#And it was so funny collecting info on them from the main series and then checking Kitchen real quick and SURPRISE! THEY'RE EATING IT!

[leafy-m]

So I hit my 700th edit for the WHA wiki today, because I am a totally normal person

[koi0boi]

oh fuck yes ok

ritsu is from the game (series. i guess.) ensemble stars!! which uhhh is primarily a rhythm game (es!! music) but also has a like . i dont know what to call it but its es!! basic. irrelevant . ANYWAY. ritsu is one of the 51 (i guess now technically like... 56? characters? with 4piece added? idk. whatever) idols in the game that you can collect cards of :3

so !! ritsu is part of the unit Knights which is like. kinda fanservice-y but like in a romantic fantasy kinda way yanno. im bad at describing music but they're good . some songs r synth heavy (fight for judge...) but they're usually very upbeat songs :3 the unit is comprised of Tsukasa Suou, Leo Tsukinaga, Izumi Sena, Arashi Narukami, and Ritsu himself !! Tsukasa is the current leader of Knights, taking the role after Leo graduated (everyone went/goes to an idol school ig called Yumenosaki. now the main cast works at EnSquare or smth. Leo and Izumi are pretty important since they formed the unit but this isn't abt them (im insane abt them too tho)

anyway !!! that outta the way . ritsu . the loml ....... he's a funny lil vampire guy. whether or not he's actually a vampire or just like, chronically ill, is kinda up for debate. could be both who knows. either way he's an eepy lil guy !!! he has an older brother (rei) whom he used to have a good relationship with until during Rei's... second? year? he left ritsu alone while he was out searching for a cure for their condition which led to ritsu kind of hating him (im pretty sure ritsu calls him "that brother-shaped thing" or smth on a few occasions its funny) but they're getting better. there's like a fuckton of lore and shit but im. just gonna skip it. anyway . ritsu also has a childhood friend (mao isara) that he's like. yeah. mao regularly has to wake him up for school (and gives him piggyback rides bc ritsu whines until he does lmao) and the two are in the same year (and graduated now) . funny bit of lore: ritsu says at one point that he literally conditioned mao to fall asleep at the sound of his singing voice bc he added his songs into the playlist mao listens to to fall asleep. he's so fuckin weird. he's the Strategist of Knights . he does a lot of the planning and stuff :3 he's also like . very prone to teasing and can come off as a little apathetic or cold at times but he's actually so full of love for the people he cares about . i call him a bpd guy bc he tends to be really jealous and possessive of people (he was basically nonfunctional w/out mao for awhile) but he's getting more independent <3

theres probably more but . its late and im a little incoherent . if u wanna listen to knights music i recommend fight for judge; wonderful happiness; silent oath; coruscate breeze; or the beautiful golden drop; little romance; mystic fragrance; and also the solo songs :3 wonderful happiness is their newest song (along with their second solos ig) but !! its all on spotify. or youtube prolly idk

thamks for info dumping! Also fuck i might get into enstars just for this guy..

[silverjojo08]

I'm Sorry Women (an Ace Attorney retrospective)

Don't worry, this is going to be much shorter than my FE Engage essay. Also this is more of a personal piece than anything else.

With the upcoming release of the Apollo Justice trilogy (AA456 collection) I've started going through my old tweets to reminiscence about me playing those games. This will be spoilery for some aspects all three of those games I think, so this is your warning to turn back if you haven't played through Spirit of Justice.

Eat Your Hamburgers, Apollo

Ok this part might be obvious, but because I am an American gamer who played the US localization I will be using those names, locations, etc in this discussion.

If you are at all generally curious about localization and Ace Attorney, Janet Hsu has been one of the main localizers on the franchise and has spoken about some of the process (this interview is about DGS/GAA but there's tidbits on their work in general) here: https://www.polygon.com/interviews/22519215/great-ace-attorney-chronicles-interview-translator-localization-japanese-western-audience

Update: AA456 specific interview with Hsu as well: https://kotaku.com/ace-attorney-apollo-justice-janet-hsu-interview-1851226695

Other Preliminary Info

So unlike my Engage essay which was set in a more fantasy world, I do feel the need to state that I'm not an expert on the subjects of: adoption, teen pregnancy, teen marriage, cross-cultural adoption, political strife?, etc.

I haven't done any reading in prep for writing this. I'm not trying to present myself as any type of authority. I'm not calling out anyone specific in the fandom besides myself. This is meant to be an analysis of me and my previous beliefs with maybe a little commentary on how the fandom at the time may have shaped those thoughts (but the only examples I will provide will be my posts and screenshots from the series).

And as like in my Engage essay, I'm not a professional story analyst or anything and this is not meant to be a literary criticism. I'm not even using fully proper grammar or anything. Sorry if it's unreadable lmao.

The Essay

I was going through my old tweets to see my old thoughts as I was playing through Ace Attorney games 5 and 6 in particular. I don't believe I livetweeted AA4, but if I did I can't find my hashtag for it. I went back mainly to see the funny and dumb things I posted when I was younger and to relive some moments from the games to hype for the new release of the Apollo Justice Triology as I had not played them in a while. There's some funny stuff in there, especially the AA6 one where I predicted at least one thing accurately.

In my reminiscing, I came across this one in particular which immediately gave me pause:

I understand why I said that. But still I couldn't get it out of my mind. "Why did I say that? What led to me holding this type of honestly heartless belief? Why was I like this?"

Thalassa married Jove when she was 18 and had Apollo when she was 18-19. Yes, at the time I typed that I believed she gave Apollo up willingly, which turned out to not be the case as later revealed in AA6.

But looking at it even from that lens now, even if she had given him up herself, so what? No decision she could have made at that time could have been wrong. It's insane that I thought otherwise. That was an impossible situation for her.

And yes, the specific scene is from Apollo's perspective. He doesn't know the context of him becoming an orphan. Even as of AA6 (which goes into his early childhood) he only knows the circumstances of how he lost Jove and why he ended up in the US, but not all that happened with his mother.

He is not wrong to feel as he does. And there are people irl who have been adopted and spoken on their experiences and all. I'm never going to tell anyone how they should or shouldn't feel about that because I've not been on either side of that situation.

But I completely misunderstood even just the basic context of the scene. This was a flashback scene where he was a young child (stated to be about middle school age) trying to give advice to help his friend.

I went back to the scene to get screenshots for this. And it wasn't even about him as much as it was about him helping Clay in the only way that he could, as one little kid to another:

This is a cute scene about two kids in an orphanage working through their emotions and bonding while also dropping lore on where Apollo's catchphrase comes from.

There was no need for me to take this opportunity to speak on Thalassa at all. Especially when she literally did nothing wrong at all.

I do generally remember back in the early 2010s at least in AA fandom there was a bit of an angsty thing regarding how he may have felt towards her not raising him especially after she went on to get married again and have Trucy. I cannot remember all the details, but I assume some of that rubbed off on me. But even if that's the case, I still should have known better. A lot of stuff that happens in fandoms shouldn't be internalized.

In Conclusion

TL;DR I was a dumbass using a touching scene to slander a girl put in an unimaginable situation, and they should revoke my feminism card.

Less flippantly: It's always worth revisiting old opinions to challenge your past assumptions. Everyone grows and changes over time. And even people who believe themselves to be well-meaning have some rotten stuff to worth through. It takes work to become a better person.

[lady-byleth]

Okay, now that I'm too tired to think 7 things at once I'm gonna try and review Engage seriously

After finishing the main campaign I can divide the game into several categories to judge so let's get to it

Quick info at the top here, this entire thing is me rating Engage as an entry of the series. I'll add a small comment about how the game would do as a stand-alone at the end. Also, this is all my personal opinion, even if I do try to be as "professional" as possible

Actual review under the cut so I don't clog up your dashboards

Story: 4/5

let's start with the basics, which is what this story essentially is. A fairly basic Fire Emblem story of the evil dragon you have to stop from wreaking havoc. Just how it sounds, it's fairly basic and not especially out there. That being said, the execution of it and the different twists and turns it takes help keep it from being too like the previous games. The plot twists are well executed and sufficiently foreshadowed, though there may be a few too many for some people so keep that in mind. There's also the ending that SPOILERS sees the Emblems disappear for some reason that was never hinted at before so it has some weak points as well SPOILERS END. Due to the length of the game and completing skirmishes being pretty much mandatory to progressing through the story chapters it can drag on at some points before picking up again.

The story beats themselves are well executed however and Alear carries the emotional weight of it pretty well.

Combat: 4/5

This game goes back to requiring more tactical thinking than Three Houses did. Where 3H let you off fairly easy with Relics and Crest powers even after the time skip, making mistakes in Engage is more punishing and will lead to you ending up with fewer units pretty quickly. This is not a bad thing since Fire Emblem is supposed to be about using your head and not about letting Byleth and Dimitri mow down enemies like they're grass. The maps offer some interesting variety, such as enemies that manipulate the environment or attack in wider areas than before. One even teleports around and hides in the shadows, forcing you to find him before you can actually fight him, which I personally enjoyed a lot. However, some map layouts are needlessly complicated, which makes certain fights drag on for longer than they're interesting and stops the flow of the game in its tracks. Besides this, to effectively level your units or collect funds you will have to fight skirmishes until they come out of your ears so if you want to get into a nice flow between fighting and story, this too will slow you down. Additionally, after every battle you'll get the opportunity to explore the map you just fought through, for the tiny benefit of a few ingredients for cooking and some animals you can adopt but not interact with, meaning this too will hinder the game from flowing.

That being said, the engage feature is fun to use and looks awesome, making it a good addition to set this game apart from the others

Quality of Life: 3/5

While the game clearly took some pointers from Three Houses for this, it didn't execute it quite as well as its predecessor. Somniel, while visually more elaborate than Garreg Mach, doesn't offer as much variety as the Monastery did. You will not spend as much time fishing or spending time with your allies over lunch because the benefits of doing so are too little to care about. There are no side missions from your allies to complete, so even though you will end up spending a lot of time at your base you will do so with little to do except collect resources and feed Sommie for again very little benefit...except that he will start following you and his steps make the cutest little sound.

Once every visit you can make Alear take a nap that one ally will wake them from in ways that range from funny to heartwarming, though this will not give you anything but a short laugh.

Characters: 3/5

While the characters themselves are enjoyable, though at times a little flat compared to former games, it is the sheer number of them that once again pulls the game down. You will gather allies in one kingdom and then immediately move on to the next kingdom to gather more, effectively removing everyone you just met who isn't an heir to the throne of their home country from the story. While I don't want to keep comparing this game to Three Houses I will have to do so again because while the branching story paths were not the most popular thing, it did allow for the different houses to get story focus so that none of them felt unimportant. By once again throwing them all into one big group and not giving them paralogues or any input in the larger story we ended up with a handful of characters and a bunch of party fillers.

By the removal of S Supports and paired endings, the game shot itself in the foot by taking away one of the few opportunities for the player to more directly engage with the large ensemble cast. While the system of supports were always awkward, they were not bad enough to completely ax S Supports and paired endings from the game without adding a replacement. It removes a way for the player to have a hand in shaping character relationships since the endings are essentially predetermined and give you no input.

While we're on the topic of characters, can't really not talk about Alear. Like Corrin before them, the story revolves mostly around them and their journey. An unfailingly gentle and polite person thrust into a war they know absolutely nothing about anf forced to confront many uncomfortable truths about the world and themselves in the process. Unlike previous avatars, Alear is not the kind of person who feels comfortable in their role on the battlefield but struggles with actually performing their role for a good part of the story. Their outlandish design has story reasons that I will not get into here but I found quite charming...

