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terramythos · 3 years

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TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 17 of 26

Title: The Other Wind (Earthsea Cycle #6) (2001)

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Third-Person, Female Protagonist (Kinda)

Rating: 5/10

Date Began: 7/8/2021

Date Finished: 7/12/2021

The sorcerer Alder is haunted by a recurring dream. Every night he stands at the border of the afterlife, and the dead call to him from the other side, begging him to free them. Fearing that he may unleash evil upon the world, Alder seeks out Ged, a living man who once escaped the land of the dead. Alder finds himself central to a vast mystery; the origin of the afterlife and how it relates to mankind’s ancient connection to the dragons.

“I think,” Tehanu said in her soft, strange voice, “That when I die, I can breathe back the breath that made me live. I can give back to the world all I didn’t do. All that I might have been and couldn’t be. All the choices I didn’t make. All the things I lost and spent and wasted. I can give them back to the world. To the lives that haven’t been lived yet. That will be my gift back to the world that gave me the life I did live, the love I loved, the breath I breathed."

Content warnings and spoilers below the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Death, suicidal ideation, references to child abuse, reference to misogyny, mentioned animal death, mention of slavery.

Man oh man do I wish I enjoyed this book more. It’s not horrible, and there’s stuff I liked, but I found it really hard to get through at times. The Other Wind feels different than anything else in the Earthsea series— to its detriment. There are three main issues I have with the book, all of which I’ll get into. But ultimately I consider it a mediocre conclusion to an otherwise great series.

First, this book has unusual pacing. The Earthsea books are generally slow, with a gradual buildup and gratifying conclusion that ties the themes of the story together. The Other Wind is more like a reverse bell curve; it has a great beginning and finale, but the middle meanders and stalls. The novel is split into five chapters, roughly the same length, and the middle three are a slog. There’s the barest whisper of an interesting plot, but not a lot happens— and what does happen isn’t very compelling.

The closest thing to a story in the middle is a subplot involving Seserakh, a Kargish princess. She’s sent to King Lebannen’s court with the expectation he’ll marry her to secure an alliance. A stock idea to be sure, but I can see how it might provide political intrigue. But it’s just aggravating. Tenar is in this storyline for some reason, and she feels contradictory and out of character. She wants to live a simple life and leave palace politics behind— but she also wants to push the literal king into a marriage he doesn’t want. Lebannen gets framed as The Absolute Worst because he (1) doesn’t want to get married to a woman he’s never met, and (2) is distracted by other stuff. There’s an implication that the match is a great choice, yet Seserakh and Lebannen don’t have a conversation until near the end. Of course Lebannen falls madly in love with her the moment they talk. No need to… develop their relationship? Normally I can gloss over a weak subplot, but since so little happens in the middle, that’s impossible here. It’s irrelevant to the main story, so it’s a shame Le Guin spent so much time on it.

There’s a lot of talking in this book, but little action. Dialogue-heavy characterization isn’t necessarily bad. Le Guin is usually great at that kind of writing. But here, it emphasizes my second problem with the book: there’s too many major characters. Previous books focused on 1 or 2 people, allowing for intimate connection and character growth. LeGuin clearly tries for that here, but there’s so many people and relationships that everyone is underdeveloped. Perhaps this would come off better with a single perspective character, but Le Guin instead chose a shifting POV between 5+ characters. An alternating POV isn’t inherently bad, but it wasn’t a good fit for such a short book. I found myself wishing for focus on Alder (the protagonist!), who’s a genuinely compelling character. Alas.

My third problem with The Other Wind is exposition. This book resolves several plot threads from previous entries. Obviously, there needs to be some context from the series to tie everything together. But the sheer amount of recap is unreal. So many scenes boil down to a character explaining something that happened to them in a previous book, then connecting it to the current plot. It’s not subtle and sometimes happens with the same event multiple times. It genuinely feels like Le Guin didn’t trust the reader to infer ANYTHING on their own. Having just read the rest of the series, this was especially irritating. I can cut a little slack here; this series began in 1968, and perhaps some returning 2001 readers wouldn’t recall key events. But regardless, The Other Wind is one of the most over-explained things I’ve read in a long time. It’s especially odd because the previous books aren’t like this.

There are things I genuinely like about The Other Wind. On a prose level, Le Guin's a great writer. Even the plotless parts of the book are full of interesting writing choices and philosophical observations. One nice thing about Earthsea is the characters age over the course of the series. Ged started A Wizard of Earthsea as a young boy, but as of The Other Wind is a seventy-year-old man. It’s cool to sit back and see just how much each character developed over time. Earthsea itself changed with them; each book’s events have serious repercussions for the world as a whole. And this book has the most significant change of all.

When the The Other Wind’s plot is relevant, it’s one of the most interesting in the series. I think it’s a fascinating way to tie up two disparate plot threads. As much as I love The Farthest Shore, it does present a glaring conundrum regarding Earthsea’s core themes. True immortality is only obtained through death— not because of an afterlife, but because the dead become one with the rest of the world. So why does the Archipelago have an afterlife at all? Why is it so bleak and depressing? Why are there no plants, animals, or dragons there? Speaking of, there’s the revelation that dragons and humans were once the same species. Tehanu introduced this idea with various folktales, and the eventual reveal that Tehanu/Therru is a dragon. This idea is newer to the series and thus more malleable, but I like the idea of an entity being two creatures at once, and the mystery behind that.

I think the integration of these two ideas is interesting. Dragons and humans were once the same, but decided to split into two species to pursue different goals. They formed an ancient bargain to rule different aspects of the world. Fire and air represent the dragons’ realm, freedom— and water and earth represent the humans’ realm, ownership. But some humans learned magic and broke that covenant, binding everything to its true name. This established a form of freedom— immortality via one’s name. The afterlife is a result of that; it shouldn’t exist, which is why it feels wrong. Everything links back to the desire for immortality without change as introduced in The Farthest Shore. On a meta level it’s weird that none of this came up in that book; the explanation that dragons suddenly remembered this great wrong is a little retcon-y. But I understand Le Guin probably never intended to expand on these ideas, and it’s nice to see the contradiction of Earthsea’s afterlife resolved in the end. I went into this book expecting the titular “other wind” to be the other side of Earthsea, not another plane of existence; and I think that surprise is pretty cool! I like the metaphysical aspect of this other realm and how it connects to the dragons.

Even though I didn’t love the book, I do think it works as a series conclusion more than Tehanu did. Tehanu drops such a huge, unresolved bombshell in its ending that I’m surprised Le Guin intended it to be the final book of the series. The Other Wind does create some open-ended mysteries, but they’re the kind that don’t need a resolution.

Despite that, I find myself wondering if this book was necessary. The Other Wind ties together some threads, but I wasn’t a fan of the execution overall. If the dragon and afterlife plot was a heavier focus, maybe I’d like the book more. Instead there’s a bunch of filler and extraneous detail. The book feels forced, like a novella stretched into a full novel— yet also like something’s missing. Perhaps The Other Wind works better on a reread, but I’m inclined to skip it in the future.

#5/10 #taylor reads #2021 reading challenge

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tuiyla · 4 years

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She-Ra’s like, really good, people

It’s been over a week since She-Ra season 5 came out and I binged it and this is not going to be coherent but I just want to rant about it a bit before writing some more structured metas. I deffo wanna write about Catradora and how I think SPoP is the true spiritual successor to the Avatar.

But first, let me just scream about how good this show is. I already started rewatching it, pretty much straight after finishing it, and I don’t rewatch tv shows often. The exception is Avatar (seen it like 15 times) and sitcoms. But She-Ra is so layered that I felt like I needed to watch it again just to appreciate the dynamics even more.

I already enjoyed the first season but it kept getting better and better. I’m not in love with the art style and it’s definitely for a younger demographic overall than my other favourite animated shows, but like any good kids’ show it balances tone well. It doesn’t talk down to its target demographic but also includes more traditionally mature themes in a digestible and entertaining way. Not all the jokes landed for me but as the series went on I learned to appreciate the tone and the type of humour She-Ra goes for.

It’s funny to me because this is definitely the type of show I would have rejected as a kid, with all the princesses I would have deemed it “too girly” and therefore not for me because screw gender roles. There’s a degree of internalized sexism to that, for sure, a rejection of the feminine because it’s always been seen as less somehow. But there’s also a truth that, at least in my childhood of the late 90s and early 00s, children’s media targeted at girls often had a poor quality to it, at least when compared to “boys’ stuff”.

She-Ra is not only a clever, heartfelt, complex story, it also transcends that binary of having to be either for girls or boys. I know most of modern animation rejects that as well, but She-Ra embraces so many traditionally feminine qualities while also going beyond gender roles and even the gender binary. This show is so queer, man, and I love it. It’s especially impressive when you consider the source material that was literally just the girly version of He-Man. I have no beef with 80s She-Ra, haven’t seen much of it, but this is such an upgrade.

That being said, I would have loved to watch She-Ra as a kid. I’m so incredibly envious of kids, aged around 10, who get to watch this show as they’re growing up. But I am so, so, so happy for them and for the future of animation that shows like She-Ra can be made now, that they’re being made. I’m going to go into spoilers soon, but just before that: She-Ra’s a perfectly enjoyable show in many aspects. I think the worldbuilding’s pretty cool, the story feels coherent and planned out, it’s lighthearted and so genuine. That’s the word that I ultimately choose to describe the series: genuine.

I feel like so much of TV aims to be dark and gritty nowadays, animation included, and though that’s slowly turning to dark comedy or a balance between fun and serious, it’s still the norm. At some point in the last decade, creators became terrified of being judged as cheesy. Even something like the MCU bathes in bathos to avoid being cheesy. But She-Ra proves that creators shouldn’t be afraid of being genuine, of basing characters and storylines on the simple power of love. Like, it’s such a cliché trope but I think that’s mostly because it has become stale.

Noelle Stevenson has talked about the importance of love in her story and I’m so grateful for that. Through, She-Ra, she’s truly proven how powerful love can be in a story and how it doesn’t have to be cheesy. It’s just so unabashedly genuine. The power of love and friendship literally saves the day several times but it’s always so genuine and more importantly it always makes sense that it doesn’t get boring. If the foundation wasn’t there, then I’d say “well this is just super cheesy”. But the show makes a point of building relationships and making them the focal point of the story.

Alright, so, spoilers because I need to talk about character arcs and THAT KISS and just everything. I really need to write more in depth about Adora and Catra and their relationship but for now I feel like it’s so important to appreciate how they’re developed. Everything from their shared childhood to their trauma with Shadow Weaver and the finding their way back to each other, it’s just *chef’s kiss*. It’s so well-written and believable. Ngl, I do have some minor issues with Catra’s redemption arc. Let’s just say that on a scale from Kylo Ren to Zuko, she’s definitely closer to Zuko. I also appreciate Shadow Weaver’s death scene and how it allows them to move on. I didn’t see that one as Death as Redemption and it shouldn’t be. Again and again the show made it clear that she was abuse towards both girls and nothing will negate that.

From what I can tell, the fandom really latched onto Catra, even when it wasn’t clear whether she’d get a redemption arc. I think that’s important, because unlike some characters in animation, Catra’s actions were almost always framed appropriately. There was always an understanding as to where she’s coming from, how she’s acting from a place of hurt, and yet her actions weren’t justified. They weren’t suddenly all okay just because she’s hurt, too. I especially loved in the season 3 finale when Adora was allowed to finally say no, to say that Catra’s actions were not her fault. That season as a whole was beautiful, like, episode three when Adora’s struggling so much and Catra has the opportunity for a better life but she still fails to choose her own happiness because she’s too bitter over SW and Adora? It’s poetic cinema. I love that angst, so well done.

It would be so easy to misfire in Catra’s storyline and either a) write off all the awful things she does because she’s just “misunderstood” or b) irredeemably stuck in her abusive environment with no hope of escape. They balanced quite well there and managed to handle such a complex character with delicacy. I’m quite happy with how Catra was portrayed because on the one hand, she’s painfully relatable to me and I assume to many others. The audience can see their own mistakes reflected in her character because we’ve all been too stubborn, done things out of spite, refused to acknowledge that we were wrong because we were hurting so much. At the same time, I always felt like the show gave me enough space to judge Catra’s actions and acknowledge that she was in the wrong. I honestly think I would have been a better adjusted teenager is if saw this show just before my angsty years, lol.

I’m going to write more about Adora at some other point but I love how vulnerable she’s allowed to be. Protagonists never used to be my favourite characters because they all seemed the same, with two major categories: the stereotypical male hero who can do no wrong or the angsty boi who can be shitty and the text still frames him as awesome. It’s only recently with series like The Legend of Korra and She-Ra that I go “damn, protagonists can be like that, huh.” Adora is a dumb jock who tries so hard and she deserves all the hugs in the world.

Also, Catradora? Breathtaking, amazing, groundbreaking. No doubt She-Ra needed shows like Adventure Time, LoK, Steven Universe and the likes to pave the way but still, it went there. I saw people be anxious about whether they were gonna be queerbaited, but I always, idk, knew? Trusted? That She-Ra would follow through. I didn’t wait six years for Bubbline to happen for Catradora to not get their big damn kiss. The series has been so effortlessly queer from the get-go that it just made sense that they were always heading there. I did see a gif of the kiss before watching s5 and ngl, that spoiler kind of bummed me out in a way that I wanted to be surprised. But even before I saw that I wasn’t worried. And the context of their journey in season 5? That cannot be spoiled by a simple gif. You have to experience that to fully appreciate it and that is the marker of good storytelling.

I understand that, though this should be the norm by now, Noelle Stevenson still had to be smart about how she approached the execs and she wasn’t sure this could happen. I cannot tell you how happy I am about what she said regarding how Catradora was so integral to the story that the execs couldn’t not allow it. That’s so brilliant, and it feels so natural in the story. Queer love saves the day and it’s not ambiguous, it cannot be censored because you lose a part of the story without it. You did it, Noelle, you funky little lesbian, what an icon. I can’t wait to see more stuff from her.

