#and i LIKE having something that serves the plot for the writers involved.

[garkgatiss]

{{esquivalience}}, The Auteur, and Doctor Who the TV Show

alright so this novella.

First, its provenance: I was googling the Twist at the End song last week because it's catchy as hell. I ended up on the Tardis wiki and realized that there was a song by the exact same name that appeared in a licensed DWU novella that was published April 9th. As in, last month. Which is weird. It's hard to say how weird, but given the timing, it either has to be a) pure coincidence (lol), b) someone who worked on the show abusing their advance knowledge of plot details for personal gain, or c) intentional coordination between showrunner and novella-writer, a la Joe Lidster writing John Watson’s blog for BBC Sherlock.

The likelihood of (a) is decreasing by the week. I feel like I have to entertain the idea of (b) happening, but it's hard to square why a DWU-writing supernerd who is also involved somehow with the production of the show would risk a lifetime of blackballing from DW for a bit of cheap promotion for their extended-universe tie-in novella. I am so sorry to be saying this, but I think (c) might actually have legs.

The novella's title is {{esquivalience}}, which is a fake word invented in real life by editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary. The invented word means "deliberate shirking of one's official duties", and it was added to the dictionary to protect the copyright of the electronic version. In S9, Face the Raven showed us a “trap street", i.e. a fake street drawn on a map by a mapmaker to identify any copyright infringement of said map -- a dictionary entry for a word made up by the dictionary editors operates similarly as a copy-trap. The definition is apt for a copy-trap as well, because anyone illicitly copying a dictionary is themselves shirking a job they ought to be doing themselves... it's clever, it's very fun, we're off to a great start.

{{a crash course in esquivalience below the cut}}

THE STORY:

The unnamed protagonist applies for a custodial job at this library that serves basically as a databank for the history of everything in the universe. If a book about something is thrown away, that something ceases to have ever existed. Exhibit A: Protagonist works in the Dead & Dying Language Department. They throw away The Book of Belgian Dutch, and a) a couple coworkers with Belgian Dutch heritage either disappear or get completely different names/family trees, and also b) everyone quickly forgets that Belgian Dutch was ever a thing to begin with.

The librarians cover for this accidental deletion of reality by copying/fudging a new book on "Belgian Gerench", their name for what they replace Belgian Dutch with. They try to catch most of the people who were deleted, bring them back, and fit them into that new language/culture/ethnicity bucket they just made up.

(The narration explains that because both Belgian and Dutch still exist separately as concepts, there aren't too many knock-on effects in terms of loanwords in other languages that needed to be modified/recovered. It also explains that time-traveling back to make an exact copy of The Book of Belgian Dutch wouldn't work because of the universe's copyright laws or something.)

Protag then comes after the head of their department, the Head Dictionary Contributor, or Head DC. They find him in a hidden room called the Internal Reference Room. Instead of languages, the books here hold the life stories of every employee, which auto-update as the person lives their life, but can also be edited or destroyed to alter that person's reality. Protag sits down with the Head DC's lifebook and starts adding and erasing things.

It turns out that Head DC knows how wrong editing these books can go from personal experience. Years ago, wanting to leave his mark on the universe, the Head DC chose to add his own copy-trap into The Book of Dutch -- the fake word "esquivalience". This action seemingly created the concept of cutting corners at your job, leading to the insufficient vetting of Protag for this job and therefore their subsequent hiring, which results in Head DC's eventual death.

Head DC pleads with Protag for his life, but Protag is undeterred. They finally tear out the final page in Head DC's book, which kills him. Protag then writes themselves in as Head DC. Settling into their new role, they turn their attention to The Book of English (8th to 25th Century). They first look up the dictionary entry for “esquivalience”, which says it came to English from Dutch, and then flips to the entries for “ravel" and “unravel”, described as contranyms from Dutch roots, both “meaning variably to tangle or to fray”.

This is the central story of the novella. There is also a Prelude and Postlude that describe the lives of two young men, first in a reality in which they never meet, and then in a reality in which they do meet and fall in love (their meeting is enabled by one of them skivving off work in time to make it to see the movie where they first meet -- esquivalience!)

Just before the Postlude, there is also printed the lyrics to a song (see below), and an excerpt from The Book of English, this volume covering the 4th to 5th billionth centuries of history. This excerpt again gives the definition of “unravel”, but refers the reader to an appendix for the full list of definition, and notes they are “largely in usage as reference to Unravel, The” and “N.B. to be used with extreme care and caution”.

NOVELLA-SHOW CONNECTIONS:

Mavity [Wild Blue Yonder]: Mavity happened all the way back in Wild Blue Yonder, so it's not necessarily surprising to see it in a novella published in April 9, 2024, but there's a whole scene establishing that the M has seemingly replaced the G in all Romance languages, while Domhantarraingt in Irish-Gaelic is unaffected.

Rope [The Church on Ruby Road]: We're all learning the vocabulary of rope now! The Unravel is what the novella calls the meta-historical revisions caused by making edits to the books. There are also rope/weaving metaphors everywhere. Again, the rope themes of the TV show predate the April 9 novella just far enough that in theory it would have been possible for the novella to have taken inspiration from the 2023 Christmas Special. Except. The wiki page for The Unravel credits ownership of the concept to Jamie H. Cowan, the author of the novella. Not just that, but The Unravel was used – with credit to Jamie – in a DWU short story collection published December 26, 2023 – the day after The Church on Ruby Road aired.

Dot and Bubble [Dot and Bubble] : At this point, “Dot and Bubble” is a contextless episode title to me, first announced on March 31. In the novella, we get this:

The Twist At The End [The Devil’s Chord] : Just before the novella's Postlude, there are the lyrics to a song called “The Twist At The End”. Just listed there, no context, like an azlyrics.com entry. They are not the same lyrics as the song in The Devil's Chord, but then, meta-historical revision would kind of be the point, wouldn't it? There's just this sentence to connect it to anything happening in the narration: "Somewhere, in the far distance, as ______ continued to erase, an old 1960s Earth tune began to play."

EDITED TO ADD: @corallapis has pointed out to me that not only did the existence of the song "Twist at the End" by John Smith and the Common Men leak, but the novella's author tweeted about it in December 2023.

The Chumerian languages of the planet B’llauit, for instance, needed much consideration. Particularly Krulvan. There was still a great deal of work to be done in compiling the post-technoweb aspects of Krulvan. Like how most emotional words and phrases contracted more and more, until finally, they were little more than abbreviations. The old dot-and-bubble effect.

A parent’s love was no longer expressed post-technoweb as “Kal-at lur amoi”, but instead as merely “KLA”. Which needed to be carefully distinguished in the relevant encyclopedia from another abbreviated Krulvan phrase “Kal’ati Lepr’en Acrumpsal” – which was something rather equivalent to the expletives of other languages like “D’Arvit”, or “Bleno”.

It's only a brief mention in the book, so it's possible in theory that it was added after the episode titles were released, or even after the novella’s publication (Amazon allows post-publication changes up to 10% of the text, and it’s not possible to track those changes). I’ve included the second paragraph because it’s interesting that the example they’ve given is the word for a parent’s love, which we can see as a running theme in this season of DW (though Moffat has said before that the only thing he writes about is a parent’s love, so who knows).

Not the strongest evidence of two-way coordination, but we may learn more when the episode airs.

Dutch [Space Babies, Boom]: Yeah, as in, the Dutch language. The words “spoor” & “smelt” both get a "oo, good word!" callout, spoor in Space Babies and smelt in Boom. These words both have Dutch roots. Splice, the daughter's name in Boom, is not only from a Dutch root, but also means the joining two pieces of rope. I read this novella just before Boom dropped on Disney+, so I can personally confirm that this is not a post-hoc addition to the novella. It hardly could have been anyway, this element is much more integral to the novella’s narrative than any of the other pieces.

The Auteur

This is where this all becomes relevant to the “Doctor Who is a TV Show” theory.

While the Protag is shredding the Head DC’s book, the Head DC is in the room, and what follows is an extremely meta narrative-aware pre-death monologue from the Head DC. He's pleading with Protag to stop changing things in his book, but he also refers to an "It" whose power surpasses them both.

He held eye contact with them as they looked up, “You didn’t pick up Belgian Dutch by chance. It’s how it plays. In weaving coincidences.”

“Just stop reading. Stop changing things. Stop, and we can be spared. Be free! If you keep going, then it will get what it wants. It is a happening [sic]. Out there, and in here in the basement. Everywhere. It will win if you keep going.”

“One day, you’ll make the same mistakes. Goddamn, you will. Because it’s all already written. It has already written it all. The paths, the choices. Rewrites, erasures, and even the contradictions. If you don't just... stop... it will... Unravel us all."

The "It" in question is presumably the author. Like an author writing a story, "It" plays by weaving coincidences, "It" gets what it wants when we keep reading, "It" has already written everything.

The Head DC mentions a special disposal chute, which had recently appeared as if by magic, which enabled Protag’s destruction of Belgian Dutch. Head DC’s references to this “It” suggest that his decision to create a word meaning cutting corners caused his eventual death, not by inventing the concept of cutting corners, but by creating a set-up that the Auteur, a godlike being that cares only for the rules of narrative, was compelled to write a satisfying follow-through for. The Auteur changed reality in order to weave a narratively-satisfying coincidence.

The Auteur is a character from the DW-spinoff series Faction Paradox. The creator of the Faction Paradox universe describes it as “on the surface an SF universe, but it works on the same principles as traditional folklore.”

I am but a humble Moffat scholar, so explaining the character of The Auteur is immediately getting into lore that I cannot even begin to decipher.

But it seems plausible that in the show we’re dealing with a godlike being, someone along the lines of Maestro or the Toymaker, but instead of caring only for the rules of play, cares only for the rules of narrative.

And this being, The Auteur, is altering reality and creating the narratively-satisfying coincidences in 14’s and 15’s timelines, possibly starting all the way back with the coincidence of 14 regenerating as David Tennant and immediately bumping into Donna Noble.

And it seems plausible that this season was created in cooperation with these DWU authors to whom concepts like The Auteur and The Unravel are licenced, and the novella is a tie-in text full of references to the current season to lead savvy superfans on a merry chase that foreshadows the season’s big bad.

Because I... don't really have another explanation for the existence of this novella at this point.

