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thatoneguy031 · 2 years ago

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Uhh...

Holy wow, that was fast.

But, uhm. Yeah, onto King Clawthorne, the Titan of Burger Queen!

Also, shoutout to @rainbowangel110 for giving me more info on the show and fandom as a whole:

This isn't gonna be a "Oh my god, this character has pizazz" kinda thing, mostly because King doesn't wear much besides his collar, so this is gonna be more of an analysis of his character, and my personal thoughts on him.

Spoilers for the end of the show, by the way. If you haven't finished the show, I suggest you finish reading here!

...You're still here? Cool, just don't sue me if you get hit with the sledgehammer that is the show's endgame.

So firstly, I have to bring up something I realized a long time ago, and talked about in one of my first ever posts up here.

King actually has a mouth. But, he never uses it to actually talk.

Something that someone mentioned to me, though, is fairly interesting about him. You know how some legendary Pokemon have a telepathy-like way of communicating with the humans in the anime/movies? That someone on Twitter(I can't remember the name for the life of me, but kudos to them) said that he might communicate that way, only really using his mouth to either eat or let out those hyper shouts of his.

This is actually a really interesting idea that I wish the animators actually played with more. As far as I'm aware, neither Luz or Eda do as much as acknowledge it, nevermind question him about it. Maybe it has something to do with him being a Titan since his pops does the same thing, but I dunno.

Which brings me to yet another topic about the fellow: He's a Titan. Now, I hear y'all saying, "Guy, no freaking crap he's a Titan! The entire fandom knows this, it's no longer just a theory! What's the point of stating the obvious?!"

Here's one thing that I thought about. In my post about Luz, I mentioned that I loved her Titan Form. Besides the very heartwarming references that are in her outfit, she gets improved magic, durability, and can create glyphs on the fly, along with the magic circles that everyone and their mother in the Boiling Isles have been doing already. I was really upset when I found out that she only got to use it once before Papa Titan's spirit faded away, making sure to steal Luz's cool new form from her as it did so.

Call me Alpharad with the way I'm theory-crafting, but hear me out. King is already tapping into his Titan powers(As he should. You go, little furball!), unlocking and even mastering his hyper shout. How long do you think it's gonna be until he taps into more of his abilities? From what we know, Titans are extremely powerful. A drop of their blood contain enough power to open holes between realms, even being able to make a sort of purgatory area, as shown in Vee's debut episode(Is there a specific name for that area? That was also really cool). At least, I'm sure it's Vee's debut episode it appears in.

This might be the Pokemon fanboy in me, but what if King and Luz managed to sync up to bring that form back? Something more akin to Battle Bond, maybe? Heck, even King himself could get some kind of glow-up.

Speaking of glow-ups...

This... this is cool!

Don't get me wrong, I understand that King was in a state of distress as everything the show threw at him was finally too much to handle, and I do indeed feel bad for him. Very much so. But...

What.

The.

Heck?!

Lost Deity King, as I'm now dubbing him(Mostly because I don't know the form's real name), is what happens when you push a character too far. He's had enough, and wanted to snap Belos's neck for what he did to Luz, and Eda wanted to as well, but I'll get to her in the future. He wanted to kill him the same way Tsunami killed Gill(Wings of Fire reference, for those not aware).

...I really felt bad for him during this scene, though. Seriously. Excuse my language, but think about the absolute bullshit that King had to go through over the course of more-or-less eight years. He:

-Was basically abandoned at birth(I understand that Papa Titan had his own things going on, but he felt like he's been abandoned)

-Was convinced that he was the King of the Demons(Which isn't even a title, as far as I'm aware?) by the only thing he could even remotely call a parental figure

-Had to watch as his mother figure would turn into a dangerous owl monster basically on the weekly

-Was taken as a joke, a walking meme, for most if not all of his life(It sorta made sense for Eda and Luz, as they were family to him, and he knew it was just fun and games from them)

-Nearly died on several accounts, the most devastating of which(That I can remember) being nearly crushed in a magic cube because he did something as petty as refusing to write fanfiction due to burnout

-found out that his friend/sister TRAVELLED THROUGH TIME with his roommate/mother's sister(Who, might I add, TRIED TO KILL BOTH EDA AND LUZ on the SAME DAY, a few weeks ago) to look for the past version of someone that's actively hunting that same sister figure

-Was basically forced to team up with a potentially universe-ending being and be his plaything for about two or three days, watching those he loved being turned into puppets

-Was told that basically everything he believed about himself was an utter lie

Which, by the way, can I talk about that for a while? 'Cause this-

Just this. I can still hear his voice in this scene.

"...Y-You're all just messing with me, like usual, right?"

"Oh no... no no no no no no!"

"No! Keep that thing away from me, it's messing with my head!" Poor guy didn't even want the remnant of his horn back.

I'm not one to cry at movies or TV shows. I'm not trying to sound tough or anything, I just can't really bring myself to do that. But, when I heard King hyperventilate as he began having a existensial crisis, I bawled my eyes out for him. This scene legitimately broke my heart.

All of this, and the worst part?

...King is still a child.

That's right. According to the wiki(Which is where I pull a lot of these images from), King is around eight years old, and he's twelve during the epilogue. Point being, he still in need of caring parents. Yes, Eda was there, but continuing to tell the lie that he was the Demon King(Again, not even a real title) was a bit of a low move for her. I forgive her for that, especially since it was with good intentions, but jeez lady.

Back to the list of messed-up things that King went through:

-Was separated from Luz and his three other new friends for like, a week, as they traveled to the human realm by force(Yes, he caused it, but it was because he literally had to)

-Basically got involved in the second Great Ninja War but if the ninjas were replaced by witches, and was considered a large estate of power

...Oh, and how could I possibly forget? King also had to...*checks notes*...

-LITERALLY WATCH AS HIS BEST FRIEND WAS CRUSHED UNDER BELOS'S FOOT-CLAW-THING, POSSESSED BY STUPID DISNEY "KILL MC" PLOT BS AND DISINTEGRATE INTO BALLS OF LIGHT!!

Yeah, no wonder why he completely flipped his shit in this scene! Wouldn't you?!

It's just that... King really went through a lot. Can someone give him a hug?

Like...

How did we get from this, to... That thing?

I said that I loved the Lost Deity, but if it meant that his mental health could remain stable... I'm willing to live without it.

...Rant and tears aside, I really love King. He's just a lovable dog thing, while still being such a slippery little fella.

For example, someone made this piece of artwork of him, and it's been on my mind for quite some time.

I know this isn't official art, but y'all can still admit that King didn't even have drip anymore... He was a whole fountain. I couldn't trace the image back a specific person, but I found it somewhere here, if you guys want to use it as a wallpaper!

(Also, I don't know why, but he gives such early 2010s energy in this photo.)

Y'all want more of adorable pics of King? Here ya go!

Woo, work it! Yass, slay queen!

Real talk though, we can all agree that this guy is awesome, right? Just off of principle.

Overall, King is my favorite character in the show(Although, between you and me, it was sort of a close call when Titan Luz entered the field), and I just hope that life is nothing but uphill for him.

...He deserves it.

#toh #the owl house #king clawthorne #luz nodeda #eda clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #papa titan #I was listening to im everywhere #by teknoaxe #and stitches by shawn mendes #and both songs synced with the last gif near perfectly #if you didn't know #im everywhere is jacksepticeyes outro theme #pokemon #legendary pokemon

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theeauthor01 · 7 months ago

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Thank you @lets-try-some-writing for tagging me 😊

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 7

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 65,692

3. What fandoms do you write for? I’ve done My Hero Academia, Pokemon, Transformers, Star Wars and Ducktales.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Becoming a Hero – 1,023 Kudos - Ash Ketchum gets yeeted into the MHA world.

2. Diabolical Once More – 259 Kudos – Donald Duck has many secrets, Louie learns about one while being thrust into the machinations of a Loonitic.

3. Duck Timeline – 80 Kudos – Headcannon timeline of the Ducktales lore

4. Abstraction – 76 Kudos – Midoriya and Bakugou get amnesia and need to make like Jason Borne to figure out what is happening. Also, Eri is there being adorable.

5. How Pokemon Battle in “Becoming a Hero” – 58 Kudos – The title kinda gives it away

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes! I love responding to comments, but I know, I’ve missed a few

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? One day I may finish an actual story, and one of them will have that angsty tang, but I’m not saying which one

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? When they reach completion there will be stories with happy endings, I just need to get there.

8. Do you get hate on fics? No, I’ve been reading fics for a long time. I have fun with them! But some of them do make me question the state of humanity, and I tend to use a lot of filters.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? No. Just no.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I mean, my most popular fic probably counts.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? No, but I did have someone ask if they could base a different fic off of one of mine. I said sure, and they almost copied the dialogue exactly. I pointed this out and gave them pointers on how to make it more their own. They have since deleted that fic. I do not know if anyone has stolen any of my fics though.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No. I wouldn’t mind it though

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nothing on Ao3.

14. What's your all time favorite ship? Yeah… thing about that is I’m not a shippy person. I prefer platonic stuff, there are a lot of character dynamic stuff I like, but I’m not really a romantic.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Look, it may take me years, but I’m gonna finish one of them, if not all of them, for sure.

16. What are your writing strengths? I like to think I’m good at characterization, getting into the minds of a character and let them act in a story how they would based on who they are.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Descriptions? Fight scenes? Villians.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Its neat, I just also like if there is a translation somewhere, but I can guess what’s being said if there is good enough context clues.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Entangled War, it was my Transformers and Clone Wars crossover. I’m sure there are others from before, but that was the first I posted

20. Favorite fic you've written? I like all my fics, my favorite depends on where the hyperfixation takes me.

Now I'm tagging @virgilisspidey, @doritooooo, @smokescreenstuff

those are the blogs that just poped into my head

Tagged by @skeletonsgeorg, thank you so much!!!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 21

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 176,709

3. What fandoms do you write for? Right now, just Transformers but I used to write Fullmetal Alchemist fics.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Fun at Work- FMA, roy/ed, this is smut be warned. Kudos: 178 2. Saturdays- FMA, Roy/Ed, SFW Kudos:167 3. 4 Million Years- My first TF fic and my first fic after an 8 year writing hiatus. Megop, Kudos: 128 4. Crossing the Line- Megop, def valveplug going on inthis. kudos: 128 5. A New Kind of Word Sparring- Megop, SFW, Kudos: 100

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes! I try to respond to most comments but sometimes I miss some.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? oooh probably this fma one: Regrets

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I... don't actually know tbh. a lot of my fics are just little oneshots that already were happy.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I used to, a long time ago. It's part of why I stopped writing for so long but honestly the worst of the hate came to my roleplay blogs, not my fics.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yessssssss smut is my fav thing to write actually. its fuuuun.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Not really? I'm not opposed to it though if it makes sense.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? IDK

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! I co-write with @lets-try-some-writing! We're working on a TF AU together called Two Sides to a Coin.

14. What's your all time favorite ship? Megop omg it has me by the throat.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Omg... I have so many I can't even think of just one... I ahve a REALLY hard time finishing fics, its why I usually just write one shots... but I have a mechpreg megop au i was working on that I WANT SO BAD TO FINISH but am intimidated by its scope.

16. What are your writing strengths? I don't actually know tbh... i know what I have the most fun writing, but Idk if that counts as my strenghts.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I'm on of those people that tends to only care for the romantic parts of the story, so I tend to skip by a lot of other things cuz I just dont care about it often.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I think its cool!

19. First fandom you wrote for? Shoot I think it was Yu-Gi-Oh?? Maybe Pokemon. idk i don't really remember.

20. Favorite fic you've written? Right now I think it was Until Next Time, Prime. It was just really fun to get into how megatron felt about Optimus post Optimus yeeting himself into the Well.

Tagging: @lets-try-some-writing, @steelthroat, @cyberrose2001 anyone else who wants to do the thing!

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antarestyl · 3 years ago

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Got not tagged but saw this meme and wanted to do it :D

I tag @namekian-maoh and whoever else wanna try!

How many works do you have on AO3?

56 so far.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

600021 at this moment... damnit, I like nice and round numbers more XD

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

29 XD well, some are crossover and some are almost-the-same (especially with Video games where I often take multiple entires in a series into account and tag them accordingly)

As for my fandoms:

Video games: Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Among Us, Bowser's Fury, Deltarune, Don't Starve, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Final Fantasy XV, Luigi's Mansion, Mario & Luigi RPG, Monkey Island, Pikmin, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon, Super Mario & Related Fandoms, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Paper Mario, Undertale, (+ AU of Undertale)

Comic/Cartoon/Manga/Anime: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh! (All Media Types), Homestuck, Gravity Falls, DCU (Comics), Booster Gold (Comics), Blue Beetle (Comics)

Books/Movies/Divers: Harry Potter, Mystery Skulls Animated, Olsen-banden | The Olsen Gang (Movies), Ties of Lapis (Skyrim-AU),

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. PTA Sans and other glorious things

73016 words, 3192 Kudos, so far my most successful work XD It’s still ongoing. Undertale Fanfic, Monster-on-the-Surface, True Pacifist Ending, PTA AU, SansxToriel in the Background, everybody is here, mostly happy, silly and only a small dose of angst from time to time. Later chapters with more story.

