#The gang's main villain was Carmilla

[georgiacooked]

Remembering the time I reskinned the Doctor Who TTRPG and set a mini-campaign inside a Containment-Breach-Ruined Holmwood Foundation, and then the players basically nuked Jeremy.

[beevean]

Who's the protagonist of NFCV and who's the main villain?

No seriously think about it

Because Isaac, as favored as he is, only becomes a big player in S3, and his story ends halfway through S4, with him not really participating in the ending

At the same time Death also only came into the field in S3 and he was also pretty forced

Well... in theory the protagonist should be Trevor Belmont, and Sypha and Alucard should be the deuteragonists.

But this is a huge issue with the show: while S1 and S2 tell a coherent story, flawed but nevertheless with a clear beginning, progression and end, S3 and S4 completely lose focus.

What is the plot of the show, in its entirety? You can't say that it's about the gang stopping Dracula, because that only covers until S2. What does that make S3 and S4? They're almost like the epilogue, since a lot of the mini-plotlines are related to Dracula's death: Trepha have to deal with Dracula cultists + Death attempting to bring the man back, Alucard has to deal with his grief and loneliness, Isaac has to deal with being left alone to fend for himself in the human world, and the Styria vampires want to take advantage of the unrest left by Dracula to strike (and yes, they are the protagonists of that storyline, because as I've said multiple times Hector has stopped being a character with his own objective and growth). But... the epilogue is longer than the main story, at this point.

Fine, then. Let's treat S3 and S4 as their own thing. What are those seasons about? What is the macroplot told through all those little subplots? How do you summarize it without having to split it? I can't. I can find something resembling an unifying theme, which is the consequences of Dracula's death, but this is not a story, it's an anthology, each with their own arc villain. And that's not even mentioning the sheer disparity in screentime, quality, and relevance to the plot: Isaac is the most active agent in the ensemble of S3, and he's given all the love and development usually reserved to a protagonist, but by S4 his only role is pushing Carmilla into suicide and he's then unceremoniously dropped out of the story once he has served that purpose. On the opposite side of the coin, Trepha do literally nothing worth talking about, their screentime is completely wasted because the agent that matters is St. Germain, but Trevor is at the very last minute kicked back into the role of the protagonist for the sake of the final boss, a final boss that doesn't even have thematic relevance in the story, because there is no story in the first place! Death is the final antagonist because he's cool, but he might as well be replaced by Sala since they want the same thing anyway!

It's also worth pointing out how this microsplitting kills the pacing like nothing else, because if S2 had 8 episodes to tell 2 plotlines, the Hero and the Dark stories if you will (and the Hero story was a complete waste of time to boot), S3 has 10 episodes to tell 5 plotlines - Trepha, Alucard, Isaac, Styria, and St. Germain who is doing his own thing separately from Trepha! And somehow it still feels like nothing happened! And do I need to remind you how rushed S4 is, how eager it is to drop plot points?

And all of this is not even mentioning how most of the plotlines don't even intersect. As pointed out by many people, Trephacard don't even know about the existence of Hector, Isaac and the Styria vampires. Those are completely parallel plotlines. One effect of this is, of course, that it's hard to take Carmilla seriously as a menace, when the alleged protagonists don't even know that there was an mad vampire woman on the loose who planned to conquer the world. Another is that, well, it contributes to the lack of a macroplot. Hector and Isaac did their own thing, and their stories converged into the climax of the Styria story, but the Styria story has absolutely no impact on the other characters - and yet the Styria story is by far the most fleshed out and interesting, because the protagonists, the trio always promoted as being the center stage of the show, did absolutely nothing of value except killing Dracula: their stories were over by S2, but they still ate screentime.

NFCV has no real story. It has one short story that is a vague adaptation of Dracula's Curse that is concluded midway through, and then a lot of meandering. I suppose one could say that its strong suit is its character development, but... well. You can imagine I have a lot to say about that :P

[darkspellmaster]

It's been confirmed that a new Castlevania series is in the works. They will be adapting 'Rondo of Blood' and 'Symphony of the Night' What are your thoughts?

Hi there, sorry it’s taken me a long time to reply to this. I was busy with my Master’s degree and work.

I’m rather excited to see what the new team can do with this. Rondo and Symphony are two of my favorites when it comes to story and play in this series. I do think that a lot that was done with the first series is not going to be able to be carried over. Alucard being awake like this, missing of Grant, the whole ending with Dracula and his wife. It feels like they wrapped up the story for the main cast in that reality. However Alucard is pretty important to Symphony and because of that I’m wondering if they’re just going to kind of ignore the last two seasons. It wouldn’t be too hard to actually give implications of a slightly different version of events of the first series in Rondo, if they wanted to keep the original series in continuity. What I’m honestly hoping for is that we get a series closer to the original game story. Dracula as an actual villain rather than what we had for Castlevaina. I’m hoping that Alucard doesn’t become the villain of the story. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made Maria a bit older for the first half with Rondo, I want to see how they’re going to handle the cult and the group behind the attack.

What I don’t want is more Carmilla, I wasn’t a fan of her story and felt that she was tacked on to expand the story for another two seasons. I understand the reason behind it, but Rondo and Symphony has enough of a story you don’t need to include too much to expand on it. I don’t think they’re going to go into Issac and Hector’s story because it’s so far in the past from the period they are going into. Unless they use them to connect to the cult of Dracula aspect.

