#I read the books; comics (Dark Horse); and watched the series

[lokiinmediasideblog]

please tag your most obscure blorbo

[themostineptthateverstepped]

So, I watched Late Night with the Devil (of course I did) and I will likely watch it again because I have many thoughts and analysis I want to geek out about, right?

But right now I want to just focus on David Dastmalchian. Specifically his FUCKING KICK ASS COMIC BOOK SERIES???

This guy...

Go read Count Crowley from Dark Horse. You can buy the digital comics for just $1.99/issue.

It's 80s nostalgia, its horror geek gold, it's funny, goth, edgy, playful, and beautifully drawn by Lukas Ketner.

It's great. I'm really enjoying them AND YOU SHOULD TOO!

[intermundia]

what order is best for the books/movies of star wars? should i watch the movies first? is it needed to read all the books, not skipping any?

so here is my extremely biased personal opinion the order of priority for diving deep into star wars!!

important to note first: i'm not making this long list to be intimidating or prohibitive, but to show how far it's possible to dive in and some promising directions if you choose to do so. you do NOT have to read and watch everything, the movies are the most important part of star wars, everything else is footnotes to them and of lesser importance!

the movies first (originals, prequels, clone wars, rogue one, solo and sequels after if you want)

the tv shows (2008 clone wars, rebels, kenobi show, andor, 2003 clone wars, other disney+ shows like the mandalorian)

revenge of the sith novelization my beloved

some comics (esp. the marvel darth vader comics (2015, 2017, 2020), star wars (2015 and 2020), obi-wan and anakin, dark horse star wars: republic (jabiim arc esp), star wars from the journals of obi-wan kenobi, age of republic heroes and villains, dr aphra)

more favorite novels: darth plagueis, rogue planet, master and apprentice, thrawn trilogies, shatterpoint, wild space, dark lord: rise of the sith, lords of the sith

the other movie novelizations

the YA jedi apprentice and jedi quest series, the rise and fall of darth vader, the life and legend of obi-wan kenobi

other books like kenobi, padawan, dark disciple, approaching storm, ahsoka, brotherhood, the audio drama dooku: jedi lost, tarkin, clone wars gambit, etc.

the shakespeare versions of the movies, the odyssey of star wars

then nonfiction books like the star wars archives if you can get them, the essential reader's guide (very helpful), propaganda, essential guide to warfare, etc.

fans of the original trilogy, the sequel trilogy, and the high republic, the video games.. they will all have different lists, but those are my favorites. and again to stress: the movies (and tv shows to a lesser extent) are the only ones that set up the knowledge base and larger story structure, and the comics and novels play around in that space! have fun and go nuts (i certainly have lol)

[sroloc--elbisivni]

Ok you win! You win, I read your amazing RotTMNT AU and now I want to know more about Usagi Yojimbo!!! Do you have any recommendations and also I would love to read your bibliography for that fic 😭🙏 your writing is ~superb~ it's so poetic and evocative aaaagh

GOT ANOTHER ONE, BOYS

welcome!! welcome!! come on in. Usagi canon isn't actually as intimidating as it looks--and I'm not saying this in the way often applicable to comics where that means 'only one flowchart is required to understand the reading order.' i think. There's only one major continuity, and two spinoffs in Space Usagi and Senso,* neither of which is required to understand the main order. Each issue is often overwhelmingly self-contained, so you can really pick up anything and start reading. The split comes in where the series being published at like. four different companies over the years. means that there are different publishing rights that change the way stuff comes out. technically we're at 38 trade volumes. thinking of it like that is the way madness lies.

The bulk of the series is collected in The Usagi Yojimbo Saga, a 10-volume set published out of Dark Horse. Each one is about as thick as a phonebook. This is not the beginning of the series, it technically starts with the overall series' volume 8, Shades of Death, but the first book of the Saga has a 4-page intro comic at the beginning that does very well setting the scene. This is where I started. I still think it's a great place to start because it's fun to go back to the origins with all the knowledge of the later books behind them. (Books 1-9 are in sequence; Usagi Yojimbo: Legends collects Senso, Space Usagi, and Yokai)

If you want to start at the very beginning, you need to look for Usagi Yojimbo, vol. 1: The Ronin. After Volume 7, Gen's Story, everything's published in the Saga.

The beginnings of the series are also collected in Usagi Yojimbo: Origins, which is a recent republishing of the early comics in full color. They've got four volumes--Volume 1,** Wanderer's Road, The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy, and Lone Goat and Kid. If you start here, you'll be switching over to series Vol. 6, Circles, after LGaK.

Once you get through the Saga, you're into IDW publishing territory, which so far has 5 trade volumes--Bunraku and Other Stories, Homecoming, Tengu War!, Crossroads, and The Green Dragon. That brings you up to the Ice and Snow issues, which just started publishing in September.

But quite honestly, given that the overall premise of the series is 'watch this man wander around the early Edo period experiencing Problems,' I really do think you can start anywhere in the grand tradition of 'what's at the library/comic shop' and have a good idea of the series.*** Have fun!

*Technically Chibi Usagi is a separate continuity, but I feel disingenuous putting it in the same category as Senso.

**No, it doesn't have a name. Yes, really.

***tbh between stories that are told As Flashbacks and how only about half the stories have things that squarely indicate exactly what the previous story was, I tend to assume that it goes in non-chronological order unless a story contains evidence otherwise. this opinion has gotten me booed. but i stand by it.

[subbyfoxelf]

[comic review] avatar: the high ground (2022)

writer: sherri l. smith artists: various

it’s weird that i keep having to talk about star wars in my avatar reviews, but there are a lot of truly bizarre connections between the two considering i don’t think there’s any real cross-pollination between them aside from disney having a stake in both of them? but, yeah.

a lot of star wars fans are probably familiar with the story of splinter of the mind’s eye. this was a novel by alan dean foster (the ghostwriter of the first film’s novelization) that george lucas commissioned as a book that could be easily adapted into a low-budget sequel for star wars if the first movie didn’t make enough money to finance a sequel. of course, that was before the first movie totally redefined expectations for a summer blockbuster, so foster’s novel ended up not being needed for its original purpose, and it just sort of existed as a kind of awkward entry in the canon of the eu until disney nuked it. dark horse did a comic adaptation of the novel in the 90s with some of that gorgeous coverart that the dark horse star wars comics always had, which is the way i found out about it.

avatar: the high ground, on the other hand, was james cameron’s first pass at an avatar sequel script. it doesn’t appear that cameron altered the trajectory of the sequel for budgetary reasons, but rather due to a combination of just deciding to break the story differently and possibly technological breakthroughs in convincing underwater cgi? regardless, rather than wasting his first script idea, a decision was made to adapt it into a series of three hardcover graphic novels.

the resulting comis are… honestly not great, immo? i’d actually say this is my least favorite avatar comic i’ve read so far. like, even adapt or die which wasn’t great at least felt like it was something different? this felt like “avatar 2, but worse.” and repurposing it as a prequel is also kind of fraught because they obviously had a lot of the same storytelling goals in this version of the sequel so you end up with weird stuff like jake & meytiri’s kids running through what should’ve been their parents’ entire budget of “telling them to stay & wait in a place, them not listening & getting kidnapped” patience before the first movie? like, when the kids first get captured by blue!quatritch in the sequel, it’s this big shocking moment, but imagine if they had just been kidnapped & daringly rescued, like, last week? it would totally change how that would feel, right? there’s a very real feeling in the movie that this is the first time their innocence has been challenged like this.

… come to think of it, that’s actually another parallel with splinter of the mind’s eye? because towards the end of that book, luke has a lightsaber fight with darth vader, and when splinter of the mind’s eye was still considered canon that just made it really awkward that their confrontation in the empire strikes back was clearly supposed to be the first of its kind? i think this comic is just avatar’s splinter of the mind’s eye. i think it’s best to just pretend it doesn’t exist, because it’s definitely not going to impact the movies–i mean, no one’s really thinking “this is awkward becasue splinter of the mind’s eye got there first” when they watch empire, right? but it just makes the high ground pretty unsatisfying at the end of the day.

even ignoring those sorts of issues, it’s also just super obvious that this story wasn’t intended for a comic book format? it’s just a series of honestly pretty flat action scenes that don’t really translate all that well on the page. and it isn’t helped by the fact that the art, while pretty enough to look at, doesn’t actually do a great job of conveying the action in a way that’s painless to follow? it’s sometimes hard to tell characters apart except for in extreme closeup. so yeah, on the whole, really not a huge fan of this one, unfortunately.

c-rank

[samuel-is-an-idiot]

Just putting it out there about comics cinematic adaptation:

Comics inspire series/movies not the contrary.

That's why so many comics fan hate current comics runs, especially in MARVEL comics (I dont know the DC fanbase apart from like the Batfamily and apart from Dark Horse I honestly dont know any comics company with series that affected their comics) , because the series got so popular to the wide public that executives believed putting it back in comic form FROM the show is better than creating something new from the original source material.

The series are an ADAPTATION from the comics to a wider audience than comics get, so characters are changed sometimes a little, sometimes drastically to appeal to them better. But that change shouldn't be the other way around! Or if they want to do so; alternate earth with obvious series name NOT 'hey comics fan here's a new run that is going to be basically an all different character from the one you're used to because that one is on the big screen'. Because that's just tricking people who may not be interested at all in that into buying and reading it.

I am not shitting on the MCU (*cough* outside of how they've been treating their employees and CGI artists *cough*) seriously; the MCU was what got me fully into my Marvel special interest that then developped into mainly spider-man and me having a very heavily detailed and timelined paracosm that I LOVE working on and helps me just figure my shit out and grow as a person :) AND even if I've lost the interest I used to have in the MCU in the recent years, (the last thing I watched from the MCU was Moon Knight as a fan and then Love and Thunder with my dad. i will watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3 but I havent seen any of the other movies since I think 2020 or 2021) I'm thankfull for the fact that it got me completely HOOKED on comic books. So I'm NOT shitting on the old or new MCU, i'm just stating the fact that; if you keep readapating something over and over again from each latest adaptation you will loose the original source material. And I don't want to loose my goofy goobers.

