#also this is more on a personal level but game of thrones books you will never be forgiven. sorry

[latinokaeya]

i’m in a good enough mood rn that this isn’t gonna ruin my day by just mentioning it but i really n truly do hope every single person past present and future that contributed to the way incest has become some kind of light work barely surprising and for the most part tolerated kink in the public consciousness especially in online fandom spaces goes to hell for fucking ever. :-)

[13eyond13]

.

[rise-my-angel]

I did some rewatching of scenes from House of the Dragon, and I think I've found a root problem with the writing.

And it isn't what was or was not adapted from Fire and Blood, or the plot or characters directions. There are issues there, but there is a bigger one I think that has been severely under analyzed. A massive problem with this show that has a big impact even when you don't realize, is how clunky and unnatural 90% of the dialogue is.

Something Game of Thrones did right, was take the dialogue from the books, and translate it to the screen by simplifying certain things, tightening sentences and changing wordage so that the actors had an easy time delivering the lines. It was a really good mix of the more formal speech and casual delivery. It meant lines that are good in the book, are good but different in the show because they cleaned up the dialogue so it didn't sound forced from the actors.

Everyone gets to speak in the appropriate manner for their class level, but it also is just quick and to the point. The actors all got a chance to do an amazing job, because they weren't forcing their talent through clunky and awkward to say dialogue.

House of the Dragon, is not doing this.

A significant amount of dialogue in this show takes way too long. Characters constantly use very overly formal, flowery, and fanciful language to say the simplest things even when they are alone in a room. Game of Thrones through all it's faults, knew how to cut to the chase and get the characters to just say what they are meant to say without trying so hard to sound fantasy like. But in HOTD, everyone talks like the writers are trying way too hard to make everyone sound like their from a different time when in reality it just bogs the show down and makes it boring.

A lot of good actors on this show fall flat because they have to force through awkward dialogue that normal people just don't sound like when they speak. Whenever Rhaenyra and Leanor discuss their marriage, it is so painfully unnatural. They are alone in the room, and neither of them ever just say what they mean.

When we saw this exact dynamic. As soon as Renly let the veil slip that he is struggling to go through with having sex with Margaery, she drops the act entirely and just cuts to the chase saying, "There's no need for us to play games." They are a bit more formal in the way they say things, but they still talk like real people. Rhaenyra and Leanor never had a single discussion that wasn't overly flowery as both characters talked around an issue we already understood. Laenor is gay and its putting a strain both on his personal mental health and their marriage as a whole. But neither of them ever get to the POINT without taking way too long to say the most basic of things.

Watch back to back scenes from both shows, and you will see that House of the Dragon completely fails to immerse you in it's dialogue beacuse it is trying so hard. Take the scene where Jace returns home after meeting with the Freys. Rhaenyra knows Jace is troubled about not being allowed to participate in the war, and this is the initial start of that discussion.

Rhaenyra: "You chafed at being prevented from action. Imagine my lot. I'm a dragonrider as well, with a war being fought over my ascension. And yet, I must wait here. Always prudent, sending others to fight and be felled in my name." Jace: "You are the queen. The tie that binds us. No harm can come to you." Rhaenyra: "And you are my son and I did not give you leave to go."

If I showed you that out of context, would you be able to tell me this is a mother and son disagreeing over their separate wants and choices during a war? No. It's full of words no one in Game of Thrones used in normal conversation. This is not how even highborns in this series talked to each other, this is writing dialogue in a way that is trying to sound like it is from a more medieval fantasy instead of just what real people sound like.

Neither actor delivering these lines sounds natural, neither can really portray the degree of frustration brewing between them when its being forced through this kind of bad writing.

Now take the same idea from Game of Thrones in a scene where Robb and Catelyn are in an argument over Robb's trust in Theon and Catelyns perceived frustration that Robb isn't putting priority on his sisters safety.

Robb: "Now I'm the one rebelling against the throne. Before me, it was father. You married one rebel and mothered another." Catelyn: "I mothered more than just rebels, a fact you seem to have forgotten." Robb: "If I trade the Kingslayer for two girls, my bannermen will string me up by my feet." Catelyn: "You want to leave Sansa in the Queen's hands? And Arya, I haven't heard a word about Arya. What are we fighting for if not for them?" Robb: "It's more complicated than that! You know it is."

Both use more formal language, but it's in how their sentence is structured rather then the words themselves. They're alone and they're both frustrated and they have absolutely no reason to mince words, they say exactly what they mean. By cleaning up the dialogue here to be more straight forward and simple, it allowed the actors to really shine. You truly feel Catelyns frustration stemming from her helplessness, and you feel Robbs understanding being overpowered by such a frustration that she won't understand his side. By the time Robb raises his voice and shouts at her, we don't take it as out of line because both of them have said exactly what they mean and the audience doesn't need Robb to apologize to know he didn't mean to yell and neither does Catelyn.

Not even the lowborn characters are saved from this in House of the Dragon. Theres a scene in Game of Thrones when Arya, Lommy, Hotpie, and Gendry are arguing by a stream about battle's and armour and they are all quick, talk over each other and it's very punchy and the flow is part of what makes it hilarious. Ser Davos is blunt and speaks with a very quick cadence to emphasize he was never taught to speak formally and thus feels comfortable saying exactly whats on his mind.

Most of the lowborns in House of the Dragon though, have very little differentiation from their highborn counterparts in the way their dialogue is structured. Some of the only differences is literally just, characters like Ulf have a lowborn accent, but that accent delivers the same kind of drawn out, overly formal dialogue that isn't present in Game of Thrones lowborns. It's very easy to distinguish who was raised how in the simple manner which they speak.

Highborns talk slower and more clearly and their sentences are structured a bit better, and lowborns normally talk faster with less refined accents and normally have no real issue saying whats on their mind because they are used to being surrounded by other people who don't care about being formal.

It might not be obvious, but the dialogue is a big reason why people struggle to connect to these characters far more then they did Game of Thrones. The dialogue is clunky, there is no distinction made as to why certain people talk this way or why it seems everyone around them speaks in the same manner when they have no reason to.

There's so much more to get through, to understand what these people are saying, thinking, and feeling because the dialogue works against them. The best acting is done, when the characters are silently reacting to each other because there's no fighting against bad writing to portray exactly what they need to.

Again, there are multiple comparative scenes that you could watch back to back and see this problem play out in real time. Scenes discussing similar issues or portraying similar emotions but House of the Dragon never reaches that emotional peak that connects it's audience to these characters as relatable, because we pick up on the fact that they don't talk like humans. They talk like they are performing a school play, not as if they are speaking like real people just talking to each other.

Try it yourself, the examples I used earlier. Say each set of lines out loud and deliver it with as much emotion as possible. Because I am willing to bet that the Game of Thrones dialogue will be a lot easier to say, and thus a lot easier to deliver with a real emotion.

There's no excuse. Game of Thrones took good book dialogue, and cleaned it up so it had a smooth transition into good show dialogue. House of the Dragon has the freedom to write most of it's own original dialogue since Fire and Blood is written as a historical record and not a pov narrative. There is no transition to make lines from the book that in full may sound clunky and unnatural out loud, into something clean and to the point that makes it easy for the actors to work with the dialogue instead of against it.

But House of the Dragon fails in inventing it's own dialogue, because at every turn it is trying way too hard to sound like the books instead of the show.

Trust me, you wonder why you can't connect, relate or really care about a lot of these characters? I'm willing to bet that the poor writing is doing a lot of heavy lifting for that.

If the characters don't even talk like humans, our brains are more likely to tune out, because it all sounds like actors reading a script, not characters speaking to each other realistically.

Real people talk like the characters in Game of Thrones. No one talks like the characters in House of the Dragon.

And that is a massive problem.

[squirrelwrangler]

What is Wheel of Time about

Book or TV show?

The book series is 14 very thick fantasy novels with a very large cast (of which when broken down has more named female characters than male) and multiple plot lines. It helped to inspire A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones - but it is far less bleak and has way less sexual violence (a easy accomplishment). If you’re also familiar with the Dune movies/tv shows and Lord of the Rings, you’ll also see parallels. And like a lot of fantasy it has SF elements. And if you like Dreamworlds and Alternative Realities and glimpses of the past and such, yeah. Written in the 90s by an old cis straight white guy, but one that was in many ways progressive for his time, so your mileage will vary. There’s a post that answers almost exactly this same question that I wrote years ago that goes into this a little more.

But what is it actually about? It’s called Wheel of Time because the central premise is the world operates as a long circle of time with narrative-driven reincarnation. The book/show world is both the inspiration of all of our real world legends and our far far future after magic is discovered thousands of years in the future and a few calamities have leveled it. What that means is there’s a lot of Easter Eggs and familiarities if you know your mythology, in particular Arthuriana. For instance, a character hangs from a tree and sacrifices an eye to gain knowledge, has a pair of ravens symbolically important, and their personality is also very trickster-like. At no point are they called Odin, but if you know Norse Mythology, you go “oh yeah this guy inspires stories about Odin or is his reincarnation”. There’s a lot of vague Jungian and Vedic inspiration if you can’t tell.

Okay, really.

3,000 years ago was a high-tech peaceful society where some people could do magic and thus worked as public servants, very utopian. But then Evil Personified was unsealed, monsters and war unleashed, some of the wizards turned evil, long war was fought. One of the most powerful wizards, a man nicknamed Dragon, seals away both the Dark One and the top evil henchmen wizards - but it was a patch job. Evil monsters still around, people still pledge loyalty to cause evil. And as a counterattack during the sealing, the Dark One is able to place a sickness on the male half of the Power which forces every male wizard then and in the future to go mad. In their madness they destroy the world. Thousands of haywire magical nukes would do that. Female side of wizard Power is still okay, so only female wizards left. They help rebuild the world; societies that re-emerge are thus far more matriarchal than the real world. Men would can use magic are hunted down before they can go mad and start hurting themselves and others. People are understandably Terrified of Male Wizards. Only female wizards allowed. These female Aes Sedai, their Wizard Vatican City, and their factions are a large portion of the plot of both book and tv show. Do you want to see a lot of middle-aged women in gorgeous costumes fighting with magic and scheming? This is the show for you.

So, 3,000 years later, the Pattern that controls-and is created by- the Wheel of Time (lot of weaving and loom metaphor in the metaphysics) decides that the Dragon needs to be reincarnated along with a couple other key people in order to have another Last Battle against the Dark One to hopefully start a new turn of the Wheel/new age (and on evil’s side here’s the chance to reset things in their favor or break the Wheel itself).

Moiraine, an Aes Sedai, learns through a prophecy that the Dragon has just been reborn, so she spends the next twenty years trying to find them before evil does. There’s a long list of accumulated prophecies about the Last Battle and the people and events around it people are also worried about. Lot of plotting as everyone thinks they have the best idea of how to do it. Again, in comparison to Game of Thrones where almost everyone was scheming to win the Iron Throne and ignoring the White Walker invasion, think of it as here all the rulers know about the White Walkers coming and they’re fighting wars with each other to be the one to lead armies against the White Walkers because only their plan will work.

