#'well this isn't a full story by itself and it's not reality worth putting it in the main fic so uh... comic I guess'

[youcantrewind]

This is the exact reason I've had the end of a fic written since last year that I haven't gotten back to properly plotting yet, and why chapters 12 and 13 are some of the first stuff I wrote of the current one.

You get that one scene down and then you're like "hmm. Uh oh. Now what." At least with the current one, I already knew the bare bones of the story.

Guess that's why fandom uses "drabbles" and "ficlets" and the like so often. You gotta get something out, but you're not entirely sure what surrounds it, so sometimes it just gets to be its own little thing. 😅

Do other writers ever get this like, hyper-specific dialogue exchange drop into their brains and you know exactly where these character are standing and what they’re doing and how they’re saying these words but that’s all you get. You don’t have much other context and this specific moment that exists only at this time in your headspace??

[crying-fantasies]

The Second Unicron anomaly

Masterlist

Optimus, all my life since very young, has been the very example of selfness, sacrifice and that want to do better, be better, because he does so while dragging uncountable things he regrets but still keeps on going while trying to show the others that he is fine when he is anything but that.

G1 Optimus was a childhood crush of mine, I admired him so much, still do, every representation of him makes me believe that there is something worth fighting for.

So, when I started to write a little something about him, well, it's hard, because I've come to idealize him so much that now I realize it's hard to put myself or whoever next to him and not feel it strange (fuck).

Then, the answer comes in the form of Orion Pax.

Hear me out, first, everything and all my stories happen in the IDW1 universe/multiverse where, well, spoiler, Optimus dies to accompany and calm the pain of a grieving father for his child whom was taken from him by the very same war the Primes before Optimus started in an attempted take over of neighboring organic planets in their periphery, it ended catastrophically as for one, the entire population of that planet became dire wraiths, two, the planet itself bared the physical recreation of the mythical Unicron, the devil in cybertronian culture, in a very "fuck you" message for cybertronians in general, three, I know it was all Shockwave fuckery in the timeline but man, it makes you ask yourself that if this Unicron isn't THE Unicron, then where the fuck is he? (Maybe I digged a bit on the TFP and BV for this but we still didn't got there).

Well, long story short, Optimus Prime dies to protect his colony, colony the last of his people, friends and Allies can consider a safe haven, he is ready to do so to protect them and atoning for sins he did and the one he didn't.

It's a sad ending, but an ending nonetheless, just like Megatron on his trial, put to eternal suffering out of his frame.

I gave Megatron a second chance on my stories, of course I can let Optimus have one for himself.

So, Megatron is happy with the LL crew, and while they are in Cybertron something happens, as always, the starship seem to have a strange thing going on with it, the black hole result of Unicron's defeat at the hands of Prime opens, people start screaming when something is being launched out of it, big things get out of it and land on New Cybertron, most know as the free Cybertron or the Functionalism reality Cybertron, everyone believed it to be the mutated Maximals again, but what gets out is-

"Cliff? Cliffjumper is that you?", Bumblebee asks, fluid on his optics, looking at his lost friend, an also just returned Mirage just behind him with Hound, it doesn't take much before the latter drags his lost friends to him for a hug, full of relief.

More pieces start to fall, pieces soon landing around, more mechs, people, all of them are being returned, somehow, before the opening in the black hole ripped.

Carcer is back, with him, his whole crew, Elita One is the first to look at them in awe, she starts to shout, "Where is Unicron?!" when she just came from what was left of the devil itself.

Megatron is fast to search, some even questioned him for it when his own crew followed him, looking out for whoever came in those things, no one remembering what happened when they saw the massive frame of Unicron approaching.

Megatron, in all of this, notices their frames are good as new, no damage done, upgrades gone, as he searches in the many bodies coming back, the sparks reignited, mechs that welcome their loved ones back, faith restored in their optics as Tappet hugs as he can a very confused Hefter who ask where the enforcers are with a frightened face, screaming when he sees Velocitron appear before moving to a path back to it's previous orbital course, knowing where it belongs, followed by Caminus.

When Megatron finds the frame of who he knew would also come back he has to stop for a moment before finally presenting a helping servo to the bot trying to get out of the strange cocoon, who only looks at him, barely recognizing him, the Matrix casing put on him in desperate times gone, as the semi truck finally speaks at him.

"Megatron?"

And the one that asks isn't Optimus Prime, but Orion Pax, and Megatron knows, as this isn't the bot he knew like the back of his own coding, choosing to see this as a mercy more than a punishment when those clear blue optics look at him.

"You look different"

"I'm different, Orion, for good"

"Oh, did you get your work viewed?"

Megatron doesn't have the spark to tell him so, none of them does, not when Orion Pax smiles genuinely without his battle mask, trying to figure out who are the mechs in front of him.

"Yes"

"That's great, good to hear it"

[thekingofwinterblog]

Also the whole "flooding the world thing" - I think its a copout too for Oda to remove any complexity - now even some badguys must simply fight for the good side, cause yeah, nobody wants to drown.

There isn't any ambiguity over marines, like "the goverment may be bad, but it atleast stops anarchy from taking over" - no, now the goverment literally wants to destroy the world, so even Black Beard is the lesser evil, cause supposedly he just wants to rule it not destroy it in a black hole, but maybe thats gonna get revealed too lol.

I actually disagree with this, because this has been foreshadowed for a long time, and the set up for a massive escalation has been building up as the series and our understanding of the World's history has been revealed... But there was definitly a massive change at some pount, am im pretty sure I can pin point what it was.

But to set the stage...

There is one, single canon One Piece Movie. Strong World, written by Oda as Luffy's final adventure before everything went down at sabaody, amazon lily, impel Down, and Marineford.

But there was going to be a second canon movie.

