#and yes the entire conflict is all of them except the protagonist doing essentially this

[way-past-future]

Touhou 10-13.

[strawberryjamsara]

Persona 3 reload: a retrospective

A while back, I watched a let’s play of persona 3. And I hated it. I found it juvenile, nihilistic, extremely gross, and I felt like the members of sees were hardly friends, so their bonds hardly meant anything.

But, Persona 5 is a game I love, and also a long game that I’ve played multiple times, so I wasn’t sure if I was ready to play it again. And I had scrounged up enough for the new game, with me reasoning to myself that I’d have a better experience playing myself

And I was right. Everything I didn’t see in the game before came out at me in this playthrough so much I wondered if the original was ever really as bad as I thought.

So I just wanna recount a lot of the experience here. Beware of spoilers.

story and themes.

In my first watch, Persona 3’s story sort of felt like what I’d come up with at 14. Constant talks about how death is inevitable, nothing matters, and a line at the end saying our dead protagonist “found the answer” by dying which honestly made my jaw drop when seeing it. Not a good thing for someone with constant suicidal thoughts to hear, and the line struck me as tasteless, gross, and neglectful of the audience mental health.

That line is still there, and I still despise it, but this time around, I better understood the message the entire game wants to convey, that being: “Yes death is inevitable, yes nothing in life matters: which is why it’s important to live each day to the fullest and make your time matter.” This is shown by the fictional condition “apathy syndrome” a syndrome that literally makes you stand in place doing nothing forever, essentially a giving up on life that is what the villains hope to inflict on the world. The fall isn’t just an instant death. It’s plunging every human on earth into this state of apathy, and through this, they will all die while not even doing anything about this, and THATS what makes Nyx terrifying. And understanding this, it greatly raised my appreciation. The game also comes with a label warning for heavy themes and advising players to take a break if it gets too hard, which I appreciate.

There’s also a pretty good conflict with the heroes that being: the want for the world to constantly be in peril so they have something to do with their lives. This was sort of in Persona 5 with the thieves (Or really just Ryuji) soaking in popularity, but Persona 3 is a much better utilized version of this. All these people hated their lives before they became humanities saviors, and the idea of losing that purpose in life is scary to them. It’s only through their bonds with eachother they come to realize what they’re actually living for, and makes the villains Strega perfect foils, because their bonds with eachother aren’t enough. Jin obviously would give the world for Takaya, but they so easily threw Chidori away for bonding with the ones who took away their purpose. Takaya is pushed forward by pure nihilism and the ability to do whatever the hell he wants, and so he neglects the people around him. Jin dies in his final fight with you to protect Takaya’s dreams, and Takaya in his last moments wishes Jin could see the end but he didn’t. Takaya put his power trip over the only person he had left, so he was alone at the end.

I will say though, that while Strega are good villains, I don’t really like the games wishy washy handling of the Kirijo group. I’ll talk more about Mitsuru and her bond with her father when I get to characters (it’s nowhere near as bad as Haru though) but while the actions of the company are truly horrific, it sort of looks away from what it means for Mitsuru to inherit a company that caused this entire disaster then profited off of it, which like, yes I hate capitalism, but it’s also a very fascinating thread of idea that gets dropped. Also, yes, making the villains the group of orphans who were experimented on by the Kirijo group and have nothing from the heiress except a line about how she had ‘no idea’ and having the main characters work with the police, and the police being seen as a role model, and working with a coorporation is. A choice. And a huge downgrade from P5. Back to Mitsuru and the Kirijo’s though, this sort of thing could easily have been explored in her social link.

Speaking of which….

Social links and linked episodes

So when I watched that let’s play, the worst part for me was the social links. They were where a lot of personas signature brand really gross content came from, and the characters were utterly uninteresting to me. So were they bad as I remembered?

Yes and no.

One big thing I’m glad they’ve changed is that in the original game, whenever you maxed your bond with a female character you’d enter a relationship no matter what. So if you wanted to max your bond with multiple girls, then guess what! You’re cheating on your girlfriend. This lead to moments where I cringe in sympathy because Mitsuru is ranting to her fiancé about how much better and kinder the protagonist is and knowing this boy is leading on seven different girls.

Also some of the bonds were better than I gave them credit for! I loved coaching the group of kids with Yuko, being with Hayase in rough times, and helping Kamiki come to terms with his death.

Some were just as bad as I remembered though.

The hermit social link is extremely uncomfortable, having to listen to a woman who is obviously your teacher gleefully talk about her plans to get you alone to date you and the game treating this as funny and not horrific. Or Kenji talking about dating his teacher. Or a girl whose so nervous around boys so you can fix her and she becomes confident enough to protest a sign at school condemning relationships between students and teachers- what is with this game and student teacher relationships?

There’s also the problem of the best options in some of these links involve being an enabler. Yes little girl, run away from home, and only bring your insurance card, this is a great idea. If you don’t wanna take the optimal route and say that, you can tell her she deserved her parents hitting her. Yeah, in the original let’s play, I had NEVER hated a main character more than this guy and he was literally a silent protagonist.

I still really hate these moments. I could get attached to the main character (probably because I was playing as him, and there was more time in between… this. And also he wasn’t a cheater) but I still felt so ick picking what I knew was the best option.

So what about the parties links?

I think they’re a mixed bag. Yukari and Aigis have incredibly good social links about themselves and their lives, but Mitsuru’s is clearly just written with romance first, introducing a fiancé who is never mentioned anywhere else in the game for the protagonist to be better than, and Fuuka took a potentially interesting character and made her character arc about what a good cook she is. Thanks Atlus, feminist as always.

But what about the boys? Hahaha… sickos… YEEEES.

The boys in the original game did not have social links. This contributed to my original feeling like SEES weren’t friends, and my dislike towards the protagonist that you couldn’t hang out with any of your roommates who weren’t romance options to cheat on, but reload fixes this. Well, sorta.

Instead of social links, you have ‘linked episodes’ with the boys where you spend a day together and get stat upgrades, and I LOVED this. Often during these episodes the rest of sees would come together and hang, and even if they didn’t, the character insight offered felt worthwhile and like they had bonded. This and study sessions with the group, seeing Yukari Junpei and the protagonist spending time as a group chatting after school, and nightly activities where you could chill with your dormates after dark contributed so much to making these bonds feel more real, and making me believe they’re friends. Even if it’s just the protagonist hanging out with Akihiko on his own, you still get bits of him talking about Shinji and Mitsuru that make it feel alive. I LOVE how sometimes if you go to Tartarus one person won’t be able to make it because they’re out, or they’re studying, or they’re just not feeling it. It makes you feel like you need to take everyone’s schedules to heart. I’m aware that last feature is in the original, but it feels a lot more meaningful to play it for myself.

I’m getting off topic. Time to talk about

The characters

A lot of the characters in P3 I did not like on my first go. With the exception of Yukari and Junpei. And I’m glad to say I’ve come around to all of them this time around. So to go one by one:

Junpei Iori

Junpei at first seems like your typical first persona party member. He’s not very bright, he’s sexist in the way a lot of teenage boys are, and he’s seemingly just there for comic relief.

Then the game flips the script. You realize Junpei is insecure of you. You realize that his girlbestie who teases him all the time, may actually be getting under his skin. You realize that he’s so deeply and utterly sad, and finding out that the entire world would crumble without him is the best thing that happened in his life.

And then he meets the first love of his life.

Chidori and Junpeis romance is so well written, and makes me wish the games would make more romances for your party members instead of the obnoxious romance system that exists where the developers think if the player can’t date any woman that moves they’ll keel over dead.

Junpei finds with Chidori the first girl he doesn’t just think of as someone to hit on for the man points. He finds a genuine crush, someone he cares about the safety and well being of, and a reason to keep going and saving the world because Chidori is in it. And Chidori finds much of the same in him. Watching Junpei turn from a womanizing creep into the sweet guy who waits at Chidoris hospital bed every day was something that even in my first watch had me gnashing my teeth about how Yosuke and Ryuji didn’t touch this level. So yeah. Junpei is great and so is his character arc.

Yukari Takeba

Yukari was the other character I was attached to first run. Mostly because the lets player kept talking about how much he hated her and nothing makes me love a female character more than male audiences treating her like shit, but I was also just attached to her relationship with Junpei. They were the only characters that to me felt like genuine friends, and you could see by the way they’d jab at eachother back and forth.

And I was glad for her headstrong nature. She was the one questioning what was really going on, and she could be mean, and angry, and unpleasant. She could kinda suck, and I appreciated her for that. The scene in my first time where she tries to cheer up Junpei by teasing him and it backfires miserably lived in my head rent free for a while.

And while my opinions of Junpei being a good character pretty much stayed the same this time, my love for Yukari skyrocketed. I realized how endlessly loving she is, and yet how emotionally stunted her beginnings made her, with her dads death, her moms distance, and her friends leaving her behind. I loved when I realized ‘Oh. It’s not just that one time. Junpeis been bothered by her teasing since the beginning, but it’s her expression of love because she’s afraid of vulnerability.’ I loved how she connected with the protagonist, she found someone in a similar situation, but she could still be an asshole to him sometimes because she’s messy and complicated (and side note: I think I ship shuyuka now.)

So yeah. Yukari is a ten out of ten character.

Akihiko Sanada

I thought this guy had no personality the first time around. What was I thinking? Oh boy, I love this dork.

Akihiko going on about bolstering his muscles but can’t bolster his social skills enough for a normal conversation (Mr Autism my good friend) is already endearing to me, but what really comes in clutch is his relationships to Mitsuru and Shinji.

Aki is the only person in the group who doesn’t really see Mitsuru as an authority figure, disobeying her orders from the very start to not push himself, and pushing her buttons a little, a far cry from how she’s essentially the leader (yes I know the protagonist is the textual leader but let’s be real. Mitsuru is the leader.) and they’re a bond I feel like I neglected my first time around.

But let’s talk Shinji.

Akihiko and Shinji are a tragedy and despite knowing how it ended every step of the way this time, I couldn’t help getting attached. Aki losing the only friend he had as an orphan was not all at once but a slow burn. It’s easy to see coming, and yet Akihiko is Sisyphus pushing that boulder up the hill, hoping this time, things can go back to normal with every time he tries to talk him into joining, not realizing the boulder is already falling to the man’s death and Shinji knows it.

I think his final awakening and development happened to fast after that though. Like at least give the man more than a day of his best friend being dead before you make him have his big revelation.

Okay that’s pretty much all my thoughts but one last thing: I didn’t realize how hilariously gay coded he is my first time. He has crowds of adoring girls around him but doesn’t talk to any of them and instead goes to hang with the guys. He’s best friends with Mitsuru and romance isn’t hinted at once. Why are you as a man so obsessed with Shinji, hm?

Fuuka Yamagishi

I think Fuuka has an incredibly strong entrance into the game.

Her status as a navigator is like any person playing their first persona game and gets the navigator, pretty weak at first. Until you realize how powerful she really is. And I think that’s a good metaphor for her character. Turning her bully into her best friend shows her kindness, but also her strength at how she got Natsuki to respect her, not through brute strength but just by being good to her and saving her, and began to spend time with her because of this respect.

Unfortunately, Fuuka is pretty stagnant through most of the story.

I’m glad for some things like her bond with Yukari, and how she finds out the truth behind the Kirijo’s, but it seems like most of this is frontloaded while she takes a backseat to other plotlines, and most of her lines just seem to be her using her persona.

She does get one last incredible scene though in her evolution. When Natsuki leaves and gives Fuuka encouragement, I honestly did feel tears in my eyes for this friendship and the growth Fuuka had knowing she had people who loved her, in both Natsuki and SEES. I speak as someone who usually HATES the bully and victim become friends trope when I say they were a highlight.

So Fuuka isn’t my favorite but she’s a worthy character. I would fix some stuff, but I care her.

Mitsuru Kirijo

This is another character I found bland and uninteresting my first time. I can’t believe how dumb I was.

Okay, so there’s problems with Mitsurus character. I’ve mentioned most of them. Her social link, her becoming the heiress to the evil coorporation, etc etc. but oh goodness is she interesting.

This girl subjected herself to some implied horrific shit for the sake of correcting her families injustices. Because she didn’t want her father to live with the guilt. So she became isolated, depressed, and a bit of a ‘no fun allowed’ type. It could be argued that in the beginning she wants to rid the world of the dark hour the most.

But she’s also just a kid who shouldn’t have to subject herself to that. Her happiest moments aren’t when she’s talking to the father she wants to appease but with her found family in SEES.

As for Mitsurus dad- okay it’s not a Haru’s dad situation. I CAN see some of why Mitsuru cares about him. He’s the ‘stoic but kind’ archetype. The ‘beforetimes’ referred to are before the near end of the world was caused by this man’s father and left him feeling awful, and Mitsuru herself wanted to change that. But I still think the game glorifies him a little bit. Like hey, Strega said they were gathered by Kirijo group to learn persona summoning, and I’m pretty sure Mitsurus grandpa died in that explosion, so who was in charge of those child experiments that killed orphans? You wanna answer that game?

But okay, at the very least, I can see why Mitsuru would care for her father. He’s not as cartoonishly awful as Okumura is, he is an actual human being. And the game keeps its focus on this arc on Mitsuru where it belongs. And her big awakening is, while it’s still not great about acknowledging her dads shit, where it should be. On her realizing she has her friends.

So yes, Mitsuru isn’t as tightly written as Junpei and Yukari, but she’s still a good character.

Aigis

While most characters my first time around felt boring, Aigis felt fetishistic.

Like yes, this robot girls first action is to bury her face in the players bare chest. She watches you while you sleep. This is a running theme. Not only that, but I did not buy her transition into caring about SEES and becoming more human for reasons stated before. SEES don’t feel like friends, yadda yadda yadda.

This time around though, I saw a lot differently. Having the main character slowly bond with her as a friend outside her directive made her feel so much more like a character and not a writers fantasy. I liked little things like how she got excited over ladybugs and that made me appreciate other things like how she goes ‘maaan’ to repeat Junpei or how she gets into an argument with Koromaru. And this made her character development and realization of life’s beauty so much more impactful.

A robot who comes to understand life is a very typical trope, one that I love dearly. My first time didn’t really capture any of the magic for me, but this time around I really love Aigis.

Koromaru

Well, Koromaru is a simple character. He’s literally a dog. He does dog things. He’s implied to be smarter than the average dog. He has a backstory. But sometimes that’s all you need. He is a puppy. A creature. He’s your best friend. He’s loyal and he guarded the place of his last owner. I love you puppy.

Ken Amada

Okay, so first time, I thought Ken had the pieces of an arc that were decent but everything happened so fast. He was introduced, then the next time he did something significant it was saying his backstory and then attempted murder.

I think reloads linked episodes fixed this for me because god I wanna hug this kid. The way they imply his suicidal idealation, and how everyone in SEES sees him as a little brother, give him a family, but he just keeps ruminating on the single worst day of his life so bad he makes another. This kid has such good character development.

Shinjiro Aragaki

God I love Shinji. I love the ‘tough guy secretly loves dogs’ tropes. I love how he knows he’s doomed but still uses his last moments to try and make sure Ken doesn’t end up like him. I love how he cares about Akihiko but doesn’t want to move past his trauma. I love how he’s stuck in place as he is, refusing to let things go but is still fundamentally kind. I love Shinji.

Shuji Ikutsuki

Despite the fact I knew his betrayal was coming this time, I didn’t wanna believe Ikutsuki was a bad guy.

I loved his bad puns, his notebook full of them, how he suggested making the garden, how he just came to hang out in the living room sometimes to be supportive. I love you can catch him on camera making his bad jokes and laughing like a hyena to know that even if he was a shitty dude in the end, he genuinely loved those jokes. After everything he put you through, he was genuine when he told you his bad jokes. Which to me, is far more interesting than anything anyone has ever gleaned from Adachi.

Ryoji Mochizuki

Ryoji is honestly a very good character and I’m shocked. I’ve seen people compare him to Akechi for ‘friends who turn into antagonists’ but as much as I love Akechi, I don’t think Ryoji is anything like him.

But boy do I love him.

While the idea of a nice grim reaper has been done a million times, a kind hand guiding you towards the afterlife, (mind you I love that trope) Ryoji is the first time I’ve seen a bringer of death who hates being one. He loves life, and his friends, and the idea of it ending is scary, but inevitable and he wants to offer a choice, and it honestly feels so gut wrenching when you spend all this time waiting for him to betray you, when you realize he’s just a sweet kid who didn’t ask for this. And honestly, I think I liked him my first time around for that reason. Ryomina is a different story, but I came around to that too this time, and I don’t want this to be bogged down with thoughts on shipping.

Chidori

I pretty much got all my thoughts about Jin and Takaya down in the story section so I’ll skip right to Chidori. And I love her.

Chidori in the beginning feels like just another member of Strega. But when she gets taken to the hospital by SEES partway through, you can see that Strega were not very good to her. They don’t really care most of the game to try and free her, and we find out that she’s been self harming for a while- something Strega doesn’t just ignore, but considering Takayas philosophy, probably actively encouraged. And I like that at first, SEES aren’t equipped to handle her either. They close in and interrogate a very obviously traumatized and mentally ill girl before Junpei busts in to yell at them to give her space.

And I like how we see her passion for art. That despite her claims she cares for nothing, obviously she can’t do that. She loves art. And it’s because of Junpei she really wakes up to that.

I love Chidori

Conclusion

Honestly, I’m not sure if I can put my finger on what it was about Persona 3 that clicked for me this time. Maybe it was the linked episodes, maybe it was playing it for myself, maybe I’m just better at literary comprehension and analysis than before.

But P3 this time really stuck to me, and despite its flaws, I really do get the hype now.

[musclesandhammering]

Loki (2021) Positivity from an Anti

Ok so all of my mutuals know I’m extremely anti-Loki (2021), anti-sylki, and anti-sylvie. But at a certain point, even we antis get tired of all the negativity. So! Here’s some Loki series commentary in the opposite direction! This is a list of all the things about the show that I loved :)

Also adding a disclaimer that all of this is just my opinion and some of my fellow antis (or even people who liked the show) might disagree, and that’s fine! I’ve been planning this post for awhile. I always say in my other posts that I don’t entirely hate the show and I wanted to be a little more specific about what I think are its good aspects. Feel free to leave your thoughts!

• Mobius is a gem (Owen Wilson owns my whole heart) and his relationship with Loki is so so great. He’s not one-dimensional at all, he has conflicted loyalty and is morally complex, and he has the tragic backstory- which makes him a perfect choice for eventually becoming Loki’s first genuine friend.

• The casting was really really great. Lots of women and people of color. Most of the female actresses (as well as the males) are over 30, which isn’t very common and is fantastic!

• Superb acting all around. I can’t think of a single scene where the actors under or oversold it.

• Beautiful set design, incredible cgi, and gorgeous cinematography overall. It looked more like a movie than a tv show, which is really good.

• Kang being the big bad was a huge plus for me. Johnathan Majors was perfect in the role, his vibes were immaculate, and I was honestly pretty worried that the man behind the curtain would end up being another Loki variant, which imo would’ve been boring and predictable and counter-productive, so it was a big relief when that didn’t happen.

• I like that it sets up a bunch of future marvel movies, rather than being contained to its own little world. It gives it more importance and (hopefully) will encourage writers to not just toss Loki’s character aside in future projects.

• All the Loki variants were delightful. All of them except Sylvie. Kid Loki has my heart. Boastful Loki is a fashion icon. Alligator Loki is a savage. President Loki is the superior variant. Classic Loki became my fav character in less than half an episode.

• It showed some more variety in Loki’s magic. A lot of his powers we’ve seen before, but it feels like they were portrayed a bit more blatantly in the show. The energy blasts, the telekinesis, the teleportation… Outstanding.

• It also implied that Loki has the potential to be waaaay more powerful than he knows he is right now, which? Yes.

• Some of the quotes- and the themes behind them- are just profound as hell. Such as:

“I think we’re stronger than we realise.”

“It’s never too late to change.”

“You can be whoever you wanna be, even someone good.”

“We’re Lokis. We survive. It’s what we do.”

“Loki, God of Outcasts.”

“The universe wants to break free, that’s why it manifests chaos.”

• Technically Loki was Marvel’s first canon lgbt (bi) character, which is a win. His genderfluidity is also technically canon, even if it wasn’t really acknowledged on-screen.

• There were a lot of throwback references to Thor 1, Avengers, and Thor The Dark World. Which I loved.

• Sylvie’s so pretty. Her hair and makeup and costume were all perfect.

• Big fan of Loki finally getting Laevateinn.

• Sufficiently slutty imagery, courtesy of a female director (Loki in a collar, kneeling to Sif, President Loki looking down into the bunker, the hair flips)

• The music was Excellent Wonderful and Superb.

• I love that Loki being a good singer is now canon.

• I love that Asgardians having their own language is now canon (even if it’s basically just Icelandic).

• I also love that they disproved all of those “Loki was a shy nerdy wallflower pre-canon” theories in Episode 3. The drinking/eating/singing scene was fun, if a bit wacky.

• There’s a million different reasons why Loki does what he does, especially in regards to the New York attack (I’m literally writing a huge meta on them), but somehow I never considered that Loki being desperate for control was one of them. It makes a lot of sense, and I always love getting new insights into his motivations.

• I love that Loki finally outright acknowledged that he doesn’t enjoy hurting people. We Been Knew™️ but it’s still nice to hear it out loud from his own mouth.

• The TVA outfit wasn’t as hideous as some people make it out to be. It could’ve been A Look, even. You know, if he’d just accessorised a little better. And kept the jacket on. And not gotten sweaty. And not gotten dirty. And maybe had at least one other costume change… But it had potential, though!!

• Even though I despise the Obvious One, I did actually like some of the other romance crumbs they tossed us (sifki, Loki x the flight attendant).

• The whole DB Cooper thing was iconic idc idc.

• Loki’s hyper sort of overly excited puppy attitude in episode 2 was actually pretty refreshing and funny (for awhile). And now I can headcanon him as adhd, yeehaw.

• “We’re all villains here.” That quote was iconic, my favourite one in the show. And the entire theme that it summarised was really great as well. When you think about it, every single main character in this series has been the villain at one point or another. I mean, I know all marvel characters do bad things etc, but none of the Heroes are ever narratively categorised as Bad. This show did just that with all of them, though. . Loki was framed as the psychopath that attacked New York. Sylvie was framed as the murderous fugitive. The TVA/Ravonna/Mobius were framed as the murderous fascists. Kang was framed as the crazy totalitarian. It’s made clear that all the Loki variants were the villains of their stories.

