#really depends on what marvel has in store for them and their character arcs

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Doing something for fun: RPGs about broken anuses.

As promised, after the abomination that was the Sam arc, I am now going to write random posts about more positive/fun things. However, I also decided to add a little twist to them and correlate them in some way thematically to Dobson. E.g. by reviewing a game/show that does all the things Dobson hates/obsesses about/or fails at right.

 And my first entry in that regard is related to a videogame that came out a couple of years ago, based on a tv show Dobson claims to hate. South Park: The fractured but whole.

 Seeing how the game is 3+ years old at this time and there have been tons of reviews & walkthroughs showing how good and fun the game is, I do not really want to cover the plot and all the things that make it great in detail. Lets just say you can really feel that Parker and Stone were heavily involved in the writing of the game, as it is filled to the brim with references to the show and the typical satirical humor of it, that in parts manages to cross the line even further for me than the show. Right from the start you get a very dark but smart social joke and commentary out of the way, when as you set up your characters looks and the difficulty of the game, it is the tone of your skin that decides how hard the game gets. Meaning if you play as a black person, you are having a very hard time. It is not too preachy, just an acknowledgment that yes, in American society, blacks can have it harder compared to white people. Especially when living in a town like South Park, where social standing is pretty low and the police force is inherently corrupt and racist, doing something so outrageously to black people, I do not want to spoil it. Let’s just say it ends in a better Lovecraft joke than any of the shit SJWs did in light of censoring Call of Cthulhu board rpgs.

The overall plot is simple: While last time the kids played fantasy and things escalated quickly as they do in South Park, this time they play superheroes, with two fractions having formed: Coon and Friends vs the Freedom Pals and things escalating just as quickly. What starts off as the hunt for a missing cat to earn a 100$ reward Cartman wants to use to start a multi billion dollar movie franchise just like Marvel, turns soon into the player and his friends having to fight a real crime conspiracy thought up by one of South Park’s most nefarious characters, which also involves genetic mutations, time travel and eldritch horrors. Thankfully you, the “New Kid” from the last game, even after losing all your previous powers thanks to no one playing fantasy anymore, gain new superhero powers, make friends with the South Park kids again and even learn new fart techniques by none other than Morgan Freeman, that help you out along the way. All while also slowly revealing more about your backstory hinted on in the previous game and the tragedy of your dad having had intercourse with your mother.

 Being a South Park and RPG fan for years, I wanted to play this game for quite some time, but only managed to do so recently. And even if I spoiled myself massively over time with cutscenes and major battles online, this game is still fun (thanks in part also to the fact I watched the cutscenes years ago and by now forgot a lot of them).  The turn based battle system is way more interesting than last time by also depending on you positioning the characters on the field in a strategy based RPG style, there are lots of classes to choose and powers to combine (I myself going for elementalist, assassin, plantmancer and blaster currently) and you have a ton of allies in the game. The original cast of the four main boys, Jimmy and Butters has expanded significantly in this game with characters such as SUPER CRAIG, Clyde as the blood sucking MOSQUITO, Token as TUPPERWARE and Wendy as the social media huntress CALL GIRL (yes, that is her name) and they all are fun to interact and play with, with each one having their own unique sets of moves and finishers once again. Even outside of the battle, thanks to the writing, there are always great lines from them to get when interacting or taking missions from them. I especially came to love Tweek and Craig, who are not just decent fighters (Tweek in particular is a great elementalist) , but in this game are also now a couple ever since that yaoi episode from South Park. Helping them reconcile after a bad break up over the course of the game just feels surprisingly nice, mostly because unlike other LGBT celebrating media out there (Korra and She Ra  e.g.) none of the characters crosses some sort of moral line where you question why they deserve to be together (Hello, Catra), it is not heavily handed garbage fishing for brownie points and it is obvious through dialogue and actions they care for each other, even if they are at first going through a bad break up as only South Park could ridiculously portray it.

 Overall, the game is also surprisingly “inclusive” and socially relevant without being preachy about it, if you ask me. From the aforementioned skin color thing, to LGBT representation via Tweek and Craig, the police being involved in a plot that especially nowadays is sadly more relevant than ever (mind you, I do not believe that in real life all cops are bad, but in my opinion bad eggs on both sides certainly led to the current situation in the US and that is all I say) to the fact you can over the course of the game decide not just if you are playing as a boy or a girl, but even something in-between, a cis-/transgendered person and decide your race, religion as well as to whom you are sexually attracted to. Granted, I barely see how it has any bearing on the game’s plot, but I appreciate the following things: a) the inclusion of the possibility to decide on those factors itself, making creating your character even more fun (a basic right others demand for certain games nowadays in all the wrong ways) and b) that the game does not make the biggest of deals about it. See, I am under the impression that often times the most progressive and inclusive thing is to just let the story and personality of a character speak for itself, instead of the fact that it also identifies by a specific gender, sexuality, race or other allignment. In fact focusing on those things on a character only is something I consider ”positive stereotyping”, which for me is just racism in the opposite direction. And if you no think I am going off track here and need to be beaten up by someone who genuinely has some grip on pc culture, don’t worry. This game features PC Principal actually doing an ok job teaching you about microaggressions in his typical PC Principal manner, which in itself becomes a relevant move in future battles and is hilarious to watch. Speaking of the new kid, putting things like your chance to gender identify yourself with it in more detail (which you can also adjust again later on in game if you feel like it) aside, for a silent protagonist he/she/it can have a nice level of debt to it, if you look too much into it.

 Not only does it have a funny backstory explaining its fart and social media powers, there are recurring scenes of the kid’s parents being on each others throat and the kid just silently eating dinner for the night that genuinely feel sad and create sympathy in our little FartLord to the point you just want the kid to go out there, have an adventure and hopefully find a way to change its parents for good, cause it is obvious they love the kiddo, but damn do they need to cut off the substance abuse.

 Storywise you get something out of this game that is way more entertaining and hilarious than the last two seasons of the show combined (FUCK the season of 2019) and game content wise you are also rewarded with a lot of shit, just for exploring the town. Be it you finding hidden yaoi fanart that earns you money, your allies helping you solve puzzles that reward you with exp and new costumes to further customize your outfit, making new friends on Coonstagram by taking selfies with all the major and minor characters of the town, helping Big Gay Al finding his missing cats, stumbling upon Memberberries, forging new artifacts to increase your strength, finding summons… all stuff that helps you not just gain exp and become stronger, but also makes you enjoy going through South Park outside of the main story content. In fact I spend a majority of my first twelve hours in this game only wrapping up the prologue missions and first two chapter of the game, while otherwise talking with as many people in town as possible, exploring the stores and houses, doing side missions etc. just for the fun of interacting with the characters and the world they are part of.

 Now, how does all of that relate to Dobson?

Well lets see…

 Game based on something he hates that has however rightfully more success than he ever deserves, with lots of political commentary and satire for years in its humor? Check.

 Game itself having more of that commentary done right then Dobson in his own comics and story attempts? Check

 LGBT representation via Tweek and Craig as well as Big Gay Al that does not feel too stereotypical despite Al himself being extremely stereotypical in design? Check

 Some pretty decent/hilarious female characters in the game once you know them? (again, Call Girl and Classi, who fucks the L out of the A-S-S) Check.

 Being a style of game he hates for no apparent reason, but executed well (RPGs)? Check

 Thematically focused on superheroes, a trend he is obsessed about, but here both appreciating while also poking good fun at common tropes of it and the marketing of the MCU, in doing so just highlighting how much of a mindless consumer Dobson is? Check

 Being a game where you can also play as any gender and race and its not turned into a “groundbreaking” industry changing feature pandering to minorities that in the eyes of corporations are just a market to exploit, not people? Check

 Heck, if Dobson was not a biased idiot, the game would be perfect for him. It even panders to his toilet fetish in videogames.

 Kid you not: a mini game in the game itself features the possibility to go to every toilet in town and shit in it. The process of defecation itself being a rhythm game and you earning exp from it once you took enough dumps. And considering Dobson once spend hours in Skyrim looking for outhouses, that sounds right up Dobson’s back alley.

 Bottom line, this game is fun. If you like South Park, superheroes and RPGs, this game is perfect for you. And seeing how it has been a few years since it came out, I think it should be possible to get a cheap copy of it somewhere. Go on, play it. But always remember: Never fart on another dude’s balls. It is just not the polite thing to do.

[daresplaining]

In Anticipation of Jessica Jones Season 3!

    The last season of Jessica Jones and final installment of the Netflix MCU overall is airing tomorrow night (or Friday morning, depending on your time zone). For various reasons, I haven’t had as much time as I’d have liked to blog about it (it would have been nice for Netflix to release the trailer more than a week before the air date, but they’re clearly no longer making an effort to promote their Marvel properties...). However, I am really excited about the upcoming season. Jessica Jones is a comics character I've loved for a long time, and it has been thrilling to watch the live action version of her develop over the years. I was in the audience at NYCC 2015 at the show’s very first panel, when they showed episode one, and I’ll never forget it. Jessica Jones Season 1 remains one of my favorite pieces of television ever, and while I didn’t feel Season 2 was quite as strong, I still loved it, and I’m really excited by what seems to be in store for the final season.

[ID: The handwritten word “Hero?” against a red background.]

    This season seems to be digging into a theme that has been part of this series since the beginning: the question of what makes a hero. Jessica consistently rejects that label and doubts her own heroism, despite all of the good she has done both before and after her experience with Kilgrave. The intense disfunction in her life, as created by her trauma, and her inability to adhere to the technicolor, textbook image of a superhero has defined her journey so far. It would be nice to see her reach a more settled and healthier self-image, as her 616 counterpart has mostly managed to do, but it seems this season will be further prodding this sore point by introducing an antagonist who claims, loudly and publicly, that Jessica is exactly what she fears she is: a bad person. An unworthy person. Not a hero at all.  

[ID: Jessica is standing in her office, talking to Trish. She has several pieces of paper pinned to the wall behind her, including a large photo of a man’s face. She is saying: “Gregory Salinger [sic]. He's smarter than both of us combined.”]

    The new Big Bad is a guy named Gregory Sallinger-- or, as he's known in the comics, Foolkiller. The 616 version of the character is obsessed with the idea of “poetry”, and kills anyone who doesn’t fit his aesthetic sensibilities. In the show, his obsession seems to instead be with the concept of heroism. 

    If you search for “Sallinger” (two Ls) on Netflix, you’ll find a few more hidden promotional videos specifically focused on him. Of all of the MCU Netflix shows, Jessica Jones has been the most willing to veer away from the source material and tell entirely new stories-- mostly because Jessica is a relatively new character and there’s much less source material to work with for her than for, say, Iron Fist. This means comics fans are left constantly guessing, and we have the pleasure of being surprised by the unexpected introduction of characters from throughout the Marvel universe. In the comics, Foolkiller has had run-ins with Hellcat through her time on the Defenders team, so he may be here partially as Trish’s rogue(!). 

[ID: Jessica is standing her office doorway, talking to Trish, who is out in the hall. Jessica says: “I don’t need your help, and you don’t need mine.”]

    Last season ended with the devastating destruction of Jessica and Trish’s relationship. Given how important they are to each other as sisters and co-emotional support systems, it’s safe to assume that they will make amends, but it’s going to take some major changes and development of their dynamic to overcome that level of damage (in case anyone needs reminding, Trish killed Jessica’s mother). Since this is the final season, I hope that they manage to solve things, but no matter what happens, their relationship’s development from this point onward is sure to be highly emotional. I can’t wait. 

[ID: Jessica and Trish hugging.]

    At least there is hope...

[ID: A GIF of a figure dropping from a high overpass at night. It’s Trish, in disguise, wearing a winter hat and with a scarf covering her mouth and nose. She lands on her feet and looks over her shoulder toward the viewer. It’s awesome.]

    Another exciting element to this situation is that after two full seasons, Trish has her powers and we are finally getting a Hellcat origin! While Jessica is every inch a reluctant hero and has mixed feelings about her abilities, Trish has spent her life searching for power-- both literal and metaphorical-- after spending so long under her mother’s abusive control. Trish would do anything to be a superhero, and I am thrilled that it’s finally happening-- both for her sake and for my own selfish, geeky reasons. The glimpses we’ve been given so far of her as proto-Hellcat look absolutely badass. 

