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the-punforgiven · 5 months

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I mentioned at some point I was gonna talk about how Gideon Ofnir's helmet is probably one of my favourite pieces of Fromsoft character design a little while ago, so I figured I should talk about it before I forget to again

I really like this helmet because it serves as an excellent crystallization of Gideon as a character, so I figured I'd break it down and go step by step as to why I like it so much

Firstly, its design is clearly based off the Greek Corinthian helm, which sticks out a fair amount when compared to Elden Ring's generally 13-16th century European fantasy aesthetic, doing a good job communicating that he is, effectively, much older than most of the other characters present, and conveys a sense of seniority that even he himself comments on when you first visit the Roundtable Hold. (There is an argument that it could also be based off a barbute helm, but I feel like the sharper shape language and closer-to-bronze coloration swing it more towards the Corinthian helm for me)

Secondly, and quite possibly more obviously, the ears. Viewed from a distance they give a vibe closer to a sort of scholarly beard almost reminiscent of greek philosopher statues, again tying in to his aged academic vibe, but being ears instead of a beard also hints at his deceptive nature as even his character design is somewhat misleading, but also hints at his more insidious habit of watching and especially listening to everything you do. He is called the All-Hearing for a reason, after all

The spikes on his helm mirror the shape of a crown, symbolizing both his lordship over the Roundtable Hold, but also his desire to become Elden Lord. Given how simplistic the points are, as well as how some of them (in the icon at least) appear almost bent or dented, I feel could also demonstrate how worthy of a lord one like Gideon may actually be, worn, out-of-shape, thin to the point of frail-looking and remarkably plain compared to the meticulous engravings and stalwart construction of a crown like Godfrey's, but that might be a bit of a stretch so take it with a grain of salt lmao

The eyes across the forehead lock in the crown aesthetic for him (as well as touching slightly on the double helix pattern that is literally everywhere in this game), while also further punctuating his motif of eyes and ears; always watching, always listening to what you do. Curious that the eyes are notably less detailed than his ears though, I wonder if that's relevant

Lastly, the "face". It's a fairly common trope out there that people tend to use masks in character design to portray an air of distrust about a character, in a sort of "If they were trustworthy why would they conceal their face" sort of way. This feels incredibly deliberate on Gideon's part, since a helm like that by all accounts should let you see a good portion of the wearer's face, and is indeed why barbute helms have been a staple of good guy knights throughout the fantasy genre for years, Gideon's quite clearly does not, preferring to cast his face in impenetrable shadow. and That, I think, is a pretty blatant and in-your-face indicator that you definitely should not trust him

Anyway character design is really cool have fun out there 👍

#Pun's text Posts #Elden Ring #Gideon Ofnir #The All-Knowing #There's other things I could go into as well too #like how meticulously detailed the ears are compared to like every other detail in this helmet #but idk how to put my thoughts about that into words so this is all y'all get from me lmao

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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PLEASE share about the Cullen Cult Arc

sighs. this is my second time writing this post ;~; literally why does the autosave option exist if tumblr doesnt actually bother to autosave anything, i dont fucking get it.

this is going to be much briefer than the original post i wrote because im still REELING over how tumblr just ate the entire fucking post. its fucking gone. and idk if i have the energy or mental capacity rn to rewrite the whole thing. basically, this arc - which is the arc i developed for him in vee verse - is the arc i think cullen should've had in dai.

firstly, i'm not retconning anything he said or did in dao or da2. this is because those things serve a narrative purpose. cullen is a good templar - that's the entire crux of the problem. he exists in these two games as a narrative tool; he represents the views of the chantry. as such, anything you do with his character arc cannot be divorced from the reality of the mage/templar conflicts, and the glaring issues of the chantry and must, actually, address and involve those things, because cullen is a product of his surroundings. i'm not saying this to minimise or give him excuses for anything he's said or done, but that is made true for him by his very positioning in the narrative as being the chantry's voice. for most of my playthroughs, which lean pro-mage, cullen is an antagonistic force - he has to say and do horrific things, and it would be stupid for me to retcon the horrible things he did.

secondly, my main issue comes from his writing in dai - probably to no one's surprise. i am not unopposed to having a redemption arc for him in dai - this is villain-fucking the blog, sorry not sorry - but the problem is that he does not have one. to have a redemption arc, the following two things needs to happen:

the realisation/acknowledgement/knowledge/whatever that he caused harm to people with his actions/inactions

addressing the False Belief that he has embraced that has previously justified his harmful actions/inactions in order to accept the Truth (this is just basic character narrative construction).

and dai fails to do both of these because the writing team in inquisition is physically incapable of admitting the chantry is wrong and has done wrong and will continue to do wrong. they are physically incapable of looking at fucked up power dynamics and clear cases of oppression and not going "but what if the oppressed people. wanted to be oppressed. NEEDED to be oppressed, even."

which leaves his character arc - whether you want to consider it redemptive or not - confusing. he's trying to shake a lyrium addiction? sure, okay. but why is he addicted to lyrium? why is being addicted to regular ol' lyrium bad? it's not blue lyrium that killed meredith, it's not blue lyrium that corypheus and samson are using.

you get confusing things like cullen's entire character arc being centered around lyrium addiction... but no one seems to give a shit if the inquisitor takes lyrium and becomes a templar, except cullen. you get confusing things like cullen's entire character arc being centered around recovering from lyrium addiction and the templar route in dai and you get to the scene where all the templars get their lyrium draughts. the ceremony and chanting and celebration around getting the lyrium, when barris takes his draught, which is frankly revolting. but it highlights the inconsistency - lyrium, this scene tells us, is good. because the templars are good, and they use it for good. yet cullen's entire arc is about overcoming his lyrium addiction, but don't worry!!!! templars are still good and lyrium is still good. its fucking INCOHERENT!!!!!!

he is addicted to lyrium because that is how the chantry maintains absolute control over its templars. it is a mind-altering substance that causes paranoia, which the chantry specifically takes advantage of and feeds with their all mages are inherently dangerous rhetoric, which is a false rhetoric, as i've pointed out before. but instead of acknowledging any of that, dai's writing goes "lyrium is Bad because [mumble mumble] and its So Important that he doesn't take it so that [mumble mumble]".

because the story is physically incapable of uttering anything even vaguely critical of the chantry.

so, this covers my main issue with his writing in dai. i would ideally try to fix it - without retconning anything he did in dao or in da2. this is what the cullen cult recovery arc is referring to.

i'm not going to go into it in too much detail but the templar order - inclusive of the seekers - fits a lot of the parameters of a cult. specifically, the BITE model, but also this checklist, and a whole bunch of other parameters i found when researching into cults for this specific reason. (which. makes sense. seeing how the orlesian chantry is was also technically a religious cult that becomes the main religion of the lands by actively slaughtering all the other sects)

but what's particularly interesting about it specifically is that, in-world, no one else seems to think it's a cult. for all of cullen's views, he is not the extreme end in da2 - alrik is. meredith is. what's particularly disturbing to me about cullen's point of view is that because he's a product of his environment, because he's a narrative tool representing the chantry's views, cullen's opinions and actions are actually a normality test. people in thedas don't find cullen's views repulsive because most average joes in thedas agree with him. i think it's easy to forget cullen isn't the outlier in-universe - we are.

but, canonically speaking, this is what happens: cullen, like most good antagonists getting a redemption set up, misses his chance to Embrace Change at the end of da2. he sides with meredith too late for it to matter or make a difference - mages (who you learn on the templar route, he's not exactly eager to kill) who he's supposed to protect are already dead. but what happens in kirkwall shakes him to his core and he looks to leave the order entirely - a good step.

the problem is that he leaves the order to join the inquisition. the inquisition, which is headed by the left and right hands of the divine. the right hand of the divine is a seeker herself. the inquisition is spearheaded and justified by the divine, who he has been trained for most his adult life to be subservient to. the divine who formed the inquisition to replace the templar order and hired him to essentially train and recreate the order.

worse, still. no one thinks he did anything wrong. kinloch was not his fault, it was the fault of greagoir and the older templars who were simply not vigilant enough, meredith told him. how he acted to keep order in the circle and the city after the viscount was executed is admirable, cassandra tells him. he was only following orders, leliana admits grudgingly, he stood up for what was right when meredith went too far. no one thinks he did anything wrong, because he is a good templar. because all the atrocities he committed were not committed against people - they were committed against mages, who are not people, not like you and me.

cullen hops from one cult to the next. the inquisition is the exact same thing he's always done and known, just repackaged - quite literally, considering the inquisition's symbol. but canonically, he thinks it's something different. he wants it to be different.

it's not, though.

so, the thought process behind my thoughts for him boils down to this: how does he get the language to describe exactly why this is wrong? how does he get the language to describe why it matters, why it's important, that he hurt real people? how does he get past the Lie that he believes - that he has to be a good templar, to stop anything like kinloch from happening again, since kinloch happened because they weren't vigilant enough, because they were too sympathetic to mages?

his arc shouldn't have just been about overcoming lyrium addiction. his arc should have been a story about recovering from being part of a hate group, a story about recovering from part of a cult.

there's several ways to go about it, i think. and if you want to specifically know how i'm going to do it, you guys should encourage me to write vee verse 😌

#asks #vee rewrites da #admittedly i cheated a bit but i gotta leave SOMETHING for the fic!!!!#cullen critical #just in case #bioware critical #dai critical

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lipstickchainsaw · 5 months

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The Pristine Blade

I've played a whole lot more of Slay the Princess, and it is excellent, but I've been wondering, why the 'Pristine Blade'?