So to me there are two ways they can do this. Either they will keep on the path they have made, and alter the story to fit into the new version they’ve built with the continuity of new Castlevaina. If they do that then I feel like they’ll have some sort of connection to Issac and what he did in the end of the series. Not sure what you can do with Hector going forward since his story seems pretty complete. I would think they would play up the connection to the cult for at least Issac and maybe imply that Shaft is a follower of Issac in that he comes from the country that Issac built. Maybe after all this time they want to spread their power outward. I would assume that, unlike Trevor, Richter has a better grasp of being willing to actually help due to his fiancé being kidnapped.

Or they will basically make this series its own continuity and ignore most of what came before in the other series and play it as if Alucard remembers meeting the other gang in the past. Which I think it will be probably how they go.

I’m going to be curious of who they’re going to get to play the voices. I would hope that they give the original VA’s a chance, but I’m expecting them to keep the VA for Alucard. I’m also expecting them to keep the newer updated design for the characters, namely Maria’s look over her dress. Her pink look is very cute, but I’m guessing they’ll put her at 14 over 12 due to the whole Maria being in love with Alucard in Symphony and I have no doubt there will be a time skip between probably the four or five seasons.

Until we get more I’m hedging my bets, because we don’t know who the writer is yet. Hoping for one that really likes the series and wants to be true to the characters and their stories.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Hypothetical set-up for Agents of SHIELD season 6 (not based on any actual spoilers since I don’t know any)

The season is set a few months after season 5. To recap, Coulson is dead, May is still in Tahiti, Fitz is MIA, Deke is traveling the world, and Mack, Elena, Daisy, Jemma, Piper, and Davis are looking for Enoch’s ship. 

PLOT A

In the first episode, Mack’s team finds Enoch...but the pod containing Fitz is empty. When Jemma asks where Fitz is, Enoch says he let him out early. The team asks why and Enoch says that he was keeping contact with the events on Earth. 

He assumed that if the trip to the future was successful, he would hear news about SHIELD arriving back to the past to make changes to the timeline. From another Chronicom (hinted to be Noah), Enoch learned that SHIELD did make it back, thus, he had Fitz return to Earth while he went back to space. 

When they ask him when he let Fitz out, Enoch says, “Around the time Daisy stopped Graviton”, meaning Past Leo Fitz has been on Earth for months now. The team wonders why Past Fitz didn’t try to find them and we get the clip of Jemma crying inside the pod. 

PLOT B

Back on Earth, May is reading Coulson’s will. Most of it is normal, until she gets to the end. It’s addressed to a “Carmilla Black” and it says that he’s entrusting her with his car Lola. He also writes that a great deal of SHIELD’s success was because of her work behind-the-scenes and that he was proud of her. May is confused since she’s never heard of this Carmilla Black and Coulson has never mentioned her. 

While burying Coulson, unbeknownst to May, the morgue doctors are revealed to be Skrull infiltrators. The lead Skrull, Dezan, says that Coulson and SHIELD are friends of the Skrulls and that the key to finding “Paradise” was through Coulson. When the other Skrulls say their plans are doomed, Dezan says that there’s still hope and impersonates Coulson. Dezan, under the Coulson disguise, says he’ll infiltrate Roxxon Industries as Coulson, hoping it’ll lead him to “the man in charge”.

(We’ll learn later that “Paradise” is a Skrull safe-zone designed by SHIELD in 2001 under the orders of Captain Marvel, as a way of protecting Skrull refugees. “The man in charge” is Andrew Forson, the season’s main antagonist and the leader of the villain faction, Advanced Idea Mechanics / A.I.M.) 

Dezan tries to leave without anyone noticing him but May sees him. She’s shocked at seeing Coulson “alive” and follows him. 

PLOT C

On the other side of the world, Past Leo Fitz is sulking away back home in Scotland, having become a reclusive alcoholic. In a flashback, we learn that Fitz suffered a massive existential crisis when he learned that his other self died during the fight with Graviton. In addition, Fitz says that the “Doctor” came out one night and that when he came to his senses, the things he did broke him mentally. 

(We’ll learn later that, the day after Fitz found out his other self died, he got into a brawl with members of the Dogs of Hell biker gang. The stress of knowing he had died, combined with the stress he was already living with due to his experiences with AIDA, pushed him into full Doctor mode and he murdered the entire gang)

The reason why Fitz didn’t seek out SHIELD is because he wanted to get away from everything. His self-imposed exile comes to an end when he comes across a new character. This new character, a young woman with dark green hair, is revealed to be on the run from the Maggia, a massive international crime syndicate. Their paths cross one night and Fitz is forced to go on the run with her due to the Maggia hitmen targeting him now just because of his association with the green-haired girl.

In one of the first “drama bombs” of the season, the green-haired girl is revealed to be Carmilla Black, the girl mentioned in Coulson’s will. She says that the Maggia were hired by a mysterious organization known as “A.I.M.” to kill her. Why, she doesn’t know (spoiler: she’s lying, of course she knows why she’s being chased). Fitz brushes her off, saying that A.I.M. is a dead organization, leading us to this exchange:

Fitz: That’s absurd, Iron Man destroyed A.I.M. years ago.

