#and then wrote it whether or not it made sense character wise

[sauntervaguelydown]

Love & Pratchett

The thing about Terry Pratchett is that he wrote about people falling in love plenty, but he never wrote about what I'd call typical romance. When love is sincere and profound it is also very... understated. Practical. Sybil & Vimes--his most famous couple--are like this. The demonstration of devotion is in small things, like wearing the horrible uncomfortable socks your wife made for you because she made them for you. There's a sense of the inevitable about them coming together.

In many cases you wouldn't know it was romance except that the recognizable formula of "boy and girl" picks it out. Look at Newt & Anathema in Good Omens--that's classic Pratchett. They barely exchange a romantic word and in fact it's almost out of Anathema's hands whether she's going to hook up with this absolute soyboy (affectionate). She's not really that nice to him. I always get the impression that the core of their connection is that they're bonded by this experience that no one else can understand. Bonding through shared experience (and even trauma) is a common theme in these subplots.

There's definitely a few showier romance plots, but they're always very tongue in cheek--for example, the literal Romeo & Juliet in Unseen Academicals where Juliet is a very good hearted but basically stupid girl and the POV character is her exasperated mom-friend. There's a lot of gags in the early Discworld novels about male and female characters who Have to fall in love because that's the way narrative works. It's not that they're doomed to be unhappy or even fake or anything, they're just not that deep. Mostly, monogamy is a mundane affair and not really the business of onlookers anyway. Admittedly, the female pov characters have a tendency to wish that things could be a bit more... dramatic. Look at Angua, she's always vaguely frustrated that her boyfriend doesn't react to their relationship with a bit more angst, but ultimately she's practical too. She just wants her partner to be a bit less practical for a moment.

I just reread Nation. Nation isn't a Discworld novel, but I think in a lot of ways it's the most condensed Terry Pratchett you'll ever find in one place. Two characters who are both clever to start with, and wise by the ending, have fallen in love with each other. It's never directly stated. No one confesses to anyone. They get teased about it a little by adults around them. They rescue each other, perform feats of unasked-for heroism on each other's behalf. And at the end, although they want to stay together, they choose their responsibility to their families--and to the future of the world--over staying together. There's one kiss on the cheek as a farewell. But you know that they're still thinking of each other, because at the end of the timeline despite living worlds apart their entire lives, they ask to be buried together.

This is, in my estimation, is the most romantic thing in the Terry Pratchett catalogue. If I can be forgiven for pretending to know the mind of a stranger, I think this is what he found the most romantic. It really is just a profound friendship, between two people who maybe don't always understand each other but always respect each other. Sex really is just a bonus thing, it's nice and certain characters (Angua, Carrot come to mind) pretty clearly have a good time with it, but it's sort of taken for granted. Even kissing isn't all that important. You can't really tell who's in love with who in a Pratchett novel just by looking for physical demonstrations of affection.

Anyway, over the years of Good Omens discourse, this has been the main thing that informs my reading of Aziraphale & Crowley. I'm not widely read in Gaiman material, so I can't speak to that, but from a Pratchett-canon lens, Aziraphale and Crowley fit the vibes of a romantic relationship pretty well. The shared experience, the sense that only they really can understand each other because no one else has seen what they've seen. The heroic gesture of Crowley in the burning shop--the respect that they have for each other, despite the occasional bitching--the "ah. so it's like that." observation of people around them. And most of all, the way they come back together at the end of the novel in a poetic but understated moment, because coming back together of your own free will and going forward together is possibly the most romantic thing that a couple can do in a Pratchett novel.

[explodo-smash]

Tenko and Kacchan - Shigaraki and Bakugou as two misunderstood children

Now that we’re in the vestige/memory mindscape for MHA's ending, and Izuku and Shigaraki are sharing memories, this is an analysis I wrote about the connections between Shigaraki and Bakugou, and how I believe Katsuki’s role in this finale will be as another vital mirror for Shigaraki to look at.

[Can also be found on twitter]

Shigaraki and Bakugou have both been denoted uniquely with some similar words/traits:

Overt Childishness/Childlike behavior

Short fuses/tempers

Arrogance

An abundance of power/strength - In general having gross/unappealing personalities etc.

This makes sense.

Because in the original ending where Dk/Bk come together to defeat Shigaraki (as laid out by Heroes Rising) - it’s fair to say the original plan was an story where Izuku and Katsuki alone embodied what society needed as the new foundation for change.

This obviously isn’t the case now, but theoretically it seems like the plan was to make Shigaraki too far gone. His ideals mixed with an enjoyment of destruction.

However, in an ending where he is not, and we’re not getting out of this situation without him being saved, the goals for a new foundation are the same with a different outlook - just the same players.

Shigaraki is seeking to be understood, first and foremost. And he is at the point where he genuinely believes no one can, even if they seek to - however it’s funny because equivalently he severely misunderstands Izuku and Kacchan in his pursuits to be seen.

It’s worth noting that timeline wise - immediately following Deku/Kacchan vs All Might, we transition into the formation of the League of Villains, where Shigaraki is contemplating his interest in Izuku.

He leaves to then go experiment with this interest with the mall, where Izuku disappoints but also inspires him to keep going.

Prior to this, he had left the Toga and Dabi hanging with an answer about whether or not he would accept them, and upon being told again the reason he is not being seen he is not understood, upon being told he has no ideals, his next plan of action was to get Bakugou.

To me, it means something that Shigaraki sought Bakugou out where the other characters had to come to him. Back when these chapters were released, there was a genuine belief amongst readers that Katsuki would fold and join the villains.

This assumption was being made by both Shigaraki, the reporters in the story, and the readers at large despite nothing about Katsuki indicating this but his personality - Shigaraki just happened to make the same mistake readers were making.

When Shigaraki looked at Izuku, he just saw another hero with lofty ideals who was not interested in putting that action to practice with things he did not understand.

However when Shigaraki looked at Bakugou, he saw someone he resonated with being suppressed, forced to change who he is, and unprotected by society at large. Remember, prior to the sports festival the only other thing Katsuki was known for was the sludge villain incident.

And even now, he looks to Bakugou as a mirror of himself, even when AFO was trying to suppress him, the things that started to wake Tenko up were things people said/did on behalf of Katsuki, seeing all the pro heroes work so hard to protect someone already gone.

If I were to give a tentative soft take on the early read, Shigaraki’s failure at being understood by Izuku and Katsuki despite seeking them out (and with the original ending put into context) it seems like the original idea was perhaps that sometimes death is another way of saving, and that Katsuki and Izuku were the main symbolic proof that society can be better when you understand one another.

Now that is clearly being challenged and slightly inverted.

Katsuki/Izuku are still serving the purpose of being the proof and evidence of what change and understanding can do, but now it’s just not as insular.

To me, it’s not a coincidence OFA was borne in the helm of a misunderstanding. Yoichi, the one outcast, suppressed, and unprotected, is still reached out to by Kudou - because he looks like someone who needed saving.

Furthermore, Kudou is the first person to sacrifice himself in the bid to save Shigaraki, betting everything on Izuku who he only grew to understand more after seeing his relationship to himself and Katsuki. Kudou and Shigaraki had similar ideas about him.

Katsuki is consistently the thread that leads to understanding Izuku.

And so while in a lot of ways I do think Shigaraki is going to be able to see Izuku’s childhood and empathize with his own treatment in society, I do think it’d be easy to write it off as Izuku just being a better person than he is, causing him to doubling down anyways.

However, Katsuki is evidence that your origins can be treacherous. You can be a horrible, simple, and destructive child, and still come out of it loved. Katsuki is the strongest evidence everyone has that Izuku isn’t bluffing, both Izuku's persistent and Katsuki's growth.

The biggest difference between Katsuki and Shigaraki is that Katsuki was blessed to have kept love in his life despite everything, and his ideals are predicated on this.

Tenko got to experience this only for a blip in time before being left behind and groomed. Izuku in all his craziness is presenting the opportunity for Tenko to remember it’s possible for him to have love in his life as well without taking the world down with him.

He just can’t do that without seeing the clearest example of that dedication in action with one of the first characters he'd managed to resonate with.

[slowcatsworld]

Julian Loki acts like an older sibling. PART 1

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Small disclaimer, as far as I’m aware his family hasn’t been mentioned in canon in the manga or the egoist bible; therefore I’m basing this off of his interactions with other characters in the manga. Also bear with me, I wrote a lot of words.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Julian Loki’s introduction: good sportsmanship

Julian Loki already acts differently than the other World 5 players in their introduction in chapter 90, both physically and personality wise. Julian is the only player that is not an adult since he’s 17, and the only one that practiced good sportsmanship throughout the whole ‘World 5 game.’

This is seen when he tells Leonardo Luna to not disrespect Japanese soccer to the Blue Lock team (when Luna states, ��Gambling your lives on a wish that will never come true..Japanese people really are the world’s top masochists!” and with his handshake/conversation with Isagi before the match started.

Despite being the youngest on his team, Julian shows the most maturity and respect towards his opponents (which is something taught to young players of every sport for them to carry this sportsmanship into the rest of their career) even though some of his teammates are a whole decade older than him and have been in the world of soccer longer.

(I love Isagi’s little profiles he makes of different characters, and how he notices Loki’s polite manners and confidence but I’ll get back to that later maybe hehe)

Julian Loki- Master Striker in the NEL: Maturity & Adaptability/Flexibility

Julian Loki was announced as the Master Striker for France’s team PXG in the Neo Egoist League, which is insane when you take into account he’s coaching players around the same age as him. (Love me a mature boy) In chapter 244/246 I think the reader is able to understand a lot about Julian’s flexibility as a coach even though it wasn’t that much explicitly stated.

PXG is beginning a match with Barca, and they start with Rin as their main attacker with Shidou off the field. Later we see Rin get swapped for Shidou, so the both of them get their turns as the star and to score goals. This makes the most sense since we, as a reader, know that Rin and Shidou so far have had no chemistry at all and the two of them do not work well together at all.

However, Julian didn’t know that prior to them joining PXG. He had to figure out a solution to this in order for PXG to perform well on the field during matches. The games are set in a round robin format with two games every 10 days (if I’m not mistaken) and PXG has played either 3 or 4 times. Plus, these aren’t 90 minute games, they’re just to 3 points. These games are relatively short, probably less than 30 minutes long (idk, I quit soccer a long time ago.) This means aside from scrimmages and training practice, Julian had a rather small amount of time to develop a play style that would suit both of these very different strikers that refuse to work together.

Julian Loki found something that worked too. Whether he experimented by placing one of the two (Shidou/Rin) in for the whole game or talked with them both about what to do, Julian made a strategy that everyone benefited from. (GUYS! Ik he stated in chap. 246 that he experimented with their play styles to create two factions on the PXG line up, but pick up what I’m putting down yk?? Adversity!)

This shows how adaptive Loki is able to be in unfavorable circumstances and create opportunities from it. Julian has been trying to create an environment that encourages Charles to grow as a player. Because of Julian’s thought process of using both Rin and Shidou at different times to help Charles, we’ve witnessed how adaptable he can be.

