point!). A third Interlude is the story of the place-singer and travelling bard Afiach Bard, Mate of Song, which came to me as an inspiration in 2012 and 2013 but which has not been published yet due to much of it not actually being written down (despite the story itself being completely developed) and because the various Interludes are intended to be read at certain points during ATH, and Mate of Song's turn is quite a ways off in the distance. And there will likely be other Interludes too, provided I live long enough to write them.

Finally, rounding out the contents of The Curious Tale as a whole, there are some more peripheral elements arrayed loosely as constellations around ATH and its Interludes. If you remember the satire series Empire on Ice, or my Curious Score musical compositions, or my Curious Tale Saturdays essays, those would all be examples of this stuff. While the website is woefully out of date these days, you can find most of these contents over at CuriousTale.org, as well as additional information / orientation / welcome information about the world of Relance.

I have mentioned that I am working on two novels, The Curious Tale novel and the Galaxy Federal novel. But that's a little bit misleading. I conceive of After the Hero as one novel, but in terms of printed books it would have to be an entire series of them or else the novel would end up being considerably thicker than it was tall. So, while it is true that I am working on the ATH novel, the actual discrete "book" that I am working on is merely Chapter 1 of it. The original ATH RPG had thirteen chapters if I recall correctly. While I don't know how many chapters the ATH novel will have, it will be more than a few. This should give you a sense of how big this work truly is. You can see now how I expect this to take the rest of my life!...and perhaps even longer. =/

That's another point I need to make. I would be a hypocrite not to warn you that I am no Stephen King. It takes me a long time to write my books. I anticipate becoming faster in the future (and indeed have already sped up over the past decade), but even still the terminus of ATH is decades away. Don't get invested if you need resolution right now. Even Chapter 1 of ATH is almost certainly several years away from being done.

Speaking of Chapter 1, it tells the story of the first day of the Galan Conquest, where the Galans, reeling from the failed but destructive assault of the Hero, desperately set out to capture the aforementioned desert city of Soda Fountain. We meet many Galans and Sodish, and others, all beneath a mysterious river of fire that fades in across the sky and grows fiercer by the hour.

#The Curious Tale #After The Hero #After The Hero: A Curious Tale #ATH the RPG #ATH the Novel #ATH #Prelude to After The Hero #Mate of Song #The Great Galavar #Empire on Ice #Silence Terlais #Galavar #Curious Tale Saturdays #That feels like too many functional tags #I hope they're helpful!

[linkspooky]

MY HERO ACADEMIA, CHAPTER 375 THOUGHTS

Right before Toga disappears we see Uraraka express regret that they still haven’t talked about love. This also parallels Shoto’s attempts to get Toya to stay with him rather than go after Endeavor. However, I think it’s important to remember that neither of them were actually trying to talk that much with Toga and Toya before that point. This is just as much a regret that they didn’t get the opportunity to talk, as it is a taunt to keep both Toga and Toya fighting with them so they can stay and be defeated. Which shows why the kids failed to keep them there, and also the butterfly effect that created this situation. More under the cut. 

1. The Butterfly Effect

It’s significant that the flames from Toya and Shoto’s fight, as well as Endeavor’s is what’s referred to as changing the weather so significantly that it’s brought about a sudden rain event. Afo goes on to add that it’s the emotions of Spinner that the heroes underestimated that allowed the villains to change the tide and create the right circumstances for the sad man’s parade. 

Endeavor, Enji, and Toya’s flames have always been a metaphor for their feelings, Toya is implied to have kept himself alive through a pure blazing grudge, Enji’s habit of overheating is a metaphor for his destructive and violent nature, Shoto has difficulty controlling his flame side because he has trouble reintegrating his father’s childhood abuse into who he is currently and trying to grow up as his own person. 

Toy’s blue flames are powered by his emotions, the quirk evolution that turned his flames blue happened when he started crying, the flame that burned him alive and started an entire forest fire happened again when he was crying. 

So flames = emotions, the emotions of everyone involved in this fight is so significant it’s literally changing the weather, and to top them all off, Spinner’s feelings have changed everything.