#doctor who #esquivalience #what to even tag this #dust off the old clown costume

[bronzebtch]

like yes. the concept of making a general fantasy verse or an AU of any kind is appealing until you have to take rhea out of the context of her original verse and then u have no idea who she is 🧍‍♀️

#like for example? i would love to make a believable grishaverse #but i have to use my actual brain and try to somehow make the concept of Houses significant #bc rhea being a leader of her House and the keeper of her land is just WHO she is FIRST #but i dont believe Houses are that relevant to the major plot of the grishaverse neither does it fit the lore #(unless it does and i need to read more. as i usually do.) #and i LIKE having something that serves the plot for the writers involved. #rather than simply gifting rhea an ability and calling it a day #similarly. i am toying with the idea of rhea not being a lady of runestone and how she could exist beyond that #like her being a general wanderer #but her devotion towards her House and her duty outweighs nearly everything else #and its like. how can i separate the flesh from the identity? and when her identity is her position. #BUT I RLLY WANNA MAKE IT WORK #because i rlly want rhea to grow and travel and LEARN. #also ruminating an idea that in 115 AC (year shes supposed to die) #she gets on a ship. and was lost. and then she showed up somewhere else. #and had to survive to return back…….. #JUST THINKING THOUGHTS. #GENERAL: OUT OF CHARACTER.

[novlr]

could you maybe do something on characters becoming serial killers? I’m was originally going to have some sort of characters going insane thing, but I think that the whole “insane people killing” is a little stupid and borderline dangerous (saying that insane people kill all the time) so could you give me some pointers?

How to Write a Serial Killer: A Quick Guide for Writers

Crafting a convincing serial killer requires a lot of research, imagination, and an understanding of the genre. Let’s dive into some quick tips to help you create a serial killer who is gripping, unique, and emotionally complex.

Develop their backstory

The key to crafting a convincing serial killer is in understanding their past to shape their present. Explore their backstory in detail — were they subjected to abuse or neglect? Did they endure a life-altering traumatic event that set them on this dark path? Developing a compelling backstory is essential, not only to justify their actions but also to cultivate a degree of empathy, allowing readers to connect with the character on a deeper level.

Give them unique motivations

Serial killers act based on what drives them; they commit their crimes for a reason. This reason could be a need for control, a hunger for power, or a wish to spread chaos. By connecting their reason for doing things with their unique personality traits and backstory, you can create a well-rounded and consistent character.

Include misdirection and plot twists

To maintain suspense, make use of narrative devices like red herrings designed to divert your reader's attention. The clever use of these diversions can delay the unmasking of the killer, increasing tension and anticipation. Additionally, unexpected plot twists that abruptly shift your story's trajectory can not only alter your reader's perception but can also reconfigure their theories keeping readers on their toes.

Draw parallels with your protagonist

Creating a unique perspective by establishing similarities between your serial killer and your protagonist can add multifaceted layers to your story. This might involve drawing connections in their backgrounds, aligning their motivations, or uncovering shared personal struggles. These parallels not only make the plot more engaging but also heighten the intensity of the conflict between the two characters.

Use foreshadowing

Foreshadowing serves as a powerful tool in constructing suspense and subtly hinting at future events in your story — carefully place clues that can suggest the identity of the killer or indicate their next victim. But remember to maintain an air of mystery by not unveiling too much prematurely. The goal is to keep readers engrossed, continually making and remaking their guesses about the unfolding plot.

Include an emotional subplot

Adding an emotional subplot in your narrative significantly enhances the relatability of your serial killer. This could range from them harbouring deep-seated love for someone, to grappling with a fear that surpasses the dread of getting caught. These contrasting aspects of their otherwise sinister nature serve to give the characters greater depth and dimension, thus enriching their complexity.

Did you know we have a Spotify account with lots of great playlists for writers? Here's one to inspire your next serial killer novel!

#writers #creative writing #writing #writing community #writers of tumblr #creative writers #writing inspiration #writeblr #writerblr #writing tips #writing resources #writing advice #writers on tumblr #writers and poets #advice for writers #writers block #advice for authors #helping writers #writblr #writers corner #writing quick tips #quick tips for writers #references for writers #writing reference #character development #writing characters #writing serial killers #let's write #just write it #writing ideas

[isawritesshit]

I ACCIDENTALLY WROTE SOMETHING AND NOW I WANNA CONTINUE IT PLEASE HELP

Okay, so now that I have your attention, remember how I said I was gonna continue my Gojo series over the weekend?

(Btw, if you want, prologue and first chapter are up on that story so you can go read it and then come back to harrass me about not continuing it for forever because I have writer's block)

Well... I may or may not have come up with another Gojo series...

It's kinda an AU of the series I have already started. Basically, our lovely and sexy reader is actually a daughter of the Kamo Clan leader and had been betrothed to Gojo from a young age (yes, this is gonna be one of those arranged marriage things). Reader is basically trained to become the perfect wife for him, essentially mental abuse and being told her whole life that the best way to serve her family was to become an object for him.

So, when Reader goes home with Gojo after their wedding, she expects him to basically be what she was trained for him to be (demanding, a bitch, etc.). However, what Reader doesn't know, is that Gojo has been in love with Reader since he first saw her when they were children, and basically, he teaches the reader to love herself. Plus, there's going to be plot involved.

I'm gonna put what I have for the prologue under the cut. Tell me if y'all wanna see more of this because I low-key just might write it anyways :)

cw: obv themes of force/arranged marriage, hints of mental abuse, mentions of sex, but overall mostly fluffy.

People would say that if there was one thing that Gojo Satoru was not, it would be committed. Not in all ways, however. Satoru was very committed to his sorcery, to the protection of ordinary people and the balance of the their world and the jujutsu one. It was relationships that he struggled with. Yes, he had always had an authority problem, both growing up and even now, so his relationships with jujutsu elders and other clan leaders were never good to begin with, especially when he became a clan leader himself and took up the title as “The World’s Strongest Sorcerer”. However, his friends? Sure he cared deeply for them, but he could never show them that, lest he risk the possibility of them getting hurt for that same reason. Lovers? Absolutely not. They would last a week at best, hence why his friends would say he had commitment issues. 

But not many people knew that Gojo was betrothed to be married, and if there was one thing that he could say that he was committed to, it was that. 

And not just because he knew that the responsibility of upholding the Gojo Clan’s honor and survival was on his shoulders, but also for a reason no one could have predicted. 

The first time Satoru had seen his future bride, they were both young, too young to understand why each of their parents were sitting across from one another, why the most important members of the Kamo clan were staring him down when he was barely five years old. But then his parents asked to see you, and that’s when everything changed. 

You were brought into the room by a caregiver and left in between the two families like you were some kind of meal. A veil-like mask covered the front of your face from the nose down. Your wide eyes looked about. First at your caregiver, who stepped out of the room with a bow, then to your parents, who didn’t even look back at you, then to his parents, and then, finally, to him, the only other child in the room. 

Gojo Satoru didn’t know it at the time, but it was at that moment that he had fallen in love with you. That same day, it was agreed upon that the two of you would wed when he was 25 and shortly after you turned 24. That seemed like such a long time, but… Satoru decided that maybe he would try to get to know you when he saw you next. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. Both of your families kept each of you on a tight leash, and neither were inclined to meet with one another just because the Gojo heir wanted to see his bride. They were rival clans after all, with a long history of vendettas and alliances. 

However, just because Satoru saw you once didn’t mean he stopped thinking of you. Even as a pre-teen, he sounded your name in his head, sometimes aloud when he was alone. Kamo (Y/N). It was one of the few things he knew about you, other than what your eyes looked like. He knew that those eyes had likely changed over the years since the first time he saw you, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t think about them. About you. 

There were a few other things Satoru knew about you. You were the only daughter of Arao Kamo, the Kamo Clan head. Not only that, you were the youngest child and had three older brothers, all of whom he had never met before. He would take in what his parents would tell him about you, though it wasn’t much. Only that you had a different cursed technique from the blood manipulation that ran strong in the Kamo line, and that you were naturally beautiful for your age. 

But Satoru wanted to know more. He wanted to know what your interests were and if they were similar to his. He wanted to know more about your cursed technique and what kind of training you had received. He knew that you would receive some kinds of etiquette and liberal arts education, as was normal for daughters of the clans to do, but did you like any of those things? What foods do you like? How have you grown? 

What did the rest of your face look like? That was the question that replayed constantly in his head after Satoru was notified that him and his parents were to meet with you again to make some further updates to the arrangement. Maybe this would be his chance for him to finally speak with you, to get to know you. 

But it was just the same as before, only this time, the both of you were 13. There was no caregiver to bring you in, and no other Kamo representatives other than your mother and father, whom you sat beside. 

Satoru remembered staring at you the whole time, taking you in. His parents didn’t lie. You were beautiful and he hadn’t even seen all of you, and you also carried yourself maturely for a young girl. Your eyes had changed, of course, more grown but still just as wide and lively as he remembered. Your face was no longer obscured by a mask, and instead, you held a delicate fan that matched the kimono you wore, covering your face as you listened intently while your parents spoke, but never speaking yourself. 

You never once looked in his direction.

The meeting concluded before he knew it had begun. His parents had needed confirmation of your fertility, since they were to be among the first to be notified when you started your cycle. However, in an offer that was a bit unexpected, your father had requested that the marriage date be moved up five years, to which his parents agreed. That part made Satoru ecstatic. Instead of waiting 12 years, he now would only have to wait seven. 

And with that, you bowed and departed behind your parents, swift and silent. Satoru tried not to look like he was running as he tried to catch another glimpse at you when his parents excused him, but when he peered out the nearest window that overlooked the front lawn where you had arrived, you were already gone. 

And so, Satoru would go another seven years. Another seven years of thinking of you, dreaming of you, wondering what you looked like behind your fan and cosmetics. He had hoped to see you enrolled in the same class as him at Jujutsu Tech, though he knew for a fact that you most likely would not be. Your parents, more so your father, he realized, protected and sheltered you more than ever after that second meeting. He had expected you not to show up to that first day of school, but when that first day was over and you actually didn’t, a small part of his heart still sank. 

Satoru did take some females to bed during the next seven years you spent apart, mostly out of curiosity as to what sex felt like, but also by persuasion of his friends. However, his friends would get confused as to why he would never allow those girls to stay the next morning, or why he would insist on wearing a condom even when they gave him permission to finish inside. He would give the excuse (thought it really was the truth) that he actually wasn’t that interested, or that he also wanted to protect against STDs (the latter was a great insult that had women storming out on him, to his relief). In reality, he wanted his first real time, his first enjoyable time, to be with you. Even if he was allowed to take on any amounts of lovers he wanted both in marriage and out of it, he felt guilty knowing that you had to save yourself for him. So, in a way, he was saving himself for you too. 