[waterhorseyblues-ao3]

WHB’s Ever-Growing List of Comic Recommendations

I am SICK and TIRED of people saying they’re not into comics!!! You could be!!! You just read a Captain America comic one time and realised it kinda sucked!!!! It probably did!!!!!! There’s other comics!!!!!!!!!

In fact I am intentionally NOT going to include DC or Marvel in this list because there’s so fuckin many of them dude. That’s gonna be a different list entirely.

Anyway I’m gonna break this up into segments as best I can and hope I remember all the amazing works I’ve read over the years. This is also only a light sprinkling of things I’ve read that I think are good starting points. If you ejoyed something and want more like it, or are more interested in one type of comic than another, I’ll happily give you more options.

If you’d like any info about how/where to read these comics just DM me and I’ll happily answer any questions.

Western Industry-Published Comics:

Tank Girl - I fucking love Tank Girl. I have a HUGE collection of Tank Girl comics. 1, 2 and 3 have NOT aged well, but Tank Girl was very much a symbol of counter-culture and was used as an icon for protests against Section 28 and the Thatcher regime. Crass, violent, scruffy and extremely punk. The upside is, you can pick just ONE TG title and read only that. She’s been passed around a few different publication companies and been handled by a variety of writers, so the themes and values of the comics are quite broad. My personal favourite is Visions of Booga.

The Ballad of Halo Jones (cancelled) - oh my GODD this COMIC. A 2000 AD genstone. The tragedy of Halo Jones is that the comics got cancelled due to a dispute with her creators and the company. Alan Moore at his absolute finest, creating the most elaborate sci-fi world with really great characters. Every day I morn that only 3 of 9 volumes were ever made.

Saga (ongoing) - o, um, you’re NOT reading Saga? cringe... Jokes aside, Saga published by Image Comics is fantastic. This immense space fantasy follows an inter-species family escaping the war that separates their people. The art is great, the characters are wonderful, the world building is fantastic, it’s so, so immersive. Sex, drugs, and violence abound. An epic space-opera for adult readers. Dude, c’mon, just read it smh

The Pride - This started small and indie but was picked up by Dark Horse. Joe Glass’ response to the lack of representation in Marvel and DC comics. A superhero series where all the characters are out-and-proud queer and fight against queerphobia and oppression, with very blunt explorations of hate crime, AIDS, and inter-community issues. Loveable characters and great art.

Scott Pilgrim VS The World - YEAH I’LL DO IT, I’LL REC SCOTT PILGRIM. I genuinely loved these comics as a teenager, they felt so cool and funny and fresh and dynamic. They were everything I wanted my life to be. Ultimate geeky dorky comic.

Jem and the Holograms - you remember that cartoon? well the comics go hard. VERY cool rock sci-fi, great new takes on the characters, queer as hell, very fun. definitely aimed at bringing more Jem content to fans who have grown up and want something a little more intense.

Persepolis - I’ve only just started reading this. It’s a memoir of the cultural shift in Iran and it’s very real and down-to-earth. Incidentally this is a Banned Book, so obviously that is why I recommend you read it. Incidentally quite a few comics about politics and identity have been banned around the world, so I suggest finding a list of them and reading through all of them as soon as you can.

World of Warcraft: Deathknight - not gonna dress this one up. it’s the manga about Koltira and Thassarian. I legit think the WoW lore comics and books are good. I want these two to kiss.

.

Japanese Manga:

Death Note - oh my god. dude. just read it. or watch it. i don’t care. this is a cultural ICON. this blew my MIND. the character tensions and dynamics, the long-term planning and payoff, the plot twists, the characters, it’s amazing.

Full Metal Alchemist - this should go without saying. i don’t think either anime really successfully adapted the manga. a very in-depth war-time fantasy with brilliant characters, so many plotlines and complex socio-political issues, a huge cast of different types of characters. It has the RANGE.

Uzumaki - I generally recommend Junji Itou’s work anyway, and tend to prefer his shorter stuff, but this particular horror series is so iconic and has some incredible artwork and imagery that just stays with you forever. Personally not a huge fan of the ending but it is very his style.

Shaman King - this aged both very badly and very well, somehow. the mix of traditional shaman practices from around the world, as well as the use of mythology and folk tales to pad out this urban fantasy, is very engaging and interesting. The characters are all from very different walks of life and it’s so easy to get attached to them. the anime adaptions didn’t quite capture the sheer intensity of this story and while it very much is a shonen, it has so much else going for it that really makes it such a unique gem of a series.

Black Butler (ongoing) - oh my god PLEASE read Black Butler. don’t bother with the anime. ignore that. you THINK this is gonna be a fanservicey series about fancy boys and demons but it’s NOT. it’s about TRAUMA and CORRUPTION and SECRET SOCETIES and PLOTS and it is getting better and better and better with each chapter. the artwork is gorgeous and the characters went from archetypes to really complex and fleshed out with individual backstories and I love them all dearly. this series has made me cry.

Saint Young Men (ongoing) - Jesus and Buddha are roommates in modern-day Japan. It’s a very fun and easy slice-of-life that takes a teasing but respectful angle on the two faiths and is just so wholesome. Was a big meme a few years ago.

The Way of the House Husband (ongoing) - you’ve seen this manga about. an ex-Yakuza becomes a house-husband to a working wife who loves magical girl anime. Slice-of-life with some of the most intense artwork and hilarious dynamics.

Skull Faced Book Seller Honda-San - a non-fiction account of a bookseller and the various customers they encounter. Very funny and truthful and easy to read.

The Two Of Them Are Pretty Much Like This (ongoing) - Slice-of-life lesbian romance with an age gap. The two must carefully balance their professional and private life, and navigate where they can and can’t be open about their relationship.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō  /  Quiet Country Café - scifi future post-environmental-apocalypse slice-of-life about an android who runs a café and the various people she meets and the strange world around her. Perfect for fans of Ghibli films.

.

Independent Comics

Emily Is Burning - Honestly I rec most of Steph Seed’s work, her limited use of dialogue and impressionistic-style artwork lends itself so well to the weird horror stories she creates

NPC Tea (ongoing) - urban fantasy story about D&D type characters who run a tea shop, but must also deal with a dangerous power that threatens to destroy everything.

The Miracles - from the same creator as The Pride, this is another superhero story that focuses more on alternate universes, coming of ages, secrets and deception.

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WebToons and Web Comics:

Homestuck - fuck you. yeah im recommending Homestuck. it’s GOOD okay? it’s innovative and complex and deep and hilarious and weird and imaginative and it’s everything. there’s a BUNCH of lets-reads online to make it easier for you and loads of dubs and helpful guides to navigate it. It’s fucking good okay. shut up.

Ava’s Demon (ongoing) - gorgeous art, really cool space fantasy, loveable chaacters, animated sequences, I could go on. It’s a slow, slow update because of the sheer quality of the artwork that goes into it.

Lackadaisy (ongoing) - another absolute banger of artwork and detail. set in probation era about an underground bar, the goofy and eccentric characters get in violent fights, tangle with the law, and get up to be questionable and extremely illegal hijinks to keep their bar going as the business starts to wane. Updates are on hold while the creators work on an ACTUAL ANIMATED MOVIE for it.

Heartstopper (ongoing)- YEAH IM GAY. WHAT OF IT. I LOVE this gushy, mushy, sweet little comic about theseschool boys in love!!! This is a webcomic but has been officially published into paper books. The show is lovely and captures it well but the series is much further on than the show is. I genuinely hope it’s making life of queer teens easier!!! Because god damn it was bad when I was growing up!!!!

Mage and the Demon Queen (ongoing) - beautiful WebToon set in an RPG style fantasy world where a young mage falls in love with the enemy of her people, Demon Queen Velverosa. Adventure romance with a lot more happening than it first lets on.

Carciphona - Very elaborate and stunning fantasy series about magic, war, uprisings and mysterious backstories. Engaging character dynamics and intrigue throughout. The spin-off slice-of-life romance series Amongst Us is also worth a read.

Ruby Quest - you are not ready for this. Using the characters of Animal Crossing and an incredibly simplistic artstyle, this sci-fi horror used reader-input choices to navigate the world and storyline. A mix of rpg-style reading, animated panels and single-panel storytelling create immense amounts of tension and clever use of detail in the right places adds to the horror element. It’s spiritual successor, Nan Quest, is also very recommended.

[forfoxessake]

Finally read the free comic book day story we got from “The Umbrella Academy”.

To my surprise, Gerard wasn’t involved with this one, it was written by his collaborator Gabriel Bá. As far as I know this is the first time he didn’t actually write a UA story, and I assume it was because he was busy touring and perhaps wanted to focus on he band at the time.

It’s short but a very beautifully constructed story, I still can’t get over some of the panels, but it’s been a while since I read the comic’s so I haven’t quite figured out yet if it fits at al with the main lore. The Witcher short is also fun, a nice spin on the classic Frog Kiss Princess, and it reminded me that I have yet to watch the extra movie and series Netflix released a while ago.

If you would like to read it as well, just download the Dark Horse app and you can add it to your bookshelf for free.

[skelegun]

I’ve been listening to a bunch of videos about The Thing, occasionally reading the comments (bad idea, don’t do that), and it’s amazing to me how that film can illicit strong debate all these years later, but half the people debating either just straight up make shit up, or are objectively wrong about things. Like a common examples I see a lot is the “bottle of gasoline” theory which is just fan fiction basically, the “eye glint theory” which falls apart under the most basic of scrutiny, or stuff like “Childs was wearing a different color coat at the end scene” which he is false because his coat was covered in frost. There is also this reoccurring theory that a portion of the dog thing escaped from the flamethrower up into the air ducts, which also just straight up fan fiction. I wonder if people just haven’t watched the movie in a long time, and they see some fan theory that sounds cool so they parrot it like it’s canon.

There is also this famous short story called “The Things” that is literally a fan fic that got published and won some award, that is story but from the perspective of The Thing, and of course it portrays it as a misunderstood fish-out-water who wants to help us out uwu because of course, and I see a lot of people reference it as if it is canon.

