#I mean yeah narratively there’s plenty to hint towards that possibility before we find out

[quibbs126]

You know it really is wild how this slutty bisexual purple guy that the main bad guy has a crush on is somehow the main character’s dad

You know what, more series should do that actually. As in, have the parent of the main hero also be the villain’s love interest. Whether by it being revealed later down that the person the villain is smooching is the protagonist’s parent, or the villain just thinks the hero’s parent is hot and wants to date them. Either/or. There’d be a lot more villain stepparents that way I think

[bladekindeyewear]

Bloggin’ bout HS^2 Commentary from start to Mid-Jan-2020

Sigh.  Time to pay the piper.  Someone’s gotta extract whatever plot-important and plothole mentions get mentioned in this commentary, even though reading behind-the-scenes stuff about Homestuck makes me even more nervous than reading frontend stuff ever could so I don’t really want to.  FYI, that’s what you’re going to get out of my posts on these -- anything regarding plot stuff and plotholes, things we would’ve misinterpreted or missed otherwise, not any of the other paid content such as sketches or full quotes from them about things.

TWENTY FUCKING DOLLARS A MONTH!???!??  Is Andrew even seeing any of this cash?  --no, not much of it I guess, he would want to make sure the WP folks get paid enough after the--

Yeah I’m not gonna even think about that.

Fuck it.  I’m ponying up.

Alright, first commentary post on the Patreon, commentary and bonus sketches for Ghostflusters... whoa, this is long and extensive.  Is it going panel by panel??

I guess I’ll give you a small quote just for a taste of how this starts...

Page 33:  Not sure what any of this shit means. It’s pretty deep though. We were going for an echo of the beginning of the epilogue when John is dreaming in anime. Except here it’s Jake, and nobody is dreaming, at least not yet. Also an anime dream wouldn’t be a nightmare for Jake, since Jake likes anime. Or he used to. Now anime probably just reminds him of Dirk.

Good thing we’re never gonna hear from that guy ever again.

...because this commentary is sort of stylized.  They’re kind of riffing on what they’re doing, and I get that -- when you have to write commentary you’re asking people to PAY for you can easily feel like you have to be entertaining.  But they are describing the rationale for the shot choices they made and such.  They’re also going for a sort of Andrew-recap sort of attitude, and I don’t blame them for that choice, either.

[Candy] Jade is...well, you’ll see.

GOD DAMNIT.  Don’t remind me that Dave vanished on her forever while they were doing pro-revolutionary work and she’s probably going to be in a bit of a state!  Stupid knowing author future allusions...

Then again, that’s exactly why I’m here blogging about the commentary for you guys -- for me to relay Authorial Intent on Stuff That Happened That Seemed Plotholey and Hints About What’s Going To Be Relevant.

I just, uh... didn’t expect there to be that MUCH of it.  And that casual phrasing for that Candy Jade Is Going To Be Seen And Or Relevant hint is... kinda indicating to me that there’s gonna be a LOT more of that here than I wanted.  :|

Continuing... there’s talk of why they started with Jake here, being unused to writing for middle-aged characters in Homestuck terms, et cetera, but again, I’m only here to relay anything with plot impact or SERIOUS perspective on how we should / the authors are viewing this.  The rest stays behind the paywall for whichever of you all think it’s worth $20, I don’t really have a choice.  At least now I know why there was no one to tell me what details were actually BEHIND the paywall.  Seriously, that’s steep.

Speaking of how stylized the commentary is here, I can get why some might read it and view the authors as slightly callous -- I’m giving them PLENTY of benefit of the doubt, though.  Andrew was FAR from callous and he hurt us worse out of love of artistic intent with the Epilogues than the HS^2 folks could EVER hurt us.  Real Dirk-like, actually.  Dirk is practically half of a self-insert, as we well know.  No wonder Andrew thought the right thing to do was to take his hands off the story, what with Dirk’s villainous action being putting his own hands ON the story.

We like to make fun of Jake English as much as the next guy, but he probably is actually pretty good at “doing things” if the need arises. 

Mhmm; there are some jibes at how screwed up Jake has made his life, but I don’t believe these authors actually disrespect Jake at all.  He was dealt a bad hand by the story leading up to this point (quite INTENTIONALLY by Dirk’s narrative control in the Epilogues, too) and HS^2 and its bonuses so far have been exploring the heap of merits and potential he’s still got in him.

It’s kind of sweet how he wants to clean out his ecto-son’s house, even if most of that is to prevent the slow creep of mounting existential dread and narrative relevance. 

Huh.  So they think Jake can sort of feel that narrative relevance is seeping in around him, to him?  That’s not out of the question at all.

Continuing... they’re going on a bit about the same sort of things I mentioned about their choices in detail or detail-less-ness when depicting people in this new format, considering ages and the paired text descriptions and such.  That’s the sort of thing you’d traditionally want to pony up for commentary for, so rest assured that all that IS in their commentary posts if you want to do that.  I’m kind of extracting the plot stuff out of the paywall just on principle.

A lot of making this comic--and every other comic ever--is trying to convey as much information with as little space as possible.

Quite so.

From this conversation we find out a couple things. 1) that Brain Ghost Dirk knows about Ultimate Dirk, and he thinks he’s a dickhead. 2) Brain Ghost Dirk knows who Jeff Bezos is, and Jake doesn’t. This could be a sign of a couple things, all of which are probably stupid. 

This is ALSO what I came here for:  Legitimate “don’t worry about it” handwaves about stuff that shouldn’t matter to us.  I never ascribed the slightest bit of relevance or inference to BGDirk making a Jeff Bezos reference, and I’m glad I was completely justified in ignoring it.  So far I agree with this probably-plural-but-acting-like-a-singular author’s train of thought.

