#Sometimes I still consider writing a sequel to Hindsight. To just completely get it all out and put it out to pasture for good.

[mellarked-katnisseverdeen]

I think a part of the reason I still think about Hindsight (my AU with canon Everthorne) is such a thing for me is because it is so opposite of my inclinations? And that challenge as a writer keeps me thinking about that what if.

Most anyone whose read anything of mind knows I don't write angsty endings well, so I don't tend to do them. For the most part I form, if nothing else, a hopeful ending with a more positive outlook. That's what I enjoy AND write best, so my habit is to lean that way. I don't get to write entirely negative, sad endings a lot unless I have a damn good excuse.

Which makes it more intriguing when an idea comes up that way- cause a lot of thought has to go in it, and it's trickier to feel good about what I've come up with.

Thus, yea. I still think about and consider ideas for continuing Hindsight whenever I get ideas about what it would look like if Everlark didn't happen. Not because I like it, but because I don't and that makes it harder but kinda satisfying to feel like I've puzzled together. Even if I hate what I come up.

Not sure where I was going with this. Enjoy some random late ramblings about writing from me XD.

[kinogane]

Meditations on Playing as Earthlings in Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Part 2

(previously)

The Dragon Ball Xenoverse games allow you to play as five races: Earthling (the default selection), Saiyan, Majin, Namekian, and the elegantly named "Frieza Race", with the first three races having an additional choice of gender. Compared to the Dragon Ball games mentioned in the previous post, Xenoverse probably differentiates the most between race/gender combinations. Each has a drastically different basic moveset that will be extremely relevant in combat, especially for strike-oriented playstyles, each have different stat spreads (and sometimes mechanics) that incentivize different playstyles, and arguably most importantly, each have their own unique techniques, the centerpiece of which is the race-specific Awoken Skill.

For context, in the first Dragon Ball Xenoverse, there were two problems with transformation skills like Super Saiyan and Unlock Potential. First was that they counted as Super Attacks, so you would have to give up a skill slot to make use of them, and second was that the transformations available to your character consisted of Kaioken, Unlock Potential, and variants of Super Saiyan. So like past Dragon Ball games, you weren't especially rewarded for playing a non-Saiyan character, since it meant you had to run Unlock Potential (or run a gimmicky Kaioken build), while Saiyans could at least nominally choose between that, and multiple variants of Super Saiyan that suited their playstyle.

This was remedied in the second Xenoverse game with the addition of Awoken Skills, which were transformations that occupied a separate slot. More importantly, Xenoverse 2 also added race-specific Awoken Skills, which meant that there was actually a compelling reason to pick races besides Saiyans.

In theory, at least. In practice?

Frieza Race characters probably gained the most in the sequel. Their Awoken Skill, Turn Golden, is relatively straightforward, both from a gameplay standpoint and an aesthetic standpoint. Your ki blasts are stronger and you do the Golden Frieza thing. Much like the form in the series proper, it's a bit dull and uninspired as a body recolor, but it is identifiable as a powerful transformation.

Namekians gained the ability to Become Giant, hearkening back to King Piccolo in the original Dragon Ball (and I guess Lord Slug in the movies), which as I understand was a fun transformation to use before it got nerfed in subsequent patches. Currently, it's a neat gimmick that's fun to mess around with and can be effective in bursts, but the stamina drain means it can't see the extended use that just about every other Awoken Skill can.

Majin gained the wildly unpopular ability to undergo Purification, which translates into becoming a Kid Buu with a special moveset. A Kid Buu that, mind you, only changes its skin and eye color as appropriate; regardless of how you customized your character before the transformation, your Purified Majin is going to look basically the same as any other Purified Majin, which is kind of a problem in a game where a significant portion of the userbase's interest in the game is at least partially in coordinating outfits for their player characters.

Earthlings got to ride on a Flying Nimbus and use the Power Pole.

The race-specific Awoken Skill for Earthlings is riding around on a cloud that kinda already loses a lot of its luster when, by construction, all characters can fly, and wielding a weapon/tool that hasn't been relevant since the original Dragon Ball. It's a nostalgia play that basically no Earthling character is going to use extensively, since you can't use your own skills and are limited to a moveset that loses its visual and gameplay novelty in minutes, at most.

It should be mentioned that Saiyans, as of the time of this writing, have access to five variants of Super Saiyan.

(Caveat that I can't speak for the PvP side of these evaluations, and quite frankly, I couldn't be bothered since Xenoverse PvP seems thoroughly unappealing, but I digress.)

So yet again, even when concessions are explicitly made to make playing non-Saiyan races an appealing alternative from a gameplay standpoint, Saiyans are still the clear winners and Earthlings are still clear losers. Furthermore, there's at least an argument that the non-Earthling Awoken Skills at least invoke an image of power as understood in Dragon Ball. For all the shortcomings of the Namekian and Majin Awoken Skills, you can at least point to King Piccolo and Kid Buu as signifiers of strength. If anything, the image of Goku on the Nimbus with the Power Pole is reminiscent of a time when Dragon Ball was significantly less concerned with displays of power, which is kind of counterintuitive when it's invoked as a method of attaining greater power.

Put reductively, it's kind of a bummer, but then again, isn’t this dynamic, of Saiyans being given the lion's share of power and relevance while Earthlings get virtually none, the most Dragon Ball shit ever?

Hindsight has only made Videl's presence in the early parts of the Buu Saga all the more fascinating. For that run of episodes, all the way up to the World Martial Arts Tournament, the degree to which Videl is an active participant and outright combatant in the action is kind of surreal. It's not entirely without precedent, since Chi-Chi had her moments in the original Dragon Ball and the occasional moment in Z, but unlike Chi-Chi, it really does seem like Videl's perfectly content to be this active for as long as she's around. What's more, the show explicitly makes reference to her being wildly more powerful than her dad, who himself is established as of legitimate world champion caliber, and it even goes out of its way to have Gohan teach her to fly. While that scene is absolutely primarily meant to set up her true purpose in the series writ large, there's a pretty good correlation in Dragon Ball between "people who can fly" and "people who can at least fight a little".

Then, of course, Spopovich happens.

I'm not particularly interested in litigating post-crisis Videl here, since it's been discussed plenty, and yeah, I also think it's more than a little bit of a bummer. But knowing the trajectory of post-Z Dragon Ball, especially Super, it makes Videl's irrelevance on an action level kind of an inevitability? Like, yeah, maybe if she bounced back harder and played a larger role after the Spopovich fight, you maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe could draw a line to her at least being comparable to the likes of Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha, but given the reality of modern Dragon Ball, would that be anything more than a pyrrhic victory?

So really, when you consider that the frankly ridiculous power scaling of Super is really just the logical extension of the scaling in Z that was already well underway by the Buu Saga, it naturally raises the question of why they bothered to even make Videl this much of an active force in the first place. From square one, she's arguably destined to be relegated to Gohan's love interest and future wife, so why go through the effort of showing the audience that she's stronger than every Earthling that's not a Z-Fighter? It does parallel Chi-Chi's strength in Dragon Ball to help further foreshadow her pairing with Gohan like Chi-Chi with Goku, but then why make her be that into fighting when Chi-Chi was always clearly content to be a housewife?

And like, Jesus Christ, all that only to be that definitive with that Spopovich fight?

I bring Videl up because my main created character in Xenoverse 2 is a female Earthling. Ever since I booted the game for the first time, there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to primarily play as a female Earthling, because with it came the knowledge that I was going to control a female Earthling doing and achieving some frankly wild shit, like going toe-to-toe with Final Form Mira, literal deities, Jiren, and Ultra Instinct Goku(?!?), sometimes back-to-back in certain Parallel Quests.

And of course I can, because that is the entire reason for the Xenoverse games' existence. The game has always been an unabashed power fantasy all about defeating some of the most powerful entities in Dragon Ball history with your own created character on your own terms.

And yet, as I do all of this with my female Earthling, the knowledge that in canon, the most powerful analogue to my character is Videl, a character who almost literally gets the relevance beaten out of her in a brutal and unforgettable manner, makes the experience feel almost rebellious. It feels like everything from the godawful Awoken Skill to the subpar race/gender stat distribution for a strike-oriented build to the very nature and history of Dragon Ball itself is working against my character becoming a ludicrously powerful force of nature, and yet I not only can, but literally must push through and go even further beyond.

I cannot emphasize enough that this sense of transgression has no basis at all when it comes to the game. Absolutely nothing about the Xenoverse games explicitly suggests that Earthlings, female or otherwise, are somehow destined to be strictly lesser than Saiyans or any other races. Again, the game is an unabashed power fantasy; it's going to let you achieve that power fantasy regardless of race or gender, because to do so otherwise is completely antithetical to the entire reason people play the game in the first place.