One Piece Film Z was made with the idea of it being canon from day one in mind... Only for Oda to realize there was so many continuity mistakes within the movie in relation to the film, that he wqs forced to scrap it as being in continuity with the manga.

However, the important thing is not that it wqs scrapped as canon, but what Oda wrote as it's plot and how it relates to Imu's eventual plan.

The plot of Z, is that the former Marine Admiral Z is planning on ending the Golden Age of Piracy...

By using a super weapon called the Dyna stones to cause a volcanic chain reaction that would lay the New world beneath the waves(Something that an eagle eyed viewer might realize means all the islands in the new world is part of one, continious chain of tectonic activity, suggesting it was all one continent).

Sound familiar? That's right, this was Oda foreshadowing the eventual big endgame of the series by showing a villain plan something similar, just on a smaller scale.

Also, It's not really focused on before the very end, because this is very much a movie about the Straw-Hats vs Z, but the marines are NOT onboard with this plan at all, even if they would wipe out Kaido, Big Mom, Shanks and Blackbeard by doing it.

The reward is not worth the cost.

Again, Oda puts the reality that for how bad the marines can and are through the series, there are moral lines that even they, even Akainu himself wont cross.

I have a lot of critiques of Oda as a writer, but one thing I cannot complain is just how thouroughly he plans things out and hints at events to come. How well he does that as a norm, just makes the times when he fails look so much more jarring by comparison.

Then of course there is Noah. The giant, giant Ship that was the big unfired chekov's gun from Fiahman isles, made as a response to the reality that the side of the great Kingdom had lost the war, and now had to prepare for the contigency plan.

We have no idea what Joyboy's original plan was, or what he wrote on that apology to his friend/lover/ally Poseidon, but she and her people presumably built this ship as a result, and the reason for it was that Joy Boy and his side must have feared that the endpoint of everything was that the entire world would end up being flooded as a result of them losing the war.

Similarily, Wano, the only other country that we know fought on the side of Joy Boy and his allies, erected enormous walls around itself, which charqcters in story thinks are for defence, but when you have the full picture, it's obvious these were made in preparation of what they must havr thought would be coming soon, a total sinking of the entire world.

Another Chekov's gun that is as of yet unfired is Iceburg's plan to turn Water Seven into a floating Island. Ehich was treated as an interesting solution to a problem at hand, but when you realize where this story would ultimately end up heading, it's actual endgame purpose becomes clear, as one of the island's that are going to survive the comi g sinking, just so happens to be the same one where Pluton was originally built.

Just in time for the Thousand Sunny to fullfill it's purpose of reaching Laugh Tale and the Straw-Hats needing to level the playing field for Blackbeard's coming aquisition of Pluton.

Now with all of this in mind, it's pretty clear that Oda has been planning this endgame for a very, very long time.

So with that in mind, what was the shift i was talking about at the start?

Well, from a story perspective, the eventual flooding of the world was always One Piece's endgame.

But from an in universe perspective, i dont believe at all, that this was what Imu and the Gorosei was going to be about all along.

Rather what i think was the original plan, was that though Joy Boy somehow foresaw this as the future that would take place when he was "Reborn", what actually was going to be the case, was that the plan to just sink the world and be done with it was going to be the result of massive escalation from the World Government's perspective.

From a historical perspective, Imu has been the unchallenged leader of the world for a long, long time.

During that time, there was very little need, or motivation for Mariejois to flood the world... Why would they even consider such a course of action?

Well, if you pay attention to how we were introduced to these concepts back in Water Seven and Enies Lobby, there starts to form a picture.

Originally the stance of the WG going to any and all lengths to keep the very existence of the void century and the ancient weapons a secret was ironclad.

It was the way of things for centuries.

But then something happened. Something so monumental that they changed from trying to keep them buried, to try to revive them and harness their power for their own ends.

That something was 2. Things.

The great Pirate Era, and rise of the Yonko.

The greatest and most dangerous Pirate in history(So far) was Rocks, a man who tried to upend the entire world order, but at the end of the day, after his death his entire crew fell apart, and his ambitions and legacy died with him.

What really changed, was Roger, and the 4 Pirates who followed after him as the rulers of the next age.

Roger lit the world aflame in the great Golden Age of Piracy, and over the course of two decades, the World Govenrment's grip over the world began to disintegrate in the face of the rise of countless new pirates who took to the seas.

And of course, there was the other problem. The Yonko.

This is a fact that the Five Elder's immortality makes somewhat easy to miss, but not a single one of them, nor the Admirals, are on the same level of power as the Yonko.

Other than the Boar one, Luffy has so far beaten around the Gorosei lime ragdolls with little difficulty, and as we saw with both Luffy's manhandling of Kizaru, and a heavily wounded witebeard, who's age and illness made him unable to use his Haki to it's fullest potential still taking down Akainu in two hits, the Yonko are at a level of Pkwer that the World Government simply has nothing to bring to bear to realistically challenge them.

One, single exception might be Imu, as we don't have a good idea of how powerful the Monarch actually is, but Imu's capacity to actually be able to go out into the world is rather limited given how important total silence is on the very existence of such a figure.

And worse, while Rocks was a figure who's existence could be covered up, the Yonko weren't just pirates. They set themselves up as monarchs of their own, the inheritors of Roger as the rulers of the seas.

So influential was they they the world government couldn't directly challenge them, they couldn't wipe the knowledge of them from history, and they in general just had to tolerate their prescence and the risk that any one of them might go to Laugh Tale and find Roger's treasure.

So with that in mind, they tried(and eventually succeeded to some degree) to ressurect the ancient great weapons of old, to do with the great powers that brought ruin to the world, what their military power could not.

With this in mind, the logical conclusion is to assume that the plan to just sink the world beneath the seas would just be the next escalation.

That something being Luffy's awakening his devil fruit, The Ancient enemy of Poseidon coming back into the picture, and... Blackbeard.