    This will also, of course, prompt further exploration of Jessica and Trish’s opposing viewpoints on hero work, which has been a part of their dynamic since the beginning. It may also contribute to their bonding, since Sallinger will likely end up targeting them both.  

[ID: Jeri is sitting at a large desk in a brightly-lit office. Malcolm is standing next to her, wearing a suit and tie. There is an abstract painting in shades of red and white on the wall behind them. They both look serious.] 

    I’m also very excited to see the further development of one of my favorite MCU characters: Jeryn (Jeri) Hogarth. Last season, Jeryn was diagnosed with ALS and her life quickly spiraled into a mess of fear, desperation, and a whole bunch of amoral behavior. In the end, she left her law firm and went solo, taking Malcolm and Foggy (the latter of whom is now, fortunately, back with Matt) with her. I adore the sheer messiness of Jeryn as a person, and the way her unabashed terribleness is mixed with clear signs of pain and remorse, and I am eager to see where she is taken this season. Since unfortunately,  Danny didn’t cure her ALS in Iron Fist Season 2 (*shakes fist* that would have been so good, god dammit...), it will continue to define her journey. This is a great article in which the future of her arc is discussed further-- which will include, it seems, the return of a past love interest.  

    The above article also discusses where Malcolm’s story is headed this season-- though the details are still sparing. It sounds like he will continue his struggle with addiction, along with negotiating his identity through his job with Jeryn’s firm. Malcolm’s journey so far has been heartbreaking, and I really hope that he gets some kind of resolution, for his own sake. He has always been the heart of the show, a brother figure for Jessica, and a hero in his own right, and I’m both excited and nervous to see how his development will be impacted by the events of the season. 

    There are still plenty of questions. Oscar and Vido have been conspicuously absent from the promotional material, so I wonder what’s happened to them. It’s possible (at least, my fingers are crossed) that Luke could have a cameo. And of course, given how heartbreaking it has been to see the other shows cancelled with little resolution, I hope that this season has an ending that feels like an ending-- though I’ll certainly understand if it doesn't. Either way, no matter what happens, I can’t wait to watch. One more day!

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #72: A Farm Boy and his Bot. What if…Oscar gains his very own robot companion for the Atlas Arc?

So lately, I’m beginning to adore the concept of Oscar eventually gaining some kind of magical or rather unusual companion inspired by another known character from the Wizard of Oz. In my last musing post, I mentioned Oscar assuming control of Salem’s winged Beringels so that he may control them as the RWBY-verse’s equivalent of the Golden Cap.

Now I’m here to present another Oz-inspired possibility. What if…while in Atlas, Oscar either builds and/or gains the friendship of an Atlesian robot and this character will draw reference from the Oz character: Jack Pumpkinhead.

Oscar’s Robot

For those of you who might not know:

According to Wikipedia, in the second Oz book, the Marvellous Land of Oz, Jack Pumpkinhead is an animated homunculus. Jack is described as being incredibly tall with a skinny figure made from tree limbs and jointed with wooden pegs. He has a large carved jack-o’-lantern for a head which is where his name is derived from. Although, unlike most jack-o-lanterns, the seeds and other pumpkin guts were not removed from Jack so it substitutes for his brain.

Jack was originally made by a little boy named Tip (the male persona of Princess Ozma before she ultimately regained her true form) to scare his guardian, an old witch named Mombi. When Mombi saw Jack, she nearly smashed him to pieces but instead, decided to test out her new Powder of Life on him. The powder worked and made Jack come to life.

Jack has been noted to not be known for his intelligence which varies depending on the quality and number of seeds in his pumpkin-head at the time. Despite this, Jack manages to come up with random bits of wisdom and common sense often. That is the character of Jack Pumpkinhead.

As we know, Oscar Pine is alluded to Princess Ozma. Since Ozma is the original creator and parent of Jack Pumpkinhead, what if…Oscar will build his own Pumpkinhead in reference to how Tip made Jack Pumpkinhead or…perhaps Pumpkinhead is an Atlas Academy practice droid designed by Atlas for its students to gain hands on training during their combat simulation drills by fighting sentient machines

Perhaps…Pumpkinhead was an out-dated model that the school failed to maintain over the years. The bot had taken so many hits that it was due for decommissioning before being sent on its way to the junkyard scrap heap to be salvaged for it parts along with the others in its outdated series since Atlas was due to upgrade to newer, more efficient models in coming time.

Or…at least that was the plan before Oscar more or less rescues (technically steals) the machine---keeping it stored away where he and the other heroes were housed in Atlas---a full house suite organized for them courtesy of Winter Schnee and the General and overseen by Weiss who basically acts as landlady making sure nobody wrecks the place her sister generously helped organize for them. So Oscar keeps Pumpkinhead secured in his room while doing his best to repair the bot piece by piece with as limited resources as he had on his own time.

At first the former farm hand kept Pumpkinhead a secret away from the other heroes. But ultimately Oscar had no choice but to come clean about the tall, pumpkin-headed secret he’s been hoarding in his bedroom.

I’m kind of amused at the idea of Oscar being the type to pick up a stray robot without question. I think if done in the canon it could be a reference to Oz while providing a call back to Fullmetal Alchemist. After all, in FMA, Oscar’s VA--Aaron Dismuke played Alphonse Elricand us ole school FMA fans know how Alphonse was notorious for picking up stray cats. 

Picture…Oscar pulling an Alphonse just with picking up a stray sentient robot he was trying to patch-up. One of my favourite Pinehead headcanons is that Oscar has a natural born talent for mechanical engineering as a testament to his upbringing back on his family farm.

In the V6 opening, Oscar could be spotted reading an Atlas Mechanics magazine during his shot  with JNR and Qrow. A throwaway detail or conceivably a foreshadowing nod to what’s to be seen of this farm boy’s hidden talents during the Atlas Arc?

I’d absolutely love it if Oscar is good at repairing machinery with robots being no exception. I think that could be a really interesting skill for him to have. Plus picture the look on everyone’s faces to learn that our veteran farm boy’s got a knack for tinkering with them mechanical thingamabobbles and gadgets.

Remember how back in V2, Ruby snuck Zwei onto Team RWBY’s off-campus field trip to Mountain Glenn with Oobleck and we got that funny bit where Oobleck calls Ruby out only for Zwei to unceremoniously pop out of Ruby’s backpack; barking defiantly at her when she hisses for him to get back in the bag.

 RWBY Squiggle Script #016: Pumpkinhead

Picture it. A similar scenario like that with Oscar where an online, Pumpkinhead is unceremoniously uncovered in Oscar’s bedroom closet and the farm boy is awkwardly put on the spot to explain himself; all the while standing between his profoundly stupefied comrades and teammates (at least Jaune, Nora, Ruby and Weiss for the sake of this scene. Let’s say the others were away on other errands or something) and a spooked Pumpkinhead who sat curled up in a ball behind Oscar, frightened by the unfamiliar non-Oscar faces.

Jaune: ….Oscar, is that a… 8ft robot standing in your bedroom?

Oscar: Actually he’s 7ft 11 inches tall to be exact. But…yeah…it’s---it’s a robot.

Jaune: Okay, let me try asking again. Oscar, why is there a 7ft 11 inches tall robot in your bedroom?

Oscar: *chuckling nervously with a shrug* Would you believe me if I said he followed me home?

Weiss: *incredulously* Oscar, be serious. Did you steal that Atlesian Practice droid?

Oscar: *awkward laughing intensifies* Psssh no, of course not. I told you. He followed me...sort of. Look I’ll explain everything just promise me you won’t freak out if I tell you.

Despite their equally doubting expressions, the others settled down to listen to Oscar’s explanation.

Oscar: It started a while back. It was the first Battle Sim class for us first years and our professor wanted us to practice combat against a moving target. For that class we were each paired up with a practice droid to spar with. I got this fella. *pats Pumpkinhead* For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to…hurt him. The minute I raised my weapon, he just looked at me and curled up all frightened and shaken. I know that sounds really, really crazy but… it did happen. Even my teacher took notice and started yelling at me to take it down. Show no mercy against the enemy, he said. Even if that enemy is a defenceless practice droid who was more scared of you and…refused to fight. So naturally, I refused to fight too.

I won’t attack an opponent who isn’t trying to harm me. So I ended up not fighting at all and…as you’d expect, the teacher sent me straight to Ironwood.

Jaune: *incredulously* So that’s why you were in trouble before? For refusing to beat up one practice droid?

Oscar: *nods* Yeah. Turns out you can get a full month’s detention for anything at Atlas Academy. As punishment, I was put in charge of helping with droid maintenance. The robo-tech guy supervising me is a real piece of work, to say the least, but other than that, it wasn’t half bad. I didn’t mind looking after the droids. From there, I noticed this guy following me around a lot. Even when he was supposed to be offline, everywhere I turned, he was there just…staring at me. I guess you could say he took a weird shine to me after our forfeit fight. It was really weird and really uncomfortable, at first.

But after a while I got use to the stares and actually started to appreciate the company. *chuckles*  You can say he’s been my fateful companion during the more boring detention days and he’s a surprisingly good listener. Doesn’t say much…or…do much except stare but I think we became friends.

Weiss: *dubiously*…You befriended…a robot?

Oscar: *defensively* It can happen.

Ruby: He’s right. It can.

Weiss: *exasperated* Please don’t encourage him.

Nora: Can you guys quit interrupting? I wanna know what happens next? Go on Oscar.

Oscar: *frowning* Well…what happened next is actually the worst part. One detention, I didn’t find him with the other bods. Some first years from my class had rented him out for some extracurricular target practice.

Ruby: What… happened?

Oscar: *exasperated; fist clenching* What’d you think? They broke him! Wrecked him up really bad. Students are allowed to fight the droids after school but these students overdid it. And what’s worst is that after they were done, they just…left him. The robo-tech will clean up the mess for us, they said. They didn’t even bother returning him. Just left him in pieces. I tried to tell them off but I was useless. They just pushed me aside.

Nora: *annoyed* Please tell me you reported those jerks!

Ruby: Did you tell someone? Ironwood? The robo-tech?  

Oscar: I tried but…it just made things worse. I told the robo-tech about what happened but… he didn’t care. I asked him if he could repair him but he said… *scoffs* He said fixing damaged goods isn’t in his payroll. It’s not in his job requirements to fix the bots, he’s just supposed to polish them up and make them look pretty. Who cares if a couple of them get ruined in a few rough sparring matches? Atlas’ got the funds so why bother fixing the broken bots when they could just as easily replace them with newer models. If I had left him as is, he would’ve been scrapped! I…couldn't just…leave him like that. I had to do something so…

Ruby: …So…you saved him?

Weiss: He stole it!

Oscar: I…*head handing guiltily* Yeah, I stole him, yes.

Weiss: I can’t believe it. We’ve been hoarding a felon.

Ruby: Weiss, quit being so overdramatic.

Weiss: I am not!

Nora: So…exactly how long have you been hiding this bot here under our noses?

Oscar: Let’s see, one…two weeks so probably…about a month.

Groans all around, the most audible being Weiss’. Ruby being Ruby appeared more sympathetic.

Ruby: Well… he seems to be up and running now. Why didn’t you try taking him back to the school again?

Oscar: He’s not completely fixed yet. There’s still more work to be done but I can only do some much with such little tools and with such a little workspace. Besides I already tried that but...he won't let me. I think he's too scared to go back there after what those kids did to him.

Weiss: He’s scared? He's a machine!

Ruby: Weiss, even machines can have feelings too. 

Weiss: But---

Oscar: *wearily* Do you guys mind lowering your voices please? He doesn't like it when you yell. He hates loud noises.

At this, Oscar gently pats the tall robot behind him.

Oscar: It's okay big guy. We won't yell anymore. It's okay, Pumpkin.

Ruby: *snorts* Pumpkin?

Oscar:*embarassed* Uhh…yeah. It’s short for Pumpkinhead. 

Nora: Aww. That's kind of sweet.

Weiss: *arms crossed with an incredulous expression* You named it!

Jaune: *reasonably* Oscar, I understand you want to help this bot but you do realize he's Atlas Academy property. You can't just keep him in the house. He's not a pet.

Oscar: *pouting* I know I can’t keep him but he's still pretty messed up. If I take him back to the school as he is now, they'll throw him away for sure. At least let me try and fix him first. Please.

