#and btw its totally valid to feel disappointed with the ending of a series!

[rainandchxrries]

seeing the different reactions this site is having towards the arcane ending is making me laugh bc girl at least it isn't the jjk ending (the standards are in the underground rn)

[dorkery]

I manifest, briefly, to write about this miniseries WHICH I HAD EXTREMELY HIGH HOPES FOR, and it disappointed me so much I’m compelled to write an actual review about it. In summary, of course. If I did it in-depth, it would probably have to be on my proper blog (oops shit I haven’t updated that in ages).

INTRO ABOUT JAPAN AND WWII (skip this to get to actual review of series)

TOKYO TRIAL. Ah. The Asian parallel to Nuremberg. Media about Japanese war crimes and the subsequent actions (the trial, the rehabilitation of criminals, the adoption of Unit 731 research by American forces, the conflicts between the Japanese Imperial Army and its victims) is not as extensive as the war in Europe. In fact, the Tokyo Trials themselves were not as punitive as the Nuremberg Trial (for a host of bureaucratic reasons, but also the lack of systematic eradication of Japanese citizens, but this is a very simplified explanation). And most media about the Japanese occupation is usually Chinese or Korean (understandably) even though the Japanese did a good job fucking up the Philippines, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and so on. Also, much media about the Japanese occupation, I find, tends to be about the overall general existence of the Japanese occupation force, rather than specific historical figures (I am making a blanket statement here, I’ve watched limited amounts of Korean and Chinese language media on the Japanese occupation). There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but the lack of quantity then leaves a viewer chomping on the bit for some good historical drama. 

Part of it, probably, is due to the relative mystery of the Japanese occupation when compared to the Nazi occupation. Nazis, the Holocaust, the Third Reich are everywhere in media and have been researched and shared to death. Not so for the Japanese invasion (well, probably in English). The Rape of Nanking (book) was probably THE thing that shone a spotlight on Japanese atrocities, but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the overall Japanese action in Asia (newsflash: the Japanese ALSO tortured the people in countries that were not China, even though yes, I will readily admit they especially tortured the Chinese populations in countries that were not China). 

There is so much Good Shit TM from a edutainment perspective on stuff you can squeeze out of the Japanese invasion. DID YOU KNOW??? THE JAPANESE ARMY CYCLED - ON BICYCLES - FROM THE KINGDOM OF SIAM TO SINGAPORE OVER 2 MONTHS, CAPTURING ALL THE TERRITORY THEY CYCLED THROUGH (because the locals supported the Japanese invasion at the time - Asia For Asians! was the propaganda they put out which was total bullshit, the locals would eventually discover), AND THEN ACCEPTED A BRITISH SURRENDER. THE KING OF SIAM AGREED TO LET THE JAPANESE USE THEM AS THE BIKING ENTRY POINT IN EXCHANGE FOR “DON’T INVADE ME BRO” AND ALSO “can I have some northern malayan territory”. THE JAPANESE AGREED. You can’t make this shit up. And this is the non-atrocity part of it. The atrocity part is as vicious, but differently so, from the Holocaust (which I would prefer not to get into as that’s an entire essay in and of itself - summary: the Japanese bayonet everything - EVERYTHING - and also Contest to kill 100 people with actual Japanese swords as promoted by Mainichi and Nichi Nichi Shimbun and also soap water drinking stomach bulge boot step interrogation technique ok let’s stop this here)

You get what I’m saying. It’s an entire period of history that has not been harvested for good quality drama. And I don’t need fabricated romantic bullshit (I’m looking at you, Embun (even though you were damned good, you’re STILL BULLSHIT)). I’m talking Schindler’s List-type films, with history and gravitas and nuance. Most historical movies have immature script-writers who basically paint the Japanese occupiers as monsters (not necessarily inaccurate, but painfully one dimensional). (Digression: Recently I watched Kanang Anak Langkau which was about a Malayan (and then Malaysian) Ranger who helped fight off the Communists after the Japanese occupation ended and, man, the entire movie was flat... except the Communists??? Like, they were clearly terrible but they were well-portrayed and had great actors. So. Opposite problem. Asians are really bad at war films that aren’t Classic Period Dramas.)