I honestly dont know why he's so important in this situation(It would make way more sense if this happened AFTER he obtained Pluton), but im guessing that the fact he possesses the devil fruit the world government has labled as continuing the power of the Devil Himself has something to do with it.

So with this in mind, it makes way more sense that the final endgame of just "Flood everything and let god sort them out" was originally planned to be a direct escalation of the rising challenges Imu faces.

Just wipe the board clean, rather than risking the pieces doing to us what we did to the great kingdom.

Im honestly not sure WHY it changed to "This was always the plan.", but if i had to guess, Oda's original plan for this was that it was going to be Luffy's awakening that would serve as the final straw figuratively speaking, where Imu would finally reveal themselves and declare that play time was, figuratively over.

However if that was the chain of events, then Luffy's rise to Yonko would be an unambigiously bad thing, that would color the entire end of Wano in a rather grim light.

Rather than a hopefull beginning, it would instead be the final hours of the old age, before the events that took place there brought about the apokolypse.

There would be no way to spin that as a good ending in any way... And if there is anything that marrs Oda's writing more than anything else, it's his horrific fear of letting a story or arc end on a full on downer ending(The only exception to that ever being Marineford).

[doodletae]

the rise and fall of neverland - the story of the name chapter: temptation by txt

i've just been blown away by this comeback (i'm so proud of my tubatu boys), so even though i feel like the album by itself does a good job of telling its own story, i just really like narrative writing and wanted to self-indulge for a moment. which is ironic, 'cause as we shall see, this whole story is about the dangers of self-indulgence 🙃

[lyrics from the track are indented and italicized]

i. alluring temptation (devil by the window)

the story opens on a particularly dark night in a bedroom that belongs to a certain youthful boy. up to this point in his life, it seems the world has given him more pain than pleasure, and he longs to escape this miserable, dreary reality. but tonight is his chance. a figure has appeared at his window with a sweet smile and even sweeter words.

Just fall asleep, sweet dreams You can't get off the ride A wolf in sheep clothes His disguise

the boy seems fully aware of this devil's corrupt character, but the promises the devil whispers in his ears are too pleasing to turn down.

He's whispering "Give up, don't you put up a fight" Said the devil by the window "Dream on, dream on, good night"

a part of the boy still resists; a part of him knows what he will have to sacrifice in order to partake in this fantasy, but the devil urges him to keep dreaming, keep living inside that dream you can't escape, isn't it so much better than living inside this cold reality?

the devil beckons him to the window, where the bitter wind brushes against the boy's bare feet.

"will you fly with me to neverland?" the devil whispers.

High, high, high I feel my body drifting into the sky I won't come down, come down, come down, I'll fly Weightless without a worry into the night

ii. sweet surrender (sugar rush ride)

the boy has given in. he's arrived at neverland, the place where boys never grow up, the colors are more vibrant and the fruit tastes sweeter. it's like living in an eternal daydream. from the flowers, to the waterfalls, to the animals, everything about this land seems to draw him in.

he's on a sugar rush ride; the first thrill of landing on the island surges through the boy as he explores every crevice of the landscape.

Come a little closer (Ah-ah-ah, oh) You whisper (Ah-ah-ah, oh) Swallow The sugar rush (Ah-ah-ah, oh)

the devil is still there right beside him, urging him to go deeper into neverland, to chase the excitement, to get lost in the sounds and sights. the boy can't get enough. more. he needs more. and he'll live forever on this island, high on the addictive sugar running through his veins, never feeling full.

You're bad, you liar What did you do to me, sugar

iii. blissful ignorance (happy fools)

perhaps the boy realizes something is wrong in neverland, but nevertheless, he indulges in the temptation and finds himself living as a "happy fool."

No matter what they say I don't know, give it up (Mhm) Already hopped on it, so I’ll properly enjoy this crooked ride

for better or for worse, the boy is living the dream. he's already given in to the "sugar rush ride"; might as well enjoy it for all it's worth. here there is no need for work, no need for stress, no need for growing up. he's left all responsibilities behind and there's no one here to stop him. he's stopped worrying about tomorrow because he's confined himself to the pleasures of today.

I'm like a butterfly (Butterfly) A honeybee that only works Even that sky where the sun’s setting Won't know whether it’s pretty (Get it, get it)

he's taken the easy route; but how long will it last?

The pleasant taste of laziness Is very sweet A dream-like guilty pleasure is right in front of me 

iv. a crumbling dream (tinnitus [wanna be a rock])

the daydream starts to lose its shine, slowly fading into a nightmarish prison that the boy can't escape. the bird songs, the wind, everything in neverland is starting to lose its sweetness until it all combines into this one big buzzing sound in his ears, filling his head and consuming his mind.

Even if I cover my ears, the daze gets louder The empty sound is deafening As if submerged in a fishbowl, the bruises and tinnitus fills it up In the empty noise, feel so lonely

in the still atmosphere of nighttime, the boy's own loneliness stares back at him, like a monster's eyes gleaming from the depths of a cave. all he wanted was sweet satisfaction; all he wanted was comfort and happiness. now he can't even have that. in the end, he will still be left with nothing. is this all his life will become? endless chasing after a sugar rush?

Wanna live a new life But I'm a bit lazy What is my existence? Give me an answer

even the stars above him are still shining bright. but he cannot shine any longer.

Rockstar minus the star Just a rock, okay? I had a dream Without knowing anything

v. bittersweet escape (farewell, neverland)

the mirage has faded. the devil is gone. and no matter how much the sweetness of neverland had tempted him, it was only an illusion. and the boy needed something real.

No matter where I go This is no home Even if I'm afraid, I'm going down

he recognizes how the island has deceived him. and in order to escape, he must fall back down to earth, back to reality. it will be painful; but it will be worth it. he can no longer live a lie.