A common joke is that this very very long book series would be much shorter if characters properly talked and coordinated with each other. Teamwork is a central theme (both when you have it and when you don’t).

In an isolated community (think The Shire but instead of hobbits it’s a bunch of tax dodging Appalachian hillbillies or Elizabethan yeoman) Moiraine finds five young people that the Pattern has singled out as Very Powerful Main Characters. Okay, she thinks, one of them is the Dragon Reborn.

Problem is, none of them want to do the Magic Quest Protagonist Plot Stuff; they know that sucks. Moiraine has to get them to do it anyway. Our Gandalf figure is a middle aged queer woman (with a strictly platonic soulmate bodyguard) who has trouble with sharing the whole truth to other people (she is magically forbidden from outright lying) stuck herding a bunch of cats named Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Egwene. And later Nynaeve. By the end of book one/season one we know (but the rest of the world doesn’t) who the Dragon Reborn is - and that they need their friends and others by their side to have a chance of winning the Last Battle. All of them are main characters. Yes, the Dragon Reborn is Main Character- but more than one book in those 14 has barely any page-time dedicated to them. Plot is a Tapestry; not a line. That’s the least spoilerly explanation that I can give.

The tv show is about to start season three in a week (which will be mostly plot from book four, arguably the best book). Each season is eight episodes. Covid and recasting issues meant that the finale of season one had to be reworked and the first book was always the weakest with an infamously weird/weak ending. The show obviously had to change a lot form the monster book series, but it has imho the spirit of the books and often improved them. The casting is diverse- properly so instead of just tokenism- which pissed off a lot of racist fans. That and changes from books and that the main showrunner is a gay man means that there’s a vocal online faction of haters. My two main fantasy series, formative in fact, are Wheel of Time and the Silmarillion/Tolkien. I ADORE the Wheel of Time tv show but I could barely watch any of Rings of Power. Make of that what you will.

Hopefully, anon, this was helpful.

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers: Windblade International Women's Day Special

Hello all you happy autobots and welcome to my international women's day special!

So last year as part of my ongoing retrospective of Transformers More than Meets the Eye, aka one of my faviorite comics ever, for patreon Brotoman.EXE, I took a look at it's sister series Robots in Disguise. And i'm fine.. just...

For those less familiar on paper RID was supposed to be a gritty political intrigue type series. Game of thrones with robots to More than Meets the Eye's combination of Star Trek and JLI also with robots. In practice... it's a bunch of assholes constantly squabbling while Starscream is the best. RID had a great premise, exploring a rebuilding cybertron fractured by centuries of war and the civilians who weren't exactly stoked about said war, but wasted it.

Thankfully after the dark cybertron crossover things got transformed: RID was now about Optimus and a group of autobots heading to earth for shenanigans, crossovers and a few title changes, leaving a gap open for a new cybertron set book. Enter Windblade.

Windblade was part of hasbro's "fan built bot" inittiave.. something I just found out exists. It allowed fans to help design a new character.. the team still clearly had ideas in mind, but select parts were voted on by us. It's a nice way to engage fans.

So her traits were slowly selected: An autobot with a jet alt mode, a sword, a red and black color scheme and a valiant personality. I would've prefered wild man (or wild woman in this case), but hey. A second round determined her name and gender. The last two selections would be reworked: Her home city was chosen.. but as a female transformer she was reworked to be from another planet as the bots on cybertron were all male at birth, while her generalized telepathy became a cityspeaker. Both are changes I have no issue with: the former fits into the unvierse better and the latter is just a cooler more speciality skill with a lot more intresting lore and character stuff attached. I find this whole concept fun and simple: a way to add a new character into the books but give writers and artists wiggle room. Her design was contriversal from what I can tell with a lot of fans fearing her kabuki look was another drift. Me I think it works, especially with the given context: Windblade's story is an immigrant story: she's new to cybertron, Starscream resents her alien status, so it fits she has a deisgn that's diffrent from most g1 designs, more elligant and ornate. It shows off her status as a Cityspeaker is a MASSIVE deal on their homeworld and crucial to cybertron's survival, but also her fish out of water status: she was absent for the war and now has to dive into a world that she HOPED would be helpful.. but instead is a cesspit of decption, intrigue and is barely holding on. I admitely don't know much about kabuki, but unlike drift it at least feels like the artists did their research instead of going off a 12 year old's scribblings about samurai.

Finally we unfortunatley have to talk about a transfomers Legend. Simon Furman is impossible to untangle from transformers legacy , creating Primus itself, finishign the marvel run of the book, continuing his run and ending it on his terms at idw, and launching this very continuity.

He also decided to make a massive ass of himself over this very book. See Simon has it in his head the Transformers are a genderless race. That they have no concept of it and thus are beyond it. As such he's ALWAYS hated the idea of female transformers. Can't stand them. When forced to use arcee in the uk comics he made it a stink of humans asking for a female transfomer then being offended at her design, while the autobots were confused why humanity cared about gender.

So when adding Arcee to IDW he made one of the most infamous stories in all of transformers... on the level of otptimus prime making out with a human to unlock his power, devistator's literal truk nuts or.. these guys

So in IDW continuity Arcee was forcibly switched from Male to Female and torturned into insanity by the evil scientest Jhiaxus. Just reading that sentence you the astute reader can proably see the mountain of issues: Equating being a woman with torture, being trans with a mad scientst experiment, either of the above with mental illness and ptsd. It's.. ti's bad. I've read the issue and while it has been a while it wasn't great. This wasn't the INTENTION, Furman jsut wanted to explore what would happen if a genderless race was forced into a gender.

The problem Furman ignores and later would gripe about in the comments section, is that the transformers.. are male coded. They use male pronouns and cybetron made their bots traditionally masculine. It was concived as a toyline for boys in the 80's. Of course the bulk of characters are male coded. As many a commentor tried in vain to point out to furman, they are not non binary (Andrgnys was the term used), they have a concept of gender. It's why James Roberts was able to make a cast load of gay later: If the race is all male, then of course most of the relationships would be male and thus allowed him to throw in gay characters after he realized Chromedome and Rewind were less "good buddies" and more "husbands". Hence the invention of Condjux Endura and Prowl being Chromedome's bitter ex. As Roberts shows you CAN play with this gloriously, but he accepted transformers are male coded. It's why Rebecca Sugar made the Gem race in steven universe female: in addition to making a female mostly warrior race, something rare in fiction beyond sterotypes, it allowed her to easily make most of the main cast gay or pan without the censors getting pissy at first. They did eventually but the alien thing helped slide it on by.

You CAN have aliens who are genderfluid or genderless.. but the transformers just aren't. He could've made them that way, tried having the desgins tweaked, but because he can't disgnuish between a mono gender and non binary, the transformers wound up being male and the easy fix to make more cisgender female transformers was just have other cybertronian colonies. Most of transformerdom is at most mildly puzzled at the concept of a new gender and moves on. Simple.

Now as for why all this matters to windblade for those unaware Scott had a tumblr at the time , as this platform was popular at the time, and answered questions as I do. Instead of talking about various animated series from various networks, she answered questions about the upcoming book before everyone properly debuted in dark cybertron, since these things get announced months in advance. She then was asked the question: What did she think about ARcee's idw origin. Her exact response

"

What are your thoughts on the IDW Arcee origin that Furman made?

Okay, this question has come up a lot and it’s time to finally answer.

In a vacuum, Furman’s story is completely legitimate. The idea that someone is fundamentally changed against their will and struggles/rages against that is a really interesting idea. In fact, I wrote a very similar thing with the Dinobots. It taps into a deep human fear that God exists and is apathetic to/causes our pain.

Also dealing with characters that are literally alien naturally leads writers to play with/explore what aspects of humanity do and do not translate: are they alive? does Primus really equate to God if they have concrete knowledge of his existance? what does it mean to be male/female in a non-reproductive species?

The issues I have with Furman’s choice is that we don’t exist in a vacuum and the suggestion that 1. women only exist in aberration 2. being a women is inherently traumatic 3. being a women has any correlation to mental illness are extremely upsetting. Do I think Furman was trying to make a statement about human women with Arcee’s origins? No. In fact, the largest share of blame lies with the tokenization of women in the brand in general. If Arcee was one of many women transformers and she became female in this manner, it would not be an issue for women writ large (although still troubling for the transgender community). It is because she is the ONLY women (and that this story ensures that she will ALWAYS BE the only woman) that Arcee’s story becomes untenable.

Hopefully John, James and I have come up with a way around this Gordian Knot that will satisfy the fan-base, but satisfying-or-no, the most immediate imperative is to ENSURE this story does not continue to keep women readers, fans and characters at arm’s length from the brand. I’ve often said that everyone should feel that they are allowed to like Transformers and it is my complete and utter privilege to take this next step to make that happen.

TLDR version: Arcee’s origin is offensive because we don’t have any other female origins to balance it. We’re working on it, stay tuned.

PS To fans that still claim Transformers are asexual: Academically, you have legitimate standing, but practically, ask yourself this: Jazz has been voice by actors from three different races over the years. If, in the next video game, Jazz was voiced by a woman, would you feel the character had been changed at all? If so, you do not perceive Transformers to be asexual. If not, you are a rare, rare bird indeed.

I quoted it in full to illustrate a few things: Scott is nothing but respectful and even in 2014 was keenly aware of the needs of the trans community. She even started using cisgender when informed it was the proper term for Windblade. It's a very small bar but given the society we live in, it's nice a writer clears it at all. She also does not directly attack furman. She gets why he made the mistake, points it out and makes the valid point that the issue is largely that transformers barely cares about it's female fans and is working to fix that. It is a rational, well thought out response and something necessary to adress given what a clusterfuck spotlight arcee is. She responded to all of this like a rational adult. Furman's response to her

Yeah Simon Furman's response to this is one of the most painful, defensive and mind boggling essays I have ever read. Furman INSISITS the transformers are genderless, cannot grasp that his work does not exist in a vaccum, and that he is not right and any mentions of the cartoon by scott or the comics irk him. He also somehow bafflingly thinks the relationships in MTMTE are metaphors

"James’ run is being rightly lauded and it had been done by using metaphors not direct correlations. Cyclonus and Tailgate’s early relationship can be viewed as a metaphor for a domestic violence situation but it is not literally that. "

... it.. it is literally that. They have romantic feelings and Cyclonus beats Tailgate at one point. It's domestic abuse. They grow past it but the way Cyclonus can treat tailgate is abusive. They.. .they can have relationships Simon. Being genderless or non binary does not = asexual or aromantic.

Mr Furman just.. genuinely DOES not get that and refuses to get that. The contrast is night and day: Scott was polite, wasn't trying to be conforntational to a colleuge, asked other communities for their imput and made a persuasive argument. Furman just cherry picks the sections of her answer that bothered him and hammers the same dumb argument again and again and onto the comments which yes I did read the bulk of.