As a citizen of a Japanese-occupied country, with YEARS of history textbooks dedicated to the Japanese occupation, and a generation of Japanese war survivors either dead or unwilling to discuss their experiences, in a region with... pretty bad recording of this sort of history, I think you get my interest and fascination with this entire chapter. And since I’m in a country that isn’t the centre of the Japanese invasion (i.e. China and Korea) it makes even more sense that I’m interested in the occupation and action in countries like the Philippines, Malaya and so on.  

ACTUAL REVIEW OF TOKYO TRIAL MINI-SERIES

OK. Sorry. I had to get that off my chest. SO. Tokyo Trial.

This is actually the second piece of media about the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal on video that I’m aware of (that’s been dramatised). The first one was a movie, also called TOKYO TRIAL, and it was a Chinese production (in English) from a Chinese perspective. The protagonist was the Chinese judge on the bench, Justice Mei. Tokyo Trial the Movie (TT(M) from here on out) was heavily dramatised and abridged in order to make for (well, attempted) excitement, action and historical legal thrills. It gets bogged down at times with some typical pacing problems (typical for Asian films). Like a good historical legal thriller, it focuses on victim testimony and the arrogance of the accused and of course it culminates in the feel good moment where you can watch outraged/distraught Japanese war criminals reacting to their sentences. Overall not a bad movie to watch, but not really great. Made interesting only by the righteousness of the protag and the severity and outrageousness of the subject matter. But it suffers from some stuttered pacing and an extremely narrow Chinese POV (understandable, given the protag and the production). 

Now. Tokyo Trial (Mini-Series) (TT(MS) from here on). 

Pros: Very beautiful. Decent Actors. VERY BEAUTIFUL.

Cons: Literally everything else.

HOW. HOW DO YOU CREATE A MINI-SERIES ABOUT THE JAPANESE WAR CRIMES TRIAL WITHOUT FEATURING JAPANESE WAR CRIMES????? 

Astounding. I’m truly astounded. Where to even begin.

1. The protagonist

GUESS WHO IT IS. No really, guess. In a movie about the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, guess who the main character is. I guarantee you won’t get it.

It’s the Dutch Judge.

WHY? 

The Judge, btw, doesn’t even have any kind of personal or professional link to the Japanese occupation. Even when the protag is asked by a stranded German diva about how he must have suffered during the Nazi occupation, he admits that he didn’t have it as bad as others. His family is entirely intact although they were in the Dutch East Indies when the Japanese invaded.

2. The focus of the series

can you fucking guess

it’s the goddamn judges

the entire series is about the trials and tribulations (pun fucking intended) of the GODDAMN JUDGES

DURING SERIOUS TESTIMONY OF VICTIMS AND THE ACCUSED, THE SHOTS ARE OF THE CONCERNED/CONSTIPATED FACES OF THE JUDGES

The mini-series, 4 episodes long, opens with the Dutch Judge writing to his wife and giving some decent introduction to all the major players. And then it brings into focus the various justices from around the world who will be partaking in this historical undertaking. 

The President of the Tribunal is Sir William Webb, Australian. He looks great but suffers from terrible lines and staging. BTW all the characters are extremely one dimensional WITH TWO EXCEPTIONS: The British Judge (who veers between an ally, a one-note antagonist, but is then redeemed as an anti-hero - clearly the deuteragonist) and the Chinese Judge, who is soft-spoken, well-mannered, firm but not unyielding, a clear contrast to the fiery and righteous protag of TT(M). Honestly, I think he would be the best portrayal except... halfway through, Irrfan Khan appears as the Indian Judge, and honestly Paul Freeman was so good as the British (Scottish) Judge. 

The entire series is about the judges politicking amongst one another and trying to argue about whether crimes of aggression (or crimes against peace) are valid grounds for a case, as these crimes have never existed before (cue arguing about the precedent set by Nuremberg). 