Obviously it represents the power you have over the Princess in the dynamic, and how that dynamic develops over the chapters depending on your relationship to that power (see the achievement you get for handing the Blade to the Witch: Past Life Gambit, Hand your power to a suspicious character), but why a Pristine Blade?

Most of the voices are happy to call it a knife, or a dagger, or whatever else, or even ask for different weapons, but the Narrator is insistent on calling it the Pristine Blade, every time, which does make sense. It is one of the few constants in these scenarios, next to you, the Hero, the Princess, the Woods (most of the time), and the Cabin. As with those others, it was made fit for purpose by the Creator, perhaps with some details filled in by the Long Quiet's conceptions of reality (one aspect sure is, but we'll get to that).

What is the Pristine Blade?

For this, I'm going back to my Otherverse roots (hi, StP fans, read Pact and Pale), and analysing this as an Implement, which is what the Narrator explicitly refers to it as.

First off, it is a knife. Knives have purposes beyond enacting violence, but this particular one is a knife made for killing, there can be no doubt about that. You can still use it for other purposes, of course (like cutting the Thorn free), but showing up with it still marks you as a killer (and the Princess responds as such).

Secondly, it's small, which means it can, in fact, be hidden. The Opportunist is the only voice to consider this, but it is an important aspect, since it has its effects on you even if not showing it visibly.

Thirdly, it's small. This means that, to do its job, you need to get close and personal. You cannot keep your distance (which is why several voices wish you had something better) and, while it's suggested, in the Nightmare route, that you can throw it, in practice, the Paranoid can only do so much to keep your body functioning, and that kind of dexterity isn't part of it.

This makes it an intimate weapon, which sure is fitting for the dynamic between you and the Princess. Every time you use it, or choose not to, you are saying something about this relationship, and influencing how you both develop in the wake of the cycle of violence and revenge it enables.

But that doesn't explain the insistent terminology.

Why 'Pristine'?

The Pristine Blade is something implanted into the Construct by the Creator, it exists in every reality, and every iteration of the Narrator expects it to be in the Cabin even when it isn't, and every time, it is Pristine.

It is always perfect, almost the platonic ideal of a dagger, cutting through anything except the Razor (including bone!) with ease and it, too, is temporaly 'sticky'.

When you move from one chapter to the next, the scenario the Construct is running resets, except for you and the Hero (and whatever other voice you've picked up), the Princess (and the changes wrought upon her), and the Pristine Blade. And the Pristine Blade, too, remembers what happened, where it's supposed to be:

If you died with it in hand, or having it forcibly taken from you, it will be right where the Narrator expects it to be in the chapter after, but if you gave it to the Princess, either by actually giving it to her, like in the Witch route, or having it fulfill its purpose by stabbing her heart (and boy, there's a metaphor), it will be with her in the chapter after.

But even if the scenario itself states ages have past, the Pristine Blade is still that, Pristine.

Because it is unchanging. It will never be anything other than Pristine. It is, in some sense, stagnant, a constant. In short, it is the Long Quiet's weapon.

The Long Quiet's Weapon

The Long Quiet was created to slay the Shifting Mound, to end death, by putting a stop to change, transformation in all sense, and thereby ridding the world of doom, of the cycle of life and death.

And the weapon to do this is the platonic ideal of intimate violence. A constant, never changing, in this relationship.

Yes, in part this is because the Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet were once one, and their split wasn't perfect, so each carries a kernel of the other within themselves, but how delightfully ironic for stagnant violence to be the thing intended to destroy change in order to kill death. What a perfect encapsulation of the futility of the Creator's mission.

In the final confrontation, the Shifting Mound tries to convince you to join her by pointing out how you are both so familiar with the cycle of violence and revenge, and clearly this means she's speaking your language, and maybe she is.

But she doesn't have to be, because at almost every juncture, you could choose to leave the Pristine Blade behind, or wield it not to be violent. And every time you choose to leave the cycle of violence and revenge behind, to choose not to have power over the Princess, or at least use it with respect to her, it changes things, and it changes them for the better.

#Slay the Princess #the Pristine Blade #first StP essay #essay writing's back on the menu boys #this one got a bit away from me at the end #because I'm tired #but if I put this in my drafts it's never getting done #so here we are #enjoy!

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televised-uhhh-nerdistry · 10 days

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currently thinking about how ages ago my friend sent me a long-ass explanation about why saltburn is an adaptation of the myth involving theseus, the minotaur, and the labyrinth.

nobody asked but here’s some of the fun proof that exists of this:

first and foremost, icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. during the party scene, it is evident that felix symbolises this poor ill-fated youth, and the symbolism here is potent. he flew too close to finding out what oliver truly is. he discovered something he shouldn’t have, and dressing him up in icarus cosplay is the perfect showcase for his fate and his mistakes. it’s also brilliant in terms of what icarus actually did to “deserve” death. realistically, he was told not to go too high or too low, but in actuality, such cryptic instructions were difficult to follow mid-flight, and it resulted in catastrophe. felix is trying to navigate the responsibilities of being a good friend with his baggage as someone in a family of rich pricks. it’s hard, and in flying too far away from his background, he “flew too close to the sun” and discovered things he shouldn’t have. as a small nod to further the icarus imagery, felix’s body is discovered under bright and direct sunlight as he lays motionless in his winged costume.

secondly, saltburn is in the center of a labyrinth. the labyrinth lore runs deep in this movie, because not only does the labyrinth function as symbolism, it has lore that runs adjacent to the lore of the actual labyrinth. in theseus and the minotaur, the labyrinth is a construct of greek architect and inventor daedalus, who was conscripted by king minos to create the maze. in saltburn, the labyrinth is constructed upon special request from james catton, the owner of the estate, and a very wealthy man (almost like a modern day king).

the labyrinth (in the original myth) is dangerous to all characters that reside within it. it keeps all in within a chance for escape, and those that get close die tragically. in saltburn, the labyrinth functions as an ode to the ways in which riches and fame poison those that reside in the walls, keeping them locked within its dangerous talons, or in this case, cleanly trimmed hedges. it’s suburbia on a larger and more internal scale. even those that do not have riches themselves, namely farleigh and annabel, do everything they can to remain on the estate and in the good graces of those on the property with immense money. it affects how they act and how they are expected to act. farleigh, as a good example, is very stuck on the particulars of rich people’s behaviour. as mentioned above, those that try to leave the maze die tragically, and icarus is a prime example. felix, in his attempt to be better than the riches of the estate socially allow, flies too close to a possible escape from the confines of the labyrinth and is murdered as a result.

in the story of the labyrinth, it is unsolvable, unless you are clever and quick witted (manipulative), which theseus luckily is. the same is true for oliver. oliver, like theseus, gets into the heads of multiple characters, manipulating his way to the top of the food chain. the scene where oliver views the wooden counterprt of the maze through the head office in the estate, he is told that he shouldn’t be there, and a sense of ominous foreboding takes place. we feel that he has seen something that will change him. however, i believe this is simply symbolism for the fact that oliver has figured out the secret to the maze: a secret that he, an outsider and a poorer, less sociable man should not be aware of, as he is a representation of theseus, a character who has no right being king.

thirdly, oliver is juxtaposed with imagery if the minotaur during the party scene, and though this costume doubles as a reference to the changeling in a midsummer night’s dream, it is still highly important. in the original myth, people are sacrificed to the minotaur on a yearly basis. at first, felix fits the profile for the minotaur: a rich, wealthy man in a labyrinth who is regularly described as going through friends the way a young boy would go through toys. it is also true that the minotaur has often been seen as a controversial figure, one that begs the question “is a monster just a tormented creature fated to behave according to the will of the gods?”. felix’s behaviour, or namely, his attempted deviancy from the behaviour he is expected to show, is a major prt of his character arch. we expect oliver to be the victim of felix’s behaviour exactly because of this. but he isn’t. an easy explanation is that oliver is the minotaur, going through the family members as though they were victims in a maze. however, oliver is NOT the minotaur, as the myth is a lot more complex than the minotaur being the bad guy. despite what we expect, director emily fennel is leaning into the concept that the minotaur’s storyline is that of fate versus free will. the minotaur is cursed by the gods to fall into certain patterns and to be punished for its behaviour, despite it doing exactly what was expected. felix attempts to deviate from what is expected, but ultimately he fits in well with the rich and social, and his death is a punishment at the hands of a sort-of theseus who believes he is more deserving. rather, oliver is also seen to be theseus, who famously invaded the maze, manipulated its dwellers in order to navigate it, killed the minotaur, and then manipulated his way into becoming king as a result. sound familiar? it is because of this that the imagery of oliver as the changeling is particularly important. the horns can be evocative of the minotaur, offering us a red herring, where he is truly disguised as the opposite. it’s a fake out.

fourthly, king minos (owner of the labyrinth) did not die directly at the hands of theseus, he did eventually meet his downfall and was boiled to death in a bath. james catton, head of the estate, dies of a supposed suicide, also not directly by oliver’s hands, but still implicitly connected to the events of the story, much like king minos’ death.

the lore in this film is incredible, and though emily fennel has not said that the film is an adaptation of greek myth, the parallels are deliciously undeniable. saltburn is fascinating, and truly one of the best films of 2023. there is so much stuff jam packed into it, and it’s one of those films that takes a few watches to fully grasp its depth. i love it!