Shockingly for early 2010's internet comments: their civil. Theirs some assholery and Furman apparently removed full on bigots. But it's a LONG stream of people telling furman he's wrong while he plugs his ears and goes THEY DON'T HAVE GENDER, OTHER MEDIA DOSEN'T MATER TO THIS VERSION EVEN THOUGH IT REFLECTS HOW PEOPLE SEE THESE CHARACTERS, I'M RIGHT JUST LET ME BE RIGHT, AT LEAST ONE WOMAN AGREED WITH ME

It's a case of a creator getting so caught up in his ego he can't see other perspectives and refuses to alter his. Furman was never my hero, but I know he was a hero to many a transformers fan and it's sad he had to tank his own reputation being a defensive asshole. It's not the worst public blowup of one's rep i've seen. He isn't parading around half assed oversexualized art of women like it's some great victory like frank cho or writing heroic comics about Q of Quanon like chuck dixon. He just kinda sucks and refused to admit he was wrong and we sadly had to spend a LOT of this review talking about that.

Thankfully sad old man time is older and we can talk about how good this book is. While Windblade apparently got an eh from most I find it to be one of the best idw transformers books out of the pile i've read. While that isnt' the highest bar the fact it even nears the quality of MTMTE is praise alone. It's an excellent book about a genuinely kind and decent person with pure motives enterting a world where such a thing has been lost in a sea of war and deception. It's a wonderful four issue series that to two sequels: a decent one and an utterly fantastic one and it's under the cut.

We begin with a narration telling us it's the dawn of the new era. It's something I skipped over with MTMTE sumarizing the three pillars of this new ear: Optimus for RID, Megatron for MTMTE and Windblade for take a wild guess.

So quick catchup for those who didn't read the previous reviews or arent' as familiar with IDW Comics: The War is Over. The Autobots won.. but got nothing out of it: Cybertron is free.. but the final fight left it in a dangerous state that left Iacon the last safe harbor and all the various neutrals blaming the autobots for something that genuinely wasn't their fault. The autobots then split: Bumblebee wanted to stay and work things out, Rodimus wanted to go on a grand quest to prove his deep seated self loathing and inferority complex wrong. Optimus opted out enteriely to help with the healing.

This left cybertron in the hands of bumblebee.. who fumbled his time as leader, spending most of it getting bitched out by what were essentailly his seconds in command: Prowl, who had turned into an authortarian shithead over the years and is only going to get worse having already manipualted the lost light's command into taking a serial killer on board as prisoner, something that went about as well as you'd expect, and was such a bad person no one noticed he got mind controlled or fully bought he was. The other was Metalhawk, a self righteous asshole who constantly blamed the Autobots for fighting a war that gave him the freedom to be a self righteous asshole.

This left Cybertron with leadership no one on it wanted who bickered constantly instead of doing things. So instead.. they got Starscream. Starscream did Trumps bit before trumps: he manipulated assholes with actual problems into aiming their anger at whatever he wanted. The only differnce is Starscream has actual style. He easily slid into leadership and after Megatrons return used that to exile most of the autbots to the wilderness to die. Not in those words, unlike trump he has subtly: it was give up being an autobot or leave. Add in a giant robot picking him as robot jesus and it was pretty easy.

Starscream's reign wasn't all sunshine lollypops and rainbow cherry drops as Dark Cybertron nearly dethroned him: the reveal the prophecy of him as a god king also meant cybertron's destruction didn't go well. But since huge horrifying disasters haven't stopped politicans before, and the apocalypse was canceled, Starscream was able to skate by. He still had the NAILS and with the Autbots having saved the world, made an uneasy peace with them. None of them LIKED him but they couldnt' just dethrone him and expect cybertron to not devolve into another war.

So the autobots reluctantly left Starscream in charge and went off to do their own thing.. with a few left behind to try and live their lives and hope he dosen't blow up the planet which sounds.. totally.. t..totally unfamilar

As for our heroine, Windblade was introduced during the crossover. She was sent by everyone's faviorite ace rimmer cosplayer Thunderclash along with her best friends Chromia and Nautica. These three come from Caminus. Long ago when it was an empire Cybertron spread out, sending out titans, transformers the size of cities. The concept of city sized transformers isn't new, Metroplex has existed for some time, but I like what these comics do with it, making them unfathomable giant beings. They think and feel like any bots.. but their thoughts are so massive, dense and complicated their hard to speak to.

Hence the cityspeakers, specialized transformers who can telepathically communicate with titans. It's why Windblade has her kabuki makeup: to pay homage to caminus and why Thunderclash called on her. Windblade managed to save metroplex during the crossover with the help of the lost light and her own skills, turning the tide against Shockwaves own titan.. but leaving him a badly damaged wreck. Nautica went with the lost light while Windblade stayed behind to be the voice of a city. Chromia stayed behind for windblade.

The series slowly fleshes out Windblade and Scott does so wonderfully: Windblade is an optimist, badly wanting the best for people and having come expecting cybertron to be this kind, wonderful new empire finally free from war that could help her own people. As we find out in an excellent swerve at the end of the first issue.. Caminus is not doing well. As we find out later their resources are so stretched they'll only last a hundred years if lucky.

As you can tell... that didn't happen. Windblade's story is of an idealist, a genuinely good person who has pure goals: heal metroplex, heal cybetron and hopefully in turn get Caminus better. In most other transformers works she'd be the protaganist, working with optimus and co to save the world no matter the cost even if things got murky.

But that's not the world she gets. She gets a cybetron badly damaged by the war and everything after, barely holding on, a titan that's barely functioning despite his best efforts, and a leader who openly threatens and accuses her twice not because she did anything wrong but because he can't share the spotlight. Starscream blames her for power outages and a series of bombings.

She's the perfect foil for starscream: both are jets, both are red, but both could not be more diffrent. Windblade only wants to help. She's kind compassionate and empathetic. She wants a better world for cybertron and caminus and will do what it takes. When hunting down waspinator for a lead later, her friend Chromia just.. chases after the poor guy after he bolts, who it turn sout only bolted because EVERYONE beats him up. Her response? Be genuinely contrite, kind yet firm. She gets exactly the info she needs and an ally, if one who will flee at the first time of danger.

Starscream.. well after some interviews Windblade herself puts it best

Starscream is at his most evil so far here. Previously I rooted for him in RiD. He was a scumbag sure.. but he was the only COMPITENT scumbag. Prowl was a facist both with and without brainwashing, Bumblebee focused more on internal politics than helping anyone, and Metalhawk was a self righteous ass. There were other characters who were likeable, Blurr, Ironhide, Wheeljack, but none of them had any power to do anything about the world around them. It's hard not to vote for the bad guy when he's the only one actually trying. Sure he wasn't really solving cybetron's issues either, but at least he was playing the game.

Here since he's largely not gesturing for the public or metalhawk... he's a cold monster. There was a CHANCE he could've changed.. but killing metalhawk, public service or not, was the tippping point: killing the only person who for some unknown reason belivied him in was it. Winblade GENUINELY hoped he wasn't as bad as his rep or his actions.. starscream could've played her... but he dosen't want to. Starscream spent so long clawing to the top, trying to overthrow megatron, trying to worm his way to the kingship, getting declared the chosen one, he finally has everything... and he can't let himself enjoy it. Because suddenly there's a charasmatic bot who he can't just kill or banish, one who makes friends easy, and has nothing but pure motives. She's another optimus.. and he can't let that exist.

He's not so hard on windblade because he couldn't play her but because he knows the longer she's around, the more power she gets. If he can pick her off NOW while she's just a naive visitor, then he wins. And that's what fucks him over: before he played the long game, slowly earning public sympathy, getting the public's support, doing what a politican, even a complete monster whose hollowed out inside, does. He played the game. But now becaues he dosen't want to play again he's just trying to break everything he wants or sees as a remote threat.

He's still a threat himself, still easily outmaneuvers our hero at first: She finds his illicit mine? He sends goons. They survive the ambush? He throws everyone in prison and plans to frame them for his crimes. What makes starscream fascinating here is even when throwing a tantrum because baby not getting enough attention.. he's still fucking terrifying. He has windblade fucking tortured, only stopping when he realizes "No she really didn't blow herself up to get points that's a you thing". He CAN maneuver things and as seen in the climax easily fights off most of the cast and nearly kills windblade till she plugs herself into the city itself. This book does a fantastic job making starscream terrifying and despite his complexity not showing as much.. he's still engaging.

He's also what helps windblade slowly develop: She starts just trying to do the right thing.. but quickly proves to be far more capable, far more badass and far more of a fighter and manipulator than Starscream could've imagined. The second she realizes he's actively trying to kill her... she stops seeing the best in him. I mean think about it.. all it took was one day of her taking him seriously as a threat and she finds out he has a mining operation to find an ore tha twould make him invincible, makes allies easy because no one like starscream and easily revolts even escaping jail. He still comes CLOSE to beating her.. but in a day she has proof off his crimes, has proven she can protect that proof. It's a throughly engaging back and forth: Windblade may be mildly outnumbered.. but she's not giving up. She may speak for the city.. but she can damn well fight for it. She still has lessons to learn like her foes can fly, but she learns them as she goes.

She also gets a hard truth in the big twist.. and it's one I have mixed feelings on. Starscream is not behind the bombings. Nor is his minion rattrap and since we're on the topic I do like IDW rattrap to a point, but I liked him more when he was more weasely and spineless, as it fit early beast wars rattrap's characterization than a torturing monster. I also questoin why IDW only trickled in two beast wars characters at all. Glad to have them but it's still just.. why. You have a massive franchise to mine why are you like this.

Back on topic this brings us to our third lead.. and our secondary Villian, Chromia. Chromia is seemingly windblade's only friend besides ironhide at first, her bodyguard, her best friend and perhaps more. I do TRY not to pair up every remotely romantic friendship I see.. but int his ecase.. Chormia tries to open a space bridge, endagering all or cybetron... to save Windblade> She also talks about seeing enough of her tail fans, aka her ass. There.. isn't a straight explination for either thing.

Chromia is a mixed bag mostly because the series bein gshort.. dosent' really have time to unpack it and I don't remember the followups really doing much to do so. Windblade's best freind betrays her in a horrific way and we just.. don't get time to process it. Maybe when I revisit the other series, as I intend to, we'll get a better arc.