However, every single main character in the series is also framed as the Hero at a certain point. Loki is framed as the main protagonist who throws a wrench in the TVA’s dastardly plans. Sylvie is framed as the persevering freedom fighter who wants to take down the fascists. The TVA/Mobius/Ravonna are framed as the ones who maintain order for the greater good. Kang is framed as the weird but ultimately benevolent wise man who’s just trying to prevent something worse from happening. The Loki variants are framed as generous allies who befriend the main character and help him on his journey.

Everyone in this equation is openly acknowledged by the narrative to be morally corrupt, but not entirely morally bankrupt. There are no Straightforward Hero Figures (like the Avengers) in this entire scenario at all, and that makes for a super interesting dynamic that marvel has never done before. So yes: “We’re all villains here.” But also: “No one bad is ever truly bad, and no one good is ever truly good.” I loved that.

• Even if it wasn’t really enough imo, I still treasure the crumbs we got of Loki being competent and capable (him putting the collar on B-15, him figuring out Sylvie’s hiding place, him teaching himself to enchant on the fly while fighting a giant cloud beast of eldritch proportions).

• I love that B-15 was the one who stepped in and saved the day in Episode 4, when we all thought it was gonna be Mobius. What a queen.

• Marvel usually has a bit of a problem with creating compelling and memorable side characters. But aside from Sylvie, I genuinely got attached to every single character in this show. Like Casey, C-20? I was seriously emotionally invested in them and they were only in like 2 episodes. Wtf.

• Introducing the TVA storyline in the Loki series specifically was a really good move. I’m not saying they executed it well, just that it had a ton of potential. A lot of people have wondered why marvel even thought to put those two (the TVA and Loki) together, when they had literally nothing to do with each other, nothing in common, and essentially no connection at all. But when you think about it, it’s a really interesting twist on both of those stories. Forcing the embodiment of destructive chaos and the pillar of rigid order to interact could make for some seriously entertaining and compelling television. And as far as meshing these two completely unrelated entities together goes, I thought they did it pretty well- at least just the bare bones of the story (loki being arrested by the TVA and being one of their most common variants).

So that’s it! If you guys (fellow antis) wanna add stuff you liked, feel free. If anyone wants to discuss (or debate) my list, feel free to do that too!

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

Dead Poets Society: The Characters

No matter how good a story is, how great the cinematography, or how subversive the genre-usage, a movie cannot stand without use of characters.

Characters are perhaps the most vital element of any story ever told.  An interesting plot helps a movie greatly, but without a use of compelling characters, it falls flat on an audience who doesn’t care about the well-being of the people pushing the story forward.  Viewers need flawed, interesting people, moving the story and trying to overcome conflict, in order for a movie to feel satisfying.

Fortunately, Dead Poets Society has no shortage of flawed, interesting people.

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at some of them, starting with our protagonist: Todd Anderson. (Spoilers below!)

Todd is introduced as a character many of us can understand immediately: he’s the new kid at school, the younger sibling of a big-shot.  Todd is part of a legacy, his older brother held in high esteem at Welton, and Headmaster Nolan seems to immediately put great stock in the fact that Todd is another Anderson.  Todd is living in the shadow of greatness, pressured to fill the same position as his brother, or fail.  

On top of that and clear parental favoritism directed at his brother, Todd is a naturally nervous, shy person.  He’s quiet, withdrawn, the total opposite of his roommate, the outgoing, laid-back Neil, and the two continue to contrast each other throughout the whole film.

Shy characters as protagonists aren’t completely unusual, and can, in fact, be kind of hard to pull off, to the point where audiences don’t always realize that they are the protagonist.  They run the risk of being mistaken for a supporting character, or dismissed as ‘not strong enough’ to carry their own story, and indeed, it can seem like this is exactly what happens to Todd.

For most of the film, it can be very easy to be under the impression that Todd is not the protagonist, rather that he plays a supporting role to Neil.  However, on a closer inspection, the truth becomes clear:

Todd is the one who is doing the growing and changing.

Throughout the film, the audience witnesses Todd grow into his own as a poet, following his journey as he learns to speak out.  Todd is the main beneficiary of Mr. Keating’s English class, the one who takes his lessons to heart and lives them out in the best way.

As I’ve mentioned before, every protagonist has to have a problem, and early on, it’s easy to see what Todd’s problem is: He’s the Un-Favorite, on the receiving end of Always Someone Better.  As he says to Neil:

“I’m not like you, all right? You – you say things and people listen. I’m – I’m not like that.”

Todd’s Problem is that he is living in the shadow of everyone around him, and as a result, has to struggle to find his voice.

And it is a struggle.

Todd is practically dragged into the Dead Poets Society revival, under the condition that he doesn’t have to read out-loud.  He’s terrified of speaking in public in general, and it is when he is forced into the situation by Mr. Keating that a transformation begins to take place.

In many films, (and stories in general) the Aha! Moment is an important one for a protagonist.  It is the moment that sparks change, that signals growth beginning.  For Todd, it is the scene where Mr. Keating forces him to create a poem on the spot, in front of the entire class.

Whether his poem is ‘your thing’ or not, the moment is crucial to Todd’s development: he becomes a poet, something different from his brother, and begins to grow out from under the shadows, into his own person.  Through Mr. Keating’s class, and his friendships with the other boys, especially Neil, Todd finally shows some backbone.

Until tragedy strikes.

In moments like where Neil helps Todd laugh at his family’s pressure on him (with the flying desk), Todd’s more confident side starts to emerge, slowly becoming more outspoken, until Neil’s suicide.  Completely broken by it, Todd runs off into the snow, and when he returns, he’s very much like he was at the beginning of the film: quiet, nervous, and unwilling to speak out, most notably when he’s questioned by Headmaster Nolan.

But he doesn’t stay that way.

When Mr. Keating returns to the classroom one last time, Todd finds his voice again.  Unable to remain quiet any longer, Todd becomes the leader, filling in Neil’s place, leading a few of his classmates against the grain, standing up for himself and his teacher, informing both Mr. Keating and the audience that Todd will not be living under a shadow any longer.

This is Todd’s ‘dragon slaying’ moment, his ‘hero’ scene.  Throughout the film, we see him grow and change, which protagonists are supposed to do, and finally, at the end, we see him overcome his internal obstacle, becoming a stronger person for it.  At the end, the audience feels satisfaction, even if the consequences for his actions may be unfortunate, because he did the right thing and proved himself a heroic character, fulfilling the arc set in motion the moment he created an improv poem and realized he was good at it.

Unfortunately, not all characters get even this bittersweet ending.

Much like Todd, Neil Perry is the subject of high expectations.  Headmaster Nolan is seen early on telling Neil how high his hopes are for him, and instead of Neil answering, his father announces that Neil won’t let him down.  Even in the first few minutes of the film, it’s easy to figure out what Neil’s problem is: his father controls his life as though it were his own.

Both Neil and Todd are both introduced speaking to Mr. Nolan with their parents, instantly setting up the pressures put on them by both the school and their family, establishing their common ground immediately.  

As I’ve mentioned before, Neil is set up as an instant contrast with Todd, with one exception: When Neil is around his father, he essentially becomes a version of Todd, subdued and quiet.  Around every other character, Neil is the life of the party, further emphasizing the extreme reaction he has to his own family.

And it’s not on purpose.

Neil wants to talk to his father.  He wants to explain his passion for acting, and his frustration with his life being controlled and pushed in a direction that Neil has no interest in, but unfortunately, he doesn’t know how.  His father shuts down any conversation direction that he doesn’t approve of, and makes sure that Neil cuts out everything that isn’t directly linked to the plan that his father hasn’t already set out for him.  Neil feels completely trapped in his role as the ‘dutiful son’, unable to break free in a way that ends happily for him.

Neil’s relationship with his father is extremely jarring in comparison with his role in the rest of the story, as I mentioned earlier.  He’s a natural leader, the first to be on board with Mr. Keating and his unorthodox teaching styles.  He throws himself into the new English class, loving the chance to take the lead by reviving the Dead Poets Society.  He drags Todd into it, as well as the rest of his friends, because again, Neil is a leader, and he’s finally found something he wants to do.  As he tells Todd:

“For the first time in my whole life, I know what I want to do…and for the first time, I’m going to do it! Whether my father wants me to or not. Carpe diem!”

Neil wants to live his life to the fullest, to seize life and make it extraordinary, as Mr. Keating suggests, giving him confidence.  But again, his confidence deflates when confronted with his father, even after a successful performance proving his abilities as an actor.

He doesn’t put up a fight, knowing it’s useless.  So after his father shoots his dreams down, Neil shoots himself, with his father’s gun, rather than give up and succumb to a life he doesn’t want.

Until this point, Neil could easily be mistaken for a protagonist, and although he isn’t, his importance is keenly felt through the remainder of the movie, even though he’s no longer there.  It is his death that kicks off the investigation into the Dead Poets Society, that sends Keating into a spiral of depression and his classmates into confusion.  Welton, aware of the scandal that could emerge, shuts down any non-conformity, bringing it back to status quo, giving Todd the opportunity to buck it for the right reason, picking up where Neil left off.  Neil was left as a tragic inspiration, and his imprint is necessary for the film to work as an emotional, impactful story.

But neither Neil nor Todd would have been able to change anything about their lives if not for the teacher himself.

Mr. John Keating is the quintessential Cool Teacher, and a Blithe Spirit, a foil to Welton’s traditionalism.

Keating is actually from Welton, which may explain his zest for changing things up.  He takes his students from their classrooms, showing them new ways to interpret poetry, yes, but also life.  “Seize the day,” he tells them.  “Make your lives extraordinary.”

He’s an outsider among the faculty at Welton, clearly looked down upon for his methods that are considered disruptive.  He argues with them, explaining that without dreams, without free-thinking, there’s no point to life.  He wants these boys to think for themselves, to become their own, best versions of themselves.  It’s a noble enough goal for this Reasonable Authority Figure, and yet…it doesn’t work out.

But it’s not for lack of trying.

Keating is a father to his students, dispensing wisdom that goes beyond ‘rebellion is cool’.  On the contrary, he actually advises a few of his students to not rebel, or at least, not go that far, especially just to do it.  He may be blithe, but he’s not stupid, and he knows his students aren’t, either.

He teaches them about poetry, love, and life, and he wants the boys to live their own lives true to themselves.  He teaches them to look at everything from a new perspective, and that it’s okay to be an individual, but he also tells them how to do it safely, by living out his own values as well as explaining them.

What’s important to note is that, while it seems the boys’ tragic outcomes are linked specifically to Keating himself, as a matter of fact, Keating’s advice is always solid, and usually ignored, ironic, considering that the boys wholeheartedly embrace him as their ‘Captain’.  His advice to Charlie about when to be daring and when it’s just stupid falls by the wayside after Charlie decks Cameron, getting him expelled.  His suggestion that Neil speaks to his father and tries to explain is similarly ignored, as Neil feels he can’t.

Even worse, despite the fact that none of this is his fault, he feels like it is.

Keating clearly feels responsible for Neil’s death, for encouraging him, shown by his breakdown in his own empty classroom.  He’s tried his best to improve these boys’ lives, and he feels that he has failed in every way, sending him into a depression as he is fired, only lifted by one final act of his remaining students.

As Todd leads a few of the boys, standing on their desks and shouting out: “O Captain, My Captain”, they tell him with those words that they will not forget him, that his teaching hadn’t been in vain, that it had meant something, that he hadn’t failed them.  It is in that final act that Keating feels redeemed, and that his attempts to teach the boys something important had meaning.

And more than just Todd took it to heart.

Charlie Dalton, a classic Class Clown prankster, was one of the boys who took to Mr. Keating the most zealously.  A mischief maker to the core, he’s not dumb, but he is reckless, Hot-Blooded to the point where it can get him in trouble.  He can come across as a bit of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, brash and excessively rebellious, but good-hearted under it all.  He’s free-spirited before Keating comes on the scene, and as a result, really takes off under Mr. Keating, albeit needing some guidance in order to do it right, in a way that’s daring, not stupid.

Granted, he does screw up.  But after he screws up, he takes ownership of it.

Charlie’s loyalty is unquestionable.  Even after disciplinary actions taken by the school, Charlie refuses to sell out the rest of the Dead Poets, and in the end, after Cameron does sell them out, Charlie’s hot-blooded nature results in an action that ends with him expelled from the school.  A bittersweet ending, for sure, but there’s no question that he’d rather that than betrayal.

As would Knox.

Knox Overstreet is very much a Charmer wanna-be, a Stalker with a Crush to Chris, a girl he meets early on in the film and who he is determined to woo.  Most of his individualism in the cast comes from his totally love-struck behavior after meeting Chris, as beforehand, he’s kind of just one of the guys.  After falling in unrequited love, however, he takes on a hugely individual personality among the boys: extremely dramatic.

His growth in confidence from the Dead Poets Society and Mr. Keating leads to him pursuing Chris, despite all signals that he probably shouldn’t, ranging from her having a boyfriend already to her literally telling him off.  Although he definitely goes a bit far, Knox becomes a very passionate, determined young man, and finally does end up winning Chris over to him, and overall possibly ending up better for it.

Which is more than we can say for Cameron.

Richard Cameron is a Dirty Coward to the core, very much the Friend Nobody Likes.  His concern is tradition, the status quo.  He doesn’t want to tear out the pages of the books, and he clearly doesn’t enjoy Mr. Keating as a teacher.  He’s skeptical of the new and unorthodox, a young version of the older administration.  Cameron is a suck-up, a Turncoat, the Informant, who turns his classmates over in a heartbeat rather than face any consequences himself.  He is the first to tattle to the administration and blame Keating for everything, and he never changes.  He doesn’t stand with Todd and the rest.  Keating’s teachings have fallen on deaf ears, and Charlie ends the film much as he began it, completely unchanged.

And then, of course, there’s the closest thing this film had to an antagonist: Neil Perry’s father.

In contrast to Headmaster Nolan, who was at least just doing his job, Mr. Perry is a Control Freak towards Neil for little reason other than what appears to be selfishness.  He ignores Neil’s goals and dreams, imposing his own on the boy and acting as though Neil’s life is his, forcing him to give up extracurricular activities and indeed, anything that isn’t directly connected to medical school.  He crushes any protest or mild argument, trapping Neil in a cycle of silence and misery, simply because Neil’s goals aren’t in Mr. Perry’s plan.

Mr. Perry views Neil as a vehicle for himself.  All of their interactions are based in how Mr. Perry thinks Neil reflects on himself, to the point where Mr. Perry cannot see that he is the cause for his son’s suicide, choosing instead to pin it all on the person that he blames for Neil’s ‘rebellion’.

With all that said, as awful as Mr. Perry seems, his goals are genuinely what’s best for his son.  A lack of communication and different values drives the two so far apart that they genuinely cannot communicate.  Mr. Perry thinks he has done right by his son by giving him this opportunity, and cannot understand that he needs to consult Neil on what path Neil wants to choose, inevitably leading to his son’s suicide.

None of these characters are black and white.

While some are more on the side of wrong than others, it’s interesting the way that Dead Poets Society plays with ideas of rebellion against a system, showing healthy and good ways to do it contrasted with bad ones.  These people are shown to us as human as we are, capable of making huge mistakes and having to live with the consequences of them.  Every character is here to hold up an idea and ask the audience to think about it, to evaluate it.

The drama of this film is in that there is no clear answer.  Extremes in either direction lead to disaster, it is up to each of us to find the middle ground between tradition and individualism, and for each of us, and each situation, that middle road may look different.  Through these characters, the film actively encourages thought from an audience to look at each choice made by each person and question if they were right, and if not, what exactly went wrong?

Like many dramas, Dead Poets Society is, if not a realistic film, a film designed to be real, a mirror held to a culture that is constantly wavering between two extremes, asking its audience what to do when we glimpse the systems that we live in.  In that, the movie’s characters come across as genuine, confused people in a world with no clear answers.

And more importantly, we care about them.

The reason “O Captain, My Captain” has stuck around thanks to this film isn’t just the message, it’s the complex people with motivations and personalities and reasons for being the way that they are, and for wanting what they want.  We connect to them instantly for that reason, and we want things to work out for them.

Every character in Dead Poets Society is there for a purpose, to fill out a cast of people with personalities that audiences grasp and relate to, to the point where generations of youth still gravitate towards this film set in a time past.  These people and their different beliefs and styles all carry their own stories, making us care about them all.

And in the end, that’s the mark of a good character.

Characters exist to make you care, whether in a good way or a bad way, and with that in mind, the characters of Dead Poets Society more than live up to the task.  They leave a strong impact, letting us as audience members remember each one of them, their goals, and how they tried to go about them, long after the movie is over.

We remember these boys, and their teacher, and how they tried to make their lives extraordinary, inadvertently asking us how we’ll do the same.

In the articles ahead, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the other important elements of Dead Poets Society, so if you enjoyed this one, stick around and join us!  Don’t forget to leave a comment, like, or some other form of love if you enjoyed it, and follow for more!  Thanks so much for reading, and I hope to see you in the next article.

[mediaeval-muse]

Book Review

Beasts Made of Night. By Tochi Onyebuchi. New York: Razorbill, 2017.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: YA fantasy

Part of a Series? Yes, Beasts Made of Night #1

Summary: In the walled city of Kos, corrupt mages can magically call forth sin from a sinner in the form of sin-beasts – lethal creatures spawned from feelings of guilt. Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj’s livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family. When Taj is called to eat a sin of a royal, he’s suddenly thrust into the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy Kos. Now Taj must fight to save the princess that he loves – and his own life.

***Full review under the cut.***

Trigger/Content Warnings: violence, blood, body horror

Overview: There were so many things about this book that I would have usually been very interested in: a Nigerian-inspired fantasy, an intriguing magical premise, a political drama, etc. I was very excited to pick it up, and I was looking forward to a something a little different from the run-of-the-mill YA fantasies I’ve been reading lately. While I think the story started ok, I quickly found that the book as a whole felt more like a draft than a finished piece. There wasn’t much attention paid to building a plot; everything seemed to meander until the last third, when suddenly, all the action was dumped on us all at once. I would have been able to appreciate it had more care been given to setting up stakes and having scenes build on one another earlier in the book, but unfortunately, it didn’t feel like Onyebuchi had a plan from the get-go; he seemed to have been writing without a sense of what his story was going to be until the very end. While I really enjoyed the idea of “sin eating” and all the potential stories that could arise from that premise, the book as a whole just didn’t come together in a way I found satisfying. Thus, this book only gets 2 stars from me.

Writing: Onyebuchi’s prose is fairly typical for a YA novel in that it describes things in a straightforward way, focusing on actions more than emotions or complex nuances within the fantasy world. Beasts Made of Night is also like a lot of YA fantasy in that it is told in first person, which means that, by nature, some descriptions and narrations feel awkward or unnatural. First person is tricky because humans don’t consciously register certain things that need to be included in a novel in order for a reader to understand the action, and I think Onyebuchi falls into this trap sometimes. This isn’t necessary his fault; I think all first-person narration has this hurdle, and some writers overcome it better than others.

Plot: The main arc of this book follows our hero, Taj, as he attempts to navigate the political world after eating the sin of the king of Kos. I found the premise incredibly compelling, but unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite click for me. The main conflict doesn’t take off until around page 80, which means that for nearly the first third of the book, we spend a lot of time following Taj as he just lives his life in Kos. To some extent, following a character’s daily life can be a good way of orienting a reader in a fantasy world, but after a time, I wanted the main conflict to start.

Once Taj ate the king’s sin, it seemed like the story was finally going to start, but unfortunately, it didn’t. Taj doesn’t really disclose what the sin was or how his knowledge of it affected his status in the kingdom. I would have thought that will such an abnormally giant sin-beast, there would be some kind of political plot revolving around the king, but instead, Taj is simply taken into the palace as the royal family’s personal aki, and he spends the next third of the book not doing much of anything.

After a while, he is sent away from the palace so he can train an army of aki, and even that plot starts to drag until the final 60ish pages, when Taj is involved in a plot to take over the royal palace. The last third or so of the novel seemed to dump all the action on us at once, and most of that is conspiracy that has already taken place off-page - Taj just gets invited along for the ride (because he develops some new abilities? Because he’s the chosen one? I don’t know). I personally didn’t find it very compelling because none of the major events were set up in the first two-thirds of the book, making everything feel as though it were happening at random for plot twisty reasons. I also don’t think the plot was a very smart one, which made the plan to take over the palace seem poorly-planned.

Characters: On the whole, the characters were a mixed bag for me. Taj, our protagonist, is interesting in that he’s a little cocky and has that fun attitude of “I-hate-that-I-care.” I was really looking forward to seeing how his character would develop over the course of the novel, but he didn’t seem to change all that much. I also wish Taj had had some kind of deeper motivation that affected his actions throughout the book.  For example, we understand that Taj wants to send money back to his family, but we don’t get a lot of descriptions of him being homesick or feeling lonely - things that would make this goal feel more important and which would hit differently when we read about him being essentially alienated from his fellow aki because of how successful he’s been at sin-eating. Instead, Taj feels rather aloof and disinterested in trying to form a found family, and I couldn’t quite understand what it was that was driving him other than mere survival (which is fine, but survival on its own in insufficient for me).

Taj also seemed to act in ways that didn’t quite make sense; for example, he seemed unfazed by the “Baptism,” an event in which the government razes an entire neighborhood to the ground if it feels the area is too sinful. In the first 80 pages, Taj gets caught up in a Baptism, but afterwards, brushes it off and goes smoking with his friend, Bo. I would have understood if Taj had gone to cope with the horror he saw, but it didn’t feel that way. It felt like “oh, well, time for a night out.” Absolutely no exploration of how witnessing the Baptism affected him afterward.

Many side characters also didn’t seem to have a clear arc; they merely drifted in and out of the story as needed. Bo was supposedly Taj’s close friend, but he and Taj don’t have that many scenes together which showed that (I was told more than shown). Arzu, Taj’s bodyguard of sorts after he enters palace service, is kind of fun, but her arc isn’t really that important to the plot. The king is barely involved except for the sin-eating and the very end, and the princess (Taj’s love interest? Maybe?) is awkward without clear motivations. Even Izu (a mage), Aliya (another mage), and Zainab (a fellow aki), who have direct influences on Taj’s life and are major players in the big plot, don’t seem to be given much room to shine. Perhaps this was to keep the plot twist of the last third of the book secret, but it felt like they didn’t really have a use until then.

