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vocallywritten · 2 years

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I need to give the cast their flowers 💐

I love Dimension20 and all their seasons hold a special place in my heart, but there is just something extra in A Court of Fey and Flowers. I don't know what it is exactly.

The cast is all amazing on their own, but everyone also has such incredible chemistry and it was so instant.

Lou Wilson is the BACKBONE of this season. He understood better than anyone what a Regency Fey story would be like (equal parts being horny and causing problems on purpose cause you're bored) and he fucking WENT FOR IT. In a story like this you need a Squak. You need a rich, powerful guy who's just here to fuck shit up and do things he specifically will think is funny because he's the idle rich among the FEY. And having a genuine connection with his cousin just makes it so much better. Everytime Lou slips and calls Chirp his sister instead of his cousin I cryyy. Lou understood the assignment and I truly mean it when I say that all the cast did. They really nail the genre. All of them in different ways. But this season would not have been able to reach that perfect balance of Regency and Fey without Lou's character specifically. He's an antagonist, he's an anti-hero, he's a little bit of a villain as a treat, he's here to get in your way, but he might help you out if he thinks that's funnier, he has a cousin who can do no wrong and everyone else can leave. I LOVE him.

Emily as Chirp is amazing as well. Emily Axeford has a bit of a reputation for wrecking DM's shit and causing chaos wherever she can and she is in fine form in this one. What I love about Emily is that even though she IS chaotic at the table, it's almost always with purpose (even if that purpose is "I think this will be funny" she makes the things she does count, in the story, in the fight, whatever she's doing) and she never uses that chaos to take over the table. She's so mindful of the other players and always wants to do things that will make the game fun for everyone while also coming in with this great energy for herself. Her and Lou, like I said before are incredible to watch together. They have such Team Rocket meets Henry and Mary Crawford energy. They play off of each other SO WELL it is a delight to watch every single time they interact. Emily has great range. She's an incredible comedic actor and is also a very strategic player and these two things make for amazing character choices. ("Ostrich chariot pulled by birds!" She prioritized bird puns in her character build when picking spells!!) She is AMAZING.

And what can I say about Brennan Lee Mulligan that hasn't already been said? He's one of the best DMs in actual play. He's incredibly talented and intelligent and he uses humor and comedy as a foundation to create such emotionally rich and resonant stories in a way I really admire. And as a player? He is incredible to watch. His ability to go wherever the story takes him while remaining staunchly in character is great. And I ADORE his dynamic with Aabria. There is truly so much trust and respect there and even though they're really good both as players and as GMs I think Aabria being the GM brings something extra to Brennan being the player. Like I don't know if they just have really good communication, or if they just have great instincts that let them play off each other so well (probably both) but whenever they work together the work is immediately elevated. Brennan as Hobb is such a stand out performance among 5 other stand out performances. Brennan is always very good at nailing whatever genre he's in and my God did he bring his A game here. The serious, dutiful captain pining for someone above his station is like... PEAK Jane Austen. And he didn't even PLAN hitting that archetype. It literally just happened naturally. The power. The skill. I am in awe of that ability to find the most interesting story for a character and make it happen. His desicion to let the dice decide important choices for his character because Hobb is being pulled in two different directions all the time is INSPIRED. He's just great. We all know it.

Okay now we get to the people new to the dome and don't worry I have A LOT to say about them, they're all so talented and amazing and I want them all to come back.

Oscar is playing his first full campaign in THIS SEASON??? ARE WE SURE??? He is out here making huge swings immediately and they're all paying off! It's so satisfying to watch him play. He has chemistry with literally everyone at the table and like this whole table has amazing chemistry, but he is so good at zeroing in on the other character's motivations and figuring out the best way for Rue to engage with and connect with them. I love the way he's so RP focused and every move he makes is always with Rue's motivations in mind. Literally everything Rue does is highly motivated, even if we don't understand their reasons yet and that is SO GOOD!!! Like when Rue didn't sit down at the meeting with the Lords of the Wing I thought that was Oscar metagaming a little bit to mess with Emily and Lou because they were trying so hard to fuck with Rue and it was funnier but NO. They had a reason the whole time!! He's so good at this. And the way Rue had one moment with Hobb and Oscar was like, "I am now the romantic lead in a regency pining fest." is amazing. The way he has developed Rue's arc and their romance with Hobb is just so incredibly well done and he has just done such an amazing job in this season. Another person who absolutely understands the assignment.

Omar next. OMAR! OMAR !!!!! IS KILLING ME!!!! The juxtaposition of his character being a socially awkward loser and also the Hottest Catch at the Bloom is amazing and what he does with it is so fun. And the way he's such a comedic character at the beginning (and yes D20 is a comedy show but he is REALLY playing Andhera as like a comic relief character trying to break into being a main character and not really knowing how and it's so fun) but then he hits us with just some of the most emotional shit known man with a friendly little smile on his face and you're like "WAIT NO GO BACK. What was that???!!!" I have said it before and I will say it again, Andhera is the most capital R Romantic character in the whole show and I just can't handle it because he's also just so funny and can turn on either the tragedy or the comedy at a moment's notice. He's hot! He has a fake voice! He was deeply neglected as a child! He has a creepy grandpa face dog! He's so bad at talking! He has a shard stuck in his neck and it's the saddest fucking thing you've ever heard!! Omar has some RANGE and Andhera is such a fun character. (Also his whole thing with Binx may actually lead me to an early grave. I have not been so obsessed with a dynamic in years. Like platonic, romantic, I don't care I just want them to be devoted shell pals starting revolutions and finding a home in the Court of Craft forever and ever. And I would also like them to hug before the season ends, please and thank you.)

Surena!!!!!!! Is!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!! I've probably called every cast member amazing but Surena especially deserves the title. They are so incredible. She had a hard job coming in, playing someone pretty separate from the rest of the group, an outsider playing a role they were uncomfortable in and really just knocked it out of the park!! And her character is so essential to getting the plot moving and the connections their character made have really done a lot in making the whole story of this season so engaging. All her reveals and her secrets!! And leading that to them finally letting down her walls and trusting people. I am at the edge of my seat whenever Surena/Gwyn/Binx does basically anything because she's so embroiled in the main mystery. Like other people came ready to party and make matches but Binx is spying and ready to tear down the institution from the inside and I LOVE that. So many great stakes in the show come with their character and her choices. Like Lou is the backbone of the show in terms of tone and setting the right scene, Surena spent half the season carrying the whole plot on their back (not that the other players didn't move the plot forward or have interesting things going on. They ABSOLUTELY did! But this story would just not be the same without Surena doing some brick laying from the beginning). Her characterization of Binx is also just so charming and I love watching her reactions when other players are doing cool things. (And also Surena has a great smile. That also can be said. It's sort of relevant to what I was saying 🤣) Binx is a great character and watching how Surena plays them as both a spy intent on justice and a socially awkward outsider is just such a joy to watch.