Come to think of it, it’s maybe strange that in this Cool Future Earth where all of our characters are rich as hell, none of them have bothered to have any sort of corrective eye surgery. Jane, Jake, John, and Jade all still wear glasses. I guess they do have “signature looks” to maintain in regards to their brand. 

I had to include this, I was legitimately curious.  Understood it was probably an artistic decision to stay on-brand a fair bit -- and losing glasses even temporarily has a lot of thematic significance whenever it happens in Homestuck Proper -- but it’s nice to have some confirmation that this was the understandable rationale behind the choice.

Here we find out what Dirk thinks about Jake’s behavior of the last few years. In other words, we find out what Jake thinks about Jake’s behavior over the last few years. [...]

[Brain Ghost] Dirk is manipulating Jake here, but he isn’t actually saying anything demonstrably untrue. 

Again, most of this was obvious at the time, but it’s nice to have authorial confirmation on what was being brought across as per the strange divide between Brain Ghost Dirk’s independent will and his mostly-part-of-Jake status.

Seriously though, shoutout to the conceit that god tiers can just fly endlessly, with no visible effort. It’s a really excellent form of narrative shortcut that fits perfectly into the bonkers vibe of earth c as a whole. Oh there goes one of the Creators, just flying over the Wal-Mart like an asshole. 

You know... who IS doing the commentary here?  One of the authors, all of them?  One of the artists??  This really is a COLLABORATIVE effort between the authors and artists involved here, I think, and it shows in their clear surprise and appreciation for each others’ work that only settles into a full understanding instead of just knowing what one intended off the bat.

It calls into question exactly how much of the Condesce’s mind control was actually mind control at all, and how much was just a lowering of inhibitions. 

Right, right.

We see Jane greeting Jake here with open arms, which makes you wonder exactly what is going on here. If you’ll remember from Candy, Jane has already served Jake divorce papers. A mystery in need of solving, for sure. 

HERE we go!  This is the potential plothole we were concerned about that got me alerted that the commentary had something to add in the first place.  John mentioned toward the trail-end of the Candy epilogues that divorce papers had shown up for Jake.  (And we also saw an HS^2 update ago or so that Jane hadn’t actually KNOWN Tavros was “awol” at all until he was literally a part of this whole clowncorpse logistics business.)  So in light of what this post continues to say:

It could be that Jane has put aside the nasty business of their divorce in order to have a strong chest to cry on. Can’t really say I blame her. Jake English has many flaws but he does seem like a good person to drape yourself across and really let loose on. And without Gamzee there, Jane needs another punching bag. 

...it all finally fits as pretty logically consistent, although the author is being deliberately coy in a way that leaves it open for more to be revealed later about exactly how this is happening.  Good!  No obvious plotholes in HS^2 (yet).  That’s an honest relief.  The more often they have something in mind where I’d previously worried they’d screwed up, the more often I can give them credit and speculate properly on those gaps in story-logic expecting something there, like we so often got to with Andrew before the retconsplit made even THAT kinda fucky.

If you’ve ever had a friend or family member go evil, you’ll know that one of the hardest parts is there’s always still elements of them that you like.

I can definitely say that from nearly personal experience.

Also, at this point in the story there is no lingering doubt that Jake and Dirk have had a sexual relationship. There’s a familiarity there that wasn’t around when they were teens. 

I assumed so, but I guess I never thought ABOUT how I assumed so.  Huh.

Do any of the creators have a moral leg to stand on if all they’re doing is curling up into a ball and hoping the world gets better without them? Actually, does anyone have a moral leg to stand on if they do that? 

Almost Riddley, there.

These posts are certainly interesting!  Steeply priced for what they are, but interesting.  Moving on to the second of four so far... this one’s about Catnapped Part 1.

Taking over Earth C's business world certainly would have required rubbing shoulders with the already-powerful on the planet.

--yep, which I never doubted even when brought up in the Epilogues is a large part of her supply-side government views.

Ah, looks like the bonus commentary is a good deal shorter!  But that bonus section was a good deal shorter than the story section covered earlier too, so.

On to the next one, for Clown Logistics.

Page 58: If you love Vriskas, i hope you enjoy more Vriska content. If you hate Vriskas, well. Here is another one that is kind of different. Feel free to contemplate nature vs nurture and how best to apply this dichotomy toward emoting about the vriskas of your choice how you see fit.

I’m starting to really enjoy this author commentary.

Tavros being named Tavros sure was a decision. Go back and reread the commentary for panel 58 but stop before the nature/nurture thing, since they are not clones, or even the same species. They just have the same name, which, in this universe, means you at least type kind of the same.

Hmhmm.

Page 65:  Sometimes you try and come up with something to say about a page, and you cannot, and so you wait 8 hours, and go see Knives Out, and then you have 2 white russians, and then you still can’t come up with anything to say, but oh well! Commentary needs writing. Tavros is experiencing an emotion here.

Now THAT’s a mood.  I gotta go see Knives Out sometime soon.

...Alright, I can see why some people think MAAAAYBE this author might be being a little disrespectful to the audience, but if they’re going based on THIS, I don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.  This comment could have come from Andrew’s fingertips any day of the week!!!  I honestly wouldn’t WANT replacement authors who couldn’ comment like this in there for a page in paid commentary, especially in a lighter section of the story that doesn't need too much said about it.

And I paid $20 for this shit.

...Continuing, I’m loving all this commentary on Harry Anderson.  Representative excerpt:

Again, direct your eyes toward the boy. What a fucking asshole. 

