#HAVEN'T WE GOT ENOUGH MEDIEVAL GAMES ALREADY

[elbiotipo]

Creating a strategy game that begins in the exact same day as the fall of Constantinople (I want to play in the Early Modern Era) and getting killed by a bunch of rabid Byzaboo Paradox fans

[eve-to-adam]

Tagged by @theladyelizabeth to do these fics/stories asks. <3333 Thank you for giving me the chance to express some of my thoughts! :D

How many works do you have?

I have written many stories over the years. As a child, I wrote stories that I illustrated a bit clumsily, but it was fun to create characters and fantasy stories. Now I have two official works - the story I'm writing now, about Cecily Neville. I have one more that needs to be completely rewritten, about Elizabeth Woodville.

2. What fandoms do you write for?

My stories focus specifically on the medieval era, especially the events that take place in the Wars of the Roses.

3. What are your top 5 stories by kudos?

I haven't written enough stories to have a top 5, but if I were to make a list of stories I want to write in the near or distant future, they would be the following: 1. Proud Cis, which I am currently writing. 2. Elizabeth, a story that I should rewrite in the future. 3. A possible story about Anne of Burgundy, because I adore her and Bedford (they already appear in Proud Cis, so something from their perspective would be interesting to me.) 4. A story about Elizabeth of York, because why not? 5. Maybe a story about Edward I and Eleanor of Castile.

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

I will definitely answer! As in the case of my illustrations, I want to respond to each person because I want to show my gratitude for the interest and the beautiful words that are offered to me. If I didn't reply to someone, it was because I didn't know about the comment's existence for various reasons (I didn't notice it/I didn't receive a notification, etc.) If it happens that I don't reply, I don't do it intentionally.

5. What’s the story you wrote with the angtiest ending?

Unfortunately, I never finished any story I wrote, no matter how long or short it turned out to be, so I have no way of knowing what ending I would choose.

6. What’s the story you wrote with the happiest ending?

See the answer to question number 5.

7. Do you get hate on stories?

I had two works posted on Wattpad at one time, but I never received hateful comments. Criticism, yes, but not offensive messages. It seems I was lucky. The strangest comment I got on the Elizabeth Woodville's story - which I find funny to a certain extent - was something about Constantinople.

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

Yes and no. I have nothing against explicit content in stories, and although I have some degree of intimacy exposed in my stories, smut is not exactly a detail I want in them. I say this because this aspect does not suit me. I don't know how to write them properly, so I don't do it. But I like to create intimate/romantic scenes that contain more explicit details, without necessarily being integrated into the erotic area.

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

Yes, I have only one story that fits into this category. It's the first time I do something like this. The story is still in its early stages, because I, together with my friend @teodoraioana221, are trying to arrange the pieces of the puzzle in order to create an enchanting story. The funniest thing is that this whole project started from a simple Sims game, in which we decided to create a story for our characters. A totally innocent thing. It is amazing that from such a tiny detail we have been able to create connections and contexts for our characters, most of them appearing only after we decided on a part of the action. Of course, it is a story that we want to write in the form of a book - webnovel -, which we want to illustrate together. The story would to some extent fall into historical fiction, because we are documenting details - such as food, customs, activities, mentality, fashion, etc. - starting from the end of the Victorian era, passing through WWI-WWII and up to in our present, which means approximately three generations. Yes, we have a pretty extensive family tree and I don't think it will stop there, which makes me excited, haha.

10. Have you ever had a story stolen?

No, but I had a comic stolen with a story I created - "The Queen of the Sun in Splendour". It counts?

11. Have you ever had a story translated?

Again, I don't know if it counts. But a mini-comic that I made with Edward IV and George of Clarence. Comic that was translated without my permission, apparently by a person from China.

12. Have you ever co-written a story before?

No. But I do it now. You can find the answer on question number 9.

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

An interesting question. In the beginning, when I barely knew details about the Wars of the Roses, I was obsessed with the Elizabeth WoodvillexEdward IV. At that moment, for me, nothing else mattered except them. My obsession was so great that anyone else didn't matter. I used to dislike Cecily Neville for her apparent refusal to accept Elizabeth. Can you believe it? And now I'm writing a book about her! Can you believe it??? I think this would be my answer: ElizabethxEdward and CecilyxRichard. I can't choose between them, sorry not sorry.