Everything that was beautiful I know it's not true Trying to spit out that cruel lie To the paradise of irresponsible dreams I'll say my last goodbye

the same foot that stepped out the window that cold, dark night is now the same foot that stands at the edge of neverland. this is not his home. he was not meant to live alone. the world below may hurt him but this island was hurting him more by poisoning him with his own desires.

the boy steps forward.

Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh Falling, falling Goodbye, Neverland, my love

[theharpermovieblog]

#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2023

I re-watched Eastern Promises(2007)

Between David Cronenberg and His son Brandon, this will be the sixth film from the Cronenberg family on this year's list. That has to say something about me and my tastes.

Trying to find the family of a dead girl who left behind a child, a British midwife finds herself crossing paths with the Russian Mafia.

If you were to sit down and watch every David Cronenberg film back to back you'd notice something between the violence and strange horror. You'd notice the ambient noise in the background. Watch the restaurant scene in Existenz and the kitchen seen in this film and there is a similarity in the sound. Busy, yet flat and droning. Does it mean anything? Not really, except it's a very very small detail that shows you how much a David Cronenberg movie can not be confused for the work of any other director. Even this film, which isn't the same body-horror oddity that Cronenberg is known for, is top to bottom his own unique style.

Here Cronenberg works with actor Viggo Mortensen. A team that's worked together before. Whether History of Violence, this film, or last year's Crimes of the Future, it's worth watching their collaborations. Mortensen's low key cool style, often with an undertone of deep sadness and intelligence, fits the worlds in which Cronenberg places him. This film is probably their best work together.

Eastern Promises is a dark movie that shys away from nothing. And, I mean nothing. It's a story of loss, trauma, crime, corruption, rape, murder, and the possibility of redemption. And, in a brutal way, it puts these things on full display for its audience to witness.

The best part of this film is Mortensen's character. He is a seemingly loyal driver and soldier for the Russian mob, who despite having a conscience, lives in this horrific world and must take part in it's horrors. Mortensen is fantastic in the role, giving hints to his inner thoughts with only slight variations on his face. He isn't what he seems, but it's impossible for him not to be at least somewhat corrupted by what he's done, and it shows.

Vincent Cassell is also amazing in this movie. Providing a character that is at first shown to be one thing, but underneath is a product of trauma.

This is a very good film and might be one of my favorites of Cronenberg's.

Yes, I love his body horror films and his ability to alter my perceptions of reality. But, Eastern Promises is so well put together and so interesting from beginning to end, it's hard to not consider it as one of Cronenberg's masterpieces. It's a film that feels tense from the first moment. It's sense of ever present danger and it's tight rope walk of moral ambiguity from one end of the spectrum to the other, make for a film that sets itself above most mob movies.

Its a somber look at darkness, whether it's the pure evil of a mob boss, the pure good of a simple midwife, or those inbetween. The film is shot, paced, written and directed magnificently. And, unlike some other Mafia films, it's not overly long and self indulgent.

And come on, that bathhouse scene is iconically wild.

[gingermintpepper]

After thinking it over for a bit, I've decided that I might as well do a proper underrated 3DS game rec list. I'm a bit of an ATLUS junkie and that's gonna be pretty disgustingly apparent in this list, but it's not my fault that they released hit after hit and all of them were duly ignored.

Due to tumblr's 10 image limit (and my struggle to keep motivated to do one thing for more than three hours) I'm definitely gonna have to break this up into parts and I'm fairly certain one of these lists is just gonna be MegaTen games lmao but I'd like to let people know about these excellent titles and see if I can't at least get people interested in them so they can get more traction.

So, without further ado:

Some 3DS Games that were criminally slept on (part 1)

Monster Hunter Stories

God, where do I begin with this game. Well, the basics: It's a JRPG spinoff title of the now widely successful and popular Monster Hunter series featuring a different take on interacting with the varied and intricate monsters populating the world: Riders.

Yep, instead of hunting the beasties, you play as a young rider who's completed their intiation ritual and can now bond with 'Monsties' as they've cutely labelled the usually ferocious monsters of the wilds. The great thing is that you still fight Monsters--tons of them in fact but this isn't a paid review and in my humble opinion, the most impressive thing about this game is the visual style. The landscapes, the armour, the way they redesigned and 3DS-ified the classically hyper realistic and monstrous beasts to not only be absolutely adorable but still capable of being intimidating when the time calls for it, the stellar animation of special moves and combination attacks--it's delicious, nutritious, stupendous, I can and will consume it like it's part of my recommended caloric intake.

It's very akin to Pokemon in the way its basic gameplay premise is set up, however, instead of catching--or even indeed befriending--the Monsties in the game, you rummage through their nests and steal their eggs, later hatching them and getting yourself a brand new lightly kidnapped monster pal!

Other general things about the game:

Pros:

The armour and weapon sets for both male and female characters slap along with the general character customisation options. They're incredibly diverse (though limited in body type) and you can switch around traits and features whenever you want from your house.

The POGS--these porkers are everywhere and they serve as tiny little achievements for exploring every odd and end of the world. Also they have little outfits. They're so cute. 🥺🥺

You can actually ride the Monsties. All of em. Or, at least the ones that you have available to be your buddies. They all have exploration skills and traits that not only make exploring much more interesting but encourage you to swap out your active Monstie and play around with your options a bit.

Y'all breeding Monsties is complicated and I live for just how intense and ridiculous you can get with optimal builds for these things.

The story is really competently put together! The characters, character designs and even the internal conflict with your starting trio of characters is really compelling along with the mystery of the blight that's infecting Monsters across the world. It's not anything worth awards but it's compelling and it makes you care about the characters if that's what you're in the market for.

Amazing sound design, expansive world, everything about the presentation of this game oozes that Monster Hunter charm even if the art is cutesier than usual. You'll never get bored of its stellar visual presentation!

