#also the twilight elements are very much still coming through

[project-sekai-facts]

do u think prsk writing is good?

it's inconsistent. sometimes it's pretty good, sometimes it's not so good. this is something i would like to go way more indepth on but i don't think i'll have the time for a while, but i'll outline a few things here.

honestly early events are much stronger than some more recent ones. partially this is preference on my part due to preferring more character driven stuff which most early events were, but also in general the writing was much higher quality.

most year one events had a very strong sense of flow between them that has been lost over time. while events usually revolved around one character's issues, they would introduce aspects of the other characters and their issues which would be focused on later. if you read wonder halloween you'll notice there's foreshadowing for emu's arc across smile of dreamer and wonder magical showtime. this is partially because of the fact the events were so early on. we weren't as familiar with the characters as we are now and we were also new to the plots. you can also see how much more cohesive stories were back then as well because of there being way more mixed events marked as key story, like twilight parade and sakura for ln and picnic for n25. while most events still pick up from where the previous left off the sense of flow for most units just isn't felt as strongly as it was going through, say, l/n arc 1.

it also in some ways feels like the writers had a much stronger vision for early events than they do now, though distribution meta may come into play a bit. first arcs were the ones planned from the getgo. this is what they had already planned ahead for by launch. pretty much everything past year 1 was written after the game launched. we know they have a clear end, and it's evident they also had a clear start. we're currently filling in the middle and some events really feel like there's a slight lack of vision for the middle. vbs is a good aversion what with rad weekend having happened (aside from arata and souma's arcs lmfao), but other units and characters feel shafted.

to add to that last point as well as distribution meta. tsukasa5 is arguably one of the hardest hit. what seems to have happened is that they needed a second wxs event to focus on daigo's troupe, and tsukasa is the character who is most fitting for that troupe's speciality. unfortunately in order to come up with the actual plot, they had to retcon elements of tsukasa's character. tsukasa5 overall is probably one of the worst written of the recent events. it's really rough and doesn't make sense in some parts. it truly just exists bc they needed a wxs event with daigo and a wxs event in that slot.

kanade is another character who got hit hard. while she had the white day event in 2024, she was heavily shafted in terms of n25's story due to the focus being on mizuki and ena for half the year. mafuyu and ena's events were also very focused on them as individuals, leading to kanade getting like no character development for a year.

for non-2024 examples the 2nd arc enders were a mixed bag. step by step is very clearly a shoe-in because they needed to pad for time. retie functions perfectly well as an arc ender and reads like one in a few places, especially near the end. while minori had some good moments in this event it honestly feels like a mixed event. hell look at the banner card. shizuku and airi are also only in this event for a few lines of dialogue it's really rough.

oyf is incredibly rushed and tries to wrap up way too many loose ends from lutf. it feels like this arc was cut short, and you can really feel it in arc 3 when all the loose ends that still existed after oyf get their proper conclusion. side characters barring kotaro excluded, tatsuya and gurney flap had the shittest resolutions ever (tatsuya is also. barely a character lol). kohane had some good moments here, but other than that it was a really weak event.

same can be said for ohe they really needed more time and it's painfully obvious considering how much foreshadowing they did with rui only for... him to get one chapter in an emu event. there's some other things that really make this feel like it was meant to be rui or be two events one rui one emu, like the travelling troupe show. remember when rui wrote that show about his life and wxs rewrote it to show him he had a place with them. clpl doesn't. obviously it's always been important to all of them but it's significance to rui specifically has always been highlighted for obvious reasons. hell it was even mentioned in wxs first live like a couple weeks before this event dropped. while again this has good emu moments and good wxs moments it's painfully obvious at points that this was either a rui focus at one point or they combined two events. i wonder if part of the reason for that is because they realised that rui graduates at the end of the next arc so "wxs disbandment arc 2" (tentative name) will probably be more centered around him, especially with asahi's return looming over the story, and they didn't wanna make it seem like they did the same character arc with him twice.

sayonara persona and starry song are fine.

clpl really fucked themselves over with wles and the event schedule lol.

another issue with the writing from a technical standpoint is that recent events have really obnoxious exposition. listen i know we all make fun of people who only read chapter 1 and 8 of an event but did you know that actually works. you can sometimes even just read chapter 8. there's this need to constantly remind the player of stuff that happened earlier on in the event, sometimes in gratuitous detail, and i can understand why this might be necessary for the really long events like lutf or curtain call, but most events since 3rd anni have been under 1hr 30, in most cases just over an hour. the player can retain significant events that happened in the previous chapter. we don't need it constantly explained and it can actually make the audience less engaged if you constantly treat them like they don't understand what's going on. even for a game aimed at the tween/teen demographic you don't need to handhold them through the story. while yes younger audiences won't have the same literacy as an adult you should also trust that they can follow the basic story and read into basic subtext (honestly prsk is usually fine with subtext this is just an example).

"outline a few things" my ass this is pretty much everything i wanted to say. i do games writing next year and i think we cover VNs so maybe i can provide more insight then if the blog isn't dead.

(obligatory i'm not saying you can't like the events i outlined here i'm just saying that from an objective standpoint they're not the best. doesn't mean you can't find enjoyment in them. like whatever you want i'm not here to dictate your opinions)

[daughterofheartshaven]

A beginner's guide to the Big Finish Main Range - story arcs

Made for @presidentdisastraofgallifrey but also for everyone else who could use this.

The Big Finish main range can be pretty overwhelming, but I'm here to help with that! I'm here to reccomend good starting places for the fifth, sixth, and seventh Doctors! (I'm skipping eight because he has much less of the main range and there are many people who can plug eight's main range stuff better than me. If you want my take for good eighth doctor stories, I'm gonna point you towards Doom Coalition)

Fifth Doctor

Arc:

Prisoners of Fate. The Galaxy is being ravaged by a deadly disease known as Richter's Syndrome. Hoping to find a cure, the virologist and technographisit Nyssa Traken - best known for finding the vaccine to Lazar's disease - bids a tearful goodbye to her husband and children, and travels to an abandoned research facility on the planet Helheim.

But Nyssa is not the only one headed to Helheim. Right after their victory at the Enlightenment race, the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough also find themselves on Helheim in time for a very surprising reunion.

But while Richter's Syndrome looms, other threats are coming from the Doctor and Nyssa's pasts. Time's threads are closing, and the Survivor of Traken and the Renegade of Gallifrey will soon find themselves prisoners of fate.

Stories in this arc:

Cobwebs

The Whispering Forest

The Cradle of the Snake

Heroes of Sontar

Kiss of Death

Rat Trap

The Emerald Tiger

The Jupiter Conjunction

The Butcher of Brisbane

Eldrad Must Die!

The Lady of Mercia

Prisoners of Fate

Mistfall

Equilibrium

The Entropy Plague

Trilogies:

The Key 2 Time. On a planet where time stands still, a nameless woman waits for the Doctor. She is a tracer - a sentient construct designed to locate the pieces of the Key to Time. The Doctor assembled the Key once, but dispersed it before it could be used, and now, a lifetime later, he must assemble it again...

The Judgement of Isskar

The Destroyer of Delights

The Chaos Pool

The Stockbridge Trilogy. Stockbridge. An English village in the countryside. Past, present, and future. Always, the wheel turns...

Castle of Fear

The Eternal Summer

Plague of the Daleks

Standalones:

Circular Time: an anthology of Five and Nyssa character examinations

1963: Fanfare for the Common Men: Five and Nyssa examine an altered history in which the Beatles never happened.

Alien Heart / Dalek Soul: a standard Dalek story that goes somewhere... very un-standard. You'll see. Five and Nyssa

Ghost Walk: Five, Nyssa, Adric, and Tegan. An expertly done story that traverses several different time zones, the brutal end of history, and a paranormal tour guide who really doesn't want to be haunted.

Sixth Doctor

Arcs:

Arrangements for War. Evelyn Smythe is a professor of history. She's close to retirement age, no matter how much she would like otherwise. She's been doing her best to help her students this whole time, but perhaps there might be something more to her life.

The Doctor is a traveler in history. He has endured trauma after trauma and responded by becoming hostile and closed-off. But he has recently just been put on trial and had yet another friend be torn from him.

Enemies are making arrangements for war and friendships will be tested. But through it all, the healing will begin.

Stories in this arc:

The Marian Conspiracy

The Spectre of Lanyon Moor

The Apocalypse Element

Project: Twilight

Jubilee

Doctor Who and the Pirates

Project: Lazerus

Arrangements for War

Thicker Than Water

Blue Forgotten Planet. Charley Pollard just watched her best friend die, and he left her on an abandoned planet at the end of time. She didn't expect to be rescued, and certainly not by a younger version of her friend. But she knows he didn't know her when they first met, and she's seen paradoxes go wrong.