And finally Aabria. @quiddie. Can I talk to you directly for a second about what a talented and intelligent and empathetic and AMAZING GM/DM you are?? Because you are absolutely incredible at what you do. Whatever extra spark this season has I think is down to Aabria and her ability as a GM. She's so GOOD at finding the things her PCs care the most about and making them happen so organically. She is always just SO prepared and ready and willing to roll with whatever punches the PCs might throw her way. And the way she hypes up the players and wants to make sure everyone is having a good time is very wholesome. Her entire vibe is both exactly what I aspire to be as a GM and also exactly the kind of person I would want as my GM. She has such an eye for detail and I love how she weaves the important stuff into the story with so much grace you don't even know she's setting something up until she brings it back a couple episodes later and punches you directly in the face with it. Aabria knows how to tell a good story and she is so good at working with her players to make sure that story is fully collaborative. And as someone who loves a good romance subplot, I really respect her coming into D20 and being like "This is great, but what if more characters kissed?"

In conclusion I love everyone involved in this project. It's just so well done and well acted and well made all around.

I need a season 2 with the Pack of Pixies. One season is just not enough.

#a court of fey and flowers #acofaf #dropout #d20 acofaf #dimension 20 #aabria iyengar #surena marie #omar najam #oscar montoya #brennan lee mulligan #emily axford #lou wilson

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longsightmyth · 1 year

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what's a book or series that you genuinely love? I'm always seeing your commentary on "not so great" (bad) books (no hate, love ur commentary) but I'd love to know the ones you like best.

Ah tumblr search function you fail us yet again (inexplicable fondness).

"The ones I like best" is a very broad category that I will try to narrow down I guess?

My favorite book of all time remains The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin. The other books in the trilogy are still excellent (I have yet to read anything by NK Jemisin that is not excellent) but specifically the first book of the inheritance trilogy remains my favorite. Other standouts of hers include the short story The Effluent Engine and the second book of the Dreamblood series, The Shadowed Sun (though, again! I cannot stress enough that I'm not even sure NK Jemisin could write a bad book/story if she wanted to!)

I routinely recommend all of Alyssa Cole's romances: not only are they incredibly inclusive, the characters navigate believable conflicts based around their characterization and not simply Because Of The Plot. Her contemporary romances are some of the few contemporary romances I enjoy: it's not usually my genre, but anything Alyssa Cole writes I will read. Shoutout to her expansion into horror, she's also one of the few authors who will get me to read THAT genre. Standouts include Can't Escape Love (novella), A Duke by Default, and Let It Shine (also a novella). Another author who I cannot stress enough: just go read her entire backlog okay. She's got historical romances in a range of time periods. She's got contemporary romances. She's got horror, god help me.

The other author who can convince me to read horror is T Kingfisher, aka Ursula Vernon. Her fairytale retellings are A+ and always contain horror elements, and she is another author who has yet to write a dud for me. Standouts include Nettle & Bone (NETTLE AND BOOOOOOOOONE), The Raven and the Reindeer, and The Seventh Bride.

Tamora Pierce is sort of a no-brainer here for me. Her books are not always perfect by any means, but they are always progressive for the time they are written and she continues to improve and take feedback into account. Plus you probably owe the existence of your favorite stabby ya lady to her. Tortall owns my heart because I read it first but she has a lovely magic school series in a different world where friendship is literally magic and social commentary the norm.

The Dragonriders of Pern is not for everyone. Much of the sexual politics in the early novels are, as I have discussed elsewhere, outdated, but the books evolved as Anne McCaffrey's understanding did, and there are soulmate dragons and impeccably rendered closed time loops (multiples! Happening at the same time!) and a constant discussion and tension of evolving social norms and the needs of society: at what point does technology become Too Much? Does it at all? What happens when the people in charge stop giving a shit about their responsibilities? Seriously the impeachment plot in Dragonseye/red star rising is nearly prescient. Most of these conflicts originate early on but don't truly come to fruition until later, and please take my word for it and simply don't read the books written by her son. They are bad.

The Witchlands series by Susan Dennard! Tbh I think this series deserves more love than it gets. It's not perfect, it can improve, but that's the thing: it routinely does. Dennard puts time and care into her work from all sides and discusses openly her early and middle mistakes, from a technical level to a 'needing a sensitivity reader' level.

Sarah Rees Brennan! Y'all know I love Sarah Rees Brennan, right? You should. She likes to explore tropes and genre convention and snappy, snappy dialogue. I haven't reread The Lynburn Legacy yet this year, but that's an anomaly. In Other Lands is pretty widely acknowledged as superior portal fantasy, I think. Tell The Wind and Fire was constrained by the book it was retelling and I think suffered for it, but that just means it wasn't as good as I personally think it could have been, not that it wasn't good at all. The Demon's Lexicon trilogy is her first series and yes, okay, it shows a little, but have you ever thought to yourself, hey. What if Supernatural was actually, like. Good. And wanted to actually explore in a thoughtful manner morality and what it means to be a person and nature vs nurture and how complicated your relationships with parents can be. Because if so, go give The Demon's Lexicon a shot.

The Rivers of London! We will excuse magic cops this once because they are specifically *magic* cops and because Nightingale literally fought nazis and Peter is pretty critical of the met in general. These books almost make me like London, and as a bonus Peter is fully aware that King Arthur was Welsh (look this is important to me okay)

Lockwood & Co! I am on the final book now and really enjoying my feral child soldier ghosthunters. I want to give them all soup. I want to wrap them all in blankets. My inexplicable attraction to the actor playing Kipps in the show is irrelevant to book enjoyment but I am still flabbergasted, by all accounts it doesn't make sense.

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is space opera. I love it. I admittedly love the Cordelia and Ekaterin novels most, but that is a matter of my eternal love for ladies who are generally nice but willing to fuck shit up, they're all good.

Artemis Fowl! Criminal mastermind child WHO JUST NEEDS FRIENDS OH MY GOD. I cried at the end of the third book. It's fine! We're all fine! Colfer does an excellent job of portraying the fairies as having a culture different from ours with real reasons that they haven't taken over the world, and if you don't love Holly you're wrong.

I have more but I'll stop here for now I guess. Whoops.

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emimayooo · 1 month

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What are 3 books you would recommend right now?