Our intrepid (barf) protag intersperses the tense boardroom confrontations (really can barely be called that: a serious point is brought up in court, they adjourn to their chambers, they START to argue, and then the Tribunal President immediately says ok let’s all go retire for the day before any interesting or insightful conversations can begin) with one-on-one interactions with (1) a German pianist diva whom he admires as he plays violin (their duet sucks btw) (2) a Japanese intellectual who hangs out at the beach (they have zero onscreen connection and exists only to instill doubt in the Dutch judge’s mind as he contemplates the trial) (3) various judges as they begin gossiping over the latest judge to pose drama in the chambers. 

That’s all. Honestly. That’s the content of the mini-series in a nutshell.

3. The pacing and the script

god it’s so 

MEALY

Every scene, EVERY SCENE, is played as grave and solemn

You think this isn’t bad? Every single scene begins with thoughtful pauses and long poignant looks, even over such lines which you can picture your grandpa and uncle just quipping at each other (”The marathon begins” “I’d rather hope it would be a sprint”).

Mealy = the actual script is so awkward. It doesn’t sound like human beings talking. It’s a mouthful. ugh.

Pacing = Example: in episode 3, probably, literally 3 scenes side-by-side, 2 judges talking to each other as they walk down a path. Each scene is: A asks B about C. And then it is immediately followed by D asking C about B. CAN YOU IMAGINE??? They don’t intersperse the shot at all. It’s just 3 conversations in a row gossiping. 

Pacing 2 = time passes but badly. Suddenly a year has passed, but we don’t get a sense of it unless we’re told; there’s no difference in appearance or speaking manner among the judges. there’s no real development at all, except for the position of the Dutch Judge whose position on crimes of aggression changes as he gets pulled in several ways by several people, and you end the series without any feeling of resolution or satisfaction. AT ALL. I feel like you end where you start in terms of the arguments and everything.

4. Reflections

I’ve discovered that this mini-series was nominated for an emmy in 2017 for best series. I’ve also discovered 2 reviews (ONLY) online for this series, one on a blog and on one iMBD, both praising the series for being good for history buffs that showcases an unknown part of history.

i) That is not accurate. It is a terrible series that showcases the politics and drama of the tribunal judges, and not of the japanese war crimes. literally nobody needs to know, or care, about the judges of a war crimes trial (british, canadian, US, NZ judge conspire to get the president replaced, he leaves, US judge is chosen as his replacement, HE COMES BACK, NOBODY CARES) (aside with Blakely the US lawyer and what he’s trying to accomplish in court with his controversial and it’s not explained and ignored later)

ii) Historic footage is interspersed, meaninglessly. This includes the footage of the accused and 2 victims giving testimony, I believe. It is THE MOST INTERESTING part of the series. The footage used is minimal. And it just doesn’t gel with the whole series as a whole.

iii) This show was made by a Japanese crew and NHK so. 

All in all, from an entertainment perspective, Tokyo Trial failed to be compelling, interesting or noteworthy. The actors were bogged down by a bad script and weak direction. If you want to watch a show about the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, watch the older Chinese movie - less accurate but way more entertaining, and it ACTUALLY focuses on Japanese war crimes.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

I never really had ships that I was “seriously liking” in deh but kleinsen.... i think I like it

yeah deh doesn’t exactly give you a world of options, and everyone’s a hot mess, but kleinsen? kleinsen truly has it all

pining....mutual pining but they don’t realize it because both characters are clueless and repressed as hell....unrequited love if you want to be tragic about it....childhood friends with a relationship going back at least a decade......sharing a secret....partners in crime....you can explore their post-gfy reconciliation....lost love becoming found....confessions about all kinds of things because neither of them has been talking about their real feelings re anything....apologies....college dating....

