#So many retellings...

[msbunnat]

Re-drawing my Zeus and Ganimedes designs using ancient pottery as reference

[umblrspectrum]

go read Memento Nori and Like the Stars and What Friends Are For and just generally all of Ad Astra Per Aspera by LadyDaybreaker on ao3

[beaulesbian]

The Terror 1.09

[bookshelf-in-progress]

The trick to writing a good story is to make sure it has at least one element that people like so much that they don't care if other elements are imperfect.

People are drawn to stories with stuff they like; they're going to like flawed stories that have those things more than they're going to like perfect stories that don't have those things. I personally love certain authors because of one thing they do well--I go to this one for character, and this one for intricate plot, and this one for immersive worldbuilding, etc.--and get confused when people complain about the other elements not being done well because that's not what I'm reading for. If one element is really well-done, I will forgive a million other storytelling sins that would make me tear apart a book I liked less. If I can give that grace to other authors, I can trust other readers to give me that same grace, if they like my stories well enough to keep reading them.

[storytellering]

if anyone's looking for me, I'll be in delulu land manifesting Tony Redgrave for the new dmc anime, don't try and get me back xoxo thanks

[lycandrophile]

does anyone want to hear me rant about how jekyll and hyde can function as an allegory for how trans manhood is portrayed as an evil contagion that twists pretty, mild-mannered women into violent, deformed monsters? because i’m not even done reading it yet and i already have so many thoughts about the parallels between how hyde is described and how trans men are seen.

[wish-i-were-heather]

"icarus imagined himself to be the stick of a candle, the wings to be the wick, and the sun to be the flame. for a small time, the wick would burn. the candle would be alight, shining brilliantly, lighting up the space for as long as the wick could last. until inevitably, the wick reached its end, the candle burning out. until the wick finally died, reaching the stick of the candle and engulfing that, too, in flames."

[cosmicourple]

hnnnn,,,, Wetthunderthighs hot spring sex. Hnhhhh,,-

[valensolo12]

Been playing Pillars of Eternity all week and decided to try to keep a journal of interesting moments, since it turned out to be pretty fun when i did it with fallout 1. It's a much longer game so this is gonna take a while but here are my favorite pages!

also a family photo of the party so far :) Durance is the weird uncle

[shmowder]

In case you missed it, Game Rant did an interview with Nikolay Dybowski about Pathologic 3. Here is the link for it.

And here are the bits that stood out the most to me:

Q: The non-linearity of time and how it will be related to the nature of the Town are also core story components. How did this affect design and direction?

A: Connecting non-linear time with a long, narrative-heavy story that involves many characters and cause-and-effect chains would be extremely difficult. We focused on what the player feels in the moment rather than on gathering information in the right order. The latter approach works well in shorter formats like Her Story or 12 Minutes, but in Pathologic, it would be overwhelming.

We wanted players to feel like “everything, everywhere, all at once”—similar to Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five. Different versions of reality coexist simultaneously, creating a “quantum” feeling for the player. Look at the time travel mechanic as an opportunity to correct mistakes, or even to make deliberate mistakes in order to unlock new paths and ideas. It is like a "sanctioned save scum."

-

Q: Conversely, how will it (Pathologic 3) connect to and consider the events and characters in Pathologic 2?

A: Consider it as two subjective retellings of the same events. This is the same Town, the same twelve days, the same participants and events that occurred in the Haruspex’s story. But this is a different perspective. Like two witnesses recounting the same event in Rashomon, the stories vary greatly, each focusing on different details. Finally, we always give our heroes the right to make honest mistakes, forget, and even lie. Every narrator is an unreliable narrator.

-

Q: How did Pathologic’s previous philosophical explorations help inform or play into the narrative and themes here?

A: Everything we now see as true and valuable, we’ve kept. Everything we’ve outgrown, like childhood clothes, we either reimagined and reinterpreted to give these ideas new meaning, or let go of them. After all, we’ve grown a lot (hopefully, along with the industry). When I first conceived Pathologic, I was 21 and completely alone. Now I’m 47, surrounded by incredibly talented people who enrich this universe as much as I do, and that makes a difference.

We’ve kept the idea of the tragedy of utopian projects. We kept the idea that the plague is a voice of the natural order—one that the thinking human mind cannot accept—and that it has its own truth. We retained the belief that evil cannot be defeated with its own tools or outplayed on its field; yet it can be defeated realistically in a different, orthogonal way. In another dimension.

-

Q: It’s mentioned that the Bachelor is searching for an immortal man in Pathologic 3. Can you say if this is in reference to Mark Immortell?

A: No, there’s no connection between Simon Kain (one of the town’s rulers) and Mark Immortell (the director of the town theater). Mark is a clown. He awkwardly mimics Simon, parodying him, which is why he takes on this pseudonym. He's fully aware that he’s a jester, and the gesture itself is ironic.

-

Q: What do you hope players will take away most from Pathologic 3?

A: The hope that humanity remains a promising and capable species.