I do like the position it puts windblade in for the climax. It complete's the journey she's been on.. as she plays starscream. His silence and stopping the mining shit.. and in exchange.. other worlds. Caminus isn't the ONLY colony and when theyf ind them.. he can have the credit. It's her using her good nature.. to play his game. She geninely just wants a better world. CYbetron won't last, caminus won't last... so who cares who the fuck gets the credit. It also gives her time WITHOUT him trying to murder her. She takes the blame for Chromia not to save her entirely, but because it puts her in a better positoin: Starscream THINKS he has dirt on her, and while she'd take the fall if it happens, she has dirt on him. It's sneaky, underhanded.. but it feels way more organic than the supposdely "grey" actions of the autbots last series. Windblade is doing something shady.. but it's the only way to buy herself and caminus time. She can deal with starscream later. Right now she just wants a better world. And it's a question of CAN she keep up with this kind of thing and if so what will that make her? And it's a question we'll answer eventually.

So some scatterd thoughts. The art by sarah stone is fucking gorgeous. Truly amazing stuff. Nice digital work. It's expressive and cartoony but the line work and ink make it feel raw and real: it let's the transfromers be bold nad colorful.. but the skethciness helps underline how dark the story is.

I love the idea of the titans, them being these big larger than life beings.. and of metroplex, being a kind friend who adores his speaker and in her darkest hour helps pull her out. I also like the message of this: speakers are supposed to subsume themselves, be one with the city and answer only to others.. but windblade wins by being herself and selfless. By being a person, not consumed by duty but still bound to it. Being a cityspeaker is part of her.. but she is not metroplex. She is his friend. And she will fight for him.

Windblade.. is a masterpiece. Going over it again three times, ocne to read it, once for the first draft and again when that draft mostly done got ate by tumblr, it shows off just what a fantastic book this is. The pacing probably coudl've been slowed down a tad, but I get it. This was the pilot. The series would sadly always get punched with pacing, with the next one opening on a crossover we'll get to, the one after having to bridge series fast and till all are one having to wrap up quicker because IDW impulsively decided to reboot everything. Despite all this windblade is excellent and you should go find it in some corner of the internet while we wait for IDW to republish it. I"m pulling for you, we're all in this together.

[talk-danmei-to-me]

My controversial danmei takes are…

1. I don’t ship Mu Qing and Feng Xin and I’m almost always annoyed when it’s included in a tgcf fic. I just feel like 100% of their relationship is arguing, so when they have a functional relationship, they feel ooc and when they don’t feel ooc, I’m just annoyed and wondering why the hell they would want to be with each other. (The one exception was No Paths are Bound, but that might be because it’s a 152 chapter fic that starts with them just hate fucking, but then actually does the work to make you believe that can develop into something more)

2. MDZS is such a hard story to get invested in. I still haven’t finished the books because I keep getting bored in volume 1. Even the Untamed was hard for me to get into, though I eventually forced myself through enough episodes at the urging of a friend to get hooked. I own all the volumes, I have read bits and pieces from further on, I have finished the Untamed and the donghua, but I still can’t force myself to get through volume 1.

3. SVSSS was described to me on multiple occasions as the funniest of MXTX’s novels, but I don’t think it was any funnier than the other 2. It’s definitely more lighthearted (most of the time) and written to be more of a comedic story than a serious one, but I didn’t feel like it was any more humorous than the other stories. It felt like pretty much the same level of humor across all 3 series.

(I have only ready MXTX so far. Still a danmei newbie, but working on changing that. I just ordered Ballad of Sword and Wine. Very excited to check that out)

Okay before I go off I just need to tell you I love Ballad of Sword and Wine SO MUCH!!! It’s so good you’re about to have the best time provided you can keep the eunuchs straight.

1) I am also not a Fenqing shipper. I have dabbled in Peiqing, it’s rare but it just feels so correct to me. Bisexual Pei Ming is my tgcf agenda. Tbh I just think Feng Xin’s character turns into a hot mess over the course of the series to the point I just want to banish him by the end. Like he had so much potential as a second love interest in a bl and it got squandered.

I guess part of the Fengqing shipping maybe comes from that. There’s a lot of romantic angst that can be drawn from the Xianle days.

2) MDZS is actually my favourite of the mxtx trilogy. HOWEVER after reading Remnants of Filth and Ballad of Sword and Wine, they do similar themes a lot better. I think mdzs is probably a good starter danmei if you’re into that game of thrones politicking vibe. It’s kinda basic in its execution though. The donghua was an absolute joy and I loved every second, the book is fun to read to see the bits censorship stole. Mxtx is not a good smut writer though (imo).

I can’t do the Untamed I’ve tried watching it like 3 times and tapped out each time. I just can’t vibe with it.

3) I feel like I’m going to get burned as a witch for saying this but… I personally don’t find mxtx funny. Of course there are parts of her books that are comical, but overall. Svsss is to me what mdzs is to you, like I’ve seen the donghua and it got me intrigued but I’m finding the book really hard to care about. I’m going to give it one more whirl, just to force myself to read one transmigration story before Mistakenly Saving the Villain comes out.

[maripr]

it's really funny to me that you're reading not one but two manga that have something to do with alice in wonderland! very iconic of you. do you like alice in borderland - i only heard of it in passing before, is it something like battle royale? mostly because you compared it to squid games, so i was wondering

Haha I know right?? It's very funny when I the mad hatter is my favorite character in Pandora Hearts but not someone I really feel about in Alice in Borderland!

More under the cut because I ramble a bit

Yeah it's sort of a battle royale, but of the "death game" variety. Basically instead of just killing each other, the characters have to complete a series of games with varying difficulty in order to survive.

There's a Netflix live action show of Alice in Borderland that's actually pretty good, if you don't feel like reading the manga yet. I'm personally enjoying the manga a lot more, but there are some games, world building aspects and takes on characters that I prefer in the show. I think it's a bit of a reimagining instead of an adaptation.

But the fact that it's actually good is a novelty, lmao. When you think "live action adaptation of a manga" you would usually think "complete disaster" right? XD there are people who may dislike one of the two, I myself have disliked adaptations of books/comics I love (like anything in Game of Thrones post season 4, really lmao), sometimes I have liked both takes to different degree (I think both FMA anime series are good and should ultimately be watched alongside reading the manga. I do prefer the manga/brotherhood, but having more FMA to watch and read is always good - unless it's the Netflix movie. Speaking of the devil 🤣).

As for comparing it to squid game, I'm now being recommended by the stupid YouTube algorithm videos that put the two against each other. Let's not compare two queens. Personally, the themes of both series resonate a lot with me, I just personally resonate a little bit more with Squid Game, that's all.

Mmhh another story that is more death game than straight up battle royale is "the long walk" by Stephen King. I really liked that one.

I think what I like about death games stories is how sad they make me lmao. It's always dangerous to get attached to characters.

And also, exploring different games and the rules. And the connections the players make that may lead to hope or more sadness. These stories also usually carry a very powerful messages.

If you like videogames, one I've been recently obsessed with is Your Turn To Die, which has a browser version you can play for free. I've been waiting for the last chapter to drop for the past year. Warning tho: it's surprisingly graphic. Violence is expected in this type of stories, but this one sometimes reached edgy levels of violent.

Also the game is a visual novel but done in rpg maker. I know nothing about programming of any kind, but apparently such a feat is kinda insane.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Alice 'Allie' Parkington is WonderSpider!

____________________________________

Miguel: One year and four months ago, I devised the formula for inter-dimensional travel, allowing me to open portals across the multiverse. I created an elite stri-

Alice: Oh, Okay! -

[Alice is the result of a 'Adapt-A-Spider' Challenge, where you adapt a pre-existing character into a Spider! You can see more of my fun Spidersona challenges HERE]

(Also HUGE THANKS to @fairytalespider who made the OG SpiderSnow!)

Gwen Stacy isn't the only blonde who knows about miraculously falling through wormholes.

Except Allie got sent to the universe with talking animals, and a maniacal queen with of taste for beheadings. Not that she's complaining. Not when the tea parties are so delightful~

At 7 years old Alice Parkington found a white waist-coated rabbit, on a hurry to who knows where -

And she followed him, fell down a hole, and never came back.

Origins:

[Alice's world is a mix of the book's portrayal, the cartoon's, and Tim Burton's (though I haven't seen the movies). Her story begins at the end of book - a similar ending to the cartoon movie, but instead she doesn't wake up.]

After losing a game of croquet to The Red Queen of Hearts, Alice is sent to the dungeons, awaiting her beheading on the Queen's orders. That is, until she finds an enchanted Spider in her cell, sent by an ally. When she's bitten, it gives her all the power of Wonderland - and binds her there forever. After escaping The Red Queen's Death Row, Alice was adopted by the woman who helped free her - The kind but exiled The White Queen or Marmoreal, aka Her Aunt Mirana.

Now The Blue Princess of Marmoreal, Alice is next in line for the throne, and the web-swinging protector of Tugley Woods, Wonderland. She spends her days fighting against the tyrannical and murderous rule of The Red Queen of Hearts, and The Court of Cards. With The Mad Hatter as her martyred Uncle Ben - Alice calls Wonderland her home, though she's always left questioning what's real and what isn't. At this point, she's accepted she'll never know the answer. So when she's recruited for Spider Society, it's just another rabbit hole to go down, and another adventure to fall into. On campus she's known as WonderSpider, and she's a lot more powerful (and ruthless) than you'd think.

Design and Personality:

Alice is a lot less sugar and a bit more spice, with her personality taking after the book (moreso than the movies).

Alice is bubbly and independent. She's as curious as a cat and as chatty as a bird. And she's all about asking questions and finding her own way in the world.

She's loves tea parties and foraging and making crazy experiements in the Hatter's workshop. And now that he's gone, she still finds herself in there, cooking up another magical sweet or Victorian style gadget. When she's not doing that, she's at The White Queens side, begrudgingly taking (literally) nonsensical etiquette classes. She isn't afraid to speak up for herself and others. And once she makes her mind up, it's settled.

Despite what some may think, she's isn't an entire lunatic. She's hasn't gone Wonderland Mad yet.

Even since a young girl, Alice has always been known for asking questions - trying to find the sense in nonsense before coming to a conclusion. She's great at picking up on details, and thinking outside the box. And she's always the one to keep a level head, no matter what the circumstances. Doom is not assured when reality is subjective. She's as logical as she is loopy, and although some may think there's nothing going on between her ears, they are sorely mistaken.

She always wears her glasses. She needs them to see.

Or rather, she needs them to see correctly. Having a cause of The Mads, taking off her glasses distorts her vision of the room into a psychedelic and disorienting wonderland version itself - which hurts. She keeps them on always. Though they can be knocked off during battle. Like other Spider-people - The lenses squint, blink, and emote. They have a permanent and consistently moving patterns and colors. Between blinks, the design may change, the swirls changing color or direction. Sometimes the words she's saying may flash over them for emphasis, and they can contain anything from exclamation points to tie dye.

Alice is a de facto genius.

An expert chemist, Alice has mastered dozens of recipes and chemistry formulas using the vegetation in Wonderland. She's cracked the code to rabbit holes, and has an amazing affinity for science and theoretical theory. And if she doesn't understand a certain law of physics or something, she can just choose to ignore it. Literally.