As the years came closer and closer, he began to think of you more, trying to subtly gather more information on you, to little avail. He knew that this pining and longing could be considered childish, but he didn’t care. Was it wrong to want to come to love, to already be in love, with the person he was to spend the rest of his life and create a family with? Satoru certainly didn’t think so. However, that didn’t mean he was without restraint. After his parents had passed and the mantle of the Gojo Clan leader was given to him, he didn’t try or demand to see you. After all, the two of you could still be considered strangers. Hell that is what you were, he had to remind himself. He figured it would be best to keep you with your family and not disturb your current life, especially since you would be seeing your family less once you came to live with him (but also because he didn’t want you to see him as some obsessed maniac). He decided he would be patient and wait, which would make your first real meeting with him all the more sweeter. 

Those seven years passed by too fast, he realized as he stood in the center of a magnificent shrine in what could have been the most spectacular and slightly uncomfortable outfit he had ever worn. Your family surrounded him on almost all sides as they awaited your arrival at sunset. Your parents and brothers sat off to one side of the room, and he could feel their eyes on him the entire hour that he stood there. After what seemed like an eternity, your headpiece peaked slowly over the hill as you ascended the path to the shrine. He held his breath. 

He noticed your eyes again first. 

They were downcast, melancholy, almost near lifeless. Not the lively pools of color he remembered and saw so often in his dreams. Your blank expression was such a contrast to the splendor of your being. Indeed, he thought that he was being pledged to a goddess, with the way your updone hair and headpiece played in the golden sunlight, the way the whites, golds, and reds of your wedding kimono and wraps made you look like a princess, and the way your face, your whole face, looked like it was extracted from a star. To put simply, you were the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. 

Finally, you found your place beside him, your hands clasped in the folds of your long sleeves. It took you standing this close to realize how much smaller you were than him, though he immediately recognized how your face and demeanor had shaped into womanhood since he last saw you. He would catch glimpses of you when he could throughout the ceremony, taking in more of the newest features that you had laid out for him. His heart was beating rapidly, hoping that you would look back at him at least once. 

But you never did, even when you presented one another with ceremonial wine or when you took his arm to leave the shrine for the reception dinner that was filled to the brim with Kamo Clan members and other officials. As soon as you both entered that reception, your fan was over your face. You didn’t say a word to him the whole time, so he never said anything to you. 

A cold sweat had laid itself over Satoru as you said goodbye to your family members. It wasn’t the type of goodbye that he would expect a family to give to their only daughter. There was no affection, no emotion shown, as if leaving your family was merely another ceremony. And then you turned back to him, eyes still looking down of course, and got into his car without a word. 

Satoru could tell that something was wrong and off about you. Sure, you had carried yourself gracefully throughout the entire evening. Every movement you had made between walking and eating and sitting was done to absolute perfection. Maybe it was those monotone movements that were his first sign. No, it wasn’t that. It had to be your eyes. Why were they always so emotionless? Why did you never look up at him? What had happened to you since the last time he saw you?

At least your fan wasn’t up. That he could be thankful for. Satoru sighed. He couldn’t help but feel like the happiest day of his life, the one where he finally got to be with the girl he had loved for 15 years, was the saddest day of your own. He wanted to ask about it so bad, now that he had you alone, but he didn’t. He would just look at you ever so often as you watched the scenery pass by through the car window. Maybe this was your way of taking everything in, and he didn't want to disrupt that. He trusted that you would talk when you were ready.

He waited for you to say something, but you remained silent as the car stopped and he walked you up the stairs to the front door of his home estate. Your new home. In a perfect world, in what he had imagined previously, you would have been smiling and excited as he picked you up to walk you through the doorway. In that world, you would have hugged and kissed him as he twirled you around and around in your own private celebration. The door closing behind him brought him back to reality. You stood in the center of his grand foyer, taking in dark polished wood and rich splendor of your new dwelling place. The space was only illuminated by shaded lamps and a dim glass chandelier. A new couch, your couch, was against one wall, one of the many of your belongings that had been moved in a week ago. Satoru decided to sit on that couch while you stood in the center of the room, looking down, not moving. 

He couldn’t take this anymore. It was like you treated the floor as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. As if he, your new husband, wasn’t sitting ten feet away from you. He even considered the possibility of you being deaf or mute for a moment. No, he didn’t know what to do, other than speak to you. But what to say? Are you feeling okay? Are you happy? Sad? Were your clothes uncomfortable? How come you didn’t speak or look at him? At anyone? Was it something you were afraid of? Were you afraid of…

That had to be it. 

“Are you afraid of me?”

(please lmk what you guys think)

#isawritesshit #jjk #gojo satoru #female reader #anime #jjk smut #gojo x reader #gojo smut #jjk x reader #gojo satoru x reader #arranged marriage #forced marriage

[riaraa]

I’m rewatching Mixte/Voltaire High to keep working on my Josèle (Michèle Magnan x Joseph Descamps) fanfiction No Angels and there was one scene in particular that has spurred on many thoughts:

Something I didn't notice before was how quickly Joseph follows Michèle out of the shop where they run into each other in Episode 7. We saw Michèle race out of there after getting the bleach and how she immediately went to Laubrac pretending she didn’t know he was there. To me, this shows that Joseph was right behind her and she knew it. Did Joseph intent to speak to her, or intimidate her further? Was he going to be soft or harsh? Could we have gotten a proper conversation between without any classmates around? Was Joseph disappointed to see Laubrac at first but then it gave him his new plan to get back at the Michèle and Jean-Pierre? A part of me wonders, was he jealous of Laubrac and Michèle, and that was a motivator to only act now, at the end of the year when he had a long time to do something in retaliation? Like, why now when they have been avoiding each other for so long? Now I have so many questions that will never be answered!

And, it bothers me because this moment between Michèle and Joseph should have happened soon after the prank on her and him losing his eye. You mean to tell me it’s been almost an entire school and yet they’re just now having this weird confrontation? They have been in classes together for MONTHS. It was so strange to see such a pivotal scene (prank and losing eye) involve both of their characters and it gets completely disregarded until the end of the show to simply serve a plot point for another relationship. It lacked depth because it should have been their (Josèle) relationship being explored. It was a high stakes moment that was essentially dropped when it could have so much more.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the tension of eye contact throughout the school year, but it should have come to more than that. I was convinced their rivalry would be a central part of the show and it was lackluster without it, which means Joseph should have been a main character, not a side one. He was a main antagonist that wasn’t explored and, to me, it hurt the development of the show—especially Michèle as a character (but I could write an entire post about her character and how the writers dropped the ball with her). Even the lack of confrontation between Joseph and Jean-Pierre until the finale where they bump into each other at the party just didn’t add up.

To end my rant, I love this show and I love Josèle, but it still makes me sad to see immeasurable amounts of wasted potential between these two characters that could (should) have been explored.

#josèle #michèle magnan x joseph descamps #michèle x joseph #descamps x michèle #joseph descamps #michèle magnan #mixte #voltaire high #michèle x joseph fanfiction #michèle magnan fanfiction #joseph descamps fanfiction #MJ metas

[look-how-they-massacred-them]

Preliminary Poll

Jaime Lannister

Submission reason:

First they turned something that was consensual in the books into rape on the show, then they threw out his character growth. He should have killed Cersei, not died along side her

I'm going to keep this to three key points because otherwise I simply... I simply have too much to say. 1. So a key point of his arc in the books is about him realising that perhaps it IS still possible to be an honourable man, despite being condemned by the kingdom for his most honourable act. He wants to keep his vows as a member of the Kingsguard. Tied to this is the way he starts to form his own identity outside of his codependent relationship with Cersei. In the books, this means that he stands up to Cersei in small ways, and notably refuses to have sex with her in the White Sword Tower because it represents the vow he took to the Kingsguard, which includes chastity. In the show, he literally pushes The White Book (in which the deeds of the historic members of the Kingsguard are recorded) off the table in the same White Sword Tower so he can have sex with her on it. When he leaves Kinds Landing for the Riverlands, he tries his best to keep a previous vow he made to Catelyn Stark not to hurt any members of her family, and ends the seige of Riverrun without bloodshed. This sort of happens in the show but they also completely rewrite his plot here so he's just Cersei's lapdog who does whatever she asks of him. 2. (CW for discussion of sexual assault) In the books, Jaime is one of few male characters who has a marked disgust of sexual violence. He remembers being the only member of the Kingsguard who asked who protects the Queen from the King, after hearing her be raped through her bedroom door. He speaks up to protect Brienne (whom he actively tried to kill a chapter or so before) from being raped by the Bloody Mummers. While in the Riverlands, he encounters a serving girl who had been raped by one of the soldiers occupying the castle; when she tells him who the perpetrator was, Jaime has the man beheaded. In the show they cut two out of three of these moments, and have him rape Cersei in the sept (a scene which is consensual in the books). 3. A key element of Jaime's backstory is that he killed the king he was sworn to protect. He did this because the king was going to blow up the entire city of King's Landing, which was under seige at the time. At the time he was killing the king (and the others involved in the plot), Gregor Clegane had gotten into the palace and murdered the princess and her two young children. Despite saving 500,000 lives, Jaime still feels immense guilt over failing to protect the princess and her children. Over the course of the books, we really see the way that Jaime returns to his knightly vow to ""protect the innocents"" over any other vows of loyalty he makes to those in power, even to his family. In the show, one of his final lines is literally, LITERALLY, ""innocents? I never cared for innocents"" and admittedly, show!Jaime like... doesn't. He doesn't care for innocents. But the fact that the showrunners would so blatently FLAUNT their own COMPLETE FAILURE to do this character justice makes me incoherent with rage. Turns out I still had a lot to say. It's been three years and I am still FUMING.

He had an entire arc of distancing himself from his toxic incestuous relationship with his twin sister, he found love with another character and had a really well crafted redemption arc, then at the last minute he leaves his new love to be with his sister, then he dies, undoing the last eight seasons of character development

Propaganda:

Pour one out for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the modern Sisyphus. He tried for five seasons to talk some sense into these writers and every season they told him to fuck off.

#look how they massacred them poll #look how they massacred my boy #game of thrones #a song of ice and fire #jaime lannister #asoiaf #tw rape

[katlyntheartist]

Knuckle series is out!! Any thoughts? Does it affect your Jojo and Gang au?

Spoilers for the Knuckles series people! Avert your eyes children!

First, let's talk about the things I liked:

- Sonic and Tails were great for as little screen time as they had. And Maddie trying to be patient with Knuckles while also not strangling him was great, haha. As someone who worked at a Daycare, I related to her dealing with kids like Knuckles and Maddie's facial expressions when she was grounding Knuckles were on point. Also THEY HAVE A PLAIN BED FOR TAILS AND A TRUCK BED FOR KNUCKLES AHHHHH!!!!!