An interesting thing to consider about The Thing as well is like there is that bad prequel, the shitty PS2 game that works as a sequel, and the bretty good comic book series by Dark Horse, all of which John Carpenter has at varying points endorsed and all of which contradict each other, so any time someone mentions something from one of those sources when talking about the 1982 film I immediately disregard them… Even if some of the comics were based.

[media-mel]

More film/show quick reviews

I Am Not Okay With This (2020) - ok this is a series but shhhh! I LOVED this. The main girl is SOOO likeable and funny to me. Sad it was cancelled, now I want to read the comic to find out what happens next…

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) - I did watch this once as a kid, but shh. Very quippy and quotable, I kept thinking of various KH crack videos with dubs from this LOL.

Polar (2019) - More camp than I expected LOL. The vibes between Montana and the rest of the film feel like two different movies. In terms of women roles, it feels uh.. pre-Gamer Gate… CW: long sex scene, fatphobia, torture, and the dog dies…

The Spider Man Trilogy (2002, 2004, 2007) - Okay I actually genuinely love how camp these movies are. Love the camera movement. Still really surprised how good the 2004 film is!

The Irishman (2019) - god this movie was so long and for what! LOL. Fantastic performances though. And I got used to the de-aging VFX, even if they caught me off guard at first. Still, perhaps I wasn't the audience this movie was for because I really felt it was so long...

Venom + Venom Carnage (2018, 2021) - Wow I really just… really do not fucking care for car chase scenes LOL. These movies were alright, but honestly I probably will never watch them again haha. Venom and Eddie were funny! I saw glimpses of the sexuality that all the fans were bonkers about (though it was weaker than I expected based on said fans reactions lmao).

Titan AE (2000) - Very very y2k movie LOL. The rock music is sooo funny and does not fit the sci fi at ALL imo lmao. I do prefer Treasure Planet for Jim and Silver’s relationship, so I wish the emotional relationships were stronger in this movie. But still a fun movie. Stith4Ever. Why was Akima’s skull so fucking long.

The Hunger Games films (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)- I know that these movies ironically fulfill the very notion I've heard the books were against (making a entertaining spectacle of dark topics, among other things), I do really like them 🙈 My favorite will always be Mocking Jay pt 1 just because I love that underground-jumpsuit aesthetic LOL. Lock me away, boys 🚓🚨

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) - Okay other than Illumination’s loathsome “Our movies cannot slow down at all even once” problem, this movie was great. They made Mario and Luigi. So. fucking. adorable. And Bowser was great ofc.

American Psycho (2000) - I DO think this is a good film, but I also can’t BELIEVE this satirical doofus is the guy so many men project themselves onto LOL. I wasn’t expecting a theme on conformity, but to me its what makes the movie interesting.

The King's Man (2021) - This delivered what I expected: fun characters, action scenes that are unique and actually interesting, epic music that makes you feel like you’re with old friends. And it delivered what I did not expect: The WEIRDEST erotic scene I have EVER seen LMAO.

Agent Cody Banks (2003) - Saw this so young I don’t really remember it. This movie has a much higher budget than I remember LOL. Not really innovative but it was for kids, and I remember loving it.

Nope (2022) - okay okay I will admit at first I was like “okay how does the monkey connect” but my dumbass didn't realize Jupe had been purposely giving horses to the UFO, so realizing that Jupe tried taming the UFO in the way he thought he tamed the monkey really made me love this film even more. No wonder Jordan Peele's considered the next Steven Spielberg!

Rope (1948) - NGL I was hoping Rupert would go along :/ This would be so fun on see on stage, I enjoyed it!

Psycho (1960) - I enjoyed this too! One scene that will stick with me is the camera shift in Norman and Marion’s conversation when mothers are brought up. Very interesting cinematography there.

Hoodwinked (2005) - l watched this friends lmao; I was very hesitant, but I gotta admit it was funnier than I expected. The various POVs really makes it a unique animated comedy.

Fight Club (1999) - God first 12 minutes of this film I thought I was going fucking crazy! But hey you know I get it now. This is a fun movie. It feels like the opposite reaction to consumerism and conformity than American Psycho’s, an interesting pair of movies.

Three Pines (2022) - Once again, a show not a film, but I really enjoyed this series. Loved the setting, the atmosphere, the characters, the mysteries. Even though its a detective show with murder, I still found it oddly cozy enough to be a comfort show for the future LOL. Maybe it's because Armand is just that likeable!

[alphaofdarkness]

Thank you for the tag! It's been a while since I've done one of these!

Favorite color: Purple wolf lass in everything 💜🐺

Last song: The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird for the swr s/i vibes~

Currently Watching: Watched one of the Star Wars Rebels season 4 episodes earlier, but recently was just watching reaction video of The Normies to Madame Web

Currently reading: Ahh, nothing at the moment,,, I guess the Star Wars Rebels comic book from Dark Horse. I bought it some weeks ago alongside the SWR The Art of the Animated Series. I haven't touched it in a week so~ need to bounce back and continue it ✨

Currently craving: Just finished my coffee from the morning with some popcorn a while ago 😔... wish I still had some alas hasta mañana~ actually I really want some of them strawberry sour candy stripes 🥲 sadly I always eat them so quickly ah.

Coffee or Tea: Coffee~ as per my last response i tend to sip at it over the course of the day~ half at morning and rest into afternoon/evening ☕️

No pressure tagging: @illuminatedquill, @starryjediknight, @starbirdsonthearch, @jedi-nurse, @jedimandalorian, @wrenwithapen and anyone that sees this and would like to try it, by all means! <3

Rules: answer and tag 9 people you want to get know better and/or catch up with!

Thanks for the tag @heres-the-marvel-tea! <3

Favorite color: lilac or cornflower blue.

Last Song: Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish.

Currently watching: Queen Charlotte and Abbott Elementary season 1. With an occasional The Office episode here and there.

Currently reading: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (on pause at the moment), and I'm about to start Funny Story by Emily Henry!

Currently craving: a smoothie.

Coffee or tea: neither, but tea if I really had to choose.

No pressure tagging @brekker-by-brekkerr, @redwidow616, @florida3exclamationpoints, @likea-black-widow-baby and @accidental-spice!

[ramoth13]

Thoughts on an old love:

Vertigo Comics

With the release of the recent Sandman show (highly recommend!!! Mr. Gaiman is, as always, a brilliant storyteller), I thought it might be time to have a look back on my favorite publisher back in the day. I know a few people (especially towards its final days) didn't really distinguish Vertigo Comics from DC comics, but when I tell you that there was a difference, I mean it was just something that can't be replicated.

I don't exactly remember which Vertigo comic I read first. It could've been The House of Mystery or Hellblazer but I'm pretty sure it was Fables. And that's the thing, they were all so special.

I grew up reading comics because my older brother and my Dad before him had grown up reading them. Shazam and superman were Dad's favorites, Batman, JLA, and Green Lantern (Kyle Rainer) were my brother's. But I had grown up watching the Batman Animated Series, where Bruce Wayne was kind, and Batman wasn't jaded, but hopeful, and the comics started pulling away from that.

That's when it happened, I noticed that the characters kept changing, kept evolving from writer to writer, moving further and further from the ones that I knew. Superheroes had been around a long time and couldn't stay the same. Writers had new ideas, new ways to represent the old. Batman was mean, condescending, and sometimes cruel. If they couldn't be updated, they were killed off. Superman lost his love of Lois. Spiderman killed someone. The characters I thought I knew, no longer looked like the ones I loved. So in 2008 I stopped reading them.

But I missed comics. Later, a friend of mine gave me some digital comics, probably illegally now that I'm old enough to know better, but one of them was Fables. I read over 30 comics in one day. I ate them up. And whichever one I read next, Hellblazer or House of Mystery, I read those too. And then, because of course, I read Sandman which opened me up to a world I was already falling in love with. And V for Vendetta, and the Watchmen, Preacher, American Vampire, Y:The Last Man, and The Books of Magic. These were stories that spoke to my very being.

Anything with a Vertigo Logo was gold. The stories beautiful, compelling, and mindbending. The characters were diverse, intriguing, and mysterious. It was like finding a pillar of magic in a sea of ever evolving stories that could never decide on a true identity for itself, Vertigo knew what it wanted to be. The stories haunted me.

SPOILERS:

From Dream besting Lucifer in the oldest game, to Constantine fighting his demon twin, to Bigby Wolf FINALLY marrying Snow White (And Prince Charming's grand return), to finding out who the REAL adversary was in motherlands, these stories never deviated or changed on whims, they always felt honest, sincere, and true to themselves.

:END OF SPOILERS~

There are many other non-DC/Marvel publishers that I love, from Dark Horse (Conan series and Hellboy), to Image (SAGA, Magdelena, and WANTED), to even smaller publishers like ASPEN and Zenescope. Yet, none of these, nor DC or Marvel will ever feel the same as as Vertigo in its heyday.

DC may have made Constantine a superhero, the Watchmen a series, and added all of the best magical parts of Vertigo into its official brand, but the things that made those stories special have stayed with those original books. Nothing against the writers at DC, they work hard and I have no doubt try to remain faithful to the originals... but contrary to what DC wants you to think with their magical league of superheroes, you can't capture magic in a bottle.

And VERTIGO had magic, in spades.

[anneapocalypse]

Dragon Age: The First Three Graphic Novels

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, slavery, sexual violence, discussion of the handling of a transgender character.

The Dragon Age series of graphic novels published by Dark Horse Comics begins with The Silent Grove, released serially in 2012 after the first two games were out. The storyline continues with Those Who Speak, also released in 2012, and Until We Sleep in 2013. These three graphic novels were written by then-lead writer David Gaider and Alexander Freed and illustrated by Chad Hardin, with cover art for the third book by Anthony Palumbo. Since these three books comprise one story arc, I'm going to talk about them together.

I should probably say up front that I'm not really a comics reader generally; it's just not a format I've ever been especially drawn to. I'm so not a comics reader that when I noticed panels seeming sort of weirdly out of order on my first read, it didn't occur to me until like the third book that this was because those pages were formatted as two-page spreads, and I was reading them on my tablet with only a single page displayed by default. This is also to say that I probably don't have the appreciation for the tropes and aesthetics common to comics. That doesn't mean the comic-booky stuff is by default bad, just that it tends to stick out to me and doesn't necessarily appeal to me personally.