But looking at past Dragon Ball games, at least to me, makes clear that they really didn't have to include the option to play as an Earthling. They clearly feel no obligation to do so, since they've excluded it in previous games. They completely dodge the need to include a human-like race option with the existence of Saiyans, who aren't even differentiated by the presence of a tail. I genuinely don't think any significant number of people would have even batted an eye over the exclusion of Earthlings. ‘Cause, you know, it's Dragon Ball, why would you play as an Earthling?

But they did. They let you choose to play as an Earthling, a race that Dragon Ball has essentially been drilling into your head, for years, is a strictly less powerful and less interesting version of Saiyans with practically no upside. They gave you the option, and I took it, all because it effectively let me play out an extended Videl what-if by proxy and stretch credibility into complete, unrecognizable nonsense.

I recognize that this absolutely reflects more on me and my relationship with Dragon Ball as a whole than it does on Xenoverse, but when it’s the only Dragon Ball game that embraces customizable characters to the extent that it does, it’s necessarily going to be the only game that actually lets me grapple with that tension between the source and the spin-off, and reckon with how that can shape the audience’s experience and perception of the bigger picture.

[fictionstuff]

Plot: Surrounded by a forest and a gated entrance, the Grace Field House is inhabited by orphans happily living together as one big family, looked after by their "Mama," Isabella. Although they are required to take tests daily, the children are free to spend their time as they see fit, usually playing outside, as long as they do not venture too far from the orphanage—a rule they are expected to follow no matter what. However, all good times must come to an end, as every few months, a child is adopted and sent to live with their new family, never to be heard from again. However, the three oldest siblings have their suspicions about what is actually happening at the orphanage, and they are about to discover the cruel fate that awaits the children living at Grace Field, including the twisted nature of their beloved Mama. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Episodes: 12+11

Main Characters: Emma Norman Ray

Season 1 Points: 8.5/10

Season 2 Points: 6.0/10

I tried TPN only because it was on Wakanim and I finally subscribed to it, so I thought I should give TPN a try. I read that it was good and thus just wanted to see myself. I wasn't at all disappointed! … and then the 2nd season happened. Hence I gave it separate points. Before you should read this review, let me just say that the best way might be to read the manga from the very beginning, the first season is after all quite faithful to the story or to just start the manga after having seen the first season. Both seem good and valid to me. I did pick up the manga after watching the first season, but I also started the manga from the very beginning again. I am still enjoying the actual story quite a lot. TPN is a good mix of horror, mystery, psychological thriller with many friendship and family moments which make you quite a bit emotional, especially considering that our three main characters are innocent young kids. I do like the concept of the show, it is halfway original although keeping humans as some sort of livestock isn't necessarily original and new (Owari no Seraph for example started very much alike, although it is entirely different in hindsight).

The series revolves around 3 11 to 12 year old kids, 1 girl and 2 boys who grew up in an orphanage along with many others while some always get “adopted” after a while and leave the orphanage. Due to some coincidence (it wasn't, but that is the appeal of TPN, twists always get revealed) Emma and Norman rush after a kid to give her her favourite plush toy only to find out their livestock for demons and every person that was able to leave the orphanage before was eaten and killed by demons. From then on starts the break out plan, while the second season focuses on the aftermath of leaving and living in an unknown world.

That our main cast consists of 3 young children is highly refreshing, but also makes some things feel highly dramatic and over the top as well as illogical. Since I can't say I am the smartest geek around, I wasn't bothered much by it. It was just constant thought of ' are 12 years old really capable of this? '. On the other hand the writing of the plot is sometimes quite inconsistent and uses a lot of ' we got from point a to b, but how is left to your imagination '. It's a handy plot device to move things onwards, but hardly something that should be complimented, hence I can only give this solid 8.5 points, while season 2 deserves far less due to very inconsistent bad story writing, illogical choices and an awful ending.

Nonetheless I will focus on the first season here and mention that the escape plan and race were rather exciting, never a dull moment in the story with interesting twists and turns which added to the overall enjoyment of the series. The 3 main characters are highly sympathetic. We have Emma, our usual shounen protagonist, who just happens to be female. You either like her or you don't. She's smart but more than naïve and also highly of the opinion that she can save the world and has to save everyone even those that planned to eat you. You either accept that trait of hers or you might just dislike her entire character. I was quite a bit bothered by it, to be honest, but on the other hand Norman and Ray are all the much greater. Both are very intellectual and very much the leading force and strong support for Emma. They each have their area of expertise while Norman is a lot more open and Ray a little more closed off and the edgy kind of boy. In the second season however he receives a whole ton of character development and supports Emma fully without any regret. This might just be the only enjoyable part in season 2, because nobody else received any sort of development while the story just dropped between ' look a bunker – oh it explodes – oh we can dress up as demons – oh we're suddenly in a new place and look there are nice demons – we save them all and return, everyone is suddenly on our side – let's skip the end completely and the world is saved '. No need to say I very much dislike it and only give it credit for the lovely animation, which is good in season 1 and two. I love the character designs and smooth transitions.

The plot progression of the first season is very good though and if you love darker stories, I recommend the anime to you. The anime itself is quite beloved and while the second season destroyed the whole story, I think we should just see it as different entities and pretend that the sequel never happened. I did pick up the manga and I am looking forward to indulging myself more in the world of TPN.

On another short note: The second season sadly trampled over everything the first season safely build up and just rushed towards some shitty ending that was highly inexcusable. It indirectly conveyed that no more season will follow and that an unfinished story is now over with a time skip that showed nothing of what could even happen besides a happy ending that made no sense.

Animation/Character Design – 8.5

Characters/Story – 8.0 (Season 2: 6.0)

Enjoyment – 8.5 (Season 2: 6.5)

[butteredonions]

End-Of-Year Fic Meme

IT’S BAAAAACK!

I’m tagging anyone and everyone who would like to have fun with this. @bosstoaster, @velkynkarma, @ashinan, @mumblefox, @flusteredkeith, @atimelordswife, @oldmythos, @queenvallkyrie, @maychorian, @andriseup, and anyone else who wants to play!

[2017 onion edition]

Stats:

List of Fics Posted: They’re all Voltron :���) All gen unless otherwise indicated.

On Tumblr: Onion 2017 Masterpost: 10,800 words voltron thinktank masterpost: my portion of which equals ~5200

On AO3: The Size Of Our Actions, ch. 6-12 (smol!Shiro, de!aged fic, gen. 40,081 words added this year) The Cavalry (Paladins, adventure/mission fic. Conclusion of a 4-part series with @bosstoaster, @mumblefox, and @ashinan as part of the Season Two countdown. (9,644 words) First Steps (Lance-centric, Star Wars!AU) (9696 words) Foundation (Keith-centric, Star Wars!AU, prequel to First Steps) (8982 words) Intrinsic (Star Wars!AU featuring Padawan Shiro) (1219 words) Disturbance (Star Wars!AU, sequel to First Steps) (18915 words) like threads, weaving (Uliro, collection of 5 prompt fills) (5338 words) brace (Uliro​) (2532 words) collision (Uliro, role reversal AU of sorts) (10455 words) cutthroat (Lance-centric, Hunger Games!AU) (1363 words) colors don't fade (Keith-centric, remix for @andriseup) (2625 words) parallel (daemon!AU, primarily Keith and Pidge) (5656 words) if tomorrow never comes (time!travel AU, onion’s first Sheith) (4195 words) indulgence (Uliro featuring blankets and h/c) (1859 words) enough to endure this (Uliro soulmate AU) (4916 words) relentless (Hunger Games!AU, prequel of sorts. Shiro-centric, tagged as pre-Sheith) (3217 words)

Total number: 16, plus tumblr Total word count: 144,156 * ( tumblr: 15,995 | AO3: 128,161) *not counting another 100k+ of drafts that have yet to see the light of day :’)

Ship/character breakdown: Ship breakdown: 5 Uliro, 2 Sheith. The rest are gen. Character breakdown:  1 full ensemble piece; 1 smol!Shiro with complete ensemble (no single narrator, everyone gets a turn); 1 young!Shiro; 3 Lance-centric, featuring others; 3 Keith-centric (one with help from Pidge); 3 Ulaz POV. The rest are all Shiro :)

Characters that had the main focus: Exactly the same as last year: Shiro is the clear winner here. I have no regrets.

Answers to more questions beneath the cut!

Specifics:

Best/worst title? Best title: I am that rare breed of creature who loves titles :’) this year it’s a tie between collision and if tomorrow never comes. Both give me chills for different reasons. Worst title: I’m not really fond of cutthroat or relentless, but they’re accurate.

Best/worst first line?

The second-best and sometimes most evil part of a story. Best: if tomorrow never comes      Of all the reasons why Shiro had missed their date, ‘time travel’ is the last thing Keith expects to hear.     :’)

Worst: colors don’t fade     Finding out about Shiro hurts. Yeah, definitely, but also the understatement of the year. Something more riveting and gripping would’ve been a stronger opening for Keith here.

Best/worst last line? The best and also most evil part, too. Best: cutthroat      “My name’s Pidge,” Pidge snaps. The setting sun gleams in her glasses, her brown eyes vicious and hard. “District Three. Who are you?” One of the best plot twists and cliffhangers I pulled off all year.