...these commentaries are honestly improving my mood!  I didn’t expect that, really.

Ah, I didn’t even notice that the flying cars appear to be self-driving.  I think maybe the back of my mind MIGHT have noticed but only a bit.

Referring to the corpse-carry crew:

Page 82: Pokedex entry for Magneton in Pokemon Sun: When three Magnemite link together, their brains also become one. They do not become three times more intelligent.

Ain’t THAT a mood.

(...I just had an internal “Wait, am I using that right, it being a “mood”?  Isn’t that the hip new term, how do I have any right to latch onto that however much I feel it?  Ohhh gosh I’m so fucking old” moment.)

It’s clear from the commentator’s complaints that the crew never viewed this commentary ALONE as worth upping the pledge to $20, but that’s... not quite a bad thing?  I think it’d have been more disrespectful to think that they COULD make the commentary worth that.  I doubt there’s a single person on their team who feels quite right about the business model (besides the artists they have plenty of context to know how deserving they are of a living goddamn wage), but it’s what they have to live with and go with, here.  I feel weird for honestly understanding ‘em, and more than slightly pitying for how many people will look at all this and read “these assholes don’t care about us”.  I really can’t think that’s anywhere CLOSE to true from this without more context.  (And I really DON’T want more context, don’t send me any.  I’ve got to read HS^2 and I’m enjoying reading it so far so let me keep enjoying it please.  Background drama details make me nauseous, DON’T give me any if there is any (which I wouldn’t know about in the first place beyond an opinionated friend or two dropping hints in a bad mood).)

Did you know there are people who I’ve seen honestly believing “Undertale is pretty good but the creator is an arrogant asshole”?????

Because they saw his tweet about the game score passing Kojima’s MGSV on metacritic briefly and misinterpreted his wide-eyed disbelief, disbelief honed to nervous laughter to maintain sanity by Toby’s insecurity about his unprofessional work and work product???  They thought he was SERIOUS without any of the context of the usual insincere little dog persona they should’ve read into the game of his they played??

Awh man.  That just ticks me off.

Anyway where were we.

Page 91: This is a flashback so I didn’t write this one, which means I thankfully don’t have to say anything about it. 

Wait.  What?

Are they trading off writers between chapters, or...?  Hm.

Whatever they’re doing, it fits together pretty darn well SO far.

Alright, that finishes that off, time for the last commentary post on the second bonus update.

I don't know if you noticed, but everything is terrible right now. And I don't mean just in Homestuck's dumb fake earth. I mean in our dumb real earth.

Now that’s a mood.

I've been playing a lot of Death Stranding recently. Basically any media that you're making in 2019 has to either address what's going on around us or come off sanitized, sterilized, with its head in the sand. Kojima offers a simple power fantasy: Through Norman Reedus's sweaty, urine-filled labor, the things that divide us can be banished. America can be unified again.

Now THAT is a god damned MOOD.

The author(?) goes in about why this is happening, why Jane is being confronted this way, why she IS this way, et cetera.

Privilege, safety, and inherited wealth do funny things to the brain. People justify to themselves why they have what they have. If you have enough for long enough, you start to convince yourself you deserve it.

That’s one of the biggest goddamn reasons for the inequality and political landscape we have today IRL, yeah.

She saw a new world and chose, simply, to replicate the power structures of the 21st-century America she was raised in. Boardrooms, power pantsuits, formality and professionalism.

Jane's favorite comic, a noir-detective drama steeped in the pop-cultural trappings of pulp Americana, reflects this mindset.

So, our catgirl Seer of Light takes us through the looking glass, and we get to see an old friend.

Hm!

Nothing really to say, I just had to share this fitting context the author is giving.  How things fit together even better than they seemed to, and this was all far from random.

I feel warmly ensconced in the womb of nostalgia, gently cradled on Norman Reedus's chest.

Pffffffff

Yep, more of what we already surmised and appreciated, how Swifer and Cliper were giving us some much needed perspective... the commentary post even has little traditional-Homestuck sprites for ‘em.

And... that’s it for the commentary so far!  Again, I enjoyed all that more than I expected.  $20 doesn’t sting for me as much as it does for others in general, but it stung a lot less after I was through reading all that honestly somewhat-entertaining stuff confirming a lot of the insights I’d thought the plot was having.

I’ll probably wait to check for further commentary posts until like... after bonus updates come out, in the future, and then just blog about whatever I’m not caught up on.  Sound fair?  I’m going to blog as often as a real or bonus upd8 comes out, but I’m not going to pop in more often than that for my own sanity’s sake.  Have a good MLK weekend, y’all.  :)

[creative-type]

Character-Driven Backstory

 Flashbacks can be tricky. Done poorly, a flashback can kill a story’s momentum, and without proper narrative weight it can leave the reader wondering what was the point of including it in the first place.

I’ve always thought that Robin’s place within the story of One Piece is unique in that her role within the Straw Hat Pirates is paradoxically vital and completely irrelevant at the same time. Pirates don’t need archaeologists in their crews like they need cooks, doctors, and navigators, but to tell the overarching story of One Piece a character like Robin is vital to conveying information to the audience (and more importantly, giving them a reason to care). 

Because of Robin’s unique place within the narrative, her backstory is almost automatically the most important to the plot as a whole. To this day there are theories about the nature of the One Piece Universe that are firmly rooted in the tantalizing hints provided between chapters 391 and 398. It’s macro-level storytelling done well, the bread crumbs that have readers spend who knows how many hours theorizing and arguing about a planetarium.