Whatever his suspicions are, Charley needs to find out how to preserve the timelines. And that might be hard, given how they're returning to the blue forgotten planet where she should have died.

Stories in this arc:

The Condemned

The Doomwood Curse

Brotherhood of the Daleks

The Raincloud Man

Patient Zero

Paper Cuts

Blue Forgotten Planet

Trilogy:

The Jamie Trilogy. Lifetimes ago, Jamie McCrimmon was lost to the Doctor and banished to his own time, his memories of the Doctor stolen. The Doctor never expected to see Jamie again. But a conspiracy is working its way through the Scottish moors, and two very old friends must reunite to solve it...

City of Spires

The Wreck of the Titan

Legend of the Cybermen

Standalones:

The Wrong Doctors: would you like to know how the Doctor met Mel? This story has that. Although not in the way you might think.

Spaceport Fear: a nice romp in an abandoned spaceport, featuring Six and Mel.

Static: Can I just call this my favorite horror story Doctor Who has done and leave it at that? Features original companions Flip and Constance, who are good characters but don't have quite as good introductory stories so you won't see them elsewhere on this list. But yeah. Static is just that good.

Seventh Doctor

Arcs:

Gods and Monsters. 2004 and a lifetime ago, there once was a woman who the Doctor failed to save. Her name was Cassandra Schoefield. She was turned by a vampire, and killed before the Doctor could find a cure.

The 2020s and now, chess pieces are moving into place. The game that the Doctor has been playing against the gods and monsters for all of this life is reaching its final moves. And all the Doctor has is his wits, a Tardis that seems to be changing color, and his friends: explosives expert Ace McShane and nurse Thomas Hector "Hex" Schoefield.

Stories in this arc (NOTE: everything from Dreamtime through Enemy of the Daleks is only relevant to the arc through developing Hex as a character, so you can pick and choose a bit in the first half).

The Harvest

Dreamtime

LIVE 34

Night Thoughts

The Settling

No Man’s Land

Nocturne

The Dark Husband

Forty-Five

The Magic Mousetrap

Enemy of the Daleks

The Angel of Scutari

Project: Destiny

A Death in the Family

Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge

Robophobia

The Doomsday Quatrain

House of Blue Fire

Protect and Survive

Black and White

Gods and Monster

Afterlife

Revenge of the Swarm

Mask of Tragedy

Signs and Wonders

The Architects of History. There are facts we know about history. It's stable. It is unchanging. What has been will always be. History was written by the winners, and the winners will never change.

Right?

Over the course of his life, the Seventh Doctor keeps encountering one very dangerous person. Someone willing to challenge him on his ideals, someone dangerously clever, and someone who didn't seem to be accounted for by the architects of history.

Her name is Elizabeth Klien.

Stories in this arc:

Colditz

A Thousand Tiny Wings

Klien's Story / Survival of the Fittest

The Architects of History

Dominion (NOTE: this is not part of the main range and is instead part of the Seventh Doctor adventures. It's not a crucial part of the arc and can be skipped but there are some plot developments

Persuasion

Starlight Robbery

Daleks Among Us

Standalones:

LIVE 34: Okay this one is part of the earlier arc, but it's such an amazing story that it works as a standalone. A Doctor Who story told just through news broadcasts

The Two Masters: The first multi-Master story, and to me, still the best (and there is some stiff competition). There's some stories that lead into this but this works just fine as a standalone.

The High Price of Parking: The Doctor, Ace, and Mel (yes they're all three travelling together here) are trapped in a parking lot the size of a moon! A 2010s version of the Paradise Towers story

[literaryvein-reblogs]

i saw someone say their book genre is new adult. what does that mean?

New Adult Fiction

The term 'new adult' was coined in 2009 by Dan Weiss and S. Jae-Jones of St. Martin's Press, when they sought submissions for a contest for "fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult – a sort of 'older YA' or 'new adult'" — cutting-edge stories that take college-age protagonists and walk them through the gauntlet of growing up.

The resulting submissions read like young adult, but aged up: hotter romances, grittier plot-lines, characters grappling with college stress, career transitions, and all manner of first times.

And thus, a new genre was born.

However, the literary category that later emerged bore less resemblance to young adult fiction and instead became a sub-genre of another major popular genre: romance. 

Such works typically centre on twentysomethings trying to navigate the adult world, with romantic relationships being a key element.

Young Adult vs. New Adult Fiction

Like YA, new adult (or NA) is fundamentally about coming of age, though it looks at what happens after the messiness of adolescence.

Unlike their young adult counterparts, NA protagonists have left childhood in the rearview mirror.

But that doesn’t mean they feel like full-fledged grownups just yet.

Shaun Stephen argues that, "the difference between YA and NA extends beyond merely the age of the protagonist and the freedom to depict franker elements. For me, Identity is a key aspect of defining NA and the deeper psychological exploration NA allows. Using a simple transformation analogy from nature, YA is the depiction of identity as a newly emerged butterfly, emerging from a chrysalis. NA, on the other-hand, follows that same butterfly as it explores life: taking the very first few flights, mating and finding a new home."

Defining the "NA Fiction" Genre

As NA writer Cora Carmack puts it, “New adult is the ‘I’m officially an adult, now what?’ phase.”

In the words of JJ at St. Martin’s, “New Adult is about young adulthood, when you are an adult but have not established your life as one (career, family, what-have-you).”

So, it’s about transition. The transition from teen to adult doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a period of time where adulthood feels like a new pair of shoes. The expectations of independence and self-sufficiency are still new, still being broken in.

New Adults are the people who have just begun to walk in those shoes; New Adult fiction is about their "blisters and aches".

According to editor Kiele Raymond:

"the success of series like Twilight and the Hunger Games made it clear that protagonists on the brink of adulthood can draw a much broader readership than previously thought. Also, fiction often follows hot on the heels of real life. In the wake of the recession, there were more and more stories popping up of recent college graduates and young professionals facing crises of identity. The term 'adulting' entered the common parlance to acknowledge the fact that adulthood in many ways needs to be earned. More readers began to take solace in the narratives surrounding those difficult and complex rites of passage - leaving home, navigating college, first jobs, relationships (both romances and friendships)."

The New Adult Content Controversy & Criticisms

One prominent area of debate about the growth of New Adult fiction: the question of how much sexual content is appropriate in a genre that could so easily hold crossover appeal to the younger YA audience.

There has been public criticism that the genre is merely “sexed-up YA,” and that unscrupulous marketers are using erotically charged themes to entice teens to buy their New Adult books.

On the heels of the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon, it’s more obvious than ever that sex sells—but many in the industry view the prevalent accusations of New Adult being erotica for teens as overdramatized and sensational.

A lot of publishing professionals are still saying “New Adult is not a thing.” We haven’t seen many breakout mainstream hits that we call NA (though there are some, but we call them something else). 

Booksellers and librarians as a whole did not embrace the genre, with several articles and blog posts being published calling the category a marketing ploy.

Adding to the complications, “New Adult” was already a section in most bookstores: for new releases in Adult fiction.

Some argue that adding NA is further slicing books up into stringent age categories.

Age is a sliding scale spectrum and trying to set hard section markers is difficult.

Industry folks are always trying to figure out exactly where the line is between upper middle grade and lower YA, for example.

Many times, it could go either way because people and their experiences are not as easily placed into such clean categories as bookstores are.

New adult is actually a pretty thriving category, but not in the traditional publishing world, where it’s largely considered a failed experiment.

It appears to be more popular on TikTok, Wattpad, and other online platforms.

There have been some extremely popular NA books published by traditional publishers — they’re just usually called something else.

Agent Kristin Nelson explains that New Adult stories “will speak to older teens and twenty-somethings.” But then “where [do we] put these books so they can be found by the target audience. Does it go in the teen section or in the general fiction?”

Since New Adult could offer a variety of “flavors.” Sci-fi, fantasy, romance, historical, thriller, literary … Just like the Young Adult umbrella, New Adult can (and probably will) cover all these genres and more.

Examples of NA Books

A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015) by Sarah J. Maas. This darkly sexy tale, which remixes “Beauty and the Beast” with the Scottish legend of Tam Lin, introduces us to the teenage huntress Feyre Acheron. After killing a wolf that turns out to be a faerie in disguise, she winds up as a prisoner of the High Lord Tamlin, a bestial figure who hides his green-eyed countenance behind a mask. In true fairy tale form, Feyre’s resentment of her captor warps into something like love. But before they can have their happily ever after, she must dispel that curse that shadows Tamlin and his court.

