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bloodgulchblog · 2 years

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Where to Start on Halo Books: A Guide For Nerds that Want In

There's a lot of Halo, so let me tell you about a couple books I think are good places to dive in. They're all early ones, and I think any of them can serve you well depending on what you want/what sounds cool to you.

If you like starting from the beginning of things, care a lot about the origins of the Master Chief, were into Captain Keyes, or are just coming in off the TV show and would appreciate an introduction to ground yourself on the main continuity's lore because it's different, start with The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund.

It's not the best Halo book, but it's serviceable gamer fiction, you can tell the author really genuinely cared about it, and it sure is the first one! It's a prequel to the first game, and covers the beginning of the Spartan program, the training of the young Spartans, the growth of Keyes as a captain, the origins of Cortana, and finally the eponymous fall of the stronghold world Reach itself which leads on into the game.

One thing to note: this is the oldest Halo novel, but the last revision to it was about 10 years after it came out. Try to find a copy from 2010 or newer. The old ones with Halo 1 era graphics on the cover and the xbox logo on the spine, while very vintage #aesthetic, have a couple glaring errors that got corrected later.

If the cover has this art piece on it, you're good. There's like one fiddly detail that can be different between copies of it and it doesn't matter much.

(Unfortunately, the audiobook never got updated.)

If you don't like prequels, are still to this day haunted by not knowing what happened between Halo 1 and Halo 2, want to spend quality time with the adult Spartan-IIs, you care a lot about the Master Chief as a character, and you thought Cortana and Sergeant Johnson were fun and want a book with both of them, you can start with First Strike (also by Eric Nylund.)

This one bridges the gap between Halo 1 and Halo 2. I think it can stand pretty well as an entry point if you're coming in with a good knowledge of the games anyway.

The Fall of Reach may not be one of my most favorite Halo novels (it's important but I don't enjoy reading the whole thing) but First Strike is definitely one of my favorites. If your tastes align with mine and you like what I have to say about Spartans and the Master Chief in particular, a lot of the roots of that are in here. I think it is a more coherent book than FoR.

Like FoR, this one is one of the oldest books so keep an eye on edition. (This one doesn't have many huge glaring continuity issues that I know of, though.)

If you fucking love prequels, want worldbuilding and backstory, enjoy pain and suffering, want to start even more at the very beginning, are curious about Smart AIs and/or are starving like an animal for Covenant lore, or loved Sergeant Johnson more than anybody else and don't care about Spartans, you could start with Contact Harvest by Joseph Staten.

Contact Harvest is set about 30 years before the first Halo game, and tells the story of humanity's first contact (and conflict) with the Covenant at the planet Harvest. Joseph Staten was the head writer at Bungie during the original trilogy era, and this is a very competently written book. (...Just forgive the awkward sex scene at the end.) Staten's a stronger writer in craft terms than Nylund, and he gets to unfold a bunch of foundational Halo universe lore in here. This had our first big look at the Covenant from an inside perspective, and our first good look (outside a Spartan's perspective) at what humanity was worried about before the Covenant showed up. It has a couple of Smart AIs as major characters, and I still think it is one of the best portrayals of them.

Also, it's about Sergeant Johnson and he's a cool dude.

If you read any one of these three, you can read either or both of the other two if you want to keep going. If you vibe with what Nylund's doing and get curious where he's going with it after First Strike, the next title you want is Ghosts of Onyx. If you liked what Staten laid down in Contact Harvest you will probably enjoy Tobias Buckell's The Cole Protocol, which is also heavy on the colony perspective while its Covenant chapters are about a (much younger) Arbiter.

After that, you're off the Halo lore tutorial levels and are free to do whatever you want, you'll figure it out. (Or stop, possibly. It is a regrettable quality of Halo that there are probably many places where it is wise to stop.)

But hey, while we're here.

If you don't actually care about backstory lore and just want to read a good story, you really like the tension between humans and aliens, you feel like the period right after the war is over sounds really rad, you're all about trauma and recovery, and you have somehow come to the unwise conclusion that you trust me with your life...

You could read Envoy, by Tobias S. Buckell.

Envoy is very self-contained from most of the rest of the lore, but it's really good. It's really really good. I loved it a lot. It's probably not a great place to start with no grounding at all in Halo, it comes from much later in the continuity, but... Keep that in your back pocket for later, maybe.

#halo lore #halo novels #halo

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mareenavee · 10 months

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8 and 10 for the worldbuilding oc asks for Nyenna (and Teldryn if you want to)

Hello, hello :D Good to hear from you!! Thank you for these!

These are OC/Worldbuilding asks for your inner social science nerd for Nyenna & Teldryn from my fic The World on Our Shoulders!

Ask game is here! (@paraparadigm is a treasure. Thank you so much for making this list. These are great!)

Long post, ofc. Under the cut :D

8. How does your OC approach the line between public and private? What sorts of things does your OC not share with anyone, what might they share with the people closest to them, and what do they happily share with anyone who might ask? What is their definition of property if they have one? In turn, does your OC think they belong to something as well? (A state, a collective, a cause, a person, etc)

Nyenna would have rather disappeared into the crowds. She and her brother had been a target of the Thalmor and had to be ultra careful of the kind of information they shared about themselves for the longest time. Her ultimate goal was to get to Solstheim and then eventually disappear into a comfortable life in Morrowind. That life didn't, and probably would never have happened (though I did write an AU or two where there was an attempt.)

Being the LDB invites in speculation on who she is and what she's done. People begin to hear tales of her deeds and there becomes this whole persona built up from those expectations. So most of who she really is ends up being reserved for those she is closest with. Her story thus far as it actually is are saved for friends.

As for property, she owns Breezehome and is extremely careful with her budgeting. She'd learned a long time ago not to be super materialistic, because everything can fall away in an instant. Hang on to only what's necessary and nothing more... This is still true after her destiny, even though she'd spent a lot of time, energy and funds on building something out of her house and creating a home.

For a long time, she felt somewhat unmoored, and not like she belonged anywhere. Home was a concept she no longer had...until she tried to build a life before her destiny came calling. She feels connected to the Companions, though she never became a full member. There's a sense of duty the further she gets into the weeds of her quest to Skyrim. Later on, there'll be a sort of stance not exactly with the Empire but against the Thalmor, so eventually she'll belong to the network led by Ondolemar, Argis & Varlais. (More on that soon, stay tuned!) And further down the line, which is hinted at in the prologue of World, her main focus will be her family, and her daughter and all the chaos that will unfold from there.

Teldryn on the other hand wears a bit of a mask generally speaking, literally and figuratively more or less. He has a persona he falls into like comfortable shoes and puts on the swagger and sarcasm overtly. He will happily boast about his swordsmanship skills. He has a lot of opinions he's gathered from traveling with a variety of patrons all over Tamriel, more or less. It's still significantly who he is, but once he's comfortable with a person, that veneer falls away pretty significantly. He's got centuries of lessons that he's learned so even though he can be a total fool sometimes, he's more wise than even he knows...which can be interesting. It's how he manages to say the right thing and be incredibly insightful at certain times, even when he doesn't believe he ever could be of use to anyone.

Even so there'll be a lot he still doesn't like to share with most people, and pieces of his background that still upset him to speak about, that still causes him nightmares. That fact that he is The Nerevarine is only known by so few people that it can be counted on one hand by this point in the 4th era. And even those people don't know the depth of his trauma. Even Nyenna, at first, doesn't understand the depth of the situation.

For property, he's definitely forgone a lot of that over the years, even artifacts. He has what he can carry and will travel with. If he were to have a prized possession, it's his sword, Chillrend, which he got when he became a nightingale. (Yes, he's a nightingale. No, even though he's met Nocturnal personally, he still isn't very religious lol.) His chitin armor is pretty precious to him, too. He gets it repaired all the time in Raven Rock. In fact, his helmet probably saved him from a swift death by Shouting and needs repair again where we are in what's published.

As for belonging...well. Teldryn is an orphan from the Imperial City who was shipped off to Blacklight when he was a child, meant to go with some relative but he ran away before that could happen. He had no real sense of home or belonging, really, even when as an adult he got caught and shipped to Vvardenfell and [see events of Morrowind.] Out of spite and out of being stubborn, he made friends with Neloth. With Neloth's help he became Teldryn Sero (was given the surname, he didn't come with it lol) and joined House Telvanni. Perhaps he is not the wisest, nor the most likely to study...but it mattered. Still matters, even with the house in the state it is during the 4th era. Later on, just as I mentioned above with Nyenna the chaos unfolding around their family will become priority one.

10. What social persona does your OC perform most frequently, and when do they show other aspects of themselves (and to whom)? Is your OC code-switching between social persona depending on context, or do they stay consistent? Is social adaptation something they feel is necessary or are they uneasy about it? Do they believe that one has to be honest in their self-presentation, and is that aligned with the society you’re writing or is one expected to have multiple social “faces”? Under what circumstances does your OC show a different facet/angle of themselves?

OH this one is super good actually. I'm assuming Social Persona here is similar to social roles, which I may have answered before but I'll do it again! For Nyenna, she performs the role of hero most often. Which is nuanced as all get out because she does have to code-switch and balance between other roles like student, friend, wife and eventually mother among others. But her outward persona with people she does not know is a web of bard song, expectations and assumptions tied up with being The Hero.

Social adaptation is always, always necessary and has been for most of her life. When she was a young daughter of nobility, she had a different set of expectations she was supposed to follow. When she was on the run from the Thalmor, there was yet a different set of masks she had to wear. When she is handling her destiny, she has to approach things carefully because of what she believes it means to be a hero. And how her mistakes are perceived by the people she's supposed to be saving.

She would love to be nothing more than honest, but it becomes impossible after a time. Impossible first because she does not fully understand her role or even really herself especially at the beginning of her journey as the Last Dragonborn. Her forward facing persona is always The Hero. The people closest to her get to see the rest of of her facets, so to speak.

For Teldryn, he's complicated. He's been through so much hell and has lived through a lot of complicated shit. Lots of things he'd rather forget. But it doesn't change the fact that he'd been in the role of The Hero before. He's not, any longer. He's a warrior, an employee, a student (begrudgingly, though he'd leave this behind as well,) a friend, a partner, a -- husband? Not quite, but some of the aspects of that role eventually fall on his shoulders, and then eventually a father among other roles with The Warrior (Knight/Soldier) role being sort of forward in a lot of the fic followed close behind by friend.

