#based off the title of a beloved children’s book

[calliopesartblog]

bats at the beach

[pikolswonderland]

Dandy’s World: Rainbow Elysium…EXPLAINED!!

Hello everyone!! So I am currently in hyperfixation hell with this stupid game, and I wanted to share my concept for my Dandy’s World AU, titled Rainbow Elysium! Special thanks to @radiance1 and @therestlesswon for asking about this AU and accidentally predicting some elements of it.

Before we begin however, there is some side information I should get out of the way first.

Firstly, this AU is mostly based on my personal headcanons for Dandy’s World, but there is enough deviation from the canon material for this to count as an AU.

Secondly, because Dandy’s World is still currently an ongoing storyline, there may be some potential future changes to the plot and characters of my AU based on new information in the canon material. 

Finally, this AU may discuss and portray some potentially triggering content and themes. I won’t specify these themes in this post, but I will mention them accordingly in future posts, just as an head up!

Now, without further ado, let’s begin!

Dandy’s World was once a beloved and award-winning children’s book series and television show written by acclaimed writer and artist Arthur Walton, and then in transformed into a edutainment facility called the Gardenview Centre with the help of famous business woman Delilah Keen.

Unfortunately, it’s now been five years since the Gardenview Centre had closed in 2002, left abandoned after a mysterious accident which caused the deaths of several employees and the disappearance of Arthur Walton. Everyone believes the place had been demolished, after all, the shopping mall it had been stationed in was destroyed and was transformed into an extension of the city’s subway system. 

However, the Gardenview Centre is still standing, just sealed off and hidden away, only being accessible through an emergency escape tunnel in the subway. 

Ever since the closing of the Gardenview Centre, people have mysteriously been going missing after stumbling across the hidden facility, going in and never coming back out. However, nobody seems to question the disappearances due to Delilah Keen using her power, wealth, and influence to keep things quiet. Unfortunately, it’s going to take much more effort to stop the curiosity and nostalgia of preteens Blythe and Reed, only for them to end up becoming the next victims of the disappearances, and discover first-hand as to what’s really been going on.

In reality, the missing people are being kidnapped and transformed into living, immortal versions of the cartoon characters which populated the cast of Dandy’s World, known as the Toons, with the power of a mysterious substance know as ichor. Not only are the Toons trapped in the Gardenview Centre with no clear exit, but the lower floors of the facility have been taken over by mysterious and dangerous evil versions of the Toons known as the Twisteds. 

Oddly enough, despite all of the Toons fully remembering their past human lives, there is one exception among them, that being Dandy, who not only doesn’t seem to remember his past, but also in complete denial of ever being human at all! Not only that, but every single one of the transformed humans were specifically turned into Toons with similar personalities and interests to themselves!

How strange…though it’s probably nothing.

The mistakes of a corrupt father, the obsession of a deranged woman, and the despair of an unfortunate child. Now, it’s up to the Toons to adjust to their new existence, grow closer together as a strange new family, explore the facility, survive the Twisteds, and uncover the secrets of what’s really happened to the Toons, the Twisteds, and the Gardenview Centre as a whole.

Essentially this whole AU runs on the concept of the Toons and the Twisteds originally once being human, with Dandy being the secret mastermind behind it all (a mastermind so secret even he doesn’t know he’s the mastermind, interpret that however you like).

Basically take Dandy’s World and give it the plot of The Amazing Digital Circus with a bit of Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, Bendy And The Ink Machine, Resident Evil, and with a dash of Greek Mythology symbolism just to spice things up.

The title of the AU, Rainbow Elysium, is very fitting of this premise. The “Rainbow” part obviously referencing Dandy and Dandy’s World as a whole due to rainbows being everywhere in there. Meanwhile the “Elysium” part referencing Greek Mythology. Elysium was one of the main layers of the underworld, described as being a lush forested paradise reserved for the souls of heroes.

Now, there is a bunch of extra information I want to share about this AU that I’m not I can make a future post dedicated to them solely. So to make things easier on myself I’ll just dump them all here for you to enjoy!

The main events of the story begin when Blythe and Reed discover the Gardenview Centre and are transformed into Toons, specifically Poppy and Boxten respectively.

The Toons and the Twisteds are two entirely separate groups of entities which exist simultaneously. A Toon and their Twisted counterpart are two different entities, while technically based on the same cartoon character, they are two entirely different transformed humans. None of the Toons can or ever do become Twisted. The only exception to this is Dandy, who unknowingly switches between his Toon and Twisted versions when under certain conditions.

The Toons and the Twisteds are also functionally immortal, and can’t be killed normally. They don’t need to eat, drink, sleep, or even breathe in order to survive, and they can simply just consume ichor to heal themselves of any injuries. Also, this does indeed lead to a bunch of fun body horror moments.

The AU is extremely character-driven, with the plot mostly focusing on the interpersonal relationships and dynamics between the Toons and how they react and change of the course of the story. The lore mostly remains in the background in the beginning but slowly starts to become more important as the story progresses. There is also a couple of ships in the AU, which I’ll list below.

FruitCake (Sprout x Cosmo)

ShelliVision (Shelly x Vee)

MoonFlower (Astro x Dandy)

LullabyBox (Astro x Boxten)

PopMusic (Poppy x Boxten)

GachaPop (Gigi x Poppy)

TeaCase (Teagan x Rodger)

ReflectiveDetective (Glisten x Rodger)

AngryHugs (Shrimpo x Goob)

OrigamiClown (Scraps x Looey)

Additionally, most of these ships are one-sided or are simply free to interpretation, only FruitCake, ShelliVision, LullabyBox, GachaPop, TeaCase, and OrigamiClown become actual couples.

All of the Toons and the Twisteds are getting redesigned for the AU, mostly based on my headcanons and personal preferences. However, the core personalities of the Toons won’t change much, only their appearance and MAYBE some of their interests and the roles they played within the Dandy’s World cartoon.

Unlike in canon, where nearly all of the Toons and Twisted are adults, most of the Toons here are actually preteens or younger teenagers here. This is both in terms of the cartoon characters they are based on, and the original transformed humans. However, all of the Twisteds are adults, even if the cartoon character they are based on isn’t. The only Toons who are still adults in the AU are Glisten, Tisha, Shelly, Cosmo, Sprout, Brightney, Rudie, Vee, Rodger, and Teagan. Everyone else not mentioned here is a minor (with the exception of Pebble because he is an outlier).

Like in canon, Dandy is NOT A TRUE VILLAIN HERE. While Dandy is technically an antagonist, he isn’t truly evil or intentionally villainous. Dandy has good intentions and an oceans-worth of personal issues and trauma that have influenced his decisions and actions. Dandy is just unaware of the damage his actions are causing, and he gets redeemed later on. He’s literally neurodivergent and a minor here.

So, uhhh, that’s all I have to say for now! If you’re curious or have any questions about Rainbow Elysium, feel free to send me asks or mention them in the comments or tags! Until then, have a wonderful day!

[rhyssands]

june 01 - fairytale (temp title)

prompt: fairytale rating: t wordcount: 1,535 characters: Nightmare, Killer, Dream (mentioned) warnings: implied/referenced past child abuse; past character death; grief/mourning; night terrors prompt from this post, read it on ao3 here

——

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a village that stood just outside of an enchanted forest.

Inside that forest was a magical tree that grew beautiful, glittering golden apples that were said to be blessed by a goddess, and living just a little ways away from the base of the tree's trunk were two young boys.

Brothers, they were; twin boys who were born of the goddess' magic before she passed on and became one with her beloved tree.

The younger twin was friendly and helpful. The villagers adored him, revering him as a god and a savior. He spent his days in the village helping the people there go about their daily lives. He enjoyed playing with the village children, and procuring gifts to take home to his brother.

The elder twin was quiet and withdrawn, reviled by the villagers as a harbinger of woe and a herald of misfortune. He spent his days curled at the base of his mother's tree, reading books and telling himself stories. He loved his brother dearly, and enjoyed the time they spent together.