It also didn’t feel as if Taj was truly bonded to any side characters. Despite scenes of joking around with Bo or protecting Omar, a young aki that is discovered on the day another aki dies, I didn’t really feel that these relationships were important. I was told that they were, but because we get so few scenes where Taj builds trust or confides in people, I never got the sense that he truly connected with anyone - not even the princess, who he supposedly falls in love with (or in lust with?) for no reason.

I think more work could have been done to solve the problem of useless side characters by making their motivations or goals more clear (or at least sprinkled more hints and seeds) throughout the entire novel, not just all at the end. As the book stands, Onyebuchi spends a lot of time describing the setting and characters’ actions, and while he makes clear that the aki are second-class citizens and some people in the palace want things to change, he doesn’t really tell us what his characters want, how they act to achieve these goals, and how the events of the book (or how Taj himself) threaten those goals - at least, not until the end. I think if more was shown to us instead of told, with scenes more clearly building on one another, characters would have had more fulfilling arcs and the plot as a whole would have felt more suspenseful.

Worldbuilding: Aside from the sin-eating, Onyebuchi creates a magical world full of sensual experiences. It seems like gems and precious stones are everywhere, but aren’t necessarily valuable as currency; instead, they symbolize family ties and add splashes of color to an impoverished world. There is also a kind of smoking lounge with aromatics such as apricot and mint, while the sounds and smells of the markets bring Kos to life.

While all these elements captured my interest, I think the book would have benefited from a bit more structure when exploring the relationship between the outcast aki and the people around them. It seemed to me that the aki were a necessary scapegoat in that they were simultaneously needed and shunned by society. They are kept in poverty and often suffer from exploitation, with no way of demanding fairer treatment. While this was all well and good for establishing class dynamics, I did want some more explanation of why the aki were so powerless. Why couldn’t they, say, form some kind of union and refuse to eat sins unless they were paid fairly? Seems to me that threatening to kill them could work, but eventually, the royals would run out of aki, and without their services, things could go downhill pretty fast.

I also wish figures like the inyo or the arashi had been more integral to the story, as I kept forgetting what they were until the very end. These figures are mentioned a lot, but I never really felt like they were part of the world because they don’t really make an appearance, nor does belief in them seem to affect the action.

TL;DR: Beasts Made of Night has an intriguing premise and is set in a marvelous fantasy world, but unfortunately suffers from poor plotting and characters with unclear arcs and motivations.

[nadziejastar]

Did you finish reading that KH3: A Conclusion without a story article? If so, what did you think of it?

I loved reading it. It was a fantastic take on KH3. There was pretty much nothing that I disagreed with.

By the time you leave Olympus, Sora hasn’t learnt how to restore his powers; and the frustrating part is that he never explicitly does.

I completely agreed with this. Sora’s journey in KH3 should have been about learning the power of waking. But even in the scene where he finally does learn it, there’s no real reason why. He didn’t seem to learn anything on his journey.

Even the villains are given no progress – a subplot about Pete and Maleficent looking for a mysterious black box goes nowhere, and Organisation XIII (the primary antagonists) only put in a brief appearance, spouting their usual brand of vaguely ominous dialogue. To compound these issues, the protagonists are ultimately left not knowing where to go or what to do next. Only two hours into the game, and the plot has no sense of momentum or direction.  

Yep. The black box thing annoyed me so much. The Organization was also a huge letdown. We don’t get to learn the real reason why Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx, and Luxord joined until KH4!? Something went very, VERY wrong in the Dark Seeker Saga for that to happen. 

By comparison, Kingdom Hearts II’s opening was significantly slower paced – to the point that it was a detriment to some players. However, so much more was achieved in a similar space of time; II’s initial hours establish the game’s tone and major themes, as well as introduce a large cast of brand new characters (while simultaneously reintroducing old ones in new contexts).

Yep. I liked KH2′s opening, slow as it was. The prologue of KH2 felt like it had more plot than almost all of KH3.

And this is one of the core problems with Kingdom Hearts III; even if you look past a threadbare narrative for Sora and company while they adventure through the self-contained Disney worlds, there is nothing going on outside of that either. In Kingdom Hearts II, both Riku and Mickey were operating behind the scenes, aiding Sora from the shadows and setting key events in motion. In III, however, these same characters spend most of their time expositing plot points and passively waiting for the big battle at the end of the game – and that can be said for almost all of our heroes.

I also agree. This problem would have been mitigated if every character got their own time to shine using the power of waking. Riku and Mickey could have had a subplot together, showing how Riku got his new Keyblade. They should have saved each other from the darkness. 

If there’s a job to do, it’s up to Sora to do it. With a couple of key exceptions, every character apart from Sora, Donald, and Goofy is presented as almost comically useless – yet our protagonist remains the butt of every joke.

Yep. Everyone other than Sora was useless. Aqua needed to save Ven, but all she did was get knocked out in the battle with Vanitas. Ven needed to save Terra, but he didn’t really do anything. Sora did all the work. Lea needed to save Isa, but he did nothing in his fight. He got shoved to the side while Roxas and Xion took over. Kairi saving Sora should have gotten more focus. 

The villains reveal that the only way Sora can release Roxas is by giving into the darkness, and sacrificing his own heart. Self-sacrifice is nothing new for Sora (he did the same thing in Kingdom Hearts I to save his love interest Kairi), but this had the potential to be an interesting plot point, as it gives him a selfless reason to be tempted by, and potentially give into, the darkness. But it’s never brought up again. 

Yep. Early scenes in KH3 make it seem like the game did originally have an actual plot at one point. Xigbar was luring Sora into a trap, so he’d fall to darkness. But it’s never brought up again, LOL. It’s crazy.

In fact, ‘saving Roxas’ is scarcely discussed until the end of the game (King Mickey telling Sora to “let the rest of us worry about Roxas and Naminé for now”, essentially dropping the subject after only the second Disney world). Ultimately, Roxas’ heart just leaves Sora’s body of its own volition in the final act, making the player’s time here, once again, feel largely pointless.  

And yes, saving Roxas was handled very badly. This is because, IMO, saving Roxas and saving Ventus was supposed to be one and the same. There shouldn’t have been a separate “saving Roxas” subplot.

In interviews, Nomura discussed the struggle of dealing with so many characters – even citing the cast size as one of the main reasons that Final Fantasy cameos were omitted[2]. The real problem, though, is that nothing is done to mitigate this challenge.

Yes, exactly. And treating Roxas and Ventus as separate characters only exacerbated this problem.

Upon leaving Twilight Town, the player finally begins their true journey – travelling to various worlds based on Disney properties and beating back the forces of darkness. But there’s no real set up for this; no distinct reason *why* we’re visiting these worlds. 

Mm-hm. I think the issue was that we were supposed to learn more about Ansem the Wise’s data in KH0.5. That was supposed to give Sora a quest in KH3: search for the “Key to Return Hearts”. Once that game got cancelled, Nomura had no idea how to write KH3′s story any longer.

So around 3-4 hours into Kingdom Hearts III, the story still lacks a clear sense of direction and purpose, and hasn’t yet established any clear themes or deeper meaning.

Yeah, it’s sad because there was an underlying theme in the Disney worlds: the power of love and its ability to restore what was lost.

Kingdom Hearts III cleverly tries to frame its story through the lens of a chess match between two Keyblade Masters, Eraqus and Xehanort, when they were young. The game even opens on this scene, highlighting its importance. But chess has rules; logic; a clear sense of direction. Kingdom Hearts III’s narrative is akin to two people who don’t know how to play chess. They understand that they have to defeat their opponent’s king, but the rules of how to move their pieces, how to actually reach that coveted checkmate, are completely unknown to them. The characters in this game feel like pieces on a chess board with no rules; aimlessly moving back and forth across a limited space, until both players finally decide enough is enough and agree to bring their match to an end.

LOL. Yep. The fact that Xehanort had “reserve members” showed he had no idea what he was doing.

Stick to your guns – don’t be afraid to explore a good idea, or to develop the plot outside of your main protagonist. When so many previously proactive characters are in play, the story shouldn’t feel so static, or entirely dependent on the protagonist’s actions. The way your protagonist reacts to events and changing circumstances is just as important as the ones they play an active role in creating.

That’s why I liked the spin-offs. KH3 suffered from forcing you into only Sora’s perspective. Even Nomura said that the Keyblade Graveyard should have had everyone fighting their own battles.

Simply put, the Disney worlds in Kingdom Hearts III have no tangible impact on the game’s core narrative.

Sad, but true.

“In the end, although I had a hand in it as well, the flow of the dialogue and the stories of each world were largely handled by the level design team.” While I very much appreciate this standpoint of ‘gameplay first’, as well as the act of involving multiple teams in the execution of the story, these statements do prove my point. Set-pieces and events are one thing, but if there was a specific story to tell – with outlined themes to be explored, character conflicts to evolve, and goals to be achieved; all developed evenly throughout the entire game (Disney worlds included) - you would imagine the scenario would be built around balancing those narrative elements with the individual tales of each level.

Very interesting. The story in the Disney worlds was largely decided by the level design team? Wow.

Despite major villains such as Young Xehanort, Vanitas, and Marluxia making multiple appearances in their respective worlds, they generally just spout off trite exposition and then either disappear or summon a boss fight. Some villains don’t even know why they’re there, while others introduce plot points (such as the Black Box or the new Princesses of Heart) that are never utilised or expanded upon. As the game features at least thirteen main antagonists, these early appearances should have been integral in establishing their personalities, motivations, and the threat they pose to the player (as well as our heroes). In execution, though, they seem like little more than after-thoughts that offer hints of personality, but never go beyond the superficial – and certainly contribute nothing to the main narrative. This, I believe, is because Kingdom Hearts III doesn’t have a story to tell, but was instead content with treading water until its grand conclusion.

Yep. I had no idea why Marluxia, Larxene, and Luxord were running around in the worlds. Why are they back? Other characters, like Saix, were given flimsy “motivation”. All in all, the organization members were supposed to be vessels by the time you fight them in the KG. Hollowed out containers for Xehanort’s heart. Victims of mind control who you are supposed to have pity for. But they never felt like it.

Kingdom Hearts III’s meandering and vapid progression during ‘the Disney loop’ supports my argument that the game lacks a complete narrative and was merely concerned with reaching its final act. I believe this is most evident by the way in which the player is made to jump from world to world without any direction or purpose. Consequently, the majority of Kingdom Hearts III feels content to aimlessly ‘go through the motions’, setting a repetitive, humdrum pace and ultimately lacking the sense of narrative depth and genuine value that is integral to a great RPG.  

Yeah, I believe there was–at one point–an actual plot for KH3. But after BBSV2 was cancelled, a huge portion of KH3′s plot was pretty much scrapped along with it and rewritten.

Everyone’s heard of the three-act structure; a model that forms the foundation of popular culture’s favourite stories. Act 1 features the setup and exposition; an ‘inciting incident’ to get the narrative moving. Act 2 is the confrontation; a midpoint which challenges the protagonist, pushing them to their limits. And finally, Act 3 is the resolution; concluding the plot, along with any character arcs introduced in the previous acts. While this structure doesn’t necessarily need to be adhered to, I believe it possesses something that Kingdom Hearts III sorely lacked – a midpoint.

Yep. KH3 had no mid-point. Scala ad Caelum could have worked as the mid-point. And it could have been another hub world like Radiant Garden. KH3 probably originally had this, but it was scrapped.

This is especially a shame, as Aqua’s fall into darkness – resulting in a twisted form that externalises all of her loneliest thoughts – is one of the most dramatically compelling aspects of the game. And that’s despite lasting for all of 10 minutes (a decade of solitude and suffering are seemingly erased by a few whacks from Sora’s Keyblade).

This is true for all of the characters that needed to be saved. Nobody really used the power of waking on anyone. It’s was just whack, whack, okay you’re saved.

And this is ultimately the problem with the lack of a true Act 2 – the characters aren’t explored or challenged when they need to be. The narrative refuses to escalate until its final act, at which point it feels like going from zero to sixty in a matter of moments. But during the heat of battle – at such a late stage, and with so many heroes and villains in play (more than twenty) – it’s hard to develop your characters in a way that feels natural. Kingdom Hearts III’s solution is bizarre soliloquies that are completely disconnected from the events around them. Is Sora in the middle of a boss fight with three villains? Well, the other two will disappear while you spend several minutes casually chatting with the third. And while this is partly due to the challenge of giving such a large cast an appropriate send-off, it’s also a direct consequence of the lack of time given to exploring characters and their relationships in the previous 20-25 hours of playtime.

So true. So many characters who had so much development over the series. That’s why they needed another game before KH3. It was probably too much to ask for KH3 to be the epic conclusion as well as dive into everyone’s backstory.

On that note, having some sort of hub – a place, like Traverse Town or Hollow Bastion in the first two Kingdom Hearts games, that the player regularly returns to – can be an effective way to centre your story. It provides a home base, and a recurring cast of characters that can be revisited at any time. This kind of location helps players to feel a deeper and more personal attachment to your world.

Yeah, the game would have been so much better if you could visit RG and interact with the plot-important NPCs.

Put in Kingdom Hearts terms, we might say that the body and soul are here; it’s just missing its heart.

I’ve had the exact same thought.

This essay began with the assertion that Kingdom Hearts III is a conclusion in search of a story; a game without a tale of its own to tell. So far, we’ve examined the material impact; the effect this has on the game’s pacing, its sense of player progression, engagement, and character development. So in this topic, I want to consider the conceptual side of things; the motivations that drive our heroes and villains, the purpose of the events that take place, and finally the meaning intended to be conveyed by the story. Put simply, does the narrative of Kingdom Hearts III have something to say?

Sadly, no. I can tell it was supposed to, though. KH3′s story was supposed to be about the power of love. It was really that simple.

By the time of Kingdom Hearts III, Riku has overcome all of these challenges and been granted the title of Keyblade Master, so it was important to present him as a more mature, capable character, having regained his confidence and developed a clear identity. But ultimately, he just feels bland and stoic in this game. He has no new narrative arc, relatively few interactions with Sora, predominantly serves as a mouthpiece for exposition, and is more devoid of a distinct personality than ever. And for a game which serves as a conclusion to the story so far, it’s essential that our core group of characters, such as Riku and Kairi, reach a satisfying crescendo. The narrative should organically involve them in significant ways, and the challenges they face should provide natural opportunities for growth and exploration.

Sad, since Riku seemed like he did originally have a narrative arc. He got a new Keyblade! But the way he got it was laughably random and meaningless and contributed nothing to his overall growth or development.

As much as I’ve tried to understand it, I cannot summarise Master Xehanort’s motivation in that same, concise way. His initial speech in Kingdom Hearts III implies idle curiosity; he speculates that “If ruin brings about creation, what, then, would another Keyblade War bring?” followed by statements that he wants to re-enact the conflict and simply see what happens. He also wonders if they will “…be found worthy of the precious light the legend speaks of”, implying that his goal is to test humanity; or at least the current generation of Keyblade wielders. But that’s a pretty flimsy motivation, and it’s lacking any context or logic.

Yep. Xehanort was supposed to have another game to explore his motivations. When you get rid of that, his character just doesn’t work anymore.

And it’s not just the heroes that have this problem. During their death scenes, several of the Organisation’s members (Luxord, Marluxia, Larxene, Xigbar, Xion, Saix, and Ansem) either encourage Sora or imply that they didn’t care about the outcome; or didn’t even want to battle in the first place. Some have their reasons, but if even one of them had chosen not to fight, Xehanort’s re-enactment could have failed. Much like I described earlier, it doesn’t feel satisfying to overcome a foe who didn’t want to fight, and a war with the potential to destroy the universe should be motivated by much more powerful convictions.

I don’t disagree. But I honestly think this is because none of these characters actually wanted to fight in the Keyblade War. They were supposed to be possessed puppets. Mind-controlled vessels with no will of their own. 

Let’s use Saix as an example. What makes a more engaging battle? In canon, Saix had flimsy motivations to be fighting, anyways. He wanted to atone so he was acting as a double agent in order to procure some Replicas. And he wanted look for Subject X. That’s why he joined Xehanort. That’s all the reason he had to fight. 

Compare that to a potential backstory with him as a vessel, lacking free will. Isa was a human test subject who was possessed as a teen. His best friend Lea has to fight him unwillingly. Saix is berserk and nearly kills Lea without even being aware of it. But all Lea wants is to save his best friend. I know which one I find more engaging. 

Ever since that first game, I’ve been trying to identify what it is that unified these two styles of storytelling – the Disney fairytale with the SquareSoft RPG. And in writing this essay, I finally realised; the secret ingredient, the unifying thread that both franchises had in common, was love. Romance is at the core of almost every classic Disney film, and every Final Fantasy from IV to X was in some way a love story. Seemingly the developers of the original Kingdom Hearts realised this too.

I’m pretty neutral about the Sora/Kairi romance. I mainly wanted Kairi to not feel like a damsel-in-distress yet again. And KH3 definitely screwed that up.

In a way, my problem was the same as that of Kingdom Hearts III’s story. We both spent so much time looking to the horizon, imagining what the future may hold, that we missed out on what was already right in front of us. I will always love and support this series, and its creativity and charm will no doubt continue to inspire my own stories for the rest of my life. But despite not being the conclusion I hoped for, Kingdom Hearts III has freed me from my own obsession with the series’ future. I no longer feel like I’m waiting for something that may never come. Of course, I hope the series gets its story back on track, and rises to new heights greater than ever before! But it turns out that I already got my ending in 2006; and now that I’ve finally realised that, I can finally, honestly say that, as a Kingdom Hearts fan, I am satisfied.

It’s sad that KH2’s ending felt more satisfying. Because KH3 should have been even better than KH2′s ending. KH2 had a happy ending. But in KH3, everyone was there on the beach. Terra, Aqua, and Ven were saved. In KH2, Axel was dead. He had a sad ending. But in KH3, he was human again and even had his childhood best friend back, too. Even Hayner, Pence, and Olette were there. Sora should have been there, too. By all accounts, I should have liked KH3′s ending the best out of any game. But they ruined it with the horrible character development and the cheap cliffhanger.

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 12

I don’t want to do this.

I haven’t seen the next/last episode yet this week, each time saying there was some conflict or other keeping me from sitting down and watching. But looking back it’s mostly pretty weak excuses.

In reality, I have to accept the main reason that I’m typing this out rather than pulling up Crunchyroll: As long as I don’t see the finale, I can avoid the truth. I can avoid seeing whatever ending Urobuchi’s cooked up, and live in blissful ignorance that somehow this all works out ok. That despite each and every time before Madoka somehow survives this and doesn’t go Witch. That even after coming to the brink of despair Homura will get a happy ending. That I won’t have to see an ending that I keep imagining gets worse and worse, except that whatever I can fear I know the Urobutcher will manage to surpass.

Goddamnit, I just wanted a cute little show! I knew PMMM was a magical girl show, and I knew that for whatever reason it was incredibly popular. Music, animation, cute moments, whatever. I started PMMM thinking it’d be a good, happy time. Jesus was I wrong.

This show has put me through an emotional wringer. All this death and despair… without any warning from you jerks!

Do I think that it’s good I’ve seen this show? Yes. The production value is excellent, the twists were very engaging, and the philosophical discussions it has prompted are far more than I expected from it. Maybe when this is done I can sit back and enjoy watching others encounter the show, contribute to the discussion.

But I sure as hell don’t want to push the play button this time. I don’t want to see the end result. One way or another, Madoka’s story is coming to an end. The longer I put it off, the longer I can imagine that she survives and is happy. Despite everything…

Damn it. I want to put it off, but I can’t. I’m here, the finale is pulled up, and I’m out of excuses.

Let’s get this over with.

PMMM Finale Ep 12: My Very Best Friend

We open where we left off. The city is devastated, the technicolor Walpurgisnacht hovers in the distance, Homura is trapped under rubble, and Madoka looks towards the Witch with the Incubator at her side.

“Homura, I’m sorry. I’m going to become a Magical Girl.”

Homura looks on in horror as Madoka calmly talks about how she finally found a Wish she truly wants granted. And just as calmly says that she’s going to use her life for it.

GodDAMN it, Madoka! Stop being so fucking calm about selling your soul! Stop being so calm and peaceful and nice and AAARGH! Stop being such a hero! Be selfish for once in your life!

Yes, thank you Homura! Use every tool you have left to stop this travesty. Guilt-trip her with the countless times you’ve tried to save her, ask what the hell it was all for if Madoka insists on being the hero each and every time.

Madoka walks over and hugs Homura as the Magical Girl music starts up. She apologizes, but says that she’s the person she is now because Homura tried to protect her for so long. And asks that Homura trust in “the answer she has found”, swearing that she won’t waste everything Homura’s done for her.

“Now, Kaname Madoka. What is the Wish that you will pay for with your soul?”

Alright. Wish time. What’s it going to be? Wish for your friends back? Wish for Homura to find peace? Wish for the Incubator to go die in a fire?

“I wish…”

Deep breath. Inhale. Exhale.

“I wish to erase all Witches before they are born. All the Witches in all the universes, both past and future. With my own hands!”

Wait.

What?

Waitwhat? What just- Can she-

Um. There’s a bright pink glow. That Wish is valid? She’s turning into a Magical Girl?!

The Wish to fucking erase all Witches is VALID?!?!

WHAT?!?!?!

“That prayer… If a prayer like that were granted, it could unravel the fabric of time itself! It would go against the very force of karmic destiny!”

No shit, Sherlock! Holy crap, this isn’t just Homura’s multiverse-hopping, this a core aspect of all of the universes! A Wish can do that?!

Did… did I just get out-minmaxed by a pink-haired middleschool girl?

Did this seriously just happen?

Did Madoka just effectively tell the DM “Yeah, no. I’m rewriting your setting”?

“Do you truly intend to become a god?!”

Holy crap. Madoka just wished to replace the DM.

I… I can’t even…

“I don’t care what I become. All those who have fought against Witches, who believed in hope as Magical Girls… I don’t want to see them cry. I want them smiling to the very end. If any rule or law stands in the way of that...I will destroy it. I will rewrite it. That is my prayer… That is my wish.”

…

Don't underestimate us! We don't care about time or space or multidimensional whatevers. We couldn't give a damn about that. Force your way down a path you choose, and do it your way! That's the way Team Dai-Gurren rolls!

I did not expect PMMM to have a Badass Creed rivaling fricken Simon the Digger.

“Now, grant my wish, Incubator!!”

The powerful glow around Madoka explodes, and the screen whites out.

And then the title comes up? Showing the reset of All Time, then?

Oh, the episode title finally appeared.

Final Episode: My Very Best Friend

A piece of cake? Mami’s place?

“Kaname… do you truly understand how fearsome a Wish that was?”