I'm not a visual artist and I don't have a whole lot to say about the art, but there are a few things that stood out to me. Both Varric and Alistair have had their hair coloring tweaked a bit from how they appear in the games. Varric, who is pretty clearly blond in the games even in poor lighting, has had his hair colored sort of a light brown. Alistair is sort of a dark blond in Origins (the texturing of his vanilla hairstyle makes it look a touch darker and depending on the lighting it might appear to lean toward a strawberry blond, but you can see in the screenshots of this tutorial where nothing but the hair mesh has been changed that it's definitely a blond tint and not brown or red), but the comics (and later Inquisition) lean more into the strawberry side of the blonde, giving him a distinctly orangey hair color. I think this is done in part to make him and Varric look more distinct from one another, and I'm not really bothered about it. You can still clearly tell who both of them are, and that's good enough. Thankfully, they didn't "tweak" Isabela's appearance.

The comics maintain the slight distinctions in elven facial structure that DAII introduced (namely the prominent nose bridge) but throw out the blue-green undertones to their skin, probably for the best. Notably, the comics maintain the gray skintones for most of the Qunari we see, but not all—the Tamassran who questions Isabela has a lighter and warmer skintone, while the Arishok formerly known as Sten is given a skin tone pretty close to how he appears in Origins, maybe a little darker and a little warmer (and having gone back north, it makes sense that he would be more tanned than he was while traveling in the south). His hair is longer and he has a beard now but he's still hornless and still quite recognizable as the Sten we knew.

There is one artistic choice that I found increasingly irritating as I read these books and that's the way certain female characters are drawn in weirdly exposed or sexualized ways in specific situations. I'm not talking about, like, Isabela showing cleavage in her usual outfits because that's how she dresses. I find the panels where she's specifically posed to show her underwear during an action sequence weird, and I guess this is sort of a Comics Thing, but even that isn't what got under my skin the most. I'm thinking of, for example, Isabela in the flashback where she's being taken away from her childhood home by the man her mother sold her to for "marriage." Clearly much younger and probably still a teenager, Isabela is drawn in a low-cut top that shows a lot of her chest, while her mother watching her being taken is wearing the same style of top but cut noticeably higher. It's not so much a matter of whether a younger Isabela would have chosen to dress that way, as she certainly could have, but something about it in a shot where she's being sold into sexual slavery, with tears running down her face, just feels really skeevy to look at. Which, maybe that's the intent, but I don't personally feel like it adds much to that plot point.

But probably the worst example is in the flashback dealing with the time Isabela transported captive people for an Antivan slaver. I am not questioning why enslaved people would be wearing ragged clothes that cover them poorly (though there's definitely still a deliberateness to drawing their clothing ragged in a "sexy" way for the women). But when, pursued by the Orlesian Navy, Isabela and her patron throw the enslaved elves overboard to lighten the ship, there's literally a shot of a woman with her skirt blown up so that we can see her underwear as she falls into the sea screaming, and I just genuinely don't get that decision. If you must have an upskirt shot, what makes you decide that the part where enslaved people are being murdered is a great place for it? It's weird, and it's uncomfortable and not in a way that I think adds to the story. It's not making any kind of a point, it's just taking a moment that's horrifying, is supposed to be horrifying, and otherwise works as such, and sexing it up for no reason.

There is one more example that might fall in with this, but it's a bit unique and intersects with the writing in a different way, so I'm going to save it for later.

Beyond that, I don't have a whole lot to say about the art, other than I liked the style just fine. The text is what I tend to focus on, and most of what I want to talk about is the story and the characters.

Because this is a universe based heavily around player choices and their consequences, the supplementary books and comics all follow what's known as "Bioware's canon," a series of arbitrary choices that constitute not the only canon, but one possible continuity for the universe. The novels do make a point of dodging certain major points of divergence; Asunder and The Masked Empire both take place largely in Orlais and avoid ever mentioning who is currently ruling Ferelden. At the same time, Asunder also features Wynne as a major character and Shale as a side character; Wynne can die in Origins, and Shale may not be recruited at all in which case she and Wynne would never have met. These first three graphics novels lean in even further to embracing that arbitrary world state, and don't shy away from centering characters from the games who have many possible outcomes. This is a story about Alistair and specifically about an Alistair who's King of Ferelden, ruling alone.

I'm covering the first three together because they basically comprise a complete story, wrapped up at the end of Until We Sleep. These first three volumes star Alistair, Isabela, and Varric, all familiar companion characters from the first two games, whereas later volumes introduce more new characters in lead roles and focus less on established characters. The story begins in 9:38 Dragon, about a year after the Kirkwall rebellion. Alistair has been King for about seven years.

So, let's talk about our main trio for a moment, because I think the setup for it is rather funny.

Alistair, now King and sole ruler of Ferelden in this timeline, is on a personal quest to find out what happened to his father King Maric, who disappeared at sea in 9:25 Dragon and was subsequently presumed dead, causing the throne to pass to his only legitimate son, Cailan. The implication here is definitely that Alistair is hoping that Maric is not only alive, but willing and able to to reclaim his throne and lift the burdens of ruling from the shoulders of his bastard son. And for assistance he's hired on... Isabela, pirate captain, and Varric Tethras, dwarven businessman and storyteller.

How does the King of Ferelden end up in Antiva working with two of Hawke's old pals? Was Zevran busy? Alistair has met Isabela, once, at the Pearl while traveling with the Hero of Ferelden (who in this continuity died killing the Archdemon). He met Varric through Isabela. I get that Alistair doesn't want to involve the Fereldan navy because this quest is a big secret, but his next best option for help was a pirate he met once in a brothel? Well. Zevran did offer him some information to get him started, so perhaps it was also Zevran who pointed him toward Isabela, as we know they were previously acquainted.

Hilariously, though, some of the dialogue between Alistair and Isabela has the potential to imply something that I'm pretty sure isn't meant to have happened in this canon! Alistair calls her "an old... acquaintance, of sorts," with those ambiguous ellipses, and at one point Isabela exclaims to him, "Didn't you used to be fun?" I cannot imagine what about Alistair Isabela would have thought was "fun" in the brief time they met... unless something else went on between them. Later on, when Alistair asks if she'll take him to the Tellari Swamps to find the Witch of the Wilds, Isabela replies, with a knowing smile over her shoulder, "For you? Anything... but just the once."

With no canon romance with the Warden in this timeline, there's no canon threesome (or foursome) at the Pearl either, but... well, I can imagine and I found myself enjoying the idea that Alistair and Isabela got to know each other a bit better during their brief acquaintance.

So, we're two chapters in and I have a new ship, that's cool!

Anyway, these three are sort of an odd combination, but the story explores themes of identity and purpose for all three, though Varric gets the least of it, possibly because as a storyteller, he prefers not to focus on himself.

At the center of this theme is Alistair, Ferelden's reluctant King, and he takes center stage in the first graphic novel, with his voice providing the narration. There are several reasons he wants to find Maric, but perhaps the greatest is the one he tells Isabela at sea. Hearing the message Maric left his old cellmate for his son, that he was sorry, that he "had to do it," only reminds Alistair that Cailan was the son who mattered—that he was never meant to be King. "I need to know..." Alistair says.

"If he abandoned you?" Isabela fills in.

"If he abandoned his Kingdom," says Alistair.

Despite Alistair's longing for a family, I think he accepted long ago that his father never wanted anything to do with him, that he could never be anything to Maric but a threat to Cailan's rule, and so he found his family elsewhere—in Arl Eamon, in Duncan, in the Grey Wardens. But becoming King changed everything for Alistair. And if Maric is still alive, if he could have come home but didn't, then he is responsible—for abandoning his people, for leaving them with an inexperienced ruler when the Blight came. For Cailan's death. For the civil war. For Alistair being forced onto the throne.

Meanwhile, here is Alistair, sailing off on his own voyage, leaving Ferelden in the care of some regent, presumably (I don't think it's ever mentioned who that might be). Placing himself in the path of danger and potential death, for his own personal reasons. I doubt that irony is lost on him.

In the Tellari Swamps, Alistair and his companions meet Yavana, a Witch of the Wilds of Antivan legend and allegedly the one who broke Maric out of the Antivan prison where he had been held. Yavana confirms that she is another daughter of Flemeth, and if the legends are to be believed she is a much older one. We know that Morrigan never met any other daughters. Whether Yavana is the same Witch in the stories dating back hundreds of years, however, I'm not sure. Unless Flemeth passed on to Yavana the knowledge of how to extend her life, and Yavana has herself been taking daughters to possess over the ages, I'm not sure how she would have survived, and I'm also not sure whether that skill is unique to Flemeth due to her carrying the spirit of Mythal. At any rate, Yavana calls Morrigan a "poor, confused child" for having refused the "gift" of Flemeth's possession, which lines up pretty well with what Flemeth tells Morrigan in Inquisition: that "a soul is not forced upon the unwilling," and that she would never have possessed Morrigan's body without her consent. Interestingly, it seems that Flemeth never chose to possess Yavana, despite her apparently willingness. Instead, Yavana has lived here in the Silent Grove, protecting these great dragons.

A quick note on dragons: while reading, I never got the impression that Yavana referring to the dragons as "these great ones" or "great dragons" was meant to denote an actually distinct type of dragon; I just took it as a descriptor, not a classification. The wiki certainly seems to believe they are distinct, however, based apparently on an annotation by David Gaider found only in the Library Edition of the graphic novels, which is only now available in very expensive used copies and which I don't own, and thus I can't verify what that annotation actually says. Based purely on the text on the comics I would be inclined to think that "great dragons" were simply older and more powerful high dragons—and it's worth noting here that high dragons are not themselves a distinct species, but simply mature female dragons that appear in many different varieties. So "great dragons" are a thing, and it seems that their blood in particular confers some sort of power, but we'll get to that. Beyond that vague distinction, nothing is really clarified here.

Alistair and Isabela respond with confusion to the idea that dragons need protection, and this is where Yavana drops what I think is going to turn out to be a very important piece of worldbuilding:

How many "heroes" hunted dragons over the centuries, until almost none were left? It was nearly a tragedy for us all. ... In destroying what it does not understand, mankind would destroy itself. The blood of dragons is the blood of the world.