Worst: colors don’t fade      “That’s Shiro’s number,” Commander Holt says, to the room, to his daughter, to Keith. His face is pale and equally full. Keith can barely breathe. “117-9875 is Shiro’s number. If his file’s here - if he’s in penal lockdown like my son is - then the Arena didn’t kill him after all.” Honestly it’s a good ending, I just don’t like it because I had more story to tell and ran out of time. This one’s entirely on me. There’s more here than I could get to and that irks me.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? Bit less. I’d planned on finishing two major WIPs this summer, but grad school and The Move™ took over so much more of life than I expected.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? I wasn’t expecting to foray into ships. I also wasn’t expecting to realize how deeply I love blankets and fluff omg What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. collision :) I love the premise and I’m stupidly proud of the pacing.

Okay, NOW your most popular story. I still have to count smol!Shiro, because it’s still in progress and it still isn’t done. Catch me next year on the wrap-up, too, hopefully with a finished thing~

Story most underappreciated by the universe? daemon!AU got a little less attention than I expected, but in hindsight it was a pretty busy time for folks and the pieces were quite short.

Story that could have been better? I really wish I could’ve spent more time on colors don’t fade. There was at least one more scene I wanted to write, but I ran out of time and energy for it pre-season four, and brooke had already patiently waited long enough. I wanted to do better for her. I also am not super happy with how The Cavalry turned out, but considering I wrote it when I had bronchitis, I guess it’s not bad.

Sexiest story? I started writing ships this year, so I guess.....that? it’s really mild ship as far as ship goes, though, hardly even noticeable most of the time. I don’t read hardcore ship so I don’t know how to write it beyond pining and snuggles, and I’m comfortable with that. Saddest story? enough to endure this. Most fun? collision practically wrote itself, which was awesome. Actually, so did First Steps - I grin wildly when I reread it. I miss writing fun scenes like the first half of that story. Story with single sweetest moment? The entirety of Smol Chapter Nine is so sweet and fluffy it gives me cavities. Also I giggled like a smol child myself writing it, so.

I also am just so partial to this moment in relentless:

Winning means killing three others. No; forty-seven. The odds aren’t good. “Keith,” Shiro manages. “I brought you something,” Keith says, pulling away to dig in his pocket. “Here.” A thin beam of sunlight breaks through the window, glinting weakly off the small copper object in Keith’s hand. “Keith,” Shiro says again, his breath caught in his throat. He cups his hands beneath Keith’s; the little rusted key dangles on the string between Keith’s fingers, between their hands. “I can’t take that from you, that’s - that goes to your father’s - ” “The shack’s a dump and we both know it,” Keith says, before Shiro can. His eyes shimmer, but his chin is set firm. “I need you to take it.” “I can’t,” Shiro breathes. He can’t take his eyes off Keith. “Keith, that’s all you have.” “No, you’re all I have,” Keith corrects, and pushes the key into Shiro’s right hand.

Hardest story to write? Probably The Cavalry, just because of circumstances. I gleefully volunteered to wrap-up the series, and had fun tying all the pieces together, but the timing just wasn’t good. I had to wait until all three other pieces were complete, as well as my grad school applications, and then I got bronchitis and was traveling that same weekend....just couldn’t dedicate myself to it properly or clear my head as much as it deserved.

Easiest/most fun story to write? collision wrote itself, I swear.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters? Yes. I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with writing Ulaz, and how much fun he’s been to explore and develop based off a mere ten minutes of content. I also wasn’t expecting to enjoy writing Lance as much as I did. I put off using his POV for a story until there wasn’t a choice, but he’s actually quite a fun narrator. He’s so stream-of-consciousness that he’s surprisingly easy and relatable to get into.

Most overdue story? parallel was at least a year in coming. I sat on those snippets for entirely too long.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? This year I posted my first sheith fic, and nobody died :) Which sounds irrational to someone outside the fandom, sure, but I’m glad and relieved. This year I took risks in taking prompts and learning how to answer them. That’s largely been nothing but fun, though I’ve had to learn how to say no to a few things and not feel guilty for them. It’s also been a great lesson in learning when good enough is fine and not waiting until things are perfect. Also, a fantastic way to keep writing and/or get back into it. All the prompts you’ve sent in have been motivating and fun to think about, even if I haven’t gotten to / or won’t quite get to them as I’d hoped. <3 I also learned it’s way easier to start ideas than finish them; fun, yes, but something I’m hoping to improve upon next year.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

1) Figure out a writing schedule that works with grad school, if that’s even possible. 2) Finish things, including: - The Size Of Our Actions - collision - maybe the epic star wars fic I’ve now been sitting on for a year and a half - and at least one of the AUs (Hunger Games, Star Wars, etc. or....?) 3) Boss has told me I should stop being scared of writing sick!fic

:) happy new year and 2018!

[animerunner]

Hey, so uh wow this was unexpected to see pop up.

So hi! I'm actually StarGirl11 on FF and Ao3! So Path's Divergence is my story.

You probably long have forgotten this but I think it was back when you had the old blog that got erased. I had pinged you around using an idea you had rambled about when watching SuperS. So we actually talked some before but its been years.

I am going to try and answer your questions and points. But please keep in mind I am sick with something nasty at the moment so I am not processing at my normal speed. And I sometimes jump around when reading due to my visual disorder. So if my comment seems haphazard that's why.

Also I'm linking the original deviantart here: https://www.deviantart.com/brerrabbit44/art/Sailor-Moon-A-Different-Path-Path-s-Divergence-807582531

Also hey Lamonta hope you see this, uh thanks. I don't know if it was choices made or my misunderstanding. But I didn't realize I had you to thank for this that made my probably entire year if we're being honest.

But this is long so its under the read more. Because I have zero filter when I get sick. So apologies in advance

So to kind of break down the thought process of why I went this way. Or at least from what I can remember when making the original idea 9 years ago.

I wanted to try doing a fic where the outer guardians were awakening instead of the inner guardians. Long time fan of the outers ever since I was a little kid. And I was just curious to see where it would go. Its kind of taken off on its own complicated backstory that diverts from pretty much any canon. That since I am still still trying to work on the sequel I don't want to talk about. Since I know I have readers who follow me here. And this fic was how I found out I apparently really like writing mystery elements.

This also kind of takes place shifted a bit from the canon. So the girls are still teens. But Tohoku takes place around just under two years before the start of the fic. (January 2013 is when the story starts to be precise. I need to pull up my Aeon account but I think DK runs through August in the fic)

And I can't explain the nitty gritty of why she has prosthetics vs her legs just getting healed. Because again spoilers for my own fic. But if you want to get spoiled on that feel free to hit me up in DMs. I can explain it just gets into details with the sequels that hasn't been put out yet. Though I'm not sure if you'll want that. Because probably explaining it will involve layers on layers.

The one thing about the shift I can say is that I decided not to tackle recovery and all that at the time. And probably considering how much my views and understanding of disability has shifted over the years. That probably wasn't the worst decision I made in hindsight. Because I would be embarassed at the very least at whatever the heck I would have decided to write at 26. And I would probably horrified at 22 year old me's decision making.

I partly blame my IRL obsession with geophysics and seismology on why I picked that event for the things to go different because otherwise I can't figure out why. I was living with an untreated condition at the time. So a lot of my memories from when I was 19-23 are fragmented at best nonexistent at worse. I remember talking about the idea. I do not remember why I picked it though.

With hindsight, age, and some realizations (I am CI and was still struggling to come to terms with that at times of both publications) behind me I would have done something differently if I redid it a third time but that's not happening.

Because of the above thing with the outers. The inners aren't really in the fic. I mean there in it but not as very big roles. This was partly done because in 2012 I was having a hard time conflating the DiC with the actual source material kind of embarrassingly. And this was causing problems with me writing certain characters. This was also why (along with a writing style shift) I redid it completely for Path's Divergence. Because oh boy did that have some unfortunate impact on vs 1.0.

I am better with that now. It's less of an issue. They will be in the sequel. Like pretty quickly actually.

I can actually answer the are the prosthetics still there when transformed since that's not a spoiler question. And comes up in the fic. And the answer is yes.

I probably didn't answer all the questions to be honest. But my mental processing is bottoming out. So for now I'm just going to leave it at this.

Thanks for both the analysis and to Lamonta for sharing it.

With the remaining time for today, Lamonta asked that I take a look at and share any thoughts on a bit of fanart they had commissioned. NOT A PROBLEM

This is how they set the stage for the piece:

the fanart is based on a Sailor Moon fanfic that had a… interesting premise

pinterest.com/pin/653655333408500186

The fic is modern day one set two years after the Tohoku event in 2011 and it’s based of the 90’s anime (more or less)

If you, like me, have no idea what “the Tohoku event in 2011″ refers to, it’s the earthquake and tsunami of the same year. So yeah, THAT. I haven’t heard of the ‘fic before, which isn’t surprising, as I’m very much out of the wider loop of fanfiction. But I’m guessing from the fanart that Usagi has A Rough Time Of It.