But what I want to talk about today is the importance of the Oharan flashback to Robin herself, how Oda sets up parallels between past and present to emphasize the difference between the two, resulting in one of the most powerful scenes in the entire series. 

But first, a picture of babu Robin, because focusing the adorable is the only way I’m gonna get through this without crying

Before we can care about a character’s past we have to care about them in the present. I’ve already written about how important Skypiea is to Robin’s character arc, but to summarize Robin goes from the point of losing her only reason for living/being suicidal to finding people who treat her with respect and one of their own. She doesn’t fully integrate herself into the Straw Hat Pirates, but remains on the outside looking in, her past trauma preventing her from accepting what they have to offer. Still, there’s no doubting that Robin enjoys the Straw Hats and is willing to risk their lives for them. 

Then everything when Aokiji attacked

 Aokiji’s appearance literally knocks Robin on her ass. The introduction of the admirals really expands the world of One Piece, and is a nice reminder after the successes against Enel and Foxy that there are plenty of threats that are out of the Straw Hat’s weight class. 

Luffy isn’t too chuffed about his loss to Aokiji, but Robin and - less important for the purposes of this essay - Usopp are. I’m not going to cover the construction of Water 7′s plot much, although it is fantastic. The thing that I think is often overlooked and what is important for Robin’s development is the fact that she actually betrayed the Straw Hat Pirates. 

“But she was trying to save them!” some might argue, but let’s not forget that the Straw Hats didn’t know that. At least not at first. Zoro says so, and if Zoro says it it must be true

So consider from Robin’s perspective: She, believing herself to be the outsider amongst the Straw Hat Pirates, nevertheless grows attached to them. Aokiji’s attack spooks her into seriously reconsidering her life choices, so much so that when CP9 shows up she immediately agrees to shoot someone she’s never met before in exchange for her new-found friend’s lives. She doesn’t tell them why, doesn’t explain herself, only telling Sanji and Chopper that she’s “a woman of darkness”.

Remember when I said that physical distance is often an indication of emotional separation? Yeah, that’s still the case.  

In response, the Straw Hats give Robin the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think this is something she could possibly expect. I mean, the last time she double-crossed someone she ended up with a hook to the chest. During the above scene Sanji and Chopper both tell Robin that they don’t believe the rumors that she targeted Iceburg. This display of the Straw Hat’s true character should have been enough for Robin to trust them, but no. Not only does she confirm that she was one of the assassins, she freaking does it again! 

If CP9 had succeeded in the second attempt on Iceburg’s life the Straw Hats would have unjustly been identified as the culprit. Robin believes that they’re strong enough to survive the backlash (and it’s preferable to a Buster Call) but the fact remains Robin betrayed the Straw Hats not once, but twice.

I really like this sequence of panels. I had to cherry pick them over the course of a couple of chapters, but when spliced together they tell us Robin’s mindset at this stage of the game without any dialogue. Robin’s reflection segues neatly into her reflection of the past (I see what you did there, Oda) and also shows some of the duality that defines Robin at this point of the story. 

She’s resigned herself to a terrible death, but thinks that she’s saved the only people who have shown her any kindness in twenty years. Robin is smiling, but the fact that she’s also covering her eyes can be read that she is blinding herself to the truth of the situation. Because, honestly, did a world-wise criminal who’s spent two decades seeing the ugliness of life really expect the World Government to let Luffy and co. escape knowing the identity of CP9?

Yeah, she did. And that’s part of the tragedy. 

A lot of pain and suffering would never have happened if Robin had just trusted the Straw Hat Pirates from the start. She gets called out about this time and time again, from Iceburg, Franky, and Usopp (side note, I love how Oda connects Franky’s backstory with Robin’s. That’s how you intertwine themes). 

In addition to giving us Major Plot Developments, Robin’s backstory tells us why she’s so - for lack of a better term - stuck as a character. If you don’t know Robin’s story it can get really frustrating seeing her reject help again and again and again. I know, because I went to archived chapter discussions on One Piece forums for when these chapters first came out, and some of the attitudes towards Robin were...unflattering, to say the least.

To put it another way, Robin’s backstory gives us context for all her actions, both past and going forward. It does so in a couple of different ways, but the one in particular sticks out.

Parallelism-Linking Past and Present

The cyclical nature of history is something that pops up in One Piece quite often, but Oda usually puts in one or two key differences that keeping things from repeating exactly the same way twice. 

In her life Robin experiences two Buster Calls. One ends with the loss of her homeland, her teachers, and her mother. The other ends with the marines suffering complete and utter defeat. The names change, but the circumstances remain the same. Here are some examples.

Spandam

Spandam is the face of the World Government for the Enies Lobby arc. He’s the personification the its self-serving nature, all of the worst qualities of the government seen so far mixed together into a despicable human shitbag. His father is his obvious counterpart for the flashback, a connection that Spandam himself points out

It’s uncomfortable to read the abuse Spandam doles out to Robin over the course of the arc when she’s unable to fight back, but when you get right down to it, is that any different than what Spandine did when he had an 79 million berri bounty put on an eight year old girl?

The difference here is that Spandam is more fanatical and, based on our limited knowledge of Spandine, the bigger narcissist. Seriously, had Spandam spent less time picking at Robin’s wounds until they bled he would have had more than enough time get her through the Gates of Justice. Spandam is clumsy, both in body and how he manages his resources, but I wouldn’t tell him that unless I wanted to spend the rest of my life in Impel Down.

Saul

Saul is the Luffy of Robin’s flashback. Both share the D initial (and have no idea what it means). Both are less concerned with justice than saving their friend. Both teach Robin how to laugh, and in fact have very similar laughs (’shishishi’ vs dreshishishi’).