In other news, I appreciated other characters as well, like how all the princesses got to be different and awesome in their own unique way. Season 5 was great for so many characters, Mermista got so much to work with and Spinnerella and Netossa got so much more characterization than in previous seasons. Glimmer continued to be the third most important character in the story and I’m happy about all the relationships that also got to be canon. Good characters and dynamics all around, no wonder since the show is built on that.

Such a satisfying conclusion and one that makes you feel like this is just part one of a much bigger story. Such genuine, heartfelt moments, well-developed characters, complex themes explored in a respectful and digestible way, and such an unapologetically fun show. Melissa Fumero as a side character? Yes please. Catra’s new haircut? Heck yeah! She-Ra’s new design? Oh my.

I’m not even like, super into She-Ra, and I usually don’t write so much about things I only watch casually. But this show is so good and important that I had to rant. And I will write more about it eventually, but for now I needed to get all of this out. I’d give it a better structure but if I really get into I might never end up posting it so for now here, have this ramble of love. She-Ra, of all shows, deserves that.

#she-ra #spop #she-ra and the princesses of power #catradora #spop spoilers #my thoughts #that's pretty much it for now

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yamujiburo · 4 years

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tagged by @queenof-evil-blogging

Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions! Don’t look at them first. Then tag some people.

Pokemon

Jimmy Neutron

The Amazing World of Gumball

Steven universe

My Little Pony

Who is your favorite character in 2?

Carl Wheezer!!! My boy!!! Most people either love or hate Carl and Sheen but they were the best part of the show for me. I like how he’s kinda the nerdy trope but actually not (he’s really dumb). The voice acting for him is A+, the gags with him are my FAVORITE (“that’s not mine...” “that’s not me”). God I love him

who is your least favorite character in 1?

Oh god there’s so many characters in Pokémon. I didn’t really like Paul much. He’s a good character/rival and serves his purpose in the show but uh yeah didn’t really like him.

what is your favorite episode of 4?

THERE’S TOO MANY GOOD SU EPISODES!! The one I go to the most though is Rose’s Scabbard. Such a beautifully sad episode where we learn about Pearl’s relationship with Rose. Plus UGH the music at the end makes me cry every time.

what is your favorite season of 5?

Season 4 for SURE. Season 4 is when I jumped into MLP (yeah after the alicorn stuff). That felt like peak MLP to me. They hit their stride with the writing, the characters were well established but there were new challenges they had to face with Twilight being a princess and all (plus it was before the started catering more to their male audience). It’s also just very nostalgic for me being that it was the first season I kinda watched while being in the fandom.

who is your favorite couple in 3?

Ooof hmm. TAWoG doesn’t reaaaally focus on ships all that much. I thoroughly enjoy Gumball and Penny’s relationship, and Carrie and Darwin are cute as hell. But I think I gotta Go with Nicole and Richard, especially after watching “The Choices”. I hate when shows portray marriages as awful and like the worst possible scenario. They make jokes about it but Nicole and Richard genuinely care for each other. I always think about the part in “The Fury” when Nicole is sad but Richard cheers her up in his own goofy way. So cute ;0;

what is your favorite episode of 1?

I,,, have watched,,, Pokemon XY63 so many times you would not believe. It’s a Jessie episode (obviously). Seeing her fall for this doctor and do a complete 180 in character was so funny but also gives insight into how desperately she just wants domesticity and to be loved. Seeing James and Meowth be supportive of her choice and letting her go hurts so gooood and the little sprinkled in “twerps offering to help jessie plan her wedding” was wholesome.

I know I can only pick one but HHHHHH SAYONARA DOKUCALE MESSED ME UP. It was one of the first Pokémon episodes I had ever seen and I distinctly remember watching it in my Uncle and Aunt’s living room and SOBBING. Jessie backstory, a twerp truce AND a bitter sweet ending. GOOD STUUUUFFF

what is your favorite episode of 5?

I always come back to Rarity Takes Manehattan (rarity’s my favorite fyi haha). I love love loved the songs, Suri Polomare for no reason is so funny to me LMAOOO. Rarity episodes where she has a creative breakdown, which is most of them, are super relatable haha. There was so much fun Tabitha St Germain acting and great animation. It’s not the most well written episode of MLP but I still very much enjoy it.

what is your favorite season of 2?

This is really difficult bc Jimmy Neutron is just so consistent all the way through. I looked at a list of episodes and most of my favorites are in S2 so I guess that one! I remember watching a lot of these with my brother.

how long have you watched 1?

I’d seen episodes of Pokémon since like the early 2000s but didn’t start watching regularly until DP when me and my brother finally convinced our parents to let us watch it. I feel like we got into it around 2007/2008?

how did you become interested in 3?

Oh god everything about it interested me! Gumball came out RIGHT when I was starting to seriously pursue animation as a career. So, the animation/mishmash of animation styles initially hooked me right away. But then the WRITING. Oh the WRITING is what kept me coming back. It was so smart and snappy and it greatly shaped my sense of humor.

who is your favorite actor in 4?

SUSAN EGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!! Literally the whole cast is incredible but Susan Egan’s voice is just,,,, WHEW!!!

which do you prefer: 1, 2, or 5?

This is the hardest question I’ve ever had to answer. I love each of these shows for such different reasons. But if I were put in a scenario where someone said “i’m gonna show you a random episode from one of these shows, which do you wanna watch?” I would pick Jimmy Neutron hands down.

if you could be anyone from 4, who would it be?

I would be Sapphire I think. Just like vibing w my wife as a fusion sounds p dope.

would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

Well 4 did a crossover with Uncle Grandpa so yes absolutely. Plus Gumball is so meta anyways, it would work with generally anything.

pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple?

delia,,,, and,,,,, jessie

overall, which show has the best storyline: 3 or 5?

MLP for sure! Gumball is super episodic and started having continuity by the later seasons (and the storyline they were gonna have got CANCELLED so!!!!)

which has better theme music: 2 or 4?

Jimmy Neutron is a classic but the fact that there is a full theme for SU and it made me cry when it was released at ComicCon is making me want to say SU lol.

I TAG YOU IF YOU SEE THIS!!!

#long post #tag

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tertiaryunit · 4 years

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Walton Simons headshots based on photographs of different people:

Bust nr. 1 - Till Lindemann (which is terrifying to think of) Bust nr. 2 - George Clooney (in particular, Jack from “The American”). The flower is a reference to an one-shot I am currently finishing up. Bust nr. 3 - A young Sean Connery (SURPRISE)

Rambling below. NSFW-ish due to descriptions of explicit themes I guess - it’s all related to my DX lore so feel free to skip and just enjoy the art. :D

As you may have noticed, while I usually draw his eyes steel grey, this time I tried something a little different by giving him a faint tinge of ice blue to add that extra bit of “cold”. Because he totally needed it. Also I drew him with his canonical “veiny” augs only on pic nr.2 because I can’t draw them right :/ Nr. 1 Besides the physical resemblance, I have been listening to many, MANY Rammstein/Lindemann songs for inspiration - two in particular:

Amour [”Love is a wild animal - It sucks tightly on your lips and digs tunnels through your ribs - First it gets hot, then cold and in the end it hurts - Everyone just wants to tame you - Amour Amour - In the end caught between your teeth”]

Ladyboy [”Just for fun, no romance - He is my toy boy - No broken hearts, no bad romance - Never mind what I have become - Why should I love when I can have fun - With my breathing toy”]

(To be fair... In my story he might actually be sorry at the end? In some parts he’s written ambiguously on purpose. Either way he’s a creepy sonuvabitch)

Nr. 2 doesn’t really need too many explainations. In the one-shot, Lawrence has a lily in his jacket’s pocket - it wasn’t intended to be given. Walton just takes it from him and the other man is a bit confused, but incredibly happy regardless because he’s with his “hero”. It’s a fairly straightforward metaphor, especially because the “Madonna lily” represents purity and virginity. The whole thing is supposed to feel “creepy/off” for the readers.

Nr. 3 Not much to say except that during this quarantine I’ve been reading Fleming’s works (I have... A hate/love relationship with his books) and watched the Bond movies. Also a small meta reference to the fact that Larry’s faceclaim is going to play as the villain in the next Bond movie.

The linked pins are yet another “I love contrasts” thing from me because I see Walton as a Scorpio and Lawrence is a Virgo. This thing had me DEAD because it is sorta right all things considering. I don’t believe in horoscope and all of that but I find fun to play with it regarding fictional stuff. (Link)

#deus ex #walton simons #my art #The Demiurge [Walton Simons]#i mean if you know Till you also know WHY it would be terrifying #its fun as hell to me tho bc Walton is immune to fire in canon and Till set himself on fire various times lmao #imagine WS like Till in the Buck Dich live #g o d

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cavitymagazine · 4 years

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Haptic Narratives: The Absurdly R EA L Artifacts of Dale Brett / / / [part 2]

[D]: Lately though, most of my influence has come from other forms of media opposed to writing. I have found the more I write, the less I read – at least long form. Music, animated series/films - both Japanese anime and stuff like Adult Swim and internet culture - all of these things come through in my work.

[W]: Music.

[D]: Definitely music. I often try to write with a type of musical style I enjoy in mind. This is, believe it or not, one of the reasons I decided to re-commence writing fiction. I was sick and tired of googling combinations of "vaporwave + fiction + dream" or "shoegaze + literature + drugs" to try and find works that fit a certain aesthetic that did not exist. So why not create them myself? For instance, ambient and to a lesser extent dreampunk, would be the genres I was trying to build on in Faceless in Nippon. With Ultraviolet Torus it is no secret that it is my shoegaze project. As you know with our mall collaboration [cloud mall and maze/mall], this will be vaporwave-heavy in aesthetic and theme. I think these musical styles also take me right back to the original interests that I have garnered from literature: how to feel and express oneself in light of the consumerist dream, how to find meaning in the face of a constant blurring reality. I want to produce words that create a sensory experience. Words to touch your skin, words to make you see refracted colours, words to make you realise life sucks but it's all okay.

[W]: Aesthetics are important to me as well. The depth of the surface. The synthetic, simulacra. I suspect any "honest" portrayal of our day-to-day life, even a so-called "realist" presentation, would be sci-fi, at least in part. The kitchen-sink realism of today would include game realities and all sorts of "tropes" – or what one used to call tropes – of sci-fi. DeLillo’s White Noise is a big work for me, related to some of the consumerist themes. The three layers you refer to are impressive – you've put a lot of thought into where your work comes from, what it's shaped by. I've never thought in those terms really. Although "Pessoan cyberpunk nihilism" as a blurb would have me buying whatever that book is. Abe's The Box Man - I read that in I think 2015 or so. I see Abe's tone in some of your prose. That is a hard tone to tap. It's soft and dislocated. Requires a gentle hand, and a kind of amorphous thought process. In recent years I've taken influence more from video games and commercials and music than anything textual. I assumed your influences now were primarily visual. Graphic novels, anime, bad TV movies - I cull more from kitsch than I do from literature now. Would you tell me a bit about your time in Japan? And how would you describe Faceless in Nippon to a reader who knows literally nothing about it?

[W]: I relate very hard to your not being able to google, say, "vaporwave + dream + fiction" and get a hit. You had to create your hits. I feel the same way. It's like I want "Borges + USA Up All Night" or something similarly niche and not-quite-available-elsewhere. The established subgenres you mention, like dreampunk, are still these largely unexplored parks of the mind. There aren't a whole lot of titles. Do you view Faceless in Nippon as your first book and Ultraviolet Torus as a sophomore effort?

[W]: One aspect of your work that struck me right away is its sensory nature, and its desire to make complex emotions like melancholy or lostness more tangible or tactile.

[Ed.: racetams with caffeine are ingested.]

[D]: I really like your description – “the depth of the surface.” This really fits what I’m trying to achieve with writing. I try to attain a certain sensory experience with abstract imagery, but endeavor to maintain a somewhat conventional narrative or “everyday” story underneath. For instance, Faceless in Nippon was always meant to mimic the feeling of floating in/on water, gently bobbing through society’s ambient capitalist waters attempting to find a purpose. This incorporeal imagery juxtaposed with the more straightforward vignette format and story arc of a young western male living abroad. With Ultraviolet Torus, the prose and format are more unconventional – it was designed to mimic gemstone/mineral structure and shoegaze music, with the narrative underpinning the imagery taking the form of the rise and fall of a standard relationship. I agree that even a “realist” presentation is somewhat sci-fi these days – it is unavoidable. Our friend, contemporary, and collaborator James Krendel-Clark and I have often spoken about how the only thing left for sci-fi is this almost meta-sci-fi angle, where all the tropes have become so cliché and ingrained that really any attempt at sincere “world building” is futile. It’s better to experiment in syntax and delve into what another contemporary of ours, Nick Greer, likes to call “hyper-genre”. Use the tropes, but explore them linguistically, see what they do for the reader sensorily, opposed to using them as the building blocks to create another mundane genre narrative. I have certainly done that in shorter form through the Concentric Circuits: CODA stuff on Surfaces. I think my sci-fi influence comes through in both Faceless in Nippon and Ultraviolet Torus, certainly in the way that I frame the setting or landscape as a character almost, similar to how Ballard and Gibson craft their prose. I have had a lot of time to think about the aforementioned literary influences. I am slightly OCD too, so I often create these massive lists and Venn diagrams and shit of artists/works with certain styles and aesthetics that overlap. I do like to think of myself as a modern-day Walter Benjamin in the way I compile notes and lists and memories that form the basis of my artistic and existential exploration. I think Benjamin would have had a hell of a time with the notes app of a smart phone.

[D]: Regarding Kobo Abe, you are correct, certainly not an easy tone to master, and one that I definitely have not. My writing is not as sound as a master like Abe, which I think is why I subconsciously fall back on the sci-fi landscape syntax/prose mentioned above and the more colloquial twenty-first century alt-lit style to strive forward in my work. I am still developing though, and hopefully, opposed to just replicating Abe’s tone, one day I will be in a position where people are speaking about a tone entirely of my own that others will use as an influence. Abe is also a good segue into other forms of media that influence written work, as he has often been an inspiration to artist’s in the visual field such as filmmakers and video game creators. It is no secret that he is Hideo Kojima’s favorite author.