Carmilla: Like how Captain America destroyed HYDRA in WWII? 

Fitz: ...fair enough.

Carmilla says she’s going to end A.I.M. but can’t do it on her own. Fitz, despite being hesitant to help this new person, agrees to anyways since he has no choice. 

BACK TO PLOT A

Going back to Mack, Elena, Daisy, and Jemma, they return to Earth, feeling defeated. While figuring out what to do, they receive a message from Deke Shaw. The team finds Deke, who tells them that while traveling around the world, he wanted to track down his other ancestors to get a better idea of who his family was. He doesn’t find much on Fitz’s side of the family (aside from a quick reference to Fitz’s mom) but he learns something big about Jemma’s family.

It’s revealed that several members of Jemma’s family are high-ranking members of Roxxon (reference to 616!Jemma). When the team asks why Deke thought telling them about Simmons’ family would be an emergency, we get another drama bomb:

Deke: Guys...Jemma’s father is dead.

The team is shocked when they find out that Jemma’s father was murdered. When Jemma asks who did it, Daisy goes online and learns that the number one suspect is infamous international criminal Carmilla Black, who is on the run for several crimes. 

SHIELD decides to go after Carmilla to bring her to justice, not realizing that Carmilla is traveling with Fitz. Helping them is Andrew Forson, the current CEO of Roxxon and one of Jemma’s family friends. They have no idea that Forson is the leader of A.I.M., or that A.I.M. is active. 

So to recap, here’s the main storylines:

1) Mack, Elena, Deke, Daisy, and Jemma are working with Andrew Forson and Roxxon in trying to bring Carmilla Black to justice. They don’t know that they’re secretly working with A.I.M.. 

2) Fitz is traveling with infamous fugitive Carmilla Black, who is on the run from the Maggia, who were hired by A.I.M.. Fitz doesn’t know that Carmilla murdered Jemma’s father and that Coulson knew Carmilla. 

3) May is following Dezan, a Skrull infiltrator using Coulson’s identity in order to sneak into Roxxon and find Andrew Forson. Dezan’s goal is to find “Paradise”, a Skrull safe-zone developed by SHIELD and Captain Marvel. 

The twists in the later episodes of the season:

1) A.I.M. is hunting Carmilla down because they created her. Carmilla is a test-tube baby designed by A.I.M. as the “perfect” assassin. Before they could program her mind to be completely loyal to A.I.M., Coulson found and rescued her. We also learn that Coulson didn’t want her to be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. but was overruled by Nick Fury. Carmilla ends up becoming the “Winter Soldier” of S.H.I.E.L.D. 

2) Coulson being the one to find and rescue Carmilla from A.I.M. is the reason why he entrusted her with his car. She’s, technically, his “first” daughter, even though he didn’t see her that way. We also learn Coulson never told anyone about her because he didn’t want A.I.M. to find her.  

3) Carmilla murdered Jemma’s father because he was a high-ranking member of A.I.M.. 

4) Jemma learns that her family are an A.I.M. clan and that she and Fitz were supposed to join A.I.M. at some point. Jemma gets disgusted by this and disowns her entire family. 

5) The finale is a showdown in the Paradise safe-zone, with Dezan and the Skrulls helping S.H.I.E.L.D. battle A.I.M.. Andrew Forson survives the final battle and will appear next season, but not as the main villain. 

6) By the end of the season, Fitz sorta achieves a balance between his normal self and Doctor self. He can be the shy scientist most of the time but when he needs to, he can bust the Doctor out. 

7) Daisy is the one to convince Dezan and the Skrulls that they are on their side and that they can help them find Paradise. She also is the one leading the Skrull and S.H.I.E.L.D. forces during the final battle. Due to this show of leadership, Mack steps down as Director and appoints Daisy as his successor.

8) Carmilla and Dezan become agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. by the end of the season, although there’s some lingering tension between Jemma and Carmilla due to Carmilla’s past actions. Dezan is encouraged to stay with S.H.I.E.L.D. by May, who tells him that he could continue Coulson’s legacy.  

9) Holden Radcliffe is revealed as a member of A.I.M.

10) The season’s post-credit is Mack and Elena discovering another one of A.I.M.’s test subjects, revealed to be a little girl with silver hair. The two take her in, unofficially adopting her. When they ask what the girl’s name is, the girl says, “Kobik���. Kobik and the Cosmic Cube stuff are going to be season 7′s main focus. 

11) I don’t really care for the shippy stuff, but if we’re gonna go there, maybe Deke x Carmilla? Suggesting that since Deke and Daisy isn’t really that popular. Or maybe...Daisy x Carmilla? Also, Dezan and May aren’t going to be a thing but obviously, you can’t ignore the Philinda parallels between them. I also pictured Mack and Elena wanting their own kid, which is why they adopt Kobik in the final scene of the season. 

@lostinthespeedforce, @angel-starbeam, @whistlingwindtree, @happilyshanghaied, @agentmilayawithshield, @clarasghosts, @blackaquokat 

Thoughts on this write-up? Sorry in advance, I know it’s long. 