Yeah, Mami’s place, one of her customary tea parties with elaborate cakes. So is she alive again, as there was now never a Witch to kill her?

“It means that for all the past and future, and throughout all of time, you will have to continue fighting forever.”

Is that how it works, then? Madoka Wishes for the power to destroy all Witches, so she has to do it personally?

“In doing so, you will certainly wind up losing all traces of your individual self.”

Aw crap. The downside. There I was getting all optimistic, thinking that “Holy crap we actually get a happy ending?” But nope, Madoka will wind up essentially a completely different person.

“Simply dying would be a kinder fate. For all eternity, you would continue merely as a concept, a principle that destroys Witches.”

Damn it Urobuchi, I get it. You can stop hammering the point home.

But of course, our Protagonist is fine with that.

“If someone says it’s wrong to have hope, then I’ll tell them they’re wrong, every single time. And I know I’ll always tell them so.”

Wait. So… she’ll keep her core? She’ll stay Madoka at her heart, with her belief of hope? She won’t completely lose herself? Can I hope for that, or is Urobuchi going to step on that again?

“Then it’s fine, isn’t it?” Kyoko! Chowing down on a slice of cake. She’s serving as the determinator of the bunch, pointing out that now Madoka’s found her reason to fight, all that’s left is to run full steam ahead.

Daw, and now Mami gives Madoka back her old notebook of drawings.

“You aren’t just giving us hope. You’re becoming hope, itself… The hope of us all.”

Whiteout again. And here’s Magical Girl Madoka, in all her glory. Homura’s all but blinded by the light, the Incubator stares ahead, and… oh yeah. Walpurgisnacht. That’s a thing.

The orchestra begins to swell as Madoka readies her bow. A great sigil appears in the sky, and Madoka shoots it to blast away the stormclouds, revealing a bright blue sky. It then shoots out ALL OF THE ARROWS.

Cut to someone falling in grass? Oh, another Magical Girl. With a dark Soul Gem beginning to crack. She looks scared and begins to cry… when a burst of pink light falls from the sky and reforms as Magical Girl Madoka? Who purifies the Soul Gem… and then the Gem disappears? Hold up, what just happened? The Soul Gem vanished and the girl looked happy for a moment before closing her eyes. Is she sleeping, no longer a lich? Or did she just ‘die’ because Madoka took her purified soul somewhere else? Urobuchi, stop distracting me with this amazing music, I’m trying to figure this out.

Ok, the girl’s body just faded away before the screen went white. So Madoka’s stopping Witches by going back to just before the Soul Gem breaks? And then does something to the soul, takes it away somewhere? If she’s powerful enough to be a god now, is she… what, taking all these girls to Magical Girl heaven?

Many, many more bursts of pink light, more scenes of Madoka appearing to siphon away despair and vanish Soul Gems.

“I won’t let your prayers end in despair. None of you have to hate anyone, or curse anyone. I will bear all of that cursed destiny for you. So, please. To the very end, keep believing in yourselves!”

Ok, two things: one, I wanna see Madoka and Kamina meet up now to try and outdo eachother regarding “believe in yourself” speeches. Two, the scenes of magical girls are including I believe Cleopatra and Joan of Arc.

Back to the present, countless Hope Arrows continue to fly about, many shredding the madly laughing Walpurgisnacht until it’s only the giant gear. And still Madoka calmly speaks to it, staying that it no longer has to hate or curse. Because she’ll go back before it began and take the burden. Which creates a humongous explosion. Homura covers her face, the screen whites out again…

Weird technicolor lights, like a corrupted Soul Gem…

Homura opens her eyes. Does a rapid turn. Is on the moon?

She rightfully wonders where the heck she is. Hmmm, who do we know who could provide some exposition on the result of a Wish?

“The universe is in the process of reordering itself, based on Madoka’s new laws.” Homura’s present because she can control time-crossing magic. And so the Incubator says they’ll see

NO. NO NO NO FUCKING

NO

“-what kind of end the existence called Madoka Kaname will meet.”

GOD. DAMN. IT. We were SO CLOSE. We ALMOST had a good ending, but NOPE. UROBUTCHER STRIKES AGAIN! “Let’s see, we’ll just set things up with some inspiring hope quotes, show Madoka taking on the burdens of every Magical Girl ever… yes, that should do nicely for a literal god-damned Soul Gem.”

Because yeah. Madoka took on all those cursed destinies. She brought forth enough hope to create an entire universe. So for things to balance, that universe will now be destroyed.

“It’s only natural, right?” Fuck off, Incubator.

And the Super Soul Gem cracks, creating a Witch that dwarfs even the tower from Homura’s last timeline. Welp, I know what’ll be in my nightmares tonight.

The maddened laughter begins again.

“No, it’s all right.” Wait, Madoka?! But- the Super Witch-

Oh. Oh yes. YesyesyesYESYESYES

Wait, Puffball?

“My Wish was to erase all Witches…”

New outfit? Huge white dress and Rapunzel-length hair?

“And if that prayer really comes true… then even I… should have no reason to despair… ever!”

Super Magical Girl Madoka (?) readies her bow, another friggen big sigil appears, and ALL OF THE ARROWS blast away at the Super Witch, causing another huge explosion, the Witch is blasted away, Homura is- blasted away?! Hold up- the screen whites out again…

Did Madoka just blow up reality?

Screen comes to a shifting background of pinks, purples and whites.

“Madoka. With this, your life has ceased to have either a beginning or end. No trace of your life on Earth, nor a single memory of you will remain anywhere. Your existence has shifted onto a higher plane, and all that will be left of you here is a concept. No one will ever be aware of your presence again, and you will never be able to interact with anyone. You will have ceased to exist in this universe.”

...so it’s a mix of Madoka staying true to herself, but also elements of Mami’s warning?

Homura speaks up whoa ok, glad I’m not watching this when anyone could walk in. I thought you guys said there weren’t any questionable scenes?

“What are you saying? That Madoka wished for such an ending?! You think this is a fair reward for everything she’s done?! Don’t be ridiculous! This… is even worse…than death would have been…!”

God-damn it. (Or is it Madoka-damn it now?) Madoka’s safe and free from the cycle of Witchification, like Homura was aiming for. But she’s done it in such a way that Homura can never see her again.

“No, you’re wrong, Homura.” Madoka! Please put on some clothes, this is getting awkward!

Madoka says that as she is now, she can see everything that ever has or will happen. Universes that could have been, and might be. And now she knows all Homura’s done for her, in all the different timelines.

Guys, I’m really digging this scene, the great music and colors, the culmination of Homura’s efforts and Madoka’s growth… but seriously, Urobuchi? You couldn’t have this while they were in their uniforms? I’m loving the scene, but the awkwardness has to be mentioned.

“I’m sorry I never knew until now… I’m so sorry.” Homura breaks down crying.

(Is… is it safe for me to ship again? Because if so, all aboard the MadoHomu!)

It wasn’t until Madoka became what she is now that she truly understood Homura. “To think that I had such a precious friend with me all this time…!”

Wait. God-Madoka damn it, are you really shooting down my ship with “friend” now? I think this scene goes a little beyond friendship!

Also, I think Sayaka might be a little miffed about all these “best friend”s being thrown about.

Homura raises a good point, that as sweet as this scene is Madoka no longer has a home, and she’ll be separated from everyone she loves (*cough* like her *cough*) to live all alone in a psychedelic realm like this forever.

To which Madoka just smiles and giggles. “But I’m not alone. All of you will always be with me. Because I will be everywhere at every moment from now on.” (Oh my God-Madoka, she’s Santa Claus! Or the NSA!) “So even if you can’t see me or hear me, know that I’ll be by your side, Homura.”

But Homura will still forget her… “It’s too soon to give up yet.”? After all, she managed to follow her all the way there…

So there’s a chance? There’s hope? Urobuchi’s not going to swoop in and ruin this?

Madoka unties her ribbons and gives them to Homura, saying that maybe she’ll still be able to remember.

“After all, Magical Girls make hopes and dreams come true! And I’m sure that if it’s just a little one, real miracles really can happen. Don’t you think?”

They’re floating apart now, Madoka has to go meet all the others.

“I’ll see you again one day, Homura. So for just a little while until then, I’ll say good-bye.”

Not gonna lie. Tearing up right now.

Scene change, city at night. Concert hall, person walking on stage. Kamijo? An audition it looks like, performing “Ave Maria”. An excellent piece!

Hey, Sayaka and Madoka are listening from the seats! Sayaka apologizes for causing “a lot of trouble”. But of course Madoka says that she’s the one who should apologize. Actually, seems she’s apologizing for leaving her “dead’ in order to save her. As… oh! If she did save Sayaka, then Kamijo wouldn’t have been healed, and that’s not what Sayaka would want.

Heh. Funny moment of one judge trying to talk to another, only to get a “Shush, I’m listening to the music.”

Sayaka talks about how she just wanted to hear him play again, for others to hear him play. Well, she is bothered about one thing (Hitomi watching from behind the curtains stage left). Ha! Sayaka says that Kamijo doesn’t deserve such a great girl. But she’s sure they’ll be very happy.

The two girls fade away as Kamijo finishes “Ave Maria.” And damn boy looks good older, in a tux in a schmancy concert hall in front of a huge audience. Sudden start? “...Sayaka?”

Cut to a Witch burning away, Homura snaps to along with Mami and Kyoko, the latter asking where Sayaka went. Mami says that she’s gone, led away by the Law of the Cycle. She used all her remaining power in that last attack. So from now on Magical Girls ‘fade away’ from using up their power, instead of turning into Witches? But then how do they get more Witches to fight?

Kyoko calls Sayaka an idiot, letting herself vanish just for some boy she liked. Sorry Kyoko, but Ship of Death, remember? “Idiot… just when we were finally getting to be friends…” Friends. Right. Seriously, what is with this finale and Urobuchi trying to sink my ships?

So the new rule is that before the hope of their Wish summons an equal amount of misfortune, they have “no choice but to vanish from the world.” Instead of the Incubator’s ‘balance’, we get a greater amount of good over harm then. That’s good for humanity!

Hey, the ribbons! Homura opens her hand to show the two red ribbons, then breaks down crying. “Madoka…!”

The others turn. Is this the first time Homura’s shown emotion in the new reality in front of them?

“Akemi? ‘Madoka’...?”

“Who’s that?”

Ouch.

We’re in a park with light piano music. WAIT, hold up. It’s the kid, the little brother whose name I can never remember! Madoka’s brother! He’s drawing in the dirt/sand, it’s a picture of Magical Girl Madoka! Does he remember too?!

Homura stops by and daw, she’s wearing one of the ribbons in her hair. That’s a good look! And yup, little bro is babbling “Madoka, Madoka!” now. Does he not remember, but Homura tells him stories about his ‘sister’? In any case, she compliments him on the drawing.

He starts to reach for the ribbon, but Dad to the rescue (with a name, Tatsuya!). Aw, but he thinks that he was about to pull on Homura’s hair. Although they seem confused when he babbles about ‘Madoka’. (Not going to cry, not going to cry…)

Later that afternoon (as Tatsuya plays with his dad in the park, guh that’s adorable) it seems that Homura’s explained that ‘Madoka’ is Tatsuya’s imaginary friend. Mother makes idle conversation about the name, how it “seems to have such a nostalgic ring to it”. (Not going to cry, NOT GOING TO CRY…) And then remarks that the loves Homura’s ribbon, that it’s almost shockingly like something she would like. Homura offers it to her, Mother waves it off, saying she’s too old for it. Maybe if she had a daughter who could wear it… (Not. Going. To…)

It’s a full moon now, and WHY?! Why did you leave the Incubator in the new reality, Madoka?! Grrr… Wait, is that Homura’s Soul Gem? Surrounded by a bunch of small black cubes, drawing darkness away from it?

The Incubator’s remarking that a system like Homura apparently just described could theoretically have worked. She idly picks up one of the cubes, says that the system was real, and tosses it back, for the Incubator to catch in its back. What, is it a mini-Grief Seed? Anyways, it seems that the Incubator has no way of verifying the story that Homura’s saying. And since she’s the only one who remembers that world, well… he puts it less bluntly, but there’s no way of telling if her memories are real or if she’s crazy. Homura just tosses back another cube.

Oh, so Soul Gems shatter now when they become “too sullied?” Which would prevent a Witch being created, and the Magical Girl dies instead of changing. But what do they fight, if there aren’t any Witches?

Ugh, but the Incubator is focusing on the “Witches” of Homura’s story, as an ‘appealing’ method of gathering emergy. But since they aren’t in this new reality, the Incubators didn’t follow that method. Instead they do something with cubes?

Wait, ‘wraiths’? So there is something about this reality for Magical Girls to fight. Is that what was burning when Homura woke up, then? And they’re connected to collecting curses?

“Just because Witches are no longer born into this world, it doesn’t mean the curses of mankind have ceased to exist. The distortions of this world have merely changed form, and now attack people from the depths of the darkness…”

Guh, white Ringwraiths! So these are the ‘wraiths’ then? Not corrupted Magical Girls, but some other sort of creature? Based from humans, or just creatures of darkness? Details, please?

The Incubator remarks that the ‘miasma’ is pretty thick tonight, the wraiths just keep coming. Homura admonishes it for complaining, and steps off the construction site for a dramatic monologue.

“Though this irredeemable world continues repeating its hatred and tragedies… this is still the place that she once tried to protect.”

Whoa, big purple wings arrest her fall, she lands and is immediately surrounded with wraiths. But she just pulls out… her weapon is a bow now.

“I remember that. And I will never forget it. That is why… I will keep fighting.”

End credits.

...wow. Just… wow.

Guys, I went into this episode fearing the worst. I was just bracing myself for Urobuchi to make everything terrible. But then, things looked ok? Then they looked awful again. Then the looked good, but with some major downsides. Up and down and up and down… and then we reached the ending.

I’m going to need some time to process all this, to write up my overall thoughts on the ending. But damn me if this wasn’t an amazing show. I- hold up, started typing this while listening to the credits music for the last time. There’s an after-credits scene?

After credits, opens on a windy black and yellow setting, one person with long hair (Homura?) walking in the distance.

“Don’t forget.

Always, somewhere,

someone is fighting for you.

As long as you remember her,

you are not alone.”

Zoom in to yup, that’s Homura. Facing a crowd of wraiths. She holy fudge what is that. I expected the pink wings from before, but these are more like tears into a witch’s labyrinth. Homura what the hell are you doing?

Madoka’s voice. “Do your best…”

Homura smiles, and the tears spread across the screen. Camera backs out to show her with her freaky wings, she then leaps forward and then bursts of blackness start exploding everywhere. Screen blackens- all five magical girls, facing away? Sound of film reel spinning loose? Girls fade away? Final picture of a Soul Gem?

...What the fuck was that?!

[weaselandfriends]

Hymnstoke XIV

Like Act 2, Act 4 opens with a walkaround game.

I didn't comment much on the game at the beginning of Act 2, despite it being one of those much-discussed multimedia elements that make Homestuck so distinctive. In Act 2, the movement from linear story to game serves several purposes. First, it demonstrates an increase in scope, both in terms of Homestuck's story and in relation to Hussie's previous effort, Problem Sleuth. While Act 1 incorporated a couple of new elements not seen in other MSPA comics, such as protagonists capable of speech and a handful of simple videos, the Act 2 walkaround is the first dramatic increase in what readers could have reasonably expected from the comic at the time.

Secondly, the novel concept of incorporating a game into the story corresponds to and emphasizes the novel concept of SBURB within the narrative of Homestuck. Just as the world in which John now finds himself is completely new and unexpected, so too are the readers introduced to this world through a new and unexpected medium. This world is even called the "Medium"—and surrounding a space (Skaia) described as a crucible of pure creation. I previously discussed the significance of SBURB's geography in regards to Gnosticism, but one could also interpret it as a statement on Homestuck as a creative enterprise. A crucible of pure creation through which a new world, or a new mode of expression, will be built. Like how John and friends attempt to create a new world from the fragments of the old, Hussie creates a new kind of story from the fragments of all types of storytelling that came before it. Image, text, video, sound, game—Homestuck strings together these disparate modes of expression into an original creation. In short, the method by which Homestuck is presented mirrors its explicit thematic content.

Wikipedia defines phenomenology as "the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness." Remember how I mentioned that the modernists were often concerned with the conscious and subconscious, and how many attempted to reach truth by depicting the subconscious? Similar concept here.

I was introduced to the term "phenomenology" in relation to art history. In particular, my professor applied the term to modernist painting and sculpture that was designed so that the act of experiencing it changes its meaning. Let's take the following sculpture:

"Sculpture?" you may ask. Yes, I know. It looks more like a misshapen industrial structure. The problem with this sculpture is that no single photograph can truly depict it. Here's the same sculpture from a different vantage:

Another:

Still another:

Top down:

Is this sculpture broader at the bottom or at the top? What shape is it, exactly? You can find this sculpture at the University of California, Los Angeles, and you can even go inside it through the opening visible in some of the photographs. Inside, it takes on a completely different appearance, although unfortunately I couldn't find any good pictures of the inside that didn't have a gigantic Getty Images watermark on them.

In art, this phenomenological experience often boils down to optical illusion or a similar technical trick that appears novel at first but lacks much substance beyond its presentation. What meaning can we derive from this experiment or others like it?

I believe that the phenomenological creations of the modernists eventually reached an apotheosis in a more contemporary form of creative expression: Video games.

The way the player perceives a video game, even a video game you might consider simplistic or linear, is directly affected by how the player plays the game. Take, say, Super Mario Bros. (1985) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In this game, the player moves Mario left to right to reach a fixed goal. But even this game is affected immensely by the innumerable choices each player makes in playing the game. For an extreme example, compare how a speed run of Super Mario Bros. looks compared to any casual experience of the game. Some elements of the speed run even involve elements assuredly not intended by the game's creator (glitches, for instance). But even at a less extreme level, every player's experience of Super Mario Bros. will differ depending on the routes they take to reach the end, the strategies they employ to evade obstacles, or even the amount of times they die before finally succeeding.

Why do I bring this up? The concept of phenomenology ties into Homestuck's "reader participation" elements, both via the prompt suggestions early on and the more psychological effect the fandom has on Homestuck's development in its back half. Of these two "reader participation" elements, the latter is the one that is probably better described as "phenomenological," in that it is the readership's perspective of Homestuck that eventually drives its trajectory (as opposed to the prompt suggestions, from which Hussie could pick and choose at will). In the back half of Homestuck, the narrative plays more and more on the author's interpretation of the readership's interpretation of the narrative, becoming a perspectival mobius double reach-around where the true driver of the narrative's creation becomes increasingly unclear.

But more specifically, I want to discuss this walkaround game at the beginning of Act 4 in particular. Compared to the one at the beginning of Act 2, this walkaround is not increasing Homestuck's scope. John is entering a new location, but the experience is less novel than entering the Medium in Act 2, both in terms of John's perspective and the reader's. While the Act 4 walkaround features mechanical improvements (inventory, combat) over the Act 2 walkaround, it is still essentially the same thing: a video game. The reader has seen this before in Homestuck. It's not new.

I cannot speak for the experience of every reader, but each time I read Homestuck I am tempted to skip this walkaround entirely. The combat mechanics are banal, the camera is zoomed too close to John to allow for satisfying exploration of an unfamiliar world. In Act 2, the walkaround takes place in an area with which the reader is already geographically acquainted (John's house), so the camera issues are less apparent. But trying to navigate this twisting maze of blue paths, surrounded on all sides by nondescript rocks and mushrooms, can become frustrating. Even if I consult the supplementary map image, I find it somewhat difficult to figure out where I am and where I'm supposed to go.

Which is just the thing. The reader is not supposed to go anywhere. There is no real resolution to this walkaround. The same, in fact, can be said for every walkaround, and we will continue to get amazingly nonessential walkarounds in the acts to come. What does the reader miss if they skip this Act 4 walkaround? Some tedious exposition on the nature of John's planet, its consorts, its customs. Superfluous W O R L D B U I L D I N G that the Homestuck narrative is quick to forget from henceforth on.

It kind of makes me want to, shall we say, skip to the end.

In Act 5, Vriska and Tavros will discuss how the way one plays a game affects the way the game is perceived. Hardcore speed runner Vriska will take my side of the argument and skip what she can; Tavros, more in line with readers inclined to learn as much about SBURB's lore as possible, will argue instead for assiduously completing every task. This conflict—between speed and lore, content and fluff, meat and candy if you will—eventually becomes the core and final dichotomy of Homestuck. But in Homestuck's later stages, the characters and narrative will apply this dichotomy not to how we experience video games, but how we experience all art—and how we experience our actual lives. I intend to trace that development, and this walkaround serves as a fine introduction.

In a few years, Flash will be deprecated and you'll only be able to experience this walkaround through this series of images. I don't know who created these images, or whether laziness or incompetency made them so shitty and SBaHJ-esque. But I give that person props for maintaining that sense of "God this sucks, can I just skip it?" Good job, intern.

You switch to PICTIONARY, a choice based on a strong whim from the mysterious ethers of democracy.

Another one of those traps, like the suggestion prompts. Wow! The readers get to pick Jade's fetch modus! What an amazing display of reader/author interaction! Except Jade's fetch modus doesn't matter. In fact, as we transition into this next phase of the story, nobody's fetch modus will matter. The fact that all of Jade's possible fetch modii are total jokes only emphasizes the point.

I mentioned in the previous Hymnstoke that we're entering what I'm calling the "clockwork" part of Homestuck. In this part, Homestuck's audience has the least amount of control over its progression. While the suggestion prompts were mostly irrelevant because Hussie could pick whatever prompt he wanted, they occasionally paved actual story or character developments ("Become the mayor of Can Town") or formed memetic jokes that would mutate over the course of Homestuck into part of its mythos. And in Act 6, the immensity of the Homestuck fandom and its increasingly vocal demands will lead to a more subtle transition in what Homestuck becomes—the mobius double reach-around I mentioned previously. But here, in the clockwork part of the story, it's more Hussie than anywhere else. Of course it would be. It's Dirk, Hussie's analogue (connected via a series of motifs like horses and robotics), that comes to represent the Meat side of storytelling, that describes the way a story should be told as a perfect machine. An unfocused, nebulous gaggle of "readers" cannot hope to coordinate among themselves to create something so precise and efficient. Their strengths lie in different directions.

Ok, have at it! If you're at a loss, click the controller button up there.

This may or may not mean anything to you depending on your current perspective.

As it turns out, the story retreads everything that happens in the Act 4 walkaround anyway, making it even less relevant. Even Crumplehat and the Salamander Wizard appear as the walkaround's events are depicted from PM's perspective. This recap is actually pretty extensive, similar to the shitty SBaHJified image walkthrough that got put up in anticipation of Flash's deprecation.