[D]: Since re-commencing my fiction-writing, which was at the beginning of 2019, you are accurate in your inference that I have primarily relied on other forms of media to influence my work. I have barely read any novels at all in the last couple of years comparative to the previous decade of reading. I garner much more from music, anime, and internet culture these days. I am glad you brought up the influence of commercials – I think we certainly share an avid interest in exploring the consumerist sphere and its effects on art and society. There are a number of important moments in Faceless in Nippon dealing with commercials, products, stores and their underrated aura. Hell, I even created fictional beverages and advertisements for the book.

[D]: My time in Japan was an incredibly formative experience for me. I really only returned to my home country, Australia, when my wife became pregnant. Otherwise I would probably still be there, cruising around upper-class malls, lower-class malls, drinking massive cans of Asahi on the train, staring at LED signs from concrete overpasses at night interminably. I certainly still yearn for my time there. I did go back to visit friends recently and it was a strange experience, like I could not re-create the feelings of my time there in the past no matter how hard I strived. It became apparent that my yearnings were purely for a time in my life while stationed there, opposed to the setting itself.

[D]: I would describe Faceless in Nippon as a meditative, aqueous travelogue on what it means to exist as a middle-class person in the twenty first century, the entirety of which is set in urban Japan.

[D]: I really admire artists that have an unmistakable aesthetic stamp on their work. Auteurship, if you will. For what it’s worth, I think you are one of the few that has a singular, univocal voice in the online “outsider” lit community or whatever you want to call it. I would like to think mine is the same. That people will read it and go, “Oh fuck, that’s Dale alright.” I have been told before that my work reads like MDMA. I am exceedingly happy with that comparison. I would be pleased if that was how I was known as an artist after my “career” or whatever you want to call it is over. Basically, I want to create things that are uniquely my own, things that have not been attempted before. Another reason I think that you and I gel well together as creatives is that despite our many differences in aesthetics, we are enamored by the depth of so-called low culture and continually mash it together with the supposed “high culture” of literature.

The "Borges + USA Up All Night" example illustrates this perfectly.

[D]: Both Faceless in Nippon and Ultraviolet Torus will be available at similar times. However, there is no doubt that Faceless is my first book. It is the first thing I started working on when I didn’t know it was going to be what it became. Torus was a more experimental foray into the literary field. I compiled Torus, an exploration of gemstone and dream imagery, between drafts of Faceless. I was particularly taken by crystals, shoegaze, and giddiness over my interactions with some beautiful people on the internet at the time. It proved to be a fruitful break from Faceless rewrites, as not only did I let the novel marinate and become better before publishing it, I also gave birth to another creative treasure.

[D]: Making emotive words tactile, rendering the textually intangible tangible. This is something I want to see extended even further as we continue collaborating on our mall project. I want to delicately wrench the phaser knob on these effects and really see where we can go with our adventures in the literary sensorium.

[W]: I remember you saying you wanted Faceless in Nippon to "feel like floating in water." It made me think of a novel as a kind of sensory deprivation tank, the floating and the effects. Did you think of Ultraviolet Torus as a gem, in the abstract, or was the structuring of it more precisely gemlike? James [Krendel-Clark] and I wrote the rough draft of this Blanchot-bodyhorror, broken-videogame-reality novel called Cenotaph, and much of it deals with irrational spaces and Phildickian pulp. As far as sci-fi goes, the more subjective my take, the more "sci-fi" it seems to become. Just last night I drifted between three realities - one in which I was an unemployed writer living under Covid-19, one in which I destroyed an organic ship/braincraft with a cyber-tank, and another where I trained as a druid mage in a treacherous cursed desert. Of course these last two were games and that doesn't even entail any other branching realities that came about as well with regard to books, narratives, televisual influences, lies we tell ourselves, 5G brain-attacking waves, et al. It's late and I'm stoned and tired but yeah. Nick Greer is a fascinating individual. I didn't know you knew him. We spoke about set theory once. Gödel. I read very little, yeah. Or I should say I don't sit and read a physical book as often as I used to. I read rigorously for a good 20 years. If I'm awake enough to read, I usually would want to spend that time writing, or perhaps gaming. Or dreaming. All of these beats - the fictional beverages and ads and playing metafictionally with products and whatnot - I kind of live for that shit. I do that more and more. And it's not even a critique or any kind of satire of it for me - like the low-rez haze of 1-900 commercials was a fuzzy heaven in a box for me as a kid. The K-Mart cafeteria did possess a unique and strange power. I think we're kind of on the same page here as far as we share a kind of reverence for the artificial, the things rendered meaningless through mass production, and other similar slippery intangibles. There is a wonder here that sets it apart from, say, a satirical/scathing view of consumerist life. God, yeah, your experience in Japan. I think I've experienced similar stuff. I remember a time in 2000 when Boca Raton, Florida, was kind of magical for me. I went there a few years back; it's just any place now. Such a strange thing. And sad too. This is the only kind of interview I'd conduct, one with a writer whose work I think truly good. You might've remarked upon the melancholic allure of vending machines coding out at night. Or something similar. It's that sort of sentiment I recognized straightaway as what I consider tuned-in to a cryptic aesthetic I love. I was relieved to discover your wordcraft was honed – that's usually the big problem for me liking someone's work. One of the big draws for me about your work is the stuff you're able to do that I really dig but am not really suited to pull off myself, such as the MDMA vibe, or the ennui mixed with light, hope, etc. There are a dozen or so singular voices around in the online outsider-lit community/whatever, voices I'd consider distinctive: you, Clark, Elytron Frass, Durban Moffer – a few others.

[W]: Your themes I would say demand nuance and control. We've talked about how our mall project is slow-going because it seems very painstaking, almost like etching or surgery or something. Introspective, in any case. Although I just sort of dismissed reading a second ago, I do believe that a unique body of work is made unique by a dizzying variety of blendered influences. I had that 15-year stretch in the suffering cubes to read pretty much constantly, and haphazardly, as far as selection, in a lot of ways, so my influence map is like really fucking bizarre and extensive, which I think makes my stuff appear unique, when all that is unique about it probably is my little perspective or whatever subjectivity is injected into this array of eclectic influences.

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yasuda-yoshiya · 5 years

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im so glad you decided to give utena a go! it's my favourite anime and there truly isn't any wrong interpretation of the events, themes, and characters. what are your thoughts on the individual student council members? as well as the black rose duelists, and the black rose arc itself? that part of the series always struck me as very important in the elaboration of themes that are important for the rest, even if its 'filler', lmao. and im glad you liked utena as well!

Utena is great! I’m very glad to have watched it. And I know what you mean about interpretations, haha; I’ve been looking up a lot of people’s meta and analysis about it since I finished watching it, and people really do approach it from so many different cool and interesting ways. I think it’s a really cleverly presented show in the sense that it doesn’t really directly push any particular lesson or moral to the story; it just sort of very accurately observes and portrays a lot of really relatable and recognisable social dynamics, and lets the viewer decide for themselves what they want to take from that. I really like it a lot!

Haha, gosh, that’s a lot of characters to cover! Well, let’s see how quickly I can sum them up… For the student council members, I really liked Saionji; I think they did a good job at balancing the portrayal of his sweet and childish side with his capacity for genuine ugliness when his insecurities cause him to lash out at people. He came across to me as someone who really did want a genuinely mutual emotional connection rather than just “possessing” someone (that exchange diary was very endearing in its ridiculousness) but didn’t really know how to go about that except by clumsily forcing it on people, which feels like a pretty relatable teenager thing.

Then there’s Miki…I felt like his fixation on his memories of Kozue and later Anthy as his “shining thing” was a pretty good portrayal of how idolising and putting people on a pedestal can also be its own way of dehumanising them, and I thought his episodes did a good job of showing how those sorts of feelings can easily get diverted into something ugly despite him being a basically gentle kid at heart. I wasn’t quite sure what to make about the stuff with his parents, exactly, and I felt like the whole plotline with Kozue was a bit all over the place, but I still basically appreciate the core of the character and what he adds to the series.

Juri was interesting! Her bitterness over Shiori felt like a pretty authentic and recognisable emotion to me; it’s certainly a very uncomfortable situation as a teenager to be in that position of having feelings for someone you know you’re not “supposed” to, and then having to put up with people giving you those empty platitudes of “oh, if you like someone then you should just tell them!!” without any real understanding of the situation. I thought her relationship with Shiori was pretty compelling in how messed up and dysfunctional it ended up being on both ends, but then her last couple of episodes with Ruka really didn’t do anything for me; it felt to me like he ended up sort of hijacking her plotline in a weirdly offputting way, so I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it in the end. I still like the character, but I felt like her overall arc had potential to be more interesting to me than it was.

Touga…I didn’t really like Touga very much! He honestly just came across as a very consciously manipulative asshole for most of the series, and the show’s eventual attempts to humanise him felt like too little too late for me. I think I can somewhat see and appreciate the idea of what they were going for in terms of a lot of his gross attitudes being a misguided attempt to emulate people like Akio as role models for what a “prince” should be, and that he was also a victim and a pawn of the system in the end, but on the whole I was pretty much inclined to agree with Saionji when he said “you’ve never actually cared about anyone”. Even after Utena supposedly made him doubt himself, he still seemed to keep acting in the same gross ways for the most part, which I guess was probably meant as an intentional deconstruction of the usual tropes in some respects (falling in love doesn’t actually magically make you a better person), but that still doesn’t really make me like him any more!

Nanami was just hilarious, haha. I expected her to be a really grating character from her introduction, but her comic relief episodes were so completely over-the-top ridiculous that they sort of wrapped around to being weirdly endearing in their way, so I couldn’t really actively dislike her. I also couldn’t ever bring myself to actually take her seriously as a character at all, though; bizarre comedy episodes aside, she seemed like a pretty standard clingy brocon character without a whole lot of nuance. But at least she was a very entertaining one!

Oh yeah, the Black Rose arc was really important, I agree! I wouldn’t really say it felt like filler particularly - I suppose it’s true that Utena and Anthy don’t do much in it, but thematically I think it does add a huge amount, and I enjoyed the way it established Akio as a sort of “wise mentor” figure in the background before really putting him into the spotlight in the final arc. It sort of made me sort of instinctively want to trust him even despite him being really obviously shady, which in retrospect was a pretty impressively complicated feeling for the show to be able to pull off. But yeah, the arc itself was really interesting! I think it was definitely a really effective and thematically important choice to put the focus on the “losers” of the system, giving a voice to people you’d expect to be background characters and giving them the chance to fight for themselves. I know Ikuhara said the Black Rose arc was inspired by him hearing someone on TV say something like “society is divided into the chosen and the unchosen; to be unchosen is to die”, and wanting to explore the feelings of the “unchosen”, and I think it achieved that pretty well; a lot of the Black Rose Duelists’ stories were pretty insightful in criticising the narratives behind that sort of artificial social hierarchy and what it does to people.

I think what left the most impact about it to me, though, was that it just had such a strong atmosphere! Those elevator therapy sequences really managed to be legitimately creepy and disturbing; the juxtaposition of the duelists’ big emotional breakdowns with Mikage’s weirdly impersonal, deadpan, scripted response struck a very effectively unsettling note for me. And the Black Rose Duelists themselves had such a cool and memorable aesthetic, too…it always felt really striking to me whenever we got to see them dueling, probably because most of them really aren’t the kinds of characters you’d expect to be fighting (as opposed to most of the student council members who have established fencing and Kendo skills), so it sort of added to the impression of these people who wouldn’t normally have any power within the system being given a chance to fight. So yes, on the whole I think it’s a really cool arc, with a really fantastic presentation in particular.

As for impressions on each of the Black Rose Duelists individually, hmm, let’s see…Kanae was a good enough introduction to the concept, but didn’t really leave that much impression. I felt bad for her being used by Akio, but she didn’t really get enough screentime for me to get invested. Kozue…I think Kozue never really clicked for me, honestly? Her being so creepily possessive of Miki was sort of offputting to me (this show already has enough incest, you know…?), and I felt like I couldn’t really get a good feel for her character or what drove her on anything more than an abstract level.

Shiori was really interesting! There was a compelling sort of raw desperation behind her panicked, uncomprehending response to finding Juri’s locket that really stuck with me; it’s sort of an ugly reaction but it honestly felt pretty sympathetic to me, I think? Like, if on the one hand your former best friend is totally off-handedly dismissing your attempts to reach out and make amends with her in person and acting like she never wants to see you again, but at the same time you find out she’s also secretly treasuring an old picture of you as her most prized possession and keeping it on her at all times…well, that IS actually pretty weird, you know?! I think most people would be at least a little creeped out by that. So Shiori’s kind of totally confused panic response and weird mix of vindicated elation and anger culminating in that accusing shout of “WHY DO YOU LOOK AT ME THAT WAY?!” honestly felt pretty real to me. I felt like they did a good job of conveying a real constant sense of deep-rooted self-loathing behind her more selfish and manipulative actions that made it hard for me not to feel sorry for her a lot of the time; it seemed to me like she was stuck in a sort of toxic cycle of trying to escape her low self-esteem by “deceiving people into liking her”, which inevitably just made her feel even worse about herself and just fed deeper into the initial assumption that no one would like her unless she deceived them, and so on, which was really painful to watch. I’m not surprised that she seems to evoke such visceral emotional responses from people within the fandom, because I think a lot of what she says and does really feels uncomfortably raw and real in a way that’s difficult to process. She’s a very good character in that way!

Tsuwabuki…well, he didn’t particularly grab me as a character, but I did actually enjoy his Black Rose episode quite a bit. I feel like it makes for a pretty strong illustration of just how little coherent and accessible information there really is out there for young kids trying to understand what sexuality and relationships are like, so it’s easy for people to end up turning to dubious sources and developing weird and messed up ideas about how things work and what “adulthood” actually means. It’s really no wonder that our whole cultural standards around that stuff have become so screwed up and dysfunctional when no one’s even really willing to talk about it.