The current situation like a butterfly flapping its wings, is created by the feelings of one individual, and Hero Society as a whole has the habit of trampling on individuals in order to uphold the greater good of society. It is essentially the logic that Hawks used to justify the killing of Twice, he as an individual couldn’t be allowed to live because of the threat his quirk presented to all of society. 

All of this a long prelude to, before the fights itself not only have the villains made multiple attempts to have those feelings understood, and the kids have expressed interest in trying to understand what those feelings are. 

However, it’s incredibly important that at the same time, those same kids have then repeatedly tried to squash any attempt to sympathize with the villains they have inside of themselves, by remdining themselves of the destruction the villains have. Deku and Uraraka both mention seeing Toga and Shigaraki’s crying face, Shoto mentions he literally knows nothing about Toya even his favorite food. 

Then they immediately go back to squashing those thoughts. It’s important to realize the kids are actively trying not to sympathize with the villains, because it’s easier to just see them as villains and clears doubt from their head. This idea of crying is brought up by Toya too “whether you’re crying or smiling doesn’t matter”, the deeper meaning of that statement is that the people they are fighting against just don’t really care about what face that they are showing the world. Remember, Hawks actively dehumanized Toya’s mourning of Twice his friend, by insisting he couldn’t care because he was smiling even though Dabi literally cannot biologcally cry due to his burn wounds. The outside world just doesn’t care what kind of emotions they’re having, so might as well be strong and show a smile. 

All of this to say, the villains right now are the individuals the butterfly effect is referring too, they have continually been pushed down and insisted their personal grievances of society doesn’t matter because they are threats to the whole of society. But the butterfly effect statement reflects what Toya says to Hawks. A single person with a single conviction has the power to save the world. The collective isn’t all that exists, individuals are still important. 

All of this to say, the feelings of all the individual villains matter. All of the attempts to shut them up for the sake of the collective good have only backfired. We see this pattern repeated, Shoto, Uraraka, and Deku express an interest in what the villains feel only to just resort to physical violence. 

However, they never even act on their expressed interest to talk. Shoto asks Toya why he didn’t come home, and then proceeds to beat the crap out of him. Uraraka tells Toga she’s been thinking about her, and then proceeds to beat the crap out of her. Deku asks if Shigaraki is still there in the body possessed by AFO, but then doesn’t do anything else but beat the crap out of him. 

It’s not even that the villains didn’t reciprocate, Toya said very clearly that he still wanted to come bac home after being burned alive and only gave up when he thought his family had moved on without him, Toga was still trying to ask Deku to understand her and even says aloud that heroes are the only ones they count as real people and villains aren’t even considered human. Shigaraki breaks free from AFO’s control a couple of time and shows clear distress. 

Which is why I want to clarify, the villains themselves are giving clear hints that they don’t actually want to destroy, Toga hints she wants acceptance more than revenge against Hawks and the heroes, Toya makes it clear that there’s still a part of him that wants to go home (he literally tried to) Shigaraki still exists within AFO-Garaki. It’s the kids themselves that didn’t try to show them there was still a chance for things to go different, the plan wasn’t to talk to them ever the plan was to beat them up.Which is where we get to this chapter.

This isn’t an attempt to get them to talk, this is an attempt to get them to stay and fight. In fact during the Uraraka fight itself Urarka didn’t try to talk to Toga at all, the plan wasn’t try to de-escalate or try to understand Toga the plan was to sick a bunch of heroes on her at once and then... beat the crap out of her.

It’s even confirmed in the chapter itself, Toga’s incredibly impulsive and emotoinal, she’s not really a long term strategy or big picture girl. Yet, she survives in the fight despite being vastly outnumbered because she had to. It was the heroes attempts to just beat Toga down that forced her evolution and made her into a more cunning villain. A different strategy would have probably thrown her off of her game, but Uraraka had all the time in the world and didn’t even try it. 

Which is why the one hope the heroes might have right now is Uraraka getting thrown into the combat scenario with Toya, Enji, AFO, HAwks and now Toga. As none of those heroes except for Uraraka have ever expressed any interest in talking in the past. 

However, part of me wonders if Uraraka herself is going to have to actually question and challenge the adults present in order to actually get the character development where she acts on her feelings and desire to talk. (The feelings you’ve locked up inside...) those feelings are the only chance to turn the tides. THe feelings of one crying girl (Himiko Toga) have created this disaster, and the comfort given to one crying girl can be what stops it... 