2. TrioBlasterSets AU - Six puppys and 3 flames

270813 word, 758 Kudos. I write this AU together with @namekian-maoh . Still ongoing. Undertale Baby-Blaster AU with some Underfell and Underswap thrown into it. Dadby, Badster, mostly family fluff and dealing with the experiment!gaster-blaster Background of 3 skeleton children. Also 3 flames who take care of them that have way more drama going on themselves than nessessary. Chapters are not in chronological order. Has a few Spin-offs too (including some NSFW oneshorts about the flames and their relationship ;) )

3. So I won't regret another day

19214 words, 320 Kudos. Undertale Underfell AU, Underfell Sansby with some healthy relationships, the planning of a revolt against an insane king, monster still being monster and not really made for violence in an violent setting. If officially finished but I write new chapters when the fancy strikes me.

4. Grillby's

9894 words, 265 Kudos. Deltarune/Undertale fanfic with a Spin, named Plushyrune (aka Deltarune where eveything is the same, just with Sansby and Sans makes plushies). Started as just pure silly fluff, kinda got a plot now about the kids of Deltarune. Still ongoing, new chapter is 80% done ;)

5. Something old, something new...

6579 words, 208 Kudos. Pure Post-Pacifist Surface Sansby fluff. Mostly from Grillby’s POV how they fall in love and be silly and in love. Still ongoing, haven’t really had to mojo to write more for it lately, but I WILL return at some point.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to! I used to not comment on comments because I had this irrational feeling of “cheating the numbers” if I reply to comments but... screw that, I want to interact with people! So I try to answer any and all comments now :)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Ufff, for me it’s a tie between The last chip and Laughter in the Darkness. The Last Chip is a Yu-gi-Oh! Fanfic in a series of Kaiba spiraling downwards after the Manga/Anime ended and sets up the events of Dark Site of Dimensions. It ends pretty much with Kaiba ending up getting borderline suicidal in his Obsession with the Pharaoh.

Laughter in the Darkness is the Epilog I wrote for my Gravity Falls x Amnesia Crossover where Ford is pretty much an Amnesia-Protagonist and archives the very worst ending for himself. Mind the tags if you read this. It ends with Ford at the lowest possible point for himself and its open ended if he is going fully insane or if Bill Chiper really is still around. (and it’s not clear what outcome is the better one)

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nah, not really. I am a chill writer in my own little corners of the fandom and most people leave me alone. I did get one “But Queer is a SLUR” comment way back in the day where it was still all “????” to say that out loud. But otherwise? Nah. I am not important enough for hate, lol.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I have XD Not much thou. I wrote so far an mastubation scene with the one going down on himself heavily NOT BEING ALRIGHT while doing so XD Other than that I have 2 NSFW Undertale fics with some hot flame-on-flame action. I do like writing not-standard-sex (as in Sex that doesn’t requite human genitila) Otherwise I like to hint or describe feelings more than the act itself. More lime than lemon ;)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. As I said, I am not important enough for that.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had some ppl asking for permission to translate (which of course) but as far as I know there are no translations out there as of yet.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah, I am writing the TrioBlasterSet AU with @namekian-maoh I did Co-write some fics way back during my fanfiction.de time too but that’s a long time ago.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I ship a lot and am a dirty multishipper XD I have to many ships to really call one out as my favorite.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

TrioBlasterSets AU because there is always MORE to tell with this AU XD

What are your writing strengths?

I am the Queen of Worldbuilding and Crossovers baby!

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Only do it if you have a REALLY good reason for it AND if you have a good gasp on the language. Like, nothing takes me out of a fic faster than reading stuff in horrible German written by people who were to lazy to just copy/paste the word from google translate (my time in the Apollo Justice fandom has seriously scared me. It’s Fräulein, not Fraulein or Fraülein! Also you can’t just swap ei and ie around THOSE ARE DIFFERENT SOUNDS! als we have the letter ß it’s a shap s sound you can’t just use/not use it as you please!)

Also in 90% of all cases it’s just not nessessary. Write what you wanna write, TELL us it was said in a different language OR let the POV character just tell us their hear something said in an other language they couldn’t understand.

What I want to say is: Have some respect of the language you want to use!

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

I THINK it was Harry Potter? IDK I wrote a cringy Star Trek Parodie when I was like 14 or so and those OCs went through a lot from that time on forward but Idk if that even counts XD

What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

The Game of Our Life It’s a series of Mario x Homestuck Fics I wrote before Undertale came along and swept me away XD I love all my fics of course but this one was the first really big one I finished on english and it was the one I am most proud of of the world-building. It has angst, it has lore, my writing style was just really developing there and I am just proud of it. (Also it’s very self-indulging so yeah XD love it a LOT)

#meme #ao3

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thewritingof-therose · 3 years ago

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Hi! Last week, with the publishing of the 20th chapter of Hasard, I reached the 100 kudos on the fic, so to celebrate it, here’s some kind of bonus chapter where I talk a little about the conception of the story, along with comments about each chapters.

Enjoy!

----

So… 20 chapters and 100 kudos already. To be honest, by the time I started imagining this story, I wasn’t really expecting to be able to celebrate that milestone of kudo on a single fic and even if I already celebrated the 2000 kudos in general this year, if we make a quick calcul based on the numbers of kudos and all the fics I’ve published, at the time I’m writing those words, it’s the same that if each one of my fic had only 20 kudos… So yeah, finally reaching the hundred on a single one makes me so happy \o/

Anyway, here’s some trivia and fun facts about Hasard and the first twenty chapters of the story.

First of all, some history:

I had the idea for Hasard in May 2018 as I was watching the tv show Lucifer (I am not up to date with it, please don’t try to spoil me this show ^^’) and I imagined one scene that just… shaped the entire story and it took me less than a few hours to know that I would write it. Even if I wasn’t sure how long it would be and that there had been some changes. And no, I won’t tell what scene kickstarted it all because she still has to come and it could be quite a huge spoiler.

Following it, my brain quickly went into developing the full story and a few things changed. On the top of my head, I can say that Maiev was meant to be more on her own, almost a complete independent Hunter that would have also been resented by the other Hunters, along with a way more black and white view of the demons. She was meant to be more aggressive against all demons and really thinking that they all deserved to die, but I softened that side of her as I shifted the world building with the presence of hybrids.

At first, the hybrids were meant to be a really rare kind and I wanted to keep that status for a few select characters because it could have brought some really good story for them. Then, as I kept working on the worldbuilding, I came to the idea that actually, hybrids were extremely common, but at the same time, the demon’s presence was still a secret from most of the world because most hybrids started centuries ago and their blood and physical attributions were weakening the more they were reproducing. So, about 80% of the world is made of hybrids of all kinds of generation (who is my way of scaling the demonic influence on their life) and the 20% left is shared with the full demons and full humans.

Full demons are simply people who don't have a single drop of human blood in them. Usually, they are born from two other full demon parents or they just appeared like that (that’s the mytho). They are extremely powerful and good magic users, but now, they are rare. It was easier to be a full demon millenia ago when they ruled over the world and the few that are left in the current world of Hasard, survived either by hiding really well, manipulating their way to stay alive, or simply because they accepted to work with the humans and they went on.

My best example of a full demon is Velen.

The full humans, are the humans who either had never gotten a single drop of demon’s blood in their bloodlines, either they purged the bloodline after making sure that there had been at least 10 generations since the last time a hybrid was born (technically, every child following it would be considered as an hybrid, but the other parent would be a full human to weaken the demon’s blood which each new generation). Full humans are rarer than full demons and they tend to be bad news as almost all of them are associated with the Priesthood (who’ll get some more explanation later.)

I haven’t presented yet one of them to give an example, but one is ready to show up in the Second arc of the story. Won’t say who to not spoil the surprise x)

As for hybrids, there are two kinds. The one born from a demon and a human, and or hybrids (two hybrids will keep creating hybrids and technically, as long as one of the parents has human blood, the bloodline will stay a hybrid one). And the second one hadn’t been introduced yet. We have characters that are that kind, but it’s some worldbuilding elements that will show up later and so, I'll keep it to myself for now. Feel free to theorize though! And usually, most hybrids will simply call themselves demons instead of showing signs of weaknesses by not being a full one.

For the title of the story, it had been extremely hard for me to find one. Ever since I started preparing everything, it had a codename and it was “Modern AU” and it stayed like that until the very minute of the publishing of the first chapter. I was already going towards “Le Hasard Fait Bien Les Choses” but I was bothered because it was French, and no matter what, I couldn’t find a good English idiom that would have all the nuances of the French one. The only thing that comes close to it would be “Fate is a funny thing” and yet, I’m not entirely satisfied with it. So, after a long debate with myself and help from other people, I came to the conclusion that I had to keep the French title if I wanted to be happy with it.

It might not help much to get people interested, and I’m considering adding “Fate is a Funny Thing” after it but I’m debating it.

I think that's already a lot, so let's move to the trivia per chapters:

A Muffled Shout In The Night

Oh boy, first chapter! I was so excited to finally start the story but I was also really stressed. I tried to give away a quick summary of how the universe was working, along with my two main characters + showing up the first supportive characters towards Maiev. Trying to present all the cast (so adding Illidari and more about Illidan) right in that chapter wouldn't have really worked so, instead, I went to show that a more "Legion-y" timeline could be expected thanks to Khadgar and Velen's presence in the chapter.

I kinda hope that I succeeded to already show Maiev's obsession towards the Betrayer through her first lines.

Though I will be one hundred percent honest with you. The end of the chapter with Illidan running away, don't expect much from that interaction. I kind of always forget about it unless I'm reading back the chapter… I only needed a reason for them to stop fighting and the chapter to carry on.

But who knows, maybe I'll tie it to something one day.

Two Black Coffees And A Meeting, Please

When writing it, I always knew that Drelanim was on the other side of the call (or at least another Hunter) but as I read the moment a few times, I realized that I could have gone for a completely different way. One that would have probably surprised everyone.

But yeah, in another universe, it's Illidan who calls Maiev because he's in front of her place as they decided to meet for breakfast there. It would have been quite nice and unexpected for the story, especially that Illidan would have gotten right away the reveal that Maiev was actually the Warden as she would have complained about the wounds of the night.

In the end, I went on with my first idea and made them meet for good in the chapter.

And, like with the first chapter… the "current problem" that he talks about to Kor'vas went nowhere… I'll more than probably get him to acknowledge some uninteresting side story for it at some point.

Memories Of A Rainy Day That Will Never Be Forgotten

For that one, one word: Ouch.

By the time I started to write this chapter, I was also preparing the Advent Calendar of 2019 and I had decided on telling Naisha's story, and I had to realize that I still had to foreshadow some elements from it to make it work. Of course, the title is fully referencing the day she died and the demon that Maiev killed right at the beginning of the chapter was similar to Naisha, putting Maiev in a stabbing mood. And it led us to another necessary addition for the Calendar's chapter: Malfurion.

(I'm also wondering how many people guessed right away that Malfurion was the one Illidan was calling…)

Brother, My Brother, Tell Me What We're Fighting For?

Even if Malfurion had more of a cameo than anything in the Calendar's story, I felt the need to introduce him to put the bases of the twins' relationship. I always knew that he was a doctor and that he was mostly helping Illidan when he was getting in trouble, and as their backstory is different from WoW and that they are both demons, I didn't want to go on the canon path for them.

I cannot tell much about it because we'll get fast to their backstory (Second arc) but here, Illidan and Malfurion mostly grew up in a world where it was them against the rest of the world. They were born during the glorious days when demons ruled the world and they saw it change through the millennia that followed. After everything, they would be devastated to lose the other and suddenly be the only one left. This is why they are way closer than they could ever be in canon (and also Tyrande isn't part of their backstory so it helped them keep a good relationship). Sometimes, they part ways for a few decades. Malfurion goes back to medical school somewhere and makes sure that he's up to date for it, or Illidan just moves with his clan to experience new things. But they stay in contact and always come back in proximity of one another.

The end of the chapter was my obligatory "shock reveal/cliffhangers" before a break. But well, I wanted to keep the Legion's existence in my sleeve for a little longer, but I realized that it would allow me to make them into a concrete threat as the story will progress + allowing Illidan and, mostly, the Illidari to be a little more presents into the story.

Actually, the chapter's name comes from a song from the occidental version of the first Pokemon movie. It's a line from the song that plays when the Pokemon and their clone fights, and i used it mostly for the brother's mentions and because it would totally be a thing said by one of the twins in their past…

A Flower Arrangement Made With Your Face In Mind

At that time, I wanted to make a chapter to develop a little more the supporting characters of the cast, and as I was taking back the writing of the fic after a four or five months break, I thought it would be nice.

So, we got a little side dish of Illidari for it and that’s pretty much the only chapter (until now) where Illidan or Maiev barely appears in it. Yet, I threw some worldbuilding and foreshadowing in it and I still like it, so it isn’t really a filler.

I’ll probably do more chapters like that in the future, but I’ll see with the pacing of the story.

Willingly Accepting Your Death Isn't As Easy As I Thought

I don’t have much to say about this chapter. I still really like it and especially Maiev and Velen’s interaction.

Along with showing that we were far from a potential romantic relationship, at least on Maiev’s side x)

A Laugh That Will Echo Through The Ages

Oh my God, that chapter! I could probably talk about it for hours but we would quickly reach the spoiler territory so I’ll see what I can tell without shooting myself in the foot.

I loved giving Khadgar some more identity and I like his relationship with Maiev. In the story, they are around 10 years apart, with Khadgar being the youngest. He’s like an honorary younger brother to every Hunter and even if Maiev won’t admit it, she’s kinda thinking the same.

If he had been in the spotlight for this chapter, it was actually because I was thinking of writing his backstory for the Calendar of 2020 but in the end, I scrapped the idea and wrote something else. But It’ll happen at some point.