Jaune: Oscar...

Oscar: *imploringly* Please.

Jaune and Nora exchanged unsure looks. Weiss huffed but in the end it was Ruby who spoke up.

Ruby: Okay.

Weiss: What! Ruby you're not serious!

Ruby: It's like Oscar said, we can’t send him back to the school broken. The least we can do is let him finish fixing him. 

Weiss: Unbelievable.

Ruby: Weiss...

Ruby plants a firm hand on Weiss’ shoulder, looking at her squarely so she’s certain the Schnee girl could see her serious expression.

Ruby: Please.

Weiss stares at Ruby blankly for a few beats before finally sighing, admitting defeat.

Weiss: Fine. But it's not staying in here. *indicates to the bedroom* There’s an empty storage room downstairs in the basement. It's not much but it’s definitely more appropriate to house your...Pumpkin friend than a small bedroom closet. It’s yours till the bot is fixed and…I’ll see if I can get you some better tools to speed up the process. While I detest lying to my sister and the General, I guess I could always say it’s for a school project or something. Not making any promises.

Oscar beams.

Oscar: Thank you Weiss-cream.

Weiss: *eye twitching* Call me that again and you and your bot will be sleeping in the streets tonight.

Oscar: *nervously* Y---Yes ma’am. I promise I’ll move Pumpkin as soon as the storage room opens up.

Weiss: Good. Just…hurry up and fix it. The last thing we need is trouble with Atlas Academy.

---

As promised, Oscar moved Pumpkinhead immediately into the storage room after Weiss gave him access. In this next concocted scene, Pumpkin is safely secured with Oscar now standing behind him on a chair for added height while he worked diligently on repairing some of the remaining damages done to its head.

Oscar:  Alright big guy. You’ll only feel a slight tickle but I promise it won’t hurt.

 Pumpkinhead voices his disapproval with incoherent robot noises but otherwise stays trustingly cooperative while Oscar patches him. When Oscar was done, he patted the top of Pumpkinhead’s head with a proud grin, happy with his handiwork.

Oscar:  There you go. Now that part’s all done for today. See. Not as bad as you thought, right bud? Nothing to be scared about.

Ruby: Didn't realize you were such a robot whisperer.

Oscar nearly falls off his chair as he zips around to find Ruby standing at the top of the staircase leading down into the storage room. She wore an amused smile; arms crossed as she came down.

Oscar:  *embarrassed* Ru---Ruby? How---How long have you been standing there?

Ruby: *giggling* Not too long but long enough to see you sweet talk, Mr. Pumpkinhead over there. Are you sure you don’t need any help fixing him? Yang’s pretty handy; no pun intended and…I might know a thing or two that could help out too just so you know. I did built my weapon from scratch after all.

Oscar:  Thanks but…as much as I’d love the extra hands, I don’t want to distress Pumpkin too much. He’s not really open to new people right now. Besides I used to help my uncle fix the machinery back on the farm. Fixing a giant robot, surprisingly not that different from fixing a tractor. I mean it is different but my Uncle Henry was the best mechanic I know. Taught me everything he knew and I've always loved a good pet project.

Wiping his grease stained hands on a handkerchief he kept in his back pocket, Oscar smiled broadly as he patted the top of Pumpkinhead’s exposed top once life time before closing it shut. After that, the young boy jumped down from his perch to stand next to Ruby, admiring the work he was able to get done that evening.

Oscar: *smiles at Ruby* It's a slow hurdle but at least we’re getting somewhere, y’know?

Ruby: *nods; smiling back* Well uh...you seem to be doing a pretty great job so far on your own. I'm actually really impressed. 

Oscar: *blushing* For real?

Oscar tried leaning against a small table that was next to him; absently neglecting the table had wheels. Immediately Oscar scrambled to regain his balance and make sure the tools on top the table didn’t  clatter to the floor and startle Pumpkinhead. While he was victorious in keeping the giant bot at ease, that didn’t stop him from momentarily making a spectacle of himself in front of Ruby who eyed him closely, hand covering her mouth to supress another giggle.

Oscar: *cheekily* I meant to do that.

For the sake of Oscar’s pride, Ruby ignored  his last blunder as she slowly approached Pumpkinhead. Instantly, the bots beady white eyes swivelled around inside their socket to focus in on Ruby.

Ruby: He's looking a lot better from earlier.

Oscar: *rubbing the back of his neck bashfully; cheeks slightly flushed* Thanks. I owe Weiss big time for letting me use the storage room. It’s amazing how much more work I can get done when I’m not trying to hide a giant robot in my closet anymore.

Ruby nods wordlessly as she slowly edged closer to Pumpkinhead, eyes wide with curious wonder. Now Ruby was standing close to the robot’s legs. The instant she made an attempt to move further, that’s when the uproar started. Incoherent static mechanical noises echoed throughout the garage as Pumpkinhead made a fuss trying to move as far away from Ruby as possible.

Immediately, Oscar pulled Ruby back making sure to gently move her as far away from the robot as possible. After he did that, he ran to the robot’s side, doing his best to silence its distressed signals.

Oscar: Whoa! WHOA! Easy Pumpkin. She's a friend. She’s not going to hurt you. Easy bud, easy.

A few gentle words and reassuring pats later, Oscar managed to tame the robot yet again and Pumpkinhead settled silent once more. However its optical eye never left Ruby who now stood far, a bit shaken herself. Now it was her turn to be comforted by Oscar who returned to her side with a reassuring smile.

Oscar: … I should have warned you. Pumpkin doesn’t really like anyone coming near him except me. Sorry about that.

Ruby: No it’s….okay. Is he better now?

Oscar: Yeah, he should be good so long as you stay over here.

Ruby nodded. Rubbing her shoulder nervously, she made an attempt to break the awkwardness of her blunder.

Ruby: …So ......Pumpkinhead, huh? 

Oscar: *chuckling* Name of the year, right?

Ruby:  *smirking wryly* I guess. Why that name though?

Oscar: It’s an old boring farm boy story you probably wouldn’t want to here.

Ruby: *smiling* Oh yeah? Try me.

Her answer made Oscar smile.

Oscar: Well; when I was a little kid growing up on the farm, we had this old neighbour. I never learned what her real name was. I just used to call her Ms. M for mean because she was the meanest old lady in the world, at least to 10-year-old Oscar. Although she had her own farm with her own cornfields, she’d always let her pigs and her weird four horned cow wander onto our side of the land and destroy our crops before they could harvest.

Ruby:  *disbelievingly* I’m sorry. A four-horned cow?

Oscar: *nods* Yep. And each time my family complained, she’d just laugh at us and still leave her animals to mess up our crops while hers remained perfectly fine. Not that it helped much. She was actually a really bad farmer and all her former farmhands couldn’t stand working for her.

Ruby:  She sounds like quite the handful.

Oscar: She was. I hated that old lady. Aunt Em taught me that it’s not good to hate people but that lady was a real witch. She was never nice to me and she was even worst to my aunt. Reminds me a lot of that Mombi kid from school actually. Both are a bunch of bullies.

Anyways, one harvest, 10 year old me figured he had enough of Ms M and wanted to teach her a lesson. So I picked  the biggest pumpkin I can carry and built this giant scare---er---pumpkin hoping he would scare Ms M and her animals off our land. You can probably guess what I named him.

Ruby: *drumming her finger against her chin, pretending to ponder* Hmm, think, think, think. *snaps fingers and grins* Pumpkinhead?

Oscar: *laughs* You've been paying attention.

Ruby: *giggles* So what happened? Did the OG Pumpkinhead scare away the old wicked witch next door?

Oscar: Nope. Didn't even phase her at all. Actually it was the ten shot gun bullets through the window from Aunt Em that did the trick. Never dared bother us again after that.

Ruby: *jaw hanging in a mix of shock and amusement* No way! 

Oscar: *grinning wide* Yes way! I can still hear my Aunt Em now. Oscar, fetch me my gun! No, not that one! The bigger one with the bigger bullets.

At this point, Ruby was in stitches, hardly able to contain her laughter and Oscar joined her.

Ruby: *though laughter* I'm sorry. I'm having a hard time picturing your dainty old aunt firing a gun.

Oscar: *chuckling* There's an old Mistralian saying back home. You don’t mess with the west and if it hails from the south, get out. West and South Anima are mostly farming lands. If there are two things you don't play with in my neck of the woods, it's family and produce and that old witch had it coming big time.

I'd never forget the look on her face when my aunt marched straight up to her house and blew out all her windows. All ten of them on all sides. Not a single piece of glass was spared that day. Em even took out Ms. M’s glass eye. But for that she used a teeny, tiny pistol.

Ruby: *wheezing* You are making this up!

Oscar: *sarcastically* Would I lie?

Ruby gave Oscar a knowing look, punching him playfully in the shoulder.

Oscar: *chuckling* Okay, okay, you got me. That last part about the glass eye is made up but everything else is full proof. Farm boy's honour on my uncle’s grave.

Oscar grinned cheekily and Ruby only shook her head in amusement at the former farm hand.

Ruby: Wow. And I guess this Pumpkinhead reminds you of home.

Oscar: Yeah. Y'know he's not too different from the one on the farm. He's bright orange. Got two beady eyes and a crooked moon smile. Big ole pumpkin-sized head and skinny arms and legs---

At Oscar’s comments, Pumpkinhead made a noise from behind as if to show his displeasure of Oscar’s remarks about its physique. Oscar backpedals, turning to flash the robot a kind-hearted smile.

Oscar: *chuckles* I don't mean that in a bad way Pumpkin. You're a good boy. Yes you are, Whose the best Pumpkinhead in the world? You are!

At Oscar’s affectionate comments, the colour on Pumpkinhead’s eyes turned neon pink as if to reflect its delight of being coddled by Oscar and its robot legs even wiggled, as if mimicking a dog wagging its tails happily at its owner. It is a unexpectedly adorable moment that even makes Ruby gush. So much so that she forgets herself.

Ruby: *cooing; heart-eyes; clapping her hands excitedly* Awww, he is a sweet guy!

This time, Pumpkinhead sprung up suddenly; bursting through the cables that Oscar was partially using before in his current stage of repairing the bot as it shuffled behind whatever giant piece of infrastructure within the storage room was big enough to shield the bot from Ruby. From there Pumpkinhead remained.

Oscar groaned, rubbing his forehead. Ruby, in turn, looked to him guiltily.  

Ruby: *apologetically* I am so, sorry. Things were getting so cheery, I forgot about…before. I’m really sorry Oscar. I guess Pumpkin really doesn’t like me now, huh?

Oscar: *exasperated but assuring* Don't…*sighs*…Don’t take it personally. It's not really you. Pumpkin’s scared of everyone. He's alright with me because I think I'm the first person who hasn't tried to hurt him before. Kind of a bad thing to say, isn’t it?

Ruby: Well...isn't he a practice droid? Aren't they built specifically for combat? To take a hit whenever on the battlefield?

Oscar: Yeah but...that doesn't necessarily mean he liked being used that way. What if all the other practice droids are like Pumpkin?

Ruby: I think your guy is a special case, Oscar.

Oscar: You’re probably right. But it makes you wonder doesn't it? I know you guys must think I'm being silly for caring about something that's technically not alive but...he feels alive to me. When he's scared...I feel his fear. I understand it as if it's my own. It's not his fault he was born to be this. He never asked to be made into a practice droid for others to beat up on him whenever they liked. It wasn't his choice. He just had to accept the role he was dealt with but just because this is his life now doesn’t mean he has to like it. He's free to feel scared and not be okay with everything. 

Ruby eyed Oscar weirdly. Even though she knew he was speaking from the heart in defence of Pumpkinhead,  she couldn’t help  but get the impression that his words felt oddly off. As if there was more to them between the lines.

Ruby: *concernedly* Oscar, is everything...okay? With you?

Now it was Oscar’s turn to eye Ruby strangely.

Oscar: *surprised* Yeah I'm good. Why wouldn't I be?

Ruby: I---

Ruby opens her mouth to continue but instead decides against it; claiming it wasn’t the right time to pry.

Ruby: Nevermind. 

Oscar looks over Ruby once more, waiting to see if she might say something else but when she doesn’t, he shrugs casually.

Oscar: I'm...going to go check up on Pumpkin. Did you need me for something?