However, I want to keep in mind that there is a reason all the kids have been suppressing their desire to talk with the villains, and that is their hero worship of the previous generation. Hawks makes it clear what he wants to do to Toga now that Twice is back (Kill her). The kids so far haven’t questioned the wisdom of the adults so far and that is what directly has led to repeating their mistakes. After all, Toya is here because SHoto agreed that despite Enji being the one who abused Toya, it was totally okay for him to have to skip any kind of confrontation with Toya and just leave all the responsibility up to Shoto. 

Toya bee lined to Enji, because Enji abandoned him for like the six millionth time. Toga herself, wants to target Hawks, because Hawks expresss no remorse over Jin’s death at all and given the chance would kill him again. Toga wants to fight Hawks, because she’s said several times Jin was someone important to her and his death is something she is still reeling from and mourning, and not even a single kid hero seems to question the fact that Jin was murdered in cold blood and Hawks the murderer went free. Toga pretty much told Uraraka to her face that Jin was someone incredibly important to her, and then later on that heroes just don’t see villains as people and Uraraka herself saw the broadcast that Hawks murdered Jin when his back was turned. Nobody else has acknowledged that Jin doesn’t deserve to die (not Uraraka and not Tokoyami) and therefore Toga’s grief for him is completely invalidated. 

Like, yes I think Toga killing Hawks and continuing the cycle of revenge would only make things worse. However, in the eyes of the heroes and even the kids (Uraraka and Tokoyami) Hawks did not do anything wrong in killing Jin. There’s no way the cycle of abuse can be stopped, if the cause of that abuse isn’t even addressed in the first place. 

Which is why the kids have to disavow the elders. They are the reason so far the kids haven’t been able to act on their desire to talk. Every time the kids have expressed a desire to talk, they completely squash it, and despite thinking they might be able to talk these people down they go along with the plans of the adult heroes that are essentially “Beat ‘em up.” Shoto decides to go along with Enji’s plan to just leave Toya entirely to Shoto, and abandon him yet again. Deku wants to save Shigaraki, and yet he builds a floating coffin and death trap in the sky with all the adults and just pummels him. Uraraka wants to talk to Himiko and yet the plan for fighting her is essentially just to have several heroes against one girl until she’s too exhausted to either run away or fight back. 

The kids have expressed an interest so far, but they haven’t changed. This chapter is about the power of the individual, the only way the world is going to change is if the kids stop going along with everything the adults tell them and learn to think for themselves. 

#uraraka ochako #ochako uraraka #my hero academia #mha meta #bnha meta #my hero academia meta #my hero academia theory #boku no hero academia meta #boku no hero academia theory #toya todoroki #shoto todoroki #toga himiko #enji todoroki #dabi #hawks #deku #izuku midoriya #shigaraki tomura #shigafo #bnha 375 #bnha 375 spoilers #mha 375 #mha 373 spoilers

[crimeronan]

god i know i keep half-tongue-in-cheek saying that my dad is literally belos owlhouse but. i've apparently gotten a little desensitized to Just How Bad He Is (because i have ESCAPED, YAY) & so today has been a delightful adventure.

i wrote an AITA post from his POV about stuff that happened several years ago, bc i was curious about how bad he'd get dragged - i updated the timeline but the Only fact i changed was the reason for his Woes (i blamed COVID economic struggles, which actually makes him a Hero compared to the truth. the truth being so ugly i'm not gonna detail it here good god).

i kept it true to POV by only using things that he actually did say to me at the time about why he was doing the things that he was doing, & blocking out all the relevant info about why the wronged party (me) was so upset, & having him praise his daughter (me) and go "i love her so much :) she's so smart and independent and i would never hurt her :)", & having him half-assedly admit he might've sounded unreasonable/angry/malicious, in a way that was clearly supposed to earn Good Dad points for being so Willing To Admit Imperfections, despite a continued constant doubling-down refusal to answer questions about actual important shit or fix anything ever.

cannot emphasize enough that this was not a fictionalized/embellished/creative POV. the only points of fiction were 1) my dad did not write these things on reddit, he said them to me in real life word for word instead and 2) this happened many years ago, not like... yesterday.