OH MY GODDDD I GOT AN ANON ASK AND ONE ABOUT BOOKS?!?!?! I'M SOOOOOO HAPPY AHAHAHHAHAHA😍❤️❤️❤️

what a good question!! i could kiss you for that mwah mwah!! allow me to answer your ask:

The tricky thing about book recs is that you gotta be cognisant of the fact that your tastes will likely be very different to the person you're making the recommendations to. So while these do rank among my personal faves, I'll try to note the characteristics of these books for you to judge as compatible with your tastes or no.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

One of my fav books of all time, omg. Where do I even begin? Well, it's a genre parody of portal fantasies, where we follow Elliot: a prickly, sardonic, hilarious, diplomatic, bisexual Jewish-British blorbo, from his childhood to his teen years, as he navigates life at a boarding school training kids to be soldiers. A comedy with an emotional core, I can't get enough of it.

Good for readers who love:

Affectionate genre parodies

Earned character development

Layered bisexual representation

Found families

Sardonic, neglected MCs who melt at those who show them love

Episodic chapters

The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker

What if, in turn-of-the-century New York, a newly born golem without a master ends up in New York, as does a firey and cocky jinni, freed from his flask after a thousand years, and then they meet?

This is that book. And it's all I ever wanted.

Good for readers who love:

Historical fiction with fantastical elements

An immersive, well-researched setting

Fully-realised characters

Autistic-coded protagonists

Slow pacing

Jewish folklore & culture

Middle Eastern folklore & culture

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and by Fiona Staples

God. Saga. How do I explain Saga? I don't think I can. It's the first comic series I *really* got into. It hooked me from the start, even though it's sooo outside my wheelhouse. Give the first chapter a chance! If you like what you see there, you'll like the rest.

Good for readers who love:

Tragedy. No joke this will tear you to pieces especially if you're a parent LOL

Crass, vulgar and dark humour

Moral dubiosity

A complex cast of characters who are on the opposite sides and where you cheer for all of them and find yourself distraught when they collide

Doomed by the narrative

Snappy banter

Well-written children

Cool sci-fi designs!

Again, thanks so much for the ask! This will a blast to write up<3

#asks #emi.txt #books

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bookofsummer · 4 years

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Arctic Recovery 2 - Chapter 1

Taglist: @isanyonetoknow

In the year 2035, there was an explosion over the North Pole. Some blamed it on climate change, others on government testing, and the kids all simply believed it was Santa, testing a new sleigh.

And while the government was not the cause of the explosion, they did do a bang up job of getting involved with it as fast as they possibly could. What they found up there was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, though there are definitely those who would claim otherwise.

What they found up there was a ship. Crashed and burning, with two creatures who are very similar to humans, and yet definitely, absolutely not human.

In the year 2035, an alien ship crash landed on earth. Two subjects were recovered, both severely injured, one only barely clinging to life, and they were brought to the fabled Area 51 to recover, and to be observed.

What was left of the ship was brought to a bright, well seasoned mechanic named Brennan Saddler, an early grad at the top of his class, a well known name among those who need work done on vehicles of all genres. Brennan’s touched on all makes of cars, and planes, even handled a rocket ship or two, and when the remains of an alien vessel were discovered he was the first choice to bring in to try and piece it back together.

Only issue with that plan is that, after three days of combing through the pieces, and placing them in their spots like a jigsaw puzzle, Brennan realized he had no idea what fueled the thing, or even what exactly it was made out of. Obviously alien, which was very cool, Brennan has quite a few sessions of just laughing as he marveled the pieces, however it meant that he wasn’t sure how to put it back together.

Welding didn’t seem to work, glue would fizz and burn off of the stuff, there were two pieces that, when pressed together, simply seemed to stick that way, but no other pieces did the same.

After another few weeks, he put in a request with the man who would check on him every day to see, and maybe try and speak, to the aliens who landed with the ship, maybe they would be able to give him more insight.

He was told that they would see what they could do, and for a month he waited, toying with the pieces, eventually he even found a box among the wreckage that was actually fully intact. A box about the size of a shoebox, with a blank screen on the front, with alien characters carved into it. He figured it must be some sort of black box, and he puts it in his office.

A month after he asks to see the aliens, they come back to him, tell him that one of them has died from their injuries, but they did get him a chance to meet with the other.

They stress to him that they’re not sure how intelligent, exactly, the alien is, he doesn’t communicate in any significant way, that they’ve found, at least, and it lowers Brennan’s hopes of finding anything out, but he needs to try.

It’s another three weeks after he’s given the news he’ll be allowed to see the alien before they actually go to any significant efforts to schedule a day for it, working at the speed of government, his mother would say. Finally they settle on a date.

After another month where he will have to wait.

So Brennan tries to focus on the ship. He can’t find any sort of obvious power source, he can’t figure out how the pieces go back together- well, he knows how they go together, just doesn’t have any way of making it stay- and all he’s got is that silver box with the screen.

He drops it onto his desk, in the back corner of the workshop one day, and he looks it over, finger grazing along the… metal? For some sort of seam or seal where the thing opens, but it is, astonishingly, seamless. The screen is the only thing on there that signifies that the thing is anything more than a hunk of… well metal.

So he breaks out the tools. Hammer first, but no matter how hard he hits it it doesn’t leave a dent, not even on the screen. Next he goes at it with a drill and a sizeable bit, but it only scratches the surface, never penetrates, and Brennan throws the box at a wall. He’s hoping that maybe, hidden inside that shoe-box sized piece of shit, is the blueprints or something to the damn ship, or something he can work with. He even calls up his friend who works construction and puts it under a jackhammer, but it still doesn’t budge.

He’s about to throw it at another wall when the office door opens, and a woman in a pressed pantsuit is staring at him with wide eyes. He lowers the box, dropping it back to the desk, “Can I help ya?” He asks, rubbing a thumb at one of the scuffs on the box, only for it to wipe right off. He rolls his eyes at it, and turns to the woman, who seems to have been waiting until she had his full attention.

“Hi, Brennan, right? Brennan Saddler?”

“Yeah, Yeah, that’s me.” He nods, wiping his hands on his jeans and offering her one for a shake, “You are?”

She looks at his hand with a look he could only describe as wary, and then steels herself before grabbing his hand and shaking it, “Doctor Jenna White, I’ll be acting as your monitor while you’re meeting with AR2, tomorrow.”

Brennan stares at her for a moment, then turns to look at the swimsuit calendar that’s tacked to the wall, “Shit, that is tomorrow innit?” He mumbles and sighs, “Finally, feel like I’ve been sitting here with my thumbs up my ass for months.” Dr. White doesn’t seem all that impressed by his metaphor, and her face twists a little at the idea of it.

“Well, it is, in fact, tomorrow. I’ll be there to keep an eye on you and ensure that no… Confidential information makes its way to the public.” Jenna watches him, one finely plucked eyebrow raised as if she’s expecting an answer. Brennan just stares back for a long moment, before he ‘oh’s in realization she’s expecting a response.

“Yeah, no, definitely, the whole alien thing ain’t public, and I will hundred percent respect that. I ain’t planning on telling everybody I meet about the alien thing.”