Code Name Verity (2012) by Elizabeth Wein. This gripping World War II novel kicks off when a young British spy crash-lands right in the middle of enemy territory. When “Verity’s” plane goes down over Nazi-occupied France, her pilot — and best friend — Maddie manages to escape. But Verity isn’t so lucky: she ends up a prisoner of the Gestapo. Held in an abandoned hotel, she’s forced to write a confession detailing her part in the Allied war effort.

Lily and the Octopus (2016) by Steven Rowley. As far as NA hits go, this is a bit of an outlier. For one thing, the relationship at its heart isn’t a torrid romance between a cardigan-clad freshman and her sexy tattooed beau. Instead, this quirky, magical realist confection of a novel centers on the love between man and man’s best friend. Writer Ted Flask and his dachshund Lily have done everything together for the past twelve years. But now, she has a brain tumor, an “octopus” clinging to the back of her eye. Based on Steven Rowley’s own bond with his beloved dog, this unconventional love story is a triumph of emotional modulation, at once riotously funny and deeply sad.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ⚜ More: Notes ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Found these excerpts from the sources linked above. You can read the full articles for more details. Learned quite a lot from this as well, thanks for the question!

[imustbenuts]

Slasher route hundred line thoughts, most clock tower like experience of my playthrough so far

Went from "guhhhhh this is excruciatingly boring too much free time" to "oh huh hey ho I like this g'ie takumi hehe!" in a nutshell.

and then "hm this is the most different feeling route in terms of what genre the game has been about thus far"

but fist i need to geek about the character design. takumi sumino is. cute. or moe. takumi already has an extremely cute face, almost cat-like with how his cheeks are shaped and having a fringe that hides/blends with his eyebrows. with his coat covering at least 1/4th of his hand covering his wrist, rui komatsuzaki somehow nailed the Moe foundation really good for the cutscene illustrations to do this:

thats the cutest murder boy ive seen from a video game in my entire life so far, thank you mr rui (also i feel like he picked up a fashion book somewhere in the time between DR and THL but thats just me dsklfjds)

I picked the slasher Takumi route first and the zombie route later. I think slasher Takumi route suffers from extreme pacing problems and could do with more timeskips and better character writing and banter. Poor Yugamu got butchered in more ways than one in this route, the killing game route Yugamu was a hell lot more fun.

The execution when it happens is also very fun. Idk if good but yeah characters and their frustrations makes sense and their actions make sense. Gaku and Darumi acted like proper teenagers so I won't give them flak for catching the g'ie and causing this whole mess too hard. ...still dumbasses for that tho kjhJHDFLFDSKJ

takumi going slasher was already a big suspision early on for me, the how's and why's pulled me along nicely

one major annoyance was sometimes the threat would be implied to come from one side of the screen when it's actually the other. So I'd get game overs just like that multiple times running into it

my experience with VN and old JP adventure type games are admittedly VERY limited, so take this next part with a huge grain of salt.

there are a lot of 2D navigating to objective points in this route, and its from either running from zombies or from the suit killer. or as in the later case, chasing as a zombie or the suit killer.

and this kept vaguely pinging something in my sleep deprived brain at 2-4 am of my play session this morning, but now that im digesting what i went through, this felt like the old horror adventure games thats the great predecessor of games like THL and DR.

clock tower and twilight syndrome specifically. for me. actually MORE so twilight syndrome bc of how often theres a sub character following takumi as they run around in the school corridors. the slasher routes lacks the spooky supernatural elements, which i understand but also kinda wished it affected a lot more than just within the school.

v'esh getting eaten was nice at least. ive whooped her butt about 8 times now a little change of pace is very welcome.

anyway, THL is far more basic about the mechanics, so its only a weak connection, but its still there. now granted THL is a game made by fans and/or developers of those games (kodaka worked on clock tower 3 as assistant director so wahey)

meanwhile the whole g'ie thing was fascinating. my first impression of its visual was, "is that a metroid???"

and then it proceeded to g'ie all over takumi and made him her host which then caused me to think: "ah, so by killing eito his saya no uta disease is fully unleashed from his pov hell and into the narrative. this metroid has elements of saya all over itself with the reproduction with an intelligent queen host thing."

i see. i understand now. theres a time loop going on and theres attempts made to stop g'ie takumi from trapping everyone in the torment nexus along with him. okay i can roll with that.

eito aotsuki is a barrier maiden and by killing him the narrative laughs at the player and says, "You fool. I am the culmination of influential JP games you dont even know about. My fathers are Kodaka and Uchikoshi and their diets are wonderful eldritch etertainment and Nice Boats. You shall cower before us and be charmed."

and i did. yeah. im very much having fun.

[fyru-hawk]

Fuckin' hate how common it is for people to hate Celestia.

I think it's because a lot of people take "what she did" to Twilight too harshly. She didn't manipulate Twilight, she guided her. Twilight's destiny was always gonna be grand, Celestia just made sure it was in a good way, being a just and kind ruler of Equestria instead of a power hungry villain.

And I know most of y'all are caught up on her "watching her friends die" but A- death isn't a bad thing; everyone dies, but that grief of seeing our loved ones pass shows that we truly loved them dearly. Celestia herself absolutely went through the exact same thing over and over and over again, and would know how to help Twilight through that grief. And B- one of the writers literally said that Twilight won't outlive her friends, meaning that they're probably immortal too, most likely through the elements. I know some people don't like to take what writers say about the show if it isn't in the show, but come on; you complain about Twilight seeing her friends die, but when the people who actually wrote the story say they won't, you refuse to believe them? I'm gonna believe them on this one.

But then THEY will also see all their loved ones die and then they'll feel grief too. Which goes back to my point about grief over death being unavoidable.

Which also goes back to Celestia, and how y'all blame her for it as if she intentionally wanted Twilight to suffer and see her friends die.

The one thing that makes this not make sense is how Celestia and Luna just... "retire". Like, really? There's sadly no context given for that, at least none that I can remember, and it unfortunately does give some merit for people who don't like Celestia. But so much of the story is maleable; some people still ship Applejack x Rarity despite Applejack x Rainbowdash being given actual definable hints at the end. And that's ok, they can do that, and I'm going to believe that Twilight was made the new ruler of Equestria for a very good reason.

At the end of the day, Celestia is doing her fuckin' best. Yes, sometimes the things she does can seem a bit odd at a first glance, but at her core is a genuinely kind and just ruler who actually wants the best for her people. Being a ruler requires you to make tough decisions, and she chose someone who she knew would make them with the best interest of all people under her rule.

And for the love of whatever God you believe in, she is not fuckin' evil.

[zarvasace]

Hello! This is the first time I have ever interacted with you and if it’s ok I would like to ask a question about your space au:) I’m just curious as to how some of the game mechanics would work in your fics. Stuff like mipha’s grace or the wind waker, basically the abilities that the links have

Hello!! Nice to meet you! Of course it's okay to ask questions, I love talking about stories. XD

And this is an excellent question. It isn't something I've considered TOO heavily before, especially for the examples you provided, but it's really fascinating to think about! Nothing is "canon" until I write it in a story but here are some thoughts...

Hyrule's abilities have been discussed a bit—they're not too unusual for his people and planet, though it is unusual to have multiple like he does.

Twilight's have been mentioned. He has used darkness to travel, essentially turning into a shadowy wolf to do it, which is a product of his half-Twili heritage.

Four is an android, and thus anything out of the ordinary that he does can be explained that way.

Sky is mostly Hylian, which is unusual, but he is also from many generations ago. He doesn't have many traits or internal abilities that people wouldn't be familiar with. Wars is the same, though his Hylian genes are sort of more "distilled" and thus a bit more uncanny. Neither of them have odd magical abilities that come as a result of anything other than items or friends (so they think.)

Legend is Sheikah, which in this AU have malleable appearances, and he's trained to take that to the limit, which explains his transformations. Other magic he does, i.e. the LBW painting thing, the LttP medallions, and whatever else, are mostly explained through clever use of technology, sometimes combined with his natural talents.

Wind is half-Zora and partially aquatic. I haven't quite decided how his wind waker abilities translate in this AU, but I think the chances of it being technology are pretty high. The "Great Sea" is a grouping of small planets (or asteroids? I don't remember off the top of my head) so I think it would make sense for his Wind Waker baton to either somehow control the weather on a few of them, or perhaps atmosphere between them, or even just his ship itself. Or maybe it is a kind of magic he was granted! That would be cool too! They're all fun options.

As for Wild and Time's abilities and magic... Well, Deities sure are mysterious, aren't they? ;)

Okay just kidding. Those elemental/combat abilities absolutely have to do with their heritage of Deity. Remember how Deities change to look like the people they grow up around? Their inherent abilities do something similar. Wild trained early on in a lot of high-risk, him-against-a-lot combat, so his blessings manifested as what the champion abilities are in BotW. He associates them with the champions because they resemble real abilities the champions had (coincidence?) Time didn't have examples quite as strong, and he didn't grow up as militant, so his blessings manifest with more blunt power on the elemental side. They're still refining and shifting, but they'll always be rather devastating.