anyway the thread blew up and the commenters were all so kind and genuinely worried for me (as in, the daughter) and offering so much help that i hopped on a diff account to be my past self so i could reassure people i'm okay & had a plan in motion for gettin' the hell outta dodge. because i felt REALLY BAD that they didn't know i..... did in fact get out. people were so nice it made me actually fucking cry jesus CHRIST. i had in fact perhaps forgotten that these things were all as bad and worrying as they were

now. this is all a very serious and harrowing-sounding prelude to the actual point of this post, which is. a bullet list of some of my FAVORITE FUCKING RESPONSES. revel in these with me i had so much fucking fun. i have taken DOZENS AND DOZENS of screenshots to peruse whenever i need a healthy dose of Perspective

here they r:

you are CARTOONISHLY EVIL?

HOLY ABUSE BATMAN

DO BETTER. RIGHT NOW.

did you even listen to yourself writing this. HOW

there's something seriously wrong with you. like on an intrinsic unfixable level

hey this happened to me too! my parent died and i had a party about it btw

your daughter is never going to speak to you again after this

(note from the future: yeah)

you're going to act confused and sad when she goes no-contact aren't you

(NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: HE SURE FUCKING IS)

i think you are creating your own problems and then getting mad at them. maybe instead you could not do that

is this ragebait. i can't imagine anyone this horrible actually existing

this isn't ragebait. i can tell this isn't ragebait because I Know This Kind Of Man So Intimately

you are the asshole on literally so many levels i'm going to write a 15 paragraph response line-by-line dissecting everything wrong with you

are you aware that you're lying or are you literally this incapable of 2 seconds of honest self-reflection

i need to donate to a gofundme for your daughter right now immediately

(note from the future: i am not going to scam people by pretending a long-done sitch is a current emergency on gofundme. have no fear.)

wow. okay i'm gonna go hug my mom and thank her for not being you

you are Actually Literally Empirically the Actual Literal Worst Parent who has Actually Literally Ever Existed

HOW FUCKING DARE YOU????

WHO DO YOU FUCKING THINK YOU ARE.

I AM A 57-YEAR-OLD MOM OF FOUR ADULT CHILDREN AND THE MERE THOUGHT OF DOING ANY OF THE THINGS YOU HAVE DONE HERE MAKES ME PHYSICALLY NAUSEOUS

these vibes are so skeevy. leave her the fuck alone????

along with ASTONISHINGLY accurate inferences about exactly what was happening with the daughter (me) in all the missing missing reasons & like..... exactly how the situation was So Much More Ugly And Horrifying than an innocently confused i'm-so-well-intentioned dad-POV post would have you believe.

so. anyway. that was literally the most validating experience i've ever had in my entire life. i know i've said he's a bad guy before but i also always forget just how far beyond the pale he is. like wow that was. that was not a normal average human experience to have growing up huh.

IN CONCLUSION.

if you guys are ever wondering why i am the way that i am about, like........ anything....... everything....... whatever......

just remember.

i was raised by belos owlhouse.

#long post #you are allowed to laugh. this is very funny and i'm having a wonderful time healing so far away from him #CARTOONISHLY EVIL they said. the post wasn't even about any of the actual active abuse or trauma. yall. #cartoonishly evil. yeah. #when youre in the middle of something you stop noticing how bad it is after a while (see also: the current physical diseases) #but nobody will shock your system with a truth bomb like an angry mob of worried redditors. cartoonishly evil. GOD. #abuse ig #i dunno what other tags this needs. just roll in this moment with me.

[see-arcane]

So I've heard quite a bit about Richard "Em Dash" Marsh and his book The Beetle, but I've been quite curious: What elements about it are compelling? I refuse to read the book itself (made that mistake with... other gothic-based media (Damn you, Moore), so I was curious about your thoughts on it?

I think it's just the sheer amount of wasted opportunity for metaphor left laying around. Like, I know everyone likes to call it "Dracula but so much shittier," but I've always seen more resemblance to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," and not just for the insect element.

