#also because its fairly new in development i can kinda follow along in real time which ive always wanted to do with an arg

[spinspoon]

i have unlocked another New thing to lose my mind over

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream: The Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad has frequently been touted as one of the worst comic book movies ever, and honestly? I don’t really agree, even if I almost wholeheartedly agree with every criticism of it. The editing is bad, the story is a mess, the Squad’s friendship is nonexistent, characters like Waller act like absolute idiots, Enchantress is a bad character and an absurd villain for these people to face… And yet, the core cast of scoundrels are all pretty likable when you wipe off the crap they’re buried under. These characters all could have shined bright if they were given competent writing and direction; the ideas are there, but the execution is unbelievably flawed due to excessive executive meddling (and probably a bit of pretentiousness on director David Ayer’s part). If only there was a director capable of taking the concept of a bunch of C-list villains getting together and performing dangerous missions and, along the way, becoming a found family…

That director thankfully exists, and his name is James Gunn. Gunn has already shown twice that he is capable of doing “a bunch of assholes become a found family” really well with the two Guardians of the Galaxy films, films that have a lot of style and flair that help make them the best films in the MCU, and considering Suicide Squad was mangled the way it was to try and be more in line with his Guardians films, it only makes sense to pull him in to give Task Force X another shot. Why settle for imitations when you can get the real thing? It’s not like he was doing anything else while Mickey Mouse put him in time out for naughty tweets, after all.

But this isn’t Gunn under the thumb of the Mouse, oh no; this is Gunn allowed to go absolutely wild. This is Gunn given the budget of a modern superhero film and asked to make a Troma picture, with all the blood, gore, and cheesiness that entails, and by god did he pull it off. Right from the get go we are given a taste of just what sort of movie we’re in for as a mangy child-murdering weasel man shows up and Nathan Fillion detaches his arms from his body to gently tap enemy soldiers on the head, and somehow things only get wackier from there.

Gunn seemed to actively go out of his way to fix every single problem of the original film. The characters, for instance, are all fairly similar to those of the first film. Bloodsport is clearly the stand in for Deadshot, but where Deadshot was just your average charming, funny Will Smith role to the point it could get distracting, Idris Elba makes Bloodsport a tired straight man to the wacky antics around him and portrays his growth through the film very well. Peacemaker is the jackass of the team in the vein of Captain Boomerang, but where Boomerang had little use in the narrative despite being the best and funniest non-Harley member of the team, Peacemaker is given his full due, with John Cena making him one of the funniest assholes ever put to film and even giving him a bit of depth and moral complexity. King Shark, AKA Nanaue, is obviously Killer Croc’s replacement, but where Croc was bland and really just stood in the background the whole movie, Nanaue is a sweet, charming, funny oaf with brutal strength who is just absolutely lovable and adorable, all capped off with hilarious vocal delivery from Sylvester Stallone himself. Polka-Dot Man is something of a replacement for El Diablo, though while El Diablo was really bungled by the narrative despite being well-acted and sympathetic, Polka-Dot Man is given ample opportunity to be funny, tragic, and useful all at once, and gives him a bit of an arc (pretty impressive for a character who was added in solely because Gunn googled who the lamest DC villains were). And finally, Ratcatcher is something of the replacement for Katana, being the second woman of the squad and the token good teammate, though where Katana was awkwardly shoehorned in at the last minute, Ratcatcher is clearly the heart of this team and brings the band together. Overall, the new Squad is leagues better than the original, and you will care for this band of criminals by the film’s end.

Returning characters get their due as well, particularly the ones really screwed over by the first film Waller and Flag get it the best of all. In the first film, Waller’s entire scheme was stupid, nonsensical, contradictory, and basically everything she did went against what was told to us about her, namely that she is a master manipulator. It was really a waste of Viola Davis, who had the presence and mannerisms down but who was constantly being failed by a shoddy script. Thankfully, that’s not the case here; Waller is very much the ultimate, manipulative girlboss she should be, from using her own troops as a distraction for another team to threatening Bloodsport with his daughter getting raped and murdered in prison over a minor offense if he doesn’t join her Suicide Squad. She is a stone cold bitch you will love to hate, and is easily one of the best comic book villains in film now (quite the turnaround all things considered). Flag is an actual character in this movie, with great chemistry with the members of the new Squad, particularly Bloodsport and Harley. Much like Bloodsport, he also gets a bit of a rivalry with Peacemaker going, which ends up being entertaining and even leads to a truly sad moment late in the film. Quite impressive for a guy who did nothing but spout awkward exposition in the first film.

Then we have Harley. I’m going to be honest, Harley has never been written better than she was in this film. While Robbie has had the character down from day one, the scripts have consistently failed her. The original film did nothing with her but sexualize her and have her spout crappy one-liners, and while Birds of Prey was a massive step up and had her written as she should be, the overall narrative of that film didn’t quite give her the due she deserved due to her feeling like a passive character pushed around by the flow of the plot. Here, though, Harley fully grasps at what’s given to and takes charge when she can, leading to one of the best action scenes in a film full of them. She ahs great interactions with her teammates and is just consistently funnier than she ever has been before, and it makes me happy to know someone who loves this character as much as Robbie does is finally getting to truly shine as she deserves.

The music and editing are vastly better. Remember how the original film had a new licensed song every minute, and almost all of them made no sense, and the music that played for Deadshot was exclusively rap artists (which was lowkey kinda racist)? Well, Gunn is bringing his ability to weave songs into the narrative with this one, but he also gives plenty of time for the music composed for the film to shine. As for the editing, gone are the obtrusive comic-book style cards that announce stupid throwaway details (and in a few cases, plot points you will very likely miss), replaced by more amusing and less obtrusive gags. The movie is also cut in a way where, you know, it makes sense. Everything flows naturally, and while there are a couple of points where time rewinds so we can see how we got to a certain point, it’s never so confusing that you can’t follow it.

The stakes are vastly overhauled. It made zero sense in the first film that Waller would assemble a team that consists of people whose powers range from “is good with weapons” to “is an Aztec fire god” to “is a big ugly crocodile man” to take on Superman-level threats. This is like if you sent a Boy Scout troop to fight Godzilla, it’s just not gonna end well and there’s an absurd disparity in power levels. Here, the team is being sent on a general black ops mission and have their skills selected by who would be most useful for the mission, and while they do end up taking on something a bit outside their context in the form of a certain cyclopean starfish alien, it’s a bit easier to swallow because of the buildup and because “big angry alien” is a lot more sensible as a threat to black op vigilantes than “ancient interdimensional witch goddess with a zombie army.”

Most importantly, though, is that this film lives up to its title. This is very much a suicide mission, and where the last team made it out relatively unscathed, this film suffers a lot of casualties. Characters die for gags, characters die suddenly, you might think a character is going to be a big, important part of the plot only for them to be dispatched right when it seems they’re getting going. For a film like this, it works perfectly, and some of the deaths are absolutely hilarious. That being said, you can kind of predict who lives and who dies based on star power alone; do you really think Harley’s gonna bite it? Come on.

I don’t really have many issues with the movie, but I will reiterate: this is essentially a Troma film with a massive budget, made by one of their alumni. Troma is a studio that makes gory, gross, and awesome B-grade movies and a similar irreverent mentality is on display here. If you can stomach gore, violence, and absurdity then this is a film you’re probably going to get into, but it’s definitely not the kind of comic book movie for everyone. Thankfully, it is exactly the kind of comic book movie for me. It honestly feels like the sort of movie I’d want to make, where I take a bunch of stupid C-list villains with dumb powers and give them actual development and characterization to the point the audience feels something for them. You’re going to be moved by a girl who controls rats, a stupid shark man, and a depressed dude who shoots polka-dots from his hands, and you’re not going to care.

I really hope they follow this up with another one, especially if they bring James Gunn back. There were a lot of characters he considered for the team, and a lot of them have potential, be that hilarious or dramatic. I mean, the man considered Mr. Freeze, that guy could be one hell of a leading man! Round out the team with some of the considered ideas like Rainbow Creature, Solomon Grundy, Chemo, Livewire, Punch and Jewelee, Man-Bat, Dogwelder, and the almighty Kite Man, and you’ve got one hell of a Suicide Squad! Also, maybe get Gunn to consider Crazy Quilt and Condiment King.

Really, the possibilities are endless, and that’s what the fun of a Suicide Squad movie should be: seeing the dumbest dregs of comic book history thrown into a place where they’re probably going to die horribly. Gunn managed to get that when Ayer couldn’t, and the results are perhaps his magnum opus. This is Gunn at his best and most free, unchained from the restrictions of forcing a film to tie into a bunch of others while also using all the tricks of his signature style to craft a damn fine film that easily holds up on its own outside the context of the DCEU. These are the kind of comic book movies we need, so let’s hope this film gets the respect it deserves so it acts as a wakeup call for studios content to churn out

[the-madhouse-within]

Shipmas Day 1: Mistletoe

By The Madhouse Within

(we are hella nervous about this but plz enjoy)

Preinfo: Mabel is now a college student in her second year, the first year of college was stressful and disappointing both academically and socially, but this year has been better in grades. And all year long she’s been getting nightmares of dying alone. This Christmas, Mabel wants to bring home a boyfriend to show her family she can be successful in her endeavors and to disprove her horrid dreams. Meanwhile, Bill has been plotting escape and finally succeeds in exiting Stanley’s mind to hunt the twins down, and swiftly murders the two elder twins in his escape. He discovers a new form he has never taken before, human-looking but still powerfully dangerous with interdimensional magic. He figures from handwritten letters where to find Mabel first, so he starts his hunt, which leads to him walking around in the human world and carefully learning how to manage his powers along with his new form.  ✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡 ✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡 ✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡 ✫彡✫彡✫彡

Bill stood by the windows in a smallish coffee shop trying to look like an average human totally not trying to stalk someone. It had been 9 days since he escaped Stanley’s mind and murdered the two elder twins to hunt the younger ones down. He was eager to get to them but was also very much fascinated by his new form. Escape had not been easy; it involved a great deal of manipulation to convince the old man to remember him clearly enough for him to slip up and set him free. Years of nightmares and whispering finally got him out when Stanley gave up and tried to get rid of Bill by summoning him out to kill him. Since Bill was in the man’s mind for so long, he learned quickly enough how fed off both twins and get rid of them. 

Suddenly, there she was, leaving the bathroom. Mabel walked out the bathroom, passing a archway lined with Mistletoe above, to go to order some coffee. She seemed a bit blue, not really smiling but not fully frowning either. Bill slyly passed through the crowd of tables and chairs to her and in a complicated loop order himself a drink and ‘accidentally’ bumped into Mabel, causing her to spill a bit of her own drink on both on them. 

“Ack- Oh no, I'm sososososo sorry!” she gasped while trying to pat away the stain on his coat with her sleeve. He sighed a bit and looked at her carefully before speaking.

“How about you grab a couple napkins, your sleeve is soaked and it’s cold out.”

“Will you be okay, I’m really sorry to get like all my coffee on you, I-” she says while grabbing napkins from a nearby empty table and patting her sleeve dry.

He cautiously stood closer and looked at her with the most sympathetic look he can muster. Mabel looked back at him and started to get a bit shy, unsure why she seems so nervous but starting to want to talk and not talk at the same time, key aspects of developing a crush. 

“It’s alright, but you seem a bit anxious. Do you at all mind if I sit with you and just talk a bit? I know it’s a bit sudden to sit with someone you never planned on sitting with, but I don’t mind in the slightest.” Bill said while resisting the urge to simply grab her and drag her away. He was starting to look more closely at her but not in an overly obvious way. It took a moment or so to decide, but she honestly felt like this was her lucky break at finding a boyfriend before the holidays ramp up. 

“Well… You seem kinda nice, so… Sure.” she admitted in a slightly quieter tone than when she was apologizing. Bill smiled and sat at the empty table she grabbed the napkins from, Mabel followed suit and sat across from him. They started off with bill asking her about what it is like to be living in that area, as he’d never been in that town before. She rambled and he let her, just letting her start getting a sense of trust with him. They talked for about twenty minutes before she remembered she ought to ask his name at some point. 

“Oh, I just realized, I never got your name. I’m Mabel, its been really nice to talk to you. What’s your name?” He paused a moment before looking her in the eyes and smirking a bit.

“Oh you know me from somewhere… You are my Shooting Star, after all.”

She is taken aback and realized who he was, but couldn’t just get up and run away, but it’s Bill Cipher, it’s dangerous to be near him actually existing. He calmly sips his tea and chuckles a bit. 

“How about a deal? Something I fairly understand about you, Shooting Star, is that you like guys; guess who now has the body of a relatively attractive guy. I will go out with you every day until Christmas and give you the best Christmas you could ask for, in exchange for letting me be in the human world in peace and not trying to hunt me down after. Sound fair enough?”

“Can I get a day to decide?” Mabel asked, looking around nervously. Bill wagged him index finger as he answered.

“Ah, ah, ahh; I need an answer sooner rather than later, so nope. You could either agree or risk having me getting what I want another way.” “Well… at least let me use the bathroom before I decide.” She said quietly. He nodded and let her go to the restroom, where she desperately paced around trying to come up with a solution. She felt like she’d been played, like trusting a stranger just a bit had caused this disaster of a deal to be made. She took about 10 Minutes to just stare at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, crying because she wasn't sure if her grunkles were safe, if anyone was safe, if SHE was safe. She cleaned her face and walked out the bathroom to see Bill standing in the archway waiting for her while examining the mistletoe above his head. 

“Is this what I have to be understood as ‘mistletoe’? I read up on Christmas traditions, seems a bit ridiculous to kiss under a poisonous plant, but I would like to attempt it. Wanna try?” 

Mabel blushed as he offered his hand to her, starting to feel her unease bubble. She had kissed guys before by now, she’d even dated guys long enough to understand how real adult dating worked, but this felt more endearing, which worried her because Bill Cipher is anything BUT endearing. But something in her told her to take this chance, maybe even somehow rehabilitate him of his evil ways… She took his hand and looked him in the eyes.

“Fine, but nothing too weird or pushy.” She said as she stepped next to him under the archway. Bill placed his other hand on her cheek and bent down forward to kiss her. As soon as their lips touches, they both shivered and felt weightless for just the smallest moment before snapping back into reality and pulling back from each other. They looked at each other in wonder before Bill looked away with shy demeanor. 

“...I’ll give you a day to decide. Meet me at the park by the plaza with the big shiny metal thingy at noon. Try not to keep me waiting.” 

She nodded and, just like that, he was gone. Walked out the door with a bit of a small smile on his face. Leaving her to stare longing at the exit.

[mermaidmovieclub]

Common Mermaid Movie Tropes (With Examples)

I’ve noticed with a lot of mermaid movies that a lot of them tend to share common tropes. I mention common mermaid tropes a lot on the Mermaid Movie Club, but thought, hey, maybe I need to come up with a handy list that’s easy to follow? Hey, that’s what blogs are for. Without further ado, a list of Common Mermaid Movie Tropes, and examples for each one. Since these are going to be part of the Mermaid Movie Club going forward, I thought I'd compile them neatly into a little list. Of course, this will be updated as I go through more movies. 😉

These are not taken from TVTropes, these are just things that I have found from watching these films/TV shows, so I just kinda made stuff up. Perhaps in due time I could make a list of tropes taken from TVTropes but that’s a loooooooooot to sift through.

(Also, this is not necessarily negative. Understand a lot of these will be interpreted differently from film to film. It's all about looking at something from a different angle, which a lot of these filmmakers do in their own way.)

1. The Only Way To Get What You Want is to Become Human Yourself

Literally what it says on the tin. The mermaid has to become human to achieve some kind of goal. Usually a romantic objective.

Examples: The Little Mermaid and most adaptations of it, Splash (1989), Aquamarine (2006)

Subverted in: The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea (2000), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale (2010)

2. Teenagers Scare the Living Fish Outta Me

Mermaid as a coming-of-age metaphor. For me it comes across as a kind of "fish out of water" metaphor but in the case of one film I have to rethink that.

Examples: The Thirteenth Year (1999), Scales: Mermaids are Real (2017), Blue My Mind (2017), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale (2010)

3. You Can Take Your Mermaid on Land Adventures, When She Dries Off, She Gets Legs

Again, what it says on the tin. The mermaid can achieve a human form but only when dry. When she touches water again she reverts back to her mermaid form.

Examples: Splash (1989), H2O and all of its spin-offs, Aquamarine (2006)

Splash: Obviously there’s the iconic scene with Madison unfolding her fins in the bathtub, and rushing to dry off when Allen calls for her. There’s also the scene where Walter Kornbluth sprays her down with a hose as she and Allen leave their dinner, effectively revealing her tail to the public.

H2O: This is revealed in the first episode where Cleo gets stuck in the bathtub after her tail develops, Emma transforms while swimming in the ocean, and perhaps the most telling of all is Rikki transforming after getting hit with a sprinkler. There are many more examples as the show goes on.