For many long years, the brothers and the villagers lived peacefully and happily alongside each other, but as the years passed the villagers came to hate the elder twin more and more. Any hardship they faced, they thought to be his doing.

In secret, lest they lose the love and friendship of the younger twin, they would throw rocks and scream at the elder twin. And he took the pain they gave him in silence, hiding his bruises and tears from his soft-hearted younger brother so as not to worry him.

But one day, after years of poor treatment, the elder twin had finally had enough.

He would not be mistreated for things he had not done any longer.

If they were going to call him a villain, then he would show them just how evil he could be when he was trying.

He would show them all.

In a fit of anger, he took apples from his mother's tree and ate them. He ate one after another, glutting himself on the magic his mother had hidden away inside of them, until he could handle no more. Until the magic he had was so strong he could not contain it within his small body. Until, finally, his body gave out.

What rose after, some say, was not the same boy who had fallen.

It was a beast.

A beast that had killed the young guardian and stolen his form. A beast that, then, destroyed the village and slaughtered all who resided in it, without care nor mercy for the innocence or guilt of any particular villager. It did not discriminate in its rampage.

In the end, the only other living creature was the younger twin, who had secreted himself away with the last remaining apple from their mother's tree.

But even he, when all was said and done, was left motionless in the wreckage, turned to stone by an outpouring of magic he could not defend himself against.

Nightmare jerks awake, his mind's eye full of the vision of his brother reaching out to him, frozen forever with a look of terror and betrayal on his young face. His breathing his ragged, corruption spilling off his bones and staining the sheets beneath him as his tentacles lash across the bed at his back, flinging the blankets off of him as if fighting off an attacker.

Closing his good eye, he tries to steady his breathing.

He's been having these dreams since the very first time he slept after getting control over his new power. He should be used to them by now. They shouldn't bother him, and yet...

And yet.

He casts out his aura, keeping his eyes closed and steadfastly not flinching from the vision he can't quite shake away yet. The castle around him stands empty, as usual, aside from the single other occupant who sleeps dreamlessly just down the hall.

He could change that.

It would take nothing at all to plunge him deeply into night terrors, something to pep himself up while Killer struggles uselessly in his sleep. On many nights, he may well go through with it. It's not as if Killer would ever hold it against him. It's not as if he ever could.

Tonight, though, he gives into the urge to be weak.

Just for tonight.

He rises from the bed as his breathing steadies, slipping through the shadows and into the room of his one, single, loyal little henchman.

The room is trashed, as always. Discarded clothing and weapons lay haphazardly scattered across the floor. Every flat surface is littered in empty snack wrappers and chip bags, or else scraps of paper with illegible symbols scratched across them.

It's a goddamned travesty.

(Dream's room would look almost exactly the same, he's sure.)

(Dream never was particularly tidy.)

He ignores the mess, as he does any other time he enters this room. With careful steps, he picks his way across the floor and to the edge of Killer's bed — though he had insisted just a mattress on the floor would be more than enough, it hadn't taken much convincing to get him to sleep on the bed he was given instead. Nowadays, Nightmare thinks he'd have to tie Killer down if he wanted him to sleep on a bare mattress on the floor.

A small, fragile kernel of satisfaction blooms in his chest, looking at his stupid little idiot, swaddled safely in his blankets. The tracks left behind by the liquid hate that flows from his sockets are pale tonight, barely visible, and there are no immediate smear-marks on the pillows. He looks healthy, the magic in his joints bright and strong, bones clean and white.

He stands there, watching, for a long moment.

Only when his soul has stopped beating quite so frantically, his corruption slowed, does he settle in to sit on the edge of the mattress.

He'll not wake Killer for comfort. He is not nearly so weak as to stoop to that level. But he will sit here until he is calm enough to either put himself back to sleep or begin morning preparations in the kitchen.

Killer, darkness help them both, cannot cook to save his life. The horrible little chaos gremlin could burn cereal without flame nor blaster ever touching it, such is his lack of culinary skill. Nightmare isn't sure how he survived as long as he did before, but he assumes it mostly comes down to his total willingness to eat charred or spoiled food if he's hungry enough.

It falls to Nightmare to ensure he eats anything except chips and beef jerky.

(Dream could cook, one of the village mothers taught him very early on, but he was often the same way — he would eat things that barely qualified for the title of 'food' if he got hungry enough between meals.)

(Nightmare is used to having to ensure there is already food available when his housemate wakes. It's been that way for a very long time, now.)

It's a long time before he finally moves to stand.

In many ways, Killer's unique, muted emotional signature is a boon on particularly troublesome nights — there is enough there to tell him Killer is real and exists, but not enough that it can become overwhelming without him going out of his way to cause an emotion. It's relaxing.

It's far better than sitting in an empty castle, talking to the shadows on the walls in hopes he won't completely lose his mind from the isolation and guilt and grief choking him with every breath he takes.

In other ways, however, it's a problem. The way he is built now prevents his emotions from shifting when he wakes or falls asleep unless he's managed to find his way back into Stage 1, which isn't a terribly common occurrence. Without digging to see if he's dreaming, even just of blackness, he doesn't ever know for certain if Killer is unconscious.

As he shifts to stand, there is a rustling behind him.

Killer's hand closes around his wrist.

Quiet, sleep-gruff and thick with his usually suppressed Hotlands accent, Killer murmurs, "C'mere, boss."

"I wasn't aware I took orders from you." Nightmare replies, carefully bland and toneless.

Killer snorts, unfazed, and gently tugs his wrist. "Wasn't an order."

"Well, if that's the case..."

He won't ever stoop so low as to wake Killer to seek comfort. That doesn't mean he won't accept comfort when it's offered. He's past that.

He lets Killer tug him under the blankets with him, lets Killer squirm close and tug him into a tight hold. He lays an arm and two tentacles over Killer's side, and the other skeleton huffs out a satisfied sigh, like a small, yappy dog after a long day of mischief.

Against his sternum, Killer mumbles, "I gotcha, boss."

Nightmare pretends not to hear him, and he lets himself relax.

They lay there until Killer's breathing drops back off into the slow, steady rhythm it takes when he's sleeping deeply. Nightmare doesn't move except to pull his subordinate a little closer.

[devout-of-the-elder-scrolls]

Dibella Quick Start Guide

A guide for beginning with Dibella, intended to help you begin your practice, but not to serve as the only information you use.

Keep in mind most of this post is UPG versus just based on the fictional canon, based on my personal experiences with this entity. It may directly contrast fictional canon and the experiences of others.

DIBELLA

dib-ehll-uh

aka. Dibe

dyeb

prns. she / he / they

domain. The Flower Fields

date. April 02nd

Dibella is the Goddess of Love and Beauty, and is an overall kind and sweet deity, who adores dance, wine, and pleasure. She often appears before followers to bless them in all of Her great kindness. 

She is soft and sweet, always gentle to followers, treating them as beloved friends and children. He is unlikely to be baneful or anything, often sending Talos off to get at people who They wish to punish. They seek to provide in all forms, helping people find happiness and peace amongst all of the chaos of their lives.

Dibella teaches greatly to enjoy life and move through it as gracefully as one can, to accept life as it comes and goes and moves. He teaches that life is made of cycles, good and bad, and that to truly enjoy life you must see value in both of them. Alongside that, They often teach to be a source of good in the world, so that others might have more beauty in their lives and their spaces.

In Nordic iconography, Dibella is depicted as the Silver Moth. In Nordic mythos, She is said to be the bed-wife of Shor.

🜚 terms of respect . . .

Term – Goddess

Prefix – Lady • Madam • Beautiful • Graceful • Blessed

Titles – The Passion Dancer • Our Blessed Lady • the Lady • Lady of Love

Epithet – Beautiful • Kind • Adored

🜲 rulerships . . .

beauty • love • relationships • affection • art • music • harmony • grace • lust • passion • wine • dance • recovery • protection • acceptance • progress

. . . HELPS WITH . . .

protection of children • protection of the self • self care and self love • recovery and healing • finding harmony and grace

🝰 commandments . . .