Unfortunately Alear is also the embodiment of the Universally Beloved Leader, with characters fawning over them left and right. Their kindness is constantly praised, even when they spend a lot of time spent with the character doing it was mostly Alear being wishy-washy about issues, the number of characters who admired their beauty could not be counted on two hands, which quickly becomes old.

What also takes away from the characters in general is the animations, which have become so exaggerated as to be goofy. Seeing someone make a dramatic speech while gesturing as if they're about to start dancing ballet ruins the mood a bit. And while the character models themselves are pretty, the gesturing of especially the female characters (and Rosado) are so over the top that appreciating their designs can be tough.

As for the Emblems, for being such a heavily featured part of advertising they don't actually do much except give the excuse for the engage mechanic and shoveling more pain on Alear. While seeing some beloved faces again certainly has its appeal, much like the secondary characters most of them fade into the background as soon as they appear. Not even their bond conversations gives them much to do, the C and B supports all consisting of exactly two lines. Only Marth gets significant focus (let him rest Intsys) and Sigurd gets to do stuff too, but the others are mostly just there. That Intsys couldn't even be bothered to let us choose Corrin and Byleth's gender and just cut off the branches entirely, contrary to every spin off game that had the avatars appear, just adds insult to injury here.

The characters deserve better...

Music: 3/5

Not much to say here, except that there have certainly been better soundtracks in the series...

Overall as Franchise Game: 3.4/5

Overall as Standalone: 4/5

I'm actually surprised by how low the overall score ended up being considering I did enjoy the game enough to actually write this. I should however mention that I purposefully removed the localization from this because it would've dragged the score down to a level I was not comfortable with.

In conclusion, Engage is a good if flawed game that tried too hard to combine old with new and ended up getting lost somewhere in the middle. While it's not groundbreaking it has enough good qualities to be enjoyable and keep you entertained for a long time.

From where I'm standing a lot of its issues stem from it being a main game that's coming on the heels of what many fans and critics consider to be one of the two best games in the series (namely Three Houses), which is just bad luck

[wildereader]

April Wrap-Up!

This may not seem like a lot, but I REALLY focused on finishing up One Piece this month, which you will see. For right now, I’ll focus on these three books!

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden is my FAVORITE book I’ve read so far this year, which I was NOT expecting from a historical fantasy set during WWI!!! I loved Arden’s Winternight Trilogy, which I read last year, so I was so excited to read her new release. Her writing is so atmospheric and enthralling, and this story about war, grief, folklore, memory, and love was absolutely everything I love in fiction. ALSO I was not expecting a beautiful queer romance from this book at ALL, but Ms. Arden surprised me in the best way with it 🥹 When this book comes out in paperback, I will definitely be getting myself a copy!

The Curious Compendium of Wonderful Words was something I found at my library and picked up on a whim and have been slowly making my way through for a couple months now, even though it’s very short. It was funny and fascinating, and my only critique is that it didn’t go into much detail about anything—just a collection of interesting facts about certain words and phrases, which was fun enough to keep me entertained while I read it. This book isn’t something you’d pick up if you want in-depth info about etymology, but it is an easy read if you just want to learn a bunch of fun facts!

And after I finished One Piece, I went back to my manga roots—volume 1 of Ouran High School Host Club 🌸💞🌹 I rewatched the anime for the first time in YEARS earlier in April, and I absolutely fell back in love with this series. I’m excited to do my first reread of the manga, especially considering it has even more story that wasn’t adapted into the anime.

Speaking of manga, though… It’s Time To Talk About One Piece

I’ve been putting my OP volume roundups under cuts in my previous wrap-up posts, but I’m FUCKING PROUD OF MYSELF for catching up, so it’s going in the main post!!!! I always reserve most thoughts on a series until I’ve finished it, so I’ve been holding back my OP-inions (haha) for FIVE MONTHS….. but they’re nothing groundbreaking. I love this series. I totally understand why it makes people go so nuts, and I’m fully one of those people now. I have such withdrawal from this series since finishing it a couple weeks ago ;-; It is so wild to me how LONG this series is, how culturally impactful it’s been since its release twenty-five years ago, and how strong and unique and interesting it’s remained since it started. No, it’s not Perfect™️™️ by any means, but….. Damn. It’s good. It’s so good. And it definitely deserves all the hype it has.

Also, since it’s May 5th when I’m posting this… Happy Birthday to my Most Favorite Boy EVER MONKEY D. LUFFY!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

SOOOO I’ve definitely been putting some books off as I was focusing on finishing OP, but I’ll ease back into them as I feel like it (and as my library book due dates creep up on me). Here’s hoping May is another good reading month for me!!!

[snape-neutralist]

Main info + lil disclaimer for the content

So.. to everyone who will ever read this, I guess.

I created this blog in order to store my different thoughts on the very gray and complex character (Severus Snape) in one place and somewhat let myself be free about it. I didn't create it with any other aim but to collect everything I heard, had on mind and thought about this very character. I was and am on both sides and neither at the same time. I relate to both of the people's opinions and yet can't say I hold only one of them specifically. People always tend to exaggerate things they have strong opinions about, but the main appeal I have towards Snape-character is his complexity, mainly this whole situation within wars going on for ages between the two sides, trying to finally decide who he really was: badass or hero. Usually forgetting he never was one of those distinctly. The fact, that his character created such a war - is incredibly funny to me and yet extremely interesting, as it allows to look at him with two diametrically opposite opinions and form one: totally confusing but the same grey.

In fact, none of my opinions are neutral in nature, as I actually do hold the opinions from both of the sides: the hate and the love. However, I don't wish to refer myself to either of the parties (neither fans nor haters of this character), as I don't belong to either, so you could.. probably say I'm neutral. I don't want to engage in any of the wars between the two groups, nor I wish to claim my thoughts as the only true ones. Everything said here is only my reflection, interpretation and look at the canon of the Harry Potter series as well as some could-have-happened scenarios from the side of the in-depth analysis, which I was forming for quite some time.  

Would be good to note, that none of this leaves the borders of imagination and abstraction of the fantasy world. None of this is the same in the reality nor in my personal life, and lives only within my subjective thoughts. Additionally, I don't wish to describe anything that goes beyond those borders and will try not to use explicit projections of my experiences onto this character.

Thus, I conclude my little speech and sort-of disclaimer on this note.

[shuunnico]

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One

I’ve 100%’d the newest Sherlock game from Frogwares.

First, to get it out of the way, I’m impressed and happy that the technology had advanced enough that a small, AA studio can make a pretty expansive open world game. But, that aside, let’s get into my thoughts:

I’ve been a fan of the Sherlock series for a while. I like detective games and it’s something that has inspired games I’m creating now. This recent venture is a prequel/soft reboot where you play a 20(ish) year old Sherlock as he returns to the fictional island of Cordona, where he grew up.

Gameplay

The gameplay is okay but there is a strong amount of hand-holding in the game. There are several activities you can engage in and all but one has a definite fail state. You use these to get through the game’s missions and it comprises the main game loop.

Some games include a ‘math’ game where you have to add/subtract/divide/etc a trio of values to get a desired total for each. Another is you can eavesdrop and pick out relevant info among the gossip.

But all of these refuse to let you lose. At worst, you’re told to start over. Even clue searching makes it clear when you’re done, alerting you when you collected all clues. This means that you don’t leave until you get that notice, making the game fairly easy.

Scene recreations are probably the best mini-game. You’re given 3-5 ‘nodes’ at a crime scene, each one representing a person and their actions. You have to use all clues/testimonies/environmental cues to place each person at their relevant node and within the timeline. But, again, getting this wrong just results in the game telling you it’s incorrect and you need to just work each combo until the game gives you the thumbs up.

Combat is the only mini-game that you can fail (through having your HP reach 0). You face waves of the same 6 enemies who have glowing weakpoints on their bodies, which you shoot to stun them. When stunned, you tap the indicated WASD button in a poor quicktime event to arrest them. This game was not made for combat and it gets very samey very quickly.

The only mini-game that does not explicitly hold your hand is ‘treasure hunts’, where you are given a riddle or image and you’re expected to only use that riddle or image to find a specific location where your prize is. Because this is entirely optional, the game allows you to just give up if you can’t figure out the hint.

Overall, there is no scoring based on detective work. There isn’t any real fail state. So it feels like you’re often going through the motions. If you just let the game guide you by the hand, it might feel neat, until you realize that you’re not free to fail.

World

Right away, Cordona is beautiful. It has a wonderful mix of Italian, British and Ottoman architecture. But I don’t think an open world suits this game.

The game world is fairly empty and you will see copies of NPCs several times going down any given street. There’s stuttering and framerate issues in the open world and lots of popping in.

A bit of praise is the idea that you don’t just mindlessly follow waypoints. The game will almost always tell you where a location is and you have to physically find the streets and navigate toward them yourself.

Story

The story is about Sherlock trying to find out the fate of his mother, solving several unrelated cases along the way in exchange for more info on her. This creates a pretty patchwork story overall, but the individual cases and their stories are actually quite engaging. At several times you’re not given a clear answer on who the guilty is, so you have to make a judgement call.

A big gripe I have is with “Jon,” Sherlock’s imaginary friend. He feels so awkward because they wanted Sherlock to have a childhood friend who he could reminisce about the island with and act as a sounding board. But they didn’t want to use John Watson. It also doesn’t help that Jon literally pipes up and berates you when you make a ‘wrong’ moral choice.

The funny thing is, the game does not shy away from fan service, so they could’ve had Watson and Sherlock together at the start. You’re given the origin of several pieces of his character; his love of the violin, his bee keeping, the tension with Mycroft, why he named his dog Toby. They even introduce Moriarty (though he is not seen, only felt through his crimes) in a DLC. They then add John Watson in at the epilogue as a sort of sequel hook.

This lack of restraint comes to a head when, at the end of the game “Jon” disappears (because Jon doesn’t exist in canon) and, lo and behold, “John” looks and sounds exactly like “Jon”. This could’ve been skipped by having this be John and Sherlock’s first trip, with Watson getting to learn about Sherlock’s past.

The overall story isn’t great. The individual stories are, however. Sometimes you will see the twist coming, but several times I was blindsided by them or didn’t know who did what until more evidence came forward.

Graphics

Everything to do with the environment is either passable to good. Like I said, Cordona is beautiful, especially for a AA studio. But the character models need a lot of work.

Character movement can sometimes be a bit uncanny, but the real issue is the faces. You have lip syncing issues and, very often, the faces look wooden and puppet-like. Hair looks unnaturally glossy and fine when compared to the rest of the model (facial hair is particularly uncanny) and clothes will sometimes clip through arms/legs.

The irony is that some of the older games’ muddier character textures meant it created a sort of cartoonish look, allowing you to skirt the uncanny valley. This game, human characters very much feel weird.

Sound

Aside from some quirks, like overly dramatic music cues, the game’s music was very good. It’s something I’d definitely listen to if given the option, shifting from upbeat and cheerful to somber to creepy, all with a 19th century flare.

The 3 major characters in the game all do good voicework. Secondary and tertiary characters range from good to “wow, that voice does not work for that character at all”. NPCs use pre-recorded lines and barks that you willg et tired of hearing whenever you try to talk to someone. This goes double for combat enemies, who will spout only 2 lines constantly and it gets grating to hear.

Overall

I didn’t dislike the game. In fact, there are moments where I loved the game but the good things come despite the clunk and subpar or middling elements.

You get some nice highs occasionally, but it’s in a sea of “okay”. If you like detective stories and previous Frogwares games, you’ll probably like this. If you don’t like hand holding or melodrama, you might get annoyed by it.

I give Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One a 5/10.

(Please note that my grading system is based around a 5/10 being roughly equal parts good and bad, resulting in an okay outcome.)