You Were In My Dream Last Night, And I Found You That Morning

A simple and nice chapter to calm down from the action heavy that was the precedent. I do throw some crumbs of foreshadowing and backstory, mostly for Maiev, but we will have to wait quite some time for the full one. Even if to be honest, before I release it fully, there will probably be some people that will stitch everything from my crumbs.

Illidan’s dreams are meant to be a plot point all through the story, and I decided to start them with this chapter. And of course, we can see that it’s the first chapter where Illidan, even if he isn’t conscious of it, starts to like Maiev more than he should have at that point.

A Red Dress And Heels To Hide The Knife In Plainsight

I loved writing that one. Showing that Maiev had more hobbies than hunting demons, along with showing how you had to act to get her to do things that she would refuse to do otherwise. Most of the time, if Sira gently asks if she wants to go do some shopping, Maiev always has something else to do. Not that she hates shopping, just that she thinks there’s better things to do.

I could probably go more about Worgens and their existence, but it would spoil some part of the story :/

And honestly, I had an alternate version of this chapter where Illidan saw Maiev and Sira hurrying in the streets, followed them and he would have eavesdropped on the conversation about him. It was obviously bad because it was confirming that Maiev was at least a Hunter (which he won’t know until a while by that time) and it would have been totally an excuse for smut x)

A Warning Falling In Deaf Ears

With this chapter, I’ve been working on mixing the idea of chapters 5 (to concentrate on rest of the cast) with more of the main story. Like that, I show that there’s more than Illidan and Maiev in this universe, but at the same time, I’m still progressing their story by sharing the chapter between the two. I really liked writing Kayn like that and I think that one of my favorite things to write in this story, it’s Illidan and Malfurion interacting.

A Touch So Familiar, Yet So Strangely Threatening

I remember writing that chapter and suddenly realizing that it was going to be longer than the precedent, and i thought for a moment that I had to cut it in half, but I couldn’t find a satisfying way to do it, and it would have fucked up my outline, so I just carried on with it until I had told everything that I had to.

With that chapter, I’m trying to show that Maiev can be really crazy when it comes to the Betrayer and his followers, but I can assure that she wouldn’t wound any of the Hunters, even if they cannot really be sure about it. And the little dialogue with the B-word made me laugh and yes, Maiev already called the Betrayer a bitch to his face. In 13 years, it would have been weird that she didn’t think of it at least once.

For the rest of the chapter, I just wanted to show that Maiev and Illidan were becoming comfortable with each other + setting up a reason for her to be worried about Illidan to show him her good side.

Screaming Under The Full Moon Won't Change Your Fate

The one thing I keep from this chapter, is that I can’t wait to dive more into Velen and Maiev's relationship.

Otherwise, yeah, if Illidan were to go into a fight only wanting to use magic, he could kill Maiev without breaking a sweat. But he likes the challenge and feels like it wouldn’t be satisfying to annihilate her with just a spell, so he’s fighting blade against blades, unless Maiev is really close to kill him.

A Fateful Call That Only You Can Be Blamed For

I have nothing much to say about it. It was one chapter that I really wanted to write and publish, because it’s the one where Illidan just let his guard down around Maiev for good, and now that he won’t try to trap her into admitting that she is the Warden, it allows him to see Maiev in another light.

That anyone can guess what it is.

Oh yeah, just that I threw some good crumbs of the fact that Illidan is a self-loathing addict in my fics and that it’s one of the reasons he falls so hard for Maiev after this chapter. But it’ll be a good talk for either another chapter, or later.

Going Separate Ways For A Night But Not The Life

Nothing to say, it was a transitional chapter to show that Illidan really believes that Maiev isn’t the Warden, and that there’s more than the fight to them.

Stab Me Once, Shame On You. Stab Me More Than Twice...

A fun little chapter. Velen is more modern than most people can believe and once again, I like writing about the interactions between Illidan and Malfurion. Of course, if you go back to read this one after chapter 20, you might see that I already knew how it was going to happen from this chapter, as the 20th got his title in this one.

I just hope that people read the story from the Advent Calendar 2020 to know what happened in the middle of it.

And From There, Fate Laughed At Them

I could talk for hours about Cordana in my AU. I just love what I’m going to do with her characters and I hope that my readers will like it too.

But to give some crumbs, Maiev and Cordana have been best friends since high school and she’s the first long-time friend that Maiev had made in her life and thanks to Cordana, she met with Sira and the group, but most importantly Velen. Cordana is a hybrid of sixth generation, so her demonic attributes are almost non-existent, but she kept some supernatural ability from her legacy. She knew from a very young age that she wanted to hunt demons and protect people, and met with Velen early to prepare her future job. Once she discovered that Maiev had some natural abilities to hunt demons, she saw them as the future “Best Best Friend and Hunters” and convinced Maiev to give a go to the hunt. She was forced to move out in another city but she kept contact with Maiev and the rest of the group. In terms of strength, abilities and hunting score, she is right behind Maiev.

Otherwise, I will add that I had a lot of fun writing the conversation between them about Illidan and how he would be better than the Betrayer *winkwink*.

I didn’t make it clear in that chapter and it won’t be important, but Khadgar has a crush on Cordana.

Cordana meant well with the message, and even if in real life, I would condone such action, here, I needed it to move things around because yes, neither Illidan nor Maiev would make the first step if it wasn’t for Cordana.

During the fight, at the beginning of the scene, Illidan totally complimented the Warden on her abilities but don’t try to make him admit it.

Last thing: my nickname is Fate. I’m the one laughing.

Games, Games, All Is Games

I don’t really have anything to say about this chapter.

Sometimes, Cowardice Allows The Survival Of The Smartest

To be perfectly honest, I regret how I handled Cordana’s week in the story because I’ve barely done anything with her but I can explain where the problem is. I knew that I wanted Illidan to discover the warden’s identity on chapter 20, and I planned all my updates around that one fact, but when it came to the outline, I wasn’t sure what to tell between the chapter 13 and 20 to reach that point and thanks to the Calendar, I moved things around that one and I ended up having the idea of making Cordana appears (She should have come in person in the story much, much later). And as I needed chapters 18 and 19 to build up to the reveal, I ended up completely stuck and making her appearance too fast and if it wasn’t for the message, she would have been useless to the story. But I realized it too late and I couldn’t rework my outline in time.

But well, i’ll give her a better mini-arc in the second arc of the story to atone for it.

Otherwise, I hope that the feel of the countdown to the reveal starting by the end of the chapter had been caught by some people x) It’s obvious to me, but well, i’m the writer.

Step By Step, Tick Tock Said The Clock

Just a build up chapter for the 20th. Even if I really like it and that I’m preparing the ground for future plotlines but I’ll let you guess which one it could be x)

I know I haven’t make it clear in the chapter, but Malfurion knew that Illidan was lying when he pretended that his problem was the Warden “may-be-may-be-not-a-hybrid/demon” but as he also know that his brother is a “stubborn motherfucker” he let it slid.

And yes, somewhere in my mind, there’s an alternate universe where Maiev accepted Illidan’s invitation and that they would spend the evening at her place. Without a reveal first.

Any Last Wish?

I don’t really have something to add to this chapter. I succeeded to write it just as I wanted.

I just had a long debate with myself as to how I wanted it to end, as I had the choice between cutting it right as Illidan is saved by the Warden (maybe not revealing her identity before the next chapter, or it would have been the last line) or just as I did, by them reaching her place first. I chose the latter because I want Chapter 21 to start with a really specific scene and I thought that it was better than a cheap cliffhanger.

The last thing I'll add, is that for the story to go well, I had to make Illidan be the first to be aware of the identity of the other, mostly because he can be the one to change his mind more easily about wanting to kill the Warden. If it had been Maiev discovering that Illidan was the Betrayer at this moment of the story, he would have died.

And now, because I'm not done yet, here’s some info about the bonus chapters that were published independently from the main story!

AC Day 8: A Morning

First calendar, in 2018, and I already knew that I was going to write Hasard. It had no name by this time, but I had written that small scene to try out a few things and see how it’ll work.

There’s a really high chance that I end up rewriting it for the main story, but I think that a few elements will change. We’ll see.

AC19 Day 24: Hasard: Naisha

Probably the worst (in terms of feels) chapter of the story yet.

Naisha is probably the character who had a story and fate the closest to canon and I wanted to keep it like that, as it allowed to shape even more the hate between the Warden and the Betrayer. Honestly, she wasn’t deserving of a death like that, especially that if the Betrayer hadn’t intervened that day by trying to kill Maiev, Naisha would have survived.

Actually, in any other universes/storylines possible, she would have survived. Unfortunately for her, she fell right into the feud and became a victim of it.

At this point of the story, Illidan isn’t even completely aware of what happened that day, and he has no idea who Naisha was. All that he knows is that he thought to have killed the Warden, only to find her, even more angry in the following week. He just knows that he had killed the wrong person, but he had no idea who. Maiev herself doesn’t know for sure that it was the Betrayer the culprit, as she couldn’t see clearly in the rain.

Of course, it’ll end up being brought up in the story :)

AC20 Day 8: Hasard: Malfurion’s Hellish Day

It should have been Khadgar's backstory actually for that Calendar. But even if I have a good idea about it, I realized that I wasn’t completely inspired and that I was missing a few details to be able to write it. So, in the end, I went desperately after another idea and thanks to Melowen, I think, she got me on the idea of writing about Malfurion.

In the end, this chapter, meant to be a funny one with Illidan and Maiev forced to be in the same place for the same job, with Malfurion, aware that it would be a catastrophe to let them discover the truth, ended up shaping the last chapters currently published.

And if you are wondering, no, Illidan wasn’t trying to trick his brother in giving him the secret identity of Maiev. He was just trying to get his brother approbation about the woman he was starting to crush on.

The line: ‘“Yeah, everyone tells me that I look like a famous actor,” Malfurion faked a chuckle, glancing at the woman.’ is a reference to my Bodyguard AU where Illidan is an actor.

Alright, that’s all for the trivia! Thanks for reading this bonus chapter, and the main story until now, and I hope you’ll keep enjoying reading Hasard!

Rose

#world of warcraft #illidan x maiev #long text

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jakeroo123 · 5 months ago

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Alright, have no idea how to do "keep reading" but here we go.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Five, though four of them are part of a series and one of those four is just artwork I drew for it.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

98,190, but really it's more like 95,000 because there's an entry in a collection of oneshots that eventually became a full au and the first chapter is a duplicate.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Owl House, currently.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. "Demon" Among Humans 2. Two Snails 3. Make it Brighter, Make it Bolder 4. Titanlights Week 2023 5. Clawthorne/Noceda Swap AU Artwork

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Very frequently, I like talking about the story, and my thought processes behind certain decisions, insofar as I can while avoiding spoiling things. If I can think of something to say in response to a comment, I'll generally respond to it.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uh… Make it Brighter, Make it Bolder? Not really heavy on the angst though.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

"Demon" Among Humans probably.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, not really.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Absolutely not.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I used to, but mostly stopped years ago. I tried to write an Owl House/Pokemon crossover more recently though.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't… think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah, but it's not up anymore. Most of my stuff from before 2023 is only on my own computer now.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Well… This is an answer that probably sounds weird, but I am genuinely 100% serious: CluelessShipping (Ash Ketchum/no one). I don't actually like shipping and find more meaning in the idea of a character never having a partner and being happy with that than I ever could from a ship. … For Owl House it'd be King/no one but that doesn't have a specific name.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Most of them, but… Hm. Maybe the one where I had King being raised in the Human Realm as Luz's brother? Also the aforementioned Pokemon thing.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Uh… I dunno? I think people have praised me for having King and Luz still feel like themselves in my swap AU, which was something I was very specifically trying to accomplish.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I tend to make things more complex and convoluted than necessary and get bogged down by ideas that I think are cool.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

It's a nice way to show that characters speak other languages but I'm unfamiliar with other languages so I use it very sparingly.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Mario.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

… I think I just have to go with "Demon" Among Humans. The first fic in my series, lots of Luz and King bonding as siblings.

As for tagging, well. I don't really do that but do this if you want to!

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for the tag @sneakyfox55! I don't normally do tag games, but this one looks really fun. (What author doesn't want the chance to ramble about their writing?) (This one is also copy/paste, so I'm less worried about clogging up people's dashes)

I'm going to put it under a cut since this is pretty long!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

As of now? 9! (But I have more than 35 fics in progress in my drafts that aren't posted.)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

129,647! But like, triple that (or more) if you want to count unposted stuff.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Undertale!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Heart on the Table

2. How to Defeat a Human in 6 Easy Steps

3. faux pas

4. How to Comfort a Panicking Child

5. How to Help a Human in 2 Easy Steps

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes!!! I love responding!!! I'm behind horribly right now because of my work's busy season, but I plan to catch back up! It's so fun to get to talk to people about the things I've poured my heart and soul into, you know? And I'm always glad to get to thank the people that took the time to leave a comment! It's a bit hard to keep up sometimes, though.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

"Is it Home Without You?" definitely. I'm still really proud of that fic, and it's part of a series with a happy ending, but the actual oneshot is the immediate aftermath of Gaster's lab accident from Sans's PoV. So, uh. Dead dad that no one but you remembers (not even your little brother) is pretty angsty. It's a step away from the norm for me, since normally I only write things with happy endings. But since this is part of a series that has a happy ending, I suppose my brain allowed me to end it off on a bittersweet (sad and angsty) note.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

This is really hard to say! I like big, happy endings, so most of my stuff gets them! Probably.... Hmmm. Either faux paus or How to Defeat a Human in 6 Easy Steps

8. Do you get hate on fics?

For the most part? No. (And I will always be grateful for the kind people that have picked me back up after I've been shot down in the past.)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

None you'll ever find under this username! I try to keep it family friendly here. ...Welllll, depending on if you count fics that tackle trauma and child murder in them family friendly.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven't written any cross fandom crossovers! ...I have, however, been guilty of writing cross fic crossovers (none posted). I like to make my characters from different fics interact with each other. I've also done some crossovers for fun with my friends, making our characters interact. All still Undertale fandom, though! The craziest one is probably "How to Adopt an Interdimensional Traveler" which may be posted at some point. It's a crossover between Heart on the Table, and my How To: series. What, you're telling me Papyrus has TWO children to deal with now? (Here, have the first little bit of that because I love it. And I love Papyrus.)