 Saul is Robin’s first, and for twenty years only, friend. But when faced with the overwhelming strength of the World Government Saul loses. As much as he wants to, he’s not able to protect Robin when she needs it most. If not for Sakazuki’s rash decision to destroy the evacuation ship Kuzan probably would have killed Robin, and there was nothing Saul could have done to stop him. 

As another side note, I want to call attention to this panel

Aokiji is speaking to Saul here while surveying the damage Saul has wrought trying to save Robin. By my count there are seven ships here, and the implication of what Aokiji is saying seems to be that he believes Saul would have participated in the Buster Call were he a marine.

The interesting bit happens on the next page when Sakazuki destroys the evacuation ship, bringing the total of destroyed ships to eight. Now what did that fodder marine say during the Alabasta arc?

The saying is true. Oda never forgets.

Professor Clover and the Archaeologists

Moving back to the topic at hand, the Oharan archaeologists are the only ones besides Saul who accept Robin unconditionally during her childhood years. They parallel the Straw Hat Pirates as a whole

The archaeologists protect Robin and give her sanctuary, but they do so imperfectly. Robin’s treatment from the citizens at large mirror on a much smaller scale the hardship she endures as an adult. Other children bully Robin, sometimes to the point of violence while their parents think that she is a monster. Her own aunt and uncle - the people entrusted to protect and raise her - give her the Cinderella treatment, forcing her to do a great many unpleasant and difficult chores, hit her for trying on her cousin’s clothes, and other disgusting things like berate her for eating too much food because she’s a freeloader.  

We’re not told how old Robin is when she goes to the Tree of Knowledge for the first time, but she’s pretty damn little and is clearly terrified that Professor Clover might be angry at her for looking at a book in a library

But while the archaeologists allow her to study history, they forbid Robin from following her dream of finding out the truth of the Void Century. Their reasoning is justified, but it’s the exact opposite of Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates. 

Olvia

If the archaeologists can be compared to the Straw Hats, then it stands to reason that Oliva is a stand in for Robin herself. They look virtually identical, both share the same dream, and are literally related. They share everything from birthdays to voice actresses, with one key difference: Robin is willing to abandon her dream for the sake of those she loves.

I’ll let the manga do the comparison for me. Here’s Olvia’s choice

versus Robin’s

Would Olvia lived had she tried to flee with Robin? There’s no way of knowing. Would Robin have had an easier time of surviving for twenty years with another adult with her best interests at heart watching over her? Yeah, probably. 

Now his isn’t the only time Oda has his characters make a “dream or crew” decision. Zoro’s sacrifice on Thriller Bark and Sanji’s decision to get married are more memorable, but they were hardly the first. 

Olvia’s decision to save instead of her daughter still baffles me, and is one of the few things about Robin’s flashback that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t think Oda was wrong for writing Olvia this way, but she’s certainly not going to win Mom of the Year anytime soon. She does, however, give Robin one very important command, and that is to live.

Does this panel look familiar? It should.

It’s only when we’re given proper context that Oda removes any ambiguity and has Robin say for herself why she wants to die. It’s not what has happened that frightens her, but the potential of what might happen. This isn’t Robin’s first song and dance, she has seen this all happen before, and can’t stand the pain of losing everyone she loves for a second time. Moreover, because of being forced to spend twenty years with less than stellar characters, she’s utterly convinced that even if the Straw Hats survive the wrath of the World Government they will come to hate her, because that’s what everyone else has done for the past twenty years. We see the exact moment when Robin stops believing in Saul’s laugh, and while we don’t know how old she is, I’d hazard it can’t be much more than ten.

The Result

The famous “I want to live” scene the first time we see Robin cry, flashback notwithstanding, since the end of the Alabasta arc, and the circumstances couldn’t be more different. Her character has arched. Robin finally allows herself to be emotionally vulnerable, risking enormous mental anguish if she happens to be wrong and the Straw Hats come to see her as a burden. 

Because while there are many parallels to the past, Oda uses them to highlight the differences of the present. The scene starts with a literal chasm between the Robin and the Straw Hats

and it ends with the gap between them bridged, and that bridge is Luffy (also literally with a little help from Rocket Man, lol). By unflinchingly declaring war on the World Government and winning Luffy does something no one else could have done.

By constructing Robin’s backstory the way he did, Oda not only justifies Robin’s previous inability to trust the Straw Hats and exposes the true root of her hopelessness. He weaves the core message from Franky’s backstory, that simply existing cannot be a crime, into Robin’s themes of acceptance, trust, and friendship. In doing so he bolsters the greater message of One Piece as a whole. 

These are hardly unique tropes within shonen manga, or any other medium for that matter, but when done well the end result can be incredibly powerful. I’ve been reading One Piece for more than ten years now, and Robin’s backstory and the immediate aftermath still affect me in a way that’s difficult to put into words.  

Damn it, I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about it. Here’s more of Robin being cute to counter all the angst. 

(thanks all for reading. I think I’ve said about all I want to say about Robin’s character arc. I might do a post on Chopper next, but I’m also open to suggestions)

[inappropriatefangirlneeds]

Custom Tailored Gotham Revamp Season 3: LESLIE THOMPKINS

I am still partly confused about everything that was going on with Leslie Thompkins that lead her to take the Virus but that´s not what this is going to be about. 