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shintoinenglish · 3 months

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Review: The Essence of Shinto

I have written before of Yamakage's authorship of multiple antisemitic conspiracy theory books. That said, given that there are not a lot of English language books about Shintō, I find this book is often recommended. It should not be recommended to anyone, not just because of the authorship, but for its misinformation. There is very little actual information that can be salvaged from this trainwreck of a book.

Koshintō is not an ancient practice - it's a new religious movement; an attempt to imagine an ancient Shintō, which is, in my opinion, inherently paradoxical, as the concept of Shintō as the name of a religion (and indeed the concept of a religion itself) were consciously constructed as recently as the Meiji Era, which is the 19th century. The archaeological and historical truth is that we do not know what Yayoi or Jomon period peoples believed, and Shintō is likely very distinct from that, and that is okay. While I understand the impulse to try to reconstruct Yayoi or Jomon era religions, I find the impulse to remove foreign elements like Buddhism to contain elements of xenophobia, and have found the idea of Shintō as truly ancient to be misleading at best. We do not actually have an ancient practice handed down to us. Japanese religious practice, first, is diverse -- regions do things differently. Kyushu area graves, for example, bear continental Chinese influence and have 土神 enshrined at their sides. Secondly, while I do think there is a necessity to undo the damage that State Shintō has done, it is not helpful to do so in a way that, at best, ignores and at worst, contradicts history.

Secondly, Yamakage Shintō is barely attested outside of Motohisa's writings. Many of the practices allegedly specific to Yamakage Shintō are common Japanese New Age theories, along with some condescension of traditional practices. One way to recognize this is his repeated use of the word "spiritual" (which presumably was either written スピリチュアル in the original text). It's ironic, then, that he puts down "bizarre cults and sects" (p.13). The aforementioned paragraph should explain why I am so skeptical of the Yamakage school when there is no such thing as ancient Shintō by definition.

Crucially, there is some dangerous and typical New Age medical misinformation here. He claims that certain chants or practices can heal different physical and mental health symptoms, which is not something anyone should say, much less someone who claims to be a religious teacher. This is a sidenote, but I am hoping that Paul de Leeuw did not absorb any of this, but am concerned as he trained under Yamakage.

Yamakage states "...Shinto leaders have been at the forefront of campaigns to restore the forests..." As much as Westerners want Shintō to be the Green Religion that saves the world, I've had very little luck actually encountering any shrine websites or articles that back this up, outside of the traditional practices of keeping very small sacred forests known as chinju no mori. If anything, the opposite has been documented. See Sacred Forests, Sacred Nation for more on this subject. I would be open to correction on this, but Yamakage provides no sources whatsoever; in fact, he provides no sources throughout his book for any of his factual or historical claims. Presenting the Showa Emperor as a source does nothing but reinforce fascist rhetoric about the emperor being the religious head, as he was at the time of State Shinto, and likely says more about his personal convictions than his religious ones. There is something eerily dystopian and fascistic in Yamakage's description of the people cheerily following the Showa Emperor's example.

I have noticed a tendency in some Japanese people to do what I think of as self-orientalism; an exoticization of your own body and culture to appeal to whites. It seems to me that Yamakage is doing such a thing, while simultaneously appealing to Japanese nationalistic sympathies, by saying it is an ancient, mysterious religion untainted by materialism. Demonizing materialism, in fact, goes against the actual practice of most Japanese -- many, many businesses regularly pray for prosperity and dedicate lamps to shrines, or will get ritual decorations for prosperity known as kumade during the November Tori-no-Ichi festival.

"Ajimarikan" is a chant that is, at best, shoddily derived from Buddhism, as is his use of mudra hand gestures. At worst, he completely fabricated this chant and doesn't even attempt to provide a meaning for this phrase. The Five Great Vowels Chant and the Heavenly Counting Chant are both chants that do not exist outside of this book.

Yamakage Motohisa also repeatedly uses Okinawan/Ryūkyūan religion as examples as if it is a part of Shintō, which it most decidedly is not. There was forced assimilation because of colonization, to my understanding, but the practice is entirely different from Shintō.

This is kind of a briefer overview than I originally intended, but I hope this provides some information on why I dislike Yamakage and this book so much. My hope is that he stops being recommended as any sort of resource and a better one is translated soon.

#shinto #misinformation

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hellofeternity · 8 months

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ORV transcends language | how ORV is kind to readers (1.1k words)

the difficulties in analyzing text are already numerous without a language barrier, the way one word can mean 5 things and when you put it in a sentence suddenly it can mean 50 things and put that sentence in a paragraph? go further and put that paragraph in a page? construct a whole world around it, weave it into the fabric, and suddenly you are painting with words.

ORV is a daunting text, it calls and references so many mythos world wide, greek, roman, indian, chinese, japanese, it plays with meaning and intent and uses gaps in our knowledge like weapons, making us extrapolate our own meaning between the sentences, it is a tome of knowledge when it comes to histories and philosophies it feels at times like I will never understand all these things inside it.

One of the difficulties of reading a translated text is that when we analyze a text the authorial intent weighs very heavily in our minds, sure we can immerse ourselves in the world but once we start picking apart at the threads we hit a wall pretty soon when we start asking ourselves "what did the author mean by this?" however in a translated text there is an obvious gap, a game of telephone, did the translator actually capture the authors intent? or are we just reading the translators perception? sadly I don't know korean, and I cant say I have the drive to learn it, as such I know there will forever be a side of ORV that I will never be privy to - however I am bilingual and had the pleasure of reading two translated versions of ORV, an English translation and an Arabic translation, I didn't finish reading the said Arabic translation but a couple things stood out to me when I briefly did ORV is very kind to readers, following along in other stories can seem confusing at times, the pacing might be too fast and you might miss some details in a characters actions, the wording might be too vague and ah damn 20 pages later you realize you don't actually know why the characters are doing what they are doing. A big writing adage that you will see a lot is "show dont tell" and it holds merit, but ORV doesn't subscribe to it, because ORV shows AND tells. ORV built a world around readers and reading, and it makes sure that there is clarity every step of the way on what is happening, first by starting out as a homage to the isekai genre, and not deviating too much at the start, making the readers feel at home in a worldview they are familiar with, systems, leveling, videos games etc, and when it starts deviating it explains things with clarity that no matter how bad the translation is you understand the general intent, and secondly by being VERY blatant about the names of things and having a built in "story" system that is built on common story tropes and names the themes for you! take for example "unbroken faith" and "Blade of faith" both of these are two translated versions of dokja's sword. I will never know which one is closer to the original authorial intent, but I can tell you something, dokja's sword is symbolism to the faith he is wielding. (CH386 vague spoilers) or the entirety of "the great war of saints and demons" being about the concept of good and evil fighting and how kimcom aren't just above being good and evil, they are both. By using story tropes that we are familiar with to explain the complexity of situations in a simple forms you no longer have to worry about losing you readers understandings through language barriers. Every story in the world in every language knows what good vs evil is, every language has the words to explain them. and therein lies the beauty of ORV. But of course this isn't to say translations don't matter, it does speak to the strength of an original texts clarity when it accounts for the big things by making them simplified, but when we get down to the nitty gritty it starts to lose form take for example

"Tell me, you fool. If I continue to regress, will I ever get to meet you again?"