[irithnova]

More on Chagatai Khanate

I feel as if Chagatai Khanate is not talked about a lot by me. This is despite the fact that I pretty much have his whole characterisation and storyline planned from birth to death in my head and I have written about him before as a part of larger posts however I have not dedicated a single post to him.

I somewhat fashioned his personality off of the actual Chagatai. I also did something similar with Golden Horde and Jochi.

He really fits into the role of the ignored middle child well to be honest. Both character wise and how the actual Chagatai Khanate is perceived. From what I've seen over the years, when people reflect on the different Khanates of the Mongol Empire, they often think of the opulence of the Yuan Dynasty and Ilkhanate, or the infamous reputation of the Golden Horde in Europe, with the Chagatai Khanate often coming last and least in many peoples minds. Hell, a Khan of the Chagatai Khanate itself declared that it was a "miserabe little ulus", so its no wonder its not given as much attention.

I wrote this before in a much longer post about Mongolia's relationship with the different Khanates (Mongolia came to be the figurehead of the Yuan Dynasty) but I think Chagatai Khanate was born only one year after the Golden Horde (kind of wanted it to be poetic in the sense that this reflects the actual age gap between Jochi and Chagatai) so they're quite close in age. I think this only made him more competitive towards his eldest brother (Ilkhanate being the youngest). This is especially because Golden Horde felt outcasted to an extent as he was the representation of the Jochid territory and there was a lot of speculation about the nature of his birth - if Genghis Khan was actually his father or not. This casued a lot of tension between the actual Jochi and Chagatai, this is something Chagatai constantly berated him for. I think this is the same for Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate. Not in the exact same way of course - no one was questioning whether he was Mongolia's child or not. However as he was the representative of Jochid lands - he was seen as illegitimate by proxy if that makes sense.

Out of the three brothers, I think Chagatai Khanate was the most similar personality wise to Mongolia. Don't get me wrong, all three of them inherited his traits, such as his stubbornness, competitiveness and intelligence. However if I was tasked with knee jerk picking the one son who just is the most like Mongolia personality wise overall, it has to be Chagatai Khanate. 

This is one of the major reasons as to why Chagatai Khanate wanted to be the favoured son. Golden Horde was technically his first born, however he represents the Kingdom of  a bastard. He considered Ilkhanate a weakling who was not strong willed like he was and just bent over to whatever Mongolia said (unfortunately for Chagatai Khanate, thats exactly why Ilkhanate was Mongolia's favourite). He thought Mongolia would prefer a more hard headed son - like him. 

Considering this reasoning, Chagatai Khanate was expecting... More? From his father. More approving pats on his shoulder when he did something right, more proud smiles when he stood his ground. Sure Mongolia gave them all attention but it was never enough. He was always busy with something else or late for something. 

For the longest time, Chagatai defended his father a personal level and was extremely uptight about upholding tradition and rules. Out of his brothers, he was the one who was so anal about upkeeping proud Mongol tradition. Not that he was not a troublemaker in his own right - he most definitely was, however he was very conservative when it came to this. He could pretty much recite the entire Yassa code off by heart. Hence another reason why he thought he should be the favoured son.

Before Chagatai Khanate came to resent his father, he saw his meticulousness of upholding Mongol law and tradition as an extension of his love and respect for his father. But as time went on and there were more developments in the empire (as in, infighting between the divisions), Chagatai Khanate no longer saw it as an extension of his love for his father but as a competition. He was already given the short end of the stick when it came to the wealth of his Ulus ("miserable little ulus") which he was most definitely a sore loser about and not only that, Mongolia went on to establish the Yuan Dynasty under Khublai Khan -  a dynasty that ruled over China, posed itself as being a legitimate dynasty with the mandate of heaven, Khublai himself was very fond of China and there were whole wars fought between Khublai and Qaidu - the de facto ruler of the Chagatai Khanate, as Qaidu was more traditionalist compared to the more liberal Khublai. It's speculated that one of the discussions that took place during the 1269 Talas Quriltai was about Khublai straying away from Mongol tradition and turning to China! I explained this in more depth in a previous post I'll link here, it's a lot more historically dense but it's worth a read if you want more context. 

Even before the different Khanates went their separate ways, I think Chagatai Khanates resentment began to blossom. I think he realised that no matter how hard he tried, Mongolia would never consider him his favoured son. So he got strangely competitive with Mongolia in more subtle ways before everything blew up. Who could inspire more fear in the lesser staff, who was the better wrestler. Mongolia caught onto this and was... Not impressed. He was quite annoyed at this. I don't think he felt threatened but I do think it's funny how the son most similar to him personality wise annoyed him the most. Admitting that you're obnoxious, Mongolia? (At least in the context of this era).

Mongolia definitely had his own thoughts on Khublai and absolutely raised an eyebrow at a few things he did (like moving the Mongol Empire capital to China) however he was not expecting his children (except for Ilkhanate who pretty much always sided with him) to turn against him in such a way - and to accuse him of all people of disrespecting Mongol tradition! Yes, he was pissed. Especially at Chagatai Khanate who he saw as the instigator of it all. Despite this conflict ending, Chagatai Khanate was still very sore about it and continued being a pain to his family. What's funny is how much Chagatai Khanate and Golden Horde hated each other, but one of the only things that could unite them was when they wanted to bully and threaten Ilkhanate. lol. And I guess their shared frustration when Mongolia inevitably sided with Ilkhanate in the conflict - Mongolia/the Yuan Dynasty being one of Ilkhanates only allies (daddy's boy I guess)..

This staunch adherence to tradition did not stop though. Whilst the other Khanates became more sedentary, the Chagatai Khanate was still living traditionally (ironic as this was a factor in halting the growth of wealth in the Chagatai Khanate, something he complained about) and when the Chagatai Khanate broke up into two, the West in Transoxiana and the East called Moghulistan (Chagatai Khanate became the Eastern Moghulistan) , Moghulistan was a hell of a lot more traditional than the Western Chagatai Khanate. They upheld Chagataid tradition whereas the Western Chagatai Khanate used Chagataids as puppet rulers usually. They were even discriminatory towards the Western halfs more mixed status, and the Western half similarly looked down on Moghulistan for being "uncultured" from what I recall. Yes I do think he was hatecriming his son-

Anyways it's ironic because Moghulistan itself became increasingly Turkified over time and even adopted Sharia law over the traditional Mongola Yassa. He's my fave jock loser

Some other hcs:

Ruddy face

He and GH are similar in stature but he is slightly bigger

Bushy eyebrows

Small scar on his cheek

[bleachbleachbleach]

8/12 - 8/18/2024

I wrote a version of Renji 11 what is at this point several years ago (RIP me), and have since just been throwing random stuff/required additions into that Note with no rhyme nor reason, so it took over two hours this week just to sort it all out. But! It is sorted!

Modern-era Renji 11 consists of 3 new scenes and 3 already-existing scenes. I wrote 1.5 of the new scenes. As far as how well I think this Chapter is going, I dunno. As a narrator, Renji’s kind of like, oh hey, here’s a thought I had. And here’s another one! Which feels legit but I’m not sure if it allows the reader to understand which pieces of information are actually important for following the narrative.

You know those reblog memes that like, ask people to identify hallmarks of your writing? The concept is fun, but it wouldn't work in practice because 0.02% of anyone who might see that post would have any familiarity with my writing. SO. I WILL SIMPLY TELL YOU. My hallmarks are that I love an interstice—love having things that should be on the cutting room floor not on the cutting room floor—but am also a firm believer in stories not needing to have every scene the characters experience to exist on the page. This combination means there’s a good chance that actually relevant, defining scenes simply do not exist and only the interstitial nonsense does. I think in certain stories this can be a real thing that works. I think it can also have the effect of nothing hanging together, making any sense, or meaning anything, without certain bits of key information/certain scenes that I simply did not include because they exist in my head and therefore exist everywhere right. I think that’s where this chapter is.

Maybe the remaining 1.5 new scenes will help ameliorate that, but I feel like that’s asking a lot of them. And then, theoretically, you’d think fixing the existing scenes would go more quickly than writing from scratch, but I don’t know that they will. Because the story leading up to this point has changed enough that the characters are in very different headspaces and perceptions of each other than they were when I first wrote those scenes. Well, that’s not true—Kensei and Renji are in a very different place with each other. Renji and Hitsugaya need to have the exact same conversation but, you know… better. And FRANKLY, I do not know whether entirely overhauling Kensei and Renji will be harder or easier than merely line-editing Hitsugaya and Renji. =_=;;

I’d really like to finish Renji 11 by the end of next week, and then take some time to finish out the revisions on Rukias 7 and 10, which are the most related to Renji 11. Then I’d like to go back to do final line edits on Chapters 4, 5, and 8 before heading into the big mess of revision that is Hisagi 9, because those revisions will be most related to Hitsugaya 12.

I’m not anticipating getting much done in September, because I have a major work deadline September 30th, and the rest of autumn will probably be kind of garbage, too, and I probably won't exist. But I would love to finish Part II (so, Chapters 12 and 13) by December. Well, speaking honestly, my original hope was that I would finish Part II by May, but here it is, August, and I am still working on Chapter 11. So: I would LOVE to finish Part II by December.

—

I did a low-res mockup of the fic banner several months ago (okay, this might have been last November). I pulled out some high-res assets to work with on Friday and played around with a new design I thought was fun, but it turns out design-wise the old mockup looks much more polished. Or it would, if I were using higher-quality materials. XD So I’ll probably go back to the old design. The only reason to continue with the new one is that it reflects the clusterfuck spirit of everything that happens in this fic, but I kind of like the way the old banner puts a pretty bow on the clusterfuck lurking beneath the surface. Maybe I’ll solicit opinions once I’ve made a more serious mockup of the first version.

[pynkhues]

fun rpf stuff aside (though I'm totally fine with whatever people believe as long as no one bothers actors in real life), does it seem to you like Jacob and Sam have an unusual friendship? Or am I, as a woman, just not well-versed in guy friendships? But it seems like everyone around them agrees that they have an unusual friendship too? Thinking of Eric talking about them every chance he gets lol, and Rolin saying that he wrote a scene into the script specifically for the two of them that came out of their bond. They just seem to genuinely have so much affection for each other and they express it openly, and they talk about how much time they spend talking, and that all seems so beautifully sincere and the opposite of trying to be macho or whatever. I love it.

Haha, I love it too! It does seem like they've connected on a pretty deep level.

I don't know, I don't know either of them of course, but I think there's probably a lot of factors at play. I think true creative partnerships can often be pretty intense and binding, and that does seem to be the way they've both approached their work on the show and how they've felt about building Louis and Lestat as both individual characters, and as the show's big, beating, bloody heart. It also seems to have influenced how they choose to be leads on set.