What does this mean? We still don't know, but I think it comes back in Inquisition when Solas is so upset at the Grey Wardens for their plan to pre-emptively seek out and kill all the Old Gods. He is likely right that their plan is backwards, of course—that the Archdemon is not the source of the Blight and in fact not even corrupted until the darkspawn find it. But I also get the sense that Solas knows more than he's saying—that he knows killing all the Old Gods would cause something very bad to happen. In fact, I don't think it's a far-fetched theory to say that killing all the Old Gods might bring on the end of the world. I think this would go pretty far to explain Solas's general contempt for the Grey Wardens, to the point that he is reluctant to admit they have done any good at all: "They are fools," he says, "a fact only amplified by Corypheus's meddling." I think this assessment is pretty obviously unfair given that no one else shares whatever knowledge Solas is hiding, but that's Solas. He argues that they have merely bought time, making no real progress—by which I think he means they've never figured out the source of the Blight or how to actually end it, only how to kill an Archdemon and send the darkspawn back underground.

We also learn in Inquisition that dragons have an unusual resistance to the Blight, though clearly this resistance is not absolute. But I would guess that this is why the Grey Warden Joining requires the blood of an Archdemon: this confers some of the old dragon's natural resistance to the Grey Warden and is what might allow them to survive the taint.

I think that not only does Solas know the death of the last Old God could be disastrous, he also knows the true source of the Blight, which the Grey Wardens are nowhere near understanding. I think Flemeth must have known this too, especially given that she has a daughter in the business of preserving dragons. Notably, this run of comics began after Dragon Age II, at which point it had definitely been established that Flemeth was going to turn out to be Mythal, because there are way too many hints about that in DAII.

But back to Alistair, and his family history. In The Stolen Throne, we saw Flemeth save Maric and Loghain during the Orlesian occupation of Ferelden, allowing Maric to lead the rebels to victory and restore the line of Calenhad to the throne. What we never saw is what Flemeth asked of him in return, and now we learn: she made Maric promise that he would seek out Yavana when his heir was grown. She needed his aid in awakening the sleeping dragons that lay hidden and protected in a cavern beneath the grove. She needed Maric for this because of his bloodline, but we'll learn the specifics of that in the next book. Before he could complete the task, though, he was taken by Aurelian Titus, a Tevinter magister seeking power from Maric's blood. Blood, blood, blood. It's all anyone ever wanted from Maric! Says Yavana:

Your heart beats with the old blood as well. Where do you think it comes from? It sings of a time when dragons ruled the skies. A time before the Veil, before the mysteries were forgotten. Can you hear it?

Another fascinating little bit of worldbuilding here! Of particular interest to me is that it was established this far back that the Veil didn't always exist. And dragons existed before it.

So, Yavana asks Alistair to help her in exchange for aid in finding Maric, and instead he stabs her.

This is... an interesting moment for Alistair. Personally, I think his choice to kill Yavana is impulsive and childish. She isn't responsible for what happened to Maric (the promise was made to Flemeth, not to her daughter), and killing her neither avenges him nor brings Alistair any closer to finding him—on the contrary, Yavana could have helped him and was offering to do so. Alistair cites his distrust of Morrigan and Flemeth, and he claims he's seeking justice, but I think that in reality, he simply needs someone to blame for his own and Ferelden's misfortune.

At the same time, it's after this that Alistair finds new purpose and direction. He tells his companions that he's tired of being a pawn—that he's going to kill Aurelian Titus, find Maric, and then go home to be King.

"It's about time you said that," says Varric.

I think at this point Alistair does believe Maric is dead, and means to avenge him, but has about given up on the idea of a rescue. This is the beginning of him accepting his future as Ferelden's King.

But there are few more twists coming his way yet.

Those Who Speak shifts to put the focus more on Isabela, giving her the narrative voice and also giving her some backstory.

We have a few interesting firsts in this volume. We get our first female Qunari character, the Tamassran who interrogates Isabela. We also get what I believe is our first canonically transgender character, Maevaris Tilani, who will play a prominent role in the rest of the story.

This is also, I think, the first direct look we get at the Qunari in the north; previously we'd on seen them in smaller groups in the south where they are not presently at war (except for very briefly in Kirkwall). In the north, the Qunari are actively at war with Tevinter and have been for a long time, and our heroes get themselves briefly tangled up with the Qunari.

As mentioned above, we see Sten again! He's no longer Sten, however, having been promoted to Arishok after the previous Arishok was killed in Kirkwall, because he's a character we've seen before and therefore he must go on being important for all of the franchise for the rest of time. :P I don't honestly mind this; I liked Sten in Origins and it's not implausible that he would have risen in the ranks after his successful return from the South and helping to defeat the Blight, plus he now has unique cultural and tactical knowledge of the south. (As a sidenote, he is also presumably still the Arishok during the attempted Qunari invasion in Trespasser, though of course officially Qunari leadership denounces Operation: Dragon's Breath after it fails.) Alistair's past acquaintance with the Arishok ends up being plot-relevant, or perhaps we should say plot-convenient. It works well enough. But it's still one of those Things this series does a lot. Incidentally, Alistair keeps calling him "Sten," and the Arishok keeps correcting him, which is understandable but also sort of reveals how little Alistair pays attention to what other people are saying sometimes.

The Arishok formerly known as Sten agrees to let Alistair and Varric go because they are basalit-an, the Qunari term for an outsider worthy of respect. Considering that Alistair never got to know Sten well enough to understand that "Sten" was a title, I have to wonder what he did to earn that. He isn't even the one who killed the Archdemon, in this timeline. Is it just that he fought with the Hero of Ferelden? In that case, I guess the whole crew would be basalit-an. Maybe it's that the Grey Wardens earned Sten's respect. In any case, here it is for narrative utility.

Isabela's backstory is the emotional core of this book, revealed to us in her memories as a Tamassran questions her about her life and past. Her one experience trafficking in slaves is the reason she refuses to ever do so again, and the reason she freed Castillon's captives when she discovered them, thus leading directly to the desperate need for coin that led her to steal the Tome of Koslun, thus setting in motion the events that led to the Qunari invasion of Kirkwall. The Tamassran prods her for her history, and in particular her birth name, holding up the possibility of redemption.

The interesting thing about the way this volume plays out is that the Tamassran sort of wins. Isabela escapes, but before leaving she does reveal her birth name to her captor, though she says it is no longer her name. Isabela regains her ship, Alistair gains aid from the Arishok, and the trio set forth again—but in the pages to come, we will see that the Tamassran's questioning has set Isabela off-balance. As the second book closes, she tells Alistair "I'm not sure I'm Isabela any longer," and her internal monologue notes that after this mission, "There are going to be some changes," but leaves her meaning ambiguous. In the beginning of the next book, Varric notes that Isabela still seems troubled, and at the moment seems to prefer being called "Captain" to "Isabela," indicating that her emotional arc is still ongoing.

Until We Sleep places us in Varric's point of view, opening with an entertaining little narration Varric has made up about the nameless henchman he is about to kill: "Do you want to feel sad for a luckless, nameless thug who joined the wrong cult?" he teases the reader, "or do you want to accept that Arthur the Wicked had to die, and move along?"

Alistair and his companions are now in a temporary alliance with the Qunari, which is sort of notable because Qunari making alliances is presented to us as a very big deal in Inquisition. But the Arishok respects Alistair and any Tevinter magister is a common enemy, so they have that much going. It is actually the Arishok formerly known as Sten who gives us the final piece of the puzzle of Alistair's weird bloodline: Calenhad the Great gained his strength by drinking the blood of a great dragon, on instruction from a witch with whom he struck a bargain. (It's always a witch, isn't it? It very well could have been Flemeth herself, for all we know.) Why does drinking dragon's blood have this effect? We don't know. How does blood that is drunk and digested become a part of one's own blood in a way that can be passed on to one's children? Far be it from me to impose science on a fantasy world with magic. But I do find this all hilariously silly and I think the writers kind of knew they were writing something dumb because they even have Varric there to lampshade what a "special snowflake" Alistair is turning out to be. Royal-blooded, elf-blooded (unbeknownst to him), and now dragon-blooded. And none of those things have brought him anything but unhappiness! Oh, Alistair.

I do think that as with all information that comes to us from biased in-universe sources, we need to take the Arishok formerly known as Sten's version of this story with a grain of salt, and Isabela even points this out. Dragon's blood in Alistair's veins is verifiable by other sources, but it would make sense for the Qunari to interpret this as Calenhad and his descendants having lacked any true heroic qualities, the source of their power and influence being artificial. But power alone doesn't make a leader. Nevertheless, I think Alistair reflects some of my own feeling when he says, "Couldn't he just have been a hero?" To which Isabela responds, "Maybe he was."

Very special bloodlines aside, I am very curious how this whole blood of dragons thing is going to play out in the future of Thedas, especially given my earlier theories about the importance of dragons. Alistair himself can't really be essential to any future story, since he has multiple opportunities to die in Origins and yet another in Inquisition—unless some future plot point of a game diverges based on those previous decisions. Still, it's a hell of a setup for, I hope, something, even if doesn't directly involve Alistair or his family. In fact, maybe especially if it doesn't. After all, if Calenhad did this, others could have as well.

Blood, in this universe, is basically magical in one form or another. Lyrium is the blood of titans, with properties that may either fuel or cancel magic. Darkspawn blood carries the Blight, and properly prepared with lyrium and the blood of an Archdemon (a corrupted dragon) confers a temporary resistance to the Blight. A blood mage can use the blood of any living person to fuel magic; blood magic makes one more susceptible to demons, but makes it harder for one's spirit to enter the Fade... but now we're getting into the weeds. Untangling the mysteries of blood and magic in Thedas shall have to be another entry for another day. For now, suffice it to say we have discovered yet another effect of blood in this universe: drinking the blood of a dragon (at least, a great dragon, whatever that means) will make you really, really strong, and also infuse your own blood with that of the dragon. Given that Calenhad learned this from a "witch" (let's be real, it was almost certainly Flemeth or one of her daughers), this is also likely a form of blood magic.