this person here has a great write up explaining the translators thoughts behind this specific line

but it has spawned a lot of debate in the English speaking fandom, as to the strength of its translation, I remember when I first saw someone claiming that its a mistranslation and "you fool" isn't part of the original, my first thought was "and so?" I do not mean to be dismissive to the original text, but I do not exist in a space where I can appreciate it in the original korean, I do not exist in a worldview where I can understand the historical implications of a lot of the characters, and even when I try to research it in English sadly the resources do not exist yet and its even more laughable to think of finding these things in Arabic. (Goryeos first sword doesn't have an English wikipedia page as a clear example) a lot of people have issues with the most popular English fantranslation of ORV - and I can understand why, being bilingual I have a lot of opinions on how a lot of things SHOULD be translated most of the time, and have done my own translation work but as I sit and think about this popular translation I cant help but just feel love for it, it might be lacking to some, it might be inaccurate at times to others, but its just enough for me to paint the gaps in the text with my perceptions, the words used are tied to my affections the Arabic translation of ORV is clunky, it is messy, it doesn't have as much grace as the English translation of ORV does, the words barely string together cohesively, but it has enough clarity, enough intent, and enough love for its readers, to catch their hearts, their attention and their energy

and so I want this to be the first post on this blog because, the author is dead here, not because I buried them, but because the tower of babel fell down a long time ago, and all we have is rubble and each other. a lot of the analysis on this blog will try to be respectful to the korean original wherever it can, however my words will be coming from an anglosphere perspective, and build on other English reader's perceptions of a text translation that a decent amount of people don't think is adequate, but just like ORV is kind to us, we can be kind back, I will quote the most popular version because its what connects us together, and while the authors intent might be lost, we can share our own meanings with each other, and build our own intent from the rubble.

#orv meta #orv #orv analysis #r1864 #a big wall of text for me to go lol orv is queer and yjh is trans coded #but this is tumblr so everyone knows that already #also I still don't actually know what naming convention is correct I've seen many discussions about this #I just go with what is most popular for ease of understanding and ease of reading #also i find the naming thing very funny in english and latin letters because there isnt nearly this much drama about it in the arabic scrip #I just assume its like any other language that doesnt use latin and we are just trying to break english to sound out letters they dont have #i do like how dokjas name sounds like its splitting in the middle in the correct pronunciation 'dok-ja' adds to his duality #and i am sad that gets lost in the latin script sounding

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themattress · 4 months

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I hate Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. Everything about it.

However - there is one scene in particular that I absolutely despise above all others. Don't get me wrong, every other cutscene is bad, many of them even rage-inducing....but none of them quite measure up to this one in its wretchedness. Which one is it, you ask? THIS one.

So after Xigbar reiterates the bullshit Inception-esque "dream within a dream" plot twist that Sora is currently experiencing all because he happens to have an "X" on his clothes (yes, that is an actual thing that Nomura wrote), Sora just randomly declares that Nobodies have hearts after all. What does his base this on? The memories from 358/2 Days that he experienced.

"Axel and Roxas and Namine, and that other girl. I felt what Roxas felt and they laughed together, got mad, and they grieved. You have to have a heart to cry."

First off, "that other girl" shouldn't be here. In 358/2 Days, Namine specifically said "If you return your memories to him, you'll disappear. And since everything about you was built on those memories...no one will remember you when you're gone. There won't be any "you" to remember. I can't save you, Xion--even a memory of you." But this game, just like Coded before it and KH3 after it, is flagrantly ignoring that because the rabid fanbase that Days / Xion / the Seasalt Trio developed, particularly in Japan, demanded Xion back and because he's a clout-chasing coward Nomura complied, the story's internal logic be damned.

Secondly, all of the characters Sora mentioned are special cases. Roxas and Namine were special Nobodies built upon a literal heart-to-heart relationship (Sora and Kairi), allowing them to feel things at the cost of having no memory, when for normal Nobodies it's the other way around. Xion was not a Nobody, she was a replica with a heart constructed from memories. Of course she felt stuff. Lastly, this game continues to ignore that Axel's feelings were...off. Making a connection with a heart allowed him to start feeling things, but his Nobody nature was still technically heartless and self-centered, which meant that his feelings were purely based on himself and what his friends mean to him. He never cared about them the way someone is actually supposed to, as that depth of feeling was still foreign to him.

And finally, this seems to be in direct response to that stupid Tomoko Kanemaki-made scene from KH2:FM of Roxas talking with Axel's ghost and they wax poetic about what a heart is and what it means to have one, ending in a shot where Axel is seen shedding tears ("You have to have a heart to cry"). But even that scene, as bad as it was, was still written with Nojima's KH2 scenario in mind where the answer is a philosophical difference between a literal heart, which Nobodies can't have, and a metaphorical heart, which they can develop through bonding with someone with a heart and find a way to exist (as evidenced by Axel even having a ghost at all) within that someone's heart. But now, we get this from Xemnas:

"A heart is never lost for good. There may have been variances in our dispositions, but a number of us unquestionably showed signs of a burgeoning replacement. Once born, the heart can also be nurtured. Our experiments creating Heartless were attempts to control the mind, and convince it to renounce its sense of self. But understand, one can banish the heart from the body, but the body will try to replace it the first chance it gets, for as many times as it takes. And so I knew, even after we were divided into Heartless and Nobodies, it was just a temporary separation."

Where do I even begin?

"A number of us unquestionably showed signs of a burgeoning replacement"? Is this Nomura's way to "explain" why the Organization reacted emotionally on many occasions? Except that was already explained in KH2! As Yen Sid said, their behavior is a ruse to pretend that they have hearts and properly exist, and as Saix said, it's their memories of their human selves and the feelings they felt with hearts that allow them to do this. We literally SEE Demyx drop the facade and show his true unemotional colors right before fighting him!

"One can banish the heart from the body, but the body will try to replace it the first chance it gets". Um, HOW? The body shouldn't be able to recreate a heart because in this universe the body never created the heart to begin with! The literal title of the series, Kingdom Hearts, is where all hearts are born and where all hearts return to. We established that in Game 1!

There was talk earlier about puppets like Pinocchio "growing" a heart, but that's not even the case. As seen earlier in KH2's Space Paranoids and later in KH3's Toy Box, it's not that the non-living thing "grows" a heart, it's that Kingdom Hearts grants them a heart specifically based upon the feelings someone with a heart has toward them. Gepetto, Ansem the Wise, Andy, etc. The hearts didn't just come out of nowhere from nothing like this game suggests.

For that matter, the heart is established as holding the essence of a person; it's who they are. The whole reason Nobodies "don't exist" is because while they have the body and soul of a person plus the memories of said person, without a heart they are not actually that person, who is actually now a Heartless. So is Xemnas saying the body can grow a new freaking person? Then what will become of the original person once they're purified from being a Heartless? The same bullshit of "recompleting" that Lea and co. underwent? But doesn't that contradict the notion that Nobodies are their own individuals who supposedly deserve to live as such? Also, why does all of this only apply to the Organization? What about all of the lesser Nobodies, like the Dusks? Can they not also "regrow" their hearts? Did Nomura think any of this out at all before committing it to script form? And at this point, Sora yells out:

"Why, then? Why did you lie to them and tell them they had no hearts?"

Yep, that's right. Even though Yen Sid also said they had no hearts, Ansem the Wise's research turned up that they had no hearts, and they themselves largely behaved as though they had no hearts, apparently it was all just a lie Xemnas concocted, stripping away half the depth that he and the Organization in general had. Xemnas is now depicted as just a simplistic bad guy and the others save for Xigbar as total victims of brainwashing. Hilariously, the narrative tap-dances around how, if this is true, then Sora and the other heroes now look way more questionable for killing them. The bullshit train keeps chugging as Xigbar says:

"Xemnas and Xehanort formed the Organization for a specific reason - round up a bunch of empty husks, hook them up to Kingdom Hearts, then fill them all with the exact same heart and mind. Translation--they were gonna turn all the members into Xehanort."

So now the claim is that Xemnas, who totally had Xehanort's heart inside him even when Ansem existing should render that impossible, was gonna use the power of Kingdom Hearts to copy-paste that heart into the other Organization members as part of Xehanort's plan to forge the X-Blade. Just like with the claim that Ansem's goal was the Seven Princesses rather than the Final Keyhole they unseal, this clashes with what we actually saw in the previous games. Why would Xemnas do anything he did if this was the plan? The event that got him his thirteenth "vessel" also set the Seven Princesses loose, then several of those "vessels" perished, and yet he carried on with the plan anyway? KH3 tries to do damage control by suggesting Xemnas was out to betray Xehanort, but that just creates more issues with this abominable retcon trying to force separate villainous plans as part of some convoluted whole.

Xigbar then follows all this up with:

"Me? I'm already half Xehanort!"

.....Moving on. Xemnas proceeds to give us this absolute howler:

"However -through weakness of body...weakness of will...or weakness of trust--most of the original members we had chosen for the Organization were inadequate. Thus, naturally, they never had a chance to attain their goal."

MOST of the original Organization members were inadequate!?

