#“why did you think this was a good idea for a visual medium”?

[modeus-the-misanthrope]

Haven't looked at Dragon Prince in a LONG time. Does the animation still look like it's running at 15 fps to "emulate 2D animation"?

Season 5 was good

[perenial]

gene im so glad you said this cause I haven't seen anyone else comparing it to the book as source material for like character and tone but i am So sure that if terry was alive the season would not be like this but i fear good omens fans dont realise how big a factor the lack of terry's influence is?? or like they forget that good omens was never just neilman???

ok before i go any further: i rly don't want to detract from anyone's enjoyment of the season and everything im going to say comes from a place of love for a) the original novel (& season 1 to a certain extent bc it got me back into it lol) and b) tv as a medium so like peace and love on planet let people enjoy things etc etc

but

like u said, terry's influence on the book was enormous – what makes gomens gomens is the balance of his genuine warmth and precise understanding of humanity tempered with neilman's sardonic voice and general like.....savvy approach to storytelling? i guess u could call it? anyway what rly helps the book is that it took them years to write it, passing ideas back and forth and rewriting each other's work until their voices blended seamlessly and a well structured capital-s Story was created. when i praise the book for being self-contained i think a huge part of that comes from the circumstances in which it emerged: two authors with complementary styles writing in a v particular time period where they had both the space to play with their ideas and the constraints of the novel as a storytelling format from which to craft something extremely specific.

adaptations are a tricky business and a tv version of gomens produced literal decades after the book was always going to have some unique challenges, but i don't think that's a bad thing bc the challenges could prove to be creative opportunities to take both the established audience and those new to the story by surprise. my biggest hot take here is that i don't think translating a story into a different medium means it has to follow the original narrative exactly, bc each medium has its own ways of communicating information and these structures, rules and traditions in turn inform what that story is. what matters more than following a story beat-by-beat is capturing what that story is about at its core, what themes and messages and ideas it works through and how.

all this is to say i never expected tv gomens to be a perfect reproduction of the book and if it had it been, it probably would have been worse off for it. that being said, there are parts of the book – like u said, its tone and character – that needed to have some fidelity in order to pull it off, and for the most part s1 did that bc it was still working predominantly within the bounds of the novel & its core ideas. while i did have some issues w how neilman & amazon adapted some details and characterisations, i generally rly liked s1 – it reminded me of why i loved the book and it was just generally fun to watch.

s2 was. not that fun to watch

a few positives before i go ham w the critiques:

the hair & makeup + costumes were fantastic (although i feel like s1 was slightly better re: makeup?)

the sound design & score made some of the more awkward scenes bearable and thats no mean feat imo

david & michael gave incredible performances w what they were given – michael especially managed to salvage aziraphale enough that his complete 180 didnt feel completely tonally dissonant (more on this later)

the detail of the sets is NUTS and i genuinely want to see more of hell bc of how intricate and fun the props look

i actually like gabriel/beelzebub!! their getting together montage worked for me, although they could have spent sliiiightly more time establishing what it is they like abt each other so much + why gabriel wanted to stop armageddon 2.0 so suddenly

the opening scene, although not on par w the novel's & s1's, was visually gorgeous and thematically resonant (although neilman owes me royalties for ripping it off from this shitty fic i wrote back when raphael!crowley was all the rage lol)

now w THAT being said:

like i said yesterday, the pacing was fucking awful. flashbacks are hard to work w at the best of times and the way they were used in this season felt so needless, especially the 40s one in ep 4 that takes up like 90% of the episode. in both flashbacks + present day there were scenes that dragged for no real reason, dialogue that looped back around on itself to stretch out the runtime, and weirdly enough places where there should have been character & plot work where there just,, wasn't any?? for example, maggie & nina's night locked in the café – some parts of the dialogue in later episodes made out that they'd had some rly deep conversation abt how they feel about each other or even that they'd had an affair, but that isn't clear from those scenes in the café. i'm not saying we had to see that conversation in its entirety but that there needed to be more connective details – either in dialogue or direction – that gave that part of the story coherence.

(there were pacing issues w the editing too but i don't want to jump down the editor's throats on this one bc im more focused on writing & direction issues)

the second major problem that i mentioned in my tags yesterday is the protagonist shift, which is an issue that started in s1. aziraphale & crowley are side characters in book gomens – significant ones, yeah, but still somewhat peripheral to adam (& anathema who counts as a deuteragonist imo). this works incredibly well w who they are as characters: they're Just Some Guys who happen to be involved in this epic biblical-level bureaucratic nightmare and importantly, they don't want to be in the spotlight. the arrangement was created so that they could explore what it meant to be themselves away from the Big Narrative; literally any time they get involved in larger affairs is bc the plot is alive and caught them unionising on company time. the last fucking chapter is adam (& god) being like haha u guys are alright keep it sleezy and letting them go. like. hello. neil u let them go.

but then!! tv gomens s1 does something interesting at the end w the body swapping addition that i dont totally hate – it gives aziraphale & crowley the extra bit of character work that brings them slightly more adjacent to their book selves. see i kinda view tv a/c as the younger, less settled versions of book a/c; they're still caught up in the immediacy of being key players and haven't fully realised that earth is their home. i haven't watched s1 in a while but one scene i remember rly clearly is crowley throwing all those astronomy texts in the air and angsting abt when he was an angel; i remember it bc his anguish in that scene feels a lot newer and rawer than book crowley's feelings about falling. when tv a/c do their bodyswap, it gives them the chance to land a blow against heaven/hell in a way that solidifies their allegiance to earth in a way that more closely resembles what book a/c have been abt the entire time (still adjacent, though. not parallel).

the reason why this works is that it does one final pivot to orient aziraphale and crowley as almost-main characters in a manner that makes sense in relation to a) their book selves and b) the position the tv show has placed them in. a combination of factors made tv a/c feel a lot less mature than their book counterparts but at the end of s1 they're sort of facing the same direction the book ended in, albeit through their own flashy late 2010s means.

when s2 was announced i was.......apprehensive bc to me, that felt like a satisfactory ending. i get the impression that amazon saw how wildly successful the adaptation was and was like oh shit we could make way more money out of this and neilman, having all those undead darlings that he and terry killed in the process of whittling the book into a workable novel, jumped at the chance to resurrect all those half-realised ideas. but not only were those ideas probably discarded for a reason, they've either been laying in wait for years unworked or they're new inventions, which means they weren't molded in the way that the book had been. like i said before, book gomens underwent years of rewrites and creative collaboration, and i think that process was what made it so good; s2 didn't have that. even if some of terry's ideas made it into s2, his influence is still missing bc he and neilman weren't in dialogue the same way they were in the book (and in some ways s1 bc i know terry was involved in the process of adapting gomens to screen before his death).

i don't think it's a case of newer fans forgetting terry so much as it is the context of terry's involvement being so removed from the current circumstances that certain aspects & discourses (i.e. is the s2 finale queerbaiting (no), does binge watching change the viewership experience (yes), etc etc) about the show overshadow other discussions that would usually be taking place. and before anyone says it's a case of neilman forgetting terry, i definitely don't think it's that either bc thats. yknow. wildly disrespectful. but also there are larger systems and structures at play than one writer no matter how much beef i have w him and his decisions, bc ultimately he's just one guy (a powerful and wealthy guy, but just a guy) and there's a wider cultural shift happening rn towards rehashing old stories without understanding what made them successful in the first place, and that same culture just doesn't allow for much, if any, constructive discourse analysis

so yeah

[djevelbl]

Also just finished watching a video that made me ACTUALLY ANNOYED at the guy who made it and like. ok if you don't want a story told through Minecraft that is made through the lens of content creation in ANY capacity then don't??? watch stories told through Minecraft????? Cuz like. they're mostly like that; even parkciv which is still good IS done through a content creation viewpoint — either as a parody on the medium it was being told through (scripted Minecraft content/Minecraft storytelling) or just as a result of telling the story and like. needing to pay the bills or whatever is a bit up in the air I guess BUT STILL. don't sing praises to a series that's GREAT in all cinematography aspects that JUST SO HAPPENS to be told through Minecraft all the while you're saying "oooh Minecraft storytelling shouldn't be scared of being called cringe just bc it's embracing roleplay to tell it's narrative, it shouldn't pretend to be non-scripted when it so clearly is" which true, JUST TO THEN critique parkciv for...

*checks notes*

... Embracing its medium AND its limitations to tell its story, JUST bc it didn't necessarily strive to be groundbreaking??? What??????

From what I understand, the series the guy was singing praises to like it was his own child at the local school's dance recital, Whitepine (which I'm currently watching so I'll just come back to this once I've finished — let's see if I'll eat my words [doubt it]) is GREAT in terms of visuals, audio and the likes — it obviously takes great care in forming its atmosphere and from the little I've seen the youtubers are genuinely being actors, not just their normal selves masquerading as characters (something that, admittedly, happens A LOT in scripted Minecraft content/Minecraft storytelling like SMPs or solo series [I'm looking at you, later half of the DSMP]). But it isn't Minecraft storytelling — in my opinion, at least.

Minecraft storytelling implies that it includes Minecraft and its mechanics in some way, shape or form that becomes impactful to the story that is being told — it isn't just a REALLY good story that just so happens to use Minecraft as its movie set. This, ultimately, is why I think the guy was wrong — not necessarily in the idea that the stories he critiqued had more room to grow (which parkciv at least does. I haven't watched ParrotX2's Unstable Universe videos and I don't really plan to; they're not my thing) but in what "Minecraft storytelling" should strive to be.

I have a vivid memory — trust me, this is related — of when I was younger (they say, like she's an octogenarian instead of not even being halfway through his lifetime. anyway) having played Minecraft Murder Mystery with my friends in the playground bc I really REALLY liked Gona89's video series on it. This is like, not really the same storytelling but they did have a sort of story — the chemistry between the youtubers felt like watching a series of characters interact with one another, and certain jokes from one video would seamlessly move into the next as well.

And y'know what? IT DIDN'T FUCKING WORK — playing the thing in the playground, that is. Because the thing wasn't made for that; stories have their medium of expression because they're tailored to it, or the medium is tailored to that story — if your Minecraft story can be told perfectly fine when divorced from its primary medium of expression (Minecraft), then it's LITERALLY not a Minecraft story: it just happens to use the game as the backdrop

... Kinda like The Lego Movie: a lot of the mechanics within the movie CANNOT be divorced from lego that easily BECAUSE it's a fucking LEGO MOVIE — partially related but not really the point of this rant: this is why A Minecraft Movie's trailer fucking FLOPPED. It showed absolutely NO POINT in being made bc it's NOT a Minecraft movie (pun accidentally stumbled upon but I shall confidently roll with it, actually), instead it JUST SO HAPPEN to use the videogame as its set.

TLDR: IF YOUR STORY DOESN'T INCLUDE MECHANICAL ELEMENTS THAT ARE INTRINSICAL TO THE GAME YOU USE TO TELL IT, THEN SAID GAME IS JUST THE FUCKING SET. IT'S NOT A MINECRAFT MOVIE JUST BC IT HAPPENS TO BE RECORDED IN MINECRAFT FOR FUCK'S SAKE

[petricorah]

i wanna start making comics but like. i dont really know how??? are there any tips that you could give me perhaps?

hi!

i've been working on trying to compile a list of resources for people (@aangsfrogs--i didn't forget!) who want to make comics for a long time. It would consist of some of my personal tips and a lot of links to other people's PDFs and youtubes. But that's...a hefty project, so if you had any specific questions for the meantime, my askbox is open!