Incidentally, Aurelian Titus seems to believe that the Magisters Sidereal would have succeeded if they'd had dragon's blood. I wonder how true that is. He also remarks on the Qunari: "Dragonfire. It might have been their birthright. Instead it kills." This seems to tie into the rumor that Qunari themselves have some dragon in their blood, whether or not it is true.

While Alistair, Isabela, and their Qunari allies confront Titus outside, Varric is sneaking into Ath Velanis, and finds Maevaris chained up in the dungeon, and... okay, so this is where we need to talk about how Mae is "revealed" to the audience to be transgender. I need to put a lot of scare quotes around "revealed" because honestly, I didn't initially get that this was supposed to be a reveal, probably because I already knew Mae was trans from reading The World of Thedas Volume 2 first. What I did notice was that Maevaris is drawn very differently here from how she was drawn in the previous volume. She's chained with both arms above her head, with a black eye and a bloody nose, her clothing torn and ragged leaving most of her chest bare, which... well, I already talked about female characters being physically exposed in situations where they're being violently victimized and this does qualify in its own way. The difference is that instead of over-emphasized breasts, Mae is drawn here with a flatter chest and the kind of detailed musculature that is common for these types of comics to use for men, but not for women (to my dismay, generally)—not for Maevaris herself, in other parts of the story where she's fully dressed but her arms are bare. My initial thought was not "Oh, this is how we know Mae is trans," but rather "That's a weird choice to make only for your one transgender woman and not for any other female characters whose vocations would certainly make them strong and muscular." It wasn't until I read on the wiki that Maevaris is "revealed" to be trans in this book that it clicked that... oh, that's what this was supposed to be. It's never explicitly stated in dialogue that Mae is trans in this story; there's dialogue that supports it but wouldn't be definitive by itself.

So, this falls into the trope of showing the audience that a trans character is trans by putting them in a situation where they are exposed and humiliated against their will. Varric clearly already knows Mae is trans, but she still says "I don't want you to see me like this" as he's giving her a blanket to cover with. Even though Varric is a friend, this experience is still awful and humiliating for her—and she has also had her body exposed against her will to the people who did this to her, though thankfully we don't see that on the page. Let me emphasize here that I am very glad to have an unambiguously transgender character, always, and I hope we get even more. Nor do I want to say that there is only one right way to portray a trans character, or that nothing bad should happen to a trans character (Mae being captured by Titus, in and of itself, is fine and makes sense with the story after she helped our heroes earlier).

But as a way of telling the audience a character is trans, I just don't think this is great. Invasive as some of the questions the Inquisitor can ask Krem may be (can ask, as in, you have the option not to ask him those questions), this is invasive on a whole different level. Writing in such a reveal in a setting that doesn't use the same words we do is always going to be a challenge, yeah. But I just feel like there are better ways than this, and the way Krem's dialogue is handled does tell me that at least the writers are trying to do it better, and I hope that effort continues. Let's hope for better with Mae herself, since I think there's a good chance we'll see more of her in the next game! I hope so, personally, as I do love Maevaris, and enjoyed her presence in this story a whole lot.

In this third book we get something so essentially Dragon Age it's almost a cliché at this point: an escape-from-the-Fade sequence! We start in Varric's dream, and this is really the most character development we get for Varric in this story arc. It's also confirmation that Bianca the Crossbow is named after a real person, which I hadn't realized was confirmed prior to Inquisition. So that's neat, although notably the Bianca in Varric's Fade dream looks distinctly un-dwarfy. In fact, Varric himself looks pretty un-dwarfy in his dream, even as he and dream!Bianca discuss the Merchant's Guild being after them and Varric having been born outside of Orzammar. I wonder if that's meant to represent Varric's complicated feelings about dwarven identity. It's certainly a more interesting and more charitable explanation than "someone thought dwarf!Bianca wouldn't be hot enough."

Isabela's arc culminates in her Fade dream, or perhaps more accurately her nightmare, in which she is a loyal adherent of the Qun, in full Qunari garb right down to the dark red vitaar across her chest and face. I mention the latter part specifically because I don't think viddathari can actually wear vitaar; it's supposed to be poison to anyone without qunari physiology. I think the fact of Isabela wearing it here in her nightmare symbolizes the totality of her conversion. Or somebody just forgot the lore. But isn't the other interpretation more interesting? ;) As Varric begins to break through to her, we see the vitaar vanish first, before the rest of Isabela's appearance transforms back into her pirate tunic and she is once again herself.

Varric, in a rather touching kindness to his friend, declines to narrate what is actually happening in Isabela's nightmare, instead asserting that "She was never tempted by the Fade for a moment. Not even a little." We, the audience outside of Varric's universe, are allowed to see the truth. Asked if she really wants this life under the Qun, Isabela admits, "It would be easier. Simpler." Maevaris knowingly responds, "It always is—letting someone else define you. I don't know you, but I know that much."

By the end, I think every character here can relate to that sentiment.

Henceforth Varric, Maevaris, and Isabela set forth to find Alistair, who in true form has been taken in by the illusion of living family, his father King Maric alive. (He also flirts with Isabela here, and once again, I ship it.) But before long, Varric figures out that this Maric is no demon in disguise, but the real Maric—his spirit trapped in the Fade.

After they defeat Titus in the Fade, they are able to return to the real world, though Maric is reluctant to return, saying that Alistair is likely a better King than he ever was. "The people I love are all here—Cailan, your mother, Loghain. None of them are in the real world any longer, are they?" I appreciate the fact that Maric is so committed to the lie of Alistair's dead human mother than he even remembers to lie about it while they're both dreaming together. I'm also amused that the list of people Maric loves includes Loghain, but not Queen Rowan. Yeah, this Maric is completely in-character. Also, I will ship Maric/Loghain until I die.

In the end, though Maric agrees with reluctance that he will try to return, once Alistair sees the state of Maric's suffering body in the real world, he chooses to let him go, destroying Titus's magical device that was keeping him alive and allowing Maric to die. I like this. Maric's time was over, and bringing him back to Ferelden would have been a narrative mess as well as a political one; plus, he really didn't want to come back. As Varric says, "It's a terrible thing, to live as part of someone else's story. You need to finish this, or the story will never end."

Each of the three main characters gets their little epilogue panel, and in Alistair's, Varric remarks that he did all that he set out to do—kill Titus, find Maric, return home to be a proper King. The Alistair on the throne, accompanying this image, looks distinctly unhappy. He has completed his hero's journey—accomplished what he swore to do, and even gained a stronger sense of self by the end: "I thought I needed Marric... he needed me." Alistair is a hero. He has a complete story arc, with the hero's end. Yet like his father Maric, holding the throne does not bring happiness. Alistair's arc is the most complete here but I would not say that it has a happy ending. I also don't think a happy ending needs to be the point of a story. To me, Alistair's greatest weakness as a character has always been his passivity, and indeed unlike Isabela and Varric, the tragedies of his past and the discontent of his present revolve pretty much entirely around choices made by others, not himself. This story is about Alistair making a choice, on his own initiative, and following through with it to the end. It may not be a happy ending, but it is a strong one, and I think it also represents Alistair becoming willing and able to be King.

Varric has the least of an actual arc of the three main characters, but that sort of makes sense for who he is. Varric's whole deal is that he prefers telling other people's stories to his own; "the one story I'll never tell" (as he says once in DAII) is his own personal tragedy, losing Bianca to her arranged marriage and the insurmountable threat of the Merchant Guild's wrath. Until We Sleep touches on this part of his past, but mostly to affirm that that part of his life is over and done and he knows it. Varric does not change here, but this isn't his story.

It's Isabela's arc that feels a little incomplete to me, and I wonder if that's partly the nature of this story being written serially, because the ending of Those Who Speak really seemed to imply some sort of major change on the horizon for Isabela, whereas the resolution in Until We Sleep was much more Isabela getting back to who she was when we began. We learn her backstory, yes, and we see her briefly shaken by her encounter with the Tamassran and what that experience unearths from her past. I doubt we're ever meant to think Isabela was seriously thinking of converting to the Qun, only that she couldn't help wondering what her life would have been like had she followed her mother's path. The end of Those Who Speak and the beginning of Until We Sleep do sort of tease the idea that she's going to change her name again, though of course that doesn't happen either. Isabela's resolution is ultimately about returning her to status quo rather than changing her; she loses and regains her sense of self, and she does so by revisiting her past, but I hesitate to say that experience has actually changed her in the present. What "changes" she meant at the end of Those Who Speak are never specified, and ultimately left hanging. And even the ending, I think, is meant to leave us with a hint of doubt. Varric's narration over her final panel reads, "Isabela asked me later if I thought he [Alistair] did the right thing. I told her there's no way to know." This seems to reflect the what-ifs of Isabela's own life and choices, doubts that may still linger, but with no clear sense of how this changes her life going forward.

Even Varric himself ends on a somber note, his final panel showing him alone and unsmiling, at a table covered with papers, a quill, and a pint and pitcher, with the second chair empty. His narration concludes: "We all go through our entire lives not knowing. Wondering. Trying. Until we sleep."

Thus, all three characters end on a note of either unhappiness or uncertainty. But taken all together, there's a unity to the ending tone and I think that's meant to be the point.

I enjoyed the comics even more on my second read, I think in part because I had become more comfortable with the medium and better able to appreciate what it adds to the storytelling. Despite its flaws, this storyline was a fun read, and it adds some interesting things to the worldbuilding pot for further consideration.

Crosspost. Originally posted on dreamwidth on 7/9/21.

[ladyyatexel]

I Went On A Manga Binge

So you don't have to

For those of you who have wisely avoided the shreds of it I've left around the blog thus-far, I had some weird notion to go re-experience Yu-Gi-Oh uuuuuh a week ago? We'll go with that. Time is meaningless.

I'd been able to read a good portion of the early manga at the end of highschool, and somewhere in my stacks and stacks of paper is fanart from this dark time, so you know I cared. I also still own a Dark Magician action figure somehow, so. I'd also watched a large portion of the anime with my brother because it had been laced with some kind of crack and we couldn't look away? I remember when we both were just like shit, wait, don't change the channel, I can't stop looking at it. And the next thing we knew we were waiting for new episodes and I was doing research on the Japanese original because I was that kid.