Aquamarine: Had an additional stipulation that she would have to be a mermaid at night, so it was almost like a werewolf-mermaid situation.

4. Born Yesterday

Mermaid is a bit naive to human things.

Seen in: The Little Mermaid (especially the Disney one), Splash (1989), Aquamarine (2006), Siren (2018-present)

5. Human Stuff

Mermaid falls in love with a human.

Examples: The Little Mermaid and all of its adaptations, Splash (1989), Aquamarine (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Siren (2018-present)

6. For Science

Mermaid is pursued by scientists for science.

Examples: Splash (1989), Scales: Mermaids are Real (2017), The 3 Tails Movie: A Mermaid Adventure (2015), Siren (2018-present)

7. Hush Hush

The mermaid has to keep her mermaid identity a secret, potentially as a result of For Science, as well as You Can Take Your Mermaid on Land Adventures, When She Dries Off, She Gets Legs. The mermaid might have to avoid water to avoid being exposed.

Examples: H2O and all its spin-offs, Aquamarine (2006), Splash (1989), Scales: Mermaids are Real (2017), The Thirteenth Year (1999), nearly all of them except for some older pre-Splash ones.

H2O: Just Add Water: The mermaids even have to drink water through straws to prevent the water from touching their skin.

8. The Power of Three

There's likely a trio of mermaids. Mostly common in H2O copycat shows on YouTube.

Examples: H2O and all its spin-offs, Mermaids (2003), as I said, a lot of H2O copycats on YouTube. Aquamarine includes a main cast of three, but Hailey and Claire are not mermaids.

9. Power Up

They have superpowers. That's it that's the trope

Examples: H2O and all its spin-offs, The Thirteenth Year (1999), Scales: Mermaids are Real (2017), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale (2010)

H2O: The core mermaids (Rikki, Cleo, Emma, later Bella) all have some kind of different water-based superpower.

Scales: Siren's powers in this movie are pretty similar to those in H2O, particularly, the ability to move water. At the end she kills a hunter by dehydrating him to death.

The Thirteenth Year: Cody Palpatine Griffin emits force lightning--I mean, static electricity

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale: Royals of Oceana are capable of producing Merillia, a sort of oceanic life force. 

10. I'm In the Sea, and I'm SINGING

Mermaid can sing, which checks out given the mythology honestly

Examples: The Little Mermaid and nearly all of its adaptations (especially Disney), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Siren (2018-present)

11. You Should See Me In a Crown

Mermaid is part of a royal family, most likely a princess. Her father is likely Neptune or Triton or Poseidon, or some non-specific King of the Sea. (Notice that the Queen of the Sea is rarely mentioned? That's weird, right?)

Examples: The Little Mermaid and all its adaptations, Aquamarine (2006), The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2001), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale (2010), implied in Scales: Mermaids are Real (2017)

The Little Mermaid: It's kind of the basis for the story itself. In Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), Ariel is the daughter of King Triton and has six sisters. Her mother, Queen Athena, is not revealed until 2008 in The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, but it's revealed that she was killed when Ariel was very young, so she doesn't exist by the time the original film takes place.

Aquamarine: Aqua's father is a non-specific king

SpongeBob: Mindy's father is King Neptune

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale: Merliah’s mother is Calissa, Queen of Oceana, overthrown by her sister Eris

Scales: Siren's birth mother is referred to as "the leader of the mermaids," and it is later revealed that they are both pureblood mermaids, which implies that Siren and Emerald are some kind of royalty. The film uses the word “leader” which is fairly vague, however.

12. Kids' Show

(I read this in my mind like the Will Ferrell/Molly Shannon “Dog Show” sketch from SNL.)

A character from a kids' franchise becomes a merperson themselves, most often to help other merfolk. This might also be reflected in a corresponding toy line.

Examples: Barbie (numerous titles), Dora the Explorer, Paw Patrol, Monster High, Sofia the First, Shimmer and Shine.

Barbie: Numerous mermaid characters exist in the Barbie Cinematic Universe (if that isn’t already a thing it is now), but at least five mermaid-centric Barbie films exist: Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia (2006), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale (2010), Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 (2012), Barbie the Pearl Princess (2014), and Barbie Dolphin Magic (2017). There have also been multiple Barbie mermaid lines throughout the years, the most recent being part of the Dreamtopia line. A number of lines corresponded to the films, such as the Mermaidia and Barbie in a Mermaid Tale lines. (I’ve got one of Kayla from the first one somewhere)

Dora the Explorer: In the 2007 TV movie Dora Saves the Mermaids, Dora became a mermaid to help the crown of mermaid princess Mariana. Dora later reunited with Mariana in the Dora and Friends episode “Magical Mermaid Adventure” (1x13) in 2015. Dora once again became a mermaid in the 2012 episode “Dora’s Rescue in Mermaid Kingdom” (7x01). I remember there being dolls for Dora Saves the Mermaids but not for the other two.

Paw Patrol: The six main pups of the Paw Patrol become merpups (it’s exactly what it sounds like) in the 2016 episode “Merpups Save the Turbots” (3x21B). Initially it’s just Marshall after he is turned by a mother merpup but later all the pups have a merpup form. I don’t remember a ton of toys for this one, but I often run into the merpup bath squirters, namely Skye.

Monster High: Lagoona Blue, daughter of a sea monster, is a part of the core team of monsters, but she’s more Mermaid-Adjacent. The first true mermaid character to be introduced to the franchise was Sirena von Boo, the daughter of a mermaid and a ghost, in the 2014 Freaky Fusion movie and doll line of the same name. Later on, the 2016 Great Scarrier Reef movie coincided with a corresponding doll line of the main monsters as mermaid-like creatures, with the addition of some new aquatic characters such as Posea Reef, Kala Mer’ri, and the two-headed Peri and Pearl Serpentine. (Mattel had a similar line called Ever After High that featured Meeshell Mermaid as the daughter of the Little Mermaid, but there was never any kind of mermaid line or movie made for it, which, come on, I wanted mermaid Raven Queen.)

Sofia the First: 2013′s “The Floating Palace” was a special episode that aired toward the end of the show’s first season. In it, Sofia meets mermaid princess Oona and Queen Emmaline, and helps them stop Cedric from taking the magical Mermaid Comb of Merroway Cove. Of course, in order to do that, she has to become a mermaid herself. Along the way, her magical amulet summons Ariel because this is a Disney Princess show and her amulet just magically summons Disney Princesses when she needs a pep talk because of course it does.

Shimmer and Shine: In the 2016 episode “Mermaid Mayhem” (2x06), Leah wishes she and her genies, Shimmer and Shine, were mermaids. If only it were that easy. Yep. There were toys. Just expect it at this point.

Subverted in: Elena of Avalor: Song of the Sirenas

13. Looks Like a Seannamon Roll But Could Actually Kill You

This is really just a trope for sirens or "darker" mermaids

Examples: Siren (2018-present), She Creature (2001), Killer Mermaid/Nymph (2014), Mermaid's Song (2018), Night Tide (1961)

14. Mermaid-Adjacent

Not quite a mermaid but similar human-fish hybrid.

Examples: The Shape of Water (2017), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1953), also the Zora race from the Legend of Zelda games even though that’s not a movie, shut up it counts

15. Gadgets and Gizmos Aplenty

There is some kind of magical trinket used by the mermaids, typically a piece of jewelry with magical properties.

Examples: The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea (2000), Scales: Mermaids are Real (2010), H2O: Just Add Water (2006-2010), Mako Mermaids/Mako: Island of Secrets (2013-2016), both Barbie in a Mermaid Tale movies (2010 and 2012)

TLM2: Melody's locket, a gift to her from King Triton, projected an image of Atlantica when opened, but otherwise didn't do a lot.

Mako Mermaids: The mermaids possessed blue moon rings, which store moonlight and can be used to perform different magical functions dependent on the situation.

H2O: The necklaces worn by Rikki, Cleo, and Bella in the third season serve a similar function to the Moon Rings of Mako.

Scales: Siren Phillips was given a special necklace by Crystal which seems to serve as a kind of homing device. It's not explained in depth what it does exactly, but it performs a similar function to the Wailing Stick if I remember correctly, which was a sort of mermaid distress signal.

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale: When Queen Calissa gave baby Merliah Summers to Break, she gave Merliah a magical necklace that, years later, revealed to her and Zuma that Queen Calissa was still alive after Eris overthrew her from the throne of Oceana. Merliah is later given a necklace by Calissa that allows her to alternate between human and mermaid forms at will. In Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2, Kylie Morgan steals the necklace out of Merliah’s hoodie when Hadley is distracted and uses it to become a mermaid herself, so it’s clearly not specifically made for Merliah to use.

If it counts, Ursula’s soul-stealing necklace in The Little Mermaid (1989) is one of these as well.

16. You Want Thingamabobs? I've Got Twenty

Girl is a hoarder, or fascinated by human trinkets.

Examples: The Little Mermaid and nearly all of its adaptations (especially the Disney one)

17. The Mermaid Elder

An old woman that’s sort of a mermaid wise woman.

Examples: The Mermaid (2016), most interpretations of The Little Mermaid apart from the Disney one

18. Foreshadowing Name

Very very very obvious mermaid name.

Examples: Barbie in a Mermaid Tale/2 (2010/2012), Scales: Mermaids are Real (2017), Aquamarine (2006), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

Barbie in a Mermaid Tale/2: You really expect me to think a girl named Merliah isn’t gonna be a mermaid? Come on.

Scales: I feel like naming your kid Siren in a town full of mermaids AND where there are known mermaid hunters is just a great example of not thinking things through.

Aquamarine: Self-explanatory.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: Astrid Berges-Frisbey played main merm Syrena in this movie. There were other named mermaids in this, I think, but Syrena was the most prominent, obviously.

[the-empress-of-nothing]

The full story

(Heya all! This is litteraly the full story of Maeddrona up till the point im rping her, I just kinda took this moment to word vomit everything I made for this character, she’s been developing in my mind for about six months, So, yeah. OOC super Long post under the break!)

Maeddrona is a literal incarnation of the void, previously I mentioned it being old, but the void is old and a God actually looked around as the universe got more and more busy and full- It just kinda.. stopped. Once humans became a thing it looked at mortal life and envied humans for achieving so much with so little time, it looked at the smaller picture of happiness humans could carve for themselves amidst a bloody history. So it just kinda, gave up it’s greater power and sentience, it’s essence possessing humans every once in a while.

These humans would usually barely live passed the age of 15, their lives being ended by some odd coincidence one way or another. It seemed as if dark reality had no place for hope and optimism. There was one that lived to be older, in about the 2nd Millennium *cough*  but she was murdered but someone very close to her.

Now, Maeddrona was growing up on her planet of Fortuna a little bit before Emps has started his rise on Terra. She reaches about age 35 and is the first Void-Born to awaken to her powers.

The entire planet is wiped clean of animal life and the planet itself is shrouded in an odd bubble-ish thing of space so warped you can look at it and see the stars behind you. This is only an illusion, and a result of the explosive amount of power awakening her, but she is left alone on this planet and with the isolation of the Age of Strife, no-one’s gonna show up. (if someone did show up, it would look almost like a black hole might be there, and they’d turn right the fuck around, because whatever that is, we’re not fucking with it)

So Maeddrona, now awakened to her void powers, realizes she... can make things happen by thinking about them on the Planet. Nothing big or overly huge- but time seems to have stood still since she gained her powers, but if she focuses on a plant growing and producing fruit, that’s what that one plant will do until she stops thinking about it. So she can at least survive- just, things are... wrong here. She also begins to have dreams, memories of each past life. Not movie-style, i mean boring, day by day, feels like real time dreams until she wakes up. It it does feel like she is this person, not like she’s watching from outside. She doesn't quite understand what these dreams mean. but she begins to write them all down in a journal.

Though, with Maeddrona being void, have discovering she can utilize a pocket dimension of just empty space, and that putting anything besides herself in there will slowly desolve it. A being with power like this and also who just caused an entire planets worth of population to die would be very interesting to atleast one God i can think of...

So Tzeentch enters her head, uninvited, occasionally, and tries to find out what the fresh funky fuck is happening in THIS corner of the galaxy! Maeddrona is convinced she’s going crazy and the eldritched fuck is all for it. Eventually Maeddrona says something like “prove to me you’re a god of knowledge and not my mind going mad, give me the knowledge I need to escape this fucking planet.” So she stands there, waiting for her mind to suddenly ascend with understanding and learning.

Then a book drops to the ground next to her.

Then another.

Then it starts RAINING BOOKS and she just runs to hide in a building, Fully believing a god was in her head now.

So, now, she starts reading and begins making a ship. It takes her the better part of  50 years (when she awoke to the void her body stopped aging, but more as a “she is nothing, neither alive nor dead” kinda thing) with non-stop work and learning and failures and dedication to get SOMETHING functional. (Thankfully she has an entire worlds worth of resources all to herself) Then she starts fucking with how to FTL travel- because she doesn't have a warp drive. She couldn’t actually make one- so she fucks around with the void, and finds she can travel trough the void while going through the warp as a bit of a substitute. (Its similar to how the Tau FTL travel) So she ends up getting to another planet! But she enters in so close to the planet that she kinda crashes. not far from her crash she finds a few dying people- she (correctly) assumes this might be her fault and tries to fix it, attempting to do something with her powers to save them. She saved one. She makes the first Void-Touched. The void changes her hair, and it tells her a name that she likes far better than her own, and is so grateful to Maeddrona that she wants to follow her when she leaves. Maeddrona isnt alone anymore

(at this point I should mention I take a lot of things from Warframe- specifically names, weapons, frames and abilities. I just love it so much!! but that’s all I really take.)

So for the next long while Maeddrona flies about space, making another deal with Tzeentch to get dreams from people dying that are compatible with the void (she doesn’t question how he knows who is and who isnt, he’s a God *shrugs*) and gets about 30 people in her little family. Occasionally they run back to her Fortuna because it’s their planet now and no-one else knows its there. (Yes, i have all of these as OCs, i know all their plots and stories;;;;)

Then one dream leads her to Terra, where a small boy is dying. Foolishly, she goes. She has much better control over her powers now, masking the ship with the same warped gravity look to try and mask their presence as they go to the biggest hornet nest in the galaxy.

And she is not surprised when the warmongering ruler of the planet does interrupt her in the middle of saving a child. He questions her, and she answers honestly. But her soul just feels... wrong. off. like it’s not there, but obviously something is!

She smiles, and offers her greetings. She does not prostrate herself before him, does not whisper rumors and legends and feats of his beings.

She smiles and patiently waits for him to respond. through their conversations an interest grows. Both are old souls and both hold immeasurable power.

And both consider themselves human.

When she says she is void, he asks if she is Chaos, ready to destroy her if needed. She gags. As by now she knows the intentions of the voice in her head, He and the 3 others have stolen a few of her Void-touched. “I am no God.” would come her reply, Honest.

He would then decide, though not entirely honest, she is no threat, And that these powers she speaks of are interesting, He asks if she would mind being studied,

of course she says yes

the fool she is

Eventually a relationship does form, and while their views are fairly different on many topics (read: most if not all) they balance each other out when they are willing to listen to one another, as both are incredibly hard headed and stubborn. He lets her in on the Primarch project, wanting her insight on raising children as she has been motherly to most if not all her Void-touched.

And he even offers they should make a child from her genetics, to raise along with the Primarchs. She will be human- or Void-born as Maeddrona would call her. But she loves the idea.

Then, tensions rise a bit. the primarchs are still being developed, but Emps wishes to increase the reach of his Imperium a bit as well. there is a system he wishes to acquire- and Maeddrona offers her and her children to do so instead, they can get there faster and her children are very effective with their abilities and such. But he refuses.

This is not the first time this has happened, she thinks he is afraid of the Void, afraid that it is too similar to chaos to be fully trusted on battle. And then, Tzeentch speaks to her once more, agreeing with her, She’s right! Of course she’s right! She should just get there first and do it before he arrives anyway. Show him he’s wrong, give him undeniable proof.

So she does. And... the conversation she has with the Emperor is less than pleasant, It is long distance, but he has been aware of Tzeentch talking to her for some time, he was growing worried that she wouldn’t shoo him away and would sometimes humor his asinine conversations. But now

Now she’s starting to listen to Tzeentch.

He tells her they will have a talk when he arrives, and plans to give an ultimatum as she is so close to falling and she doesn’t even know it. While waiting for Emps to arrive Maeddrona makes a discovery that she is pregnant, this being incredibly exciting news as she believed the void made her infertile.

When Emps finally arrives and she is sent for, and he feels something is wrong. When he sees the presence of two souls, though masked and hard to make out from the void, his mind is not on pregnancy, it is on her fall. He assumes she has allowed Tzeentch to at least semi-possess her and makes a decision, he grimly faces her smiling self and names her an enemy of the Imperium.