Just like that, Ruby remembers why she came down to the storage room in the first place. She blushes, a bit embarrassed that she had gotten so distracted before.

Ruby: *awkwardly* Oh right! No, no, I just...came down to let you know dinner's almost ready.

Oscar: *smiles* Ooh good I'm starving actually. Let me just clean up here and I’ll join you up upstairs.

Ruby nods. As Oscar makes a move to tidy up to leave, that’s when Pumpkinhead peep its head out, eyes fixed on Oscar.

Oscar: Hey buddy, I'm going up to eat now. I won’t be gone for long but I need you to be on your best behaviour, okay?

Oscar had meant to sound more assuring but his attempt was met with distressed robotic chatter. At the noise, Oscar’s expressed dropped shamefacedly.

Oscar: …Look, I know you don't like it when I leave but…I’ll just be upstairs. I’ll only be gone for like four minutes. Three if I eat really fast.

The robotic distressed signals only intensified and Oscar slumps, face in hand.

Ruby: What's wrong? 

Oscar: *sighing* He's…in one of his clingy moods, tonight. Must've been all the excitement from today. When he's stressed like this he doesn't like me to leave. Doesn't want to be left alone. *groans loudly* Guess I'm missing dinner. 

Ruby: No you don't. I'll bring your plate down for you. I'll just let the others know we'll be having dinner in the garage tonight.

Oscar: Wait… we?

Ruby: Yeah. You, Pumpkinhead and me. *smiles brightly*  You can keep Pumpkin company so he doesn’t stress out and I can keep you company. But…that's only if you---y’know, want my---

Oscar: No, no it’s cool. I---Pumpkin's not much of a talker anyways and...

Oscar flashes Ruby a smile.

Oscar: I'd like your company.

Ruby: *beaming* Great! I promise I won't overstep again this time. Besides…

Ruby turns her attention on Pumpkinhead who was still peeping out at them.

Ruby: *perkily*We may have had a rough start but don't worry Pumpkin, you and I will be bestest of friends in no time too.

Ruby flashes Pumpkinhead a big toothy smile, hitting him with a big ole Ruby Rose thumbs up only for Pumpkin to jolt and zip his head right back behind his hiding spot.

Oscar: *sweatdrops* Sorry.

Ruby: Playing hard to get I see. Not to worry, I've befriended your type before. You're not getting me to give up that easy.

With a determined huff that earns a chuckle from Oscar, Ruby turns on her heals to head back upstairs.

Oscar: Hey Ruby?

Ruby looks back.

Oscar: Thank you. From me and Pumpkin. *cheeks reddening* Mostly me.

Ruby says nothing. Instead she just smiles brightly, pleased with herself to see her friend smiling at her. With that, she leaves to go grab their food.

And scene.

What do you guys think? Now this squiggle meister has shared quite a bit of Oscar- themed theories and Pinehead headcanons before but I think this one has become one of my personal favourites especially as we’re going into the Atlas Arc. 

I already got my wish last season with the introduction of flying monkey Grimm in the series. Now what I’d love to see next is Oscar awakening his inner mechanic and creating Pumpkinhead. And after Pumpkinhead, perhaps even Sawhorse will be integrated into RWBY as well as both characters were signature in Princess Ozma’s side of the story.

Words cannot fathom how much I really, really dig this idea. I really want Pumpkinhead to become a canon character in Oscar’s story now because I think it could be pretty cute for Oscar to have his very own robotic companion who he becomes attached to. Ruby had Penny but unlike Oscar, Penny wasn’t canonically invented by Ruby. Pinocchio wasn’t made by either Little Red Riding Hood or Dorothy Gale.

However Princess Ozma did create Jack Pumpkinhead and eventually Sawhorse.

Who knows? If my Pinehead theory comes true, perhaps Oscar will invent his own Pumpkinhead while in Atlas. Atlas is the most technologically advanced kingdom in Remnant  so it is a huge possibility. Plus as I’ll point out again, this fits into the Wizard of Oz. If Oscar becomes an inventor on top of being a great and powerful wizard, I don’t think anyone can really complain because it comes with the source material he was influenced by.

Plus Oscar becoming an inventor could be something worth exploring as part of his individual story outside of his story with Ozpin. The whole Ozma reincarnation cycle and magic and longstanding battle with Salem to protect humanity became part of Oscar’s story via his connection with Ozpin who is essentially the Wizard of Oz.

But Oscar inventing Pumpkinhead is more connected to Princess Ozma who he draws reference from. So therefore, this is an opportunity to develop Oscar as his own character outside of Ozpin. Right now, most of Oscar’s story has primary been focused the part he shares with Ozpin. 

That’s fine but… ya’ll know how much I have been advocating for Oscar to get his own fair share of development, right? And I think this is an idea on how RWBY can do that while drawing reference from the fairy-tale character Oscar was based off of. This is something the CRWBY Writers can do with Oscar while in Atlas as a means of fleshing him out. I’m just saying.

But y’know. For now, it’s only just another theory to add to the rest as always.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[xseedgames]

2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza Blog! #5

It’s time for our last Q&A blog of the year. It’s been a fun time answering all these questions--you guys had some seriously good ones!--but now it is time for us to chill out and celebrate 2018. Hopefully we can give you guys good reasons to celebrate 2018, too!

For our final Q&A blog, we have answers from:

Ken Berry, Executive Vice President / Team Leader John Wheeler, Assistant Localization Manager Ryan Graff, Localization Lead Liz Rita, QA Tester Nick Colucci, Localization Editor Brittany Avery, Localization Producer Thomas Lipschultz, Localization Producer

Question: Does working on a game affect your enjoyment of it in any way? Do you anticipate playing the full package after it is done or do you play through it beforehand anyway? Have you ever been spoiled on a game through work and if yes how severe was it? - @MizuUnNamed

Brittany: It definitely does. It's like the difference between babysitting a kid over the summer vs. giving birth to that kid and raising them till they leave the house. Even the most frustrating things about a game will somehow become something you love in a weird way, because it’s your kid and it's your responsibility to raise it right. When you're localizing a game, you're choosing every single word, and every single decision you make for that game will shape the experience for the thousands of people who play it. Characters I'd normally hate as a player become characters I love because figuring out their dialogue is a joy, and stuff I never thought about in localization are now very particular to me because I want my kid to go out into the world looking its best.

I will always play the games I work on. Sometimes I play them in Japanese beforehand, but there are days where I edit a file while playing line-by-line just so I can look at a character's expression and match the line written to the face. Then I replay it a few time as the English builds come in, tweaking it bit by bit, because it feels different to see the English on a sheet compared to seeing it in-game. It takes a ton of time, but I'd rather have a final product I can be proud of than to give up because something requires extra work.

Liz: When I started working here the first thing I tested was Corpse Party PC. I played it for like 200 hours and that game is much shorter than that haha. I loved every second of it, and recently got to test it again for the Linux + SteamOS release. Oh boy, that was a treat <3 I also got to work on Cold Steel II and at the time I didn't have the consoles the first released for, so I just watched playthroughs online... bless Cold Steel PC! I don't think I've ever been spoiled on a game through work before.... except maybe for Book of Shadows? But I don't even remember that spoiler so does it really count?

Nick: This is going to vary widely from person to person. For me...admittedly yes, working on a game does impact the enjoyment I’m able to derive from that game as a finished product. I understand, going in, that simply by virtue of working on a game, I will know its plot from beginning to end, see all the character development (including optional stuff that you might not even be able to view in a single playthrough), and in general become a subject matter expert on its world and lore. I’ll have knowledge of all the optional events and the items it’s possible to get – and sometimes, even a few that exist but were never implemented.

Working on a game is usually a months-long endeavor, during which we often end up playing the game in various stages of beta (or even alpha) readiness. We experience bugs we hope you never will; all the times text isn’t displaying correctly, voice or music isn’t playing right, or the battle system is falling over foaming at the mouth. By the time a game is ready to be sold, we’ve spent more time with it than would probably be considered healthy from a consumer perspective.

Outside of post-launch support/tweaking I’ve done for games like Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, I’ve never picked up a game I’ve worked on here after it launched. They’re good games, and I’ve been proud of each project I’ve worked on so far – it’s just that I’m someone with a low tolerance for repetition. You know – the sort who would get sick of even my favorite movies if I watched them every day for a week straight. As cool a game as Trails of Cold Steel might be, I’m in no hurry to sink 80 hours into an RPG that I focused all my attention on for the better part of an entire year.

While it IS perhaps a bit regrettable that I “ruin” my ability to enjoy a game in a normal-player context by working on them, I feel it’s a small price to pay if I can help deliver something that players will really enjoy their time with.

Question: When you brought over Rune Factory 4 to Europe, what difficulties did you encounter? How was the process? - @Marower

Brittany: Hey! This is perfect for me! We really wanted to bring RF4 to Europe, but with the developer now shut down, it wasn't possible. We spent ages looking for a programming team who would be willing to help us that also had Marvelous Japan’s blessing, and then it became my little pet project. I had zero experience with the process, so it was a lot of learning and guidance from my boss, Ken. We were able to update the text a bit to fix typos, but because we would never be as familiar with it as the original team, we wanted to touch the game's code as little as possible since we didn't want to risk breaking the game.

I tried to reproduce this one rare bug that causes the game to crash at the end of arc 2 (this is present in the Japanese, too, so it wasn't introduced in English), but it was impossible. I started the EU version from scratch and went up to that point. There were rumors that soft resetting the game caused the issue since it really wasn't programmed to handle soft resets too much, so I did that as often as I could. Nothing. Oh, man... I wish I could've found the pattern that caused such a weird crash. It's rare, but no one wants a crash in their game.

NA only has one rating, but Europe requires several different ratings, so that's an interesting process. The store pages all require various languages, too, depending on the region. I learned that because you could palette-swap character models to simulate gay marriage that the game had to be 18+ in Russia. 18+! For a Rune Factory game! All of the processes take a bit longer, but it was mostly a lot of communication, paperwork, confirmations and such. All worth it to finally get that game out there!

Question: What process leads to additional content in localized releases? Things like additional voices for Trails of Cold Steel on PC. How do you decide which titles get "a little bit extra"? - @Baust528

Brittany:

Me (messaging programmer on Skype: hey are you up Sara (programmer): Yeah. What's up? Me: lmao wouldn't it be awesome if we could put x in the game Sara (ten minutes later): It's in the game.

That happens a lot. As a more serious answer, since we try to localize games we're personally passionate about, it's easy for us to see what we'd want as a fan, too. So we'll sit around and go, "Wouldn't this feature be nice?", and we'll see if it's doable. If it is, we'll do it.

The extra voice acting in Cold Steel PC came about because we wanted to do it for PS3/Vita, but it wasn't possible. I asked if we could put the games on PC one day, the boss worked out the numbers, and we realized that avenue was perfectly possible. We thought adding new voices would be great, because the English cast was very well received in English. Turbo Mode and ultra widescreen were both Durante, though. Those were awesome.

Generally, if our programmers have an idea they'd like to add to the game, we allow it. They're programmers! They know if it's possible, and if it makes the game better, who are we to say no? That's how the Sky games have gotten so many improvements over the years, too. We're incredibly fortunate to have Sara as a programmer, because she takes each project very personally and still finds ways to improve them years after launch.

Tom: There are a lot of factors that go into things like this, but one that's come up a couple times now has definitely been our inability to license the Japanese voices. We figured, if we can't offer dual voice to players, why not use whatever budget we may have set aside for that to give them something a little extra? It may not be exactly what they want, but it's at least something we can offer them to show that we truly did put our best foot forward with this release

Nick: As weird as it may sound, it starts with just someone asking, “Hey, could we do this?” Sometimes, what we’ll want to do is evident due to what’s perceived as a shortcoming in a game. Trails of Cold Steel had a lot of voice acting, but weirdly left protagonist Rean silent in a number of scenes where all the other characters were voiced. That was the initial impetus for us wanting to get back into the studio for the PC release and record all the voicework we couldn’t for the PS3 release (in which we could only supply voices for lines that were voiced in the Japanese version).

Similarly, when I was planning out the recording for Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, I thought, “We’re having people in to record these battle voices and we’re gonna pay them a minimum session fee anyway, so...why not add some story scenes onto that?” So in the end, we managed to include a solid amount of voice acting in there for a game that, in its original version, had very little.