Available for around twenty quid on the Google Play store, so if you want, you could actually get the full game on your smartphone or tablet. Note though that it would be a battery nuker.

Cons:

If you're on a regular 3DS, frame rate drops are a given. This game kinda pushes the visual capabilities of the 3DS to its absolute limit--a lot like Okamiden did back on the DS.

One save file :( It's pretty much for the same reason as above but still.

If you're playing as the girl, you can't get male armour and vice versa. Since there's only one save file, you'll never be able to have all of the armour sets in a single playthrough and that's criminal because both of the sets for the genders are absolutely breath-taking, thank you.

I 👏can't 👏make👏my👏 own 👏Palico👏

Multi-player for this game is pretty dead seeing as it's almost five years old by now and never got much press or traction. Usually this wouldn't be an issue - this game is 99% singleplayer and you don't really need to fuss about with multi-player to have fun, but if you want to collect all the Monsties, you'll need it since the only way to get Glavenus is through pvp achievements. :/

Final thoughts: Play it if you find yourself getting tired or disappointed with 3DS Pokemon games but still want something that feels as fantastical as Pokemon. It outshines the 3DS Pokemon games at every turn and I will never be over just how thoughtfully put together and fully realised these games are. Of course, if you've ever played Monster Hunter, then you know just how intensive these games are with the lore, biology, cultures and world of their Monsters but seeing that translated into JRPG format was just very sobering and it's a game that, to this day, continues to awe me with just how much love and attention went into it.

Last note: If you're still unsure about it, there's a demo available on the e-shop of the 3DS that allows you to play through the entire initial area of the game. Your data does carry through to the full release and to give you an idea of how much I've been able to squeeze out of it - my playtime for that demo is currently sitting at 22 hours. Make sure to get a hold of that Cyan-Kut-Ku!

7th Dragon III Code: VFD

The title may sound intimidating but the premise is not! A mysterious disease called Dragon Sickness spread by the Dragonsbane flowers that have cropped up all around the world. You and your team are recruited by the Nodens game company after you display extraordinary prowess in their hit virtual reality game 7th Encount. As you go through the adventure, you are tasked with finding out the truth behind the Dragon Sickness and asked to stop both it and the Dragons that are destroying the world.

This game is fun. It's another turn-based JRPG however, in this game you create all of your characters yourself from the myriad of classes available to you from the jump. Different classes of course have very different specialisations - Samurai focus on high powered cutting damage with their swords, Duelists are summoners who can influence the element of the battlefield as well as summon monsters from each element, Agents can hack into your enemies and inflict a barrage of nasty ailments, just to name a few - and you are given three teams of three characters each to experiment with different team comps and find the balance that works for you. There's also a wide variety of Dragons to hunt and kill in the game, which directly affects how infected your world is with the Dragon Sickness causing Dragonsbane. Along the way you will also come into contact with many interesting characters, concepts and confrontations that will make the task of saving the world all the more imperative.

Pros

1. The character creator and differing classes give way for tons of experimenting and playing around with your own unique approach to combat and carrying out your missions. Granted, 'character creation' is generous, it's little more than palatte swaps but the classes are really where VFD shines. Eight main classes may not sound like a lot, but the expaniveness of the character skills, their synergy with their fellow classes and the uniqueness of some of the classes in and of itself allows for so much flexibility and creativity in approaches to even tougher bosses. It also encourages the switching about of your party members to really finagle with the options available to you.

2. God this game is pretty. The locations, the character art, the creature design - all of it is gorgeous and this game capitalises on every bit of the 3DS's presentation limitations as it can.

3. You can romance anything and everyone - yes, you can even be gay/lesbian/poly in this game. In fact, one of the main characters - Julietta - is gnc and he's a constant source of joy as well one of my personal favourite characters, right behind Yuma.

4. Exploration is very very forgiving as the game has healing spots and teleport nodes all over the world to allow for quick, seamless travel between quest points without feeling like anything is too much of a hassle. There are also special enemies that allow for quick grinding as well as quick farming of money. In general, the game does a really good job of making sure that the grind is never unbearable or inconsiderate of your time.

Cons:

1. This is the fourth game in a series the West has never seen any other title for, and from the looks of it, will probably never see any other titles for. Because of that, there are some elements that may seem confusing or revelations in the plot that may seem to come out of nowhere.

2. While the visuals are great, the OST of this one is pretty short making for a lot of reused soundtracks that can get really annoying if you're like me and need your audio to be interesting or consistent so it doesn't distract you too much.

3. This one isn't really a con but it is divisive: This game gets pretty difficult at times. A few of the main dragon enemies including and especially the final boss can give you a serious run for your money in the annoy-o-meter in terms of the kind of absolute JRPG fuckery they can pull out of their magic bag of bullshit movesets and while I generally enjoy that kind of thing, I know it's not for everyone. Most regular combat shouldn't be too tricky once you have a team comp that works well together but you also need to pay attention since the same team that carries you to victory one time might be worth beans against another dragon.

Final thoughts: This is... a really good game. Interesting story, really interesting characters, pretty world and a battle system that really makes you sit down and think. There's also a demo for this available in the e-shop and while your data doesn't carry over - you do receive multiple perks for carrying over your demo data including some exclusive items that, while not game breaking, do help a ton in the early stages of the game.

This isn't a final list by any stretch of the word; I only have the energy to do these two right now, but the next games up for coverage are Ever Oasis and Stella Glow! If you're interested in my full plan of games I want to cover here then my current lineup includes: Theatrhythm: Curtain Call, Project Mirai: Deluxe, Culdecept Revolt, Alliance Alive, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Etrian Odyssey V, Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse.

Finally, if anyone has played any of the games I mention, cover or plan to cover PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME, I AM SO LONELY IN MY FORTRESS OF SAND. On a serious note, I'd love to hear what other people who've played these games think!