At first she is stunned into immobility- but then he begins approaching her, and she flees. She uses the void to go back to her ship and tells all her family that the Emperor is going to kill all of them- So she uses her power and uses escape pods to put them all in Void-stasis (it’s like a Schrodinger's box really, while it’s closed, whatever’s inside of it does and does not exist at the same time until someone opens it and everything exists again. So, they arent even sleeping, just not existing.) and sends them out, one by one, because she doesn’t understand and thinks he’s here to slaughter them because of the void.

She then send out two pieces of equipment, a head accessory known as the “Halo of the void”, and her giant two handed long sword, the “Blade of void.” She then separates her soul into three pieces among herself and these things, using her emotions  as separation points.  Her confusion and shock go into the Halo, her anger and feelings of betrayal go into her sword, leaving her with her fear. Her incomparable fear. She sends these two pieces out into their own pods

And the Emperor boards her ship. It is quiet, eerie as he walks. It is not a warship. This is their home. This is where they lived, had comforts and hobbies. The walls are lined with pictures and drawings, many areas are made to be comfortable lounging areas, doors are stuck open from the commotion, leading windows into shared rooms of her children.

This was their home. And he must walk through it to get to where Maeddrona is hiding. And when he does she is a mess, curled up on the ground and sobbing uncontrollably. It’s too late for words as she approaches her, but he stops. He cares for her enough to want a near painless death for her- but curled up like this she has made it impossible, so he contemplates how to go about this,

His pause gives her hope, and she uncurls for a moment, bleary eyes looking up at him,

And she says his name. She says his name. She knows his name yes of course she knows his name. Spoken with hushed voice only to him in their moments of privacy and passion.

Now said breathlessly

As his sword is already plunged through her.

As this happens, Limbo, the first Void-touched Maeddrona ever made, enters, trying to save Maeddrona and escape together. And she screams. Rushing to her mother’s side, crying, bawling, and screaming at the Emperor.

He leaves, he does not need to kill her child- then she screams about what Maeddrona was going to tell Him.

About her pregnancy.

And he does stop in his tracks at that, the truth of the second soul’s presence now dawning on him. But he only stops for a moment before continuing back, through the halls of a ruined home, with his mistake and his mistake alone.

He then returns to Terra to find the Primarchs scattered.

And that’s where this story turns, The Emperor basically dies with the Heresy, his soul shattered. Then one small part, one tiny bit, that loved Maeddrona, that never stopped loving Maeddrona, finds her small soul in the warp. As the void is like permanent marker- you can never really get it off once it’s on something. So he finds her, attaches his soul to hers and uses what of his power he can to give her a stable body in the warp.

And that is the Maeddrona I have as my muse :)

[pkmnjesus]

5 years of the PokémonJesus

Before the night comes to a close, I would like to personally reflect on today’s importance (thus the reason for the Takeover queue). It’s been 5 years since I officially became engaged with this fandom that has really became a weekly routine of mine when new episodes come out. This is really just to put my thoughts out there in the blog archive, so I would prefer if no one reblogs this. P J’s beginnings started all the way back with Serebii Forums...

2013-2014 (The Pokémon forums Era)

I have been lurking in the fandom as early as the Best Wishes days, and often visit sites like Serebii Forums or tumblr’s Pokémon anime tags around 2011. I usually talk Pokémon online when it comes to the games when battling or trading in certain chat rooms (was really active during the Gen. IV era of games), but never really talked about the anime with. I have been a spectator to the discussion while the BW saga was rolling a long, then I decided on September 26th 2013 (which was the airdate for the final BW! episode in Japan) to create a serebiiforums account under the username PokemonJesus123, just in time for the start of the XY series which I was mad hyped about! I WAS A FAN SINCE DAY 1...some y’all just tagged along in XY&Z NO LOYALTY xD . My serebii profile is still there actually, so you can try to find my old inactive page if you want lol (my avatar was me holding up my 3DS in a cringey way...looking back why tf did I take that photo lol delete later). Coming into 2014, I joined tumblr as well under the url name you see right before you. Never changed it, and probably never will. The origin of this name you ask? You’ll just have to ask me personally for that story 😉 I absolutely joined tumblr out of pure boredom to view and follow blogs I was a fan of. I had no intention of posting whatsoever. Oh, and I made a Twitter account under the P J name too! Follow ME :^)

2014-2015 (Thursday LIVE! tumblr era)

After a couple months of finally creating a tumblr account and actively posting on serebiiforums and bulbagarden, XY episode 50 (the episode where big lips Nini/Nene debuted) was the first EVER Pokémon anime episode I ever posted about in my blog. I was still new the #pokeani tag (funny story, I didn’t really knew what it meant back then besides to tag it lol), but I got as much as around 30-100 notes. Seeing those notes already got excited that it pushed me from making it a weekly thing since I had a livestream to watch it every Thursday night and screen-cap it. My goal from the very beginning was to try to be the first one to post about here, like what the Japanese fans do on Twitter under the #Anipoke tag. Of course, most of my notes came from either an AmourShipping post or a Serena post. I’m not going to lie, I was really a huge Serena fan when the series first started. I rambled a lot too getting hyped for Citron/Clemont episodes because he was probably my favorite character at the time xD

2015-2016 (A growing blog)

This was the era I started to do special long posts in celebration with Pokémon’s 20th anniversary. Around this period is where my blog was in a developing state getting like 2 or 3 followers every week. And trust me, there were A LOT of posts that I regret posting, but I learned to watch my words every week and say the right things (I really try not to trigger anyone here). I took a couple of weeks off when new episodes aired since I was really busy with college, or I wasn’t into XY filler episodes that much. Would usually tune in live when Team Flare was involved or anything with Squishy/Puni-chan (I absolutely ADORED Bonnie/Eureka in this arc), but I didn’t post that much on tumblr...unless if there was like an AmourShipping moment that happened xD. The hype for Gen. VII was already looming, and I kinda got bored from the anime A BIT. When Ash-Greninja came into the picture however, I got excited again! Then the Kalos League happened, and the anticipation of Ash’s journey hit a climax! We all know what happened, and the rest was history...

2016-2017 (GIFmaking era)

So the Sun & Moon anime happened late 2016, and the hype for a new series was within me again! This is when my blog REALLY started to boom, as well as the birth of my Pokémon Discord server PokéTōku. My notes were higher than over compared to what I posted from XY. One possible reason is that a lot of pokeani bloggers from back then weren’t really interested in Sun & Moon (probably because of the animation change), so I was one of few who still stayed for the ride and that really benefited my blog’s exposure. I absolutely loved Lillie’s character development, and I also did not expect myself to enjoy Lana/Suiren’s character so much! Brock & Misty’s was a huge highlight for me as well seeing my childhood come to a modern-day Pokémon series. I was surprised to have popular people reblog my stuff that destroys my notifications per second. I was even flattered when popular pokéblogs such as shelgon, corsolanite, chasekip, and a few others followed me. Back then I really wanted to get a lot of notes, but at this point I just wanted to be myself and post screen-caps that I feel like talking about. The series also motivated me to start making GIFs since I finally had access to Adobe Photoshop through my university’s application benefits. Later in 2017, I graduated from college and it gave me more time to improving my blog. Also, can you believe it took me 3 years to get 1,000 followers? If you asked me from day 1, I would have never expected to get that much since I had no idea about tumblr’s audience.

Everyone here knows that my blog doesn’t really follow “traditional” tumblr methods such as tags or making specific posts and what not (since I’m not really that into the tumblr culture lol...I’m just here for fun doing my own thing), but I hope I’ve brought something different to your dash experience 🙃

2017-2018 (Making friends)

From 1,000 to 2,500+ followers the next year. You’d be surprise how small that still is compared to the other popular Pokéblogs that joined tumblr later than me, but I’m still grateful for that number. My hype for movie 20 was crazy! I’d always make a post about it when a new trailer was out. But just like Sun & Moon, not everyone was looking forward to the AU it produced. The Let’s Go games shared the same fate as well since everyone didn’t want another Kanto, but I always defend the things that deserve a chance! I fairly enjoyed movie 20 though, and was the first movie that I posted screen-caps and GIFs for in this blog, even made an experience post about it watching it in the theaters! What’s MOST important to me during this time was actually interacting with some of my followers...or should I say friends now :) Out of the 5 years I’ve been here (not counting serebiiforum peeps I’ve known since 2013), I only recently talked to some of you around 2017. My interactions with people here have been awesome (for the most part at least lol) from sharing interests, geeking out over the anime, sending memes xD and concerns when P J isn’t feeling P J. You know who you are, and THANK YOU for cheering your boy up in times when I needed it despite not telling you about it <3 Going back to PokéAni hype, my next excitement attack was when they announced the Aether Foundation and Ultra Beasts were getting involved in the main story. It really makes up for no Alola movie...but hey we still got 1 year left, so maybe there’s hope?

Despite the brief breaks I took, P J’s activeness in the fandom has reached its highest when I managed the time to do scheduled posts and even started a few mini-blog series this year. Even during stressful times, I always make it an effort to find time and contribute to the fandom. I honestly don’t care if I get any asks because I know who the real homies are ◉‿◉つ A special shoutout as well to all the people that joined my Discord server through this website. I couldn’t have reached 100+ members without some of your blogs ^_^ And to the lurkers out there (I know some of y’all are creepin’ in the shadows of my blog without liking anything), you may not know it but I love you people too ლ(́◉◞౪◟◉‵ლ)

Anyway this is just a summary of my journey here so far, and if you’d to hear a more in-depth story on some toxic things I’ve experienced in this fandom just message me. I personally don’t like venting out stuff in public because it just promotes more negativity, and I’m not about that. I will make a separate post on my feelings toward the schedule change maybe next week, and an appreciation post (5th tumblr blogaversary) for my specific followers January 2019. I am still preparing for that because there are so many people (even ones I don’t even talk to) I want to thank ❤ Moving forward into my 6th year, I probably won’t make another post like this anytime soon...but I am very hopeful for the future of the SM series and possible Gen. 8 anime late 2019. I also do plan on making some PokéAni-related stuff in my YouTube channel when the time is right, and have the resources to do projects. Keep your eyes out fam 👀LET’S F’N GO!

[brigdh]

Reading Definitely Not Wednesday

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. A space opera set in the relatively near future. Humans have colonized Mars and the asteroid belt, and a few scattered populations make due on the moons of planets further out. There is, however, no faster-than-light travel, no contact with any solar system beyond our own, no sentient AIs, and no aliens. A major theme of the book is the culture clash between those who live on Earth or Mars – the superpowers of this future ��� and those who live in the Belt, where mining is the preeminent economy and life is the hardscrabble sort where even water and oxygen have to be imported, never mind concepts like justice and equality. Different characters move from one place to the other or switch allegiances, but their origins are as baked in as we would regard ethnicity or nationality. As one character puts it, "A childhood spent in gravity shaped the way he saw things forever." Corey (who is actually two separate dudes writing under a penname) does a wonderful job of fleshing out the background worldbuilding. I loved references to fungal-culture whiskey, Bhangra as the default elevator muzak, hand gestures exaggerated to be seen through a spacesuit, and largely unintelligible localized slang (“Bomie vacuate like losing air,” the girl said with a chuckle. “Bang-head hops, kennis tu?” / “Ken,” Miller said. /“Now, all new bladeboys. Overhead. I’m out.”). It feels like a more detailed world than a lot of sci-fi does. Which is good, because the characters are not all that compelling. The two POVs are Jim Holden and Detective Miller. Holden is the second-in-command on an unimportant spaceship that works as a freight hauler, moving ice back and forth between the Belt and Saturn. Things change dramatically when a mysterious someone attacks their ship and kills everyone except for Holden and a few others, and he finds himself centrally involved in the runup to war. He has the most generic action-movie-hero personality I can imagine, with no discernable characteristics except 'idealistic' (and I really only know that because other people keep telling him he is), kinda nervous about being suddenly thrust into command but doing a good job, a womanizer (but see, it's okay because he just keeps genuinely falling in love with so many women!), and earnest. He's fine. He's not even objectionable, just incredibly boring. He comes with a crew of entirely indistinguishable followers that I couldn't keep straight, but that's all right because most of them get killed off so I no longer had to try to remember who was who. He also develops a romance that is 100% unbelievable, but I suppose that's what action-movie-heroes do, so who's even surprised. Miller is a detective on Ceres, the largest city in the Belt, who's been hired by a rich family to track down their anarchist, slumming daughter. Miller is an incredibly cliche noir protagonist - alcoholic, divorced, not as good as he used to be, cynical, a little bit corrupt but underneath it all he still remembers his good intentions – but at least that means he has more of a personality than Jim, even if it's a personality you've seen a thousand times before. On the other hand, Miller becomes obsessed with this dead/missing girl in a way that is painfully stereotypical Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Two things kept this from ruining Leviathan Wakes for me. One, Miller is at least somewhat self-aware about it: This was why he had searched for her. Julie had become the part of him that was capable of human feeling. The symbol of what he could have been if he hadn’t been this. There was no reason to think his imagined Julie had anything in common with the real woman. Meeting her would have been a disappointment for them both. And two, there's a twist near the end that allows Julie to finally have her own voice in the text, and not exist solely as Miller's imagined dependance on her. It takes almost half the book for Miller and Holden to finally cross paths, at which point the missing-girl mystery and the war plot combine and take a twist for a direction I DID NOT SEE COMING. I am ambivalent on whether to spoil this; on the one hand, I read it unprepared and it was incredibly awesome to experience it that way. On the other hand, I suspect this is information that will be a determining factor for many people on whether they want to read it or not. So: halfway through, Leviathan Wakes takes a wild jump and becomes about a zombie outbreak. I would not have previously thought that 'space opera' and 'zombie apocalypse' are two genres that should be combined, but the tension and excitement skyrocket once the book takes this turn, transforming it from average quality to 'I CANNOT STOP READING, MUST FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT'. So, good choice! The sequence with Miller and Holden trapped on a small space station trying to sneak their way past zombie hordes is one of the most thrilling I've read in ages. Leviathan Wakes is the first book in a series (apparently it was originally supposed to be a trilogy, but there's currently eight books out with at least one more planned, along with a batch of short stories) and has also become a show on the Syfy network that I haven't seen. I feel like I've spent a lot of this review complaining, but honestly I mostly enjoyed the book and am planning to read the sequels. The fact that people seem to like the characters from future books more than these ones certainly doesn't hurt! Pig/Pork: Archaeology, Zoology and Edibility by Pia Spry-Marques. A nonfiction book about everything remotely related to the farming and eating of pigs. I expected from the subtitle and the author's personal background that archaeology would be the main focus, but it turns out that's really only the first two chapters, which cover the Paleolithic hunting of wild boar and the original domestication of pigs. The other chapters turn to topics as diverse as experiments on feeding farmed pigs leftovers from restaurants, the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, a special Spanish ham called ibérico de bellota which can only be fed acorns, genetically modifiying pigs so their manure would contain less phosporus, sunburn in pigs, minature pet pigs, organ donation between humans and pigs, the terrifying tapeworms to be acquired from eating raw pork, why pork is a 'white' meat, how to make sausages, theories on why pork is neither halal nor kosher, the use of an enzyme from pig pancreases in wine production, EU food-safety regulations on traditional pork dishes, Cuba's 'Bay of Pigs', the Pig War between the US and Canada in 1859, and Oliver Cromwell's favorite pig breed. Basically if it has the remotest connection to the title, Spry-Marques has included it. She even includes recipes for each chapter, though some of them are clearly more for amusement than actual consumption – I can't imagine anyone having just finished a chapter on how eating raw pork will give you cysts in your brain is eager to try figatellu, a type of uncooked sausage from France. And it would take a braver foodie than me to taste "Asian-inspired pork uterus with green onion and ginger". In fact, as is probably not surprising for any book which touches on factory farming however briefly, you will probably come away not wanting to eat pork at all for a while. Spry-Marques's writing is breezy and conversational, which kept me turning the pages even when the structure was a bit scattered. I wish it were more focused, but it's a great book for anyone who enjoys popular science, history, or food writing. I read this as an ARC via NetGalley. Song of Blood & Stone by L. Penelope. A YA fantasy novel with some unusual elements. Rather than being set in vaguely medieval England or a dystopian sci-fi future, we're in a country where the technology seems to be around 1900: cars and electric lights exist, but they're restricted to rich cities, and someone coming from rural poverty might well have never seen either. Magic exists, but comes from one's heritage; you're either born with it or not. In Elsira, where our story is set, it's rare to the point of nonexistence. Our heroine Jasminda, however, does have magic, due to her father having been a refugee from the neighboring country of Lagrimar, where magic is common. Elsira and Lagrimar have been constantly at war for hundreds of years, but are separated by a magical Barrier which allows no one to pass through, except on rare occasions when a temporary breach happens and violence erupts. Elsirans are light-skinned and Lagrimari are dark-skinned, so Jasminda has dealt with fairly severe racism throughout her life. The story starts when Jasminda runs across Jack, a Elsiran soldier just back from spying in Lagrimar who has super important information that must get back to the capital as soon as possible; unfortunately Jack has just been shot and is closely pursued by a troop of Lagrimari soldiers. Jasminda and Jack team up, fall in love, and try to prevent the coming outbreak of war. The most revealing thing I can say about Song of Blood & Stone is that it's very, very YA. (As you could probably guess, what with its title that fits exactly into the pattern of the 'YA title' meme currently going around tumblr.) Almost everything that happens is easily predictable from the back cover (Jack's long-withheld backstory is clearly supposed to be a shocking twist, but it's obvious from the moment he appears), the prose is mediocre but fine, good and bad guys are clearly signalled, the real world parallels (racism, treatment of refugees, domestic abuse) are good-hearted but extremely Social Justice 101. On the plus side, the beginning was the worst part and it got better and better as it went along; several developments near the very end were so interesting that I'm tempted to read the sequel, despite my initial boredom. Overall it's not a bad book, but I'd only recommend it to people who are extremely affectionate of the most repetitive tropes of the YA genre. I read this as an ARC from a GoodReads giveaway.