Powers & Abilities:

Hobie told Alice that laws are oppressive. She agreed, told him she hates the laws of physics - then started floating to the ceiling like a balloon. Needless to say, reality doesn't really work for Alice. And she cannot control it.

But no matter what her misfortune, though - She'll always say 'Oh, dear.'

Reality Warp:

Wonderland has side effects. Alice can grow and shrink at will, but once she's there, she can't go back. When she wants, she can manifest rabbit holes to Wonderland on any flat surface, but she doesn't know where they are - so she always falls into them. Her tears are huge, and they flood any room. And for some reason, she's obsessed with cookies. It she sees one, she'll eat it. It doesn't matter if it says 'Eat Me' or not. If you hand her something and tell her to drink, she will. It's the one thing she won't question, although she should know better. She'll read the label, and if it's not clearly labeled bleach or poison, she's drinking it. If it's not those two things, it must be safe right?

The Power of Imagination:

Like Spider-Ham has the Super-Slapstick ability, Alice has the Power of Imagination on her side. If she can make logic of it or believe it, then there is a random chance it will happen. If the team is looking for a way past a locked door, Alice may say 'If only there were a mousehole somewhere here. Mice are such scampers, they can get into anywhere!' There will probably be a 1/4 chance of a mouse running by, leading them to a cartoon like mousehole she can shrink and go through. However, Alice can't will it to happen. She can't be asking or hoping for it, and the thought has to be completely innocent and 'wonderous' for it to work. The ability can also be compounded, with multiple unlikely things happening rapid fire - however this is less likely and HIGHLY dangerous if done in other universes, and is likely to cause an anomaly. Plus everyone else involved goes a tad bit 'loopy' for a bit.

This ability only works outside of Wonderland, and it was discovered by Miguel.

When Alice met Miguel, she began to question his interesting suit, and so she asked. Miguel began to explain to her, but confused, Alice said 'Well, that's nonsensical. Surely you can't wear light like fabric. If that were true, I could pull this right off you.' - And then she did. And suddenly she was holding his suit in her hands as if it were made of fabric, and Miguel was there in his underwear.

Alice's response: 'Oh dear.'

Chesire Mode:

When surrounded by enough chaos or kinetic energy, Alice can go Chesire Mode, and really goes off the bend. She experiences full Wonderland Madness - similar to the Hatter, and gains the ability to unravel herself and turn invisible. Her voice begins to echo, creating a disorienting and hallucination-like affect. Doing this is known to cause madness, but it affects everyone in the room.

Equipment:

WebShooters: Alice uses mechanical Web-Shooters created by her and The Mad Hatter. Her webs are silly string and streamers. 'Bow'-nus Arms: Alice's waist ribbon is extendable like Mr.Fantastic's limbs, serving essentially as a second set of arms. However, when it's off of her, it's much more similar to Doctor Strange's cape, having a mind and personality of it's own. She can take it off and ask it do it, and it'll go off and (try it's best) to do it, just like a snake. It's name is David Bowie. She does not know who David Bowie is - it's just a coincidence: it's family name is Bow-ie, and David is a common name.

Random Facts:

Alice hangs out with a lot of the 'Eccentric' and Mini Spiders - She likes others from cartoons or fairytales, or anyone made for whimsy.

And she likes spending her time small.

She has a crush on Lego Spider-Man. She shrinks to be with him lol

He naturally finds her a little offputting, they're NOT a thing but she wishes (sis he's literal plastic)

Alice's best friends are SpiderPetal, SpiderSnow (@fairytalespider), SpiderFairy (@stardust948) and Spider-Ham.

Since they all live in either a woodland area, a cartoon, or both, those are usually who she's with

Though she only goes small around people she trusts - but never someone like Miguel. In fact, with Miguel, she does the opposite.

When Miguel is in the room, Alice prefers to grow 'full size' as in... taking up the whole room giantess style.

She says it helps, because 'It makes Mr.O'hara look like a little toy soldier.'

With the size of his lair, she can often grow taller faster than he can get lower - so he'll stay up there, and she'll grow to meet his eye.

She can decide when to stop growing or shrinking, just not when she'll turn back.

This power is transferable. Alice's wonderland powers still work elsewhere, and so her cookies and drinks do too.

Alice can only keep 1 cookie and 1 drink on her at one time, never more, it'll always be ruined.

She can use these to either extend her state, or have someone shrink or grow along with her.

But once she uses the one of each item, she can't get more until she returns home and makes more.

HOWEVER. HOWEVER - Alice is down for deals.

If you come to her world and ask for some cookies or potions, she'll give it to you. But there's a mandatory tea party involved, and the only payment she asks is that you bring sweets for the guests - Vegan please!!

(Her favorite is angel food cake, after cookies of course)

Those aren't the only ones - she has dozens of sophisticated concoctions for any need - floating and weightlessness, invisibility, even the ability to mimic voices perfectly -

And just the same, she's able to carry one of each when outside of Wonderland.

A frequent customer of hers is Hobie. He puts the potions to work - plus he makes the best vegan coconut macaroons.

Oh - also DO NOT Drink her tea though - it's made with Wonderland Tea Leaves....Great for a good time, horrible for bedtime.

Despite not knowing her specific age - Alice is a young adult - and she works at The Society.

Her Uncle Hatter was a master chemist, alchemist, magician, chef - and dozens of other things. And for years, Alice studied under him.

Originally, Miguel assumed all of this knowledge would be non-transferable nonsense, but - wrong.

Alice is one of the leading scientists at The Society - with a concentration in Multiversal Physics, studying everything from the visual styles of universes, the path between universes, and differences in time.

She'll often say something, only to get dismissed by Miguel.

But Lyla will cut him off, telling him that scientifically, Alice IS making sense.

It's just that because her world is totally backwards, the ideas she has to describe her thoughts are backwards too.

After a while, she becomes one of the main people to write the updates and programs for the watches, working with Miguel as her boss.

She's like a bop-it, full of weird and very useless quirks.

If her feet get wet, they make the duck waddle sound when she walks.

If she hits her head, it makes the TikTok 'Boink' sound. She runs and it makes the Flintstones noise.

If she stubs her toe or gets hurt on something tiny, she'll scream like Tom The Cat.

She burps bubbles (like the soap kind) and her sneezes sound like one of those party straw thingies.

Sometimes her Wonderland powers play tricks on her. She'll be like 'I'm outta here!!' then walk into a looney toons wall. And she's so embarrassed cause the cartoon noises make it so much worse fhgsuigdf

Sometimes when she tries to run she stays in one place for a second before the running kicks in (like a cartoon) - and Miguel just grabs her and she's like 'Dratz, I was trying to get away.'

She enjoys hanging out with Hobie, though she does not understand him at all.

Like, she's British too - did I mention she's British, cause she's from Victorian England -

But she has no opinion on his ideology because it's ???? lost on her

He's like 'This is a metaphor for capitalism' and she'd be like 'I don't know what that is.'

He's like 'count your blessings'.

But Hobie LOVES that Alice doesn't stick to the rules -

and that she gives the middle finger to the laws of physics by just existing

He's like 'That's so cool, what you just did. Real Metal.'

She's like 'I suppose I am just a container, filled with slowly decaying food - so in that way, I am quite like a fridge, which is cool and made of metal-'

And he's like 'what are you talking about-'

And they mainly hangout because they're both lazy.

Alice is tirrreeed of all these weird physics rules and new technology and non talking cutlery.

She'd much prefer to take a nap, or wander off, of have a tea party, or do ANYTHING that isn't work. Same girl same

And that's it! Most of it, I'll probably maybe maybe not write a post about her joining the society and how it completely warps her perception of reality because she's been trying to get home for so long, she doesn't even know if her home exists then there's this new society through ANOTHER wormhole but she still can't get home-

Oh and before I go, her intro art is inspired by Qveen Herby's single Abracadabra!

Yeah. If you made it this far THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME UR TIME! Thank you so so much for entertaining me I MEAN IT THANK YOU I KNOWI POST SO MANY OCS AND IT'S KINDA OVERWHELMING SORRY AAHHH MY BRAIN CANT STOP I CANT FOCUS HELP

Anyway I'm normal

HERE HOBIE

Bye.

[ratwavekayla]

Doing work on This is Your Lifepath season 2 has got me thinking about lists of inspirations again. So I rounded up some lists in upcoming projects.

(Ritual Magic for Besties isn't here as its bibliography is fairly short and more explanatory rather than list-y, also like it comes out later this month so you can just wait)

PSYCHODUNGEON

The games listed are primarily about mechanical influence (which is why they're mostly a very large slice of Belonging outside Belonging games). Big exceptions are Subway Runner and DD.TV which are both there for post-dungeon fantasy influence. ACWtM is there for the influence on the asymmetric roles, which are a divergence from how BoB setting elements tend to work, and so my own Fear the Taste of Blood is there because working on that is how I understood that element better.

Probably should clarify Moonstruck is the comic (as like loose setting influence) rather than the film (which bangs but doesn't relate much to PSYCHODUNGEON).

NHSmackdown is a wrestling/performance art show by a friend of mine which was focused on being a nurse. The influence is in how it got me reflecting on being trapped in job which is nominally doing good but isn't protecting you and is honestly actively harming you.

Nemesis Revealed

Nemesis Revealed is a storytelling game of great rivals, where you play someone's nemesis, their dark counterpart and follow their story. It has multiple playsets which frame a different hero to create your nemesis in opposition to.

So the game influences are either in mechanics or in the structure of a book basically. Whereas the other section primarily focuses on specific influences for different playsets (there's a sort of conventional street level superhero, a gender-twisty tokusatsu inspired story, as well as strange space knights and near-distant future mecha crews). It's a scattershot and probably reads very opaque without context (I think that's how all my bibliography lists look which is probably why I place them at the back, where a reader will find them already armed with context, rather than at the start as a taste setter).

Transgender Deathmatch Legend II: Grand Slam

TDL2 actually has two separate lists. There's a traditional bibliography. I referenced my own work I've drawn on because it seems honest. Fox in the Forest is there for influencing the original mechanic. Hieronymus influenced how i wanted the shape of the book to be. Stealing the Throne influenced some non-fighting mechanics.

The other references are more for how they influenced specific scenarios (like one is loosely Raid inspired but turned into smashing up a GIC, while another is a direct Warriors-riff).

I included the Party of One episode i did cause it helped clarify how i felt about the game. British lads hitting each other with chairs is there because it's a mood.

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats was a fringe theatre show I did set up for and it ended up influenced the content of a work-in-progress show I did called Crossface (which was a wrestling inspired character comedy performance drama). Some of the content for Crossface has been recycled into some personal essays I have in the book. So paying tribute to that root felt important.

But before that section TDL also has a Recommended Reading list. It's mainly stuff that I think conveys what's enjoyable about wrestling. I wouldn't say everything was a direct inspiration, but if you read the book and played the game and wanted to know more about wrestling; there's a little roadmap in the book.