Thanks for reading,

-Ginger

PS: @feralpeacock Because a million years ago, on my first underrated games post, you asked that I remember you. :D

[villains-with-benefits]

Playing the blame game, and other pointless endeavours

A reflection on BNHA Chapter 291

Before and after: or, How to violently radicalise an abuse victim in five easy steps

I think a lot of the people throwing blame around or trying to declare that one character or another is the One True Villain™ or the One True Victim™ need to stop seeing personal responsibility as a zero sum game, because it really isn't.

Arguing about whether Dabi and Endevour should each have 50% of the blame or if it's more of a 60/40 or 70/30 split (in either direction) is pointless. Endeavour is 100% responsible for his abuse of his family and general failings as a human being, and Dabi is 100% responsible for the lives he's taken and people he's hurt in retaliation because of it.

Sure these two things are absolutely related in that good ol' cause-and-effect sense, much like how an earthquake at sea will cause a tsunami. And much like them neither happened in a vacuum, the surrounding environmental conditions needed to be just right for a perfect storm of this magnitude to occur. It just so happens that in this case both the earthquake (Endeavour) and the tsunami (Dabi) are not faceless forces of nature, but human beings with superpowers who chose to take action based on their deep-set mental and emotional issues at everyone else's expense, either because they think their needs are more important, they think the price paid is worth being the means to the end or (most likely) a combination of the two.

Please note, I don't say this to excuse or condemn either character, the readers who are taking sides, or even Horikoshi's writing. It's pretty well established by now that one of the biggest themes in BNHA is that there is no perfect black and white when it comes to people and society and morality, and just about all the conflict is driven by just how badly their entire system (which is built and determined to die on that hill) messes it up for absolutely everyone on all sides. Saying Dabi is a Bad Victim while Shouto is a Good Victim is just as pointless, because you're missing that the real villain is their broken society, of which everyone is a victim, even Endeavour.

Again, Endeavour was the one to abuse his family and he gets no passes for that so don't even try to argue that's what I'm saying, but he didn't wake up one day and just decide to do it. If Chapter 291 has done anything it's shown how escalation is nine tenths of the law in cases like this. He was already an asshole narcissist with a raging inferiority complex, we've heard from his own POV in an earlier chapter that he purposefully chose Rei to have kids with to eugenics a solution to his problem, he was never an upstanding guy.

While we don't see Endeavour's own upbringing there's a reason he's been such a strong narrative parallel with Bakugou, so we can make an educated guess from what we've seen of his what it must have been like having a powerful Quirk and ambitions being fed by the people around him, and the way Bakugou has clashed with characters like Deku and Shouto when he was confronted with the reality that he wasn't going to get Number One effortlessly, we can guess how well he took realising he was always going to be Number 2.

Pictured: the hero equivalent of always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

At least with Bakugou's rivals they're his own age and acknowledge him as a rival, All Might is at least a decade older than Endeavour and he's always been a loner who didn't get to know his colleagues that well. As readers we know All Might keeps his distance because he's kinda awkward socially, and because between the threat of All For One and maintaining the flawless image of the Symbol of Peace he wasn't ever able to let his guard down or it might risk people's safety. But just like Bakugou assuming Deku was looking down on him, from Endeavour's perspective it probably looked like All Might was looking down on Endeavour too.

Again, not excusing Endeavour. He's an asshole and needs to be held accountable for his actions. But just like Bakugou he didn't spring fully formed from the womb as an asshole, sure he had all the ingredients for it but their society is what decided it was a good idea to put the lime in the coconut and mix it all up, just like he's the one who broke Touya which ultimately led to the creation of Dabi.

Which brings us back to Dabi not just calling out his abusive dad but making a spectacle of it, and while again, yes, he's done a lot of murder and that's not okay either, he is absolutely justified in this. Especially because the part of his reasoning for his actions which isn't just maniacal laughter (also totally valid) is that he's correctly identified, much like Shigaraki, that while specific individuals have hurt them and must pay for it, that the overarching problem is hero society itself.

Shigaraki attacked All Might at first because Sensei said so, but later on because he was the symbol of everything he felt wrong with society, everything he's done has been to attack the pillars of the hero system like All Might and UA. Dabi attacked Endeavour, his abuser, but not just physically attacking him as a man and a father, but by attacking his reputation as the Number One Hero and the new pillar of society.

Pictured: an asshole who's realising that no matter how badly you think you done fucked up, another asshole can always come along and point out just how much worse it actually was than you thought.

Endeavour's sin was always acting as a hero first and a father second, if ever, and even then it was usually still to further his own ego and ambitions, which was tied so tightly to his role as a hero that Endeavour pretty much didn't exist outside of that. So Touya with his healthy sense of dramatic irony is naturally retaliating by treating him as a hero first and a father second, if ever, because that's the standard of behaviour that Endeavour himself set. Before discarding him for the new model he made it clear he wanted his son to be powerful, aggressive, independent, and to take down the Number One Hero without regard for anything else, and that's exactly what Dabi is doing. He's giving Endeavour exactly what he wished for and is making him choke on it.

Just like he said, Touya's making sure Endeavour reaps exactly what he sowed because it proves his point, that if he hadn't been such a violent, toxic narcissist none of this would be happening. His desire to call out his abuser is both personal and justified (regardless of how he's going about it), and it shouldn't be condemned because it has nothing to do with his family. His family, who he was the scapegoat of and who he hasn't seen in probably around a decade, and who are still keeping silent about the abuse even though as far as they know it killed him. I'm not saying he hates the rest of his family like he hates Endeavour (though it probably comes closest with Shouto, there's a lot to unpack there) but it would be a very complicated web of love and grief and resentment and guilt that he'd need a weapons-grade therapist to unravel, which he's clearly never gotten considering this is how he's dealing with the trauma.

tl;dr Touya is a victim just like Shouto, and all the awful things he's done as Dabi don't detract from that, just as his victimhood doesn't excuse his actions either.