Step One: Find out their name “FRISK!” Papyrus’s voice was not a shriek. No. He was perfectly composed as he stared down at the… little Frisk in front of him. The very little Frisk. There was a familiar thumping behind him as… his Frisk crashed down the stairs in their familiar clumsy way. For all the elegance they displayed in battle, that did not tend to follow them home. He partially whirled around to face them, keeping… mini Frisk in his sight at the same time. “What’s up, Dad?” Mini Frisk made a small noise that may have been confusion as they rapidly looked between him and their larger counterpart. “…Dad?” Oh. Hm. Yes. That was. A thing. Apparently Papyrus had two children now.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know! And I sure hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope! That would be cool as heck, though!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

None that are posted! But I like to write with my friends, sometimes.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Surprisingly! Not Undertale! (Though I do like Alphyne!) Zukka! (Zuko x Sokka, Avatar the Last Airbender) I've loved that ship for years, and even though I'm not really in the AtLA fandom anymore, it still has a very close place in my heart.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Hmmmm. Again, nothing posted. I don't post fics unless they have a first draft completely written to prevent that kind of thing. (Though, I do rewrite stuff, and that can cause pretty big posting delays. But if for some reason I can't find the motivation to finish my rewrites, I could always just slap my first draft up so that it's not completely unfinished before I'd abandon it completely.) Of my fics not posted, though? I've got a fic called "Ghost of You" which is a fated soulmate dusttale!papyrusXreader fic. I hope I can finish it one day, but... well. I'm not sure if I will or not.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Characterization, and internal dialogue, I think! I like to think I'm pretty good at writing a character in such a way that even if you pick just a sentence at random, you know who's head you're in. Or, perhaps my strength is hurt/comfort in general...

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

It used to be dialogue, though I'm working to get better at that! I also struggle sometimes when it comes to making sure that the pace is engaging and that we aren't just stuck in someone's internal thoughts for 5 paragraphs. Gotta break that up with some stuff actually happening!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Very cool, and a great way to show characters that speak other languages than the one you are in the PoV of!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Well... the fic itself is long gone, but! I wrote for Ouran Highschool Host Club when I was like 12.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE! HOW COULD YOU ASK ME TO CHOOSE BETWEEN MY CHILDREN? MY BABIES! ...Heart on the Table has a special place in my heart though.

No pressure tags (only if you want! this is just for fun!): @lizavet @timeofjuly @humankk and anyone that wants to!

Also... Shall I dare? invoke the potential wrath of a god(ess)?

I dare. I'm curious about the answers (if the goddess does deign to answer this mortal/jk) @llamagoddessofficial (please feel free to just ignore if you want!)

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legendaryandroid · 3 years ago

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Wasn’t tagged, but wanted to participate in this questionnaire anyways.

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 41

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

417,725

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I’ve written for 12 different fandoms, a lot are various FE games, but then i have a decent amount for Detroit: Become Human and some for Octopath Traveler and HLVRAI.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Staredown - a humorous DBH fic where Connor is giving Gavin trouble.

Running Towards You - a soulmate AU for Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson involving soulwords

Waiting For You - a soulmate AU for Yusei Fudu/Jaden Yuki involving timers and time travel

Take it or Leave it - a Hank Anderson & Connor fic involving a/b/o (but no smut)

A Simple Reflection of You - a platonic soulmate AU for Hank Anderson & Connor where you see your soulmate if you’re both looking in the mirror at the same time

(Yes, I really love writing soulmate AUs, and for funsies I try to make all their titles end in ‘you’)

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I flip back and forth on this. It seems polite so I’ll try and do it, but at the same time I get a bit nervous about it and wonder if anyone even wants to get a response?

6) What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t write a lot of angsty fic, but probably either Waiting for You, or Stuck on You. Though they’re almost more bittersweet than angsty? Actually, I suppose Until Separation Ends might be a bit angsty at the end.

7) What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I’m gonna go with 2+1=3 just for cutesy Taiju/Senku/Yuzuriha getting together shenanigans.

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

I don’t, mostly because the ones I think of tend not to have anything solid enough for me to write about it. Right now I’ve been thinking about a Star Wars/Red vs Blue crossover where the reds and blues are actually all clone troopers. It’d probably take place during the prequels, with the usual red and blue shenaniganery happening in the background of major events.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I have not thankfully. At most I’ve gotten a comment or two where someone seemed displeased with my story choices, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it hate? I’m way too unknown to get hate I think.

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Noooope. I’m way too embarrassed to write any kind of smut, and honestly am not really sure how to go about writing it in a way that’s engaging? Though I do have a smut-ish idea that is haunting me enough that I may take a stab at it.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Doubtful, but I wouldn’t know.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yep, me and my bestie yamarik wrote the Yakuza 13 series together. It’s a modern AU where Sora and Vanitas are twins who get adopted by Organization 13, who are gangsters. (also, if you like the K anime, and especially Fushimi/Yata, check yamarik’s works out!)

14) What's your all time favourite ship?

My favorite ship flows and changes as I shift fandoms, so it never stays the same. Currently I’ve been focused on Cyrus/Therion (Octopath Traveler), but May/Steven (Pokemon) and Link/Zelda are sorta longstanding ones.

15) What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

basically all of them? jk jk. Umm, probably my Sylvain&Miklan relationship study fic. It’s about the time Miklan abandons Sylvain on a mountain in the middle of winter. I wanted to explore the idea of Sylvain always looking up to Miklan, almost like a hero, even if he could be a jerk sometimes. And this moment, when he manages to get back home and sees everyone freaking out and Miklan angry that he made it back, is when Sylvain realizes that Miklan truly hates him. (I also wanted to like, drop bits in there where it shows Miklan does, in a way, care for Sylvain, but it’s overwhelmed by his hatred). But alas, i cannot seem to get myself to write the last few pages.

16) What are your writing strengths?

I would say having straightforward and easy to understand writing. Also I’m great at coming up with fun plots and ideas, but IDK how much that relates to writing specifically?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue, I feel like I have trouble keeping dialogue in character and that it tends to be too straightfoward in driving the plot. And when it is more casual, it just feels clunky.

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

As long as there’s a translation at the end of the chapter it’s used in I’m fine. Unless there is vital information in there that a reader can’t pick up from the context around it.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Dengeki Daisy, an old-ish shoujo manga. Fun fact: This fic was also the first one for the fandom on ffnet.

20) What's your favourite fic you've written?

we found love in a garbage place A HLVRAI Coomer/Bubby fic.This fic I really focused on trying to portray Coomer the way I wanted to, and it worked out really well. (Also honorable mention to my OT fic Divine Enlightenment, because that came together delightfully.)

#this is personal i guess #long post #questionnaire

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior Feb. 14, 2020 – SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, FANTASY ISLAND, THE PHOTOGRAPH, DOWNHILL, OLYMPIC DREAMS

It’s Valentine’s Day on Friday and President’s Day on Monday, which means that this weekend is going to be absolutely nuts in terms of getting four new wide releases. Last week’s Birds of Prey did not do even remotely close to where I predicted/projected – almost half!! -- and here I thought all those raves reviews might help, but apparently not. It will still make money with its global release but it’s gonna fall short even of last year’s Shazam! and many have already started questioning whether an R-rating is the way to go with a movie semi-targeted towards younger women. (Warner Bros. has already sent out a mandate to theaters to change the title of the movie to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. I cannot believe that it took this long for them to figure out what a terrible title they had previously!)

With the four-day weekend, it’s very likely that Paramount Pictures’ SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, will prevail, as it brings the beloved SEGA video game character to the big screen with James Marsdenand Jim Carrey, the latter starring in one of his first big-screen appearances in a while. It should be an easy victor this weekend in a market that could desperately use another strong family film.

For those unfamiliar with SEGA’s flagship video game “mascot,” Sonic has appeared in all sorts of other media including animated series and comic books, so one can say that the character is almost but not quite as well known and popular as Nintendo’s Pokemon, which has had a much wider reach in terms of both games and cartoons.

Of course, it’s impossible not to look at Sonic the Hedgehog and completely ignore the relative success of last year’s Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, which had the added benefits of a popular A-list star in Ryan Reynoldsand a summer release. That opened with $54.4 million and made $144 million domestic and $429.7 million worldwide.

On the other hand, Sonic does have Jim Carrey, who hasn’t been in an American wide release since the 2014 sequel Dumb and Dumber To, which only made about $156 million worldwide. At one point, Carrey was one of the biggest box office stars with multiple $240 million plus domestic blockbusters. Maybe the kids won’t be as invested in Carrey’s Mr. Robotnik, but many parents who grew up with Carrey’s comedies will be happy to see him in such a perfect role.

The Presidents Day weekend allows one extra day for parents with kids needing something to do with them sans school. Even so, the biggest movies on the weekend have been superhero movies, including Black Panther, Deadpool and Fifty Shades of Grey, the latter two definitely not for kids. (Daredeviland Ghost Rider also fared well on the weekend.) In fifth place for the weekend is Warner Bros’ The LEGO Movie, which made $62.5 million over the four-day weekend, but that was in its SECOND WEEKEND! So yeah, lots of money to be had for a family movie even though the biggest opener was Christopher Columbus’ Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (now on Broadway!), which opened with $38.7 million ten years ago.

I have to imagine that Sonic is more popular, and even with the tragic misstep of that first trailer last year which got such a negative reaction to Sonic’s appearance, Paramount delayed the movie and went back to the CG drawing board, there will be enough fans interested to see how he translates to the screen that $40 million over the weekend should be doable even with three other wide releases. I also don’t think reviews will be so bad, so it should be good for $100 million plus.

Mini-Review: For whatever reason, Sonic the Hedgehog is the kind of movie that lazy critics love to dump on, maybe because it’s a kids’ movie or because it’s a movie based on a video game they played as kids, or more likely, a character their kids know from popular cartoons and comic books. It doesn’t help that judgments were mostly cast when the first trailer hit last year and Sonic looked different than what people expected. Regardless, I went into the movie with very low expectations, maybe because I really had no passionate connection to the character despite being generally familiar with some of the games.

We meet Sonic as he’s being chased by robots, and we flash back to him as a kid on a planet where he’s able to zoom around freely, until he’s discovered by predators that are hunting him (it’s never explained why), so his mentor owl gives Sonic gold rings that can take him off-planet. Sonic ends up in a small town called Green Hills where he watches the townsfolk in hiding for years, including a local police officer (James Marsden) and his wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter). The former eventually discovers Sonic after he causes a major power outage that gets the attention of the government and its genius robotics scientist, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey).

Despite not having much previous connection to Sonic, it’s hard for me not to appreciate this character, because I’ve been known to zip around myself. I also enjoyed Sonic’s haste since who knows when we might see that movie based on one of my favorite comic characters, The Flash. Sonic does a good job capturing the intensity and yes, speed, of having speed powers in quite a masterful way compared to previous attempts, giving me hope that a Flash movie is possible. (Granted, they do rip-off the fun thing Quicksilver does in the recent X-movies by slowing everything around Sonic down to a halt, but it’s still amusing.)

Probably the most genius idea by Sonic’s filmmakers was to convince Jim Carrey to return to the big screen as Dr. Robotnik. He quickly reminds us how hilarious he can be when going as fully into a character as he does this one, and it’s prime Carey vs. the semi-lazy Carrey that made movies in the early ‘00s. Robotnik is a super-genius with no patience for anyone on a lower level of intellect (aka everyone), and Carrey takes that idea to the utmost extreme. (It’s hard not to compare what he’s doing in this movie to what Ewan McGregor does in Birds of Prey and see how Carey does it effortlessly whereas McGregor was clearly trying too hard.)

That’s not to take away from Marsden and Sumpter, Sonic’s other prominent human co-stars, who bring such a warmth and humanity to those characters that you rarely even think that you’re watching them interact with a fully CG-character. (Kudos to Ben Schwartz and what he brings to Sonic as his voice.)

Sure, the plot can be a bit predictable with certain parts clearly geared to kids, but there’s also slew of pop references that display some real talent in the writing of the movie so that it can be watched and enjoyed by people of all ages.

Is it possible that Sonic the Hedgehog is the first thoroughly entertaining movie of the year? Yes, indeedy. (Definitely stay through the first bunch of credits if you are a Sonic fan!)

Rating: 8/10

One of the more interesting releases of the weekend is BLUMHOUSE’S FANTASY ISLAND (Sony Pictures Releasing), which as you can guess is a PG-13 horror version of the popular ‘80s show, starring Michael Peña as Mr. Rouke, the head of a program in which people can pay lots of money to achieve their greatest wishes… with a catch! Since this is Blumhouse, you probably know that the catch involves some sort of horror/thriller premise, and if you’ve seen the trailer, you might get some idea how it works… or not. (I wish I can say more but I’m under embargo!)