[tigertanyx]

 According to Goodreads, my average rating is 3.8, which doesn’t feel quite right, but who am I to argue with data. As of now, I am 98 books in, but I fully intend to finish a short book and manga before midnight. it’ll be my first recorded year of reaching 100 books a year, but as I explained earlier, I feel like it made me bypass longer books. My longest book was On A Sunbeam, at 533 pages. That’s weak.

Read Bricks: My 2020 Reading Goal

This isn’t exactly a top books of 2019 post, because there are 2nd or 3rd choices of some months that are better than the #1s of other months. But I did notice a trend (3 months) where I would read the best book of the month as the first book of the month, and those were also the best books of the year.

January 

Stats: 6 books, 2 contemporary, 1 fantasy, 1 classic, 1 manga, 1 mystery

Rep:

And the best book:

If We Were Villains, ML Rio

I love this book, it was my favourite of 2019 and I still think about it. I found it on a whim, while I was aimlessly browsing the library. It’s about a Shakespeare group in college a cult, where one of their members were murdered and they all have something to hide. There’s a slow-burn m/m romance tragedy  that was painfully simar to my own gay awakening. But alas, I don’t own it, so if you guys want to gift it to me…

February

Stats:  7 books, 3 Contemporary, 1 horror, 1 manga, 1 historical fiction, 1 mystery 

Rep:

The best book:

Darius The Great is Not Ok, Adib Khorram

This follows an Iranan-american boy whose granddad in Iran is ill, so his family is going to visit them so Darius can know him before he dies. It isn’t about the granddad though: it’s about Iranian culture, soccer, and a boy. Being gay can be a death sentence in Iran, so while there’s definite gay undertones, they never actually do or say anything. Their friendship is the purest thing, some hope while Darius is struggling with depression. 

March

Stats: 6 books, 3 manga, 2 horror, 1 contemporary 

Rep:

The best book:

Autoboyography Christina Lauren 

This book made me upset. It’s about 2 boys, one who’s at peace with his bisexuality, and the other who’s a mormon. It deals with his struggle to love someone and go against his family and community. There’s also a writing seminar, where one has to write a book with the other coaching him. I thought that part could’ve been expanded more. There’s secret hikes and secret gay moments.

April

Stats: 8 books, 5 Contemporary, 1 satire, 1 horror, 1 manga

Rep:

Best book: 

View this post on Instagram

#currentlyreading Radio Silence! The voice is easy to drown in, I love the casual but unsubtle rep, and the artsy. #amreading #bookstagram #booknerd #lgbtpride🌈

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Apr 29, 2019 at 10:24am PDT

Radio Silence, Alice Oseman

Kat @ paperback dreams loves this book so much, if you didn’t know. I was expecting some letdown, but I still love it. It’s about a gang that produces a sci-fi podcast called Universe City while they muse about what they’re going to do after high school. It’s an exploration of why college isn’t for everyone.

May

Stats: 8 books, 4 contemporary, 2 satire, 1 manga, 1 fantasy

Rep:

Best book:

I Wish You All The Best, Mason Deaver

I hope you know what this is. I hope you read it. I will disown you if you haven’t.

Dear Ben De Backer/ I Wish You All The Best

June

Stats: 6 books, 4 Contemporary (1 manga), 2 romance

Rep:

The Best Book:

View this post on Instagram

Important and real. Toxic relationships can be impossible to get out of and I don't think I've ever seen a more realistic f/f in fiction. Also, is Doodle non-binary? #amreading Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me #bookdragon #booknerd #bookstagram

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Jun 25, 2019 at 10:41am PDT

  Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Mariko Tamaki , Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Ahh, yes. The graphic novel about an emotional abusive teen f/f romance that explores what happens when you let yourself and neglect your friends with beautiful art.

Portraying Toxicity in F/F Relationships: Reading Jordi Perez And Laura Dean

July

(When booktubeathon happened) 13 books, 5 manga, 3 contemporary, 1 superhero, 1 Urban fantasy, 1 Poetry, 1 erotica 

Rep:

Best Book:

Nimona, Noelle Stevenson

Two months with a top graphic novel, but that just shows how amazing they’ve gotten. Nimona is a shapeshifter determined to do evil for her master, unaware that his greatest rival used to be his greatest lover. Funny! Evil propo!

August 

Stats: 8 books, 3 contemporary, 2 manga, 1 satire, 1 poetry, 1 spiritual 

Rep:

Best Book:

Sappho Of Lesbos, painted by John William Godward

Sappho, the lesbian poet of Greece. Her poetry haunted the lesbian areas of Greece. Lesbian greek poetry. What Are you waiting for?

September

Stats: 6 books, 3 manga, 2 supernatural, 1 sick lit

Rep:

Big Sapphic Pie

Best book:

My beloved girlfriend Carmilla. Carmilla is a lesbian vampire in the classic, muddling girls’ minds with dreams and sex. It was adapted into a youtube series that I’m probably going to binge watch after I’ve read the two books I read to reach 100 this year (Bread and Roses, Too, The Fifth Beatle).