But, for just beginning, here would be my tips:

Read comics. Read manga and webcomics and cartoons and medical comics. There is so much out there, and reading is such a big way to learn. If you see something you like, take a moment to think about why you like it. Are the expressions or colors appealing? Did it make you feel a certain emotion? Analyze what the artist may have done to get across what they did. (Is it the camera angle? the style they chose to draw in? the paneling? the pacing? the color? etc.) Doing this over time will help you recognize the tools available for telling stories through this medium, and you'll be able to put them in your own work.

Try to think about what you want to make comics about. What moves you? What topics interest you? What ideas or tropes do you love in media or think about often? What do you hate and wish was done better? What characters are you drawn to, or what characters do you want to create? (What about them compels you?) I find it's hard to create an idea out of thin air, but if you start writing down random ideas you have, you'll start thinking about them, and over time, you'll have a bank of things to pull from when you want to create.

Lastly, anatomical skill or knowledge of color does not a comic make! You don't have to know much to begin, and there aren't rules. Just start drawing what is meaningful to you!

This is just cursory and doesn't get into super specifics like paneling or scripts or plotting or colors or thumbnailing or....etc, but I'll try to expand my list of resources and get that out! And, hmu if you have any specific questions on topics!

happy drawing~

Book list under readmore:

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and his Making Comics. These books are taught in like, every comic class ever. While not my complete favorite, they do a good job of showing some history and fundamentals, and how easy it is to make comics even if you don't have a lot of drawing experience.

99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style by Matt Madden: Really good if you don't know how to start analyzing comics. (Also it's just a fun visual exercise.) It shows the same short story done in 99 different styles with different emphasis on different moods and points of view.

The PreHistory of The Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit by Gary Larson and The Calvin and Hobbes: Tenth Anniversary Book by Bill Watterson: Two great books with work from my two favorite cartoonists. They both have writings from the author about getting ideas, developing stories, and being a comic artist.

Uncanny Bodies: Superhero Comics and Disability, edited by Scott T. Smith and José Alaniz and Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation, edited by Sheena C. Howard and Ronald L. Jackson II: These two aren't really about making comics, but they are great collections of analysis about old and new comics alike.

By no means a complete list, but some good ones that I can think of off the top of my head.

There's also the book Webtoon School: Everything you need to know about webtoon creation and story writing. To be honest, I didn't read this completely through because it was a bit more fundamental than I was expecting, but it gives a good cursory look of how to write comics if you're just starting out! It covers some history, how to write stories and arcs, etc.

Also, look to your favorite writers! A lot of webtoon/webcomic artists do tutorials or youtube videos. for instance, velnxi has this great tutorial up I really suggest looking at here.

[hirsheyskisses]

Novel.

A Whole New World: Pt. 1

Summary: in this new world, you find yourself to be faced with a strange man. He claims to have friends, friends who can help. Help you from what? None of this, nothing in this world feels like your own.

Length: medium.

An: any questions or ideas? Ask away my sweets!

"Oh? Are you finally awake?"

Though soft, and cautious, the sudden voice caused you to practically leap to the ceiling. Your eyes locked onto a man, a man who stood just peeking around the corner at you.

Nothing about him appeared to be immediately threatening, but that didn't change the fact that you'd either been kidnapped, or some inter-dimensional portal had thrown you into his rather dusty house.

Let's be real, it's probably the first option, you think to yourself.

You didn't say a word. Instead, you eyed him. Your hands were raised in front of your body, prepared to perform self defensive tactics should the need arise.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. I don't even know how you got here,"

The male rounded the corner fully, allowing you a full view of him. As the sun glistened through, you made mental note of his appearance: he's slim, but doesn't seem weak. A two toned blue hair, dyed, you decided, golden earrings, piercing blue eyes- and heels? You dig it. Doesn't change the fact you don't trust him. He wore a tight black shirt and pants, but over that was a white cloak with what appeared to be card designs.

"Yeah right," you scoffed, "you do a horrible job kidnapping me and come up with an even worse lie! Atleast come up with something a little less lame than 'I don't know how you got here.'"

Was passing off your captor a good idea? Definitely not. But you did it anyways.

"Hey now," He complained, "you didn't even give me a chance to explain what happened! This is breaking and entering.

"Besides, if I was gonna kidnap you, I would've tied you up or something so you can't escape."

He tapped the side of his head as though forcefully visualizing the thought of 'logic' in your mind. Well fuck. He had a point, but that didn't make you trust him.

"I can guess by your reaction you're just as confused as I am. Or, was. You've been out for a couple of hours, and I had time to discuss with a friend possibilities of what could've happened.

"Allow me to introduce myself- I'm Ike Eveland. A novelist - you just so happened to be thrown into my house."

Ike, his name was. He stared at you expectantly, and you realized he wanted you to introduce yourself as well. Understandable.

"(Name.) (Full name.) ...nice to.. meet you? My memory feels fuzzy. ...so you're.. not a kidnapper?"

This time Ike let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head. "No. I just happen to be who you stumbled across. Say, where are you from?"

It was concerning how comfortable Ike looked about this whole situation. Your mind felt fuzzy and you could barely even remember the answer the question he asked. Why was he so okay with this? What did he know that you didn't? More importantly, why didn't he call the cops on you?

"...From (location). Are we anywhere near there?"

"...huh? Where's that?"

"In (district/state) , (country). Why?"

Ike suddenly looked confused. You didn't understand why, so you threw out, "on (continent)." That made him even more confused, and he motioned down the hall. "...follow me."

As the he led the way, you realized what a long hallway this was. Dark, lit by candles, with doors that branched off into more halls, and the open rooms leading to boxes of many different themes. Your curiosity was gradually getting the better of you, and it took all of your self control not to ask a torrent of questions.

Ike walked in silence, deep in thought. The only sounds from him were the slight tap, tap, taps of his heels.

Soon enough he approached what you assumed to be an office: a rustic looking desk stacked with books, quills, and ink. He rummaged through papers before pulling out a map, spreading it out, and,

"Point to me where it is you come from."

"Well I come from-"

Slowly, you trailed off. Looking at the map, you realized something: the shape of their continents. They didn't look anything remotely similar to what you know! And.. Kingdoms. Kingdoms and Queendoms and lone territories covered the map instead of states or districts or sectors.

"...where AM i?"

You finally asked. Slowly but surely, fear settled in your gut.

Ike released a soft sigh, shaking his head. "That confirms Shu's suspicions. You're not even from here. I can tell from the look on your face," He was staring at you in total disbelief.

Whilst you were staring at him in absolute terror, too shocked - too scared to speak.

This had to be a dream.

"You're here, in Tamron Queendom. More specifically, Zhilford. Close to the palace, actually, less than two days travel." Ike explained, pointing at the map and where it was labeled Zhilford.

"...this is a dream. This is.. Ike, pinch me."

You were staring to shake. Ike mightve laughed at the request had he not seen the look of fear on your face. He reached over and gently pinched your arm, and watched your face fall completely.

"Hey. Listen, I'm not the one who should explain things. I only know Shu's suspicions, and he'll be back with the others in a bit. ..why don't I get you some water? We can ask each other questions, or you can have a look around."

Ike said kindly. Something in his eyes felt so reassuring. The former distrust you felt from him was evaporating, but you latched onto just a bit of that feeling. You couldn't relax. Not just yet.

"Sure, sounds good.. ...thanks."

Your voice was quiet. Ike could only imagine just how vulnerable you felt. You couldn't even process how he might feel.

Both of you went to the kitchen in an awkward silence. He got you a glass of water, and you sat by the island before finally, you had to ask.

"How are you.. so comfortable? You don't seem that shocked about this.. I mean. I get you're still in your world, but you must be confused. ..right?"

Ike hummed, as if in thought.

"Well.. I am confused. In many ways. Confused about how our lands don't seem to match up- curious how you got here. But magic does many unexplainable things."

"Magic?"

"Well, indeed. The world practically runs from the power of magic. Sorcery, witchcraft, or even the simple belief." Ike replied, taking a dip of his water.

"..but magic isn't real. It's just something made up to make kids have more imsgination."

"...huh?"

Ike looked absolutely dumbfounded by your comment, almost as if you'd slapped him.

"...magic is very much real! What world could you possibly come from where magic isn't real?" He asked, and you felt.. oddly defensive.

"I come from a world where one could say technology is our magic. We don't make portals or potions or fight with magical fire."

You explained sheepishly. Ike simply stared before adjusting his glasses.

"....magic is real. My friend, the one I said could explain better, is a sorcerer. Ones a former demon king, as well."

Had someone said this to you where you were from, you'd have laughed it off as some cringe kid. But now, you were almost finding it believable.

"Sorcerer? I hardly even know 'er!"

"I see our sleeping beauty is awake. You gave us quite a fright."

"Ohoo, you're awake? Nicee, man!"

"Pog!"

Four voices startled you out of your staring at Ike, and your head snapped around. Four unfamiliar faces peered back at you. Once again, that feeling of pure fear was rising in your stomach, and you slid off the island chair and slinked a bit closer to Ike.

The red-headed one in- what looked to be a cloak picked up on your unease quickly. You could tell from his step back. The other three, not so much.

"Names Shu Yamino! I'm the sorcerer, anddd.. you were indeed thrown by a portal here!"

"Mysta Rias, at your service!"

"I'm Luca! It's so pog to meet you!"

One was about ikes height, with- an odd bit of hair that you personally thought looked like a banana. The other wore what looked to be a fox hat and a big grin, and the third a very large man with tattoos, a fluffy cloak, and an even bigger grin than the lasts.

"I'm Vox Akuma. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The final voice- it was a dangerous voice. If this is a world where we consider fiction real, you thought, then he must be a siren. His voice, so deep and smooth, threatened to pull you into a state of calm so smooth you thought you'd die.

"Stop crowding them! In case you'd forgotten, they're still very overwhelmed." Ike finally spoke up, ushering them back a few paces. "Shu, your suspicions were right. I've never even heard of where they're from, and (name) doesn't even recognize our map. They've never heard of Tamron Queendom, let alone Zhilford."

Shu nodded, turning his attention to you. "The night you came crashing in here, I could feel an odd shift in energy. A bit of research led me to what happened - a shift in space, if you would. Alternate Worlds have always been a possibility. I'll give a bet that even your time had ideas and theories."

When you nodded, Shu continued on. The others were paying close attention as well.

"What could've happened, though I'm not really sure- was a spell gone horribly wrong, or a large gathering of magic in one space until bam!- space gets split open, and whatever is in that space gets dropped to the nearest world.

"In many worlds, but for this scenario I'll use ours, and even in this Queendom, we've gotten odd technology. We've never seen it before, though some we've been able to recreate. So advanced and confused. It's strongly believed they were due to openings in space.

"You, in any case, are a living example of it. Portals themselves are even harder to create. If you truly don't recognize the map, then it confirms the theory."

Shu inhaled, "so long story short, space go "weee" and snatch you. Make sense?"

Your head was absolutely spinning. It made sense but Jesus, he was so confident in his explanation! So many questions, but,

"...will I be able to go back home?"

The question all five of them had truly be dreading. The all looked downcast, and you understood. But then Shu perked back up and said,

"I'll do my best! I have connections and it'll be.. good for me to learn."

"Don't you worry bout a thing! You've got us now!" The large one, Luca, threw an arm around your shoulders and stared at you with the largest of grins. Mysta jumped in, "yeah bro! We can learn all about eachother."

"You aren't alone. We made the decision to help you assuming you weren't a crazy person. Which, you clearly aren't." Vox reassured. You noticed, and were thankful for, his respectful distance. It was all so, so overwhelming.

"..thank you."

The smallest of smiles finally found its way onto your face. Ike smiled as well, "who wants to show them around? I've got some errands to run."

"If it's all the same, Ike, I wanna tag along with you. Missed some shopping on my way here."

Which left you with the three jokingly crazies. Mysta, Shu, and Luca.

Luca was the first to perk up, "I'll do it! I claim this!" "Awh cmon man, no fair! Rock paper scissors me. Right now."