Wakaba was great! I liked her a lot. She was a genuinely good friend to Utena and a good illustration of the unappreciated strength and value of “normal people”. The end of her arc with Saionji honestly made me really sad! I sort of wish there was a little bit more follow-up after her duel with Utena, though; I would have liked it if the whole thing had a bit more of a lasting impact on Wakaba and how Utena viewed her and their friendship, but it didn’t feel like that ever really happened, so her subplot felt a bit…unresolved, I guess? Well, I think it’s probably intentional that most of the characters besides Utena and Anthy don’t really get a firm “resolution” to their arcs - the potential for growth is there, but they still haven’t broken out of their shells yet, which is fine - but I think I would have at least liked to see her take a few more steps toward being able to see her own worth without needing someone “special” to validate her. (Akio can get lost with his whole “oh normal people only ever get to shine for a short time lol” nonsense, urrgghh.)

I liked Keiko too! Devoting a whole episode to a previously nameless bit character like that was a really cool way of hammering home the whole theme of breaking down the conventional assumptions behind social “hierarchies” even on a meta/narrative level. Keiko herself was interesting to me in the sense that her grievances and anger at having her chance at happiness “denied to her” when she’s no less deserving than anyone else actually felt legit sympathetic at first in isolation, but then you look at the unspoken assumptions framing that narrative and it suddenly becomes really disturbing (this person would make me happy, everyone deserves happiness, therefore I deserve this person).

Mikage…man, I really wanted to like Mikage - the basic ideas behind his character are really cool and fascinating - but I think his arc just felt too rushed for me in the end? It felt like we basically got dumped with his entire plot and backstory immediately before it got resolved, so I didn’t really have time to get emotionally invested in his story before it was already over. Revealing midway that half of his backstory was probably a lie didn’t exactly help things either, as I was left struggling to keep up with what was actually real and what wasn’t; I still don’t feel like I really have a handle on some of the basic points like why he actually set the building on fire or when exactly Mamiya died, which makes it hard for me to really connect with the character and understand what exactly he got out of the illusionary narrative that Akio constructed for him. Theoretically I feel like he should really be exactly the kind of character I absolutely love - someone detached from their own emotions who doubts their basic humanity, who keeps clinging single-mindedly on to his memories of the only people who ever made him actually feel something even after they’re long gone? Wow, sign me up - but the execution just didn’t quite do it for me. I feel like his story might have benefited from being more spread out across the whole Black Rose arc instead of shoved entirely into two episodes, so that we got more of a chance to get more gradually invested in him? As it is, I still think he’s a conceptually fascinating character, and I’ve read a lot of great meta about his place in the story and his parallels with Utena that makes him sound incredibly interesting, but I just couldn’t really feel it from the show itself.

Wow okay I sure did write a lot! Well, that’s my initial impressions on the Utena characters. I expect a lot of those impressions would change if I watched it again, though - like I said, I don’t think I really fully grasped the real aims and themes of the show until the very end, so I’d probably pick up on a lot more nuances a second time around. But those are my thoughts for now!

#revolutionary girl utena

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meggannn · 6 years

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(based on your previous ask) do you mind if I ask how you feel about lok? is there a general consensus if it's good or bad? youre really insightful and just wanted to know if there were any major issues you had with it

yeah sure, i’ll do my best. if you want a quick answer to your question, here is a link to some of my other korra posts where i say pretty much the same thing as i do here, just in fewer words. cause this post will be mostly an unhappy summary of my experience watching the show. this post will contain spoilers, and disclaimer, i am a really biased, disappointed asshole, so i’ll just admit that now.

short answer: i liked the concept of lok more than the product we got. a lot of that is because you had a physically buff brown wlw protagonist written mostly by cishet white men and, as you can imagine, it wasn’t handled great. when i think of lok now i tend to fluctuate between bittersweet nostalgia and quiet, simmering rage.

if you don’t care about the show summary, skip at the middle paragraph break down to my tldr.

so for those who don’t know, LOK was really my first “big” fandom on tumblr. when it was announced, a bunch of ATLA purists were already hating on it because 1) brown woman, 2) it was unrealistic to go from ATLA’s technology to streampunk in 70 years, and 3) it wasn’t ATLA, basically. it was my first big interest that i got to participate in as it was airing, and i was really excited about it. i defended it, i wrote meta, i liveblogged, i wrote tons of fic and spammed theories/wants before the damn show even had a release date. all that is to say, i was Invested, and i believed in it before i even saw it. people called me a bnf, i’m not sure if that’s true, but i did gain a lot my followers in my first few years on tumblr by posting korra stuff. a lot of them – hello – i think are still around today (i’m not certain how all the video games hasn’t scared them off yet)

i should say at this point that my opinion of LOK the show has been really wrapped up in the ugly stain left by the fanbase. korra the character has been the subject of tons of racist, misogynistic criticism since the moment we saw her back; when she showed up on screen as a proud young woman who fought with authority and stood up for herself, that was the nail in the coffin for her reputation. i agreed that she had a bit of growing up to do, because ATLA/LOK have always been stories about coming of age and maturing, but i disagreed strongly with this notion that she deserved to be “humbled,” which is what a lot of fans were looking for.

the overall consensus on if it’s “good” depends on who you ask. most people agree that ATLA is better overall: it was better plotted because it benefited from more writers in the room and more episodes to flesh out the world. opinions on LOK specifically range based a lot on their opinions of the K/orra/sami pairing, if they were involved in or what side they were on in any of the fandom wank, and also just complete random chance.

i’ll go more in depth into my ‘history’ with the show below, but i just wanted to mention that all the while the show was airing, korra was being hit with waves of criticism by so-called fans for basically being a confident brown woman who were calling for her to learn her place, respect her elders, etc. another common theme was fandom’s brilliant fucking idea that asami, a light-skinned feminine non-bending woman who was more polite and reserved than korra, would’ve made a better avatar. because you know why. (korra was often described as brutal, rough, unsophisticated, next to pretty, perfect asami. and asami is a fine character, to be clear, but that’s what she was – fine. nothing really stands out about her, which is a fault of the writing, because she had a lot of potential too.) so anyway all of this did sour my mood toward engaging with other fans outside my friend circle.

–

it was around maybe the middle of book 1 that i realized the writing for the show was simpler than what i was expecting – not that it was childish, which it was (because it was written for children, i understood that), but i felt like the plot meandered and the twists came out of nowhere. it felt like they were making it up as they were going, and it opened threads it didn’t answer. one of the biggest threads was the equalist revolution, which was a very sensitive topic that got jettisoned when the leader was revealed to be a fraud, and that devalued the entire movement in an instant. really disappointing, because i was looking forward to seeing that addressed. for a lot of people, this was a dealbreaker, and they started walking. i stuck with it, but loosely.

book 2 aired, focusing on the spiritual world and some really cool history. it still suffered a lot from awkward b-plots and loose threads it didn’t know how to tackle. korra lost her memory and then regained it 2 episodes later with no consequences, mako flip-flopped between korra and asami because bryke don’t know how to write teenage romances without making it a love triangle, and at some point bolin kissed a girl against her will and they didnt acknowledge that at all? i honestly don’t remember. anyway at the end of book 2, even though korra saves the day and prevents the world from descending into darkness for ten thousand years, due to events beyond her control, korra loses the spiritual connection that ties her to all of the previous avatars – aang, roku, kyoshi, wan, everyone. and people hit the fucking ceiling. “korra’s not a real avatar if she lost her connection to the old ones! that’s the entire point of the cycle! this show is bullshit, it’s not canon anymore!” (the entire point that finale demonstrated that korra’s power alone was enough to save the world and she didn’t need anyone else. but people found that ~unrealistic~ i guess). as you can imagine, being a fan of LOK is starting to get a little tiring by now.

books 3-4 is where the korra haters got to love the show again, because they were both straight-up torture porn. after everything she did saving the world, this is the arc where korra got beat down, tortured, dragged into the dirt, swallowed and spat back out. book 3 is a lot of people’s favorites because it was the first book that felt fully plotted out before it was put on air, which is why i enjoyed it too. but for me it was difficult to see a girl, whose identity revolved around being the avatar after being raised and sheltered to think it was all she was good for, effectively abandon her life and even her name by the beginning of book 4 because the events of book 3 were that traumatizing for her. somehow this was character development. we were encouraged to stick with it because we hoped korra would find herself again. and she did, sorta.

but it makes me furious that people who had quit in books 1-2 came back during 3 because they heard these books were better – aka book 3, the book that featured korra the least, and books 3-4 in which korra got her ass handed to her in some of the hardest fights vs some of the cruelest villains of the series. (nevermind that the book 3 villains suffer from the anime villain curse: they quickly went from “cool character design” to “wait, how does this rando group of villains show up with powers literally no one in the universe has ever heard before?” – questions no one ever answers)

anyway book 4 is a mish-mash of… i’m not sure. i’ve rewatched all the books but i don’t know if i’ll ever touch this one again. the culturally appropriating airbender wannabe, zaheer (a complete rando who somehow masters airbending enough to fly, which was a huge middle finger to airbending masters aang and tenzin for no reason) a guy who literally tortured korra one season before and put her in a wheelchair, is the one who the writers send korra to for her spiritual awakening that lets her save the day. not tenzin or jinora, her spiritual teachers with whom she has positive, healthy relationships – they send her back to her abuser who terrifies and degrades her a bit more before deciding to help. this was a pattern: the writers made both korra and asami face their abusers (in asami’s case, her father) for catharsis instead of gaining peace over their trauma another, healthier way because…. i’m not sure why. there is no reason why. and then there’s the guilt tripping nonsense of asami feeling as if she had to forgive her father, who tried to kill her, because he said he was sorry and sacrificed himself for her in the finale. it’s angst galore, if you like that kind of thing, which i normally do, except this is less angst and more just the writers trying to hammer in torture porn, grimdark, and poor attempts at morally gray nonsense into their finale season.

anyway at the end of her journey, korra, our buff brown woc, learns that she had to suffer to learn how to be compassionate and relate to her enemy. i’m not exaggerating, she literally says that. which is lovely.

–

tldr: i wasted a lot of emotional time and energy into this show and was extremely disappointed when some of the ending’s notes were “you had to suffer to become a better person” and “forgive your abusers/villains because aren’t we all the same in the end?”

but also on a strictly narrative level, LOK also bit off way more than it could chew both emotionally and thematically. it had an amazing premise, but it was not committed to

utilizing the steampunk genre to its best potential in the bending world (after the creativity in the rest of the worldbuilding, the LOK series finale was literally fighting a giant robot – seriously?)

giving its hero the respect and character arc she deserved. and i don’t say that because i think korra had no growing up to do in b1, she did, but she didn’t deserve for it to happen like that.

so basically i realized that a lot of the writers that made ATLA great weren’t brought back for LOK, and it showed. i realized that the LOK writers, when they listened to fans, were listening to the fans that whined the loudest, or (more likely, since they plan seasons years before we see them) they thought from the beginning that it was a good idea for korra to go through years’ worth of pain just to be spat out a humbler, “better” person

the reason i told you all that about me defending LOK in the beginning is because i need you to understand that i believed in LOK longer than i probably should’ve. i wanted it to be everything i was expecting in a diverse children’s show with an unorthodox female protaganist. but just because they had a brown wlw heroine doesn’t mean that they deserved to be praised for it when they treated her like garbage.

and korra and asami walk into a beam of light together in the last second of the show and i’m supposed to applaud the writers for their bravery or something

#megan talks about korra #Anonymous #askbox #this is a very condensed summary because otherwise i'd be here all day talking about the pro-asami anti-korra fandom wank

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softgreensakura · 2 years

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Did I really just spend all of yesterday drawing that dream I had? Yes. Yes I did, and you're gonna know all about it (if you want to of course~♡)

~This dream contains lots of fictional crossovers, a couple of OCS and self insert because It's my dream and I get to star in it. There is also a potential body horror TW on page 16? Tagged it anyway just in case!~

Transcript because my handwriting is poo poo.

Dream of Wed 30/3/22. [pg.1]

I thought it was quite interesting, so I attempted to draw as much as I could remember in the best chronological order I could remember.

Setting no.1

Rocky building Bit of isolated coast *other small details not worth including in transcript

Here's how I'm sure it started: [pg.2]

So it seems that I'm aware of what's going on (it's in first person sometimes), but this is actually from May Pokemon's* perspective.

She seemed to be visiting the town with some unnamed/unspecified adult guardians (who were doing something else and were not Norman, or his wife, or Prof. Birch).

Wandering alone. Probably out drinking.

*Cerise dream trope no.1: A Pokémon character or more appears. It is almost always game-verse, not anime-verse.

May hung around the town, [pg.3] exploring old, rocky buildings and enjoying the (early evening/late noon?) view of the town.

(Also no shoes because that's associated with the beach or smth)

Cerise Note: "Personally, I would've given her shoes. She's walking on old ass rocks."

At the same time, on the main beach, [pg.4] (oh God here comes trope no. 2*..😰)...

A certain Dreamscape regular was attractively there, on the beach, and clad in casual nautical-themed summer garb.

Cerise Note: "Not the first time he's worn nautical clothing in a dream..."

STEAL HIS LOOK!!

Summer hat tm.. £your will to live.

Shirt that took me ages to draw. £your lunch money.

That. £a potato.

*Cerise dream trope no.2: Calem has a 75% chance of appearing. His role varies each dream, but so far he's been having a good time. Ah.

He was having a great time! [pg.5] He was actually with Serena! And my X protag. They went to the isolated shore by small boat, and May was seen on a separate boat.

Actually, I came up with the rest of my little song* [pg.6] in that dream. I swear I've heard the tune from another song before, but I can't remember it. Oh well. This is what I saw when I figured out the words:

Association! (NGL, he's a bit evil in my imagination. Aha~😅)

Association! (And currently, her story is taking place long after the game's story)

...

(something soft and essence-y?) It's the essence of a generation~♡

(Holy SHIT! is that HATSUNE MIKU?!?)