...👀

And Sun's Deity blessings manifest very much out of a desire to keep herself and the people she loves safe. She is quite powerful, and can actually handle some time manipulation. How else do you think Skyloft station escaped the Calamity so cleanly? (Her Deity heritage remains a secret.)

[floppyponysart]

Mane 6 redesigns - mlpfim fanart

I made these a good while ago and thought hard about them but no-one cared at the time coz it wasn't a trend but now it is for some reason so I guess I'm gonna try reposting lol -v-'

get ready coz there is a long description of my inspirations and more details about these redesigns coming below. get ready for crazy amount of text

Twilight

This is basically my concept for "what if twilight was like an actual nerd?".

i gave her freckles/acne and glasses coz they are typical nerdy things. i think they look super cute on her tho ^w^. i got rid of her highlights in her hair coz (even tho it is probably meant to be natural in the show) nerds dont have time for adding highlights to their hair. her hair is also shorter to make it look more like the kind of practical hair cut girl nerds often have. she is wearing her comfy clothes coz she wants to be cozy when studying and doesnt care how she looks. she is wearing her favourite nerdy fluffy socks with her fav star constellations on them (i only know the big dipper lol -v-'). she is also wearing her comfy grey plain hoodie. for some reason every nerd seems to have a plain grey hoodie. it has spare pens in the pockets to.

she has a different cutiemark here which is basically my concept for what her cutiemark might have been if she wasn't the fated leader of the elements of harmony. it represents her studious personality and her love of stars. I also gave her a big backpack stuffed full of supplies. i can attest to the fact that studious students never have enough equipment and our bags look like this XD. it is an old but sturdy bag which has even been patched up but still going. there is a pink ruler sticking out coz everyone seemed to have those pink rulers when i was at school lol.

Every badge on this bag actually is meant to have a specific subject although its hard to see so small. now i will go through each one. Top left green one with dark blue what looks like an animal is a picture of an Ursa Minor. Brown one top right is a man holding a bow ancient etching on a cave wall picture. Big blue one is obviously more star constellations. Bottom right is a fire so hot the flame is blue. Right middle one is a skull. Middle brown and green one is an abandoned church structure. Bottom middle blue one is the Milky Way. Bottom left is a nerdy funny quote. Middle green one I actually don’t remember what it was meant to be anymore. I’m gonna day it is a rare plant tho coz that makes sense I think it was something like that. It might have also been an old weapon artefact as I remember that being one of my ideas at the time. Brown middle left was a catapult shooting a melon.

Applejack

This one is simpler than the last one. I already really like applejacks design and I had less ideas but I still like this. First things first, I think it would be more fitting if Applejack was a different species of pony. Here I have her as more of a wild pony which is hairier. I have her hair as rougher and shorter coz a farmer realistically would definitely not have long hair as it would get in the way of work. That has always been something that annoys me. Her hair in the show does look very nice but it just makes no sense. I didn’t change her cutiemark much coz her cutiemark from Pony Life is almost perfect. I just changed the shape of the leaf a little bit. I did add a speckled spot on her thigh around it tho. This is reminiscent of another species of horse and I think it adds a little more detail to make her look nice. It also matches her freckles on her face.

Speaking of her freckles, I added more all over her face and ears coz anyone with freckles will know it doesn’t usually stay in one pretty place on the cheeks. I think she looks cuter this way to be honest. She has cheeks which are a little chubby which makes her look younger than she actually is. Some people have a baby face for a longer time than most and idk but I felt this fit. She looks super cute and I love it. She has a hole in one ear which makes her look a little more imperfect and it shows her tough side. It’s a scar left from her tough working days in the past. Finally, I changed her hat. Yes I know. Probably people are going to hate me for this and I do like the hat but I always felt it was a little too stereotypical. So I gave her another hat which is often used in farming; a sunhat. I think this looks nice on her as well.

Fluttershy

Yes I made a lot of changes here. I started off just wanting to draw her with braids and flowers and longer legs like her childhood self but then I thought she looked more like a deer. Tbh I prefer her as a deer coz it makes more sense. Deers are very skittish and timid so it makes perfect sense for Fluttershy. I like the little tail puff to coz it’s just so cute. Several people have drawn Fluttershy with flowers in her hair and she has even done it in the show. It makes perfect sense to me for her to have lovely flowers, seeds, twigs and saplings in her hair all the time if she is in nature all the time.

Braids make more sense to me for Fluttershy coz long hair not tied up is going to get in the way and braids take a long time but is relaxing to do. I can imagine Fluttershy just slowly and calmly enjoying making her braids in the morning. I also changed her cutiemark to an animal paw. I have always thought this would make more sense for her cutiemark although I do like the butterflies to don’t get me wrong. I have tried 2 different sets of colours here but really I had many different ideas for different combinations of these colours. What colours would you use? Which of these do you prefer? Let me know Btw she does have wings still but it’s hard to see them behind the braids.

Pinkie

It’s alpaca Pinkie! yeah I just thought it would be more fitting for her to be another animal considering I already did it for Fluttershy. Pinkie is the weird one so it makes sense if she is also a completely different species and not a very common one. Plus alpacas are friendly, like to bounce and fluffy so it’s perfect in my eyes.

She has a buck tooth coz that makes her seem more cute and imperfect which fits her personality. She has very puffy hair coz I kinda hate how Pinkie has those nonsensical curls at the ends when her hair is supposed to be super curly and puffy. Curly puffy hair just doesn’t work that way.

She has confetti stuck in her hair coz I mean puffy hair is hard to clean and she has parties all the time so it makes sense. she also has colourful spots which match the colours of the balloons in her cutiemark. A spotty colourful pattern just makes sense for bubbly party Pinkie.

I actually decided to make her a unicorn to but you can’t see her horn coz she is so fluffy. I mean she is constantly doing weird and magical things so why isn’t she a unicorn?! It also makes sense people would think she is strange coz they can’t see her horn.

Last but not least, I like her cutiemark in the show but why does it have to be 3 separate balloons when balloons are often together anyway? So I grouped them together to make one big cutiemark instead and I think it looks better. What do you think?

Rainbow

I couldn’t do much with this one coz rainbow dash is already perfect. I tried some ideas here tho and I still like the results. It’s good in its own way.

I basically focused on the sporty side of rainbow dash here as you can probably tell. I made her thicker with strong cheek bones like an actual sporty person. I also gave her sweatbands coz of course she should be wearing those if she is doing sports all the time.

I gave her shorter hair coz they get in the way when doing sports and gave her the hair she has in pony life coz it just looks better sorry not sorry.

Anyone else always bothered by the fact her hair has half of it one o half of the colours and the other half the other half of the colours? Originally her hair had red, orange and yellow on top of her head and green, blue and purple on the hair on the back of her head. I just always felt that was weird so I made her tail and head have all the colours instead.

I also thought it was always a missed opportunity with the wings to not have them rainbow feathers like this. I mean why not?! It’s perfect!

I am really happy with her new cutiemark. I kept the rainbow and lightning bolt but made it have a football in instead. She’s into football in equestrian girls so this made sense to me and I love how the design came out. What do you think?

Last but not least I even designed an accessory for her. Of course it’s not fashionable or anything. It’s just a water bottle she carries around with her to make sure she stays hydrated when exercising. Hydration is important!

Rarity

At first I had no idea how to redesign rarity coz she is already pretty dang perfectly designed for her personality. But then I had the idea of making her older and more experienced with life kinda like a fashionista which has had kids or a cougar.

So here she is. She is no longer a unicorn but an earth pony instead. I never thought she needed magic tbh. She still wants to look pretty but her fashion sense is not great and she instead is just wearing bits and bobs of things she likes which don’t go together.

Her hair is shorter as she has less time to clean and maintain it and she wants to show off her accessories more anyway. She had a handbag which is a mixture between nice looking and big so it’s practical to use.

She has purple lipstick (just in case you can’t tell coz it is kinda hard to see). I also tried giving her a different eye colour which I think still looks nice on her and is more fitting of this version of her design.

I also gave her a different cutiemark. I do like her cutiemark but it doesn’t really relate to her love of fashion much and didn’t seem fitting to my design so I made this one for her. It’s a heart which represents her generosity and it wears a hat and and an earring which represents her love of fashion. What do you think? I love this cutiemark design personally.

The accessories are pretty self explanatory but just in case (coz I’m bad at drawing objects -v-') I’m gonna explain some of them. There is a pearl necklace with a nice big green gem. There is a gold bracelet with small red gems in it.

She is wearing earrings which are supposed to be green and blue opals. It was hard to get them to look like opals do with different colours merged together but I think I ended up with a pretty good result. It’s more green and murky than I intended tho. It also was difficult coz of how small it is. Any tips for how to make something look like that?