Open your heart to the noble secrets of art and love.

Treasure the gifts of friendship.

Seek joy and inspiration in the mysteries of love.

⛯ main tarot cards & other signs and associations . . .

Tarot Cards — 

0 the Fool • II the High Priestess • III the Empress • VI the Lovers

Ace of Cups • II of Cups • III of Cups • IX of Cups • X of Cups • Queen of Cups

III of Swords

II of Pentacles • III of Pentacles • VI of Pentacles • X of Pentacles • Queen of Pentacles

Ace of Wands • II of Wands • IV of Wands • Page of Wands • Queen of Wands

Other Signs & Associations — 

white cats (sacred animals) • flowers, esp lilies and orchids

lace • porcelain • masks • moths

❂ devotional acts . . .

venerate a piece of your jewelry that you often wear to Her and wear it often

grow flowers

wear Her amulet

care for white cats

dance and sing

listen to music bonus points if you invite Her to listen as well

create art of any form

ingest art of all forms, like books or movies

decorate your home or space well

ramble to Her about your loved ones

raise moths

drink wine, responsibly

practice self-care, self-love, self-acceptance

show affection to your loved ones

embrace life as it comes and goes

try to find pleasure in the little things

attempt to be optimistic

support your loved ones

perform a bath ritual

accept and embrace problems with grace

bedazzle yourself up

invoke her for glamor spells

focus heavily on your recovery

make a plan for your future

. . . offerings ❦

↘ natural ; 

flowers, esp if you grew them yourself mostly lilies and orchids

white cat fur

pink gemstones

rose quartz

pink flowers

↘ foodstuff ; 

wine

peach

apple

pomegranate

cherry

↘ items ; 

jewelry

lace

masks, fancy decorative ones

moth iconography

velvet things

↘ music ; 

dance music in general

↘ etc ; 

the essence of love

a dance playlist, any songs that make you want to dance

🜾 altar building . . .

This is all suggestions. Please build it however you can, if a physical altar is even possible.

As always, you can use offering items to build an altar.

near a window

a lace altar cloth

flowers or plants

porcelain

moth iconography of some form or another

dance ribbons

🝊 identity . . .

Dibella is a very sweet person, who cares a lot about caring for followers. They want to care for and provide for followers, bringing them as much joy and peace as She can. He blesses all devout with care and adoration.

He has a very vengeful side, though, it is never unjust and undeserved – Usually targeted towards people who use romance or love to abuse another person.

Dibella is a beautiful person, with an androgynous body frame and type. Her hair is very long and a bright blonde, and He wears mostly fancy, beautiful dresses or suits, adorned with so much jewelry that Their movements make a gentle jingle-jangle.

Her voice is as androgynous as His appearance, with a melodic and sweet tone. 

☉ domain . . .

Dibella’s domain is the Flower Fields, which is a lot of exactly what it sounds like. A vast field filled to the brim with flowers – some familiar and some not – with some forests of strange and varying trees, some from our world, also filled with flowers.

⛮ working with . . .

Working with Dibella is a very casual but devoted relationship – Not much is requested or expected, but you are expected to do things consistently. If all you do is enjoy music every day in Their name, you have succeeded. Dibella acts as a dear friend, even within still a vertical relationship.

Dibella loves being pampered, being treated gently and sweetly. 

The benefits to working with Dibella is that She will fill your entire life with beauty and wonder, music and grace. She’s very giving, like a kind and generous mother, and will provide for His children with love.

The only real risk of Dibella is that They might sic Talos on you should you upset Her badly enough. But this isn’t very easy to manage regardless.

Things that slight Dibella:

disobeying Her commandments

denying yourself recovery (lesser slight)

ruining another persons harmony on purpose

While Dibella is often very heavily linked to women in the lore, Dibella welcomes all to Her worship and welcomes all to be loved by Her. Don’t feel as though you cannot work with Them or truly venerate and honor Him if you are not a woman.

Within the lore of Elder Scrolls, Dibella has a “sibyl”, of whom shares Her will with all others after being chosen by Him. I have no current knowledge of one existing in our world, or if Dibella even makes use of a sibyl here.

⚜ holidays & festivals . . .

. . . April 02 ]

This day serves as a Summoning Day, as well as a general day for deeply venerating Dibella. 

Our preferred rituals include a bath ritual, filled with rose petals. We, as always with these, provide a kind offering upon Her.

♡ prayers . . .

⛤ 01 . . .

Kindest, sweetest Dibella, 

great goddess of love and beauty, 

dear goddess of dance and song,

loved goddess of protection.

I revere You so greatly, You who reveres me too.

I ask for Your love, Your protection, Your song.

⛤ 02 . . .

O Dibella, Passion Dancer, 

I ask of You,

to dance a song of joy and peace for me.

I ask of You,

[request].

⛤ 03 . . .

Great Dibella! Our Blessed Lady! Oh, Your beauty and Your grace!

Graceful dancer, who blesses us with kindness!

Kind Dibella, Lady of Love.

I love You, I revere You, I reciprocate the care You have for me!

⛤ 04 . . .

O Dibella, sweet and kind Dibe, 

I revere You and welcome You.

⛤ 05 . . .

Dibella, blessed Dibella, holy Dibella,

Blessed be, You; may the Universe care for You.

⚿ evoking, invoking, summoning . . .

EVOKATION &&° 

wear makeup

dance often and casually

— ☆ — 

Things in [] are for making it a summoning.

WHY AND WHEN &&° 

during a full moon

when you feel you need a bit more beauty

INGREDIENTS AND OTHER TOOLS &&° 

a white candle, [dressed with a ribbon. you can remove the ribbon before burning as long as it’s on there at some point]

jewelry, you wear it. even just a basic bracelet will do

[opt, white cat fur]

IDEALS &&° 

Time – during your favorite time of day

Location – in the hearth of the home

STEPS &&° 

Put on your jewelry options.

[Wrap your candle in a ribbon, and if you aren’t burning it, remove it after praying over it.] Light the candle.

Play a dance song, and dance for a little bit, speaking what you want while dancing.

NOTES &&° 

Dibella is likely to come if simply called, honestly.

⛼ history . . .

. . . mythos ]

( GENERAL GAME INFORMATION )

Dibella interacts with mortals through her Sibyl, who She chooses and turns into a grand, important figure who leads the Temples of Dibella.

𝌁 other vettable information . . .

When meditating on Her presence and name, Dibella brings:

visions of: white cats • moths • lace • orchid • lily

smells of: blooming flowers

sounds of: rustling flowers

feelings of: lace on your skin

[star-arcana]

My first Impression on Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door's Remake!!!

Long intro incoming, skip it to the *Star, if you want to rush to the first impresssion proper .

**Stars if ou want immiediately the gameplay, starting first with the combat and then with the exploration side.

***Stars if you want the story, the perhaps most interesting aspect, as usual with many beloved RPG's.

And, finally:

****Stars for a the most brief conclusion on this.

Hello everyone, your favourite arcana is here, Star-Arcana and I am here to write here my first impressions, not a full review on Paper Mario TTYD's Remake on the Switch and what I think about it.

Yep I am not going here spoiler free, since I want to mention some important events in the story (as well as other Mario RPG's like Super Paper Mario for instance), as I am already spoiled on the story for most of the stuff and now what happens, so don't read what I wrote here if you want to remain unspoiled, 'til completion of the game by your own time and pace. So do it like Edge and be against Spoilers here, she hates Spoilers, doesn't she?

Starting off, I am a huge Mario RPG fan as some of my favourite games were from that branche of the highly esteemed Mario Franchise, since he is the one I grew up with as a kid the most, other than DK, Pokemon and Smash...So I was always going to like that game, as many other people who liked these type of games said that this game is really great and ultimately I wanted to play another Paper Mario since my last one; Super Paper Mario when it came out. So, as I expected and hoped, I love that game already and it is super fun in not just gameplay, but also story. Plain and simple, it is the Mario RPG I would have loved to play as a kid back then, had I known of it's existence, but since I am an adult now, I can try it and be really happy with it, after all, adulthood still brings me much fun, if not more so than as a kid with that freedom compared to back then,hehehe...