*... It's related to some BIG. HUGE. Lore. This lore cannot be explained in one go. That's how much there is.

Hwoahh woah woah. HATSUNE MIKU?!? [pg.7] ON A CANAL BOAT!? That's right. New setting. And I'm the protagonist now! ahaha~♡

Okay, so here's the canal setting:

crate that I must turn over venice styled buildings bridge way to main land

So I'm on the canal (Miss Miku is gone now), [pg.8] and I have a quest to turn crates and stuff over. But I don't know how to...

"How do I do this?" No reaction...

So I go somewhere else to find answers! New setting!

(But first we go back to May at midnight)

(1) She's on some sort of allotment roof. [pg.9] One of the adults and HE. is there.

(2) But that's all there is for May now. Now it's my turn!

Tennis Court.

(3) This setting is huge. Many quest checkpoints here. [pg.10]

CHICKENS! Forest. City & more

So I had to flip the box over. [pg.11] I went to the chicken coop for my first side quest and this is what went down:

Yours truly: "OMG! CHICKENS!" *textless panel with chickens. *stares cutely* "MASA." omg omg

Masa from Meta Runner: "If you wanna play with the [pg.12] chickens, you have to deliver parcels."

ACCEPT QUEST? -Bruh, ofc.

ACCEPTED!

Moi: "Okay~♡!"

-------

"And that's how I ended up-" WE INTERRUPT THIS DREAM TO BRING YOU... TENNIS.

Tennis Match! (one of the characters is labelled as "SUGI"*)

*This is the name of my PLA protag. But this character isn't actually him, and I knew this in my dream.

Okay, so this guy was using MY SON'S. NAME. [pg.13] But he SUCKED at tennis.

Not my boy My boy!

Like, he was so bad, I had to take control of him like I was playing Wii Sports. Needless to say, I won because Wii Sports is easy.

"Good grief you suck."

Then I delivered a parcel to Mario, [pg.14] who lived in the big apartment.

(Mind you, it was like, 3am or smth.)

I also delivered some other parcels, but I only saw Mario in the montage.

Parcels delivered, I went back to the chicken coops to [pg.15] see Masa and get my reward (chicken.)

I took a wrong turn (intended) and saw N and Hilda. For some reason, N was just his official art.

...So I went back to the chicken coop.

Something that resembled Dawn was... there? [pg.16] Near the coop? Eerily pretty?

(Normal Dawn for emotional support)

The Grinch had replaced Masa! [pg.17] It was 5am. The sun was rising.

The Grinch pulled me into his Grinchly embrace..

And sang a Grinch song! [pg.18]

"Great! I can turn that crate over now!

SIDEQUEST COMPLETE!

I went back on my boat on the canal so I could [pg.19] return to the crate and flip it over.

Jimbo* from The Simpsons was there. I made him feel uneasy as I passed by in my sexy boat.

*Simpsons characters have a 96% chance of appearing in my dreams. Are my dreams Simpsons episodes?

Finally, box time. [pg.20]

Then my alarm went off and the dream was over. I never got to flip the box.

END.

----------

If you actually read all that, I commend you. Have some uhh. 🍔🍔

#softgreendreams #dream documentation #tw body horror #my dreams are essentially just one big crack fanfiction #I haven't seen many fe characters lately #but that's always subject to change

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sparklyjojos · 6 years

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Some final commentary on Cosmic

which turned into yet another analysis of JDC, Tsukumojuku and Jorge Joestar because I have zero self-restraint. Half this post is searching for overarching themes and wacky theories, have fun with my ramblings I guess

[big spoilers for Cosmic and Tsukumojuku, not really for Jorge Joestar]

While I decided to finish Cosmic first, the recommended reading order is Cosmic (1st half) -> Joker -> Cosmic (2nd half). I guess this better ties both books together and helps avoid some Joker spoilers that are in Cosmic. The new edition even encourages it by labeling the tomes of Cosmic with Ryu and Sui, and Joker with Sei and Ryo. So you’re supposed to read “Seiryo in Ryusui” *rimshot* The cover art is also meant to be put together in that order (notice that the last cover also connects to the first though, and you can try putting the shorter edges together too):

On the book’s theme, and some meta:

I’m actually glad I’ve read Tsukumojuku before this, as it gave me a solid grip on the meta and the ridiculous detectiving. It made me LOVE the very ending, especially the “walking towards the end of the story with this tiny last moment lasting forever” part -- in hindsight of Tsukumojuku’s ending I almost cried at this point. The meaning’s a bit different, of course: Tsukumojuku has the triplets realize they should leave their daydream, and so it was both a sad and joyful ending, with them trying to stretch their last moments being ‘Tsukumojuku’. Cosmic has Juku and Yasha being a little apprehensive but determined to reach ‘the end of the story’, and at the end, they’re happy and joking around while (wittingly or not?) walking into eternity as the book ends, and with it their existence (...which doesn’t sound nearly as dramatic when you know there's a sequel).

Adding to that, I believe the last words imply the author (=the heavens forever watching over the characters) is joyful about the end (’the heavens themselves laughing’). Note that when Juku (or is it?) first appears in the book, in that post office scene, right after the 19 consecutive tragedies we just had to read through, we learn that ‘the heavens have been crying, but now it was as if they started laughing’, and Juku looks up at the sky and smiles. The end of the epilogue has the second-person someone (the reader?) be sad about the book coming to an end, with statements like ‘just two paragraphs remain until the end’ (and there really are only two short paragraphs in the book left after this!), and describing the heavy rain that starts in those two paragraphs as ‘the heavens crying’ (so... the sadness of both the reader and the author?). Finishing a good book, whether as a writer or a reader, is indeed both a joyful and a sad event. Similarly, the detectives are all happy and inexplicably sad when Juku claims the case has been solved. (There’s an echo of this theme even in Jorge Joestar, when with mere 15 pages left until the end of the book Jorge cries because ‘this adventure’s almost over’.)

I love the reccurring existential theme having to do with being a fictional character. It wasn’t as in-your-face as in Tsukumojuku, but it was there. While I skipped that in recaps, one of the locked room stories features a delusional man who believes he’s just a character in a novel. While scary, this belief is somewhat comforting too, and he notes it’d be nice to have a role to fulfill; to die with the sense you achieved all that you were meant to do, that The Author loved and appreciated you for who you were, and that you’re going to live eternally through a novel. (Jorge Joestar has Tsukumojuku mention how having a role to fulfill under Beyond’s care gave him comfort -- same thing, really.) But the character understands that all stories will eventually undergo destruction, and dreads it. Of course, the final message of the book, strengthened by the final events (the cult’s failure, Shiranui dying right after Juku’s birthday, and even --the book itself ending--), is that we have to accept that nothing can last forever, and the old will be replaced by the new, stories included.

When Juku and Yasha revealed the culprit’s initials, I honestly thought that he’d turn out to be the author, and the reason why they got different initials was that Juku saw the pen name (Seiryoin Ryusui) and Yasha the real name (Kanai Hidetaka). Since Yasha seemed shocked that Juku said ‘S’, I thought it meant that Yasha saw a full name but neither of the initials was ‘S’. I also thought Otohime’s advice -- to ‘look at the events from a distance’, to ‘withdraw yourself from events’ -- actually meant you have to look at the story from a distance... that is, lean back and look at the book you’re holding, which has the author’s name on the cover. Later, the sudden fourth wall break during the press conference scene, with the author prompting the reader to think carefully about who the Locked Room Lord may be, and writing his signature right under that question, only made me more sure. And there were a bunch of scenes before the Big Reveal in which other JDC characters reacted to the solution with feeling as if their world was destroyed, or getting drunk, or stressing out rather hard, so I expected they got hit with existential crisis upon learning The Truth, and that Juku will just go full meta and say that the culprit is the author: the one who really designed and 'committed’ the murders. Though with the book ending as it did, it’s not a stretch to say that Seiryoin really IS confirmed to be the true Locked Room Lord. In a way.

Other random comments:

This book is positively untranslatable. It features stuff like extensive kanji wordplays; messages in Caesar cipher but using the dictionary order of hiragana; deciphering a number as if it was an old-fashioned pager message; or reading the final message by putting the first syllable of the last kanji of the victims’ names together. And that damn Matsuo Bashou pun. All the name puns, really.

The language is rather hard, definitely harder than Maijo’s works. I think I’ll take some time to get better Japanese skills before going for Joker. (The JDC book I expect to enjoy the most is The Simons’ Case, though -- young Ajiro dadding over solving a case with kid Juku sounds amazing, and it’s a lot of fans’ fave)

For some reason, the main characters sure like to have the ‘castle’ kanji (城) in their names, like 鴉城蒼司 (Ajiro Souji), 龍宮城之介 (Ryuuguu Jounosuke), and 天城漂馬 (Amagi Hyouma). ...I can’t help but notice that a certain 城字ジョースター (Jouji/Jorge Joestar) would fit right in, lol. He pretty much is a meta-detective already, what with all the confidence and insight he gets from his Beyond.

I live for Ajiro’s and Juku’s relations. LOVE this stressed detective dad being proud of his ridiculously kind detective son.

Unexpectedly I also loved the friendship between Juku and Yasha. (With added tears because, y’know. Inugami Yasha. Investigating with Tsukumo Juku. Being friends and stuff.)

I like Ryuuguu Jounosuke quite a lot, both because of his character / reasoning skills, and because he’s as canonically aroace as he can be in a 90s book. not that you’d know that with all the Hikimiya/Ryuuguu yaoi fanart on pixiv

Unfortunately, I can’t praise Seiryoin for good rep as he’s miserable with other representation. The locked room chapters feature the depraved rapist bisexual trope, then a Bury Your Lesbians trope, and then this weird thing where a young guy has a gay crush and concludes that he must have become gay because he was abused by his mother (???)... but as it later turns out, in reality (ie. not in the manuscript) the object of the crush was a woman, so the gay part didn’t even happen. The fuq? Also there’s a one-scene-only black woman officer who’s only there so we can be told how physically strong and intimidating she is and I’m not sure how I should feel about that. I’m also pissed off that when a male detective uses vague reasoning out of nowhere, more a supernatural feeling than anything else, he gets called a meta-detective and is oh ah so elite and amazing!, but when Nemu does it it gets called ‘woman’s intuition’ and ‘fuzzy reasoning’ and she’s not considered a meta-detective, fucking really? (Maybe it is a little different, idk, she wasn’t detectiving a lot in this so we didn’t really see what she’s capable of)

On the other hand, I liked that the way Juku encouraged Nemu to become a detective involved using his connections to arrange meetings with other disabled detectives, so she could talk frankly with them and get a feel for how high-tier detectiving while disabled (esp. in terms of sight-related disabilities) is like. That’s a nice detail.

Speaking of him... Tsukumo Juku is pretty Mary Sue-ish in this, which I don’t mind (and I would be more surprised if it didn’t turn out to be intentional later), but I can imagine other readers not really liking him that much. I’ve read that Juku unfortunately doesn’t really get deeper characterization until the Carnival books, where we learn fun little stuff about him, eg. he’s horrible at cooking, and his ringtone is the opening for Manga Nippon Mukashi Banashi (an old anime introducing little kids to folktales). (I’m wondering whether or not the Kintaro thing in Jorge Joestar is related to this somehow? I don’t have many spoilers for Carnival, maybe there’s more folktales references... aside from the Ryuuguu family’s names referencing Urashima Taro, that is. And now I wonder why Jorge gets a folktale-related kids song stuck in his head so easily hmmm)

It was never explained who sent the manuscript to JDC. So far, judging by the scene with the beautiful androgynous person at the post office, and retroactively by the entire Story-sending mess in Tsukumojuku, I’d say it was Juku himself, somehow. A time-travelling Juku from the future, maybe? I don’t know anymore, man, but I’ve read that previous cases of the series come together in Carnival, so here’s hoping it gets explained better than as “a ghost did it maybe”.

For the longest time I kept wondering where the personality dissonance between this Juku and the Detective God in Tsukumojuku came from. Why would this ever gentle, kind and forgiving character be written as some vore murderer monster dude? So, here’s my current Reaching Theory TM. We know the Detective God really is ‘an Angel’ as he claimed, since in the Seventh Story, Tsukumojuku realizes that he himself is actually not ‘the Angel’ but ‘the Beast’ (he thinks about it during that, er... awkward chest pipe moment, if you remember). Now, canon Juku actually is compared to ‘an angel or a god’ in Cosmic, and it’s a good descriptor: he’s kind and forgiving, but has the sorta detached, not-quite-human air; he’s androgynous, unnervingly perfectly beautiful, and one shouldn’t look directly at him for too long. The Detective God, on the other hand, is an Angel in the same way those demons from Jacob’s Ladder are: only when you stop holding onto mortal life (the imaginary world in Beyonds’ case) and accept your death (accept you have to go ‘outside’), you may notice they’re actually angels who have been trying to help you realize the truth. Through brutal means, but still. I guess the Detective God was created by the part of the Beyonds’ subconscious that understands they have to accept the reality, or something. He’s a bit like Silent Hill monsters in this way. Note that the person the Detective God mainly attacks (and possibly talks with him off-screen earlier) is the Original. And the Story it happens in, Fourth (II), is the point after which the Original probably started thinking about the plan involving killing everything they hold dear to make them face reality. It was really Detective God who first made the Original and the Second One aware of ‘God’ -- even if indirectly: getting them to think about ‘God’ by making them refute the claim that Seiryoin is their God, getting them to think about what the presence of ‘the canon Tsukumo Juku’ before them means for their own existence. Or Maijo just likes to write hard vore and i’m thinking too much

#sparkly reads cosmic #long post #maijo and jdc stuff #hcs meta and stuff #uhhh I guess I'll also tag this as #jorge tag #though it doesn't have a lot of jorge #tsukumojuku spoilers #jdc spoilers #and surprisingly #jacob's ladder spoilers

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purgatory-jar · 6 years

Text

11 questions game

I was tagged by both @saawek and @elnawen (from now on dubbed “the french corner”) and I’ve got like, SOM ANY QUSTIONS GUYS STAPH

But like, the questions were actually pretty cool, so, guess I’m doing this:

here are the rules

1. Post the Rules

2. Answer the questions given to you

3. Make 11 questions of your own

4. Tag 11 people

questions and replies under the cut!