I have to preface that I’m not an artist, so I can’t offer anything really in terms of that level of critique, save to say that this looks well done! The Usagi in my personal head is much more a chubby bun, but pulling directly from what the anime shows, it looks like a great rendition. I especially enjoyed seeing her outfit from Episode 152 (Rei’s International Success Life one, for those keeping score at home), which only ever turned up ONCE, so that’s a deep cut there and I appreciate it.

Then we have the meat and potatoes of the thing: Usagi’s prosthetic legs. So obviously that’s an intriguing development. I don’t know the specifics, so I can’t comment beyond that, but intriguing indeed. I wonder, too, how the other Senshi fared, and of course about the group dynamics in the wake of Usagi’s injury and recovery. And how does this impact her as Sailor Moon? I personally headcanon the girls having advanced magical healing, and often toyed with how far that goes. If Minako cut her hair, for example, would it grow back when she became Venus? So following that train of thought, does Usagi have this injury, but Sailor Moon doesn’t? No idea! I’m not even sure which way I’d rather it go, it’s just an interesting thought experiment.

So yeah, “intriguing” is my word for the piece. I’m sure the author and artist both were delighted and flattered that their work inspired and motivated you to have this made. (Lamonta, please feel free to let me know the ‘fic’s title and author, and the fanartist, along with any links to their work, and I’ll edit this post to include those.)

Edit: The ‘fic(s) in question are Sailor Moon: A Different Path and Path’s Divergence (described by Lamonta as “The second version of the fic (it’s darker than the first one)”) by Star Girl11.

[adoranymph]

You know I’m really less than thrilled about a story when even the father-daughter hook isn’t enough to get me to fully invest in its entirety. And that’s how it is for me with Legend of Korra, the sequel series to Avatar: the Last Airbender.

And a shame too, because on top of father-daughter relationships in stories, I love sequel series and spin-offs. Or, I guess I should say, I do love the idea of them. The ones that I’ve had actual experience with are hit-or-miss and, like with anything, are only a hit for me based on how meretriciously they stand on their own as stories. To the point where I haven’t even gotten my first book published, the first book of the YA series I have planned, and already I have plot points and characters in mind for the next-gen sequel series. Kind of like imagining my grandchildren when I haven’t even had children of my own yet.

Avatar: the Last Airbender was yet another great series that I was one of the last ones to board the hype train for (at least of my generation I’m sure), for many reasons. Not because I didn’t appreciate it, because I love anything to do with working with the four elements (considering that’s what my own YA debut series is centered on), and never mind that it was only anime-esque, because that was still good enough for me.

But I missed out on watching it in full when it aired. I was in high school back then and just didn’t make time for it. When I did get around to watching it, through to the end of season one, I was so depressed by a plot point I was spoiled on (that being that Sokka was going to lose his first love, Princess Yue) that I stepped away from it. And that was back when I was brave enough to stream off illegal streaming sites on my laptop. Then I got wary of that practice, (barring resorting to find shows I can’t find anywhere else on those sites via my phone instead) and moved on to other things, anime, etc. With the passing of time, I knew that if I was going to fall hard for Avatar in the end, I wanted to do it on a legal streaming platform that I could watching on my laptop, not my phone. And, if I loved it enough, purchase a hardcopy of it.

If this was available all along, to this day, on Nick.com for free, then someone feel free to let me know. But, as far as I was concerned, I didn’t see my window of opportunity to binge it until Netflix brought it onboard their streaming platform this past summer. Yes, the series was also available for purchase through YouTube and of course there were the available hardcopies, but I was still hesitant to make that purchase until I had seen the show in full. Sometimes I take a risk on shows and buy them without seeing them first, and I hit a jackpot (like with the anime, Psycho-Pass), and sometimes I take that risk and regret my purchase (like with the anime film, Fireworks). In this case, even though I could smack myself in the head in hindsight, I decided to not take the risk until I was 100% sure, watch-through included.

So, stuck inside like we all are right now, I told myself, “No more excuses, you are finishing this thing.” Next thing you know, I’ve bought myself the full series on blu-ray (having been reassured that I loved the thing as much as the world promised I would) and I’ve rewatched it twice now. I freaking love it. And predictably with that love came the price of the “void”: that depressing post-watch feeling when it seems as though nothing will ever be as good again as what you just finished watching. When all you want is more, since you know you can’t ever actually reexperience the feeling of watching it for the first time.

Which brings me to Legend of Korra, which I had also heard about. And heard that it had issues writing-wise, and didn’t quite live up to the legacy of Avatar. And well, to be fair, expecting it to would have been a bit naïve. Rarely do most things in this world get their version of Rocky and Rocky II winning Best Picture at the Oscars back-to-back years.

I thought about watching it, going back and forth since before I had even finished the original series. I was happy to see that we were getting a female main as the new Avatar in the cycle, and, again, there’s that thing I love about sequel series, revisiting old characters marked by the progression of time, as well as seeing new characters, both the next gens of the original cast and new originals alike. I love seeing them rise and carry the torch that’s been passed onto them.

And in this case, we not only get a female Avatar, Korra, but she’s paired with character growth in part with her father, so there’s that father-daughter trope box ticked. Actually, we get two, with Aang’s son Tenzin, and his daughter, Aang’s granddaughter, Jinora.

Yet, I was also given to understand that the romance subplots were a complete mess, and then the overarching storylines in general were also somewhat botched in places. I mean, they name Korra’s first main love interest Mako (in honor of Mako, the actor who originally voiced best-uncle-in-the-universe Iroh in the originals series), and yet, writing-wise and romance-wise, he kind of gets the shaft from what I’ve seen. That aside, I wouldn’t have had a problem with the Korra x Asami ship itself, if it weren’t for how the writers got them together. That being not only via the worst kind of love-triangle nonsense from what I’ve been given to understand, but one that involves cheating on one person for the other because, “Oh, we have something more.” No excuses for cheating in my book.

All of this due, in no small part I’m sure, to Nickelodeon mucking things up (like you do) in hedging on allowing any of the show to be made, and then on whether there’d be more seasons, and with the writers, all the while, having to work with that uncertainty. One could argue that the best writers find ways to work around that to the point that those problems don’t show in the writing of the final product, but if there was all that grief, I give the writers some slack. Just the same, it was also enough to put me off watching the show.

And it still is enough. Barring everything else watchable in the universe disappearing and this being the only thing left, I, at this point, do not see myself ever watching it in full. At this point, I’ve watched a few clips and bits of episodes in the first three seasons, because I was still curious about certain things and I love free samples. But those things in connection with the rest of the story isn’t enough even now to get me to invest my time in watching the whole thing through when the series joins Avatar: the Last Airbender on Netflix.

However, I did in fact get something out of watching those disparate few clips and bits. And not just evidence for the case that Aang and Katara’s son Bumi clearly takes after both his Uncle Sokka as well as his own namesake, the “mad genius” King Bumi, or Zuko having a grandson named Iroh (and the fact that they had him voiced by Dante Bosco, who voiced Zuko in Last Airbender), or even the fact that now-old-guy Zuko himself is riding a bleeping dragon.

I got perhaps the most powerful and emotionally engaging origin story for a fantasy world that I can ever recall getting in any type of media. That being the story of Wan, the First Avatar, as told in episodes seven and eight in season two, Beginnings: Pt. 1 & 2. 

I loved these two episodes so much that I keep playing the reworked Avatar theme, The Avatar State, from the Korra soundtrack, on repeat. And can’t get enough of rewatching the moment when Wan becomes the first fully realized Avatar. Barring the stuff with the present-day storyline of the show bookending the beginning of part one and the conclusion of part two, there’s a complete, and rather satisfying story here, made doubly enjoyable by anyone familiar with at least Avatar: the Last Airbender.

I didn’t need to (personally) watch the episodes prior to these two parts to understand anything that was going on or appreciate it any more than I already did, or what I’d already floating around about Raava, the Spirit of Good and Light and Peace and Sunshine and Rainbows, serving ultimately in part as the means to create the phenomenon of the Avatar and the Avatar Reincarnation Cycle. The change in art style to something reminiscent of the works of Hokusai’s woodblock paintings was beautiful, and Wan’s characterization was beautiful, from diamond-in-the-rough street rat just trying to get by to developing such a relationship with the spirits that he lays the foundation for becoming “the bridge between the human and the spirit worlds” that the Avatar is meant to represent.

A journey of a simple human who screwed up, and atoned for that through bitter work and forming a meaningful bond that would come to transcend millennia, all for the sake of trying to keep the world in balance, striving to better humanity. And from that, the lives that are relived through that of the Avatar echo meaningfully from the distant past to the reflective present.

And it only took two episodes. With concise writing, emotionality, and characterization, we got what fell like an entire epic story in just a matter of less than an hour or so of screen time. I watched them both on my phone, and when Korra comes onto Netflix, I’ll revisit those two alone on there and be more than satisfied.