[aquaburst3]

I'm rewatching the Twilight series in the first time in years thanks to writing a Jacob/Bella fix-it au with @stormkitty97. Man, Jacob got the short end of the stick in regards of the love triangle. He starts out as a decent guy, but then in Eclipse he suddenly turns into a douchebag nice guy. It's so obvious that Meyer did this to push people away from shipping Bella with Jacob.

I get what Meyer was trying to do, though. She’s said that she loves turn-of-the-century romance novels, like Wuthering Heights, and applied elements of those stories to her own. In many of these novels, there’s often a love triangle where an unconventional love interest is pitted against a more suitable one on paper, creating conflict and acting as social commentary on arranged marriages. For example, Wuthering Heights centres around Heathcliff's pursuit of Catherine. She is supposed to be wed to Lord Edgar. When she chooses to follow through with the arranged marriage, he leaves and comes back as a rich man, hellbent on ruining their lives. (The plot is very much akin to The Count of Monte Cristo in that regard.) Meyer clearly tried to emulate this dynamic in Twilight.

However, Meyer completely misunderstands the love triangle dynamics in those same turn of the century romance stories. For example, Heathcliff is implied to be mixed race orphan living on the streets before Catherine's family took him in. That fits Jacob, not Edward. Jacob is the one with a background defies societal expectations as a working class kid living on the rez. In any other story, Edward would be the more "logical love interest" as an uber rich white guy and her being a cishet middle class white girl. While Mr. Darcy is super rich like Edward and is the endgame love interest for Elizabeth, which she cited as another influence on Twilight, he is painted as socially awkward and distant, which makes him a more contentious figure in high society. (I also hc that he's autistic, but that's besides the point.) Edward, on the other hand, is beloved by his peers, so it still doesn't work.

It's also super lazy writing. She couldn't think of a way to make Bella turn him down, so she forced him to become a total douchebag out of nowhere to make her own OTP happen. She should've kept him the same loveable guy as before, not make him do a sudden heel turn out of nowhere! At least Gale had his reasons for seemingly turning on Katniss in The Hunger Games, even if he's still a douche.

This is not even touching on the unintentional racism of it all as well. The idea of a Native American man being painted as "savage" opposed to a rich "noble" white man is super yikes.

What a waste. Frankly, Jacob and the rest of the wolf pack deserve better.

[marietheran-archived]

LotR reread - book 2, chapter 1 - Many Meetings

That awakening scene and Gandalf's grumbling are iconic.

"You have talked long in your sleep, Frodo, and it has not been hard for me to read your mind and memory" - more potential mind-reading. Yes, Frodo was talking, but the phrasing implies more than that.

Honestly Frodo is rather unperturbed for someone who keeps getting told "oh, and by the way, I read your mind"

Frodo's disbelief that Gandalf could ever be held captive :))

Frodo having thought all the "Big People" stupid before meeting Aragorn. He doesn't seem to have considered Gandalf as one of them, though.

"Fortune or fate have helped you" - something for the Mysterious Allusions Counter?? Let's leave it at 3.5.

That the Shire could withstand Sauron until all else might be conquered, almost as much as Rivendell, according to Gandalf!

"To what he will come in the end not even Elrond can foretell." - Proof that Elrond has foresight? Or just referring to his knowledge of healing?

"He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can" - beautiful phrasing; what does it mean?

Some of the elves are "as merry as children"! -> me @ Peter Jackson

"We are sitting in a fortress. Outside it is getting dark." "Gandalf has been saying many cheerful things like that."

"On his brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength"

Elrond is "ageless, neither old nor young"... "venerable he seemed as a king crowned with many winters [Elros! 🥲💔], and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fullness of his strength." Hmm, half-elven heritage seems to show.

His hair "dark as the shadows of twilight" - compare: Lúthien ("dark as shadow was her hair"); Arwen being both a carbon copy of her illustrious foremother and like her father in female form.

"Mighty among both Elves and Men"

Arwen also has this "young and not" quality. Both she and her father are said to have the light of stars in their eyes.

Hmmm... Grey rainment with no ornament save a silver girdle + headdress. Not Noldorin fashion, I believe.

Bilbo definitely knows about Arwen and seems to tease Aragorn. Not sure if it counts as an allusion, being semi-overt... counter at 1.5

When I was 13 I decided to learn the Eärendil poem by heart and got halfway through - later I learned the rest of it through music settings.

Hmm... I doubt Bilbo should be taken as an expert on Eärendil's journey, but it does seem the Mariner almost crashed himself on the Helcaraxë (From gnashing of the Narrow Ice) where shadow lies on frozen hills.../He turned in haste, and roving still, etc.). And then there's the mysterious "Night of Naught"; I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the Silm.

O'er leagues unlit and foundered shores/ that drowned before the Days began *:･ﾟ✧*

He came into the timeless halls/ where shining fall the countless years ✧*:･ ...Brings to mind elements of Galadriel's song later on...

The Silmaril as lantern light/ and banner bright with living flame/ to gleam thereon by Elbereth/ herself was set, who thither came (!!)

And over Middle-earth he passed/ and heard at last the weeping sore/ of women and of elven-maids/ in Elder Days, in years of yore... haunting...

But, yes, Bilbo dies have cheek in reciting that in the house of Elrond

Aragorn very overtly talking to Arwen, cleaned-up and all. The scene is specifically drawn attention to; I hesitate to add this to my AragornxArwen allusion counter because it's not even an allusion! Mmm... 1.75

"I'll take a walk, I think, and look at the stars of Elbereth in the garden" -- oh, Bilbo, you're getting very Elvish

[sir-adamus]

So what do you like most about the Broken Sky series? Is it very much like Avatar? Is there more to be read?

tough to say what i like most, i'm very much someone who enjoys things for the sum of their parts - i suppose the part that stands out most is the dynamic cast of interesting and rounded characters; there's fun and interesting relationships within the group and that's been fun. i got my hands on some of the physical copies of the books (which are sadly out of print now, so hard to find), and in those books there are anime-style illustrations of the characters (both major and secondary) introduced in each part (if there were any) and i find that really charming

it's not terribly much like Avatar - i mean if you break it down to its bare essentials, it is about element-wielding protagonists' journeys to defeating an evil conqueror who wants to subjugate the world (and his daughter is also a major villain), but that's honestly so bare bones that it could apply to a lot of things and it's really not similar at all

as for is there more to read - the series started and concluded going from 1999 and 2001, the ebooks i'm reading are digitised versions of a trilogy that was released years after that original publication that collected the nine original books into three acts (which was apparently Chris Wooding's original plan for them before it was decided to serialising the series). i'm still on the first book, Act 1: The Twilight War, coming up to the end of it soon i think. Act 2 i believe is titled Communion and Act 3 is The Citadel. and these are sizeable books, there's a lot to get through so i'm looking forward to that

i've been fairly ill this week so i haven't had much motivation to continue reading but i want to get back to it soon

[agentnico]

The Boy and the Heron (2023) Review

Robert Pattinson, is that you??

Plot: Mahito, a young 12-year-old boy, struggles to settle in a new town after his mother's death. However, when a talking heron informs Mahito that his mother is still alive, he enters an abandoned tower in search of her, which takes him to another world.

Seriously though, we need to discuss Robert Pattinson in this movie. He voices the titular heron, and this is Pattinson’s first ever foray into voice acting… and it is a true masterclass. He gives an unrecognisable performance using a raspy, zany voice, and one that you could easily mistake for the other voice actors in the movie like Mark Hamill and Willem Dafoe, to whom such vocal chords come much more naturally. Honestly, you have never heard Pattinson like this before, with the closest sounding performance in his filmography being in the 2020 crime drama The Devil All the Time as the high-pitched preacher, but even then you could mentally connect the voice to the actor. I must give Pattinson all the props in the world - for someone who started out as a sparkling teen-vamp in the Twilight films, he’s really worked hard to break himself out of the shadows of that series and consistently defy expectations and be an acting force to be reckoned with. Now his turn in The Boy and the Heron only justifies this even more, and more importantly should be a signal to other animation studios to give this guy more voice acting roles, as he’s great with those evidently. Like seriously, you can’t even begin to fathom Pattinson’s grows in this film - its something else.