How I would have preferred things:  1. Ditch the Virus! Ditch Evil!Lee & make her part of the (questionable) Crime Fighting Squad!  Lee´s character seemed to have been and is still always circling around Jim Gordon, even when it´s about her marrying another love. I´m just gonna accept that for a second and not remove her from that narrative completely. But I´ll snatch the Virus out of her hands. Ha!  You know, I´m as much a sucker for parallels as everyone else and they have had some quite nice ones to Barbara Kean in that episode:  (Lee repeatedly calling Jim and try to talk him into giving in to the Virus and her mirrors when Barbara called Jim out of Arkham / Lee leaving Jim and only leaving a message behind mirrors the message Barbara left behind before the whole Ogre mess happened .. Which makes it a shame that Lee searching confrontation with Barbara in that episode never lead to anything, was she there for revenge, because of rivalry? Why was she so inconsistent about it, killing some time could be more pleasant, why even bother to go there when she does not care so enough about it that she´d follow this murder plan later, but yeah I guess we just can´t have Lee murdering someone, that´s Jim´s business, with him that´s fine in the end..)   Buuuuuut do we really need another “Girlfriend gone bad” ? Do we? I mean someone might but I don´t.  Do we need a Virus!Lee in general? Look, I do love the eyeliner but I have confidence that she would manage to apply that without virus as well.  I´ll again skip the question of if this makes sense for her character and just focus on the impact to the whole story. At the end Lee´s message just backs up JIM GORDON and what he has been doing all the time. Her accusations seem forgotten. Lee´s message is reassuring Jim in his identity and mission. “I don’t know if Gotham deserves saving, but I do know one thing. If anyone can save it it’s you.  And in return, I believe it can save you as well. And then maybe one day, it will send you back to me. Until then, love always Lee.” Moreover she is not only telling Jim that he has been right all along she is also binding him to the city and his mission. When she left Gotham the last time it sent Jim Gordon into a crisis whether to stay in Gotham and investigate the Wayne Murder, “do good” for the city in general or if he should look for Lee and try to find some personal happiness. This is different now. Jim staying in Gotham still comes with the possibility for love later, this crisis has been taken from him.  Could we have that impact in any another way?  Yes we could!  I get that Lee was in an highly emotional place and an extreme reaction like taking the Virus might seem appropriate but what I saw was an intelligent woman trying to make sense of her situation.  > Her repeatedly going to Arkham and looking for answers is a thoughtful kind of behavior that I though would not lead to such an extreme reaction.  Lee´s doubts about Jim are in plenty of ways justified but they could have been lessened by everything she learned in her research. Barnes showed her that there was little hope for Mario (granted it also showed her that Barnes had the same condition and survived the encounter with Jim). The knife Mario had was shown to be lost in the water but there might have been other ways to investigate and backup Jim´s version of what happened.  > This is a bit of a personal pet peeve but I do think that her visiting Jervis should have lead to another result. Hearing him claim that she is to blame for his actions is something she should have called bullshit on. Jervis infected Mario there is no one else to blame than Jervis. Instead she could maybe notice and reflect on how she was unconsciously blaming herself all along and how she might have loaded that unto Jim and thus dealing with that whole issue. > Apart from that emotional baggage another issue was how everyone behaved towards Lee which just feed her doubts about Jim. Her having undeniable evidence about a possible crime connected to Frank Gordon´s death and everyone just swiping that under the rug is highly suspicious and questionable also maddening dismissive less towards her.  But that´s the point where things change! 

The BoyScoutClub let´s her in!  It´s only logic to do so. Lee had declared that she would investigate which could mean plenty of trouble. Instead of shoving her aside Jim and Harvey avoid that issue with telling her the secret!  [ Okay, Okaay but Jim does not want to put her in danger, right, telling her about the Court would endanger her and it would somewhat proof her accusations against Jim right wouldn´t it?  Yeah okay I could see why Jim would not want to involve her but he also endangered Lucius Fox without hesitating and it would not necessarily have to be Jim who tells her the secret. And after all it´s as much dangerous to let someone run into battle without them knowing what they deal with, also they could and should have had as much trust in Leslie to be able to deal with the situation as they have had with Lucius. Have some respect guys!]  3x18 would have had the perfect moment. When after finding Strange´s laboratory Harvey Bullock ordered Lucius Fox do do research on the Virus and find someone to trust. “Get Lucius the virus compound and the research. See if he can find anyone we can trust to start working on the cure”. That´s not only the moment I thought this was a hint they´ll get Lee involved but also the moment they should have gone to Lee!  Lee could have been a great help on the matter and she could have gotten more insight in what Jim has to deal with! This could further her process of changing her opinion about Jim.  She sees that despite the things going wrong, the liberties Jim grants himself, he means well and he actually often does well.  >>>>> That way we could not only have the same effect of Jim getting reassured in identity & mission we also get another great, daring and clever member for the Law Squad!  (Which, to be honest is terribly lacking a woman.Still! We have had Sarah Essen but she is gone and just a few minor characters that barely were visible. Why not have Lee fill the void?)  Lee already investigated together with Jim, they weren´t a bad team. She would have the abilities to bring all the different departments that are involved in police work together. This could be pretty interesting actually, but no they have her take the virus and apply more eyeliner.

* This of course would not eradicate that certain “darkness” in her and it wouldn´t need to! We have seen her struggling with this when dealing with Jim and his Galavan issues, she knew about Odgen Barker, there was this visible knack for danger and darkness when Lee wanted to start investigating which led them to Jerome, even her behavior when held hostage by Jerome fits this, her threatening Edward Nygma because of Kristen Kringle, just her readiness to marry into the biggest mob family. There is plenty of darkness without the Virus and imho a more interesting kind! They could even add some great parallels between Jim and Leslie on the way ..  * Also I´m leaving open the question if Lee staying in Gotham and taking part in the police work and Jim´s general “saving Gotham” mission would mean they could slowly grow to be a loving couple again because I could see a yes and a no equally happening. 