Crews will usually say that a culture on set starts from the top of the callsheet, which I imagine would be Jacob at 1, Sam at 2, and they both seem to take that seriously as well. Eric's talked about that, as you said, but Roxane actually talked about how much they look after each other and the energy they bring to set quite a bit in her interview with Autumn too, which was lovely. I've timestamped it here if you haven't seen it:

So yeah, I think how they've chosen to create together plays a role. I also think timing probably had a bit to do with it too. Jacob's joked a few times that he and Sam are trauma bonded, which makes sense given the casting process and filming s1 all happened during the COVID lockdowns, so it was a fractuous time anyway and they were probably in a cast bubble, which I imagine added to the sense of shared experience.

I also think it probably helped that they were in pretty similar places career-wise when they started on the show. They were both fairly established in their local contexts (Jacob in the UK, Sam in Australia), but less so internationally and I think that probably a) put them both on a level footing from the get-go, b) gave them both a shared sense of what this opportunity was, and c) that their professional lives have made this pretty significant change together.

Plus, y'know, they just seem to really like each other, which is a lovely thing. So yeah! I think their friendship is something special, and whether that's a result of their personalities, the context of the last few years, or something else, who knows? I'm just glad we get to watch the result of it, haha.

[magicaldragons]

writing.

things i've learned throughout the years

speaking from personal experience, writing, whether it's for a fic or an original work, is a process that comes to everyone very differently. which is also why it took me a WHILE to figure out what worked for me.

you've definitely heard this one before, but: 1. do not worry about making your first draft perfect. it will seem terrible, and that's ok.

it's the most common writing advice i've always heard as well, and i always understood what it meant, logically, but it was a piece of advice that was very hard to follow.

the second i gave myself permission to suck, though – the moment i said "i'm going to write trash," is when everything started flowing so much more easily.

it helps IMMENSELY to just push ahead and write whatever comes to you in the moment. do not start searching up synonyms. (yeah, i see you) and if you hate a word or phrase, put a *** next to it and come back later. chances are, you'll change your mind after seeing it from a new perspective, or be able to come up with something to replace it with.

it's always easier to edit than write from scratch, so give yourself material you can edit.

2. write for yourself. write what you love – what you would read.

it definitely draws people in more than any formula you think works or a piece you deliberately craft for a specific audience.

3. as long as your writing is comprehensible, grammar means little in front of the emotion your work conveys

i've read so many works that have left such a profound effect on me, solely because i could feel the amount of heart the author poured into it, it's always easy to look past minor mistakes, as long as what the writer says makes sense.

4. most importantly, when you're starting on that path of developing your writing skills, don't show your work to anybody. hear me out:

i've written about seven stories (for various fandoms) that will never see the light of day – not because i dislike them, but because i now realize, i had to write them for me.

and these stories (and the evident progress in my storytelling skils across all of them) are what give me the most confidence when i doubt my skills.

you can always share your works in the future, but the first couple of times you venture out with a vision in mind, make yourself your audience, it prevents you from diluting your ideas with expectations of other people's perceptions.

+ and finally, a bonus point:

a lot of the writing process, is just discovering yourself, in various ways

i always used to hear writers say:

"my characters did this on their own" or "the story just wrote itself like this"

and i never understood, because MY characters never did anything of their volition, in fact, they refused to do what i intended for them to and it would be a struggle to write a scene sometimes

and again recently i had that same problem, where i couldn't for the life of me, figure out how to describe a character performing a particular action. i waited for days for any sort of inspiration or logic to strike me, but it wasn't working.

i surprised even myself though, when i highlighted the whole section and deleted it.

but as soon as i let go of writing that one scene the way i'd planned it, a completely new option presented itself, and writing THAT scene was so much easier.

so no. my characters never tell me what to do, but they tell me what they don't want to do, and the realization that common experiences in writing will manifest differently in different people, really made me realize that writing is something you should follow your instincts in.

technicality-wise, you will always keep learning and improving. growth never stops.

so it's important to do what feels true to you, and do it in a way that makes YOU feel comfortable, whether that includes taking risks, being spontaneous, or starting small.

that's when some of the best things are created.

[sprinklecipher]

How Much Dialogue Each Character has in PLvsPW

I made some graphs about the amount of dialogue each character has in Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, because I'm a graphs kind of lady :)

(Minor/oblique spoiler warning)

The color coding will make more sense when you see the 2nd graph, but it’s basically unique colors for major characters, and category-based colors for minor characters (witnesses and Flynch = blue, characters who give puzzles = orange)

I was curious what it’d look like if you grouped the word counts according to characters’ series of origin, so here’s that:

More details below the cut ~

Some notes about the 2nd graph:

“Puzzle characters” are characters who give you a puzzle (or only show up in the puzzle gameplay segments) and are not part of the trials

“Trial characters” are the witnesses and Flynch (although all of the dialogue they have outside of the trials still counts towards their total, fwiw)

The unlabeled part at the bottom of the PLvPW column is the Storyteller, with 5,200 words, and the one at the bottom of the PL column is Chelmey with 986 words (couldn’t get the labels to fit lol). Edgeworth has 50 words fwiw, which isn’t really enough to be visible (although he technically is represented on the graph, as a tiny line at the top of the AA column)

Also, in case it’s not obvious, the judges are grouped into the PLvsPW column because they’re not the same character as the AA judge. The English and Labyrinthian judges are also lumped together due to them being labelled the same in the data and there not really being a good way to separate them out with how the data is structured         

Part of my inspiration for making the second graph was that PLvPW seemed like more of an Ace Attorney game than a Professor Layton game to me based on vibes, and I was curious whether the balance of dialogue would reflect that (with the caveat that the dialogue would naturally skew towards the AA characters since the trial gameplay is more dialogue heavy than the puzzle gameplay is). To be clear, I don’t mean that as a criticism of the game or anything—I enjoyed it a lot!—I just thought it leaned more heavily on the AA side compared to the PL side, and I was curious what that leaning might look like, numbers-wise

With that said, the overall dialogue word count totals end up being 99,256 for PLvsPW characters, 63,633 for AA characters, and 48,070 for the PL characters, a 47%/30%/23% split, respectively, although notably that's counting expy characters (like Flynch) towards PLvsPW

Some observations:

Layton and Luke have way more dialogue in PLvsPW than they do across the first couple PL games (Layton has ~19k and Luke has ~10k total words of dialogue across both Curious Village and Diabolical Box combined, vs ~29k and ~18k here). I don't have data readily available for any of the later games, so IDK how those would compare, though

The overall total character-based dialogue word count is 210,959 words, which is about the same as AA1 or AA2 (which have roughly ~210k words of dialogue) but less than AA3 or AAI1 (~260k words)

The vigilantes collectively have more dialogue than the Storyteller, which is just wild to me

Data source: I used the scripts that Jozerick posted to the Court Records forums, which pulled the text from the PLvPW ROM. I wrote a python script to process those scripts further to use like this, so there’s a chance I introduced some error with that, but the numbers should be pretty accurate.

Word counts: The data set DOES include dialogue from the animated cutscenes, but it does NOT include puzzle instructions/hints, any descriptions from the Court Record, or interjections that have a gif rather than normal text dialogue (“Objection!” etc.). It also doesn’t include the dialogue from the special episodes, since those weren't included in the data source I used.

[aroace-hunter-of-artemis]

Okay thoughts on the preview of TSATS .

Spoiler alert obviously

I think that a lot of nico seemed to be mischarecterised in the preview. I am all for nico healing and changing and stuff and I am not saying he should stay the same as he was when we last saw him in ToA but it was only been a few weeks from that point so its a bit out of character. It seemed like Mark was trying to write Nico with percy or Leo's character.

The scene with solangelo+Kayla+Austin was super cute but I do think it could be written better. As in made more riordanversey.

Nico being a fan of grey sisters is probably one of the most accurate thing in this book about nico

I have made a separate post abut the mygrumpyballofdarkness

Apart from nico the other characters too were a bit out of character

Camp empty doesn't make sense. I think they should make it into very few campers or give a different explanation like the CHB campers being able to go to new rome and study there during winter as long as they serve in the legion during their stay or something like that

We saw Will's outfit in the dream coming.

The Jason scenes.... idk felt a little bit weird. I adore their friendship and do not ship them romantically. I think that the dynamic wouldn't work. I think they are better of with Jason being nico's older sibling (mom) type friend. I don't think that anything described in the book is inherently romantic btw. Friends can totally do that . But I do feel like they are trying to build something there and I hope I am wrong

Nico not having Hade's dream control is against canon cause not only does he have that power it also is important to the story line in more than one occasion. I say it would make sense if he was unable to control this one dream or his recent dreams

That being said

Mark definitely knows how to write horror. I could even say that they seem to write horror better than Rick.

That dream was the best riordanverse dream of all time imo.(plot wise)

I mean nico's mouth stitched close. Yea we are getting good plot in this.

The first scene . This is going to be amazing. By that I mean heart breaking and terrifying

No matter whether the characterisation is nice or not the plot is going to be good

What if the voice is Jason not Bob.

Nico's mom and Bianca 😭

Also Will's face turning into a monster in the dream could be a foreshadow. We all think that the turn back part is Orpheus Euridice . But what if they are misleading us. Or what if there is further more that just that. Now as good as dark!will is i don't think will is a secret villan. There is however a chance that a monster could disguise itself as will in some point of the book or maybe some haunting. Or maybe the monster wasn't attacking nico. Maybe will has more super powers up his sleeve still unknown to us and him. Tartarus brings out the worst. Maybe will can turn into something. Maybe he does that at one point to fight some monster but it terrifies nico the way Percy's poison control terrified annabeth . I know ast this point I am talking out of my ass but I am expecting this book to have multiple twists and turns that we would not have seen coming

All in all. This preview was good in terms of plot but did not do the best job in terms of characters. I say that we don't have to worry much tho cause this is just the first draft that Mark wrote and Rick would have most likely made changes to the characters to fit canon. I do think there will still be some inconsistencies but all riordanverse books have some inconsistencies.

[themattress]

From this video. I....have some issues with this.

First off, I have three criteria for acceptable retcons.

It should make logical sense in-universe and not contradict solidified facts.

It shouldn't disrespect the point made by the writer whose work it's retconning.

It should be either as compelling or even moreso than what it is replacing.

And yeah, the Ansem-Xehanort retcon covers all of those bases which is why I'm glad she's defending it! In KH1 there was literally nothing solidifying for a fact that the guy was Ansem. All we had to go by were his own words; people like the Final Fantasy crew or Mickey who would know for sure how Ansem looked like never interacted with him. Nomura co-created Ansem, Seeker of Darkness with Nojima in KH1, and Nojima wrote KH2's scenario, so no-one was being disrespected - the same people retconning the character were the same people who created him. And finally, Xehanort (the apprentice, not the Keyblade wielder!) is made more compelling through this retcon than had he simply been the real Ansem, and on top of that the real Ansem is also a compelling character who has his own arc of descending into darkness as a direct consequence of Xehanort's actions, which are themselves a direct consequence of Ansem's. Xemnas in particular benefits greatly from the retcon, since his desire to become the supreme existence now makes that much more sense character-wise.