My Beloved Carmilla

October 

Stats: 9 month, 5 fantasy, 2 manga, 2 contemporary

Rep:

Best Book:

View this post on Instagram

Everything Leads To You started slow but had me close to tears at the end. The best f/f I have read thus far! #bookstagram #bookish #lgbtpride🌈 #ffbooks

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Oct 1, 2019 at 5:14pm PDT

Everything Leads To You, Nina LaCour

F/F in LA! i loved how ingrained movies were in their lives, how it was their jobs, their relatives’ jobs, their passions. There’s also a realllly slooow burn romance! If Nina wrote a how-to slow burn guide, it’d be the book on how to write relationships.

November 

Stats; 9 books, 4 manga, 2 dystopia, 1 contemporary, 1 spiritual, 1 fantasy

Rep:

This best book was tough, since a few stand out, however Fence is rated highest! Contenders are Dragon Pearl, A Quick And Easy Guide To They/Them Pronouns, and Lizard Radio.

View this post on Instagram

My immediate TBR! Dragon Pearl is a MG Asian inspired Rick Riordan Imprint book with a non-binary character. Out Of Salem is about a non-binary zombie. I'm going into We Contain Multitudes blind, but it's gay. * What are your reading plans? How far in advance do you tend to plan them? #bookstagram #bookish #bookdragon #lgbtpride🌈

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Nov 12, 2019 at 9:06am PST

December

This is a no-brainer. The Deep by Rivers Solomon is about merfolk descended from pregnant captives on slave ships that were thrown overboard. Their babies were born in the water, barely functioning merbabies. 100 years later, the society remembers three days a year, the memories too heavy and their capacity to short for them to be held by anyone other than the Historian. But now she’s sick of it and wants to find herself. Super gay, written by a nonbinary author. 

View this post on Instagram

My December TBR plus #currentlyreading The Deep by Rivers Solomon and Tarnished Are The Stars by @rosieethor The Deep is about the decedents of the people captured on slave ships that jumped overboard, a society that can't bear to remember their past and gives all of the memories to one merperson a generation. Tarnished Are The Stars is set in a future where technology is banned, least humanity fall into the trap of destroying the planet- but our main queers use it to help people with medical problems. #amreading #bookstagram #ilovebooks #lgbt

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Nov 30, 2019 at 8:56pm PST

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

2019: Top Books of The Month  According to Goodreads, my average rating is 3.8, which doesn't feel quite right, but who am I to argue with data.

[stimman3000]

Media With LGBT Main Characters

This is an in-progress list, so more titles and categories will be added, but feel free to reblog and/ or add something!

Movies

 4th Man Out- A gay man goes through the process of coming out to his aggressively straight buddies. Comedy with a happy ending.

Adam & Steve- Ridiculous series of events during a relationship between two men. Bad comedy with a happy ending.

Beautiful Thing- A teenager dealing with his preoccupied mother falls in love with a classmate. Happy Ending.

Blue is the Warmest Colour- Coming-of-age romantic drama between two teenage girls. Unhappy ending.

Brokeback Mountain-A complex emotional and romantic relationship between two men in the American West develops between 1963 and1983. Unhappy ending. 

Carol- A forbidden affair between a young photographer and an older woman going through divorce during the 1950s. Happy Ending.

Capital Games- Two men fighting for the same position in a company struggle with their feelings for each other when forced to do a team-building exercise as part of a business retreat. Happy ending.

Dog Day Afternoon- Hostage drama based on the true story of a man who held up a bank to fund his partner’s bottom surgery. Unhappy ending.

Milk- Documentary about the life and death of pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk. Unhappy ending.

My Beautiful Laundrette- A young man living in london reunites with an old friend, eventually developing a romantic relationship with him after offering him a job running a laundrette to get him off the streets. Happy ending.

My Own Private Idaho- Two friends embark on a journey of personal discovery that takes them to both Idaho and Italy. Unhappy ending.

Pariah- A Black butch lesbian slowly comes to terms with her identity. Ambiguous ending.

Pride- The story of an unlikely alliance between striking miners in a Welsh village and London gay rights activists. Happy ending.

Shelter- Gay surfers fall in love. Happy ending.

Show Me Love- Two teenage girls begin a tentative romantic relationship. Ambiguous ending.

Tangerine-A transgender sex worker discovers her boyfriend and pimp has been cheating on her. Ambiguous ending.

Tomboy- A ten-year-old experiments with their gender. Ambiguous ending.

The Weekend-A romantic drama of a brief, touching encounter between two men. Bittersweet ending.

Tropical Malady- A soldier arriving to investigate the mysterious slaying of animals and a farm boy strike up a connection. Ambiguous ending.

  Books

Camp Rewind- Two women strike up a romance at a summer retreat.

Never Lose Your Flames- A fire elemental and the bounty hunter being paid to arrest him fall in love. 

Bad Boy- A transgender youtube star by day and vigilante by night, a job goes south and someone is out to ruin Ren’s life, leaving him struggling to clear his name.

Of Fire and Stars- A magic user and future queen falls in love with a princess, and her husband-to-be’s sister.

If I Was Your Girl- Trans romance written by a trans author

The Fifth Season- In the distant future, nature ravages the land, with a select few being able to control it. Main characters include a bi man, a gay man, and a trans woman.

Six of Crows (two book series)- A gang of thieves take on their most ambitious job yet- stealing a magic-enhancing drug. Features a lighthearted love story between a sharpshooter and the demolitions expert.