Anway back to the topic at hand, I started to play that game for over a week, currently having finished the brutal Wrestling challenge against Rawk Hawk, the jerkiest Chicken out there, and found the yellow Crystal Star and I am currently in Rogueport and try to clean up some older levels for the coming loom in the Twilight Woods. I wanted to start this run a bit earlier, but due another game taking me longer to complete, as it was a very difficult quasi-permadeath run with Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, I was delayed until I could start TTYD last monday. Thus I got to play very recently the remake of one of the most prestigeous Mario RPG's of all time, the Gamecube's Thousand Years Door.

*Now that I made my thoughts clear, I go over this game now more throughtly:

It is a turn-based RPG within a semi open world that you explore in search of 7 Crystal Stars, as you became entangled in a millenia long secret of the town of Rogueport, sitting atop the ruins of an ancient City. You, as Mario, were brought here by Peach, who came in possesssion of an ancient treasure map leading to the Stars needed to open a Door with the same name as the title; The Thousand Years Door. You go to that town and after getting in trouble with a bunch of evil-doers known as the X-Naunts and eventually finding a treasure Map for the 7 Crystal Stars, you journey begins. You will encounter several friends on your journey and foes as well amd have to navigate through a wacky and colorful world of Paper that shines as bright as any children book with cute pictures here or a great fairy tale book.

Anyway this post will be divided into two parts, gameplay and story, and as I want to get over the least fun (but not unfuuny) part first, the gameplay!

**As I said, it is a turn based RPG within a semi open world that is very much alike other such games, like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger and Pokémon. However it differs in a few ways, like the battlefield being a huge theater stage, with a live audience here to watch you, that can be either Toads, Koopas, Goombas and many other creatures across this journey. Know that they exist first, they will be relevant later. Going on, you can order Mario and your teamates to attack an enemy, defend themselves from them, heal HP or use any kind of moves like analysing the foe or just swallowing them and spitting them out. Certian actions however, cost action points, here called Flower Points (FP for short), and you can and you can only win by beating the enemy by making their HP drop to 0. But the biggest diffrence being there is that you can like, in the Mario and Luigi games, influence the way attacks and commands are executedby fulfilling several commands like pressing B on a foe when jumping and stomping on them, or having to press the analog stick Left or hold and press ZR. You can even add extra flare by adding style to the attacks, like pressing A at the right moment. Each move has diffrent conditions for styles, which can be properly learned by the right timing and by the Battle Master, a Pink Toad that looks like a Kung Fu Warrior, so better check her out if you want to get better.

Also the way you can minimize and even cancel damage is rather interesting; You can either guard yourself with A, when the foe attacks and expect either no or little damage, but the more rewarding, but trickier to master Super Guard, not just nullifies damage, it can also send a small portion of the damage back at it's sender, but the window of setting it up is super short and if you fail, you end up being hurt for full damage. On your journey, you collect the Stars that will open new path ways for you, but will also give your special moves that can devastate and even break fights, like the Earth Power skill that will deal big damage against your foes or Clock out which, if executed well, immobilize your enemies for 3 WHOLE turns, which made the Grubble Boss Fight a cakewalk. These Special moves needs Star power for their execution and if you attain one, you will get more and more of these points as your MAX number in total. If you used up Star power, you need to refill them by gaining appeal from the crowd via the Appeal tactic to increase it, or execute your skills very well with the aforementioned stylish moves and thus you get them all filled. However the Crowd and even the battlefield can make life hard for you, both IRL and here, since enemies can throw stuff at you from the seats, if you don't counter them with X fast enough, or the studio can have Buckets fall at you for instance, and thus recieve damage or get dizzyness and thus can miss a few attacks for a turn. However enemies can also be hurt occationally by this and lights when falling down on you can eletrify you and thus increase your attack potential. The Stage can also have some projectors freeze either you or your foe and thus get the freeze effect. So this game demands you to pay attention to the combat, lest it gets the better of you.

Items also exist that can like any boxstandard RPG Heal your HP or FP, increase stats, remove negative conditions or inflict them on your enemies and they are all over the map, but you also get Badges that either give Mario or his partners new moves, increase their defense and offense in certian conditions or increase FP usage, Max HP the amounts of them are near endless, so just know the badges exist. There is however a limit to the amount of badges you can equip as some of them either take up no badge points, and thus can always be equipped, but others take up more points, up to even 6 ones and if your BP limit is reached, you cannot equip anymore of them.

However there is a way to increase your max BP points, and also your HP and FP, by gaining enough Star Points (not to be confused with Star Power), which you will get all your stats refilled and can choose 3 of the slots to be increased, HP and FP can be increased by 5 points and BP by 3 points. Choose wisely, as you need to figure out where you want to lay importance in the most.

With this overall, the combat is fun and I want to explore more of it, but I also found it pretty easy and not as hard as I thought it would be, given this game being really old, and games used to be harder back then. Anyway the game's massive array of powerful ablilites, rather predicable and even weak enemies, as well as items being very easy to find, I have almost Max capacity if we include storage in there. I never ever lost any real fight, I didn't died just once!!! Even Rawk Hawk couldn't push me that far and he was almost able to K.Omy little Yoshi friend I cutely named Yoshigon, combining Yoshi with the last syllbes of Sargon's name, the protagonist of Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, since both of them are young, hot-headed warriors trained by skilled masters, in Yoshigon's case, it's a he, Mario!!! Ahem...With the additon of most commands being rather easy to perform, unless you also want to master Multibounce and Power Bounce with max appeal, you really have a rather easy time, and that is ok, too, since good games don't need to be hard, but fun. So, this is not the game to flex too much your skills with unless you mastered every single attack...but maybe I am too overconfident, and the game will surprise me.

The exploration side was also a rather fun endaevor, even if I wished there was a way to mark all places you cannot explore right now with an in-game feature, as making screen shots on my Switch is not super duper funny. Still the game has a lot of value in the exploration side, since the puzzles are hard enough to be engaging and not too much of a shore to deal with, even if I was a bit confused at times, luckily my teamates helped me via tips to finish the harder ones. They are also good at showcasing the new abilities and advantages you get with new gears, powers and teamates who can help you with places that seem intraversable, by making you be placed in those situations and thus get a feel as to how and when you need these powers like the grids in the Hooktail Castle or the X-marked places where you need to stomp, but only can do it once you have it. There many such places and I always see it as a good sign of game design to make the player clear when they need them by creating this sense of helplessness and confusion and then lifting it with a new ability, power or friend that helps you deal with it. Especially the whole quest within the Great Tree where the Punies live is one I enjoyed on this front the most as well as the Glitz Pit's dirty dealing, and...you know what I loved all the places...I will just mention a place where I really felt tested my mind the most, and that was the Great Tree where the Puni; You have to figure out how to lead a horde of these little Pikmin-like creatures into the dangerous dungeon in which they could get lost in should they fall into a chasm, as you need depending on your progression, a number of them to complete puzzles and open pathways, as this dungeon has locks that will only be openned when for instance 101 of these little fellas stand on the pedestal you place them there via placing a Puni orb on said pedestals to attract them. For instance I had them to cross two gaps by placing them there and have a teamate summon a gust of wind to push them into the gap, where a little water puddle is, to have them then be lift up as bubbles. Before this I have to remove the orb and place it to the pedestal on the side I want them there and after 2 more gusts, they entered the place I wanted them too. The Punies are also followed by what might be the most catchy track in the game so far, it gives me this huge Pikmin x Patapon vibe I love so much, here is the track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs1nnHXIr7A

Pikmin x Patapon crossover when?