Mysta demanded. You couldn't help but snicker a bit- they treated this like some sort of honor to do. You met eyes with Shu and he grinned, waving a farewell as he whisked down the halls with a quick farewell.

"Rock, paper.. scissors!" Mysta threw rock, Luca threw rock. "Again! Rock, paper, scissors!" Luca threw scissors, Mysta threw paper. "Ohh damn it!" "Yes! Pog!" Luca and Mysta both said in unison.

You chuckled softly and Ike quickly spoke up to prevent a sulking Mysta, "you can show them around Zhilford later. Sound fair?"

"Oh finee. Ike said your name was (Name), right? Catch ya later!"

As the others made their exit, you felt that same sense of unease. Completely alone with another stranger.

Luca was still smiling at you, not the least bit bothered by your unease.

"Let's go! This place is huge! We actually only recently moved in," Luca explained to you, glancing around. "This be the kitchen! And over there," Luca pointed to a rather large room, "is the dining room." Three exits through the kitchen: one from the hallway, one large opening to the living room, and then a separate dining hall. Got it.

"Alright. Got it."

"Living room.." Luca carried on explaining rooms as they went. Bathrooms, pantry, storage rooms, apparently this place was an old abandoned castle the five had bought recently.

"And coming up, we have the library."

As the blonde man opened the door for you, you felt your jaw hit the floor. It was huge! Books of all different sizes and shapes and series with shelves that went to the roof and so many books.

You were in heaven.

Luca laughed, "you look even more awestruck than Ike did! Most of the books came with the place- but there's multiple empty shelves in the back Ike wants to fill up."

You glanced back at him with a childish smile, "I remember the first time I went to a Barnes and noble-" at the look of confusion on his face you added, "-big book store. It was heaven."

This was even more so heaven because one of these books may contain anything- even a hint- on how to get back. Luca must've thought the same.

"Say, (Name), what do you do where you're from?"

"I worked as a baker. What do you do?"

"Ohh, a baker? That's cool! Vox is the best cook, but I'm not so sure he can bake. I'm a mafia boss!"

He crossed his arms with pride, but that sent a shiver down your spine. "Mafia.. boss.. right.." You muttered, and Luca smiled in response. "Ya don't gotta be scared. I know I'm big n scary," he puffed out his chest a bit, which he had a rather- large chest- "-but as long as ya don't give me reason to think otherwise, you're under my protection!"

He reassured you, holding a hand out. Unsure what he wanted, you gave him an awkward- low high five? Which caused Luca to break into a fit of laughter as he grabbed your hand and shook it.

Of course that's what he wanted-

"I think you'll fit right in."

[miss0atae]

About Wandee Goodday episode 1:

There are already so many good reviews on Wandee Goodday, so here is my small participation. I read the book, so my take will be on the difference between the Book and the Series.

First of all, you must know, I don't think there is a superior medium to convey a story. It depends on the story itself and each medium has their strengths. Usually, books are considered a good medium to go deep on the description of the characters and the world where they interact. You get to know what the inner monologue of the characters and you can visualize the story through your imagination. TV series or films, are more visual. I believe they also depend a lot on the director and the actors because you can have a brilliant screenplay and terrible results. That being said, I really like to see how a story in a book can become a series screenplay. If you already read Thai BL books, you'll notice smut takes a large part in it. I don't mind smut. I believe we need to have a large range of book types for every taste. Wandee Goodday, the book, is filled with smut and if it's easy to write it on a book, it doesn't really transpose well on a series where smut isn't the primarily plot. It's why, I think, it's interesting to see what the series adds to the storytelling of the book.

Note, there are going to have some spoilers from the book in this post. So, if you want to avoid this because you want to read it later, you should not continue reading this.

The first episode is perfect to set the tone of the series and to present the characters. The series start with the end of the episode so you'll know what you get and then we get the flashback that will allow us to know how did Dee ended up in this situation.

"No more Mr. Good Guy!" -- Chap 1.

▪️ In the book, Wandee or Dee is a doctor who did his best to be the perfect boyfriend, a “good person” for his crush Ter because he heard him said once his ideal type is a “good person”. So Dee made conscious effort to be the ideal type of Ter: he doesn’t drink, doesn’t flirt, doesn’t smoke, works a lot and he was the one who tried to be at the same job as Ter. In this version of the story, Dee is really doing all the work and Ter isn’t really an active participant. You must know the book is told in the first person through Wandee’s eyes. However, Wandee isn’t totally an unreliable storyteller. He just has a lot of imagination.

In the series things are a bit different. I like it more because it gave more deep to why Dee could think Ter has a special relationship with him and they may get together. It implies Ter had a more active role as he was the one who helped Dee gets where he is. He found him a condo at the same place as him, for example. I think it works well because it reinforces the love Wandee has for him because Ter is doing so much, it could easily be mistaken for romantic attention. Here, Wandee seems less deluded and you can understand why he thought he would get the guy.

"By the way, what's your name?" "Yak" -- Chap. 2

▪️ Now, about Yak. In the book, Yak's personality is slightly different from his series counterpart. He is more or less a playboy who is used to having multiple one-night stand, but he is trying to stop because he is in love with Taemrak who doesn't like this. As Wandee, he has been waiting for a lot of years to be with this person who still refuses him. Also, he is younger than Dee. I felt Yak was more reserved in the book version.

In the series, Yok seems more like a confident man who knows his worth and he seems more talkative. We have no idea yet, if he has a playboy past. One thing I notice, is how it is implied Yok is bisexual. On the book, we never know if he is bisexual because the only two people we know he had feelings for were men. Since they changed Taemrak and made him a girl, we can only assume he is. However, in the book Wandee complains he never flirted with boy so I assumed he was the bisexual one in the relationship. In fact, he doesn't change anything to the story.

"Do me hard, Good Boy" -- Chap. 1

▪️ I believe their first time was better in the series. In the book, Dee is really drunk and since he is always having fantasies, he imagines himself as a heroine in a Thai period drama. In his fantasy, he is going to be ravished by the leader of gang. So when, he kisses Yak he is high in his fantasies. Of course, Dee doesn't tell him he is a virgin and Yak discover it, too late. He still tries to help him feel better and give him the lead. Then, they have a wild night with multiple intercourse. I think the writer wanted to show how Yak was very patient towards Dee, who was discovering his sexuality and preferences in bed.

"Are you going for more?" "Yeah, more now" -- Chap. 1

▪️ In the series, I liked how they took their time. Dee had a moment when he was unsure about if he really wanted it and Yak asked for his consent and when he didn't get it, he truly believed it’s a “no” from Dee. This series put lights on the importance of consent. The message is clear: if you want to do it with someone, this person must consent. When, Dee gets a cramp, they stopped and just got back to it when they both felt it’s the right time again. It’s a very healthy way that is absent in the book. Brownie points for the series!

"I turned you down. I was afraid that you'd be too distressed to sleep." Chap. 2

▪️ Ter in the book is a blank page. He is not bad, but he is not good either. He felt mostly flat. You have to ask yourself what Dee found in him. In the series, I feel like Ter isn't a nice person because he may have noticed than Dee was caring a lot and he wanted to use this in his own advantage. What makes me think this… it's when he asked Dee to give him the scholarship. I don't remember if they had to compete for a scholarship in the book, but I believe it's something that was added purposely in the series. We'll see which impact it's going to have in the series. I fear Ter may want to use Dee's crush to him to try to snatch the scholarship from him.

"We can't come back late. I need to be back early. I still have work to do." -- Chap 4.

▪️ Taemrak is also different from the book. In the book, it’s a man who is still studying in university. It’s nerd who spends his time in the library with books. He wears glasses and is scared of riding on Yak’s bike. Yak met him because he went to his faculty to do a physical fitness test. In the series, Taemrak is a woman who is tutoring students and seems to work a lot to get herself out of poverty. I wonder if it’s going to play a more important part in the story.

"They cannot seem to be separated for more than three days. Love is so good." -- Chap 2.

▪️ O-ye and Cher (called Cherry in the book) are more or less the same in both the book and the series. We didn't see them a lot, so things may be different. I like how they are still bickering, but very much in love. Cher is also considering Yak as his son in the book and they joke a lot on this nickname. I’m glad they kept this part.

"Dee, are you feeling worse?" Chap. 1

▪️ Plakao is my biggest surprised in the series! In the book, he has a minor role. He is just a friend of Dee who doesn’t work in the same job as him. In fact, he is more the provider of costumes for Dee and Yak, as they both have a clothing kink (not sure it is how you could describe it, in English). I’m so happy they changed his role in the series. I hope it will bring him more depth. He is asexual and I want to see what representation they will give us. I can’t remember if I ever watched a Thai BL, before, where one of the character said he was asexual, so I felt it was huge.

That’s it for this first episode. You must know the first episode is more or less the first chapter of the book. So we’ll see if the second episode is like the second chapter of the book. I believe the series, as for now (we’ll see if it continues to be this way), is bringing another layer to the book. It could bring a nice synergy.

[lloydfrontera]

Is there a difference between manhwa javier and novel javier? What is it? I never noticed it because it wasn't obvious like Lloyd's as his was exaggerated and he difference is too noticeable

there are,, some differences yes but nothing as bad as what they did to lloyd.

manhwa javier is a lot more expressive than novel javier. which i suppose is a consequence of manhwa being a visual medium but it can be a bit jarring at times.

novel javier is a lot more subtle and serious, not completely stoic of course, just more even-tempered i suppose. it's not that he doesn't feel things, he does, he's just careful about what he shows or shares with others. he's also very proper and respectful at all times. it's why it's so funny that he's such a little shit when he's just with lloyd, he would never tease and joke and laugh in front of anyone else, this is a side of him that only lloyd gets to see. this is not a guy that would be fighting for his life to keep himself from laughing when in front of other nobles like we see from manhwa javier in episode 80

he's also more... quiet. not in the sense that he doesn't talk, he does, especially with lloyd, it's actually kind of ridiculous how much banter between them has been cut in the manhwa, but the way he expresses himself isn't loud or overly expressive. even at his angriest, he never explodes or raises his voice, instead he gets colder and snappish, lloyd describing it as 'a heavy snowfall', his responses 'cold and icy'.

which, speaking of lloyd, javier is just closer to lloyd in the novel than he is in the manhwa. which is ironic because in the manhwa they actually are more honest with one another than they are in the novel and yet!

a big part of this is that aforementioned cut banter. in the novel these two are always speaking with each other, they're commenting on things, they're sharing their thoughts, they're joking with one another, they just... won't stop talking between them. it is constant. so you very clearly can see them growing closer and slowly becoming friends as much as they won't admit it at first. this is something that i've mentioned before but like,,, javier genuinely likes being around lloyd. he's annoyed about it and he actually throws a tantrum when he realizes he finds lloyd likable but he just can't help it! and he knows that he's also lloyd's closest friend, he even teases him about it! in the novel you completely believe them when they say they're friends because you've seen them grow closer to one another the entire time.

also javier just,,, seems to care more for lloyd in the novel? it's difficult to explain but javier is constantly thinking about lloyd's safety, a part of him is always worrying about keeping him safe. i complained about it before but in the manhwa javier seems to take his responsibility to protect lloyd less seriously than he should. when to javier that's his main worry! even as early as in the llojavi bridge we already get these sort of comments from javier's pov:

Javier finally let out a sigh of relief after knowing that the most dangerous part of the job was now done, and Lloyd was safe. The latter alone was good enough.

like. it's not much. it's nothing big. it's just tiny moments like these sprinkled here and there. but they're constant. whenever there's danger, whenever they're in risk, one of the first things javier always does is to check on lloyd, see if he's okay, if he's safe. the idea that javier wouldn't care for lloyd's safety doesn't even really cross your mind cause. well. you see him constantly worry about it.