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

Many of my stories are wips that will never be finished. However, I try not to repeat the mistakes of the past and I strive so that the works of the present never end up like those wips. But I am unpredictable. I am my own enemy.

15.What are your writing strenghts?

I have the impression that I know how to combine facts with reality. I have always tried to make sure that the story I write is 85% accurate. Of course, this percentage can fluctuate, depending on who is reading, I guess. It's possible that I don't know some details because I don't have access to them or maybe simply a context needed to be changed to fit the plot. I think I'm good at describing things. I try not to have boring dialogues - but, again, it depends on who is reading.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I think that the entire platform is not enough for me to list them all (I am very critical of myself, yes). So I'll pick a few: One of them would be my inability to always have as rich a vocabulary as I would like. Another weakness would be the way I place the action (sometimes I have the impression that the scene I'm writing shouldn't be the way it is because I'm afraid of giving my characters that omniscient aura. Or I just feel that it doesn't work for the scene to proceed like this because maybe it doesn't seem natural enough.) Also, I'm afraid that some scenes are not in line with the character's personality, but I like them too much to get rid of them. The list can go on and on and on... Lucky for me that I have friends – Teo, Nico & Co. – who share their opinions about my stories and talk to me, listen to me and remove my insecurities, preventing me from killing myself with a pen, lololol.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a story?

Yes, as long as the sentences are not too long. I wrote some in Proud Cis, a short exchange of lines in French, for which I had the help of a friend of mine, Sebastian. I don't trust Google Translate and I'm too afraid that I'll embarrass myself if I write nonsense because I trusted it. Better be safe than sorry.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Wars of the Roses.

19. Favourite story you’ve ever written?

Definitely Proud Cis. Not only is it the longest official story written so far, but it is also the one in which I put the most effort. Through this project I tried to discover Cecily and at the same time to explore medieval life and mentality. I didn't want a generic story, in which the action takes place at a superficial contextual level. I want to explore more, to understand, to feel. I love to document myself about activities, places, customs, foods, art, traditions, etc. I have read many books in which all these were overlooked or explored in a superficial way because the authors want to focus on the characters or the political situation. But my personal opinion is that all these details are part of the character's component, they are one with them: these details represent the character. I like to imagine scenarios about small things in their lives and expose them with the help of fiction. Sure, for some it might seem boring, but I want to give these details the chance to shine through Cecily and the people around her.

I will tag: @teodoraioana221, @richmond-rex

Participation is up to everyone.

[stardomthenightwing]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for my family of course like everyone always says, but that's just what you start off with when you are born into this world. I have grown stronger and smarter and have found many other things in this world to be thankful for. Here's a list, and I recommend you read through it:

1. I'm thankful for the person reading this. Even though I'm a total stranger on the internet, you take time out of your day to hear me talk about crap I like.

2. I'm grateful to my followers for supporting me. I didn't have you all last Thanksgiving because you are all something new to me which makes it that much more special. I wouldn't be here without you all, so thanks for giving me a chance. Remember that by following someone, you entrust power to that person; choose wisely the next time you allow someone the power to control others.

3. I'm thankful for Wings of Fire even though it may be very badly written at times. There are things we wish we could see and things we wish never happened in the series, but that doesn't change the fact that someone worked really hard to bring us the series. The graphic novels, no matter how bad they may be to you, were still worked on and took much time to make; the same goes for the tv show in development and the books. I love Wings of Fire, and I appreciate that I was lucky enough to find a goodish dragon book series with no dragon riders and stupid medieval stuff. I'm thankful for you, Tui T. Sutherland!

4. Even though The Owl House was canceled, I'm still thankful for the great memories I made watching it and the joy it brought me. There's still a season 3 planned, so I'm grateful that we even get more Owl House content. I love the themes in that show and the lessons you learn from it. Dana Terrace is an amazing person, and I hope you get a chance to watch The Owl House if you haven't already. It got lesbians, so watch it, please!