Jenna nods, “Good. Now, as for today, I am here to introduce myself, and lay out for you the ground rules for your visit with AR2-”

“Wait, real quick, what in god’s name does AR2 stand for?”

“Arctic recovery two,” she explains, crossing the room to sit in one of the chairs in front of Brennan’s desk, “As it was recovered in the arctic, and it was the second one we registered, it is AR2.” She nods, and she folds her hands on her lap, “Now, the rules?” She gestures to the chair across from her, and Brennan heaves a sigh. Getting told what to do in his own damn office. He still does it, though.

The rules that Dr. White lays out for him basically sum up to three basic concepts, don’t go into the chamber, if he somehow manages to get into the chamber, don’t fucking touch the alien, and if he somehow manages to get into the chamber, and touch the alien, he will very likely face some serious consequences. Dr. White stresses that part.

So Brennan’s only choice is to speak to the alien through a pane of glass, and his chances of being able to swing that are extremely slim. However, he’s not stupid, he has a plan. Sure, they might not speak the same language, but that’s what visual aids are for.

After Dr. White takes her leave, Brennan digs his phone out and wanders around the ship, taking picture after picture. He snaps pictures well into the night to make sure he has every angle he could possibly get to try and communicate with the alien.

He finds himself wondering what it looks like, after midnight, when the exhaustion is starting to seep in but he isn’t ready to stop taking pictures yet. He digs through the debris to find what he believes was the seat the aliens used, and it’s… Fairly normal looking, at least to him. It looks like a plain ass chair, like in a car. It’s almost disappointing when he looks it over, and mocks up how the belt system was set up, and he figures out that the aliens had to have been humanoid for the set up it has.

Not that there’s anything wrong with them being humanoid, but he had been lowkey hoping for something much more interesting.

That night when he sleeps he dreams of cooler aliens.

His meeting is set for early afternoon, but he’s got himself ready to go, with a plan on how to try and communicate with pictures, by around eleven, a few hours early. When Dr. White shows up she seems legitimately surprised by his eagerness, but Brennan points out that he is, in fact, meeting an alien for the first time ever, and she seems to relax after that. She leads him outside to a sleek black car with dark windows, and a driver who holds the back door open for both of them. Brennan gives the guy a nod, and he nods in return.

“You know where to take us, Anthony,” Dr. White says toward the front seat as the driver, Anthony apparently, gets in. She gets a grunt for an answer, but it seems to be enough for her as she settles into her seat, gathering a clipboard from the pocket on the back of the seat to examine the papers.

Brennan doesn’t really have anything to distract him aside from his phone, but he somehow feels that would be inappropriate right now, so he just settles on taking in his surroundings. The car is dark inside as well, in fact Brennan can barely see out the windows aside from the front and the driver’s windows.

He looks over Dr. White, as well as he can without being creepy. She’s wearing another suit, except this time it’s with a sharp pencil skirt, just as prim as she had looked yesterday, though today it’s with legs out, which Brennan can respect, especially since she has some killer legs from what he can see. Her black hair is pinned up in a flawless bun and he finds himself wondering how she manages that as he runs a hand through his own mess of shoulder length hair. Dr. White, even as she’s reading and rubbing absently at her chin, gives off a solid air of poise.

It makes Brennan feel like one hell of a slouch, in a grease-stained t-shirt and jeans that are equally, if not more, grease-stained. Honestly, he’s a mess, but he’s basically a mess twenty-four-seven.

He finally takes his eyes off of her, and looks to the driver, Anthony. The man’s pretty built, though his face doesn’t give it away. He’s got a scruffy red beard that hides what could be a sharp jaw, or a soft jaw, Brennan can’t tell from here. Anthony is a bit tall, the top of his head almost brushing the roof of the car, his hair is gelled down, otherwise Brennan is sure it would make up the difference. His face is partially obscured by dark shades, so Brennan can’t pin down an eye color on the guy, but the red hair, and the freckles that Brennan can see peeking out from the man’s collar leads him to assume green. Perhaps brown? Who knows.

Brennan doesn’t get too much longer to think on it, because Anthony catches him staring in the mirror, and clears his throat to get his attention. Brennan jerks a bit, and his eyes dart to the dark window. His eyebrows drop and he glares at his reflection for a moment before rolling his eyes and turning to Dr. White again. “How far is this place, anyways? I thought I was on site here?”

“You are. It’s a big campus, Mr. Saddler.” Dr. White replies without looking up from her papers, at least not at first. She finally looks up at him, “Area 51 spans over twenty-thousand acres of land, over thirty square miles. You can be on-site, and still be a five minute drive, Mr. Saddler.” She gets this smirk on her face that makes Brennan smirk in return, and she hugs the clipboard to her chest. “We’ll be there in just a few moments. In all reality, you could have walked here, but that wouldn’t be very hospitable of us, would it?” She smiles at him, and the car comes to a stop. She waits as Anthony gets out, comes around and opens her door for her.

She steps out, her kitten heels clicking on the pavement of the parking lot as she steps away from the car, and turns back to Brennan, waiting for him.

He takes a moment to swallow, and he finally follows her out of the car. Once she seems to be sure he’s following, she turns, and heads toward the building at the end of the lot. She scans a badge at the door and holds it open for him, she leads him to a desk where they both sign in, and she makes small talk with the woman behind it as Brennan scribbles down his information. He sets down the pen, smiles at the woman behind the desk, her nametag says Rebecca, and he turns to follow Dr. White.

Dr. White scans her badge at another set of doors, and Brennan follows her through the halls. It looks like a standard lab, full of beakers and test tubes with unrecognizable substances in them. She leads him down a hall, and then another, and then another and another until they finally reach an elevator. She scans her badge again, they step inside, and they go down. Down so far that Brennan starts to wonder if this isn’t all an elaborate ruse to throw him into a volcano or something because he’s asked for too much from them.

The doors open, and there’s no volcano, however there is another hallway, which makes Brennan heave a sigh. Dr. White leads the way, and thankfully enough they go into the third door on the left, because Brennan was sure that if she had taken him down another hallway he may have actually screamed.

Thankfully, they’ve reached their destination, and Dr. White explains to him that the only thing standing between him, and his attempt to get answers, is the door on the other side of the room.

He thanks her, and he starts to head for the door, but he pauses before he even lifts his hand to touch the handle, because he realizes, this is it. He’s about to see an alien.

On the other side of this door is a creature from a world that’s so far away Brennan can barely process it, and he’s about to walk in there, and try to use pictures on his phone to try and figure out how the thing’s ship works. He’s about to try to talk to an actual alien.

He is so not prepared for this. Oh god what if he fucks it up? What if it doesn’t like him? What if it spits acid on him or something? Oh god, worse, what if it likes him, a lot, and busts through the glass just to plant it’s alien eggs in his stomach?