fthere were a couple of changed in the bone dragon arc?? but i've talked about those before. they make javier less,,, kind?? helpful?? less of a hero type than he is in the novel. i dunno it's weird.

oh and a big one which i've also talked about before. javier in the novel does care that lloyd replaced the son of his lord. like. that is very much a point of conflict for him. he's not completely indifferent to it, he's genuinely shaken and distressed when he finds out the truth. it's a bit insulting to his character that they changed this. it undercut the extreme character development it took to get javier to this point, the amount of trust and loyalty he has for both arcos and lloyd, it's such an important moment for him and they just. changed it like that. i'm still mad about it akjshdksf

but,,, yeah i think those are the main ones. i guess if you scroll through my tag for him you'll find more info about how he is in the novel but,, i think that about covers it?? the important bits anyway. so... yeah :]

[llycaons]

thank you for the ask—I’ll respond on my lunch break : ) for you: cactus, sage, and camellia?

cactus ⇢ something you’re currently learning (about)? already answered! I wish I could say I was learning something new rn but I've got so much else going on there is simply no time 😔 unless you count my longterm project of reading wuthering heights academic articles I guess there's that

sage ⇢ what ‘medium’ of art (poetry, music, fiction, paintings, statues etc.) is the most touching to you? why do you think that is?

television!! everything else listed there is usually too unintelligible to me (poetry, music), too static (most visual artwork), not something I've engaged with in a long time (books), or too short (movies). I love stories!! I love longform narratives that give the characters and plots time to grow and change. and I've not found many impactful pieces of media outside a tv format, or books. the tie or next closest IS books tho I do love books and book series. I don't care for movies but they're good for unique ideas ig

camellia ⇢ what were you like when you were younger? do you think you’ve changed a lot?

umm I was a lot leas aware of...like, everything I guess, and I did even more poorly in social situations lmao and I feel like I was overall....nice? with ocassional bouts of fierce temper stemming from a terror of being treated poorly, much like now, and people did not like me and I did not make friends and I'm a lot happier now and more emotionally balanced bc I'm in control of my circumstances and I understand myself better and I do still have many of the same interests and passions and I have more friends now especially if we count online folks...and I'm glad I'm able to indulge in my hobbies and interests more now. and really as exhausting and demoralizing as adulthood is, it's also been so freeing and hopeful to realize a lot of people are genuinely fine to interact with and not have to struggle in powerless misery anymore...also this explains why I was into tumblr as a 16 yr old like it legitimately made me so happy to have a lifeline and a community on here I love you all

and you're welcome! looking forward to hearing your response 😊

[bravestworriers]

writer interview game <3

thank u to @pricemarshfield who tagged me in this :) i'm so glad we're friends and u let me bombard you with random writing snippets as i go along!

i will be tagging the og writing wife @atxvanhalen (circa 2012), ao3 famous bffl @riverdanceeee, fantasy-pilled love of my life @multilevelmargoting, the coolest film reviewer in the biz @kaafka, and my begrudgingly kind editor @takeavacation2010 . & anyone else who'd like to write a little something about themselves!

read below if you dare!!!

When did you start writing?

probably as long ago as i could figure out how to & started winning little competitions for it! i love telling stories, usually through a visual medium (storyboarding, screenwriting etc), but it's all writing at the end of the day, no matter how put it down on a page.

i recently located my half finished writing from elementary school (so i must have started from the age of at least 8), all in the email drafts of my oldest email account, and it's always a treat to see how i used to think about romance, about drama and all that good stuff! (i was wrong and sad, but adorably so!)

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

i love big sci-fi adventures, heists, life or death sort of stuff, just as long as it's grounded in something tangible and human. i also just love media where you can tell that the artists are having a lot of fun with the medium and they way they're piecing everything together. like i adore the films kneecap (dir. rich peppiatt) and american animals (dir. bart layton) and dick johnson is dead (dir. kirsten johnson), even though i could never see myself writing a true story/biopic feature like that -- they're just exploring what a feature film compiling those ideas looks like today, fighting against the rules of what people think it should be, and just going for it. other than that, i watch a lot of BAD movies and BAD tv because it's fascinating to pull it apart and figure out where things went wrong -- like looking under the hood of a fucked up car.

mostly, i think i read and watch a lot of the types of things i like to write, lots of introspective dramedies and coming of age stories. but usually no tragedy, it makes me too sad.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

in school i got compared a LOT to tim burton (i made a lot of fantasy focused films that existed in the real world), which honestly feels like a little bit of an insult now. if i was compared to henry sellick, now that would be a compliment.

i'd love to emulate documentarian and cinematographer kirsten johnson! (it's not going to happen. but i love her.)

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

i really can write anywhere, as long as it's in complete isolation listening to the same piece of music over and over until whatever i'm doing is complete (that's the autism for ya!). usually when i'm working, i'm lying down in bed in the evening, or weirdly standing with my computer on a counter in the kitchen early in the morning as i'm getting ready for my day. i'm a slow writer and can't get anything done without a deadline (work related) or a special interest (fic related), and usually things sputter aimlessly until someone explicitly asks for it (this is why my ao3 never has anything finished. sorry guys! #shamelssplug!)

(right now the piece of music i'm listening to is norman's walk by jon brion. and yes, if you're curious, my repetition of single pieces of music always messes up my spotify wrapped.)

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

the only theme i can think of is one of meeting someone that you're meant to meet, exactly at the point in your life that you are meant to meet them. life is chance upon chance upon chance, i've found, and i love capturing that life-changing feeling as it balances temporarily on a pinpoint. i especially love when it ends in tragedy too.

agnes varda's cleo from five to seven is a favourite of this trope. a bit of severance by ming le also has this concept wrapped up in it. and billy wilder's the apartment.

i don't think it surprises me though, i think it's always something i'm looking for in life. to eventually look back and see the path i made, and to know even if i didn't at the time, that it was the right one because of the people i had the pleasure of meeting, even briefly.

i also love 90s wedding movies and the strict structure they're written with, it's fun to replicate and poke fun of in my own work.

What is your reason for writing?

i started writing because i would get really overwhelmed with my feelings over whatever was going on in my life, and need to parse through them somehow. they say it's always best to start with a nugget of something, and build off of it. it's how i've coped with everything from romantic kerfuffles, to immigration, and racism, to parents splitting up, death, and everything else life has to offer. explicitly in my writing, or not.

maybe i've just been exceptionally lucky, but every time i've shared something that felt so isolating and devastating i did not know how to deal with it, i've always met someone after the fact who looked me in the eyes and told me they felt exactly the same thing.

it makes me love being a person on this planet.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

i don't know! if you like it, please let me know! if you don't, please don't tell me i'll think about it for the next twelve years of my life and also cry.

no, but in all seriousness, i just want to make people feel like some part of them is understood, whatever that looks like. yell into the void with me, or yell back at me from the void, whatever works best for you.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

pacing and emotional beats. i can always feel when a scene is done, or when i want it to be done. i love writing the emotional stuff, i don't really care about the stuff that it takes to get there, other than it makes those beats happen.

writing my dialogue is like pulling teeth. writing my inner monologue gets convoluted. writing, i'm a slower than the oldest, most decrepit turtle. writing my descriptions can get too long in screenplay format. literally nothing but pacing out a story and hitting those emotional beats.

How do you feel about your own writing?

it makes me sick to my stomach. after i've obsessed over something for months and it's done, i can't look at it. i'm always terrified that it's so much worse than i want it to be, or that i'm envisioning it is. (i've had this exact experience at a festival with one of my films before and it haunts me forever.) i need other people to tell me it's written okay before i start to feel normal about it. i want to get over this sensation eventually, but it doesn't seem like it's happening anytime soon.

that being said, i don't think i could make myself stop writing and telling stories if i wanted to. my cross to bear, i suppose.

that's all. thanks for this, sarah, and if anyone read this, i hope you enjoyed it :^)

[mermaidsirennikita]

Need your Saltburn review though 👀

I will preface by saying that I personally find Emerald to be a filmmaker/writer that is rather boring at best and kind of... horrifically misled in that she thinks that shocking "darkness" = depth at worst. I think A Promising Young Woman had some fun visuals at points (and so does Saltburn--though I think this has less to do with Emerald having an eye and more for Emerald understanding aesthetic, which makes sense when you realize that her dad is an Eton-educated jeweler to the stars, King of Bling, I wonder if that possibly could ever have anything to do with a UK performer's rise, hmmmmm--) but the way it ended was just... Lol. Yes, Emerald! I know that this is how the story would probs end in real life, the women of the world NEEDED TO KNOW.

(Princess Weekes did a good little video essay about PYW btw, would recommend.)

But yeah, point is--I don't think Saltburn is a misstep for Emerald. I think she's just very mediocre and self-indulgent. You can be self-indulgent and get away with it when you have a vision and something to say (see: Baz). I don't think Emerald has something to say. I think Emerald has concepts, which she pushes to a point she thinks is edgy, but doesn't actually... string into a coherent idea.

First off, Saltburn is nothing new; and it doesn't need to be. I like the pretentious rich people problems aesthetic. I love the bacchanal of the upper crust sensibility. Hell, I loved Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Sierra Simone's Thornchapel series is one of my favorite things she's done. I love Cruel Intentions. I also love The Talented Mr. Ripley, which--

My good man. If you wish to watch what you think Saltburn was going to be, but with better actors (including Jude Law in what is essentially the Jacob Elordi role, which, uh, how we have fallen as a society) and honestly better homoeroticism in a movie made like 20 years ago... just watch The Talented Mr. Ripley.

But yeah. So, I think everything Emerald does is meant to shock but doesn't go quite far enough. It's little moments that happen, and aren't really contextualized in a way that feels like it's there to be anything more than shock value, which makes it less shocking. Like, the period fingerbang--if those characters had a dynamic which led up to that moment, if I felt the actual power play there, it might actually shock me. Or be sexy? For the record, Fair Play has a period sex scene within its first five minutes that is both more surprising and better in every way. The shit with Farleigh? Would be compelling. That was the one bit of chemistry in the movie, the moment when Oliver and Farleigh talked to each other right before the whole singalong disaster. But then it's happening and I'm like "why is Barry Keoghan fucking everyone in this movie except for Jacob Elordi? What is the point?"

And what is the point indeed. Jacob Elordi has the charisma of a medium-sized tree, and I suspect a medium-sized tree would do a better job of ditching the Aussie accent. Emerald's inadequacies could be overcome and made into a thing that is campy, maybe? Not good, but fun? Barry Keoghan does his best with the material. He's fun in the last like ten minutes of the movie wherein he's basically monologuing like a demented real housewife and dancing around naked. He tries so hard to create chemistry with Jacob, while Jacob's vibe is very "no homo". (But the character is supposed to be no homo, you say--is he, first off, because I honestly don't know what Emerald is saying, and second... Like.... The character can be not attracted to Barry's character will still giving us an essence of intrigue that would inform why Barry is spellbound.)

But the biggest issue is that the movie hinges on Jacob Elordi being worthy of obsession, and he is just a flop in this role. He doesn't sell himself as this posh, beautiful, Brideshead Revisited-But-A-Bro guy. He can't really act (there's a scene where the movie cuts to him giving a smile that I think is supposed to be charming and I went "yikes" out loud). He is up against people who are actually actors, which makes it a bit worse. Everything feels very forced and constructed, for want of a better term. If you do not get WHY this guy, then the movie flops. And try as I might, I cannot get WHY this guy.

(Might I add--the bathtub scene would've been more intriguing had we seen Jacob interact with the voyeurism, some sense that he knew, whether or not he enjoyed it. The queerness in this movie is so... It's just this queer guy being obsessed and rebuffed and murderous, and I don't know, there didn't seem to be enough exploring the ramifications of that kind of story.)