Into this River I Drown- A man searching for the truth behind his father’s death falls in love with his town’s guardian angel.

Not Your Sidekick- After failing to manifest powers, the local superhero duo’s daughter takes on an internship with their super-villain rival, and falls in love with her. Also has a trans boy.

Chameleon Moon- A group of people struggle to survive in a city of magic and turmoil. Has a married lesbian couple, several gay characters, and a nonbinary character.

Last Seen Leaving- After his sort-of-girlfriend vanishes, a closeted kid is forced to team up with another friend of hers, and develops feelings for him along the way

The Lightning-struck Heart- A wizard and a knight are sent to save the knight’s boyfriend, and fall hopelessly in love along the way. There’s also a gay dragon.

The Girl With the Crooked Fangs- A half-vampire develops a crush on her daring human friend.

Ice Massacre & Ice Crypt (two book series)- A mermaid hunter develops feelings for an old friend of hers, who happens to be one of the mermaids she’s sent to kill.

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown- Vampire story with a twist, and both  a bisexual and transgender main character.

The Foxhole Court (3 book series)- Neil, a gifted Exy player with a rocky past, joins a competitive team. Several gay and bi characters, including the protagonist.

The Raven Cycle (3 book series)- A group of boys and a girl who serves as a psychic amplifier try to find and awaken a Welsh king. Stars a romance between a boy who can take things out of his dreams and a magician.

Shallow Graves- A girl awakens several feet underground, at the same moment when all birds in the nearby vicinity drop dead. She struggles to piece together the identity of the killer while finding out what she is. Bisexual protagonist.

TV Series

In The Flesh- Kieran, a Partially Deceased Syndrome (PDS) sufferer, is brought back to live and returned home. He’s gay, as are various other characters.

Carmilla- Lesbian vampires! Plus a nonbinary character played by a nonbinary actor

Skam- The story of teenagers in a secondary school, with each season being told from a different characters point of view. Several gay main characters.

Shadowhunters- Hard to explain, but has both a gay and a bi character.

The Get Down- The lives of a group of nyc teens in the 1970′s, with two of the characters in the latest episode stopping just short of kissing

Torchwood- About an agency created to control alien beings. Lots of bi and gay characters.

The Magicians- A group of students at a college train to use magic and defend themselves against an enemy from another dimension. The protagonist of the series is a bisexual man, and there’s also another gay main character.

[beevean]

And finally we reached the end of the show. I'd almost be touched, if the finale didn't bore me to tears.

Also we skipped episode 7. Again. I wish we had skipped more episodes at this point.

I love how the last time I laughed at this scene:

and now I can laugh even harder because Nocturne completely retconned this stupid explanation!

(and I realized we never see vampires getting confused by crosses in the show either. Beautiful)

I still don't care about anything. But, of course, how could I ignore the best line of the show:

This is the "Wheres the DAMN fourth Chaos Emerald?" of NFCV. I love it. I tip my hat to such unbridled cringe <3

Not much to add about the epic reunion of the Trephacard gang. Alucard is still a cunt who hasn't earned the right to treat Trevor with snarky scorn. I still love how, for how hyped and shipped those three are, they don't even spend half of the runtime together, and when they do they are bitches to each other.

Death is still the character of all time, of course. I wish he'd be loyal to Dracula, like implied by the constant "he was one of the first people in Dracula's court", but I've long given up on the show giving any respect to the game characters. And yoohoo, Trevor got to do one thing without being portrayed as an idiot! Which is fighting a villain with barely any ties to him or the rest of the setting! He really is the funny penis man of NFCV.

As for Alucard... I just realized that the last time he saw his parents, they got trapped in the Rebis and experienced long minutes of terrible torment before exploding. And they, upon returning on Earth as themselves, simply decide to fuck off and "give him closure". Parents of the century. You know, now I'm even more insulted by Lisa deciding to leave her only son with the grief of the loss of both of his parents. As for my thoughts of Dracula and Lisa coming back, I explained why it was a terrible idea here, and how this ended up ruining Nocturne before it could even begin.

(that being said, the conversation between Alucard and Sypha when they still think Trevor is dead. It's touching, poignant and shows how they are willing to move on. But of course, the last episode was all about everyone not named Hector being as happy as possible, so Trevor couldn't stay dead.)

Of course, I have the most thoughts about Hector. (also rip isaac who peaced out in episode 6. not that i missed him but it's a noticeable absence)

I am suddenly struck with the realization that, after the show made so much noise about how cool Styria was for being a stable reign of four women, the story ends with the main "queen" killing herself out of insanity and the reign getting conquered and ruled by a stable man, possibly two (I don't really know Hector's role in Isaac's rule. Prince consort? lmao). But go ahead and tell me how woke this show is :)

Anyway. You know, after I watched Lenore's death, I am left here to think that maybe I do agree with Lenector shippers that they deserved better.

Oh, not because I wished that they'd live happily ever after having lots of BDSM sex and spawning adorable gray/redhaired dhampirs. But because, as characters, they were written so poorly that I'm still sad about the huge wasted potential.