[gringolet]

INTRO TO ARTHURIANA MASTERPOST

under the cut for absurd length

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH ARTHURIANA

The Arthuriana fandom is very broad and there's no one piece of media, which can be confusing for people just getting into it! There’s no right way to engage with arthuriana, and no minimum level of knowledge or reading you need to attain to qualify. 

The basis of the Arthurian Legend is a body of hundreds of texts written across the medieval and early Renaissance period in dozens of languages and cultural traditions. Which can seem pretty overwhelming, but there are a lot of modern vernacular translations-- you absolutely don’t have to learn old French or anything. I’ll go more in depth on where to get started with texts further down.

You also don’t have to read texts at all. As I said, there is no minimum basis-- if you prefer to engage with modern adaptations, or want to engage with medieval arthuriana outside of reading texts, that's also cool! 

In terms of modern adaptations there is a wealth of choices, which I am very much not an expert in lol, so I’m afraid I can’t give much in the way of reccs. Books I have heard good things about are, Exiled from Camelot, Idylls of the Queen, The Buried Giant, the Squire's Tale series, and Gawain by Gwen Rowley (warning that this one is apparently erotica? Good for him). I trust @princesslibs  for modern book reccomendations. and if you speak French Kaamelott is purportedly a very good tv show. Frankly no modern adaptation will ever be better than Spamalot to me, but that's just my personal take. 

If you are curious about engaging with texts but (understandably) don’t want to read a ton of dense medieval literature, one really cool resource is Norris J Lacy's New Arthurian Encyclopedia, which you can pick up at most used bookstores for under ten bucks. It’s a very thorough easy to look through reference of characters stories and texts. I know a lot of people like the Nightbringer wiki, though I personally am wary of it because it basically never cites sources. It’s a good quick reference though and a lot of people like it, I’d just take it with a grain of salt. Sparknotes also has a lot of summaries of the major texts like Le Morte D’Arthur and the romances of Chrétien De Troyes. You are not a fake fan for doing this I promise. And of course you’re always welcome to send me an ask <3 

Finally, getting started with texts. Quick glossary of terms:

--Verse Romance

    A verse (poem) story which can vary a great deal in length. These deal with the adventures of individual knights, usually Gawain, and tend to have a great deal of magical elements and the stereotypical monster slaying, questing, damosel rescuing knight adventures.

--Prose Novel or Romance

    A non poetic narrative, more like a modern novel, more likely to deal with the fall of Arthur, sword in the stone, Mordred, fall of Camelot sort of affair. They are usually quite long. Most famous of these are Le Morte D’Arthur and the French Vulgate, but there are a slew of late medieval Prose novels floating around. Eluding Rey.

--Pseudohistory

    I’m gonna b real these are boring I think. These are, as the name suggests, written as accurate depictions of history.  They very much are not, but they claim to be. Most famous of these is Jeffrey of Monmouth, Mr Jeff Mouth himself, and his History of the Kings of Britain, which I haven’t read because it bores me. You can if you want. It’s in Latin. Whatever. These tend to be some of the earliest texts, and include the “lives of saints” stories. Life of Gildas is the only funny one.

--Ballads

    These are only arguably texts, as most of them were written after the time of the “canon” being composed. But I like them. These are songs telling stories, recorded by people like Francis Child and Thomas Percy. They are very short and fun and include stories like The Boy and the Mantle, Kempion, and King Arthur and the King of Cornwall.

--Lai

    A specific type of French verse poem, usually quite short. The most famous collection of lais are those of Marie le France, including things like Bisclavret and Lanval. 

--Traditions

    Since Arthuriana was written all over, there are different literary traditions across time and space. The French tradition is one of the most famous, including works like the vulgate, Chretien and a lot of verse romances. The English tradition is one of the most influential on modern adaptations, including the Morte D’Arthur and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. There are also Welsh, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Greek, Belarussian, Scottish, Irish, Breton, and probably even more. There’s a lot. It’s very cool and sexy.

A note that there is also a big tradition of Victorian revival Arthuriana. I wrote a starter guide to that here, it’s all very fun and like, aesthetic. 

Alright, now, which texts do you start with?

If you’re a little intimidated by long texts or medieval lit, starting with short verse romances in modern translation is a great place to start. These include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is very good and gay and well known, Lancelot and the Hart With The White Foot, which is very good and gay and underappreciated, or Lanval, which is homophobic but funny. 

If you want to start with what is considered the oldest King Arthur Story, Culwch and Olwen is short and fun!

If you want to read about the grail quest, you can start where it started with Story of the Grail or Percival, then the four continuations, Essenbachs Parzival, the vulgate version of the Grail quest which you can buy paperback for like 5 bucks (I can also scan my copy for you just shoot me an ask <3)

If you want to read about the fall of camelot, I have the Vulgate death of Arthur section scanned here. There’s also the Alliterative and Stanzaic mortes, which are in middle English. I have scanned Simon Armitage's Alliterative Morte translation here. I’m working on my own translation of the Stanzaic but it’s not done lol. If you want the first third or so DM me lol. King Artus is very short and readable and it’s a Jewish text which is really cool.

If you want to read about Lancelot, Chrétien de Troyes Lancelot is his first text. He also has a whole long vulgate section, the first part is scanned here by val <3, and there's Lanzelet,  Sebile is in it so it’s probably very good. He’s also basically the main character of Le Morte D’Arthur which I might as well talk about here uhm. It’s long and fun in places and boring in others but it does have like the version most modern adaptations take from and tells the whole story of Arthur and Camelot from beginning to end. The Keith Baines version scanned by val is the most readable but it is an abridgement I believe. people who like le morte usually read this version so its probably the best choice lol

If you want to read about Gawain, good news! He’s in basically everything. Even texts that aren’t supposed to be about Gawain are doomed to become The Gawain Show Featuring The Protagonist Of This Text As A Sidekick. Which is so funny of him. The Roman Van Walewein is very funny and long and Gawain™. I also recommend, L’atre Perilous, Diu Krone, Sir Gawain and the Turk, and I could go on but for brevity's sake let's start there. 

If you want to read about Tristan, go shoot an ask to Valentine @lanzelet on tumblr because Tristan scares me. 

Thank you to rey @gawain-in-green for helping me find links and put this together! They are also a super great resource for stuff and very cool and nice <3 They have a tag on their blog for full text resources so deffo look at that if you want more scans and links, and an info tag and tons of cool shit that is way better organized than my blog lol

Okay finishing this off, if you want content warnings for any texts, feel free to shoot an ask! I know medieval lit can be A Lot and there aren’t a lot of good warning systems, so if I’ve read it or know someone who has I can give you warnings if you want to read something but are understandably wary . <3

In terms of tagging, Arthuriana and Arthurian Legend are the main ones on tumblr. Arthurian Mythology is also used but tbh shouldn’t be. On Ao3, we’re trying to get our own Arthurian Literature tag but <3 its a whole thing. Anyway the tag is Arthurian Mythology, but I’ll b real, it’s kind of flooded with stuff that doesn’t really belong there, because even though it’s a fandom tag other people unknowingly tag stuff as Arthurian Mythology when it’s like, a knight au. Which is not their fault bc it’s confusing but, ah, alas. ANyhow, feel free to drop in my inbox anytime with questions, suggestions, reccs, etc!

Okay godspeed!! Have fun reading, watching, browsing, etc! 

[milf-harrington]

okay bc i love tay @babydotcom and also bc i love talking about my original work im gonna talk about my books!!

so at the moment, im writing 2 of them! one of them is Nobodies Hero, a fantasy tale that is mostly narrated by a grouchy side-character and i have a sideblog that's basically a collection of my world building from the past 5 years and any posts i see that fit the characters or the world (@nobodieshero-lore)

the other is much newer (started maybe a month and a half ago) and is more of an urban fantasy called Arson: and other crimes which is basically going to follow the main cast through all the supernatural shenanigans and self growth they go through.

at the moment Arson is more of a concept? i have yet to figure out an actual plot, i've actually been trying a new approach to writing where i build all the characters first! most of my notes for Arson are just short scene snippets and dialogue, such as:

Time seemed to slow as the siren exploded from the flaming water, droplets of fire raining down around her as she reached out her webbed claws and exposed those horrifying needle-like teeth in a shrill scream of rage. It was awesome and terrifying, and Jai was forced to admit that maybe this time they wouldn’t be so lucky, maybe this time he was going down in a blaze of fish-scented glory. And then the scream was cut off as, with a sudden hollow sounding thwack, the siren’s head snapped to the side, the rest of her body thrown off course as she veered to the left and landed with a wet smack against the cement, a trail of slimy fire left in her wake. Kauri was standing in front of him with a thick metal pipe held tightly in their hands, hair a mess of thorns and ash as their shoulders heaved with each angry breath. Flickering orange light danced across their skin, the flames reflected in the dryads furious eyes as a new vine of thorns curled past their cheek. If someone had put a gun to his head, Jai may have been able to admit that he'd fallen in love right then, but there was no gun and no questioning so Jai shoved that shit deep down where he'd never find it.

There are currently 8 characters official characters, but i intend to make more bc 2 out of the 8 are mostly side characters/helpers.

uh we've got:

Jai, who is the quiet but stern researcher teaching himself magic; he mostly communicates through facial expressions and single sentences but if you get him started on whatever he's researching he can go on for ages (trans + gay)

Kauri, who is a dryad with a short temper. they're loud and passionate and also end up naked a lot because the concept of clothing makes no sense to them. my favourite thing about kauri is honestly their hair bc they've got vines that also grow from their scalp, and they grow/bloom/wild/grow thorns depending on their mood (as shown in the above snippet) (nonbinary)

Orli, who's a member of a werewolf pack. not everyone gets the lycanthrope gene, but she's just as snarly and protective as the rest of them. she works as a barista in her families cafe and she's got killer first aid skills. (asexual + lesbian)

Vince, who is Orli's older brother and did get the lycanthrope gene. he's just neat, i love him. he's usually the get away driver, or he'll bring them snacks and shit when they're on big research binges because he cares about them. he's basically a big ol' puppy (trans + bi)

[UNNAMED], who is a telepath with a weird name. her parents gave her up when she was young due to her being a "difficult and creepy child" and she kinda floated through different foster homes before she was tracked down and adopted by her uncle. She's funny and calculating, and in most situations will watch other people to figure out the best outcome for herself. she's almost always wearing a pair of headphones her uncle gave her that are warded against outside sound, so she can listen to music and block out everyone's thoughts. (lesbian)

Seftan, who's unnamed's weird but cool uncle. he's slept his way through half a bestiary and so is generally unphased by most things. he has 2 dogs and lives in a cute little 2-storey apartment/flat thing. he's either magic or knows a magic user bc he's got a lot of interesting books and wards set up and he also squints at Jai a lot. he calls unnamed a series of nicknames which are: nosy-nancy, no-name nancy, miss no-name, or just 'nancy' (inspired by nancy drew) (an opportunist)

Beau, who is a ghost from a circus! he died in the 1890's after getting stabbed to death in an argument with a sword-swallower, and is now stuck on the mortal plane bc he never got to finish his contortionist act. he's tied to a music box and gets handed around to different antique and thrift shops which is how he ends up w the rest of them.

Milo, who is possessed by an Ancient Creature and is therefore unable to stay dead. he has pretty yellow eyes, a hankering for roadkill and a whole other form that he can shift into. he's loyal as hell and genuinely doesn't see what's wrong with dying for someone he cares about, he's also mentally ill bc i think anyone would be if they were possessed and also kept dying. (demi + bi)

i think my favourite thing about Arson is that it's gonna be kind-of-not-really written like a survival guide or a diary? i don't know how to explain it properly but, like, there's gonna be random pages with tips for 'those in danger of kidnapping' or first aid or an info page on the monster/threat they're facing etc

but there's also gonna be other stuff like unnamed's playlists or what Kauri's moods are depending on their vines, or a steadily updated list of weird places Jai has been found sleeping.

uhh that's all i've really got so far without just slapping all my notes into a post so yeah! if you have any questions (or ideas?) please feel free to ask/share bc it can help with my creative process.