Right, let’s talk about the actual film now! The Boy and the Heron sees the return of the legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki who most know through his projects with animation company Studio Ghibli. The guy’s a legend in the realm of anime, so me and my fiancée were excited to go see it, so we had a full date night planned - we travelled quite the way to get to the cinema that was showing this movie, as the film so far has had a very limited release here in the UK, and we enjoyed a fine meal at the local pub, and yours truly had the pleasure of accompanying the meal with a couple of pints as one should. We then go to buy the tickets and whaddayaknow they have all sold out. Yep, all that travelling and effort to see a film and yet it was not meant to be. Nonetheless, I instead made my way there again today, this time pre-ordering the seat a day in advance as that was a lesson learned. Oh yes, when it comes to a Hayao Miyazaki animation, I am one dedicated son of a bee to see that! Thank heavens I pre-booked that time, as the screening I was in was packed, and as I was in the lobby I overheard other customers trying to purchase tickets for The Boy and the Heron and being turned out. Look, Studio Ghibli has its fan-base, so it’s not surprising so many people want to go see it. It’s surprising though that cinemas aren’t providing enough screens to show it though, but that is a separate distribution matter in itself.

The Boy and the Heron plays out a little like a montage of Best Of, revisiting themes and devices familiar from Miyazaki’s previous films and tying them together with elements that have a clear autobiographical resonance for the director. From the various magical and absurd creatures to the stunning animation to the piano-heavy score by frequent Miyazaki collaborator Joe Hisaishi, it’s all the usual Ghibli goodness you know and love. Speaking of the score, the lush orchestral Hisaishi soundtrack is shimmering and exultant, that is filled with innocent beauty, yet also managing to embrace the darker aspects of the narrative. The animation as stated is superb, but I do mean it looks incredible. From the very opening sequence where Mahito is running through the burning streets of Tokyo to find his mother, the dizzying effect of the flames and the people around running in panic and being engulfed in the horrible disaster - that sequence is both beautiful from an artistic standpoint but also frightening as it reminds us of all the damage the Second World War brought to innocent people. But the rest of the film also brims with the spectacular hand-drawn animation Ghibli artists are know for, and I always loved how they managed to balance the whimsical fun elements with the more scarier ones. Speaking of which, after seeing this movie you’re going to have a very different opinion on parakeets. You have been warned.

Now in terms of the negative… the characterisation. A huge part of Ghibli movies in general, and especially those directed by Miyazaki, is that as a rule they are always driven by its characters, with their journeys at the forefront. World building and the narrative always took second place. Major examples of this are Howl’s Moving Castle, Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Spirited Away, where you had these absolutely crazy fantasy-driven landscapes, yet at the same time the stories were laid back with simplicity and effective means and rules. However with The Boy and the Heron the world building is so convoluted and confusing at times that it seems Miyazaki put all his efforts into fleshing out this narrative instead of giving more time to the main character, who supposedly undergoes a deep emotional journey. However because we are busy being distracted with all the craziness of the world, the journey of the character’s growth is near non-existent, and as such the finale seems very abrupt and unfitting, with the story choices feeling undeserved and unnatural.

The Boy and the Heron is a beautiful animation from an auteur who’s delivered so many greats previously to which this one doesn’t come close to, but even Miyazaki’s mid-level film is most directors’ best. The lack of character building and interpersonal relationship is a heavy hindrance, but aside from that this is an engaging original story featuring a superb music score, great vocals (especially from Pattinson) and also nostalgia that reminds us how great Studio Ghibli truly is. Again, it’s not Miyazaki’s best, but it’s easily one of the best animations in the last few years, and will also make you want to avoid parakeets for good. Don’t make their cute little look fool you - they are sinister little bastards.

Overall score: 7/10

[sshbpodcast]

The Worst Season of All of Star Trek?

by Ames

What’s the worst season of all of Trek? Season 3 of TOS? Season 2 of Picard? All of The Animated Series? Well your hosts at A Star to Steer Her By have a contender. We just finished our watchthrough of season 3 of Enterprise, and if we were mostly unimpressed by the first two seasons, we downright abhorred this one. For a season that’s ultimately one great big 9/11 allegory, it forgets what sci-fi in general – and Star Trek in particular – is meant to do with topical politics: use your imaginative medium to make people ask the Big Questions™.

This season doesn’t do that. 

Instead of pushing themes like what is moral and right during a time of terrorism and war, Enterprise spends most of the time letting Archer unapologetically commit war crimes with the underlying current of “it may not be nice, but it’s necessary.” Well, is it? It’s not until very late in the season that he even feels bad about all the people he manipulates, tortures, or kills. Among some truly, truly cynical episodes, there are still some diamonds, but we’ll let our Tops and Bottoms Lists make those arguments. So dive into the Delphic Expanse with us as we high- and lowlight this season below and listen to our scathing arguments on this week’s podcast episode (blast over to 38:19). America! Fuck Yeah!

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Top Three Episodes

That’s not to say the season is not 100% trash. There’s actually some good stuff in here – in fact, some of the best episodes of Enterprise we’ve seen so far, sprinkled throughout some otherwise drek concepts.

“The Shipment”: Ames One shining light in the early episodes comes in the one-off character Gralik Durr. He’s a Xindi-Arboreal who reminds Archer, as bluntly as he can, that not all Xindi should be considered responsible for the atrocities that are being committed by the Council, which is just what we needed to hear amongst a lot of episodes of Archer racially profiling people for things they have no control over. Thank you, Gralik.

“Proving Ground”: Caitlin You just can’t go wrong with a Shran episode. Jeffrey Combs was the breath of fresh air we pined for in a handful of bleak, exhausting, morally repulsive episodes we’d been saddled with. Is it contrived? Yes. Is there any good reason for Shran to be in the Delphic Expanse? Absolutely not. But what a freaking delight to watch Shran pretend to represent an Andorian Mining Consortium. Full marks; no notes.

“Azati Prime”: Jake It finally feels like something is happening in this season-long plot at about episode 18, when some consequential actions transpire. That’s three-quarters of the way through the season, mind you, but who’s counting? (I am.) We reach the Xindi weapon, Archer gets captured trying to kamikaze the thing, and there’s some really great ship battle. It’s also the first time Archer shows remorse for all the harm he’s caused.

“The Council”: Chris The homestretch of the season has picked up the pace in this whole Xindi War arc, and thank goodness. So much time was spent spinning its wheels that it felt like a success to have so much plot development in the last couple of episodes of the season. And finally (FINALLY), Archer switches this mission to one of diplomacy and collaboration instead of rage and torture. It feels like Star Trek for the first time in a while.

“Countdown”: Chris Same deal here as in “The Council.” We’re close to the end, so things are speeding to the resolution. Plot elements are getting tied up, the Xindi Council is way more fleshed out by now, and every decision has consequences for a change. Dolim and the other Reptilians also up the stakes by taking matters into their own hands, solidifying the realness of the threat of the weapon that was nebulous up to this point.

“Twilight”: Ames, Caitlin, Jake We get a good amount of agreement for this genuinely impressive, well-written, well-acted episode that deviates a little from the Xindi plot while also fitting into the season perfectly. The idea of the interspatial parasites causing Archer to lose his short-term memory is a great sci-fi concept, and the resolution is so clever that we’re fully onboard for a full reset ending that, in less skilled hands, would seem convenient.

“Similitude”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake But the episode that gets the vote of all of your SSHB hosts is a new twist on the “Tuvix” dilemma. Connor Trineer absolutely goes all out as his duplicate, Sim, and we feel devastated at the end when the inevitable occurs. Archer and Phlox are, frankly, monsters to do this to a person; there’s no debate on that. But what we walk away with is a heart-wrenching acting showcase for all the different Trip iterations we meet.

—

Bottom Three Episodes

And now, what we’re all here for: shitting on all the bad things from this morally reprehensible season. From all the war crimes, to the racial profiling, to the missed opportunities and even more recycled shots, this season just plain has so many low points.

“Doctor’s Orders”: Jake Like how “E²” is just DS9’s “Children of Time” but with Enterprise paint (and not as good), this episode is just Voyager’s “One” but with Enterprise paint (and also not as good). If you’re going to entirely rehash a story your franchise has already done, at least change it up a little. Watching Phlox and T’Pol wander around while everyone else is put under just makes you think, “Dang, Jeri Ryan did this way better.”

“Chosen Realm”: Caitlin Every so often, Star Trek tries to make a point about religion and faith as compared to the science and logic of its main characters, and this is one of those times it bungles it. Like with Voyager’s “Sacred Ground,” this one doesn’t quite make the argument it thinks it’s making. And then it manages to somehow make a joke of all of it by having the religious factions be at war over something purely trivial. Blah.

“Rajiin”: Caitlin We could have called a mile away that Rajiin was up to no good and saving her was going to be a mistake. And it’s not like we were really missing watching T’Pol getting sexually assaulted all the time like in “Fusion” – we really didn’t need yet another oversexed scene of her getting pawed at by some villain or other. Everything was just predictable, boring, and repetitive.