All that said, there is a very good argument against being able to enjoy it as its own thing, never mind its flaws in terms of consistency with the established world of Last Airbender. Which I totally understand, and would probably understand more if I took the time to watch Korra in its entirety, and even in regards to the fact that I’ve seen Avatar: the Last Airbender. In which case, I could see how these two episodes actually undermine and even outright retcon a ton of story and world elements.

That said, I personally don’t agree that it ruins the spirituality inherent and or implied by the relationship between humans and the art of elemental bending. If only because after all that, I still felt a catharsis at the conclusion of Wan’s story. I’d call that doing something right with the writing at least.

What I think I works for me in particular compared to Korra as a whole, apart from my affinity for guys with flooffy anime hair who go on penance journeys toward enlightenment, is that it feels like a return to its roots, to that feeling that the original Avatar series gave me, and also something more. Not to say that I think that Korra should have been a retread of the plot structure of Last Airbender by any stretch, that would have made it worse, and I applaud it for pushing towards different themes and conflicts from that of its predecessor (it’s just that the payoff for a lot of those were less-than-stellar). That said, the moments that I came across that were awesome and moving were patchworked together by plots that didn’t always come out the most coherently or compellingly when laid out in the light of day.

And yes there is the argument that Wan’s story lacks anything compelling. I suppose, because you know how it’s going to play out, and it derails from the main plot, somewhat, save for explaining the whole Raava vs. Vaatu, good vs. evil spirit conflict. But, again, for me, I’m watching these more completely than I have any other episode of the show, and as a separate spinoff from the rest of the series. So while technically it can’t be a self-contained story, as the series it is a part of would undo that possibility, I still enjoyed it regardless for what it is on its own, and genuinely at that.

I enjoyed that it was something of a mix of a fable and an actual historical account, adding to that sense of expanding the mythos in that way that distant histories like that of ancient civilizations in our world have become fuzzy and fragmented with the passage of time. I enjoyed how simply it was able to establish a young man who started out as a ruffian who had to steal to survive, but was still fundamentally good in that he cared for those close to him, and that he had the capacity to care for the well-being of spirits after he’d been banished for stealing the power of firebending and was banished to live in the spirit wilds.

Then take that, and develop him into a man who rises above that, to become one who takes on the burden of fighting for peace, especially in the wake of mistakes he’s made that caused things between humans and spirits to grow worse, regardless of whether or not he intended such. To see him grow through his friendship with Raava, and how they come to work together to restore the balance he inadvertently put out of whack when he was tricked into separating her from her eternal struggle with Vaatu, Spirit of Darkness and Chaos and Corruption and All the World’s Evil. Concluded with that final culmination between him and Raava fusing together permanently, mastering all four elements, getting knocked down by Vaatu over and over and still getting up and standing to fight again every time, his efforts to bring peace to the world foiled only by his short human lifespan, and with his death beginning the Avatar reincarnation cycle when its clear that maintaining balance in a world full of humans takes thousands upon thousands of lifetimes.

To me, that was a beautiful simplicity for an origin story told within the larger story of a larger world. Which I think is a great tool for anyone who looks to insert those sorts of things in their own writing (including myself, who has her own origin storyline in mind for that YA elemental series, if I didn’t already mention before that I’m writing that).

Retcons and undermining aside, I’m happy that I discovered this little gem within the great world of The Last Airbender, and like all things in media that affect me this way, you can be sure I’ll carry that feeling further into my work. Threading it through into the grander tapestry of the art of storytelling.

Right. Back to me waiting for season four of The Dragon Prince. 

Keeping this link up to their donation page!

A Concise, Emotional Origin Journey You know I'm really less than thrilled about a story when even the father-daughter hook isn't enough to get me to fully invest in its entirety.

[sweetwriting]

Category: Gen

Genre: Angst/Family/Fluff

Fandoms: DC Comics, Batverse

Continuity: Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint

Summary: In Hindsight, Tim realizes he used to be both extremely naïve and aware of the world. He wasn't sure whether he had “grown” or just changed. But too much had happened for him to be the same.

Word Count: 1 970

AN: Hello everyone. I'm sorry for not posting this sooner but, while most of my works are somewhat finished, I write on paper and rewriting on the computer takes time (and then comparing the first draft to the rewriting, and then trying to edit it a little because of mistakes...it takes more time than I'd like to admit...though the rewriting part is what takes the longest because sometimes it takes me like 3 days to do one sentence because I remember I have homework or I have to go to work...). I won't be posting day 5 (favorite relationship) because...I couldn't choose between Dick and Kon and tried to use both and it ended up becoming sorta TimKon and I didn't want Dick to feel left out...or Bart and it's a mess I have to try to rework. If I can't manage to rework it I'll post the best version. As for day 6, I just thought I had rewritten it on my computer and posted it when I started rewriting day 7 but I haven't yet and I'm currently rewriting others (TimKon Week and the Batfam Halloween event) so... it'll come, one day ^^'.ANYWAY. This piece, while a standalone can be seen as a sequel to that piece. I hope you enjoy it :)

To read it on AO3

In hindsight, Tim realizes he used to be both extremely naïve and aware of the world.

In the words of the internet, his naïveté mainly came from his privilege.

He knew a lot of things from reading newspapers (well…what had been about Batman and other heroes as well as what he could gather about Art History which, depending on the journalist, could open a window on the world) but it was “from afar”, he was never really confronted with their concrete application until he met Bruce and was transferred to a non-private (and non-boarding) school. Meeting Ives and Ariana was kind of a wake-up call and so was meeting Steph and, really, the many others who followed. There was also his constant denial of the state of his birth family and how it had impacted the way he took the death of Dick’s parents by projecting on Batman and Robin…that….took some time to deal with (hint: he had never truly dealt with it) and was the root of many of his issues. And then, then there was all he saw of the world as Robin.

Now, however, he had become almost completely cynical. There was a reason why he knew the Anti-Life Equation after all. Sort of. Because at the same time, even if it made sense, he refused it and there was a very simple reason for that. The naïve part of his being never truly left and, in a way, was heavily encouraged by his training with Batman. There is something to say after all, about a man dressed as a bat who tries to prevent others from being hurt the way he had been during the night and who tries to help redeem the crimes of others by giving them constant second chances as well as tries to prevent them by making affordable healthcare or rehabilitation programs through various of his own associations and giving money to others. Because that belief that people could change, that you should trust that they would try and deserve those new chances? It was all Bruce’s.

Of course, Bruce had also had to learn paranoia so some of his lessons went against this faith in people, yet, despite all the paranoia he had tried to create in his protégé, a part of Bruce always seemed to be burning with the trust he put in others (or maybe it was just a hope that he could trust them?). And Tim had been at the best place to see it worsen over the years. As such he ended up developing a paranoia-trust dichotomy similar to Bruce’s but… He never quite managed to take his paranoia as far as Bruce’s - or Dick's- because he couldn’t help himself and almost always trusted people he had just met despite himself. He had learned, however, not to be surprised if he was betrayed and to sometimes prepare for it even if a tiny bit - and even then,  he never completely managed to if his surprise that no one would give him the benefit of the doubt after Bruce's death was anything to go by. Because being trusting didn’t mean being an idiot.  

It was amazing how he had both changed and stayed the same over the years.

He had gone through a lot to learn to balance awareness turned paranoia and naïveté, cynicism and trust and there were periods of time when he couldn’t help the cynicism and paranoia overcoming him. It was especially bad after Conner’s death as it was probably the first time they had truly made themselves known (instead of simply just being him channeling his inner Bruce and Dick in order to appear professional) and then Bruce’s death. Though… It was mostly true after Bruce’s death. The truth is that after Conner’s he wasn’t really functioning enough of a person for anything besides crushing depression and overall numbness for those to overcome him (maybe he should consider Bart’s death as a threshold too?). And retrospectively, Bruce’s method of “repressing it until it no longer bothers you” hadn’t worked. on him. If anything it had made things worse. Because for Bruce, even for Dick really, repressing actually fueled them. Of course, their level of angst and depression went up too but it still helped their vigilante life. On a side note it seemed like the Batfam was blessed with overall good friendships with outsiders who often did what they could to help them out of their funk when repressing became too much for them, and maybe that was Tim’s issues. His friends were either dead or… “out of the way” …Though unlike most of his family Tim didn’t really have any issue with asking for help.

So for Tim, that technique just…blocked him. Blocked him until his level of empathy seemed to start lowering and he just did what he had to do to help.