[evilwickedme]

ok so to sum up my feelings for leverage: redemption, season 1(a): (long post warning, there’s a tl;dr at the end)

I knew that Hardison wouldn’t be in most of the season due to Aldis Hodge being a busy bee nowadays, but I didn’t realize that meant he’d only be around for the first two episodes. He was sorely missed, not only because of my attachment to him, but also because he’s usually the grounding factor in the group dynamic, and his role as info guy and tech guy was split evenly between two characters who had their own issues.

That said, Hardison is absolutely a highlight of the two episodes he’s in. his speech about redemption was everything I could’ve hoped for (plus, more evidence for the Jewish!Hardison pile...). I wish we’d gotten to see more of his dynamic with Breanna because what we saw was funny and sweet and we don’t generally get to see Hardison taking care of somebody who so desperately needs taking care of. I hope that Aldis Hodge is around for more episodes in 1(b), because what we’re left with feels a little hollow.

Sticking to original leverage characters for now, for the most part the leverage crew still felt true to the original series as characters, even if the show itself was a little bit confused at times. The actors understand their characters and embody them so well that I think one could give them the trashiest script ever and they’d still sell it. Sophie is a particular focus in 1(a) because of Nate’s death, and she’s particularly well written as a result.

That said, I’m super bitter that we saw little to no mastermind!Parker. Parker’s character being given the mastermind role was a big deal and it feels like they’re walking it back because they feel uncomfortable with it. It is eventually given an in-text excuse, but literally in the last episode, and it was not a particularly convincing reason, and in fact contradicted moments from previous episodes (Sophie leaving for a client meeting and ignoring Parker in ep3 comes to mind). It’s frustrating, it makes the end of the original leverage feel pointless, and letting Parker make a decision once in a while is not the same thing at all. The original series repeatedly showed us that while everyone in the team had their strengths, Parker works problems and solves them in unique, interesting ways, and other characters’ days in the limelight tended to be comedic or even failures. It’s a broken promise, and a pretty major broken promise at that.

On a more positive note, Parker’s dynamic with literally everyone was fantastic. She’s possibly the best written character this season. They’ve taken the autism out of the subtext and into the text (although obviously still undiagnosed), and given her coping mechanisms that were taken seriously in the text even when they were played for laughs, which I appreciated. Her attempts to mentor Breanna were sweet, her friendship with Sophie was electric and at times (CRIMES) hilarious, and as usual, she has a fantastic dynamic with Eliot that makes my heart burst. If you don’t think they’re romantically involved, at least acknowledge there’s a life partnership here. They’ve spent the last decade together.

(We’ll get to Harry.)

Eliot isn’t given much arc-wise, which is frustrating since he’s my favorite. He’s being presented as the goal at the end of a redemption arc, ie to keep working at it every day until your soul heals or whatever, and it doesn’t reflect the message they’re trying to convey via Hardison’s speech and our two new characters. He’s got his moments, but I think they under utilized his potential.

Breanna!!! Breanna’s my new favorite, except for Eliot. She’s hilarious, she’s insecure, she’s nerdy and excited in a way that’s similar to Hardison but still distinct in its inherent teenage-girl-ness and I LOVE IT. Unlike the previous series, where Hardison’s “age of the geek” was often a joke played on Hardison, we’re at the point where Eliot and Parker are both right there with him, and so they accept and even appreciate Breanna’s nerdiness. Also, canon gay character? In YOUR Leverage? It’s more likely than you think.

(No, I never thought they’d make ot3 canon on screen. I hoped, but I didn’t think it would actually happen.)

I think Breanna’s the character that will be the most interesting to see grow. She’s got a lot of potential and a list of crimes a mile long (or more). I adore her with all my heart. I want to see her tiktok account.

Harry. Oh, Harry.

It took me a while, but I do like Harry. It took a while, because the narrative positioned him at the same level as Nate back in episode 1 of original Leverage. But in episode 1 we didn’t know the other characters. We had Nate as the POV character, and so we cared about him because we were seeing the world through his eyes. (This is TV Studies 101. I know this, because I took TV Studies 101 in 2019.) In Leverage: Redemption, we no longer have a POV character, for several reasons:

Nate, previously the POV character, is dead.

As it is, by mid-season 3 of leverage Nate was no longer a POV character. This is, coincidentally, the point where the leverage writers realized they had four other characters in the main cast they could do something with, and in-universe, Nate accepted that he was a thief, not a special Good Man.

Sophie is sort of a POV character for the first episode of the revival, but only for the first few minutes. Afterwards, the series settles into the groove of seasons 3-5, i.e., the entire crew is our POV. We know our crew, and we love them as is.

Narratively, however, Redemption insists on positing Harry as the POV character, because it is his redemption we are pursuing most vehemently. And I think they really relied on us already knowing the actor - I’ve never seen him in anything before, so to me he was a completely fresh face and they put almost no effort into selling him to me. Beyond being competent and consistently mildly baffled by the antics of the leverage crew, I honestly don’t know who this man is by the end of EIGHT episodes with him. I have a much better handle on Breanna by the end of 1(a), and I can tell you I knew all five of the original leverage crew better by the end of the first episode of the original series than I do Harry. What’s the name of his daughter, John Rogers. Is he still married. How old is the daughter. Why is none of this worth mentioning. Give him a sense of humor that isn’t reacting to other people’s shenanigans. I’m so frustrated. It’s bad writing.

I did manage to grow to like Harry by the end, but I’m pretty sure this is down to Noah Wyle’s charismatic portrayal of an under-developed character, at least partially. And I never stopped being frustrated at not knowing who this man is at all.

The two highlights of the season are undoubtedly episodes five and six. Episode five was the first time I felt like the episode was more than a collection of good moments between the main cast and mediocre moments between the main cast and also the main plot. The issues with pacing and tone that I suffered through for most of the season were mostly non-existent in ep5 and 6, and at least in episode 5 I attribute that to the pared down cast. They had time to focus not only on our actual characters - Sophie, Parker, Breanna - but also on the case. This is the only client from 1(a) I am going to remember next week without googling it first, mark my words.

Episode six worked for the exact opposite reason - it completely disregarded the client and plot and immersed itself in the characters. Breanna gets a moment to shine, but everybody else gets their bits and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the script that was most fun to write. The characters felt natural, real, and captured the found-family dynamic that’s been missing all season for the first time.

While episode 2 is the weakest episode, I don’t actually have much to say about it. I am disappointed in episode 8. For a mid-season finale, I really expected them to do something. Instead, it was an episode about Nate Ford that copped out of being about Nate Ford (both with fake-Nate and with the new version of him being relayed to us). I would have told the writers to give that energy back to episode 1 and write an episode that’s about anybody who isn’t Harry, oh my God. I know I said I grew to like him but so many episodes were about Harry. He’s the newbie! Why didn’t Hardison get an episode that was actually about him, considering he was only around for two episodes? Why does Eliot have to be the butt of the joke when the theme of the series should directly tie back to him in a much more meaningful way? The last episode parodies their own tagline by saying Eliot isn’t just a hitter, but it deftly avoids noticing that they’ve turned him into nothing more than very muscly comic relief, including in that very episode!

Also, I hated the Marshal. Eliot actively looked uncomfortable around her.

tl;dr

The season took a while, that’s definitely true. But it did find its footing eventually, and by the halfway mark of 1(a) it finally felt cohesive again. The characters were played fantastically even when they weren’t well-written, and if nothing else, the humor landed every time. It still has its kinks and problems to work out, but if you look at it as a brand new show rather than a continuation of one that went off the air over eight years ago, it’s actually doing rather well. I’m choosing to judge it in both lights - according to its own standards, it establishes its identity in episode five; according to Leverage standards, it establishes its connection to its roots in episode six. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed 1(a), and continue to have high hopes for 1(b).

fic writing will commence in three, two, one...

[sonic-candy]

Jetter Mars + Ehoba collection complete!

Scanned the whole thing in a few hours yesterday and cleaned it up last night. But I was tired and decided to post them and this post tomorrow. Tomorrow is today, so here are the links. (All my other works are on archive.org as well. ) I need to re-scan anything, let me know.

Jetter Mars on Dropbox

Jetter Mars on Archive.org

I will cross post this on Twitter (@candy_sonic) and on my Kofi after I post this here.

Under the cut is the history of Jetter Mars and the manga(s) if you don't know much about it. It's a bit long so no pressure if you skip it.

In other news, I found and bought the last two Ehoba Doujinshis early this week - When You Wish Upon A Star (R-18 version) and Equal 1! I tried to combine shipping, but Star shipping out the day after I bought Equal. Not sure when they'll get here, I'm guessing by next month.

Tagging active Asto Boy and Jetter Mars fans:

@z-skull @snaileo @xblubotx @cookietastic @thelilithmachine @ab-kusoposting @eimie1

In the late 70s Osamu Tezuka, worked as director at the Toei Animation studio, wanting to continue working in animation. He proposed a remake/sequel to the 60's Astro boy called 'Mighty Mars' series which Toei approved. However, the rights to 60's AB belonged to Mushi Productions, Tezuka's anime company that went bankrupt in '73. The rights then went to it's sponsor company, Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd afterwards. So no official remake was possible.

He change the name to Jetter Mars and the main theme of the show was about Mars learning about the world around him and growing as a person, opposed to Astro's struggling to create a world where robots and humans could live peacefully together. There's still similarities such as Astro and Ochanomizu VA voicing Mars and Dr. Kawashimo.

Tezuka was involved in it's early development only. Toei Animation collaborated with Madhouse thus most of the animators were were ex Mushi employees. It's was translated into Italian (called 'Captain Jet') and a Spanish dub (called 'Jet Mars: The Bionic Boy') but no English dub.

Tori also owned a company called Televiland, who created Jetter Mars mangas and allowed Popy (now called Bandai) to create other JM merchandise. If you searched for Jetter Mars merch, then you seen them. Most look haunted TBF.

JM reception was not bad but not good either, with people wanting 60's AB back. Adding to that, Tezuka lost interest after 27 episodes (Less then a year) due to Toei's micro managing tactics. A few years later he obtained the rights to Astro Boy and created the remake in color - the 80's version of Astro Boy - at Tezuka Productions. This was his last Astro Boy project before his death in '89.

Jetter Mars faded in to obscurity, save a few cameos, one known one is in Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Really good game BTW) and referenced in Atom: The Beginning.

However, like most of Tezuka's lesser known works, Jetter Mars does have it's fans - and those fans are Astro Boy fans! A fansub also exist even if it's a bit wonky in places. And even the manga got reprinted back to 2019.

There's multiple versions of the manga, 4 to be exact. But the first one, created by Ikahara Shigeto (credited as Ikehara Shigeru in the manga) or Shigetoshi Ikehara is the only one to be reprinted.

Shigeto was one of Tezuka's pupils and assistant, working with him on Marvelous Melmo at Tezuka Productions in '79. Funny enough, he never worked on an Astro Boy manga but on the Rockman (Mega Man) manga's in the 90's. The only other Tezuka properties he worked on was a 3 part manga version of Marine Express (2016-2018). The vols are pretty cheap but IDK if I'll get it. I mean, does anyone really liked Marine Express like that? He mostly worked on licensed properties but he does have an webcomic called Monsieur Akashi. All the info I have about him is from the Mega Man wiki.

Again like the anime, Tezuka never worked on any versions of the manga. And as mentioned before, no version of the manga was reprinted untill 2019, Shigeto version only. Until then, the few people who was aware of any JM manga assume the was only one manga- Shigeto version- and assumed is was lost media.