“Carpenter Street”: Jake As if we haven’t had enough mind-boggling time travel from the Temporal Cold War arc, Daniels has to drop by and stir up shit again. There’s just something dissatisfying about the Detroit plot. The Reptilians’ need for all the blood types is just contrived. Bringing T’Pol of all people is just begging for Vulcan shenanigans. The whole thing should be Daniels’s problem and he refuses to do jack about it!

“North Star”: Ames As an episode that’s “Spectre of the Gun” meets “The Paradise Syndrome,” this one probably belonged in The Original Series. A Cowboys-and-Indians story feels entirely out of place in the current era of Trek, and that’s all the more bolstered by the fact that we’re in the middle of the Xindi arc and take a week off to dress up in spurs and ride horseys. The anti-racist message also seems just too easy, especially considering how racist Archer is being the rest of this season.

“Damage”: Chris Archer makes a lot of deplorable decisions this season. From ordering the Sim clone made in “Similitude,” to memory-wiping Degra in “Strategem,” to torturing that Osaarian pirate from “Anomaly,” to treating the first Xindi we meet in “The Xindi” like trash, he’s a bad captain. But stealing from the Illyrians might take the cake because these people were innocent and Archer acts like it was necessary. Oh, and making T’Pol a junkie was a weird writing choice.

“Hatchery”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris For once Archer is in the right in this episode! Purely incidentally, he’s advocating for treating the Xindi-Insectoid babies like people and not letting them die, and the rest of the crew mutinies because he’s not committing enough war crimes. But the episode undoes what could have been a moral lesson by having Archer’s mind be compromised, and it makes me throw things because they were this close, people!

“Harbinger”: Ames, Chris, Jake When the constant sexualizing of T’Pol is actually the highlight of your episode, you know you’ve done fucked up. First, we’ve got Reed being a Big Baby™ about Major Hayes being insubordinate – something that comes entirely out of left field. But even worse than that is Archer finding a being in some anomaly and deciding to torture him. We’ve never even met his kind before and his first impulse is to treat him like the enemy with absolutely no proof. God, I hate this season.

—

Purportedly season four actually starts to pick up, so what do you all think? Was this the lowest of the low? Is it all [relatively] uphill from here? Find out as we continue to watch through Enterprise on SoundCloud (or wherever you podcast). Let us know your least favorite season of Trek overall over on Facebook and Twitter, and maybe commit a couple fewer war crimes than Archer. Just a couple.

[knight-of-the-thorn]

1, 4, and 10 for the Commander love interest asks!

@mystery-salad

Sorry this took a bit I got stuck in wvw did you know experience boosters help with reward track gain I didn't

1. Who are they and what's their dynamic with the commander?

Arceidai's romantic interest is Theitia. Theitia had the same wyld hunt as Arc, and the two of them fought the shadow of the dragon in the dream together. They both trained under Caithe at first, they were best friends and practically inseparable, but Arc didn't necessarily pay as much heed to the dangers of their hunt as Theitia did. Where Arc cared about it a great deal, Theitia was hesitant. She was scared. So she ran. Faolain found her, took her in as an apprentice and pitted her against Arc as a way to get under Caithe's skin. The two had a really intense rivalry for a while, but it was honestly more like a game to them. Until Arc left to become the commander. Fortunately two of them would reunite once again. Unfortunately this was because Theitia was turned into a Mordrem and was hunting them down through Auric basin. They took her back to the silverwastes and the two begain the long journey of trying to trust each other again.

No one knows Arc like Tia, and no one knows Tia like Arc. The two of them are incredibly codependent and have, on multiple occasions, threatened to/actually proceeded to tear apart the world in order to get the other back. As they have been more open about the fact that they're in love the shit that they have pulled to make sure they are never seperated has got increasingly more insane. There's two Arceidais now because Theitia refused to let them die. There's an alternate timeline where Arc held an entire elder dragon in their brain and tried to sacrifice their live so she could live and never have to be under someone elses control.

Also an important part of their relationship is the constant monologuing.

4. What was their initial opinion of the commander? Has that changed at all?

Theitia has known Arceidai her entire life, and when they were young she took the fact that they would always be around, and that she'd always be their first priority. They would always be following her around like a lost puppy, and she got very used to that. She thought that they were entertaining, when they weren't being gloomy and serious or desperate to impress Caithe. There was a bit of a competitive element to their friendship sometimes, especially after she joined the nightmare court, and she did think that she was smarter than them, but that they were smarter than most of the other people around them, if niave and airheaded. When they left for the priory it completely threw her for a loop. Until that point, the idea that thet would do that was completely unthinkable and she hadn't really realized how much they meant to her. She definitely tried to underplay how much that hurt, and how much she wanted them back.

Both of them have grown up quite a lot. She definitely sees them in a way that she never did before. She has lost them too many times to take them for granted anymore, and while she still thinks they can be an idiot sometimes, she also views them as more of an equal and a partner.

10. Are there any events in the story that happen differently because of/to/involving them?

Oh boy, a couple ones! Knight of the thorn is the main one! Because if Arc had taken caladbolg it would gave fucking destroyed them, she took it in their stead. Of course there's the auric basin portion of the story where Arc is not only being hunted by every mordrem in the area but one very specific mordrem. Theitia acts as one of Faolain’s champions in Twilight Arbor at which point she realises that she joined a cult. She also did fully cremate their body after Balthazar killed them so Joko could not get them under any circumstance so they took much longer to come back to life than normal.

Around the middle of season 3, Arc and Tia almost kidnapped Aurene and ran away to start a new life. They didn't, but they got pretty far into planning it before deciding against this.

[exrocist]

tag game: 3 books, 3 movies, and 3 songs

that changed your life or you just love.

Tagged by @zhabk4, thank youuu U__U <333 I don't usually do these (though it always makes me happy to get tagged!) but I was like. nnrrghhh must talk about Earthsea. soo.

(lots of rambling below the cut little bit embarrassed!!!!)

Books:

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin ; Nothing I say about this book (this series!) can do it justice honestly everyone on the Earth should read Earthsea. like really really read it patiently and intensely and with a savor because you will never encounter reality so closely and clearly ever again. everything about it is real to me but this book particularly struck me just because. well. lebannen. a force undeniable. I didn't know I was capable of loving so deeply and profoundly until I knew him. he is the best. I love you Lebannen 💥💥💥 I love everything about these books honestly. immense grace aside that shit also inspired perhaps the most intense and creatively demanding period of my life & broke down a lot of the mental partitions that I had constructed around what my hands are capable of. And I am still really bobbing through the wake of even now. Hopefully more marvelous things to come. There is much more strength to be drawn from this place yet if I can stomach it. sighs.

Death with Interruptions by José Saramago ; My words are failing me here but like. Saramago's voice and style have become real fixtures for me. I need to read a Saramago at least once every few months or my life loses its musicality. This is where I started with him so it gets to be on the list but Cain is also a great one for many many many more reasons that would be toooo much talking. for me to post.

I feel like by law I have to put Plato's Republic here which like. honestly not the most philosophically valuable work or even my drug of choice these days but was a thirteen year old's first inquest into the field that would become his only scholastic passion. so ! (He didn't even know he would have to read it seven times during his undergrad 😭) but if we want another novel to put here maybe We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver (mostly because of one sequence but also Shriver's great at writing in the voice of wry & cerebral women whose sentimentality is kind of shielded by their overt insight it gives them real internal lushness).

Honorable mention also to Isaac Asimov's I, Robot and subsequent novels of Asimov's future chronology which are currently fucking me up beyond measure. My recommendation here is read I, Robot (Or The Complete Robot!) and maaaybe Caves of Steel (tightly written marvel with only forgivable weaknesses of unprobed psychologies) and then stop. Just don't keep going okay. I've also had um Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore still swimming around in my mind despite having finished it a good while ago.

Movies:

Uhhh I don't w.atch. errr. Movies I can think of that I've watched just at all of my own volition: Raw (2016). good experience but didn't move me hugely taboo-pushing which is awesome conceptually but not in the right ways for me idk. not a bad movie at all though definitely some kind of stupid elements at play as well.

Uhhhhhhhhh.

?????????

Songs

Spent Gladiator 2 - The Mountain Goats ; I know I know I'm sorry I'm so trite and pedestrian but like. song with a non-negligible influence on me NOT killing myself <3

Wait List - All Get Out ; song with a non-negligible influence on me actively killisdukydhkuhldfhuik

I/m Not Here [missing face] - The Twilight Sad ; idk is this even a song I could live without. could I have the strength to do anything if not for this five minute dronefest. they need to start creating standardized ritual/ecstatic behaviors for the tracks off this album.

Honorable mentions: San Fermin's The Woods (if you were to ask me about artists they would most definitely be very much up there... Mr. Ludwig-Leone's artistry has been cradling me for a very long time), Say Yes to Everything by We Cut Corners (best band ever ever ever!!!), Topography by Civilian, Dump Your Dreams by A.S. Fanning (i love music).