-Pachacamac is a Jedi Force ghost? Alright then. I don't know much about this character outside of Sonic X but I thought that he was fine. And Christopher Lloyd does a great job as usual.

-Wade was not terrible. I like how he has some character growth through the series and at the end he isn't a master warrior/fighter. He's still a goofball but now he's thinking things through and using what he has and his current surroundings to his advantage in a fight, and isn't just hiding and waiting for Knuckles to save him. But him breaking out of the cage in episode 4 was a bit ridiculous. What was that cage made of, cardboard? He really should have broken his hand or something.

-I liked the villains but I wish that we got to see them more involved in the story, especially the buyer. Who was menacing for about five minutes and then was crushed to death like, dang 0-0

-NANA WHIPPLE AND KNUCKLES SPINOFF SHOW PLEASE!!

-Knuckles was the best part of the show. He's the strong tough warrior but with a big heart and good intentions, though a bit misguided at times. Idris did a great job, nothing new there.

And now let's get into the things I didn't like:

-The show is %70 Wade bowling story and %30 Knuckles adjusting to earth and his backstory with Pachacamac and his tribe and his connection to the master emerald and everything else that the show should have been about. The Wade sub plot takes up so much time that we don't get to explore Knuckles. I wished that we had gotten to see him learn to appreciate and call Earth his new home instead of him just accepting it at the end. It just felt so rushed.

-Episode four wasn't awful but I didn't care for it. Also you can NOT show us the Flames of Disaster from '06 and not have Silver or Blaze show up. You can't do that >:(

-Knuckles and Maddie didn't get to have a heart to heart conversation which is what I and many others thought that was what the show was building up to. Also he never gets in trouble for running way and we never cut back to seeing Maddie or Sonic and Tails realizing Knuckles is gone, or even Sonic and Tails trying to cover for Knuckles. I get that the CGI was expensive and voice actor and actor schedules might not have worked out for it to happen, but my point still stands.

-Wanda was useless and you could have cut her out and lost nothing. Don't get me wrong, the actress is good but she feels wasted here. Her character is so annoying and serves no purpose other than to be mean to Wade. And why do we have to have the "siblings who hate each other but make up at the end" cliche? I would have liked Wanda more if she was nicer to Wade from the start and if they had a fun sibling bond with each other. Also if she was able to actually use her skills as an FBI agent to at least hold her own against the gang when they attack Nanna Whipple's house. Also the dad needed to be more comedically villainous, he was too generic.

-Like I said the villains here are fine but the Buyer's whole character is to just show up, have a cool robot fight, and die. We don't get to see him be a threat to Knuckles at all, he just appears for the climax and then is offed in a snap. And the two agents were fun but a lot of their dialogue was graining.

-And that leads me to the main problem with the series. The writing. I'm aware that the writers for the main movies didn't work much on this series, except Jeff did do the first episode. Which is why it's the best one. There is no balance between the jokes and the emotional moments. The show is so focused on trying to make you laugh every five minutes that it sacrifices genuine emotional growth for the characters especially for Knuckles. You know, the whole reason for the show existing in the first place. It suffers the same problems that the live action Ton and Jerry movie had, where the main stars weren't allowed to be the main stars of their film. All of the screen time there went to the human characters who weren't interesting or just plain annoying and mean.

And the dialogue for the show teeters back and forth between actually funny/well written and being dangerously close to obnoxious. And kids shows having jokes all the time isn't a problem. Rottmnt and the Lego Movies are both kid properties that fire off a joke every minute but they knew when to cut back and let the emotional moments shine. The jokes in the Knuckles show felt more like they were pandering to four year old's then actually trying to be funny and the emotional moments felt kind of forced.

I don't want to give any of the writers or anyone who worked on this show a hard time. I can see that everyone worked hard and had fun with this. And I had fun too. There were some good moments between Knuckles and Wade and even a few jokes that got me. But the problems I listed above are just to hard for me to ignore. If you liked the Knuckles series then great for you! I'm happy you were able to have a great time! But for me it was just ok.

Not great. But not bad either. 5/10.

Now, about this affecting Jojo and Gang. I think what I'll do is have comic take place a month after the Knuckles series. And use my AU to focus on Knuckles getting accustomed to Earth and learning to call it home. Basically my AU will do what the Knuckles series didn't.

#katlyn talks #knuckles spoilers #knuckles tv show #knuckles series

[jacquesthepigeon]

I know I'm not saying anything new or groundbreaking, but if you think about it, the writers really don't know how to incorporate characters into the narrative unless it is for pointless romantic drama or to be manipulated by Lila.

I'd say the treatment Luka and Kagami got in season 5 is the best example of it.

Kagami got to keep appearing because they used her as, say, a sort of catalyst for Lila's "solo villain" arc. Never mind it made no sense because Kagami had already been akumatised by her actions and was quite literally in Chat Noir's arms when he said she couldn't be trusted back in Oni-chan, or even the fact that after Protection that friendship served no further purpose other than Kagami informing Lila she wasn't invited to the Diamonds Ball because she was a nobody. Because, let's face it, they really didn't need to drag one of the best characters through the mud like that for something that could have been done by either Chloé (by virtue of being Lila's willing accomplice and haughty enough to brag about such a thing) or Gabriel (who at that point was quite done dealing with the brat he himself gave power to in the first place).

And aside from that, she also kept appearing for two reasons: her original, lingering feelings for Adrien and the fact that their parents wanted them to end up together kept feeding the Adrienette drama, and then she got her own share when her character was basically retooled into Félix's girlfriend and willing accomplice.

Compare it to Luka's situation. His only real major role was in Migration because his supportive and mature personality meant he was no longer involved in the romantic aspect of the show, and it would have been even more egregious to have him fall for Lila's lies when he is a living lie detector thanks to his ability to hear people's inner music. Notice how the two have NEVER interacted.

And what happened to him? He was unceremoniously booted for the remainder of the season (except the finale, I guess) despite his very important role of being Ladybug and Chat Noir's secret secret-keeper, which was admittedly a much more compelling angle than "Adrienette: The Star-Crossed Lovers" or "How to Use a Lying 14-Year-Old to Justify Your Terrorist Abusive Father Villain Being Redeemed" routes the season took.

God, this got long.

Legit they had no clue what to do with them and honestly I’m grateful Luka got shipped off to learn magic kung fu in Brazil when the alternative was the huge fucking mess they made with Kagami

If I’d had my way and Adrien was involved with the plot, Kagami (alongside Nino) could’ve served as support for figuring out their parent’s’ evil plans and putting a stop to them. No Lila, no arranged marriage, no Felix, just her and her buds uncovering Evil Secrets.

Similarly, I’d have had Luka (alongside Alya) serve as support for Marinette as she figures out Guardian stuff without the deadbeat daddy drama

#geekgirles #ask

[thecryptidzenith]

11 for the fic game ask!

11. Bonus: recommend your favorite fic

Okay, you're getting two answers for this one because my real answer isn't a D20 fic, and seeing as that's my fandom at the moment, I'd be remiss to not rec something from it.

For the past... Jesus, four years, my favorite fic has been The Prestige by black_feather_fiction (also @black-feather-fiction) No contest. I don't do MCU fic or fandom anymore, but this is the one exception. It's just. It's so good. It's demonstrates the best use of the medium of fanfiction I've ever seen (yes, I'm of the opinion that fanfiction is its own distinct medium, but I'm not going to get into it now.)

Now the conceit of The Prestige is similar to a lot of MCU long fics: what if the plot was... good? Between the California-in-the-1840's/50's amount of untapped gold in the movies and whatever any given writer wanted to pull from the comics, there are so many elements to play with when rewriting a truly epic version of the story presented in the Infinity Saga, or even just a small segment of it. There are a lot of these, and I've read a lot of these. It's exactly my kind of thing, I love a good Plot.

The thing that's special about The Prestige is the way it incorporates the conventions of storytelling in its worldbuilding. To put it simply, an all-powerful God does exist in this universe, and he's three old women who terrorize innkeepers. The Norns/the Fates/other Mother-Maiden-Crone mythological archetypes, are real, and they control the threads of fate, so to speak. The entire universe exists as their plaything, and given the chaos and entropy of the universe, they pull stories from it. The laws of storytelling are just as influential, immutable, and important as the laws of physics in this universe. And just like the laws of physics, they can be manipulated towards a particular use.

This is how the fic opens: with Loki attempting to tell the universe a story so perfect and beautiful that the Norns cannot help but let the tale play out in real life. He doesn't quite succeed. However, the rules of storytelling are never forgotten, by the characters and by the author. Having the conventions of storytelling being a part of story's universe is a brilliant move that I have not gotten over after three years. Obviously, real life doesn't play out like a story, so when telling a story there's always some suspension of disbelief involved, because real life isn't that neat. Having an in-world explanation for the existence of story structure is something I'd never seen before and it's brilliant. And it's perfect for a story about two liars, image-crafters, storytellers, whatever you want to call them.

The story structure being built into the world is incredible, but so is the way the characters attempt to manipulate it in their favor. Even beyond the opening tableau, characters work to push the narrative in directions that will serve them. And the narrative pushes back. Every time I think about how the Fall of the Giant plot beat plays out, I fall more and more in love with it. It's the perfect blend of expectation subversion, expectation fulfillment, and effective character beats. It's fucking incredible.

Besides the rules of storytelling, The Prestige also makes reference to a lot of stories in the cultural zeitgeist in a way that's as delightful as it is earnest. The primary benefit of fic as a storytelling medium is that the audience already has a shared set of knowledge. We know who the characters are. We know how canon goes, and authors already have prepackaged tools to tell their stories with. Less needs to be established in fanfic compared to other kinds of fiction because the audience has a shared knowledge base. The Prestige takes this intertextuality further by pulling from more than just the MCU canon, but from works as varied as Mystery Science Theater 3000, Gremlins, and Alice in Wonderland. These cultural touchstones are in meaningful conversation with the contents of The Prestige and efficiently add depth in a really interesting and engaging way. Hel, even the title is taken from a Nolan movie. This fic is so deeply tied to the culture it's a part of, and I adore it.