I wonder if Hussie was self-conscious about people's patience for the walkaround? Or maybe he already anticipated Flash would not last forever? Perhaps he added this recap for accessibility reasons, in case of visually-impaired readers? Maybe he felt some new insight would come from seeing the same events replicated from a different character's viewpoint? Or maybe he simply wanted to reveal that the person speaking to John during the walkaround was PM instead of WV?

I'm doing exactly what I said I wouldn't do and trying to delve into Hussie's psyche. As it stands, the addition of this recap makes certain elements of the walkaround mandatory experiences for the reader to progress, as opposed to the walkaround itself which can be ended without experiencing anything. I'll leave the discussion by reiterating the second part of the quoted text:

This may or may not mean anything to you depending on your current perspective.

And I think it's safe to say our "current perspective" is much different than those who read this first.

[so-shiny-so-chrome]

Witness: KirkyPet

Creator name (AO3): KirkyPet 

Creator name (Tumblr): kirkypet 

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirkyPet/works

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: I was actually quite fixated on Fury Road after watching it on DVD. I didn’t expect to particularly like it - I’d never seen the previous Mad Max movies (I finally have!) - but I was transfixed. And I didn’t particularly ship Furiosa and Max until the haemothorax/transfusion scene (although then I very much did). There were just so many layers of detail and backstory there waiting to be explored, because so little was actually said or explained. It’s like a neutron star of fic-fodder. And I didn’t discover ao3 til summer 2016 so I spent a full year wandering around like a lost soul. So, yeah. Quite a huge deal for me really.

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: Music. Minor characters looking on and commenting on the protagonists (big fan of Thomas Hardy’s more comedic efforts, where this happens a lot). Reasonably happy endings.

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: Maybe the small town modern AU (Ordinary People), because it was a nice change from the Wasteland setting. I’m not very Wasteland-minded at all. But the Bladerunner AU (Do Androids Dream etc) and the new Firefly AU are lots of fun because the two sets of movie worlds mesh together way better than I’d expected. 

The most difficult? - My Wasteland headcanon stuff. It’s too fluffy and not remotely violent which doesn’t really ring true. I’m very aware that my Furiosa is hardly ever violent, or my Max particularly mad. But that’s the great thing about fanfiction - the infinite versions of characters and scenarios. Surprisingly the Blues Brothers AU is quite tricky. I can’t quite make Jake Blues and Furiosa the same person. But it’s an excuse to listen to great tunes. And Jessie will make a comeback in that one though (she’s not dead, I should make that clear). 

On the old kudos-to-hits ratio, the Firefly AU is taking off surprisingly well, but it’s quite smut-focused so that might well account for it ;) early days yet. Bladerunner AU is doing well for a multi-chapter. Up Around The Bend (an oldie, the escape from the Citadel) is hanging in there. 

Most successful? I’m happy enough with all of them, except maybe I Kissed A Girl. Please don’t read that. Favourite overall - It’s a toss-up between Ordinary People (a chance to explore my headcanon in a modern small town setting) and the Bladerunner AU (it makes me weep). 

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?

A: Hopeful and silly and everyone has access to a record player somehow. This is why I stick to writing AUs these days. But I’ll happily read all of the above!!! And entirely intend to!

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: Watch a film, browse tumblr, listen to music, get an idea. Have a good think about it, think about it some more, find a starting point, write it down, go from there. Maybe stick a draft on tumblr if I’m not sure if it’s going to fly. Write it anyway. 

For OCs, figure out what someone looks like. That’s weirdly essential for me. Zal (Furiosa’s Dad) is Ed Harris, Young Val (Furiosa and Max’s grownup daughter) is Alicia Vikander and Toots (rescued-kid-turned-Wasteland-son-in-law) is Didier Drogba (bit of a blast from the past but hey). I was getting nowhere with Blues Mothers Jessie until I recast her as Sofia Boutella (because if Max is getting a generational update, she needs one too). And Firefly AU’s Mister Jobassa is Jakob Oftebro. All very pretty people, but what are you gonna do? But they’re only these people in MY head - they can be whoever the reader wants them to be. Oh, and Pin from Ordinary People was 100% an actual real tour guide I met on holiday once. 

Preferred environment? Usually while half asleep in bed, or walking, or In the gym, or watching tv - world building seems to be something that happens away from the keyboard. Writing itself is exclusively on my phone so can and does happen anywhere at all. Rough patches are usually caused by guilt that I’m not spending enough time on the day job :P

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: I listen to music all the time anyway, mainly upbeat pre-90s tunes. Disco, funk, ska, motown, anything like that. And it always find its way into the writing. Sometimes artificially (where I’m on a song-lyrics-as-title theme - it took ages for some of the Wasteland fics) but most times it can help shape the story in a BIG way. I can’t listen to certain songs now without reliving a chapter or a whole fic - Dionne Warwick’s Do You Know The Way To San José is Bladerunner!Furiosa’s Green Place song, and Ash’s Angel Interceptor is StarTrek!Max’s flying music - it’s noisy enough but also speaks to me about a longing to not be alone in the universe. Concrete and Clay is smalltown!Max’s bittersweet lament for Jessie and Twistin’ The Night Away is the final party scene in Cheedo’s update of The Rivals. Some fics wouldn’t have been written at all if it wasn’t for a particular song. The Black Keys’ Heavy Soul was my original Wasteland Furiosa/Max ship theme back in 2015, before I’d even heard of ao3 - that’s the closest I’ve come to a song fic. Caleb was only Caleb because of a line in Symarip’s Skinhead Moonstomp, and I was so desperate to write a fic with Leo Sayer’s You Make Me Feel Like Dancing In it that it was the final excuse for a whole modern mirrorverse to my Wasteland headcanon series. Bet you’re sorry you asked now. But I’ll have to go and put together a Kirkyverse OST list.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: To put the damn thing down and walk away. To not assume it’s awful if I don’t get a kudos in the first thirty hits. Thumb cramp from phone-typing.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: I didn’t write at all before the Mad Max fandom. Apart from a ghost story when I was about seven (it did win a prize tbh) and a truly god awful Stephen King rip-off when I was fourteen (which makes me nauseous from embarrassment when I think of it). So a fair bit, it’d probably be fair to say. It would be impossible not to, you know, from zero :) My work has changed from spinoffs of inspirational fics (thanks Squid!) to ‘well, I suppose I’ve got a head canon, let’s see if I can make this work’ to ‘goddammit I’ll finish this if it kills me’. Then I missed my exit on the Roundabout of Fic Endings and had to go round again in a modern AU mirror verse. Now it’s all movie mashups, which is lots of fun and probably never-ending. During which time I have learned that crossovers are my favourite to write. And that writing fanfic is probably not a temporary fad :)

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: I don’t really have a favourite tbh. They’re all their own people and do their own thing. Writing them is very dependent on their environment, and it’s often surprising how they behave and where they end up. It feels a bit like they’re on Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: Hah yes. The first one was Zephyr the annoying visitor in Witches and Ogres. Young Val’s social awkwardness in As was very much on loan from me. 

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?Furiosa and Max are pretty much always there - sometimes it’s probably platonic, and sometimes there’s a third person involved (nothing posted yet but but but). It depends on the fic.

Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?

A: One big long chronology for the headcanon series (childhood to old age), then a whole bunch of little universes for everything else.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: Not to break, as much as I can. But it depends.

Q: Share some headcanons.

A: Furiosa was never actually a wife - she was captured but dodged the whole Vault experience. Max is the original Max, of Jessie and Sprog fame. Toecutter was Joe’s younger self - he scooted around on motorbikes and raised hell before deciding to settle down and take the Citadel. AU Toast and Dag are twins (from a shady mob family). Furiosa’s Dad is a friendly Wasteland bandit. 

Q: If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?

A: They’re supplementary characters who make the plots fit together, and sources of conflict or humour (usually both). I think I like Ordinary People’s Alexa and Mallory best. Although the Irish War Boy crew in Beyond the Pale were fun to write. Ace’s trio of love interests (Brick, Big Dave and Caleb/Pin) are a consistent theme. Sometimes I steal characters from other sources (stand up Christopher Brookmyre) when it’s convenient.

Q: What sparks your many wonderful AUs?

A: Movies, tv, gifs, tumblr prompts and general chitchat (thankyou btw!!!)

Q: A lot of your fics are light-hearted and hopeful, which is great to see for the apocalyptic Mad Max world. Your thoughts on that? What is it about the characters that inspires you to reframe them?

A: I just really like comedy and am committed to winkling it into every fictional scenario whether it’s appropriate or not. Glad people don’t hate it!

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?

A: Well, it was Squid’s ( @sacrificethemtothesquid )Length and Breadth of Fury Road that got me out of the starting blocks! Christopher Brookmyre’s The Sacred Art of Stealing was a big influence on my headcanon series, as was a particular Coronation Street storyline from some years back :) 

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.

A: Blues Brothers AU series (Sweet Home Chicago) -Wasteland Star Trek First Contact AU (Angel Interceptor) -Firefly AU (Our Mister Jobassa) -His Dark Materials AU (unnamed as yet, just brewing in my head, hope it just stays there for the meantime) -Will combine all the headcanon works into one long fic sometime. That’s everything from Witches and Ogres through to Ordinary People. Probably be called ‘All the Things that I’ve Done’ (basically the two lives of Furiosa: Wasteland and mirrorverse).

Thank you @kirkypet

[zdbztumble]

Final Thoughts: KH III (Spoilers)

OK, the nice stuff’s over with.

And, in the spirit of Kingdom Hearts, here’s a menu to unceremoniously dump all the necessary information on you to follow this post:

Rave Zero

A Minor Rant

More Ranting

Botching Backwards and Forwards

But What About Kairi

Build a Better Prequel

Penultima Raving

The Positives

Now then...

Writing critiques like this is usually fun for me. I like thinking about and analyzing narratives, as mental exercise and relaxation, and because I find it helpful as a writer struggling to make fiction my profession. Finding the good and bad in a piece, understanding why something works or doesn’t, and putting myself in the shoes of a writer - particularly one in the middle of an ongoing series - improves my own craft and gives me more empathy and sympathy for creatives who come under fire.

In this case, though, I can’t say that I have much in the way of sympathy or empathy. I cannot understand how any head of story could come up with something like this and decide that it was ready for prime time. I can’t understand how writers brought in to do the actual scripting wouldn’t speak up about its issues. I can’t understand how editors, producers, and executives would sign off on this. And by “this,” I mean the finale of KH III. I haven’t loved the story turns this series has taken since the end of II, and I’ve struggled to make sense of all the convoluted turns the plot has taken, but this - or, to be specific, one moment in particular - is completely beyond my ability to understand, relate to, or tolerate.

Before getting to that one moment, though, there are other issues with this finale. One of those is the problem of paying off too large a cast: it’s almost impossible to do while giving every character a satisfying conclusion. By the time the game comes to its conclusion, most of the characters have either hit dead ends in their arcs, petered out, or been demonstrated to be entirely superfluous to this game’s plot. To wit:

- Maleficent and Pete could have been cut entirely and nothing would have been lost. Cutting them would even improve the pacing of the Olympus world slightly. Their whole goal amounts to nothing but a tease for an item that might become important in a potential future game. Luxord’s quest for a “chest,” presumably the same Black Box, has the same problem, but at least Luxord is a part of the Organization and so has some reason for being in the story.

- Ansem the Wise is ultimately on-hand just to tease more potential future events and characters, in the form of allusions to a mysterious girl who I thought might be Kairi, then thought was Xion, but is apparently some other character never before mentioned (thank you @themattress.) I bought KH III to play and know the story of KH III; if I wanted an extended trailer for a future game that may not even get made, I’d pay for one.

- Those members of the Organization who don’t defect, and who commanded quite a bit of screen time in this game (more than the damn tritagonist did) are virtually unchanged from their previous appearances, still serve as glorified henchmen, and meet largely identical ends. The attempts at pathos with them, particularly with Larxene, ring hollow, and the idea that the recompletion gimmick might let them appear again some day in a new form is...unpleasant.

- Did you really need Ienzo and Vexen both? Take either one of them out, and the other could have cooked up the necessary replicas. 

- Axel’s never-seen training with a Keyblade amounts to almost as little as Kairi’s, as he ultimately doesn’t do much but serve as an impetus for the return of Roxas and the defection of Xion. And once those two are back on the scene, they don’t have all that much to do but point their keys at whatever the group needs them to. Their presence takes us over the required number of seven, so they are quite literally unnecessary.

- Vanitas and his quest to assimilate Ven ultimately amounts to nothing, for how important it was in BbS and his continued seeking it here. He becomes just another boss battle, destined to fade away.

- Aside from filling out the full seven, Aqua and Ven don’t get all that much to do in the battle. Terra and Sora do the heavy lifting in getting Terra liberated, and by the end, Eraqus tells Terra to be the one to look out for the group. Not Aqua, the master who spent most of BbS trying to set things to right - Terra, the impulsive quasi-Anakin Skywalker who ended up possessed by the villain.

- Riku and Mickey are the exception to this, as I think carrying them through as Sora’s battle partners in the showdown with the three young Xehanorts, and giving them the bulk of the dialogue in the final cutscenes, gives them a meaningful role to play in the finale.

But since Eraqus has been mentioned...that leads us to the next problem. Because I still don’t understand how Eraqus managed to hide his heart inside of Terra’s (and yes, I have seen the BbS cutscene.) But setting aside the mechanics; the idea that Eraqus has been alive this whole time, that he can stop Xehanort with a gentle talking-to, and extending the metaphor of their chess game in their youth this far, makes everything that happens feel so much smaller. And giving Xehanort - a villain who was made, in looks and personality, more evil from BbS on - is a baffling choice. He isn’t the first villain to have a less-than-convincing redemption in this series, of course. And, were it done better, I might be more tolerant of it. But it isn’t.

And having that about-face brought about by Eraqus lessens Sora’s part in the finale. His brave venture after Xehanort, Donald and Goofy by his side, makes for a nice boss battle. It’s less impressive than the one in KH I IMO, but I do like that Donald and Goofy are with him for nearly the entire thing. The Trinity revival at the end of it is a great touch, though I would’ve preferred some sort of beam struggle to cap it off. But one of Sora’s qualities - one that this game, and DDD, loved to spell out as blatantly as possible - is his ability to reach and connect with people. Outsourcing that to another character, leaving Sora as the brute force in the conflict with Xehanort, leaves him and one of his most defining and positive character traits sidelined at the crucial moment. I grant you that Sora probably isn’t all that well disposed to the man who killed Kairi, but you would think he’d have some function beyond swinging his blade and holding a key.

But in the end, the apocalypse is averted, and Sora leaves his friends behind to try and save Kairi. Cue the closing cutscene, with happy endings aplenty. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Yen Sid, Chip, and Dale get a warm welcome home in Disney Castle. Terra, Aqua, and Ven get their home back, and Ven gets his little cat thing that he apparently had once. Axel, Roxas, and Xion get their sea salt ice cream again, reunite with Hayner, Pence, and Olette, and it turns out that even Saix is on-hand (because, y’know, that bond he had with Axel was so organic and essential to pay off.) Namine is brought back (according to a recent interview, this is possible because her heart was released from Kairi’s when Kairi was killed), and Riku turns up to take her to a big party on Destiny Islands. With literally everyone on-hand, Donald is the first to notice Sora and Kairi sitting on the paopu tree together, holding hands. Kairi looks up at Sora, smiles, and starts to cry. Sora then fades away, leaving Kairi alone.

Now we’re at that moment.

I was so confused the first time I saw this scene, and watching it in the theater menu a few times didn’t help. Talking with @echidnapower about it helped me puzzle together that Sora must have paid the price for abusing the Power of Waking. It was hard to track those warnings amidst all the other pretentious monologuing and schoolyard taunting that the Organization did, and amidst all the other plot threads in this game - but, fair enough. That was some clear foreshadowing. And, just like with Kairi’s death, I can’t object to the idea out of hand. KH I ended on a shocking bittersweet note, after all. Ending the Xehanort saga, and possibly the series, with the main character failing to heed all warnings and losing his own life while managing to save the person he cares most about, is a bold idea. Pulled off properly, I’d be in tears while writing my review, but I’d be applauding the guts and skill of the creative team.

But is Sora’s quest to find Kairi made into a final stage, or even a cutscene? No. Is his final misuse of the Power of Waking shown? No. Is it even clear whether Kairi reappeared at the same time as Sora, or if she’d been there on the beach with everyone else before he turned up? No. And is any of this, in any way, made a central element of the final scene? No. The possibly permanent death of our protagonist, caused by his final solo quest to save Kairi, is such an afterthought at the end that not a single aspect of the journey to that moment merits any screen time.

And don’t tell me that this might be something covered in the DLC, or that it could be setting up for another game. If they wanted to leave Sora and Kairi’s fate more open-ended, and a potential hook into a future game, they should have been left out of the final scene altogether. The Power of Waking, Sora’s shaky control of it, and its dangers were meant to be relevant to this story. Sora and Kairi’s bond being stretched to the point that one or both of them could permanently die was meant to be a major factor in this story. I’m all for leaving certain things off-screen, open-ended, or open to interpretation, but if anything should merit some degree of resolution within this game itself, to say nothing of a goddamn cutscene, it’s the potentially final fate of our fucking hero.

It feels like such an afterthought that I’m forced to wonder why Sora was ever retained as the protagonist past KH II.  One solution to the current crop of issues with Kingdom Hearts, as I’ve already gone into, would have been to simplify; fewer titles between console releases and a much less convoluted story that stayed focused on the actual leads. But it’s almost impossible not to come away from the post-II games feeling that most of the staff’s passion has drifted to other characters and elements. Axel, Roxas, and Xion; Terra, Aqua, and Ven; all the convoluted plotting and betraying and cryptic messages of Organization XIII; and now all this X business; it seems clear that that’s where the focus is now. Square Enix is no stranger to cyclic and anthology series; there was more than enough precedent to retire Sora and friends and continue Kingdom Hearts with new protagonists. Those who enjoy all these elements could have them unadulterated, and those of us who prefer Sora’s story could be content with three great games. Hell, Kingdom Hearts as a whole could’ve been retired at II, with the characters and elements most favored forming the foundation for an original series; the staff still seems jazzed to cross over with Disney, but they’ve become increasingly unable to meaningfully connect those worlds to the larger story, excepting a handful of characters from Disney Castle. An original series wouldn’t have to worry about that.

Instead, an ultimately untenable path was trod, trying to keep all of these things to play, the ultimate price being a final game to the saga that leaves every single storyline feeling less than it could be. Kairi may get the worst of it blow by blow, but I would say that Sora - the protagonist - is the second-worst hit, and that I cannot comprehend as a writer.

When I first got the feeling that something bad might happen to either Sora or Kairi, or both, I was prepared to be sad at the end of this game, but I expected to be sad the same way I was at the end of KH I - in an ultimately positive way, having been sincerely and surprisingly moved by a story I came to love. At the end of KH III, I’m sad in another way entirely; I’m sad because I feel nearly all my enthusiasm for this series evaporated along with Sora. I was planning to buy copies of I, CoM, and II to replace the ones I had to sell years ago; if I end up doing that when I have the money, it’ll be as an effort to get back to what first charmed me about the series.

Hopefully, I can still find that charm there, but I don’t know what would make me excited for future releases. What reason do I have to hope that the flaws of the recent games, culminating in III, will be corrected or even recognized as flaws? The Epilogue and Secret Movie certainly don’t give any hope. For all the talk about III being the finale to the Dark Seeker saga, the convoluted Keyblade War lore it spawned and at least one of its more annoying characters seem set to continue on. The Nameless Star and that girl alluded to by Ansem (who I hope for simplicity's sake are the same person) represent yet another new character shoved into the mix. And the Secret Movie may give some people hope for Sora, but it just left me numb.

I’ll go ahead and predict what the next game of the series, if there is one, will be, based on those two scenes: either the game is ostensibly about what Sora went through to save Kairi, with a retcon pulled to suck Riku into the mix; or, it’s set after the final scene of KH III, with Riku - not Kairi, but Riku - going in search of Sora. Either way, in practice the game’s plot will be taken up by a mess of a plot concerning the Black Box and/or the Book of Prophecies and all that crap from Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover (a movie I could not bring myself to finish, I was so bored), all the while taking any chance it can get to salvage as much of the aborted Final Fantasy Versus XIII as possible. Kairi will be lucky to get a cameo, the Disney worlds will barely have any relevance, Maleficent will get elbowed off to the sides, and if Sora comes back to life and remains the hero, he’ll still be relegated to a spectator and an afterthought to make room for all the things that the team really cares about.

Cynical, you say? Bitter, perhaps? You’re not wrong. And I’d love for another Kingdom Hearts game to come out and make me eat crow. But for whatever joy Kingdom Hearts III brought me as a game, it’s been a truly painful experience as a story. With no pleasure, I can honestly say that in terms of a failed narrative; in terms of completely missing the mark on where the focus should lie; and in terms of feeling like an almost deliberate insult or dismissal of what made these characters and this series wonderful to begin with; no narrative with the Disney name on it, or perhaps at all, has left me so upset since Maleficent. And for me to be saying that, is saying something.

[progmanx]

So? Part 2?

Well, now that it’s been released digitally, I can actually answer this question. Thank you for your patience. So, uh, spoilers, if you haven’t read Turf Wars Part 2 yet. I guess.

Short version: It’s just as bad as Part 1 (if not worse), but for slightly different reasons. For mine and @lokgifsandmusings‘s thoughts on Part 1, you can read our several articles about the first installment, as well as our good friend Bo’s take on Part 2 who makes some excellent points on why nothing works. I’m going to do my best not to reiterate the things he’s discussed, as I think his work does a better job of laying out that argument than I could. So go read that first, if you want.

Slightly Longer Version (That’s Shorter Than The Short Version?): Mike (there’s no way Bryan is actually consulting on anything aside from the art; Asami is his baby) clearly neglected to rewatch his own series/re-read his own series bible, and the scope of this negligence goes so far beyond nitpicking it’s baffling. The narrative threads and characterization of our two heroes are jumbled and essentially nonsensical.

Extremely Long Version: Sigh. I would like to preface this by asserting that my opinion of Turf Wars is in no way related to the work I did with RRaU, or Spin the Rails as a whole. Sure, I thought a lot about the world and this relationship, but frankly no conclusion I came to couldn’t also be reached by anyone else who puts in the time. Just because Mike continued the narrative differently doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like it automatically. The fact of the matter is, I really wanted to like this. It just so happens that the method Mike chose is…like, kind of the worst possible amalgamation of bad narrative decisions he could make short of turning full edgelord.