like it’s just that real. jared’s motivations in the whole thing are honestly that focused on evan and evan alone and all about being in love with him and wanting that relationship that’s realer and closer. it’s just literal canon that everything he does is because all he wants is a relationship with evan; he's in love with him. he and evan roleplay this idealized Perfect Friendship where evan projects onto this fictionalized version of himself and jared projects onto this fictionalized version of connor, and jared wants the roleplay to be about being secret gay high school lovers, which, if saying “lovers” wasn’t unhetero enough, he tells evan that he would say there’s something quite beautiful about the love that one man feels for another

then there’s also how a breaking point for jared is just seeing zoe politely kiss evan, which happens after jared offers up the “my parents aren’t home, wanna hang out and drink” situation, which if it was a guy/girl exchange would be read by like 99% of the audience as a come-on, and the way jared is canonically heartbroken after evan lashes out at him. which is also just Interesting because we see that jared understands evan (”you couldn’t stop.”) but the things evan says to jared in their gfy suggest that he’s also understood jared beyond the front that jared puts up, but now he’s lashing out and, like he was with alana, is kind of being cruel about it, which like.....the balance between how they hurt each other and Don’t hurt each other this whole time is just a lot of fun on its own. jared’s supposedly the too-mean guy with how he teases evan and for an unknown amount of time up to the beginning of the play has been maintaining some distance between them, but he also does a lot for evan that might not be what evan thinks his “ideal” is (like say, how jared comes up and talks and listens to him on the first day of school but it’s supposedly a Disappointment b/c he doesn’t sign his cast) and that ends up being fairly taken for granted; meanwhile evan is like, at least politer on the surface lol but the way he ends up dismissing jared is on the passive side, but he’s basically ditching jared entirely as opposed to jared acting like he doesn’t care too much one way or another but never truly committing to Not being friends with evan. just slap a condition on it and you’ve got deniability like, oh no dude i’m just yearning for you because my mom said to. and then he starts helping evan with this wild situation but evan’s ditching him because he has the imaginary friendship jared’s helped him invent and also a gf, which, yknow, nothing straighter than jared being bitterly jealous of that!!! evan is totally a jerk also lol...again, they’re both so clueless and repressed and total messes. therapy for everyone

also it’s great how evan thinks he has to Act Always Nice and hide whatever he really thinks, but when it’s just evan and jared during sincerely me? evan doesn’t do that, and jared doesn’t mind it in the least, but rather actually enjoys it (also s/o to this scene kind of cementing the idea that jared thinks the only way he can get attention from evan is by annoying him, which only seems to be reinforced later on in act 2 with how evan seems to be brushing him off or trying to deal with him as little as possible, but when jared’s attempts to get his attention resort to “touch on the harsh truths about what evan’s doing,” evan focuses on him). and yknow, speaking of, jared knows the harsh truths about what evan is doing and that it’s messed up and that evan’s motivations aren’t exactly selfless and pure, but he still wants to be actual friends and is still backing him up and even after gfy, jared doesn’t tell everyone everything like he said he could, or do anything else to get back at evan. because evan’s talking about how nobody could know about the things he did and nobody could know about what he’s really like and still love him, and yet jared totally does know so much about the truth of things he’s done and the truth of what he’s like (btw when do we ever see evan being as unguarded and open as he is during sincerely me!! he’s never at ease in that way at any other point!! and jared, who doesn’t want to ever be Actually Confronted, is totally comfortable having these little arguments with evan and getting that reaction of annoyance/frustration from evan, nbd) and does still love him

just like, ugh. jared coming in on the first day of school, trying to seem cool, trying to seem confident, trying to seem like evan isn’t his only friend, and then during gfy having a broken heart because he went and wanted evan too much and decided to actually just try to be close to him......it’s not like evan realizing that he and jared could be Real Friends, even if it’s not evan’s fantasy of what the perfect sparkling friendship would be like, would be bringing that arc with jared full circle or anything!! not like it wouldn’t be right in line with the other Themes of the climax/finale of the show!! nbd!! not like jared, aside from connor, is the only character who hasn’t gained anything at all by the end of the play, only lost something. that something being the guy he was in love with and his only friend. because of the fact that jared started caring even more and actually trying to be closer to evan rather than distancing himself, and if he hadn’t been doing that they wouldn’t’ve had that fight in gfy, and also it’s not like that fight wasn’t something jared needed to do too, b/c jared goes around avoiding confrontation and running away when he’s upset and in that instance he finally was directly confronting evan (and almost directly expressing his feelings, but still not quite) but then evan lashes out and breaks jared’s heart and jared runs away anyhow. and then they don’t get their own reconciliation in any form b/c, we can only speculate why. but we can also easily decide it happens 5 minutes after the play ends, who says that can’t happen. or five years! no rules! and everything would still be utterly canon compliant, because kleinsen is already just that canon