I did badly at this but I think I made up for not having any movies by talking so much elsewhere. ermmm.

Only tagging @twilitfossil (Jesse Pinkman voice) do it bitchhhhhh also @ataliaf but only if you want to n__n <3333

[theplaneswalkernarrator]

The Equestrian Eugenics Program (part 3)

They stayed silent on the walk home.

“I'm sorry…” Sweetie Bell looked over at Rarity. Rarity sighed.

“I told you not to mess around with him.” 

“I know.”

“Then why?” 

“I just- I love him.”

“So you're still planning on being with him after this? How much more are you hoping to embarrass this family?” Sweetie Bell stayed silent. Rarity sighed and helped her up out of the chair. “Twilight will go easy on you, at the sentencing. Especially considering you two turned yourselves in.” Sweetie Bell looked at the floor. “You did turn yourselves in… right?”

“No…”

“Sweetie Bell!�� Rarity could hardly handle the audacity “well I know I didn't turn you in. If it was up to me this would have all been handed much more privately.”

“We got caught waiting at a chayote pick up.”

Rarity stared at her “you were going to take the apple road… and have that child, just so you could be with him!?” Her voice got louder and angrier as she continued the sentence. Sweetie Bell winced. “No. That will not do. You are not seeing him again.”

“But-” 

“No buts.” Rarity put a blanket down on the couch for Sweetie Bell to lie on. Even in her anger she could still see that her sister was in pain. “We’re going to find you a nice unicorn boy.”

“It doesn't matter. I can't-” Sweetie Bell couldn't finish the sentence. Rarity’s heart broke, and she sat down on the couch beside her sister. Sweetie Bell rested her head on Rarity’s lap.

“Honey, you were never going to be able to. You knew that…”

Sweetie Bell began to cry “I didn't know for sure… the cutie mark policy could have changed…”

Rarity began to stroke Sweetie Bell’s hair in an attempt at comfort “it's the way it is for a reason.”

“So you, you think my special talent is useless too?”

“No! Oh no no no, darling. Your talent was very useful, you and the crusaders, you helped plenty of ponies. But we don't need that anymore.” She held her head up to look at her “isn't it a good thing? Knowing that no one else will have to go through that struggle to find their cutie mark?”

“I guess…” the mention of the crusaders seemed to worsen Sweetie Bell’s mood. Scootaloo had disappeared after she failed the flight exam, and her fate became clear after the reveal of the Pegasus device. Apple Bloom had been on the run since her sister started the apple road. No one had seen her in almost a year.

Rarity looked away “how did you… how did you find the chayote?”

Sweetie Bell sniffled “I don't know. Pipsqueak just got a letter one day, saying that they knew what we'd done and offering to help.” 

Rarity “So it wasn't Apple Bloom?”

“No! Why does everyone keep asking that?”

“Because sweetheart, Apple Bloom was your friend. What her sister and her are doing… that's wrong. But I understand them wanting to help you, even if it's not in the right way.”

“Applejack was your friend. Doesn't mean you've seen her.”

Rarity sighed, and thought about the last time her and Applejack had been in the same room. A council meeting, the princesses, various large city mayors, and the elements of friendship all together to discuss the new breeding program before it went across the kingdom. 

“This is all nonsense.” Applejack put her hoof down “restricting who can have kids, what could you possibly wish to accomplish?”

“Purifying the pony race.” Rainbow sat across from Apple Jack. The two had been at odds since the truth about the rainbow factory came out. 

“Purifying?! Who gets to decide what's pure!”

“We do.” Twilight was trying to calm her friend, for both their sakes “that's what we are here to do. There have been different breeding programs in different cities, different definitions of what is acceptable. We are here to streamline this process, come up with solid definitions and procedures.”

A unicorn across the table nodded his head “there's also the issue of termination and sterilization. In some of the more rural areas it seems they have resorted to gruesome methods.”

The representative from cloudsdale spoke up “we should reserve those methods for those who breed out of line. For law abiding ponies the process should be as painless as possible.” There was a murmur of agreement throughout the room. 

Applejack stood on her back legs, front hooves on the table “so you're suggesting we torture and mutilate people just for having kids we don't like?”

“If they're breaking the law, then punishments must be delivered.” The sound of Celestia’s voice echoes softly through the room. Everyone looked over at her. The one true ruler of Equestria. Her word was law. Applejack took her hooves off the table and backed down. She stayed silent for the rest of the meeting, only occasionally mumbling her disapproval to herself.

[d3l3t3d-deactivated]

so my mlp reading the subtext as text headcanon is that prior to twilight moving to ponyville, rarity and applejack were acquaintances/casual friends who ran in very different social circles but knew each other in the way that every gay person living in a small town knows all the other gay people living in that small town even if they have nothing in common. twilight moves to town, they become friends and elements of harmony etc etc. in the season 1/2 era, they now exist in the same circle of friends and enjoy each other’s company, but feel like it would be kind of weird to hang out 1 on 1. think of the disastrous sleepover with twilight, they are just too different. around the time twilight gets her wings, they start to occasionally hang out just each other and grow fond of each other. along the way, they realize that the awkwardness of hanging out one on one before was partially a matter of having very different interests and priorities, but also partially having feelings for each other both parties keep to themselves, as there’s no way she feels that way, right? this quiet, mutual pining goes on for a while as just an undercurrent of their relationship that is expressed through bickering. everyone except for fluttershy is entirely oblivious to it. in season 4 when the events of Simple Ways occur and AJ basically point blank tells trenderhoof she’s gay, and rarity stops clamoring for attention from this celebrity she’s idolized to put applejack’s feelings first, they have a heart to heart and realize they both feel the same about one another. throughout season 5 they are in a happy relationship, helping each other out on the farm and with fashion, and catching many off guard as a happy couple proving that opposites attract. end of season 5 through the midway of season 6, cracks begin to show in their relationship, applejack priorities chores on the farm above all else and doesn’t make time for rarity. (season 6 episode 10) rarity dreams of being a big city pony, and making it as a famous fashionista, and applejack never seems to fit quite right into this dream. (season 5 episode 16) they put down one another’s interests and passions as a way to express the hurt they both feel as the other pulls away. at this point, they rarely go on actual dates anymore, but when they do go out, they find themselves third-wheeled by rainbow dash. dash is kind of oblivious to the slow disintegration of her friends relationship, and is just happy to spend time with them both, rarity loves rainbow dash dearly as a friend and enjoys her company, and applejack starts to feel the same way for rainbow dash the way she once did for rarity, and feels horrible for it. she brings these feelings to rarity because she doesn’t feel right keeping them inside, and rarity suggests that the three of them continue to all go out together, but as dates, rather than rainbow being the third wheel, and hopes that the three of them dating all together might help her and AJ’s relationship, because she still very much loves applejack, and sees how much rainbow dash means to her, and wants to see her happy. for a brief moment in time, the three of them all date, but it feels uneven and off. rainbow and applejack spend a lot more time together, and things are cold and hollow between applejack and rarity, and rainbow is still a dear friend of rarities, but when it comes to romantics she can barely stand how impatient and dismissive of her interests rainbow is. After the successful opening of her boutique in manehattan, rarity realizes that she finds a lot more joy and satisfaction in her work than in her relationship with the two ponies. she realizes deciding to add rainbow dash into her life in the way that she did was just staving off the inevitable, and when she sees the two ponies together, she knows that their love lies with each other, and not with her. though it hurts, rarity decides to break up with applejack and rainbow dash, but it’s on good terms, and despite their history they all remain great friends.

applejack tells rarity in private she understands that it might hurt to see her and rainbow dash happy together, and tells her she cares about her enough that she’d be willing to put some distance between herself and rainbow for a while to let the wound heal. rarity tells her she would never ask that of her, and that it makes her happy to see two ponies she loves find joy within one another. Rarity, now focused on her goals as a fashion designer, continues to work hard on her craft, traveling equestria and becoming unparalleled in her field. she has a lot of short, passionate, flings with ponies she meets in her travels, but never stays in one place long enough to fall in love the way she did with AJ. that’s fine with her, as this is all she’s ever wanted.

despite their strange beginnings, rainbow dash and applejack find themselves in a strong and steady relationship built on honesty and loyalty. they compete playfully, but always watch out for one another and never take it too far. Rainbow holds a lot of respect for AJ’s work on the farm, and AJ is deeply proud of rainbow’s work with the wonderbolts. though rainbow travels sometimes with the wonderbolts, she’s never gone too far or for too long, and always returns home to the farm. they marry under the pear and apple trees that AJ’s parents were married under, and live happily ever after. their good friend rarity always stops by for tea when she’s passing through ponyville.