Anyway, unnecessary backstory out of the way, here are some... let's call them Observations and Consequences of having read somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 chapters (and growing) of a manga primarily hinged on card games from a spectrum of sources ranging from boringly lawful to sketchy as fuck.

Surprise actual character that develops in typical shounen fashion being Jounouchi. My limited experiences with the 4Kids dub and only early manga had not painted him in a particularly good light. I don't know if episodes were being aired out of order or if I had just missed the ones that established that he was making shit up as he was going along, but Wow I liked him a lot more going through the manga than I ever did watching the (dubbed, heavily edited and censored and thrown into a slurry machine) anime. I'd managed to come out with the impression that he was just as reasonably experienced with the game as Yugi back in the day. Wild.

I'm now reading every single comic-style post on Tumblr backwards.

Striking inverse to first point, wow, I don't like Seto Kaiba. Though he gets points for his general philosophy of the future, and the line I read in my sketchy online combo of scans and scanlations in which he said, "If God is in your way, you run him down," was Metal As Fuck. I somewhat shame-facedly admit to enjoying him a lot more as an Abridged Series character. (I watched Abridged as it came out back in the day! The experience of watching the anime with my brother had been so fresh that I got all the in jokes about the way things were edited and dubbed, it was great. Series remains influential part of my life to this day, which is hella weird.)

I almost understand how Duel Monsters works now. I don't want this.

That said, wow a lot of the decisions made in the anime made everything a lot more ridiculous than the admittedly already ridiculous original. I got the distinct feeling in the manga that the Duelist Kingdom stuff we were seeing was designed to be used and exploited in ways that don't make sense in an actual cardgame just played on a table like a normal person and this was part of testing everyone to think higher, differently. Maybe this is obvious to everyone already, I don't know. I had always liked that it was very, 'Not so fast, I'm going to blow up the moon to change the tides,' but I'm not really sure the anime gave enough explanation that this was an extra layer added to things for that event? You can see people actively getting used to it in the books, and people who aren't considering the real or 3D nature of it getting owned, but my memory of anime version is everyone just like, 'oh, shucks, fuck me, I forgot to consider the phase of the moon before i played this card, can't believe I forgot.' No one calls Yugi on any of this stuff because it's valid play in that situation. Plus Yami Yugi had mad trickster energy in the beginning and it suited him to think of ways to do things inside these little simulation boxes the way it suited him to set perverts on fire. I imagine the real card game trying to emulate this element as something that would be to its detriment, but I neither know nor particular care haha

Ryou Bakura.

Really, though. I think he became kind of casualty of 'wow, we have a lot of characters who really aren't able to do anything in this story anymore,' despite the fact that his whole inner life could have been as interesting as Yugi's. I always like thinking about the possibilities of stories in which main character falls into magical world and is given magical item and told they're the hero and then they find out they've been the bad guy the whole time. The first several volumes of manga were about the quiet weirdo kid that no one talked to who was always blacking out and turning into a fucked up version of himsef because he was so attached to his ancient Egyptian jewelry, so like, Bakura could have much the same shit going on. I want to know what's happening with him so much. He clearly doesn't love being possessed, but he's also so drawn to the ring. Despite it having stabbed him at least twice and him knowing it's a danger to him and his friends, he keeps being pulled back into it. You see so much more of him being like, 'Oooh, a creepy thing, I love that! :D' in the manga than ever in the anime, which I'm all about. Also more blood. I'm very about that as well. Though my memory of the anime also made it look very much like normal regular daily Bakura was just a weird facade in places before he ever would have been. I think that was it trying to compensate for what people didn't see from the Toei anime, but okay whatever, that I love everything about this guy is not news, I don't need to talk about Bakura excessively here, I'm pretty sure that's gonna show up on my blog by itself

On a related note though, damn, more of these people need to talk to each other. Can we have some existential crisis support clubs or something. Can we get like some apologies or something? "I respect you as a duelist." "Cool, but you literally built a tower designed to specifically assassinate me and my friends? You were supposed to get Better after I retaliated by putting you in a coma, but you kinda didn't." "Why would the coma have made it better" "I just told you it didn't" ---- "Sorry I went along with the plan of your evil parasite stabbing you, misled you, and then also jumped in and took up some real estate in your head too." "I understand, I also have an evil thing inside me that does things while I'm blacked out." "...no, I was conscious for all of that." "Oh." "..." "..." "..." "Do you like Ouija Boards?" "sure okay" ETC. Like damn we are reading shounen manga because no one is talking extensively about their feelings here and I'm tapping my foot angrily.

Holy shit there are so many mythologies happening at once. The ancient family guarding the Egyptian Pharaoh has a surname that's a Mesopotamian goddess. None of the god cards make any Egyptian sense except Ra, and just like. Baaarrrrely. Somewhere either Evil Ring Bakura or Mar/lik makes a reference to cremation and spirits being taken to heaven with smoke which several things, but definitely not Ancient Egyptian. Marik/Malik meanwhile is clearly trying to head Arabic, along with Rishid, but then, hey, our sister is just Isis. Goddess McGoddess. Sometimes they're the same goddess! Her name could be Isis Isis or Ishtar Ishtar. Meanwhile, all the obviously 'occult because Christians think it is freaky' stuff. ~ancient egyptian pentagrams~~~This isn't a complaint, I guess so much as a 'Wow, I can kind of see the cultural spot the author was coming from and where he was aiming' kind of thing.

Wonder where things would have gone if the card games had not been latched onto the way they were.

Managed to forget how gross the pre-cardgames stuff was on the sexual harassment front. I'm glad there was a sort of explanation of everyone drifting away from being dick heads and that that decision was made. It got way more comfortable to read after no one was bringing Yugi p*rn on VHS.

Yugi looks better with a nose, glad we got that upgrade.

Interesting to watch the series style shift as it goes away from being horror to being over the top cardgames and friendship (with blood!). The first picture of Mokuba is fucking Jarring. Also noticed that the nicer a character is, the less their teeth are defined.

Glad manga did not go as completely off the fucking the rails about Marik's face. I never got as far as seeing him back in the day because college occurred, but I remember seeing pictures and stuff and being like, "what in the Fuck happened to that dude, I think the house style has collapsed in on itself"

Things the author Really Likes: motorcycles, belts, SHOES, holy shit the shoes. These are some of the most lovingly rendered sneakers I've ever seen. All the detail on his characters goes straight to their feet and then it's stretched upward until it forms stiff peaks. Gently fold in 3000 years of trauma and bake face down in a crumb coat of scattered mythology. Remove when you roll two zeros.

Where the fuck am I going to put the extremely large omnibus volumes of this comic I purchased in order to balance out how much I would be reading for free on the internet. I should have grasped that a three in one edition would be Thick and yet somehow I was still :O when it arrived. Have I strategically purchased volumes that contain my favorite parts, maybe, what's it to you will i eventually get the whole thing because incomplete book series gnaw on my soul? yes

Wish the transition from "I've murdered several people in delightfully karmic ways" to "all you need is friendship in your heart and cards in your hand" Yami Yugi/Pharaoh had been discussed more/transitioned better. Buddy, where did you get this approved for television high horse? Please go back to strangling people with yo-yos or at least tell me why you stopped.

I still can't tell anything that looks like a big robotic monster apart from any other big robotic monster. My dude, I can't tell cars apart, all these monsters look the same.

Yami Yugi fascinated me way more in highschool? Maybe because it was still super early and the anime was like 'we need to torture you about his origins WeEkLy. Now I'm just like 'wait hold on, can we go back to Bakura and Marik for a minute, there's some extreme unpacking to do here?' Those two are paying so much more in baggage fees here my guy wow

Violently uninterested in any of the spinoff media

[recentanimenews]

The Manga Review, 5/27/22

Everybody’s talking about Tokyopop this week, as the publisher that brought us Mixx, Sailor Moon, and Rising Stars of Manga celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. To mark the occasion, Brigid Alverson interviewed Tokyopop founder Stu Levy about the company’s history. “Not a single person believed it would work—and frankly many called us crazy,” Levy recalled. “Even internally, most of my team was against it—or at least wanted to test it. My view was we either had conviction and went all-in or we didn’t. Testing wouldn’t work because retailers would always favor the left-to-right reading books if they had a choice—so there would never be a true test of its potential. So, I bet the company on it.” Over at Drop-In to Manga, Tony reflects on how Tokyopop titles such as Chobits and GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka helped introduce him to the joy of reading manga. “I know there’s a lot of criticism towards its founder, Stu Levy, and a lot of it is warranted,” he observes. “But I still respect Tokyopop for showing Japanese manga publishers that America can be a hotspot for manga during a time when that wasn’t the case.”