like, they’re both Longing after each other, just that evan’s doing the desperate longing on the first day of school while jared’s trying to act like he’s got no vulnerabilities or real desires, then jared’s desperately longing for evan while evan’s getting distracted by his own antics and caught up in this fantasy life where he has his idea of the perfect family and gf and secret best friend who is no longer alive and an existence that Matters because he’s been validated by the attention being given to tcp. and both of them put up these fronts, and both of them are crap at communication, but if they could get in sync and actually talk and show each other what they’re really feeling...........boy

it’d be great, is what i mean

plus just, yknow, jared is clearly gay as hell but is either repressing that to a degree or at least trying to repress the gayass feelings he has for evan, and evan is probably managing to be even more clueless and repressed on that front, so that’s a further instance of how getting together would mean accepting their Real Feelings in a new way. plus like, you know evan’s dating history is probably just a series of “yearning after some girl he’s never talked to and never will” interrupted by this weird instance of pretending to be the best friend of a guy who died, and god knows if jared ever had a gf it was probably like, a two month occasion that never really got off the ground, also it’s funny to think that it was a girl who was also actually super gay but it was all just pretty much a mishap caused by a paroxysm of feeling the pressure of Compulsory Heterosexuality and trying to interpret any feelings like “hey this person seems cool” as “well, i suppose this is a straight crush” and they’re both kind of actually terrified of doing anything more than maybe holding hands and possibly kissing once and then deciding that they’ve checked that off the list and thus that means they don’t have to do it anymore right? cool. and they kind of just hang out every now and then for a while until eventually they acknowledge that yeah no this isn’t gonna change and then jared just never dates anybody again because unbeknownst to him he’s in love with evan and then maybe eventually it’s beknownst to him, whether its prior to the play or during or afterwards. shoutout to the idea of jared experiencing heartbreak and only figuring out that it was heartbreak like months or years later. gay disaster

anyways the point? evan finding that Person To Know Him So Well And Love Him? jared actually being able to embrace his real emotions and desires he tries so hard to hide and for once be able to be Deeply Secure? well that’s kleinsen.

[bizarre-dollhouse]

Discussing the intersection of expectations, culture, and narrative structure when it comes to suspension of disbelief and perceived narrative quality (using Kuroshitsuji and Sherlock season 4 as examples)

The title makes this sound kind of smart but in reality this is another really really long and totally incoherent ramble that accomplishes nothing it’s just something I thought was interesting and wanted to rant about. I’m sorry. One day I’ll go back to writing clever text posts I just don’t know when that day will come.

TL;DR: I thought of what it would be like to describe the 2ct becoming canon to someone who’s never heard of it and it sent me on this long spiral of thought where I concluded that the cleverness of a plot twist can be weighted on toooootally different criteria depending on who you ask.

Honestly the 2ct becoming canon is the most bizarrely conflicting plot twist to ever happen to a fandom.

Like, on the one hand I legitimately think that it was a good twist although who knows it could fall apart in the future only time will tell. I say that because in retrospect it was blatantly obvious (especially in the Boat arc and the Green Witch arc) but Yana still framed everything in such a way that it still felt ambiguous. Evidence piled up piece by piece so each thing on its own could be like “nah, it’s just a coincidence” but once it’s all together it starts to be like “....that’s a lot of coincidences.....hmmmmmm”

Plus, it’s a fun twist even if you figure it out before hand. Also, if you did put all of the pieces together you get that fun feeling of accomplishment that comes with solving a puzzle. 

On the other hand, one of my friends was really into to kuro, but (as far as i know) she’s not caught up past the green witch arc and she doesn’t keep up with the fandom on tumblr, so she probs doesn’t know about the 2ct or that it’s canon (and even if she does then idk make this a hypothetical friend it still works).