Lenore's death is beautiful. I love the honest talk about strength and power, interesting but not pretentious. I love how Lenore's decision is triggered by Hector saying that "Power does nothing but eat. Like a vampire", which visibly horrified her. I love how, while Lenore puts emphasis that she won't live in a cage coming off as a hypocrite after what she has done, you can read the subtext that she refuses to live in the cage of her own vampirism, and risk becoming like Carmilla. I love how, after two hundred years of living in the night, she has the chance of seeing the sun again... and she chooses to instead look at Hector in the last seconds of her life, the only person who respected her and actually cared about her beyond what she could offer. And the music? Easily Trevor Morris' best composition in a soundtrack that is largely movie-like and forgettable. This scene is like Dracula's death: expertly crafted and moving, in a vacuum.

And then I remember that the rapist who brushed everything off with "I'm sorry for everything you went through" got to have more agency than her own victim, and I get angry again.

Hector shows so much love to Lenore. He never says it outloud, but it's so clearn in his expressions and gestures that it's almost touching. He takes her hand when she goes to sun herself. He emphasizes with a meaningful glance that he wants to lean about the beauty of things that live longer than he does. He's soft, and vulnerable, and caring. And what does he get in return? "I won't live in a cage, not even with you" said in a quick, dismissive tone. I'm just. This poor man.

The emblem of the absolute fuckery of this relationship is how Hector says "be free, Lenore" while clutching at his mutilated hand. The symbolism being that he, after suffering to achieve how own freedom, is accepting that Lenore finds her own, even if it can only be found in death.

Lenore is the reason he had to mutilate his hand to be free. And it's not like the show has forgotten this, "oh shush you were having fun". We are meant to forgive her for that. Hector has apparently completely forgiven her, and once again, this is the only growth he was allowed to do.

You know what? I will redirect you to this post I found: while I disagree with some parts, like "google for yourself what Ellis has done" or all the praising for S4 ("beautiful animation", jesse what the fuck are you talking about) and especially Isaac, this is an excellent breakdown of how offensively Hector and Alucard have been written. I wouldn't say that Hector has ended the show alone either, because he should have Isaac now, for how much he's worth... but it is a very unsatisfying conclusion to his character arc. As I said the previous time, he has suffered Hell without learning a thing. It was torture for the sake of torture. I grieve the potential of this character.

(on a lesser note, I want you to play Yakuza 0. Or, at the very least, watch Majima's cutscenes. If you want a poignant story of a dog breaking free of his cage, and his jailer who grows to respect him and whose death, despite the lack of catharsis, still hits you, then please play that game. I cannot overstate how immensely better written it is. Maybe one day I'll make a whole post how the relationship between Majima and Sagawa is literally what Hector and Lenore should have had.)

(oh, and Curse of Darkness, obviously. Please play Curse of Darkness. And read the prequel mangas. I implore you. I can assure you that game Hector is what y'all think show Hector is, but much better written. And Isaac is not just a caricature, he's an engaging tragic villain and he did not deserve the slander that he got because of Gary Stuaac here. And Trevor was already fleshed out in his games. All of the games are good, don't listen to game journalist shitting on them to praise this show.)

So, with all said and done... yes, it was painful. NFCV is simply not a good product to me, in any way. Not in the animation which has sharp drops in quality and is overall uncanny, the music which is generally forgettable, the plotlines which are uninteresting and sometimes recycled, the pacing which swings between glacial and rushed, the dialogue, the characterizations which are inconsistent and unpleasant, and even less the themes which are downright offensive to me. As you might have noticed, I stopped comparing it with the games halfway through, because it's not just a bad adaptation, it's a bad work that survives on rule of cool and fanservice, both the sexual kind and the "SEE WE PLAYED THE GAMES" kind. It's mind-numbing when it doesn't make my brain boil with rage. Overall, this rewatch left me sadder than the first time, because after a year, I have grown to see more of the potential buried underneath the lazy, insulting writing decisions.

All my respect to the fans who genuinely see something good in this, of course. But I will never understand your point of view.

Rewatching NFCV with @woodchipp and @the-crow-binary has been miserable so far.

Not because of them, of course: we all need each other to bear the Peak. but holy shit I forgot how mindnumbingly boring the show is. it's way worse at a second watch because now I know how much it falls apart! We're only at S2E3 as of this post!

S1 is the best season, and even that is largely forgettable, especially S1E3 which wastes 22 minutes of my life to say "here's the bishop. he's proof that CHURCH BAD". But S1E1 may be the best or second best episode of the whole show thanks to Dracula and his performance... and isn't that sad, that the show peaks at the very beginning? The rest of the show is just... Trevor doing his stuff (while the framing mostly makes fun of him), talking, some fighting, and CHURCH BAD. As positives, I still like Trevor's mini-arc in this season, and the vague effort to be faithful to CV3 (Sypha being petrified by a cyclops, falling down a chasm to find Alucard).

S2 is terrible. Yes we're still less than halfway through. I already hate everything.

I hate Alucard becoming a legend to the point that the Wallachians name his Alucard (as in, Dracula's opposite) after only a year - why couldn't he name himself Alucard? Why complicate matters so much? Isaac calling him Alucard, and Dracula recognizing the name, makes absolutely no sense: how do they know about it? Dracula lost contact with his son one year ago and I doubt Wallachian human legends have reached him. And Isaac was in the Sahara until sometime after Lisa died!