5. I'm thankful that Deltarune Chapter 2 came out so unexpectedly this year. I thought I would have to wait 999 years to see more of Toby Fox's intelligent wonders, but I guess I don't. Deltarune is an amazing game, and I love its humor and realistic concepts so much! It is such a smartly made game, and I can't imagine how much work Toby and his crew put into it. I cannot wait for more Deltarune content!

6. I'm thankful for the amazing games Earthbound and Mother 3. Even though you may have never heard of them, they are the best games I have ever played in my life, and they shaped me into the person I am today. Shigesato Itoi is amazing, and I know exactly why he chooses to keep his games so secret. I am so lucky to even be smart enough to emulate these two games, and I am so grateful that games like these can even exist! If you ever get a chance in your life to play either of these games, I ask you with all of my heart that you try to complete them. We don't deserve to have these games in our world because they aren't just ahead of their time, they are a whole generation ahead of our species. Thank you to the Mother team!

7. There are many other things I could say, but I feel like the most important thing these pieces of content have taught me, I find it every single one, is those daunting situations you have. No matter who you are in this world, there is always going to be a much harder life out there that you are fortunate enough not to have. I am thankful to live in America and not financially suffer like Spamton, I am thankful to have a loving family and not have lost them like Lucas, I am thankful to not have a galactic space authority that's out to kill me like Steven and the diamonds in his funky universe, I am thankful to not be aware of the truth of the spacetime continuum like Sans' poor, tortured soul, I am thankful to not be misjudged for my innocent past like Darkstalker in Wings of Fire; I am thankful to have such an easy life compared to others, and I hope you can find a reason to be content with your living conditions too someday if not already.

One more heads-up, even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I'm going to go around and ask the people I follow what they are thankful for because it's always good to recognize the things we might not have in other timelines.

[pamiedrawnic-acid]

Re:Zero Review

Borrowed photo

Ola! It's been a while since I made a review and I think this is the 4th time that I'll be reviewing an anime. Oh well, me reviewing something means this show is really amazing cause I got a lot of beautiful things to say about it. Yes, I only want to review things I've found beautiful because it's really not in my nature to rant about something since it's really tiring and I hate negative thoughts! 😆

Well, let's get down to the business, first things first, what's with Re:zero?

Re:zero or starting life in another world is what exactly the title tells us about. It's a story of a typical shut in guy who suddenly got into another world, with this story a game-like world, set in a medieval era, where magics were not a very unusual thing and where humans and humanoids live together. Fortunately, our protagonist, Subaru, was very fond of playing games so he had already an idea on how to start or how to literally "play the game." Such a generic story isn't it? It's supposed to be but it's actually not.

Normally, in such stories, the protagonist is supposed to have an unknown ability that will only be released when the situation calls for it. Most of the time it would later on revealed that the protagonist in an important part of the world, either a part of the royal blood, a saviour, a god etc. Also in some stories, there would even have a character who would appear in front of the protagonist and explain whatever is happening. Likewise with how Subaru expected it, I was also expecting for the same thing. However, what happened was really unexpected.

[SPOILERS ALERT] He died but then he was reset to his last save point; literally like a game. The difference was, he would not know where or when was his save point unless he would die and be reset. Also, this ability of him do not allow him to have any choice. Once he died, he would automatically go back and complete his mission, which he still needed to figure out. The only rule is that, he would die over and over unless he could solve the mystery or found the "happy ending." Thus, "quitting" was not an option.

At first I thought that it was such a very convenient ability. At least you'll have another chance, not just once but as many as you want until you find the happy ending. But as I moved to each episodes and as the story goes deeper I've realized that NO it's not very convenient.

Subaru can reset from death thus, if there was something not good happening with his life, with his friends or even with the kingdom, which would result to their deaths, then he was the only one who could change it. Imagine the pressure and the burden that he was carrying?!

Subaru did not have any choice but to go over and over into an ugly situation not until he could find the solution

Have you tried solving a math problem that needed you to go over from the scratch because you know somehere in between you made a mistake but can't find it so you have to do it again? Or a science experiment that ended in a bad result so you need to go back to procedure 1? A project, a drawing, or anything~ anything that you were doing but did not go well so you have no other choice but to do it again, over and over, not to mention that your only option was to finish it. Frustrating isn't it? Imagine how frustrated, irritated, desperate and tired Subaru was? Not to mention all the time he needed to go back just to witness the death/s of the people around him.