-

Also, new game pictures and screenshots dropped:

(some are old ones I forgot to post)

[themoonking]

the book trend that needs to be left in the dust for the new year is greek mythology retellings. i am so sick and tired of "retellings" of greek (or roman, but mainly greek) mythology from authors that clearly have a very surface level pop cultural understanding of the myth(s) they're adapting and the culture(s) they're depicting. especially the many that market themselves as "feminist retellings" where the "feminism" is basically just "men bad sometimes", and especially when they're "feminist retellings" that take some of the few mythological women who get happy endings and take it away from them for the sake of saying "men bad sometimes". it's all so shallow and they exploded this year and i'm sick of it.

[teawiththegods]

I think we have enough feminist Medusa retellings thank you very much.

How about instead we explore how Perseus risks his life to save his Mama?

[ritzy-biscuit]

Ohhh this sound interesting!

It premieres October 10

[fictionadventurer]

Fairy Tale Retelling I'll Never Write: King Thrushbeard as 1930s screwball comedy

The "princess" is the daughter of a business magnate who has managed to hang onto his wealth in the midst of the Depression.

Girl has some kind of "coming-out" ball where she insults all the men with the best '30s zingers available.

Including our young, handsome, witty hero (son of an even richer business magnate) who can go toe-to-toe with her in arguments, until she slaps him with a Thrushbeard nickname that sticks.

Her outraged father declares he'll marry her off to the first tramp who shows up at their door.

Thrushbeard, who's really attracted to this difficult girl, learns of this from his cynical, sharp-tongued, somewhat-socialist journalist friend, and makes some remark about how he'd be willing to live as a hobo to have her. Journalist friend retorts that Thrushbeard couldn't last a day outside his life of luxury.

Because this is a rom-com, this leads to A Bet. If Thrushbeard can successfully wed this girl in the guise of a hobo, he has to live like one for a certain amount of time, without drawing on his father's resources or letting her on to his true identity.

Thrushbeard shows up in disguise, there is Witty Sparring between him and the princess, and the princess winds up marrying him mostly to spite her father--if he thought this threat would make her apologize for her behavior, he had another think coming. Now his family legacy's tied to a hobo and he's got to live with that.

Unfortunately, so does she. The newlyweds are out in the street within moments of the wedding.

There is Comedy about how the princess haa no clue how to function outside her clean and glamorous world, and Thrushbeard's not much better.

With some assist from Journalist Friend (who is not about to let the story of the century slip out of his grasp) they manage to hop a freight car and settle down in a shanty town.

More Comedy about her total inability to complete domestic tasks. So it's not Totally Sexist, she gets the upper hand when her husband also proves unable to complete these tasks he claims were child's play.

There are various attempts to Find Jobs and Make Money, which are all humorously thwarted by Comedy Shenanigans. Journalist Friend has his work cut out for him just to keep these two idiots alive. (He wants to win the bet, but he also doesn't want to be responsible for his buddy's death.)

At one point, the couple winds up in a boxcar again and share a heart-to-heart where they finally see each other as people instead of sparring partners.

Princess finally starts a sidewalk stand where she starts to make a bit of money. In an Unfortunate Coincidence, Thrushbeard's dad shows up in the area, and Thrushbeard has to meet him as himself to keep him from finding out about this cockamamie scheme. During this confrontation (with his father who thinks he's shirking his responsibilities), Thrushbeard is inadvertently responsible for destroying his wife's stand.

To Thrushbeard's horror, his wife responds by demanding a new job to replace the one she lost, and his father gives her a job working in one of his houses.

Now Thrushbeard has to live a double life as himself and as the hobo husband his wife knows.

At a Glittering Party, Thrushbeard as Wealthy Heir is the center of attention while his wife is working as a servant and frugally trying to swipe scraps for his supper.

He tries to avoid her, but Tangled Comedy Mishaps lead him to stumble over her, sending her scraps flying and causing her major embarrassment as some members of the press recognize her.

In trying to help her, he acts too much like her husband, and the secret slips.

His wife slaps him silly.

She subjects him to a scathing tirade about what a heartless nutcase he is, and how the worst part is that she had fallen in love with her hobo of a husband, but he's not even real, and you can die in a ditch for all I care.

She tries to storm out, but he catches her by the wrists and tries to explain that he did it all out of Love for Her, and he did everything wrong and she can have her divorce if she wants, but he loves her more than ever and he'll love her until the day he dies.

She just stares at him, and finally she's like, "You're worse than a nut. You're a sap. And I'm the nut who's falling for it."

(It's a screwball comedy rom-com. Emotional realism has no place here).

Kisses, reconciliation, big proper society wedding. Journalist Friend wins big with his inside scoop (which Mr. and Mrs. Thrushbeard allow him to publish because he did keep them alive (even though this is all his fault) and the story's public anyway so they may as well get the facts from a friendly source.)

Thrushbeard and his wife both take steps to improve their fathers' business practices and help out their hobo friends.

Journalist friend gives them a wedding present of an unpublished photo of them standing in front of their shanty looking all gooey-eyed at each other. The couple hangs it in a place of honor in their fancy house, and the story ends on that image.