I’m like

What would she even say if I told her that Ciel has a twin brother? I can’t imagine it being anything except for “what the fuck! that doesn’t make sense and came out of buttfuck nowhere!”

Which is weird bc, as stated earlier, I think it was a plot twist which was easy enough to figure out, but maybe if you weren’t looking for hints then it’s actually a bad twist.

But on another level, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either. Because a twist that you can figure out is good, but if it’s too obvious then it just feels like a stupid non-twist. And, like I said, I think Yana did a really good balance of “in plain sight” but also kind of ambiguous (that’s also just my opinion, though). 

Sooo...why do I think it would feel so out of left field and terrible if you didn’t figure it out?

I think the elephant in the room is the fact that it’s the most cliched plot twist in the history of western media. Ever. Any parody of a soap opera being used for comedic purposes shows how corny and stupid soap operas are by showing someone had a secret twin. Fucking Gravity Falls had the twin twist but they still had a fake show to make fun of how cliched their own canon plot twist was. It’s mostly only annoying if it’s to create artificial drama or legitimately comes out of nowhere (which I’ll get into later), but it’s still a joke at this point from being used in the past.

it’s a cultural meme.

And this is super fucking unfair because, as akumedeenglish points out, it’s not a trope in Japan, so for Yana and her Japanese fans this is probably purely and unironically rad.

But for any member of the Western fandom who hasn’t heard of the 2ct or just thought the idea was stupid, it feels really stupid. 

If I were to tell someone who doesn’t get into kuro theories something like “hey, John Brown turned out to be a grim reaper!” their reaction would probably be more positive even though there is waaaaaaaay less evidence for that actually being a thing even though i want that to be a thing.

But at least you can take it seriously.

I feel like the main reason people hated the 2ct even before it became canon is because it is physically impossible to not think it’s dumb on some level just because it’s been made fun of so much, even if from a technical writing structure it makes perfect sense.

Expectations and specifics can greatly affect the public perception of a good twist. My absolute favourite comparison to make is the twist in Sherlock season 4, which is literally the worst twist of all time ever. In that show, Sherlock also has a super secret sibling, except it makes no fucking sense. Sherlock apparently magically forgot about her, and apparently she had the ability to mess with him at anytime but just...chose not to for several years.

Also she can fucking control people and see the future in a show that is not science fiction and is supposedly set in reality.

Like nothing was building up to the twist except for like one line where Mycroft says something about “the last one” or something implying maybe there was another Holmes. Still dumb, and still last minute. But because of that people weren’t dedicated to an expectation that the sibling theory wasn’t canon, so there was no disappointment, just shock.

Followed by disappointment when the next episode aired.

But what made me paranoid was that my mom (who also hated season 4 of sherlock by the by) had a coworker who totally thought that it made sense and wasn’t contrived as shit. My mom said something that made me rethink the entire structure of a show like Sherlock compared to the Kuro manga.

“He was defending it”.

So of course I sat down to have an existential crisis about the nature of plot twists and narrative structure. “Am I just defending a shitty plot twist by telling myself it wasn’t shitty?” I thought to myself while sitting with my fist under my chin in an intellectual position of philosophical thought.

No, with a “maybe” on standby in case this whole Phantomhive twin thing totally sucks in future chapters.

Like i said, the 2ct follows the structural rules for creating a good plot twist. It makes narrative sense, and you could figure out before hand while still having fun with it. The same fucking plot twist was total bs in Sherlock for the reasons mentioned above (btw I should point out that I actually like the first two seasons of Sherlcok before anyone has my head. I would also like to point you towards the 1.5 hour video where someone describes how Sherlock doesn’t work as a mystery bc in that video there is a clip of the directer/writer saying “ah man, if we dove into Sherlock’s backstory, that would be a mistake and no one would buy it!” ....but you did. ah yes. clearly the sibling thing was a brilliant and well thought out twist and not something you made up to look clever. way to be consistent.)

Kuro is dumb, but it’s not stupid.

Sherlock looked smart but turned out to be incompetent. 