However I felt that one puzzle wasn't obvious and that was the movable wall in the locker for lower level fighters in the Glitz Pit, as I needed to ask for advice to get in there, so I hope that better puzzles will come where I won't depend too much on this. With that said and being done, I loved the exploration and the new windows coming forth for me when I get new members and powers, I just wish it would be easier to keep track on them easier as to not miss them, soemthing like in PoP TLC, where you screenshot in game a place and memorize them. So all in all good riddles, even if some could be more obvious.

Now we come to the main meat, the Story

*** Mario RPG's have a good reputation with storytelling as it uses the most simple story and conflict in video gaming history as setting for some of the whackiest, funniest and most elegantly and gorgeously told stories within that silly Mario world of wonder and fun. They also adds dimensions to the world that few spin off from the Mario series can pull off and ultimately made us think and apprieciate the Plumber and his friends a little bit more and helped gaining many fans for him, as well as enriching our lives, such a game was Super Paper Mario to me, as it made me so engage seeing these characters put into new and wacky situations that forced them to adapt to this, like Mario having Peach at his side who is not always happy with everyone crushing on her and fighting back, Bowser having to work with mario despite wanting to grill him, and poor Luigi being treated like 2nd fiddle by everyone with him even being brainwashed and controlled by the final boss of the game, not unlike what will happen with Peach in the story of TTYD game...Yeah, spoilers...Anway the story is as follows, about getting the treasure of Rogueport underneath the city, where a Door, named the Thousand Years Door, is sealed, containing the mystery of the old town. You see, before Rogueport came into being, there was a burstling and thriving city that was destroyed in a dark, apocalpystic storm that saw the earth shook and the sky turn black within minutes and then...the city Vanished, and afterwards, a new city was built, Rogueport, above the ruins of that ancient civilization. Peach, wanting to escape her own castle stumbled on an old lady gifting her a box containing a treasure map and in her gullible curiosity, she did and got involved with the X-Nauts and captured. X-Nauts are a bunch never-do-wellers seeking that treasure as well. Mario came at the behest of Peach into this town and after saving a young woman, who wanted to research the ruins of Rogueport, from the the X-Nauts, they met with her professor and fond a treasure map containing info on the 7 Crystal Stars that can open the Thousand Years Door...So our adventures begins with us finding these Crystal Stars, uncovering the secrests of the door with twists and turns awaiting us.

However I wanna focus on the parts of the game I did enjoy the most and and express my most sincere of opinions:

Mario TTYD is to me a very well made story so far with fun dialogue I can not perfectly remember, but can always rewatch, as I recorded that game, but the stuff I remember the most for instance, is ultimately the fun I had with Mario and his teamates, which is what I wanna focus most on here. You are not alone in this game and Mario is accompanied by some of the wierdest people in the Mario world, like the young woman we saved from the evil-doers. The cheerful and curious Goombella, a Goomba and archeology student. She is really smart and puckly with a golden heart as her Ponytail, putting aside the cliche as these Fungi beings of stupidity and evil, serving as the meat grinders for Bowser's army. Goombella is also really fun and I vibe with her curiosity of places and people a lot, like how she described a gatekeeper as really nice, or vibin with me and Mario on becoming Champions at the Glitz Pit and fighting our way here. She helps you in game with telling you who the NPC you can talk with is and even was perplexed by us asking her about Luigi, saying this is your brother, you should know him. She however is also good at giving detailed information on other characters and enemies, as she can tattle foes in battle and give you info on them with flavorful text, like how Vivian is really cute, even cuter than herself, which made her a bit jealous in the remake of her and not thinking much of the ParaKoopa just describing them as what they are; Koopas with Wings. Another I like is how she described often people like Mowz, a rogue Mowser as some wierdo that flirts too much with Mario, and jokes that she probably wants to just win the record of biggest flirt ever or the time she dissed the Goombas living below Rogueport, after they treatened us, as stinky with their manners as the sewer they live in, as they probably got it from there!!! Point is, she is fun and really valuable due to her knowledge and I always have her first in my battles. Though my memories aren't perfect, rewatching my gameplay, will help recover some of it. I just love how they made a species of these grunts being so multifaceted beings with their own goals and affiliations. The other Goomba NPC's no affliliated with Bowser, and Goombella's professor Frankly, another Goomba, helps breaks these sterotypes as well. Thus Goombella, a Goomba is one of us, and not just praising Mario as world famous hero, but even fighting against Bowser, who I will get later in too. Goombella is to me Rabbid Peach, if she studied Archeology and wasn't into being an influencer.

After aquiring the Treasure map, we venture into Petalburg to find the first Cyrstal Star, Koops is a Koopa, a young lad that wants to aid us in our Quest to find the Dragon that took his Papa's life, that Dragon being Hooktail, the ruler of Hooktail Castle. She terrorized the village of Petalburg and kidnapped many villagers. Koops grew up without his Pa and has become rather timid, until he had enough and when he saw Mario in action, he gained the courage to challenge his Father's kiler, and wants to fight for his Girlfriend Koopie, who doesn't want him to proof himself like this...she likes him the way he is and wants him alive, but he won't bunge! Upon challenging and defeating that Dragon, we find out that his dad is still alive and well, due to Koopa shells being super durable, they can even survive decades long exposure to Dragon Stomach Acid...ew...anyway the Dragon is dead I since I found her death a bit funny, and I really wanna take revenge for Koops, I headcanon Hooktail's ultimate fate like this:

Yeah, vengeance is delicious...anyway we get the Crystal star and Koops decided to join us and help us out in our quest to save Peach. He is rather simple, but really cool and again, breaks like Goombella stereotypes of Koopa as weak-imbeciles serving Bowser, and having real connections and family...Koopa are really interesing it seems. Just with Goobella, he helps to add novelties in these rather simple species and his overall charming looks and personality with these cool connections, makes him really awesome!!! I love him! His Shell Guard and shell tosses are really powerful weapons and I relied on him more to deal damage than most members, as he can target more than one enemy. Anyway He is not the only member and we have another one I really like, despite me not expecting it!

Enter the glamorous and poise Flurrie, a Wind Ghost once famous as an actress in Rogueport until she had enough of that lifestyle and decded to live in the Boggly Woods to have a less tumultuous life and a more chill one. She begins her debut after we find her lost Necklace back after it was robbed of her by the Three Shadow Sirens (called just Three Shadows). These Shadows being send by the X-Nauts to terminate Mario, all the while gushing at how hot he is, to them I will get later, just now they existed and were a thing. With her ability to create Gust,we could pass through the Secret entrance to the Great Tree in the Boggly Woods, where the Puni named Punio asked for help, after the X-Nauts invaded his home and took Great tree for themselves. She is surprisingly nuanced in her positon despite being a bit too vain to leave her necklace, her past as a influencer and sometimes her flirty nature really added some humor, especially when Mario attracts several women in this game...Mario is after all a superhero, that helps with the ladies I guess. Anyway what is not vain is her love for the Punies who adore her singing and wants to protect her neightbors from these invaders. She ultimately helped us and her abilities are all good, especially her gust instant killling foes, her body slam being reliable and her draining kiss hurting and healing her. She is pretty much Flying/Fairy type and I find her amusing, especially when it comes to her views on the show life and her showing interest in Mario...which alwas cracks me up and makes me happy, since Mario is someone I really love, I even cosplayed as him, just ask my friends! We get in the Great Tree our 2nd Crystal Star.

Then there is a member I do really love and that is the Baby Yoshi you get in Glitzville, where we protect him from becoming food for Mr.Hoggle's most famous Hot Dog stand. That Yoshi hatched and I named him Yoshigon, as I already explained, by combining Yoshi and Sargon into one name; Yoshigon. Like the Immortal Sargon from Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, he is a hot-headed young warrior and I love that kid. He is soo cute and feisty, he challenges everyone and his skills are the most easy to learn and pull off, even if I messed it up nearly with him against Rawk Hawk. But We Rawked that Bird and his skills proved invaluable against that boss who used a Crystal Star against us, but he was a joke...unlike Yoshigon, who just shred them to pieces!

The interaction with these characters is always a pleasure to be had and they aren't the only thing I really love about this game.