But that's not what she says about it. Instead she says:

"It's the kind of reveal that simply would not work in any other story, and as such sets KH into a class of fiction all its own. Whether intentionally or not, the reveal that Xehanort's Heartless stole Ansem the Wise's identity creates a level of separation between certain types of fans of the story. If you're here for the characters and themes of this story and interested in the way that KH specifically likes to explore identity and connection, then no matter how weird you feel this reveal is, you're still going to accept it and keep pressing forward into the story to see how they use this retcon to advance the themes and the characters. But if you're someone who only gets invested in a story for lore and perfectly consistent world-building, this reveal is going to throw you off. And quite possibly make you feel like the story itself has betrayed you even though all its done is remain true to its own meaning and ideas. And I am 100% in the former camp and have no sympathy at all for the 'no meaning, only lore' crowd, especially since this reveal makes it so the world and history is malleable if it can be turned to serve the story's themes. The freedom and flexibility this precedent gives the creators is honestly core to what makes the series so compelling to me. The games' writers are not bound even by their own previous ideas, if what they wrote contradicts something new they want to explore. And it makes the series more thematically rich for the unbound creativity it gives the creators. From this point on, if you're on board with its approach to its own history, it's here to tell you a story packed with meaningful themes and compelling characters. And if you're not on board with it, well, it doesn't care. It's going to press on, telling the story it wants to tell regardless."

A retcon that passes those three criteria I listed before should absolutely NOT be used as a justification for carte-blanche retconning that doesn't pass said criteria under some nebulous reasoning about themes and characters. There are so many fallacies in what she just said.

To claim that only people invested in lore and consistent world-building would reject retcons in the KH series while people invested in themes and characters would embrace them is demonstrably false. How do I know this? Because I personally was invested in the themes and characters, and I along with many others feel as though all of the retconning Nomura has kept doing with the series only served to destroy the themes and characters that we were invested in...and in fact, the majority of these retcons are far more centered around lore than around themes and characters! "No meaning, only lore"? That sounds exactly like what the Kingdom Hearts series has devolved into! Since BBS, "meaningful themes" are contradicted or discarded and "compelling characters" have their entire personality and purpose rewritten on a whim just so that Nomura can change up the series' lore, since that's all he cares about.

"The games' writers are not bound even by their own previous ideas, if what they wrote contradicts something new they want to explore, and it makes the series more thematically rich for the unbound creativity it gives the creators"? First off, Nomura is the only creator in the equation here. Everyone else who was there early in is now gone. More importantly, not being bound to previous ideas makes the series thematically rich? To use the most extreme scenario possible, if I wrote a story where I hammered home that abuse is a bad thing, but then decided that abuse is a good thing actually and changed up my story to reflect that, would you say my work is "thematically rich" and laud my "unbound creativity"? No, you'd call me a hack who pissed on the message of my own story. So how is Nomura any different?

Lastly, this treatment of the KH series' crappy writing with this "rah rah, do your own thing, fight the establishment, tell a bad story if you want to and don't let the haters tell you otherwise!" rebel spirit is annoying as fuck. It encourages complacency, cult mentality and toxic positivity, which I cannot get behind. This entire argument of hers is also based on a fallacy: the Ansem-Xehanort reveal, which as I already detailed passed the acceptable retcon criteria, "would not work in any other story"? To that, I must refer to this post and that reveal:

This operates the exact same way as the Ansem-Xehanort reveal: you previously thought this character was one thing (Ansem / the man who killed Luke's father) only to learn he's actually another thing (Ansem's apprentice who stole his master's name / Luke's father himself). It didn't contradict anything concrete since all we had to go by before were someone's words ("Ansem" / Obi-Wan), it didn't disrespect a previous writer's work, and it gave us a more compelling story and character than the more simplistic ones we had before. Yes, the aftereffect of one is that two characters were combined into one while the aftereffect of the other is that one character was divided into two, but otherwise it's the same. So clearly, there are other stories, very famous stories, where reveals like this can work. KH ain't that special.

Bottom line: the Ansem-Xehanort twist is defendable. Nomura and the KH series are not.

[sleepyowlwrites]

Dragon Ask:

Wing: share a snippet that you daydreamed about before writing it (or a snippet that you were really looking forward to writing.)

Talon: share a snippet that tugs at your heartstrings- can be sad or happy!

Teeth: share a snippet that was difficult for you to nail down/required a lot of revisions.

Scales: share a snippet that describes something. (can be a person, a place, a feeling, etc.)

Fire: share a snippet with some dialogue you’d like to show off.

Ice: share a snippet where a character is taking a risk.

Poison: share a snippet that’s all about relationships (good or bad).

Breath: share a snippet that makes you laugh.

Storm: share a snippet where a character is angry.

Tail: share a fluffy or cozy snippet.

this has been sitting here for ages so I'm going to use my fanfic for it because I can, because I want to. because sometimes I reread my own fics as a comfort/coping mechanism and they're good stories! I want more! oh no!

Wing: a snippet I daydreamed about before writing

from Meta-portal, my great fantasy kpop crossover fic (the rewrite) that I have abandoned. sometimes I can still hear its voice.

we gotta start the story somewhere, so I'm starting it here, in Soul City, on the night that Younghoon decides to investigate the lion he's convinced he saw in the woods the other night. since his brother is busy researching, Younghoon gets Haknyeon to come with him, because his brother Juyeon says he's not allowed to go into the woods by himself. this is wise, because Younghoon has a lousy sense of direction and will get lost. turns out it doesn't really matter about direction or not, because they've barely made it past the tree line before Younghoon spots something shiny and runs after it. Haknyeon sort of hurries along behind and is consequently too late to stop Younghoon from tripping and falling into a bush. the bush has a discarded mirror in it, for some reason, and instead of hitting his head, Younghoon goes through the mirror and disappears. Haknyeon stares at it for a few seconds in shock before somebody else pops out of the mirror. then the mirror cracks and starts smoking a little. the new person is not very perturbed by this and instead just asks, "is this northern scarlentis?" "no," Haknyeon answers with some difficulty, since he's still in shock. "this is amarantis." "oh wow," the stranger says. "I came somewhere totally new this time." just then, Jacob - the witch who lives in the woods - comes through the trees, a little out of breath. "I sensed trouble. was I right?" "I hope not," the stranger says. "I'm Jisung." Haknyeon rubs at his eyes. "see that mirror? Younghoon went through there." "and I came out!" Jisung should really be perturbed but maybe he goes through strange portals all the time. Jacob inspects the mirror. "it's a portal," he says, rather unhelpfully as all present understand what it is, or was. "I guess you better come home with me. we'll talk in the morning." it's not even midnight but Haknyeon agrees to sleep over and they tromp through the woods to Jacob's house.

Talon: a snippet that tugs at my heartstrings

from Good Brother, my KinnPorsche fic that I wrote based off of several gifsets and my love of complicated brother relationships

It's five in the morning. Kim can't stand being in this bed, in this room anymore. He doesn't want anyone to see him, but he can't stay here. He leaves the confining space of too much empty space on unsteady legs and creeps out of the house.

The garden is quiet and the sun isn't up yet. A line of pale yellow lurks at the horizon line, waving hello. Kim knows his movements are being tracked. There’s no true solitude in this house. Just another reason why he hates it. He chooses to be alone, but he fears it.

Kim stands in the garden, shivering in the early morning despite the heat already sitting dead in the air. He’s good at being alone. He despises it.

Footsteps sound from behind him. Someone is going to break the illusion. Kim doesn't know whether to be grateful or not.

"I hope you know I don't get up this early for just anyone."

Kim pretends he isn't startled to hear Tankhun's voice. He certainly wouldn't have predicted it. "No one asked you to get up."

"I did," his brother sniffs, coming around into view. "Kinn said you were sick and I told Arm to wake me if you tried to sneak out, which I knew you would do."

"I'm still here," Kim points out, feeling too tired to argue further.

Tankhun rolls his eyes, something he's good at. "You want to run out, though." His tone is matter of fact.

It is fact. Kim just shivers more.

A blanket is draped around his shoulders.

"Thank you," Tankhun says to someone behind him, drawing the edges of the blanket together and securing them in Kim's hand.

Kim needs to say something, snap out a witty retort, shove his brother away. He accepts the blanket and turns his face a little. It's just as hard to look at Tankhun as it was to look at Kinn.

Teeth: a snippet that was difficult for me to nail down/needed revisions

from Blood Curse, the fifth part of my Blood Cultivation series, a The Untamed fanfic. honestly, this part STILL needs another edit, but it's been three years so I don't know if I'll ever do it.

Meili had expected it, honestly. She’d been expecting it since her father had first appeared in front of her in Lanling some days ago. Even with the brief encounter during their nighthunt, he hadn’t really tried anything extreme. It had been surprising that he’d waited so long to make a move, choosing instead to bait her and let her friends work on the problem that she’d been living with most of her life and never thought anyone else would know about. Meili had assumed that she’d spend her days cleaning up after other people and avoiding her father and eventually her cultivation would get the best of her and that would be that.

She had never dreamed of developing close friendships or befriending sect leaders or telling anyone the reasoning behind her unorthodox cultivation. Secrets were her close friends; breaking her silence was the enemy. Sharing a secret had the power to kill, but she’d just handed it over without even a struggle. Besides the obvious one. She hadn’t tried so hard in years to tell anyone all her greatest regrets. The loss of her core and her choices on certain matters had ceased to be something she mourned, being instead something she just accepted. If she couldn’t speak about her horrors, she would at least avoid them. She would refuse to commit more sins.

Watching her father pace back and forth in front of her was like a nightmare come true. Everything she had ever hoped to conceal or ignore stood there, imposing his insistent chaos on her desire for peace. Meili traced the sigils drawn in blood on the ropes binding her hands. She’d found them almost immediately, erasing what was written and instead pricking her finger on a sharp bead embedded in her robe and writing her own in their place, infusing the blood with an energy signature so faint that her father would never sense it.

Wei Wuxian probably would, if he decided to ignore her warning and come after her. It was all the help she was willing to ask for at this point. Couldn’t her father see that he would never get anywhere with her? Wasn’t her initial refusal so many years ago enough? What he’d asked of her a few days ago was of course going to be refused as well.

“You’ve valued your own life well enough this far,” he’d snarled at her, flitting in and out of focus like a mirage. “If you can value it so preciously all these years and keep your silence, then you will value it enough to do this for me, for us. And there’s not nearly so much time now. You will either kill Sect Leader Jin or you will die and then I will take control of you and all your running away will have been for naught.”

Meili had no intention of being anyone’s puppet. That was what the talisman stuck to the inside of her robes was for. When the new adjustment to the curse inevitably killed her, her body would burn to ash, leaving her father with nothing. Sure, she wasn’t eager for death, but if there was something she valued more than her own life, it was those that deserved to live were able to. Also, it would be satisfying to know that her father would lose his greatest creation.

“I really don’t know why you expected anything else from me.” She said it to the air, not interested in seeing the rage on her father’s face.

Jin Feng had enough quiet madness in his voice to set her on edge anyway. “I never expected much from you. You were the one always surpassing my low expectations. If you hadn’t been so clever, I might have given up on you years ago.”