Plus, even though I love kuro, I’m not gonna sit here and be like “oh man, that boyband arc was totally necessary and not stupid at all! I’m sure glad Yana spent 3 whole volumes describing Ciel having wacky antics at a public school!” I may have Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to this manga but I also have standards. (Actually in all honesty I was falling out of love with the series because I hated the boyband stuff so much, but real ciel brought me back XD).

(Actually, I think a valid point about the 2ct becoming canon is that the timing was baaaaaad because it happened right after a point where people where drastically losing interest in the series).

But in the end, it is a legitimately bad twist for some people for a multitude of reasons. It is cliched, even if Yana didn’t know that and it only affects western readers. It can change people’s perception of the main character in a way they don’t like. If you’re an audience member who has never heard of the 2ct, it can really feel like it came out of buttfuck nowhere. Plus, for every reader, it kinda turned the series in a weird direction??? I legitimately have no idea where this is going. It could totally suck balls. Yana could unintentionally make it follow the evil twin cliche to a point of nausea. My only ray of confidence is coming from the fact that she had a plan for this and I have foolish optimism.

So I guess at the end of the day it comes down to suspension of disbelief and level of investment/curiosity? Like, how much are you willing to accept it as a twist that makes sense and are you interested enough to see how it plays out.

But like I said, I still think it’s a good twist based on dramatic stakes, narrative consistency, and the fact that it was set up in a clever way. This becomes a lot more obvious when Kuro is compared to Sherlock season 4.

That’s my rant. bye.

[cresselian]

11 Questions Tag: Writer Edition!

Tagged by @mangaluva (aaaa my fave writer noticed me)

1) How many works in progress do you currently have?

Counting original works:

1. My Otherworld setting, which I am currently working on the first book of. Modern fantasy with fairies! And super involved metaphysics because I enjoy that sort of thing

2. A web video series I’m doing with a good friend based on Dungeons and Dragons, which is currently in the first draft phase.

Counting D&D stuff:

3. A running journal for my character in a friend’s medieval stasis campaign, which I really need to take some time to work on. Maybe I should just put a few lines for each session? But that would be reductive...

4. Nihularian, a D&D setting of my own, which I plan to run at the end of this month/start of next month. I made like 12 new races, and the world is the inside surface of a sphere, because I am Just That Extra.

5. Nibelung, a D&D setting that I pumped out intending to run for my sister and her friends. It’s a lot more conventional than Nihularian, but I enjoyed putting in politics and magic.

btw I plan to run Fate Core, not d20. d20 would be too complicated to build a totally original setting in.

Counting fanfiction that I’ve at least started:

6. My Pokemon self-insert series, AKA my first fanfic, which is so dead I can’t even describe how dead it is. I had planned all the regions, and then crammed The Legend of Zelda and Kingdom Hearts onto the end with the same characters, because I was small but ambitious.

7. The Multiple Personalities of Artemis Fowl, AKA my second fanfic, which is dead because I was so disappointed in The Last Guardian I couldn’t write in that universe anymore.

8. Pokestar Studio Productions, which I swear I’ll work on again someday. I thought it would be fun to write fanfic chapters based on the Pokestar Studios movies from Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. Mostly it turned out to be tedious, but rewarding.

9. Satisfaction and Skating, which is the only fic I’ve completed an arc for. Hi, Check Please fanfic! We start you now! A Hamilton/Check Please crossover fic that I wrote for the Check Please Big Bang last year. Planning to write more of it this summer.

10. A Kingdom Hearts self-insert series I was working on with a friend, but never posted. It was a fun experiment in writing with a full co-author, and I’m still slowly plugging away at it for writing practice.

And now, counting fanfiction that I have at least partially planned, 90% because @a-canker-in-a-hedge is an enabler:

11. A Check Please/Pokemon crossover I toyed with before the release of Sun and Moon last year.

12. A Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812/Jupiter Ascending crossover, 30% because it would bring a better plot and 70% so I can do lavish descriptions of SPACE BAROQUE.

2) Do you/would you write fanfiction?