Question: Have you ever considered localizing otome games? It would be nice if you can bring us some handsome boys. （*＾＾*) - @NymphNayade

Brittany: Hmm.

Question: Can you comment on the difficulty in trying to get Japanese developers to support same-sex couples/marriage in games like Story of Season or Rune Factory? - @atelier_michi

Brittany: XSEED's always been very openly supportive of adding that. I don't know what difficulties there would be in Japan, but I try to think of how much progress we've made to be able to openly ask for same-sex couples/marriage in games. It wasn't long ago that the idea was ludicrous. I remember when Ellen DeGeneres came out in the '90s and it affected me very strongly, especially since my parents would actively tell me, “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” So even if it's not in the current SoS games, I'll ask for the feature every time I visit Japan, because I think being open about it is an important factor to making progress on that front. Nothing will happen if you don’t fight for it.

I'd really like a whole variety of relationships in the SoS. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals, or even a unique relationship outside of sexuality like dating a single parent or supporting your partner as they transition. It's that sort of variety that makes life interesting and great, and I think introducing these concepts in a series as darling as SoS normalizes them and helps children to perceive them as innocently as heterosexual relationships and concepts. It's very educational. Normalizing it more would teach people to ask more questions, too, instead of rejecting any type of orientation or relationship that seems foreign to them.

I remember for the first SoS game we published, Hashimoto-san said he had animals die in the game because he wanted children to be introduced to the natural process of life and death. It wasn't meant to be a bad thing, but something we should be comfortable with because that's part of what it means to be alive. Something to that, lol. Anyway, I'd like for just as much heart to be taken to represent more kinds of people in life, too.

Question: A rumor is going around that you guys are avoiding publishing fanservicey games outside of Senran Kagura. This came in wake of you guys seemingly passing on Valkyrie Drive. Is there any validity to this rumor, and if so, why? - @WaywardChili11

Brittany: did people forget we did a game with literal strawberries and a banana as a costume

That's a weird rumor. It’s also dumb. We've done fanservice games in the past, and we'll decide on whether or not to do them on a game-by-game basis. We're not necessarily passing on them because of fanservice, but I also don't think fanservice is core to the XSEED brand, so it shouldn't be a given for us to do fanservice titles just because we’ve done them in the past. Many of us enjoyed Onechanbara and we have some SENRAN KAGURA fans in the office, so we published those because we originally liked them as games that happened to contain fanservice.

We’re also not big on censoring games, so I’d rather pass on a game than work on it after it’s been censored. If I were to localize a title and actually choose to censor it, I’d piss of people who don’t like the fanservice content, I’d piss off the people who want that content, and then I’d be pissed off because if I felt something was so horrible that it needed to be censored, then I probably didn’t want to work on the game.

That doesn’t mean every fanservice game is off the table for me, but I would need to evaluate it to see if the game is for me, as I would any other genre. Like, Lord of Magna is overall a super-cute game, but it also has an out-of-nowhere hot springs scene. I felt that scene detracted from the game because the rest of the game was adorable and innocent. That said, I didn’t remove the scene, and I still loved working the game. It’s a game with fanservice I would still happily play again. 

Meanwhile, SENRAN KAGURA sells on fanservice, but the gameplay is pretty good. I admit that I prefer the older titles for DS/3DS which were more ridiculous titillation with a good story than the more overt modern titles, but again, that just means the series is no longer for me, and that’s fine. We still have SK fans in the office, and they enjoy working on the series. 

Another factor is gaming trends and our overall rep as a company. Fanservice games weren’t always as hot as they are now, and XSEED started off with a variety of genres, with our niche eventually falling to RPGs and such. Every trend has a rise and fall, and if we pick up every fanservice game regardless of quality just because it’s hot now, we’re alienating the audiences that love us for action, RPGs, and so on. We may even alienate retailers or future marketing opportunities for the games we license outside of that genre. We’ll have shot ourselves in the foot if the fanservice trend falls when we made it our bread and butter. I like having a job.

Tom: We certainly don't have any problems with fanservice, as I think we've proven quite thoroughly at this point. But we also don't ever back a game simply BECAUSE of its fanservice. When we release a game, we do so because (1) we like it, and/or (2) we see some really good potential in it. If it happens to have fanservice, great! If not, also great.

On the flipside, we also turn down games for a variety of reasons. Maybe we hated the story. Maybe we hated the gameplay. Maybe we felt it took its themes a bit too far, or that it had a lot of wasted potential that it never quite lived up to. Maybe we put in an offer on it but were outbid, or the developer appended unusual terms to the license that we weren't willing or able to accept. Maybe the developer simply didn't want to work with us for some reason, or we didn't want to work with them. Maybe we didn't have time to work on that title, or maybe we simply felt someone else would be able to do a better job with it. Tl;dr version, there are a LOT of factors that go into licensing decisions!

Our reasons for turning down a game aren't really something we can ever outright tell you guys, due to the NDAs we all signed when we got hired. But suffice it to say, it's never simply because of fanservice. Fanservice may potentially contribute to a larger tapestry of reasons for passing on a title in extreme cases (though they'd have to be pretty extreme!), but rest assured, we'll never say no to a game simply because it shows a lot of skin. Good games are more than skin deep, after all!

Nick: Here’s the Nick take: Most of us here don’t mind fanservice. It’s fun, it’s saucy, and folks can have a good time with it. If you look at our lineup, you can see we don’t shy away from games that have fanservice (Oneechanbara!), and games that push the boundaries, as Senran Kagura sometimes does, certainly aren’t out of the realm of consideration. A boob, a bulge; it’s all fair game here.

But here’s the thing. The games a company releases become part of their oeuvre. We have a reputation for quirky Japanese games because we’ve released enough of them that it’s a noticeable trend. The same would happen if we opened our gates to every fanservice-laden game that came knocking. Speaking personally, I don’t want us to have a reputation as a publisher whose stock in trade is mainly cheesecakey fanservice or smutty games. That kind of pigeonholing doesn’t help us as a company, and at worst, might even preclude some future licensing opportunities.

I think a lot of people get the impression that we turn down fanservice-laden games for some sort of censorious or moral reason, but that’s not especially true. There ARE cases where we might think, “If we licensed this, the ESRB wouldn’t let it through without forcing us to censor enough that the primary audience we were licensing it for in the first place would be upset,” and there are times when a game might simply be in bad taste and we decide we don’t like how it handles sexuality.

Sometimes, iffy material gets through in spite of all that. The SENRAN KAGURA series has done well for us, so we continue to publish those games even though a number of us in the office have concerns about how each new game seems to push the boundaries further and further in terms of what’s allowable (either by the ESRB or by common decency). We keep a close watch on that, and we’ve communicated our feelings to Takaki-san and his team. We strongly dislike having to alter content in this way, so if a game is so stridently sexual that we think we’d probably be forced to do so by the ESRB (as was a going concern with Valkyrie Drive, iirc), that factors into our decision-making process.

More often, the mundane truth is that we’ll turn down a game of this type because our evaluation play-tests show it to not be very fun to play. It’s not uncommon for games in this vein to just focus on piquing prurient interests or trading in tawdry titillation while the actual game underneath feels janky to play, or has no depth once you get past ogling your favorite waifu. That’s something that can’t be conveyed through a screenshot or even game video, which leaves hopeful players confusedly thinking we passed on a game for reasons more related to its content.

There’s a solid balance to be struck between acknowledging and publishing content for a mature audience and turning down projects that don’t jive with us, and I want you guys to know that we DO put a lot of thought into keeping this balance healthy.

Ken: When we first published SENRAN KAGURA Burst in late 2013, it was a much stricter retail environment so we had to approach the title with caution. We needed to see if there was a market for the series in the West, and even if there was the absolute worst thing that could happen would be to start manufacturing only to hear that retailers suddenly don't want them or want to return their units because of a complaint they got. Due to the success of the digital-only release of SENRAN KAGURA Burst we were able to release the next few games in the series physically at retail (so the "no physical no buy" people really need to thank their digital-buying colleagues), but that doesn't mean that we get a free pass to release anything in the future. As each new iteration seems to push the envelope further and further, we need to be careful exactly how far we push - at some point if we push too far and the whole levee breaks, it could have repercussions for games that have already previously been released.

Question: Who is best girl and boy? - @MizuUnNamed

Brittany: Can I get Crow Armbrust and Crow Armbrust for $500?

Tom: Narcia and Pietro, of course. But only for each other.

 Liz: Rottytops and Ludus! What did we do to deserve them?

That’s all, folks! It’s been a wild ride, but hopefully we answered your questions well enough. 

[blschaos3000-blog]

Its 12:33 pm cloudy/windy

Welcome to “8 Questions With……”

I found our next guest,Krystle Martin,by sheer accident. I was surfing FB and her page came up as someone FB thought I might like,seeing as Krystle was an actress,I clicked on her page and poked around.  Then I clicked on her acting reel and thought it was so darn cute,normally I don’t post acting reels with interviews because they get outdated and sometimes taken down and that leaves a empty hole on the page. But I’m posting Krystle’s reel because it was so darn charming and it sparked my curiousity because not only does Ktystle act,she is also a professional stuntwoman and while I have chatted with stuntmen here,I haven’t had a interview since I talked with Diana Lee Inosanto in 2016. So it made perfect sense to ask Krystle if she would be willing to share her story with us here and being quite modest,I really feel I have the coolest people to chat with and after reading Ktystle’s story,you’ll agree with me…..

  Please introduce yourself and tell us about your current project.

Hey hey! My name is Krystle Martin, I’m a stunt performer and actor. I’ve most recently been working as Ronda Rousey’s stunt double on Fox’s 911, played a dramatic role in a Vang Brother’s feature called The Uncanny, and performed mocap for Amazon Games’ upcoming The Crucible.

What was your childhood like? Were you a tomboy at a early age?

I was always equal parts tomboy and girlie girl, I never wanted to take off my blue Cinderella dress but it ended up torn from climbing trees. Flash forward to now… on a day off from shooting 911 in Mexico, I wore a new sundress to meet the guys at the beach, then ended up tying the hem up around my thighs so I could join their impromptu game of football. 

I grew up in a broken home with lots of love but not a lot of money or structure. I was the oldest with a brother and sister to look after and always took being a role model for them (probably a little too) seriously. I wanted to show them anything was possible, that we could stop the cycles we’d been born into. We can steer away from addiction, we can go to school and get good grades, work and earn our own money, go to college, travel, and follow our dreams. I’m still trying to set a good example for them, and myself. I’m always striving to learn every day and be the best person I can be.

Which did you do first as a professional,act or do stunts?

Acting was my first love, then I sort of… fell into stunts– see what I did there? I studied acting at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television and performed in shorts and indie films, but was struggling hard after graduation just to keep my rent paid without the benefit of financial aid. I happened upon Santa Monica Muscle Beach one day while running with a friend and was so thrilled with the playground for adults and all the fun, kind people there, it became a frequent hangout. Many of the patrons of “the beach” turned out to be stunt people and shortly thereafter, I was invited to attend some private stunt workouts. I’d been training for fun like that for a few years while juggling too many day jobs to count,  classes, student film auditions, and trying to get an agent. Eventually, I heard about an audition for a touring stunt show called Marvel Universe Live. I almost didn’t go to it because after some small successes, I didn’t want to risk losing any momentum I had going in LA. But after several callbacks I was invested. The project sounded like an adventure, an opportunity to learn and travel, and prove to myself that I could do it. 

What was your first stunt and how did you prepare for it?

Marvel Universe Live was my first stunt gig, and not just one stunt but a two hour show of them, up to three times a day, performed live to a sound track, with no “cut” like in film– you had to roll with the punches. My first year, I was cast as the Captain Marvel understudy (before that super hero was a household name) and played the minion baddies –Chitauri and Extremis. I took 18 falls to the ground every show, along with a 16 foot highfall, a lot of running, climbing, and fighting. We were in rehearsals for three months before the show opened, which included daily conditioning training. Before the rehearsals had begun, or I’d officially been assigned a role, casting had asked if I’d be willing to “tone up a bit”. In six weeks, I dropped 10lbs, 2 pant sizes, 5% body fat, and got in the best shape of my life. I was determined, and it paid off!

Is it more difficult when you are both acting and doing stunts,in your mind what comes first?