Teldryn has spent the majority of the last few decades (centuries) trying very hard to leave the role of The Hero behind. He'd hit his rock bottom and his friends pulled him out of a spiral. He's trying to do better. And by the time he meets Nyenna, he's still on the fence about if he should be his authentic self with her. She sees through the mask though. There's a weird sort of connection between them and, while he's remiss to talk about fate or believe in fate, what else could it have been, really? He does eventually remain honest with her for the most part, but still spares her the details of his nightmares for the longest time. Besides Nyenna and his handful of friends, though, it is absolutely mask on, Warrior persona a hundred percent of the time. He has no qualms about this type of code switching. That said, even if he's in his Warrior role, he'll still manage eventually to say how he feels even if it's more caustic-sounding. He doesn't lie quite as much as leave out the details he feels doesn't suit the conversation. (he does still lie though.)

He's completely fine with having vastly different facets depending on his company. He lived in fear for a long while, then lived without purpose and wrecked his life and the lives of people he tried to be close to or those who tried to be close to him. Only a few people saw him at his worst and still stuck around. He wears a mask literally and figuratively around most people. It's safer that way, he feels, even if most of the danger has passed. Though with his job being what it is, it's still very plausible that he's got enemies, somewhere. Though technically, he's the best swordsman in Morrowind. What harm could they be? So when he trusts Nyenna as she trusts him, it's kind of a Big Deal. He thought for the longest time he wasn't worthy of acquiring new friends, let alone someone who means so very much to him as she eventually does. (I hope that was interesting for you <3 thank you for asking!)

#AskMareena #Nyenna #Teldryn Sero #The World on Our Shoulders #LDB/Teldryn Sero #Skyrim #skyrim fic #tes #tesblr #elder scrolls #fanficblr #writblr #writeblr

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doorplays · 4 months

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Door Reviews: Soul of Sovereignty Prelude (2023)

There was a time when I was very much into webcomics. Don’t get me wrong, I still am into them in theory, but I have not had energy to read as voraciously as I did before. I haven’t had time to get into new ones either. I am still fond of them, however, and keep up with a couple webcomics.

It is during my webcomics phase that I discovered the works of ggdg. I found myself reading Cucumber Quest and enjoyed it a lot! When the comic went on indefinite hiatus, I kind of lost track of what they were up to, though I have faint memories of reading Lady of the Shard.

Years later, a friend of mine told me about this game. When they linked it, I realized that wait, this is from ggdg! And the memories came flooding back. It made me so excited to play this game. Well, now I have! I’m excited to talk about it :)

What’s it about?

“Soul of Sovereignty is a tale of deadly kindness and selfish virtue in a world of magic and ruin,” says the game’s itch.io page. It is a visual novel about two souls whose fates become intertwined. They go on a journey that will be of more importance than they would expect.

It should be noted that this game is just a prelude to the whole story. Not all of the questions you will find yourself asking will end up being answered here. Also! I’ll just call it SoulSov from this point on because that’s shorter lmao

STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)

SoulSov is a visual novel. It shows background art with characters in the foreground, displaying text to tell the story itself. As far as gameplay goes, it is pretty simple… but I think ggdg does some subtle things here. The layout, the way the movement of the text flows with the art, there’s a few things that help with the conveyance of the story itself. I don’t really know how common it is in the genre, as I haven’t played enough visual novels, but I appreciate these small things.

The art is beautiful. Downright ethereal at some points even! I loved seeing the old yet homey inn and the snowy woods. I loved seeing these wonderfully designed characters. They look so solid, yet soft at times.

The music, I find, is pretty good and apt. It’s nice and gentle in some places, and intense when it needs to be. The sound design is also good, shifts in the snow can be heard, creaking floorboards, the howling of the wind.

The UI is good. I like how there’s a History tab so that I can easily backtrack when I feel like I missed some words. I also like how there’s a Cast section so I can easily see descriptions of the characters. I like that the Glossary section is an external way to provide more lore to the world.

Overall, I definitely like the style of this game. Beautiful art, wonderful prose, it all combines well and lets me experience a story in a nice way.

SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)

I loved the story. I loved how the world unfolded before me, from a cold, sleepy hamlet to a sprawling empire of a city. I loved seeing all the characters, their quirks, how they interacted with each other. Most of all, I loved how the worldbuilding revealed itself. The importance of flowers, the history of certain sites, the pantheon of the world… ggdg discusses just enough to paint a picture but leaves out enough to make me want to know more.

The story takes its time. It wants you to feel the weight of each sentence, to understand each brushstroke of a painting. ggdg makes sure that each click of the mouse moves the story in an efficient and economical way, which makes for a tight story that still expresses itself well.

I have not played much graphic novels, but what I find interesting is how you can “turn the page” so to speak. When I say turn the page, I talk of how certain forms of media dictate the flow of stories. With books, you turn the page. With comics, you go from panel to panel and turn the page. With film, you frame the story with your camera and dictate the very story itself with what you choose to record with it. With games? It’s different with each genre. But for this game, each click of the mouse (or press of the spacebar) turns the page. At some points, turning the page here means it reveals each sentence when you’re ready, showing accompanying art and changes in character sprites. At other points, it reveals each block of text, revealing changes in background and introducing new areas. While describing it this way feels a bit granular, it didn’t feel too slow when I moved through the story. And I think this approach makes the important moments hit better.

Overall, the story fucks. I enjoyed it a lot!

VERDICT

I haven’t played enough graphic novels to judge this as a graphic novel, but as a game I enjoyed SoulSov immensely. The art is great. The story is great. I’m excited to experience more installments of this game and find out more about this world! I am glad to have this game be the first game I finished in 2024. I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone!

Door Rates Soul of Sovereignty Prelude: 5/5!

#door reviews #soul of sovereignty #soul of sovereignty prelude #soulsov

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singlecrow · 5 months

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For the fanfic ask meme: O and/or P?

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

Both! Actually, a story for me consists of the following:

the beginning;

the worldbuilding;

something decisive and transformative that happens at the 2/3 point;

the end.

there's this one mash story of mine, Samhain - a good example because the structure of it completely eluded me for weeks so I thought about it a lot. That story begins with a long, complicated set-up - the idea is that Hawkeye & co. live in a sort-of fantasy universe, full of ghosts and strange magics, although they are still army doctors in a small village in South Korea. All of that I had with me at the start.

Then: at the two-thirds point, we see something that indicate that Hawkeye's POV is not reliable. This strange fantasy world may or may not be real, but Hawkeye himself is definitely somewhere else in his head. That's the transformative point, the other thing that came to me when I first had the idea for this story. I needed more plot, to get Hawkeye from his gentle beginning to the point where it can't help but be obvious to the reader that he's not in his right mind; and I needed the character bit, i.e. what about him has made him susceptible to not being in his right mind. But I didn't have either of those to start with except knowing vaguely that they were out there somewhere.

(Brief aside into how much I love fanfiction as a specific form. If you were writing this as pro fic, you'd have to do so much work to show why this character's mental state means he's an unreliable narrator. But because we have this shared context, as fannish people; because we understand the way the genre works, you can just gesture at it, precisely but not in great detail. Why is Hawkeye Pierce an unreliable narrator? Oh. Yes. Right. And you don't need more than a handful of paras on it.)

And the end: I never have an idea for a story without knowing how it ends. So that's definitely plot (in this particular case, it's the revelation for the reader - if he's not living in a magical universe, where is he really) and also a little bit of character (how has the character changed in the course of living through this story) but I think of it in terms of both.

Was that useful/interesting? I hope so!

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

If I plan a story entirely in advance, it flattens it for me. I can't outline in detail, because that takes away the pleasure of writing. I have a 40k novella on my hard drive that I could send out, and never have because I outlined it first and now I hate it too much.

But I'm not a gardener (is this what you hear described as "pantser" elsewhere? pants in British English are not trousers. I digress). I like my stories, both reading and writing, to have very tight structure. And I think, also, my prose style isn't particularly helpful for being a gardener. As you and everyone else knows, I don't use a lot of words where a few will do. (A. describes me as "laconic", which I love.) And to use that economical style, I need to know exactly where I'm going and why. So it's helpful for me to build my barn with beams, and sort of do the thatch later. Which is I hope a meaningful analogy? It basically means, both. Some planning, some growth.

#writing #mash #look how I didn't throw shade at grr martin here #my stories have their flaws but they do at least EXIST

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wondereads · 2 years

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Personal Review (09/18/22)

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

Why am I reviewing this book?

I would have been really upset if I didn't like this book because the covers are gorgeous! It happened to be a political fantasy, which is right up my alley.

Plot 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ophelia would be content to live out her days in a museum, putting her Anima skills, detecting the history of objects and traveling through mirrors, to use. Unfortunately, she is a pawn in a political marriage to another Ark. Her new husband, Thorn, is powerful but frigid, and the powers present in her new home are dangerous to say the least. She'll have to discover both a way to survive and what exactly Thorn wants with her.

It would seem, looking plainly at the way the story goes, it would be a little slow. There isn't really a grand conflict in this book, and it's all very subtle and political. However, I found it quite intriguing. It's still a little slow compared to other YA fantasies, but I think things occur and are revealed at a steady pace, keeping the audience interested, especially since the worldbuilding is so amazing.

I loved the history of this world, which seems to be Earth. Something happened that ended up splitting up the world into smaller "Arks", each ruled over by different clans. Also, thanks to Ophelia's gifts, we get to see quite a bit of history, and we're able to properly gauge what general time period it's supposed to be. There are so many mysteries to be uncovered, and it really helped hold my attention. For example, every Ark has a sort of god that their people are descended from, giving them powers. Where they came from, how the powers work, and what originally happened to the Earth are all unanswered, but not for long, considering the direction of the story.

Dabos did a good job of keeping me guessing, especially when it came to character motivations. Being unable to guess the intentions of each character did a lot for the political intrigue. I will say, there were certain points that confused me, figuring out what was supposed to be happening, but overall I think the plot was quite good.

Characters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ophelia goes through quite a few realizations in this book. She starts off as a soft-spoken, nervous idealist, and she faces some hard truths as the story unfolds. I really liked her as a main character; she was timid and kind, but she was also curious and didn't take kindly to being kept in the dark. I think her hands (damaged from a mirror-traveling accident) were a nice touch to represent the danger of her powers, despite them seeming all sunshine and roses. The relationship between her and Thorn was very well done. There were points at which I thought things were progressing too quickly, but there are a few twists here and there. However, the romance is... lacking in this book. In my opinion, it's refreshing to read a book with an arranged marriage where the two involved don't immediately fall for each other.

Thorn himself is somewhat of an enigma. By the end of the book, we have much better insight into his motivations, but his actual emotions, especially regarding the members of his family and Ophelia, are still confusing. It seems at some points that he oscillates between leaving Ophelia at the mercy of his aunt and going out of his way to help her. It's all explained in a clever plot twist that I think preys on Ophelia's character flaws. He's definitely someone I want to know more about in the later books!