The Talented Mr. Ripley also hinges on the focal point of obsession being worthy of obsession. And again. It's Jude Law. And it's Jude Law giving a really good performance, too.

The movie also does some shit I really don't think it's equipped to do. Like, the premise is essentially the working class interloper (but like, he's not as working class as he saaaays so oooooohhhhh) is preying on this family of rich folks who offered him a place to land. And it's not inherently bad, imo, to tell that story. However, you need the rich people to have some role beyond being prey; you need to understand the predator's contempt beyond jealousy. But the rich people are cardboard. They aren't sharp. They may have a few throwaway lines that illustrate their own sins (including some very clumsily handled racism) but ultimately the movie gives Oliver more power than it does the elite upon whom he preys. So ultimately, you come away from it feeling like you're watching the anxieties of the upper class, re: the encroaching middle and working class... But there's no examination, because the rich people are just victims lol. I think it's genuine anxiety.

Yeah though, I thought it was really hokey basically.

[themattress]

The Top 5 Carmen Sandiego Adaptations

And by adaptations, I strictly mean mediums in which you as a player serve no function, you are only here to observe. Therefore not the computer games, nor the board games, nor the choose-your-own-adventure style books. Just the shows, chapter books, and comic books.

Honorable(?) Mention: The DC Comics Series.

This only lasted four issues before being cancelled, and honestly? I can see why. I like the idea behind this series, which is compositing the various versions of Carmen Sandiego into one (the older games, the newer games, the PBS gameshow...had it continued we may have gotten stuff from the syndicated animated series.) The problem is that there is way too much going on in almost every panel. It's the equivalent of an obnoxious children's show that thinks constant movement and loud noises is the only way to keep its young viewer's attention. Beyond that, the main character Evan and his sidekick Bazooka Mel aren't that interesting or likeable, and Carmen herself barely shows up or does anything. It was a nice try, but it failed.

5: Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?

This PBS gameshow was the successor to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, lasting for two seasons and a total of 115 episodes across 1996 and 1997. For comparisons sake, its predecessor lasted for five seasons across five years, with a total of 295 episodes. And that kind of says it all. I like things about this show - having people play historical figures and interact with the contestants is fun, the villains, also depicted by real-life actors, are a good balance of wacky and intimidating especially with the creepy effects around them and their willingness to attack the contestants directly, and much like its predecessor the final solo challenge is always exciting to watch. The problem is that it just doesn't feel like Carmen Sandiego. ACME is suddenly this hard sci-fi oriented group feeling more like the Federation from Star Trek than a detective agency, Carmen is a cackling supervillain out to make people miserable rather than a classy master thief, and while Lynne Thigpin's Chief is as delightful as ever, she and Kevin Shinick just lack the chemistry she had with Greg Lee....heck, Shinick himself is a major step down from Lee in just about every way. I think he was funnier in the Robot Chicken sketch about the show than he ever was on the show itself! I feel as though if this show was its own thing, totally removed from Carmen Sandiego, it would work better.

4: Carmen Sandiego

The recent Netflix series has a wonderful two-part pilot, "Becoming Carmen Sandiego", that shows exactly how this incarnation is going to differ from previous ones - namely with Carmen being an anti-hero going against V.I.L.E with the help of "Player" rather than the leader of V.I.L.E who "Player" is trying to catch - and with a lot of interesting possibilities on the horizon, particularly with its somewhat darker tone and reinventions of characters from several separate past continuities. And it's all downhill from there! OK, that's a bit harsh, but as I've noted recently the show really did squander its potential more and more with each passing season, culminating in a finale that made it crushingly clear that the developers did just seek to keep Carmen an anti-hero the whole way rather than go through the villain origin story that was logically being set up. It never felt like it truly knew what it wanted to be, and almost every character and plotline ended up suffering as a result. It's got great visual style and superb voice-acting, and I appreciate the attention it brought back to the otherwise dead property, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a first experience with Carmen Sandiego.

3: The Carmen Sandiego Mysteries

This series of juvenile chapter books had a total of six installments: two representing World, two representing USA, and two representing Time. And it's a shame that's all we got, because these were pretty damn good! Maya and Ben are likable leads, Carmen is a competent and even somewhat threatening villain while still maintaining her own personal code of ethics, and it does what a good adaptation should in keeping the feel and style of the computer games while also making allowances for the medium shift. I especially like "Take the Mummy and Run", which includes some legit emotional drama and a non-Carmen villain.

2: Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

Pretty similar to the Carmen Sandiego Mysteries books in that it features a young boy/girl duo of detectives hunting down a similarly characterized Carmen. But this being a syndicated animated TV show rather than a book series, it lasted longer - 40 episodes total, and even got its own spinoff computer game Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition. There's also more of an action-y feel to it despite the network censors preventing anything overtly violent from happening, siblings Zack and Ivy are even more charismatic protagonists than Ben and Maya, and the great Rita Moreno just is Carmen; her alluring voice probably sticks out in most people's memory when thinking about the character. I do question why an AI Chief was used rather than a human one, as that just feels weird, but thanks to Rodger Bumpass' voicework he gets a lot of laughs so I can let it slide. The one thing that drags this show down is the educational aspect, as it manifests in a lot of ham-fisted monologuing from characters that grinds the pacing of each episode to a halt every time. Guys, you're in a 22-minute TV episode, not Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors! You're kind of pressed for time here! It's the one thing I think the Netflix show actually did better, as while there were still lines here and there serving as educational the series usually focused on showing rather than telling as should be expected of the animation medium. However...this theme song goes way harder than it needs to, so maybe that balances things out. And speaking of stellar theme songs....

1: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

This legendary PBS gameshow simply IS Carmen Sandiego distilled into a compact form easily transmitted via airwaves. It's got the thrill of the chase while learning more about the world down perfectly, it's got the old-school detective vibe and the quirky humor, and it's got a stellar cast of characters - not only is this the first time Carmen herself displayed any real personality, but we've got a truly memorable Rogues Gallery of V.I.L.E operatives serving her. And even if the different kid contestants opposing them each episode do nothing for you, we still have Lynne Thigpen as THE Chief of ACME, Greg Lee as one of the funniest and most energetic gameshow hosts you could ask for, and of course - ROCKAPELLA! It's easy to see why this show endured for as long as it did and while it's still fondly looked upon even now.

[lemonhemlock]

Rhaenys Storming Through the Dragonpit

One of the most controversial scenes in Season 1, this was an addition from the part of the show-runners. It has received quite a lot of criticism already for being bombastic (in a bad way), useless and illogical. Personally speaking, I was torn, so this is an attempt to make (some) sense of it.

Spoilers for upcoming events.

Context

I intend to analyse this scene by giving as much grace and benefit-of-the-doubt to the writers and producers as I can - it's only fair.

Adapting any book series is not easy. There will always be changes performed to the written text, even when trying as hardly as possible to stick to the source material. Sometimes what reads well translates badly on screen. Different mediums require different storytelling techniques. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just different.

Sets, CGI and dragons are expensive. It's not just about money, but about time as well. Graphic artists need to be given enough time to do their jobs properly. You can't just decide to drop 10 dragons out of thin air and expect them to meet your deadlines, unless you plan on making them work in sweatshop conditions.

Logistically speaking, sometimes the scripts need to be changed because there is no time left to film them with their original (maybe better?) ideas. Things can easily get cut or simplified. So I will try to keep my suggestions down to earth and achievable.

Remember we only have 10 episodes. Of course, if we had twice as many, the discussion would be completely different, but that is not feasible. While I feel like the season would have benefited greatly from an additional 2-3 episodes, I do not have access to HBO's cost-benefit analysis and their finances.

Bear in mind that this is the first ASOIAF show to premiere after the disastrous and critically-panned final Game of Thrones season, so perhaps they really did not want to stray from the tried-and-true successful format of 10 episodes per season, with episode 9 the usual stand-out.

Pros

It provides an unexpected, shocking, show-stopping moment. It looks cool on screen; that's undeniable. It gives Rhaenys a girlboss moment that the casual viewer will love (again, casual viewers are the ones who bring the big bucks in). It swiftly communicates the following information about Rhaenys: she is resourceful and brave enough to face the dragonkeepers on her own (probably unarmed), she has a temper (she doesn't appreciate having been locked in her room), she is careless about ordinary people's lives, she has excellent control of her dragon (pointed comparison to Aemond & Vhagar) and she can control her temper tantrum enough to think a little before she acts.

It provides a character-defining situation for both Alicent and Aegon. IMO this was one of the most powerful moments of the season, so I understand why they prioritized it over basically anything else.

I think these are two very strong points and, in all honesty, opportunities too irresistible to pass over.

Cons

Rhaenys commits a terrorist act and her murders are swept under the rug by the narrative.

How do Rhaenys and Meleys manage to fly through the floor of the Dragonpit without either of them getting hurt? Considering the later Storming of the Dragonpit, this is illogical and defies the laws of physics.

It is not immediately apparent why Rhaenys doesn't burn the Greens and be done with it. A common complaint was that her actions didn't make any sense.

No Sunfyre. The most beautiful dragon in the known world and his relationship with Aegon is unparalleled. In the texts, after his coronation, Aegon flies around King's Landing, giving him an opportunity to show off his splendid dragon. Leaving Sunfyre out diminishes Aegon's character when he is in desperate need of rehabilitation.

Changes I agree with

I would argue that con#2 is the most egregious. If I would have been in the writers' / producers' shoes, I would strive to change that. The rest I would keep. IMO it's good visual storytelling.

Rhaenys will probably be the first to die next season. Developing her character is imperative, otherwise her death will feel hollow. Rhaenys is a proper dragonrider in her own right - one of the best. I do insist that showing the viewers that is very important. Rhaenys is played by a middle-aged woman and she gets a cool action scene in a medium where actresses are valued for youth and attractiveness. As viewers, we expect the 9th episode of a Game of Thrones season to be bonkers in some way. Putting her in THE prime-time spot of the season gives her the opportunity to become a memorable character. Yes, I would totally keep Rhaenys in this scene.

Sunfyre is a good boy and his absence has been felt, but he will have many an occasion to stand out before the end of the series. Meanwhile, Meleys will die soon and there hasn't been a proper opportunity to show her off. If her first scene next season is the same as her death scene, I don't think the impact would be as big. Yes, Arrax only got one segment as well, but he was a small dragon, whereas Meleys is one of the important ones. I can, therefore, understand and accept the prioritization of Meleys over Sunfyre in this scenario.

If possible, would I also have included Sunfyre in this scene? I am going to be controversial and answer no. Sunfyre's presence turns this event into a weird showdown between Rhaenys and Aegon (since Aegon is the only one who can control Sunfyre).

What beef would Rhaenys even have with Aegon at this point? She is pissed that the Greens were holding her hostage and forcing her to pick a side. I have already criticized the scene between her and Alicent and, while I believe the show could have done a better job at highlighting Rhaenys' hypocrisy and projection, I think it makes sense for Alicent to try to woo Rhaenys to the green side by appealing to her in some way. It also provides Rhaenys with an opportunity to appraise Alicent's character, so it makes more sense for this last scene of the episode to be a rehashing of that earlier appeal.

In similar vein, I also understand why the crowning of Helaena was cut. It is a sweet mother-daughter moment in the text, but had she been standing next to Aegon, Alicent would have had to protect them both by placing herself in front. We already know Alicent loves Helaena; this is not new information for the viewer. Alicent and Helaena will have their own gut-wrenching scenes together soon enough.

No, the question for the audience (and for Aegon) is whether Alicent loves Aegon. By performing this one act of bravery, we finally have our answer and cannot dispute whether or not Alicent took this stand just because Helaena was near her as well. When faced with the possibility of death, she carries out this one last act of care, even if its only consequence would be that Aegon won't have to spend his last moments on this earth alone.