“You wouldn’t have. Once you’re obsessed with something, you won’t change your mind. I was a plaything and you strung me out to dance for you.” Meili tried not to let her own anger cloud her senses. The sound of her father chuckling to himself was hard to ignore. “And of course, once Xue Yang saw something in me it was all over. Even if I’d played dumb you would have just killed me and made me a puppet right there.”

“A child puppet would hardly have been useful,” Jin Feng said, far too casually. Meili dug her nails into her palms to keep herself steady. “I would have simply hurt more people to coerce you. If perhaps you were less of a wilting flower, able to see justifiable costs, I might have taken longer to reinvent you.”

Scales: a snippet that describes something.

from Heartbeat, my first The Lost Tomb Reboot fic. sensory descriptions my beloved.

Liu Sang watches the sky crackle along its seams and flash purple for a moment. There’s a pause that seems too lengthy, making him wait in unearned agony until the following crash of sound reverberates throughout his whole body, hissing at the tips of his fingers. There's a sizzle across his collarbones, a fresh sting in his cheek when he bites the inside.

A storm is a natural, normal occurrence. The air hums with humid energy around him, there are birds beating hard against the wind and trees bending gracefully beneath it. Liu Sang breathes and the same air catches in his throat and hurts to swallow. The natural is fast becoming the unnatural.

He can hear it, surrounding him. He can hear all of it. He can hear Wu Xie’s strong lungs, unperturbed by the weather, can hear Pangzi’s slightly wheezier breath as they hike along the trail. He can also hear Pangzi mumbling under that breath about dinner and how he’s going to have to fend off Wu Xie as he cooks. Liu Sang can hear his ouxiang at the back of them, hear how his heartbeat never changes pace no matter how rough the climb gets, unless Wu Xie slips on a rock, in which case it trips for only a singular beat before relaxing again.

It’s a comfort, or it usually is, when Liu Sang can measure his breaths along with the others’ and calm himself by the mere reassurance of their presence around him. But here, the sky splits and spits and the thunder answers its signals with a coarse trail of anger and Liu Sang feels himself drifting. And falling. His feet catch on a root, which seems to become a hungry claw in the dark, and he doesn’t have the breath left in him to shout as he tumbles.

The trees morph their shapes in front of him and the dirt under his feet becomes a smooth stone floor. There is darkness around him and the air tints green and the thunder is everywhere. Liu Sang is surrounded by both silence and sound and he can’t hear a thing.

He can’t- he can’t hear a thing. There are shapes in the shadows, there are specters creeping past. The ceiling lights up in one moment and descends upon him the next, burrowing past the pillars and soaking him in rain. The shadows cloak him in colors, there is hurt, hurt, he can’t hear the enemy but it kills him regardless, it wraps him in terror and laughs at his pain. Liu Sang can’t hear the mockery, he can’t think with these things, these things clinging onto him. They want to bury him, to erase his existence.

He’s being buried by purple sunlight, by the birds he can’t hear, by the trees made of bronze; the dirt on his skin welcomes him. He’s a thing of nothing, he’s alone, he can’t hear-

He can’t see-

He can’t breathe-

Something strikes his chest like the lightning in the sky. Liu Sang opens his mouth and fresh, mountain air floods his senses. His head aches. The birds are rustling in the trees above his head, can he hear that? Is he only imagining what he believes should exist? He peers out between the raindrops as sees nothing but blurry branches and lumbering shapes above him.

He can’t hear-

He can’t see-

“Jinx, I swear if you don’t say something I’m going to punch you and then both of us will hurt and it will be a bad night for all of us-”

Liu Sang blinks. And breathes.

Fire: a snippet with some dialogue I'd like to show off.

from Beating Hearts, the sequel to Heartbeat.

“Are you still mad at me?” He says to the jacket across from him, his voice coming out a lot croakier than he intended.

Pangzi lets out a noisy breath, shaking his head. He shakes his coat a little, causing the tiny flames to waver and wilt for a moment. “Who said I was mad at you?”

Liu Sang shivers in his wet clothes. They sit uncomfortably on his skin, like they’re trying to become the next layer. “I underestimated you. Again. So you’re upset with me.”

“Honestly, Jinx, it’s just a wonder you can think of such a thing when you’re so cold. Take your coat off and let it dry a little.”

“It won’t help very much.”

Pangzi’s exhale is even noisier this time, the frustration clear in how he stutters into it, how his heartbeat hitches along with his temper.

“Liu Sang,” he starts, and it never bodes when when his real name is brought into things, “I’m trying to take care of you. I’m always trying to take care of you. Why won’t you just let me?”

Liu Sang slowly strips off his jacket to give himself something to do, the squelching noise of it making up for his lack of an answer, at least temporarily. He’s colder without it, but he bites his lip to keep his teeth still. He spreads his outer garment out over his knees and on the ground, holding the side of it up like a wall between him and Pangzi. He measures his breaths, counting them as they go in and out. As he does, he catches himself counting Pangzi’s breaths, too. They’re not any calmer than his own, which is distressing. His fingers slide along the edges of his jacket, feeling the stiff material of threads swollen with water and dirt. He’s distressed to know that Pangzi is distressed.

“How can I let you,” Liu Sang says, slow and hesitant, with his eyes still on the ground, the words like acid as he forces them off his tongue, “when I know that nothing will last?”

He can’t look up at Pangzi, he can’t bear to, so he listens for cues in the other’s heartbeat instead. It gets louder, angrier, and Liu Sang has caused it.

“I used to think, sometimes, that Xiaoge wouldn’t return to us. That maybe I or Wu Xie would die, or that something would separate us, and all three angles would be left alone, or one would be left without the other two.”

Liu Sang brings his head up without meaning to, startled by the strange color in Pangzi’s voice. It’s not resignation, and it’s not fear. He’s just musing, thinking out loud.

“But those sorts of thoughts are useless. Someone must die first, or leave first. That will happen eventually. Until then, we just have to press on as we can and enjoy everything. Xiaoge will outlive us all, but he keeps coming back to us even so. Why does he do that?”

It isn’t a real question, so Liu Sang keeps silent.

Pangzi continues, his face tilted up toward the ceiling. “I won’t speak for him. He can do it himself. But I know that he believes in us, in our friendship. And it didn’t happen overnight.”

Liu Sang keeps his gaze steady when Pangzi drops his eyes to meet his. He doesn’t waver, doesn’t flinch.

“We built this,” Pangzi says, with so much feeling that it’s palpable in the air. “We built our triangle from the ground up and grew to trust each other gradually. It took time. But here we are. And here you are, with us. And you’re not just with us. You’re part of us, okay? We chose you and you can choose us, too.”

Liu Sang trembles under the weight of those sentences. “It’s hard to trust,” he hears himself say, distantly, like his voice doesn’t really belong to him.

Pangzi nods. “It is.”

Ice: a snippet where a character is taking a risk.

from Blood Energy, part two of my Blood Cultivation series.

Blood and poison, her two true companions. As Meili spun the resentful energy into clean energy and send it spiraling down the path, she couldn’t help feeling the pain of it all a little deeper than she normally would. She had been introduced to people who accepted her and talked to her with respect. How was she supposed to be satisfied with the loneliness of her persecuted wanderings now?

And then a real, audible scream echoed across the field from the mountains behind, followed by shouts from her companions in response to it.

Mountain demons. This task would remain unfinished, then. Meili slowly separated her blood from the resentful energy and drew it back into her body, some of the poison coming along and burning through her veins. She couldn’t allow it to remain, but would have to purify it later. In the meantime, it would give her enough strength to fight the demons. As she emerged from the cloud of resentment, Sizhui and Jin Ling hurried up to her, their faces taut and serious.

“Senior Lin, it was only one scream and there was no answer. It’s only a single demon. We should be able to take care of it ourselves. Are you able to fight?”

“I am.”

“Come on, we can’t let it attack the villagers.” Jin Ling was all business after his initial gaze of scrutiny washed over her, his earnest desire to protect the innocent people below him bringing out a bit of pride in Meili even though she’d only just met him.

“Let’s go, then.”

—

In retrospect, Meili could’ve done better, could’ve fought better, could’ve protected herself and her companions better.

But things were always easier in retrospect. At the time, she had been in severe pain from the heavy battering the resentful energy gave her as she’d worked to purify what she could as well as the vestiges of it lingering in her body after pulling her blood back to her. She was considerably weaker than either of her companions, and she was weaponless. She’d let her guard down and it had stayed down. Meili tried to swallow her anger as decisions that could not be undone and instead focus on what was happening in front of her.

Jin Ling and Sizhui were excellent fighters, she could see that. And it was only one mountain demon. Though they were fierce creatures with swift movements, a lone mountain demon was no match for the two cultivators at full strength. Meili was mostly occupied with keeping the resentful energy surrounding them all from aiding the creature in its fight. When it finally fell dead, its own negative energies quickly seeped into the ground despite Meili trying to prevent it. She was caught up in pushing the energy currently under her control behind a talisman barrier when new talismans took the place of hers and held strong.

The jolt of it sent her staggering, control lost. Absently, she watched her own blood leak from her skin and pool in the grass. In another moment, Sizhui was beside her, wrapping her hand with a cloth and Jin Ling crouched beside him, eyes full of curiosity and a little bit of fear.

“Explain.”

“Later,” Sizhui said, tapping on Meili’s face with a hesitant hand. “Senior Lin?” He set his hand on her shoulder and Meili regained control of her spiraling mind. She sat up.

And turned to spit dark, poisoned blood into the grass.

Poison: a snippet that's all about relationships.

back to Good Brother.

His little brother is silent, which is an alarm that keeps going off. Tankhun wants to shake him, to shake some words out of him, to get rid of that horrible melancholy that Kim is wearing. He doesn't, because that would be cruel, and he refuses to be cruel.

Kim sits on the couch where Tankhun puts him, clutching at the blanket like it might fly away. He lets Tankhun feel his forehead, doesn't shy away when he huffs at the heat he feels trapped there.

Tankhun tells him to sit still and not move, which is a test. Kim fails it completely, because he doesn’t move, which puts a feeling of strangulation at the base of Tankhun's throat. Kim is not like this and he hates it.

"Alright, we'll have something light that your stomach can handle. And you need fever reducers, and after we eat you're going back to bed, no arguments." Tankhun orders everyone in the room, which is only Kim and Arm, the latter nodding and leaving to fulfill those orders.

Kim just sits.

Tankhun plops down beside him on the couch. "You're scaring me," he says, returning to his usual self a bit.

Kim cracks the tiniest smile which would be reassuring if it didn't look so broken. "I'm known for being a handful," he says, finally.

"A handful that I can't get my hands on, typically," Tankhun says pointedly.

"You usually a talk a lot more. You talk and don't say anything." Kim sinks back against the cushions, closing his eyes. "So why are you saying things now?"

Thank goodness. This is marginally better, more of the sass he associates with his baby brother. Still, "You're not saying anything, not even lies and excuses. So as your eldest brother of course I will have to take responsibility."