The rest of the cast is decent including Maggie Q (from Mission: Impossible 3), Lucy Hale, Portia Doubleday, Michael Rooker, Ryan Hansen, Jimmy O . Yang and more, plus it’s directed by Jeff Wadlow, who last did Blumhouse’s Truth Or Dare (a very bad movie!) and then Kick Ass 2 before that. (He was supposed to direct Sony’s upcoming Bloodshot movie but he left that to do other things, like this.)

Unfortunately, Sony Pictures Releasing (another specialized imprint from the parent company?) seems to have taken a cue from Screen Gems by deciding not to screen the movie for critics until Thursday afternoon (just like with The Grudge!), plus there won’t be ANY Thursday previews for this. It’s a shame since… well, I can’t really tell you if I liked the movie or not since I’m under embargo until Friday. J

Either way, it seems like a strong enough counter to Sonic and Birds of Prey that it should be good for $15 million plus over the four days. Personally, I think it would have opened even bigger if Sony and Blumhouse had shown some balls and screened it for critics in advance, but what do I know? I’ve only written about this stuff for ALMOST TWENTY FUCKING YEARS! (Not sure I’m gonna review the movie but we’ll see.)

I know far less about Universal’s Valentine’s Day offering THE PHOTOGRAPH (Universal), which I guess is a romantic drama that’s targeting African-Americans looking for something to see on the biggest date nights of the year. In fact, we’ve seen some interesting hits on this weekend just by putting “Date” in the movie title, as was the case with Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore’s 50 First Dates ($45.1 million four-day opening) and even Date Movie ($21.8 million), which satirized romantic movies. But the real winner has to be a movie that went all out for Valentine’s Day by actually going with the title Valentine’s Day, which helped it open with $63 million over the four-day weekend ten years ago. ($23.4 million of that was on Valentine’s Day alone!)

Since I won’t see The Photograph until Weds. night, I can only talk about the little bit of marketing I’ve seen and what’s out there. Apparently, this is more in the vein of Valentine’s Day in that it’s a series of intertwined romantic stories, but it has an impressive cast of African-American actors who are on the verge of breaking out such as the great LaKeith Stanfield and amazing Kelvin Harrison Jr., as well as Rob Morgan (from “Daredevil” and Mudbound) and Courtney B. Vance. I’d be neglect if I didn’t mention any of the women involved and having Issa Raefrom the TV show “Insecure” as the primary female lead is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Stanfield isn’t the only connection to Jordan Peele, though, asLil Rel Howery from Get Outis also in this movie as is Peele’s actual wife, Chelsea Peretti!

I actually had to double check to make sure Peele wasn’t one of the film’s producers, but no, this is from Will Packer, a producer who is responsible for so many huge hits among African-Americans that one of these days I won’t underestimate his drawing power, even though all three of his 2019 movies underdelivered, including the comedy Little (co-starring Rae), although did well compared to their lower budgets.

In that sense, The Photograph could be compared to Packer’s Screen Gems comedy About Last Night, which opened with $27.8 million in just over 2,200 theaters in 2014, but that also had the power of proven box office draw Kevin Hartto bring in audiences. I certainly don’t want to be accused of underestimating Packer again, but with such a generic title and premise (and next to no marketing?), I’m just not sure the movie will deliver despite being decent counter-programming for AA audiences. With that in mind, I think the movie will probably make somewhere between $12 and 14 million.

Then there’s DOWNHILL (Searchlight Studios), the new movie from The Way, Way Back directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (who also won the Oscar for cowriting Alexander Payne’s The Descendants), this one being a direct remake of Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s 2014 film Force Majeure.

In this version, Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus play a squabbling couple who travel to the alps with their kids, but after barely escaping an avalanche – one in which he runs away leaving his family behind – they start questioning their lives. The film also stars Zach Woods (also from “Veep”), Miranda Otto and Zoe Chao, and though it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (just like the duo’s previous movie), it did not receive great reviews, as it currently sits at 48% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I don’t think that will matter since like Carey above, Ferrell hasn’t been oversaturating the market with movies in the past couple year, maybe because his last movie, Holmes & Watson, reteaming him with John C. Reilly from Step Brothers bombed with $41 million worldwide after horrifying reviews. Fortunately, Louis-Dreyfus is far more loved thanks to her run on “Seinfeld” and her Emmy-winning run on HBO’s “Veep,” and that should help get people into theaters despite all the competition aboe and below.

Searchlight (no more Fox!!) will be releasing the movie into roughly 1,500 theaters, a moderate release to see how it fares, and the extended holiday weekend (plus the chance of it attracting older moviegoers on Valentine’s Day) should help it make $5 million plus over the extended weekend.

Mini-Review: If you’re reading this review hoping for a play-by-play of how Downhill differs from Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure, then you’re bound to be disappointed, because a.) I don’t really remember it, b.) I wasn’t as big a fan of the movie as so many others, and c.) I’m going to assume that a lot of people never got around to seeing it.

In this version, it’s Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus as Peter and Billie Stanton, and there’s much more focus on their roles as parents and the responsibility that goes with that. Once again, Peter runs off when a controlled avalanche comes their way, but they don’t really talk about it so much even as it hangs over their heads.

Nat Faxon and Jim Rash once again find a manageable way of making “dramedy” out of a situation, making sure not to go for constant visual laughs or the zaniness Ferrell usually goes for. (Granted, we can totally believe him as a careless father/husband who does dumb things.) In fact, Ferrell plays his role fairly toned down, which allows Louis-Dreyfus to shine in what’s, oddly, a quite rare movie appearance. How they deal with the aftermath of the avalanche comes to a head when Pete’s work-buddy Zack (Zach Woods) arrives with a ladyfriend (Zoe Chao) allows the two to go at each other. It doesn’t get quite as intense as Marriage Story, but it’s obvious that they both have reached the point in their marriage where they need a separation.

It is kind of amusing that Miranda Otto almost steals her scenes with the two leads because she’s so funny as a hot-to-trot European guest they keep running into and who sets Billie up with a hot Italian ski trainer. There’s a few other funny characters but it mostly stays on Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus either alone or together, and that’ll be enough for most people.

Faxon and Rash find interesting ways to play with the basic premise, although Downhill is very much comedy with a lower-case “c,” and like the original movie, it should lead to some interesting conversations.

Rating: 7/10

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this… (bearing in mind that the below are all four-day projections). It’ll be interesting to see if the name change for “Birds of Prey” will make a difference, but look for NEON’s Parasite to make its first foray into the top 10 this weekend after 19 (!!!) weeks in theaters, thanks to its Best Picture win last Sunday.

1. Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount) - $44 million N/A (up $1.5 million)* 2. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (Warner Bros) - $20 million -39% (down $1.5 million)* 3. Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (Sony) - $15.8 million N/A (up $.3 million)* 4. The Photograph (Universal) - $13.5 million N/A 5. Bad Boys for Life (Sony) - $8 million -35% (up .2 million)* 6. 1917 (Universal) - $7 million -23% 7. Downhill (Searchlight) - $5.6 million N/A (up .2 million)* 8. Parasite (NEON) - $5 million +300% (up .4 million and one place) 9. Dolittle (Universal) - $4.5 million -30% (down .4 million and one place) 10. Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony) - $4.2 million -24%

*UPDATE: A few minor updates based on actual theater counts with Parasite being expanded into 2,000 theaters, the widest its been so far. I feel like most of the new movies will do well, including Downhill (which will be in 2,301 theaters vs. the 1,500 estimated earlier in the week). Anyway, it should be a fairly hearty and robust weekend at the box office.

LIMITED RELEASES

Before we get to the regular limited releases opening Friday, I want to mention two special releases for Weds. night, Trafalgar Releasing is giving a one-night screening of The Doors: Break on Thru - A Celebration of Ray Manzarek, which I haven’t seen but I’m definitely interested in as a fan of the ‘60s group (and Manzarek’s keyboard work). You can get tickets for that here. Also, Kino Lorber is giving one-night release of Emily Taguchi & Jake Lefferman’s doc After Parkland to commemorate the second anniversary of the shootings at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people and began a nationwide student movement for gun control. It’s a fairly sobering and emotional doc, as you can imagine, especially since so little has been done to prevent incidents like this even two years later.

My favorite movie of the weekend is Jeremy Teicher’s OLYMPIC DREAMS ( IFC Films), opening at the IFC Center Friday. It stars Nick Kroll (who you’ll know from “The League,” “Oh, Hello” and other things) and (actual Olympian distance runner) Alexi Pappas, who you may or may not be as familiar with. Pappas plays Penelope, an American competitor in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, who is feeling lonely and unable to connect with others until she meets Kroll’s volunteer dentist, Ezra. While at first, it wouldn’t seem like they would have anything in common, they spend a night hanging out and while some might be expecting something romantic, since this is opening on Valentine’s Day, well I won’t ruin what does or doesn’t happen, k? Either way, it’s a wonderful film co-written by Teichter, Pappas and Kroll, and if that sounds like a familiar formula, then it is indeed the one Richard Linklater used for his sequels to Before Sunrise with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Olympic Dreams isn’t nearly as deep and philosophical (or wordy), but the two actors are so wonderful together, and they actually filmed this in the Athletes Village at the Olympics (the first film to do so) which adds some authenticity to the sweet little movie. (There will be a sneak preview Weds night at the IFC Center with Teicher, Kroll and Pappas all in attendance!)

Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfig returns with THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS (Vertical), a star-studded ensemble piece starring Zoe Kazan, Andrea Riseborough, Caleb Landry Jones, Jay Baruchel and Bill Nighy (who appeared in Lone’s previous film Their Finest). This is a New York City story about six strangers whose lives intersect and mingle while trying to find help, hope and love. I know it sounds like the Crash-style movie we’ve seen far too many times before, but I have faith in Ms. Scherfig and hopefully I’ll have a chance to watch it in the next day or two.

I also still haven’t gotten around to watching Kenji Tanagaki’s action-comedy ENTER THE FAT DRAGON (Go WELL USA), starring the always-amazing Donnie Yen as police officer Zhu, who is sent to Japan on a routine police escort of a suspect… who mysteriously dies, forcing Zhu to call upon a former undercover inspector to help solve the murder. I’m assuming the latter is the “Fat Dragon” and Yen didn’t gain 200 lbs. for the part.

Opening at the Quad Cinemaon Friday and in L.A. on Feb. 21 is Dimitri de Clercq’sFrench/Belgian film You Go to My Head (First Run Features) about an architect who finds a young woman lost, alone and in a fog in the Sahara after a mysterious accident, but when he takes her to the hospital, he claims to be her husband. As she gets better, he creates an elaborate life to fill in the life they shared which she can no longer remember. It also sounds perfect for Valentine’s Day, so you have plenty of options!

I didn’t have too much to say about Céline Sciamma’s PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (NEON), because I think I wrote about it last year, and I haven’t seen the movie since the New York Film Festival. Set in the 18thCentury, it’s about a woman painter who travels to a remote island where she’s commissioned to do a painting of a grieving widow, who she ends up falling in love with. I probably should see the movie again as it didn’t really connect with me the first time, but I can totally understand why others love it so much. (Unfortunately, the 7:10 screening on Friday night at the Angelika with a QnA moderated by my pal, Valerie Complex, is already sold out!)

The second documentary in the last year about a man named “Cunningham” (a different one this time) is Mark Bozek’s The Times of Bill Cunningham (Greenwich) about the famed photographer who died in 2016… and whom I know even less about than I did dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham. Apparently, he was a New York Timesphotographer for four decades and had a long relationship with First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and this doc is even narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker! It also opens at the Angelika and City Cinemas 1, 2 & 3, and maybe L.A.?

Due to the usual conflicts and circumstances, I wasn’t able to see Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s Ordinary Love (Bleecker Street) as planned, but it’s an appropriately-timed romantic drama starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville as a middle-aged couple who must deal with her beast cancer diagnosis. I actually am interested in seeing this, especially to see Neeson back in serious drama mode (it’s been a while), so hopefully I’ll have a chance to see this down the road.

Also opening Friday is Tanya Wexler’s Buffaloed (Magnolia), starring Zoey Deutch as Peg Dahl, a young woman living in Buffalo, the debt collection capital of America but hopes to get out of town and into an Ivy League university. When she’s accepted to her top choice but can’t afford the tuition, she gets pulled into the rope of debt collection. Also starring Judy Greer, Germaine Fowler, Noah Reid and Jai Courtney, it will open at New York’s Quad Cinema, the Loz Feliz 3 in L.A., Buffalo’s North Park Theater and more theaters.

Another SXSW 2019 movie is Richard Wong’s Come As You Are (Samuel Goldwyn), starring Gabourey Sidibe, Grant Rosenmeyer, Ravi Patel, Hayden Szeto and Janeane Garofolo. The three guys in the middle play men with disabilities who go on a road trip to a Montreal brothel to get away from their suffocating parents. Sidibe (from Precious) plays their travelling nurse who drives them across the border to help them lose their virginity. This is an English remake of the Belgian Film Hasta La Vista about the real-life adventure of Asta Philpot.

Sara Zandieh’s indie rom-com A Simple Wedding (Blue Fox Entertainment) also opens in theaters and On Demand on Valentine’s Day, this one following an Iranian-American named Nousha (Tara Grammy) whose hopes for a Persian wedding are dashed when she falls for a bisexual artist/DJ named Alex (Christopher O’Shea). She has to make sure her parents don’t realize they’re living together before marriage. The film also stars Shohreh Aghdashloo, Rita Wilson, Maz Jobrani, Peter McKenzie and James Eckhouse.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

Some cool festivals and series in New York are happening this weekend to offer competition for all the choices above.