(Though being serious this appendix is obviously super subject to change before release if anything horrific comes out about anyone featured, obviously the danger in recommending any wrestling tbh)

[pastelwitchling]

I have a question to pose to the queer community;

(Keep in mind, I'm straight, but I'm also a writer, and I like to think of myself as a good one. Feel free to disagree with anything I say, this is all only based on what I've seen and read.)

I've realized lately that there is a criminally short list of good sapphic stories, and not just in traditional publishing either. I will say that I DNFed Written in the Stars, and I've not seen the best reviews for Delilah Green Doesn't Care, and it just got me thinking that I don't know of any sapphic story that's been on the level of Red, White & Royal Blue or something.

I also read a review for Written in the Stars that said something along the lines of, "The only reason I didn't DNF this was because it was a sapphic story not about coming out, and I really need that." It kind of broke my heart a little bit, not going to lie. Now, I've had ideas for sapphic stories, one of which I'm currently working on, but it hit me that there really aren't many sapphic stories that are on the radar like RWRB or Heartstoppers. Now, I'm not saying there isn't a double standard for sapphic stories -- as I think writing interesting and likable women is trickier than writing interesting and likable men, because women have historically followed a "formula," in which we're written like:

One of the guys (not like other girls)

Manic pixie dream girl

Emotionless assassin (I love Throne of Glass, don't come for me, but you know what I mean), and now:

the adorkable quirky girl

and it's all we get now. Women are one of these four, and that's it. My favorite female characters in books are the unique ones, the ones I have not seen a million times. Writing unique women now, and I say this as a writer, is difficult because you have to be careful not to force these female characters into one of these boxes which we have so often been forced into. It's just the facts of storytelling; female characters take more work to make likable because, historically speaking, female characters are written more to pander to audiences and be blank slates than to be anything like real people that would exist in their world. In order to keep people happy, the female characters have to be totally inoffensive, and the only way to do that is follow whatever archetype is popular at the time. What happens then? All female characters end up coming out the exact same until readers get sick of it. We don't have to like it, but at some point we have to acknowledge it if we're to get more badass and unique female characters (like; Evangeline Fox from OUaBH, Kazi from Dance of Thieves, or Avery Kylie Grambs from The Inheritance Games). I think that's why it does get a little discouraging to read sapphic stories that are popular and find them so... lacking. And all because of the characters. This has been my own personal viewpoint.

So I guess my question is: have you guys also noticed the lack of good and exciting sapphic stories? Or, perhaps, the way people are more likely to settle for any sapphic story, even when it's poorly-done? Personally, I just have not found a single sapphic story so far that does not have: a) poor characters, b) a weak plot, or c) less effort put in than I've found in so many male love stories. And this is often by sapphic writers, and I just don't get it. I go into these books wanting to like them, but that's not a good enough reason for me to actually enjoy a book without any depth.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you also feel like sapphic couples get the short end of the stick? Why do you think that is?

[lost-eternity]

Game Of Thrones Matchup -Closed-

This is a matchup trade with @sugutoad I wanted to try and find someone who... doesn’t suck for you.

Unfortunately, literally everyone in Game of Thrones Sucks Big Time. So I quickly gave up that fever dream. That, combined with your penchant for cocky, “beautifully broken” characters just beckoned in a sea of flags so red, you could see it from space.

So we’re just going to say

To hell with it. 

Meaning I needed to find someone cocky and intelligent to match your intellect and keep pace (characters which are not lacking in this franchise), but also emotionally intelligent enough to be reasonably “fix-able” (and suddenly my pickings are rather slim).

So after combing over my options I think I’ve finally settled on someone decent enoughish whilst meeting not just your criterial preferences, but your personality. He’s not actually from Game of Thrones but within the same franchise so I am going to use him anyway.

Without further ado, I present to you, your bae

•──⋅☾Daemon Targaryen☽⋅──•

Daemon is rather infamous for his cocky, aloof, exterior. One which masks something a lot more profound and tender beneath. His inner conflicts and the way he wears his scars (both literal and emotional) make him exactly the “beautifully broken” character that you’d be attracted to. At least on a superficial level. 

Your rejection of the rules and regulations from your upbringing dangerously mirrors Daemon’s own rebellious, out-of-control streak. He’s the kind of character who doesn’t play by everyone else’s rules. This is a trait that can feel both familiar and freeing if you’ve long struggled with external pressures. A trait that, when combined, truly makes me fear for what the two of you would be capable of. Your inherent whimsy and far-away nature do temper his ambitions nicely in a way that is more of a safeguard than anything else. I fear someone too ambitious would (as demonstrated in the show) enable him to such an extent that would become dangerous for everyone. 

Your dry, sarcastic humor and penchant for clever, sometimes self-deprecating jokes resonate with Daemon’s biting wit. He’s known to deliver sharp, often caustic remarks that hide a deeper, more thoughtful side. This mix of humor and gravitas means conversations with him would likely feel both stimulating and comforting. Something you value given your need for quality, heartfelt dialogue.

You crave a partner who’s charismatic, a bit cocky, and deeply passionate, someone who isn’t afraid to speak their mind. Daemon embodies this intensity. His relationships, though turbulent, are fueled by a fierce passion and loyalty. This intensity, coupled with his occasional tenderness, could provide the balance of fire and solace you seek. Your own vulnerabilities could be met with an understanding that runs deep beneath his rough edges. He’s the type of person who, when you peel away the layers, shows a capacity for care.

Jumping into the headcanons of it all

Because this is a mess

Really, really, messy.

Trying to justify it within the context and canon of the show

You run a clever scam. 

The likes of which is wholly, uniquely, creatively you

You arrive not as a noble, but as the handmaid to a well-respected religious leader. One who has proven himself to possess quite the inclination toward the law and a disarming charisma, capable of swaying even the most stony-faced judges. Famously speaking on the behalf of lower-standing members of the court. Where, traditionally, such rankings would be hastily discarded and punished for crimes they did not even commit due to their standing. Especially when accused by a member of higher standing. He gave them the opportunity to defend themselves by representing them and speaking on their behalf. 

Except. There was one small... minute detail the pair of you neglected to mention 

You are the true brains of this operation

You are the one spending hours pouring over the law books, over past historical precedent

You are the one carefully constructing arguments. Providing airtight reasonings. And manipulating the letter of the law in your favour

It’s just that.

No one would take a woman seriously on these matters. Much less one of seemingly irrelevant descent. 

So you found a partner. Someone willing to be your voice. Your face. Someone with the charm you did not possess. Someone with the reputation and respect that proceeded yours. 

It was initially a business venture. Brokered under the agreement all funds would go 50-50

And it was one that proved alarmingly lucrative

The two of you eventually began to travel with it. This well-intentioned scam of yours. With you posing as a mere hand maid to attend to your chosen front. Because that is all you could really do as a women in your society. 

In your travels, you amass fame. Influence. Money. Enough to settle you suppose. But you do enjoy being able to speak up for the voiceless. The ones who would be unfairly punished otherwise. 

What you never anticipated, however, was your fame rising to such a degree that you are called to the capitol itself to advise on the matter of the civil war that brewing between factions

To help determine which heir to the throne is the “proper” one in the eyes of the law 

Well, not you specifically 

The face of your operation

But basically, it is entirely you though

Which is a daunting task in of itself

Not to mention risks the provocation of ire from both parties

Really, its a lose-lose situation

If you choose to side with Aegon, you risk a death at the maw of a dragon

If you choose to side with Rhaenyra

Well. It’s literally the exact same fate.

If you choose to ignore your summons and make a run for it. 

More or less the same thing. 

Naturally. You stall as long as you are able. Trying to think of a reason to get out of this current predicament. Regardless of your true feelings on the matter. Burying yourself in the books and historical texts, desperately seeking some answer. Some way out. But your deliberation time is numbered. You can buy a few weeks at most. Before the courts will start demanding answers. 

It doesn’t help that the prince is making eyes at you from across council room tables. 

In that sort of hungry way 

You suppose it was your fault really. For not expecting the rather notorious womanizer for taking it further. 

You see. Daemon had always prided himself on being the keenest strategist in the room, the most cunning player of the game. He saw deception for what it was before most had a chance to blink. That was why, when he first laid eyes on you: quiet, observant, and far too clever for a mere handmaid, and his instincts flared.

His suspicions were confirmed when he intercepted a letter. Meant for your partner, it bore intricate legal arguments far beyond the grasp of any average advocate. The writing, precise and methodical, carried the unmistakable trace of your hand. He knew, at that moment, he had uncovered something deliciously scandalous.

Instead of turning you in, Daemon chose confrontation.

You found him waiting for you in your quarters. Forward and without the slightest concern for propriety. 

Daemon took his time, circling you like a dragon assessing its next meal. "You’re the one doing all the thinking, aren’t you? Your so-called ‘employer’ is just the puppet. You-" he pointed a finger at you, "-are the true power behind the name.”

It took everything in you to keep your expression neutral. To deny it outright would be useless. You were caught. The only question now was what Daemon Targaryen wanted in exchange for his silence.

He isn't a patient man. He didn't make you wait long.

"I could turn you in," he mused, tilting his head. "You’d be burned alive for fraud. Or worse." He let that hang in the air before his smirk returned. "But I won’t.”

"In exchange for my silence, I have but one demand. Eight dates. Four weeks.”

Just the right amount of time until you were to supposed to present your, or rather your partner’s decision to the court.

"I find you fascinating, little viper. And I think I’d enjoy having your company without the pretense of politics and scheming.”

There wasn't much you could do to resist him. So, you ultimately agreed. You supposed he could demand much worse things from you than dates. Much. Worse. 

Each date possessed some new challenge. Something daring: 

Slipping into the streets of King’s Landing, dressed not as nobles, but as ordinary folk, he led you into the heart of the city’s underbelly. The lively chaos of Flea Bottom was a world away from the rigid rules of court, engaging in the debauchery of the ordinary folk. 

Daemon didn’t ease you into things. No, he wanted to see just how much nerve you truly had. 

Another date involved taking you straight to the dragon pit. Caraxes, his monstrous, sinewy beast, awaited. You had heard tales of dragon riding (who hadn’t?) but experiencing it firsthand was something else entirely.

Daemon, ever the reckless one, made sure to push the limits. Sharp turns, sudden dives, the kind that made your stomach lurch into your throat. He delighted in the way you cursed at him, your usual sharp tongue turning breathless and unfiltered.

By the time you landed, your legs felt like jelly, and Daemon was grinning like a man who had thoroughly enjoyed himself. "Not bad," he mused, offering his hand to steady you. "I expected more screaming.”

But he could be tender, too. Truly a whirlwind of a man. It was hard to tell exactly which version of him to expect. The blithe, rebel-without-a-cause? Or someone softer? More tender. Truth be told it was thrilling.

Another date consisted of a luxurious picnic up top a grassy hill by the beach, watching the sun slip below the horizon, staining the sky with bloody, fiery hues. 