The Shigeto manga adapted some of the anime episodes and thus can be considered canon. There's very little know about the other versions save a few pics so I can't talk much about them in terms of quality.

So why did they republish the manga? Who knows? Astro Boy Reboot been in the works near a decade with near nothing to show for it, so I doubt his remake/alternative series will get one anytime soon. We can only wait and see.

[tomtenadia]

Island Dreams - Chapter 5

Hello readers :) Just one chapter tonight but it's just shy of 4k words so hopefully it will do fine :)

so... bit of angst coming. Apologies there is a bit of fluff too but not what you hope. Please don't hate Elias. He is my secret weapon to bring our two idiots together. So just be nice to him.

Fun facts: 1. I adore Roald Dahl like our trio. 2. The scene at Luskentyre with the dark clouds and the savage rain. Been there done that. Luckily I saw it in the sun as well. 3. I hug standing stones. I am a serial hugger. Hugged the ones at Callanish and have a few photos of me hugging stones in Orkney as well.

-------------

A week had passed.

Rowan opened the bookshop on time as usual. Switched on the lights and the computer and went to the back and dragged to the counter the bulky box containing the orders that had arrived the previous night.

Once he cracked the box open he realised Aelin’s was at the top, staring at him. He sighed, took the book and sat on the stool behind his counter. For a whole week he hated himself for what he said to her. He had definitely gone too far and he had to find a way to apologise and make it up to her for his dreadful behaviour.

Gently he flipped the book in his hands and read a couple of random pages and smiled. He was positive she was going to love the last book in the series and a part of him was quite eager to discuss the book with her.

He had read the series a long time ago and loved it. Flipping through the pages he found some of the lines he loved and a tenuous smile appeared on his face at the thought that Aelin reminded him so much the female main character in the book. 

Both of them had fire in them.

He hadn’t seen her in a week and Maeve told him that she hadn’t been at the coffee shop either.

His aunt’s words still haunted him. She is just as lost as you are.

What could have happened to her? She always appeared to him as full of life and quite energetic, but he guessed that might be a mask she would wear for stranger, for people who were not close to her. He wanted to meet the real Aelin, problems at all. He thought pondered on his aunt’s words. What if she really was the key to get out of the funk he had been stuck for a while? What if he could help her as well? He admitted that he wanted to be his friend and he was going to prove it to her.

Deep down though he knew he had another reason, a bit more selfish. He found her attractive. More than that. The first day in the shop she had taken his breath away. And she loved books probably just as much as he did. Something that Lyria… no. He was not going there. 

He closed his eyes and tried to picture Aelin. Her funny attempts to use Gaelic gave him fuzzy feelings. 

He had spent a week mulling and thinking about her. He could not stop doing that. She had made him feel again. But the idea terrified him. He had committed completely to a woman once. He gave her all of him, his love, trust, respect and heart. And she destroyed everything. He sighed and put the book on the shelf behind him where he kept all the orders to be collected. He had to find a way to tell her her book was here. In his anger he forgot to take her phone number or address and now he was stuck. He only had to hope that she would remember and pop in in the shop. If he could see her one more time and apologise…

He was busy unpacking when the bell rang and a dark-haired man entered the shop.

“Good morning, can I help you?”

The man looked at him and smiled “Yes, definitely. I am looking for a book. Something on Callanish.” He explained looking around the shop with interest “It’s for a woman. It’s a present. She is new here and I would like to give her a welcome to the islands present. She just visited Callanish for the first time and she loved it.”

Rowan felt sick for a moment. Was that guy talking about Aelin? Because the description sounded very similar. Sadness hit him. So she was doing fine after all. She did not need him.

“I have a nice selection. Ranging form the usual tourist guide to something more fascinating and historical.” And he showed the guy the books. The stranger took one of the bigger ones. One of his favourites.

“That is a great one.” He added pointing at the one the guy was holding in his hands “It has info about the archeological excavations, theories about its use and it connects to the mythology as well. It’s quite complete. Your friend will love it.”

The man smiled again and kept the book.

“Can I just have a look around?”

Rowan nodded keeping an eye on the man. Could it be that he was talking about Aelin? He did his best to convince himself that it was just a coincidence. It had to be. But sadness struck anyway. He had planned to  get that book for Aelin. He was positive she would have adored it. And now chances were another man was going to give it to her.

The man came back with a second book. A colouring book of the Hebrides “I have a feeling Aelin will love them.”

Rowan stopped. His world froze. And his heart was beating furiously in his chest.

“She is a lucky woman.” Rowan forced himself to say. “Would you like me to wrap them since it’s a present.”

“That would be amazing if it’s not too much trouble.”

Rowan took a deep breath and steadied his hands.

“You have a great place here. And I love your Roald Dahl display.”

Those words stung. That was one of the first things Aelin had said to him.

“Big fan.” Was all that Rowan managed ignoring the roaring fury rising in him. At his stupidity. His bad temper. That could have been him if only he had been able to control himself and be nice for once in his life.

“When I was little I was obsessed with James and the Giant Peach.” The man continued while Rowan was working on wrapping the books. He had a feeling that Aelin was a big fan of Matilda.

“Here we go.” Rowan passed the present to the man.

The stranger paid and left the shop.

Rowan sat in silence for a while then stood, turned the sign of the shop to closed, switched off the lights, locked the door and went home.

All of a sudden he did not feel in the mood anymore to deal with people.

He grabbed his car and drove in silence until he reached his favourite spot on the islands. He went to the Butt of Lewis, sat on the edge of the cliff and admired the sea raging against the cliffs, mirroring perfectly his current mood.

Aelin had taken a day off from exploring. She had driven a lot the previous days and she needed a break from here car. She had gone back to Luskentyre, however this time she was not so lucky with the weather. An horrible storm had hit once there. And still, the place was stunning. The dark clouds heavy with rain seemed to enhance the blues and green of the water. A strange light had embraced the bay and the sand appeared even whiter. Then the rain hit and she thought she had never seen a rainstorm so brutal. She had stayed in the car and waited it out. Being Scotland, the weather was very changeable and ten minutes later the sun was out and the most amazing rainbow arched across the beach. Not a single one of her photo did any justice to the beauty in front of her.

She was now wandering around Stornoway and convinced herself to go to Rowan’s shop. It had been a week and her book should have arrived. The last one had ended in an epic cliffhanger and now she needed to know. It was a matter of life or death.

She turned the corner and a strange feeling overcame her when she noticed the lights off. At the entrance door a sign said Dùinte and underneath Closed in English. It was almost noon, how was it possible it was closed? Rowan was punctual to a fault. Was he sick? She wished she had his mobile number to get in touch with him. 

She was worried. 

But most of all she realised she missed him. Yes, they barely knew each other and they didn’t have the best of the beginnings, but still…

She sighed and walked away.

In that instant Elias texted her. She had caved in the end and texted him. They had started chatting. That morning he had told her that he was in town and they agreed to meet.

He was waiting for her at the parking near the ferry terminal. She tucked her sadness away and walked toward the terminal.

She had debated every day since she gave Elias her number if she had done the right thing. 

She clearly felt something for Rowan. What it was, she still wasn’t sure. And although he had been grumpy and they fought, something about him resonated within her. As if his soul somehow called out to hers. 

The rational part of her quickly rejected the idea as the twisted and unachievable idea of love that her books had given her over the years.

Human’s relationships were nothing but pain. 

For a moment she argued to herself that for some inexplicable reason his soul had somehow resonated with Rowan’s. That if they were in a book instead, someone would have pointed out that the pining was due to them being soulmates.

A minute later after that thought she snorted loudly.

They were everything but. They weren’t even friends. 

What about enemies to lovers? She snorted again and closed the distance to where Elias was waiting for her.

There were more chances of Rowan strangling her than them becoming friends.

All that mental gymnastics to convince herself that texting Elias was good. That she was not betraying Rowan.

But at the same time she felt a horrible person. She had no idea what she wanted from Elias. She was not ready yet to commit again. But still, she didn’t want to mislead him. He seemed such a nice guy. Hurting was the last thing she wanted to do to him.

Aelin finally arrived at the car park and saw him. He was as tall as Rowan. He was standing beside his car. Sunglasses on his head, dark shorts, a light blue polo shirt hugged his upper body nicely and she could not force her gaze away from him. He was stunning.

But he is not Rowan a voice said in her head and she told it to shut up.

“Hello.” He waved at her and she noticed his bright smile and his two dimples make their appearance. She had forgotten his smile.

“Hey.” She said joining him near his car “Nice car by the way. Being an engineer must pay really well.” She joked and hoped she hadn’t gone too far as her usual.

“Love a woman with a good taste in cars. It’s a Tesla. Cost me a kidney but this baby it’s worth it.”

“Of course you get a Tesla. You are an environmental engineer so an electric car makes sense. If you were a book character you’d be considered perfectly in character.”

Elias laughed loudly at the joke. Then he opened the door, and grabbed something from the car “For you. A welcome to the islands gift.”

Aelin took the present and froze when she noticed the sticker on top. The present came from Rowan’s bookshop. All of a sudden she forgot how to breath. At least she did manage to hide her shaky hands from Elias.

She opened the present and squealed in delight when she noticed the book about Callanish and underneath a colouring book. She put the second on the roof of the car and opened the first one. Inside the dust jacket she noticed a small note. That, definitely did not belong there. The calligraphy was neat Your book is here. I guess you want to know what happens after the cliffhanger. Then at the bottom of the note I am sorry. R.

How did he know that Elias was giving her the book? A wave of panic hit her.

Sneakily she hid the note from Elias and pretended to browse the book, but her mind kept going back to Rowan’s message. Her heart was hammering in her chest, so much that it almost hurt. The words I am sorry resonating in her head like an echo.

“Glad you loved the books. I forgot there was a nice bookshop in town. I got it from there. The one about Callanish came with a recommendation from the owner.” Aelin felt like crying. She was just picturing Rowan helping Elias pick the book for her. Why was she feeling like that for a man who had clearly told her that she meant nothing to him? Why was she caring so much?

Had Lysandra been there she would have told her to drop the grumpy guy and take the nice one. 

She stretched and gave Elias a little peck on the cheek “Thank you. They are perfect. Now I just need some pencils for the colouring book.”

“That, we can fix easily.” Elias went around the car and opened the other door for her “Hop in.”

Aelin looked at him puzzled “I thought we were staying in town.”

“No way, there is still so much for you to see.”

“I am in a Tesla.” She commented ecstatic and noticed Elias grinning. “I don’t have car. In London it’s a nightmare. Traffic is horrendous and parking near my house is just non existent. Luckily the tube takes me to work easily.”

“On the islands the only traffic jam you experience is cattle, sheep and the annoying tourists driving motorhomes where they shouldn’t and going at a slow pace because they have to take a photo of every single piece of grass.”

Aelin laughed “I got stuck in the middle of a flock of sheep the other day. I was along the Golden Road.”

“Well, that was your baptism of fire and you passed it.”

Half an hour later they were crossing a bridge. Elias explained to her that they were heading for Great Bernera. As soon as they cleared the bridge he pulled over and parked the car at the small picnic area. She got out and stood immobile for a moment to take in the beauty of the landscape.all around her. Then Elias grabbed her hand and he pulled toward the left. She looked up and she noticed some standing stones and she felt giddy.

“Come on.”

They climbed the short path and they reached the stones.

Aelin went to hug them and she made Elias laugh out loud “that is a very unusual reaction.” Then he took his  phone and took a photo “Now I can bribe you until eternity.”

Aelin dismissed him with a rude gesture and kept hugging the stone.

“You are hugging Callanish VIII.”