NEWS

Moto Hagio has just published a new installment in her on-again, off-again vampire saga The Poe Clan. The newest storyline, Poe no Ichizoku: Ao no Pandora, takes place in present-day Munich. No word yet on plot details… [Anime News Network]

Mari Yamazaki’s Olympia Kyklos will resume serialization in Grand Jump next month. The story follows the adventures of an ancient Greek potter who’s accidentally transported to the 1964 Tokyo games. C’mon, this needs to be licensed STAT! [Anime News Network]

Are new chapters of Hunter x Hunter on the horizon? [Variety]

Brace yourself for more H.P. Lovecraft: Dark Horse will be publishing Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth in a single omnibus edition. No word yet on a release date. [Anime News Network]

Earlier this week, the employees of Seven Seas Entertainment announced that they’d formed their own union, United Workers of Seven Seas. In a statement on their website, union organizers explain the rationale for their decision: “The company has grown exponentially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But with rapid growth comes growing pains, and we, the workers of Seven Seas, have been shouldering much of that pain. We find ourselves overworked, underpaid, and we do not currently receive the benefits otherwise typical of the publishing industry.” [ICv2]

FEATURES AND INTERVIEWS

Are you interested in learning more about the roots of contemporary Japanese culture? Kathryn Hemmann offers a great list of “popular-audience books that are smart and specific yet still accessible to a casual reader,” from Matt Alt’s Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World to Tara Devlin’s Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends. [Contemporary Japanese Literature]

Jocelyne Allen swoons over the gorgeous artwork and soapy plot lines of Ashita Niji ga Denakutemo. [Brain vs. Book]

Over at Women Write About Comics, Carrie McClain highlights some of Seven Seas’ best new releases. [Women Write About Comics]

The folks at Anime Feminist want to know which unfinished or cancelled Tokyopop series you’d like to see rescued. [Anime Feminist]

Bill Curtis wins the award for best headline of the week with How to Ease Your Big Burly, Hairy, Glistening, Beer Swillin’, Iron Pumpin’ DUDE Self Into the Wonderful World of Shojo & Josei Manga. [Yatta-Tachi]

Speaking of josei, the Mangasplainers dedicate their latest episode to an in-depth exploration of Fumi Yoshinaga’s All My Darling Daughters. [Mangasplaining]

Congratulations to the Manga Mavericks crew: they just celebrated their 200th episode with a roundtable discussion about Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one-shot Goodbye, Eri. [Manga Mavericks]

Lucas DeRuyter revisits Death Note, a series he “took super seriously” as a teen viewer. “When I watched Death Note as a teenager I definitely hadn’t lived enough to recognize it as camp; nor did I have as firm of an understanding of my own sexuality as I do today,” he observes. “I thought I’d be returning to a problematic fave, but was delighted to realize that Death Note is camp. Accidental, ostentatious camp that, in its attempts to create a dark and edgy power fantasy, stumbles so spectacularly that it tears down some of the worst kinds of people and beliefs around today.” [Anime Feminist]

REVIEWS

Reviewing volume five of Kageki Shojo!!, Yuri Stargirl raises a good question about the state of shojo and josei licensing in North America. “Has the industry just become dominated by trite, superficial storytelling and bland art that can’t decide if it’s moe or realistic?” she asks. “Or is what gets translated to the US market so limited, that they pick lowest common denominator titles to publish even though there are a lot of higher quality ones in Japan going untranslated?” Meanwhile, Megan D. takes a look at one of the weirder titles DMP ever licensed, Bambi and Her Pink Gun, while Rebecca Silverman reviews Erica Friedman’s new book By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga. “If you are a fan of yuri or simply want to understand what the deal is with any of the genre’s elements or major texts, I’d highly recommend reading this book,” Silverman argues. “It’s both an analysis of and a love letter to the genre, both academic and accessibly readable, and worth your time.”

Aoba-kun’s Confessions (Krystallina, Daiyamanga)

As the Gods Will: The Second Series (Krystallina, Daiyamanga)

Bootsleg (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Vol. 14 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)

BTOOOM! (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)

Cat + Gamer, Vol. 1 (darkstorm, Anime UK News)

Chikyu Misaki (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)

Days on Fes, Vol. 5 (Antonio Mireles, The Fandom Post)

Fly Me to the Moon, Vols. 10-11 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)

A Galaxy Next Door, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)

Genju no Seiza (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)

I Cannot Reach You, Vol. 4 (Sarah, Anime UK News)

The King’s Beast, Vol. 6 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)

Kubo Won���t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 1 (SKJAM, SKJAM! Reviews)

Let’s Go Karaoke! (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)

Let’s Go Karaoke! (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)

Lost Lad London, Vol. 1 (Danica Davidson, Otaku USA)

Lost Lad London, Vol. 1 (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)

Love and Heart, Vol. 1 (Kaley Connell, Yatta-Tachi)

Mieruko-Chan, Vol. 5 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)

Mizuno and Chayama (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)

My Boy, Vol. 9 (Sarah, Anime UK News)

O Maidens in Your Savage Season, Vols. 6-7 (Helen, The OASG)

Ode to Kirihito (Ian Wolf, Anime UK News)

Our Fake Marriage, Vol. 8 (Krystallina, The OASG)

Paradise Residence (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)

Prince Freya, Vol. 6 (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)

Rent-A-Girlfriend, Vol. 12 (Demelza, Anime UK News)

Sasaki and Miyano, Vol. 5 (Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho?!)

semelparous, Vol. 2 (G-Man, Okazu)

Solo Leveling, Vol. 4 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)

Spy x Family, Vol. 7 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)

St. Dragon Girl (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)

Strawberry Fields Once Again, Vol. 3 (Rai, The OASG)

Witch Watch, Vols. 1-2 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)

By: Katherine Dacey

[bedlamsbard]

So, I get the distaste for Rebels and The Bad Batch (definitely that last one), and I can certainly suggest @agoddamn's series of watching Clone Wars (because wow, I'd forgotten how poor that series could be), but with The Mandalorian, the most I can understand of your dislike of it is how it handles previous characters. Which, yeah, Filoni and his Precious OCs, but other than that, what about it? I mean, the plot/theme seemed simple to me: focusing on the relationship between Din and Grogu.

Ack, I didn't realize that out of context of my past ten years of fannishness and fannish engagement the takeaway from recent critical posts would be "Bedlam hates Star Wars," let alone "Bedlam hates Rebels"!

Look, I love Star Wars -- I genuinely do love Rebels and TCW, I'm very fond of Resistance and most of the films, and there are other parts of the ancillaries (books, comics, games) that I love, like, and/or enjoy. There are other parts of the saga that I dislike, a lot of it that I'm pretty neutral on because I just don't care; there's very little that I outright hate. (There are things that I avoid because I know I would hate them; I won't read Dark Disciple because the old EU Republic/Clone Wars comics from Dark Horse were formative for me and I'm not really over how Quinlan Vos's story line got retconned for TCW and thus the novel, so I don't feel the need to rub my face in it.)

I think, especially with Star Wars, there's a tendency to think that people only complain because they dislike or hate whatever it is they're complaining about it. I don't talk about the parts of Star Wars I actually hate because I frankly don't see the point in talking about the stuff I have no emotional investment in, or where my emotional investment only is distaste -- that's why I'll almost never talk about the ST. (And why I've only talked about the back half of Rebels S4, which I do genuinely hate, a handful of times over the years: I don't want to think about the thing I actually hate.) I talk about Rebels and TCW because those are the parts of Star Wars that I love and because I occasionally want to dig into why there are parts of them that just don't work for me. (And I do realize that if anyone pays attention to what I reblog and don't it may come off as me not liking them particularly; 99% of the time I only reblog TCW or Rebels gifsets immediately after I've rewatched episodes, and I haven't been doing rewatches lately for various reasons.) Critique doesn't mean "I hate it," it means "I want to think about this more on a critical level." It means "I love the puzzle pieces, why does the way they were put together not work for me? How could they have been done differently so that it would have worked for me?" Like I said a few weeks ago, while I don't want to actively add negativity to the fandom, I also don't really want to sit down and shut up if something isn't doing it for me if otherwise I love the thing; I want to figure out why it doesn't work. This is the flip side of "if you can't say anything positive, don't say anything at all" -- I'm not talking to Dave Filoni or the other showrunners (and I would never say any of this to the face of anyone at Lucasfilm), I'm sitting here talking to myself and to my friends about why the puzzle pieces don't quite come together for me. (And the bonus of me putting it on Tumblr is that I can actually find it again, because sometimes I do want to go back and see what I said about XYZ.)

If I'm not actively talking about all the things I love about Rebels or TCW it's because I don't particularly feel the need to justify why Thing works for me, because I already know it works for me. Or because I spent the first two years or so of Rebels and big chunks of TCW doing episode liveblogs, which are on the back end of my "Bedlam watches Rebels" and "Bedlam watches TCW" tags, and I don't feel the need to come back and say "I love the way XYZ happened" six or seven times. Or because I think it would be obvious because I've written something around a million words of fanfic about the two of them. Or because I have three Rebels tattoos and am a Rebels cosplayer, which obviously I don't really talk about on Tumblr but is something that I personally know. I mostly have not talked about The Bad Batch publicly (and only a little privately) because mostly it's not doing much that triggers strong feelings in me one way or another, though I do have the whole "why are these puzzle pieces not working for me, how would I have put them together differently" feel about parts of it.

As for Mando specifically -- look, Mando's fine. I understand why it appeals to a lot of people, even if I am not one of those people. I don't particularly find Grogu appealing either on a character or an aesthetic level. I find that for me personally the show varies wildly in quality from episode to episode; I find it to be a little too clever about itself in how it deals with both the world, its plot, its place in the saga, and its characters in a way drives me up the wall. It hits a couple of really specific things that are huge do not wants for me and some of that is on a shallow note of "I don't like how they do their Twi'lek prosthetics" and some of it is "I don't particularly like the aesthetics" and some of it is a weightier "I'm confused about what the thematic points of the show are because they're all over the map" and yes, some of it is, "I don't like how Mando intersects or does not intersect with other parts of the saga." Or the way that it gets valorized for being live action rather than animated by a lot of the fandom and then gets elevated over the other parts of the saga that I care about the most (TCW and Rebels). I've talked in the past about how Mando genuinely made me feel gaslit, even if that was no one's intention and thus was not actually gaslighting; it just managed to hit on my specific issues. I don't talk about Mando that much because mostly I just don't care and when I do talk about it it's because it managed to trip into something I do care about.

And if I sound particularly cranky right now, it's because every time I say something critical and it starts making tracks out of my usual circles, someone comes in to go "wow! you must hate Star Wars!" or "wow! you care a lot about [aesthetic choice]! why would you care about that!" or "wow! you're an idiot for thinking XYZ would happen/not happen!" or variations thereof. I've been in fandom for twenty years. I've been in this fandom since George W. Bush was president. I know how it goes. I'm going to reiterate the post I made after the Mando finale:

in any expanded canon, people are going to have different deal-breakers on where they can suspend their disbelief and it’s not a judgment on you and yours if theirs is different than yours. nor does it automatically say something bad about them! it just means y’all have different priorities and that’s fine! neither one of you should be jumping down each other’s throat because their line in the sand is “this contradicts something in previous canon” and yours is “the CGI is unconvincing.”

I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of condescension (rather than hostility, which tbh is par for the course in SW so I just tune it out) recently and like…people can have different priorities. it’s fine. they’re not stupid for having their priority be “I don’t like the prosthetics” when your priority is “character A was mean to character B.” don’t worry, Lucasfilm isn’t listening to any of us.