“Mr. Saddler?” Brennan flinches a bit, turning to look at Dr. White, eyebrows raised in question, “Are you alright? You seem nervous. You know you aren’t in there alone, right? I will be there, as well as the lead researcher, and you aren’t in any danger. It is perfectly safe.” She steps up to his side, and rests a hand on his shoulder, “Come on, you don’t wanna waste what might be your only opportunity to see a real life alien, right?” She winks at him, and she pats his arm, opening the door for him, and guiding him into the room where he finally sees it. He finally sees his first alien.

And wow. It’s… Pretty.

#writeblr #writing #writing blog #wip #writing wip #ar2 #arctic recovery 2 #chapter posting

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london-mcgarr · 5 years

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Big Picture People: Genre & Audience

Dear Gram,

I know you trusted me with your car and assumed that I would be focusing all my attention on getting from point A to point B safely, but the truth is I screwed up. I decided that texting Cassie was more important than the turn I was making, and long story short, both cars are headed for repairs. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but that does not excuse the fact that I destroyed the trust you had in me. I remember the first time that Grandpa took me for a ride in this car- he spent the whole time talking about how he met you. A few years later, he taught me how to drive in this same car, and again he couldn’t stop talking about you. For some reason, Gram, I think this car reminded him of how happy he was whenever he was with you- driving you to the hair salon, going to Church, or just lazy Sunday drives with the radio on as you headed to our house for dinner. Even though Grandpa can’t be here to hold my hand this time, I know that it was him who protected me from getting hurt. I think a part of him still lives on in this car, and in time, I hope that I can make this up to you. You and I both know that I am better than this. I am at a loss for words to describe to you how sorry I am because I know that words alone cannot rebuild the faith you once had in me. This is all my fault Gram, and I only have the Lord to thank for sparing the lives of the other driver and myself. I find comfort in knowing that the memories we had with Grandpa in this car, will live far beyond the car itself. I just hope that one day, I can find a way to make up for this.

I love you, Gram.

Love,

London

Dear Dr. Brennan,

I want to start by apologizing for my absence from the test today- I know you have made it very clear that such an event is deserving of a zero. However, for reasons beyond my control, I am hoping that you will see that my absence was unavoidable. I was unfortunately in a car accident on my way to your class, one that caused severe damage to my car and that of the other driver. Thankfully, we are all walking away from the accident, but that does not change the fact that by the time the police had cleared the scene, the test was already over. I cannot express to you how regretful I am that I could not make it to the midterm today, but seeing as though the greater forces of nature saw it best to spare my life today, I am hoping that you see it fit, as well, to do the same. I would be beyond gracious if you would allow me to retake this midterm, Dr. Brennan. I studied for so long and I am prepared to my best on this exam. I understand that there may be no exceptions, but after having the day I had, I saw no reason that I shouldn’t at least ask. Again, I am very sorry to have missed the test at the scheduled time today, and I hope that you will consider my plea. Hope you have a safe and happy evening.

Sincerely,

London McGarr

Holy shit, bro!!!! I legit just got into a fucking car accident like idk wtf im gonna tell my grandma bc i was driving HER car!! I mean t god no one was hurt but the car is trashed and my parents are gonna kill me bc i was on my phone when it happened. Rip me :( ill text you after i talk to them

-London

Sadly, even with writing, people thrive on having a set of norms and regulations- even small misuses of punctuation or language are enough to turn an audience away from appreciating a piece in its entirety. These inconsistencies can feel like a violation of the unwritten author-audience code that essentially spells out how one must write in order to maintain their readers’ attention. As we discussed earlier, the rhetorical situation determines the rhetoric which, in turn, will inspire the audience to make changes. However, in order to respond to the rhetorical situation, the writer must take into account the who he intends to respond to and in what way. Genres are the written word’s way of making a short-cut to the intended audience in the most effective way for said audience, and thus genres, “form systems that realize social motives, and how they shape the identities of participants” (Yanez 15). Therefore, considering the audience determines whether or not you evoke the change you sought by writing in the first place. Just take this class, for example; many students intend to get an A in their courses and their writing often reflects what they think the professor wants to hear- but, considering your audience and becoming your audience are completely different. Good writing occurs when the reader doesn’t realize that they were the audience considered.

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theastrophilearchitect · 3 years

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Recent reads #1.

In February, I formatted my wrap-up actually as a wrap-up, but I didn't really enjoy making myself write about every movie and every show and every audiobook, so I've decided to cut the movies and tv shows unless I specifically want to review one, and just do recent reads every ten books I want to talk about, ignoring rereads I have literally nothing to talk about, and not filling two of my weekly post slots per month first with a tbr, then with a wrap-up. I have other things to talk about.

So, here's ten books I read recently.

1. Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Hoo. So I finally read this, and, ultimately, I did enjoy it, but it was about two hundred pages too long. I'm sure if the first three/four hundred were condensed, the characters wouldn't feel so developed, but I think it would be worth it to increase the pace. If the pace of this book were on a graph, it would be flat until the last fifty pages, at which point it would increase exponentially.

Anyway, to this book is set in a (technically dystopian) sci-fi future, in which humanity is living on a planet called Detritus, where the crew of a ship called the Defiant crashed during a battle with the alien race of the Krell. This was several generations ago, and for several decades, the original crew split into groups, because when in groups of over a hundred, the Krell could sense, attack and kill them. Fast forward several decades, after a huge battle, humanity now lives together again, partially on the surface. Skyward follows Spensa Nightshade, daughter of a coward from the Battle of Alta, when humanity came back to the surface. Spensa wants to be a pilot, to battle the Krell, defend humanity, and eventually escape past the debris field surrounding Detritus. Then she finds a ship. A ship, broken and run-down, but more advanced than anything humanity has, and fixable. And it talks.

I'm going to keep this one brief because I have a lot to say about this book, and am planning to make a full review, but for now: I was so bored throughout the first three hundred pages. I didn't particularly care about the characters--of whom I felt there were too many--and found Spensa irritating, which bothered me particularly because this book is written in first person. Then, events, action, character arcs, and I left this book absolutely desperate for the next. I think my main issue with this was just the amount of set-up required for the clearly epic saga Sanderson is planning

On the plus side, its sequel Starsight came out in November, so, if all goes to plan, that should be around the third or fourth book on this list.

Rating: um. Last hundred or so pages I feel deserve full five stars, but I think the first few hundred drag this down to about 3.73 stars, specifically.

2. Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link, and Robin Wasserman

Honestly, I wasn’t going to read this Shadowhunters novella bind-up. I haven’t read any of the other bind-ups. I only actually decided to read it because I was running out of audiobooks I wanted to listen to, and this was the only Shadowhunters bind-up on Audible. But I’m so glad I did.