Um, yeah, let's flash forward to KH3 and see who made the cut:

Xemnas Xigbar Vexen Saix Demyx Luxord Marluxia Larxene Xion (as a replacement for Roxas)

So basically, 9 out of 13. Only 4 (Xaldin, Lexaeus, Zexion and Axel) "failed".

.....Xemnas, I don't think that the word "most" means what you think it means.

Then we get to the big, dramatic confrontation as Sora yells:

"Just stop it! You treat people's hearts like bottles on a shelf, but they're not! Hearts are made of the people we meet, and how we feel about them-- they're what ties us together even when we're apart! They're what...make me strong."

This is a good line, but Xigbar proceeds to ruin it with his comeback:

"Duh! You're strong because of the ties you have with other people. As if the Keyblade would choose a wimp like you. But no pouting. We see much bigger and better things in your future...once you side with us."

To which Sora replies:

"I know the Keyblade didn't choose me, and I don't care. I'm proud to be a small part of something bigger--the people it did choose! My friends. They are my power!

Beyond this callback to a famous line in the original game feeling cheap, Nomura doesn't even seem to actually remember the scene in which the line was used! Because the Keyblade DID choose Sora in that scene, precisely because of how he bonded his heart with others and took strength from them. In fact, he may be the ONLY person the Keyblade has "chosen" in this series - the allegedly worthier "other people" who appear in the above image have either had their Keyblade bequeathed to them by a prior wielder, transformed another weapon into a Keyblade, or wield a Keyblade specifically because Sora can wield it. (Also, why are Terra, Aqua, Ven and Xion even there? Calling them Sora's "friends" is a huge stretch, especially when people like Namine and HPO who fit the bill better aren't present! And if them not having Keyblades is the excuse given, I must point out that Donald and Goofy are also here! So are they part of "the people it did choose"!? Where is the consistency!?)

This combined with Xehanort's later "dull, ordinary boy" remark reeks of Nomura being touchy about criticism BBS got for making Sora out to be more special than he was supposed to be which led to him overcorrecting here....which doesn't even stick given Data!Ansem the Wise's later monologue about Sora and the events of KH3. Just terrible, contradictory writing.

I hate Dream Drop Distance. I hate the convoluted dream mechanics, I hate Yen Sid's whole Mark of Mastery test and the stupidity and hypocrisy he displays as it unfolds, I hate the literal TWEWY cast being present, I hate the Lea subplot, I hate Maleficent and Pete doing nothing, I hate the shafting of Kairi, I hate the Sora/Riku queer-baiting, I hate young Xehanort, and I hate all of the screwy, time travel-based retconning and twist reveals in the last act that essentially destroyed the whole series. But this fucking scene in particular, I hate above all.

#Disney #Square Enix #Kingdom Hearts #Dream Drop Distance #Sora #Xemnas #Xigbar #Opinion #Analysis #Stupidity #Bad Writing #Character Derailment #Anti-Kingdom Hearts #Anti-Dream Drop Distance #Anti-Square Enix #Anti-Nomura #Anti-Tetsuya Nomura

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lover-of-mine · 13 days

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So. first off - I your colour theory posts are amazing, they are the first thing I ever saw of yours and I immediately fell in love.

Secondly, I just saw your recent response re: your thoughts about 7x04 & 7x05 and am wondering if maybe things will make more sense, or at least be easier to articulate, once 7x06 is out.

Hi, first, thank you, I'm so glad you enjoy them 🩷

But, yeah, probably. Because the more data points on something the easier it will be to figure out what they mean. It was easy for me to figure out how to articulate all I wanted with my blue and green posts because the blue and green is being used since season 2, so there's a lot resolved for me to look at to figure out patterns. But this season, we are using new rules. Like, for instance, Buck being canonically bi, makes Eddie a love interest officially, so they have different rules being applied to them now. I think the show might be creating a whole new category of stuff there because we never had a proper triangle before. I have some theories, but I don't have anything to back me up on them fully yet, because this development is in the middle, so trying to write something now kinda feels like I'm trying to write a summary on a book I didn't finish reading. Everything about the season so far is telling me that Buck and Eddie are gonna get together but they need to figure out they are queer first. Or at least tell the audience that. Like, they have enough space to say that Eddie already knows he has feelings for Buck in some degree, in all degrees actually, they can argue Eddie from fully in denial to aware of something he needs to deny to fully in acceptance that he thinks Buck can't love him back, but they would still need to figure out a way to tell the audience that outside of Buck (as in not in a scene with Buck) so that the "Eddie turned gay for Buck" argument can't be used. Because I can't turn off the writer side of my brain trying to guess where this is going narratively while doing analysis like that, and I think, for instance the blue and yellow is telling me something on that, but since I don't think the show has used this combo like this before (and I hadn't had the time to fact check my current theory) I don't have a resolved plotline to use, so I'm kinda speculating on a lot more than just the pattern since this season is in the middle and we don't have the story they are trying to tell yet and I don't love going down that line alone. Like, it was fun writing about the sun within the construction on sunset theory, but I think the actual yellow/gold the keep putting around Eddie and behind Buck is being used for something more than that but I don't know how to explain why I think that.

There's also the way they are handling the blue and green thing this season, I can't tell if they proved me right and they have been completing the blue and green thing with other elements of the scene, since we had Henren in blue and green with both of them using both blue and green down to their shoes or the patterns of their clothes this last episode, we had bathena completing it with pants, we had Buck with a green coat and Eddie surrounded by blue things, even the date between Buck and Tommy, Buck usually is in solid colors, but his shirt was patterned where Tommy's was solid, or if they decided to expand this season and the shit I pointed out before are coincidences. The season being in the middle means it can turn in any direction, so I'm kinda unsure of what to say because right now I feel like I'm completely off base and that makes me not feel confident enough in what I'm saying when I try to write on 704 and 705, and if I'm not confident of what I'm saying, then how I'm supposed to convince y'all of anything? Does that make sense? Like I have more thoughts on 704 after watching 705, the same way both gave me thoughts on 701, but they still sound like gibberish to me so I know they will sound like gibberish to you, so I'm waiting and letting the thoughts simmer.

#like i was right about the patterns in the gym scene #but i was wrong about the nature of the scene #so im kinda like huh i need to think more lol #or be given more reference points #more references points will absolutely help here #but i am gonna check my current theory and try to post it before the next episode #no promises tho skpsksospskss #thoughts thoughts thoughts #911 #i really need a tag for asks #sylvie-bug

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rmoonstoner · 9 months

Text

9:30ish am, 08/18/23

All works are temporarily on hold due to a wild fire close to my home.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

❤️ 💙

Update: 10:17am

All I can hear over the street construction for sewer are the echos of sirens in the city. The street construction crews are still working on my street. That tells me we are safe. For now.

Update: 2:40pm

More sirens. The air is thick and heavy with smoke. Burning embers are now hitting my neighborhood. Multiple areas have had small fires start up. We have set up sprinklers and started dousing our property.

Update: 08/19/23 - 2:55pm

The air quality is worse than before. We managed to get to the stores and get supplies to stock our van and camper. Lots of businesses are closed for the weekend, and if not, they close way earlier than before. We are all loaded and ready to go at a moment's notice.

Update: 08/20/23 - 8:10am

The fire has grown to 11,000 hectares as of 7:20pm last night. Over 30,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. A lot of people I know are. Power outages keep happening. The skies are still so smokey, we cannot see the mountains we are very close to. It's hard to see the houses down the street. Fire crews from all over British Columbia have come to our aid, which we are thankful for, even though we have multiple other fires happening in BC. As of yet, I am still lucky enough to be in my home with my family. Rest assured, we are packed and ready to leave when necessary.

On a lighter note, it is my eldest son's birthday today. We hope to make the most of this day. 🎂 ❤️

Update: 08/21/23 - 7:41am

First of all, my son loved his birthday yesterday. He understands what is happening as he's a teenager, so he wasn't expecting a big get-together with the fires happening. He was super happy he got ice cream cake and a whole pizza for himself and one for his best friend who was able to come spend the day with him. We gave him video game programming gear, new keyboard, new headphones, and movie tickets.

Secondly, it looks about the same today as it did yesterday. With the smoke in the air, the sun is red and it's cold outside when it supposed to be warm. Less sirens and one area on the evacuation map (that I noticed) has turned from evacuation now, to alert. It means those people in that area can go home for now, if local law enforcement allows it.

Update: 08/22/23 - 7:20am

I forgot to mention that all airports in our region are grounded and have been for at least two days due to the smoke and ash in thee air. All Canada post mail (to our region) has been put on immediate hold due to safety concerns. This is will definitely put a wrench into other delivery companies as well.

It finally rained last night. It was off and on all night. The smoke has cleared up enough to see the faded outline of the mountains 1 km away from me, finally.

One thing that boggles my mind is that so many people seem not bothered by the wild fires.