Arm comes back with pills and water. "I told the kitchen about food. They're making it now."

"Thank you," Tankhun says with a smile. Arm smiles back and leaves without a word. He's good like that. "Take the medicine, please."

Kim peels his eyes open just a crack. "Please?"

Tankhun knows he’s out of character, or at least the character he often sinks into, but he has a baby brother to look after. That's more important. He shakes the hand holding the pills a little.

With a sigh, Kim takes them, grimacing as they go down.

"Does your throat hurt?"

"Not really." It's a lie, which delights Tankhun more than it should.

Breath: a snippet that makes me laugh.

from Meta-portal, the original version (which was written almost entirely in a friend's dms. I'm very proud of this.

And then- Hyunjae finally shows up in the story. He stumbles out of his room on the ground floor because Sangyeon knows from experience that he doesn’t mix well with stairs. He looks remarkably sober and like his eyes have sunk far into his face. “Do you need a headache cure?” Haknyeon asks, very dryly. Hyunjae squint at him. “Yes, thank you,” he says in a reedy voice. “Sangyeon, your pub is still a mess. Why do you have guests?” “Hyunjae!” Changmin interrupts, because he is an interrupter. He’s smiling very brightly. “We have need of your services.” Hyunjae looks around for a chair. Jisung coaxes Yeonjun onto his lap so Hyunjae has somewhere to sit. “Aren’t I heavy?” Yeonjun whispers. Jisung snorts. “You weight as much as two heads of lettuce and cucumber. You’re fine.” Hyunjae drops onto the chair heavily. “What can I help you with?” he says, suddenly sounding a lot more professional and awake. Jacob shoots him a suspicious look. Changmin tones down the brightness of his smile just a tad. “There’s a portal. In the labyrinth.” Hyunjae just raises an eyebrow. “We were hoping you’d make it a working portal,” Eric says quickly, happy to contribute. “You make portals, after all.” Hyunjae pauses, and his expression is so blank everyone except Eric is instantly aware that he’s hiding something. But then Sangyeon nudges him with an elbow. Hyunjae sighs. “Yeah, I make portals. But we’ve got maybe two hours before the brainwashing kicks back in and I might try and paint another volcano portal and push you in.” “Hold up.” Haknyeon has come back with a mug, presumably with headache cure in it. “You’re aware that you’ve been brainwashed?” “Well, yeah. Why else would I choose to be drunk at all hours of the day? I’m wasting all of my time, not making a living. I get a window of a couple hours before the alcohol fully washes out of my system and I get evil feelings again. And I am not interested in that. So I keep drinking.” Hyunjae takes the cup and swallows whatever was in it. “Threw in something for gut health, huh,” he comments. Haknyeon shrugs, then snaps out of it and glares at Hyunjae. “I was worried about you!” “You can still be worried,” Hyunjae says tiredly. “That brainwashing is not going to go away by itself.” Eric suddenly looks very excited. “There’s only one solution!” Sunwoo groans and hides his face in his hands. Hyunjae looks at Eric. “Aren’t you that not really lost prince?” Eric slumps a little. “Has just everybody really known where I was?”

Storm: a snippet where a character is angry.

from Blood Enemy, the third part of blood cultivation. Jiang Cheng and anger are synonymous.

Jin Ling could see his uncle ahead, looking like a simmering storm as he always did. “Uncle!” He tried to make his voice sound less happy and more dignified, but even if a potentially disastrous situation lay ahead of them, he would always be pleased to see his uncle.

Jiang Cheng looked Jin Ling over brusquely, like he both cared about his nephew’s condition and was looking for something to criticize. It was probably both. “Couldn’t even be bothered to greet me properly, huh? What kind of Sect Leader are you? I raised you better than that!”

Jin Ling flushed and came to a stop in front of his uncle, bowing with his back straight. “Sect Leader Jiang, the Jin Sect welcomes you.”

Jiang Cheng echoed the bow and immediately started to assess the addition to the party. Senior Lin also bowed, deeper than Jin Ling had, murmuring, “Sect Leader Jiang,” in a pleasant tone. “Who is this?”

“This one is called Lin Meili,” Senior Lin answered, rising from the bow slowly, her face devoid of anything resembling discomfort. “I have been lucky enough to be a guest at Sect Leader Jin’s request.”

“If you’re looking for a marriage, you’ll have to come through me, first.” Jiang Cheng said, politely fierce.

Jin Ling’s jaw dropped and he closed his mouth with a even deeper blush spreading across his face. “Uncle!”

To her credit, Senior Lin kept her expression mostly placid, though her eyes were clearly amused. “He’s a bit young, don’t you think?”

“Exactly! He shouldn’t even be thinking about marriage!”

“I’m glad we’re in agreement, then, Sect Leader. I am merely here to assist on the nighthunt.”

“The nighthunt?” Jiang Cheng swung around to glare at Jin Ling. “You knew I was arriving but were planning on going on a nighthunt without me?”

“Actually, I assumed you’d just come along,” Jin Ling said faintly, wishing the evening was over already. “Do you want to come?”

Jiang Cheng stared at Jin Ling like he’d grown a second head. “Do I want to-,” he cut himself out, looking quite close to murdering someone. “Jin Ling, you have responsibilities, you can’t just go off on a nighthunt because you feel like it! Were you going with your disciples or just with this new cultivator I have never met before!”

“Uncle.” Jin Ling swallowed hard. “Lin Meili has new techniques that I’d like to see. She was available to hunt tonight and if you don’t want to come, you don’t have to. I’m sorry to make you entertain yourself, but there are other pressing issues that-”

“Other pressing issues? Other pressing issues that you are just sweeping aside to have fun for a night?” Jiang Cheng was shaking, he was so angry. Zidian was sparking and vibrating on his wrist.

“No, we’re going on the nighthunt because of the pressing issues!” Jin Ling finally snapped, though his courage left him almost immediately. “Uncle, I believe there is a new threat in the Jin sect and Lin Meili is going to help me find and deal with it. The nighthunt is an excuse, but only so I can see the techniques she uses. It’s complicated, uncle, please. Trust me, I’m not shirking my duties.”

Jiang Cheng made a visible effort to calm himself, his spiritual tool also dimming. “Nobody is going on a nighthunt until I know what on earth you are talking about, Jin Ling.”

“Right.” Jin Ling turned around. “We’ll go to my office, then.”

Tail: a fluffy or cozy snippet.

from the bonus Blood Cultivation series collection.

Jin Ling turned and said, “Jingyi,” and glared at him. It was less of a glare and more like he was silently asking for something. But Jingyi only understood Sizhui’s silent communication. He had no idea what Jin Ling wanted from him.

When no words arrived to help translate the silence, Jingyi rolled his eyes. “What?”

“Hug me.”

Jingyi blinked. “What.”

Jin Ling didn’t look away or fiddle with his robes. “Senior Wei said you give really good hugs. I’m tired, I’m stressed, and you don’t want to hear me complain anymore, so give me a hug. Please.”

There was a teasing remark on the tip of his tongue but Jingyi swallowed it when Sizhui looked at him meaningfully. That was a silent sentence he could understand. So, he just shifted closer to Jin Ling and hugged him. His friend positively melted in the embrace, which honestly worried Jingyi a little, and this whole Jin-Ling-being-aware-and-accepting-of-his-own-emotions thing was already pretty weird. Feeling him so relaxed against him made Jingyi both concerned and fond. He tightened his arms when Jin Ling pressed his face closer to his chest, making a sound that might have been contented, might have been a sob. Jingyi really didn’t want to ask which one it was.

Sizhui started to stroke Jin Ling’s hair from the other side. “Are you alright, A-Ling?”

“No.” The muffled sound was petulant, much more Jin Ling sounding. Jingyi’s relief swooped up from his heart and exploded in his eyes. He blinked rapidly to clear them. There was no need to get so emotional over Jin Ling being emotional. Sizhui then pat his hair too and it was Jingyi’s turn to melt.

“We’re here for you,” he promised into Jin Ling’s shoulder, pretty sure that this moment had become less about whether their relatives were getting along and more about the three of them being together and willing to listen to each other and apparently, give good hugs.

“I want our family to be happy,” Jin Ling mumbled. “I think most of us are most of the time, maybe, but I can’t always tell, and sometimes it feels like one of us goes just a little too far and there’s a dark edge to everything. If we push into that we get lost and it takes a while to come out and I wish it would go away. I want uncle to smile and my other uncle to smile and I want you two to smile and Senior Lin and everybody. I wish we could just talk at dinner without it either going dark or getting cryptic. Can’t anybody have a happy conversation that doesn’t include thinly veiled insults?”

we made it! @another-white-void I'm tagging you because some of this is wuxia-y.

thanks for asking, Trouble >;(

[secretsofthestorymakers]

Ok, last post about Wish for now, I promise! A few years ago, I was writing a lot of short-ish analyses on various Disney Movies, and I remember I actually wrote one for Wish based only on the song This Wish! So I thought it would be fun to go through my analyses from over a year ago and see how correct I was now that I’ve actually seen the movie…

The black text is all direct quotes from what I wrote over a year ago. The purple is my comments on it now.

09/12/22

Considering that it is over a year until this movie comes out (the current date is 9/12/22), I am fully aware how ridiculous it is that I’m already writing an analysis on it. The main character, Asha, appears to be princess-like, although she may not be actual royalty. (I personally think she isn’t royal or high-ranking at all, since I think that will work better with the story and themes). That is actually true, although I still think she is Disney Princess coded. When I listened to More for Us (This was the original title for This Wish) the other day, I was literally crying, and that is with it out of context. It is a beautiful song that combines the simple magic of The Golden Age with the power of the universal truths and complex themes of The Revival Era. It is a perfect I-want song, and showcases Disney at its heart as a beautiful celebration for its 100th anniversary.