[the-monkey-ruler]

I know that much of the “journey to the west” novel is made up of episodic adventures, but I was curious if they ever tried to adapt the story to a linear/serialized format? (I don't remember where I read it, but there was a play(?) that tied two arcs together, in which White Bone Spirit and a demon from another arc were sworn brothers, I think?).

Oh wow! I guess if you mean by linear format you mean like an entire series was made then yes this has happened dozens of times! There are many TV shows that cover the entirety of the journey!

1964 Son Goku Goes West (孫悟空西へ行く) Live Action

1971 New Journey to the West (布袋戲 新西遊記) Puppets

1974 Journey to the West / Sai Yau Gei (西遊記 西游记) Live Action

1978 Monkey (Saiyūki) (西遊記, 西遊記系列) Live Action

1983 The Handsome Monkey King (美猴王) Puppets

1986 Journey to the West (西游记) Live Action

1987 The Monkey King of Heaven (齊天美猴王)

1989 Journey to the West (西游记) Live Action

1994 Journey to the West (西行漫记) Live Action

1995 Monkey King (美猴王) Animation

1996 Journey to the West (西遊記 (貳) 西游记2) Live Action

1999 Legends of the Monkey King (西游记) Animation

1999 Monkey Magic (モンキーマジック) 西游记

2000 Monkey King (齊天大聖孫悟空) Live Action

2002 The Monkey King: Quest for the Sutra (齐天大圣孙悟空 / 齊天大聖孫悟空) Live Action

2005 Treasure Lucky Star (夺宝幸运星) Animation

2006 Saiyūki (JTTW 1) (西游记 西遊記) Live Action

2009 Monkey King (美猴王) Animation

2010 The Monkey, Monk, and Monsters go west (西游记) Animation

2010 Journey to the West (西遊記 / 西游记) Live Action

2010 Journey to the West New Field History (西遊記新野史) Puppets

2010 Journey to the West at Shuimu Theater (水木剧场西游记) Animation

2010Journey to the West Documentary (袋戲預告片之西遊記錄片)

2011 Journey to the West (西遊記 / 西游记) Live Action

2013 Radio Play Puppet Show "Journey to the West" (廣播劇布袋戲《西遊記》) Puppets

2014 I Go Westward Journey (我去西游) CGI

2015 Westward Journey: Monsters Don't Run! (西游之妖怪别跑)！Live Action

2015 Monkey King's Three-Tune Banana Fan (孙悟空三借芭蕉扇) Live Action

2018 Past Journey to the West (西游记之八戒与沙僧 西遊之八戒與沙僧) Live Action

2018 Classic Journey to the West

2020 Journey to the West: Conquer the Demons (西游降魔篇) Live Action

2020 Sanmiao Children's Journey to the West (西游记 动画版三淼)Animation

33. 2020 The Legends of Monkey King (大泼猴) 34. 2020 Journey to the West (西游记: 中国经典名著) 35. 2021 Journey to the West God of War (西游战神诀) Live Action 36. 2022 Saber Theater - Journey to the West with Saber (马刀剧场 马刀西游) Animation 37. 2022 Legend of Wukong TV series (悟空传 / 悟空传电视剧版)Live Action 38. 2024 The Legend of Wukong (悟空传) Animation

That is the recent list of Journey to the West FOCUSED shows, there are plenty of other shows that are more alternative universe, continuations, or just crossover depending on what you are looking for!

If you ever do remember the series where White Bone Spirit has a sworn brother please let me know! That sounds super interesting!

[magic-crazy-as-this]

Hey, all!

I decided to do a Magical Girl version of my own DC OC, Penelope Todd - Jason's sister.

I was super inspired by the Magical Girl Batfamily AU by @bloomeng - if you haven't seen it already, you should absolutely check it out and like it and share it and love it forever!

However, to make it things little closer to my own version of canon events (aka "Earth 860"), I came up with some of my own ideas, too.

In this AU, Martha Wayne wasn't murdered beside her husband in an act of random violence but in an effort to get control of a magical string of pearls that she created with each bead bestowing its user with a unique magical ability.

Now the pearls have passed down to Bruce and he gives one away to each of his children when they're ready to wield their power, both as an act of unity and as a way of him letting go of his traumatic past.

When the children first come into their power, they're named "Robin" and are given a collapsable staff that houses their pearl. The intention is that each Robin will pass down this staff to the next as a family tradition.

But after Jason's death, Penelope stole both his pearl and the staff for herself and set out to become her own hero, "Red Phoenix".

⌞ ° • 🦇 • ° ⌟

Designing a magical girl for a character like Penelope was a really fun challenge because she's more sporty and practical, she wouldn't wear all the lace and ruffles and ribbons and miniskirts usually associated with the genre.

So it was fun to think about what kind of "extras" I could add onto her costume without it getting in her way.

Now I'm just resisting the urge to add lil' wings to the boots of her actual superhero suit... which I'll definitely get around to drawing one day!