So, yes, the focus of this scene should remain on Alicent and Aegon and Alicent's silent plea to Rhaenys. We begin the Dance with Alicent & Aegon and we should finish it with them as well. "My first son and my last" etc. It's too meaty of a concept to give up.

Why doesn't Rhaenys just burn the Greens and be done with it?

If I had executive power, I would have Rhaenys explain her reasoning to Daemon in more depth next episode. She kind of does, but the fandom at large was left unsatisfied, whereas I really do feel that burning everyone on the podium would have been a catastrophic decision, for the following reasons:

Kinslaying is a terrible crime in-universe, literally considered one of the worst things you could possibly do. People tend to be generally horrified by it. Rhaenys would be reducing Aegon, Aemond and Helaena to ash. It is really not highlighted how much of a big deal this would be. Of course, they will all end up killing each other later, but at least that would be during the course of the war, whereas this would be an unprovoked attack against defenseless non-combatants. In addition, it's not just that Rhaenys would be judged by society, but it's so taboo that it's very likely she just couldn't bring herself to do it, at least not at this particular stage. It's a very heavy decision!

Apart from killing three (3!) family members, Rhaenys would also be killing other state officials like the Dowager Queen, the Hand of the King, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and other members of the government like Tyland Lannister. All important people, generally coming from important and powerful noble families. That's a lot of potential allies to piss off.

Rhaenys would be killing the High Septon, literally the Westerosi equivalent to the Pope, thus ensuring an uprising of the Faith against Rhaenyra.

This would not end the succession crisis in any way. Aegon's children are in the Red Keep. His son Jaehaerys would become the next king. Alicent and Otto definitely have her own loyalists that could smuggle the children away to Oldtown, if necessary.

Even without the children, Daeron is still in Oldtown. Lord Ormund Hightower could simply crown him and wage war against Rhaenyra, who, by no will of her own, now has the Faith against her and a population outraged by this incredible act of cruelty.

Ultimately, what Rhaenys said was right: the decision to start the war wasn't hers to make, nor was the decision to escalate hostilities to such an appalling level. She was never willing to do that for her own claim. She never tried to take the throne by conquest after the decision of the Great Council in 101. So why would she possibly do something like this for Rhaenyra?

It's not even fair to Rhaenyra. She isn't consulted at all in this matter. Perhaps she doesn't want to kill her own family members. However, the consequences of this act would be pinned on her no matter what. She'd have to execute Rhaenys or something drastic like that to punish her for the heinous crime she committed.

Yes, you could still keep the mother-to-mother bond element between Rhaenys and Alicent. Rhaenys can still be moved by Alicent's determination to stand by and do the best for her children.

Fix-It

These are the tweaks I would perform to preserve the impactful quality of the scene without sacrificing logic:

First of all, I will point out that Rhaenys stayed overnight in order for Vaemond's body be prepared for the journey back to Driftmark. Rhaenyra leaving KL so soon after dinner was an impromptu decision; even she probably intended to stay a little longer in the capital. I'd give Baela a line mentioning how she wants to spend a little time with Rhaena or something, so as to explain her separation from Rhaenys.

I would highlight Rhaenys' dissatisfaction. Rightly or wrongly, she is insulted at having been locked inside her room. She is a proud woman and wants to be in charge of her own destiny, instead of being forced (yet again) down a path against her will. She wants to leave and make up her own mind. And, most importantly, she wants to get back to her granddaughters ASAP. She can tell Ser Erryk all this when he comes to free her. Throw them a couple more lines of dialogue to emphasize their motivations.

Rhaenys' goal should therefore be to get out of King's Landing. She gets separated from Ser Erryk and witnesses the coronation. She can sneak through the tunnels like in the show.

However, I cannot have Rhaenys bursting through the floor like in Looney Tunes, that part needs to GO. This means I will have to change the trajectory of Rhaenys' flight.

Now, the coronation takes place in the Dragonpit, like in the source material. In the show, it looked similar to the Colosseum, but with a dome on top, at least the part that we saw. It's supposed the be this immense structure with plenty of caverns to house the dragons.

The characters stand on some sort of podium at the far end of the ground floor. I can't tell if it has been especially erected for the coronation, but it looks too elaborate for it to be some makeshift structure. There is a sort of canopy (?) above, from which they hung Aegon's banners: a golden dragon on black. I'm not sure what Jaehaerys I's chair is doing there, though, so perhaps I would get rid of it. Aegon won't get to sit on it and it's kind of in my way.

Behind the banners, I would simply invent an entryway to some tunnel deeper inside caverns and have Rhaenys enter from that side. The doors should be opposite.

It can begin with the ground trembling a little, following by ominous sounds getting closer until Meleys rips Aegon's banners up and Rhaenys is revealed. Perhaps destroy the pillar holding up the canopy so that there is nothing else to serve as cover. In this scenario, Rhaenys has no choice but to face the Greens, because they are literally standing in her way.

Everything else mostly proceeds as usual. The characters were facing the smallfolk. At Rhaenys' approach, everyone turns towards her. The camera moves to face the characters on the podium, with the smallfolk (and the exit) now behind them.

Alicent redirects Ser Criston to Helaena and puts herself in front of Aegon. They have their last stand.

Meleys roars and Rhaenys stops to think.

She decides not to commit mass murder, sees the exist and takes flight. She's had her little outburst, she's given her warning and now she returns to her objective, which is to get the hell out of King's Landing.

The crowd actually witnesses the Queen stepping in front of a dragon for her son. Perfect propaganda material.

Smallfolk don't matter

Obviously that was a disappointing consideration from the part of the show-runners. If anyone were to get killed during Rhaenys' escape, I would emphasize it and use it later and as an anti-Black argument to fan the flames when Rhaenyra gets kicked out of King's Landing. But by having Rhaenys enter the scene from the back, the number of possible victims would be much lower.

If it is imperative to have someone killed, perhaps it can be implied in season 2 that Meleys burnt some dragonkeepers while Rhaenys was trying to mount her. This should be shown as a great loss, as dragonkeepers are brave, smart and valuable individuals, who perform an essential job for the safety of the entire city.

Potential for future scenes

Maybe have Aegon and/or Helaena forced to come to the Dragonpit themselves to feed Sunfyre and Dreamfyre because the workforce has taken a literal hit and they are still working on training new "employees". This could allow Aegon and Helaena to interact over a shared interest and would give Helaena screen time with Dreamfyre.

I'm not including Vhagar because she is too big for the Dragonpit and probably makes her lair somewhere outside King's Landing. Maybe show Aemond involving himself with selecting and training new dragonkeepers. This way you give all three siblings something to do and show them collaborating towards a shared goal.

Aegon shoveling Sunfyre's droppings during the opening episode would provide comedic relief and a great opportunity to showcase the bond between dragon and rider, as well an unusual way to introduce Sunfyre and put Aegon to work. :)

All things considered, I think this was a symbolically-charged moment that was ruined by some shoddy scenery placement, a careless disregard for the systemic violence against the general populace and a lack of properly laying out character motivations. Adding several more minutes of dialogue and re-imagining the geography of the Dragonpit a litle could have integrated this moment better within the larger narrative.

[eldritchamy]

I think your trademark (TM) is your posts about your very detailed worldbuilding, especially when you get into things like time and magic and reality! It’s very impressive and the amount of depth in everything is just amazing :D

Also vampires.

Have I talked about the magic system? The huge visual differences in how the same ritual/runic magic can be represented by different groups? (not only did I invent a runic system that translates effectively the process of creation into a kind of magic circle that you can literally LOOK AT AND HAVE A LOOSE IDEA OF WHAT IT DOES, I basically invented the equivalent of different LANGUAGES for it, because the same information can be represented in radically different visual ways while still showing the same critical information to anyone who knows how to read it, and it's definitely set up in a way that a person who has learned this type of arcana can look at it and understand it while a person who doesn't know how to read it will not have a CLUE what they're looking at, which seems like a pretty good and realistic way to HAVE a runic representation of god magic that basically rewrites the universe.)

Have I talked about the relationship between power and control? The soul as a flexible window to the raw energy of creation, and the effects of exercise and injury? Have I mentioned the Consequences of Really Big Magic Fuckups? My solution to the Abundance Of Hypercarnivores problem in DND style fantasy settings?

God have I even mentioned the COLORS of creation? Soul Mass and the scales of existence? The hierarchy of angels and the Divine Ladder? Evocations vs Emanations vs Empyreans? Immortals and the Outer Realms? The fact that Celestials, Devils, Demons, and others are all just labels applied to different color archetypes of Immortals/Angels? The complete absence of a "moral" correlation to their existence?

Have I talked about the House of Cards? The plot? The backstory? The main city? The Understars and Entropolis and the fraying edges between worlds? The pinnacle of wizardry and arcane knowledge and the greatest library in the universe being nothing more than the crumbling ruin of a legacy broken by hubris and the folly of elitism and isolationism?

The nature of precognition and what it means for time and fate and choice and causality and circumstance and consequences, and what it means for something to be a "fixed point" in time?

What exactly vampires ARE in this setting and how you normally become one? And why Cass is so different? (This is absolutely not the focus of the first book.)

Orders of Magnitude of existence and the gravitational lensing of the fabric of reality in proximity to the unfathomable SCALE of what an Outer God is? Their role in creation? The name of their grandmother? The Medium and the Method? What it means for god to have a blind spot? The importance of kittens?

No seriously HAVE I talked about any of that? Cause I went on a 3.5 hour, 4900+ word infodump to my dnd server last month and now I no longer have any idea what I have and haven't talked about, or where, when it comes to the Uneiverse.

I know which things I definitely HAVEN'T talked about. But there's a lot I no longer remember for sure. Have I even mentioned the sources of inspiration? I don't think I have.

Also yeah Fangs Sexy.

[disco-elysium-via-polls]

Before going anywhere else, I stop at Frittte to drop off some more tare.

🎵 Fritte

The yellow roses in the window -- those aren't the flowers that were left for Klaasje.

VISUAL CALCULUS - The tracks are as they have ever been. A bit more worn, perhaps. Fortunately, the street sweeper still hasn't noticed their presence.

"This is where I started off with my motor carriage... before sinking it in the sea."

I think I got it. [Leave.]

KIM KITSURAGI - "No wonder the cafeteria manager seemed frustrated when he was giving us directions to the yard."

"Well," he gestures toward the gaping hole in the fence, "you did provide us with a very convenient access point to the crime scene."

Not sure how else we would get there, to be honest.

🎵 Whirling in Rags, 8 pm

We should be able to deal with the two winning options at once here...

Except we haven't paid for a room today, so we're locked out.

🎵 Miss Oranje Disco Dancer

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "I was just thinking -- what a nice day for questions." She lights a cigarette. "Pertaining to a murder investigation."

"Can I ask more about you? For the record."

"I need to talk to you about your room again."

"Let's talk more about this so-called assault."

[Volition - Legendary 14] Look her in the eye.

"Titus Hardie gave us a recording where the deceased states his intention to commit rape."

"What is this wild flower?" (Show her the flower.)

"Let's return to this later, miss."

Huh, did we... have that check before? I don't remember it.

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - She puts her coffee cup down.

PERCEPTION (HEARING ) [Easy: Success] - With a soft ring, as the porcelain meets the metal table.

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - This does not surprise her.

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Did he?" A smile flits across her face. "I never said he was a good man. Or that he had good intentions -- only that he was never bad to me."

"On this tape he specifically identifies *you* as the target."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Mmm. Where did they get this recording, exactly?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "It's intercepted radio chatter of the deceased -- recorded via a de-encryption station. It's authentic enough."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Does he says he's gonna do it *Soldier of the Apocalypse*-style?" She arches her brow.