09/13/22

I finally found the lyrics to More for Us! (This Wish) Now that I have the lyrics, I can analyze the song properly. Also, after reading the lyrics, I’ve changed my mind about what I think the themes will be and where the story will go. Seriously, by giving us the I-want song, Disney gave us the most valuable single piece of information they could give. I have a LOT to say about these lyrics. Who is “us”? Now, I’m thinking that either she is part of a minority group in her kingdom, ehhhh, that is not true or that this is kind of a kingdom where the rulers (presumably the people who live in the tall palace-like building on the left side of the concept art) control/harm the people in some way. That was spot on. Knowing Disney, I would assume the first option, but the way she says “open their eyes to all lies” implies some sort of combination of the two options. I’m thinking that themes could be something like, action, making choices, standing up, etc. I will stand by those themes, in a way. They certainly aren't the only ones, but they are definitely present (think “if not us, then who and when” from Knowing What I Know Now. I would also say a theme is how knowing the truth can change your perspective. And a bit about willful ignorance in the way that the people unquestioningly gave their wishes to Magnifico because it was easier than trying to pursue them themselves. It appears that Asha is on the edge of something when she sings this. She’s had some sort of realization that sets her apart from everyone else in her world, but she hasn’t taken the step to act on it yet (“I’m past dipping my toes in, but not past diving in”). By challenging Magnifico and learning about the wishes, she’s gone too far to go back to her life just as it was, but she hasn’t made a decision on how to act on this yet, but she knows she needs to. By the end of the song, she has made her decision to act on her realization/feelings. Mhhhmmm not quite. I think she knows she needs to act already when she starts singing, she just doesn't know how. And that’s what Star shows her. She gains strength and confidence throughout the song. It acts as an I-want and a catalyst, as most of the recent I-want songs do. Yeah, that is definitely true. I find it interesting that the I-want itself was the catalyst, but I love it. It feels very Disney. Asha says “the way you always taught me to.” Who is “you”? My guess would be some sort of (likely dead) mentor figure like a parent or grandparent. Yeah, Disney’s pretty predictable with the dead parents. It does make sense story wise though. Whether this is the case or not, whoever “you” is has clearly had a significant impact on Asha, her personality, her values, and how she views the world. They will be an important part of the story, even if they’ve died before the movie begins. Her father was actually mentioned directly less than I predicted, but I still think that what he taught her about the stars’ guidance stuck with her and is the reason she wished on one to begin with. So in a way, her dad did have a big impact on the story, just in a less obvious way. And he definitely affected how Asha views the world and how she chooses to respond to what she learned while in the palace.

[uneducated-author]

I know I said I wouldn't talk about it, but since you're wondering, yes the god-like character Dazai came into contact with but didn't nullify is Sigma. The theory I alluded to was that Sigma wasn't just created from the book, but is The Book itself in human form.

[https://www.tumblr.com/vampireonastick/694131792916152320/what-if-sigma-is-the-book?source=share] (The theory is almost a year old but nothing as of yet confirms or denies it)

It does have backing like Sigma being written directly into The Book rather than from a page and that the Decay couldn't have been the ones who created him because him going years being trafficked would have made little sense— especially when they could have written him as perfectly obedient to the ideology of the Decay and wrote him where they could easily locate him.

[https://www.tumblr.com/dazaistabletop/683826086154567680/guildsarchitect-ok-heres-the-sigma-post?source=share]

So if we take this theory and the fact that Dazai danced with Sigma and very much made contact with him but Sigma didn't go poof, we can say that The Book isn't an ability of someone because if it was, touching a creation of that ability would've caused it to cease to be (Like Q's doll). Also, by virtue of it still having anomalous powers of writing and rewriting reality, it's not normal. The Book is said to have every possible outcome that could ever happen that branches off in its own universe (If I remember correctly this is said in BEAST? I have not read nor have interest in reading BEAST so take that with a grain of salt) and something like that is obviously god-like just by existing.

There is also the theory that Dazai's dance with Sigma had an ulterior motive for which I will quote one of the two reasons why:

“2. Dazai wanted to touch Sigma because he wanted to use his nullification ability on him. Knowing Sigma is a product of The Book, seeing if Dazai’s ability has any effect on him could be beneficial to Dazai, especially if he is thinking of using The Book himself in the future.”

As far as I'm aware, the BEAST universe exists because Dazai got his hands on The Book and if Sigma is The Book, well... it's no wonder Dazai of all people got his hands on it if it's that close by. [https://www.tumblr.com/vampireonastick/694165005381287936/im-wondering-if-dazai-had-ulterior-motives-when?source=share]

For my last two points, I want to reiterate about Atsushi being the key to finding The Book as what this whole thing was about since the very beginning. In the Skyfall chapters, when Sigma is about to plummet to what would have been his death, Atsushi grabs him and tries to save him. Not just because they need the page and Sigma is the only one of the Decay they have access to that can give them that information, but because Atsushi empathized with Sigma about how the latter didn't know what his purpose in life was and Atsushi didn't want him to die like that. Sigma freely gave that information to Atsushi rather than take it to the grave (or really just never give it to him since Nikolai saved him) because he was touched by Atsushi's kindness.

When it was said that Atsushi was the key to obtaining The Book— if Sigma is The Book— then at that moment right there we see why. Not only that but, Sigma is similar enough personality wise that Dazai himself literally remarks that Sigma is similar to Atsushi.

So yeah, Sigma might be The Book but it hasn't been confirmed or denied yet but if he is, then he's a god-like being rather than simply an ability user created from The Book with this supported by Dazai's ability not making him go poof and the only other straight up God that Dazai came into direct contact with is Lovecraft because Atsushi's ability, whether a God or not, is still an ability and not immune.

Very interesting! Definitely makes the rampant Atsushi Sigma parallels and comparisons make a lot more sense. I thought Dazai dancing with Sigma was more a manipulation tactic to bring him over to the side of the ADA, but checking if he would discorporate is way more interesting (and low-key horrifying). I love the potential of Sigma joining the ADA as a manifestation of a literal reality altering artefact, and being the LEAST weird person there.

I had assumed then, like how Dazai doesn't disappear the dolls from Q's ability, just their power, he would merely strip Sigma's ability, but now I'm interested in how Dazai would interact with the Sky Casino. He seems (or maybe pretends) to be surprised at the revelation that Sigma and the Casino are written from the book 'can you even call that human?' and I wonder if a secondary part of him motivation for being is Meursalt is because at the time he was unsure on how the Casino would interact with him. It's also interesting that the book has had no real affect on him like it has with the detective agency. They have been posited in the position of killers, made to be suspected criminals with the mind manipulation of law enforcement, but Dazai, partially because he removed himself from the equation, has not yet taken any action under the control of the book.

I love the point you raised about Atsushi being the one to find the book, and how the 'Sigma is the book theory' opens up so many interesting plot points, as well as means that there are such different interpretations of other scenes.

Sigma's repeated self reference to himself as 'an ordinary person' then takes on a whole new light, especially if he's unaware of his... Not quite heritage, but reality. It would also make his working under the decay of angels an incredibly interesting sort of plot point.

Oh and thanks for the link to the fifteen translation. My exams just finished a few days ago, so I should have time to read it! I fear I shall become infuriatingly annoying to my friends as I overanalyse every written word 😅

[number1villainstan]

AtLA Analysis Rewatch: S1E7: Winter Solstice Part 1, The Spirit World

Intro: Man, it's been a while since my last one! I have no idea whether I'll be able to do it all in one day, or start the day I'm starting this draft, but I think I should start anyways, just to make some progress. If I'm not mistaken, this is the episode with Hei Bei and the burnt forest around the village. But: let's get into it!

Let's skip the intro for now, because I procrastinated and don't think I have time. (This is two days after I wrote the intro, rip me.)

The Previously section: two focuses, on Aang being the Avatar and on Katara's necklace being lost. I don't think it's a coincidence that a lot of scenes used for the Avatar emphasis have a spiritual connotation; the statues in the Air Temple, the Fire Sages in their temple, Bumi talking about the duty of the Avatar.

It's interesting how "The Avatar must restore balance by defeating Fire Lord Ozai" is really blatantly stated. It makes sense--the series needs a direction to go, an overarching goal/plotline--but the directness of it, compared to the subtlety with which a lot of other aspects of being the Avatar and the setting and characters in general is approached, is a little odd. Or maybe that's just me having spend so long vibing with my fellow Ozai/villain fans and not watching the show in way too long.

What trees are those shown in the beginning of the episode? Obviously deciduous, with round and very thick canopies. Also, the hawks is bright red; is it the same species as the Fire Nation messenger hawks? It's almost certainly male, though.

Aang just jumps straight into the clouds--impulsiveness--but brings his staff--enough wisdom/foresight to not die. Thank god. Also, the 'turns out clouds are made of water' line--am I wrong? Is this the fortune-teller village episode? (Also, would you really get that soaked from jumping into a cloud? It's basically just fog but higher up, right?)

Okay, so it is the burned-forest episode, as I thought. Also, the forests themselves look very thick (and very green), which makes me surprised that the forest fire didn't reach a lot farther; thick forests like that are generally conducive to really strong wildfires, along with a high percentage of young trees that haven't built up bark to survive and--guess what?--suppression of smaller natural fires, which makes easily-burnable debris build up. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here but forest fires are an important part of a forest's life cycle, and it looks like the forest here has seen a lot of fire suppression. Which is probably why the 'scarred' part of the forest looks so bad, with no trees that survived or anything. Although ash is full of nutrients, generally, so why haven't faster-growing smaller plants moved in yet?

But enough about the forest fire, I guess. Even if it's not accurately portrayed at all.

There is an interesting character/philosophical moment that goes on here. Aang feels responsible for this forest burning down ("how could I let this happen?") and while Katara feels otherwise ("You didn't let this happen") Aang doesn't listen to her, saying that it's his job as the Avatar and that he doesn't know how to do his job. Which is odd, because he's 12, he shouldn't have this responsibility--it's canon that the Avatar should only know they're the Avatar at 16--and because the burnt area is a tiny, tiny fraction of the world. It's a symptom, not the systems the Avatar is supposed to work on the level of.

When Sokka asks about how Aang is supposed to talk to Roku, you can hear the compassion in his voice--he's trying to be sensitive, obviously, but it's also in his nature to be practical and well-grounded.

We see Iroh again, but his antics in the hot springs make it clear that his character hasn't yet switched from the comic relief old man of the early episodes to the wise mentor figure he is in later seasons. Also, Zuko's insistence that his troubles "cannot be soaked away"-- is he refusing to rest or relax, no matter how tired or burnt out he gets? That sort of tunnel vision is not going to help him. At all.

Iroh also calls himself Zuko's 'teacher,' rather than Uncle. Not sure what that's supposed to say.

"Are you ready to be cheered up?" Katara doesn't jump straight into trying to make Aang happy; she knows the importance of grieving and letting yourself feel sad.

What was the old man doing wandering out there? What's his job? Why was he alone? He was probably looking for the flying bison, but again, why is he alone? Are there others searching for it? (Also, why aren't his clothes all ashy?)

The destruction Hei Bei caused, shown in the village--what stage of rebuilding are they in? Most of the buildings are fine, but one part of one of them is just a frame that's all broken--how the hell did it get like that??? Also, are those roof tiles the only thing the roof is made of? That doesn't seem like wise building sense, unless it's a cultural thing that I'm missing.

"It is the greatest honor to be in your presence!" Aang didn't even bat an eye at that. Maybe he's getting used to being the Avatar, or grateful that he has something he can do as the Avatar after running into the burnt forest and blaming himself.

How many people are in the hall? It doesn't look like a whole lot. I'm not going to do the counting like I did with the SWT. Are there any other families or people in other buildings? What are the people doing there in the hall? Is this an agricultural town? What is its source of income? Does it trade? How did they build those buildings and what are they for? I know I'm not gonna get answers but STILL

Oooh, Hei Bai, not Hei Bei. My bad.

Why doesn't Katara know about the Winter Solstice bringing the Spirit World closer? Does it not interact with the human world unless there are enough humans gathered? Perhaps it's a symptom of the cultural destruction of the SWT. (Or perhaps it's prompting exposition for the audience, which, fair.)