So this novella bind-up is set in the world of the Shadowhunters and basically follows Jem Carstairs from the end of the Infernal Devices, up to its epilogue and then beyond. It was released after the Mortal Instruments, the Infernal Devices and the Dark Artifices, but before the Last Hours, the Eldest Curses and the Wicked Powers (obviously, because the Wicked Powers doesn’t even have a title for book one yet). The earlier novellas set up the Last Hours, the later ones the Wicked Powers, and probably the Eldest Curses, too, but I don’t really remember.

I didn’t enjoy the Mortal Instruments, and after reading City of Bones, I listened to the rest as audiobooks so I could read the other series, which I did love (even if I felt the Dark Artifices was unnecessarily long). Chain of Gold, the first book in the Last Hours has been out for just over a year now, and has definitely been the most hyped Shadowhunters book in the recent years, so I can’t wait to get to it, and am so glad I read this and got to know a little about the characters, though I don’t think you need to have read this to read Chain of Gold.

Rating: 4.3 stars. (Yes, apparently I’m doing decimals other than .5 now).

3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

I finished this audiobook on March 19th, which says something about how my reading’s going this month. Actually, this is the fourth book I read in March 2021, because I also listened to the Mockingjay audiobook this month in my preparation to read this, but I didn’t think it was necessary to include it in this list because I’ve read it so many times before. Four books in twenty days isn’t bad--it’s more than most people read, but still. Especially when three of the four are audiobooks.

So, this book follows Coriolanus Snow, Panem’s president in the original series, as he acts as a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games. These Games are very different to the 74th we see in The Hunger Games, and every character in this book (minus the one character under the age of ten) was alive during the war. Since there have obviously only been nine Games before now, the tributes obviously couldn’t have victors from their districts as mentors the way Katniss and Peeta do, and this is the first year they have any form of mentoring. There’s no training, watching isn’t mandatory, this is the first Games in which they have sponsorships etc. Coriolanus is assigned the female tribute from district 12, and finds himself questioning his morality.

I really wasn’t sure what the point of this book was. It showed more inequality within the Capitol than what the trilogy exposed us to, but it didn’t seem to contain the same message as the Hunger Games, partly because Coriolanus essentially had a negative character arc, so as to become the tyrant, and partly because we knew how it would end. (Spoiler: Coriolanus falls in love with his tribute, but we knew it couldn’t work out because he couldn’t and wouldn’t marry someone from the districts, but he had a wife and daughter in the trilogy.) I don’t understand why Collins is trying to get us to sympathise with this villain--I love sympathetic villains, and anti-heroes, morally grey characters etc., but Snow just isn’t that in the trilogy, so it has little impact.

Granted, I did find the insight to his mind interesting, and the book was very entertaining--and had an excellent narrator--but I just didn’t see the point. I think this had the potential to garner five stars from me, but it just adds so little to the original story, I can’t do it.

(Leena Norms on YouTube made an excellent spoiler review on this book that goes much more in-depth about symbolism, themes etc. You can find it here)

Rating: 4 stars.

4. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

I read this in three days. I’m not a huge contemporary person, but hell yes. This book? Mwah.

We follow Eliza Mirk, your typical teenage outsider. She hates high school, and is just waiting for graduation. Online, however, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the hugely popular web comic Monstrous Sea. Then she meets Wallace Warland, a Monstrous Sea fan who Eliza soon discovers is actually RainMaker, the most popular Monstrous Sea fanfiction writer. We have romance, we have geeky stuff, we have relatable hatred of school.

I listened to the audiobook (a running theme of audiobooks here, because I was currently very slowly reading House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas, which is 800 pages. If your book’s going to be more than 600 pages, make it two books. Please.), which was a little disappointing because I later found out the book has Monstrous Sea comic strips in it, which are in the audiobook, you just don’t get the visuals. Regardless, the narrators were excellent, and I loved this as my intro to the contemporary genre.

Rating: 4 stars.

5. Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

This was the last book on my audiobook list before I gained a ton more, and though it wasn’t mind-blowing, it was enjoyable, and I do want to read the sequel. Or rather, listen to it.

This book takes place before the game of the Little Mermaid, and follows a young woman who will become the Sea Witch. One day, a girl drowns as her friends fail to save her. Three years later, a girl with nearly the same name arrives in her friends’ lives, though no-one but Evie recognises her, and Evie must help her get the prince to give her true love’s kiss to save her.

The plot wasn’t especially exciting and the characters weren’t especially interesting; the plot was rather predictable, but the writing was excellent and it was enjoyable nonetheless.

I’m curious as to where the sequel will go, because this book’s epilogue is set 50 years after the climax, but I assume it’ll be the retelling of the actual Little Mermaid story.

Rating: 3 stars.

6. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas

I didn’t want to love this book as much as bookstagram does. In fact, over time, my love for Maas’s Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses has faded, especially earlier this year when I listened to the Throne of Glass audiobooks (my second read through), and was struggling by the end, because it took itself way too seriously, and it felt like it was just continuing for the sake of it (I stand that the entire eight-book series could have been four or five books at most, and that’s including the prequel). In contrast, this just didn’t drag. I was intiially overwhelmed by the 800 pages, but, God, it was worth it.

The Crescent City series is set in a modern-day fantasy, with modern technology, but where humans, angels, shifters, fae, and a thousand other kinds of supernatural creatures, live side by side. Bryce Quinlan is half-fae, a party girl, living like tomorrow doesn’t exist, until her best friend, and her best friend’s wolf pack, are murdered. Two years later, a similar string of murders starts up again, though the supposed killer remains imprisoned, and Bryce is recruited by the city government to investigate, with the help of Hunt Athalar, an enslaved fallen angel, who Bryce is incredibly thirsty for.

I made notes while reading this. I had many thoughts, throughout 800 pages.

Maas just really wants to write kind-of-fae protagonists: every one of her books (bar Catwoman: Soulstealer) has a protagonist who isn’t always entirely human, and who isn’t always entirely fae.

It felt like this was only classed as adult instead of young adult so she could use the word ‘fuck’ three times per page--her previous books being young adult didn’t stop her writing graphic smut scenes.

In the first three hundred pages, the main cast walked into the road and halted traffic so many times (being like twice)--Jesus, can we just let the poor drivers be?

This book never really explains the Gods in this world. There’s so much lore, and worldbuilding, but the Gods are never really explained.

Lehabah’s character reminded me so much of Iko from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and I am so here for it.

‘...Bryce mused, toying with her toes. They were painted a deep ruby. Ridiculous, he told himself. Not the alternative. The one that had him imagining tasting each and every one of those toes before slowly working his way up those sleek, bare legs of hers.’ Right, so the Umbra Mortis has a foot fetish.