The two characters we're introduced to as (mistaken) protagonist and antagonist are Robert Holt and the Beetle. Holt is a clerk who lost his job, applied everywhere after, followed all the rules he was taught to trust in, certain that society would naturally play as fairly with him...only to find himself homeless and starved and refused entrance even to a shelter because it was too full. He watches on in mingled surprise and envy as a fellow vagrant blithely breaks a window and waits to be arrested, thrown in jail for the sake of shelter from the rain.

Robert Holt does not throw a brick with him. Robert Holt is too shackled by his ingrained sense of If I Follow the Rules, If I am a Good Citizen, I Will be Helped.

He isn't. He walks away into the rain, still starving, still scraped off the edge of society, shooed like vermin. He reaches the Beetle's home with its window ajar. He slinks in.

And then is immediately preyed on by the Beetle, his free will suddenly ripped away, ordered to strip and walk and talk and die and live and rob and generally be violated on every mental and external level. He is literally so low as to be overpowered and stepped on by an insect.

But Holt isn't immune to his own (read: Marsh's) callousness. He refers to the Beetle, who is an Egyptian visitor here for revenge reasons, in some fairly ugly terms. How much we can shrug off as being a fear/disgust response versus being Conditioned to Other Anyone Not Anglo-Saxon Enough is up in the air in-universe.

The frustration here is that between this opening and the future cast members' rancid treatment of Holt, who tries to help and warn them, and of the Beetle, met with disdain simply for being a foreigner in England before one chitinous move can be made, there could have been SO MUCH to play with in terms of...

Human beings reduced to pests not worth dignity or care because they are Poor, they are Homeless, they are the Lowest Rung of Society, they are Foreign, they are Dirty and Different from What's White Right

The examination of in-fighting of 'verminous' people. Figurative insects living underfoot in supposedly civilized countries, now preying on and demeaning each other rather than extending the empathy they were never shown by polite*** society

Spotlighting the brutality and villainous aspects of our group of well-to-do "heroes", the main cast being mixed up in building genocidal weapons and plotting asylum stays for romantic rivals and hypocrisy and so many layers of bigotry it makes your eyes ache

A better version of the story in which the aforementioned genocidal weapon, a killer gas to be used on South America for some fucking reason, becomes the focus of the story--bonus points for the accidental 'bug spray' comparison to be made--with the potential of the Beetle and Holt switching tracks from singular vengeance and/or the desperate thwarting of this fruition; knowing that the existence of such a thing would be a prelude to 'dealing with the vermin problem' on a terrifying scale. Perhaps by making use of a new kind of 'shelter.' The insects become the heroes, the polished creme of England now turned to fertilizer.

...a better version that might have Holt ending the story with his own metamorphosis, but as a Gregor Samsa with actual strength and will of his own, and acceptance waiting for him on the other side of the change.

But no.

Richard Dickard Marsh couldn't be bothered to reach beyond squeezing out a Sydney Atherton-shaped turd onto the typewriter and calling it done.

It's so, so, SO goddamn infuriating as a storyteller to find the seeds for something that would have been amazing and groundbreaking, especially for its time period, only to see the whole thing salted and burned until all that's left is racist caricatures, a trashfire of a plot, and the most eye-watering syntax ever put to paper.

#in which I am Bitter about the Beetle #the beetle #richard marsh #I hope he's being eaten by scarabs in the afterlife

[kirbybecomesastarwarrior]

You're in Denial: Arthur X Celestine

Lady Celestine is one of the four heroes of Yore and just happens to be the love of Arthur's life. She's a very integral character... kickstarting serval events in the story. I hinted at their dynamic in the past: it's the classic enemies-to-lovers troupe (my favorite- blame Bridgerton: They're Kate & Anthony )

Their relationship is an integral part of the story: hopefully, I can get you all on board this ship (it's okay if you don't, it's part of the prelude). She kicks off several plot points in the story. She's the oracle & blacksmith of the GSA and is responsible for creating Triple Star, Exabliur, and Galaxia (unfinished - completed by another). But her main job was to look after the Fountain of Dreams that was in the temple of the ancients.

Which is where this lovely scene takes place. (And they're lotus flowers, not lilies...)

This happens before Meta and Gala, so this is a young Arthur (the before times).

Sir Uther had three apprentices...

The pecking order was: Arthur, Morgan, and Nonsurat. Which created a wall between Arthur and the other two. It also didn't help that Arthur wasn't the nicest guy either.