~

And therein lies your dilemma 

You have 8 dates.

8 dates to convince Daemon to take you and your partner away from here.

8 dates to prove to him you're worth the risk. 

Otherwise? 

You will be forced to deliver your decision and regardless of your answer, both you and your partner will perish

[cinamun]

Alright, I, me, Antwanyce do not feel like Indira Dior Destiny Drake has to commit to anyone that she doesn't want to commit to. However, like everyone else, I have the privilege of seeing both perspectives. I know we live in an individualistic society that tells us "Do You Boo" but that only works when no one else is involved or at least that's how it should work. As a person who enjoys a good study of the human condition. I'm inclined to believe that most humans are not capable of enjoying the accouterments of a "relationship" without catching feelings. Usually, when one is not capable it stems from being guarded due to past trauma, lack of natural empathy, or just plain selfishness. I just think it's wild that no one can see that. They do more than just fuck. They literally do stuff together so much so that it almost feels like he lives there. I don't care what anyone says this behavior is not normal regardless of gender. It feels like she's either guarding herself in fear of disappointment, self-centered, or both. If she cares for Charlie she should leave him alone because clearly he wants something she is not willing to give him and if she's tired of repeating herself then maybe her actions need to match her words. If she doesn't care (because it's nice to be adored) she can continue and he'll either move on or become obsessed and we know what obsession can lead to. And yes I know this is fiction but isn't discourse about fictional characters half the fun. Like, did we all not just socially online have discourse about Bridgerton, Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Grey's Anatomy, etc. Didn't book clubs meet up to have a discourse about The Coldest Winter Ever? Do we always agree, no. Do we always like the OC, also, no but doesn't that make the storytelling all the more fun and interesting, yes? Maybe I'm wrong or I just see things through a different lens. I don't know…

P.S. Why are we acting like most of the time sex doesn't make things complicated?

Sis... now you know I gotta add a cut to this LMFAO

I know we live in an individualistic society that tells us "Do You Boo" but that only works when no one else is involved or at least that's how it should work

Says who tho? What happened to communication being the key to lasting relationships be they friendships or something more? If Indira Destiny Dior Drake says she is "doing her" who are we to tell her it doesn't work that way just because she wants the benefits of orgasms with her friendships and communicates that AND all parties agree?

I'm inclined to believe that most humans are not capable of enjoying the accouterments of a "relationship" without catching feelings

Actually, humans are biologically predisposed to polygamous relationships due to the unconscious desire to preserve the species (we've since evolved into monogamy due to sociological conditions)

Couldn't those feelings just be the feelings of love or care associated with deep friendships and not the very clear romantic feeling that Charlie is exhibiting and low-key expecting from Dira?

Usually, when one is not capable it stems from being guarded due to past trauma, lack of natural empathy, or just plain selfishness. I just think it's wild that no one can see that.

But sis, no one said Dira is "not capable". Most are saying Dira doesn't want that level of romance right now. Some are saying its related to past trauma. People aren't seeing it because they don't think she's incapable. No one said she was incapable.

They literally do stuff together so much so that it almost feels like he lives there. I don't care what anyone says this behavior is not normal regardless of gender.

So you don't do stuff together with your friends? You've never heard of besties just coming to chill at your crib and watch tv, help you cook or help you move in? I don't see how that's not normal friendship behavior.

If she cares for Charlie she should leave him alone because clearly he wants something she is not willing to give him and if she's tired of repeating herself then maybe her actions need to match her words

This was brought up a few times today, its not an uncommon feeling after today's post but I need to tell y'all to stay tuned on that note.

As for everything else, I agree! I've always said the commentary is the best part and that's why we have the Ratchet Reading Room™ packed to capacity and breaking the fire code and running out of wings when shit gets heavy! Its a beautiful thing to witness.

As far as sex making things complicated, that's not always the case and it certainly doesn't have to if you (say it with me) communicate your intentions. Tre was blocked before he even got to smash so clearly he complicated shit before the sex.

Your honor, the defense rests.

[brionysea]

You have only good opinions so I have a query for you: I watched the first season of The Umbrella Academy forever ago when it first came out and really loved it! But I never ended up watching the rest of the seasons. I haven’t heard like literally anything about them either. I was wondering if however they handle the Allison x Luther thing is like, at least bearable? And also whether you think the other season are worth a watch in the first place? Thank you for your time and for always being correct 🙏

First of all, I'm honoured. Thank you for your kind words. I actually rewatched the newer seasons of The Umbrella Academy recently so they're fresh in my mind.

Short answer: Allison and Luther aren't too egregious, season 2 is fine, season 3 is not

Long answer:

Allison x Luther is a thing from the comics, and because the show's sort of subversive, "anti-comic book clichés" approach is what makes it work so well, their romance is quite morally dissonant from the more grounded and likable versions of the characters in the show. They're not Game of Thrones levels, but they're there, and they're weird and annoying and very jarring in a show that otherwise goes so hard on the family angle. But it's *probably* being framed as an intentional negative at this point. They went too extreme for that to not be the case. And both characters keep getting assigned other, non-sibling love interests. Sort of. Timelines are weird.

It feels like the show is *trying* to say something with their relationship, probably about how unhealthy and isolated their childhood was that they felt the need to latch onto each other like that to get *any* kind of attention, but it's not. Trying very hard. And they don't say it nearly well enough that you'd lose anything worth keeping by omitting that part of the source material like they did Diego x Viktor/Vanya (yes, really). It doesn't come across as groundbreaking psychological analysis of abused and isolated children going into adulthood without doing the work to heal from their pasts so they get stuck in this weird cycle, it comes across as the show wanting to remind you of the pseudo-incest every so often just to be edgy.

Season 2 is worth the watch if you meet it where it's at. It handles the part of time travel that nobody talks about through 3 different characters; the big one being Allison, a black woman from the 21st century, fighting back against segregation and clinging onto her temper by her fingernails - and I think they do it decently (but I'm white, so take this with a grain of salt). A quite small moment with Elliot Page's character made me surprisingly emotional. TUA2 absolutely fumbles the thematic core of the first season - the apocalypse as an allegory for their *collective* childhood trauma which they haven't healed from into adulthood, and from there, everything crashes and burns - but if you manage your expectations to what this season is *trying* to be, which is "fun", it's okay. It's even successful - it IS fun! Some of the more juvenile humour doesn't land with me but humour is subjective. Very bright, very colourful, very silly. All the goofy parts of season 1 dialled up to eleven with the dark parts turned way down, which... there's something to be said about the power of contrast, but it is what it is.

Season 3 is... less good. If Allison was my personal highlight of TUA2, then Klaus is my highlight of TUA3, but this season simply doesn't measure up. There's a lot of big empty spaces with only the main characters in them, as if COVID filming restrictions wouldn't let them bring in any more actors/characters to flesh out the world. It's not their fault, but it's very noticeable. I've *seen* shows working under identical circumstances (and with less money!) do better than this. The plot's setup was interesting but managed to lose me with multiple payoffs that felt underwhelming and lacking in vision. They did that two, maybe three times? I didn't like any of them. The writing isn't very tight - you can *feel* how little consideration the writers were given by Netflix. Most of the side characters feel pointless. Some of the core characters feel like different people (Diego particularly bugged me, and I don't even like Diego that much). TUA3 tried to follow 2's lead of being fun, but its flaws are too big to successfully hide them behind the fun. There are a few standout scenes, but overall... Eh.

[crazycoke-addict]

The Character Assassination of Jaime Lannister

I've been thinking a lot about Game of Thrones and, more specifically, one of my favourite characters, Jaime Lannister. Jaime Lannister is a character whom you aren't fond of. He has an incestuous relationship with his sister, Cersei. He is rude to people whom he comes across like Ned Stark, and he has an arrogance to him. However, as the book progresses, you'll notice another side that he doesn't show because he plays a part. He is dubbed as the kingslayer for murdering King Aerys II Targaryen, where we later find out, he did it because King Aerys was going to burn down kingslanding killing innocent people in the process.

The show seems to be on the right check to make Jaime Lannister's redemption arc to be the best redemption arc you follow. While they did end up ruining it by making him return to Cersei. There's one specific scene that definitely ruins any growth we had on Jaime, and that is the rape scene between Jaime and Cersei.

In Season 4 Episode 3 "Breaker of Chains," Jaime forces himself on Cersei in front of their son, Joffrey’s corpse. During the scene, Cersei says no, and it's not right multiple times. Now, what's so upsetting about this is that in the books, it is all consensual. I think they changed it because Cersei is a bit more level-headed in the show, and yet it completely ruins and assassinated the character of Jaime Lannister.

In the aftermath, it doesn't really do anything for their characters going forward. The reason why I feel so disingenuous and disrespectful to Jaime Lannister is because throughout his POVs, he is shown to have guilt and a soft spot for women who have experienced with rape whether it happened with a random stranger or their husband.

When Jaime became a member of the Kingsguard. He witnessed a lot of horrific things that King Aerys did, and the one that Jaime haunts the most is how he felt so defenceless when hearing King Aerys abuse and rape his wife, Queen Rhaella. Jaime was so confused and empathetic because, as a member of the Kingsguard, you are sworn to protect the Queen as well, but because there's hierarchy. The King is allowed to get away with abusing the Queen.

Jaime is also haunted by what happened to Elia Martell. At one part, in the books. Jaime has a dream where he visited by Rhaegar Targaryen, who was married to Elia Martell. Dream Rhaegar blames Jaime for leaving Elia and her children defenceless when the mountain killed the children and Elia as well as raped her. Which was ordered by Jaime's father, Tywin Lannister. However, it's not Jaime's fault even though he believes it is. Jaime wishes that he was there since The Mountain wouldn't be able to kill Jaime unless Tywin says so. Jaime couldn't disobey the king's order.

Another victim that Jaime felt that he failed is Tysha. Tysha was Tyrion's first wife and first love. When their father, Tywin, found out about it. He had his guards raped Tysha while making Tyrion watch. After that, he had the guards paid her in silver coins. Throughout his life, Tyrion believe that Tysha was just a whore only didn't really loved him and just wanted his gold. It's not until after Jaime helped Tyrion that he decided to tell him the truth about Tysha.

This dark secret felt like a heavy weight that Jaime had to carry throughout his life, and It's one of most traumatic things that Tyrion had to experience . Not to mention, Tysha is another victim that Jaime felt he failed. After telling Tyrion and the two have a falling out. Jaime decides to go to Riverlanda and try to be a noble and just person.

At one part, he saved a girl named Pia from being raped by one of the mountain's men by ordering Ser Ilyn Payne to chop the man's head off. Jaime noticed his squire seems to like the girl, so Jaime encouraged him to take Pia as a lover by being kind and gentle to her. The squire name is Josmyn Peckledon, who is known to have good martial instincts, meaning that Pia will be in good hands and protected.