Looking back through my notes, I made this one--’I get that it’s more fun to write attractive characters, but not every no-name needs to be drop dead gorgeous’--which is hilarious to look back on because the character I was specifically referencing turned out to be a very big name, but still.

I did enjoy every second of this book, but I still think it could have been condensed. God only knows how many words were in the first draft of this book.

A lot of the words for things in this--Midgard for Earth/the mortal world; Vanir for the supernatural creatures--are from Norse mythology, and I’m so here for it.

By the time the actual truth of the mystery came out, I’d already been given so many assumptions and alternatives as to what happened, that, having finished the book, I can barely remember the actual truth. We were given at least four versions of the story.

Finally, Bryce and Hunt spend literally this entire book lusting after each other, and we hear about their fantasies about each other at least twenty times, but they literally never have actual, penetrative sex. There are explicit scenes, sure, but the most action for himself Hunt gets is alone in the shower.

Anyway, I loved this. It was 1000% better than previous books by Maas, and I want book two immediately. (Maybe not immediately; I’d like to read other books, but still.) I finished it on March 31st, and it was my 30th read of the year, actually completing my Goodreads goal for the year--it was intentionally low because I only read 23 books last year, but in the shortest quarter of this year, I already met my goal. I’m leaving the Goodreads official goal at 30, because I don’t want to push myself too far, but I have a silent goal of 100--if I keep up this pace, I can read about 122 books, but we’re going to keep quiet, because I sincerely doubt I’ll manage that.

Rating: 5 stars.

7. Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

God, this surpassed Skyward. I think part of that is because I already knew a lot of the characters, and Spensa is significantly less annoying in this one. It follows an incredibly different storyline to the first, but still has the same vibes, and was, frankly, a fantastic sequel.

I will say this series reads very young, and it’s very difficult for me to imagine the characters as adults.

Also, called the romance, and they kiss in this one, and it’s actually very anticlimactic. The two characters are in completely different places for most of this book, so there’s not much development, but my God.

This book, this world... ahhhhh. If you don’t like science fiction, you won’t like this series, but otherwise, just read it. You won’t regret it.

Rating: 4 stars.

8. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

First off, I love the US cover for this, but the UK one is so much better, and you can fight me on that.

This is the first book in the Dreamer Trilogy, a sequel series to The Raven Cycle, centred on the wonderful Ronan Lynch. The existence of this book was actually why I decided to reread The Raven Cycle--I listened to the audiobooks in, I think, 2018, and didn’t pay a huge amount of attention, which was, in retrospect, a horrible idea, given how complicated the storyline is, but I wanted to read this series, so a reread was required. And, as we know, I’m so glad I did, because I absolutely fell in love.

I do wish this book had more of the other Raven Cycle characters--you’ve obviously got Ronan and his brothers, and Opal, but there was so little Blue, Gansey and Adam. Adam was actually in quite a few scenes, but he’s my least favourite of the main four; Gansey had some texts and Blue had a single phone call, except that chapter was from Declan’s perspective, so we only got Ronan’s end.

Regardless, Stiefvater, as usual, introduced some amazing new characters, more worldbuilding, and I love the way she gives the antagonists’ perspective, too. There’s about a month, as of today, before the sequel comes out, and, fair to say, I can’t wait.

Rating: 4.2 stars.

9. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas

I hate this cover change. Utterly inferior to the original covers.

In all honesty, my love for SJM has faded over the last few months--though I do now think House of Earth and Blood may have revived it--but I did still enjoy this. So now let’s go through the notes I made as I went!

First off, though, this is the fourth book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, focusing on Nesta and Cassian, but I’m not saying anything else so as to avoid spoiling the first three.

The opening reads like fanfiction. The introductions, the inciting incident--I’ve never been a huge fanfic reader, but this reads like fanfic setup.

SJM’s apparently going on a Norse mythology surge, what with Vanir in Crescent City and Valkyries here, but I’m really, really here for it

Elain Archeron feels irrelevant. She has imapct on Feyre and Nesta, sure, but she has no agency of her own. People ship her with Azriel, solely because she’s the unmated Archeron sister; he’s the unmated bat boy, but I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I sincerely hope we get more context as to Amren’s origins. There was a little in this, but not enough to satisfy me.

SJM has an obsession with masculinity. Little to a fault, honestly--every one of her male characters in described in some way, shape or form as the epitome of masculinity and ‘male arrogance’, and it irritates me to no end. Honestly, her books all feel like vessels for a sub/dom kink. Just saying.

‘As if she’d been freed from a cage she hasn’t realised she’d been in.’ I didn’t make note of it, but she this was the second time Sarah tried to test whether or not we’d notice this blatant manipulation of the ‘breath they didn’t realise they were holding’ cliche.

Stop capitalising the word ‘Made.’ It’s really not that difficult, and it’s ugly.

And as for the 70% of this book that is purely smut: hate that Nesta’s scent was disguised because Cassian’s ‘essence’ was all over her. What does that mean and why does even her scent submit to him??

Literally all of her female characters fall into the minority of women capable of orgasm from purely penetrative sex: it’s unrealistic, and I’m not entirely convinced SJM understands how the female body works. Also, in both this and Crescent City, she kept saying ‘her breasts pebbled’, and I still have no idea what that means.

I did, however, really enjoy seeing the Winter Solstice celebrations again.

I enjoy the smutty scenes as much as the next reader, but the latter fifth of this book, when they finally stopped shagging and got on with the plot, were so much better than the earlier ones.

Regardless, I did really enjoy this book, and come out with a hugely positive opinion, mostly because I enjoyed the last hundred pages so much.

Rating: 4.1 stars.

10. The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch

I cannot get Robbie Couch’s name right. I keep thinking it’s Crouch, and I don’t know why. Anyway.

This was the Booksplosion book of the month for April, and is very much not my typical thing. I am, however, trying to branch out my reading from purely fantasy and sci-fi, so here we are.

This book follows Sky Baker, an openly gay high school senior in Michigan, who is planning a promposal for his crush. Who may or may not be straight. Then, his promposal plans are exposed to the school in a homophobic, racist email-blast. That’s basically it, which doesn’t seem to me like a lot, but then most books I read aren’t 300-page standalones.

The narrative is a little cliche. We get an appearance-by-mirror on page four, which didn’t exactly give me much faith. There were, of course, also the times Couch pretended he wasn’t using the let-out-a-breath-they-didn’t-realise-they-were-holding cliche: ‘took a burden off my shoulders I hadn’t even realised was weighing me down.;’ ‘a million pounds I hadn’t even realised had been weighing me down for days.’ A nice metaphor, but cliche nonetheless.

It contains so many pop culture references, which are really entertaining in 2021, but will probably really date this in a few years.

Also, minor spoiler: we didn’t even get to see the actual prom. There was the whole build-up to it, the month before, the weeks before, the day before, and we never even got satisfaction.