• The old lady I help was confused as to why I could not come on Friday or Monday. She apparently doesn't believe in getting ready for evacuation unless it actually happens. I have a family of 6, and 2 cats. I have to get all these people ready, as 2 are children, and 2 are seniors. My husband just had hip surgery 3 months ago, so he needs more help than he normally does.

• My father ignored my mother's pleas to pack up her things and get ready for the possible evacuation. He's a boomer that used to be a workaholic, and now he's retired and believes it's his God given right to be a lazy slob. So I had to do everything.

• The neighbor just gets on his motorbike and decides that going for a ride up the FIRE STRIKEN MOUNTAIN is a good idea.

• Other neighbors decided to have a BONFIRE in their back yard, while ash falls from the sky onto their heads.

• People in the city had the audacity to fire off FIREWORKS this weekend.

Like, wow.

Update: 08/23/23 - 1:00pm

It rained all night. The skies are clearer and breathable today. More of the red excavation zones have changed to orange alert areas. People are now being allowed back into their homes. Packages and mail has started to arrive today.

Update: 08/24/23 - 7:16am

Yesterday was cool and mildly windy. We have a little more smoke lingering in the air than yesterday, but it's still better than it was on the weekend.

☆☆☆

Stay safe out there!

❤️ 💙

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tearlessrain · 2 years

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Lumpy Kiba Part 2: Origins

I just wanted to also address this real quick because a few people have insisted that Lumpy Kiba predates Wolf’s Rain and I don’t personally believe that’s the case.

even more deranged ranting under the cut!

Firstly, I was a teenager when Wolf’s Rain came out and was first popular, and to the best of my memory I only ever saw that silhouette in Wolf’s Rain fan content until later (it made a slight detour through the broader wolfaboo community before taking over clipart repositories everywhere, but obviously it broke containment in short order). I had Lumpy Kiba as my desktop background (on my user account on the Family Computer) for a while. Howling wolf silhouettes have been a thing since forever, of course, but I was obsessed with wolves and I don’t remember seeing much of Lumpy Kiba specifically until more recently.

Secondly, that opening sequence wolf is animated. I know an animation frame can be traced but that seems unlikely in an anime that is entirely about wolves. one assumes the people involved knew how to draw them without tracing.

Thirdly, the anime still is the only place where the wolf silhouette actually... looks good. It’s significantly higher in quality than the clipart and traces that followed, and includes shading and detail that Lumpy Kiba never does. The anatomy, while a bit wonky, makes sense with the way wolves are drawn in the anime.

It matches the style of the anime in the way it’s constructed and the way it moves. Here’s another still from it, of another wolf on a cliff with its head up (though this one is throwing someone else off a cliff. don’t worry about it)

wheeee

anyway, the wolf in this shot clearly has a different silhouette from Lumpy Kiba or Original Kiba, but a lot of the stylistic quirks (prominent wrist bumps that you can also see on the background wolf, concave back, long upper foreleg that extends down off the chest, long metatarsals, skinny waist) are the same, and consistent in a lot of scenes.

you can see the stylistic quirks in other places too, like the end credit sequence where elements of the wolf’s outline are exaggerated compared to a real one (also that tiny waist again). this isn’t a bad choice, and it works well in the anime where the artists clearly know what a wolf looks like and are choosing what to exaggerate. the lumps emphasize the wolfiness instead of obscuring it.

there’s also the particular posture and conformation of Lumpy Kiba that’s rarely seen in silhouettes that aren’t derived from it, but seen constantly in wolf’s rain. real wolves have somewhat narrow chests and stand with their forepaws fairly close together most of the time. a lot of non-Lumpy Kiba clipart reflects this.

but wolves in Wolf’s Rain tend to have broad chests and a wide, square stance that’s congruous with the silhouette from whence Lumpy Kiba came but not that typical in real wolves. they have a stiff, boxy sort of look and movement to them.

in the anime, it looks fine. but it makes Lumpy Kiba stand out because not only is he based on a pretty stylized wolf, a lot of elements that look fine in a few frames in an anime with shading and a cohesive art style around it (the pointy hocks and butt bump, for example) end up weirdly exaggerated in the clipart because whoever traced it was just following the lines they saw instead of considering actual wolf anatomy, so the quirks are both exaggerated by the process, and taken out of context.

my theory as to why people believe they’ve seen that same silhouette predating Wolf’s Rain is the same reason the Mandela effect and that dude who allegedly appears in everyone’s dreams are a thing: human perception and memory is flawed, howling wolves are an incredibly popular motif, and at this point Lumpy Kiba is so pervasive that that’s what most people probably picture when they think of a howling wolf silhouette, especially if they don’t know that it’s all the same wolf. there are also a lot of weirdly stylized wolf cliparts out there, and unless you’re me and have been holding a grudge about this specific thing for the last fifteen years, there is very little reason for your brain to have a dedicated “every distinct wolf silhouette I’ve seen on a tshirt in that weird crystals-swords-and-holographic-horse-print shop at the mall” section in its memory.

it’s certainly possible that Wolf’s Rain traced (and improved) a clipart that already existed for one specific frame for some reason, but for now I’m gonna continue my assumption that Kiba is indeed its origin.

#posting these out of order so you can read them in order #lumpy kiba

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jonassiegenthighler · 5 days

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Obsessed w the title johnluke two johnluker, expand on this please!!

LMAO Okay well first of all you need to know about my personal obsession with the film Die Hard 2: Die Harder (a film which I'm not positive that I've actually seen), I genuinely think it is such a funnier sequel title format than "electric boogaloo" and I will die on this hill (harder than the first time) so that's why it's called that.

Secondly, it isn't actually the sequel to anything, I called it that because at the time, the only other fic in my google docs was the curling fic which was just called "johnluke" until I finished it.

It's literally just domestic fluff about Luke making himself a key to John's apartment and refusing to leave until John falls in love with him. I will probably scrap it for parts and put them in other fics rather than actually completing it but you never know, you know?

Snippet:

Luke made himself a key to John’s apartment at some point. John wasn’t sure when or how he had pulled that off, but one day he just started showing up and walking in like he owned the place. John knew he should be upset about it; that this was probably burglary, in the legal sense, and that he should stand up for the sanctity of his home. Maybe he would have, if he hadn’t privately wanted Luke in his home and in his space as often as possible, leaving his things around like it didn’t matter because he would be back for it soon, and this way he could have that without ever having to ask for it.

“I can’t take it!” He called out on his way to the kitchen where he started pulling out the ingredients for pb&j’s, he put on his startlingly good Jack impression, “‘Luke where are you going? We have plans.’ No, Jack. YOU have plans. You can’t just include me in everything without even asking me!” Johnny privately found Luke’s insistence on consent for social activities to be hypocritical in a deeply hilarious way, standing as he was in John’s kitchen, stealing his food, uninvited (but not unwanted). “He does this all the fucking time! I mean, obviously I love the guy, but Christ, I didn’t spend this much time with him when we were kids!” He had like six slices of bread peanut-buttered and was about to go back in for the jelly when he got to the end of his rant. Never let it be said that Luke Hughes isn’t a goddamn expert at pb&j construction.

“Hello, Luke. Welcome to my home, Luke. Please, come in and help yourself to my food.” John said, sarcastically, when Luke finally stopped to take a breath. He didn’t mean it and they both knew it, but he had to keep up some semblance of control over his life, at least for appearance’s sake.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m very rude.” He shot back with a dismissive hand wave. “Come on, Johnny, let’s not act like you wouldn’t have let me in.” The smirk on the kids face was cocky, all Hughes. It doesn’t help John’s case that he’s right. If there’s one thing he has learned in the months since Luke first arrived in New Jersey, it’s that he is absolutely powerless when it comes time to say no to him. He didn’t know if it was a Hughes thing or a Luke thing, and he guessed that it didn’t really matter one way or another. The end result was still all 6 foot 1 inch of his body was wrapped tightly around the youngest Hughes’s little finger.

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but-ter-flie-ge · 1 year

Text

'Ollo

I'm back. Pahahaha. That sounded so menacing in my brain. Anyways it's six of crows time again. Crazy I know.

I reread the first book and had to get some thoughts out of my jelly brain:

Firstly: the last time I read the duology I didn't really get the hype around the first book.

It just wasn't that interesting to me and the whole ice court heist felt very... faulty and too fast paced. Everything was kind of weirdly put together and rushed. Fight scenes. Emotional scenes. Most of it except for the flashbacks and the banter felt too quick.

I couldn't connect with the characters and I feel like I also didn't really understand a lot of them. Maybe the fact that I read it in German changed something as well, probably changed something.

Now being older and rereading it after the show while properly indulging in the fandom I found myself enjoying every interaction between the characters and actually really noticed a lot of their growth. I appreciate them more and while reading I could overlook that the ice court heist still felt weird. Or rather the heist wasn't weird but it's weird to me that people call it an absolute masterpiece.