"Those are the exact words he used."

"Something to that effect, yes."

"No."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Yeah... That was practically his pick-up line." She picks the cup back up.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Success] - A memory surfaces in her tired neocortex -- it's not entirely unpleasant.

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Did he say *whores* a lot?... Was he pretty much on the verge of *doing it Co Hoi-style*?"

"Yes. The word *whore* was used."

"Co Hoi *was* mentioned."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "He liked the way it *sounded* when he said it. As to Co Hoi..." The young woman lights a new cigarette with the butt of her old one.

"He wasn't *actually* there -- he didn't do a tour, or at least didn't tell me he did. Would've been overkill anyway. He lived his own little Co Hoi. It was in his... *everything*."

"Why say things like that? Machismo?"

"Do you think he was trying to scare people?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "Yes -- was he bragging?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Oh no, I'm pretty sure he *did* all those things -- then integrated them into his idea of normalcy. To keep on living. Until they just... sort of turned into his..." She thinks. "What's the word I'm looking for?"

"Coping mechanism?"

"Catch phrase?"

"Persona?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Running joke. I was gonna say running joke -- and it sounds like you didn't even get the good bits. Lely's punchlines got way, way funkier than that."

"He was like the Semenese conflict, the Co Hoi massacre, and the '36 famine in Yeesut all rolled into one person, then cast in Oranjese ceramic armour. Which he wore in bed *and* in the shower..."

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - When he said he was *done* and *done mentally* it didn't sound like a joke. Sounded like a deeply troubled man.

"Hold on, he said he was *mentally done*. That's sounds like a broken man to me."

"Weren't you afraid?"

"You like this kind of stuff?"

"And you spent time with this person? Romantically?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Well..." She smiles. "Maybe I pieced him back together -- with my magical personality?"

"Weren't you afraid?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Afraid of what? That tape the Hardie boys recorded? Your mother probably never told you this, but girls are *evil*."

"Had I the physical robustness and social support I'd be *in* Co Hoi, *I* would be tearing it up *Soldier of the Apocalypse*-style..."

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - She wouldn't, she doesn't have the Full Hoi in her.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Did he tell you he had actually *done* any of those things -- here in Martinaise, I mean?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "No. We were too busy laying waste our own nervous systems to direct any of the *fury* outward. He seemed..." She thinks. "He seemed happy, I guess. At ease. As much as a man like him could be."

SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - There is a small measure of pride in her. That she could quell the rage in such a being.

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - What kind of man *was* he? Before you go, ask for details. She seems okay to talk about it.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Thank you for clearing that up, miss." He turns to you. "Whenever you're ready -- I'm interested to hear what Titus Hardie has to say now."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - She takes a very small sip of her coffee and smiles.

Before we ask her any more, let's try this Volition check.

4. [Volition - Legendary 14] Look her in the eye.

+1 Slight confusion about bullet.

VOLITION [Legendary: Failure] - She looks back, time moves slowly. The triangles of her face rearranging into a weary smile...

SUGGESTION [Trivial: Success] - Don't worry. We will protect you from her beauty. We will *consult* you through the reefs and sounds of her persona.

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - We will see through deceits. You are shielded. You are wise.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Easy: Success] - You are advised. There are muscles on long white bones that line her limbs, just below the silver jumpsuit...

What is... happening?

Avert your eyes.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Nothing. Just time passing. Don't worry.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Easy: Success] - Anything out of the ordinary and you would be notified.

ENDURANCE [Trivial: Success] - Air moves in your windpipe. Your heart beats. You're a detective -- get back to detecting.

Am I being... beguiled?

Avert your eyes.

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - She presses her elbows against her waist and slowly turns her head.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - Her hair brushes her shoulders, making a small hissing sound, almost imperceptible...

2. Avert your eyes.

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - The strange moment ends. It was brief, no longer than 2.2 seconds.

5. "Now that you've had some time -- can you tell us more about the victim?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "Like -- for example -- his name?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Actually, officer, I didn't know his name. I just called him Lely."

KIM KITSURAGI - "A nickname?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "I guess. He came from Lelystad -- it's short for that. And it was his *army name*, apparently. He said his real name wasn't *his*. I tried to pry it out of him, but it was no use."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Lelystad. That's a good start..." The lieutenant writes it down in his notebook...

…then tears out a page and hands it to you. "We have a few questions you can help us with. A few things a field autopsy alone can't answer."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - The young woman cranes her neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the page the lieutenant passed to you. On it is a list of autopsy observations, recorded neatly in blue ink.

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - The last missing pieces of a puzzle of flesh.

"Where is Lelystad? The place, I mean?"

"How old was he, miss?"

"His eye colour?"

"He had a tattoo -- what did it mean?"

"Tell me something odd -- did he enjoy his death?"

"Could it be love that *did him in*?"

"We requested a semen screening from Processing."

"I think we're finished with this line of questioning." (Hand the lieutenant back his notes.)

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "In Oranje, officer. It's a... I think *municipality* is the term? A nowhere-town there."

KIM KITSURAGI - "You were *almost* right, officer." The lieutenant shakes his head, like you just missed a shot in darts. "That means his race was Occidental, not Mondial. I'll update the form."

(Look at Klaasje.) "You were both from Oranje?"

(Look at the autopsy paper.) "Moving on..."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Yes. We were compatriots."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Did that bring you together?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "No. He was too old for that -- and from another part of Oranjenrijk. I didn't even understand his accent. What brought us together wasn't Oranje -- it was bad habits."

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Success] - Sex, alcohol...

2. "How old was he, miss?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "He was forty-two."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Forty-two? Are you sure? I would have had him above fifty..."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "He had many scars that made him appear older. But no." The memory makes her smile.

"We even celebrated his birthday, like, some weeks ago… It was a funny two days. He had little reason to lie to me."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Looks like you were right, officer." The lieutenant taps on his notebook once. As though assigning some kind of *point*...

PAIN THRESHOLD [Easy: Success] - Points are good. Have one, you old dog! Before we all die...

+1 Health

"I did not know this was a competition, Kim."

Better not to mention it...

KIM KITSURAGI - "It isn't. Police work is a *cooperative* sport."

3. "His eye colour?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Blue, light blue. They were like..." She stops, her eyes half closed, then continues: "Like little blue galaxies, you know. It was strange, seeing those eyes in his fucked up face..."

"Pardon the swearing." She takes a drag. "I do him an injustice -- he wasn't ugly. And he had a beautiful, soft voice. Very surprising, what with all the scarring. It was quite something, watching him speak."

KIM KITSURAGI - "He had a combat wound -- on his chin and mouth?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Yes. *Severe*." She seems to enjoy the word. "It made him look like half his face was cracking away in some strange smile. That and those eyes..."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Oh yes," the lieutenant suddenly remembers. "His hair -- if you can remember?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "It was light brown, almost blond. He darkened it with brilliantine. Made it oily. Not nice to stroke. I couldn't convince him to leave it alone."

"Interesting -- I too have stroked his hair."

"Kim, I said to put the brilliantine on the form -- do I get a point?"

"Let's get to the rest."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Oily, isn't it..." She says, unfazed. She draws on her cigarette and lets the smoke linger for a moment in her mouth. "We have that in common now."

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - She understands what autopsies entail. It doesn't get her off-balance.

"Kim, I said to put the brilliantine on the form -- do I get a point?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "No," he answers dryly.

"But I put it down, there…" (Point to the red autopsy slip.)

"Okay."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Okay. Sure. Here you go. What else are we missing, officer?" he asks, trying to get the questioning back on track.

+5 XP

4. "He had a tattoo -- what did it mean?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Oh." She smiles. "*That*."

SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - It's clear she *liked* it.

"You liked it?"

"It was an Oranjese Map of the Waterways?"

"It was a map of his service history?"

"What did it represent -- do you know?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Quite a lot, yes."

"It was an Oranjese Map of the Waterways?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Sure, waterways... It was mostly for showing off to chicks though."

"For showing off to chicks? How so?"

"Thank you. A few more questions..."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "How?" She leans back. "Imagine him lying in bed, *freakish* musculature laid out on the sheets. Scarred, of course. Tattooed. The sheets are dirty for some reason."

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] - Is this Oranjese lit?

"Is this Oranjese lit?"

Don't interrupt.

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Yes. This is the very *essence* of Oranjese lit -- a moment's respite. Dark and hopeless as the struggle itself." She leans even further back to demonstrate.

"He's smoking and drinking, of course. And his chest and shoulders and arms are studded with stars. Tens, hundreds of them. Maybe even thousands."

"And the woman goes like..." She points at the air with her sharp-nailed finger, picking out an imaginary tattoo-star. "'What was *this*, baby?'"

"And he says..." She lowers her voice, comically. "'That was *too* hard core. Don't ask me about that.' So she goes: 'Okay. But what's this, baby?' And he's like: 'Saw some bad shit there, killed some loincloths.'"

"And so it goes -- star after star, port after port, third world country after third world country. And he's done horrible things in every single one of them."

"You were the woman in this?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Oh yeah." She nods.

"Can you tell us precisely what these mean?" (Hand her the photo.)

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "No thank you." She does not take it. "I've seen enough of him dead. I can tell you what they *meant* without looking at them." She pours herself some more coffee.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Go on."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "He was a blue-eyed boy with thick arms. From a small town. He was also *poor*, and the government of Oranje needed some people killed, so they turned him into a grotesque killer -- for money."

"He went to Killer Academy in Vredefort. Then he killed some people on the Semenine islands. And on other islands too -- all of the islands. After this he came to Revachol and got killed himself."

"Not a very fun story."

"Good story. Thanks."

"Thank you for clearing that up."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "It *is* when you're high. It can be very exciting then -- you have the tools to deal with it. It's not a very nice story to remember when you're sober." She smiles faintly. "A change of topic?"

4. "Tell me something odd -- did he enjoy his death?"

VOLITION [Mediium: Success] - Just have her answer the question. Don't give explanations.

"Please answer the question, miss. Did he enjoy the moment of his death?"

"It's just a feeling I have. Indulge me."

"It came to me in an *occult vision*."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "It very well could be, yes."- "I don't think he *enjoyed* dying, officer. He had too much left to do -- too many third world conflicts. Couldn't tap out just yet."

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - Everything checks out here. It's all A-Okay. Good answer.

5. "Could it be love that *did him in*?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "It very well could be, yes."- "It very well could be, yes."

"What do you mean?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "What *do* I mean?" She raises an eyebrow. "I have no idea. I don't even know what *you* mean. Love did him in? What does that mean?"

"He told me -- love did him in."

"Okay then. Another question."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "That's not funny, officer."

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - Her voice is like a slash through the air. Her shoulders tense up.

6. "We requested a semen screening from Processing."

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Good for you."

KIM KITSURAGI - "What do you think it will tell us?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "I don't know how a semen sample works, officers. How many days after intercourse does it have to be -- I don't even know if he had sex with someone else. We didn't *go steady*."

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - Is she avoiding anything? Technically not.

VOLITION [Easy: Success] - See? There's something off here. This one *must* know she's deploying flares and countermeasures.

7. "I think we're finished with this line of questioning." (Hand the lieutenant back his notes.)

KIM KITSURAGI - "Alright." The lieutenant puts the slip back in his notes and observes the young woman for a moment.

Task complete: Question Klaasje about the dead man

+10 XP

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - Coolly, gracefully, she pours herself more coffee.

7. "Let's return to this later, miss." [Leave.]

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Why not? I'll be here until 23.00, drinking coffee most likely..."

VISUAL CALCULUS - Wait, stop -- that man, bloated beyond all recognition, was 42?

It's what she said, yes.

[Discard thought.]

VISUAL CALCULUS - Below the damage, the weeks of decomposition, all the swollen indignity of mortality -- he was 42 years old?