In conclusion, you don't have to reconcile or find explanations or excuses for Endeavour's abuse or how any of the other Todorokis have been dealing with it, especially Touya. They are all established facts and exist as objective truth regardless of our feelings on the matter. Instead of making moral judgement on the characters (or the readers who love them/hate them) maybe we all need to stop and think about it critically first, especially when chapters are still incoming and we don't even have the full story yet.

If we can all spend some quality time thinking objectively about all the sides of the story and what lessons we can learn from them, I can guarantee that little things like 'having compassion', 'listening to victims and survivors before they have to resort to domestic terrorism to be heard' and 'learning from the mistakes of the past' will get us all much better results than just sharpening some pitchforks, no matter who they're pointed at.

[greaterlandscapes]

My Dean Blunt Rotation aka High Fidelity Left A Bad Taste in My Mouth

For the past 2 to 3 months, my listening habits were teetering to an end; mostly via burnout by spontaneously listening to local artists daily and less likely of a musical discovery drought, whereas my interests of a certain artist or genre hasn't found its, sort of, "eureka", moment per se. I've been feeling less enthusiastic over the things i listen to since my friends have gradually lost their flare when it comes to discovering/exploring untapped parts of the music realm. Thus, in return, my enthusiasm not being reciprocated. It leaves an empty feeling from someone who has been yearning social interaction, may it be media being latched on the topic - it's a feeling that's been guilt-tripping me ever since I was stranded in the other end of the metro. I feel closed off, exposed to the crippling loneliness the lockdown has punished us: a defacto solitary confinement in a national level. Our act of staying online is also an act of staying alive outside.

To be fair though, it's a valid move to not boomerang compliments/gripes over an art you haven't consumed due to someone's autonomy. Your able body being to consume the art you wish to finish with free time is a luxury in of itself. The art is then failed to serve its purpose to reach its goal: You have squiggly lines heading straight to oblivion rather than swirling in the earlobes of a wandering cyber nomad. We, eventually, need to find something that could help us exit, rather than escape, from capital. We, in return, do not shut ourselves from the outside. Instead, we then tend to avoid the stress of protocols and outdoor fascism; Not avoid the indoor liberalism that is eating us alive and online. It's a capital punishment we never knew we signed up for ever since the onslaught of the virus and the state. Art for art's sake is nonexistent now, always has been, it seizes to ever since we went inside. Feeding off of a holographic meatloaf coming from a glowing screen. We have a real-life Karen acting as a nightlight in our rooms.

The COVID lockdown made us listen to music — both for better, for worse. For one, it made us pass most days. You could say the same for any sort of media: film, mixed media art, or whatever pre-Covid activity that sprung up during our time in isolation. For music, however, there was an uptick of new listeners that made others Wheel-of-Fortune the fuck out of their music discoveries in sites like RateYourMusic, Bandcamp, or even Sophie's Floorboard. We've continued to expand and became more open change of opinions and be less of a jackass towards someone else's opinions. On second thought, our opinions have been catalogued, leaving more notes than actual footprints of our previous listens. Our new discoveries made new bands and re-emerging bands, bands who faded to obscurity, crawl back in the surface with newfound interest from younger listeners (ie Panchiko, Jai Paul, and Dean Blunt) and this glowing, previously unseen and unexpected overwhelming support from fans of departed artists (ie SOPHIE, MF DOOM)

For the other, we've hogged gratuitous amounts of media, resulting into losing our primary direction as to how we want to consume our media based on the preconceived notions of what we want in our art. There is goodness in becoming directionless when you think about it, but there comes a cost to our identity as music listeners. Instead, we end up widening our tangents, falling in endless rabbit holes, having zero chances to emerge from the surface. In fact, i refuse to call it a "rabbit hole" instead i'd rather call it a "pipeline" of sorts — transitioning casual music fans into a full on, different, unique versions of themselves that would define them when laws and protocols have eased in the outside world. Our act of staying online has either made most of us break our character or enliven our past selves. The music pipeline is now more apparent, stretching the norms of what was once alienated by a silent majority, but now accepted as an acceptable form of expression. The more music we are exposed to has made casual listeners stranged out or react in ways that our personality have betrayed us or deemed not as acceptable to them. Still, not changing anything that was prominent pre-pandemic. Liberal cop behavior is stronger, now more dangerous than it ever was once perceived by the outside world.

HIGH FIDELITY? NO, THANK YOU.

Imagine a situation inside of a record, pre-pandemic of course, where you do not feel like lifting a record out from the shelf, instead, you window shop just for the sake of windowshopping. Capital and media made us think that going to record shops is a semi-productive activity. The age of discovery has died ever since High Fidelity romanticized and normalized the incelage of horny record diggers. Does this movie age well, yeah sure it does, for old 90s nerds at least. But did it translate well over in the past 20 or more years of events and tragedies that unfolded in pre-9/11 America? No it didn't. It was an age of free expression, only liberals would dream of whenever they take a sip of Guinness beer in their favorite dive bar.

Mind you, over a couple of months ago, it was my only chance in seeing why this movie was the talk of the town back when it was released. There's music, yeah, and attractive leading leadies, yeah, it has everything a 90s kid would love to salivate and drop their gonads over while they watch this movie. I obviously did not live to see the movie on opening day but i could imagine the scent that came out of that movie theater with attendees donning windbreakers and The Who shirts with popcorn dressing stains on their plastic cups. If there was a Filipino counterpart to this movie, i'd bet corporate champions Eraserheads and Rivermaya would soundtrack their music over and have either Tado or have Boy 2 Quizon, but i sense it to age like milk more than it could age like fine wine due to the senseless jokes one can execute in a Cubao or Cartimar record store.