Regardless, this was an easy, wholesome read, and I think it’ll be a good part of my entry to the world of contemporary.

Rating: 4.1 stars.

And those are my recent reads.

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utilitycaster · 1 month

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…so I decided to check out Polygon’s D20 coverage, and frankly I think you were entirely too kind to them. Good. GOD, some of that stuff read like they’ve never watched AP that *wasn’t* CR, D20 or the first season of TAZ. And have somehow made it thru the 2010s without encountering urban fantasy…

Anyway, to further nudge you towards your destiny of AP journalism (and with the understanding that you have a Real Job and a life outside TTRPGs and the internet); can you please expand on what you think D20 brings to the table?(pun unintended, but I stand by it) Because speaking as someone who has watched a handful of eps and enjoys the concepts, the praise PG were offering was damningly faint.

Hi! Thank you, and for what it's worth I don't think most of them have listened to the first season of TAZ either, given the way they talk about WBN as inventing the actual play longform podcast. I do want to note: I like writing longform stuff about actual play but I am adamantly not a journalist. I am not investigating or interviewing or reporting; I'm doing analysis and editorial. Amateur critic is the most I can claim to and that's a stretch (and even there I have a particular privilege in that I'm writing all this for free, anonymously, by choice, and don't need be be nice or maintain relationships with actual play performers within the space because I could burn every bridge and still make rent.)

Anyway. I think a major flaw of Polygon is that it's so focused on novelty and subversion that it forgets a well-worn concept, executed with skill, is actually great and for many people, preferable. Brennan, from everything I have heard him say and from how he actually runs games, has a deep respect for fantasy as a genre, and the stories he tells in D20 are ones he is clearly familiar with and loves. I also think to subvert things you must be a fan, and when D20 does successfully subvert or twist a genre, it's coming from a place of respect and understanding.

Anyway, just covering a few Intrepid Heroes seasons: I think Fantasy High (and I haven't gotten to the latest episode of Junior Year) is actually increasingly a brilliant deconstruction of D&D as a game by making the world aware that it's in a D&D game. What does it mean to be in a D&D party and be an adventurer and have that be a significant part of who you are? What does it mean to be a commoner in this world? What do you do when you're sort of a broke teen in generic suburbia but also you need the loot that an adventurer would theoretically get from dragon hoards? Why do you have to know what your life's calling will be when you're 14? One of my personal favorite things, as a lover of mechanics and TTRPGs as a system of storytelling and more generally as someone who believes that your medium of choice should be informing the story you tell, is when people engage with character roles and classes instead of treating them as just a set of cool things you can do, and Fantasy High very much pushes the players to do this. I also mentioned elsewhere that the downtime stress mechanics are a brilliant addition to one of the genuine gaps in D&D, namely, while downtime is a time for open RP, there's not a good way to handle things like stress or crafting or prioritizing well.

The Unsleeping City is one I like, honestly, just because I lived in New York for a few years and Brennan lived there far longer (as did much of the cast, though not all) and his love for it is apparent. I don't think it's groundbreaking; I just think it's really good. The characters are excellent and the story is fun. It's true that, for example, it allows you the satisfaction of making Amazon's and its attempted move into Long Island City the BBEG and smiting its ass instead of having to harangue your senators and councilpeople (as I did, and I wasn't even living in Queens) but really it's just a good story. It doesn't need to be more than that. It did not invent urban fantasy or the idea of a secret magical version of a real city or "most myths are real"; it's just a good story!

I think A Crown of Candy is also just a fun setting and, by making everyone food, emphasizes how petty and arbitrary the alliances in a Game of Thrones-esque milieu can be. It casts a scathing eye on religious interpretation as a tool for conquest without clumsily proclaiming the mere concept of religion is the problem. It has one of the best explorations of character death I've seen and Brennan's acting as Caramelinda remains a tour de force for him. Bringing the entire story of succession and war down to a final choice between two half-sisters remains a brilliant decision, the setting is supported by the mechanical limits Brennan imposed upon character creation, and it's overall beautifully done.

Even Neverafter, which I think have openly said didn't live up to its initial promise, had that promise with the fantastic handling of the TPK; I have a love for metanarrative and honestly my issue is that it was the wrong place to do metanarrative, but it was a bold choice to do in the unpredictable medium of actual play.

That's really only covering a fraction - I think some other standouts are Mentopolis, A Court of Fey and Flowers, Coffin Run, and Escape from the Bloodkeep, and while Shriek Week is just not a genre I'm personally super drawn to, I think the Mythic system is a great system for the story being told and Hicks does a great job running it.

Really what it comes down to is that D20 falls in between what a lot of shows are. It doesn't have the freedom but also the burden of a very long-running campaign (indeed, WBN exists because its performers, all of whom have featured in D20, wanted to be able to do longform actual play), nor is it quite as rushed as an all-miniseries or one-shot show. It has space to explore one or two things really well without having to carry a thousand different threads (and believe me, Brennan tries to put in as many as he can in that space - I actually wonder if the reason Fantasy High Junior Year feels a little more streamlined to me is that WBN was by that time in full swing). But it's not the first edited actual play, it mostly uses very widespread systems, the production values are high but not unheard of elsewhere (and I think that production values in AP beyond the basic 'can you hear and, if relevant, see things clearly and does the set look nice' are overrated though that's a personal preference), the cast is strong but not the first group of professionals or even comedians, and they didn't invent the concept of filming remotely or scrims or having an anticapitalist message.

My issue with the journalists, to reiterate that, is that they're not really doing much journalism, actually; and that their bias is horribly apparent. There's little analysis - just shallow reviews that show little understanding of actual play as a medium, fantasy as a genre, or TTRPGs as a system. And while being entirely free of bias is unavoidable - we are people, and we will bring our own interpretations and experiences in, and there are people who will love D20 and dislike Critical Role without doing so in bad faith - the fact that several of the journalists have openly crowed and preened about their special access to the D20 cast really makes it apparent that they like D20 because Dropout gives them early access and says nice things about them. And it's a feedback loop; Critical Role is going to keep saying "well, you constantly shit on us, so no, you don't get early access" and they'll keep writing bad reviews because they don't get early access.

But to return to the point, D20 is legitimately great and yeah the bias in my mind is only hurting them because, speaking only for myself, if there's two things I like and people heap fawning and inaccurate praise on one and nitpick the other? I'm going to start looking into that praise and find more flaws, and I'm going to start defending the nitpicked one. I really love Fantasy High Junior Year but the Polygon article is so bad I have to remind myself that it's just because the person who wrote it is an idiot. I probably would have gone into Kollok much more neutrally if people didn't act like it was the fucking invention of television. Do give D20 a try if you can! Don't read the articles.

#answered #greatgodempresspan #d20 tag

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