Katara again displays an ability to pick up on other's emotions, and Aang brings up his inexperience ("I don't know anything") at being the Avatar. But Aang tries anyways, because someone is in need and he is in a position to help even if he doesn't have the expertise.

Iroh doesn't seem all too concerned about missing Zuko's deadline, probably familiar with a teenager's empty threats. His interactions with the meadow mole give us the first (I think) glimpse into his later characterizations of 'wise mentor.' In fact, with the EK soldiers trying to take him prisoner (and calling him the once-great General Iroh) this episode also is the first time in which the series starts to take him seriously.

Should have written this earlier, but why is Hei Bai choosing to abduct villagers? And why only one at a time? (The probably explanation is to keep it kid-friendly, but what about in-universe?)

I find it funny how much grandstanding Aang did right before Hei Bai showed up, and also how oblivious he was to the massive spirit walking right behind him. Did the spirit's footsteps make sound? Did Aang just not hear him? (Also, why wasn't he more afraid?)

Aang trying to reason with something that is clearly acting like a wild animal (and therefore probably can't be reasoned with)--what is Aang's experience with spirits? Has he had any direct experience? What were the stories and lore surrounding spirits in the Air Temples?

Sokka holds back on going out to help until Aang gets hurt, and then he immediately runs out to try and fight Hei Bai. Loyalty and practicality.

Of course, Zuko's threat to leave without his uncle was empty, and Zuko went looking for him. I wonder how long it took for Zuko to suspect something was up. Not to mention that Zuko knew by looking at the rock formations that it was earthbending, even though his soldiers thought it was a landslide. (Unlikely, methinks.) Perhaps the person who brought up the idea of Zuko's crew being much newer than 3 years, and them being traded out as punishment/disgrace on the regular, was right. If so, that soldier would be a lot less experienced with earthbending than Zuko.

The EK soldiers use ostrich-horses while the FN soldiers use komodo-rhinos. Cultural differences in values (speed vs intimidation/fight capability) or differences in resources (which species is native to where)? Also, what is the armor they're using for their ostrich horses? How do they get the metal? (god i have so many worldbuilding questions--)

This is the first time that someone's mentioned what Iroh has done as a FN General: the Siege of Ba Sing Se. 600 days is a long time, almost 2 years, and it likely would have wreaked havoc on their food/water supply, especially if Iroh was smart and cut off outside sources. And Ba Sing Se is a big city, which means that hundreds, probably thousands, of people died during that siege, from hunger, thirst, or unrest. Unfortunately, while the Siege of BSS is a Thing Iroh Did, it's never really properly in the series; as much as I love the Dai Li as antagonists ("There is no war in Ba Sing Se" and "The Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai" will absolutely give you chills if you know the context) that suppression of knowledge and talk of the war prevents the show from grappling with the long-lasting effects of that siege. Of course, most of the death toll was likely in the lower ring, among the lower classes, and we all know the lower classes don't matter! And if the lower ring's population depletes then BSS can just take in a bunch of refugees to replenish it and keep up a big workforce, right? God, the entire situation is fucked.

But. Back to the actual episode.

Iroh doesn't even mention Lu Ten dying. Smart, who knows what these EK soldiers know? Leaving the shoe on the ground after falling off the ostrich-horse, also smart.

So we have confirmation that spirits (or at least, spirit-touched humans) can walk in the human world undetected. (I doubt that Aang's statement of "I'm in the spirit world!" is fully accurate.)

Iroh canonically has stinky feet. June will show up later in the series, but I still find that funny. (Also, what if it's genetic?)

So, Roku's dragon appears, but without Roku. You might argue that it's because Roku is inside Aang, as his past life, but later Roku shows up outside Aang to talk to him in the Spirit World proper, so that theory, while still possible, doesn't have a lot of evidence for it.

Those spines on the dragon's back don't look so comfy to sit on. Do they stop near the neck?

So, Iroh can see spirits that other humans can't. This episode references/teases his past a lot, apparently, even if first-time viewers don't know his past.

Okay, why can the dragon and Aang go through walls/ceilings when it's convenient and then walk around like normal?

Given the significance of dates such as the winter solstice, the solar eclipse, it's no wonder that astronomy is so important in the worldbuilding of the spiritual side of AtLA. What I want to know is, what are the least spiritual days of the year? The solstices are both very spiritual, but what about the equinoxes? Eclipses clearly block spiritual power here (at least in the minds of the benders) but what about other celestial phenomena?

I also want to know how shrines and statues like the one in the forest interact with the spirits they're supposed to represent. Are they shows of respect from humans to spirits? Do they increase spirits' power? Do they 'anchor' a spirit to a particular place? What spirits like them? What about the shrines do they like?

That's some serious physical strength from Zuko, pushing aside a massive rock (that's being earthbent) and shattering a chain with his heel. What else can he do? In addition, where and when did Iroh learn to fight like that with chains?

Sokka's practicality again: "I need to use the bathroom," "You could give us supplies/money." Utterly shameless, too.

Where is Crescent Island on the map? Where is Hei Bai's village on the map? What's the distance between them? How far are they making Appa fly?

And that's the final credits! I ended up having to space this out over two days, so perhaps I wasn't as 'in the groove' as I hoped, but hey. Another episode that I managed to get out.

[growling]

Okay

Bungou Stray Dogs. My beloved, my beloathed and my ex who keeps walking back into my life for a makeout session after I swore I was done with it for the 11th time.

It is- not a good story, structure wise at least. I get raising stakes but also we started s1 with "we're frenemies with our local gang and we occasionally homoeroticly fight eachother" to *gestures vaguely at s5*

And that doesn't bother me too much tbh because I love media that cares about its audience and keeping things silly but also *ducks nuke*

The mangaka keeps having to write reasons for Chuuya to not show up and murder everypony, that's silly

Fyodor has a funny accent and a silly goofy hat and a greasy hairstyle and I guess he sometimes is smart. I guess.

Justice for my boy Karma who showed up in one episode and then Fyodor killed him for some reason, RIP my boy

Idk man I have lots of thoughts

the stakes one is so real because like. they did get higher after season 1 with the whole moby dick crashing event, but like it made sense it was fine also i liked that season. and then we got introduced to demon fyodor who apparently was even worse both described at the s2 finale and in the dead apple movie, so like, dude got hyped up massively. and then he got s3 to himself but actually its not over yet, it was actually a setup for s4-s5 and. I am asking. since fukuchi is over. and they seem to be making fyodor out to be even more threatening (every single villain is more threatening than the last. you know.) than fukuchi, the goddamn man with time travel sword, reality-altering page, vampire goons, trying to (virtually. his motives as well as execution of them are.... Peculiar to me) achieve mind control world domination....... like how do they plan to go worse than that. the problem with trying to have every single villain be more powerful than the last is that one day you just gonna run out of ideas and just write a literal undefeatable god. which is fukuchi and also fyodor but i am legitimately terrified of what they're gonna do with him in the later chapters. i am all caught up and....... its looking very exhausting already

as well as how like, in the earlier seasons we got these episodes that are just purely character driven with way lower stakes that just exist there to establish the cast, and they just. slowly stopped doing that. right now, from like season 4 up to where we are currently there has been literally ZERO breathing room for the plot, every single scene is just stressful high tension main plot main plot main plot fighting the HD/DOA and it actually made me too tense as i was watching like jesus fuck slow down. which is why i cheer and clap so much whenever i see poe also being there sometimes. thank you for your service king. as well as all the other more minor characters that appeared and nikolai getting to jest with people, as well as the Bram & Aya Adventures, regardless on whether it is "important" to the plot . and also sigma's whole introduction in the manga that just established him as an actually really nice guy that the anime just cut out to make room For The Current Main Plot auurrrrhghgh. shut up about fukuchi show me kyouka. hey where the fuck was kyouka for most of this even

like. if they just released chuuya upon all their enemies it would be over. isnt he like, the actual incarnation of arahabaki you know the. literal god. just make them use corruption after you make sure dazai can stop them from eating shit and fucking dying, deploy her at the entire hunting dogs squad and its all over. like..... chuuya could just fix everything that is going on and the writers know it so they keep making up reasons (and sometimes they don't even do that, and just ignore it) as to why actually she's not available currently. you wrote this guy to be the single most powerful genderfuck in the universe please use him . chuuya i am so fucking sorry i could treat you so much better babygirl

fyodor sure is. A Character. that exists. and like, i like him, but also... i realized i'm only ever entertained by him whenever he's being silly, like with the whole mersault ball fyozai two man comedy show, or with his interactions with nikolai (who is one of the lights in the darkness of the current arc.... please keep being entertaining king). but like, i feel like the writer(s) drove themselves into a corner by making him so inhumanly intelligent, same with dazai. like. each of the serious interactions between him and dazai (the only nda member he's allowed to talk with apparently) just feel like two kids roleplaying "i slash u in the chest with my flaming sword and u are die!!!" "but before that I DODGED and hit u with my laser beam!!" "no but I moved out the way at last second and bring out the BOMBS and then i throw them at u and u explode and are dead for real!!!!" "no but then i miraculously survive steal ur flaming sword and set u on fire and u burn and die!!!" "but before i could die i put out the fire with my water bucket and then shoot u 100000 times and-" like. it was funny the first few times it happened but.... I get it. you have high IQ. I don't like this party I wanna leave chuuya can you please pick me up

karma got fucking massacred and for what. society if fyodor instead recruited him into the DOA and sigma got to have a single normal friend and they bonded over their mutual perpetual anguish. they really just introduced a really interesting guy just to kill him off in the same episode. but they. kept fukuchi i guess

[yhwhrulz]

Today's Daily Encounter Thursday, September 28, 2023

Life in the Word

"Teach me your decrees, O Lord; I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart. Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through your word."1

In Psalm 119:16-176, we see the psalmist's description of God's word. It is a beautiful relationship he shares with God through the obedience to His word. Similar to the psalmist, an unknown author once wrote:

"This Book is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding; its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in Christ; yes, to glory itself, for eternity."

If you, like me, have spent any amount of time reading God's word, I am sure we could think of several times where we could relate to the descriptions above. Personally speaking, I have often found comfort, guidance, and hope when spending time with God in His word. The thing is, however, that although we "know" the importance of reading God's word and the power found therein, we often neglect to make it a priority in our lives. We go through the day pulling on our own human knowledge and limited understanding to face life. This many times leaves us stressed, confused, full of regret, and with a sense of "burn out". But God did not intend for us to go through this life alone, which is why he left us his Holy Spirit as our Comforter and His Word to light our path. We can find truth and experience true joy by abiding in God's word and living in relationship with Him. However, whether we do or don't is our choice. What will you choose today?

Suggested prayer: Dear God, thank you for your Word which is where I can find all that I need to live. Forgive me for trying to rely on my own understanding more than on You. Help me make my time with you a priority, so that I, like the psalmist, can experience the beauty found in a life lived in relationship with you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. In Jesus' name, amen.

Psalm 119:33-37 (NLT).

Today's Encounter was written by: Crystal B.

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