He honestly doesn’t know what would have happened to him if Bruce…No. If Conner hadn’t come back. Because realizing Conner was really alive, that he could have his best friend back? It felt as if he could be happy again (that night he had smiled one of his first honest smiles of happiness, of contentedness in over two years and finding actual clues about Bruce’s survival was important but not for the obvious reasons). After that -and he hated saying it- but getting Bruce back wasn’t as important. Not because he didn’t care, of course, after all, he’d have given his life to bring him back if it had been needed. The thing is though, had Conner been with him in the first place when Bruce had died, he would have mourned him. He wouldn’t have been desperate to have him be alive to the point of noticing something was wrong. And this belief (no, this knowledge) mattered because having Bruce and Dick hadn’t helped him mourn Conner. Bruce being alive was more important for the family, or even Gotham at that point more than for Tim’s sake. Well except for his sanity (and that’s why he could finally digest the idea that his best friends were back, Paris hadn’t been a hallucination). Learning that Bruce was indeed alive and that he hadn’t “gone insane with grief” was pretty great.

So having both back? That was the best feeling and it was also key in turning two years of hell into fuel for growth instead of just stagnating at an all-time low.

The sole fact that he still needed a crutch to help him deal said a lot about the state of his mental health but he had come a long way from the time when denial and projecting were his main coping mechanisms. Kon had helped a great deal in reminding Tim that he was allowed to deal while Bruce was probably one of the first people to actually listen and respond to Tim’s babbling (whether it was about his days, his missions, and Tim had even started talking about some of his issues. For all intent and purposes, Bruce had acted like his father very early on. He had been a better father than his biological father had been. And Tim couldn’t help but feel bitter at the fact that Bruce had been a relatively better father for him before he adopted him than after…not on all matters seeing as he had been more openly affectionate with Tim but it didn’t prevent Tim from feeling like he always had to prove he was worthy of it. ....Damian hadn’t helped). It was the same with Dick who was his brother long before either were adopted by Bruce, who had become his brother when he had been his Batman, which is why losing him after Bruce (and Conner) died destroyed the small amount of stability Tim had left. But again, had Conner been alive, had tim still noticed something was wrong, he could have dealt with this.

It wasn’t so much because Tim was dependent on Conner more than he was on Bruce and Dick. Though he kinda was, it’s more that Conner had helped him realize that he didn’t need Bruce and Dick as much as he used to because he had actual relationships like Cassie, Bart or Cass (even Cissie and Anita had they not somewhat lost touch). But Conner died barely more than a year after they founded Young Justice and due to their own complicated history, the development of their friendship and their help with each other’s issues had happened too close to Conner’s death for Tim to be able to apply what he had learned in dealing healthily (or as healthily as possible). He had time to get attached to his best friend in the five months that followed the reveal of his identity but he hadn’t had enough time to adapt to this attachment in a relatively healthy way. Still, Cassie had helped him a little after they made up -after she discovered how terribly he was dealing with Conner’s death- and so did Dick (after all he was the one Tim called when he felt suicidal enough to be tempted to jump or take one too many pills).

Mostly though, Tim was never as content as when he was with Conner. He’d love to say as happy but sadly, while it was a bit true, before Conner’s death, he and Tim’s friendship had truly started at a time when their environment prevented either of them from actually being happy and the fact that so much happened in such a short lapse of time didn’t help. Between Bruce being accused of murder, Tim’s father losing his money and going back to forgetting he had a son to take care of, then finding about his night life and his death following Steph’s, Conner having to deal with his non-existent life outside of heroics and trying to adapt to having a relatively stable family, having to get used to a new name, a new identity , learning that he was half megalomaniac instead of 9/10th Apple Pie as well as what seemed to be like feelings for Cassie to deal with -which, retrospectively weren’t even especially romantic,….It had been a lot.

But now, now that Tim had started processing everything that happened to him? Conner was the person who made him the happiest and the most content. He was even getting ready to talk to Bruce after having recently talked with Dick.

He was truly amazed at how so many terrible things had allowed him to get so much better than how he had started out when it came to trust and love. How putting his trust in others had been so rewarding and how even the harshest betrayals had helped him.

How despite everything, while he had become fairly cynical he could still be so utterly trusting. How, while he had shed some of his naïveté it hadn’t completely disappeared so much as evolved into a belief in people despite his knowledge that they could and might betray him.

And as he was sitting in the kitchen beside the picnic Alfred had prepared for him and Bruce to eat after their Tennis matches (which is when they would talk. There was to better way to unwind before a meeting you knew was gonna be tense).

He was eating freshly made cookies and couldn’t help feeling apprehensive of how their talk was going to go through. Yet, unlike what a lot of people would believe, Bruce was a good listener when he realized the subject at hand was something important for the person he was communicating with (unless very specific circumstances). So if things had gone well with Dick? And if he had a shot at repairing his relationship with all his loved ones? He would take it.

Author’s end note :   When I rewrote this on word the first thing I thought was "damn this is so messy" then I stopped and realized "you wrote this from Tim's Point of Vue, of course it's messy"... if I start forgetting how I'm writing my stories I'm not gonna go far...

 By the way, one @Chonaku-Things told me recently that it was impressive how I almost always manage to bring everything back to my ships (especially true for TimKon and SpideyTorch) and I would like to defend myself. It's not that I do it because I ship them, it's quite the opposite as I simply ended up shipping them because that's how they're written (whether on purpose or not). It's their fault, I just notice the patterns and end up shipping it because it's almost always there.

 Here's a post that explains how I see the timeline between the first Young Justice issue and Infinite Crisis (though it technically starts at the beginning of Robin v4). Well...Sort of.  I didn't detail it because for this all you need is an overview and I didn't have the faith to do it event by event (I have a relatively complete chart in my mind but I'm not an encyclopedia so there are some things that're missing or might be wrong for the detailed version that I'd have to look up. Which is why I keep this chart short and clear, it helps recenter the timeline and reduces the issues I have to go through when I need something a bit more complete, it's weird to have it done instead of just staying in my head).

Anyway, I'm a bit tired of people who talk about Tim's paranoia being on par with Bruce's as a way to show how extremely paranoid he is when: 

Bruce in Pre-New 52 wasn't actually that paranoïd (unlike New 52 or Nolan's movies, most of his choices come from his experience yet "paranoia" usually means it's not warranted).

Tim is like...one of the most trusting members of the Batfam. The end of his Robin run and his Red Robin series are his most distrustful periods and the kid still keeps on trusting people. (he told pretty much everyone he thought there might be a chance Bruce was alive. He told Cassie he had freaking heard the Anti-Life Equation, he trusted Lynx even if he knows it might not be true and I doubt it's just because she's pretty (even if Tim does have a weakness for pretty girls he still does these kinds of things everyone?...just not the making out part)).

I've also actually read A Lonely Place of Living and it was terrible. Like, I didn't expect to like it and I knew that if they tried to pretend N52/Rebirth Tim was the same as pre New 52 Tim it was going to get messy (different to the point of almost opposition personalities will do that to you), but I didn't expect it to be that bad. If you want my more complete opinion on ALPoL here's my liveblog of it.

[soaker87]

A Spider Riders guide for beginners (mainly anime-centric)

Sort of a sequel to my guide for getting into Battle Spirits, but yes, I wrote a massive essay on a much smaller and easily digestible franchise. And it was fun.

Honestly, half of this is me ripping on things, but yes, I honestly love this show and wish it was more popular. And it’s my main interest when Battle Spirits is bad/on hiatus and I’m in denial about Code Geass.

Put it here instead of my SR blog, since established fans probably don’t need a guide. And I think it’s only fair when I don’t shut up about it.

1)The first pressing question that seems to bug people. Is Spider Riders a “real” anime? Not that it particularly matters, but the answer is yes. Spider Riders is officially a Japanese/Canadian co-production. But, based on official statements made by both the Japanese and western staff, the actual production went something like this. A book (which was meant to be the first in a series of 5) was published in English, and at the same time, the Japanese studio Bee Train was commissioned to make an anime based on the same general concept. The show was completely crafted in Japan. That is, the animation, writing and directing was done there. The English side of things got to make specific requests and got a minimal amount of creative control, but it was largely left in Bee Train’s hands. The people on the English side of things consider the series Yosuke Kuroda’s vision, and admitted to not really knowing any more about the characters and world than what the viewers know. So it’s just as much a “real” anime as The Big O season II, Bakugan, Dimension W and the like.

2)Now, the deal about those books I mentioned above, which were the “source material”. Well, as anyone who’s read them can tell you, they have almost nothing in common with the anime. There are characters with the same name and alliances, and the very basic setting is the same. Other than that, you can hardly compare the two. So while the books came first (at least the first one did) they are in no way a pre-requisite for watching the anime. But still very much recommended. Without spoiling anything, they’re certainly darker than the anime (while still remaining kid-friendly). Anyway, there are three canon books total, because the publisher never ordered the planned five. Thus, the story is never fully resolved. Additionally, an unfinished 4th book exists on Tedd Anasti, the main author’s website. This book can not be considered explicitly canon, because it’s basically a re-write of the 3rd book with some added plot points, and it mixes things from anime canon that contradict the previous books. However, it is highly recommended for Buguese and Aqune fans, as the added plot points concern them.