Beyond the elements of the story that are inseparably tied to its in-universe use of narrative, the plot is very well put together. I find the bit with Ozymandias (yes, like the Percy Shelly poem) particularly clever, but it's all very good. Despite it's length, I find The Prestige compulsively readable, its writing is excellent. The characterization is excellent, the worldbuilding is engaging, the character dynamics are delightful to read about and devastating for the characters involved. I think this fic may genuinely have everything: Plot, romance, action, adventure, whump, angst, parent/child relationships, (explored from both sides) familial trauma, sexual trauma, self-destruction, sibling relationships, eating disorders--I'm really just listing tags here, but there's So Much, and I love every bit of it. I have loved every bit of it for years, and I don't care how long updates take, I Will Read It. It's the only MCU fic I've been able to read in years, and honestly? I'm not that mad about it, it's fucking incredible.

Now with all that being said, my favorite D20 fic is a lot harder to pick. I've not been in the fandom that long, I haven't read a ton of fic, and my tastes skew towards the Epic, Plot-focused, and Looooooong. Which is a bit difficult to come by (as is time to read.) There are, however, a lot of excellent fics, out there, though I think I have the most to say about The Properties of Adaine by Tangerine_Blast (also @20dimensionsoftangerine) (and by extension its predecessor, but we don't need to get into it.)

The conceit is that because of Oracle reasons, Adaine gets kidnapped by Kalvaxus as a kid and grows older thinking of him as a great paternal figure even though he sucks because her only points of comparison are Arianwen & Angywn. The interesting part is only really discussed and addressed in The Properties of Adaine, which is that she's technically an object! Legally, magically, an object--a dragon's thrall to be more specific. It's a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of DnD worldbuilding, as well as an exploration of identity, security, trauma, etc. It's a bit of a thorny subject to tackle, but so far as I can tell, it's handled with grace and sensitivity. It's doing a lot of very interesting things with the Themes, plus Aelwyn is absolutely insane (she's adopted/kidnapped by Aguefort.) which I get a kick out of. Overall, a striking story (and also one that's still being updated, which is probably why it sticks with me.)

#fuck this ended up long #i'm sorry i like storytelling as a craft and these are projects i don't just like because they're fun to read #but because i find them Interesting in terms of what they're doing with the Themes and the Craft #plus their unfinishedness compels me #it makes them stick in my brain more #anyway i'll admit that the conceited. not incorrect answer to this question is Midnight Oil #and obviously I liked 'i have a little shadow that goes in and out with me' enough to yoink the premise #but that fic doesn't live in my brain as much because Midnight Oil evicted it #i have reread it several times though. it's truly excellent. #there's a lot of good ones. i don't really have a favorite but i do find Properties to be doing some especially interesting things.

[romanceclub-lovers]

"Heart of Trespia" Wincy author of the novel answers to players part 2

28/11/2023

🔔 Wincy author of HOT Q&A.

1. Were there scenes in the story that had to be scrapped or replaced?

- It seems to me that all writers do this, even those who write only for themselves.

2. What do you usually do when you can't find inspiration to write a story?

- I have a terrible sleep schedule. I usually run out of ideas due to lack of sleep and my brain shutting down, so I take a nap and then try again!

3. Did Wincy ever have an "Oh, I wish I could change that" or "I wish I could fix that" scene in Heart of Trespia?

- I have a lot of them.

4. How are your cats doing?

- Spoiled and a little overweight because they keep stealing food from each other!

5. Could you tell us a little about Reinhold and Hilde's good childhood memories?

- When Reinhold was a child, he was often sad because he could not, like other children, enjoy sweets and all kinds of desserts. To make him feel better, Hilde prepared him a new, unique salty dish every day, giving him the opportunity to not lose interest in food, because he looked forward to every culinary delight.

6. Where was Uda born?

- Uda comes from a kingdom with harems because she was born not a queen, but a concubine. She was most likely born in Maith or Shaadha, her mother being the foreign bride of a king who reigned before Leoric or Ozer.

7. How many kingdoms were destroyed in Isrion? How long existed before they were destroyed?

- I never thought about what happened so long ago, but some of this information is a spoiler. Xael probably absorbed more than three small kingdoms. Keep in mind that long before the treaties were made, there were many more dwarf states that tried to take over each other until they merged into the five that currently exist. The war most likely ended only after Trespia, Rajahili, Maith and Shaadha were formed and an alliance was formed to prevent an invasion from Xael.

8. Did you want to change anything in terms of the plot or is everything going as originally planned?

- Nothing that I can remember. Sometimes I don't follow the plan, but honestly I don't look back or question the plot points involved. Thinking about this when the work has already been published is extremely unproductive.

9. How did Ellaire realize that she had fallen in love with Reinhold?

- This probably happened at the moment when she became unbearably sad from the realization that she would have to abandon him and return to the castle, and then punish him for what he had done to her people.

10. If you could add another love interest to the story, who would it be?

- Nobody. I've never seen another character as a love interest for Ellaire, not even One or Azzo.

11. What songs do you associate with the main characters of the novel?

- Honestly, I don't know. I never associate songs with my work.

12. How exactly did Reinhold save Cyril? How did their friendship develop?

- Cyril was the leader of a small group of mercenaries from Shaadha. They came to Trespia in order to kill, but were caught and sentenced to execution. Reinhold had just lost Phaedo and wanted someone to serve him who would not question his decisions. He paid the executioner and took all the mercenaries to Piel estate. Even though Cyril had taken the oath, he was grateful to Reinhold for the second chance and for appreciating his unique skills without judgment.

13. Do you believe in astrology?

- Not really, no.

14. What is the sexual orientation of the main characters?

- Ellaire - depends on the player.

- Wyatt - Ellairesexual

- Reinhold - heterosexual

- D'Mario - heterosexual

- Gisella - homosexual

- Delias - pansexual

- Vanora - bisexual

15. Will there be any information about Octobian in a future update? If not, can Wincy briefly tell us something else about this mysterious continent and share interesting facts about it?

- I had ideas on this matter even before writing the ST, but most likely they will remain just ideas. Copyright is a complicated thing.

16. Which fantasy setting does Wincy prefer - European or East Asian? You writes about the first, but, as I understand it, she also reads about the other - in particular, Chinese.

- I love everything!

17. Does Wincy read webtoons - digital comics? I remember you once mentioned that you reads novels in the wuxia genre, but that’s a little different.

- No, I don’t read. Although I thought about transferring my Episode stories into webtoons, I can't draw.

18. How many languages do you know besides Chinese and English? Do you want to learn something new?

- Only these two. At 15, I tried to learn German for a while because of a cute German exchange student. However, I could only introduce myself in three sentences, and he wasn't particularly impressed.

19. Do you watch any TV series? It doesn’t matter: American, British, Chinese, etc.

- Yes! I have subscriptions to Netflix, HBO, Amazon and Paramount+. Before I lost interest in Marvel after Avengers: Endgame, I was on Disney+. Honestly, of their latest films, the only ones I can fully enjoy are Spider-Man: No Way Home and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Part 3".

20. Why the fantasy genre? What attracted you to it?

- Just as readers escape reality by immersing themselves in reading fantasy, I do this by immersing myself in this world from the other side. That's why I love writing fantasy, whether it's epic or mundane.

21. Do you have any favorite authors/writers?

- My favorite will always be Mr. Jin Yong.

22. Will you ever have a live broadcast with subscribers?

- Because of PCOS (translator's note: polycystic ovary syndrome) and because of my age, I feel very unattractive. In recent years, I have been avoiding photos and video calls.

23. What are your interests/hobbies?

- A hobby for people who have time. I don't have time anymore (lol). I like to read and cook from time to time.

24. What video games do you like?

- World of Warcraft was a big part of my life, I devoted about 16 years to it. I also love Dragon Age and Mass Effect from Bioware, although I gave up halfway through Andromeda, the Ezio trilogy, Origin, Odyssey Assassin's Creed, GTA 4 and 5, Tomb Raider - both classic and new, as well as Mirror's Edge.

25. Who are your favorite singers/music artists?

- Too many to list. My favorite work playlist is the music of the Secret Garden (translator's note: Secret Garden (from English - “Secret Garden”) is an Irish-Norwegian duo performing Celtic and neoclassical music.). I can't afford to be distracted by lyrics.

26. Is there anything you would like to master? Some new skill, for example.

- It would be great to be able to fly, but you can only dream about it.

27. Will we learn anything about Maith? There is very little information about this kingdom. Our main characters were not there, unlike other states.

(The question was asked before the previous update).

- I can't spoil it, but I think you'll get some answers.

28. What real countries were the inspiration for the 5 Kingdoms of Isrion?

- Except that Shaadha is very similar to India, the rest of the states are a mixture of many cultures with creative additions.

29. If we draw a parallel with the real world, then what approximately century/period in the real world will coincide with the time in the world of “The Heart of Trespia”?

- None. When I create fictional worlds, I try not to set such restrictions, and also avoid using electricity in a world without flush toilets.

30. Why weren't there any animated CG in Heart of Trespia? Are you planning to add them in a new story?

- Unfortunately, Wincy cannot answer this question due to NDA.

31. What was Phaedo’s fate after he and Reinhold parted ways?

- The players decide his fate. Most likely, after he left Coral Ridge, he found peace in solitude, away from unrest.

W. Thanks for reading and loving the story.

Source of the interview provided link below 👇

Art credit: Wincy's fantasy world

#romance club #rc writers #rc heart of trespia #rc hot #rc #romance club game

[moltz23]

Three Houses Trivia (& Analysis): How the writers roadblocked a Revelation-like route with impunity.

It’s no secret by now that Three Houses has no Golden Ending/Route where everyone lives and/or the big conflict is solved without the involved factions taking huge casualties, much to the chagrin of fans. IS & KT were even asked about it in a developer interview back in 2020, mainly because a previous entry in the series did feature one: Fire Emblem Fates:

In all four routes the player can go through, each story ends with Fódlan at peace, yet somehow there’s still this air of sadness. In Fire Emblem Fates, Revelation served as the all-encompassing “route” that wrapped up the games’ story. Was there any reason you didn’t make something like Revelation again?

Kusakihara: If we had created a route for Three Houses like Revelation was to Fates, that route would have definitely ended up being perceived as the “correct” route. In Three Houses, each route is its own history, and we wanted players to be able to decide that for themselves. In this game, the leaders of the three houses have their own unwavering beliefs and worldviews that are unique to themselves. We wanted to model the story and its themes after a dilemma that was grounded in reality, so from the beginning there were never any plans to make something like Revelation.

Yokota: I actually really love the big all-encompassing finales, but Kusakihara-san was so passionate about not including it we decided not to go with it. I also felt like we might just end up doing the same thing we did in Fates… I was pretty worried about it, so from the beginning I had decided I’d just go along with Kusakihara-san’s decision.

From a writing standpoint, I haven’t seen much talk about the specific decisions made for this purpose, which is why I wanna tackle the topic here.