I think the really strong relationships in this book are within the families. Ophelia is sent to this other Ark with her aunt, a larger-than- life and just overall very likable character. Her care for Ophelia shines through, and in an otherwise strange and cold land, she brings the warmth that both Ophelia and the reader need. Despite the fact that she doesn't feel entirely important to the plot as a whole, I was very attached to her. On the other hand, Thorn's aunt is someone I hated for the most part. However, I'd say she's probably the most compelling character. She is a lover of this Ark's "god", Farouk, and pregnant with his child, making her a glaring target for political machinations. She treats Ophelia horribly, but there is a depth to her that really intrigues me.

For now, the side characters are fairly one-dimensional, but I'm sure that in such a deception-heavy setting that will change soon.

Writing Style 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

This novel has been translated from French. As such, there are some discrepancies. While reading, there are some places where a sentence may seem a bit odd, and I think that's a result of the translation. Overall, I think the translator, Hildegarde Serle, did a pretty fantastic job. For the most part, I totally forgot I was reading a translated work. Still, I'm going to keep this section short since I'm commenting on the translation, not the author's writing style.

Overall 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I love political fantasy, and this book is no exception. I will say that I can see why people might not enjoy this book. It moves fairly slowly, the romance (if you can call it that) is barely there, and most everyone outside of the main cast are just awful human beings. However, that's right up my alley. I loved the scheming that was constantly going on, even by the people closest to Ophelia, and I also loved that she's quick to adapt, even if she has her qualms about being as cold as the people around her. I'd definitely recommend this book to fellow political fantasy fans, but don't pick it up if you're expecting a romance or action-filled plot.

The Author

Christelle Dabos: French, 41-42, A Winter’s Promise is her debut novel and she has since published three other books in the series

Hildegarde Serle: also translated Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin and Reeling by Lola Lafon

The Reviewer

My name is Wonderose; I try to post a review every week, and I do themed recommendations every once in a while. I take suggestions! Check out my about me post for more!

#books #reviews #a winter's promise #christelle dabos #hildegarde serle #ya #fantasy #political fantasy #translated novel #french

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dadukos-arc · 2 years

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exactly one year ago, a man under the name of kal anderson entered st. peter’s inquiring about jobs in the ashford area, and one way or another never left. exactly one year ago @kalixus and i began plotting a story that seemed like a harmless, random plot at first, and became much more — one year later it’s redefined fred as a character, led me to rewrite her whole story, gave me a lot more insight into her that i could’ve possibly gained in any other way, and built a whole universe i am hopelessly in love with, so rich with characters and backstories and plot twists and symbolism that i simply can’t seem to ever get bored of it. it pisses me off daily that there is no movie, no actual way for me to see this whole story unfold if not in my imagination: but soaking in the writing of it, in the worldbuilding and all that came with it, that alone has been a little miracle. and this is my modest attempt at making it a little more tangible than real. happy one year of noir vibes, red and teal contrasts as a metaphor for fire and ice, sad songs alternated by really fucking cute ones, idiotic wire convos alternated to really fucking heartbreaking ones, unlikely friendships forged at the mouth of hell, more hades and persephone allegories than any human is allowed to have, and two broken idiots who decided to save each other, over and over again ♥

#alexa play the black and white by the band camino #nobody @ me i am emotional.#i could write an essay about the added meanings of the poster but #mikah knows them and everybody else would be bored so let's not do that #let's just think intensely about kalfred and their merry band of outlaws #and let's intensely wish victor cullen a very death #and let's intensely hope an asteroid lands on poe's big stupid head #amen ♥#𝐃𝐘𝐍 — the truest of blue and a love like a roar ( kalixus ).#i might end up changing this tag at some point #but the thing is they're too beautiful and complex and unique #for just one tag gdi #how do i explain Them with just one tag #𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 — rage is a quiet thing ( main ).

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semper-legens · 3 years

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91. The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood

Owned: No, library Page count: 415 My summary: The Handmaid’s Tale chronicled the rise of Gilead. Now the Testaments will show its fall. Three women entangled within the net of Gilead tell their tales of what happens when a corrupt society crumbles. My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

Finally, some capital-L Literature! I first read The Handmaid’s Tale a long time ago in school, and I really liked it as a dystopian novel. I thought the style and framing of it was interesting, the way it blurred the lines of truth and reality to tell its story, revelling in ambiguity. When this came out, I decided that I wasn’t going to buy a copy, but if it was in the library I might read it. And it was. So I did! Overall, it wasn’t what I expected, but I think that’s a good thing. I’m not sure what I’ve taken away from it if anything, but I certainly found it engaging and entertaining, and I’m not sorry I read it.

The narrative splits between three women involved in the fall of Gilead - let’s start with Aunt Lydia, a character from the first novel. Here, we get her backstory, as well as the unfolding story of her rebellion against and role in the destruction of Gilead. I found her to be an interesting and complex character, at once a collaborator and a rebel, not sorry about all of the objectively terrible things she has done to survive but with enough of a conscience to help girls as well as destroying them. She knows she can’t save everyone, but she saves who she can. She knows she will not survive Gilead, but she still works towards its fall. She knows that to save some you have to kill others, and makes those sacrifices unflinchingly. She’s a hard and dangerous woman, and a very engaging narrator.

Then there’s Agnes, a girl raised in Gilead to be a wife and mother, who eventually joins the Aunts. Her development is interesting to watch, at first the blind obedience to and acceptance of the world into which she has been born, as well as a commentary on exactly what Gilead does to the young women who grow up within its borders. In the first book, babies were born but we didn’t spend much time with the young children - here, we see exactly how they are raised and taught. Agnes is herself an interesting character, not overly headstrong in the way of many dystopian teenage heroes, but a realistic depiction of how someone raised in this world might think and behave, and the framing device of her story being told after the fact allows for her to comment on her own narrative, showing her character development and later self-awareness.

The final protagonist is Daisy, a Canadian girl who finds out that she’s the legendary Baby Nicole, saved from Gilead by her Handmaiden mother (heavily implied to be Offred) and spirited away to safety. She’s part of a plot to get evidence against Gilead out of the country, and in my mind she was the weakest of the three protagonists. Lydia is a fascinating character study, Agnes is a developing character and new perspective on Gilead, but Daisy feels like every teenage dystopian protagonist under the sun. She’s spunky and snarky, she’s tough, without much else to her. The reveal that she is Baby Nicole is so obvious I’m surprised it was actually treated as a reveal. She doesn’t offer a new perspective of Gilead, really, being a mirror of the reader’s likely opinion. Her segments weren’t bad or anything, I just couldn’t click with her as a character.

As to the worldbuilding - this look at Gilead is a lot clearer than the account of the Handmaid’s Tale, but no less horrifying. In a lot of ways, it’s a more conventional narrative than its predecessor, though I did enjoy the historical analysis put forward by the final chapter in the same way that the original had a chapter discussing the story’s veracity. There isn’t a lot new about this Gilead, though? It’s a couple of decades on but the structure of it is still broadly the same. I don’t know what I was expecting in this vein, but it was a curious choice to just sort of brush over any new insights as to what was happening in Gilead in favour of new perspectives on that which we already knew, if that makes sense.

That’s all I have to say on that - I still don’t know entirely what to think about it, but I did engage with it and enjoy it, such that you can enjoy this sort of material. Next up, back to Animorphs, and we’re searching the web.

#The Testaments #Margaret Atwood #bookblr #book blog #book blogger #4

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readingaccountability · 2 years

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shadow and bone // siege and storm // ruin and rising - leigh bardugo

character playlists:

alina starkov // malyen oretsev // the darkling // nikolai lantsov // genya safin

final thoughts:

yes im putting all three together lol, i have a lot to say and its not all going to be super structured unfortunately

these books fucking ruled and i devoured them during my long weekend a few weeks ago! (as of writing im close to wrapping up six of crows and have the rest of the books on hand to continue!) the darkling is unfortunately super duper hot. especially in book one i was totally basking in the hotness (even though i read book one back when it came out in 2012 and i remembered that there had only ever been one darkling, and this guy has GOT to be evil then right?) like seriously this book unlocked puberty emotions in me! ive read several posts about the worldbuilding and how it kind of doesnt really stay true to the russian influences (particularly naming conventions), all of which are obviously fair criticisms. personally, knowing absolutely nothing, it didnt take me out of the setting/worldbuilding, but having read those posts for context i can see how that would be kind of exhausting having to try desperately to suspend disbelief when its stretched to such an extent (that grisha=greg post had me losing my mind, and the putting ks into random things did make me roll my eyes a tad). my favorite part of the worldbuilding were definitely the fantasy elements, i liked how it dealt with elemental type powers a little differently. the fabrikator stuff was especially interesting to me, especially as the books went on (adored the parts where nikolai and ) one thing that i was super enamored with was how throughout book two nikolai was very much compared and contrasted with the darkling by the narrative. nikolai, like the darkling, was primarily interested in alina for her status/power/symbolism, rather than who she was herself. the difference, of course, being that he did value her as a person and supported her, rather than trying to be controlling and destructive, which was what the darkling did. but ultimately, neither of them were right for alina for that same reason, even if nikolai was obviously on their side and a good friend. i do think that at times the first two books moved a little too quickly, almost like they should have been longer/more fleshed out because certain events happened so fast that i barely had time to process them. mostly this was stuff after baghra revealed the truth to alina in book one (which was done really well) and before they got to the capital with nikolai in book two. its a very transitory part of the story and it was just a Lot and sometimes a little bit whip-lashy lol i thought alina was awesome particularly by book three as she was growing into this focused person with this group of friends supporting her in this insane endeavor. i found her internal struggle with the desire for more power really compelling. the fact that mal himself ended up being the final amplifier was heart wrenching and i think what cemented them for me (mal bored me deeply in book two but in book three he really shined!!) these books were really well done in the unfolding of a wider story as they pass, like book one is mainly just a few central characters with side characters who unfold in the later books in really satisfying ways! (i love genya so fucking much. SO fucking much. that reveal in book three about HOW she poisoned the king? heart-stopping.) overall the ending to this trilogy was really perfect imo, wrapping up alina and mal and their story with the pyre scene and the epilogue scenes at the orphanage (<3333) while obviously leaving open a lot of narrative space for other stories!!!!

#shadow and bone #siege and storm #ruin and rising #leigh bardugo #bookblr #reading progress update #book review #playlist series #book tag #original post #young adult #fantasy #adventure #favorites tag

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surroundedbypearls · 4 years

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The Wildfire King: Beta Call

The time has finally come! I’m looking for my first Beta readers for ‘The Wildfire King’!

Look at me, finally finishing a draft?? Could it be possible?

I'm looking for some Beta readers for my high fantasy novel, 'The Wildfire King'! (WIP tag) It's the first of a duology, following multiple POVs and a cast of sad youngsters, mostly.