Lastly, [SPOILERS ALERT] Subaru's ability was actually a cursed from some witch, which he couldn't tell to anyone because everytime he tried to, the witch would squeezed his heart to the point that he could almost die. Out of desperation, he actually tried to tell it to someone but that someone died. Imagine how difficult it was for Subaru to face everything alone? No one could understand him not because he didn't want them to but because he COULDN'T. (cursed that witch I definitely wanted to tear her apart! 👹)

I've read a lot of comments from somewhere on how people disliked Subaru because he was a helpless, hopeless, useless boy. Because he did not have any special power or because he was weak. Well, after all he had been through, is he still useless?

Yes, he showed us the time when he almost quit even resorting into running away because he had failed so many times and thought that there was no other choice but to leave. He showed us his frustrations, desperations, helplesness and weaknesses, that he actually admitted and you hated. Well, on the other side of the note, I commend the writer for doing a great job because I believed that, that really what he wanted you to feel. Congratulations! You've been his victim! 🙊 Going back, Subaru really became a hateful character those times but if you are going to watch the anime and try to put your feet into Subaru's you will understand me or perhaps him.

He was disheartened for who knows how many times. He was fighting all by himself. Despite of having his friends and allies who supported him with his actions and especially to those who gave him courage and moral supports, no one really knows what he was going through. He was all ALONE. But still at the end of the day he would always proved to us how strong he was; mentally and emotionally, and that, stories only ends once you've reached the happy ending so life's goes on until you became happy! Quitting was never an option!

The only downside I've seen with him is that [MAJOR SPOILER] when he did not choose Rem despite of all the things she had done for him and even asked her to help her save Emilia, the woman he trully love. He was such a cruel man, a fact that actually Rem accepted and even told him outloud which he actually agreed with. However, despite of that, I still believed that he only showed how faithful he was to the woman he love. For me he was a man of word who knows how to fulfill his promises.

I'm sorry for defending Subaru so much but I really like how his character was made in this story. Everything, including his downsides, just fell rightly into the plot and that was something you wouldn't find mostly in the animes now a days. Another thing is that, I really liked how he could accept his own flaws but would still do something to compensate with it and not to be a burden to all the powerful people around him. He was the weakest but he was also the embodiment of willpower and unending hope which made him the strongest!

Story wise, as I've said, it was a very typical but was also different at the same time. It actually gave me the feeling that it was something that I've seen before but actually I haven't. I think it's because of how the story was narrated by using the main character. The writer was actually succesful in making me experience what the main character is going through, as if I am Subaru himself. Both of us learned things about the realm at the same time. Both of us believed that some things will happen, like on a typical story, but then will hit us the least that we have expected, as if both Subaru and I were played by fate. For example is what I have said from above, when Subaru first arrived on the kingdom and he thought that since he was summoned in a different world he would definitely have a super power, which made me believed also, but he actually never had. He also remained as an outsider, someone who do not hold so much of a power, a weak human with no special fighting ability except for his naturally strong body and an incredible amount of willpower. He was not revealed as a saviour but he made himself as the saviour of the kingdom. In the end, his journey to the other world actually made him a better man; wiser and stronger mentally and emotionally.

Overall, this story was very unique on its own way. Every seconds of each 25 episodes was worth watching as you wouldn't want to missed any sudden heart attack moments and important information that will be necessary for the future. It was actually a dark story that gets a little bit of depressing but would lighten up in the end. It's a complete pack of action, drama, suspense, mystery, romance and comedy with a bonus of life lessons and words of encouragement. YOU DON'T QUIT, YOU ONLY CHANGE YOUR PLAN and STORIES ALWAYS ENDS WITH HAPPY ENDING; It's not yet the end if it's not happy.

I can actually give this series a 10/10 score if not because of the hanging questions they left after the last episode. I hope this would be answered on the next season (if there will be!). I've heard that there will be an OVA but I don't think it will be enough to tackle everything and give the story a solid conclusion. This is the kind of anime that worth having more season! Anyway whether they'll decide to give it a season 2 or not I will still recognize this anime as one of the best I've watch for being unique and unpredictable as well as for having a well constructed story and characters.

Rating: 9/10 - highly recommended