To make things more interesting though, the focus will lie in how the Silver Snow route (the first story written for 3H) handles the conflict. After all, if there were truly no plans to make a definitive story branch, then we should be seeing some cues of it on this path alone.

Oh, and I know this is a given, but there will be spoilers for Three Houses (and almost none for Revelation).

With the introduction out of the way, let’s set the relevant context:

Fire Emblem Fates, and Revelation

Fates' artwork was something else man...

Fire Emblem Fates was released back in 2015 in Japan, and 2016 internationally for the 3DS. One aspect marketing made sure everyone would know about was its branching story. And while before Three Houses, Fire Emblem was no stranger to the idea (given games like Binding Blade and Sacred Stones had branching paths which converge later), no game beforehand had previously based its entire narrative on this idea.

Fates was advertised with two main routes which, unless you had the Special Edition, Korean, or Digital version of the game, were sold in separate cartridges: Birthright, in which Corrin supports the Japanese-inspired Hoshido opposing Nohr’s invasion; and Conquest, where instead Corrin’s loyalty falls to the Western-themed Nohr seeking to invade Hoshido. A third path, Revelation, was also announced ahead of time, but not much was said about it beyond being a third option where Corrin sides with no one, and players would need to pay for it sometime after Birthright & Conquest’s launch unless they got the Special Edition (good luck getting it through legal means nowadays, given the E-Shop’s dead and all).

Either way, regardless of the story chosen/bought, the plot’s main goal always lies in finding a way to end the war between the 2 main factions. Of the three stories, Revelation is the only one where by the end, the solution reached allows both sides to come out relatively unscathed, while also directly dealing with the main source driving the war. This is why in the developer interview quoted, the devs talk about Revelation being perceived as the correct path.

In contrast, Three Houses has no such solution, nor were the developers - by their admission - interested in making it happen. As a matter of fact, I dare say that if one analyzes all the key pieces and the nature of their involvement with the game’s conflict, we can find instead three roadblocks complicating the possibility of a Revelation-like route ever happening.

These, for those wondering, are the following:

1. Edelgard: Agency, and Rise to Power

She who commands her crimson destiny.

Silver Snow’s starting point from a story perspective is the conflict between Byleth and Edelgard (according to the game’s director), with the latter going from a big ally and deuteragonist during the first half of the story, to a major antagonist. Edelgard’s character, and her circumstances in which she assumes this role, is the story’s first identifiable roadblock.

As a quick backstory recap: In Imperial Year 1174, Thales (post body-snatching Lord Arundel) leaves the Kingdom along with Edelgard, and establishes a public partnership with the Adrestian Prime Minister Ludwig von Aegir under his Arundel disguise. With the assistance of House Vestra, Ludwig – in secret – had Edelgard and her siblings captured, and allowed his Agarthan partners to experiment on the Hresvelg children for the sake of, in Edelgard’s own words, “create a peerless emperor to rule Fodlan”, all while the actual Emperor was unable to do anything due to previously losing a power struggle vs Ludwig and the Adrestian nobility 3 years prior.

With only these events at hand, it’s clear Edelgard was intended in-universe to be a puppet emperor/super soldier hybrid meant to have the Empire wage war and conquer Fódlan. In any other instance, this context gives the narrative an easy way out for defusing the war; first by rescuing Edelgard, and then by spending the rest of the story dealing with Ludwig + Thales & their allies. That way, Edelgard is able to rise to power at the end and bring official closure to the conflict.

It’s right here however, where Edelgard’s own agency in the story shows the cracks with the idea, as the Black Eagles Route’s first half establishes:

Edelgard has her own bone to pick with the Church - one of the enemies she would inevitably face during the Empire’s conquest - and the social system it helped cultivate in Fodlan under Rhea’s leadership. Also-

Edelgard has been in talks with some of Ludwig’s own allies behind his back to ensure she reaches the Imperial throne on her own terms (which leads to her surprise coup from Ch. 11). And it’s all but stated this is possible because-

Edelgard has no qualms with waging war as long it’s a means to an end (see point 1), to the point she even assumes a secret persona - the Flame Emperor - to stage attacks against the Church before her coronation.

At many points in Part 1 of Black Eagles, Edelgard is even seen testing the waters with Byleth, confiding a bit on her ideology and plans for the future to see if they would be willing to stand by her side once the time comes, before finally relenting and continuing her plans as previously established before Byleth came into the picture.

These facts flip our understanding of the conflict and the key players driving it on its head. And this is considering only how Edelgard factors into everything, because with our other two parties involved, it gets even more complicated:

2. TWSITD: Scheming Outside Their Comfort Zone

Credit to sageofanys for their interpretation of Cleobulus btw.

In the context of Fire Emblem, “those who slither in the dark” stand out like a sore thumb due to how alien they are. For the sake of this post however, I will only focus mainly on how the group’s used in the narrative they were originally created for, as it showcases our second roadblock.

The group assumes the role of the puppeteers behind the scenes, having already infiltrated the antagonistic faction of the story (the Empire) and using them to achieve their goals, while also playing a noticeable role in the backstory of some key players of the conflict. And given the archetype they follow, it appears there’s a clear cut way to stop them: just deal with them directly - while avoiding their puppets as much as possible - and bingo. Problem solved.

…Which would be a viable solution, if it wasn’t for Three Houses complicating the slitherers’ job, forcing them to work outside their comfort zone:

Remember when I mentioned Edelgard did some deals behind Duke Aegir’s back? Well, the Agarthans were part of those deals too due to utilitarian (manpower, assets and tech) and practical reasons (Edelgard is not in a position to get rid of them normally), foreshadowed and implied midway through Part 1. This results in-

Having the puppeteers lose much of their agency in the story once Edelgard assumes the Imperial throne. As mentioned earlier, the “puppet” in question gets control of the Empire once she assumes the antagonist role, and has her own reasons to wage war and conquer. This begs the question: How much control do the slitherers even have in the story once the war starts? Their uncertain input is even compromised further because-

Their success is entirely dependent on Edelgard winning. The slitherers have no trump-card nor a “revive this ancient evil” button freely available which could potentially make the need of a war pointless, meaning that once Edelgard and her Empire is taken care of, they have no choice but go into hiding to scheme again in the future, which is what happens in the story. Lastly-

They are acting on borrowed time. In spite of all their bravado, smugness, hi-tech toys, and hubris (heck, partly because of it), Edelgard, thanks to their established alliance with TWISTD and her own spies (ie. Hubert.) eventually gains the info needed to get rid of the group once their assistance is no longer needed, proven through Hubert leaking Shambhala’s location to Byleth after him & Edelgard are hit with a sudden case of death. Meaning that by the end, any potential win the slitherers gain is bound to become a pyrrhic victory.

So to wrap up this part, TWSITD’s purpose in Silver Snow’ main plot can be summed up as the following:

Remove Jeralt from the story, which leads to Byleth fusing with Sothis while also (unintentionally?) foiling Rhea’s plan for them in the process, which would otherwise never happen without their involvement.

Give Edelgard the means to remove Rhea from the story between Chapter 13 and 19.

Wound Rhea lethally near the end of the story, unwillingly setting her up as the Final Boss.

And speaking of which-

3. Rhea: Snow in the Crimson Gardens

Not so immaculate as she wants you to think.

All I have covered so far comes from the antagonist-side of things. But because Three Houses' story is not done throwing wrenches at our understanding of how the war happens, it seems natural it would add one last, final roadblock within the main supporting roster of characters. And who else to give it than Rhea: Archbishop of the Church of Seiros; leader of Fódlan’s main religion; and Byleth’s boss for all of Part 1.

Within the narrative, Rhea’s role in the plot is very straightforward:

In the Academy Arc, she gives Byleth missions in the story for them & their class to do, while also delivering exposition whenever necessary.

Then in the War Arc of Silver Snow, she has to be rescued from the Empire, delivers one final piece of exposition the story teased late into Part 1 (what is Byleth and what’s up with their mom), and then becomes the Final Boss though circumstances beyond her control.

None of this is really a problem for writing a definitive 3H route. The crux at hand however, comes when we learn about Rhea’s character, painting a different looking picture:

She’s quite secretive, being her reasons for hiring Byleth as a teacher the best example of it in the story, as her vague justification for it puzzles Seteth (her right hand man), Jeralt, and even Edelgard.

As the story goes on, it’s also clear Rhea’s preparing and testing Byleth for something, later revealed to be their status as Sothis’ new vessel - with having them sitting on Sothis’ Throne the intended final step - which, not only doesn’t pan out as planned, it’s also something she kept everyone in the dark about on purpose up until it was too late.

Her answer against insurrections and direct threats against her authority is execution.

She is willing to cover-up truths if it means safeguarding the reputation of Crests and Nobility.

The last two points in particular stand out a lot considering that in Black Eagles’ story, these facets of Rhea’s character are often highlighted right next to Edelgard’s in adjacent events, further showcasing their differences.

Take Chapter 3, for example:

“Even if our enemies are the gods themselves... we must never lose sight of our goal. [...] Really, I'm just like Lonato. I, too, will be the sort of ruler who's willing to risk the lives of my citizens in service of a higher cause. It's not possible to change the world without sacrifice. Dying for the greater good is not a death in vain.” - Edelgard in A Harsh Reality

“I heard some of the students were...hesitant about fighting militia. However, we must punish any sinner who may inflict harm upon believers, even if those sinners are civilians. I pray the students learned a valuable lesson about the fate that awaits all who are foolish enough to point their blades towards the heavens.” - Rhea in Report: Garland Moon

And Chapter 5:

“I have already heard Gilbert's report about what happened. See to it that you keep what transpired at the tower to yourself. People would lose faith in the nobles should rumors spread of one using a Relic and transforming into a monster. All regions of Fódlan would fall into chaos. We must avoid that at all costs.” - Rhea in The Lance of Ruin 

“People believe Crests are blessings from the goddess, that they're necessary to maintain order in Fódlan. But the people are wrong. Crests are to blame for this brutal, irrational world we live in. Their power is granted only to a select few, whom we elevate and allow to rule the world. Have you ever wondered if the only way to create a truly free world is to dispense with the goddess and the Crests?” - Edelgard in Crests: The Good and the Bad

The more the plot progresses, the more it becomes clear that both Edelgard and Rhea are not on the same wavelength, are up to their own devices, and that neither is willing to show their cards before their plans have reached completion. This ultimately causes tension, telegraphing to the player that both sides will eventually crash against each other, but without making certain when and how it will happen (one can guess Edelgard will throw the first stone, but…?).