I could see that becoming an issue if the stunts were tougher than just some light running and fighting, which is the extent of the stunts so far that I have done while I am also acting. Acting always comes first for me, as the story, background, and emotional state of the character will influence the performance of the choreography – it’s something that applies when I am doing just straight stunts as well. In fact, I consider my acting background a huge asset when working as a stunt performer, particularly when doubling an actor, because I can efficiently understand their process and observe and recreate details to help meld the two performances into the single character. 

There was a time when my dream was to act and do my own stunts. Now that I have become more immersed in the stunt world, I no longer want that. I realize that’s a naïve and selfish thing to do as an actor. Actors can certainly bring an athleticism to a character, but insisting on doing their own stunts can take away focus from giving their best acting performance, take away a job from a qualified, trained stunt professional, and risk money, jobs, and potentially the entire production should they get injured. Actors and stunt doubles can make a great team to bring a character to life and create the best production possible.

Which do you like to do more as an actress,action,horror,comedy? What draws you to a project?

Because of my dual skill sets, action definitely interests me most, followed by well-written drama. Above all, an engaging story arc attracts me to a project, how does the character evolve over the course of the film? Of course, this is Hollywood, and I’ve got bills to pay so I don’t always have the luxury of choosing my ideal roles. I just try to learn what I can from each project, and every day spent on a set is an excellent learning experience.

Do actors/stunt people get paid separately for each job? Is the pay rate higher the more involved the stunt is?

Yes, Actors and stunt performers usually get paid per job on a daily or weekly SAG-AFTRA contract. Or if doubling on a film, you may be “carried,” meaning they will pay you on days you are not actively working for the luxury of having you available solely for that production.

For stunts, you usually get an additional bump in pay on top of the day rate, depending on the difficulty and risk of the stunt and how many times production needs you to repeat it. How much is at the discretion of the stunt coordinator and added to the Schedule G (daily sign in/out sheet) at the end of the day.

What has been your three best moments in the entertainment business so far?

The first to pop into mind was very recent actually, I was doubling Ronda Rousey on 911 last month and there was a fight scene to shoot. Very talented stunt guys, Matt Mullins and Brandon Melende worked out some great potential choreo to demonstrate, the finale of which had me taking Brandon down with a flying armbar. Afterward, Ronda suggested I give her my contact information to keep on hand because “people always ask me if I have someone, and now I can say I do. And I like your fight stuff.” It was a double whammy compliment! I tried so hard to play it cool but inside I was jumping for joy and sing-yelling, “Ronda Rousey likes my fights!!!!!!! Holy Crap! Did you hear that?! Am I dreaming?! I can now die happy” I think I managed to say something slightly more respectable like, “Well, coming from you that’s quite the compliment. Thank you.” 

Of course, originally getting the call to work 911, my first ever SAG Weekly contract— in Mexico!! And then getting told I was going to stunt double for Ronda Rousey— not only exciting because she’s a badass but also because for nine years or so, since she started with the UFC, people had been stopping me in grocery stores to tell me I looked like her! And now I get to double her!!!! —Those were big moments too.

Getting the call from Marvel stands out. It was January 2nd, 2014. Feld Entertainment called to tell me I’d been cast in Marvel Universe Live! After multiple callbacks, weeks of intensive training to tone up, and months of the waiting game, I’d gotten the part! I did it!! I was going to travel! I’d never been east of Oklahoma! I was going to get paid more than I ever had—to perform!!! Again, I tried to “play it cool” on the phone, but I was dancing around my kitchen and upon hanging up, hysterically laugh-cried, grinning wet face pointed to the heavens, overcome with gratitude. 

Getting a call to work my first SAG stunt gig on LA’s Finest. I had been a SAG member for almost a year without a job when this call came. It was late the night before the stunt, I had been at the Korean spa with my phone off, and I felt so happy and grateful that I had happened to turn my phone on, got service in the underground facility, and answered the unknown call to receive this excellent news! Another laugh-cry moment. Then for the first time I had my own trailer room and had a great day as a stunt double!

What do you do in order to stay in shape? Do you have set training schedule?

I find my day jobs plus attending stunt workouts keep me in pretty great shape without additional gym time. I usually run 2-4 miles a few times week while listening to a fun app called Zombies Run— great production value and what better motivator to sprint than zombies right behind you?! I work at Universal Studios as an employee of a stunt company called Action Horizons, in The Special Effects Show—a behind-the-scenes show where I rappel in from the ceiling, fight off two bad guys and throw them in a dumpster, then get set on fire—and the Triceratops Encounter—in which I work in tandem with another person, while piloting the 140lbs head, face, and front feet of a 10’ tall dino puppet. I attend weekly stunt workouts with (Mo-Cap/Action Studio) Minds Eye Tribe in tactical, creature movement, and swords, and every week I still go play on the rings and slackline at Santa Monica Muscle Beach.

What has been your worst injury to date and how did it happen?

I have been very lucky to have never broken a bone or torn a ligament or tendon *knocks on wood*. Though, I’ve hyperextended my thumbs so many times I’m skittish about holding hands unless my thumb is on the outside. After years of repeatedly injuring them when fighting over/grabbing weapons, a fight choreographer on Marvel, David Doersch, finally demonstrated to all of us by moving both his thumbs perpendicular to his palms,  saying “hospital” and then parallel to his palms, “no hospital” and repeating the process multiple times for emphasis— a helpful tidbit I now often include when coaching actors for fight scenes. I’ve been hit in the face quite a bit, had black eyes on each side and once I got accidentally punched so hard in the mouth that my permanent retainer popped off. Discomfort, soreness, pain, and some injuries are practically in the job description. It’s common courtesy to buy a fellow stunt performer a drink if you accidently make contact for real…. I’ve drank some and I’ve bought some.

The cheetah and I are flying over to watch your latest film but we are a day early and now you are playing tour guide,what are we doing?

I love playing tour guide! Even after 11 years, my heart still skips a beat when I turn a corner and catch a glimpse of the Hollywood sign, so I love taking out-of-town friends to Grauman’s Chinese Theater, The Dolby, and the Walk of Fame. You could come see all the shows at Universal and go on the backlot tour,  and take a little hike up to Wisdom Tree. And of course, come play with us at Santa Monica Muscle Beach.

I like to thank Krystle for taking the time to talk with us. She is certainly one true bad ass on more then one level and we have nothing but respect and admiration for where she has come and more importantly,where she is going.      Krystle has several SM sites in which you can follow her career both in front of the camera and behind it. 

StuntPhone Profile

StuntListing Profile

Stunt Reel Acting Reel Website

Actors Access

IMDB InstaGram

If you have a story and want a chance to share it,feel free to reach out and email me and we’ll talk, As always,thank you so much for supporting Krystle and everyone I have interviewed here.  We are very grateful. Feel free to drop a comment below as well.

8 Questions with……….actress-stuntwoman Krystle Martin Its 12:33 pm cloudy/windy Welcome to "8 Questions With......" I found our next guest,Krystle Martin,by sheer accident.

[books-on-the-brain]

So I used to read a whole bunch, but then I took a small break so that I could have an actual social life. Now I'm trying to get back into it but I've tried to... I just can't get into it. Do you have any suggestions of what I could do to get back into wanting to read more?

bI relate to this SO. MUCH. It’s always hard to find a good reading/life balance, since reading can often be a very isolating activity. It’s also really difficult around this time of year for younger readers, too, since a lot of us are getting back into the swing of it with school and such and find that we have much less time to be reading what we want. So without further ado…

How I cure “reader’s block”/being in a book rut!!!

1) First of all, there’s literally no shame in reading something because it’s short and you know you can get through it, or reading something you might consider a “beach read.” If it’s less daunting for you to pick up a 70-page romance novella than Tolstoy that is perfectly!!! okay!!! What matters is that you’re still reading and it’s making you happy, not that you have gained all the answers to the universe by reading a dry and endless classic.

2) Another good option is to reread something you know you really love/want to revisit. I find it’s typically easier to read something for the second or third time and if it’s been a while, then you’ll still be surprised by little things here and there and get the warm nostalgia fuzzies. For me, one of my old favorites to revisit is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I always read it at the beginning of the summer when I’m switching from all academic reading to personal reading (f i n a l l y) because I’m familiar enough with the story that it goes pretty quickly, but I still really love it.

3) In a similar vein, I find it really fun when I don’t want to sit down and read seriously to go back to some of my old favorites from childhood! For example, I loved the Deltora books by Emily Rodda when I was a kid and had some fun the other day going back through some of them and reminiscing. It has the potential to remind you of your love for stories and also in my case, it reminded my why I fell in love with fantasy at a young age and why I’m still so passionate about it! Reading children’s/middle grade/YA books is always acceptable and so much fun at any age.

4) This Barnes and Noble Reader article also suggests reading about books if you can’t actually read a book. As they explain it, find book blogs (like those on tumblr!) that speak to your interests and get you excited about picking up books. Other people’s enthusiasm goes a long way in encouraging you to also pick up a book to read!

5) If you can, find other avid readers and friends who you feel comfortable sitting in silence with! One of my favorite memories ever is sitting on my friend’s back porch and trading the books of the KARE First Love manga series back and forth. We played peaceful music in the background and so we were spending time as friends AND getting reading done. This lead us to discuss our favorite scenes and how we felt about certain translations (literally just because we like how to guy asked the main girl out in the online scantalation better than the printed book rip). But we ended up really getting into this series that in all honesty is kind of silly (despite the soft spot I have in my heart for it) and we joke about it all the time. Reading and socializing in one!

6) And speaking of manga…it’s always a great bridge for getting back into reading when it’s been a while, as are graphic novels! If you haven’t ever tried manga or graphic novels and don’t think it’s your rap at least give them a chance! I thought I hated them until I read Fullmetal Alchemist and fell in l o v e! You’re getting a story and doing some reading, but the pictures really help to ease you in so that you’re not necessarily devoting the same attention that you would be with a novel that’s just pages of text. As such, each volume is pretty quick depending on how long you linger on the drawings. If you already do love manga/graphic novels, then try picking up a new series you’ve been interesting in or rereading a series you already know you like!

Here are some graphic novel recommendations!

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (a story that does a fun take on the idea of the “bad guy” - it actually gave me way more feels than expected, and I loved the art style)

The new Ms. Marvel series written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Adrian Alphona (so do not confuse this with the old Ms. Marvel, this one is better in my opinion because our hero is your average teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City and it’s refreshing, amazing, adds diversity to the typically white/male dominated world of superheroes, and I am unabashedly in love with one of the main characters, Bruno)

Umbrella Academy written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Ba (this does another more twisted/dark take on the idea of the superhero story, if that’s something more up your alley. It’s the first book of a series I’ve really been loving lately, plus I trust Gerard Way’s taste in comics unequivocally and he wrote it so that’s a yes in my book!)

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (the intertwining stories of an American-Chinese boy trying to figure out his place in the world and the Monkey King of Chinese fable)

I did not include a special section for manga recommendations because most of what I read is probably not the sort of stuff to dive into after having reader’s block. Overall, the realm of shoujo might be a good place to look (things like Skip Beat!, Blue Spring Ride, Fruits Basket, and Kimi ni Todoke. Ouran High School Host Club and Dengeki Daisy were ones I really enjoyed too.)I also recently read Orange which is a fairly short series and easy to read - I loved it but major depression/suicide/mental illness tws there.In terms of shonen, Hunter x Hunter would be a good one because not only is it amazing, but it’s broken up into shorter yet very distinct story arcs which I feel would be easier if you’re trying to get back into reading. If someone has some more recs tho, please add!

7) Another variation of manga/graphic novels is online webtoons, which are basically digitized comics. I have recently discovered them and think they’re the best. things. ever. If you’re like me and you have a horrible habit of lying in bed scrolling absently through your phone before going to bed and after waking up, this might be good for you. I have slowly been replacing my mindless Facebook scrolling with scrolling through webtoons, which has been so amazing for my mental health! My favorite app is literally just called Webtoon or maybe Line Webtoon (the icon in the app store is a green speech bubble that says “Webtoon”).