This got extremely long, hence the moniker, so it’s under the cut.

Anyway, my problems and critiques of Turf Wars are that of the product itself, how it chooses to continue the story of the animated series proper.

Now that that’s out of the way: I kind of hate almost everything about it. Yeah, I’m probably gonna lose followers for that. I want queer rep, and I want it badly, but if we can’t even criticize what we get without getting thrown out onto the street, how will it get any better? It’s not all or nothing.

Not even Turf Wars is all or nothing. I still stand by what @lokgifsandmusings and I said in our pieces regarding Part 1: It’s an overall good thing that it exists, and it’s not hurting anyone. However, that does not mean I think it itself is actually anything close to good, narratively speaking.

If I really had to boil down all of my problems with this…since Bo’s argument regarding how these books are overly stuffed with narratives that have no connection to one another aside from the fact that Asami gets kidnapped (we’re gonna dissect that one) and that none of it actually serves any purpose other than treading water for…something is so comprehensive and great. Seriously, read it!

Fact of the matter is, there’s no reason for any of these narratives to exist. It doesn’t push anyone’s character forward, with the exception of Zhu Li, Toguka (who even cares?), possibly Keum, and I guess by default Raiko by making him more of a jerk. None of those characters are the principal cast, meaning that this whole damn thing is, as far as I can see, really weird, overwritten filler.

Filler for what? I have no earthly idea, but if the only thing that changes out of this graphic novel series is that Zhu Li becomes President, then…you could have done that off-screen. Like how Raiko won. Neither Bryan nor Mike know how to write politics (or business, but that’s another conversation) so why not? Saves a lot of time.

Okay, so, there’s one other change that could happen in this “filler arc”. And it’s something that everything so far seems to be pointing to as a resolution. For anything to make sense, Asami has to basically say to Korra, “I’m a liability and will only keep getting in the way, so we either have to keep our relationship a secret or break up.” Probably to get rejected by Korra, or the world, or something. Which is just…terrible and ridiculous, as I’ll outline more in this post/rant/essay/dissertation. It has nothing to do with them being a same-sex couple, which is somehow both not as bad (because that shouldn’t matter) and worse (because of Kya’s infodump in Part 1).

Anyway, on to the biggest issues above all: our two “protagonists”. Well, more like the title character and also that lady she’s banging. Because it’s really hard to see how Korra and Asami are actually relevant to any of the narrative threads in this story aside from the ones they are forcibly pulled into so they can react to things. And this isn’t even accounting for how Mike is somehow able to write literally everyone else just fine except for Korra and Asami! It’s so freaking weird!

Korra, even more than she was in Part 1, has been almost comically back dialed to her Book 1 characterization. At best, it’s Book 2, but that is a stretch. Everything she does it to try and bust some heads, and even goes out of her way to physically assault Raiko’s campaign advisor. This isn’t even accounting the flagrant abuse of the Avatar State in Part 1, or the many other microaggressions that keep popping up.

Book 4 Korra would not do this. That was like—it’s her whole fucking series arc. She doesn’t look for fights! She tries to resolve them before they get bad, and especially with Asami she backs down and tries to diffuse and explain the situation. Like, you know, that time when Asami snapped at her in 4x07 in contrast to how Mako snapped at her also in 4x07?

But it goes deeper than tossing out years of character growth because “lol conflict”. I felt that the interactions between Korra and Asami here read embarrassingly straight. What I mean by that is, it’s how I imagine a straight dude would believe “special” relationships (ie queer, who aren’t) should be written. It’s something that a lot of non-queer writers struggle with, since there’s this false belief that treating those “different” from you as unique or better props them up, when in reality it artificially props them up in a way that is inherently insincere. Mike wants to show us he understands how important this relationship is, and how it’s important to him, but the words he’s choosing have the opposite effect.

It reminds me of the “Magical Negro” trope that originated in Hollywood as an absurd, and then eventually harmful, overcompensation for making sure people knew that they weren’t racist by making every minority character in a given film the perfect wisdom to set the hero on their journey. It’s same basic principle, as Mike is trying to make sure as loudly as possible that we know he’s super supportive of all of this…but the outcome is just plain weird and dangerous, even though his intentions are absolutely good.

Remember that bit in Part 1 where Asami says that the Spirit World is special and unique, like their relationship? Welp. It’s not. It was exceptionally well-written and true-to-life in its queerness but I guess not anymore, huh?

They’re more caricatures of their former selves than they are actual characters in these moments. The purest irony here is that these scenes, the “relationship scenes”, are actually pandering. Like, while the show wasn’t and yet anti-korrasami people kept yelling that it was (it wasn’t; that’s not how animation production works) boom, here we go. Actual pandering. (And yes, this is an entirely subjective opinion, but isn’t that kinda what this ask was for?)

Thirsty Asami, Overprotective Korra; these characterizations not only don’t make sense, but they’re exactly what the fandom has been asking for despite neither of them really fitting at all with previous characterizations. These things are supposed to build off one another, and yet they just go in random directions. Okay, fine, in fairness, Thirsty Asami only doesn’t make sense in the context we see it here, rather than a general sense. She can be horny, but that was the weirdest segue to that sort of tone, and it felt shoehorned in as fanservice. Need proof? Look no further:

I mean, seriously? The final lines of the TV show? That’s…every single fanfic writer has at least considered doing that because of the free sentimentality points due to the emotions attached to that final scene, but good lord that is some blatant not-helpful fanservice that, to me, feels automatically pandering right there.

Because that’s what their relationship reads as in these comics. Fanservice. It’s meaningless fluff that seems as though it’s actively refusing to progress either character in personal and communal growth. It serves no other purpose than to reinforce the idea that Asami is a liability (and that Korra’s feelings are the so super strong for her you guys that she’s overprotective lmao). Which is so beyond absurd a notion to have, according to the show itself, because Korra has been present for almost every doofus Asami has decked:

This is also depicted in the end of Part 1, where Korra chooses to save Asami (who is either drunk or high as balls considering her hilariously inept and counter-canon combat performance) from a rock instead of Tokuga. Which just ties into what happens to Asami at the end of Part 2. Yes, the kidnapping. I already talked about the kidnapping, and lo and behold, I was right. Tokuga kidnaps Asami to get to Korra (how original!), and is weirdly okay with them being in a relationship. Remember that homophobia in this universe that may still exist in the Fire Nation because nobody bothered to clarify that? Welp, apparently it didn’t mean squat because Korra just flat out tells a security guard that she’s dating Asami when they were all like “hey let’s keep this to ourselves for the time being”. Even the supervillains don’t care that queer people exist, I guess?

Which of course leads to this scene:

Okay, no. No, there are…so, so many ways to get out of this scenario. First, that’s not a real knife. It’s a fire made in the shape of a blade. It does have mass, but whatever level of “sharpness” it has can’t really retain shape because it’s FIRE. It’s not ice. Asami could presumably just run through it, suffering some nasty burns, and jump to safety because there are plenty of people there who could catch her. Second, that dude is an old man. Asami has taken down multiple terrorists simultaneously. She could just kick him in the balls with her heel. It’s super easy. Third, Asami has been trained in “self-defense” since her mother was murdered (we’ll circle back to this) by firebenders, the implication being that it was the Agni Kai Triad.

So, Hiroshi, being a hardcore genocidal anti-bender crazy person with a daughter insists that she start learning to defend herself at the age of like 5…what do you think those lessons are? I’ve covered this in my Jings and Other Things post, but frankly it doesn’t take a whole lot of thought to realize that “oh he’d make sure she was trained to fight against benders.” That actually circles back to point two, since hey, remember how firebending works?

Remember when Uncle Iroh was all “firebending comes from the breath, not the muscles”? Which lead to Zhao getting his butt kicked by Zuko? All Asami has to do is knock the wind out of this old geezer and jump. Or break his concentration, because, again, not a real knife. This is something she would absolutely know.

Elbow his stomach, kick him in the balls, bite his knuckles, break his nose with the back of her head, kick out his legs, throw herself backwards—the list goes on. Something so fundamental to the universe, to the point that it was sort of Zuko’s whole thing, rebelling against Sozin’s perverted firebending teachings (DANCING DRAGON FORM) through the previous series, being ignored and seemingly retconned because…Mike forgot? And didn’t do any research on his own work to make sure it remained consistent? Uh, okay.

You don’t need to be an action director to think of any of these, especially if you’ve seen the TV show in question. Also, just as an aside to Korra not being able to locate Asami…she, uh, has spirit GPS? Remember that? Through the vines? Found Wu, and Jinora. Just kind supports my theory that Mike forgot to watch his own show. Since that was like, important to Korra’s healing arc.

Anyway, for Asami’s character as a whole…good lord. I don’t…she’s, again, either drunk or high as balls. I mean how else do you explain her being super chill and okay with working with Zhu Li in the first place? Didn’t her husband steal her company? Something that Zhu Li had to have been complicit in considering she was in prison with him? None of this makes any sense! Asami’s convictions on what is just and what is not are kind of her core (remember the Equalists?), so for them to just be thrown out because plot is a little strange and disconcerting.

I’m not saying she wouldn’t work with Zhu Li for the good of the city; she did the same with Varrick and that rings true to me because it’s not like she spent three years rebuilding the fucking thing. Of course she’d be protective of it! It’s also her home. But all of that pales in comparison to the single most glaring thing that is addressed briefly, in passing, in Part 1, but isn’t even mentioned in Part 2:

I just—Korra got a phenomenal healing arc. Asami is the second half of this couple that they are banking these book sales on, and she’s not given room to grieve? To acknowledge that her father was not only murdered, but sacrificed himself to save her life and how complicated and conflicting those feelings have to be considering he tried to murder her back in Book 1? Yeah, that is a meaty subject matter that can absolutely be tackled by a comic. You just sort of have to actually do it and not sweep it under the rug. But that’s what they do, despite the fact that he’s been dead for, oh, I dunno, like less than a month? Nobody can recover that quickly. No one. Not even the Avatar, and we literally saw that in action.

I get that Kuvira isn’t physically in this, and that the corpse of the massive mecha-giant that could not have possibly been moved via conventional means (it was covered in vines that not even Korra can safely remove, remember?) is randomly missing after Korra and Asami get back from their vacation but I really feel like Raiko’s surrender directly leading to Hiroshi’s death is something that could easily be dug into. Even if it’s not totally rational, because it doesn’t have to be because grief and emotions are not rational.

I mean, I doubt I need to get into the fact that Asami is once again sidelined in a plot that should be about her (the reconstruction effort was literally her thing between Books 3 and 4), since that one is just—it’s there. That’s what it is. Zhu Li gets it because she’s around, I guess? And because Raiko is a terrible President who needed to get ousted anyway (why is he not letting people get their food???), but why wouldn’t whatever theoretical legislature just impeach him while Korra and Asami were on vacation? What purpose does this narrative actually serve since we already don’t like Raiko and would want anyone in that position that isn’t him? Preferably someone who lost in the first round of elections—I’ll stop there. It just unfolds with the slightest tug.

SPEAKING OF DEAD PARENTS (perfect segue) remember when I reminded you that Asami’s mother was murdered by firebenders? After a break-in? When she was five? Wow that must have been pretty traumatizing for her considering it literally radicalized her father into becoming a genocidal maniac. Which, you know, makes it extremely strange that this isn’t brought up or addressed when Jargala and her crew do like, the same thing to Asami.

Wow that’s scary, isn’t it? Possibly PTSD flashback level scary, if Mike had remembered that important aspect of Asami’s history. Yet this is not brought up, and it doesn’t seem to inform Asami’s character at all despite the fact that it should probably be the second thing that comes out of her mouth when she discusses the encounter with Korra.

But wait, it happens again with Tokuga, who just ransacks her place, which just makes it worse. It’d be bad enough not to have Asami explicate this connection the first time around, because she could be bottling her emotions (she does that), and we find out about this later, but to do it twice in the same graphic novel? In quick succession? Yeah, Mike just plum forgot.

I don’t think I need to explain further why being lazy with a canon that you yourself poured your blood, sweat and tears into is not a great look. But that’s what the story Mike wrote is saying.

So, yeah, those are most of my issues with Turf Wars Part 2. Thanks for reading through to the end!

Other random thoughts on how none of this makes sense:

Why does Republic City have Kuvira’s military armaments in a warehouse? Even if the war is somehow over, which it can’t be because that’s not how anything works, it’s still Earth Empire property.

Why do any of those mecha-suits even work after Varrick’s EMP?

Why is Ba Sing Se offering relief efforts when that’s the capital of the country that just invaded the United Republic— seriously they’re still at war you guys you can’t just capture the enemy commander and win

How does Tokuga’s half-spirit form allow him to control spirits? Wouldn’t that make them hate him more?

Why do the triads agree to work under him when all he’s got is a tentacle arm? They could just set him on fire and be done with it

What is the point of Keum, like, at all? Why does he even exist? He got kidnapped at the end of Part 1, but we have no emotional stake in his existence

Why are Mako and Bolin relearning how to value one another’s different skill sets? This is like the fifth time or something

[thewebcomicsreview]

[I tried to reblog this but Tumblr got mad at me for some reason so I’m doing a link post instead. Damn it, Tumblr]

Okay. Fair warning, I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, but I have seen the movies, and I don’t much care for the EU. Quotes come from IMDB.

The problem with this is that Star Wars, as a film series, has always been about how all of those things are terrible. Individualism and romanticism are always presented as chauvinistic and antithetical to the common good

In what way is the totalitarian fascist empire based primarily on Nazi Germany “individualistic” or “romantic”? Totalitarian governments are about as far from individualistic societies as you can get, and what romantic ideal does the empire use to justify its rule?

Governor Tarkin: The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away forever.

General Tagge: But that's impossible! How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?

Governor Tarkin: The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

“Fuck you, Death Star”.  There’s no indication ever that the Empire has any ideals that it’s supposed to stand for, or that there are places where the locals are pro-empire. In Episode 3, Palpatine says he’s becoming emperor for security reasons, which has less to do with the philosophy of Star Wars and more to do with the Patriot Act,and was pretty explicitly not the rationale by ANH.

Success and failure in every Star Wars film is measured by whether or not characters embrace and cultivate collective action

This is only true if you ignore the bad guys generally, and specifically ignore Revenge of the Sith, where Palpatine teamkills everyone and wins completely as a result, and then makes an empire of bad guys who work as a coherent unit and still fail.

That being said, the leftism in the original trilogy is embedded far deeper in the story. In A New Hope, Luke and Han grow as characters by expanding their view of the world and understanding that they have a moral obligation to participate in something bigger than themselves.

It’s a massive stretch to say “protagonists have to work together to fight bad guys” is an inherently “leftist” trope. Doubly so in the Vietnam War context of A New Hope. The problem with America’s involvement in Vietnam wasn’t that soldiers weren’t working together.

In The Empire Strikes Back, our heroes face ruin when they’re separated from the Rebel Alliance, and Luke nearly destroys himself by acting out of selfish impulse and valuing the defeat of Vader over the greater good.

I know I just said this one, but

[Luke has seen a vision of Han, Leia and Chewie being tortured in Cloud City]

Luke: I saw - I saw a city in the clouds.

Yoda: [nods] Friends you have there.

Luke: They were in pain…

Yoda: It is the future you see.

Luke: The future?

[pause]

Luke: Will they die?

Yoda: [closes his eyes for a moment] Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.

Luke: I’ve got to go to them.

Yoda: Decide you must, how to serve them best. If you leave now, help them you could; but you would destroy all for which they have fought, and suffered.

Luke didn’t go to Cloud City to fight Vader. He went to save his friends. Yoda wanted him to complete his training so that he could beat Vader, but Luke considered his friends more important than his destiny. It was Yoda who wanted the big one-on-one anime fight, that’s why he withheld Vader being Luke’s father because he (correctly) thought knowing that would make Luke unwilling to kill Vader.

Only the collective actions of Lando and the people of Cloud City allow our protagonists to survive

What? “The people of Cloud City” don’t do shit. Lando turns on the stormtroopers, then announces “Hey, yo, I just turned on the Empire so everyone better bail” and everyone bailed. There were no useful NPCs on Cloud City helping save the day. The only thing the people of Cloud City did that Lando didn’t tell them to do was deactivate the hyperdrive on the Falcon to prevent the heroes from escaping.

It’s essential that Luke’s redemption of Vader is not what defeats the Empire- that’s just his personal journey. His contribution is to distract the Emperor to aid in the mission’s success. Even if Luke had failed and turned evil, the Emperor and Death Star would still have exploded.

The Death Star would’ve exploded, but Luke had enough time to drag Darth Vader to the shuttle. If they all turned evil, the Emperor could’ve walked to the shuttle himself and flown off to his fleet of Star Destroyers just outside (that all, uh, magically disappear in the actual movie, but shh).

When the Clone Wars erupt (caused by capitalist powers run amok), instead of protecting the people as their historical role is described, the Jedi become generals in a conflict with disposable soldiers to protect the property of the Republic, going so far as to become bodyguards to its Supreme Chancellor.

1. The Clone Wars are caused by Palpatine as an attempt to overthrow the government, and have nothing to do with capitalism except that the trade federation is allied with him for reasons never really explained in the movies. 2. I have no idea where Diaz is getting the idea that the Jedi weren’t protecting people. I’m pretty sure Yoda defended a bunch of Wookies in Episode III. 3. Also they protected the Supreme Chancellor, who by my count is a people. Sure, he was evil, but the Jedi stopped protecting him when they figured that out.

4. It kind of undercuts your “Star Wars is pro-collectivism!” theory when you attack the Jedi for using an army of literal clones to defend the Republic. The original stormtroopers were not individualistic, and this carries over to the First Order as well.

Poe Dameron: What's your name?

Finn: FN-2187.

[pauses]

Finn: That's the only name they ever gave me.

Poe Dameron: Well, I'm not going to call you that. Let's see... FN... I'm going to call you Finn. How about that

Finn: Yeah, Finn. I like that.

Finn literally doesn’t have a name until Poe gives him one. Their bond starts with Poe recognizing Finn’s individuality in an actually kind of aggressive way.

If Yoda killed the Emperor, he’d be arrested and the Emperor’s claim of Jedi traitors would be validated. Some other horrible person like Tarkin would take over, and the Galaxy would hate the Jedi even more. Yoda and Kenobi were still overvaluing individuals at the expense of understanding the systemic causes for their situation; they’ve already lost, and this is why they don’t take serious action again until the people of the Galaxy begin to unite together on their own

[Citation needed]

The Republic was willing to support Palpatine because of the droid army he was secretly running. Killing Palpatine would end the clone wars, and thus end the crisis was was threatening democracy. The war WAS the systemic cause, and killing Palpatine would end it.

Canto Bight shows those capitalist forces never went away: Finn and DJ discuss an arms dealer who has literally been in business selling weapons since the time of the original Empire.  

DJ does give a “both sides are the same vote Jill Stein” speech, but DJ also sells them out to the empire, so it’s not over because he doesn’t have the moral high ground

Poe plainly thinks being a good pilot is “blowing something up” because that’s what Luke and Lando did, forgetting that the successes of those characters were the result of intense, meticulous planning and cooperation. Poe is preoccupied with glory, the easy-to-remember parts of the Rebellion. Of course, the old Rebels never went off script because they understood their job was part of a disciplined group effort, but Poe fails to internalize this. This kind of chauvinism doesn’t just cut Poe off from others and cloud his judgement, it gets almost the entire Resistance killed.

Poe’s flaw in TLJ is that he takes huge risks that don’t always pan out, and that he doesn’t unquestioningly follow a leader who refuses to tell anyone why her plan isn’t a suicide mission for reasons that rapidly make less sense over the course of the movie. Poe’s plan didn’t involve blowing anything up, it was literally to disable the tracker so that all the rebels could escape, which he did because he thought that was the only way they could escape because no one told him about the secret base their cloaked ships could escape to because that plotline honestly doesn’t make much sense the longer it went on.

Finn’s attempted suicide run against the “battering ram,” while seemingly selfless, is still grounded in selfish desire to “win,” unlike Admiral Holdo’s sacrifice. Poe even tells Finn that it’s too late to destroy the laser weapon, but Finn goes anyway. Even if Finn had destroyed it somehow, it wouldn’t have saved anyone, just possibly delayed the First Order, which was the point of their attack before Poe called it off. Holdo’s sacrifice was different because she was directly saving defenseless ships from being exploded.

Can you hear it? Can you hear the creaking of Aaron Diaz bending over backwards to fit the plot of the movie into his theories? Holdo wasn’t trying to save the resistance’s property. She wasn’t worried about the poor defenseless ships. She was worried about the people, and her sacrifice bought them some time. Which is exactly what Finn would’ve done had Rose not pushed him out of the way. He would’ve destroyed the lasers, the resistance would escape out the back door, badabing badaboom.

I know this would’ve happened because it’s literally what happens when Luke shows up and heroically sacrifices himself instead.

Yes, it’s kind of strange that the movie goes “heroic sacrifice is bad” immediately before a heroic sacrifice saves the day, but blame Rian Johnson for that I didn’t write this shit.

Despite appearances, it’s not Darth Vader that Ren idolizes, but Luke. Unlike Finn and Poe, Ren grew up around his hero, but when it was clear that Luke didn’t compare to the legend of Luke, Ren retreated to a legend he could never meet: Darth Vader.  Ren was also trained with an incomplete, sanitized version of the Jedi, and once again when this sanitized version fell apart, he turned to evil  

A reasonable fan-theory with no textual support. Luke tries to kill Kylo after Kylo turns to the Dark Side. We have no idea what made Kylo listen to Snoke.

Appropriately, unlike our heroes, he doubles down on his chauvinism and never learns the lesson

Kylo is not evil because he’s sexist (1), because he feels any great attachment to the Sith (2), or because he’s patriotic (3), so I don’t think you’re using the word “Chauvinism” correctly. He doesn’t even care about Vader anymore by the end of TLJ.

Luke disappoints Rey, but this doesn’t have the disastrous impact that it had on Ben Solo because Rey’s aim is understanding, not personal glory.

Let’s ask Rey what she came to Luke for.

Rey: I need someone to show me my place in all of this.

Hm. It sure seems like Rey wanted to know what her individual role in the story was, and perhaps even had hopes that it would be “the hero”, which is why she’s reduced to tears when she learns her parents were some randos. Rey absolutely wants the personal glory, but she’s willing to accept not being super-special because protecting the resistance is more important to her.