I think it should just be seen as something that it is: "A bunch of messed up teenagers doing the impossible with the help of luck and a few good tricks."

That's a mindset I ought to keep when musing about the heist, I suppose. I'm not sure if it was intended as such but it is what I gathered from it.

Secondly: I cherish the characters way more than before and that makes a major difference. Since what I've mentioned before and I have been constructing the characters in my brain as who they are and what I appreciate about them the first book became 10 times better.

This point is also related to the fact that everything feels rushed because when you barely know the characters their banter might be funny but it doesn't affect you as much as it does once you know them. Now it feels like you're reading of friends joking around instead of strangers.

Kaz:

During the first read I really despised Kaz. I may said I found him interesting but now I feel more like I just said that out of a want to understand what the rest of the world apparently agreed upon which is that Kaz is phenomenal. He's great he's wonderful and a big player when it comes to book crushes.

What I can say is that the TV series really helped me understand and ultimately like Kaz more. Specifically the second season. In the first season, I don't connect Book-Kaz with the Kaz on screen but the second season did him justice. To a degree. (Idk why he gives Nikolai his cane (please fix that)) Probably also because in season 2 he was in his actual plot and habitat.

This time when I write:"I find him interesting." I mean it. I actually really enjoy watching how his character moves and tada! I now even acknowledge his crush on Inej. Because in my first read I subconsciously never really believed him. He was too much of an asshole to me. But even if I believed him I didn't have any pity left to sympathize with him. Blinded by hate I suppose.

This time I actually had an understanding of his actions, why he takes them, and what they mean to him.

I still view him as a ruthless fucker who only has space for himself when it comes to his friends but it's easier to bear when I actually want to know more about his rage and logical reasoning. The way he gets to where he is.

Inej:

In the first read, I may liked Inej. In the second read, I put her on a pedestal and prayed next to her feet every night.

I don't know what hold me from seeing Inej for who she is in my first read but I know that now I could explode with love for her. It's funny to me because I thought I quite enjoyed reading about her but for some reason, it intensified.

Anyways her character growth and the resolve she finds in herself to say no, choosing what's best for her. Oof-

Also, Danielle Galligan (actress of Nina Zenik) said that Inej is just so authentic she brings other people to be truthful in her presence. I just really loved that statement.

Nina and Jesper:

I still adore both of them as I did when I first read it. Nothing much changed. Except maybe it got worse. But all in all, I'm the same old simp.

Wylan and Matthias:

Matthias I found way funnier. During the first read, I was just hating on him for obvious reasons. And even at the end of it all I wasn't a big fan and I didn't grab a lot of his pov nor what Nina meant when she said that he's just a boy with rage planted inside of him.

Now I understand that better and of course, he's still an annoying stupid big honk that doesn't know shit about the world but at least his confusion and the others mocking him were enjoyable. And the character development will forever make me happy.

I adore him and Nina. They're so sweet together and I didn't think I'd ever say that after my first read. But here we are. What a journey it has been.

It's the same as the first time with Wylan. I loved him but I didn't get any chapters from his pov so I was pissed. The show slaughtered the reveal of his dyslexia which I still don't support but maybe they can make the angst work somehow if there's to be a spin-off.

Also, I was scared that he would be useless throughout the whole book. Because in my memory, he wasn't but maybe that's just my old memory blinded by the pink glasses.

However, I think it's often hard to judge Wylan on this since he operates more in the background and with the few resources he has. Of course, he's still a weight the others drag along during the heist but let's be honest: Wylan was less of a problem than other characters messing up.

Obviously one has to consider that Wylan doesn't get the big jobs to begin with but one can counter-argue that Kaz could've left Pekka alone in the cell instead of taking too long and risking all their lives for his vendetta.

This reminds me: the scene where Kaz exposes Jesper about having told a dime lion he's leaving town will forever make me mad for this exact reason.

Kaz says he can't trust Jesper anymore. He says he wanted to punish him by not telling him about Wylan looking like Kuwei or that Wylan and Nina were actually safe when Van Eck destroyed their ship.

I don't even know where to start. Did Kaz ever really trust Jesper? Don't think so. He just knew how to use him but trust? The only one he ever conceded to was Inej which could be considered a spark of trust. That's it. I feel like he doesn't have the right to speak of trust when all he ever gave were simple orders.

Then his thoughts about punishing him.

Dear Kazzle Dazzle, did anyone punish you when your weakness showed and you collapsed in a prisoner wagon even though you knew this could've happened? Did anyone punish you when you left Nina alone in the corridor of a high-security prison? Did anyone punish you when you sent Nina in a death trap with Matthias and Brum that could've gone very wrong very quickly? It was a gamble and he says it himself. He even says he would be the one to pay for all these "tree jokes". But no Kaz. You wouldn't have been the one to take the brunt of this. It would've been Nina. She would've paid with her consciousness. Worse than death.

Nina was lucky that luck was on your side. I guess the third scenario is still very different from the first and second ones because at least Kaz tried to save her but nonetheless it annoyed me that he made it about himself. I get why but the why doesn't help him.

Thirdly: I have my problems with the writing style and plot.

By no means am I a professional especially not when it comes to English as it is not my mother tongue but I just wanted to describe the feeling I've got from it.

This is a tricky one because I'm not the biggest fan of either. I mean the only reveals or plot-twists that really hit home are the ones not related to the ice court. So the biggest portion of the book I wasn't too keen whenever some grand scheme worked because it didn't seem like a scheme at all. It was a lot of luck.

In the first read that bothered me. In the second read it didn't too much.

The writing style isn't my favourite. I don't hate it though. I feel like some of the similes are pretty damn good and the train of thought of the characters and descriptions are nicely woven together. The dialogues are very strong and the banters may be some of the best I've ever read. Even fanfiction got some serious competition here.

However, as I said it felt rushed and like sometimes there wasn't the right feeling for how the scenes should end. When I first read it I found this even worse than in my second read. For instance, the fight with Jesper and Wylan against the Tidemakers doesn't take much longer than a few seconds to read. But apparently, that fight had a big impact on Jesper. It's never mentioned again in the book but it's the start of him questioning whether he should go and learn about his powers. And since we already don't get any background about him in the first book I feel like this at least could've been a longer struggle.

In conclusion, I know it's not all about the plot and a book can be about good characterization and everything. But I also know that I can love something and still criticise it. Usually makes the media even better.

The characters are where the book shines which means a reread or watching the show and then reading it feels like the smarter option to me. It's worth it and it lets you see things in a different light. That's me speaking from my subjective point of view but it's also my review so. Get wrecked I guess?

#six of crows #soc #leigh bardugo #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #matthias helvar #nina zenik #review #very serious specific letter at #kazzle dazzle #we have beef #but its okay #slay

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crymeariveronceagain · 1 year

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Why do you like writing dark fics?

Is it because you want to point out the darkness in the real world, or for other reasons? Or for this reason + others?

Or just for fun?

Oooh! Excellent question, anon!

There are a couple reasons!

Firstly and foremostly, like you mentioned, the world is ugly. There is darkness all around us and it encroaches ever further. Not a single one of us will ever escape our life without having seen the darkness. Our lives are spent running from the inescapable reality of pain and suffering and death. We are all going do die, some day. We're all going to hurt. We're all going to cry. We're all going to need to keep on living, unafraid to walk the world alone. However, we're here. We're not stuck in tomorrow, nor in yesterday, we're now. And in the now, we hurt and we suffer and we live. Life is pain, and anyone who says differently is selling something. So, tragedy is often closer to reality than comedy. Angst is closer to the heart than fluff. Just as love is closer to the heart than laughter, just as pain is closer to what it means to be human than anything else, so too does reading about those things, seeing them portrayed and expanded on, shows off the fact that the world is hurting. That to be human is to suffer.

Secondly, I want to hold everyone's hand as they walk into the dark. I can't. So instead, I often will find myself writing what makes sad people feel less sad, lonely people less alone, hurting people comforted. Because there is something about seeing your suffering in another that lets you know that you're not alone. I cannot hold everyone's hands, but I can look them in the eyes with my writing and say, "Hey, you know what you're feeling? You know the inescapable nature of your own suffering? You know the struggle and the hurt and the ache inside that will not ever go away? Yeah. I know it too. I'll love you the whole time you cry." There's really truly something about seeing yourself in broken people that makes you feel like everything will be alright, someday. I don't know what it is.

Lastly, it's because I'm extremely partial to the American Gothic tradition of literature. It's my favorite. Give me scary stories, sad stories, weird and twisted stories. I especially love Southern Gothic. It's so good. I love tragedy, I love watching a doomed hero fall or have to pick themselves up in the aftermath of one. It's beautiful and cathartic and it makes me feel something beautiful, inside. Also, as far as the actual genre of my writing, 90% of my works are comedies according to the Ancient Greek idea of what a comedy is. Just because they deal with heavy subjects doesn't make their happy endings worth any less.