Thus, with these 3 roadblocks set in stone, the seeds of Fodlan’s main conflict are allowed to blossom unopposed, setting the blazes of war loose.

… And all this is just as far as it goes in Silver Snow. Due to my self-imposed restriction, I deliberately didn’t cover stuff like:

Edelgard’s beef with the Nabateans and their involvement in Fódlan (which Silver Snow hints at but never elaborates upon).

The circumstances in which Dimitri’s rage and madness is unleashed towards Edelgard and the Empire.

The complicated relationship between the Alliance and the Empire.

What’s up with the TWSITD’s “Javelins of Light”.

What’s up with Nemesis coming back only in Verdant Wind.

And all the stuff that Warriors: Three Hopes shows, elaborates upon and makes clear with little room for ambiguity (like the fact Duke Aegir and Thales have history together), plus how the war happens in its timeline.

As a conclusion of sorts, I wanna say that: while I appreciate and see the potential of an hypothetical Revelation-like route in Three Houses, to me, it’s abundantly clear that’s simply not the kind of story IS and KT ever intended to write. Considering the sort of roadblocks at play, a major rewrite is required to even start entertaining such an idea, which would need to drastically shake the foundation of its story, lore, and characters as it currently is, to the point it’s worth raising the question if it would be far more practical to just start from scratch and create a whole new universe altogether…

#fe3h #silver snow #fire emblem: three houses #crimson flower #edelgard von hresvelg #rhea #church of seiros #adrestian empire #those who slither in the dark #twsitd #golden ending #golden route #fire emblem fates #revelation #trivia #analysis #story analysis

[woodchipp]

"You were overcame. You were sick of everything."

Okay. Mind actually showing us how Sunny got to this point, though?

and wow. the prose is written so well. i can feel the frustration /s

Also, wouldn't "overwhelmed" be a better fit in this context?

"Your precious violin lay shattered at the bottom of the staircase."

"Precious" violin? Didn't the game imply he only saw it as a means to spend more time with his sister? Lost Library outright states he was annoyed by having to practice playing it!

1) For how important their big argument is to the plot, we never even get to hear it, nor does the game bother to show exactly what served as the straw that broke the camel's back and drove Sunny to destroy the violin. I, for one, would've been genuinely interested to learn that. Maybe Mari could've said something so deeply upsetting that Sunny saw no other way to "get back" at her for hurting him? That would've made his anger a bit more understandable, imo.

Of course, giving characters understandable reasons for doing what they do is an outdated writing convention.

2)

"MARI was yelling at you."

I love how Sunny gets this large and detailed rundown of his feelings at the moment and all Mari ever gets is this sentence. Yeah, because who cares about what she thinks? Who cares that she actually has a valid reason for berating Sunny? Her point of view is irrelevant since she's Wrong™ and she's about to get stuffed into the fridge anyway!

What nuanced storytelling.

3)

"She didn't understand you at all... She didn't understand that you just weren't good enough. The only thing you hold onto was your anger. This pain... was it her fault?"

This is laughable. "uuuuu nobody Understands the limitless depths of my sufferi-" shut the fuck up. you did a shitty thing and you're getting rightfully called out for it.

I wouldn't be as harsh if the game put effort into showing how Sunny progressively grew exhausted (and exactly how harsh Mari got when he made mistakes), but it doesn't. I won't do the writer's job for them because I shouldn't have to.

(I know I said this a hundred times already, but for the purposes of this post, I needed to reiterate.)

4) Why were they arguing specifically at the top of the staircase in the first place?

Note that neither the caption nor the photo seem to show Mari being physically violent with Sunny, yet he interprets her getting in his way as a "fight" anyway. If the fight in question was verbal, that definition doesn't fit because Sunny isn't shown talking at any point during the argument.

"Photo of a Murder", huh?

Granted, Sunny is 12 and obviously has no idea what manslaughter is, but "murder" implies an intent to kill. A more neutral term like "death" would've been more appropriate here, imo.

Different words mean different things.

I think I see why these were scrapped. The game labeling what Sunny did as a "murder" wouldn't have allowed the narrative to paint him as an unfortunate victim of circumstance, now, would it? :)

>>"It was an accident, right?" >>"Photo of a Murder"

lol and lmao

"Nothing but scratches."

Because falling from a staircase apparently doesn't leave any bruises that would've incriminated Sunny. No one could differentiate a neck broken due to a fall from a neck snapped by a noose either, it seems.

How awfully convenient.

(No, I don't believe his parents bribed the police. There isn't enough concrete evidence to back that up.)

1) Exactly why is Basil's first thought "I can't let anyone find out what happened"? I get he's mentally unsound himself and Stressed™, but there's only so much those two factors can be used as a justification for, and what Basil did next can't be justified by them. Moreover, the fact that was the first thing he thought of suggests it's an instinctual response. What, was Basil involved in similar cover-ups before? This makes no sense.

2)

"There's no way you can tell them the truth."

Why couldn't he just say that Mari's bad knee happened to buckle at the wrong time and she accidentally fell down the stairs, then? Since the game seems to imply Sunny was more willing to open up to Basil than to his other friends, I think it'd be reasonable to infer Sunny told him about the knee. And it would be a more plausible lie for a kid his age to tell!

The game has an easy and convenient cover-up story only to choose the most unnecessarily complicated one. peak writing

3)

"Who would believe... that it was... an accident?"

Literally everyone would. Unless Sunny had a history of being violent towards Mari (which is impossible since the game beats you over the head with how much he loved her), her death being accidental would have been the first thing to cross their minds, especially if Basil were to use the "bad knee" cover-up as described above.

Yes, Basil did what he did partly because he wanted to protect Sunny. However, if everything I've just dissected was his actual reasoning for doing something so demented, it's stupid and I will call it such.

"You think you see a figure pick something off the ground..."

Love the implication that a 12 yo child was somehow able to handle a 15 yo teenager all by himself. Because that's believable.

"For a moment, you feel at peace. You hate yourself for feeling this way. Is that all, then? Is everything going to be okay now?"

I want to emphasize just how inconceivably fucked-up this is.

Sunny's immediate reaction to the sight of his sister's hanged corpse upon snapping out of his dissociative fugue isn't horror or panickedly asking Basil what he has done.

It's relief. He feels at peace.

He's relieved that somebody cleaned up the mess he made.

#omori #omori game #omori sunny #sunny omori #omori basil #basil omori #omori mari #mari omori

[renamusing]

While the writers keep playing us, here are some future plots to consider after robert comes back (ryan HAS to comeback at this point ok? i wont accept anything else):

Post-prison Denial - Aaron cannot forgive Robert or accept that he is back; he shifts the blame for Liv's death from Chas to Robert because Robert LEFT THEM

Post-prison Blues - Robert deals with his PTSD badly which engages Aaron's redemption arc; he stays by Robert's side and helps him through it

Reunion 3.0 / Seb's return - Robert gets access to Seb (he comes to some sort of agreement with Rebecca or something happens to her offscreen whatever) and seeing Rob and Seb (their son!!) together in the village destroys any willpower Aaron still had to fight against his feelings for Robert

Wedding 3.0 - this needs no explanation

Surrogacy 2.0 - i dont actually mind them going there again if only to get them their Sugden-Dingle daughter

The Return of Andy Sugden - everything is going well for Robert and Aaron but Andy's return shakes things up; the farmboy that Jack Sugden caught Robert with back in the day is working with Andy now; so we get jealousy and misunderstandings and high drama in the Still-Madly-In-Love-Husband front (because that's Aaron innit) and Robert finally tells Vic and Andy about what happened with his dad when he was young.

Teen Seb Comes to Stay - Seb decides he wants to live with his dads at the village permanently (rewashed Liv plot i know but im making it easy for them!!) there are issues with his little sister at first but they get quickly resolved. Seb and his auntie Eve become thick as thieves and become the village nightmares

The Return of Adam Barton - because Aaron needs his mate back at some point and I doubt Vic will settle with anyone else ever

Robron vs Caleb - this just seems like it would be fun idk. it could have something to do with Seb because he is just like his dads and finds trouble everywhere which Robert and Aaron always have to solve in the end

Robert vs Kim&Andy - at this point in my AU Andy is with Kim (romantically or as business partners idc) because it serves the purpose of killing two birds with one stone so that Robert can finally FINALLY win back Home Farm

Robert Sugden's Regression - being in charge of Home Farm ofc changes Robert a bit and he starts to become the thing he fears most: his father. Cue him pushing his children and Aaron to the breaking point until, in true soap-fashion, they break up again. The kids split too. Aaron takes their daughter and Seb stays with Robert. And this ofc leads to:

The Parent Trap: Robron Edition - Seb and his sister plot to get their dads back together through a series of funny shenanigans, but then one of them gets seriously hurt in an accident (they should watch out for those evil farm animals amirite? or was it another drunk driver? only the soap gods know) so all the progress they made crumbles. Aaron and Robert blame each other and seem broken up for good

The Biggest Mugs In The World - Aaron and Robert try to prove to themselves and their kids that they dont want anything to do with each other but every time Aaron sends Robert his divorce papers Robert 'misplaces them' until Aaron finds out Robert has been ripping them apart and chucking them into his fancy fireplace. They fight about Robert being a control freak and Aaron a jealous queen, because every person Robert has flirted with since they separated has ended up fleeing the village with their tail tucked between their legs (Aaron made sure of it). This goes on until they have angry make up sex and then hate themselves for it.

Reunion 4.0 - *PROBLEMATIC PLOT ALERT* Seb and Eve become romantically involved and try to hide it from their families (aunt and nephew fits the Dingle lore somehow lmao). When they are found out Robert goes apeshit and casts Seb out of the village (like his dad did to him once) but he and Seb are at The Layby and before Robert can make the biggest mistake of his life, the love of his life arrives just in time to stop him. Robert realizes what he has become and decides to leave Emmerdale himself (after all, he was always the disaster, the one unable to make anybody happy, he should have never comeback etc) but Aaron won't have it. They can't live without each other, and that fact has never been clearer than at that very moment (shot to a teary-eyed Seb behind Aaron). Robert begs for forgiveness and Aaron just scoffs because forgiving Robert is the easiest thing in the world. They had promised each other messed up forever, had they not?

You know. I know.

#robron #i cannot afford to start a 400k fic of all this so i'm leaving bullet points for the show #also it's very late and this got away from me at some point #i would watch the shit out of this #we just need robert back #and maxine #maxine is crucial and she would make everything so much special

[crusherthedoctor]

While I'm here, there's something else I'd like to clarify. With how harsh I can be on the Eggman getting usurped schtick, some folk might get the impression that I only dislike it because it means Eggman is not the (true) final boss of whichever games. I know this because it's an accusation I've had to deal with on occasion.