Let’s begin with the “Winter Showcase” for one of my favorite annual film festivals, the New York Asian Film Festivalsubtitled “Love at First Bite,” since they’re including a special Valentine’s Day screening of the Korean hit Extreme Job followed by a reception including delicious Korean food. The rest of the line-up is probably more appropriate for the rep section as it will including Asian classics like Stephen Chow’s God of Cookery (1996), Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman (1994),Tampopo (1985) on Saturday, as well as Ritesh Batra’s amazing The Lunchbox and more on Sunday.

Up at Film at Lincoln Center, there’s the annual “Neighboring Scenes,” the annual celebration of “New Latin American Cinema,” opening Friday with Joanna Reposi Garibaldi’s Lemebel, a documentary about writer/visual artist Pedro Lemebel and his controversial performances amidst Chilean upheaval. Of course, I’m most interested in the Brazilian offerings, but sadly, there just isn’t enough time in the day/week to see as many of the films in this series I’m curious about including the New York premiere of Ema from Chile’s Pablo Larrain (Neruda, Jackie). Click on the link above and check out that line-up.

Further North (in terms of global geography) but South (in terms of New York City geography) is this year’s “Canada Now” series, taking place at the IFC Center from Thursday through Sunday. It will kick off with Guest of Honor, the new film from Canada’s Atom Egoyan, starring David Thewlis and Laysla De Oliveira as father and music school teacher daughter whose lives become complicated when she’s put in prison for earlier crimes. There are seven other movies in this series, most of them getting their U.S. debuts, so that’s another alternative for what could be a busy movie-going weekend.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Lots of stuff premiering on streaming services this weekend including the British animated sequel A Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon on Netflix, as well as the rom-com sequel To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You, which will premiere on Weds and may end up being the “Netflix and chill” choice for many young people on V-Day. (I honestly never got around to seeing the first movies of either of those yet!)

Over on Hulu, they’re premiering the gender-swapped series loosely based on Nick Horny’s High Fidelity, this one starring Zoe Kravitz, the daughter of Lisa Bonet, who appeared opposite John Cusack in Stephen Frears’ adaptation of Hornby’s book from 2000 that was one of my favorite movies that year! Wait a second, even though Kravitz plays a character named Rob, just like Cusack, is she meant to be the daughter of Cusack and Bonet’s characters in that movie? That would be intense! (But probably not. I’m sure I’ll check it out.)

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

The Metrograph’s Valentine’s Dayweekend offerings include Casablanca (1942), Howard Hawks’ 1944 film To Have and Have Not, the 1932 film Trouble in Paradise, Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind (1956) and another screening of Makoto Shinkai’s animated Your Name. The “To Hong Kong with Love” series continues through the end of February, this weekend screening Yellowing (2016), which I haven’t seen.This weekend, the Welcome To Metrograph: Reduxwill offer two more screenings of Edward Yang’s 4-hour 1991 film A Brighter Summer Day, while Late Nites at Metrograph will screen Nagisa Oshima’s 1978 film Empire of Passion, also which I have never seen! Rounding out the weekend’s Asian offering is the Playtime: Family Matineesoffering of Yoshifumi Kondo’s 1995 animated film Whisper of the Heart, which guess what? I haven’t seen that either! Clearly, I need to try to get to one of the four movies, right?

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Tonight’s “Weird Wednesday” is the Susan Sarandon-James Spader romantic drama White Palace (1990). Oddly, the Alamo is CLOSED on Valentine’s Day.. is this true?!? On Sunday is a special “Drew Believers: Drew Barrymore Movie Marathon” with four of Barrymore’s movies in 35mm! (As of this writing, there are a few seats available near the front.) Monday’s “Fist City” is Sam Raimi’s The Quick and The Dead from 1995 and that’s quickly selling out as well. The “Terror Tuesday” is James Gunn��s hilarious Slither and then next week’s “Weird Wednesday” is the 1987 Ken Russell film Gothic.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Wednesday’s “Afternoon Classic” is the 1961 Oscar-winning musical West Side Story. Weds and Thursday night’s double feature is Robert Altman’s 1971 film McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Sydney Pollack’s 1972 film Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford. This week’s “Freaky Friday” offering is the classic The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, while Friday’s midnight movie is True Romanceand Saturday’s midnight is 1978’s Mean Dog Blues in 16mm! This weekend continues the “Kiddee Matinee” run with the Alfonso Cuaron-directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Monday’s matinee of David Lynch’s Wild at Heart is already sold out but that night is a Robert Clouse double feature of The Pack(1977) and Darker than Amber (1970). Tuesday’s Grindhouse double feature is 1976’s Sky Riders and 1981’s Force: Five.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Thursday is a “Black Voices” double feature of Car Wash (1976) and Cooley High (1975) with guest including Bill Duke in person. John Sayles and Joe Dante will be on hand Friday night for a “John Sayles: Independent” double feature of Piranha (1978) and The Howling (1981). This weekend is the “HFPA Restoration Summit” including a Saturday afternoon presentation called “Serge Bromberg Presents from the Silent Era” with the Lobster Films founder, while the one and only Jane Fonda will be on-hand Saturday evening to present a 4k restoration of the 1972 film F.T.A., which she produced with Donald Sutherland. Saturday night is a screening of The Black Vampire, the 1953 Argentine adaptation of Fritz Lang’s M, and there’s more classic cinema on Sunday as part of the series.

AERO (LA):

Thursday’s “Antiwar Cinema” matinee is Richard Attenborough’s Oh! What a Lovely War from 1969 with an all-star cast, while that night is a Eugene Levy/Christopher Guest double feature of A Might Windand For Your Consideration. The AERO is ALSO showing Casablancaon Valentine’s Day and then Saturday is another Levy/Guest double feature of Best in Show (2000)and Waiting for Guffman (1996) with Levy doing a discussion between films. John Sayles and Frances McDormand will appear in person for a Sunday afternoon double feature of 1996’s Lone Star and 1999’s Limbo.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

MOMI is going a bit crazy with its Valentine’s offering but it’s a good one…Jane Fonda in 1968’s Barbarella as part of its new 2001-inspired series “See It Big! Outer Space”! (If MOMI wasn’t all the way in Astoria, I’d totally go.) It will play again Sunday with Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) playing on Friday and Saturday and 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Pictureon Sunday. Sunday will also be a repeat of Kubrick’s 1969 film 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm with a discussion before the movie between Doug Trumbull and Piers Bizony. There’s also the usual DCP screening of 2001on Saturday afternoon, as part of the exhibition. On Saturday, they’ll screen Marjane Satrapi’s excellent Persepolis(2007) as part of its “World of Animation.”

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Starting Friday, the Forum will be screening a DCP restoration of Luchino Visconti’s L’Innocente (1976), starring Giancarlo Giannini. This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr.” is Guys and Dolls from 1955, starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra. (If you read this on Wednesday, you can catch Joseph Strick’s 1963 film The Balcony, starring Shelley Winters, Peter Falk and Lee Grant, in 35mm.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad’s run of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman continues through the weekend, and there will be Valentine’s Day screenings of Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy on Thursday and Friday night. (How romantic!)

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES (NYC):

The Anthology’s great “The Devil Probably: A Century of Satanic Panic” continues this weekend with screenings of Robert Eggers’ The Witch, Alan Parker’s Angel Heart, another screening of Rosemary’s Baby, as well as screenings of Race with the Devil on Weds. and Thursday night. I missed it last week but they’ve been showing Mark Rappaport’s 1975 film Mozart in Love the past week, as well.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

The Cage-athon continues Weds. with Neil Labute’s The Wicker Man (2006) and 2009’s Knowing on Thursday. Valentine’s Day sees screening of Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, as well as the 1987 Nicolas Cage movie Moonstruck, co-starring Cher. Spike Jonez and Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation (2003), starring Cage, repeats on Saturday.

NITEHAWK CINEMA (NYC):

Williamsburg‘s “Uncaged” series continues Friday with last year’s Mandy at midnight and 1983’s Valley Girl on Saturday morning. Casabalanca is also playing at the Prospect Park on Thursday, and unrelated but Back to the Future will play there on Monday night. Billy Wilder’s 1954 film Sabrina, starring Bogart, Hepburn and Holden will play on Saturay morning.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Weekend Classics: Luis Buñuel is back with Belle de Jour from 1967, starring Catherine Deneuve. Waverly Midnights: Hindsight is 2020 will screen the animated Ghost in the Shell, while Late Night Favorites: Winter 2020 will also go with an Anime film, Paprika.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: Jack Lemmon is off Weds. and Thursday but will return Friday with Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce (1963).

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

BAM will continue to show Horace Jenkins’ 1982 film Cane River through the weekend.

Next week, the second to last week of February (man, it flew right by!) will include Fox’s The Call of the Wild, starring Harrison Ford, and the horror sequel, Brahms: The Boy II.

#TheWeekendWarrior Movies Reviews SonicTheHedgehog FantasyIsland Downhill ThePhotograph OlympicDreams Repertory Streaming

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aroworlds · 7 years ago

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Aro-Spec Artist Profile: Alex

Today I have the delight of introducing Alex, better known to aro-spec Tumblr as @arotaro and @mutant-jojos!

Alex is a bisexual, half-Puerto Rican multi-disciplinary aromantic artist and creative with severe ADHD. You’ll find her prolific fanworks on AO3 as EmeraldTrash666, writing primarily for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fandom. Her bold, colourful art for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fullmetal Alchemist, Hetalia, Pokemon and Vocaloid fandoms is also available on Redbubble under the name StellaHagane.

She writes, she creates digital art and she dabbles in music, sewing and fashion design, single-handedly proving that there’s no such thing as too much creative awesome for any one aromantic!

With us Alex talks about finding the word aro, the power of fandom and creative fanworks, her love of aro Jotaro, the challenges of creating with ADHD, the struggles of being an aro gen writer in fandom and the importance of expressing our aro headcanons. Everything she says is absolutely on point, so please let’s give her all our love, encouragement, gratitude, kudos and follows for taking the time to explore what it is to be aromantic and creative.

Can you share with us your story in being aro-spec?

I guess in some ways my “story” starts out pretty typical. Got older, kept waiting for my First Crush™, never got it, started worrying and trying to force myself to develop crushes. I actually was in a relationship with another girl on a forum I was part of as a teenager, but eventually I realized that I didn’t really like her romantically, and the relationship started to become really unpleasant for me. I eventually felt so miserable that I didn’t even want to talk at her at all, even though we were close friends, but I didn’t want to break up with her - partly because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, partly because we were everyone’s “OTP” and I didn’t want my friends to hate me for ruining that. But eventually I did break up with her, and I’m happy to say she took it with grace and we’re still close friends today! (She’s ace and a great writer/artist herself, too!)

I was part of a very nice LGBTQ+ group as a teenager, but I could never figure out my identity. I felt really ashamed and alone. Whenever I brought up how messed up I felt because I’d never had a crush on anyone, everyone was like, “Oh, sounds like you must be asexual!”, but I knew I wasn’t, and that was the worst part. Even though I knew aromanticism was a thing, nobody ever talked about it. It was only ever in the context of aroaces, so I didn’t know I was aro. I thought I must have had some sort of mental illness or something, but certainly not a legitimate orientation, nothing to be proud of like everyone else.

During that time, I found myself connecting on a deep emotional level to characters like Alphonse Elric, Fujiwara no Sai, the X-Men in general (although I’ve been an X-Men fan since I was literally a baby), basically anyone who was somehow “different” from the rest of humanity, even though I never understood why, since I was a fairly privileged kid who had never experienced much bullying or anything. Weirdly enough, it was Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure that helped me realize I was aro and come to terms with it; I saw an interview with Hirohiko Araki, the author of JJBA, where he was asked what type of girls Jotaro Kujo likes, and replied that he didn’t think Jotaro liked girls. The obvious interpretation would be that Jotaro’s gay, but somehow, one way or another, I decided to go with the idea that Jotaro’s aromantic. Jotaro also happened to be a character I really related to for reasons I couldn’t quite articulate, so around the time I was 18 I put two and two together and was like ... oh shit…

Please click keep reading to continue Alex’s story!

Can you share with us the story behind your creativity?

I’ve always been weird in the way I’m very creative, but tend to kinda bounce around from hobby to hobby. Other people draw, or write, or sing, while I draw for a month, and then write for a month and sew for a week and play video games for a week, and then I draw some more, and then I try out something completely new, and then I write again. I think it must be an ADHD thing, idk. In any case, I’ve just always been really passionate about making stuff, whatever that stuff happens to be.

I’ve also always been very much fandom-oriented. Ever since I was a toddler, I used to dictate fanfiction to my mom (back then it usually involved Winnie the Pooh, the Powerpuff Girls, Godzilla, and my dog). I mostly draw fanart. I find that I’m not really capable of writing original stories, but I’m great at getting fanfics in character, and I love writing them. I love taking stories I already love and reinterpreting them, seeing what it would be like if the characters were put into different situations, etc.

Because of my ADHD, I really struggle with actually finishing things. I try really really hard, I really do, and I’ve been trying to push myself even harder these past few years. I’ve made progress, but it’s still extremely difficult, so I’m very sorry for all the projects I’ve abandoned over the years. Sorry I still haven’t finished the fic that was supposed to be done in early March. I’m trying, really. I promise I’m working on the next chapter of BLaD, too.

Are there any particular ways your aro-spec experience is expressed in your art?