Facing the Emperor, Luke wasn’t tempted by his offers of personal power and glory because that’s not really what he wanted. Rey was tempted, but resisted. It’s her character arc! It’s a big part of why she wanted to turn Kylo good, because she wanted to do it.

Rey: You didn't fail Kylo. Kylo failed you. I won't.

Amazingly, "Rey wants personal glory but rejects it in order to save the resistance” works way better for the point Aaron Diaz is trying to make then his own interpretation, but Diaz has some thing where he doesn’t want to admit flaws exist in his favorite characters even when their whole storyline is about overcoming said flaw.

That spark is carried most clearly in Rose and Rey. Both have humble origins and never aspired to be recognized as heroes, both are disillusioned by meeting their heroes, and both grow from that experience while inspiring others to take up hope.

Diaz ignores Rey’s arc and Rose kind of doesn’t have one (certainly not one related to being crushed to learn Finn’s a wuss) so I’m not sure how they both grow but okay.

I’m spending way too long on this. Star Wars as a franchise isn’t “about” anything, because a billion different people have worked on it (Marcia Lucas, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, JJ Abrams, and Rian Johnson being the most important) and they didn’t all share an artistic vision or even a cultural context.

[fury-brand]

So I beat Nier Automata. Working through feelings still. I felt the first two acts were much stronger than the third. Detailed spoilery analysis below the cut.

The third act is a tragedy. I don’t really mind that, but the tragedies that form its core plot and the ways in which the resolution plays out just aren’t as satisfying or as poignant as the questions posed by the first and second act, frequently tragic themselves.

The game itself is obviously very existential, but I think more so in the first two acts where we’re introduced to the universe, and to the machines. It’s a wonderful idea to explore. Through the machines and the androids, both imitating humans in similar and different ways, we’re given a picture of a people that were quite literally created in “God’s” image - except the Gods are humans, and we know them to be fallible.

Route B’s reveal that humankind has long since gone extinct isn’t just a cruel irony, then. It underscores the futility of the struggle between androids and machines, yes, but in a way it creates a more sympathetic, even hopeful situation. All the suffering in the world is not being actively recreated and directed by a human moon colony, removed from its victims - it’s a tragic mistake from the fundamental shortsightedness of humans in creating an android legacy. Humanity may have shown great carelessness and cruelty (particuarly to Devola and Popola), but humans-as-”Gods” didn’t simply turn a blind eye to the sufferings of their creations. They didn’t know any better at the time, and they died before they could learn to course-correct.

Project YoRHa then shows us a scenario in which God is quite literally dead AND God is a creation of our own, something that we seek to understand to give ourselves meaning. It’s also something that’s been used to mobilize this endless war of attrition and cause immense suffering - but this doesn’t have to be so. The problem with the war is the war itself, not the absence of its supposed progenitors

We see this in the machines most clearly. They were created for war, but resonate deeply with human legacy, and all of them are full of some kind of yearning. A desire to love, fight, and be close to one another mingle together for them. Simone and Jean-Paul and the Romeo and Juliet play show how these can feelings can comingle to beings still trying to work things out. The most advanced machines, though, all seem to come to the conclusion that they would rather do something other than fight. This is true of Pascal, but it’s also true of the Desert machines who want to create life and the Factory death cult who want to “become as Gods” through emulating human extinction.

Trouble is, while the second act leaves us in a great position to explore the meaning and consequence of all of this, the third act just kind of... doesn’t.

Instead it focuses on YoRHa, a virus, and the personal tragedy of 9S and 2B. The virus is a catalyst for essentially the entire third arc, and compared to the cause-effect way the world has been set up for us previously, it feels very inorganic. Yes, computers get viruses, and yes in the end we’re told it was planted so that YoRHa could be disposed of and the falsification of humanity complete but... what meaning does that contribute?

I feel the same about the tragedy between 9S and 2B. What does 2B’s death contribute except sadness? What about 9S madness? We see some very heavy-handed echoes of the notion that love and conflict can sit very near to eachother, as well as a deeply troubling visual callback to Adam saying 9S wants to “****” 2B, but ultimately what is the point of their story except to be sad?

What makes tragedy meaningful for me is that it’s not purely a function of circumstance. 2B/E’s relationship with 9S, this cycle she is trapped in where she has to continually re-enact the trauma of murdering him, is a circumstance - and she is dead before we can truly explore what it means to her. We know that it makes her sad and we know that it makes her distant, but we also know that death and memory aren’t complete or straightforward. It’s, I think, the very first hook of the game - this gruelling first chapter that culminates in death and marries the mechanic of saving your game with the idea that even if you restart something was lost.

But! Not everything! 9S is never dead, no matter how often he’s killed and loses his memory. Humanity is extinct, but their memory and essence endures in androids and machines both. And 2B is a terrible, difficult position that puts her closest to the suffering caused by this paradox - but also, dead before we can ever dive into her true subjectivity on the matter. 

Switching the focus instead to 9S and pushing him down the most grimdark path possible seems somewhat like smothering his own nuance. I don’t believe that the only choice left available to 9S was to become what he became. Particularly not because he should know full well that 2B’s memory lives on in her sword. We get this break-the-cutie descent to madness story that is born of this tragic consequence, but seems so wildly unnecessary when it’s readily apparent that other options are available and there’s nothing truly inherent in 9S that would suggest he shouldn’t explore them. Instead we’ve seen the contrary from him, if anything.

The most effective tragedy of the third act is definitely Pascal. Pascal, who committed himself so thoroughly to peace, but who feels the pressure to re-arm in order to protect it. It’s that deeply human paradox between love and conflict that’s evident in other parts of the story. I’ve seen people call the moment when Pascal hijacks a Goliath happy and triumphant, but I found it deeply, deeply sad. Pascal is forced to abandon the things that define him and his personal philosophy. He screams about how he’ll kill them all to protect what he loves - and only to find they’re dead already because of something he taught them. A fear they probably wouldn’t have succumbed to, even, if Pascal had stuck to his guns and chosen to stay with the children and shepherd them through their own overwhelming emotion.

By contrast the presentation of the 9S/2B story, and particularly 9S’ side of it feels like the virus that turns all of the machines into zombies. It’s just sort of a thing that happens. It’s sad. It’s a little bit thematically appropriate. But there was probably a better way to handle it, and there was much richer material elsewhere. The cycle of life and the inevitability of death isn’t interesting for its inherent tragedy after all, but for what room people have within the margins to define how they will deal with a force that cannot be stopped.

One of the final revelations of the game are that the YoRHa black boxes are made from machine cores. It’s led to a lot of trying to tease out the intricate particulars of how YoRHa was created, but otherwise the revelation fell flat to me. What does it matter? The point at which this is revealed to us is so, so far past the point where we see that machines and androids and humans are all virtually the same, and the circumstances of their existence are all deeply irrelevant for as long as they all search for meaning, belonging and understanding.

It’s not, as it’s presented, a final betrayal or twist of the knife - it’s a complication. A suggestion that there’s something inherently mechanical about the difficult consciousness our protagonists have attained. There’s no real difference between the meaningful existences of YoRHa androids and other androids and even Pods - so why does it matter that their programming is different?

It shouldn’t. Like most of the other conflicts in this game, it all seems so fundamentally surmountable, caused by many of the same reasons and desires the conflict was in the first place. I wish they had simply let that be, rather than adding virus-induced tragedy and following the darkest road possible. Everything became worse just when it had the most opportunity to become interesting and difficult and human instead.

[knightofbalance-13]

http://sssn-neptune-vasilias.tumblr.com/post/155896702298/i-guess-the-jaune-issue-is-really-starting-to

A bit older than what I am use to but I believe my point will remain relevant for now and deep into the future of the FNDM.

So let’s go!

“I guess the “Jaune Issue” is really starting to boil yet again. It’s happened almost every season and I can almost understand the need to want to protect him from people who’re being overly harsh on him, or those who just downright hate him, but at this point, four seasons in, if you can sympathize with Jaune more than the people who’re put off by Jaune, you’re missing something really important- something that people have been arguing is a really big issue with this show in general“

So in essence: if you think with our threats to painfully kill him, maim him, torture him and his writer, you’re wrong and this is why you are wrong.

Also, this is coming from the fan of the (by RWDE standards) womanizer Neptune? Yeah....

I just wanna start off with saying a lot of people feel cheated out of a different anime thanks to Jaune. All of the marketing during the trailers and most marketing today is about RWBY- four girls- and the audience this show gathered back then was obviously an audience who were hungry and starved for more shows that featured girls kicking monster ass. Jaune becoming such a prominent side character that he’s essentially one of the main protagonists now was something not many people wanted, and something the show or Jaune has never really earned.

Yes and those people are oversensitive idiots. I know this sounds hypocriticial of me considering my previous point but here’s the deal: I went through all of Volume 4 and counted the seconds of time were Jaune got the focus. This means that he had to be the one the narrative was focused on, things like the Kuroyuri talk does not count because the narrative is using Jaune as a mouthpiece to focus on RWBY. Jaune’s amount of focus? 5;44 minutes. Down to the second, Jaune does not even have enough time to make a Volume 1 episode, let alone compared to the girls. For reference, yang the one who was criminally underused had 16:32 minuets of time, nearly triple that of Jaune. He is not the “main character” as everyone keeps saying.

And then there’s the fact that Jaune along with the rest of Team JNPR ARE main characters, confirmed by Monty himself. There is no debate, there is no ambiguity: Monty wrote Jaune as a main character like Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. So that argument is even false at the base.

And here’s the thing: Characters like Jaune prevent RWBY from falling into a dangerous trap as female eccentric shows have a strong tendency to neglect the male gender as their distaff counter parts do the opposite. Even the manliest of these shows like Kill La Kill do not have a strong male cast yet RWBY is special in that it’s writing is good enough to support both genders thus making it feel so much more organic and real. And Jaune, acting as a foil to Ruby is an important element in that: the only reason that Jaune lost his focus didn’t disturb this balance was other male characters like Taiyang and Ghira picking up that slack.

“Jaune started off as an audience surrogate (a trope you can learn more about in the link provided, and I’m gonna be linking back to tropes like this as often as I can). Everyone else in the world that we’d met so far already knew what Hunters were supposed to be doing, what Beacon was for, etc, etc. Ruby or Nora wouldn’t ever need to ask about Aura or Semblances or weapons, because they’ve been training and fighting for years before Beacon. Juane is the character who needed this all explained to him, and through Jaune’s eyes, we were given crucial information about the world. In a show like RWBY, a Jaune is important, as it eases the burden of world-building and allows these really basic conversations that normally wouldn’t be happening with regular characters to happen with Jaune.”

And yet people have demanded that Jaune be removed entirely from the show and proclaim he does not and has never had a purpose.

And you talk as though Jaune as stopped being the audience surrogate. Many of his scenes in Volume 4 (Getting tossed around, growing in Pyrrha’s memory, his silent mourning of Pyrrha, his scorn of Qrow and his talk with Ruby) are reflections of the fanbase and it’s attitude or feelings. He hasn’t stopped being an Audience surrogate no matter how much you say otherwise buddy.

“Jaune then continued to evolve as a sympathetic character during Jaunedice. “I’m tired of being the lovable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends risk their lives!” That line to this day is still so fucking powerful, and Miles Luna is so fucking good at delivering those heart-wrenching lines with quivering voices about feeling inadequate. During season one of this show, people LOVED Jaune. “My baby” “My son” etc, were common terms of endearment for him because Jaune’s feelings of inadequacy were so powerful and so relatable. Despite the fact that Jaune Arc was basically the “Ordinary High School Student” main protagonist of every shounen anime ever, the FNDM loved him anyway because of his conviction. He desperately wanted to get better and we believed him beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

... No they didn’t. People ahted him back then for consuming a fourth of the first volume and for the most part rightfully so as episodes like Jaunedice and the Badge and The Burden were addressed in previous epsiodes and should have been longer running conflicts.

And Jaune is STILL relateable to this day as he is almost completely helpless to keep what little people he has left safe as he is so woefully underpowered, he is bitter about life beating them down and drew strength from another to keep moving forward. Just like real people.

“Despite all of this, Jaune took up an unearned amount of screen time during season 1. Jaunedice 1, Jaunedice 2, Forever Fall 1 and Forever Fall 2 was a four episode long arc based almost exclusively around Jaune. 4 episodes and 25 minutes spent on away from RWBY and the rest of the plot of the show just to showcase Arkos’ rocky start, reveal Jaune’s dark secret, and a bullying arc that all could’ve taken less than an episode to tell and ended up resolving itself in a self-defeating way: Pyrrha never told Jaune she helped him kill the Ursa in the forest. Despite the fact that Jaune was ready and willing to allow Pyrrha to teach him how to fight, Pyrrha never took the time out to explain to him how absolutely dead he would’ve been had she not intervened. Because of this, Jaune doesn’t get the growth he needed, he doesn’t actually get to understand just how dangerous this job really is. It spares Jaune’s feelings, but also puts him and everyone he’ll ever fight with in danger until he actually learns that lesson.’

Except Jaune knows how weak he is, never fights directly unless forced too (like against the Nuckelvee or the Grimm horde) and gives out orders like a tactician.

And then there’s the fact that Jaune’s arc benefitted Pyrrha heavily as well: it showed how much she cared about jaune, how close they are, her flaws (threatening Cardin) and her strengths (forgiving and understanding Jaune) as a character. It was done to her benefit too so it was not solely Jaune.

And I’ve already tackled all the bullshit surrounding Arkos criticism so I won’t repeat it here. Just because a ship is straight does not make it bad.

“Granted, if you’re unwilling to forgive a show for not-so-great pacing and a few loose ends during its first season, you probably shouldn’t have been following a start-up show like RWBY in the first place. The writers were so obviously just beginning to learn how to tell the story, and needed time to get better. So most people held their complaints and waited until season two.”

Judging from what I’ve seen, not one person held back about Jaune’s arc and even blow it out of proportion so much. So that’s not true at all.

“Here’s where shit absolutely hit the goddamn fan.”

Your shit and your fan, that is. and unfortunately for me, I have to mope it up.

“Jaune had a crush on Weiss since volume 1, while Pyrrha had a crush on him from before he’d even seen Weiss. The same Love Triangle trope we see all the time. It’s a bit tired, and Tumblr hates it for its heteronormative aspects, its potential to create abusive relationships, and for the simple fact that polyamorous relationships are an easy way to end the trope, but most people just shrugged it off because it hadn’t been to intrusive yet. Then it got really fucking intrusive. Jaune. Wouldn’t. Leave. Her. Alone. Over and over again she rejected him and he continued to pursue her. Walking to her dorm to harass her and ask her to the dance, harassing her during class, etc, etc. Now considering a lot of the FNDM were women, Jaune alienated the core audience RT had been marketing towards. So many women came forward feeling irked, annoyed, and even triggered by Jaune’s constant harassment. He was every guy that didn’t know how to take “no” for an answer to these women- and if you talk to them, almost all of them have at least one story similar. But for some reason the narrative painted WEISS as the bad guy here. With Yang ruffling Jaune’s hair with “Some day” and Yang again calling Weiss an “ice queen” after slamming their door in his face, the show had somehow made Weiss the antagonist to Jaune’s “lovable and charismatic dope.” Pair that weird framing with younger male members of the FNDM who related even more with Jaune because of this, and it was a disaster. So many posts from guys about how “girls just don’t understand how hard it is to try to flirt” and “if Weiss weren’t so mean to him then maybe he’d get the message” flooded the tag and it was just all around disgusting. Because of how the show had framed Jaune as the guy trying his hardest to earn what he wanted up to that point, “Weiss” just became “something he wanted” instead of an actual person who had no romantic interest in him whatsoever. Then the added conversation with Neptune sealed the deal and people outright despised him for his grandiose, accusatory and entirely hypocritical tone he took with Neptune. Most women were put off almost entirely by a character they used to identify with. Some guys identified with him even harder because they hadn’t yet learned that Jaune’s failures at love weren’t something to sympathize with, but to correct.“

... This is sexist as fuck.

Every instance of Jaune here can be used step for step against Pyrrha. Won’t leave lover alone despite not being interested? Check. Constantly shows disinterest and keeps going? Check. Only gives up when they see that they can’t win? Check and double check because unlike Jaune who stopped, Pyrrha kept going afterwards. And unlike Jaune who is treated as in the wrong with Weiss, Pyrrha is treated as in the right.

And you act as though that guys are the only ones who do this: Women do this too and guys don't get pissy when a girl can't take no for answer because most of the time it's a personal flaw, not a gender flaw. Jaune personally did not undertsnad that and again unlike Pyrrha, learned to move on.

... No, it wasn't. The narrative treated Jaune as being wrong. Sympathetic but still wrong as his positive resolution only comes by letting go. And again, I hear no one getting on Pyrrha’s case.

And the story clearly shows that unlike what Weiss and YOU PEOPLE thought, Jaune wanted to get to know who Weiss was, not what she is. He loved her for who she was, not what she was. And that is what seperates Jaune and Pyrrha’s behaviors form stalkers: They care about the other person and want what is best for them, not theirselves.

P.S. A friend of mine @tumblezwei alone said she didn’t find it offensive at all so you saying that alienated all of the women in the audience is wrong. In fact, I’d bet most women didn’t thin of it that way at all (especially considering I never found Pyrrha to be creepy in any iteration until recently)

‘So we ended up with this huge divide in the FNDM, and people on the left didn’t want anything to do with Jaune even if they’d previously liked him, while people on the right would go to any length to defend his actions and keep up the same “he’s just a teenager, he doesn’t know any better” attitude that Jaune himself had asked people to stop using on him.:

No, he asked people to stop thinking eh needed coodling, not that he wanted people to let them say things that would make Cardin vomit.

“Two other nitpicks from season 2 were Jaune reading comics while he was supposed to be studying, and Jaune’s reaction to seeing Pyrrha take charge during The Breach when he’d failed to. The first is just a minor character inconsistency- season 1 he’d been so willing to try to learn to be the best Huntsman he could be, why is he slacking off long before his first real test as a Huntsman? The second, though, was a bit more alarming. With RWBY in trouble, Jaune hesitates, unsure of how to rush in to battle. Pyrrha takes charge and rallies JNPR forward into the fight. Jaune- instead of running behind his teammates, instead of being glad Pyrrha helped him out, instead of being thankful- groans at the missed opportunity. Not only was that groan inconsistent with Jaune’s earlier promise to allow Pyrrha to help him, it was just downright childish. People’s lives are on the line and he wastes time from joining the fight to pout that he didn’t get to rush his team into battle? That’s good behavior from a leader at all.“

Was he the butt of a joke? yes? Then it is totally in character for him to gran that life is making him into a joke yet again. And you utright acknowledge these to be nitpicks and yet treat them as glaring flaws. Also, no one mentioned the fact tahthe Finale was anti-climatic that it neglected Nora and Ren, that Penny’s reveal was fumbled ect.? Really? I call bullshit.

“Two seasons in and there’s already a divide about Jaune. He’d taken up so much screen time and people were all around tired of seeing him. People were so tired of Jaune as a character, that he was the only character whose figure didn’t sell out at RTX and ComiCon. Again, here’s where I’m assuming RT got the hint- less Jaune please”

And then tehre’s the fact that Jaune has the most fanart and fanfiction around him that excludes shipping. Also, just because people didn’t buy a fucking figurine that means less Jaune? And people really liked the arc with the dance in Volume 2 for resolving the Love Triangle, developing Pyrrha, Jauen and Neptune so your argument once again does nt have a leg to stand upon.

“And they followed through! Jaune had so few lines season three and so much less screen time some of the people who’d been feeling alienated by him started to get over it. Jaune was finally being used to further Pyrrha’s plot- a plot with actual relevance to the overall plot of RWBY- instead of his own. He said all the right things, his characterization stayed consistent, and people genuinely felt bad for him when Pyrrha shoved him in the locker and blasted him off. The one thing Jaune hated the most, and Pyrrha did it to him to save his life. Granted, a lot of people took issue with the fact that Jaune never actually tried to get a hold of any of the professors Ozpin had commanded him to, and instead called Weiss before breaking his phone, but not everyone’s perfect. “

Here’s the deal: Qrow stepped into the spot light and picked up jauen’s slack, ergo why Jaune’s downplayed importance is fine here as a notehr male character picked up his importance. That and the fact that jaune was downplayed not because RT was cattering to you people but that’s how Jaune was built: He needed to step down personally, not out of fan outcry. Volume 3 was already written well before you started bitching so this doesn’t work.

“Season one Jaune was back during season three. Someone the original targeted audience could and wanted to relate to.”

Ironic considering jaune’s purprose as an audience surrogate was at it’s least prominate in Volume 3 and Ruby became the Audience Surrogate as she suffered the harsh reality crashing in like the rest of us. Jaune’s character was only liked when his purpose was mostly removed and he wasn’t seen or heard that much: Again, if not for Qrow, this would have been a huge problem.

“Unfortunately the plot is bending yet again to Jaune Arc’s shenanigans. Most people can agree the pacing for this season is god awful, but somehow the efficiency of Jaune’s alienation of the original FNDM has increased.“

And here comes the bullshit.

““We hit it, harder” was an absolutely terrible explanation to his actually somewhat decent plan, that required further explanation and precious time the others could’ve gotten seriously hurt during.”

It was a joke and the narrative treated it as such, not to mention this happened in Volume 3 with team BRNZ and you said not one word ergo you have lost the right to complain about this.

“Melting down Pyrrha’s shield and tiara into his armor seemed like an entirely inappropriate gesture- instead of being laid to rest, they’re being used to strengthen Jaune? The gesture would seem less inappropriate if Jaune actually managed to start becoming a better fighter, but no… no he doesn’t.“

Actually he was becoming a better fighter as he actually damaged the Nucklevee, didn’t get killed by Tyrian and has been shown to be training. You also talks as though a character whose purpose was to strength another is a bad thing: hear that? Kamina’s calling and he’s gonna make you griyt your teeth if you say that again.

“Jaune getting all of the character development the loss of Pyrrha allotted the team is just bad writing. ALL of RNJR (as well as RWBY) lost a friend in Pyrrha. So far Jaune’s been the only person to have gotten any sort of growth from her loss (the recordings she left behind). Jaune wasn’t supposed to be a main character, why has he taken up growth that could’ve been spread evenly across RNJR or delegated to Ruby- the main protagonist of the story.‘

Yes, eh was menat to be a main character. Monty has confirmed it: Deal with it.

Oh really? Only Jaune? Jaune who devolved into a bitter cynic? And not Ruby who came to accept the world around her and still choose to fight, hwo had her values tested the most and who had most of Jaune’s mourning scenes (forest training nd Kuroyuri) dedicated to her and Jaune is only developing because Ruby gave him strength?