1) What is your favorite movie?

AH, it keeps changing tbh. Lately, I’d say I greatly enjoyed wonder woman :D

2) What are you doing tomorrow?

Working at my day job and then probably drawing. I promised myself i’d start the sketch for one of the drawings for my portfolio, let’s see how that goes XD

3) What is your favorite animal?

Giraffes and cats <3

4) What is your favorite genre of story?

Considering the fact that I haven’t read a proper printed book in forever… I’d say urban fantasy. But not post-apocalitic, if possible.

5) Pizza or Burger?

Give me all the burgers!!!

6) tea or coffee?

I enoy tea much more, but I am addicted to coffee xD

7) what is your least favorite season?

Summer in Italy is the WORSE

8) What is/was your scholar cursus?

EHEH I studied languages and economy in high school, went to literature and history university, didn’t finish it, and now I’m planning to apply to art school.

9) What would you do during the end of the world?

OH GOD I guess try to survive it?

10) Cats or dog?

I’m a cat person, but dogs are also awesome!

11) Do you play video games?

I used to, now I don’t really have time :(

1.You have to write a new fic RIGHT NOW, quick quick, what will it be about??? (for the sake of answering this question, you are a great author)

OH SHIT the one I always wanted to write has phoenix!cas and hunter dean, and it’s acutally funny ‘cause I’d love to add to the funny fics in the fandom (there aren’t enough in my opinion) OR OR OR I’ve always wanted to go AU after the events in 9x06 (Steve!Cas is my jam!!!!!).

2.You have to DRAW SOMETHING RIGHT NOW, what is it???

Jesus I’d write my whole portfolio so I don’t have to think about it anymore

3.What are the most perfect dish your country has to offer?

NUTELLA TAKE THAT FRANCE

4.Have you ever done a livestream ? If yes, do you regret what happens in the chat? If no livestream, why not ?

That’s why I was tagged in this, isn’t it. Yes, I livestream regularly. And no, I don’t regret the chat. Not even a lil bit. (Well maybe I regret the scaly dick. But only that).

5.Tell us something sexy or ridiculous (both is good too) in another language.

Ich sehe dein baguette freund, und es ist lange! (I don’t know, guys, wtf)

6.The moment of your life when you thought “how the fuck did i got here?”

Well, funny answer is, every time I look at the chat while I livestream. Depressing answer is, skyping with my future employer in Germany while in the car because I was too afraid of another earthquake hitting to do it at home. First answer that actually came to mind is: realizing I was lucky enough to get a date with the wonderful person I’m dating now. It was more of a “how the fuck was i lucky enough to get here” kinda thing, tho.

7.What are you most proud of?

Getting better on my own after a very rough period last year and getting my life back on track.

8.Do you know I like you ? You are a good person 9.Do you like stargazing?

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww the french corner likes me!!!!! <3 I love stargazing! I even saw a meteor once!

10.What fandoms do you like most?

Definitely supernatural. It feels like home to me :)

11.Will you draw or write what you answered for question 1 and 2?

OHHHH SHIT YES YOU KNOW WHAT YES as soon as i have the time!

1. Would you rather become a dog and be able to talk or stay human but only be able to bark?

Ooooh I’d rather become a dog! :)

2. Hot or cold drinks?

Definitely hot!

3. Do you like to dance?

NOPE

4. Favorite character trait (in general or of a fictional character, I’m not picky)

Mmmm well I really really like characters i can relate to, if that makes sense? SO… relatable characters?

5. Favorite headcanon?

I am 100% convinced Dean and Cas have been fucking all this time

6. You have been given the opportunity to buy one thing without caring about the cost, what is it?

Well Elna is taking care of the environment so that one’s out. Can I pull a tony stark, buy all the weapon companies, and turn them into clean energy research facilities?

7. What’s your favorite way to travel?

HELL NOT A PLANE. Train, probably :)

8. Favorite AU/theme for fics or fanart?

Canon babbbbies <3 and recently I am obsessing over that selkie!au

9. Can you do a cart-wheel?

I suffer from motion sickness, so I guess yeah, but not without throwing up

10. Ice cream or pizza?

PIZZA

11. Why is 42 the meaning of life

who not

1.Weirdest idiom of your language

EHEH I KNOW MY CHICKENS or “You’re busier than a undertaker at night”

2.Fuck (or cuddle) Marry and Kill with : Godstiel, Demon!Dean, Lucifer!Sam

Who wouldnt fuck demon!Dean. I’d marry Godstiel (uh oh) and Kill Lucifer!Sam

3.Same question but with : Castiel, Sam or Dean (i’m not THAT sadistic)

Let’s switch it up, I’d fuck Cas, marry Dean and kill Sam? Sorry Sam

4.What’s your zodiacal sign?

Gemini

5.Tell us an embarassing but funny moment you lived recently or years ago.

I *tried* to order food in 3 different languages. It was embarassing and @whelvenwings can confirm

6.Which fictional characters do you most fancy (or find very attractive)?

It’s a tie between Dean and Cas, but like, probably Cas

7.Destiel is now canon, do you mind?

Have you seen my blog

8.You got an unlimited access to money and power, what do you do? (see question 7 to have some ideas on what to buy)

Among like, trying to end wars and hunger and stuff, if I had to be like, really really petty, I’d buy supernatural and give it to trusted writers and meta-writers.

9.An urban legend or a myth around your area?

Apparently there’s a unicorn in the natural park around my region (swear to god)

10.Why do I have to ask you 11 questions? It’s fucking hard.

I KNOW RIGHT

11.Can you give me a cookie?

Why, you wanna store it between your buttcheeks?

1. If you had wings of your own, what would they look like ?

Ooooh badass. I want them black!!!

2. The moment of your life you felt the proudest ?

Haven’t I already replied to this

3. The thing everyone likes that you just… can’t…

ICE CREAM

4. Do you have a favorite plushie, if so present it to us

YES it’s a giraffe plushie and I’ve had it for like, 20 years. Second to that, I made a giant toothless plushie myself and it’s like, 2 meters long and I miss it a great deal

5. Pick a BATTLE WEAPON, what is it ?

A magic wand!

6. If you could cosplay one character ?

bEEN THERE DONE THAT. I cosplayed Merida, Dean, Cas and random HP characters at various comic-cons.

7. If you could dye your hair any color, no consequences, what would you choose ?

Dudes, my hair is *already* pink

8. Of all the fictional universes you know, which one would you want to live in ?

THE HARRY POTTER ONE, but like, a peaceful one

9. Do you take a lot of photos ?

Well sometimes? It’s mostly animals and pretty plants, so kinda lame

10. What is the word or expression you say faaar too much ?

Well, in my mother tongue I think it’s… “vabbè”. English probably like, it is I, because i really like it. And german it’s “ach quatsch”.

11. If you could dress in any era attire, what would you wear ?

ARMOR I WANT TO WEAR FUCKING ARMOR

NOW for my 11 questions:

Favourite flower/plant?

One thing you thought you’d regret, but turned out great instead?

Do you wear glasses?

What’s the last book/fanfic you read?

City or countryside?

What’s your opinion on cacti?????

Favourite sweet food?

Which planet would you like to visit, if you could?

Favourite supernatural character (except team free will)?

Best christmas present you’ve ever received?

If you could turn into any animal, which would it be?

I’m not gonna tag anyone cause most people I know have already been tagged, but feel free to do this if you want!

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sleepingprinceonice · 7 years

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Georgi, the 3rd Yuri - Part 4

DISCLAIMER: This is a long meta. I wrote this along with a friend and we spent pretty much a week analyzing a lot of stuff, from the anime scenes to interviews and even song lyrics. There’s a ton of text, many links and it can get kind of pretty image heavy in some parts.

To help with this, and for organization’s sake, we divided this meta in 4 parts.

Part 1 - Georgi, the Chekhov’s Gunman and 3rd Yuri in Yuri!!! On Ice

Part 2 - Georgi, Victor, and The Sleeping Beauty

Part 3 - The types of love and Victor’s long hair

Part 4 - The romantic songs and Victor’s first love

The romantic songs and Victor’s first love

If Yuri!!! On Ice talks about love, then of course we’ll have romantic songs in some of the programs. Stay Close To Me, A Tales of Sleeping Prince and Serenade For Two are the examples we have here, and all of them are praised - and with good reason. A lot has already been analyzed about Stay Close To Me, and it was confirmed that this song is Victuuri’s theme; however, when you analyze the lyrics along with the other two songs, it’s clear that it goes beyond that.

These songs are connected and they communicate with each other constantle, and they tell a story not about Victor and Yuuri, but of a possible old relationship of Victor, in the shadows, with Georgi.

Sounds pretty crazy, doesn’t it? Fanfic fuel, maybe? Honestly, we’d think so at first too, but when you put this together with the fact that Georgi is a Chekhov’s Gunman with huge potential and is someone who’s pretty much Victor’s opposite, it gets clear that yes, there is a real possibility of Victor and Georgi having something in their past.

Before we start to talk about how the songs are related, we need to understand them individually.

Stay Close To Me is Victor’s free skate song. He already told us that his program songs tell stories, and we do have, in fact, a narrative for this song. It tells the love story of a man who lost someone, but hears a far away voice and, even though he doesn’t recognize who’s calling, he goes for them, since the person who’s calling sounds as alone as him.

Here we have a solitary Victor communicating with music to the audience. He is solitary, the ice doesn’t make him as happy as before, and he goes in search of this distance voice without even knowing if the person behind it is alive or dead - and in the end they’re alive, and they both reunite in a happy grand finale.

Sounds familiar with a certain fairy tale?

Great, because we’re now gonna about A Tales of Sleeping Prince. The title already makes a reference to The Sleeping Beauty… But if Georgi lost Anya, why does the song has Tales in its name? Maybe because his heart was broken more than once?

And why is the song called Sleeping Prince if the one who sleeps in the fairy tale is the princess? The answer lies in the fact that Georgi, as we can see in his costume for this program that has elements of both genders, interprets both roles. He is his own prince, and at the same time is the sleeping princess, and he needs to find himself to wake up. Still, even if this is an incredibly personal journey, in The Sleeping Beauty the prince finds the princess with the help of a certain someone: the Lilac Fairy.

Sleeping Prince, then, gives us Georgi’s point of viev about himself, but he also needs external help - someone who can encourage him to wake up, someone who listens to the “wake me up” that is repeated in the backround many times during the song. His Lilac Fairy.

Now Serenade for Two seems to be the one that makes less sense with the characters, since it’s Michele’s free skate song, and the anime made itself clear in showing us his depedency problems with his sister, Sara. The moral of this small arc is that love also sets free, and Georgi points to us that Michele skates with lost love… And this proves us that he knows that sensation.

If Stay Close To Me is Victor’s theme and A Tales of Sleeping Prince is Georgi’s, Serenade for Two is the fusion of both character’s point of view.

And it is through the analysis of these songs, of their word play and metaphors, that we can see that they create a narrative about an past relationship, a hidden one... In the shadows.

In the shadows, like where Georgi stays. In the shadows, just like when Victor lost his long hair in the first scene in episode 1.

Song identification guide:

Stay close to me

A Tales of Sleeping Prince

Serenade for Two

For this analysis we need to start… From the end! It starts exactly at the final echo of A Tales of Sleeping Prince:

[Wake me up!]: This is a desperate plea that echoes far away, Georgi begs to wake up, he can’t take being abandoned anymore. The answer, however, is at the start of Victor’s Stay Close To Me.

I hear a voice crying far away: A voice crying far away… As in an echo?

Have you been abandoned as well?: "You” who? If Victor didn’t knew Yuuri before this program, he wouldn’t be questioning him if he was a solitary as him (and, actually, loneliness doesn’t really applies to Katsuki, because he himself admits to be surrounded by people who love and support him). Is there anyone with a bigger similarity with Victor then, someone as surrounded by loneliness than Georgi?

Tell me now, its dark: Tell me now. Why now and not before? Besides that, it’s dark. Are you in the shadow again, Georgi?

There is no star in the sky: Oh, yes, we see, it’s because Victor, the Russian star, is gone...

Where are you?: Where have you gone, Victor? Well, of course Georgi knows where, but, far away, that distance seems enormous, something he can’t understand.

Come now, lets empty this glass of wine soon: Let’s finish this soon - someone’s in a hurry. Victor, probably, to finish his career as a figure skater. It’s also relevant to know that wine is associated with riches and grace, just like his skating style. Besides that, in European culture in particular, the act of drinking wine is associated with appreciating life. Victor’s anxious to go away from the ice once and for and then finally start to appreciate life and love, two things he lost.

I'll start getting ready: Victor starts to prepare to end his career, to drink his glass of wine

Why are you leaving me?: Why? Has the reason for their separation been made clear enough? Georgi’s stil hurt about this.

Now be silent: Contrast with the next line. Now be silent, to hear me say. Then now, after all this time, Victor will explain himself and make things clear, now that he’ll be leaving the ice, now that he can enjoy life.

Let me hear you say: “Then let me hear what you have to say”. Probably the reason Victor gave him at first wasn’t enough, he couldn’t understand nor accept, but he still wants to hear Victor.

Let me be your love: Explains itself.

With a sword I wish I could cut: Cut with a sword… Like cutting your hair with scissor blades. It’s also interesting that the sword reminds us of a fairy tale imagery, a theme that both Victor and Georgi share in common with The Sleeping Beauty. It’s also important to notice that the part that begins here is not sung on the duetto, the version that Victor and Yuuri skate together at the season finale.

Those throats singing about love: I want to cut all throats that ressonate love songs. Why does he want to get rid of such memories so much? Why do they hurt him or revolt him so much? This part is a lament, and a confession.

Show me your heart: Here, Georgi encourages him to speak. Show me your heart, show me what you’ve been keeping away during all this time.

I see the brightest star: The brightest star, Victor! Georgi sees him again! He’s coming back, the sky’s not dark anymore; Georgi’s waking up.