For most webtoons, chapters are generally pretty short so it doesn’t take a lot of focus but once again, you’re still reading, and you’re still getting a good story, all while laying fetal position like you might while scrolling through Facebook or texting people before bed. Not to mention you’re supporting amazingly talented artists/individuals who are oftentimes not published and doing this for fun or with the hopes of eventually being published, so you can say you followed them from the start! Also since they update only a few times a week, it gives you something to look forward to on random days.

Here are my favorite story-oriented webtoons currently:

Assassin Roommate by Monica Gallagher. Super cute and quirky romance with a great female lead, also really great in terms of body diversity, and LITERALLY THE ONLY REASON I LOOK FORWARD TO TUESDAYS, THE DREADFUL DAY AFTER MONDAY

My Dear Cold-Blooded King by limelight. Just started this but it seems pretty cool??? The author has paired up with a musician so all the chapters have music which is lit af if I do say so myself

Silk and Briar by paragoing-paragon. I think this is on hiatus but it’s shaping up to be a brilliantly-constructed fantasy story with some crazy twists and turns

instantmiso’s stuff is also really popular (Where Tangents Meet and Siren’s Lament). It’s not as much up my alley as it is pretty fluffy romance and I’m not crazy about the writing, but she is an incredibly talented artist and has great music with her chapters. Her stuff is super good for an easy read without a ton of brain power/commitment, but I say that with immense respect for her talent and abilities! 

Cheese in the Trap by soonkki. This was also made into a K-Drama so I read the series and threw a little watch-party with some of my friends from my Korean class! Super good series and another great way to enjoy reading AND be social!

Here are the webtoons that are more “Sunday newspaper funnies”               style, where each chapter is a mini story:

Bluechair by Shen (this is WILDLY popular and I totally see why!!! These are hilarious and have cheered me up on many a rough night!!!)

Sapphie: The One-Eyed Cat by joho (feel-good, cute comic about cats that’s also pretty funny. I shamelessly read like a hundred chapters in one sitting.)

If none of this is appealing to you, there is always the audio option! If the actual act of your eyes scanning the page is difficult because you can’t focus on anything, there are a lot of options in this realm!

8) Local libraries usually have an audiobook section that is deeply neglected, but holds some secret treasures! Whenever I go on roadtrips, I always pick up two or three before I head out. They’re also perfect for when you do mindless tasks like sorting/folding laundry, walking a dog if you have one, waiting in long lines, or on your commute to and from school or work or any other similar activities. 

What’s cool is you can search for audiobooks based both on books you actually want to read, and whoever is narrating it. I know Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz had a super popular audiobook because Lin Manuel Miranda narrated it. If you want to pay, Audible is one of the most popular paid platforms for audiobooks. I haven’t personally used it, but it seems to be quite successful. One way or another, audiobooks are a good way to get back into reading without having to budget extra time to sit down with a book.

9) Podcasts can also help if you haven’t already explored those and are open to! Not all podcasts are TED talks, or political debates, or generally academic, or whatever they are stereotyped as. There are a ton that feel just like audiobooks, or at the very least like a play without any visuals. There’s a script and there’s a story and I know it’s helped me ease back into a mindset that preps me for reading because much like audiobooks you can listen to them all the time (I do so while cooking dinner and walking to classes) and it helps your mind switch from reality to the world of a story with relative ease if that makes sense. I’m pretty new to podcasts myself so don’t have a ton to recommend, but here’s what I’ve been enjoying….

Podcasts to look into:

Anything written by Mac Rogers. That includes The Message, Afterlife, and Steal the Stars. Personally, I like Steal the Stars and The Message more that Afterlife. They’re all sci-fi stories that are generally told from one perspective but you get to know amazing characters and I was not expecting the twists and turns. And Steal the Stars is still coming out so jump on the bandwagon now lol

The Adventure Zone from Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy at My Brother, My Brother and Me (another podcast which I have not listened to). The Adventure Zone is actually them playing Dungeons and Dragons, but they’re funny as all get out (the last place I lived had a communal kitchen for dozens of people and I was always laughing like and idiot while listening to this and making dinner and I’m pretty sure everyone thought I was nuts). Eventually the Dungeon Master gets super into the story telling and they script some of it with cool music. It’s really amazing and has a nice balance between story/characters but also the element of “real people” as they’re a bunch of brothers and they’re dad all just having fun. It’s a good bridge to getting back into reading.

Welcome to Nightvale is always a classic. It’s a bit trippy for me but tons of people enjoy it. The same team also produced a podcast called Alice Isn’t Dead. I honestly know nothing about it but one of my friends always raves about it, so it has his vote!

10) And okay so here’s my last suggestion. It might feel like a bit of a cop-out because I guess it kind of is, but it often works for me. So here it is. Sometimes it just helps to sit down and remember why you like to read in the first place. The fact that you’re actively trying to get back into it isn’t meaningless. It’s a very willful decision. So what is driving you? Maybe it’s because…

reading is an escape or a way for you to cope with difficult things in your life. This can be anything from mental illness, to school/work stress, to relationship dissatisfaction, difficult family or economic situations. Maybe you just are bored of our planet earth. Sometimes you might just need to be transported into another world for whatever reason and that is totally okay.

or reading inspires you to live your best life. Maybe there’s some character in a book you love that you look up to and aspire to be. Remember that passion you had when you were first getting to know that character, and that sense of being understood or finding a role model. Maybe you want to go on an adventure as wild as that character went on and that’s your idea of living your best life. Whatever the reason is, this sort of inspiration is a powerful emotion that books make us feel and sometimes that’s also a good reason to reread a book that’s inspired you.

and I don’t know, maybe you’re a writer yourself and you draw inspiration from reading in that sense. The more you read, the more you learn about what sort of writing you like and don’t like, and you grow stronger in your craft. Good readers help make good writers (but also don’t take that to mean that if you happen to be a writer and you’ve been in a book rut for a long time that you own skills are waning. we all get in book ruts and that’s okay. maybe it’s time to seek out a new source of inspiration in a different genre or new writer)

or perhaps you simply love stories. Maybe you breathe stories like other people breathe air and you can’t imagine that side of you not existing. If you’re one of these people, that makes reader’s block twice as hard. But that doesn’t mean that if you’re not turning pages that you’re not absorbing stories. Take it slowly and ease back into it with things I already mentioned like podcasts and webtoons.

One way or another, you’ll find your way back. Maybe this post will spark something. Maybe it won’t, and it will take another few months for you to really feel gungho about reading again. That’s all okay. Take your time. Enjoy being with friends and other activities. Do what’s healthiest and what works best for you. And eventually you’ll get back to reading a ton. However it happens, I wish you the best of luck!

[robertodacosta]

hi! this is a little embarrassing, but I want to start reading comics and I have no idea where to start. I wasn't allowed to read comics growing up so I'm not even sure where to get them. anyway ahh you just seem cool and I like your blog so I hope it's okay that I'm asking you for advice!

i’m so happy to help! when i started reading comics (about 2 years ago, now) i found the amount of comics and the sheer mass of backstory and even just the basics really overwhelming, so under the cut i went through and explained where to get comics, tips for how to start reading, and some recommendations for good comics for folks who are new to comics. if you want specific recs for specific characters, shoot me another ask and i can help with that!

Good luck, and let me know if you have any more questions, or how you like the books I recommended!

first, some basics.

a quick rundown on how comics are sold. new issues are released every wednesday, and new issues can be bought physically in comics shops or digitally. comics run in story arcs, which might be made up of 2 issues, or sometimes as many as 12 issue, depending on the comic. a while after an arc is finished, the collected issues will be released as a trade paperback (tpb). 

where do you get comics?

comic books stores tend to be pretty common, so if you prefer to read physical comics rather than digital. this website will tell you the closest stores to you. comic stores will carry newly released issues, assorted tpbs, and some have large selections of older back issues of comics that you can buy individually.i honestly only went to a comic book store for the first time this summer because i was really intimidated by them, though i’m not entirely sure why, so it’s really easy to read comics, even if you don’t have a store nearby.

you can always buy tpbs on amazon, and i know barnes and noble and some independent bookstores also carry tpbs, though in my experience b&n tends to be pretty heavy on dc/marvel, and heavy on popular characters.

for digital comics, comixology is your best friend. it covers any/all publishers, so i would just skip marvel/dc digital stores and go right here. it’s good to support the creative teams behind comics, but if you can’t afford to buy that many comics, you can read comics for free here, and download them here. comixology also offers a subscription service, comixology unlimited, that allows you immediate access to a library of digital comics, from marvel, dc, and other publishers. marvel offers marvel unlimited, a similar service, but with a wider range of marvel titles. both take a few months to upload new issues, as an incentive to both buy issues and subscribe. it’s worth noting that sales of digital comics and tpbs are counted towards official sale stats, so if you want to support a comic that’s in danger of cancellation, buying the issue at a store is the only way to have your purchase counted.

what to read?

there are so, so many comics, so i’ve recommended a handful of series that are pretty easy to get into for beginners, while still being good reads. i’ve sorted these recs by dc/marvel/indie, and included some quick notes.

full disclosure, i almost exclusively lead comics led by women, so i am not the person to ask for captain america or batman reading recommendations. luckily, most other folks are reading those characters, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find suggestions!

DC

DC rebooted their whole universe with the Rebirth initiative last year, so pretty much everything is 30 or fewer issues in right now. Rebirth was technically a reboot, but some comics do reference earlier continuity from the New 52, their previous reboot (in 2012 i think?). I’ve not read a lot of n52, and i think general consensus is that rebirth titles are much stronger than n52. Aside from these recs, the best thing to do with dc/marvel is find the characters you like, and then go read the current book that they’re in, and see how you like it!

Batwoman (2010)- Kate is a new character, and this is her original solo. There are other character in the book with long histories, but you don’t really need to know them to read it. I’d recommend reading Batwoman: Elegy first.

Batwoman: Elegy- Batwoman was introduced in an earlier comic, but this is her first collected story. 

Batwoman (2017)- I’m not caught up on this, but I would assume you can read this without having read Kate’s earlier series, if you want to start with Rebirth. Otherwise, the only thing you need to read to be caught up for this is the 2010 Batwoman solo.

Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell- This is a team up story that gives you backstory on Dinah and Zatanna’s relationship, and shows them going on a mission together. It’s a graphic novel, so it’s like one very long issue.

DC Comics Bombshells- If you only read one DC comic, I’d suggest this one. It’s an alternate universe where the female heroes of the DCU all came first, as a team of super powered heroes fighting in WWII. Most of DC’s biggest female characters have significant roles, and the comic also introduces you to a bunch of slightly less well known female characters. There’s like 3 men, and almost all of the heroes are confirmed wlw, so it’s a gift, and should be treasured. The series ended earlier this summer, and is now being continued in the sequel, Bombshells United. They’re both digital first comics, which means new issues are released digitally on Fridays, and collected into print editions every third Wednesday.

The Legend of Wonder Woman- This is totally outside of main dcu continuity, and it’s a retelling of Diana’s origins as Wonder Woman in WWII. 

Trinity (2017)- Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman team up. Other characters guest star, which helps introduce you to the wider DCU. It’s fun and the art is cute.

Wonder Woman (2016)- If you enjoyed the movie, definitely read this. It has 2 storylines running simultaneously for the first 25 issues, one retelling Wonder Woman’s origins, and one set in the present, in which Diana realizes parts of her life have been lies, and sets out to discover the truth. The first few issues might be a little confusing because of this, but more because it’s intended to leave you questioning things, not because it depends on an in depth knowledge of continuity. What’s really brilliant about Greg Rucka’s run on this comic (the first 25 issues) is that WW has the least consistent history of pretty much any character, and Rucka dismissed pretty much all of the inconsistency, and streamlined Diana’s backstory. Also, Diana, Etta, and Steve are the dream team. This has been released in 4 tpbs so far, which organize the book by story arcs, instead of the original release order, which ran multiple arcs on alternating weeks.

Zatanna (2010)- this is pre-n52, but honestly all you need to know about previous continuity is that Zatanna exists. It’s one of maybe 2 solo runs she’s ever gotten, and it’s only 16 issues. It’s fun, easy to read, and Zatanna is so great, and deserves a rebirth solo.