Peach being kidnapped might be a cliche, but the absurdity of her being held captive with an unlikely ally being here to help her. TEC, the main computer of the X-Nauts HQ, who fell in love with Peach at first sight and wants to learn from her what it means. Despite how absurd it sounds, I found it somewhat funny and endearing, even if Peach had to play along to get on his good side. It is somewhat wierd to revive such a story in 2024 where we want to get away of such dangerous romances with damsels where they googly-eyed someone and used them to escape, as it puts Peach in the "I can fix him" type, but it is cliche and I hope it has a good conclusion that isn't...creepy. And I hope no one uses this to manipulate him into becoming possessive of Peach by making him consumed with fear of rejection too much, we have a world already polluted with such unhealty views on romance and jerks incapable of taking it. I had been once in love and was rejected, it was not so hard to turn into a monster, so I hope no one polludes him!

And speaking of such jerks, Bowser really is at his best here when he is pathetic and wants Peach so much he picks fights with everyone around him and even got beaten by Mario in the most random fight ever, only to, predicably lose. I love that Bowser who can be somewhat intiminating and still be pathetic.

What is also pathetic are the Shadow Sirens led by Beldam, one of the most incompetent leaders I have ever seen, who blames her younger sister Vivian for everything wrong with her plans and for mistakes Beldam actually made, like losing the poster of Mario, which costed them precious time to find him. I feel bad for Vivian, I wanna see her stand up to Beldam, cuz Beldam sucks really. I have a foundness for these characters as they are charming and give me the comical villain trio vibe who can't do anything right from all the cartoons I saw and as a Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope fan, they are to me the precursors of the Spark Hunters, especially when one of them, like Vivian will, joined us. I am talking about Edge, who is not just a better leader than Beldam could ever hope to be, but also my favourite Mario character and Vivian as her predessesor, has a great place in my heart. What also I see at the heart of TTYD is a theme of love between family, let us think about it:

We first encountered a Koopa family that was reunited after the son defeated an evil Dragon, then we encountered the Puny Punio who cares deeply for his younger sister, Petuni, who was held in in captivity by the X-Nauts. After freeing her and the other Punies, she embraced her older brother Punio and gifted him a dried Mushroom that tasted awfully, but he still ate it with love for his sister in contrast to Beldam abusing and gaslighting Vivian into taking blame for the mistakes her older sister made. Another contrast is with Jolene, the secretary of Grubble, who leads the Glitz Pit league, having worked under cover to figure out what happened to the previous champion of Glitz Pit, her younger brother Prince Mush. They were both poor, but Mush did anything for his older sister and his parents and became a pro-fighter to help them, only to be killed by Grubble, whom's secret he found out, namely using the Crystal Star to drain from the Arena the power of all fighters to maintain his strong body, as he was once a pro-fighter. Rawk Hawk has since then taken the title of champion and is a massive cheater, who even tried to make us forfeit by locking us up in the Locker for the minor league, with the backing of Grubble of course. After both were beaten, the Crystal Star resonates with Jolene's love for her little brother and Mush returned to life, and thus reuniting the two sibling via love...it seems that the Crystal Star reacts to emotions like these and if love can really do it, then it makes sense for Peach to help Tec with love, in order to save the world, as that machine could realize the errors of his ways this, well, way. Maybe Vivian needs that love in order to get out of that hole with Beldam, whom I wanna finish with a Earth Power and some stomping. Peach I hope will get a more satifsying role than being the crush of a machine, this isn't All Tomorrows, this is Mario!

Luigi gets once again the short stick in the end, as he is a confirmed liar and no help at all...no wonder Dimentio claimed you, you are embarrassing before Nintendo grew to like you more...and I love modern Luigi far more than this version, especially Movie Luigi!!!

Anyway this concludes my first impressions and I hope the game doesn't dissapoint me from here, tell me your thoughts here on tumblr or twitter, see ya then, and bye!

[gayowlsntitans]

Gender Queer one of the books banned was for ages 15/14 and up. Teenagers

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gender-queer-maia-kobabe/1129752894

Lawn Boy 9-12 or 16+ depending on where you look. Depends on maturity of child.

https://www.amazon.com/Lawn-Boy-Gary-Paulsen/dp/0553494651

All Boys aren’t Blue 14-18, teenagers

This Book is Gay 14-17 Teenagers

Beyond Magenta 14-17 Teenagers

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beyond-magenta-susan-kuklin/1115960938

George/Melissa 9-12

Doesn’t even mention anything sexual besides body parts and what boys might think of what’s between her pants. Kids have learned about body parts growing up, it’s not a new thing.

Juliet Takes a Breath 14-17 Teenager

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/juliet-takes-a-breath-gabby-rivera/1123301055

Black Girls Unlimited 14-18 Teenager

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-girl-unlimited-echo-brown/1131431024

The 57 Bus (Literally says Teens stories in the title) 12+

Flamer 14-18 Teenagers

Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human" 14-17

Sex Is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings, and YOU 8-14

Most puberty books are aged to young kids to teens cause that’s about the age they learn about puberty. Oh no the word sex is in the title, how fucking scary. Not that kids don’t learn about sex and their bodies in other ways besides books and other ways! Ya know kids walking in on their parents having sex? Sex scenes in shows? Movies? Sexual talk?

Nick and Charlie 13+ Teenagers

Look at that! All these “porn books” aren’t aimed toward children! But TEENAGERS! So you’re lying your ass off trying to sound smart. Actually try to research shit before you make up these claims, and cause more moral panic cause you can’t read!

[sonicasura]

Cursed Generator Links P1

First of three posts involving the 14 Links I pulled from the generator, 5 per post with the last having a custom Link. These are mainly headcanons with a few summaries to them. Key features in appearance, things they like and a bit of their abilities. Once I get a drawing done, I'll add a link to the corresponding one. Let's get started!

Hero of Stitch 'Patches'

Hyrule's chosen hero from the Downfall Timeline after Legend who dies before his battle against Ganon. Using a mix of magic and special thread called 'Ambisilk', Patches was brought back to life as a living patchwork chimera.

Mostly humanoid in appearance with a few out of place parts either belonging to monsters or different people. Ex: Goron stone hide, Lynel horn, and mismatched eyes.

Hates his hero title as he doesn't really think himself a 'great hero.' Prefers to be called Patches because he ain't Link. The hero died and his body was butchered to make him.

Likes shining objects, animals and collecting stuff. Moves similar to Miss Fortune from Skullgirls, meaning he can manipulate his body in unbelievable ways that are fatal for everyone else. Crafting materials like parts are needed for Patches to heal.

Hero of Blade 'Augus'

Hyrule's hero from Twilight's timeline albeit his placement is unknown. Originally a vessel for a demigod of Gluttony to takeover through a ritual using his beloved blade 'Wailing Dark'. It fails as the hero manages to escape with both sword and jumbled memories.

Hair turned snow white, red markings cover most of his body and half his arms are plated in a growing gold carapace due to the ritual. Split personalities: Link the shy dork that likes sewing and flower picking.

Augus, a lover of alcohol and fighting who will drink anyone under the table alongside tossing Gorons like stones in wrestling. If this personality is in control then his eyes will be pure white.

Can only be hurt if struck by magic and enchanted weapons as Blade's body is invulnerable to normal blows. Able to channel gluttony into pure energy for all sorts of mixed combat.

Hero of Stage 'Phantom'

A college theatre professor who became trapped in a forbidden script book called Necro of the Opera. Placed into the role of the Phantom Hero heavily altering his body so he could face the evil within each play world.

Face disfigured similar to DC's Jonah Hex because of his Phantom role. Wears a porcelain mask that looks eerily like the FD mask to cover said disfigurement. Wiry bulky frame thanks to his role than his normal skinny self.

Assassin type fighter with a knack for detective based work and can talk to the dead when needing information. Link is actually a nickname as his real name Shawn but he can't reveal it due to his role's restriction.

Collector especially if it involves books or any type of manuscript. Likes learning different languages and dabbles in fencing a few times. Hates prophecies.