See above. I mostly write fanfic, because I think it’s fun. I do try to do something original with it, though, because I wasn’t raised on the fanfic conventions by which character interactions constitute a plot. I need to have some sort of external driver to what’s happening to enjoy what I’m writing.

3) Do you prefer real books or e-books?

In theory, e-books. In practice, real books.

I like the idea of e-books because then I could get rid of so much clutter in my house, and they make so much more sense than using dead tree to store all our words. But in practice, I can’t survive without the feeling of an actual book under my hands. But I won’t write in either; that’s blasphemous.

4) When did you start writing?

My first piece I remember was in Grade 1, but that was a class assignment and it’s only notable for being the first time a teacher said that I’d been really exceptional at something. I believe that I can call that a catalyst?

I posted my first fanfiction when I was 14/15, but started working on it when I was 11/12. I started doing original work in earnest about a year ago, when I was 18, once I started seriously thinking about doing a university creative writing program.

5) Do you have someone you trust to share your work with?

That would be @a-canker-in-a-hedge for my fanfic. I’m remarkably cagey about original WIPs, but once the draft is done to my satisfaction I will throw it at literally anyone I think can give me feedback. The more perspectives I can get, the better.

6) Where is your favourite place to write?

I plan on the bus or in other public places when I don’t have other entertainments. I have great ideas in the shower (and then desperately hope I won’t forget them). When I write by hand, it’s mostly in bed or on the couch, and when I write on the computer, it’s in my university’s library that I get the most done. I try to write from my desk a lot, but it never works. Tumblr calls to me...

7) Favourite childhood book?

The Redwall series by Brian Jacques. I reread it continually from when I was in Grade 3 to Grade 6, without ceasing for almost anything else. There were just enough surprises mixed in with Jacques’ formulas that I could be interested but never shocked, which was perfect for a kid who loved everything to be just so.

You could probably qualify the border between my childhood and adolescence by the point at which I put Redwall aside for good and dove into my high school’s fiction section to finally read Percy Jackson and Septimus Heap.

8) Writing for fun or writing for publication?

I’d like to add a third option: I write online for validation. What other skill do I have that people will adulate like my writing? None, that’s the answer.

For real, though, I write because it’s my favourite thing to do, and because I hope to someday get published/self-publish. As one of the TAs in my Creative Writing class this term said, if I had to stop writing I’d probably lose my mind, so I may as well use it to its best advantage.

9) Pen and paper or computer?

I write so much better by hand, especially when I have a plan. It forces me to think through what I’m about to write before I get there, and it distills my thoughts to make them more easily transferable to other people. You better believe I do all my planning by hand: I think in flowcharts and diagrams, and putting those into a digital universe is too time-consuming and involved to be practical.

However, my writing is more spontaneous on the computer, and it ends up... passable, I suppose. Because University, I rarely have the time to do a draft by hand followed immediately by drafting on the computer, so I write directly onto the computer based on the planning I did in my notebooks. If I had the time to do it all by hand, though, I would.

10) Have you ever taken any writing classes?

I decided to become an author in a grade 6 class called Reading Writing Workshop, because I was the best at it. I do a lot of things because I like being exceptional with minimal effort.

In the term I just finished at uni, I took a class on writing for children (there was a bit of good info) and last summer I took an introductory class on fiction writing at the university level (it was useless, and the classroom smelled of cleaning products).

The purpose of taking a writing class, I think, should be to force the students to produce a large volume of good work for deadlines, because that’s what I need to improve. The craft of writing is something that I, personally, learned primarily from reading voraciously, and from large amounts of practice and getting things wrong.

11) What inspires you to write?

Screaming with @a-canker-in-a-hedge.

Seriously, though, it’s reading, and playing games, and going ‘huh. that’s not how I would do that’. And then the idea takes root and suddenly there’s a new writing project. Often, I won’t actually write it until there’s a deadline, and then it will get done and it will be wonderful but I won’t be pleased because I couldn’t do it until the last minute and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Anyways

I tag @a-canker-in-a-hedge, @sakura-deserved-better, @ohthewhomanity, and any other writers who happen to see this! Do the thing! Then write something!