Finally, my favorite author, Flannery O'Connor(one of THE BEST Southern gothic writers, oh my stars) has a really great quote about her writing that I find also really applies to mine, on far too often an occasion, "Most of us have learned how to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept the fact that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will have to soften their real look"(1960). I've never been one to smooth down good. I don't do cliches, I don't write happy little fluffy stories. I write aching, terrible, hard to bear truth. I write stories where people cry, where people love, where people suffer, and yet, more often than not, they still get their happy ending. They get a new community. They get a family. They get the love of the one person they've ever wanted. Good is not always easy to look at. In fact, good is harder, sometimes, to look at, than evil. But good is always under construction. So, really, that's what you see in my works. It's not necessarily darkness, but rather good, true good, that's under endless construction. It's in battle with evil, constantly, and it triumphs, but not before evil looks like it has won. That's the joy of it, to be faced with demise but wind up in love with everything and in love with this broken, beautiful world, and everyone in it! Stars, come out of my stories in love with people, in love with yourself, in love with the world around you, free and hopeful and with eyes cleared by the tears you shed along the way. Stars above. That's all I want to write. Stories that wash your eyes clear with the tears that you shed. Stories that give you hope and strength to carry on. That's why I write the way I do.

Anyways, I also will quietly put it out there, that I used to write much darker things than what is on my ao3 account right now. I've become more mellow with age. Hah!

#thanks for the ask!#commentary on my writing #personal #not fandom content in specific

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poke-admin-showdown · 1 year

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ROUND 2 ANALYSIS: A PATTERN EMERGES

round two voting has concluded! and as is usual, i have some things to say about it

first of all, this round marks the entrance of our four highest seeded contenders - plumeria, the shadow triad, eri and matt. the title of this roundup post was originally going to be "MATT'S HERE NOW" but his match was actually significantly tamer than others, and there's something else i want to talk about more

almost half of our contestants going into the quarterfinals share three attributes: a red theme, bobbed hair, and capacity for (possibly feral) violence. mars, courtney and mela have significant support within the demographic of people voting in this bracket. now, i doubt the hair is really doing anything, i think that's mostly a coincidence, but it is interesting and pretty funny to me how that's worked out.

starting with mars: she's feral and we all love her for it. there have been enough tags about mars being feral that i'm going to have enough to make an entire tag compilation post at the end of this bracket. she's the star of the most one-sided poll this round, winning against petrel by 88% of votes. this is also our most-voted poll with 161 votes at time of writing. tumblr LOVE mars.

secondly, courtney: a significantly closer match this time against her team magma colleague tabitha, but still a clear win. i thought this match would have been a lot closer, and i saw some great arguments for both opponents in the tags, but in the end courtney won by 65%. that's pretty significant! i was honestly half expecting tabitha to win. i would like to officially state that i hope our banner isn't influencing results even though it is correct.

and finally, mela. i was not expecting her to get this far, i'll be completely honest. she has rage in her heart, yes, but she's also wearing those big ol boots. i spend a lot of time thinking about garment construction and how it would limit movement in a fistfight and in mela's case, i believe her boots would hinder her. She was seeded below Atticus for this exact reason. but she's taken down a galactic commander (rip saturn you tried) and her ninja-themed bestie, and i'm very curious to see how she'll do against her next opponent. will the angry bebooted teenager make it through the quarterfinals or will her reign end here? who know! not me!

other things of note: jupiter made it through round two, but with significantly less of a winning margin at 56/44% at time of writing (which is also our closest match), with a reverse sweep, since Oleana had an initial lead. i'd chalk this up to her opponent - while i haven't played swsh, i have heard a few things about oleana, and she does seem like the kind of person to fight dirty. unfortunately for her the tumblr consensus seems to be that jupiter would fight dirtier. the #jupitersweep dream lives on For Now.

a fight i wasn't expecting to be as close as it was is (one of) the shadow triad vs rocket executive archer. i don't know if archer has secret combat tricks i don't know about and that's why he got 34% of votes but that was genuinely a surprise to me considering he was up against an actual ninja who can appear out of thin air and stuff. pretty impressive on his part honestly.

finally, and related to my last point, we've lost two more villainous teams this round. team rocket has lost all four of its representatives in one round and is now entirely out of the running. we also lost macro cosmos's only representative, oleana, who did her best and i'm very proud of her.

the teams left in the running are teams aqua, magma, galactic, plasma, skull and star. most of those only have one representative left but galactic and star have two. i don't have too much to say about this, but i do think it's interesting and worth noting.

and now, funny tags time!

(courtesy of @/edgeanescence on the matt vs ariana poll)

(courtesy of @/spaghettiwolf on plumeria vs proton)

(courtesy of @/pixelchaos00, also on plumeria vs proton)

(mars vs petrel compilation, courtesy of @/clefaiiiry, @/salon-maiden-anabel and @/quarterdollar)

#here's to a fun quarterfinals!#very excited to see how it goes #this post brought to you mostly by giratina-plushie with some insights by catboy-cyrus and you can tell where those insights are #because he uses capitals normally and i do not

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brsb4hls · 11 months

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Kinda ranty iwtv review ahead.

When I finally got the chance to watch iwtv I found it meh. Which was weird to me, I was so excited about it.

Been trying to find out why for over a week.

I think I figured out now what I didn't like.

1. A small thing, the music. It didn' fit the scenes and simply sucked.

2. The atmosphere. The show kept the gore but ditched the gothic part of that horror genre imo.

This might partially be due to the fact that the act of blood drinking is pretty much de-mystified in the show. First, it's not a stand in for sex anymore, since there's actual sex. Not a bad thing per se of course, but different vibes.

Secondly, the "experiencing the whole life of a human via their memories when drinking their blood" part obvi couldn't really be put into the show.

3. Daniel. What the hell. Ok, there's the aged up thing, I could live with that. But due to his newly constructed history with Louis, Daniel is missing the wonder, scepticism and in the end downright horror when confronted with an actual vampire.

He's just sassy, bitchy and judgemental all the time, which kinda shapes how Louis in those scenes is presented to the audience.

There's not even respect, like, basic respect for another being who's guest you are. Feels totally off.

(Also I personally love book-Daniel and Armands relationship, so kinda miffed I wont get that).

4. The biggest point: Lestat's and Louis' relationship. There are multiple factors here.

First, the beginning. In the books Lestat was drawn to a deeply depressed Louis with a death wish.

Show Louis attracted Lestat by being assertive and very clear of his boundaries (if you take the most positive spin on his confrontation with his brother).

That sets off an entirely different dynamic. Also, show Louis pretty much has his shit together given the circumstances. He has to run his buisiness while being surrounded by bigotted racists and he's managing kinda well. (Until he rightfully explodes).

He also seems to turn to drinking animal blood not out of guilt or shame, but reason.

It's more like blood is blood and less clean up that way.

Louis doesn't huddle in the sewers, bawling and hating himself while munching on pest rats.

Which interestingly makes show Louis much more likable, because, ngl, book Louis took my last nerve. I was relieved to get Lestat's perspective in the second book, which was much more entertaining.

So, show Louis is likable and relatable, which changes the dynamic. In addition to to that Claudia becomes his sworn ally, so those two built a front against Lestat.

(Rightfully so, Lestat treats them like shit.)

But it divides Louis and Lestat further.

Plus by making Louis more self confident and assertive, it actually feels worse that they added that horrible scene where Lestat beat him up and dropped him (totally unnecessary btw, he was hovering above the ground in the first or second ep already, it was clear he could do that).

It felt like building the character up to tear him down more if that makes sense.

There are things I did like though:

*Like I said, I actually like Anderson's Louis more than book Louis, just not in that combination.

*Sam Reid does an amazing job as Lestat, everyone already knows that of course, and there's just no arguing here.

*Both actors have crazy good chemistry (which yeah, would be even better if not for the changed dynamics, I mean, they're pretty much end game in the books, they should work well together).

*Armand is perfect. He is ridiculously gorgeous while also appearing very calm and collected with a side of creepy. Which is exactly how Armand should be given the way he is described in the books (he's not 17 in the show, but I still think he's a great choice).

All in all it's not a bad adaption, it has some great scenes and I will keep watching, I'm just not blown away by it.

I would love for people to add to this, since it's probs a more unpoplular opinion, so discussion is always interesting.

Also, full disclosure, I ditched my Anne Rice books years ago, so I might remember stuff wrongly, please point that out to me.

#iwtv #iwtv amc #iwtv critical #louis de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #iwtv armand #jacob anderson #sam reid #still a better show than the mayfair witches #seriously wth #so lame #how do you make witches in new orleans with a personal demon lame #that's art #turned off after 20 minutes #lasher is a joke #and rowan is #well not that

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