[DW link for easier commenting]

[bolbianddolanhouse]

BNHA self insert AU [Book 3]

New? Read here! Then here!

Chapter 14: I Wanna Be A Cowboy Babey~

After a few weeks of intense training, I do the damn thing at the Sports Festival. But now there’s an added security that all the intel student also attend for any suspicious activity. Wish I could do it since they’ll all be in plain clothes instead of suited up, but no! That just makes my position that much more important because I can see if any of the students are acting suspicious. This is all because of the last villain attack and the info I told my mom. Apparently its a big lead but nobody will tell me anything about it aside from be on high alert for any inter-student or inter-hero conspiracy....whatever that is!

-Day of Sports Festival-

“GOOOOOOOD MORNING EVERYONE! AND WELCOME TO THE OPENING CEREMONY OF THE UA SPORTS FESTIVAL, 3RD YEARS STADIUM! I’M YOUR BELOVED HOST, PRESENT MIC!”

“Jeez you would think that after all this time he’d retire” I commented after the blaring of the opening ceremony siren.

“Aren’t you excited Iida-kun?!” hyped Gon “Its the final sports festival for us! And we’ll see how far everyone’s gone! Well, everyone is finally going to see how awesome you are with your two quirks!”

“Oh please! I barely figured out how to upkeep with the kick of my engines a few weeks ago!” I denied Gon’s hype for me “I’m just me, and all I know is how to kick ass and make a big show out of it.”

I do the things and did fairly well. But the dreaded spars came up and my name was on the scoreboard because my team did well on the steal the headband game...stupid competitive nature of mine! So I fought some dude in the B class and won because the dude tired himself too early in the fight. In the second round I won my fight with a different B class student, I punched them a little too hard that they stepped out of bounds. But finally came lunch time! I rushed to Beizu for hugs.

“How does it feel getting to the 3rd round with minimal damage?” Beizu praised me as we sat in the corridor “Bet your dad and uncle are so proud!”

I rolled my eyes as I swallowed my food “Don’t think I wanna do it or that I’m proud of myself! It’s like amateur hour and I asked to get my ass kicked!”

“Oh so you wanted to lose today son?” responded a familiar voice to the right of us.

“Dad? What are you doing down here?” I asked in confusion “I thought you weren’t supposed to come down here without an escort?”

“Well...I have a reason, your mother wanted me to check on you” Dad was being a little skiddish “I texted her videos of your fight and she asked me to check if you were okay with those fights.”

That was something new “Huh? She could tell?”

“Your mother can tell the slightest of discontent in anyone!” Dad chuckled “But I could tell too in your fights that you were disappointed. You have the same fighting mindset like your mother, fight like you mean it and with fire in your eyes.”

“I guess” I sigh and look down at my to-go plate of musubi and takoyaki “I was expecting something better than this. I don’t get the hype and these fights feel like I’m wasting my time doing the hero part of my dual enrollment. Bet you didn’t feel like this when it was your third year sports festival.”

“Actually, I did” Dad spoke up “But it was for a different reason. I wanted to make it to the top 3 for your mom. I trained hard, planned out what I was going to tell her before my match” Dad turned red “All so I can finally ask your mom to be mine and have her watching me closely. But it all fell apart, right here actually!”

“Oh! Do you remember what day and year?” Beizu piped up and pulled out the device from his pocket “I kinda want to see what happened.”

“Why did you take that with you?” I asked

Beizu shrugged “Thought it would help in case things went down.”

So dad told Beizu the day and year, and the hologram popped up of a young Mr Hitoshi and mom sharing a moment.

“Come on, just a kiss to hold me over until everything ends?”

“Fine, one kiss!”

Mom got on her tippy toes to kiss and it looked kinda cute. But I know things didn’t turn out so cute later.

“Pause it here” asked Dad to Beizu, then walked over to the stairwell “I was right here, watching my love kiss the one person that told I had a crush on her. I felt so defeated, I wasted my time and efforts to get her attention so I could confess. After this incident, I just couldn’t believe that she’d hide her relationship with him from me! Her so called ‘chosen family’ when she didn’t trust me with this.”

I cringed at the sight of young dad on the floor “Geez, and you got her flowers! So what did you do?”

“I just existed and pretended I didn’t know anything until she decided to tell me” Dad fixed his glasses “If I didn’t confront her about it during the dance, she probably would have never told me.”

“That’s a whole 5 months from now!” gasped Beizu “No wonder you were so upset and basically ghosted her after graduation!”

“Did mom ever tell you why?”

“No, but I put all the pieces together when we started dating” Dad smiled “She didn’t want me to know because she loved me more but I was too stubborn to say anything about my feelings toward her. So she was waiting for me to say something and leave Hitoshi the moment that happens.”

“But Mr Hitoshi knew that already huh?” I looked back at the two kissing “He knew this was a complicated love triangle and added some drama to it to make you say something.”

“Yup, he told us that on our wedding” Dad watched the holograms fizzle away “But you already know what happens at the end Iwata, I ended up reuniting with her and never let go after that. All those years without her felt like a waste, so I make every moment matter with her and our family.” He turned toward me “So don’t feel down that things feel like a waste! Make everything count Iwata!”

“So you’re telling me that I should kick my last opponent’s ass so hard they never forget it?” I thought out loud “Because I don’t want my last fight here to feel like a waste, I wanna make it count!”

“I was going say win this one for your mom or Beizu because I didn’t have love motivating me to make it matter. But what you said makes for a better fight” He put his hand on my shoulder “Go kick their butt son! I’m proud of you no matter what.”

“Thanks dad” I smiled but then the siren wailed, marking the end of lunch “Oh jeez, you better get back up there. Pretty sure they’ll do a head count real soon.”

“I’ll escort you back Mr Iida” offered Beizu “I have to go to my post before the start of the third round.”

“See you guys later then!” I got my left over food and turned toward the student wing “I won’t disappoint!”

I got back in time to wind down a bit before my turn. To my horror, it’s with Gon and I felt conflict. He’s my friend, the usual suspect for hero things! We trained together, developed together and so much more. Can I really be satisfied beating him when it’s his dream to win this? A hand on my shoulder jolted me out of my thoughts.

“Hey, I know we didn’t get along all these years” said my classmate “But don’t go easy because Gon-kun is your friend. It’s disrespectful to not give your all to someone that’s giving their everything!”

What kind of bizarro world do I live in!? An enemy giving me advice?! I give them a nod and smile “Thanks, I think I’ll be okay now.”

“Good! Now go kick his butt”

I walk out to the arena to hear the roar of the crowd. How fucked up is that this is just quirk cock-fighting? Like, we’re teenagers! And these are grown ass people that paid to watch us? Plus the broadcasting?! Talk about exploitation! But that’s where my self awareness thoughts end, I was face to face with Gon.

“The final spar of the festival! Ryuusuke Gon vs Iwata El Roca Iida!” blared the host “Two A class students going head to head! This is Iida’s first festival debut, following in the footsteps of his family of the Ingenium name! Will he come on top or settle for second?!”

“I won’t disappoint you Iida-kun” Gon says as he gets in fighting stance “I’ve trained along side you all these years, time to show you what I’m capable of!”

I smile and get in my stance “I won’t hold back either. Please kick my ass Gon-kun!”

The start whistle was blown and we went at it. This fight felt like an actual challenge! But with one leg swing to the upper back, I knocked him out cold. The way his body went limp scared me, I used my telekinesis to catch him before he could hit the ground. He was still breathing and alive, just out for the count. But I didn’t want him to go out like this, so I shook his body out of desperation.

“WAKE UP STUPID!” I slapped him “Come on, quit playin’! Get up!...Please!”

“Looks like Ryuusuke Gon has been defeated, making Iwata El Roca Iida the winner of the UA 3rd year Sports Festival!”

“Wait- what?!” I processed this win and looked up to the spectators, they were out of their seats and roaring their cheers. The camera panned up to my face and I gave my uncomfortable smile. Gon was taken to the nurse quarters as I was instructed to get up on the winners block. While I was satisfied with that fight, I didn’t mean to win like this. Then out came Deku to give us our medals and I got more dissatisfied with this win!

“Congratulations young Iida-kun!” cheerfully spoke Deku as he hovered the first place medal over my head “You made your family name proud!”

I scowled “I don’t want it” I hard-stopped his arms with my telekinesis, before he could place the medal on me “I don’t deserve shit! This wasn’t supposed to happen! I wanted to get my ass whooped, not get 1st place!”

“Well it’s too bad young Iida-kun” Deku flicked his wrists to toss the thing onto me sloppily “You changed the outcome on this fight yourself. Now you have to live in this reality where you are the winner and live with it. Just like your mom all those years ago.”

That threw me off, to the point where I wasn’t clocking all the cheers and roars of the crowd were for me. I was thinking about how quickly fate can change because of our impulses and how we have to live with the outcomes for the rest of our lives. We can’t go back to change them, just apologize and try not to mourn your desired reality. I wonder if that’s how mom felt with she came over here, or when things fell apart between her and Mr Hitoshi? In any case, I have to start by apologizing to Gon for stealing his win. I walk into the infirmary after the closing ceremony.

“Hello? May I come in?”

“Hm? Oh! Iwata, yes please come in” said nurse Eri as she finished her notes “congratulations by the way!”

“Thanks, heh” I meekly responded as I shifted my gaze to the occupied bed “Is he- doin alright?”

Eri looked over to where I was looking, then turned to face me “He’s doing just fine. If you’re wondering, he was at his limit when you struck him down. It wasn’t your fault and he’s not seriously injured” she patted my shoulder “You can stay a while with him if you’d like, he woke up a few minutes ago.”

I walk over to pull back the curtain to see a bandaged up Gon on the bed.

“Gon-kun? Listen, I-”

“Iida-kun! You knocked me out cold with your super cool aerial move!” hyped Gon, forgetting his injury “You’re super fast and I thought I could out speed you! But I spent all my energy evading your palm piston pews” he mimicked the move with sound effects “Man, what an awesome fight! You earned that first place!”

“You’re not upset?” I questioned “But you wanted to win this so badly! You wouldn’t shut up on how you wanted Deku to place that first place on your neck and the selfie you wanted to take afterwards” nothing made sense in this logic “How do I deserve this more than you?”

“You do deserve it! You put in so much more effort in your training and studies” Gon listed as he slowly sat up “You’re one of the most genuine people I know! I’d be more upset if I lost to someone that wanted to win for selfish reasons or didn’t train hard because their quirks are ‘good enough’ to beat everyone with. I saw that you wanted a good, honest fight; just like me! You inspired me to train even harder to work on endurance and speed.” He pointed at the ‘1st place’ engraved gold that hung on my neck “So you wear that medal proudly!”

I sighed and chuckled a bit “Okay then, I guess I’ll accept this gold. Thanks Gon-kun, for giving a good and honest fight.”

So it all worked out, I didn’t feel guilty and Gon still got his second place with the Deku selfie. I guess this outcome isn’t so bad! But what else is waiting for me now that I changed the course of things with this win?

-The following Monday, Homeroom-

“...and now for a special announcement!” sensei said as he finished taking roll “As you’re aware of all the specialized agent tests given at the academy level, these past few events has sparked interest in the board on our three-man team to take on the Hero-Take Down practice test coming up AND the Labyrinth practice test!”

“Oh shit I wonder who’s the third person” I whispered to Beizu “For a long ass time the board as had their eye on you and the class rep.”

Beizu sneered at me “Bitch it’s you! Who else could it be?!”

“Naw, thats straight cap” I gave him a face “No way it’s me.”

“Okay then, if it is you” Beizu started “You bottom, if not, then you top.”

“You got yourself deal” I held out my hand to shake on it “I’m so confident that it’s not me, that I’ll even wear lingerie if I’m wrong!”

“No take backies!” he said as he grabbed my hand to shake it eagerly.

“Your three man team is Hatsune Beizu, Gee Celi and Iida Iwata” sensei motions to me “That sports festival win really put you on the scope and now you get to represent us at the practice exams.”

I froze in my seat....oh shit, I must of sounded like an absolute clown making that bet with Beizu. OH SHIT NOW I GOTTA DO MORE TRAINING! So much for coasting by the rest of the school year.

“Congrats babe” teased Beizu “You might be the entire circus, but your my circus~”

I softly slam my head onto my desk. Man, I hate this timeline!

-Fast forward, early May-

I’ve done more training and honing my weaponry skills for this first practice test. While it’s still a few weeks away, I’ve asked my mom, aunty Mimi and uncle Jin for advice. They all strongly advise to train together and build upon our weaknesses to fully cover ourselves. But I can’t believe I’m so close to the end of my time here at UA. I know that things are going to be set for me afterwards, but how did my mom and her friends do it? They built themselves from the ground up and worked hard everyday, even to this day! Makes me feel like I should be doing more but there really isn’t, I’m not destined for greater things, I am just me. And that’s okay too.

“Hey we got the special jumpsuits” Beizu said as I entered the door to our room “Try it on so they can make adjustments in time.”

“When did they come by?!” I asked confused because I was taking a quick shower.

“Dude you were in the shower for like 20 minutes” Beizu clarified as he tossed me my jumpsuit “What were your shower thoughts this time?”

I extended my jumpsuit to check the length of it “Ya know, the usual what ifs” I take note of the material “is this teflon mesh?”

“Yup, I was just as surprised” Beizu started to put on his “Made to withstand heat and blades while being breathable.”

I put mine on and looked in the mirror “Wow, I look like my mom in that practice test video” I reached out to touch the mirror “Bei, do you think teenaged mom would clock me as her son?”

“I think so” Beizu walked into view of the mirror “Pretty sure if you showed up in the past in front of her, she’d get excited about the future. Probably flip when you tell her who your dad is.”

“She’d probably call cap on me” I laughed thinking about it “until I show her these pistons, then she’d faint probably.”

“I can see that happening” Beizu laughed “but it looks like I’m going to need a longer jumpsuit, it’s not fitting at the bottom at all.”

I check my suit fully “Oof same for me, it’s like they didn’t account for all this ass.”

“Double cheeked up on test day, hella ass, the sun is still out!” joked Beizu.

“Proctor, I’m trying to stealth on the enemy” I turn around flex my ass “but I’m dummy thicc and the clap of my cheeks is alerting the heroes.”

That had us howling in laughter on the floor. It’s been a while since I’ve laughed like this with Beizu. Things have gotta so serious since the villain attacks. All the waiting around for the next one is making everyone anxious. But it’s all the little things with Beizu that make things better. We really don’t have the time to celebrate our birthdays this year, as the test lands on my birthday. But that gives me an idea for later...

-Day of test, suiting up-

I zip up my suit and fix the sleeves in the mirror. I know that I’m capable to carry for my team and do anything, but so many people are coming to this practice test. Most of them scouters that heard that I’m Ingenium’s son. At least word that I’m my mom’s son got out, otherwise there would be people spilling out of the place! I look to my left and see Beizu securing his holsters, trying not to get those nervous jitters.

“Hey, it’s okay to be nervous” I put my hand on his shoulder “I want to make a deal with you.”

“Huh? What kind of deal?” Beizu asked curiously, snapping him out of his nerves.

“If we do good on this one, lets go home for the weekend” I suggested “Just to get outta the scene for a bit before the next round of training. I don’t think I wanna stick around for and rush back into training.”

Beizu smiled and sighed “I’d like that actually” he put his arms around my neck “I haven’t spend enough quality time with you. At least, not the type that I want to do.”

I glance at the clock “It seems like we’ll be cut short of this quality time too” I look at his face “Kiss me for good luck?”

“Okay, one kiss” he responded right before connecting the kiss.

I put my arms around his waist and savored this kiss. But of course we got disrupted by our teammate kicking the door down.

“Oh what the- you two are A THING?!” gasped Gee at the sight.

“It’s kinda obvious, no?” I said very casual, arms still around Beizu.

“NO?! You guys got me used to all your weird habits that I didn’t put it all together!” Gee turned around “I’ll just, umm, wait in the wing for you! Sorry again!”

Beizu waited until she was out of sight “Guess we should put on the visor and head out.”