Summary:

Tirnaeia was once a world where Gods and mortals walked together. When two kingdoms became involved in dark, twisted magic and wreaked havoc on the world, the Gods were forced to interfere. Teha, the God King, came to the usurpers' defence, and the Gods had no choice but to come together and destroy Their king, losing Their own lives in the process. Gods vanished from the world - and two hundred years later, Tirnaeia is a different place.

The usurpers have vanished; legends say their peoples perished at the hand of the Gods. The throne of men has changed hands more than once, and tensions run high as the undead roam the deepest crevices of the earth. The truth is that the usurper kingdoms of Nalaam and Fosiá were never destroyed, but hidden away. The mages of Nalaam were banished across a torrential sea nobody could cross. But now, as rumours of the God King's return circle, the sea begins to calm. Lorren Jat’ana, a mage of high esteem, vows to take his people across the sea and reclaim their rightful place in Tirnaeia. History repeats itself, and a war of Gods and mortals is about to unfold again before his eyes.

Some important links:

‘The Wildfire King’ masterpost! Has links to character intros and worldbuilding details about the story, if you’re curious.

A link to the first chapter, in case you want a preview!

And most importantly, a link to the Beta form! The deadline to fill in the form is the 21st August!

EDIT: Thank you to everyone who applied! This call is now closed.

#writeblr #writers of tumblr #my writing #am writing #beta call #beta recruitment #reader recruitment #fantasy #fantasy fiction #my ocs #original writing #original characters #original fiction #wip: the wildfire king

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drev-the-procrastinator · 3 years

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I would love to know more about space fic and the mandalorian fic! Or whichever story you want to talk about the most :D

Thanks so much for the asks!! I am always happy to ramble about my story ideas, so I think I'll talk about them both... this might get a bit long :'D [EDIT: it sure did ahfladgf]

I'll start with the space fic! As you can see from the list, it's kind of the only one with an actual title, "The Overview Program". If you know stuff about space you might recognize the term, kind of! The title is based on the Overview effect, which is also kind of one of the two things that inspired the whole story idea? I'll get into it a little later

So this one's one of the "technically-a-fic-but-might-as-well-be-original-fiction-tbh" triad along with the Home front fic and the Kingdom AU; that is, they all started out as Hetalia fanfics, technically, but they're also... They're human AUs, there's so much worldbuilding and original characters involved, and all the canon characters are probably so OOC that it wouldn't take much to turn them into original fiction lmao. So I'll be talking about it kind of ambiguously, since I haven't actually written any of this yet and haven't decided on which direction to take, original fiction or fanfic, ya know.

So the Overview effect. It's a phenomenon that happens to people who see the Earth from space. I'll quote Wikipedia on this because it puts it to words much better:

"It is the experience of seeing firsthand the reality of the Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, "hanging in the void", shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. From space, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide people become less important, and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this "pale blue dot" becomes both obvious and imperative."

The other thing that got me thinking of a fic was me watching some "top 10 space facts" video on Youtube, right, and one of the facts was that apparently, in 1963, JFK made a speech where he suggested that the US and the USSR would go to the moon together? And the leader of the USSR at the time, Khrushchev, was apparently going to agree to it, but then Kennedy was assassinated, Khrushchev wasn't a fan of the new president, and thus history unfolded as it did. But then, I thought, right, but what if? What if the USA&USSR space program did happen? And then I thought, hell, if the US and USSR are gonna cooperate, then why not the rest of the world? And so, the premise of this fic was born.

So, the whole world, basically, is cooperating to send humans to the moon. The way this goes is that people from all over the world are taking part in the program in different roles, like in every field one needs to make a successful space program. The story follows the group of people chosen as the ones to actually go to the moon, which includes maybe ten people, all from different countries? They've been chosen from many applicants, and from those ten or so only three or four are actually gonna make it to the actual spacecraft, because they want to make sure only the best of the best of humanity gets sent to the moon, because this is now not only scientifically a big deal, but also politically. Everyone wants this to go as smoothly as possible, because, well. World peace kinda hangs in the balance, right.

We follow this rather diverse group of people. I've yet to decide on the ethnicities and genders and fields of expertise these people have, but I know the representatives from the US and from the USSR are both in it. They're, like, all training to become astronauts/cosmonauts/etc. together, and to make the chances as even as possible they're all living somewhere together, like a big training facility? Or just, a house near a training facility. They all start out pretty at odds with each other, most of them, since it's not been too long since the last world war and the echoes of that as well as more recent conflicts and world politics as well as just personal incompatibilities are all brought to the forefront by the competetive atmosphere, since during the training period people will be eliminated from the astronaut-program based on test results, though they usually get to still contribute to the mission some other way, but still. Going to space is pretty cool and they all want to do it.

Slowly, despite the generational and interpersonal drama and the situation, they start growing closer together, and the end result would be something like found family? Found space family :) They start cheering each other on instead of putting each other down, and a similar thing happens in the other fields, as well, as people from different backgrounds spend a lot of time working together for a common goal.

Somehow the representatives from the US and USSR manage to have both the most incompatibility because of the relations between their countries, which, Cold War is just on a break at the moment and if the program goes badly then they might just return to that situation, or worse, and also most interpersonal drama, for whatever reason, so it takes the longest for them to start getting along. These two are the ones who, in the end, make it to the actual trip to the moon, along with maybe two other people? But they're the ones going to the surface of the moon.

Writers usually have That One Scene for their stories, and That One Scene for this is actually at the very end. These two, the USA and USSR representatives, land on the moon at last. The spacesuits are pretty bulky, and the ladder from the spacecraft to the surface of the moon pretty narrow, but instead of just hopping onto the moon and thus taking the title of First Human On Moon to their respective country, whichever was going to go first, kinda shuffles to one side and beckons the other to get on the ladder, and then they jump down together... And then they turn, and see the Earth rising from the darkness and vastness of space.... and bam, the overview effect hits in full. It must be a breathtaking experience.

And the name of the fic, the Overview Program? They probably start calling the space program after the Overview effect, because as seeing the Earth from space makes "national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide people become less important, and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this "pale blue dot" becomes both obvious and imperative", this program with all the cooperation between governments and individual people both has effectively done the same, but on Earth. You know?

So. That's the space fic. I have some very vague ideas of like character drama, too, but that's the story in short. Although this isn't very short.

This is one of the stories more on the back burner, since it's something that needs a lot of research, and I already have one other historical story that I need to research a lot for (the Home front fic), so I'm probably going to work on this after I finish that one. So. Don't hold your breath guys :')

Oh, also!! I usually have at least one song I associate with a fic, and for this one it's Shoemaker by Nightwish. Especially that operatic part at the end... I basically came up with That One Scene for this fic as almost a music video to that bit :'D

This is long enough as an answer, I reckon, and I got another inquiriy after the Mando fic, so I think I'll make that it's own post. But yeah! That's the space fic, or the Overview Program! Kind of an optimistic alternative history? Maybe in that world they'll manage to stop climate change too :')

Thanks for the ask again, Purple! Hope you enjoyed this ramble!

#drev's fics #the overview program #now i've a tag for it lmao #anyway! thank u again for the ask #in the original hetalia fic version it was just the main 8 that were gonna be candidates to go to the moon #but that's not very diverse lmao #so I'll probably have it at ten people and then see where they'd be from and all #once I start working on this #after I write the home front fic #someday...............#and lemmino's top 10 space facts videos are great btw #one of them had the fact this idea is based on #anyway yep that's it #the mando fic coming soon #and keep sending asks! I'm happy to ramble #i'm procrastinating doing schoolwork atm anyway lmao #oh uhh lemme just #long post #there

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bettsfic · 4 years

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Hey! I was just wondering if you would soapbox a little about your creative process. I absolutely adore your writing advice but was wondering a bit more about how your ideas form and how you choose which to pursue and do finished products look like you want them to? What's a bad habit you're trying to break? No obligation to answer, especially cause an anon is like tell me your secrets! But thank you for all you've written, you are so helpful and kind

thanks for the great question anon! i wrote a bit about my drafting process here but that doesn’t encompass the idea building side of things (also i’ve made some changes to the process so i was thinking about writing a more cohesive, updated version at some point).

i tend to think of project ideas as piles of aesthetic, and usually i only begin writing once the pile has toppled over and i can’t not write it. that’ll make more sense in a moment.

i’ll walk through 2 examples of my idea generating process, from how they started to where they are now.

1. Vandal

Vandal is a novel i’m working on that i really have a lot of hope for. i’m about 60k words in right now and 75% finished. it’s about a teenage girl (sierra) who casts a spell on her hot, helpful neighbor (frank) to bind them together. the spell ends up working but backfiring when he becomes her foster father. then, in his custody, sierra gets jealous and casts a spell on his girlfriend (jenny) to break them up, but that backfires too: sierra gets taken out of frank’s custody and placed with a manipulative and abusive foster brother (leo). frank more or less kidnaps sierra and they have to Run From The Law. throughout the novel, sierra is inwardly battling Vandal, an immortal archangel that has possessed her and is trying to get her to kill herself so he can break free of the prison of her body.

the idea for that story has a looooong breadcrumb trail and a huge aesthetic pile. since i couldn’t manage to get Baby traditionally published, i had a lot of that dynamic i could adopt into something else. i wrote at length about where that idea came from but i can no longer find that post (UPDATE: here it is). it’s somewhere in my training wheels tag. in short, i spent an entire summer watching/reading age gap stories and the male perspective in them bothered me a lot, so i wanted to write a story from the younger party’s perspective, and do the reality of those situations justice. i wrote that story, though, so i didn’t want to rewrite it.

then, in december 2019, for reasons i don’t remember, i started reading snape/hermione fics. i really liked the dynamic, but it was a little too angsty for me, and none of the fics gave me the catharsis i was looking for, which was basically Grouchy Soft Boy Takes Care Of PTSD Weary Girl. being unable to find anything that fit the exact no-conflict, angstless dynamic i was looking for, i decided to write it myself using an A/B/O reylo idea i’d been kicking around for about 8 months but i could never land on, because i didn’t know if i wanted ben or ren. that fic turned out to be Reclaimed.

to answer one of your questions, Reclaimed didn’t turn out the way i wanted it to at all, and i’m still kind of shocked by the traffic it has. i felt bad about writing it, because i was setting down so many other things to work on it, and it was a struggle from start to finish. at the time (and this is a major theme of my process), i thought it was a waste of energy.

but it opened a very important thematic concept to me, which is the idea of voicelessness and trauma, and recovery through finding one’s voice.

fast-forward to february, i’m headcanoning with @star-sky-earth just days before i have to head to nebraska for a writing residency. she and i are talking about a certain male celebrity who shall not be named, flirting with his younger female costar who shall not be named, and i said something along the lines of, “wouldn’t it suck to get a crush on a dude like him, only to find out he likes you back, and then you realize he’s actually kind of shallow and boring?”

i remember distinctly saying, out loud, “god fucking dammit,” because, right then, an aesthetic pile had toppled over, and an entire novel unfolded itself in my brain. i pound out an outline. it’s garbage. i play around with a vocal gauge. it’s not quite right. then, two days later, i write an opening scene that i don’t think is great but i send it to some people and they’re like, oh this is fire.

the aesthetic pile looks like this:

lolita, where dolores is the one in control

delusions of grandeur born from a major traumatic event

obsessions with fairy tales and the escapism they provide

the consequences of extreme neglect

forced voicelessness as both a theme and a major structural constraint

a lot of wolf imagery

non-chronological timelines

i proceed to spend the next two days driving across the country brain-writing. by the time i reach nebraska, i hit the ground running, and write for basically 30-40 hours a week for 5 weeks. then, because pandemic, i decide to stay 2 more weeks, but i hit a snag. i write about 14k of really boring drivel and realize my outline has failed me. i toss the 14k and re-outline and try again. then, my attention is rattled by a crush on a composer who has no interest in me.

i go home and fall into my annual summer depression and i lose focus. so, that’s where i’m at. i really miss vandal but it’s gotten super dark and i’m finding it difficult to manage darkness with everything going on. which brings me to my next aesthetic pile that has recently toppled over.