Of course, pretty much everything I write is gen. Even if I include romantic relationships in my fics, I never write about romance, just stories which also happen to include some characters who might be dating someone. And obviously I always write Jotaro as aro! That’s really important to me. No matter which AU I’m writing, he’s always aro. (And autistic, but that’s off topic.)

I’m also not really into shipping because of my romance repulsion, but I ship Joseph Joestar and Caesar Zeppeli. The thing is … I’ve always viewed it as a unique relationship, sort of difficult to define as being strictly romantic or platonic or sexual, just kind of their own thing that defies words. That’s how I’ve always written it. I had the sudden realization recently that this strange view on the only ship I really actually like (at the moment, anyway) is probably due to my being aro, lmao.

What challenges do you face as an aro-spec artist?

People don’t read gen fics, and people aren’t interested in aro stories. That’s just the way it is. I do have some dedicated readers, whom I love deeply, but in general… I could post something with a deep plot, something funny and dramatic and witty and touching, something I poured my heart and soul into for months, and it’ll get very few hits/comments/kudos, while someone else could post the same generic 2,000-word romance fic everyone’s seen a dozen times over, with no editing or anything, and get twice the amount of traffic my fics do in half the time. It’s really crushing.

How do you connect to the aro-spec and a-spec communities as an aro-spec person?

I dunno… The aro community feels so small. Online, I have a small circle of aro mutuals who all kind of vent collectively, and I’m part of Arocalypse and a few aro/aspec Discord servers, but I still feel like there isn’t really much of a larger community to be part of in the same way that there is for other orientations. Offline, I’ve never met another aro, or even anyone who actually knows what aromanticism is prior to me explaining it to them.

I also don’t feel like there’s a very unified “aspec community”. As an allo aro, I feel very rejected by the ace community - not to say that I feel like I should be part of the ace community, since I’m not ace, but I feel like they throw aros under the bus a lot. I mean, we’ve all seen the “asexuals can feel love, just like anybody else! … oh, except for aroaces, I guess. But the rest of us are normal, so you should accept us!” rhetoric. Both within and outside the aspec communities, aros are rarely treated with the same priority as aces, even though we’re arguably in a much more difficult position than your average allo ace.

That being said, I’m glad there is an aro community at all. I don’t know where I’d be now if I were still questioning. Probably not in a very good place.

How do you connect to your creative community as an aro-spec person?

As I mentioned, there’s a general lack of interest in gen fics or sympathy for romance-repulsed people in general. It’s really difficult being romance repulsed in fandom spaces, because nobody cares about anything other than ships. There are very few gen fics, and even less that are a decent length, not abandoned, or cater to my specific interests, so I have to write my own. I don’t often have anything good to read; most of the big fics, the ones with cool plots and long word counts and ongoing updates, are ship fics. If I’m lucky, maybe two gen fics will be posted in one week, and maybe one of them will be longer than a few thousand words. Maybe one might even have my favorite characters. But usually genfics are few and far between, and kind of random in terms of what you’ll get. Sometimes I get so bored that I read ship fics anyway, and then I always wind up feeling really awful afterwards.

I’ve written, over the course of the past two years alone, over 20 gen fics. But whenever I vent that sometimes I’d like to actually get to read something, I always get someone telling me, “Well if you want gen fics, write some yourself! You have to make the change! You can’t demand people write stuff for you!” And of course, at the same time it’s totally acceptable to request ship fics from your favorite author, and if you complain that there aren’t enough fics for your rarepair, it’s seen as relatable and totally valid.

Fandom is just … really, really amatonormative, tbh. I hate it. I’m trying to make a difference (I did organize Gen Jojo Week along with my friend Rachel last year, and hopefully will again this year), but there’s only so much I can do.

How can the aro-spec community best help you as a creative?

Aside from reblogging my art and promoting my fics? Talk about stuff. Talk about aro stuff in fandom. Seriously! I know it seems obvious that aro people would like aro headcanons and gen fics and all that, but we need to talk about them more. Nobody outside the community gives enough of a shit about us to have aro headcanons, so let’s get them popular. Talk about your favorite aro headcanons. Talk about your favorite gen fics. Talk about how such-and-such character is totally aro; talk about how excited you are to see aro characters in fics. My dream is for aro headcanons to become just as common and popular as any other type of headcanon.

Can you share with us something about your current project?

This is old news to most of the people who already know me, but my current big project that I’ve been working on for several years now is Between Life and Death, a drama/horror/supernatural JJBA fic.

(WARNING: PHANTOM BLOOD AND STARDUST CRUSADERS SPOILERS BELOW.)

The plot of the fic is that Dio wins at the end of Stardust Crusaders, and after realizing that he has no hobbies other than harassing the Joestars, he decides to bring Jonathan back by sticking his head (which… we’ll just assume Dio preserved for plot purposes) onto Jotaro’s body. Obviously, Jonathan is NOT happy with this arrangement, but it also turns out that Jotaro’s still alive, just not in control of his body. He can still use his stand, so he essentially uses Star Platinum as a sort of proxy for interacting with the environment around him, even though he only comes out when Jonathan’s alone since he doesn’t want Dio to know he’s alive.

Basically, it’s the story of a depressed vampire and a traumatized ghost. It’s a very introspective fic; most of the story consists of conflicts between Dio and Jonathan, and Jonathan and Jotaro struggling to come to terms with their new existences - Jonathan being unable to reconcile vampirism with his personal morals, and Jotaro having one hell of an identity crisis while also mourning the deaths of his friends and family. The plot is picking up, though, and there is an end goal in mind, as well as an eventual sequel!

As for where the story-in-progress is at right now … well, the next “stage” of the plot is hamon training for Kakyoin and Avdol, which will be fun. This chapter also includes several dream sequences, including an extended appearance by Mary Joestar (Jonathan’s mom), and a very serious and dark scene which I almost ruined by having dream!Will Zeppeli refer to Jonathan as his padawan. Yeah.

Have you any forthcoming works we should look forward to?

As mentioned, I’m working on chapter 9 of Between Life and Death! And working on and off on some stuff for the mutants AU. Most recently, on a whim I rewrote the lyrics to Handbeat Clocktower by MOTHY to be about Jonathan Joestar. Somehow this went far enough that I’m making an actual UTAU rendition of this “parody”, and hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next few weeks. I’m really having fun with it and I hope people like it!

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hawker-rawr-is-watching-you · 7 years ago

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I was wondering about that.

So this is going to be long, I hope you don't mind.

One of the main issues that I saw in AFAC was mainly the overwhelming number of the cast. I see that the comic started with Frisk and the main characters from undertale, that was fine, more than fine, it was just enough. The introduction with some of the OCs was not bad, Frisk's siblings an example of that. Then it started to add more, and more, and more characters. Not counting side characters, there's over 20 recurrent characters in the comic, not counting side characters or all the OCs. Let that sink in, some of the characters introduced are never seen again in the comic, or forgotten. Undertale's cast is already huge, trying to add lots of OCs into the mix won't make the comic more engaging or easier to read. You need to keep up with more people, the author needs to keep up with more people. That would either cause the comic to drag on for too long trying to develop a character or just rush arcs and sequences, wasting the potential of said characters whether it's fanon or OC. This would be more tolerable in an original story, but OCs taking over the canon in a fanwork is really frown upon because you're taking away the character's spotlight..and..there's no point, it feels like these people have no porpuse. Like I remember one of the character's motivations to join an anti monster group was because their ex hooked up with a monster? like..what? No political issues behind it? like actual concerns from the human side? Like I dunno just throwing ideas out there, Monsters not integrating into society, or Humans feeling forced to give monsters land at the expense of their own land and money. If it were to make the world richer sure, but there's a point where you need to go back to the original source material. If you need OCs so badly, make an original comic.

Chara and them as a CHARActer. From what I've seen, at first, Chara just seemed kinda bland to me. Just your typical evil Chara trying to ruin everyone's lives cause genocide run, which when they were introduced it was very common in a lot of fan stories to do so. So I didn't bother reading the comic because of it until after the crossover. That said, their change was really sudden. I was kinda expecting a little more of a gradual change? that's the idea that I got cause again, on paper it sounded great! I was really excited to see afac Chara change. I really was!

My problem with them being a skeleton, besides the fact that to me it doens't make a lot of sense for them to turn into a monster, the fact that Chara, a HUMAN, something that they HATE turns into a monster. We know very little about canon Chara, hell there isn't a canon Chara thats why there are so many interpretation, but there's one thing we all know: Chara hated humans. Being a human themselves, it's kind of easy to assume that Chara would hate themselves. Them turning into a monster means that no longer they need to bear the feeling of being human, the very thing that they hate. Why? they're a monster, why bother anymore? Not only that but again, it feels undeserved. I heard people say that Chara in the comic did very little to earn their redemption, I kinda of agree with that. At first they were shown as this evil being, not able to feel empathy, just one side of the coin, and suddenly you flip the other side with very little done about it. It felt unnatural, and them turning into a monster doesn't solve their problems with humanity. You could say"well maybe they stopped hating humans?", but even if that was the case, it feels rushed that suddenly they don't. Sure they act more like a non evil Chara now, but the transition from A to B was faster than Anakin's shift to the dark side.

Frisk, I liked their Frisk at first. Until the part of their trauma came up, I don't know, as someone who was abused in the past, the scene of the pokemon cards just made me not take it seriously anymore. It also feels like you can never disagree with the kid, like ever. Frisk is always right, they are perfect.

Wall text- Show don't tell rule. A lot of writers suffer from this a lot, it's a common mistake to give just exposition and no actual story, not actual events, or replace things that can be self explained by character's dialogue through personality and actions. So I'm not extending myself on this, it's pretty self explanatory. We all do it by mistake, the best we can do is learn from it and try not to do it as frequent as humanly possible.

Forced diversity, this is something that's been bugging me on a personal level. You do know that my Frisk and Chara are nonbinary, but guess what? Their personalities are not being nonbinary, or Asriel's personality being asexual. Nothing bothers me more than trying to shove to everybody's throat diversity just for the sake of it....especially when the comic gets preachy about it and makes all the fallen children non binary. Sure, getting your characters genders wrong is annoying, I know that on first hand and made jokes about it. But I am never coming off as the morality police educating about these kinds of stuff.

ESPECIALLY when you don't do your research when you try to diversify your cast and you say nonsense such as MEXICAN being a race. I give TQ kudos for giving the fallen children personality, but again we just go back to this thing again with the forced diversity, there's a major risk of falling into tokenism even. People are much more than their gender, their sexualities, their race, their etchnicity and so on. Yes, people like these exist, but don't make them the core part of who they are. The bisexual supposely non white woman from the third world is telling you this. Again, that's more of a subjective opinion and that goes to even ideological realms.

So yeah those are the things that come to the top of my head atm, I think most of the issues with the Comic is basically how big the cast is. You get less time to work on all these characters, characters get less development or too much development, dialogue is affected, and so on and so forth.

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tori10rambles · 6 years ago

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tagged by the most amazing @kingtodoroki!! ♡

What is your total posted word count on AO3? (Go to your Works, then click Statistics.)

17232

How often do you write?

not often :( I do a lot of world building and am a perfectionist so anything i DO write gets rewritten a lot.

I do a lot more sound-boarding and beta reading than writing in all honesty.

Do you have a routine for writing?

I always want to do world-building and timelines before actually writing. Which probably explains why my current WIP is stalled.

As far as actually writing fics/chapters, I tend to pick one person to focus on and get into the head of (my muse). Then I let the muse tell me what to do and I hope for the best.

What’s your favorite kinks/tropes/pairing?

favorite tropes:

friends to lovers

mutual pining/oblivious idiots

tooth-rotting fluff

back to back badasses

time travel

favorite pairing: TODODEKU!!!!!!!

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

Current WIP is sort of taking over my life and is a fav.

Published? My Human (The Legendary Birds Show) because I love writing as a trolly Legendary but this was also a very interesting “if I were a Legendary Pokemon how would i feel about the trainers trying to catch me”

Your fic with the most kudos?

Tiny Human

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

I can’t write fight scenes for the life of me.

I’m very much a big picture person, and so writing details trips me up because how much is too much detail.

In general I am never content with my writing (which,,,,, makes me lose interest/motivation because I have a perfectionism streak).

Now something you do like?

Uh,,,,, shit this is a hard one. I really like my general premises and the way I try to be consistent with what I know of canon even when I do AUs.

I always go for a happy ending because the world is shitty enough and sometimes I just wanna write something cute and fluffy, despite my general pessimism and cynicism.

I also like when I write in a specific character’s POV rather than third person omniscient, because that means that there can be details that aren’t noted in fic but actually happen because, hey, POV person didn’t catch it.

tagging @sapphiria-tehcl, @the-lady-vanora, @lesbeancats, @todoroki-shouts, @blackroseauthoress, and anyone else who wants to play, but no pressure!

#tag games #me #writing

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techouspeaks · 7 years ago

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Four Animated Movies I love and Four I Hate

I decided rather than just do individual top lists of the favorite non Disney animated films I like and don’t like, I decided to do a different approach and just list the four that I love and four that I don’t like. They will be categorized by ghibli film, non ghibli anime film, CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film and favorite 2D animated non Disney film. I’m gonna keep it movies that gained a theatrical release so the Monster High movies won’t be on this list and of course, Disney movies don’t count. I already did a list of my favorite Disney films. Yes, Ghibli in English is part of Disney but it doesn’t count as their main category of movies. Disney just owns dubbing rights.

So let’s get started with my favorite Ghibli Film and my non favorite (I think it’s impossible to hate a Ghibli film but have a least favorite)

Favorite Ghibli film.