While it's true that I will always prefer an Eggman final boss over a non-Eggman one, being the shameless Eggfan that I am, my lack of complaints towards the Black Dragon's status in Superstars should prove that I'm not inherently opposed to a non-Eggman final boss in a game that has Eggman in it (as in, not counting Black Knight, cause he's not in that one lol). I don't think a non-Eggman final boss is inherently set up to degrade the doctor, I think it can be done without coming at his expense.

But of course, that's where the real issue lies: 9 times out of 10, it is done at his expense. Because 9 times out of 10, there's an usurp, betrayal, or some other obvious form of showing up involved.

Which leads to issue #2: when Eggman gets usurped once, it's unfortunate, but can easily be compensated for in the future. When Eggman gets usurped twice, particularly so soon after the first example, it becomes a little more concerning. When Eggman gets usurped constantly, with some examples more tacked on or blatantly humiliating than others, it's guaranteed to paint Eggman as an incompetent fool who can't efficiently serve as the main villain of a serious plot from start to end, who deserves to be showed up by "better" villains, so says the fandom at large.

Now you might say "But Crusher, you shouldn't care about what those fans say", and you'd be right... if it was that simple. But that leads to problem #3: fans in the Sonic fandom can be very influential. Sometimes, too influential. When they hype up the narrative that Eggman exists solely to sit by the sidelines while the real villain makes their power play, that can convince certain influential writers who are eager to show their fandom rep, and potentially affect the course of how the doctor is utilized in later official material... like IDW and Frontiers, for example.

So yes, while you can say I'm too much of an Eggman Eggthusiast for my own good, the fact remains that I have legitimate gripes surrounding the trend that go much further beyond "wahh he's not the final boss".

#Opinion #Dr. Eggman

[johnny-depplyloveyou]

Tw: animal cruelty, animal deaths mention

Can we talk about how Larian put so much unnecessary animal cruelty in bg3? Like Yenna and Grub only exist to serve as a backup option for the Orin abduction, which involves Orin killing Grub and trick your character into eating his meat! 🤢 I was utterly disgusted when I encountered it and almost quit playing until I found a way to avoid this outcome in my first playthrough (I used no romance limit mod and romanced all of the possible companions that could be abducted therefore I needed to breakup with one of them and leave them in camp), it’s really triggering for me because I also have a cat and we live in a place where animal cruelty is not illegal and companion animals are not protected by law from being served as food, there are countless pet and stray cats and dogs got stolen and later found slaughtered in meat factories and made into off-brand sausages and meatballs, not to mention there are many torture rings that target cats in here and they’re openly taunting and threatening people who oppose them to kill more cats because they know they can get away with it, it’s every cat parent’s worst nightmare. We already get that Orin is this sadistic evil shapeshifter who tortured and killed people for fun, is it really necessary to show us that she’s indiscriminate to children and animal too for shock value??

And for Durge, Larian and the writer they hired from a fan discord server for writing ast*r**n fanfics really put extra effort into making more animal cruelty scenes into the storyline which I have to look into guides before I play durge’s origin to avoid them(a squirrel, a bird, a cat could fall into durge’s victim), making durge unnecessarily edgier when there’s tons of other stuff already shows his gory urges, while durge’s main story in act 3 has so much plot potential yet still feels underwhelming, underwritten and lacks companion reactions other than ast*r**n’s. Really shows their priority, huh? Isn’t these animal cruelty content avoidable? Sure, but you need the knowledge of how to avoid them first, the dialogue option that leads to killing Steelclaw the cat is something like “trying to remember why you know this cat” which is just like the one that leads to durge cut off Gale’s hand, these options doesn’t explicitly say you are going to choose violence, it’s very misleading almost tempt you to choose them. There should be explicit indications of these outcomes in the dialogue options. And that squirrel encounter, durge just automatically kills them if you don’t have speak with animals on. Players that go into the game blind are going to have these triggering content shoved into their faces. But I guess Larian just doesn’t care.

#larian critical #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #tw: animal death #tw: animal abuse #tw: animal cruelty #and ​Gale should turn hostile if you kill Tara in front of him #or at least confront you and leave the party #she’s his oldest and best friend and you can just murder her in front of him and face zero consequences? he only yells Tara No?! #the ​Gale I know would never let that slide but Larian left so much content in act 3 unpolished #I think they’re biased against cats #two cats can meet a horrible death in the story but none of the dogs shared the same fate

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

Rated PG-13 for violent content, bloody images, sexual material, language, sexual assault, teen drinking and drug content

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-lisa-frankenstein-2024.html>

Score: 3 out of 5

Lisa Frankenstein is a vibes movie. Despite having been heavily marketed on the fact that it was written by Diablo Cody, the writer of Jennifer's Body (who has said that the two films take place in the same universe), her screenplay is actually one of the film's weak links, falling apart in the third act as the plot starts to get weird and disjointed in a way that left me wondering just how many scenes got rewritten or left on the cutting room floor. No, it's the cast and director Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin) who put this movie over the top, crafting a film that feels like if a young Tim Burton directed Weird Science in the best possible way. (In the interview with Cody that the Alamo Drafthouse showed before the film, she cited both Weird Science and Edward Scissorhands as inspirations, alongside Bride of Frankenstein and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and I'm not surprised.) It's at its best as a pure comedy, one that sends up its nostalgic '80s setting to the point of farce and pushes the PG-13 rating as far as it can go. I'm not surprised that, much like Jennifer's Body did in its initial run, this movie failed to find its audience in theaters (though releasing it on Super Bowl weekend probably didn't help), but while I don't think it'll be treated as an outright classic in ten years' time, I do believe it'll follow a very similar trajectory of being rediscovered on home video and streaming.

Set in suburban Illinois in 1989, our protagonist is Lisa Swallows, a teenage girl who's been moody and morose ever since her mom was killed by an axe murderer two years ago, followed by her father Dale remarrying the obnoxious jackass Janet and thus gaining a stepsister in the cheerleader Taffy. She likes to hang out at the old cemetery, where, one night after going to a party where she accidentally takes hallucinogens and subsequently gets sexually harassed, she runs off and tells one of the men buried there that she wishes she was "with him" (i.e. dead). Something must've been miscommunicated, because that night, that grave is struck by lightning and its occupant rises from the dead, trying to find Lisa and be with her. Lisa is initially horrified, but soon realizes that, beneath this creature's rotten exterior, there's actually a romantic soul who longs to be human again. And after tragedy strikes, Lisa decides to find a way to make her new boyfriend's dream a reality... no matter who gets in her way.

The first two acts of this film felt like they were building to something very interesting. The thing about the best takes on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, not least of all the 1931 Universal classic, is that they recognize that the real "monster" is in fact Dr. Frankenstein himself, the creature's creator, and this film leans heavily in that direction with its depiction of Lisa. She eagerly starts killing people in order to build the perfect boyfriend, getting sucked into darkness as she's blinded by love, and Kathryn Newton completely steals the show playing her, starting the film as a dowdy, depressed dweeb but eventually developing a gothic fashion sense and, with it, a catty diva-like attitude while channeling a young Winona Ryder in both Beetlejuice and Heathers. There were many places that this film could've gone, most of them involving Lisa becoming a full-bore villain while Taffy suddenly finds herself in her stepsister's path, with the creature either serving as Lisa's partner in crime from start to finish or perhaps slowly gaining a sense of morality as he becomes more "human" and realizing that Lisa is evil. All the while, the Frankenstein metaphor becomes one about somebody who'd do anything for love, including that, and loses herself in the process. And at times, it seemed to be going in that direction, especially as Taffy grows increasingly traumatized over the course of the film.

Unfortunately, whether it was the PG-13 rating or a desire to make Lisa more sympathetic (and Taffy less so), the film won't commit to the bit. Lisa's characterization does a near-total 180 in the third act as the film asks us to side with her as, at the very least, a sympathetic anti-villain with good intentions. Lisa should've been the bad guy that the film was building her up as, no ifs, ands, or buts -- a sympathetic and compelling one like Jennifer Check, but still somebody who crossed the line miles ago and never looked back. It would've given Liza Soberano, who plays Taffy and will probably be the breakout star of this film, more to do instead of making her a supporting player in Lisa's story who plays only a minor role in the third act. Instead, it felt like I was watching a whole new character entirely that just so happened to share Lisa's name and face. I highly suspect that there's a lot of alternate material here, either in earlier drafts of the screenplay or deleted scenes, because the sudden tonal shift in the third act feels like a product of a completely different movie.

What saved this film in the end were the style and the humor. Much like Karyn Kusama on Jennifer's Body, Zelda Williams imbues this film with a ton of gothic flair, Lisa's outfits being just the start of it, inspired by Tim Burton and, by extension, the German expressionism that he in turn drew from. The bright pink suburban house that Lisa and her family live in is almost cartoonish, and draws a sharp contrast to the world around it. The moment we're introduced to Carla Gugino as Lisa's stepmother, a hilariously over-the-top parody of an '80s suburban mom who needlessly antagonizes Lisa every chance she gets, and Joe Chrest as her spectacularly inattentive father who looks the part of a wholesome suburban dad but otherwise can't be bothered to look up from his newspaper, we see exactly the kind of people who'd happily live in a house like that. There are multiple animated sequences that liven up the film throughout, most notably the prologue/opening credits showing us the creature's backstory in life. The soundtrack is filled with great retro '80s needle drops, especially once the creature regains the use of his hands and can play the piano again. Cole Sprouse as the creature had no dialogue barring grunts, moans, and screams, but he still made for a compelling presence on screen as the other half of the film's central romance, proving that seven years on Riverdale was a waste of a lot of young actors' talents. This was Williams' first feature film, and if this is indicative of her skill behind the camera, I can see her going far. And most importantly, this movie is hysterical. The entire theater was laughing throughout, and I was right there with them. There are jokes about everything from "back massagers" to the creature's physical decay, and more broadly, its campy gothic tone is played far more for laughs than frights, most notably in one death scene that would be the most brutal in the film on the face of it but is instead one of the most hilarious scenes in it as the film shows us just enough to let us know exactly what happened and wince while still remaining PG-13. Cody's grasp of storytelling may have been shaky here, but her knack for getting me to laugh my ass off remains fully intact.

The Bottom Line

Lisa Frankenstein should've had more care put into its screenplay, especially once act three comes around, but it's still a very funny and watchable movie that, much like Jennifer's Body, I can see enduring as a cult classic. If you're not into the Big Game, check it out.

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