P.S. Don’t need to remind us that everyone lost Pyrrha, Jaune does a better job of it for you.

“Calling Jaune the “strategist” of the team always seemed so out of place. Even more so considering how quick-thinking and resourceful Ruby always has been, from opening Neo’s umbrella, to shooting Nora with lightning Dust during the Tyrian fight in such a way Tyrian entirely thought the shot had been meant for him and gave Nora a clear shot for what would’ve been a fantastic OHKO. A couple of ill-described plans does not a strategist make.“

No one else ever noticed the Geist was protecting it’s face, no one else noticed that the Nuckelvee’s sides were unprotected. Him being the stradgest makes perfect sense.

“Tyrian’s insinuation at being interested in Jaune for some unknown reason was- at least for me- the straw that broke the camel’s back. What exactly is so interesting about Jaune Arc? Well, we the audience don’t know- nor do most of us really care at this point- but RT will be sure to tell us eventually anyway. This pattern of giving Jaune unearned and undeserved attention stretches all the way to people who’re actively plotting the world’s demise. We’re tired of him, stop making him even more important without having him earn it!”

.... Dude, when someone like Tyrian says you interest me, it translates as “I am going to especially enjoy stabbing you.” It’s like if Freddy Krueger started making sexual advances towards you: Its suppose to freak you out. And considering Tyrian pulled off a rape face that would compete with fucking Yami Marik’s, I think he did a good job especially considering Jaune is the Audience surrogate as you said thus this is a subconscious attempt to directly creep out the audience: And it worked all because of Jaune.

“Jaune closing his eyes, entirely unimpeded and unencumbered while holding the melted down remains of someone who died to protect her friends as the first person to ever show him an ounce of kindness at Beacon was about to die was so absolutely terribly bad. Ren and Nora at least were trying to recover from Tyrian’s assault. Jaune closed his eyes and grit his teeth and didn’t even bother trying.”

Considering the last time someone made a Heroic Sacrifice it left Ruby with mild PTSD and made Jaune cynical, I think eh knew that even if he did die for Ruby that would only serve to amek her sadder. And again. he’s the Audience Surrogate: He’s helpless because we are helpless to save Ruby. I bet you everyone closed their eyes in defeat just as Jaune did when Tyrian was gonna introduce his stinger to Ruby’s innards.

“And after watching Qrow save Ruby’s life and suffer a pretty bad injury at the hands of Tyrian, begins to demean Qrow for the adverse effects of his Semblance. “Some load of help you’ve been.” Jaune’s talking down to a man who’s not only a father figure to Ruby, but a man who saved all of RNJR’s lives and who stepped in to save Ruby when Jaune was too busy trying not to watch“

Same guy who also forced Pyrrha into becoming a Madien, killing her and openly attracts Grimm like a walking talking steak. jaune has some right to be bitter.

“Last episode left off with Jaune being a huge dick to Ruby, who was only trying to comfort him. “They’ll be okay. “You don’t know that.” Jaune. Buddy. Pal. You’re kinda holding the comatose body of Ruby’s uncle, desperately trying to find medical help before he dies. “Our two friends who just split up probably won’t be okay” is not what she needs to hear right now. But for some reason, framing Jaune as more pragmatic was more important than giving Ruby and growth or emotion about the whole situation? Okay…”

*Sigh* SOmetimes trying to comfort someone does tehe xact opposite and it was more important considering it was to foreshadow the danger of the Nucklevee and red herring detah flags onto Ren and Nora. Also, you care about what Ruby needs to hear but not Jaune huh? I smell bias...

“Now- for the reason I’m writing this in the first place- the Great War WoR. People are already assuming Jaune’s weapon, Crocea Mors was the sword the King of Vale had used during the final battle. Whether or not it is, whether or not Jaune is a relative of the King and through that, royalty. Whether or not all of these theories are unfounded, I can say this. Through my observation of the FNDM, most people are tired of Jaune Arc. Making him an heir of the king or placing any more unearned importance on him is going to drain people“

People alos assumed Roman was going to be a long lasting villain, Raven was going to be a good mom, Qrow’s semblence was just shapeshifting, that yang would be all better by the beginning of Volume 4, that Blake didn’t have parents, that Sage and Scarlet were important characters ect. Doesn’t mean it will come true.

And from what I have seen, people love the shit out of Jaune and love him for who he is: You just refuse to acknowledge anything that doesn’t line up with your way of thinking.

And if people can still eb drained after listening to you, I commend their fortitude.

He will fight, he wil earn his spot as he has been doing and your compliants of “untapped potential” and over focus and bad writing will just be that: compliants. Meaningless, stupid, obnoxious complaining.

Learn to watch the damn show.

[infodump-daily]

Infodump #4

( submitted by @lukethespoo )

Hi! So I really love Les Miserables, the musical. I’ve watched the movie lots of times and seen the show once on broadway and it’s just so good! I’m gonna talk about the parallels between Jean ValJean, the main protagonist, and Javert, the main antagonist.

Just a heads up this has spoilers for Les Mis if that’s something you care about, and also mentions suicide a bit.

The two main songs I’ll be using will be:

Valjean’s soliloquy: https://youtu.be/JP31L6AhB3M

Javert’s Suicide: https://youtu.be/hRzvdQh8D2Q

At the beginning of Les Mis Jean ValJean has his soliloquy, where he’s torn about what to do. After going to jail for 19 years (For stealing bread to feed his family), he’s let out on parole, but he can’t get a job because nobody will hire a former criminal. He ends up becoming a thief and steals from a priest. He gets caught by the police, but the priest lets him go, saying he believes that Jean ValJean can turn his life around.

So Jean ValJean goes into this huge soliloquy where he’s super torn on what to do. He’s been given this second chance but he doesn’t think he deserves it, thinking he’s nothing but a criminal. “If there’s another way to go, I missed it 20 long years ago…” he’s become wary and reserved from others due to how he’s lived all this time. “Take an eye for an eye / turn your heart into stone / this is all I have lived for / this is all I have known.” So after 3 minutes of anguished singing he vows to turn his life around, and he tears up his parole papers, going off to start again.

So I’m not gonna go through the entire movie because that would take waaaaaaay too long and spoil everything, but Jean ValJean turns his life around and becomes the mayor of some town. However his vengeful parole officer, named Javert, has no chill and keeps hunting him down. Over the course of like 10 years Javert keeps going after him. This is taking place in like early 1800s France, and there are some minor rebellions to try and overthrow Napoleon, and ValJean and Javert are caught in the middle of it. ValJean is fighting with them, and Javert still has no chill and tries to infiltrate the rebels as a spy. He fails, and they tie him up and plan on killing him. ValJean asks to do it personally, and takes him out into an alleyway. However, instead of killing Javert, he lets him go.

So now let’s get into Javert’s character. He’s essentially a tool of the government. He exists only to enforce the law, and that is his only goal in life. When he is arresting Fantine, he ignores her pleas that she has a daughter she needs to care for. “I have heard such protestations / every day for twenty years / Let’s have no more explanations / save your breath / save your tears” In his solo song “Stars” (Which by the way is literally the best I love that song) he sings about this point of view more. “And so it must be, and so it is written / On the doorway to paradise / That those who falter and fall / Must pay the price”

So ValJean saving his life definitely puts a wrench in this perspective of his. Javert always viewed ValJean as nothing but a criminal who broke his parole, and therefore is a threat to society that must be punished. When he sees ValJean doing something completely righteous, saving his life, especially the life of the person who’s been trying to kill him, he has no idea what to do. He leaves with his life, as any reasonable person would do. The rebellion continues (And fails) and ValJean ends up escaping through the sewers with Marius on his back. He finally exits the sewers, safe at last!

Except there’s Javert, standing at the exit with a gun pointed at ValJean.

Now, ValJean is a very caring and friendly person, overall. He sees the good in life, and people. His immediate reaction is “Oh yes hello Javert, just on my way to bring this wounded man to a doctor!” and continues walking. After they stare at each other for a bit, ValJean goes on his way, walking past Javert and away. He continues pointing his gun at ValJean, but can’t bring himself to shoot him, eventually dropping the gun into the water once ValJean leaves. And now we get Javert’s big soliloquy, ending with his suicide.

So like one of my favorite things in any sort of media is foreshadowing. It’s just so cool looking back and being able to see what everything meant. One thing that I really love about musicals is that they often do this with recurring musical themes showing up in different parts. Les Mis has my favorite use of it ever, because ValJean’s soliloquy and Javert’s suicide song have almost the exact same music. The speed and instruments are slightly different, but the notes and rhythm are the same. Even some of the words are the same.

So obviously there’s a parallel drawn between these two situations. ValJean and Javert are both faced with a moral conflict, but the way they react are extremely different, mostly as a result of their characters. Javert has seemingly never encountered a morally ambiguous situation in his life, or at the very least the ones he has were too minor for him to see them. ValJean’s whole life, meanwhile, was full of betrayal and hard times. He rarely sees anything in black and white, and therefore tries to find the good parts of any situation. Javert, instead, can only see his two options. “There is nothing on earth that we share / It is either ValJean or Javert.” “And my thoughts fly apart / can this man be believed / shall his sins be forgiven?”

Javert can either let ValJean go, making him a criminal himself who defected from the law, or turn in ValJean, making him someone who betrayed the one who saved his life. He’s unable to do either of these things, since both are very morally ambiguous situations which he does not deal well with. He instead jumps off the bridge, committing suicide.

There are a couple lines in their songs that I think sum it up best. ValJean says:

“I’ll escape now from that world / From the world of Jean ValJean / Jean ValJean is nothing now / Another story must begin.”

vs Javert:

“I’ll escape now from that world / From the world of Jean ValJean / There’s nowhere left to turn / There’s no way to go on.”

[crystalelemental]

Atelier Rorona Plus Opinions

Rorona Plus was my introduction to the Atelier series, and my what an introduction it was.  Special thanks to @zoablog for bringing it up to me two or so years ago.  Without you talking about it, I would never have known to pick it up at GameStop on that fateful day when I started playing PS3 games on Pat’s system.  It holds a very special place in my heart as something that introduced me to a new series that is a ton of fun.  Whether through that bias or the fact that the Plus version is actually just better all-around, it's decidedly my favorite of the Arland games, and one of the most fun for me to play period.

To quickly run through the things I’ll be talking about for each game: characters, story, setting, alchemy system, battle system, other game mechanics, and any unsorted comments I may have to make about the game.  It should also be noted that I’ve only played the Plus versions of most of these games, so that’s what these opinions will be based off of.

CHARACTERS Rorona - Rorona is great as a protagonist.  Kind of an airhead, but a hard worker who is sweet and comical.  She's just great.  Especially with all the pie events.  Those are probably the funniest parts of the entire series.

Cordelia - Literal best girl.  Cordelia is infallible.  Okay, fine.  There are people who will hate her.  She's abrasive and pretty much just tsuntsun.  But I love her. She's really bad at acknowledging and being open and honest with her feelings, and that's a trait that is always endearing to me for...reasons.

Iksel - kinda meh?  He's fine, but nothing exceptional.  I really don't have much attachment to Iksel.  At all.

Sterk - Sterk is kinda fun.  He's a knight who takes his role very seriously.  He can be a bit of a dork, is enamored with the story-book portrayal of knights, and feels conflicted over his role in the game being to potentially shut down Rorona’s workshop, as it doesn’t feel like the true duty of a knight of the people. He's also really helpful, despite being the evaluator who might shut down your workshop, so points for that.  Too bad he charges so much money for the early game...

Esty - I like Esty a lot.  She's a fairly downplayed character, but for whatever reason, I like her more than a lot of characters.  Maybe it’s just my advancing age coupled with the fact I’m still alone.

Lionela - UGH.  Okay, I really don't like Lionela.  I think it's just her character type.  I'm generally fine with the shy introverts, but the puppets piss me off, and why are you in a performer role if you're so socially anxious?  This kind of thing always, always bugs me, for reasons that entirely unjustifiable.  “I just feel like a different person doing this.” NO!  How about a character who actually has the conflict even while performing and just struggles through it for the sake of their craft for once?!

Tantris - Behold, the worst one.  Tantris bugs the shit out of me.  His story arc has great potential, but I wind up caring more about his dad, Meredith, than about him.  His dad is a high-level politician trying to run the kingdom because their king won't do it, and threw himself into work to provide for his son when his wife died.  Meredith is super interesting, and Tantris honestly comes off as an ungrateful little bastard.  He runs off to do basically nothing with his life, comes back and is insistent that he’ll help out, and in his own ending just runs off again with Rorona in the establishment of a ship I am loathe to admit must exist somewhere.  He's like Ranun in Ayesha, only everyone isn't constantly telling him to stop being a driftless loser and get a job, and instead is like “Oh wow, look at this attractive loser.”

Gio - I love Gio.  Yes, he abandons his role as king and causes problems for Sterk, Esty, and Meredith pretty much constantly, but he's a fun character, and his reasons for leaving the kingdom in the hands of his subordinates makes some level of sense, all things considered.  I don't think the transition would be as smooth as he claims, but sure, whatever.

Astrid - The single most frustrating character in the entire series for me.  Astrid should be one of my all-time favorites.  Should.  Her history is that her master, the second alchemist for the kingdom, sucked at alchemy and couldn't produce a benefit for the kingdom.  So, her master was effectively rejected by the whole of the kingdom and led a miserable life, all because Gio, as king, had to remove something ineffective for his kingdom, and the people wouldn't accept someone who didn't directly benefit them.  So Astrid is a character who is entirely based in spite and contempt for the kingdom and its people, and left Rorona in charge because she couldn't bring herself to help those who made her master's life miserable.  She's abrasive and kind of awful, but there's a clear reason behind it all.  It should work fantastically.  It does not.   Mostly, this is because Astrid tends to step over several lines she shouldn't, and because she's actively cruel to characters who weren't related to what happened.  When she tears into Gio for his edicts, or into Tantris for being an asshole in the past, it's entirely justified and those are easily some of her best moments.  But then she acts malicious toward Cordelia and Lionela for no reason, and it often feels like she's cruel to others just because she wants to be.  Had it stuck to just being cruel to people who somewhat deserved it and playfully mean toward others, it would be one thing.  But she just comes across as such an unrelenting asshole that it's hard to like her.

Hom - Hom is barely a character, but I include them because I enjoy them.  I love the robotic-like characters.  Plus they learn to love through interactions with cats.  Adorable.

Pamela - There's a ghost girl you take back from a location called the Catacombs.  She has little impact other than being a late-game shop, but she's quirky and fun and I love her.

Tiffani - Tiffani’s the general store owner, and I don’t really know how to feel about her?  Generally, she’s okay, but the Drunken Tiffani trophies in both this game and Totori are...Not Good.  So I’m really not her biggest fan.

Hagel - This guy on the other hand!  He’s alright.  Nothing too special, but he can be entertaining, despite the constant gags about him being bald getting old real fast.

Meredith - I mentioned his entire history with Tantris, but I feel like he’s earned a separate mention as an all-around decent character.  He does questionable things, and is your hidden antagonist, but his motivations and intentions are understandable and he generally seems interesting.  Granted, his shadier dealings by having bandits test out bombs for him is really bad, but as an antagonist-type, I think that works out nicely to keep him on a level of understandable, but not a good person.

STORY Rorona is not a complex game.  At all.  The story is essentially that you play in a kingdom called Arland, where alchemy was once used to bring them to technological prosperity.  Not much is explained on how, but you play as Rorona, who I believe is the fourth in a line of alchemists for the kingdom, working under Astrid, who is just...useless.  Astrid never really did anything, so the workshop is about to be closed down.  She passes it off to Rorona, and thus you must now fulfill the royal orders to keep your workshop or Astrid will take you away from Arland with her because she helped your parents once, and that means you have to do everything she tells you for life.  That's...about the full extent of it. There's nothing too dramatic going on.  It's just a very simple and straight-forward story that's there to have a foundation without trying to do anything flashy.  Which I can absolutely respect.  It’s like I’ve said before: if you don’t know that you can do a good plot, maybe it’s best to just not have one.  And Rorona does just that.

SETTING Arland isn't particularly interesting, I feel.  Despite the history of being built up by alchemy, there's not a whole lot of digging into the history of the kingdom. That's an interesting point to explore, and nothing is ever done with it.  The locations you visit are also few and far between, with Rorona just walking to major areas and exploring within those.  It just makes the overworld map feel a lot smaller than every other game I've played.  The only interesting piece that could be explored is through Gio's decision to try stepping down as king and establishing the kingdom as a republic, which...is never explored.  Ever.  So what it all comes down to is a lot of interesting bits and pieces that are never once touched upon. They're mentioned and forgotten, and the location itself doesn't really stick out as a result, barring my excessive reaching for history through Atelier Meruru, which will be discussed when we get there. ALCHEMY SYSTEM The alchemy system is a ton of fun, and one of the most immediate draws for me.  Synthesizing items requires using items that you gather to create new items.  Sometimes, the synthesized items are then further synthesized into other items, and you can create chains of created items to pass along traits that you may want.  Traits can also be combined into stronger traits, and the game feels really dynamic as a result.

Applying traits is not free, however, as there's a Cost system that determines what can be added.  Certain ingredients will offer more Cost value, which means you can apply a greater quantity or quality of traits.  For instance, some of the best traits can cost as much as 40-50 Cost.  An ordinary ingredient my add 10, while a higher quality one may add 30.   Adjusting the cost through better ingredients and cost increasing traits is necessary to really craft the best items.

"Steve, don't you hate artificial resource collection?"  Yes, I do, but the key word is "artificial."  The entire game is based around this.  It's not something stupid that’s thrown in for no good reason like, say, Fire Emblem Fates, which will eat dozens of hours of time for resources that mean nothing but a slight improvement on weapons that you need because they made all other weapon tiers garbage now.  With Rorona, they based the system around resource collection, and made it simple.  You only need a few to make one item, and instead of requiring a specific item every time, they will often require a class of item, such as any plant type.  The type you use may impact the inherent properties of the item, but you can make it from anything in a category.  This allows for a lot of mix-and-matching, and the issue of needing a specific item is minimized effectively.  Where to gather items is also very clearly noted in each location, and the bigger difficulty is typically in getting the quality you want.   Traits can also be a problem, but because classes of items are often used, and traits are randomized across items, you can often find a way to synthesize items in a chain to transfer the traits you want.  The entire system comes together really nicely, and it makes things a lot more fun than you'd expect.

Lastly, there are development items that you decorate the Atelier with, and they give various bonuses for having them.  Happy Basket and Spring Cup will generate items, Secret Bag will let you store or retrieve items from the Container from anywhere, Travel Shoes let you travel on the map faster, etc.  They're really useful, especially for a huge boost in NG+.

BATTLE SYSTEM Combat is fast and fun.  You can improve your equipment, which is certainly important, and in this game can often be the only truly important piece that matters.  But you can also utilize healing and attack items to get through combat as needed.  Healing items can recover HP, MP, or remove status, and sometimes add buffs on top of it.  Attack items can deal all types of damage, but can also have secondary effects such as delaying turns or debuffing enemy stats.  The problem is, items are consumed.   They have a set number of uses, and once out, they are gone forever.   Later on, you can use Wholesale at shops to register these items and buy an infinite number over time, but early game, these items are hard to keep track of, and even later-game, spending all your money on attack items isn't as valuable as spending it all on forging better equipment. There are only a handful of bosses in the entire game that actively require a good Meteor or Absorb Gourd to get past, and they’re all at the end. Everything else is beatable just by acquiring the best weapons and armors with the best traits.  I feel this is something that's a bit lacking.  Combat is still tremendously fun, but I feel that a game that either requires or at least permits the frequent use of items is better in a game about synthesizing items to progress.

OTHER MECHANICS In Rorona Plus, there's a voucher system.  Your main missions are handed out by the kingdom itself, and when you complete tasks, you get vouchers to exchange at a shop Esty runs.  You can also gain more vouchers by completing requests with certain parameters obtained, which is your best farming method when you can Wholesale items that fit the bill and show up frequently.  Vouchers are god in this game.  Early-game, you get the Gnardi Ring, which buffs attack and defense to ridiculous levels and allows you to plow through the entire first year of the game with ease. Mid-game, you can exchange them for items that are helpful for a lot of the harder synthesis sub-quests, which turns into getting your vouchers back, and sometimes with a bonus.  And late-game, you get the Heroic Cape, which is an armor that is perfectly viable through even the post-game Overtime areas. Vouchers can and will carry you through the entire game.  It's...almost a problem?  On the one hand, it makes the game one of the least stressful to play, because there is always a quick and immediate out through the vouchers.  But on the other, it dramatically cuts back on how much you need to synthesize to succeed.

There's also Hom, who can gather or synthesize as you request.  Gathering is all Hom should be doing.  Synthesis is a fairly delicate process, I feel, and having Hom synthesize things can account for good quality or good traits, but not always both.  So don't let Hom synthesize items that you need made to very specific conditions.  Gathering is also generally more valuable, because you then spend less money on the shops, and have enough items to make what you need.  Post-game, they also gather Dragon Tusks, which are great items for your weapons, for making Ruby Prisms (which turn into some great accessories and items), and for selling for massive profit.  So yeah.  Only have Hom gather, unless you're really low on time and desperately need a specific item of any quality/trait composition.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS I feel it's worth noting that the Arland trilogy as a whole has some... uncomfortable moments.  You know the kind.  The fan-service heavy moments that are just like...why did you feel the need to do this?   Rorona is pretty low on the problem scale, but there are occasions, usually Astrid-driven, that are just...unpleasant.  And me being the way I am, it definitely loses some points for that.  To a degree that Astrid's banter at the start of the game is what made me turn it on for 15 minutes, turn it off, and not start back up for another month.  I eventually did, and I'm very glad I did, but it's a little bit otaku-bait-y in this particular regard. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS Rorona Plus is going to be a game that holds a special place in my heart pretty much forever.  Being the starting point for any new series that I attach to, it's effectively wormed its way into a guaranteed replay at least once a year, just for funsies.  It's simple to play and incredibly fun, which more than makes up for being fairly bare-bones in terms of story or depth.  It's a game that's not trying to do anything spectacular.  It's just here to be fun and engaging, and it's rare to see a game that succeeds this strongly at that goal.

If you enjoyed this (for some reason), consider checking out the write-ups for the other games in the series as well!

Atelier Rorona Plus Atelier Totori Plus Atelier Meruru Plus Atelier Ayesha Plus Atelier Escha and Logy Plus Atelier Shallie Plus Atelier Sophie Atelier Firis