I hate Alucard himself. He's a cunt. He does nothing but insult Trevor and the Belmonts without provocation, and it's not funny banter, he's mean! He's genuinely cruel! He hears that Trevor lost his family at 12, and he can only say "lol and lmao I had more of a childhood than you. anyway they were mentally ill and child killers, they sacrificed chickens and hoarded dead cats". And this piece of shit is the most popular character of the show??? he's not even pretty what are y'all seeing 😭

(it's also weird how he's all angsting about killing his vampire father, but he hates the Belmont for being vampire hunters. bro. bro you're also about to hunt a vampire. why are you defending a race of monsters so staunchly. not even a hint of, I don't know, a Belmont hurting him when he was a child because he was confused for a full vampire? Remember that logically, a vampire child is a child turned into a vampire, we have no other indication that dhampirs are running all around the world. I know that in the games he seems fully on board with "vampires bad and me bad for being half vampire", but you have the chance of making it better and you squander it?)

Sypha is also ruder than I remembered. I think she suddenly became more cheerful in S3 and that's why I liked her, but also girl, you keep criticizing Trevor for being rude and not consoling you, but you look at him with a perpetual resting bitch face and insult the Morning Star calling it an "ugly thing"? Why does Trevor even bother with the likes of you? How is Trephacard the most popular ship in the franchise?

I hate Isaac. Oh, I gave him the benefit of the doubt back then, because I really wanted to understand why he became the fan favorite. But now? No, I'm sorry, he's overrated as fuck. He's so damn pretentious, his speech about how he wants a pure world without love is terrible from the lens of him being a Muslim who is devoted to the Devil, and his backstory is so tryhard and historically inaccurate that I almost prefer Hector's past being exposed through voiceover.

Oh, and Hector, I hate his scenes. Because he's actually treated with dignity. He's fine! I actually like the guy! I like the scene where he rebukes Godbrand (who as a character only exists to attract infodumps and to question Dracula) because "I have to work" - he sounds actually proud of his role, if not even competent, perish the thought. Also by reading the scripts online I forgot that he was the one who yelled "you do not question my loyalty!". Which I like a lot? I can hear the real Hector protesting like that out of pride, even if in private he would admit that he disagrees with the bloodshed. And the scene where he soothes the newborn Night Creature... yeah, this character used to be written with respect, and knowing how he gets tortured and disrespected and used for rape apologism by a sex pest hurts even more. Also, in retrospect, the scene where he stares at the fire while reminiscing about the day he set fire on his own childhood home doesn't go anywhere, even as the finale of S3 echoes it :^)

And Dracula, oh my poor man Dracula. He's already being presented as an ineffectual depressed old man spending his time staring at a fireplace, who can't even command his presence in the war room, who allows Carmilla to insult him and Lisa in front of everyone - it's so embarrassing how he gets the Red Eyes of Fury and then he simply... lets her go after he gets the flimsy explanation of "yeah I humiliated you because everyone is asking themselves the same question. I wanted to help <3" girl (Dracula), she's a mere regional ruler, as she herself said??? why do you need her so much that you allow her to do this shit??????? oh but then you posture to godbrand, he gets to be threatened because... he's not relevant to the plot i guess. fucking pathetic. what have they done to my man.

(and I hate Carmilla. but that has never changed. annoying smug ass #girlboss with the charisma of spoiled seafood. her way of manipulating Hector isn't even manipulation, it's just her telling him very plainly what she wants him to do. She and Lenore utterly suck at their job, and they only get their way because muh plot)

And then there's the infodumping. Oh my god these people won't shut the fuck up. Godbrand is like "why should we listen to two humans?" and Dracula dumps twice that he trusts Hector and Isaac for their human nature (which, again, it's a decent reasoning, but it goes on and on and even they should know, I get it). Alucard dumps about the apocalyptic scenario where Dracula wins and rules over a world without humans... but he only describes it as we look into his ugly face, instead of doing something more creative like actually showing what would happen. Hector gets this random flashback-through-sound, shoved there as if Ellis didn't know where to put it in the script; later on he explains to Carmilla the origin of Night Creatures, as if ever remotely matters. Isaac dumps about his jihadist philosophy about how by killing humans he and Dracula will create a pure world. Carmilla randomly reveals her Tragic Backstory after kicking Godbrand down the stairs, another scene I can't stand because it's all about what a #queen she is and how she's better than Dracula. At one point they seriously discuss about the myth of vampires unable to cross running water, which is a moot point anyway because Carmilla resorts to using a zombie bishop to bless the river!! No I will never let it go!!!

(also I love that in the one occasion where Alucard has the chance of describing his childhood, he retells the tale of Lisa meeting Dracula, something we've already seen and he was also obviously told about, not something he experienced himself. They couldn't even come up with another anedocte to actually tell us what kind of mother Lisa used to be. so lazy)

This show is half people sitting in a circle and talking, and half average fight scenes. Yeah at this point not even those impress me anymore. I'm serious when I say that Knuckles' fight scene in Divergence, also animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios, is of a better quality than what the show has offered.

And this is why I'm so reluctant to watch Nocturne. If the best seasons of this highly acclaimed show are so painful to sit through, how are we going to survive a sequel series that not even the fans liked it as much?