“One more kiss” I pleaded “this time it will be a lucky one.”

When we were ready, we lined up in the waiting wing with Gee-san. What is going await us on the other side? Will I really live up to the hype? The start siren wailed and we ran into action. The beginning swarm was a piece of cake! Everything was okay until after the river zone, that’s where all the strong and quick ones were. I was maybe a little faster and using both of my quirks just to keep them off of Gee-san, as she was the slowest of us. Then came the biggest obstacle, literally. Someone with a rock bending quirk made a rock wall that was too high and smooth to climb effectively.

“Iwa, it’s time to use the slingshot” Beizu cried out.

“But you need my help here” I blast someone with my palm piston “and the slingshot is a one person at a time thing!”

“Don’t you worry about me!” Gee said in the heat of her tussle “We need you to kick some ass behind that wall, I’d get squashed if I go by myself.”

“No arguments!” Beizu gets in position “you know what to do.”

I nod and brace for take off. The feeling of getting thrown into the air is surreal, limbs at the will of the air around you. But I didn’t lose myself in thought, I kicked on my engines to fly onto the other side. Floating down I saw the last two to take down and the finish line. They came at me at the same time, and I held up as much as I could but I was getting tired. I got one person down but the other wasn’t letting up! What to do?! I dropped my one gun back at the river! And I had to conserve my energy in case I had to fly again! Think, THINK! It clicked in my head that maybe I didn’t need to fight, just distract until Beizu or Gee gets over here! They have to cross the finish line too! So I took off my holster belts and posed.

“What’s with the pose?” questioned the other person “there’s no use! You’re out of weapons and getting tired, just forfeit!”

“Naw, mama didn’t raise a quitter” I cracked the two belts like whips on the ground “And she’s latina! Imma show you the meaning of a Mexican Time Out!”

The look on their face when I came at them at top speed was priceless! It was the face of confused fear. And they had every right to be scared, I was whooping their ass like they broke my favorite vase. It’s different when you give a punishment ass whoopin’, it hurts more. I wouldn’t know though, my mom never hit us but told us stories of her childhood and the ass whoopings grandma gave. Didn’t take long for the guy to get in fetal position on the ground as I wailed on them with the belts. Kinda felt bad so I stopped and thought I’d end them differently, but then I heard Gee screaming from above. And there she was, flying in at full speed to perfectly body slam this guy.

“I’m here! Hatsune-kun is on his way for back up!” Gee groaned “Where’s the danger?!”

“Please! I surrender!” cried out the enemy from under Gee “I don’t want to fight anymore, I just want to go home!”

Gee gets off him and stands next to me “Sheesh what did you do to him?”

Before I could answer that, Beizu flies in and lands on top of the enemy.

“Oh god I killed him!” Beizu panicked as he got up “I didn’t mean to land on them! Can we get a medic?!”

“Bei! The finish line!” I grab his hand and Gee-san’s with my other hand “No time to waste!”

We tighten our grip and ran to the finish line without a single hitch. The proctor signaled the end of our exam and we heard the roars of the spectators. Wonder if this is how mom felt when she crossed the finish line hand in hand with her team?

-Meanwhile, with the agent trio-

Jin slumps onto his desk chair “I’m really feeling my age” he stretches his back “wish we had all the pieces to solve this mystery. So we could just pack it up and retire.”

“You know there’s more to that Jin” Ita said looking up from her mess of papers on her desk “we need to find someone to replace CEO position of the company.”

“Don’t forget the pain in the ass that’s getting retirement paperwork” Mimi responded from across the room “Speaking of pain in the ass, it’s Ita’s turn to do the briefing.”

The curly haired agent groan and rested her chin on her hand “Man, how academy causally didn’t mention how lame being in agent work is when you’re past the age of 30!”

“Speak for yourself!” Mimi chuckled “I love teaching! If we retire here and the company, I’m teaching until I can’t hold a gun anymore.”

“Love that for you” Ita responded as she stretched her back out “Oof, who wanna go for a group chiropractor date?”

“Way ahead of you, I scheduled us for our next day off” Jin said doing a few taps on his tablet “We deserve this one, OH who wants to do the healing clay bath combo?”

“Can we get sushi after too?” asked Mimi “I’ve been craving the stuff! Nikita is going through one of her little picky phases and this time it’s raw fish.”

“Oof and you love sushi! I was wondering why you haven’t asked me to get you a cut of otoro from the fish market lately” Ita responded shocked “Thats another thing too! Motherhood... didn’t think I’d get this domestic with y’all.”

“I did, I knew the moment we became friends” Jin added “Mimi becoming a single mom was a surprise though, everything else was expected.”

Ita glanced over to the picture of the three friends in high school on her desk “I wouldn’t have it any other way” she sighed “We came so far together and I’m so happy we kept our promises.”

Mimi stood up “Hey, lets keep working hard together! Don’t get all sappy now” she walked over to Ita and held her “I’m not going anywhere, my home is with you guys.”

Jin follow suit “I’d do anything to preserve this friendship. You guys are all I have, and I’m happy with that.”

The mess of papers on Ita’s desk were written accounts of a recent sighting of Hawks. Making this a big step toward closing the case. What’s going to come next? Is Iwata’s destiny more intertwined in this case than his one encounter? All we can do is sit and wait for the next one~

-Chapter 14, End-

<Previous - Next>

[elizabethrobertajones]

When Cas was talking with the Empty, looking like he was talking to himself, he didn't say "Why do you look like my vessel", he said "Why do you look like me?" The whole scene was like Cas arguing with the angelic/power side of himself, the one bound by Heaven and Chuck and the rules they live by. Do you think this is finally it—ridding Cas of that life and releasing him to Dean for real? That the sun at the end of 13x04 is the new light for his new life, so to speak?

I’m not entirely sure - this was the spec I was kind of fond of before the episode, that he’s be split apart (about the 1 thing I am probably way too invested in is the Lily Sunder exposition on what nephilim are and how that might apply to Cas, who has a soul and a vessel as well as angel grace crammed on top) so I was hoping they might poke at that some more. But I’m malleable about what happens because I just have a few wishes and random things I harp on and no real solid plan for what I need to see/expect to see :P

Since the Empty was entirely its own thing it can only mirror elements of Cas, and I agree with the analysis of it as his guilt and depression, since it laid into him from those angles, yelling exposition that explains his depression arc that’s been made since either the start of Carver era or season 11 depending on where you time it from the narrative actually DEALING with it rather than just suggesting it’s there. I can see how you meta it deeper about representing specific parts of him, but I think main subtextual layer underneath the Empty mocking Cas was pretty blatantly to deal with putting his emotional arc back in the forefront, with reminding us (not exposing anything new at all, even the “love” thing because that happened in season 9 AND 12) about things like the need vs want thing from his perspective. Generally it used a lot of keywords I’d always fall back on to explain Cas’s depression arc like these talking points :P

Also, specifically about Heaven, those angels that came for Jack were scary and organised and clever, which means I think that they may stop writing angels as goofy office workers and make them a little more dangerous. Since they’re a threat to Jack, Cas could very likely take a stand against heaven on Jack’s behalf to prove he’s moved beyond that. It may or may not take a season 9 turn and also turn out to be motivated by the Winchesters, but again, we’ve covered this ground so idk how many reminders we need. Season 9 was only re-telling Cas’s earlier motivations but using Metatron to hang a whole bunch of lampshades on it and to update it to Carver era levels of romantic subtext out of Kripke era unstated feelings. 

I think the guilt visions that we saw Cas seeing do all tell of his biggest failures and it STARTS with Metatron stealing his grace, which made my ears perk up because it’s been a while since we’ve seen a quick recap reel of Cas’s life like that (not since 7x17?) and starting with what Metatron did to him contains basically his entire attempt to redeem himself in season 7 & 8, leading to Metatron snatching him up and derailing him onto being human - and all the stuff with the angel war that then led to the “in love with humanity” stuff. The visions do mostly show him dying or going through changes of state because he is dead and going through a change of state. I think of all those failures, the worst pain he felt was towards Sam and Dean - only the grace stealing moment was the result of trying to redeem with Heaven, and dying in 12x23 was specifically because he was switched from trying to follow orders for Sam n Dean’s sake (tying it all up in one big burden bundle) to Team Jack. The season 6-7 deaths and failures might have been more about Heaven if it had included the shot of all the dead angels, but it focused on the horror of things happening to Cas, and his deaths or transitions as a result of it. 

Anyway I kind of see Cas as a lost cause to Heaven’s eyes so who knows how that goes but I don’t think he can redeem himself to them and when he tried last, it was a trick and his grace got stolen, or he ended up dragged along working with Hannah, trying to do their missions. Which went swimmingly. In 12x19 he just immediately and with no beating about the bush explains he’s only working with Heaven because of Sam and Dean and makes it clear he’s using them and the fact they offer resources for him rather than because he feels any need to restore his reputation. So I think it was already clear he is done with Heaven, making text what has been fairly obvious since season 9 or 10 when he kept on picking Earth/the Winchesters over Heaven. 

Not sure they’ll let him have a clear shot at working out where he goes from here *immediately* but then this season has been working through blockages and important milestones and things that need said at an even more alarming pace than season 12. I really don’t trust anything not to happen, but I do feel like it’s not so simple as it once was for Cas with Jack around, so I’m waiting to see how he affects Cas’s choices and what Cas has to do for him. I expect it to be kinda fluffy but also with regards to the Winchesters, pretty weird. We’ll see >.> 

But yeah the sun is a good omen and it was a nice reminder he sees that face as his own. There are a lot more things about Cas I’m neutral on or can see going so many different ways depending on how much tension and drama they want to insert and the fact something has to go wrong and all this positive character development for everyone might not work so well all season long… I mean the overall intent seems really interested in fixing the characters? But short term there are already enormous hurdles and problems just between Sam, Dean and Jack. Adding Cas to the mix means at least some tension on some sides of that dynamic even if Cas returning seems hopeful to at least temporarily restore balance to the force. :P 

[xb-squaredx]

Nier: Automata Review: Do Androids Dream?

2017 was a solid year for video games, and one unlikely candidate for Game of the Year for a LOT of people was found in Nier: Automata. A sequel and somewhat of a spinoff to Nier (which is itself a spinoff to the Drakenguard games), this game might prove to be the breakout hit of director Yoko Taro. While not quite a household name yet, Automata’s financial and critical success provides him with a decent foot in the door. While his games have a devoted cult following, this will likely be a great many gamer’s introduction to the man and his…interesting ideas on game design. Let us begin the weird, melancholy journey that is Nier: Automata and I’ll attempt to do so with as few story-spoilers as I possibly can.

Set far into the future, humanity has been driven off of their planet by aliens and their powerful machine lifeforms. With the remnants of humanity living on the moon, Project Yorha is created, a military force of powerful androids that work to repel the machines and take back the planet. The war has been locked in a stalemate for a long time however, and the story begins at a crucial time in the conflict, following the perspective of androids 2B, 9S and A2, androids at different stages of dealing with the constant struggle. The atmosphere of the game is definitely somber, downright heartbreaking at times, but balanced out with some odd humorous moments and sweet interactions, before the viewer’s heart is yanked out and shown to them. This isn’t a game to induce good feelings, is all I’m saying.

Obviously, the story is the biggest draw here, and I’ll take care to not say much more. Automata’s story details the ongoing conflict and questions what it really means to exist. The lines between humans, androids and machines and how blurry they really are; it gets quite existential. Along the way there is a good amount of foreshadowing and twists that, on a repeat playthrough, completely re-contextualize several moments in the game. There are several sequences in the game that are incredibly disturbing and will stay with me for a long time. An uncanniness in these metallic characters displaying human-like qualities, but being ever so slightly off. Automata isn’t quite a horror game, but it’s very haunting all the same as you explore the ruins of mankind with something in its place that feel like cruel imitations.

The voice cast is phenomenal, everyone knocking their roles out of the park. Kira Buckland and Kyle McCarley have a great dynamic in 2B and 9S, 9S in particular developing in an interesting manner throughout the game. Cherami Leigh plays the gruff A2 well and Alexis Tipton brings a lot of heart to the character of Pascal, one of the few friendly machines the player encounters. There’s a great amount of talent to be found in this game and it really makes the more emotional moments hit hard. Other aspects of the presentation are great; the music is the standout there, with hypnotic, somewhat haunting vocal themes throughout the OST, aided by slick visuals. I’m not a fan of the somewhat desaturated look the game is going for, I like vivid, colorful games myself, but it goes with the tone so I don’t mind too much.

Now, gameplay is where things get interesting. Any fan of Yoko Taro’s games will tell you that while his games are almost always interesting…they aren’t that great to play. This time around, PlatinumGames have been brought in to polish the action and the results are mostly fantastic, resulting in two companies playing to their strengths. While not nearly as in-depth as most of the action games in Platinum’s resume, Automata has their telltale slick and stylish footprints all over it. You can chain together simple attacks with a variety of weapons, from swords of varying sizes to giant fists and spears. All the while, you have a dodge that can allow for a counter attack if you time it right that seems right out of Bayonetta. Players also have a Pod accompanying them, a little drone that assists in battle. Pods work as a long-range option, their default attack being a gatling gun that sends bullets straight ahead, and can use Pod Programs as special attacks working off a cooldown. You can summon a shield or hit enemies with a big attack; it’s quite similar to Grimoire Weiss in Nier, for reference.

Adding to all this, players can use Plug-in Chips to customize your abilities. Augment movement speed, attack power, grant yourself a parry maneuver or slow down time after a dodge—there’s a lot of chips out there to really change things up. However, you have limited memory to work with and have to pick and choose chips that will fit, but in an interesting twist you can remove aspects of your HUD to free up extra space. If you really want that extra bit of attack power, then you don’t REALLY need that minimap or health bar visible, right? Just don’t remove that OS-Chip. You kinda need that to live. All and all, the combat in Automata isn’t quite as deep as Platinum’s other titles in terms of weapon variety or combos, but has plenty of options to keep it interesting. In fact, the gameplay itself will change up quite a bit throughout the game; you can pilot a flying mech or engage in hacking, the camera even changes to overhead or side-scrolling positions at times to keep things fresh. One thing is certain though: Yoko Taro LOVES bullet hell and you better be prepared for a LOT of that sprinkled in. Enemies frequently launch projectiles at you, but most can be cancelled out with shots from your Pod, though some require a melee attack to dissipate. These sequences can be a bit bothersome if you’re not into that genre, but if you stick with it I don’t think they’re too bad (up to a specific point that anyone who’s beaten the game will know anyway…).

The Platinum touch is very appreciated with the combat, though there are some elements that don’t come together as well I think. The bullet hell sections occasionally work, and sometimes they don’t. I find the changing camera perspectives to be disorientating more often than not, and more than one boss feels way more awkward than they needed to be. While battling against common enemies isn’t too bad, there are times when they seem to just…randomly ignore hitstun and attack me anyway, or else there are SO many enemies being thrown at you, and you can barely get a hit in before you have to dodge like mad. One area really stuck out to me; fighting a bunch of strong enemies in a little pit with a ladder in the center. The camera gets hung up on the geometry of the area and at times I’d accidentally attach to the ladder and be unable to escape as an enemy winds up and knocks off half my health. Most of the game is set up in wide-open areas at the very least, but to say every fight works smoothly wouldn’t be true.

But now we get to the BIG elephant in the room, one Yoko Taro fans know all too well: multiple endings. The Drakenguard games and Nier all have multiple endings and that much also holds true for Automata, but that isn’t to say you can beat the game once and are stuck with the ending you happen to get. The “endings” in Nier: Automata are less like endings and more like “routes.” Each new route you play through will add new elements that weren’t there before and eventually more parts of the story are shown. This isn’t like Ghost n’ Goblins where you beat the same game twice just for a slightly different ending screen; things can get VERY different as you go through later routes, but this does lead to a bit of repetition in a game that’s already filled with backtracking. Without saying too much, ending A of Automata is only about a third of the game as far as narrative is concerned and stopping there (where I fear a lot of people will) would result in a story that has potential, but doesn’t seem to conclude much of anything. So I will say this: keep playing. Square Enix even puts in a message at the end of the credits asking you to keep playing. I was invested enough to keep going and I was glad I saw the game through to the end. The REAL end. There’s so much more story, so much more variety to the gameplay after those credits roll the first time, and it’s sad that so many people will likely miss it because…well, we got to credits, so game’s over, right? But that isn’t how Yoko Taro thinks, for better or worse.

Speaking honestly, while I enjoy the game a great deal and really like the places the story goes…I won’t pretend that the decision to break the narrative up like that does the game a lot of good. I think it only harms the game, really. Compared to something like 999, a game that integrated the concept of new-game plus into its narrative in a way that made sense, Automata doesn’t handle it as gracefully. In 999 you can skip past dialogue and scenarios you have already done, but you aren’t so lucky in Automata. Granted, there are fairly significant differences that appear as soon as you start that second playthrough but it’s not exactly fun to go through the same story beats and wait to re-unlock fast travel again. I get what Taro is going for; only in video games can you do something like this. You can’t read a book, then go back to re-read a section and have new pages suddenly added. I can appreciate him for trying something different, but I question if that’s the best usage of the medium for telling a story. It might not be worth alienating people who don’t want to jump through all those hoops just to get closure to a story, nor is it going to help if people don’t know that the game has multiple routes in the first place. That Square Enix needed to put in a message after you beat the game is pretty telling.