For the record, if you want to read the novels and can’t buy them (because they’re rare and expensive if you want to buy them new) I can point you to download links. And you can read the 4th one here: http://teenovels.webs.com/spiderriders.htm

3)A Spider Riders manga also exists. It’s interesting if you’re a fan, but really not suggested as a good starting point for the franchise. While the manga has more in common with the anime than the books, it’s also a very different take on things. The manga is probably the most comical entry in the franchise, only becoming serious on occasion. It also includes more violence and fanservice (especially panty shots)  than the very tame anime. The art style is considered rather unattractive by most people.

Like basically every other entry in this franchise, the manga is unfinished. 10 chapters exist total, but only 9 were released online, the 10th appearing exclusively in Shounen Fang magazine. Of these 9 chapters, only the first 6 were published in tankouban format, and only those 6 were scanlated, as the online releases of chapters 7-9 were not high quality.

Translated scans for chapters 1-6 here: http://spiderridersftw.tumblr.com/tagged/sr-manga

4)Getting back to the anime, another thing that trips people up in exactly how many seasons the anime has. Theoretically, it only has one season, consisting of 52 episodes. A series which yes, I’ll admit right here, ends with a heck of a lot left unresolved. I’ll get back to that point later. However, most anime encyclopedias list Spider Riders as having two series of 26 episodes each. The first is called “Spider Riders ~Oracle no Yuusha-tachi~” and the second is called “Spider Riders ~Yomigaeru Taiyou~”. Why? Because the series tanked in ratings when it aired in Japan. And this is starting from the very first episode, so very few people gave it a chance. It probably wasn’t on many people’s radars, due to the show getting virtually no publicity before airing in popular anime magazines, and due to the stigma it carried being a “co-production”. Because the series tanked, TV Tokyo, who was broadcasting it, stopped airing Spider Riders after 26 episodes. Another network, Kids Station, picked it up and re-aired the first 26 episodes. After that, they continued with episode 27. But they gave the series a new title. It was outright advertised as being a second season. This is most likely because of the reputation the first “season” carried. So there you have it. Spider Riders, a 1 season show, had two seasons when it aired in Japan, but the episodes were exactly the same.

However, the saga thickens. What I mentioned above about the ending being rather a non-ending? It’s because the staff hoped for a true second season of Spider Riders. So they went out of their way to leave questions unanswered. You see, Spider Riders originally did have a true ending. Teletoon, the channel that broadcast the series in Canada, put out a press-release about the anime on their corporate website very early into the anime’s run. This press release contained character bios and episode summaries, which essentially spoiled the entire series. It became known as “the Teletoon Corp spoilers”. For the first 24 episodes, everything these spoilers said matched up with what happened in the anime. The second half of the series, the “second season” in Japan, did not. There were some things that matched, and others which didn’t. So yes, they changed a perfectly thought out second half to the series for the sake of leaving opening for a sequel. A sequel that was never going to happen with the ratings the series got in Japan. In hindsight, Spider Riders ~Yomigaeru Taiyou~ may very well be a “second season”. Because that’s when the series starts to diverge from its intended route.

Because of the convenient break, I’ve actually suggested to people to just watch the first 26 episodes and stop there. The story won’t be resolved, but you’ll still have a lot of questions even after watching the second set of 26. And ep. 26 is actually an epic one, so it makes a pretty great ending point. Better than episode 52 anyway.

Obviously, I don’t hate the second half. I just have very mixed feelings about it. There are severe pacing issues. Plot twists that don’t really make any sense (probably due to having no basis in the first half/original plans). Beerain/Buguese/Aqune/Hunter/Corona love triangle nonsense that goes nowhere. Yes,  I spoiled it. None of them end up with anyone. (Also, I am under the impression that love triangles are a plague and rarely ever done well.) Hunter and Corona becoming black holes in terms of focus, while other characters are mis-handled in various ways, especially Magma and Aqune. And Beerain’s handling is a whole separate issue I’ll talk more about later. But probably, the biggest problem with the second half is the forced portrayal of a certain character as sympathetic when I personally did not see them that way. (And no, I’m not talking about Beerain. This could apply to her too, but she didn’t cross the line like this character did.) Also, the writers go out of their way to make sure this character gets everything they want in the end, even when the more important characters have massive unresolved plot threads. Though, considering that I occasionally go to TV Tropes to try and prune some of the leather pantsing for this character, many other fans saw them as sympathetic too. So maybe it’s just my problem, but it still bugs me.

Now, the second half has some good episodes and scattered moments that were awesome or cute or funny or whatever. It has episode 49, which was very validating for me. I love what they do with Igneous in the later episodes, because it helps flesh out his character, even if he doesn’t actually get to do anything useful. Grasshop’s subplot in the second half is well regarded by fans for a reason. Buguese gets to pilot a giant robot, which is beautiful. Stags finally gets some time to shine. Corona gets some good development. So it’s not all a lost cause. It’s just not the second half that should have happened, and the executive meddling made it suffer in quality.

4) Now, if you still want to watch the show knowing all this, should you watch it subbed or dubbed? Coming from someone who never had any problem with dubs, this is one show which really should be watched subbed. While the dub (produced by Cookie Jar Entertainment, not 4Kids, contrary to popular belief) is not the most horrible dub ever, that does not by any means make it an acceptable dub. I’m going to break it down into a few aspects. And these are not the only flaws it has.

First, translation. The dub is not a straight translation of the Japanese script. Except for when it is. But that’s the exception, not the rule. Many times, they just take the Japanese footage and make something up that might fit with it. Even if it has nothing to do with what the characters actually said. Sometimes, this doesn’t really affect much. But other times, it’s created actual plot holes. Avoiding spoilers, the most glaring case of this occurs in episode 23, which is a very important episode about the villains and their motives. And the differences in the script are outright jarring. Especially factoring in that the dub goes back to the true story later on.

Second, the cheese factor. Yes, it is a show where people ride giant spiders. But this is anime. It’s far from the most absurd premise in the medium. And it’s also a premise that the show itself takes seriously, even in the dub. It’s not meant to be a comedy anime, despite having a fair amount of humorous episodes in the first half. So that poses the question of why the people writing the dub script decided to take the cheese factor up to eleven. The dialogue is outright cringey a lot of the time because of it. You have characters constantly shouting “Arachna Power”, a phrase which is never uttered once in the Japanese version. When every other line sounds like it was written by an 8-year-old trying to be hip, it makes the show very, very hard to take seriously. And, as I said, the anime takes itself seriously, even in the dub. So that’s why you have a problem.

Third, censoring. Now, like I said earlier, the anime is pretty tame. There’s no blood and gore. Nothing sexual. There’s not much that needs to be censored at all. Tell that to the people at Cookie Jar. When they decide to censor things like characters being grabbed by the arm (which they frequently cut), all while having other kinds of violence when the characters are fighting a war, you just have to wonder. When they cut a male and female character innocently sleeping in the same room. Characters who get absolutely no ship tease, I might add, and one of them is happily married to someone else, you really have to smash your head against something hard. There are probably two things in this show that could understandably be censored for western viewers, although I personally don’t believe in censorship at all. But the dub does not stop with those two things.

Fourth, name changes. Now, most of the main characters keep their Japanese names in the dub. This is probably to keep consistent with the books. But basically any secondary character has their name changed for no reason, even though their names don’t sound “foreign”. Even if their name is Melissa. The Insectors, the main enemies of the series, were changed to Invectids in the dub. This was apparently due to legal reasons. But due to the prominence of Insectors as a whole, it’s a notable change. Brade, called Quake in the dub, is probably the most important character who underwent a name change. (He isn’t in the books, so that probably contributed to the change.) And one character’s first name is actually their last name in the dub, in a world where no one even has last names. That’s a pretty weird one.

Fifth, the dub treats viewers like morons. Very frequently, the dub will take a scene where in the Japanese version, nothing was being said (the show has a lot of dramatic silence) and make a character whose face isn’t shown on screen state something obvious. It might not be something the Japanese script outright said, but it’s something that anyone paying half-attention would have figured out. Additionally, the dub will regularly add shots of Shadow in manacle space when he talks, assuming viewers won’t be able to pick up that he’s talking despite not being on screen. It’s really kind of insulting. Even if kids are the target audience, they’re not that stupid.

Sixth, the acting is terrible. People make fun of it for a reason. The dub has frequent awkward pauses between lines. Additionally, some of the voices do not fit the characters. And I don’t mean, because they’re not sound-alikes to the Japanese cast. I mean, it was gross mis-casting. The most glaring case is Beerain. Most fans, regardless of their opinion on her character, agree about her dub voice being horrendous, which makes her sound like an old lady, and is even worse during emotional scenes. In general, the actors also tend to change the tone of some scenes, which give off the very opposite impression that the same scenes did in the Japanese version.

And, I won’t link it in this post for reasons, but there’s a torrent for the subs on Nyaa, and it also includes a link for DDLS if you prefer (or if the torrent is dead, because it probably is.) If you must watch the dub despite reading all this, look it up on your own time. It’s definitely on some streaming sites.