Before, Arthur was known as Sir Uther's "golden boy"... Cold and calculating, ready and willing to do Uther's bidding without question. An unfeeling war machine by Uther's design. He was Sir Uther's top soldier: a position Morgan envied & despised Arthur for it...

He was at the top, but it was a lonely spot. As a result, Arthur had closed his heart off from the world: never being his own person. Causing him to wear an apathetic and arrogant personality. He was his master's tool, nothing more. This was his lot in life, and he had accepted all of it.

On Celestine's end, she was a caged bird all her life...

Celestine can't predict the exact future... only show potential paths. But with her powers can guide people to the outcome they want. Which is why she's given the title of Navigator of the Constellations. Nightmare knew of her ability and desperately wanted her power. Only appearing with if alongside the other heroes of Yore when needed (which was only Uther & Icarus at the time).

However, there was a sinister reason behind it... the ancients wanted to monopolize her power. And was confined to the temple most of her life as a result.

Because of her powers, she knew what the ancients really were; a bunch of self-serving hypocrites. So she played the "naive, sweet little priestess": but hid the heart of a dragon. She had a few followers that served under her court; her position kept them within arms reach. In reality, she was alone...

She's the Merlin of the story and Celestine... did not take kindly to Arthur. When she found out that Arthur would be the one to end Uther's reign... "there has to be another Arthur because this one's an arrogant little prick!" She met him a few times: shadowing Uther, and saw him as his dirty henchman.

Arthur did not have a high opinion either of Celestine due to Uther's influence. As the chief blacksmith, Celestine would hire based on talent. She did not care if a person was a high-born or low-born... which Uther did not like. Uther saw her as a foolish little girl who did not know how the world worked. As a result, Arthur saw her as a sheltered, naive, delusional dreamer... however, this would all change.

After the temple was attacked by Nightmare: he was assigned as Celestine's bodyguard. Arthur was not ready for the bucket of sass that was Celestine. Sharp, witty, and vicious (with a few other surprises), she was not one to be messed with.

Arthur was at her mercy since she was technically above him. Though much to his surprise: she insisted on being treated as his equal. Unlike his master: who demanded respect... she was nothing like him. Celestine infuriated & fascinated him all at the same time.

For Celestine, she took this as a chance to reform him... which translated to: "For the sake of the galaxy, I need to take this man down a peg!" But... was pleasantly surprised that her original notions of him were wrong (half of them he was still a little prick ). And teased him every chance she got to reprogram him from his "unfeelingness,"... much to Arthur's annoyance and her delight. But she came to care for the man more than the prophecy.

In time they both realized they suffered the same loneliness. And found comfort in each company... and valued their time together. Arthur, he did not need to be"Sir Uther's golden boy": just Arthur... the feeling was mutual on Celestine's end. She never needed to pretend with Arthur and felt safe being herself with him.

They loved each other but didn't know the words. Both were too inexperienced and young to realize this. And if they did say it... their positions wouldn't allow it... What became of Lady Celestine?

Hmm... oh, I wonder what happened to her?

Keep reading to hear a bit about Morgan... (the runner up in the poll)

Morgan herself was also supposed to be one of the heroes of Yore and complete the set (of four)... But it just didn't fit well. I wanted her to have more emotional weight. Making her one of Uther's apprentices and a rivalry with Arthur seemed more fitting.

There was more of a personal connection to them. Giving her more reason to want to take over the GSA. Always desiring Uther's praise and recognition but never receiving it.

If Morgan won the poll, it (the comic) would've been about her and Norsurant. While they may have been the spares; Norsurant & Morgan always had each other (in a sibling sense).

But after Arthur fell from grace by taking in MK: Morgan became obsessed with taking his (Arthur's) spot. And ended up leaving Norsurant behind to pursue the empty spot. However, this incident also changed his relationship with Arthur.

Like Morgan: Nonsurat believed that Arthur was the golden child that could do no wrong. But after this incident: made realize that he had Arthur figured out all wrong.

#kirby oc #lady celestine #sir arthur #sir arthur kirby #kbasw #kirby gsa #kirby #hoshi no kaabii #oc x canon #kirby anime #them so much but make them suffer #voting poll #kirby right back at ya #krbay #celarthur