2. Eden

that’s not the title but it’s the project name. i’ve begun writing a YA sci fi comedy with an ensemble cast. this aesthetic pile took years to build before it toppled. it started with Elixir of Erised, hands down the best fic i’ve ever written by a huge margin. i reread it this past winter and was kind of amazed i’d written it.

i really liked the idea of a potion showing you your deepest desires, but until recently have not had the patience to build an entire world around it. so, for the past 3.5 years, i’ve kept a document of “if i WERE to a YA SFF book with the themes of EOE, what would i want to include?” over those 3.5 years, here’s what the list became:

dark academia vibes

heist plot

soulmates

that list is not really conducive to an entire universe, and i never had the motivation to sit down and think through it.

then i watched breaking bad, and a lot of things started clicking. at the same time, i was talking to my buddy kyle about my fallen knight archetype schematic, and i began fleshing out all the archetypes that went with it. i came up with 12. i built a database. i thought, wouldn’t it be cool to write something with ALL 12 ARCHETYPES?? haha but who would be dumb enough to do that?

me. i would.

with breaking bad as the missing plot piece (which introduces the idea of conflict around the MANUFACTURE and DISTRIBUTION of addictive substances, with an ensemble cast of morally grey characters, which leads to a war), i had enough to get started.

i wrote an outline. i wrote another outline. i wrote a third outline. i stopped to write some histories of this place i’d built. i wrote a fourth outline. gdocs became a mess so i downloaded scrivener and taught myself how to use it. i wrote a gauge of the first chapter and landed the voice on the first try. then i did a rough sketch of how a trilogy would go. then i outlined each book in the trilogy to make sure my character trajectories were on point. then i did a lot more worldbuilding. now i’m working on my fifth outline, which breaks the entire novel down scene by scene.

and for Reasons, i’m tasking myself with writing the first draft in 6 days across two weekends. it’s a high-stakes adventure story with a very tight timeline, so i think it’s conducive to being written quickly.

which brings me to another question you asked, which is, what bad habits do i want to break? i always, always slow down at the halfway mark. sometimes i even give up. i have no idea why. no matter how much preparation i do, no matter how solid my endgame is, at the halfway mark i either slow to a crawl or set the whole project down and pick up something new. i do this with reading books, too. i can only ever read the first half of books. then i either skip to the end or put them down forever. it’s definitely something i have to figure out because at this rate i’ll never finish anything.

okay this took way longer than i thought it would to write but i hope it answers your question. tl;dr i follow aesthetic and thematic interests until they lead me to a point where i can’t not write the stories that develop from them.

#writing advice #process #Anonymous

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fyrapartnersearch · 4 years

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|| 𝕮𝖔𝖒𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖊𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖊𝖗𝖘 ||

°°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ☥ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ☥ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° 

𝐼'𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝑒 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎…

𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉…

 haha ^^

 To all the curious ladies and gents out here, you may call me Imp.

Short, sweet and straight to the point. ;)   I am a lady in her twenties, with a strong penchant for roleplaying, writing, and drawing. The Holy Trinity if you will. I am a huge nerd and aesthetic lover boy - plain and simple. One of my main passions being video-games, illustrations, comics, live-action films, series and anime/cartoon shows, elements that shaped me during my years of growing up.

  It’s been a while since I’ve posted my first ever ad on any website, and I was very much positively surprised by the amazing people that have reached out to me.

And since I am a greedy little mf, I wanted to fish for more partners. I’ve been roleplaying for a few years now and gradually gathered a good amount of experience throughout the years, but it’s always fun to meet and learn something new.

   Name: Imp  

Age: 27 years

  Experience: 11 years  

Preferences: 1:1 Roleplaying

  Partner: Should be at least [18+], but I rather much prefer my counterpart to be 21 years or older   

EMAIL: [email protected]

I am a very creative sort of individual with hundreds of ideas constantly occupying my little impish head. And I am very spontaneous too, so I can always adjust to a new setting, depending on how good and compelling the concept is.  Inspirations come from various sources and origins, be it a fandom (an already existing universe) or an original storyline. Please read through these paragraphs carefully before you decide to contact me! It’s important to avoid any misunderstanding later! And I would less likely respond to a message with the title ‘Hey, wanna rp?’, since I hadn’t had any good experiences with these said messages. Thank you.    °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ☥ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°° °°°·.°·..·°¯°·._.· ☥ ·._.·°¯°·.·° .·°°°

   Communication: It’s certainly chill. You can talk to me about whatever occupies your mind since I am very open and always happy to listen to others. I also tend to be chatty, sharing a meme or a joke every now and to loosen up the mood. If you consider choosing me as your roleplaying partner, be sure to maintain a certain consistency. I have nothing against going on a longer break or even a hiatus, but the whole `ghosting stick´ is something I have no patience for. So if you’re unsure of upholding a stable, long term partnership, feel free to skim past this ad.    Plotting: Also very important to note! I am fairly quick when it comes to building new characters, concepts, premises, storylines, backstories, etc… This means there is certain flexibility available which allows me to adjust. Even though it is a hobby, I am still extremely passionate about good storytelling and interesting character arcs. I hope to meet someone who is just as enthusiastic and willing to put in the same amount of effort as I am. If it’s only me who’s pulling all the weight, I will lose interest fast, just to get it out there. Aside from that, I love going a little crazy with the possibilities and push things to their absolute limits. Of course within the boundaries of the given setting.   Pairing & Romance: Okay, right off the bat, I am a hopeless romantic through and through. I enjoy good and strong chemistry between characters just as much as the next, and this will be no exception. I prefer the good ol’ MxF pairing because I have more experience with this. But I also like playing a FxF dynamic or MxM. Everyone is welcome! When it comes to pairing itself, I want to make sure our creations are compatible, for I hate forcing characters into a romantic relationship for the sake of progression. A natural flow is what I am aiming for. ;)   Mature? Yes, very much so: Adult and taboo topics are absolute. There’s no way around it because, in my stories, it is a running theme. The adult world is not easy to handle, but it’s definitely interesting to explore. That includes violence, cursing, shocking content, and all that dark stuff. My limits are few, safe for a couple of minor pet peeves that I have, I am pretty much open to some experimentation. When it comes to action-heavy scenes (be it an intimate situation between two characters or something on a cataclysmic scale), I won’t fade to black since I am not a huge fan of censoring. However, I will not force or push my partner into something they are not comfortable with. If you want to know the extent to how far I am willing to go, what sort of content or how detailed my writing will be, you can ask me directly. As for smut or lemons, whatever you call it, it will never be the focus of any of my roleplays, but I enjoy a good erotic scene with a lot of tension (if they are good).    Boundaries: Not a big fan of things like pedophilia, necrophilia, scat, bestiality, or those dreaded ‘futas’.  Inspirations and interests: There’s a pretty broad spectrum of what I deem interesting and inspirational. From fallen angels and demon/monster hunters, mages, criminal masterminds, cybernetically enhanced characters to futuristic dystopian settings, ancient kingdoms who have fallen against the test of time. All of it causes my heart to skip a beat. For original content, I’ll just give a brief list of bullet points of the general themes that fall in line with my current interests.   Writing: My texts are lengthy, detailed, and elaborate. Third-person is usually my preferred way of playing my character unless there’s a special case where an exception can be made. Word count usually fluctuates, though I have a standard form of 400-500+ words per response. It also highly depends on the given situation. I don’t want to set anything in stone… just to give you a basic idea of what you’re in for. I also expect my partner to have an at least adequate, if not decent grasp on basic grammar and punctuation.    Doubling: Yes, absolutely! If you are prone to doubling, chances are I might accept you as my partner straight away! Although I have nothing against the simple form of roleplaying, doubling is something I’ve done since my first time joining.    Characters: Very character-driven with the main focus being on interaction. I take my time writing characters and love nothing more than well-structured sheets that illustrate the vision of their creator. (But!) There’s no need to write 10-20 pages worth of character information, but I wouldn’t want to limit you either. As for the depiction of the given character, I won’t be as presumptuous as to tell you what sort of medium you can and cannot use. Face claims such as photos of real models, illustrations, 3D models, drawings or descriptions are all okay. As long as it gets its point across, I am happy.   Aversions: A few minor things that irritate me, or let’s say, aren’t really my style are one-liners, low effort responses and out of character behaviors in canon characters. We all have different takes on characters, which is totally fine by me since I basically do the same. Though if the character acts and behaves unlike their personality dictates, it will break the immersion. I hope to stay true to my own words when saying this. If it happens on my side, just let me know! Another pet peeve of mine is that one plot that has been done time and time again…. and I’ve grown quite jaded towards it, which is ‘supernaturals trying to fit into human society’ thing… I mean, I’m not opposed to borrowing from this idea, but for me, it grew old pretty fast. Speaking from experience.   Passione: My wish is to find a partner whom I can have a good time with and develop some chemistry. After all it is a fun hobby. We both should have fun with what we’re writing. Brainstorming among other things is one of my favorite things to do. To see how things unfold and how the characters react to the given situation is the highlight of any story.

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FANDOM:

  I love roleplaying fandoms just as much as I have a blast with building something original universes. Worldbuilding is my preferred cup of tea… but if we opt for something more fandom inspired, I highly welcome in on expanding on the given universe and add some original lore too!

Hellsing: Haven’t done that one before and I am curious as to how things play out, especially in such a dark and mystifying universe like Hellsing. There’s a lot of subject matter that we can delve into, plus I am a big fan of powerful vampire characters!

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: I would love you for this. No, seriously, I would. This fandom has sucked me into a downward spiral and there’s no possible chance of escaping this inescapable void. The absolute insanity of this franchise had me hooked from the second I laid eyes on it and I would be forever ecstatic if you’d message me on behalf of roleplaying Jojo. I have plenty of ideas for this one, just you wait.