5) So, now that we’ve got all that out of the way, what is the show actually about? Well, the plot follows a 13-year-old boy named Hunter Steele. (11 in the dub.) He follows the notes of his deceased grandfather, in order to find a place called the Inner World that his grandfather used to tell him about. Naturally, he finds it within the first few minutes of the show, and the rest of the plot takes place in the Inner World, which is basically like some sort of pocket dimension inside of the earth itself. Hunter meets with Shadow, a spider, and the two reluctantly become partners. After Hunter joins up with the other Spider Riders, he takes part in a war to save the Inner World from the Insectors, a race of bugs with human-like qualities.

6)So what are the characters like? Okay, here goes. First, the main Riders and their spiders.

Hunter Steele- The hero. Typical shounen lead. He loves adventure, he’s a bit clueless, but he’s generally friendly and well-meaning. Which doesn’t make him perfect, either. He can be bratty and disagreeable, especially early on. And while he has a sense of justice, he’s actually incredibly self-righteous and sees everything in black and white. But he does get to develop as the series goes on. And he’s the true heart of the team, who keeps everyone in line. Unfortunately, he does get a disproportionate amount of focus, even for a main character, especially later on.

Shadow- Hunter’s spider partner. He’s cocky and prideful. He has a tendency to bicker with Hunter, and he’s usually the one who’s right. They actually become really good friends. Their bond is pretty cute and needed more focus. Out of all the spiders, he’s the only one who really gets much screentime.

Corona- The heroine. Of course she has a crush on Hunter. That’s obvious from almost the get-go. But she’s absolutely not a bland swooning cheerleader like some shounen heroines. She’s a genuine action girl. After Hunter, she’s the character who gets the most focus. Sometimes the show feels more like it’s her story than his. Corona is riddled with insecurities, but Hunter inspires her a lot, and she gets to grow and develop as well as him.

Venus- Corona’s spider. To be honest, she has the personality of a rock. Yet she will get occasional lines that are longer than one word, unlike most of the spiders.

Igneous- He’s a knight of Arachna. Very protective of his kingdom, and the royal family. At first, he comes off as very serious, but you see later on that he’s one of the biggest dorks in the show. Refreshingly, he doesn’t become Hunter’s rival, despite early episodes hinting towards that. He takes on more of a mentor role. At first. Then the writers kinda forget about that aspect.

Flame- Igneous’ spider. He doesn’t speak. Not even once.

Lumen- The prince of Arachna, but you’ll just have to take his word for it. He doesn’t act much like a prince. He’s super lazy, and he loves to flirt with girls. Every girl. Even if they’re his sister or an Insector. And did I mention he’s only 12?

Ebony- Lumen’s spider. He does speak, but only once.

Sparkle- The princess of Arachna. Yes, her name is Sparkle, but just deal with it. She’s cute. Super cute. Apparently, the writers had no idea what to do with her and changed her character like a million times in the pre-production. So at first, she seems sort of wise and mysterious, but really, her purpose is to just be really cute. Which doesn’t make her any less awesome.

Hotarla- Sparkle’s spider. Like Sparkle, her purpose is to be cute. All she can say is “kyu.”

Magma- He’s introduced as a brooding wanderer, looking for his spiders’ long-lost sister. That doesn’t last for long. He’s also a total dork. He also basically clings on all the other guys. And serves as obsessed fanboy to an old man. Like, Magma is as gay as possible without the writers actually going out and saying it.

Brutus- Magma’s spider. Because he’s a flat character, he doesn’t even seem to care about finding his long-lost sister as much as Magma does.

Now, the villains’ side. They actually get more character development than most of the good guys, for better or for worse.

Mantid- He’s the Insector emperor. The main villain. But saying much about him is spoiling.

Buguese- The leader of Mantid’s Big Four. He looks pretty human-like, despite being an Insector. Based on old information, he might be an artificially-created Insector, except that never made it into the actual show. He’s a cold and calculating person, who treats everyone around him pretty badly. He seems to think the ends justify the means, when it comes to making sure the Insectors win the war. He’s constantly brooding, also.  He absolutely hates Hunter, and is pretty much the rival character. He always uses various robots to attack the Spider Riders. He usually has Aqune accompanying him too. It’s clear that he cares about her a lot, but because she’s a human, he makes every effort to hide it, even from himself. He’s my favorite character, as you can probably tell since I don’t shut up about him. As I’ve put it before, a fascinating mess of contradictions, who flips between being a total jerk and the most sympathetic character in the show. He really needed to be in a better show.

Grasshop- Easily the most popular of the Insectors with the fandom. This is because he’s very much the butt monkey. He’s sort of like a one-man Team Rocket. Always coming up with crazy schemes to defeat the Spider Riders. Always failing epically. And even the other Insectors treat him badly. Even Aqune of all people isn’t particularly nice to him. Well, he’s actually a lot of fun, and more than that, he has a lot of depth. He might be the most well thought-out character in the show, to be honest. And his development is very satisfying.

Beerain- Another Big Four member, and the only female. She doesn’t really do much for the early part of the series. Mostly just summons flying insects to do her bidding. Kind of a flat character, to be honest. She makes a good comedy duo with Grasshop, at least. Later in the show, she gets more focus. I found what they did with her character one of the absolute worst subplots in the second half of the series, mostly because it came out of nowhere and felt like extreme character derailment based on the little we know about her, dragged out until it became a plot tumor. But saying much more counts as spoiling.

Stags- The last of the Big Four to be properly introduced. But he’s the strongest and most dangerous. Stags actually is an honorable villain. But at the same time, he’s absolutely crazy. This is the guy who bursts out into maniacal laughter for literally no reason. And later in the series, when he really gets some focus, woah. Well, his fight scenes are epic, and he’s a character who deserved more focus than he got.

Aqune- She’s a Spider Rider, but on the enemy’s side. However, she’s not a villain by any means. She’s an incredibly nice person who is willing to sacrifice her own happiness to help others, whether friend or foe. Aqune is a very tragic character, and like Grasshop, is one of the most popular characters (though Hunter is the most popular of all.) She’s a favorite not just because she’s tragic, but because she’s incredibly tough. If Corona is an action girl, Aqune is even a step above that. She’s strong enough to take on multiple armed opponents alone, and she gets the most stylish fight scenes. It’s hard to talk too much about Aqune without spoilers, but she’s my other favorite character, and one of the best written, even considering she gets screwed over in the second half.

Portia- Aqune’s spider. She also has the personality of a rock.

There are other characters too, but like, watch the show and you’ll see.

7)Anything else? I ship Buguese x Aqune like it’s my job. Honestly, I’m much more fervent about them than I am my job. I would love more fic about them. Yes, I’m shameless.

8)Anything else else? There used to be an online game. It was a dice and card battle RPG with weekly quests. It was more popular than the anime. It was fun. It doesn’t exist anymore.

9)Final notes/warning- Okay, I’m straying from the point, but I’ve wanted to get this off my chest for a long time. The Spider Riders wiki is basically toxic and should not be treated as a good source. I don’t go and edit there because I know I’m not wanted, and I think it should be allowed to exist. Freedom of speech and all. But it hurts that people use it as a go-to source.

Basically, everything you might need to know about the anime is on the very detailed Wikipedia article. Go there instead. The reasons the wikia is so bad are as follows:

It is 100% dub biased. As I said above, the dub is not always accurate to the Japanese.

It is all about the anime with very little on the other canons. Yes, the anime may be the most famous, but it’s not all there is to the franchise, and a wikia should be more thorough. I say this as the owner of the Battle Spirits wikia.

Some of the information is outright wrong, even going by the dub. It feels like whoever edited it was throwing in their headcanons and misconceptions as if they’re fact

It’s super clear what pairings one writer does and doesn’t ship by what they wrote. That’s called bias, and doesn’t belong on a wikia. Friendly reminder that a one-sided relationship is not “close to canon” or however they put it. That would be like if I edited the Battle Spirits wiki to say Gilfam and Lucretia were probably lovers. Which they are as far as I’m concerned, but according to canon they were “friends.” Ship meta is an awesome thing, I love reading it, but keep it to your blogs and off encyclopedias.

A lot of the information was outright ripped off from my old fansite, then modified to fit the writers’ opinions. They did not ask me first. I might have even said yes, but the point is, if you’re going to copy someone else’s writing, you should ask them. I put my contact information on my site. On top of that, I don’t even consider my old website a great source for SR. It was something I threw together for a school project when I took web design, and had to follow particular guidelines on. So basically, they copied my half-assed schoolwork.

The wiki contains actual bashing of me. And my writing. I’m not kidding. That’s all the more insulting when my “writing” was good enough for them to rip off. Or at least it did have this at some point. I don’t really lurk around it, so I don’t know if it’s still there. That’s called bullying. And yes, I take it personally. Even if the wikia didn’t have all the other problems above, I would still loathe it just for this point alone.