I wish to seal in the cold the hands That portray those verses of burning passion: I want to cut, I want to end once and for all these lies (love stories and such) that I brought upon the ice. Because he may have felt obliged to cut away his own love to keep working on the ice and tell other people’s love stories, in a painful irony.

I'll give you my heart: Victor’s so hurt… Georgi won’t hesitate to give him his own heart.

This story that makes no sense: It makes no sense. Staying here (on the ice) doesn’t make sense anymore. Skating gave him everything, but also took him everything, at the same proportion.

Will vanish tonight along with the stars: Conection with the beginning of Sleeping Prince, the metaphor of the dark sky with no stars. Besides that, the story will vanish along with the stars, in this case with the stars going away from the scene (Victor and Georgi, both old for the sport, retiring).

If I could see you from hope: The hope of being saved.

Let me be the one I'll always be Be there for you I promise to save you: And the promise to do so.

I'll save you now: Complimenting with the lines above, Georgi promises to be at Victor’s side, promises to save him now. Why, if he couldn’t do it before?

Eternity will be born: The last line of the part that’s not sung on the duetto at the season finale. It’s interesting to see that it speaks about eternity, and yet Victor and Yuuri don’t skate about it... From this information we can deduce narratively that they still have points at their relationship that they need to work on, or, in another hypothesis, that they’re not faded to be together forever - at least not now.

Stand close to me: Asking for someone to stay with him, and the answer comes right away.

Oh baby I'm coming: Expains itself.

Don't go I'm afraid of losing you: Victor didn’t want to break up, that’s why he asks for Georgi not to go away. This brings even more the following question: for what reason did they broke up? Victor’s also solitary. He has the chance to have something special with another person, but he fears losing the conection that’s narrated in the following lines. He’s desperate.

You're not alone I promise to save you I'll save you now: But you’re not alone, Victor! I promise I’ll save you now! Georgi’s answer is clear: he won’t let them to be separated anymore, now he’ll make sure to save him.

Your hands, your legs My hands, my legs The heartbeats: The heart metaphor, also present in Sleeping Prince, making a connection with said song (I'll give you my heart).

Are fusing together: This is a huge metaphor for a deep and real relationship. While the previous lines talk about the physical (sex, basically), the line just before this talks about heart, more specifically heartbeats. The two people in this song are so close that even the heartbeats are syncronized. It’s literally a fusion of souls, something spiritual and really deep - not the fleeting and lustful love of Eros, represented here by no one but Yuuri himself.

Let's leave together: Victor goes away, but not alone. He goes with someone, a person who, just like him, also needs to finish what they started on the ice. In this case, Victor and Georgi will leave, together. It’s relevant to note that Yuuri’s still young enough to skate, so it doesn’t make sense for him to leave with Victor in this context.

Now I'm ready: Now, for what? Now why and, especially, for what? What happened for Victor to be ready now, but not before? Unfinished business with someone of his past?

[Wake me up!]: It’s the plea that echoes itself. Victor’s not the only one that needs to be saved. Georgi wants to wake up again for love, for life.

No matter what I'll save you now: It’s important to see that these lines about saving/kissing have no matter what. This is unconditional love. It doesn’t matter if Victor or Georgi have 1 or 100 golden medals, whatever. Georgi’s ready to save himself no matter the circumstances, and he wants to save Victor too, without the expectation to get something in return.

[Wake me up!]: You can see that the wake me up is distant, just like the voice mentioned at the beggining of Stay Close To Me, who’s calling for Victor. Georgi needs to wake up, and even though he needs to do so alone (since he’s the prince and princess of his own faity tale, evidenced by his costume), he needs someone to guide him - Victor, the Lilac Fairy, who guides the prince to kiss the Sleeping Beauty.

No matter what I'll kiss you now: No matter what and now, which make themselves presents during the whole song, reinforcing that the unconditional love stills exists at the present time (and that it can still manifest itself).

[Wake me up!]: The plea still echoes, until the begging of Stay Close To Me.

No matter what I'll save you now: "It doesn’t matter what they’ll say now, I’ll never let you go again”. There’s nothing that chains them to the ice anymore with the retirement. With no more masks, they owe nothing to the world.

[Wake me up!] No matter what I'll kiss you now I'll always be Be there for you I promise to save you I'll save you now Oh baby I'm coming You are not alone I promise to save you I'll save you now: All of these repeated lines, reinforcing what has been said before: I’m here for you and I won’t leave you. I’ll save you now, Victor, you’re not alone.

You always made me strong: Someone always made Georgi strong. It wasn’t Anya, but someone who was present in his life for more time. In this case, Victor, someone who Georgi saw as an inspiration for him to get better as an skater (since he was always in his shadow, but he wants to be appreciated for his art before anything else).

I'm not alone: I’m not alone! Georgi’s able to save himself so he can save someone else, who’s no one but the person who guided him, since Victor also needs help. It’s the search for himself, for his own love before he’s able to give it to another person.

I promise to save you I'll save you now Oh baby I'm coming: More reinforcement of his promises. Just like a prince, right?

Through the dark: Through the dark, because Victor’s not a star anymore, he’s not in the sky, yet Georgi doesn’t want anything with his status as a professional and wants to save him as a person, even if this means walking through the dark (without Victor) alone.

I promise to save you I'll save you now: Not a question, but a guarantee: I will save you and I’ll save you now!

After analyzing the two songs, you know what else is interesting? A Tales of Sleeping Prince plays at the background, without lyrics, when the skaters in Barcelona are hanging out together. It’s during the scene when Phichit announces Yuuri’s engagement with Victor, and the same scene when Victor told them that he’ll only marry Yuuri if he wins gold. It’s pretty ironic that a song with lyrics about always being close with someone is played during a scene when Victor puts in a condition for their marriage to happen.

Another thing that reinforces the idea of this possible past relationship is that, while Stay Close To Me and A Tales of Sleeping Prince have each a story in their lyrics, Yuri on Ice doesn’t have any. While everyone thinks that Stay Close To Me is about Victuuri only, Victor skated to it alone, telling the story of a lost love and the desire to get it back. Meanwhile, in his free skate, Yuuri skates about the many kinds of love that he feels and that supported him through his career, but this story doesn’t need to be told in words. Contrary to Georgi and Victor, Yuuri doesn’t have a love story to tell, not yet.

And now, to finish with the song’s analysis, Serenade for Two:

Whenever I hear you bands begin to play: Whenever I hear, indicating here communication above everything - something that still needs work in Victuur, and something explicitated in Stay Close To Me and Sleeping Prince, where the lines talk amongst themselves.

It's a serenade: Serenades are songs normally played during the night, in small verses. Normally below a window, to court the person who’s watching from above. Who’s always on the podium? Who’s extremaly artistic in his programs? Besides that, the fact that the serenade is nocturne matches perfectly with the other lines and all of the metaphors involving the moon, the stars and the sky, that are present in all of the three songs.

For two: If it’s “our serenade for two”, here it’s a vision that fits both, because the song is about them together.

How do I forget you: And how could they forget each other if they were side by side, growing together and sharing space in both their lifes and on the rink?

this feeling inside: What happened in the past stays in the past, but the feelings love on, as it can be seen in their individual songs.

I am always watching over you: Always, as in now. Victor, who’s always at the top, can’t watch anyone, but who’s the person that’s always in his shadow?

Whenever I see you: This line can be an alusion to Georgi watching Victor skate, and how he fell in love with his skating in the past, that was once full of life.

Stars in your eyes: Important!! In the anime, during episode 9, the close in Georgi’s face starts right at this line. His eyes shine in nostalgia as he speaks about lost love.

Brighten up the sky: In the anime, the close persists during this line as well. We don’t really have to say at this point that the stars metaphor is an alusion to the other songs now.

For me: The close ends right there.

We're dancing in the moonlight: They’re dancing now! The serenate worked, and as they dance in the night, they’re booth on equal points with each other. This may also mean that they used to meet each other in the shadows, hidden away from other people.

Tonight you will belong to me, only you…: The said soul fusion in Stay Close To Me comes to play here. Sex is something they both can find with other people, but this line makes it explicit that what they had was beyond physical.

You mean the world to me, my lady: Explains itself. Also the lady here is not a problem, since Victor and Georgi don’t care about gender and this is not an issue in the universe of the anime.

I can be as brave as a knight for you: Who’s the prince of his own story?

If you want, I can be like a sharpened knife: A sharpened knife... Like a prince’s sword.

No one loves you like the way I do: OH FOR GOD’S SAKE!!

Let's fly over the moon: Foreshadowing the the song’s ending, until the clouds hide the moon away. Also a metaphor for them to elevate themselves even higher together, since they were dancing under the moonlight before.

Don't get me wrong: This line points to a possible failure at their communication at some point. There may have been a misunderstading, byt what was it? And for what reasons?

Maybe I'm foolish enough to want you to love me: “Maybe this won’t last, maybe I’m just deceiving myself, but that would be enough”.

For only tonight, will you be the one for me Until the clouds hide the moon away...: If the clouds cover the sky, no one can see the stars moving, no one can find out about Georgi and Victor. A secret relationship.

Whenever I touch you, music seems to stop I've never felt this way so true: Again, the line explains itself. The intensity of the feeling is obvious.

In the end, it is possible to see that the songs in fact communicate and tell a story, and it takes us to believe that, yes, Georgi and Victor used to have something in their past, and this something may be a key point to the future development of their respective arcs in the second season.

This can even influenciate Victuuri as well, be it in the (albeit really small) possibility of them breaking up to move forward as individuals and Victor reunites with Georgi again (just like in The Sleeping Beauty) or as narrative fuel for Victor to mature emotionally as he tries not to repeat the mistakes of his past relationship with the one he has with Yuuri now, moving them forward in what they need to work the most: communication.

And it’s not in the songs only that the night is present. In the legend of Akai Ito, a classic seen in japanese romances and inherited from China, there is a story about a God that only appears at night. This god conects soulmates with the red thread of fate e, even if the circumstances separate them and life makes them twist, the two souls are destined to search for each other until they get together. The further they’re away from each other, the sadder they get; the closer, the happier. And the red thread never breaks.

When you put this together with all the hints about Georgi being a Chekhov’s Gunman - the emphasis brought upon his character in interviews, how he’s always in the background of many scenes, his paralels and links with the other main characters -, it’s clear that he can play perfectly the role of a past love of Victor, the first love that’s hinted at the beggining of the anime, and that both his character and this information can still be very important to the series development.

After all, Victor said he had a first love, he just didn’t told us who it was.

And we don’t have only 2, but 3 Yuris here. And one of them was present in Victor’s life before the other Yuris we know. Only him can present us with his role to the narrative.

Georgi is a key character to Yuri!!! On Ice’s narrative, and we all should pay attention to him.

#yoi meta #yoimeta #yuri on ice #georgi popovich #victor nikiforov #meta #my meta

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operationrainfall · 5 years

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Title Yu-Gi-Oh!: Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution Developer Other Ocean Interactive Publisher Konami Release Date August 20th, 2019 Genre Card Game, Strategy, Simulation Platform Nintendo Switch Age Rating T for Teen – Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Partial Nudity Official Website

It’s odd to realize I’ve been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! for almost two decades now. I got into the well-known card game just before it came stateside from Japan, and was instantly captivated by the art and overall style. I’ve watched firsthand as the game has evolved over the years, going from simplistic and easy to pick up to quite complex and incredibly fast. Like any card game, it’s changed a lot over time, and that’s part of why this Yu-Gi-Oh! game was so exciting. Not only is it the first Yu-Gi-Oh! videogame to hit a Nintendo console in a while, it’s also the first in recent history to feature up-to-date mechanics for the latest style of summons, Link Monsters. The question then, is whether Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution is the best game in the series, or just the latest?

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For reference, the last Yu-Gi-Oh! videogame I played, Zexal World Duel Carnival, came out some 6 years ago. I say “I played” cause there have been other releases since then on PC, PS3 and Xbox in various regions, but I don’t like playing card games on consoles. I prefer portables, and feel that’s the ideal way to play a series like this. So I never played the original Legacy of the Duelist, but worry not, I’m still very up to date with the game mechanics. That’s what happens when you judge the game in your free time. So my hope with Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution was that it would let me get into the game without too much fanfare, unlock the cards I wanted quickly, and give me sufficient replay value. And I can say the game mostly delivered on all of those fronts.

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There are essentially 3 main modes in the game – Single Player, which consists of Campaign and Duelist Challenges; Multiplayer, which lets you face opponents locally or online; and Battle Pack, which lets you draft random cards to build decks. There’s also a card shop where you can spend hard-earned in-game currency to buy more packs. I spent most of my time with Campaign Mode, which features iconic battles from every Yu-Gi-Oh! series, including the original, GX, 5D’s, Zexal, ARC-V and VRAINS. Every consecutive series after the first introduced and focused on a new Summoning mechanic, starting with Fusion, then Synchro, Xyz, Pendulum, and finally Links. Each mission has a bit of story, followed by a duel. Here you have a choice between using a story deck faithful to what was used on the show, or your own constructed deck or pre-constructed structure deck. The upside to using the story deck is they totally ignore the restrictions of the Forbidden and Limited list, letting you sometimes use multiple copies of some of the most powerful banned cards in the game, such as Pot of Greed. The downside is that they are so faithful that they often are chock full of mostly useless cards. I found it was fun to occasionally use a story deck, but more often I used my own decks, especially once I had unlocked enough cards to build a half-decent one.