Full Metal Alchemist: One of my favorite mangas and animes ever made. Recently I’ve begun rewatching FMA Brotherhood and felt a small hint of nostalgia swelling inside my blackened heart. I’d be open to play it, though it is not one of my top cravings at the moment.

Justice League / Young Justice / Justice League Dark: Huge DC fan, though I much prefer the animations and comics over the live-action cinematic. Let’s just say, I like the expansive and dynamic set of possibilities and deep, well-written cast. For instance Hellblazer Constantine or Raven.

Bayonetta: Need I say more? Let’s dance boys!

APH Hetalia: That includes the 2P version ;)

The Boys: Well.. the 2nd season came out. And I am simply stoked.

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ORIGINAL:   

Supernatural: From angels to demons, from gods to monsters, I’ve seen it all and I absolutely love it. There can be any sort of creature or being involved, ranging from vampires to sirens to elves, you have it. However, I’ve never done something quite relating to angelic beings and their offspring before. I’ve read up on Nephilim and angels and found it rather fascinating, and it’s a different approach from the usual vampire vs werewolf cliche.  

Crime and intrigue: I never stray too far from the supernatural path, but hell, there’s nothing better than some good old gritty mafia inspired stories with a complex cast of characters and a solid storyline.

Sci-fi and urban fantasy: So this could be basically anything from genetically engineered superhuman (superheroes / - villains) with a dark take on the human psyche, dismantling the idea of heroism and villainy. Or a world where mankind began their interstellar journey to colonize neighboring planets, galaxies before transcending their own humanity by merging themselves with deadly technology. I have a few plans for this…

Historical and mysterious setting: So one of my favorite eras is the Victorian time period, 30s - 40s - 80s, Renaissance or Ancient times during the rise of the Egyptian / Roman / Sumerian Empire. During these times, a dark discovery was made by man, learning that they were not alone in this world. In fact, they weren’t even the supreme race that destined themselves to dominate the world, for another race of humanoids have lied dormant deep beneath the earth, slumbering through the millennia only to be re-awakened by a cataclysmic event. These ancient humanoids are gods among men, superior in every way imaginable, and they have made it their mission to reclaim their right to rule. But their nature is not what most people think it is…

The idea: I have an idea for a plot, in which I can give you if you ask for it. It is however merely a suggestion for what we could write - not a mandatory thing. If you don’t like the idea, we can always figure stuff out and keep on home-brewing till we find something we both can enjoy. There’s no need to immediately end things if the first thing doesn’t really fire you up.

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gunnerpalace · 5 years

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Hyperchlorate: How I’d Rewrite Bleach (Part I)

Okay, this is it, kids. This is gonna be—as best as I’m able to manage—the ultimate synthesis of all my scattered discourse on Bleach, combined with a condensation of what I’d do about it all. Buckle up, because these posts are going to be long, and I’m not putting it behind a spoiler. I’d apologize for destroying your dashboard, but I put in the work.

WHAT’S UP WITH THE NAME?

What's referred to as (liquid) bleach is usually a solution of sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) in water. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is usually added to slow the decomposition of bleach into sodium chlorate (NaClO3), and sodium chloride (NaCl)—that is to say, common salt. (How appropriate!)

Sodium perchlorate (NaClO4) is a perchlorate salt which is very closely related to the above and, when treated hydrochloric acid (HCl), makes perchloric acid (HClO4) and common salt. The former is very nasty in and of itself and is mostly used to make other, worse things.

In the context of chemistry, the prefix hypo- means one less oxygen atom than something suffixed -ite, while the prefix per- means one more oxygen than something suffixed -ate. (See here for a chart if you want.) The prefix hyper- isn't used in chemistry, but I think it sounds better.

tl;dr: It's a weird chemistry not-joke used as a code name for this project.

WHAT’S THE PITCH?

The short version of the pitch is: Most people who liked Bleach as a thing liked the initial Karakura and Soul Society arcs, and interest gradually dropped off after that.

Therefore, if you wanted to rewrite Bleach, you’d want to focus on that time period and expand on it and develop it further. You would also want to rework whatever came after, and more thoroughly integrate it with that time period in tone, focus, and perspective.

To do that, you first need to understand how it was structured and what made it work in the first place.

OKAY, WHAT’S THE LONGER VERSION?

The longer version of the pitch is: Bleach was supposedly a shōnen. One of the Big Three shōnen, in fact (in Western thinking). But understanding Bleach and why it worked (and why it fell apart) requires debunking that idea.

You see, the thing is that Bleach was never particularly good at being a shōnen, at least as most people think of such a thing. When people think of shōnen, they tend to think of four (4) things: 1. A Certain Kind of Protagonist, 2. Worldbuilding, 3. Plot, and 4. Fights. Bleach doesn’t really fit the pattern when it comes to these elements. I’ve been over these before, to a certain extent (many times), but I’ll reiterate them here:

A Certain Kind of Protagonist: Goku. Luffy. Naruto. Natsu. Kenshin. Yusuke. I don’t have to name their anime or manga; you already know who they are and what they’re from. Ichigo is certainly a kind of protagonist, but as Sera (@hashtagartistlife) once pointed out, he’s very different from what one normally thinks of when they consider the genre. Ichigo is a punk with a heart of gold (a la Yusuke) but he lacks the inner drive and confidence of all those other protagonists. He is, in fact depressive at the start of the series; he’s at best listless and nihilistic, and at worst suicidal. He’s something of an outcast loner with a tsundere personality he developed as a kind of mental armor. He’s deliberately mediocre at and unengaged with things. That changes (and the story starts) when Rukia enters his life and gives him the ability to act on his desires to do good and protect people. In other words: his confidence comes from outside of himself. Indeed, it’s a recurring plot-point that the longer he’s separated from Rukia, the more his confidence wavers. In addition to all the other things that were noted as marking him out, this one is crucial, because the average shōnen protagonist is possessed of unwavering confidence. Having Ichigo’s confidence (and his animating ethos) externalized to Rukia essentially splits the traditional protagonist role in two. (Indeed, you could readily say Ichigo and Rukia are deuteragonists, despite the story focusing on Ichigo—he eclipses her visually, but her gravity is unmistakably present and dominant.) This by itself tells you that you are dealing with a different kind of story than usual. This fits in with one of the reasons people tend to like Bleach, specifically the first.

Worldbuilding: Few shōnen rival Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings in sophistication and detail, but they usually have well-developed worlds where whatever is going on substantiates—and ideally enhances—the plot and the journey of the protagonist. Think of the world of One Piece, which is excellent at this, or those of Naruto or Fairy Tale, which still sufficiently sell that there is a living, breathing setting in which the story is taking place. Bleach is something more like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: it holds up on its own if you accept its premises at face value, but if you start to investigate more carefully, things stop really making all that much sense. My own personal go-to example is the identity of the two unrevealed Great Noble Houses which presumably wielded power in Central 46. (I don’t consider Can’t Fear Your Own World a satisfactory answer for this, or other questions, and notably it has only revealed one of them.) Another example is the history of the Great Noble Houses, or Soul Society in general, or the Soul King. All of these (and much more) were things that were shoved into data books or follow-on novels, if they were ever addressed at all. The more one inspects the worldbuilding of Bleach, the more it feels like it’s flat or significant sections of it were missing—like it’s a movie set instead of an actual place. Most fiction strives to present, as much as possible, a kind of simulated world that you could imagine existing. Bleach, perversely, rather brazenly gives us a set of stages with clearly defined borders instead. This ties into the third and fifth reason people tend to like Bleach.

Plot: In academic circles, you will be told that what distinguishes literary fiction from genre fiction is the former is about characters (i.e., how events impact them), and the latter is about plot (i.e., what happens). For example, White Noise by Don DeLillo is not about “The Airborne Toxic Event,” it is about what that catalyzes in the protagonist’s life. Something like One Piece is very much a genre story about adventure. Things happen to the characters, sure, but they don’t really change all that much over time. They’re all following their dreams, and those dreams are (for the protagonists) often immutable. Bleach doesn’t really follow that structure. Ichigo and Rukia have an ethical viewpoint, but they’re not really on a journey to implement it. Things largely just kind of happen to them. In this regard, Bleach is much more like a literary work than a genre one. It also features, as Sera pointed out in an earlier post, a depiction of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth within the Karakura and Soul Society arcs: we see Ichigo and Rukia go through the process of “becoming a hero.” Protagonists like Luffy or Goku already are the heroes, it’s just that nobody else knows it yet. The plots that unfold are thus very different. Furthermore, Bleach is also often a symbolic work. For example, the Karakura II, Hueco Mundo and Fake Karakura arcs are a sort of inverse deconstruction of the earlier Karakura and Soul Society arcs; they function as an anti-monomyth and refutation of it (think of it as being like “how a hero can fail”), a la how Bloodborne subverts the monomyth to incorporate Lovecraftian mythos: they are designed to cast down the achievements of the protagonists and demoralize the reader, rather than being triumphant and uplifting. Bleach also frequently prioritizes thematic elements over verisimilitude. One example is the association of romance with death (Isshin and Masaki, Ryuuken and Kanae, Kaien and Miyako, Rangiku and Gin, and so on). Another is loneliness (no one ever seems to really hang out or have many friendships), especially when it comes to parents (Isshin and Ryūken have strained relationships with Ichigo and Uryū, Ikumi is a single mother, Chad parents are dead, Orihime’s were reverse-abandoned, Keigo and Mizuiro’s are absent, Tatsuki’s are never seen, and so on). Bleach absolutely prioritizes characters and themes over traditional plot or plausibility—that is to say, how things feel is often much more important than how exciting or realistic they are, which ties into the second and third reasons people like Bleach.

Fights: Bleach’s fights tend to suck. There are some exceptions, sure, but the power of those exceptions usually stems from the emotional content and personal nature of them. Something like Ichigo vs. Byakuya, Uryū vs. Mayuri, or Rukia vs. Aaroniero (to name a later example) are very emotionally charged fights. That said, even fights that aren’t particularly interesting, like Ikkaku vs. Edrad, tend to be more about showing us aspects of the characters’ personalities more so than about the fight itself. In fiction, one is encouraged to show rather than tell, and more extreme situations (which violent confrontations are one example of) allow one to show deeper and more extreme aspects of a character than slice-of-life situations usually do. This is what Bleach’s fights are often in service of. This is evident from how uninteresting the average Bleach fight is. There’s a lot of sword-pressing, a lot of ineffectual diagonal slashes, a lot of appearing behind someone to their surprise, a lot of losing an arm as a serious injury, a lot of no-selling attacks, and whoever reveals how their powers work first usually loses. The fighting quickly boils down to shikai and bankai, or their equivalents, with the other aspects of fighting, like kidō (and the rest of zankensoki) being discarded except when they reflect some matter of character (for example, Byakuya or Uryū’s more analytical and technical approach to things). Combat in Bleach isn’t about a robust combat system or consistency, nor is it about what looks cool—it is about what shows off the character in question. This is unusual for a shōnen and ties directly into the second reason people like Bleach.