Aelin gasped in surprise.

“This place is quite peculiar. It is a semi circle and not a full circle and according to the archaeologists it was never a full circle. No one knows what it was for. However, according to the local folklore, due to its strange configuration and location, on a calm winter day when the sun is low a strange experience might occur. If you walk between the tall stone and the water a double shadow is cast on the stone. One shadow is produced by the sun and the other by the sun’s reflection on the water.” He explained, his gaze fixed on the horizon. 

“I tried plenty of times but no luck.”

He walked behind her and tugged her to his chest, leaning his chin on her shoulder. Elias then took her hand and pointed “There,” he said “over there you have Callanish. The main site.”

She leaned against his hard chest and took comfort in the nice feeling.

“That is so awesome.”

“I am pretty sure your book will have a part about these stones.” His breath was gentle against her ear and she shivered in pleasure at the feeling.

“Let’s go. We haven’t reached our final destination yet.” He moved away and for a brief second she missed the warmth of his body against hers.

They got back in the car and they drove for a bit longer. The road was narrow but Elias drove with the experience of a local and she felt pretty safe. 

They finally reached a parking area and she was ready to get out again.

“The islands are quite amazing for their historical sites.” He started, offering his hand to her.

She took it and he smiled tenderly. His thumb gently brushing the top of her hand.

“Are you ready for a visit to the iron age?”

They walked in silence for a short stretch along the wall of a cemetery and then she noticed the Iron Age house. Elias paid the pound to get into the house, but she was more interested in the stunning beach she had spotted at the end of the path. Once out of the house she took running toward the beach and Elias followed until he grabbed at her waist “You ungrateful witch. I am showing you an historical site and all you care is the beach.”

Aelin laughed and turned to him, their faces dangerously close “Sorry, but the beach looks soooooo amazing”

Elias let her go and playfully pushed her away “Go. Have fun.”

She smiled at him and walked toward the beach, removed her shoes and walked in the water. That had become her ritual.

Bosta beach was another gem. A hidden one, it looked like.

Elias joined her in the water and stood beside her, their arms touching “When I was young, my brother and I used to come here and kayak. See the islands in front of us?” He pointed and Aelin nodded “That is little Bernera. The only way to get there is by boat. On the the side there is a beach that is something out of this world. Untouched. Pristine. With waters of colours so bright that they might not be real.”

She turned to him and looked at Elias in the eyes. And they were bright, full of joy

“You have a childish streak.” He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

“No, that came out wrong. What I meant is that you seem to tackle life with the same joy a kid does. The way you hugged the stone, or how you run just now or your face when you saw the books. It’s contagious.” With a hand he caressed her face.

She should pull away and break that contact, but she couldn’t because she realised she missed it. So in the end she leaned into his touch, basking in the feeling of his hand on her cheek.

“Tha thu bóidheach…” he whispered “You are beautiful.” He repeated in English.

Aelin broke the contact and went to sit down on the sand. She needed a moment to collect herself. To unravel the set of conflicted emotions battling inside her.

In front of her there was Elias. A wonderful man who seemed quite keen to be in her company. Who was intelligent and fascinating and sweet. A man capable of making her heart race madly. He was perfect. He was handsome. Unbelievably so. And then there was Rowan. Who was… maddening. They were nothing and no chance of their status changing anytime soon.

She sighed.

Elias sat beside her “did I do something wrong?” His blue eyes fixed on her “What I said and did… sorry if it made you uncomfortable.”

Aelin shook her head. He was considerate and with his face mere centimetres from hers she realised she just wanted to kiss him.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” she explained and wondered if it was the time to open up to someone else. But Maeve’s word replayed in her head. You can help each other. He is stuck too. She wanted to open up to Rowan. According to Maeve he was suffering for something too. She wanted him to open up to her. She knew it felt wrong. She could not open up to Elias. That was something that belonged to Rowan. Of that she was sure.

“I haven’t done this in a while.”

“Are you seriously telling me that in the whole of London there is not a single man who’d consider himself lucky to have you?”

“I can be a handful.”

“My brother has three kids under the age of ten. I can handle handful. Believe me.”

Aelin laughed and leaned her head on his shoulder “And why a guy like you is single?”

“The missus had a side thing with her boss. They eloped. She got pregnant and now she lives the grand life in Edinburgh with the money she got from the divorce and got stuck with the kid. He was rich. Filthy rich and she just wiped him clean.”

“And you were married to her?”

“Oh yeah. I was young and stupid. We lasted two years.”

“Probably you didn’t earn enough big bucks.”

Elias laughed genuinely “Aye, I was a poor nobody compared to her second husband.”

“Her loss,” Aelin added.

He tuned his head surprised by that remark. His face inched closer and hesitated for a second, then finally kissed her

Aelin resisted him for a moment, but then she melted in the kiss. His lips were soft. The kiss started gentle but then it got harder and she could feel need seeping from it.

His hands went to her back and slowly pushed her on the sand on her back. Aelin run her hands in his hair and pulled him closer.

She nibbled his lower lip and the sound he made awoke something at her core. His hands slid to her sides and he traced the length of her body. She closed her eyes and froze. A pair of green eyes appeared in her vision. Rowan’s face floated in front of her and she froze. She sat up quickly.

“Not on the beach near a tourist attraction.” She stood and patted the sand away from her clothes using it as an excuse to put some distance between them. 

Slowly she gathered the courage to look at him and she saw hurt in his blue eyes.

“You are right. Being arrested for sex in public is not in my today’s plan.” And the dimples came back.

“I am sorry I…” she fumbled.

He got closer and kissed tenderly on her lips “No need to apologise.” Then he patted her hair. “You are covered in sand.”

In silence they walked back to the car and even on the journey home she struggled to say more than a few words. She held her book on her legs and kept thinking at the message inside and how she will face Rowan the next day.

“I can drop you off at your place.”

“No, the car park is fine. It’s a nice evening. I don’t mind the stroll.”

“Ok, mo charaid.”

Aelin leaned forward and kissed him “Thank you for the books and for today. I had so much fun.”

“Me too,” he kissed her back.

Aelin broke the kiss and left the car. He got out and leaned on the roof “Text me.”

“I will do, mo charaid”

Elias laughed “you are so sexy when you try to speak Gaelic.”

Aelin blew him a kiss and walked away.

When she was almost home she leaned against the small wall separating the road from the marina and looked toward the town. To the spot where Rowan’s shop was.

And wondered what he was doing.

Wondered if he missed her as well.

[maskeraith]

big eldar scrolls on line post about what i thought about it

may have some spoilers for the morrowind storyline and sidequests idk also I am inevitably gonna compare it to ffxiv a lot as it’s the only other mmorpg I’ve played good luck

Writing this after finishing writing the rest wow this got too long there is a tldr though haha

so the first thing I will say is that eso’s overworld exploration and sidequesting blows ffxiv away completely, there is so much to do and fun to be had in eso simply by exploring around! the enemies feel cool to fight, there are delves and solo dungeons to just stumble across with quests in there, skill points just lying around if you look hard enough, gathering spots that you can just gather from without having to be a specific profession or something, WORLD bosses that you need a group to battle just OUT there it’s really cool! Ffxiv does have some really beautiful environments but in terms of actual stuff to do, there’s literally just fates and they’re pretty shit to be honest, and i guess the sightseeing log??

and sidequests! all my time in the game was spent in the morrowind area (vvardenfall I think? my eso lore is zero watch out) and every sidequest I did had a really engaging storyline. They do mostly amount to fetch quests and slay monster quests in terms of gameplay with some puzzle moments sometimes, but the storylines were captivating enough to justify most of what you had to do. compared to ffxiv which is BLOATED with boring fetch quests with uninteresting storylines eso has it figured out. the characters you meet and their dialogue is great and sometimes you can even make choices which affect the final outcome of the quest which is always fun (your character having the personality of a brick aside). I actually think I enjoyed certain sidequests more than the main story of morrowind they’re that involved

Also there are world events but I didn’t really get into them, there was like a huge tornado which spawned some enemies that give you massive exp, but my horsey was too slow and I only got there at the tail end because they’re great for farming so every player in the world goes there and kills them instantly they seem cool though

in terms of lore, I’m not someone who is super interested in the lore of the elder scrolls universe but I found myself learning a whole lot of very crazy stuff from the friends I was playing with who DO know all about it, and I will say that if the lore of the elder scrolls universe interests you in any way you’ll love this game! so I learned that there are Eras in this universe, and eso takes place in the second era I believe. The other main series games all take place in the third or fourth I think, so eso is able to like set the groundwork for those games and explain the history behind stuff going on in all the main games, which I think is a really good idea, perfect for fans of the lore and stuff. Like I remember the funny talking dog from skyrim and he’s like the primary antagonist of the morrowind main story like woah

The combat is where I think the game started to fall off for me, again with the ffxiv comparison but it just wasn’t reaching levels nearly as interesting as the combat in that game for me.

Firstly, there’s no tab targetting (unless there’s a setting in the menu somewhere i missed?) you actually aim all your attacks, single target, aoe, whatever. for me this made it harder to be able to gain a situational awareness, and I have to keep my camera aimed at the boss and I’m not able to move it around to see if there was anything else going on. I do see how aiming your attacks could actually make the game more appealing to some people, though, as it does give a sense that you are more actively participating in the battle and not just standing there pressing buttons, but for me this sort of thing doesn’t make any difference

The second thing was the amount of abilities you have at any one time - you have 10 abilities and 2 ultimates slotted at any one time. Five and one ult are active at a time, and you have to swap weapons (it’s as easy as the press of a button) to switch to your second bar with the other 5 and 1 ult. This does make the game a lot more accessible I think, but it also means the stuff you get to do is just gonna be a lot more straightforward and spammy compared to the interesting and involved rotations you get in ffxiv. as a tank, I set myself up to put three dots and a debuff on the enemy and then spam my one damaging attack, until I had to reapply the stuff again, and that was basically it. I had some tank cooldowns too like a shield, heal, a grab and so on. I did look up the Most Complicated Rotation to see how hard it could get, which seemed to be stamina nightblade, and even that has “Ability x11″ or something in its rotation

Simple rotations would be fine for me if the bosses themselves were more difficult or complicated to compensate, but honestly nothing was any more difficult or involved than ffxiv. On youtube I’ve watched like 5 dungeons and a trial on the hardest Veteran difficulty, and the dungeons don’t look like anything more than what you would get in other mmos. The trials looks like really great content honestly, but there’s no party finder for them as far as I know so you have to manually gather 11 other people which is never something I enjoy trying to do in multiplayer games lol

i also didn’t super appreciate that the game wanted to like hide a bunch of info from me by default? like a few hours in I complained that it was impossible to know when my dots and self buffs ran out because all I had was like little particle effects on the enemy/myself to go off, and my friends were like “oh yeah you need to turn on these tooltips in the options” like huh?? I need to know this stuff come on

There is some really cool stuff in the combat though! Every player has like a basic bash attack, which can interrupt certain attacks, and then a basic heavy attack, which can knock down staggered enemies (they get staggered if you interrupt them) so there is more to do than just your abilities.