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Playing through Campaign Mode to 100% completion takes a good long while, and I’d estimate I spent 70% of my overall playtime with it. The only exception to that rule is the latest series, VRAINS. To my surprise, this mode only had 3 missions, compared to 20+ for the others. Worse yet, there was absolutely no story for VRAINS, which was a bit of a letdown. And though you’re seemingly welcome to tackle the series in the order you prefer, I almost wish Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution had forced me to play VRAINS first. The reason being this mode explains Link summons, and how they changed pretty much every core aspect of the game. While I was already familiar with the changes, I can just see the confusion older players unfamiliar with the current mechanics would face. It especially would have made sense, given how short that particular Campaign is. But that complaint aside, I was mostly happy with Campaign Mode. It’s just as silly and challenging as the TV show might lead you to expect, and features tons of unique decks to battle against. While I was most familiar with the original show and 5D’s, it was fun seeing how they changed things up with each series. From ancient Egyptian spirits to motorcycles to dimensional travel and more, there’s a lot of interesting ideas represented by the Yu-Gi-Oh! series. They may not be perfectly explained or make the most sense, but that’s honestly the charm of most anime series. That sheer creativity coupled with great artwork makes for a heady brew.

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Once you beat all the missions in any of the Campaigns, your fun isn’t over. There’s something called Reverse Duels, which lets you play the iconic duels from the opposite side, oftentimes as the villain. There’s some really cool story decks you can use here, such as Pegasus’ Toon deck or Strings’ Slifer the Sky Dragon deck. What makes these interesting is they aren’t restricted by what cards were available when they first debuted. You’ll find more recent cards in these classic decks, so long as they make thematic sense. The only thing you won’t find are Link Monsters, which are entirely relegated to the VRAINS Campaign. So, if you want to use this new mechanic, you should play those missions first and buy a lot of Playmaker’s packs. I should mention, by progressing in the Campaigns, you’ll unlock packs for a variety of characters in the card shop. These will feature cards often used by those characters, as well as totally unexpected archetypes. Given that there’s some 9000+ card pool in the game, you’ll have your work cut out for you acquiring the maximum 3 copies of everything, especially since I found the RNG for the card shop was a bit diabolical. Sometimes you’ll unlock stuff with ease, but when I was fishing for multiple copies of cards I already owned, things got ridiculous, as in spending thousands of in-game cash on packs, only to not get what I wanted. I’d almost swear the game worked to stop me from getting what I wanted. And while this is a feature common to all the Yu-Gi-Oh! videogames, it’s exacerbated by one small detail – the lack of a code machine. Previous games allowed you to input an ID found on the bottom of physical cards to unlock them in the game for a price. I would have loved that feature here, as it would have made getting playsets of all the cards I needed much less time-consuming.

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Duelist Challenges have you face off against iconic characters as well, but this time they’re better-equipped. They’ll use more powerful themed decks, sometimes what you might expect them to use, other times not. A good example is Bandit Keith using a Pendulum / Scrap deck, or Alexis Rhodes using an Ice Barrier deck. I loved the unexpected quality of these match ups, and overall found Duelist Challenges more difficult and satisfying than the battles found in Campaign Mode. The one quality common in both is that often your AI opponent will have much better luck drawing their key cards than you will. Sometimes to an unfair degree. That said, it’s nothing a bit of strategy can’t solve. The Heart of the Cards might work in the show, but here you’ll need to rely on your tactical planning. Plus, it’s not all that hard to trick the AI opponent into making missteps you can capitalize on.

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The last mode I’m gonna mention is probably my favorite. Battle Pack lets you buy random packs and use what you pull to make decks. You can either hand pick cards from a pool or choose to just play with a random assortment. Then, when you’re all done playing a few rounds, you get to keep all the cards you pulled! I personally love this mode, since it relies less on using competitive and often boring Meta decks and rewards you more for creativity and flexible thinking. While it does cost 2000 points to play a few matches, compared to 200 or 400 per individual pack in the card shop, I find it’s well worth it. Especially since you can use your drafted deck to face local opponents, AI foes or play people online. While I’ve 100% completed Campaign, I’ll be coming back to Battle Pack for a long time.

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More Duels on Page 2!

Now I’ve mostly talked about the positive aspects of Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution, but there are some areas it falls short. One aforementioned area is how incredibly difficult it can be to pull what you need from packs. A related problem is the game doesn’t tell you when you pull new cards. That’s more of a minor problem, but it’s also one I’ve seen previous games do better. I also wouldn’t have minded a way of clarifying which archetypes are represented in which pack. Each one has a ton of different cards, and if you can remember them all, you have a better memory than me. More substantive is how the game doesn’t really help you navigate the Deck Edit mode. There’s a lot of filters to help search for things, and I had to discover them all on my own. That isn’t to say it’s impossible to figure out, but a little guidance would have gone a long way here. And, speaking of guidance, while I don’t mind the tutorials the game provides, I also feel they could have been more robust to help guide new players. The simple truth of the matter is Yu-Gi-Oh! is a very complex game with a lot to comprehend. That can be a bit intimidating to newer players, and without courting those people, this game will only really draw the attention of players already well-versed with the series. And that’s a shame, since there’s a lot to enjoy here.

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While most players won’t be buying this game for the art or music, I still feel I should touch upon both like usual. Visually, the game is a bit of a mixed bag. The interface for playing is clean and uncluttered, but it’s also a bit barebones. One fellow Yu-Gi-Oh! fan said the graphics could have come from a PS2 game, and I couldn’t entirely disagree. However, there is one area the graphics are pretty attractive, and that’s with the summon of iconic monsters. Whenever you summon a Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Elemental Hero Thunder Giant or the like, they’ll get a flashy animation. These are quite cool, and do a lot to add to the mystique of these cards. The only downside is that there’s no option to toggle these off, because in duels where they are summoned repeatedly, it can wear a bit thin. As far as the writing in the game goes, it reads pretty well, though I was irritated when characters had a caption saying they were thinking to themselves, which was totally unnecessary. On the sound side of things, I have a less rosy opinion. The music in the game is very muted, even with my volume turned all the way up. There’s some adequate sound effects for things like Turn Change or activating cards, but it’s pretty average. It’s not offensive, but it could have been much flashier. Especially since previous Yu-Gi-Oh! videogames had features like dynamic music, where it changed dramatically when you were running low on Life Points. Not to mention, the theme songs from the shows were pretty memorable.

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All in all, I really enjoyed Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution. Even with its flaws, it’s easily the best videogame in the series to date. There’s a ton to keep you busy, and I’ve easily spent 30-40 hours already just for the sake of this review. The biggest issue I have with it is that it doesn’t do enough to court players unfamiliar with the nuance and newfound complexity of the game. Things like the Forbidden and Limited List are also confusing, in that they aren’t the most recent version, but instead seem a mishmash of previous lists. But if you can look past that sort of thing, you get a lot of bang for your buck for only $39.99. If you’re a fan of the series and are eager for an excuse to dive in and test out new deck ideas, then you’ll enjoy the game. Just be ready to spend a long time grinding for the cards you need.

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[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Review Copy Purchased by Author

REVIEW: Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution Title Yu-Gi-Oh!: Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution

#Konami #Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution #nintendo switch #oprainfall #yu-gi-oh

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t-baba · 7 years

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The Top 20 One Page Websites from 2016

Below are my Top 20 picks out of the 485 One Pagers I reviewed last year. There is no ranking order but each is given a reason why I think it was worthy of a Top 50 placement.

Deciding factors were of course the quality of the One Page website but a few are included due to the huge amount of social sharing they received.

Hope you get your inspiration topped up to create something beautiful in 2017:)

Cheers, Rob

Quick shout out to Bluehost – who is our official Round Up sponsor.

Bluehost is the most affordable hosting option to host your One Page websites. They have an incredible $2.95/month deal exclusive for One Page Readers where you can host your website with 50GB diskspace and unlimited bandwidth. They also throw in a free domain!

A Bear’s-Eye View of Yellowstone (Long-Form Journalism)

Incredible long scrolling One Pager that takes us on a journey with 4 bears as they navigate the heart of Yellowstone, as seen from the bears’ own point of view. Yes, there is a footer site navigation that we don’t normally allow (as this makes the website technically multiple-page). But what an excellent reference to a Long-form Journalism website – a big trend in digital publications that we’re seeing much more of. Make sure you read the case-study by Hello Monday that dives deep in the build. Stellar work by them.

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Keep Portland Weird (Experimental)

Wonderfully fun One Pager having a laugh at the items we’ll need to “keep Portland weird” if there ever was an earthquake. One of those sites debatable if it’s a true One Pager but the transitions are just gorgeous and absolutely seamless. Excellent work by the Oblio team.

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Seedlip (Product)

Absolute jaw-dropping design in this One Pager promoting ‘Seedlip’ – the world’s first non-alcoholic spirits. The Single Page website is built into the Shopify framework with a slick off-canvas shopping cart integration. There is so much to love in this site; the whitespace, the stunning product shots (not to mention that branding), the cocktail recipe slider with downloadable PDF and this complementary typography blend of ‘Brown’ and ‘Baskersville’ fonts. Possibly the most gorgeously designed One Pager we’ve featured this year. Top work this by Rotate° from London!

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Navigating Responsibly (Case Study, Informational)

Incredible parallax scrolling One Pager providing information on what Danish Shipowners are doing to help with environmental and climate challenges. So much to love in this Single Page site but highlights are definitely that mobile navigation load animation, the stunning big typography and that seriously gorgeous load transition of the off-canvas case studies. Top work this by Danish digital agency, Spring/Summer.

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Resn (Portfolio)

Phenomenal One Page website for New Zealand based digital agency, Resn. The Single Page website starts with 6 unique sections where you hold your cursor down to load the interactive animations. Each incredibly impressive. Clicking top-right reveals the menu where you navigation swiftly to their work. The transitions are gorgeous and overall execution just top drawer.

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Rogie (Portfolio)

Dazzling One Page portfolio literally bursting with color for designer/dev, Rogie. The Single Page website has so much flavor including an intro confetti animation, a colorful background wavy gradient (that moves!) and a beautifully slick portfolio arrangement that slides projects into a central device. Final little shout-out to this awesome use of an .ie domain:)

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Cybeer Bar

Oh man, just when you thought you’d seen it all. Digital agency Leavingstone have created this fun interactive One Pager that digitally pours a beer – using your phone. Yup, you have to see it to believe it. If you’re reading this on your mobile, here is a video demo. Looking forward to the fun future when we’ll be interacting more with websites like this.

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Structure (Event)

Beautiful minimal design in this unique One Pager for an upcoming exhibition in Milan called ‘Structure’. Love big typography (and font choice) and what a fun feature where you can drag around most the content within the page.

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24 Lever Street (Accommodation)

What a gorgeous colorful One Pager filled with fun character animations representing ’24 Lever Street’. The long scrolling Single Page website features a tall illustrated building showcasing which tenants occupy each floor of ’24 Lever Street’ along with the vacancies. Lovely collaborative work this by Nine Sixty & True North digital agencies from UK.

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56 (Portfolio)

Great vibe portrayed in this long scrolling One Page portfolio for Toronto-based design studio, 56. Couple really nice touches in this site; the initial load transitions with the 3D hover sensitive background pattern, the hand icon that changes direction as you scroll up and down, the whole site color scheme adaption to align with the current project you’re browsing, the funny tagline that randomly changes and the META title tag that keeps changing it’s algorithm but always equals to 56:)

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2016 Make Me Pulse (Announcement, Experimental)

Incredible interactive One Pager by digital agency, Make Me Pulse, wishing you a successful 2016. The effects are mind blowing and an excellent reference to how far we’ve gone since Flash died.

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Plane—Site (Portfolio)

Gorgeous 3D shape animations and unique transitions in this colorful One Pager for Berlin based digital agency, Plane—Site. The Single Page website features lots of info but still feels uncluttered through it’s minimal design approach. Excellent work this by Ben Roth and Owen Hoskins.

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Sonikpass (Application, Landing Page, Launching Soon)

Slick One Pager with gorgeous transitions promoting ‘Sonikpass’ – a new “passwordless” security solution. This landing page actually links out to a TypeForm that gathers info about your business before you begin.

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100 Years of National Parks (Informational)

Centrally-divided layout in this excellent One Pager taking a look back at 100 years of the National Parks Service. Such a lovely touch with the SVG “contour” load animations within the big numbers. Also choosing the Geogrotesque font for an outdoor-themed website is a perfect example of adding x-factor. Great job Dallas and cheers for the build notes.

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Skylark (Experimental, Portfolio)

Stunning One Pager for ‘Skylark’ – a series of concept homes designed for the ‘Blue Ridge Mountains’. There are lovely little touches throughout this Single Page website like the background contour load transition in the Residencies section. Also make sure you check out the Landscape image slider, gorgeous stuff.

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7 Tests for Gaucher Disease Management (Informational)

Gorgeously designed informational One Pager to educate patients and physicians about Gaucher Disease management best practices. Awesome addition providing a PDF checklist for users to download, as well as email sign up functionality for annual reminders. Respect.

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10×16 (Music Related, Experimental)

Exceptional One Page website for 10×16 – a fun collaborative project where you could follow as 19 designers countdown their top 10 albums of 2016, each with reimagined cover art. The transitions are beautiful and the minimalist artwork redesigns are just gorgeous. A lovely touch how the website background color changes to correlate with the current artwork you’re browsing.

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Best Friends Forever (Portfolio)

Gorgeous big imagery in this parallax scrolling One Pager for Melbourne-based design studio, Best Friends Forever. The awesome SVG illustrations and animations (by Sean Morris) bring so much character to the portfolio. Also a great references to a quality team section – especially the additional founder section further down that animates. We forget how important building trust is for when potential clients browse our portfolios.

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The Wedding of Jessica and Brennan (Wedding)

Beautiful long scrolling One Pager announcing the wedding of Jessica and Brennan – both designers of course. The Single Page website features a parallax scrolling rose-overlay that’s perfectly subtle with no parallax on text. There is also good whitespace, lovely typography and last little shoutout to that navigation “roll out” animation, awesome stuff.

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THIS (Portfolio)

Lovely parallax scrolling with big beautiful typography in this One Pager for German digital agency, THIS. The Single Page website intro features an impressive hover-sensitive parallax effect with the array of devices. Other features include a unique fixed right navigation, a very slick client logo (vertical) scroller and ends with a big footer with subtle map background and a looping video of the office space. (We’ve also just added the footer to our Big Footer Web Design references.)

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by Rob Hope via One Page Love http://ift.tt/2kI8sXL

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