Hero of Ink 'Ichor'

The star character of a modern era rubberhose children's cartoon akin to Kirby (without the eldritchness). Ichor was forcibly brought to life in an experiment called Project Lifelike, run by TriceCorp. Manages to escape the lab and seek an identity of his own.

Has two different form. One looks like a rubberhose version of Link's Awakening Remake and the other a twisted gnarly Fierce Deity/Ben Drowned visage. This is due to him being the first experiment with a 'human' design.

Happy to help those who really need him against the entire world philosophy. Will proudly give the middle finger to someone who shoves the 'Fate of the World' schtick on him like with the Chain. EX: You sure your so called Goddess doesn't want to show her precious toys off in every era?

Follows the Laws of Cartoon Physics, both it's strengths and weaknesses. Can hide himself in paper to even skin as long as the material can hold ink. Advanced Ink Manipulation in twisted form.

The Hero of Death 'Charon'

A game designer who becomes the heir to Death's seat by accident. This begins with him helping spirits find peace until forces very unhappy with this arrangement try to take his 'inheritance'.

Looks like a younger Time but his iris has become silver due to his magical inheritance. Can take any form that is a depiction of the Death God in some way, even media as his true form hasn't been awakened. Prefers Persona 3's Thanatos as his set appearance.

Actually has no issue helping the deceased even if some spirits' forms are heavily mangled. Just hates being forced to fight. Has a grandson-grandparent relationship with Death themselves especially since the god genuinely cares about his interests or concerns.

Can commune with the dead, traverse the Spirit World and ask for assistance from various spirits. Knows when someone is gonna die alongside being able to change that fate via a special method called "Death's Game". A challenge where the results are determined by different games of chance or skill.

That's it for now! Until next time folks, I'll see back in Hyrule. Before I go, have this Jonah Hex reference for Phantom and P3 Thanatos reference for Charon.

[satanfemme]

Freaky Movie Fall!

happy halloween! for you, beloved followers, I’ve compiled a list of 31 days worth of movies to watch this autumn! (<- would've been for the month of October if I weren't already 13 days late, but what can u do lol) these aren’t all horror movies, but a mixture of: horror, fucked-up, and/or simply the vibes of the season.

quick disclaimer: altho I recommend all of the movies listed here, I also highly recommend checking a synopsis or doesthedogdie.com before watching anything you're unfamiliar with, as this list sometimes jumps between family friendly films vs. actually disturbing films. but for your convenience, I’ll also be making note of each title's MPAA rating, and I'll be starring the title with an asterisk (*) if any version of the movie includes a sexual assault scene.

(also if the organization of this post only makes sense to me, so be it hdfghf)

Part One: by god it's fall

1. The Plague Dogs (1982), PG-13 - an animated talking dog adventure that's maybe a bit more for adults than children, this movie features tragic (and sometimes outright gruesome) content without it ever feeling forced or out of place for the weird yet moving story being told. never has a movie made me care about cartoon dogs more than this one.

2. Ginger Snaps* (2000), unrated but around PG-13 imo :shrug: - a coming of age supernatural horror(-comedy?) where a werewolf curse serves as a metaphor for puberty. this movie really hits the nail on the head for what it's like to be a Weird Teen, while also discussing some really interesting themes surrounding codependence / leaving unhealthy childhood habits behind.

3. The Blair Witch Project (1999), R - I'm not usually big on found footage shaky cam horror like this, so I put this movie off for such a long time, but boy am I glad I finally gave it a shot. not only did the blair witch kick off the genre, but it more than perfected it imo. the arguments between the characters can be a bit grating and long, but if you don't mind watching a family vacation simulation for a few hours, the built up is worth it.

4. The VVitch (2015), R - although this horror doesn't have the most memorable plot imo, the atmosphere and setting are both notably great. yeah that's about all I've got to say about this one. there's some cool goats in it too? give it a shot!

5. Re-Animator* (1986), R - what if an unhinged medical student discovered how to bring the dead back to life? what if he were gay enough that the tumblr lgbts love him for his crimes (for.. some reason?) yeah, this movie's not my fav but regardless it's still a classic good time 80s sci-fi horror movie, and the gore effects are campy as hell. literally what else could you possible be looking for from this list? this is a movie to watch with popcorn and friends.

6. Pink Flamingos* (1997), NC-17 - ok lets get into it! this postmodern exploitation comedy film (yes I had to google that) is the wildest mix of fun(?) lighthearted humor plus... literal-shit-eating and foot fetish sex scenes (not at the same time). total autumn vibes and what I'd describe as "baltimore core" aesthetics (if you grew up there, you'd know), but definitely not for any fainthearted viewers. for what this movie lacks in horror, it makes up for with everything else it has going on. personally, my fav part is when a block party kills and cannibalizes a group of cops. divine plays the main character, who's also named divine. I've run out of things to say about this that isn't just a content warning list. if any of u ever call me out, please include "is a fan of pink flamingos" in that google doc actually.

7. Watership Down (1978), PG - here's a good breather after that last movie, and serendipity to round this first section out. animated by the same company as the plague dogs, and based off a book by the same author as well, watership down is probably the #1 infamous "violent and bloody animated animal movie". but if you haven't seen it since you were a kid, now's the time to revisit it. its reputation is blown out of proportion - the violence is no worse than, say, a warrior cats AMV. but the story itself? genuinely great and withstanding. this one's been my fav since middle school, for real.

(putting the rest under a read-more for length! u should know what to expect by now wrt the genre range I'm covering here as we only move further down the iceberg)

+ here's a wayback machine link in case the read more ever goes down x

Part Two: creature feature

8. The Thing (1982), R - now THIS is some classic 80s practical effects horror. it's been too long since I've seen this one but I remember the tension being palatable. oh my god they made amongus into a movie??? also there's a fucked up evil dog! idk what else to say about it, I'm scared of antarctica now lol.

9. Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), R - the third installment of the ju-on horror series, this movie has great special effects and memorable ghosts. if you haven't watched any japanese horror movies yet, this is a great intro.

10. Bram Stoker's Dracula* (1992), R - uh oh babyyyyy we're in vampire territory now!!! although the slow plot of dracula routinely fails to hold me, the beautiful cinematography and establishing vampire lore makes this the must-see beginner film for the next few movies on this list.

11. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), R - the modern vampire romance to end all vampire romances. like the last one, this is a slower movie, but I thought it'd be fun to add here as a comparison (or perhaps even as a foil) to the last. also the vampires in this movie are sooo beautiful in an etheral way, it's unreal 😳.

12. Interview With the Vampire (1994), R - picture this: a coven of vampires impersonates themselves as a theatre troop. now, in front of a human audience, they put on a "play". vampires pretending to be humans pretending to be vampires (how avant garde!). now at the climax of this performance, they actually kill and eat a live mortal woman. the audience, believing this all to be acting, do nothing but watch as the woman on stage screams for help. all this and more can be yours for the low low price of watching this movie.

13. The Queen of the Damned (2002), R - did you enjoy that last movie? well here's the sequel! - but don't expect this one to have anywhere near the same contemplative tone. instead, this one sports a nu-metal soundtrack and an off-the-rails plot to match (side note: world famous rockstar lestat's "coming out" as a vampire speech, totally reads like a coming out speech a la brian slade's in velvet goldmine, lol). if you're the kind of person who still watches twilight out of middle school nostalgia, this movie's the one for you. except the characters in this movie aren't mormons - they're goth!

14. The Lost Boys (1987), R - you know that fantasy you always have about running away to the california coast, joining a gay commie vampire polycule, and then eating innocent people every night, riding on ur matching 80s vampire motorcycles all the while? well that's what this movie is! in this horror-comedy (which is way too campy to ever actually horrify), the main character's transformation into a half-vampire reads as a gay awakening/coming out story, and the costume design is more than outstanding. this is honestly the highlight of these vampire movies imo, and maybe the highlight of the 80s as well!