Even without taking the multiple routes into consideration, I’m not fond of all the backtracking. While at times new things are added to locations you’ve already visited to keep it interesting, a lot of the time you’re simply going across the same four or five areas. I can’t tell you how many times you’re told to explore the factory that makes up the first “level” of the game. Often times this is for sidequests, sure, and thus the backtracking can be optional….but then again, the sidequests are so rewarding both in experience points and rewards, it’d be crazy to NOT do a good portion of them. On top of that, the areas just feel kinda empty, which might be the point. Still, navigation could be better. You CAN ride on the backs of animals to cut down on travel time…sometimes anyway, and you do get fast travel later on but it’s limited. Why is it I can save when I get close enough to an Access Point, but have to physically touch the Access Point when I want to fast travel? There’s even one extended sequence of “controllable helplessness” where you have to drag your limping body halfway across the game world that, while memorable…is memorable more so for dragging on WAY too long. It’s a bit of fat that could have been trimmed.

At the end of the day, Nier: Automata is a game I won’t soon forget, and it’s largely a positive experience. I do really enjoy it, even if at times the frustrations overwhelmed the good parts. Platinum and Yoko Taro’s team gelled together fairly well, resulting in something that’s solid in just about every fashion. The combat is slick and open-ended, the soundtrack is fantastic and the performances by the voice actors really sell the scenes and add a little extra heart to it all, but the fragmented story, constant backtracking and the rare shoddy battle here or there brings it down a bit. If you’re a fan of Yoko Taro’s work, you’ll enjoy it immensely and if it’s your first experience with the man’s games, you’ll still find a lot to like here. I WILL state that it would be better if you’ve played Nier beforehand, but there’s generally enough context within this game that certain late-game moments will…mostly make sense. You’ll just be lacking a bit of clarity. Glad I was able to get to this game before 2017 was over, and I would look forward to whatever Taro does next…because no matter what it is, it’ll be something worth talking about. See you next time.

-B

[sssoto]

Creator’s update #2

Hey guys! I’m back with another update to keep y’all posted on what I’ve been up to (= I’m getting this up a week later than I wanted to, but hey, what can ya do. It’s still very much up to date, I just didn’t have the time to get this typed up last week, buuuut making up for that now!

Mood: Juuuuuust chillin’~

Music I’ve been digging recently:

This is basically just gonna be a looooong list of Selena Gomez, because dammit I’m into her music right now. The girl is gorgeous and I’ve always liked her music, but I used to be more into her old stuff, and now I’m just living for all the songs I didn’t listen to as much from the time she released her Stars Dance album and onwards. These are just a select few of the songs I’ve been listening to on repeat for the past week or so lol.

Selena Gomez - Fetish (ft Gucci Mane)

Selena Gomez - The Heart Wants What It Wants

Selena Gomez - Do It

Selena Gomez - Me & the Rhythm

Selena Gomez - Me & My Girls

Selena Gomez - Nobody

Selena Gomez - Save the Day

Selena Gomez - Like a Champion

Writing

So I DID ACTUALLY DO SOME WRITING THESE PAST FEW WEEKS OMG.

I finished editing an entire scene I’d been struggling with for the looooongest time (and now I’m having trouble with the next scene, sigh you just can’t win). For that scene, I had to rearrange three different scenes and combine them into one in a way which made sense, and geez it wasn’t fun. The real struggle is finding out what to keep and what to cut, right? I dunno ‘bout you guys, but I’m very reluctant to cut anything until I’m sure I don’t wanna use any of the prose somewhere else.

The light came to me late one night (as it usually does) when this random line popped in my head as I was mulling over what to name my second chapter. Okay, backtrack, I title my chapters, and ever since I started revisions and essentially condensed the first four chapters down to three, I couldn’t figure out what to name the second chapter. The other two chapters could easily just take on the titles they had previously, but the structure and overall focal point of the second chapter had changed so much that I needed to rethink the title (at least if I wanted it to be a good title lol). So chapter 2 was untitled until just recently, when this line came to me and finally made me decide on a name: The Find. A find in this sense refers to an archaeological discovery (my main characters study and work in the archaeological field), and you might see how it plays into the chapter in my excerpt later this post. But yeah, this line came to me, and along with that came the realisation that I could move a whole paragraph from the scene I was revising in chapter 3 to chapter 2, since that paragraph was oriented in a pretty similar fashion to what I was going for with that new line. Does any of this make sense? My thought process is a little strange lmao.

Anyway, so knowing what I needed to do with chapter 2 gave me the push I needed to move on with that scene I struggled with in chapter 3, and I finally managed to restructure all the bits and pieces of those scenes I had to combine. It became much easier because I’d moved an entire paragraph that didn’t really fit in that scene anyway to a place where it was much better suited lol. Since the new dialogue was already written out, it was pretty straightforward to draft new narrative to go with it after I had reassembled the pieces (though I’m sure it’s all veeeeery rough cuz I’ve not given it a proper read through yet).

It all worked out in the end, and I’m so happy I made that progress wee! And I think I know what to do with the next scene, so it’s just about kicking my ass into gear lol (special thanks to @coffeeandcalligraphy who helped me brainstorm for this scene, ugh bless my friends). I already knew the next scene needed to be edited a lot, because basically the entire thing was just filler. The first half was a way too long narrative summary with a bunch of unnecessary detail which could be condensed significantly, and the next half was a scene also way too long for the purpose it served, and to make matters worse, it also introduced a bunch of pointless characters that never show up again, so the scene just feels kinda forced. I’ve done some trimming on the narrative summary, and I’ve cut out the scene that follows, so what I need to do next is add some details that pertain to the timeline and illness change (if you read my last post, you might recall me mentioning that I was doing these revisions in the first place because I aged my characters up and changed the illness of my MC’s sister), and then I’m gonna draft a new much shorter scene that’ll serve the same purpose the previous scene did, but without so much pointless, contrived detail, and without friggin’ introducing new characters that’ll never appear again, my god Soto what were you thinking.

But you know what, I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. I’ve made an important discovery during these edits, which I discussed with @shaelinwrites, who herself was recently stuck in revision hell with her manuscript I’m Fine, and we both agreed; it’s honestly much easier to draft new, better prose than trying to elevate very old less mature prose. As I’m revising these chapters, I sometimes get the feeling that my prose isn’t very complex or sophisticated, but then when I get to draft completely new lines or even paragraphs, I wonder how the new words seem so much better than the old ones. Then I look back at the date and remember that these chapters I’m revising were written in friggin’ 2014. It’s no wonder the prose ain’t that sophisticated lmao. It’s hard work improving something which at its core is less refined!

With that said, I think it’s time for some excerpts. I didn’t show any last time since I hadn’t been working much on my writing recently, but this time I have stuff to show!

Excerpt:

He seemed a hidden gem waiting to be uncovered, layered deep in the crusts of his own humility and class, a rare find with all the potential it entailed – academical and monetary.

This was the line I talked about which basically solved all my problems for me lol bless this line. And bless @shaelinwrites who convinced me to get rid of an unnecessary word, THANK YOU GIRL, I WAS DUMB, YOU WERE RIGHT, THE WEASEL WORD HAD TO GO.

Excerpt:

They arrived in Naples, grandest seaport of the Mediterranean, without incident. The capital of the Sicilies was a majestic sight when approached from the sea, rather alien with its numerous colourful structures raised on slanting green hillsides amongst sprouting palms, so very different from the grey, uniform London back across the English Channel.

Just some description; looking at pictures of Naples helped a lot for this lmao. I’m still not entirely happy with it, it needs a good clean up and stuff. Buuuuuut you know what, it’s progress, and that’s all that matters right now!

Chapters edited: 2/16

Current total word count: Around 123k (I’ll give a more precise number when I’ve gathered all my chapters in one document)

Current total chapter count: 16

Look at the lovely progress on chapter 3 since last update <3

Art

So honestly I don’t have a lot of WIPs to show in the art department this time around, because a) I’ve mostly been finishing up the sketches I showed last time, and b) the new stuff I’ve started are secret projects I’d rather not reveal yet. So don’t blame it on inproductivity! d:

Like I said, I’ve finished some of the WIPs I talked about last time, and even better, I’ve posted them as well, so you can go and take a look at the final product: the Disney portraits, and my portraits of the Armstrong siblings.

And with that said, can we just marvel at this improvement?

Sometimes it can feel like you’re never getting anywhere, and that’s when it’s important to gaze back at your journey and see how far you’ve come. I’m certainly pretty happy with how my skills have developed in the past two years! I want to do more “draw it again” pieces in the future so I can track my own development n.n

The only thing I feel I can show a WIP of (that I’ve not already shown, anyway) is this character portrait I’m working on for Serena. Used my girl Selena Gomez as reference cuz she’s the best face claim for Serena I’ve come across <3 It’s actually this portrait’s fault that I got into this entire Selena Gomez groove, and oh how grateful I am for it because Selena Gomez slaaaaaays.

I’m not entirely sure I’m gonna keep the portrait like this for her official character portrait though, because I feel it’s a little risqué~ for a Victorian portrait LOL. I mean, slay that hair, Serena, you know ya sexy af, but gotta stay in character with your setting, yanno? Lmao I dunno, I need to rethink it a bit, but regardless I’m digging the sketch thus far!

I think the next thing I’m working on will be lining and colouring Owen’s portrait, and then I also have all these secret things in the works that I wanna make progress on so I can reveal them. Aside from this, I’ve been hard at work on setting up commissions, and I’ll soon make an announcement, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested in getting a portrait done by me!

Youtube

It’s been a month since last update, and I upload new videos every Friday, which means I’ve got new videos to announce to y’all! So if any of you like kpop, vocal covers, or speedpaints, here’s where you should look :D

I’ve actually gotten pretty good at this Youtube thing (thanks to the scheduling feature, it saves lives), so my uploads are fairly consistent. I upload every Friday; every other week it’s a vocal cover (usually kpop, but not exclusively), and the other week it’s a speedpaint, so *hint hint* you should subscribe if you haven’t already *hint hint*. I’ll soon run out of covers to upload though, so I should record some more... Ahem.

Anyway, here’s the most recent one I uploaded. The song is a bit obscure if you’re not a dedicated 4minute fan, but it’s one of my favourites!

And my second cover can’t be embedded due to copyright, but I’ll leave a link for it here so you can check it out! It’s for the song So Good by Kara. The acapella for this one was super fun to record what with all the harmonies and background vocals and stuff.

And of course, I uploaded a few speedpaints as well! There are actually four up on my channel now because one of the speedpaints was split into two parts to prevent a 45 min video lol. So if any of you are interested in seeing my process, check them out! The first one was a birthday gift I made for the amazing @juliajm15 back in March <3

And the second, split into two parts (lineart and colour), is one I find particularly interesting since it’s more elaborate. I really do like how the colouring came out for this piece!

So yaaassss, remember to subscribe if you’re into this sort of stuff!

Bonus: Fanart feature!

So you guys, I have some really amazing friends who make some really amazing fanart for me, and I must share.

Where to even begin? I seriously get all teary-eyed when someone takes the time to make something because they enjoyed my story and characters so much *cries*. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve probably seen me gush about all the amazing artwork @juliajm15 has done for me over the past couple years, but I wanna shine some light on two of my other good friends and loyal supporters who made some incredible and thoughtful tributes to my little labour of love!

First up are some amazing edits as well as a drawing done by Rachel over at @coffeeandcalligraphy.

This pretty thing is a fan book cover Rachel made for my first book, Memoirs! I love the aesthetic of the title so much, and there’s some actual symbolism in there with how she chose to colour coordinate the elements; green for Daniel, red for Serena. Just knowing how much thought and care she put into it makes my sentimental little heart swell <3

These two edits are just GORGEOUS. Once again done by Rachel, she made this for my birthday last year <3

For the first one, she used lyrics from Elton John’s Daniel because I’d mentioned that this song was the perfect message for Hazel to give Daniel, and the little doll reading the book is sooooo adorable because Daniel and Hazel have this thing with reading fairytales together *cries* and then it’s wearing a white nightgown too, which is basically what Hazel always wears since she’s confined to her bed!

For the edit beneath, she picked an actual quote said by Serena to Daniel, and the summer aesthetic with the greeneries and the flower in the background to symbolise the summers they spent together, bah it’s too much! The care and thought put into this makes me emotional all over again, and these edits are just so lovely!!

And last one: my darling, Daniel! Rachel actually made this for our friendship anniversary a short while ago, and I still feel bad that I didn’t think to make anything for her lmao. She used the ref I found for Daniel, and his face honestly is just so friggin’ adorable, and then she used a quote from Renaissance to go along with it! I seriously have the best and most thoughtful friends in the entire world, like wow.

Another one of my friends who’s been giving me a bunch of cute fanart lately is @sarahkelsiwrites! Just take a look at this adorable drawing she did of Hazel:

Hazel is a very beloved character, but she doesn’t get nearly as much love in terms of artwork as my other characters, so it’s always so nice when someone remembers her <3

And okay, but this one kills me:

I literally screamed when she sent me this. LOOK AT HIS TATS HAHAHAHAH. So for some context, basically @coffeeandcalligraphy has a weird fetish for angst, and we started talking about how our characters have different kinds of angst. I started calling her characters angsters, because they angst like it’s cool to angst, aka gangster, aka angster. Rachel then said that Daniel’s angst is elegant, which turned into a really lame pun, and the rest is history...

Long story short, don’t mess with E. Angst’s tea, yo. Much British, very angst.

And the last one and I DIE CUZ MY BBY LOOKS SO HANDSOME <3 <3 <3 So Sarah brooded that somehow, everytime she tries to draw a girl, it turns into Daniel, but yanno... Can’t complain.

LOOK AT THE SMOOTH LINEART THO. I couldn’t draw smooth lineart for the life of me until I’d had my graphic tablet for like two years. Ugh I love how Danny looks here, his expression is so perfect! Thank you so much @sarahkelsiwrites and @coffeeandcalligraphy for the amazing gifts, I feel so blessed to have such generous, thoughtful and talented friends! <3

So that was all for this time around; I hope you enjoyed seeing what I’ve been working on! I’ll be back soon to summarize my progress on all my projects again, so until next time, folks!

[falyakonsdiary]

25 star wars asks

25 star wars asks

Doing this to de-stress and do some fun fandom reflecting lol. Here we go!

1. do you find force users or non-force users more interesting?

This is tough. Overall, I find non-force users (I’m including people who were/are force sensitive in canon like Leia but can’t actually manipulate it) a lot more interesting! They tend to be more inventive and diverse in beliefs and perspectives, and their interactions with force users (and their politics) is always a cool dynamic to see!

2. which character do you want to be most like?

Oh, easy. Padme Amidala, hands down. Her passion, vision, hard work and hope make her a wonderful leader- which is something I aspire to be. Additionally, she’s flawed in the sense that she’s naive in her beliefs at times. She’s far from perfect, but Padme’s legacy (as ignored and hidden as it is in the canon after her death) is obvious in her children and the resistance she inspired. She also parallels Anakin, who in some ways embodies the things I struggle with most in myself. If anyone else came close to being someone I’d want to emulate, it would be the twins. Together they are the best of both their parents.

3. which character are you actually most like?

Yikes. Kinda covered this, but I guess… Maybe Luke? I’m not as wild as Anakin, or as passionate as Padme. I feel like Luke is a nice in-between of those two, but more mellow and simple-minded than Leia- in a good way. He’s jaded, but still maintains this sense of young, youthful naivete that Leia didn’t (despite remaining a very hopeful and strong person). He’s a soft boy, you know? I feel like Luke’s ability to come off still full of wonder, knowing how awful things can be, but still choosing to be optimistic- that’s something I can relate to.

4. what headcanon will you defend to the death?

THAT PADME WOULD’VE BEEN A FANTASTIC CHANCELLOR. Seriously, Bail Organa wouldn’t pick some basic for the job and he (at least in one of the books) was eager for her to take over that role from Palpatine. She died too young. Had so much promise. Also, her and Anakin would’ve been great parents- minus all the political drama.

5. what planet would you most like to visit?

Naboo! Yes, that’s where Padme’s from lol, but more so I just love it. It’s a beautiful planet with lots of water and agriculture. Plus, even if I do see the flaws in its’ political system, any planet that supports the education and empowerment of young women can sign me the hell up.

6. what planet would you most like to live on?

Again, Naboo! I’d love to learn in their schools and travel the natural sites, like rivers and waterfalls.

7. who do you hope you never meet?