I’ve talked a lot about why Bleach is liked, and it’s now prudent to get into that. In my opinion, the reasons that early Bleach was well-liked and well-received can be boiled down to five (5) things: 1. Deuteragonists, 2. Character Designs, 3. Mystery, 4. Contrast, and 5. Urban Fantasy Setting. I’ve been over most of these before, but they also bear repeating.

Deuteragonists: I have explored this concept in quite some detail (see: 1, 2, 3) before, so I’m not going to go too deeply into its mechanics here. The most obvious selling point here is that splitting the role of the protagonist into two mutually supporting halves that are fallible in their own ways is A. relatively unique, and B. humanizing. Ichigo and Rukia are by no means either the first example of this (consider Sherlock Holmes and John Watson) or the last (I've not seen Psycho-Pass, but Shinya Kogami and Akane Tsunemori seem to have much the same relationship), but I am unaware of any (supposed) shōnen prior to Bleach that attempted it. (That’s not to say that it doesn’t exist, but rather, that its obscurity if it does simply reinforces the point.) That made it unique for its time. That Rukia is a (competent and independent, but still vulnerable and feminine) woman only makes it even more unique, especially given the medium and how women tend to be treated within it. It also allowed for both Ichigo and Rukia to have problems as characters, and to largely grow beyond those problems over the course of the series, rather than there being yet another immutable and unchanging rock of a protagonist like so many other shōnen feature. When coupled with their interpersonal banter and dynamics, they formed a major draw together simply because their sharing of the role was so unusual and well-executed.

Character Designs: Bleach suffers from a dizzying overabundance of characters. Many of them are only present for a few chapters, at most, and yet even characters who appeared very briefly have any number of adherents out there among the readership or viewership. Consider characters like Starrk, Bambietta, or Bazz B., who have little to no establishment, and little panel time relative to the series, but who nonetheless gained resolute fans. Sometimes they have backstories shoehorned in to help sell them (as in the case of Starrk and Bazz B.; the most hilarious example is probably Giriko being given a flashback several chapters after he was already dead), but often they succeeded without them. They also often succeed despite their personalities largely being remixes of existing characters. How? Because of their character design and attitudes. Bleach was enormously successful in delivering characters that appealed to somebody, even at almost only a glance. The characters almost radiate a sense of mie purely through their designs. This sort of visual imminence routinely overcame all other character shortfalls.

Mystery: The anime of Bleach began airing on October 5, 2004. Coincidentally, Lost started airing on September 22, 2004. They began at almost exactly the same time. What does one have to do with the other? Nothing, except for the fact that they both relied heavily on mystery and both capitalized on it (in different markets) at almost exactly the same time. The bulk of Bleach is predicated on inculcating a sense of mystery. This is why basic facts that would often be mentioned in passing are kept tightly wrapped secrets until the end of the series and beyond. (Token examples, great and small: Who are the other two Great Noble Houses? Where’s Yoruichi’s zanpakutō and why can she turn into a cat? What’s the deal with the Soul King? Why is there a fox-man like Sajin around, and is he a yōkai or what? What was the Final Getsuga Tenshō?) Even things that were resolved, like Ichigo’s parentage, what was going on with his “inner Hollow” and zanpakutō, and so on, were kicked down the road as long as possible to create an air of mystery. The most obvious manifestation of this was all the guessing about the bankai of various characters that the series egged on. This sense of mystery and a desire for closure kept quite a lot of people invested when their patience for the rest of the series ran out.

Contrast: While lots of anime and manga frequently leaven their drama with comedy, or vice-versa, Bleach was unique for the means in which it did so. It’s worthwhile to draw a contrast with something very close to its opposite: Gintama. Gintama is particularly notable because of its odd mix of different elements; it has a fantastical alternate history setting and can go from irreverent comedy (running the gamut from pop-culture puns to crude toilet humor) to deadly serious drama in just a few pages. However, Gintama’s default mode is comedy. Bleach is a relatively grounded secret history with a default mode that is dramatic. In this regard, they are equal but opposite. Early Bleach was a very dark and grim, almost Lovecraftian setting, and often had elements of horror or was just plain gross, but was lightened up through the way in which it approached that and its frequent inclusion of humor. This contrast is also heightened by the relative lack of fighting in the early manga; when fighting does occur, it’s all the more notable because the focus is largely upon slice-of-life elements. As the series progressed, this element of contrast was lost as it became relentlessly serious (in the process, becoming desensitized to its own sense of horror, great or small) and tried to become a battle manga.

Urban Fantasy Setting: Although Bleach ultimately goes on to visit rather fantastical places, it started out in a very grounded and realistic fashion. The sleepy (fictional) suburb of Karakura in Western Tokyo is just the right mix of urban and rural to be relatable to almost anyone. Simply by virtue of being based on a real area (the region around Tama), Karakura feels lived-in and well-developed, despite the fact that we see very little of it. (This is especially true compared to Soul Society [be it the Seireitei or Rukongai] or Hueco Mundo, both of which are very sterile and fantastical in a bad way [especially since the former is really just a stylized representation of the Heian period in Japan]. There is a very old parody of DBZ featuring the line "We need to go to some place that's completely desolate and... that would never be in real life at all, and it's huge, and it's a bajillion miles wide and it's nowhere to be found on earth—but it's right over there!" and that accurately describes both Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. I’ll get into this more in the next post.) The initial focus on day-to-day high school life also gave it a solid grounding for the age bracket of its intended audience. In this capacity, it exactly nailed the setting of teen-focused urban fantasy. The interesting thing is it did so before a lot of the most prominent novels in that genre were written. In other words, Bleach was a market-leader in urban fantasy for teens, and beat many of its peers to the punch. Just as deuteragonists were a major selling point out of their sheer novelty, so was the setting.

As an aside at this junction, I’d like to direct your attention to something from the Wikipedia page on urban fantasy, regarding the distinction between urban fantasy and supernatural romance:

The two share 90% of their genre DNA. However, the main differences are this: Urban fantasy focuses on an issue outside of a romantic relationship between two characters. Paranormal romance focuses on a romantic relationship between two characters and how outside forces affect that relationship. The best litmus test to determine if a story is urban fantasy or paranormal romance is to ask the following question: 'If the romance between Character A and Character B were removed, would the plot still stand as a viable storyline?' If the answer is 'yes,' chances are good it's urban fantasy. If the answer is 'no,' it's most likely paranormal romance.

Now, whether you think the relationship between Ichigo and Rukia is romantic or not, I would note two things. The first is that if their relationship was removed, the plot would not “still stand as a viable storyline.” The second is that the events of the Karakura and Soul Society arcs are very much about “how outside forces affect [their] relationship.” (As were all subsequent events involving them, really.) In short, I would argue that it’s impossible to suggest that early Bleach doesn’t sit somewhere that very closely approximates paranormal romance, if not being one outright. In this regard, Sera’s assertion that Bleach is a shōjo is a lot closer to the mark than you might think, as is my own that it was on the path to becoming either a battle shōjo or a couple shōnen.

HOLY SHIT, GIVE ME AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SO FAR?

To summarize, Bleach started off as a pseudo-paranormal romance (if not an actual one) that succeeded on the basis of being—on the one hand—grounded, characterful, and novel, while—on the other—also being mysterious, emotive, and meaningful. Bleach was, at the start, not necessarily trying to sell itself as an unbiased account of “things that happened in this fictional world,” or create an expansive universe. It was instead a rather intimate story set in a particular place, focusing very much on its characters and on conjuring up emotions.

Even when it went to Soul Society, you might still just as easily think it as something like an off-beat Kabuki play rather than a traditional shōnen. (Perhaps making it not so surprising that it was so easily adapted into a musical play.)

I feel that Bleach is also notable for embracing the aesthetic principles of Japanese art and culture that other traditional shōnen usually do not heavily emphasize; it features elements of not just Kawaii (of course), but Jo-ha-kyū, Geidō, Miyabi, Iki, Ensō, Shibui, Yūgen, and Wabi-sabi. (Indeed, I would say that an over-attachment to those last four is a major component of why it ultimately failed.) This also gave it a unique flair.

I think it was ultimately so successful to begin with because it was a unique melange of elements.

BUT I LIKED BLEACH BECAUSE OF SOME PARTICULAR THING YOU DISMISSED AS ANCILLARY!

There’s no accounting for taste. I’m just telling you what Bleach’s focus was and why it was initially exciting and good at what it did.

OKAY, FINE, WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH REWRITING IT?

Like I said, I think it’s important to first understand what worked and why. Then, it’s important to understand why things went wrong. (And boy, did things go wrong...) Only then can you reasonably propose solutions to fix things.

Next time, we’ll go into what went wrong, which involves a mixture of poor planning, shifting priorities, inflexibility, overindulgence, and hubris. But for that story, you’ll have to stay tuned for Part II!

#Bleach #Hyperchlorate #Meta #Analysis

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dungeon-master-disaster · 5 years

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Disney D&D (5e)!

Tangled, part 1: worldbuilding in the Kingdom of Corona, and the goddesses Ostara and Skadi

I recently stumbled across this video [link] where ABD Illustrates turns Disney characters into dnd pcs. This idea is WAY too fun for a nerd like me to ignore, so me and my friends immediately started planning a one-shot based on the movie Tangled that we’re all very pumped about. Our plan is to dnd-ify the characters and their world, start the one-shot with the same premise as the movie, and then just see how the story unfolds in this alternate dnd universe! I’ll be dm-ing this one-shot (which will probably be more like a mini campaign, cause I’m extra) and my first chunk of worldbuilding (world-amplifying??) is under the cut--

ABD Illustrates thinks that Rapunzel would be a cleric of the light or life domains, and yes. Just yes. I’m going with the life domain because of her healing and life-giving powers, and her mom (Queen Arianna) will be a cleric of the light domain (more on that later, maybe). Rapunzel’s powers come from the magic flower that grew from a drop of the sun, which I feel means that her patron deity must be somehow related to the sun, as well as healing and life (the sun is a preeetttty significant motif in the movie lol). The tale of Rapunzel is originally German, so I want her deity to be from Germanic mythology, as well. And---for plot reasons I’ll probably explain in a later post---I want this deity to be one who could work for both the light and life domains.