MARVEL

Marvel is in the middle of a reboot right now, and I’m not really sure where they’re going. They’ve been on this cool initiative where a lot of classic heroes are phased out and younger, more diverse heroes take on their titles. But they’ve convinced themselves that nobody likes it and that it’s destroying sales, so they’re doing something weird right now that is very unclear. The entire universe hard rebooted about 2 years ago, following a very confusing event called Secret Wars, which was the culmination of about 3 years of ongoing plots in Avengers, New Avengers, and Fantastic Four. I’m mostly recommending ongoing runs because the hard reboot makes it pretty easy to jump on with any book. Again, for marvel comics, just find the characters you like, and read their current books!

A-Force (2016)- Gone too soon. This is the first ever women-only Avengers lineup, and it pulls heroines from all over the MU. The first couple of issues talk about secret wars (and there was an a-force mini-series during secret wars, that’s really good, but involves some knowledge of the surrounding events), but it’s navigable. It’s a really good team, and a fun comic!

Alias- It’s kind of iconic, and it’s really worth reading. This is Jessica Drew’s very first appearance in the MU, so no prior knowledge necessary. The Purple Man story that the Netflix show used draws on this comic, without replicating it. It’s a dark comic, but super good.

All New X-Factor (2014)- It’s all new, but with old X-Men characters. Character backstory doesn’t matter here, because this is a group of people who’s not really talking about their past if they can avoid it, but pretty much any relevant backstory is contextualized for new readers. This is fun, up until there are multiple crossover events that slow down the plot, but even those are still readable, without reading the main crossover event. It’s interesting, the art is cool, and all the characters are dweebs with superpowers.

America (2017)- America Chavez is such a good character, and this is a really great comic! It’s only 5 issues in, so very easy to catch up. It explains any backstory you might need, and is really witty, and pop-culture savvy.

Astonishing X-Men (2004)- This is the first comic I ever read, and functions really well as an X-Men comic for people who haven’t read X-Men comics before. It’s about 10 years old, and eventually it hits the year or so when there was an X-Men crossover event every 6 weeks, but the first 25-30 issues (the Whedon/Cassaday run) are really good, and will make you love Kitty Pryde forever.

Avengers Assemble- The very best intro to marvel comic. Skip the first 9 issues (written by Bendis) because they are bad, and start when Kelly Sue Deconnick takes over. This has a rotating cast of Avengers, including those in the MCU and those not, and is such a good read. It introduced me to my very favorite character (Jessica Drew), and gives every character depth.

Black Panther (2016)- Get pumped for this movie and read the comic! Ta-Nahesi Coates is such a good writer, and this is a really strong, textured story, that really works on every level. I’ve not read any previous BP comics, and I had no trouble with continuity.

Champions (2016)- This is Ms. Marvel’s team of teen superheroes, coming out of Civil War II, last summer’s marvel crossover disaster. It’s really good and engages with social justice issues in ways that feel about as effective as comic books can be.

Defenders (2017)- It’s literally just the cast of the Netflix Defenders teaming up, for actually the first time ever as a team of 4. It’s still on the first arc, but I’m enjoying it thus far.

Hulk (2016)- So, so, so good! Jennifer Walters (formerly known as She Hulk) takes over the Hulk mantle following her cousin Bruce’s murder in CWII. It’s all about trauma and PTSD and how Bruce’s death and Jen’s own debilitating injury in CWII changed her, and her ability to control her hulk. I wish everybody was reading this, and I think this is probably my favorite ongoing comic from any publisher.

Ms. Marvel (2014) and Ms. Marvel (2015)- This is the thing to read! Kamala was created in this comic, so you can just jump right in! It’s fun and well-written and the art is consistently good, and this is so worth reading!

New Mutants (1983)- This comic is like 30 years old but it’s the best and the New Mutants are my favorite superhero team in any universe. This is part of the X-Men franchise, and is the origin of a handful of characters who now show up all over the place. (Magik is on the main X-Men roster, Sunspot and Cannonball have been Avengers for a few years, Dani Moonstar is a Valkyrie who played an important role in some X-Men events). And there’s a New Mutants movie coming out next spring so might as well get prepared for that, right?

Silk (2015) and Silk (2015-7)- Cindy Moon is the hero we deserve! The first series covers her origins, then it was cancelled due to Secret Wars cancelling everything, then rebooted like a month later. The second series was also cancelled (rip), but follows Cindy as she infiltrates crime rings and tries to track down her missing family. Cindy is a new character, so a great starting point!

Spider Woman: Origin- All about Spider Woman! 5 issue miniseries, giving the character her definitive backstory.

Spider Woman: Agent of SWORD- Kinda backstory heavy (follow up to the Secret Invasion crossover event), but it’s totally possible to follow. Everything you need to know gets explained, but it’s basically Jessica Drew working as a secret agent for an organization that’s like the CIA but for aliens, and hunting down members of an alien race that kidnapped and impersonated her. This and Origins are kind of the essential Spider Woman reading, and I really recommend them both. Jess is the best, and her recently cancelled comic had one (1) good issue.

Storm (2014)- I didn’t recommend a lot of X-Men books because, imo, they’re the hardest Marvel books to start reading, but Storm’s solo is wonderful and incredible and you don’t need to know anything about X-Men to understand it!I

Indie

I don’t read a lot of indie comics, so I’m just going to list some titles I like and you can see what looks good! Indies are inherently easier to understand than marvel/dc books because, for the most part, indie comics stand on their own. But I assumed you were mostly hoping for superhero comics in your ask, but shoot me another ask correcting me if I’m wrong, and I can make you an indie rec list!

Faith

Lady Killer

Ody-C

Paper Girls

Pretty Deadly

Welcome Back

The Wicked and the Divine

[spynotebook]

I want to read more comic books. I want to be a regular reader of a series and follow a character through a larger arc, then be intrigued by another character and go down the rabbit hole of their story. But the way that comics are released just doesn’t work for me anymore.

I’ve tried. I’ll wait months for a title to be available in trade if it means I can read it when I want to read it—on my schedule and terms. Asher Elbein’s new piece in The Atlantic explains why many of my favorites are cancelled or in peril by the time I buy their trades, and that just drives me more and more to the indie presses, or even away from comics at all. It is no coincidence that the more so-called “diverse,” i.e. not default white male, titles are the ones that interest me (Alex Brown says a lot of how I feel whenever “diversity” is blamed for poor sales.). If you haven’t kept up with the billionth Spiderman or which Robin is actually Robin since before you were born, it seems like there’s no place for you.

If someone does suggest a series, diverse or default or not, I’m much more likely to buy the trade and risk it on a story with a beginning, middle and end, rather than dip a toe into one issue and then have to remind myself to try it again in a month. It just isn’t in my DNA anymore. It stopped being a priority no matter how much I’d like it to be. Even if I could enter a comic book store on a regular basis, which is nearly impossible with two kids under four, I find it very difficult to browse online the way I can in person. I depend on my friends and Twitter to suggest new titles.

I say it isn’t in my DNA anymore because I should be an avid comics spender. Every Sunday growing up, my Dad gave me my allowance and we went to the comic book store. I agonized over my purchase; this decision could color the rest of my week. The Tick? Wonder Woman? Duck Tales? The latest, highly anticipated Betty & Veronica or splurge on a Double Digest? For my first airplane trip when I was nine, my sister bought some Sweet Valley Twin books and I got ten (ten!) separate comics to read in the sky. I anticipated reading them even more than the trip we were taking to Disney World.

Comics were my treasures.

In junior high, I still read my favorites, but the trip to the store became less enjoyable. I noticed the snickers at my preference for Archie and the leers every time I dared to glance at Superman, or open the latest issue of Wonder Woman to see if I could possibly start the story in the middle. I got interested in darker stories in high school, but still wouldn’t dare enter Newbury Comics without a male friend, or face harassment. A teen girl who wanted the latest Evil Ernie, Purgatori or Chastity?

Say what you want about taste: I eagerly anticipated release dates and spent my hard-earned cash on them. I still lingered over by the superheroes sometimes but never knew where to start. Any Wonder Woman I picked up just made me feel more distant from a character who I once loved so much that I dressed up like her and bounced around my living room. So every week I would go to the spot where I knew my comics were, buy those, and leave before I could endure any humiliation for daring to be female in a comic book store.

My love of comics fell. I still got a tingle of excitement whenever I passed a store, and wanted to enter. But what would I buy?

Fast forward and I’m a work at home mother with a young child. I had to go to the mall for some inane reason, and we pass a comic book store. It’s pretty empty, so I feel bold. I want to catch up on Thor and I still haven’t bought The Black Panther. A few weeks earlier, I had ordered Thor #1 because I was psyched for a female Thor, Ms Marvel because she was so unique and I wanted to support their decision to publish her, then took a shot at a She-Hulk trade that Amazon suggested to me.

So here I am, in the store, wanting to buy more issues. I don’t mind buying them online, but I love walking out of a comic shop with new reading material burning a hole in my bag. I miss it. I want to support the shops. I like to read them right away. I do have a budget, but I can happily stretch it in order to rekindle this happy ritual.

Stroller leading the way, I go straight for Black Panther. I grab issue #1, then … no #2. They have #3-5 available, but I don’t want to get all those without the second part. I could just order it online, but I literally want to sit and read Black Panther for as long as my toddler will nap today. I want to get immersed into that world and have to research its history. I’d pored over every announcement, every think piece, watched all of Marvel’s “Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet” on YouTube—I wanted this world and I wanted as much of it as I could. I asked if they had #2 in the back somewhere, but knew they didn’t. They offered to order it for me. Then I felt horrible as I listened to their voicemail two weeks later, because my life had moved on to other things and I had moved on to other books. Not only did I miss the window of opportunity for wanting to read it, I had also missed the window in my budget.

That day, they did have more Thor, but not in trade, so I got a couple more issues and haven’t picked it up since. I realized that reading the story in short spurts (one issue at a time) doesn’t jive with my reading tastes anymore. I did buy the highly recommended Saga and Lumberjanes though, because—guess what—they had the trades. Not only could I read more on my budget, but I could read them all in one or two sittings. Call this the Netflix effect because it’s considered “binge-reading” if you want, but no matter the reason, it’s how I prefer the experience.

There are certain stories that don’t lend themselves to binging; When I read The Sandman, for instance, I force myself to stop because the writing is so intense that I need a break. But Thor? She-Hulk? They beg to be binged. I would think that the comics industry, seemingly so interested in attracting new readers, would make an effort to meet their audiences where and how they like to read. They’re doing a great job with streaming platforms for TV programs; Luke Cage (a “diverse” title, BTW) is even blamed for crashing Netflix on the day it premiered. Why not experiment with how they market these new titles? If you really want to reach a new audience, you need to actually invite them.

For instance, I left the movie theater after Guardians of the Galaxy absolutely craving to read the old comics. I had no interest in comics based on the movie, although I see that appeal. If there had been someone peddling back issues of the Guardians (those in the movie or not) as I left, I would have bought them.

Free Comic Book Day is great in theory, and I have attended it every year since my first child was born. But I love it because it’s an event that feels special to my toddler (this year he dressed up like Buzz Lightyear because I told him we were getting superhero stories). I take risks on titles to see what he enjoys; he picked out DC Superhero Girls and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last month. I purposefully buy others for me so the store might at least break even on the free ones. Every year I think that this is the year I will use this day to jumpstart reading comics regularly again, and this year was the first that I admitted it just isn’t meant to be. I still bought the trades.

I doubt the ritual of going to a comic book store will ever really be part of my DNA again. I even tried multiple times to get onto mailing lists as reminders, but newsletters don’t fit into my sales flow very well. If there is an option to be notified only when a trade is available for pre-order, sign me up. I have made numerous efforts to integrate comics back into my life. I’ve tried and tried purchasing and reading one issue at a time, and it doesn’t work for me. The industry left me behind, stuck in a business model that caters only to the people who pushed me out of their stores with their jeers. So great for you, you can keep them, but then don’t complain that I don’t buy your “diverse” titles fast enough.

(image: Shutterstock/Grzegorz Czapski)

Cindy is a Storyteller & Outreach Nerd from Los Angeles, currently a Write-at-Home-Mom in Orlando for cool reasons that require multiple NDAs to explain. She reviews fairy and myth re-tellings at DwarfandGiant.com and is currently investigating why theaters dumb down TYA for The Clyde Fitch Report. She is Creative Producer of @SeeItorSkipItLA , presenting coverage of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Cindy divides her personality into twitter accounts such as @CindyMarieJ and @FairyFolkMyth.

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—