Real talk, I hope I never meet Jaba. Snoke, Darth Vader (pre-redemption), other Sith Lords/villains, I don’t care. I mean yeah they would suck, but Jabba forces women to be his sex slaves. I’d rather die than be shoved into some golden skimpy outfit and dance for the pleasure of some slimy, horny slug alien. If I picked someone who isn’t technically evil though, I’d avoid Yoda. He’s more corrupt than he thinks and I wouldn’t want him in my head.

8. what is one thing you would change about any movie, show, book, etc?

Hm. One: Padme’s death. I still don’t think she died because of a loss of a will to live. I firmly believe her kids would’ve given her hope to move forward, even without the Republic or Anakin. At the very least, futuristic medicine would’ve kept her hanging on a LITTLE longer than that. Other than that, I’m still torn about Ben Solo in the movies. I think just because I pity Han and Leia, I wanna make him a happy kid who maybe doesn’t destroy everything his parents fought for.

9. have you ever made fanart or fanfic? do you make edits or any other fan content?

I’ve made fanart of Padme before! It’s on my art blog~ Doodled Leia a couple times too, and I have Star Wars OC’s I’m fairly attached to

10. do you think the jedi were right or wrong?

WRONG. They were corrupt, too, especially during the Clone Wars era. Allowing clones to be used as disposable war machines, only training and manipulating young kids, being overconfident, controlling/shaming members who don’t follow their ideals, their strict rules and polarizing attitude- all of it was very not okay.

11. who is the most underrated character?

Padme. They practically erased her from canon in a lot of ways so. Anakin and Obi Wan survived the prequel shame because they were pre-established in the original trilogy, but Padme? They straight up try to forget her. Even after all the great book and Clone Wars TV show development too…

12. do you care who rey’s parents are?

Sorta? I mean at this point it seems like it’s important to her development as a character, so I’d want to know for that alone. I am a little curious though. Personally, the only theory I endorse is that she’s a Kenobi. Sorry “Rey Skywalker” fans, but your theory is pretty baseless.

13. if you could resurrect one dead character, or prevent them from dying, who would it be?

Padme obviously. So she could do the great things she was capable of to their full capacity. If not her, then Qui Gon Jinn or Shmi Skywalker. Jinn would’ve saved EVERYONE a lot of trouble, and Shmi being used as a plot device for her son after all she went through kinda sucked. I would say Han but we gotta let Harrison Ford off the hook, he’s been asking for years, okay?

14. what is your favorite alien species?

The Togruta! Their design, and Ahsoka’s character, really sealed the deal for me haha.

15. who would you like to bang?

Honestly? Probably Obi Wan lol. Or Leia. Two very different types, two very different experiences. And of the new trilogy, Poe could get it any day lol.

16. which movie/episode have you watched the most?

The Force Awakens, actually! It’s the only Star Wars movie I got to see in a theater. My mom saw the first Star Wars when it came out and that’s her favorite too- I think the experience made it for both of us lol.

17. what is your favorite line?

“So this is how liberty dies… With thunderous applause.” In our current political climate, Padme says it best.

18. what is your favorite star wars book or comic?

I don’t have one! I haven’t gotten to read any. Of all the ones I’ve seen clips of though, Leia’s comic looks really great!

19. what’s your opinion on legends/expanded universe?

I love that stuff. I say expand away!

20. what do you hope will happen in future movies?

They’ll explore ideas and dynamics we haven’t before in the movies- like the Jedi’s own corruption, the gray area of the force, and more stuff relating to non-force users.

21. if you could switch any character’s gender, who would it be and why?

Nah, I don’t endorse this kind of stuff. I don’t really see gender as making anything that much more interesting beyond its’ use already in canon. Maybe if it added some LGBTQ+ representation or challenged some canon ideal?  Or if Leia was a dude just for that Jabba the Hutt scene. It sucked that she was turned into a sexual slave for the sake of plot, and if she was a man it would flip that sexism on its’ head.

22. favorite droid?

BB-8 honestly. I feel like we’d get along best is all. He’s like a cute lil’ puppy.

23. what’s your favorite star wars musical piece or theme?

Beyond the Stars from the Attack of the Clones. Really beautiful piece.

24. how do you pronounce twi’lek?

Uh, two-will-lehk?

25. which character do you have a love/hate relationship with?

The Jedi as a whole, really. The council, including Yoda, Anakin and Obi-Wan, are a big gray area for me at times lol.

[annakie]

Thoughts on Andromeda, Part Eleven

We’re starting to head into the endgame, but I’ve got at least two more posts planned after this one.

All the planets are done.  Let’s finish up a loyalty mission and try to figure out what happened to the Salarians.

And then uh, the end of this post I ended up diverging into talking about... not specifically the ending but the enemies, both the specific main villain and the species overall.  So really, this post has spoilers if you haven’t finished the game.

One of the things I love about Andromeda is how, more than any other game, I think family is emphasized.  We know about, and get to meet, a family member or close friend of nearly every squadmate, and some of the crew.  Kallo and Suvi could definitely use some development in this area, but even Kallo has his friend we hear about.

And like, in SWTOR (mild spoilers if you haven’t played the last two expansions) my biggest complaint about the overall storyline in KotFE / KotET is that it’s all about someone else’s family but like... where are your personal stakes in this family aside from getting dragged into it and, I mean the fate of the galaxy but.... it’s like you’re the fifth wheel in the entire story and the entire last fight in KotET reminded me of being a teenager at your friend’s house and witnessing their family drama.

In ME:A yeah you’ve got some Ryder Family stuff going on but it’s not the center of the story. There’s enough family in it to feel like family is important to your character, unlike with Shepard who, even a Spacer Shepard’s family felt like an afterthought.  

And Drack’s connection with Kesh was one of my favorite “other family” bits in the game.  Especially when you learn the story of why he raised her.

Speaking of Drack... haha.  

Not just Drack but I really, really loved all the hangout post-loyalty quests with all the companions.  I may have said this already but I thought both the loyalty and post-loyalty hangouts were some of the best moments of the series.

PeeBee’s quest!

My Ryder was like, really forgiving of her companions so even this Annwyl was like “Whatevs, Peebs.  Let’s hope we don’t die.  My super poofy armor will protect me anyway.”

I shot.  Look, I know a toxic person who will continue to be a threat when I see one.  I had to do what was best for my buddy.

Annwyl is definitely the type who will forgive you for harming her, but don’t you dare mess with my friend’s heart, mind and stuff.

I loved the entire aesthetic of this place, I wish the mission would have lasted longer.

The post-mission confession of friendship was so, so great too.  

My one quibble with it, which wasn’t really a quibble but... don’t take Liam and Peebee out together for the first time after this mission because Liam questioning why she’s there and if she’s realy a part of the team goes from kinda “I can see his point” to “super dickish, Liam.  She’s already SAID she’s in for the team and she cares about you all and what’s going on!” 

I just love this pic of the rest of the team.  I also thought this was just a great “team bonding / really feeling like a found family” moment, too, with everyone skipping out on helping Peebee clean up her mess.

So, at this point I checked my game progress.  I’d done every quest I could find on all of the planets.  All of the loyalty missions.  Game completion: 70%.  So basically I think it takes into account story & loyalty missions as completion more than the amount of stuff done as a whole.  

But hey speaking of the little missions, I wanted to talk about the worst kind of mission in ME:A -- the “drive to like five random spawn points of enemies on the map, and hope to find something to click on” quests.  Like, you know “Hey I found a datapad here, now SAM is telling me I need to find four more datapads but there’s no map locations to find them.”  I think I ranted about these before.  They’re so annoying.  And also, some of them are broken.  

I’ve completed the game and have like six things left in my quest log.  One is a known broken quest given by an Angara in the Cultural center.  THREE are these drive-around quests.  For all of them, I’m pretty sure either I completed them or at least the drive-around part, and they’re still in my questlog. I wasted 2 or 3 hours one day doing nothing but following youtube playthroughs where people showed where they found the spawnpoints for these items, and checked every one of them, sometimes twice.  Nope, nothing there.  Can’t turn the quest in anywhere.   I really wanted to get 100% and I don’t think I can on this save file now. =\

Often when you DO find the 5 spawnpoints the ending quest is kinda neat, but its really not worth it, it feels like, for many of them.

I think these are the quests that are getting ignored in future playthroughs, unless they fix them and make the stuff less annoying to find.

Another dynamic thing that I liked was little things like stopping by to see who’s in prison.  There were several different people with interesting reasons for being there.

I was really happy to find the Salarains again, and another thing I liked is that... all of the species, except for how some people treated the Krogan, felt like a community in this game.  The cultural center was clearly overblown with talking about how peaceful and well everyone got along in the Milky Way, but at the same time it did feel like things were somewhat less segmented in this game.  Everyone’s relief at finding the other species was nice.  

Game bugged and my helmet stayed on through this entire sequence. That was annoying.  

So yeah let’s talk about the Archon.

*yawn*

What? Oh.  Right.

Look, I don’t know if I need another playthrough of the game to “get” the Archon or what.  What I understand is that he’s part of a larger empire of Kett.  But then he went and got obsessed with Remnant tech and now some of the other Kett are mad at him for not doing his job and getting sidetracked with Remnant stuff? Is that right?  

I just really thought that the Archon and the Kett were the weakest part of the game.  At the end of ME1 we had some clear adversaries with some fairly clear motivations.  And I’m jumping ahead here a bit but I figure if you’re reading this far you’re at or near done. But you had Saren and the Geth, indoctrinated and working for The Reapers, who were ancient machines hellbent on tearing down civilization because That’s Just What They Do.  We weren’t sure if they were evil or just machine-like.  No idea where they came from, but we understood them and their overall motivations, and a lot of details were missing, but we got the general gist.  

Okay here’s a good way to explain it.  The first time I played through ME1 I didn’t understand really who Saren was or what he was doing for a long time, and that was fine, it was a mystery to be solved!  But by the end of the game I understood him.  Still didn’t LIKE him, you weren’t supposed to, but I got him.  The second time through ME1 seeing things like him ordering to blow up the beacon on Eden Prime, his whole conversation and freakout with Benezia, lying to the council and making fun of your “dreams”, I got it.  Everything Saren did had a clear motivation that was easily understandable and easy to piece together that came together by the time he died, and unlocked many little “OH!” moments your second time through.

I didn’t feel like that at all with the Archon.   I don’t expect there to be many of those “Oh!” moments as I continue playing through ME:A a second time.  

And when Saren dies, still, you don’t like him, but you can have empathy there.  I didn’t feel any of that with the Archon.

Maybe I missed something.  Maybe I missed a lot, but... I don’t have that same feeling of “getting it” with the Kett, nor the Remnant.  I’m way more ok with not getting the Remnant at this point.  Obviously, this is the first game in what would hopefully be a trilogy, so we’re not going to get all the answers, there’s a lot of setup involved, but I just think that the Kett’s motivations and overall story should be a lot more clear than they are.  

The Archon felt like a shitty villain.  He didn’t feel like a Saren, or a Soverign... just some generic dude messing with our shit for unknown reasons beyond “I like Remnant stuff, and I was here first.”  

Way back in post three in this series, I wrote:

When I was watching this scene (the first time you see the Kett at the end of Habitat Seven) I thought “Someday, I’m going to play through the game a second or tenth time and finally care about this scene and understand its motivations.”  Right now it felt like a generic baddie reveal, there to put forth even more questions.

I mean, yep to that, and now I’ve re-played through that scene on my new game+ and I do understand it’s generic motivations now, but it didn’t give me that same sense of “Oh!” or “Oh man this is so cool knowing what I know now!” like I thought it would.

I mean, let’s be real.  Harbinger was a more well-developed and scary character than the Archon.  And that’s saying something.

This was the part that made me grit my teeth the most, though.

Oh, genetic experiments you say?  Mutating species to fit into your mold to exploit against us you say? Wow, how original.  Nobody had ever thought of that before, especially not in the previous Mass Effect game.

Look, I could roll with it when we found out that the Kett actually were mutated Angara.  I just honestly couldn’t believe that like, literally ME2 was all about kidnapping people (like the Kett kidnap the Angara) to build your army.  We were shocked when the Collectors were the Protheans.  I wasn’t shocked much at all to learn the Kett = the Angarans.  I’d had the thought a couple of times before we found out, in fact.

So then, in ME3 most of what you fought was genetic mutations of yourself and your fellow alien species. And now the Kett are... kidnapping and genetically mutating the Milky Way species?  Did anyone who made this game like, play ME2 and ME3?  Did we travel 600 years into the future to live out basically the same war Shepard did in ME3?

I really, really hope that there’s some big... actual surprise waiting for us in Andromeda 2.  Because I mean... this was kind of bullshit?  I can see it being terrifying and now for Ryder and team.  But for us, the players?  C’mon.  Is the creative well so dry for new enemies that we’re going to just re-design the species we already have a second time?

We’ve got the mysterious ancient species who are no longer around (Prothean/Remnant) and the big threat to the galaxy who kidnaps sentient species to turn them against us. (Reapers/Kett).  I mean, if you think about it, so far there’s not even any reason to think reapers might actually be in Andromeda.  (I don’t think that’s true, but it’s kind of amusing to think that it’s plausible.)

We wanted to feel like we were in the same universe, not that we might be replaying the same games. :v

Eh.

Sorry to get all super negative here in this post, but one complaint kinda lead into the other.  And yeah, my biggest overall problems with Andromeda are here.  The Archon and the Kett feel very generic and just... kinda.. boring.  And re-hashing forced genetic mutations to make you fight your own former allies.

More positive stuff next time!

[thotclaws]

ANOTHER RANT! WOO HOOO! Another rant that’s all my opinion and if you have your own then I’m ok with that.

So I’ve been thinking about this for over 5 years now and I think it’s really the best time to do a rant on this that I didn’t think I would do, but my laziness decided to go out for today and left me to ramble on on what I wanted to ramble about. For this, I wanted to talk about TCW and Rebels animation styles, or just art in general.

Now I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think the animation style in Rebels is shitty. In fact, it’s fairly average but getting to the point where it’s getting better with quality. That goes the same for TCW animation style. I was never a fan of it back in season 1 and 2 of the series. Now it’s gotten better with how much development it’s gotten and I love how it’s gotten better. That goes the same for Rebels. The lighting is SO much more better than it was back in season 1. The lighting is perfect with the mood it’s trying to go for. It’s going for a dangerous territory that the team is tackling and I’m glad that their doing so much for our adult audience. That goes the same for TCW. It’s going for a more gritty style and it worked, to some extent. I have my problems with how the style worked years before anyone noticed the show. Now that it has it’s formula down, it now has a large fanbase that no one thought it could get.

For anyone who is new to both series. There was a time when TCW was hated because of it’s animation style. Now that goes the same for Rebels. It’s gotten hate because of the animation style. History repeats itself, I know lol. Back to what I was saying. Animation is NOT a cheap task (it’s basically common knowledge to know how much it costs), and getting the means necessary to make good quality entertainment. You’d have to be VERY willing to give up half your life to dedicate to making any type of animation 2d or 3d. I don’t care. Both styles are expensive as hell and requires you to give it your all. If you don’t, then no one would notice. For the TCW and Rebels. It’s the same. Any other types of media would tell you how long animation works and how long it takes for a team to work on. For me, I didn’t mind the hiatus that happened with Rebels 4 weeks ago. Yes it sucked, but you gotta remember that animation takes a long process and I’m glad that they took that break. Yes I was impatient. Everyone was. Now we had an episode that was a gem to us. 

So for any type of animation to gain it’s own fanbase. You have to take risks and take chances. All of which you have to balance in order to get a show or a series running. For animation, it’s to creating setting and plot. Any other animated shows know that their target audience will start to get older and any young kid would grow out of it. Not Star Wars. It’s remained relevant because of it’s target audience. All of us. No one is a kid and still love the show regardless. Star Wars is HUGE! And it’s not going away soon. It will remain in the spotlight as the largest fandom ever. 

Now let’s talk about the idea of “less is more”. What is that you may ask? The definition is as follows: Used to express the view that a minimalist approach to artistic or aesthetic matters is more effective. It’s the idea of doing something but not going overboard. That goes the same for both TCW and Rebels, and I love that approach. It’s simple, yet effective. 

Going into 2d animation. I think that this era of animation is the best I have ever seen in like...ever. First started off with Daria and how simple animation can be yet convey a message that it was going for. Then to Star vs The Forces of Evil, a show that I highly recommend you watch for those who are interested in about what magic and it’s limitless idea’s come from. Both of these shows have something in common. It’s simple but effective. One has the idea of cynicism and real life and the other is about magic and what it can do outside of what we know and the idea’s that it can place. 