I dug around a bit and eventually ran into the old Germanic goddess Ostara, the goddess of dawn and renewal and youth; the goddess of the spring equinox. I couldn’t find a ton of information about her (if you have more I’d love to hear it!!) but she once had her own month that began at the equinox and lasted for part of March and April. People lit bonfires at the dawn of the equinox to welcome her and the coming of spring after the long, harsh winter. They held feasts and festivals in her honor, and believed that water blessed by her arrival held healing properties. Really everything I found about her made Ostara sound like the perfect fit for Rapunzel’s patron goddess.

I want the goddess Ostara to have some kind of force or deity that she opposes. I couldn’t really find anything about her having enemies in Germanic mythology, but it seems like winter and darkness would be her natural enemy, right? So I’m fudging things a little and making the Norse goddess Skadi---the giantess goddess of winter and, by some accounts, shadow and death---Ostara’s natural enemy.

So now I’m kinda going off the rails and writing some of my own mythology for the Kingdom of Corona---

In our world there’s never a smooth transition between winter and spring---there’s always this weird limbo of going back and forth between warm weather and snowstorms. I think the people of Corona would interpret this as an annual battle between Skadi and Ostara over the world---each year, without fail, Ostara’s dawn of spring and life would triumph over Skadi’s dark winter, and Skadi would retreat back into the snow-covered mountains to rest until she could gain control again and begin the following winter.

It was during one of these battles that Skadi injured Ostara, and a drop of the dawn goddess’ blood fell to the earth. From it grew the flower that Mother Gothel would eventually find and use to restore her youth (as flowers are one of the actual symbols of Ostara and the restoration of youth is one of her actual powers).

I’m changing the canon a little bit here (trust me on this) so that each year the people of Corona wake up very early to watch the first sunrise after the spring equinox. Sometimes this is on the equinox itself, and sometimes it takes days for the sky to clear and reveal the dawn. But however long it takes, the people wait earnestly to welcome the coming of Ostara and spring. Upon the first sunrise they light great bonfires, sing and dance, and kick off a joyful, week-long festival in the goddess’ honor.

But one year, as they awaited the first sunrise of the spring equinox, the air of the kingdom felt heavy with worry. Their Queen was very sick, and it didn’t seem as though she or her unborn baby would survive the night...

Queen Arianna was an adventurer before she married King Frederic and became royalty. During her travels she flourished as a cleric of the light domain. Her wandering brought her to the Kingdom of Corona, where she became known for her fresh and challenging perspectives, her persistent adherence to the truth, and her fearlessness as she spoke up, time and time again, against injustice and corruption on behalf of the people of Corona.

When Arianna became sick during her pregnancy with Rapunzel, her patron deity came to her during a feverish dream with a message: Ostara, the goddess of the purifying light of dawn, told her faithful cleric of the existence of a flower that would heal her and save her unborn daughter.

And so the guards were immediately sent in search of the flower by order of the desperate King Frederic, the flower grown from Ostara’s blood saved the Queen’s life, and Rapunzel was born with the goddess’ blessings of youth, vitality, and the power to heal.

King Frederic was so relieved and overjoyed that he---knowing that his people were still worried, waiting for news of their Queen---sent up a makeshift flying lantern from the castle that was painted with Ostara’s symbol, the mark of the sun. His people saw this just as the sun itself began to rise, and they all cheered and rejoiced and lit their bonfires in celebration, because they knew this meant that Arianna was ok, that she had given birth to a healthy child, and that Ostara had blessed them and their Kingdom. There was no more snowfall that spring, and the festival continued for an entire month.

But, of course, Mother Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel soon after this. She is a powerful wizard---an enchantress, specifically, blessed by Skadi (but more on that in a later post)---and though the guards searched for weeks without rest, they were unable to find her and the baby Rapunzel.

Eventually it came time again for the spring equinox and the festival of Ostara. The kingdom’s mood fell heavy once again as they remembered the disappearance of their princess at this time the spring before. So this year, just before the first dawn of spring, before any bonfires were lit or dancing began, they all lit a flying lantern for Rapunzel, sending the lights up into the sky in hopes that the awakening goddess Ostara would see them and help their lost princess find her way back home.

*****

So that’s the beginning of my planning! There’s a bunch I didn’t include here (and still more to do beyond that *sweats*) but I think I’ll keep posting more as I go! Feel free to use these ideas for your own campaign if you want, and if you have more ideas for Tangled or for another Disney one-shot, please share them! I live for this stuff <3

#disney #disney dnd #tangled #tangled dnd #dnd #dnd one shot #disney worldbuilding #dnd worldbuilding #rapunzel #cleric #dnd disney #lol do people even search for this content??#*shrugs* guess we'll see!#dm resources #my dnd ideas

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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Hey, so ppl who have followed me awhile, you know how occasionally I toss out random concepts as like, just general prompts because they were a thing that happened in my brain and I thought they were a cool idea but have no time/plans to write them ever so I’m always like....dude, run with it if it sparks something for you?

So due to my physiological incompatibility with Being Subtle Ever and my many many rants on how much it annoys me when people who openly state they’re not a survivor themselves then go on to share writing that clearly views Law & Order SVU as viable Research Material like....its not exactly a shocker that I’m a big believer in the idea that there are just some stories that some people aren’t meant to write. Like full stay in your lane premises, stories where it doesn’t matter how thoroughly or sincerely you research experiences outside your own - its just not your story to write.

And occasionally I also definitely come up with novel ideas that fall in this category. Some even make it all the way to extensively plotted/worldbuilt stages of outlining before I clue in that the basic premise is just unworkable for ME, due to my specific axes of identity....like sometimes I just really love an idea and so try and workshop it and come at it from a different angle that is more approachable for me....but ultimately, there have been a number of times when I’ve just had to put aside even a really in depth world or idea because it was just too innately connected in my head to various lived experiences or cultural identities that I don’t feel comfortable writing towards.

Like for example, years ago I plotted out this one YA novel idea that’s like....historical sci-fi, ‘alienpunk’ - like the basic idea was what if a First Contact scenario with aliens coming to Earth happened, but in the 19th century, like late 1800s. Steampunk style aesthetics, but instead of it being ahead-of-its-time steam powered technology, it was the anachronistic results of combining advanced alien technology with early or mid-Industrial Age science.

The thing was, despite trying out various different eras or locations, the story that kept coming out in outline was pretty firmly centered in America in the late 1800s, and like, it would be a huge glaring omission for ME to write that story and not have any black characters or acknowledge the social aspects of it being set during a post-Civil War era, and like...that’s not really For Me to write IMO.....and so as much as I loved the general idea, I felt pretty strongly that as it was, it just wasn’t a story I needed to write, when I have plenty more that are much more based out of my own lanes.

And to be clear, the story isn’t ABOUT slavery, that was never the issue, its not thematically built around related concepts, nothing like that. Its a sci-fi ‘aliens came to Earth and shit inevitably happened both because Aliens and also because People’ adventure....that is also historical fiction, with the era in question being post-Civil War America. Its just a story SET during that time, because that was the way it unfolded for me and I couldn’t get it to click creatively any other way. But still, its just disingenuous to pretend that any story set during that era doesn’t have a ton of room for expansion or commentary or bringing in more themes - with me just not being the right author to do that. Not my place, it just is what it is, and I’m wholly fine with that.

Anyway, my point with all this is I have a pretty sizable number of basic premises and even full outlines along those ‘nope, this isn’t actually for me after all’ lines that I’ve set aside over the years because like....my brain literally never shuts off and I write a fucking lot lot lot. And I do think a lot of them are pretty good ideas that someone could make some really fun stories out of, because I’m biased and occasionally do manage to love myself, like yeah, I do write good shit if I say so myself. But given that I’m not that person to write those particular stories, like I’d love to offer them up to other writers who might be interested in doing something with them.

And again just to be total clear - I am very much an ‘any time I say do whatever the fuck you want with this, I really mean it’ kinda guy. These would come with zero strings or expectations. If you like one of these ideas and want the outline or notes I made for it, its yours to do whatever the fuck you want with. Stick to the outline, don’t stick to it, just run with the basic premise, use the notes as a springboard to launch your own creativity into entirely new directions that didn’t even occur to me - sky’s the limit, have at it, I wouldn’t ask for or expect any compensation or official credit or royalties or whatever the fuck, not the point of this. Literally my only request would be like, hey, if you finish something off of one of these and do something with it, maybe gimme a shout out in the acknowledgments section and drop me a copy when you’re done because literally every story idea I’ve ever had, I’ve had it because at the end of the day its a story I want to read so....I’d definitely want to read whatever you come up with lol, but its YOUR story at that point. No hidden strings or whatever, you can cite this post as your official proof of that if needed I guess? Idk, its all pretty bullshit to me. God, I’m a publisher’s worst nightmare.

But I mean, the entire reason I didn’t ever write any of these specific stories and don’t think I ever will is because I quite literally don’t think I’m the right person to write them which means I quite literally believe there’s a metric fuck ton of people who could write them better than me and do things with them I never could and would never even occur to me, so like...lmfao, please don’t worry that I’m gonna be sitting here ever thinking like ugh how dare they not stick to my outline and notes and think they knew how to write this idea better than me. Like, you can. I want you to. That’s the whole point.

So yeah, basically the endpoint of all this rambling is if any writers out there would be interested in this kinda thing, drop me a reply or a reblog or even just an ask with what you think is a good way to handle that.

Like, I was thinking just whenever I’m thinking about one of them I’d maybe make a post (maybe tagged with a specific tag I use as a catch-all for any one of these ‘up for grabs’ outlines) about the general idea or a couple of the characters I came up with and a list of the kind of materials I wrote out for that story and their extent, like does that one have a full outline, is it more just worldbuilding and character notes, etc. And if someone’s interested or is like “oh I read this and it totally gave me all these ideas for what to do with a story like that” or whatever, just hit me up and first come first serve, the full file is yours.

But like, that’s just my ‘puts the lazy in laissez-faire,’ pulled it out of my ass two seconds ago idea for how to approach this, so if anyone has a better or more coherent idea, or even just a thought for what to tag this kinda thing, I’m all ears.

(Just final additional disclaimers: I’m super duper aggressively not interested in being like ‘mmmm, lemme judge your writing first and pick whomever I think is the Most Qualified To Write Mine Idea Properly’ like eww, gross, and similarly I have no desire to ask for identity credentials. Like if you’re a white writer and you read all of this and hit me up about a story I say I decided not to write because its heavily influenced by Mesoamerican cultures to a degree that I was like, I personally don’t feel anyone but a Latinx writer needs to be profiting off this story - I mean, you could definitely be like ‘oh I’m Latinx’ y’know, like a liar, and I’d be like okay sure, and if it ends up published later and I’m like hey I recognize that story and hey that author is as white as me, like.....you could do that I guess, and that’s a thing that could happen and like....that’s between you and your own choices and reasoning at that point and if you’re comfortable with that I mean, you do you, just be aware I probably think you’re an asshole then. C’est la vie. The world will keep turning.)

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