One thing I will mention though, is that I think a huge part of the combat is resource management - you spend stamina/mana on your abilities and if you’re not careful it’s easy to run out. As a tank, blocking takes up stamina, and sometimes I would not manage it correctly and run out and be unable to use my anything for a bit. You get it back by doing heavy attacks (contrary to every game ever) and other like passives unique to whatever build you might have going on. A lot of the game’s difficulty in harder content might come from this, but I didn’t get that deep into any of that sort of thing

I think the way you pick your abilities is really cool - you level up a whole bunch of different skill trees at a time, and you can slot any ability from any tree at any time (other than weapon skills specifically, you must be weilding that weapon) into your 10 slots. Your class has three unique trees, then there’s like a tree for every weapon type, for mage and fighter’s guild, this weird guild called the undaunted, werewolf and vampire, probably more I forgot about. All of them have 5 skills that you unlock as you level that tree, and all of those skills can be morphed into one of two “strong” versions of that skill once you level that specific skill. So there is a huge amount of player choice in how you build your character! I remember getting loads of advice from my friends but also just thinking to myself “but this skill though...” (i am so sorry). There are loads of passives too but they’re kind of lame and you just sort of put your excess skill points in them to make yourself passively stronger. I am sure there are Optimal builds, but playing casually you can literally just do anything

I do think levelling them can sometimes be a pain though because like, if you want the fifth ability in Skill Tree 1 but you don’t really use any of the first four, well actually you do have to start using a bunch of those skills you don’t want because you gain more exp for that skill tree the more of its skills you use, sort of a minor thing I guess

Finally I will talk about how I really do not like the execution of the loot system... So you get armour sets in this game and if you wear 5 of them you get a very significant passive, like whenever you crit you summon a big ghoul to shoot acid, or all of your aoe abilities also taunt. I think this is a super cool idea in theory, and it allows for even further personal customisation of the kind of character you want to play. However..

So the max level is 50, but the real max level is like 180 or something because at 50, you continue to level up but each level just gives you a point to put into these big huge bonus passive skill trees which continue to increase your stats up to the 180th point or something like that. In eso, though, you can go anywhere and do anything and all the enemies are scaled to you. But, it’s actually that you are scaled to the enemies - while below level 50, you get an invisible buff that makes you as strong as a level 50 character. This means that every level you gain, you actually get slightly weaker, if you’re not updating your armour.

Armour drops at whatever level you are, up to the cap of 180 where you are the strongest you can be. So ultimately what this means is every piece of armour you get up until you reach the level cap will quickly become obsolete. Every time I collected 5 pieces of a set and got a cool passive, all I could think was “this will be fun for about 4 levels” because I knew I’d need to swap it all out for stronger stuff. Essentially I felt locked out of seriously farming for the gear sets I wanted until I reached Max Max level, which made everything I collected seem pretty pointless to me.

Also, always being as strong as a level 50 character did kind of make it feel like I wasn’t really levelling up at all? It’s why I broke my rule of “I will get to level 50 before stopping” because I actually was level 50 all along, I got all the abilities from my skill trees that I wanted and ran a bunch of dungeons with them and I was in the 30s, but there were no other skills I could really see myself swapping out so I was essentially “max level”, as far as I was concerned.

so yeah tl;dr these are my two main opinions:

This game is an awesome time running around and exploring the environment, doing quests and running dungeons! If you’re a fan of the elder scrolls world and lore it is absolutely a must play!

Customising your character’s skills and armour sets is a lot of fun, but I do think it comes at the expense of not having a really finely tuned, coherant combat style, it feels a lot like I’m Just Hitting All The Buttons.

The end lol

[hankwritten]

TFComics Rewrite

I am currently plotting an outline for a TFComics, and I want to get my thoughts about fixes to canon and possibly get feedback. Since this is a rewrite there’s really no *spoilers* or anything, so I’m willing to answer all questions about what I plan to do. Also some characters I’m not so sure about how I want to retool them, so if your have ideas for your fav let me know!

Disclaimer:

This rewrite is intended to critique the content/choices made in the construction and telling of the Team Fortress 2 comic series. It is not a personal attack on the artists/writers/directors or any of the creatives that made contributions to this series, nor is it meant to substitute or replace the official release. This work is transformative in nature, and relies on an understanding of the source material to be understood. TF2 and its characters belong to Valve.

TFCR is working on the assumption that the audience has read the original comic, and as such will skip over scenes and plot points that are unchanged from the original. I don’t think it needs to be said, but this fanfiction will not make sense if you are not familiar with the source.

I also recognize that there are strengths within the comic’s writing and weaknesses within my own. Namely, that Valve writers are gods in the realm of comedy, and I’d rather not try to match them in the regard. As such, I will state up front that these will not be as funny as the TFComics. That is not to say there won’t be jokes (either ones transplanted from the source or some of my own) or that the tone of this will be terribly grimdark, only that my focus will be on improving story structure and character development as those are what appeal to me.

 The Broad Strokes

The goal of TFCR is to give a more engaging story for all the mercenaries we know and love, as--let’s face it--the TF2 mercs are side characters in their own damn story. These are some of the planned improvements.

There will be reason for each of the mercs to actually be there. As it stands, the motivations for almost every character besides Pauling and Saxton Hale are vague and unsatisfying. We’d usually say something along the lines of “money” for hired killers, but clearly Scout doesn’t even know if they’re getting paid, and some of the other characters are even worse. The hunt for the Australium is, therefore, boring. MacGuffins usually are, but at the very least the characters should care about the item even if the audience doesn’t. This work aims to give each of the nine mercs a motive and a reason to be in the story instead of just replaceable joke dispensers.

Explain what “Team Fortress” means, and how it relates to RED and BLU. Long and short: the nine mercenaries we see on the team are not from either RED or BLU but rotate between the two, and were the individuals selected to fight the robots. That means all things do happen to all characters. As Valve pretty much goes with “whatever is funniest at the time”, it’s very hard to make a cohesive theory about “where the hell is BLU team?”, but I’ll do my damndest. We’ll also examine Team Fortress’s relationship with the other capital T Teams, and why they’re considered the “rejects” of the bunch.

Comics 1 & 2 will be removed from the timeline as they serve no purpose, only taking what needs to be known about the plot’s setup and jumping straight to A Cold Day in Hell.

We will introduce the Classic Mercs right away so they can generate threat and play against the TF mercs when they do actually meet head to head.

We will not be killing off Gray Mann. (Not preemptively anyway.) In fact, there will be more focus on him and Olivia as villains facing off against the Admin, providing her foil as the TF2 and TFC mercs provide foils for each other.

I considered waiting until the final comic was out to begin working on this, but that may never happen. Jay Pinkerton said he may reveal what plot they had in store eventually, but considering it took Half Life over a decade to get the “I was once a Valve writer but my NDA has expired and now I can go buck wild” treatment, I’m not holding my breath. The main reason I wanted to do this is that the Administrator’s motivations are not interestingly foreshadowed, to the point where there aren’t even any good fan theories out there. That said, WritingDispenser and Riddle of the Sphinx helped come up with a pretty fun one, which was actually the inspiration for me to get off my butt and start plotting this.

There will be no queerbaiting. This refers both to HeavyMedic (which has been simultaneously used as wink wink nudge nudge joke many times and as encouragement for fans to play their stupid hat game) as well as lesbian Pauling (since femme lesbians are the preferred method for front facing LGBT representation across almost all media, but video games especially). If you need to understand why lesbian Pauling is an issue, Sarah Z coined the term “queercatching” in order to describe word of god confirmations on characters sexualities that are not followed up on in the text. I recommend the full video on it.

Due to the importance of immortality in the theming of the comics, respawn will not be a thing. Deaths we think should have happened previously will be explained as close calls, or that Medic can heal a short time after death. Medic and Scout’s deaths will be cut in the story itself, as after Sniper died and came back, them doing the same thing kinda lost their punch.

Scout

There will be no ScoutPauling hints. It doesn’t make sense to give screentime to this relationship because Valve obviously doesn’t think it’s going to go anywhere so why make Scout turn down advances from other hot women? I mean I get Expiration Date was a Thing but it feels like Scout’s whole motivation shouldn’t be reduced down to chasing a girl who doesn’t like him back.

He’s here because he lost his life’s savings in bad investments and needs the money. That’s it. Which is still somehow more than his canon motive which is question mark question mark question mark

He, Soldier, Spy, Demo, and Pyro all start the adventure with Miss Pauling.

Engages with Heavy on a genuine level when they go to collect him, Heavy doesn’t blow him off when he tries to level about dead dads.

There will be no DadSpy reveal. The way Spy treats Scout has never been “deadbeat dad feels bad about abandoning his kid” but more “this is someone I would kill without a second thought if I felt like it” which makes his reveal in comic 5 feel very disingenuous. I don’t think Valve even had this plotline in mind until comic 3, as #2 still has Spy seeming only to care about Scout’s Ma and not Scout himself. It also makes “seduce me!” retroactively weird.

Uhhh hooks up with Zhanna. This one isn’t critical I just think it’s funny.

Soldier

Soldier is going to be the Ur example of the Admin not treating her people well, as we’re going to lean into the whole “Soldier was only mildly messed up until the whole lead poisoning” thing.

He’s here because he’s blindingly loyal to the cause. He’s actually going to very little from canon because of this actually.

Might be the reason Team Fortress has a reputation of being the lower tiers of the Teams, but that doesn’t mean he’s damn good at his job. Fatal flaw is that he’s unstable, and even though the courthouse plotline won’t be in this fic, it should be noted that he actually does cause problems for the other protagonists due to his short temper. He’s a risky asset, but still essential.

There will be a minor explanation for the WAR! Comic, but I think that’s better saved for Demo’s analysis.

Pyro

Pyro is the character you could cut entirely from the comics and have the least change. Now, they’re going to be Pauling’s right hand. Let me explain.

Engineer and Pyro are implied to live together, and Pyro doesn’t have anything better to do than go with Engie after Team Fortress is disbanded. Rather than having a reveal, we will see some of what is going on with the Admin and friends early on, and see what leads up to her sending Miss P the note that kicks off the whole plot. However, while Engie needs to stay and look after her, Pyro’s skills aren’t useful here, and they are sent as a direct messenger to help Pauling.

They’re loyal, and unlike Soldier rarely mess up orders. They’re also partially mute, making them ideal for handling sensitive info. Pauling trusts them to handle the burning of “Elizabeth’s” paper trail.

Will be using they/them in the narrative voice, but other characters will refer to them as he/him. I considered going with it/its because that’s bubbled up in popularity again, but ultimately I decided against it.

We’ll get glimpses to their train of thought, but like the comics they will remain virtually silent.

Demo

Demo’s role in the cast is going to be very similar to Spy’s. The events of WAR! involved him nearly dying and Soldier taking the win, and he’s very bitter that after all those events *apparently* mercs can just be switched around teams willy nilly and don’t have to kill each other anymore. (As the audience, we know this is because the Admin found out the “make them so angry they won’t ask questions” wasn’t a long-term viable solution, and instead brought TFI forward as a neutral third party that was pretending to mediate the gravel wars.) But Demo’s suspicious, and is only along because he really has been miserable since he lost his job.

This conflict will eventually come to a head, more on that in the Sniper section.

Is fairly forgiving with his teammates. Doesn’t like Sniper but I’m willing to drop a little angst during that submarine scene. Is glad to see Medic actually. Here to be some glue to hold this merry band together.

The Eyelander will not be forgotten after 2 comics because I love this character concept and I think it was underutilized.

Drunk jokes will be kept to a minimum. What I liked about WAR! and Bombinomicon was that it took Demo and showed that they knew how to make him funny without making him one note, which they sort of did in the early TFComics but stopped in the later ones in favor of him….being asleep for the whole plot. I promise 100% awake Demo in my rewrite.

Demo likes Pauling on a personal level, but has trouble reconciling her with his feelings on TFI.

Doesn’t get knocked out by moonshine because. Seriously? Poisoning the Demoman with alcohol? In what world does that work.

Heavy

Not too much to change. Scout doesn’t accompany him when he goes to look for the secret Australium cache, and he engages with Mags and Saxton (which will be when the audience finds out what they’ve been up to) and actually cares about what’s going on with them. He thinks Darling is up to something. Which he is, he’s attempting to unseat both Gray and Helen due to long family history.