For 80s territory. 80s cartoons were meant to sell toys and have a large market to what the show’s were telling kids. That goes the same for my mom. She bought a Jem doll because she loved the show as a kid, and I can see the same with kids shows as well, but not for every show. Shows like Teen Titans GO is the one reason why CN is still airing the show. Is because if they’re going to get money, then their gonna have to start selling their merchandise. For Jem and the Holograms, I get a lot of flack saying that I think the show is just average and should be remade and I said the same for my mom if she’s willing to see a remade version of the show, and she said “sure as long as it’s 80s” and I agree. Then came the live action movie, and my opinion went straight into the gutter. Both of these shows were meant to sell toys to kids and they did work. The difference being is that Teen Titans GO is cancer and wish it would stop airing and the other was a mediocre 80s glam cartoon that had decent writing and animation style that was meant to sell toys as well.  

Next going into the KISS principle aka “Keep it simple, stupid.” or it’s variants “Keep it simple, silly.” “Keep it short yet simple.” “Keep it simple and straightforward.” and “Keep it small and simple.” Each of these have come it’s way into television and it’s perfect for it. Having this principle is what I love about animation is that you can have something like the KISS principle and you can tell a story in so many ways. I would argue that having this principle in movies and I would argue that it should keep its message rather than ignore it. I think as an example would have to be The Clone Wars 3d movie. This approach really did hurt it’s reputation of becoming a better series and yet so many people think that just because the movie was bad then the rest would be bad. I would argue that if it was the major drawback of being it’s animation style with was of course, the KISS principle. It was meant as more of a TV movie, and if it was like that, then it would have been a BLAST! I think that this movie is more for TV rather than a large big budget movie because of the look and tone to it. I don’t blame the animators. They wanted to do their attempt at making a show that was based around The Clone Wars and they did it. They made a marvel of a show and so as Rebels...speaking of that show...

I don’t mean to sound like Thrawn in this, but dammit I need to say this! I like the idea that ‘worse is better’. Even if it’s applies to software. It also applies to art. The idea of the oxymoron is that people think that if you have something simplistic, it’s lazy when in reality it’s the total opposite. You can have art and still be effective with it. It depends on how the artist does it. Art is something you express, not something that I sound everyday. I did mention that I will sound like Thrawn in this, but let’s talk about him as a character instead of his obsession with art. People think they have to hate the art style of both series because it’s simplistic, but really all their doing is taking the oxymoron and not applying to what the meaning is. The animation style in Rebels is simplistic and it is effective. The animation and the feel to it matures along with the show, and bringing in Thrawn as a character is what makes the show so much better than I thought it would. Cuz Thrawn as a character is lack of a better term a large scale character and bringing him in would mean that they’d have to nerf him or he’s just a useless antagonist, but we were wrong. He’s an amazing character and a perfect opponent to go up against. For Rebels, we can see the animation style become better and better with every time the audience age. With The Clone wars is the same thing. The animation got better and the tone got darker and mature along with the audience and both of these shows show. 

And here’s where I say this. If it’s not your type of style to be KISS, then that’s totally ok. I’m perfectly ok with someone not liking the art style of both of these shows, but don’t put the blame on the animators. That’s what their intentions were is to make it KISS. Not really something I hear everyday but yeah. If it’s not your cup of tea. That’s perfectly ok, I can understand that. I just don’t wanna hear about the art style because it was meant for kids. Well..it’s meant for everyone. Not just for kids. For shows that were their target audience really has changed throughout the years. Animation is just getting better and I can’t wait for it to see where it goes. That kinda goes the same when it was called “just a cash grab by Disney to make more money” and I would say that that’s been blown out of proportion to how the show presents itself. 

If you wanna hear more about the idea of animation and how it’s getting better or worse, then watch nostalgia critics video on this right here cuz this explains why I wanted to make this rant. 

Thank you for listening to me ramble. I really wanted to get this out of the way before I go on a REAL tangent. 

[thesteadydietofeverything]

Let It Die is cool, but it’s also cold

It’s hard not to look at Let It Die as some sort of gauge on the viability of the free-to-play model on the greater video game landscape.  While the model has obviously had a lot of success within the realm of mobile games, and even quite a few high profile, big-budget PC games have adopted it after failing to meet their profit goals the old fashioned way, Let It Die still feels like something of an anomaly in the category at large.  It’s the newest game by one of the mediums’ few unequivocal auteurs, Suda51, and his company, Grasshopper Manufacture, and as such, has a sense of gravity to the expectations of quality and artistry that few other free-to-play games have to contend with.  

The microtransaction-heavy model has long been criticized as a just kinda generally shitty business tactic, but in today’s gaming landscape, where even $60 AAA games no longer even have to pretend to be shameful about milking extra dollars out of players hungry for extra skins or blind boxes, making a game that charges you nothing to start it almost even sounds generous.  Thus, Let It Die feels like it’s arriving at exactly the right time, a relatively higher-tier developer embracing and, theoretically, elevating the gaming model at a time where the fluctuating status quo would only require one great game to change hearts and minds.  Unfortunately, despite the surprising degree of success that the game has seen in the last month or so since its release, Let It Die just isn’t a great game.  While it’s overflowing with the wacky and undeniably cool style that Suda51 has been perfecting throughout his career, the core gameplay elements largely left me feeling empty, and reinforced for me the inherent pitfalls of free-to-play gaming.

The beautifully detailed picture that the player sees when she first start up the game is the Tower of Barbs, a monstrous overgrowth of 40 hellish levels erupting from the remains of the orphaned island that used to be South Western Tokyo.  It’s a powerfully rendered image that pairs immaculately with the glitchy 8-bit style embraced in the menu screens.  By the time Uncle Death, a grim reaper wearing 3D glasses, came riding his skateboard in and addressed me as “Senpai,” I was ready to go wherever this game took me.  One of the most frustrating things about the game is that as much as the gameplay pushed me away, the sheer style of it remained omnipresent, urging me to stay in that world.  Every floor of the tower seems to get more fucked-up looking as you go, rewarding progression with a new, weird, environment until that one gets stale.  Every enemy explodes in a high-pressured geyser of gore upon death in their own slightly unique way, and it’s morbidly satisfying, especially after a particularly harrowing encounter.

Every trip to the waiting room of the tower or The Hater Arcade promises some intriguing interaction with one of the surprisingly compellingly rendered characters.  There’s the Mushroom Magistrate, whose vocal performance by Isabelle Fuhrman does a pretty good job of convincing one she really has gone insane from too much mushroom consumption.  Naomi Detox, the teenage arcade attendant, never fails to find new, creative ways to complain about her loser boyfriend between assigning you new quests.  Meigin actually has some pretty useful tips for bettering your performance, as long as you can get past his uber-gamer elitism.  If you care to shell out real money to take the express elevator, the operator, Rin Torai, will share some delightfully awkward rides with you.  None of these characters are much more than the one-note characterizations they seem to be; as far as I’m aware, there are no actual plot arcs or anything involving them.  Regardless, they play their roles well, and serve to color the world of the game in with some remarkable personality.

If I were only grading this game based on its aesthetic impact, it would be a lot more glowing, but unfortunately, there’s also an actual game here, and I have a lot fewer nice things to say about that.  The gameplay of Let It Die has rightfully earned some comparisons to Dark Souls, with its challenging, timed-swing focused melee combat and moveset-containing weapons, not to mention the amount of time between “checkpoints.”  These comparisons do the game no favors, though, as these are all difficult mechanics to pull off in a game without making it unnecessarily frustrating, and while Let It Die might do better than some other Dark Souls clones, it still fails to meet that standard of engaging the player rather than pushing her away with its systems.

Combat takes both skill and practice to get good at, and while getting good certainly is a possibility in this game, it’s not nearly as rewarding as I would have liked it to be.  There is little weight to most of the weapons in the game.  While in Dark Souls, learning how to properly use any given weapon is a matter of spending enough time with it to memorize its moves, there is just a certain feel that you get from it as well, something that comes off as intuition but is really a combination of the careful animation of your character and the tight controls that provides instant feedback on your performance.  That feedback is practically nonexistent in this game.  Each attack animation feels generic and unintuitive, leaving you with nothing but sheer memorization of the amount of time an attack takes and what weapons are preferable for which enemy.  It’s not just boring, it’s straight-up repellant in the early hours of the game.

Going along with the Dark Souls comparisons, this game has a similar lack of a pause button and long stretches of levels to cover before the player can return to their main hub, in this case, an elevator that you can ride down to the waiting room in order to level up, buy necessary upgrades and equipment, chat with characters, or maybe even just stop playing (quitting mid-level is considered a death).  Again, while Dark Souls will use this mechanic in combination with clever level design in order to add to the level of dread and immersion, Let it Die’s levels feel practically procedurally generated, a random series of halls and rooms with repetitious textures and lazily placed enemies, and the feeling that builds as one traverses these maps is less dread as much as just tedium.  The relief that I’d feel as I’d spot an elevator in the distance had little sense of accomplishment mixed in with it; mostly I was just happy that now I could stop.

As relatively “fair” as one-on-one combat can feel, I never really found a way to successfully take on two or three enemies.  Oftentimes I’d find myself stuck in an enclosed room with little environmental factors to kite and isolate enemies with, and the second I’d try to put in a single attack, I’d get pounced on.  In short, these encounters feel basically designed to kill you, and that’s where the insidious free-to-play factor comes in.  When you die, you have a couple options.  You can follow the advice that the title of the game seems to be giving you and simply let your character die - they’ll be reborn as a “hater,” an especially tough enemy that another character can face off against if you return to that spot, and if you defeat them, can be sent out to raid other player’s games (the game has some fairly extensive online features that I never really touched, so I’ll say little about them in this review).

Your other option upon death is given to you by the helpful insurance saleswoman who greets you upon each death - to revive yourself with a death metal, a form of currency in the game that is very nearly only earned by purchasing packs with real money.  In effect, this is essentially the equivalent of putting another coin in the arcade machine, an apt mechanic given the game’s framing device.  This is really what you’re more likely to want to do, as it takes time to level up your characters, and having a well of available, trained fighters becomes more and more important as you progress through the tower.  And I’d almost feel tempted to forgive this if some of the encounters felt a little bit more doable, but as it is, death seems essentially unavoidable.  It feels like a rote exercise, that rather than defeating enemies through sheer skill or adequate leveling, you simply pay to bring your health back up and start back right where you left off; it eliminates the challenge and the reward possible in these encounters, and any time the “risk” side of a risk/reward situation is actual money, it’s going to be pretty hard to convince me to go for that risk.

To the game’s credit, it manages to work its style even into these microtransactions, such as the express elevator, that actually is much nicer looking than the regular elevator, making one feel like she paid for first class.  That it treats such a potentially damning game mechanic with a nod and a wink is legitimately funny, and surprisingly tempting, but the lack of fun I was having with the rest of the game convinced me against it.  This was essentially the main problem I encountered throughout the game: wanting to like it so much more than I did because of the style but finding myself unable due to the lack of substance.  And the style really is nothing to gloss over: Suda51’s artistic success has largely been defined by the aesthetics of excess, and the way that this game manages to balance its stylistic gratuitousness with something approaching tastefulness is an oxymoron that’s a wonder to behold.  If only it felt as inspiring to play as it does to look at.

5.4/10

[whimsically-ominously-auspice]

Do we think that maybe the whole Kobe Bryant thing is the straw that broke the camel's back?

Its just something more real to us

To those people watching basket ball and enjoying life while all those human traffic victims work underground...

Its finally just that one well hello... The world aint been as good as we thought?

I remember when Kobe was accused of rape and it hurt my heart and i was shocked and i did check in with the development of the story.

I'm not taking sides. I'm not saying anything about him just how it hurt me.

And so... Earlier i watched a video about Auschwitz i posted here an i cried during it. It was so difficult and so bad.

And so maybe Kobe Bryant represents to SOME people something different. Like the death of their own innocence.

Like their favorite toothpaste was made by a slave and they never knew.

I mean the world is going through something tragic. Not just the deaths

But Auschwitz. I know some of our human traffic victims were gassed. And i know some died just this year.

And so i know what we are hearing about and thinking about is simply tragic.

Every single of our gassing victims were brought back to life relatively immediately and i hadn't posted about them because that's not what we want to know about. I did post about the gassing we prevented but there was gassing after. But they were revived.

So i didn't think of it before. I just wanted people yo have space and their ability to have their own time and way to grieve or deal with what they needed to in regards to Kobe Bryant before anything other was said.

But for me there's things that will be the last thing i expect to just cause all the strength I had to just say... Hey babe it's time to cry now. Just go ahead and let it go. It may seem stupid or irrelevant but just let it go. And cry for days Just because i need to.

And I see a very deep theme with Kobe And his secret life parallel running with our planet's secret human slaves.

Much like a rainbow promise of an end.

Now there's no evidential facts posted now. So don't start throwing words. I ain't here to listen to you.

Im listening to what i see in this video. Because for the first time i said why haven't i seen people crying for hostages, human trafficked victims, and so on?

As many of you know I am blocked from a lot of media, being a POW.

So i have not seen any tears regarding human trafficking.

So I'm all why can't they make a huge deal of them? Why can't people cry over those that are being hurt?

Okay so never mind i just can't see it...

So I'm not throwing down about it.

But it's what side stepped me to seeing that this is a breaking point for many people

Its also a stepping point for others.

Its many things depending on your level of activity and understanding and busyness.

I am announcing on Sunday Friday night we will have devastating news followed by amazing news. So if you hated Kobe you will know why and you will be floored by your intuition. If you loved Kobe because you saw him play in his first year or because you only saw his good side, you will have a better grasp on the difficult time I had with Matt Hagan.

At any rate, regardless how you feel, please do tune in.

In the end... There will be no bad news about Kobe.

In the end i say. During you'll want to keep your vomit bags close to you and keep Tupac in your heart.

I've written about each topic that you'll see on Sunday. Friday.

The Magic Tree said he can make a version which will flow smoother. Because we had Part A and Part B which would make many people sick so he did from 2 hours to 1 and a half and it's a much happier story throughout so it's less traumatizing but will be over all shocking.

So that's on Sunday Friday night.

There are points where it is said that you should protect your child from the information. And there's a table of contents which will be available tonight here Which will let you know which break is for which.

For example break 1 is for the 2016 coverage. So then it will say break 1. So you refer to the table that will be pinned here to see what it is going to be about.

So if you don't want your self to see something graphic or your child you'll know to change the channel or put it on mute and look at your phone or what have you. Its color coded and a thin colored line will be at the top of the screen. So say break one is blue. A blue line will be on the top of the screen if you can't be handling such an issue and there's also going to be a time start that will be listed here.

So you'll see it's very traumatic and can be triggering and the information will be very detailed. With evidence. Which means videos of each event.

So the table of contents is very simple and can be misleading so you guys can kinda play around in your mind about what they mean

You will find how you have loyalty. To people or to truth or do you bow to intuition?

How do you think?

Did you have it toying at the back of your ear all along? Did you tell it to fuck off? Or did you like really feel the ill of it?

It's to help you learn yourself.

So we're not going to mess with your minds here. We will allow you to naturally flow through the information if you would like.

Mark Anthony is tripping on me. So i will say that number 2 has two ways... I think it's the best way yo say it. And currently only one way is in the video and at the end There will be a multiple answer question where you use the intuition you have to answer and there will be prizes just for answering which will differ on how you answer. So if you answer it correct the first time then it's a better prize then if it's you did the correct answer then changed it then went back to the first Its the same prize. There's a little system

So 24 hours to answer then 24 hours to claim the prize

The question will be posted after issue 2 is over and so you can answer right away but the 24 hours start 1 hour after the show is over. This way you have a free hour to process the information. But if you are a better answerer like me when you first hear the information you have the chance to answer right away before you get busy with more information. You can answer as many times as you like. No hash tags necessary.

Otherwise there will be a comprehension quiz which will be rewarded as usual. It will be one post that you'll need to answer in all. Like a test at school.

It should be fairly easy if you watch it. If you don't watch certain segments and take breaks instead you just write that on that question. Like skip, break. Didn't watch.

Or you can guess. Who did ..... in segment 4? I guess Kobe from all the internet reactions.

They are gonna do a little magic and so 4 hours after you watch the video to the end the quiz will show up for you. Then it will automatically grade it for you And show you how to access your prize or deliver is the word Mark Anthony used.

I'm gonna hint at you. If you are missing someone because they are dead, you'll want to do that quiz ASAP. It cannot be submitted until you finish unless you have work or something and you can't watch it live

So if you answer the question about segment 2 correctly because you ARE at work... Then you will get the surprise in advance

So for real people working and only for reals remember i am super strict... 1. Try your hardest and give your for real answer. 1B you will not have the ability to see it. But to enjoy your surprise while watching the video late -- do number two. 2. Answer all the answers. Do NOT do all of the above or none of the above those are wrong, do A B C D E etc one has to be correct.

So you'll do

Real answer: C

Winning Answer cause i was for real at work or transporting to or from or volunteering to help empty a human traffic facility: A B C D E F G

Or however many answers there are. They say only to D.

.....

Now people watching LIVE will finish the comprehension quiz to make sure you actually paid attention to get the prize.

No one will get prizes until 15 minutes after the show ends. So don't be rushing

Quality matters. If you get 100% correct you get more prizes. If you get 40% well you will get one and good luck.