Where is this going?

VISUAL CALCULUS - How old are *you*? That's where this is going. Forty-five thousand litres of raw alcohol has left its disfigurements. What lies beneath, you wonder.

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - You could ask either one of them.

"Kim, how old do you think I am?"

(Turn around.) "Miss, how old do you think I am?"

I got this, I got this... My age -- I think I'm...

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Huh?" She leans in closer. "How old do I think you are?"

"I don't know... 40? I was like 9 when OO peaked. That was, what? Nineteen years ago? I liked them when I was 9. You couldn't have liked it when you were 40..."

"Let's say you were twenty-something. Twenty five. A good disco age. Twenty five plus nineteen is forty four. I'm gonna say you're 44."

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - Wow!

"Wow."

"Forty four? I'm young!"

"Forty four? You think so?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Yeah. I have a university degree, you know." She flicks ash from her cigarette.

"Forty four? I'm young!"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "Absolutely. Age is just a number, man."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Yes miss, but..." The lieutenant disagrees. "For him that number is *56*."

VISUAL CALCULUS - Wait! This requires *scientific* measurements.

Bring it on. I am not afraid of the truth.

I don't want to think about this any more.

VISUAL CALCULUS - To the Laboratorium!

Thought gained: Date of Birth Generator

DATE OF BIRTH GENERATOR

Temporary research bonus: None Research time: 7h 15m

Your face looks like it’s 58 and your body feels like it’s 60. Your mind feels like it’s lived for one day or a hundred. Both longer than they ought to be, the day and the century.... But for how long, then, has this thing attached to your sentience walked the planet’s crust? Time to start racking those brains of yours, Elder One. When and where were you born?

[joyce-stick]

I didn't like Scott Pilgrim Takes Off all that much. I feel like elucidating on why, a little bit. so. Anyway.

First, letterboxd review I wrote within a few hours of finishing the show (read this first please):

So, I read all of the comic (finally) prior to watching Takes Off. Having seen the movie several times before, I found the comic interesting in how it develops its characters further over a longer timeframe and ties up a few loose ends that the movie sort of left open in weird ways that don't make sense. Ramona has more agency, Knives shows more maturity, Scott and Ramona are more explicitly on equal footing and make for better foils for each other in the comic than in the movie. Scott regrets his life choices and runs away for a while. Ramona regrets her life choices and also runs away. They both come back and beat up Gideon together with, y'know, mutual agreement that they both kinda equally suck and deserve each other and are going to both try to get better for themselves and one another and it's fine

It's not like, groundbreaking feminist storytelling, but it sure is a lot MORE gender equal than the movie which just goes like. Ramona is mind controlled! Scott must save her! Scott beats up Gideon sorta unilaterally (with a little bit of help) and then gets Ramona because he does! It's okay. It's fine. I mean, both the movie and the comic are fine. The movie is a hyperinventive visual feast and a stellar adaptation as far as faithfully replicating its source material in the target medium. I love it. Anyway.

Both the comic and the movie are fairly complete stories which really don't need more elaborating on. They're done. They exist. People either like them, or hate them, and have been discoursing on them for years. People discuss how bad of a person Scott is or isn't, or how transgender of a reading you can apply or not apply to Scott.

(I mean, you can! You're allowed to!)

It's all well-worn. And stuff. I don't know that Scott Pilgrim is a trans girl. I mean, it's plausible fanfiction. You can do it if you like. I wish that Takes Off had played with that idea, instead of what it did do, or, in addition to what it did do? And what it did do is just. Weh?

Weh.

Okay where do I start. Um.

spoilers for Takes Off below this point

Takes Off starts by taking Scott out of the picture. He is assumedly presumably made dead. Coined. Whoo.

Okay so obviously Scott isn't actually dead, he comes back later, but him being presumed dead for a bit does open the door to the rest of the cast to get some attention. Which you'd think would be good. Alright. So, we have Matthew Patel, still here. He's an incel, it turns out. Beats Gideon in a fight being like "man I got the bigger dick here." Wins totally! Okay! The league of evil exes is all either like "wow good going Matt" or "man screw this shit" and leaves. That's amusing for a minute.

Roxy shows up for an episode, fights Ramona, and is like "YOU LEFT ME RAMMY! I HATE YOU!" And we get some delicious flashbackiness to their relationship, and they kinda reconcile. Then Roxy kisses Kim, and is like "nah I don't care Kim" and dips. Yay.

The fight between Ramona and Roxy is well animated and fun to watch. I enjoyed it. It's alright.

What else... Um, Gideon has a backstory! Gideon isn't even his real name! And he's become the mega incel that he becomes because he got rejected by some girl in high school and this turned into his supervillain origin story. Okay

Lucas Lee does skateboarding and skateboards some paparazzosi to coindeath! Go him! That is genuinely a fun sequence and I enjoyed it, I guess

Wallace Wells seduces Todd Ingram and they have a lot of hot gay vegan sex! He and Envy Adams sorta fight about it! How wacky! Okay

The Katayanagi Twins get some speaking lines in this show! Their robot (which appeared in the comic but not the movie if I remember right) is around. Um.

Julie! Julie is an old school friend of Gideon. She lets him stay at her house. Gideon/Gordon and Lucas Lee do some bro shit. Cool man

All of this is like, fine, and fun, and stuff. I'm fine with it. I liked it. I enjoyed it. Oh and I guess there's a meta subplot about the Scott Pilgrim movie becoming the Scott Pilgrim movie but failing to become the Scott Pilgrim movie because the actors keep having too many video game fights on the movie set

Okay so this is all stuff that Ramona finds out or sorta bumbles into while looking for Scott, who she's surmised has disappeared and is not actually dead. Of course, Scott is not actually dead. He's just been kidnapped and displaced in time by an older version of himself, who is having a midlife crisis because his relationship with Ramona is going badly and he wishes that it had never happened, so he kidnaps young Scott to make it so that it never happened. This does not really work. Also future Ramona does some of her own intervening in the past to counter the plot of future Scott. She has Delorean rollerblades that time travel at 88 miles per hour *rolls eyes*

Anyway, then older older Scott has a fight with younger younger Scott, future Ramona intervenes and merges with younger Ramona to become a super form Ramona and they're just like "my beloved Scott, please, just go back to the future and sort out our marriage, like a responsible adult," he is teleported back to the future, all the exes are not coinexploded, and we get a final scene implying that Julie and Gideon/Gordon are planning something which will lead into a second season, and I don't know why

Why is any of this?

I could analyze it. I could try to tell you why any of this is. But like. I really can't. I don't know.

None of this really advances or develops the characters in any way that wasn't already adequately explored in the existing material. Like, Roxy's hangup over Ramona is fleshed out a bit more, sure, and that's the part of the show I really liked, but... is there anything to that? Does it add anything to Roxy's character that we didn't already know? Not really. We could already pretty easily infer from the comics that Ramona left Roxy, just like she left all her exes, and that Roxy is mad about it. Is it nice that they talk about it? I guess. Sure. It's nice to have a version of that conversation without Scott being the third wheel. But does it meaningfully change her character?

...No

And this is the same for all the characters. Our understanding of Matthew Patel and Gideon Graves is not particularly deepened by their incel dickmeasuring fight, or Gideon's origin story about getting rejected in high school. Our understanding of Lucas Lee is not especially enhanced by the newly revealed detail that he's a headache for his agent because of his reckless wild free devil may care skater dude attitude causing PR risks. Our understanding of Wallace Wells is not amazingly additioned by seeing him seduce Todd Ingram and piss off Envy Adams. Our understanding of Knives doesn't change when she learns how to play music and gets along with Kim and Stephen... And such and so forth.

And our understanding of Scott does not meaningfully change, either. There's really no radically new character interpretation to be drawn from "Scott divorces Ramona and then tries to undo his past". That's just kind of a thing you'd figure he'd do. And of course Ramona would try to set him straight! And look for him! And. Yeah

So yeah, Takes Off feels like, almost, the definition of that phrase that Dan Olson used in that one video

"No meaning, only lore."

I cannot fathom why this show exists other than that Netflix wanted a Scott Pilgrim show, and Bryan Lee O'Malley decided to pitch one because he's sure as hell not got any other big hit comics being cross-media franchises right now, and the plot that ended up being there feels like his end of the entire writing process was spent wracking his brain, fighting for his life to come up with a reason, any reason, to write more of fucking Scott Pilgrim

And the best he could come up with was, I guess, Scott has a midlife crisis, and also more superfluous character detail, and the fanservice angle of getting to see Ramona fight Roxy, or Gideon fight Matthew, or Lucas Lee skateboard more

I had a lot of fun seeing all that but I don't know why I watched it. I don't know who wanted this. And I definitely don't know who wants a second season of this. Who would want more of this? The season we do have was already grasping for straws to do more with this setting and these characters as it was. What would they even do?

Anyway. If I was gonna rewrite this and write this smarter. I'd probably tell y'all about the moment when Young Neil is trying to write a screenplay, and some mysterious figure (later revealed to be future Ramona) shows up in his room and types up the screenplay for the Scott Pilgrim movie for him. And then he wakes up, the screenplay is on his desk, and he's like "WHOA I don't remember writing this! I totally wrote this!"

And I'd say, if I were trying to be smart and write some smart video essay analogy in a better more polished review, that Takes Off feels like Bryan Lee O'Malley wished that the script for the show would similarly emerge fully formed from nowhere from the future for him.

Or something.

Anyway, thanks for reading this impromptu, review rant something. If you liked whatever this was, and want to see us write more, better things, then, giving us money would be cool.

Patreon | Ko-fi

[inkedroplets]

1, for rich girl; 10, 14, 29? :D

1. Share a song that makes you think of [fic title]

I think Francis Forever is just so very much Lena in this fic.

I don't need the world to see

That I've been the best I can be, but

I don't think I could stand to be

Where you don't see me

Lena's journey began as something self-destructive. Her desire to salvage the Luthor name is well and gone and you're left with someone who wants to do good and regardless of whether her and Kara reconciled she always wanted her to know in the end. Our friendship may have been a lie. All the things you said and what I thought of myself might not have been true but I was able to be a force for good.

Tiny spoiler for the last chapter but I think it sums it up quite nicely

“But it’s only a helmet,” Lena said when she finally looked back. Her voice was so low that it was little more than a soothing hum. "Only a suit….” She touched the side of her head as if to adjust a pair of invisible glasses and smiled. “Just like it’s only a pair of glasses… It’s still me underneath it all.” Lena’s hologram looked down and away. “And I wanted you to know that in the end I was able to do something good.”

10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

I've absolutely talked to you about this before but that would have to be Maybe I'm Too Afraid to Admit It. I don't think I write fluff particularly well and I don't think the story is all that good? It's a bit too cliche for my taste but it's quite popular and I don't really know why? Not that I think it's written particularly badly but to me it's nothing special.

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

I think it would have to be Rich Girl. If only because it would be well suited for either. Let me see Lena and Diana gabbing on the big screen.

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.)

I actually have a few chapters of this weird Lucifer crossover done but I've kind of lost the voices for the characters so it's difficult to continue. I still might because it is quite fun but no promises.

"Why did you fake your death?" Linda asked. She folded her hands nearly in her nap and leaned slightly forward in her chair.

"I told you already," Lena said, trying to keep the impatience that so desperately wanted to seep into her voice at bay. "I wanted-"

"To start over, yes, I remember," Linda said. "What I mean is why go to such lengths to do so? Clearly, you have both the means and ability to remain under the radar if you wanted to, so why fake your death? Why do something so-"

"Drastic?" Lena offered.

"Yes,"Linda said slowly, sounding as if it were her turn to try and keep herself from sounding impatient. "Most people would consider faking their death extremely drastic, so why do it? Was it to hurt the people who had lied to you?"