Will at least mention Medic. Their reunion falls a little flat since it mostly relies on Meet the Medic for context, as they don’t really interact in the comic. There can be a bit of a flashback to what it was like as all these mercs broke up.

I know uhhh Valve seems to think found family is really dumb, and that these murderers could ever like each other is silly or something, but the mercs do? Like each other? For the most part anyways. 

Bronislava and Yana come alone for adventures, not just Zhanna. Again, no real reason, but sometimes I get to have tacky fanfic stuff in my own fanfic because I Wanna.

Engineer

Engie ruminates on his family history of allowing all this bullshit to happen and just kind of shrugging. Basically Moss’s analysis of the Conagher themes.

Has put a lot of time, sweat, and tears into BLU and now TFI, isn’t willing to let it fall now, even if Admin is basically living on borrowed time. He’s doing this because of the ‘ole sunk cost fallacy.

Also we get to see more of Pauling and Admin’s relationship through his eyes.

Medic

Congrats on being the one merc with an actual arc, Medic! As a reward, you will not be changed much.

I’m actually going to use Medic’s section to say that the Classic mercs will be referred to by their first names in order to differentiate them, and we’ll get little previews of what they’re like from Medic’s perspective before we actually see them fight Team fortress. The battle at the submarine will be more of a fight in this sense, working it out so it seems like surrender is the only option after Sniper is killed.

Final fight with Cheavy will be...not blocked so awkwardly. I mean this is now a textual medium so my work is already halfway done, but still the pacing is so weird. Shudder.

Sniper

These are the big guns. Most changes, even more than Demo. He’s been actually hunting for New Zealand/the Australium cache on his own, and doesn’t want Pauling interfering, saying for a he knows she could have been the ones to kill his adoptive parents.

(She hasn’t, but the Admin did actually order them killed in an attempt to stop Sniper because she thought she could prevent the exact thing that is going on right now which is that Sniper is considering trying to get at it.)

Sniper doesn’t know this, but Pauling, Demo, and Spy eventually convince him to share his findings and help them get to New Zealand.

Spy

Similar to Demo but is less conflicted about it. He knows just because he likes someone doesn’t mean he won’t have to kill them later. 

Spy knows about who killed Sniper’s parents, and tells Demo, sort of as a test to see where his loyalties lie. He also knows that Pyro is Pauling’s confidant for certain things.

Demo questions him about what he’s doing here, whose side he’s really on. But you know. Spy is Spy and he was never really on anyone’s side but his own. When it comes down to it, it might be exactly as Scout thinks: that he’s ditched them all and run off when he had the opportunity. But, big damn hero, comes back in the end.

He’s here mainly to “keep an eye on things.” Also maybe because his gf asked him to keep an eye on her son :)

[cynthiaandsamus]

I’m mildly pleased with Nintendo’s E3, good to know Prime 4 and Botw2 are still in the pipeline.

Kazuya for Smash gives me mixed feelings, on the one hand he’s just another shirtless dude that punches things, if I wanted to play as Fighting Game characters I’d play a fighting game, not Smash. On the other hand Tekken is actually the one fighting game I know anything about so of all the shirtless dudes that punch things, Kazuya’s probably the one most relevant to me in particular. I’m glad his devil transformations are in there so he’s not just another quarter circle back character but I would’ve preferred a colorful crazy mascot with more personality or unique design but still.

I’m not entirely sure how the DanganRonpa and Monkey Ball things work, if they’re collections or what but I am excited for those, just a little confusing listing all the other games and showing clips from them in the trailer makes it a little hard to tell what the new games actually are (especially since the DR ones listed other DR games coming soon so idk which ones are in the Decade thing)

I’m actually pretty hyped for Tony Hawk 1+2 coming to the Switch, I wanted to play that when it came out but didn’t have anything to play it on, so that’ll be a fun nostalgia trip. DDLC+ will be fun too, I’m probably getting that at some point. Kinda lukewarm on the Life is Strange and Mario Party stuff but it may be worth checking out depending on what’s revealed.

Was there anything else? Feel like I’m forgetting something...

METROID DREAD

Yeah I’m exceedingly hyped for that, find it funny that we’ve actually gotten 2 2D Metroid games announced and released before we get any more actual info on Prime 4 but I’m still very happy to have a new Metroid game coming very soon with what looks to be a horror vibe to it. Very much reminds me of the series Alien origin and I’m excited that it’ll be the first continuation of the main Metroid story in so very long. Plus those new amiibo look pretty sweet. I still have the ones from Samus Returns on my desk here so it’ll be neat to try and expand my Samus collection. Can’t wait to see what the new suit is all about and how we’re going to beat the GLaDOS terminators.

[alphabetmafiaadventures]

Passione's Bizarre Adventure

It is an AU that I've been writing for a while. Unfortunately, I lost all the chapters I had written, but I found my old notebook with all of my thoughts about this fanfic. So I could do some incorrect quotes that fits the story or write bits of it as fake chat prints.

I had a lot of fun when writing this back in the days. I'm planning on re-write it one day.

You must read the settings of this AU so you won't be confused afterward:

Phantom Blood: [138 years ago (part written 5 years ago)]

- Jonathan survived but was turned into a vampire. Unfortunately, Dio took his body and left our dear sweet Joestar as a flying severed head. Because of it, he decided to stay hidden in the shadows since he didn't want to scare his friend and wife.

Battle Tendency: [64 years ago (part written 5 years ago)]

- Caesar lives.

- The four (4) pillar men lives.

- Joseph still loses his hand tho.

- Jonathan reappeared only to Robert E. O. Speedwagon. After some talk, he turns his friend into a vampire who helps him deal with Dio later.

- The Speedwagon Foundation is the only one who knows about them. The organization also helped Robert fakes his death.

Stardust Crusaders: [24 years ago (part written 5 years ago)]

- The crusaders' crew lives, with some scars and injuries but still alive.

- Jonathan appears to save the day. He manages to get his body back.

- Dio still lives, and now he's under SPW's care.

- Most of the foes are now under SPW's care.

Diamond's Unbreakable: [5 years ago]

- Everyone lives but Josuke's grandpa.

- Kira lives. He manages to convince everyone that he isn't a serial killer and that he only has a realist silicon hand for his pleasure. Still, he's under SPW's watchful eyes.

- Kishibe Rohan became interested in the Joestars' history. After some talk with the SPW and the Joestars, he gets permission to write a manga about them called: "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure."

- Rohan changed some things for artistic and aesthetic purposes.

- Posteriorly, the manga would become a series, and most of them would be interpreting themselves.

- The pillar men are now members of the SPW.

Vento Aureo: [3 years ago]

- Everyone lives but Polpo.

- Diavolo was underage when he became a father (14-15 years old).

- Donatella Una was 19 years old. She didn't know her one-night stand partner's age.

- After roughly ten (10) months after the baby was born, Donatella found Diavolo and gave him his daughter, claiming that she couldn't raise the baby. Posteriorly, Diavolo would erase everything about his past and disappear with the baby, now named Trish.

- At 14 years old, Trish got curious about who her mother was. Diavolo ordered Periculo to take his daughter to Donatella. Trish wasn't allowed to tell her about him.

- Almost a year after, a rival gang tries to kidnap Trish. Donatella's sent to the hospital for recovery.

- Diavolo ordered Bucciarati's team to escort Trish back to him.

- Giorno Giovanna did a deal with the Boss and became a Capo.

- Almost a year after, the SPW got in touch with Passione. Diavolo surprisingly agreed to be a public world-known figure.

- At the end of the Vento Aureo's part, Giorno become Passione's Underboss.

Stone Ocean: [1 year and 11 months ago]

- Everyone lives.

- Jotaro married Kakyoin a couple of years after divorcing Jolyne's mother.

- Dio stopped Pucci and convinced him to become a member of the Speedwagon Foundation.

- Dio manages to get a new body.

- The criminal crew plus Emporio lives with Jotaro and Kakyoin.

- Jotaro adopted Foo Fighters.

- Annasui's just 1 year older than Jolyne.

- Annasui and Jolyne are dating. Jotaro doesn't know how to deal with it.

- The info about Annasui's criminal record is a mystery. Everyone knows he killed someone but, who, how and why he did it is unclear. Besides some agents from SPW, Jolyne, Weather and Emporio, no one really knows the context behind his actions.

Steel Ball Run: [1 year ago]

- Everyone lives since the entire story of this part was created by Kishibe Rohan.

- SPW found them individually.

- Diego Brando's a distant relative of Dio. He's a famous English jockey.

- Johnny Joestar's a distant relative of Jonathan. He's a famous American jockey.

- Gyro Zeppeli's a distant relative of Caesar. He's a doctor who occasionally participates in races as a jockey.

- Lucy Pendleton is 18 years old.

- Funny Valentine's an ex-soldier who's still psychologically recovering from when he was held captive by guerrillas.

- Valentine's the same age as Diavolo and Kira. 33 years old.

- Valentine's reserved, keeping himself distant from everyone, and seems to be unapproachable. The majority of the SBR crew is unfamiliar with his past, Scarlet is the only one who knows about.

Jojolion: [currently]

- As SBR, it's an mostly original creation of Rohan. So everyone lives.

- Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo aren't Josuke Higashikata.

- Yoshikage isn't related to his namesake.

- Josefumi's a distant relative of the Kujo, he isn't from the Joestar bloodline.

- Josuke's a distant relative of both Higashikata and Joestar bloodline. Since he and part 4 Josuke has the exact same name, he's called Gappy or just Josu.

- The Higashikata family are close relatives of Tomoko.

OCs - Squadra del Drago captains:

- Rodrigo Castro Alves (33 years old), also known as Rodie. Formerly an elite soldier from Comandos (1° BAC - Brazil). He's one of the roughly 150 militarily trained stand users from Passione's Boss' security team "Squadra del Drago" (dragon team), known as "I Diavoli" (the devils). He is responsible for the security of the base they are on, he also acts as an infiltrated agent, easily blending in rival gangs to obtain information for his boss Diavolo.

- Vikhrov Viktor Zakharovich (36 years old), also known as Vitya, Vik, Vitcho, or Vitty. Formerly an elite soldier from Vympel (Spetsgruppa Vympel - Russia). He's mostly responsible for elite covers as an sniper but can also be a infiltrated agent on rival gangs as Rodie, thanks to his unexpected KGB training. Also a stand user.

- Heiner Kohlhase Wernz (37 years old), also known as Hei. Formerly an elite soldier from KSK (Kommando Spezialkräfte - Germany). They're mostly responsible for rescuing important targets in rival gang areas but they're mainly focused on planing strategies and collecting information through digital equipments. Also a Stand user.

- Heiner, Viktor and Rodie are the Squadra del Drago's leaders. They are always close to Diavolo.

OCs - Non criminal ocs... Yet:

- Yngvar Pris (20 years old), also known as Sir Sickness, is a childhood friend of Narciso Annasui. He works as a bartender at nigh clubs and sometimes as a freelancer writer and translator. Recently he gained Passione's attention through Annasui since his stand abilities could be well used and developed on la Squadra di Esecuzione.

- Myra d'Imperio (23 years old), also known as Imp or Myr, is a close friend and roommate of Yngvar. She's a freelancer stylist and makeup artist. She became Annasui and Jolyne's friend since they share some common aesthetic opinions. She's also a Stand user.

Notes:

- The villains are the main characters.

- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is Rohan's masterpiece, the series and manga is the same we all know from Araki but on this AU the “true story” is mostly different.

- Besides Diavolo, Dio and Kars, no one knows that Kira's a actual serial killer.

- Diavolo has a thing for blond guys.

- Diavolo, Kira and Funny are close friends even if FV doesn't know much about Kira.

- The ocs' infos and stand details will be added later.