John Cusack is obviously the incel in question here: a damaged, vengeful ex who constantly fails to live his partner's expectations and weaponizes his personality over the situations that has nothing to do with his interests. I spent the entire time being absolutely disgusted over the spineless responses of John Cusack's leading character. The movie then treads on flashbacks with John Cusack's failed relationships and what he could do to move on from each and one of them. If i could stand a SONA for 3 hours then I can't stand John Cusack being the dull entry point to incel, making more reasons why you should hate record store clerks who don't give an iota of shits to someone's inviting rapport. High Fidelity is opium for massive music circle jerks who can't take a single breathe of fresh air or a single quota of touching grass. There's more targeting weak and inferior guys and hot women who dump dumb overconfident dudebros more than the actual "music recs" in the entire movie. The more I think about this movie, the more I realize how our personality is in line towards Dick, the record store being unmercifully dunked on by the movie's two leading characters. He's an angel in the world of cynical bastards, witnessing both demons pitchforking record store customers in the ass while they're purchasing the latest Sonic Youth album.

I believe that Jack Black, the dark horse of High Fidelity, has a pleasing personality more than an irritating demeanor due to this behavior in the record store. In fact, outside of the record store, Jack Black doesn't seem to take the business is your pleasure act pretty seriously. Unlike John Cusack's character he brought his obsession over involving a record in an important memory/point of his life. There is so much stuff that has happened outside of the record store, so much for Rolling Stone and NME being the bible of music at the time, endlessly christening and shilling artists that believe to become the second coming of the Beatles. The music references here however are treated as fluff than it is a mechanism that would drive the senseless plot forward. If anything, there are events pointed out in the event that doesn't have anything to do with the life of the characters.

If anything, this movie did a great job at capturing the feeling of music bros being dumped on the wayside by a mature set of characters and how their current conditions aren't perfumed by the studios' liking of having to Cinderella story the shit out of a bunch of normal record store owners. The reality is in the reaction of one's social capital being invaded and we're here to witness how those reactions panned out in 2021. This is a villainous depiction of music nerds being the salt of the earth, the bane of all media discussion, still reflective of the insufferable salt of cyberspace found in music forums like 4chan and RYM. High Fidelity is a pipeline of 90s musicology, a dreaded fever dream of an owner waiting for the decade to end, trends ossifying and re-emerged by the hands of nostalgia-savvy individuals. It was, at its time, every music-movie nerd's excuse equivalent of Scott Pilgrim VS. The World. There are memories worth remembering and cherishing, and this movie isn't one of them.

DEAN BLUNT, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

In the past two weeks I've been fancying myself into sitting down and listening to different projects from the ever elusive, UK-based sound artist Dean Blunt. The first time i chanced upon his music wasn't too long ago - albeit a recent one in the time of COVID - was when I randomly stumbled upon his records at a Spotify recommendations section under John Maus (yeah lol i know the implications whenever his name is mentioned) - but then i was enamored by his online presence so quickly I put everything down and dedicated an hour or two researching about this man's music.

Other than the fact that his album "The Redeemer" wasn't the best record to start off in journeying through his discography: ending up disgusted and borderline bored even and I was more likely to lambast this record's aimless, pretentious art-pop inflections. By the end of the day, it was a preference long solidified by his undying fanbase. According to his hardcore fans, the music isn't really music, evaluating it as a free form of sound art, rather than sticking to a structured and conventional cues; the genre is nullified by most analysts of the arts. The growing interest of the general public towards Dean Blunt's pranks and antics have long appealed to my tastes as a chaotic neutral individual. Pranks that are well executed to piss off UK gallery connoisseurs and entertain ironic attendees who'd shit on the art piece rather than participate in it.

More of the resources I've found about Dean Blunt online: numerous aliases and collaborations that lasted around almost 2 decades. The most notable of all them, at least for my money, are either Hype Williams, a duo consisting of Dean and frequent collaborator Inga Copeland, and Babyfather, an art performance parodizing the pirate radio culture in the UK. I have not delved enough in Blunt's body of work to evaluate everything and what i could synthesize from it. For now, I enjoyed it as a form of entertainment. Well, color me impressed because Dean Blunt isn't clowning around, he, in fact, makes blissful and transcendental music from left to right.

Dean Blunt was the only few artists that made me want to binge on their discography. His movements in his music has attracted this pesky listener who thinks that being mysterious is a plus. I mean, look at me who thinks The Paul Institute, Panchiko, and Burial are the greatest artists that have walked the face of the earth.

The most I've enjoyed from Dean Blunt's discography are his mixtapes and collaborations: preferably his Soul Fire and ZUSHI, both of which were packaged as B-sides or supplemental releases rather than major releases such as the Babyfather project or the Black Metal releases. His knack for blurring the lines between genres still fascinate me as of this writing, and it continues to amaze me how he doesn't seize to compromise his art, he's here to prove a point and it sells quite well despite the lack of direction in his music. Blunt's music has more aggressive and hazy texture than the hollow, wide, soulless structure of art-pop/hypnagogic pop released today. He creates terrains from the rubble of his country's current shortcomings. The music overlaps the actual intentions with abstract concepts, becoming deconstructed down the line. In Babyfather, noise music coincides with Blunt's amateurish rapping. In Black Metal, Blunt isolates himself along with the assisted skeletal guitar playing. Both projects throwing all tropes in a vaccum alongside Blunt, who he himself would sought to become a personification of a musical void.

--

(Excerpt from the Babyfather album review in TinyMixtapes)

--

Dean Blunt is an entity that wishes to become one person, but no, this isn't a figure in a specific art form; this isn't Banksy, this isn't Bob Ong, this is made by one person, clearly it is if you listen closely, and it's been entrancing me ever since his presence was felt on the horizons of the internet. Dean Blunt, what the actual fuck.