// Custom Tailored Gotham Revamp 2/?//

[sammgreer]

PREY - Review

How fitting for a game about issues of identity to have borrowed the name belonging to a completely unrelated game. There's barely even a passing wink to 3D Realm's daft shooter. Ah well.

What Prey is instead is a modern successor to System Shock but with heaps of novel ideas layered atop a familiar centre. It's also not too dissimilar from Arkane's Dishonored, albeit without the stealth focus. Whilst I think I prefer Dishonored overall (I'm a big stealth fan) I think Prey has a chance at being considered the best immersive sim around. What Prey has over them all is coherence. The game is a network of related systems, all interactive, fleshing out a single location.

Talos IV in this case, a corporate owned space station orbiting the moon in an alternate reality where the Kennedy space program took off due to first contact with a strange alien species. The station is the real star of the show. It is a completely intricate location where every staff member is  accounted for and every area has a logical contribution to the station's purpose. What a treat it is to not only be set loose on an intricate, dense location but one that fits together so completely. Whilst it never manages to be outright striking like the iconic Rapture, it still looks distinct; the decor offering a stylish retro themed alternative to the usual dull, gun metal grey corridors. And the score is a refreshingly stylish affair with the twang of an electric guitar cutting through the air instead of the bassy drone that seems the default for so much science fiction.

You play as Morgan Yu (who can be male or female depending on player choice), youngest child of the family owned Transtar corporation who run the station. Along with your eldest brother you're left stranded on the station, to deal with an alien menace. Worse, you've no memory of the last few months. Neuromods, the station's latest invention, allows anyone to acquire any recorded skill in seconds but it comes with a hefty price. Removing them resets the user's memory to just before they were installed. As a result you're left to pick up the pieces. Various characters will claim to be acting in your best interests but its up to you to pay attention if you want to decipher what's really going on and who to trust. There's a pleasant Philip. K. Dick vibe to it all, this oppressive paranoia dripping over everything. Even though it dulls over the game's many hours, it makes for an intriguing start. Beyond this beginning, what occurs is largely up to you and the game will react accordingly to every action you take. No matter what you do, you can reach a conclusion. Save the other survivors, leave them or even kill them if you somehow decide that's a good idea. Chase down secrets, discover what was really going on aboard the station and in your own past. Talos IV is so open to exploration, with dozens of connecting routes through every area. It's the density of details that impressed me the most. Looking for a specific crew member? Check the ship's roster which gives a location (in real time) for every single employee. Found a locked room? Hit a touch screen with foam darts through a vent in the roof to unlock the door.

Those examples are just scratching the surface and the further into the game you go, the more systems are made available, allowing you to exert more control within the established rules of the game world. I won't spoil the later secrets because discovery is so much of what makes Prey a joy to play. Even if I tried however there's almost no way I could spoil someone's experience with the game. There are so many approaches and options you will almost certainly have a distinctly different experience from me. Importantly, the game gives you plenty of reasons to try out these options. Part of that is narrative, with a moral element likely to factor into how you choose to approach a situation, chasing a particular outcome in the story. Other times its through design, with the game's admittedly steep difficulty pushing you towards finding alternative solutions or seeking new tools.

Enemies themselves are perhaps the least interesting area of the game. The much talked about mimics are, whilst somewhat tedious to actually fight, a neat idea. Able to imitate any object within the game world, you have to pay attention at all times to avoid ambushes. The novelty does wear off of course but by the time it does, the game offers you a device to identify them more easily, one of many instances where the game stays a step ahead of itself. The game's other foes feel relatively bog standard though. Phantoms are the main type and whilst they can have various properties that require unique counters, they're largely predictable. A few late game enemy types have their own twists, forcing you well outside your comfort zone but there's a long stretch of the game before they show up. All the enemies work well and they have that rare quality of feeling distinctly alien but few of them have much personality or leave a lasting impression.

What they all do pretty well is make you use the full extent of your arsenal. The devices you amass over its many hours are composed largely of "tools" with unique functions rather than dozens of guns. The GLOO gun for instance shoots a hardening foam which can be used to encase enemies, slowing them down, block doors or can even be used to create platforms to climb on. Then there's the abilities you unlock throughout, opening up an even greater array of approaches. Which does include, yes, the ability to turn into a coffee cup. Which has more uses than you might imagine.

The point is, the more you play the more creative you can be. A challenge you found daunting in the early hours or an obstacle that seemed impassable can be returned to, conquered with what you've acquired. It's the satisfaction of being given problems you can figure out your own solutions to that makes Prey feel so special. It puts its immersive sim competition like the new Deus Ex games to shame, with a depth and level of freedom that honestly felt a little dizzying at the start. I'm so used to endless waypoints, checkpoints and hand holding that absolute freedom can be overwhelming. It's also perfectly possible to overlook important information, fail to discover a helpful item or weapon. Nothing that will stop you being able to progress but can certainly make exploration all the more difficult.

It is exciting though and remains so as you see the effects of your choices throughout the game. Being one, interwoven location rather than broken up into distinct levels like Dishonored means your actions ripple through Talos IV much more organically. Events, both story-driven and player driven, develop nicely and lead to those “oh yeah...” moments as you bump into a result some hours down the line.