Another character he saved from being raped even though they start off on the wrong foot is Brienne of Tarth. During that time, him and Brienna disliked each other. It's possible that he was having flashbacks of Rhaella Targaryen, Elia Martell, and Tysha. How they were raped by powerful men and how he believed he failed them.

The raped scene shouldn't have been made because it's assassinates the character of Jaime and his redemption arc.

[outeremissary]

🌈🌍🐉 for Carmen and Ismene?

Oh man. Big night for women with issues!!!! I went through a full spectrum of emotions answering these, thank you

[prompt]

🌈 - Do you associate any colors with them?

Oh for sure. On both counts, haha. I feel like this is a thing for most of my OCs- at least, it’s a major point of trying to like. Visualize a design for them when drawing. At any rate.

Carmen has always been strongly associated with red to me. It’s a very vibrant, strong color, and it’s also a very heroic and regal one. Maybe it’s just the kinds of books I read as a kid, but when I think of kings and knights, I think of crimson and scarlet and all that jazz. She’s proud, principled, and aspires to be a paragon of what she considers virtue. I’ve also always portrayed her with a rose as an emblem- a romantic symbol. Of course, the obvious flip side of that is that there’s a lot of negative association with red as well- fire and blood are the obvious ones here. She’s not fiery in the sense of raging passion or blistering anger per se, but more like… a destructive flame that would burn everything to ashes, maybe. Someone with burning ideals and zealotry so hot that it’s searing her too. Of course, the less fanciful aspect of the red is that it’s a color that was also associated with the chivalric order she was a part of in tabletop (also an anchor point of the rose). Carmen’s kind of a funny character for color though. She’s been around in some form or other for ten years or more at this point, and she’s always had the red association. It’s something that’s kind of transformed over time.

Ismene is an easy purple. And one day I swear to fucking god I will manage to color some of my art of her. Although I guess it wouldn’t be posted here so uhh maybe it doesn’t matter. Anyway. Purple. Regal and mystical. That’s the kind of vibe that I always want her to give off as a first impression, so purple is an obvious choice. I think there’s also something to purple being a kind of cool, somber color- she’s become a more mischievous character than originally planned, but I think it’s right for her to have a certain self-serious gravitas. This is a bit of an open and shut one I don’t have much more to say ^^;;

🌍 - What are this oc’s religious views?

Oh good god.

Carmen’s religious views are Very Different in Wrath from her original tabletop iteration (where her schtick is generally kind of inverted from part of Wrath), so I’m going to preface this by saying I’m answering for the Wrath iteration of the character. Carmen is a dogmatic atheist. You know the goofy edgelord atheist dialogue in this game? Honestly totally on point for her. She doesn’t believe that people should rely on the gods, and she believes that gods are ultimately all self-serving and tend to use mortals as proxies for their conflicts and the most extreme expressions of existence. The affairs of mortals should belong entirely to mortals. She’s not a person who sees the good gods as fundamentally better than the evil. In the end, they’re still imposing the same manipulative systems on their followers. They still inspire violent, irrational conflict. And they don’t “inspire” their followers. They breed helplessness. They make people reliant, cause them to wait and pray for salvation instead of searching for it themselves. The gods are cowards and parasites. And one day, it would be nice to see them torn down from their thrones.

I had to look up/double check FR lore for this one, which was half the time spent on this whole thing if I’m being real with you. Anyway. Ismene’s upbringing obviously meant a lot of exposure to gods of knowledge, and she tends to regard these deities with a reasonable level of respect. Knowledge, to her, is the highest power; those who reign over it are the highest Powers. She identified particularly strongly with Savras, Alaundo’s patron, from a precocious age- one of a number of ways she has taken aspects of the life of the one true prophet for herself. This seemed like a bit of childish fancy when she was young, but the release of Savras during the Time of Troubles gave it more gravity- another uncanny bit of foresight from the girl. For her, it seemed a sign in and of itself- thought not a person of deep devotion, she quietly claimed the returned god as her patron, developing a personal belief that her prophetic abilities had been an omen of his return and deepening her sense that she was personally connected to Alaundo. In the years between the Time of Troubles and the revelation of her Bhaalspawn heritage Ismene developed a conviction that she had a destiny to take up Alaundo’s mantle as a true prophet of Savras in the new age. Her personal dedication to the god is partially responsible for her aversion to outright lying- to speak untruth is anathema to the All-Seeing, though she never quite internalized his dedication to wholly avoiding misdirection and deceit. The revelation of her divine blood shook her faith deeply- in some form or other, her abilities originate in truth from Bhaal. Of course, with pride and precocious self-importance as the origins of her devotion to the Lord of Divination, she’s certainly able to adapt to the idea of being a demigod given time. I don’t want to say more when I have yet to y’know. Finish the original Bhaalspawn Saga. But I certainly have an idea of the trajectory of a hubristic young wizard who gets to live with the smug satisfaction that she can outfox a god.

🐉 - Very serious question… are they more like a dragon, or a unicorn?

Carmen is an easy dragon. It’s the fire thing. And the knight thing. What’s the opposite of a noble knight? That’s right, a dragon. And also being very cool despite objectively killing a lot of people, which isn’t so awesome.

Ismene is like a unicorn because she’s just so goddamn special. I wrote that sentence as filler for later but you know what? I’m right. What else needs to be said, really. And also it’s the princess-y thing. The maiden-y thing. The magic-y thing. Like. Y’know.

[littleeyesofpallas]

can you do Bleach Name game for ichigo's friends in Karakura Town?

Ya know it's weird that i haven't done it already... I kinda thought I had, honestly. Yeah, let me resurrect this long dead series of posts...

Inoue Orihime[井上 織姫] read most literally as something like "Well+Top"(as in the top of a well(for water)) and "Weaving+Princess" but of course the name Orihime is just taken directly from the mythological figure behind the tanabata festival. It's possible the name Inoue in that context could be used to reference the Well Mansion, one of 28 categories of constellations in Chinese astronomy. Although in Tanabata Orihime refers to the star Vega, which as far as I can tell is not part of the Well Mansion.

In any case, the myth of Orihime and Hikoboshi was the basis of Kubo's original Bleach one-shot, which itself got reworked into the plot with her brother Sora, the hollow Acidwire. Ichigo lost prettymuch all of his associated hikoboshi themes in the transition from the one-shot to the serial title, so her name is kind of vestigial. The one lingering detail that was never built on was how her rejection powers were said to verge on the territory of god, and in the tanabata myth Orihime is the daughter of Tantei[天帝]:"Heaven Emperor" one of several epithets for the Jade Emperor, a figure hailed as a human ascended to immortal, the First God, and a supreme ruler over other gods. But despite that very slight thematic alignment, she was never given any divine origins.

Her bother, Inoue Sora[井上昊] reads, "Well+Top" and "Sky/Heaven," where Sora[昊] is a synonym with Ten/Ama[天]: "Sky/heaven" and both a synonym and homonym with sora[空]: "sky/heaven/void." (And it's a bit of a tangent, but that last one is the same word Kubo uses in the name Kuukaku[空鶴], Karakura town[空座町], and when Aizen says, Ten no za no kuuhaku[天の座の空白]: "The Throne of Heaven is Empty.") He was a rewritten from what was originally Orihime's late grandfather in the one-shot, which aligned more obviously with the father Heaven King role of myth.

Sado Yasutora[茶渡 泰虎] I think I've mentioned before, reads "Tea+Ferry" and "Peaceful+Tiger" which just seems to literally describe him as an immigrant(traded over on a boat, like tea) and as a gentlegiant type. It's also very possible Kubo just wanted to nickname him "Chad" and found a name he could squeeze into that, rather than worry about the meaning of the name first.

Arisawa Tatsuki[有沢 竜貴] I don't really know how to parse part of her surname here, "Posession/Existence+Swamp" seems to be the literal breakdown? It's also just an actual surname people have, as is Inoue --Sado by comparison however, is not. In any case, her personal name is "Dragon+Noble/<indicator of high rank or status>." This is why she and Orihime get a paired Princess and Dragon motif.

Asano Keigo[浅野 啓吾] reads "Superficial+Rustic/Unsophisiticated" and "Disclose+Me" basically just calling him surface level, simple, and open. He's exactly what it says on the label. Can be read like an open book. Then there's his sister...

Asano Mizuho[浅野 みづ穂] and her name is the phonetic MIDZU+"the ear of a plant/head of a spear/tip of a brush." There are kanji that could go with that but for one, I'm not just gonna take blind stabs, and besides if Kubo had wanted to ascribe obvious meaning to it, he'd have done so. No idea what to make of that one. Considering she's extremely minor and secondary to an already minor character at that, I'm willing to bet he just picked it to be aesthetically pleasing.

Kojima Mizuiro[小島 水色]: "Little+Island" "Water+Color," that is of course as in "Color (of) Water" and not to "water color paints," those have a different name entirely in Japanese. I don't know that his name really says much about him, but considering a lot of weird little details of his fairly minimal appearances across the series, I have my own crackpot theories about Mizuiro, but this isn't the time or place...

Honshou Chizuru[本匠 千鶴]: "Book+Artisan" and "1,000+Crane(s)" the association of paper craft and cranes points pretty obviously to origami, and 1,000 origami cranes (senbazura[千羽鶴]) which evokes a meaning of longevity and recovery from illness. Also the Bookishness vibe seems to be evoked in her general glasses girl design.

Kunieda Ryou[国枝 鈴]: "Country+Branch" and "(Small)Bell." "County" like a "nation/kingdom," not like "rural" as in Asano's name. The small bell evokes a clear but subtle ring, which is kind of reflected in her quiet and intelligent demeanor.

Ogawa Michiru[小川みちる] "MICHIRU" is phonetic so no attributed meaning, but her surname just means "brook/stream" (lit."Small+River") a very on the nose nod to her diminutive size. I never noticed until now but she always has different sheet music notation hairpins.

Natsui Mahana[夏井 真花]: "Summer+Well" (again, like with Inou, the structure you fish water out of, not the adverb) and "Pure/Genuine+Flower." She's an extremely minor character so I don't see there really being much overt meaning to this. Summer seems to evoke her tan*, and Flower beauty, and she's a busty tan girl. (*you know I said that on reflex, but now that i think about it, I don't know that Kubo himself ever actually drew her in color... that may have been an anime thing.)

Ochi Misato[越智美諭]: "Surpass+Wisdom" and "Beauty+Admonish" which I guess I've never looked at before now. It's not that she isn't a cute character design(and I've got a thing for kind of homely teacher characters anyway...) but I didn't realize Kubo was trying for, like, a "hot teacher" thing with her?

And those are basically all the important ones, and frankly a couple not so important ones... I'm not getting into any of Kubo's little inbetween doodles, or god forbid that ridiculous number of random Karakura High students he dumped into Burn the Witch.

(sorry i got lazy and didn't finish digging up pics for everyone, but I at least made sure to have reference for the obscure characters that some people might not remember)