Kiki’s Delivery Service

I had a hard time picking between this one and Spirited Away, but after much thought, I decided to pick this one. It’s just a peaceful movie that I can watch any time, no matter what mood I’m feeling. There’s no big action scenes or deep story. It’s just a story about a little witch in a town that let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to live in this town? It’s big but homey and classy, it’s by the sea and there’s so many neat things to see and do. Plus it’s about witches and has a cat with a dry sense of humor. Spirited Away is a great film but sometimes it gets too intense and at times, I started to fill ill during the moments of No Face puking it’s guts out and the dragon covered in blood.

Least Favorite Ghibli Film

Nausicaa

I didn’t think it was a bad movie, it just didn’t catch my interest all that much. Compared to Ghibli’s later works, this was kinda meh. I like the cabbit thing though that was on her shoulder.

Favorite None Ghibli Anime Film

Sailor Moon S Movie

Yeah, yeah, I know a Sailor Moon movie. I don’t watch anime movies very often outside Ghibli and those that I do, are not bad but don’t warrant my favorite list either. Sailor Moon Super S movie does come close to topping this one, but I feel like the story and animation was especially up to par in S. Plus Luna looks so gorgeous as a human. I love her dress. She looks elegant without looking too plain. People may shoot me for this, but I honestly think Luna as a human looks prettier than Princess Serenity. I mean, I know people are going to shoot me for that but in my opinion, Serenity looks like a typical princess/damsel in distress wearing this plain white gown. Human Luna looks elegant, mature yet playful at the same time. Plus that long hair that is so shiny and wavy. It’s just hard to top that. She’s beautiful and interesting to look at, almost reminding me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Serenity is pretty but her outfit is just plain and I just hate how she looks like a typical damsel in distress in her gown. Even Disney Princesses up the anti with their princess gowns.

(Runners up with be Pokemon 2000, Pokemon Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction and Pokemon Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice.)

Plot itself is well balanced with drama and enough lovey dovey stuff to just make you feel satisfied. It’s just a beautiful film. Super S movie is great too and I like the little fairy that falls for Chibi Usa. I almost prefer him falling for her since it seems more appropriate, but Helios is nice too. I just think S just balances out soft and sweet with drama better. I really want Toei to just hurry up, forget about Sailor Moon R movie and enhanced and re-release this movie and Super S in theaters! Speaking of which...

Hated Anime Film

Sailor Moon R Movie

I’ll say it now and I’ll say it again, I HATE season R of Sailor Moon. It was too overly dramatic, Chibi Usa was obnoxious, villains were either creepy or annoying or not as interesting, except for the sisters. They were good. Hate the drama between Usagi and Mamoru. Was done so much better in the manga and Crystal because it ended faster! Everyone praises this season, I don’t. It was a turn off for me and this movie is no exception. More Usagi crying because she didn’t have her man with her. Chibi Usa was kinda useful and kinda not because her friends could have motivated her better.

Yeah, Chibi Usa was a damsel in distress in Super S movie but she was a lot more nicer and tolerable, plus she killed the villain with Usagi! Plus, the relationship between her and the fairy boy is just so sweet and while Usagi cried when Mamoru got hurt, it didn’t drag to me. Also kudos for Usagi getting the guts to jump into a portal of death for her child, like a good mother should, doesn’t fall for the villains trap like “F!@# you, I know my man doesn’t choose between me and my daughter!”, and when they do fall and are saved by the fairy boy, it’s done humorously, so it’s not dragging so long.

In the R movie, Usagi gets beat up, rises up naked because of the Crystal, shows psycho plant boy with lazy design what happened and make him snap out of it, uses the Crystal to yes save everyone, that’s a plus side but she ends up dead, thus a damsel in distress for her prince to save her. It’s not that I don’t want her to show her weaknesses but when she’s crying for Mamoru or is “dead”, it just drags on too long. The movie just has everything I hate about the R season. Period. Moving on.

Favorite CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film

How To Train Your Dragon 1 and 2

I can’t really pick one I like better, so I’m gonna call it a draw because they’re part of the same franchise anyway. I like the first movie because it’s more simple and like the second because it apps up the action, develops the characters more and does everything right about that sequel should. Plus I love dragons. My room is full of dragon things. Favorite mythical creature.

Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2 though comes extremely close to being my favorite, especially 2. It’s a great franchise that I didn’t expect to like.

Hated CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film

The Nut Job

Take everything that I hate in a kids cartoon including toilet humor and fart jokes, add stuff that would make the movie dated as Gangnam Style and rip off one of the most mediocre Dreamworks films (Over the Hedge) for the plot and Remy the Rat from Ratatouille and you got one of the most annoying and lazily done CG films to date. I don’t get why people hated Legends of Oz (which came out the same year) so much but praised this film or say it’s not as bad. Least Legends of Oz had an original premise, it didn’t rip off other films with the exception of the Emerald City, there was no fart jokes and toilet humor and in my opinion, gave us the best design of Scarecrow ever.

There was just nothing in Nut Job for me. If you like it, fine but I just couldn’t. I HATED this movie.The runner up would be be the Shrek movies but there was at least some substance I could get out of those movies. Nut Job had zip!

Favorite Non Disney 2D film

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

It’s a movie about fairies, magic and nature with beautiful animation, a fruit bat played by the late and great Robin Willaims. What more can anyone ask for in a film? Yeah, it hammers “protect nature” thing but, honestly, I didn’t think it hammered it in as much as people said it did. I use to bench watch this movie as a kid that I’m shocked I never owned the cassette. Yeah, I didn’t get this movie until it was released with the second film on DVD. Which I did like the second film. Yeah, it’s dated but it’s still a cute movie, none the less.

The runner up for this spot is Secret of NIMH.

Hated Non Disney 2D Film

Thumbelina

Few words for this one especially for the songs and main character.

The runner up would be Troll in Central Park. The reason and ONLY reason why that is not on this spot, is because that movie is so obviously bad that it’d be cheating if I added it on here. There was NOTHING good in that movie besides the animation. Thumbelina, does has some qualities that I can see some folks maybe liking it. MAYBE. I’ve had people say like Thumbelina as a guilty pleasure, while NO ONE has said they like Troll in Central Park. I think even a brain dead monkey would not enjoy that film. It’s just that obviously bad.

So that concludes that! Hope you enjoyed this entry! More to come soon!

#sailor moon #studio ghibli #Disney #ferngully #dreamworks #anime

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zdbztumble · 8 years ago

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Now that I’m over the halfway point, thought it might be fun to rank all the Pokefilms I’ve seen to date. So, here we go!

1. Revelation Lugia: So far, there hasn’t been any competition for the top slot. Crisp art direction, an appropriately epic scale to the design and the staging of action, a gorgeous musical score (the dub surpassed the original on this point IMO), the best editing and pacing out of any of these movies, and a well-constructed plot that’s simple without being simplistic all speak well for it. But the real selling point for this film is the character work. The CotDs are engaging and play a vital role in the plot without overtaking it. This is the TRio’s finest hour to date IMO. And the main cast has never been better used in a pokefilm. Tracey may be along for the ride (as he often was in the show), but Misty enjoys the best role a travelling companion has got yet, and Ash is saddled with his greatest challenge ever (to my knowledge, anyway; I’ve got a hell of a lot of episodes to go in catching up on the series, but it’s hard to top “save the world by yourself because Prophecy.”) And this and the next entry on this list are the only two films where I felt that Ash (and Misty, in this case), more than just experiencing another adventure, actually grew as a character. Not that Johto or the later series built on that growth, but in this show, I’ll take what I can get.

...And, yeah, the pokeshipping doesn’t hurt its rating either.

2. Lucario and the Mystery of Mew: Again, it’s all about the character work here. This is the only other time that Ash seemed to grow as a character, through his relationship with Lucario and his discovery of his Aura (and, in a way, it’s more of a shame that the show never built on this than it is that they never built on Ash and Misty’s growth after Lugia, when you consider that the staff wrote themselves a golden opportunity to do so in DP!) His “this time, it’s personal” goal of saving Pikachu and the parallels between himself and Sir Aaron also serve to enrich his role in a way most of the other pokefilms don’t even attempt. Lucario is the most compelling and dimensional of the movie-featured Pokemon since Mewtwo. Mew is absolutely adorable. The art direction is beautiful (the color work, especially; everything is so bright and clean), and it’s the last of these films to feel truly cinematic in scope and ambition. It loses points for some awkward pacing in the front half (the dance is so slow!) and a ridiculous lack of pathos shown when the whole human cast (temporarily) dies, but it makes up a lot of those points with its gutsy ending. No contrived out for the heroic sacrifice this time!

3. Pokemon 4Ever: Possibly the most impressive art direction out of any of the movies; the forest feels huge, and old, and real, just in one look. The Miyazaki-esque look is appropriate for the “destruction of nature” plot, the consequences of which are plainly felt. The time travel aspect is intriguing and not confusing, and Sam is the real hero of the human cast. It’s the only film outside of Lugia to try giving the TRio a real reason to be in the movie, though it’s less successful. Drawbacks include a lag in the pace toward the middle, a contrived resurrection, a waste of the travelling companions even by pokefilm standards, and the sidelining of Ash himself.

4. Rise of Darkrai: Here’s where the list gets funky, because I would rather re-watch the two films below the Number 4 slot than I would Darkrai. But on a technical level, Darkrai has a more even script and a more consistently solid execution of that script IMO. It’s the best of the Sinnoh trilogy by a wide margin. The CotDs (well, Alberto at least) are fun and Darkrai is an effective featured Pokemon. But the problems of the Sinnoh trilogy, while not as pronounced here, are still at hand: a light tone that leaves the Legendaries feeling less impressive than their predecessors, a rather episodic layout to the plot that kills a sense of scale, sluggish pacing and a sense of padding, no real role for the travelling companions, and Ash being a glorified deus ex machina.

5. Spell of the Unown: Again, the film below this one is one I’d rather re-watch, though this is the one I most feel I should re-watch, as I think I missed a lot the first time ‘round. I recall feeling that, if other pokefilms could drag, Unown almost felt rushed, with no chance to catch my breath or get my bearings concerning the plot. The fact that Delia was clearly never in any danger from Molly hurts the stakes a bit too. But I give this film a lot of credit for having an innocent and traumatized little girl, or her feelings of loss and loneliness to be more specific, be the antagonist, and the threat that those feelings pose to Ash and friends when given immense power is very tangible. Giving Ash a personal stake in the adventure is very welcome, both travelling companions get decent roles, Charizard’s return is spectacular, and there is some delightfully off-beat and experimental work done in the production design. It’s an uneven movie, but one with a lot of ambition and daring, more than most on this list, and it deserves kudos for trying new things even if it doesn’t always succeed at them.

6. Mewtwo Strikes Back: Compared to my childhood memories of it, this is a very uneven film. The travelling companions have nothing to do, the CotDs are forgettable, the TRio set the “why are we even here” trend up early, the film loses a lot of juice once the battle of clones vs. originals starts (mostly due to sluggish pacing on the fight), and the means of Ash’s revival is infuriatingly dumb. But for the first (and, as far as they knew at the time, only) film of a kids’ cartoon meant to sell video games, it’s shocking to me how dark they went with this film. Mewtwo is a wonderfully grey character, and his origins and struggles render the first half of the film one of the best sequences in the whole franchise. The idea of prejudice and fighting for superiority as a basis for the conflict is solid in theory if a bit heavy-handed in execution. If Ash and friends (mostly friends) don’t get a lot to do once they reach the island, their journey to it is a fun adventure. And there’s a delightfully twisted horror film look to the production design. For a first outing, this was a very daring and risky film, and even if doesn’t fully work, I think it’s a more impressive effort than most of the pokefilms because of that.

7. Arceus and the Jewel of Life: Out of all the Sinnoh trilogy, this one felt the least padded, and helped clear up some of the murky plot mess of the earlier entries. The CotDs are serviceable if a little on the dull side. And this final chapter of the trilogy does aim the highest in its scope and scale, even if it doesn’t reach its goals. But Arceus’s terrible voice in the dub, and his rush to apocalyptic judgement, really hurt the character. And the main cast is worse off here than in the other entries, as Dawn ends up as sidelined as Brock in the finale.

8. Giratina and the Sky Warrior: You can give the film this - Shaymin is a well-developed character. She’s a little shit, but she’s a fleshed-out little shit. And Giratina was the most impressively presented of the Sinnoh Legendaries. But the human villain here is very dull, and Shaymin’s obnoxiousness makes it damn near impossible to get invested in her conflict. On the plus side, wonderful art direction and animation.

9. Pokemon Heroes: Possibly the most frustrating of these movies to date for me, because there were a lot of elements - the setting, the mythological background, the Dragon-types - that I really liked. It’s easily one of the most beautiful of the movies, and there was a lot of potential in the plot. But most of that potential was untapped, the elements never gelled, and I was often bored watching it. When I wasn’t bored, I was frustrated and questioning - see my “review” for the whole list. And this may be the worst film on the matter of sidelining the travelling companions.

10. Genesect and the Legend Awakened: The one film on this list I wouldn’t hesitate to say was bad. A fundamental weakness in the plot caused by making the titular Pokemon so unsympathetic, the poor handling of Mewtwo’s return, an unremarkable set of roles for the main cast, uneven animation, and a general feeling of laziness all conspire against a decent premise.

...And there you have it. Will update when I finish off the films, or at least get as far as I can down the list.

#pokemon #list #ranking #commentary #critique #pokefilm

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