The story itself isn't the game's best feature. Your conflict with your brother is handled smartly, with their relationship fleshed out in the details rather than exposition but it does fail to deliver emotional punch, a real missed opportunity. A shame cause the game's characters are all pretty well written, with distinct, believable personalities from dozens of NPCs (with an admirable number of LGBT characters, including Female-Morgan). They even come with some great little sub-quests, offering some of the game's most emotionally satisfying moments. Prey uses e-mails and audio logs like a dozen games before it but sprinkles them carefully. Not to mention most only offer hints of important details, instead of a character having a monologue about their ideologies. You have to pay attention, read between the lines and that means I engaged with the information offered instead of passively absorbing exposition. With a deft hand and constant trickle of details the story and world managed to hold my attention.

All of which sadly leads to a predictable though fairly enjoyable climax (of the two major variations of conclusion, one is much more satisfying to play through than the other) but one followed by an utterly limp, rushed ending. Nothing that spoils the rest of the game but certainly a disappointment after all the world building and care given to make your choices up to that point feel meaningful. There is an after credits sequence that offers an audacious twist to events but it doesn't do much to salvage the ending.

Nonetheless, for almost its entire run time I found Prey an absolute delight. There's much that's derivative in it, System Shock remains the most obvious influence but Prey has more style and a far better interface than that game ever did. Mainly though, these are ideas we seldom see or see done this well, so what's borrowed never really felt like a negative. What's more is for every familiar trope, there's a unique idea at work. Each could serve as the premise of a game all unto themselves. Instead they're here together, in this incredibly detailed sandbox. A flawed one admittedly but Prey still manages to be one of the most coherent and inventive games in years.

[kayclau]

Have you ever...

...watched a show and think “Wow! This show has the potential of being one of the most interesting shows of the last decade or so. I’m so glad I caught it early! Now I can see this highly interesting, full of potential story ”

But then, an episode comes up and it’s just that out of what you where expecting that it gives you the idea that, maybe, no one in the writing-room noticed the potential you saw when you were just learning about it.

At first, you go skeptical to this thought, but next episode is no different. So, you go to the internet and look whether or not there are others who noticed the same you did and finds a rather small but enthusiastic group ready to see if their predictions come to fruition.

This comforted you in the beginning, after all “how could so many people noticed this with just watching it and not the 1 person within those who are with the show form its conception, working to make every little bit of it as awesome as it ends up to be? Right?”

The first season ends and your worries turn into anxiety. “Oh no! This show... This show! It’s great! I like it! It has some flaws, sure, no show is perfect. But! I know it has the potential to be SO. MUCH. MORE.

“The tools are there! throughout the season there have been these glimpses of a much greater narrative that would make this show the most epic show in history if they just focus on it and let it surface.

“I know I’m not alone on this. There’s a ton of people who thinks just as I do and they also want the show to give more focus to this ‘under story’.

“It can’t be coincidence! This has to be on purpose! There’s no way that all of this material goes unnoticed by the many people working in each episode. Someone has to put it in consciously!

“But what if they don’t? What if no one but us has seen this clues of an even greater show? Or worst! What if they did notice but they want to work they way toward that goal slowly?

“That would be HORRIBLE! If they don’t go for epic immediately the show might not grab enough viewers to stay on air and it’ll get canceled before the story is unfold!

“I gotta do something! I must find a way to be sure that the show runners know that they have to start the next season addressing this plot. But I can’t be too direct or they’re gonna ignore me thinking I’m trying to give them ideas. I’m not! All I’m doing is checking whether or not my theories will become canon. I am, in no way trying to get in the way of the staff and their show. If they don’t want to go the way I think is the best, that doesn’t mean I would like the show any less, there are plenty of ways for this show to be awesome, not just my way.”

So, during the hiatus between seasons, you go to the internet, sending clues on hope that one of them will reach someone of power over the show and get a response in any shape or form.

“You guys noticed that moment on episode 3? I wonder what could it mean... hashtag symbolism!” “Oh god! For a brief moment I totally forgot I was watching a show and these were the main characters! I honestly thought they were going to die!” “That character from episode 10? I loved her! She looked so mysterious and important! Like, someone probably thought of an entire backstory for her during production. I know she was there just for that episode, but I wish to see her again next season. I also ship her with the main character SO HARD! Their chemistry was perfect! Yeah they just met, it’s just... they look so cute together! And they play one another magnificently! I WANT IT SO BAAAAADDD!!!!” “Okay but, why was that in the room? It served no purpose! It isn’t even pretty enough to be just for decoration! I bet money this will come up in another episode soon!”

But then season 2 arrives and you grow even more worried at the sign that nothing that you brought up is being addressed. Except for one or two minor things that are so underutilized you can’t tell if they are actually bringing them up or are just coincidences.

You cannot wait to see if they are thinking like you do. You need to know now! “This guy! he’s a writer in the show! And he likes to talk to fans in his social media! I could ask him a few questions that would help me know about this hints of a larger story. I need to be subtle. Otherwise he will ignore me since I would be basically asking for spoilers.”

And you do so, “Hey there! Love the show. I have a few question if it’s okay to ask...” “Hey! I noticed you wrote last episode. Love it BTW. What was up with that guy at the park?! What’s his story?” “Hello man! I’m loving the season so far, I’m wondering about episode nine from season one. Dunno, it looked like that story wasn’t over. Are we gonna see its continuation anytime soon?” “Dude! What the hell?! That was a very important McGuffin and you guys just broke it! What’s going on?!”

And you just keep going and going, to the point you forget about what you actually wanted to know. Suddenly you are trapped in this constant state of raging because it’s been 3 and a half seasons and the story haven’t change and “every possible potential this show had to be great has being shattered. The only way to save it now would be bend over backwards and just make a lot of episodes not canon, so it won’t be illogical and contradictory to bring this plot points back”.

And now, the show’s over and you missed an all right show because it didn’t do what you wanted it to? Have you?