15. What We Do in the Shadows (2015), R- a great way to tie off these last few, and this last section as a whole: what we do in the shadows is a genre-referential mockumentory about vampires. both this movie, and the spin-off tv show it inspired, are a genuinely funny and genius take on the vampire myth. ntm the re-watchability in this one is off the charts!

Part Three: the real monsters all along

16. Saw (2004), R- this franchise may be infamous for being shallow torture porn, but the first movie has a genuine plot to it and isn't any more gory than your average horror movie. a mystery more than anything, saw is about two men trying to find their way out of a deadly puzzle, and maybe even learning a lesson along the way. (<- and/or learning that they're gay, if the popular tumblr fanon is to be believed hfgjdfh).

17. Parasite (2019), R - this thriller deserved every amount of praise it received when it was released. it discusses the horrors of capitalistic inequality (especially that in south korea) in such a brilliant way by setting up for one plot, and then completely turning it on its head halfway through. great plot twists and a thrilling climax, 10/10.

18. Carrie (1979), R - a coming-of-age supernatural horror movie with the most sympathetic main character in the world, carrie is just as much a tragedy as anything else. side note: if you've been following along with all of these movies, this film would be fun to compare and contrast with ginger snaps! (I expect a 2 page times new roman essay about it on my desk by monday thx).

19. Hellraiser* (1987), R - an extremely horny and gory 80s horror movie about a group of sadomasochistic entities torturing and killing people in a practical effects masterpiece. meanwhile, another character tries to bring himself back from the dead in a manner equally as horrifying. if you love good gore, this is the crown jewel. if you're squeamish about torture...... .. . ... sorry.

20. Tetsuo the Iron Man* (1989), unrated but I give it a solid R - a japanese cyberpunk body horror film about a man who undergoes a curse slowly transforming him from flesh into metal and machinery. the plot can be hard to follow at times, but the body horror is genuinely incredible (and nasty!) and the fight scenes towards the end get super fun.

21. Scream* (1996), R - a genre-referential slasher, though beginners to the genre will absolutely "get it" too (you'll notice this list itself is lacking in slasher movies oops). this movie can feel a bit full of itself at times (imo), but it pulls of horror-comedy in a way that's been rarely pulled off since.

22. Train to Busan (2016), unrated but I'd give it an R - a claustophobic action adventure zombie horror movie with incredible heart at its core! I can't remember if I cried at the end, but if I didn't then I came close. if nothing else on this entire list strikes you, just watch this movie, please.

23. Mysterious Skin* (2005), NC-17 - generally I don't recommend this movie to people due to its content, but I figured if pink flamingos can be on this list, so can this one. this coming of age drama may be a respite from all the horror films in this section, but it's still by far the most upsetting imo. mysterious skin follows the story of two teen boys living parallel (yet often intertwining) lives in a small town, one a sex worker, and the other a UFO conspiracy theorist. this movie is incredibly moving, disturbing, thought provoking - and also the kind of movie I watched once and will never watch again.

24. The Crow* (1994), R - remember when superhero movies were good? this is a superhero movie but good. a goth and undead rockstar goes on a killing spree getting revenge on those who killed him and his wife - all on devil's night. and when I saw goth, I do mean goth; the cure recorded a song for this soundtrack, and it's still my favorite thing they've ever done.

Part Four: halloween week!

25. Rob Zombie's Halloween* (2007), R - yeah yeah yeah I'm putting this one before the original, but in my defense I'm saving the original for the 31st slot (halloween night...). most of the remakes and sequels in this slasher franchise aren't necessarily worth checking out on their own - but this one is. a sympathetic and rob-zombie-core take on the plot of the first halloween, I'm still convinced michael myers did nothing wrong.

26. House of Wax (2005), R - this movie plays My Chemical Romance for the end credits. helena by my chemical romance plays at the end of this movie. hey did you know that -- yeah I'm still not over this fact. uhm. the movie itself is pretty cool too. idk it's a 2005 slasher movie with a hot antagonist, have fun!

27. House of 1,000 Corpses* (2002), R - if you hated rob zombie's halloween, you'll hate this one too. but it you loved rob zombie's halloween... well good news! literally all of his movies are the same! this is a rob-zombie-core slasher with fun character designs and truly despicable antagonists, plus dwight from the office is in this one! this movie's about as campy and fun as a slasher can get.

28. Eraserhead (1977), unrated but probably an R idk - movies of ALL time, I'm truly obsessed with this one. eraserhead is an experimental and surreal body horror film by david lynch and about fears of fatherhood (among other things). this movie follows its plot in such a way that it makes me feel like I'm watching it in a pretentious new york art gallery black box theatre or something, sitting in silence among my classmates who are also visiting on our field trip. top tier lynch film.

29. The Addam's Family (1991), PG-13 - believe it or not, I have surprising few opinions on this movie! look, it's the addam's family. I'm sure u at least know the vibes of this franchise, right? halloween comedy? well here, watch it and have fun between all those weird and fucked up movies I keep throwing at u.

30. Noroi: the Curse (2005), unrated but probably around an R- movies that scared me SO bad I couldn't sleep at all, this film is a japanese horror mystery that's been compared to the x-files but don't let that fool you. between disturbing body horror, legitimately startling ghost effects, and many unsettling found footage shaky cams, the x-files wishes it were even a tenth as horrifying as this documentary-style movie is.

31. Halloween (1978), R - my wife!!!! my wife is here!!!!!! (author's note: michael myers is my male wife, thank you). no, ofc this movie isn't "good" but it's a slasher and it's fun, and the first time I ever watched it was perhaps the most fun I've ever had on a halloween night in my life, so I Absolutely recommend this one if you love silly 70s horror and want to have a good time!

and that's it!!!! 31 movie recommendations from me to you! watch these all in the order I gave you, or pick and choose based on my reviews, it's up to you! either way, I hope this is fun and helpful to at least somebody, and feel free to reblog or save this post to your heart's delight <3

[purplecookie1313]

The Many AUs of the Ghostbusters Franchise

When Dan Ackroyd sat down and began to write the very first page that created the beloved franchise that we all know and love, he had an idea that these paranormal investigators would travel around the multiverse saving the day... and that didn't happen, but what we did get was the start of the never ending multiverse of the Ghostbusters. And for many years people argued about what was the canon universe and what wasn't.  As one who watched the cartoon as soon as it came out, before the second movie, things were quite confusing for a ten year old to figure out.  And as the years rolled by, many new ideas and creativity began to trickle into the main flow.  However, we will not be going into ships or other internal topics, we're just sticking to the main canon lines.  So make a drink, have a seat, and let's go through as much of the canon alternate universes, shall we?

Let's start with the beginning, the first movie, Ghostbusters. This is where the majority of the AUs began, with a few exception.  As we all know, June 8th of 1984 changed the lives of many people, including this little geek right here.  Ghostbusters came to life and blew us all away.  This is the PRIME CANON line.

In September 1986, Sony released the beloved cartoon show, The REAL Ghostbusters.  Besides the visual differences between the movie and the show, the characters' personalities were also altered to reflect the new AU.   Also there is absolutely no mention of Dana Barret in the cartoon... Louis was added to the Show after the 4th season.

In March of 1988, came another AU, the REAL Ghostbusters's comic book.  The biggest difference in the carton and the comic was mainly simplifying the vocabulary, character traits were a little tweaked towards a younger audience, and Egon's sea-foam green uniform. These Ghostbusters seemed to be less about ghosts and more about other forms of supernatural and paranormal plots... It's the beginning of 1988 and we now have 3 AUs so far... there's a LOT more...

June of 1989 came the anticipated return of our live action heroes, Ghostbusters 2 is the official sequel to the blockbuster first movie.  It strictly follows the continuity of the first movie.  In the cartoon, season 5 episode 6 “Partners in Slime”, it's mentioned that it's been a year since the RGB crew defeated Vigo and Egon collected a few canisters of yellow slime, not pink as in the second movie.  Both are canon to their respective AU.  

In 1997, we saw the Return of the Ghostbusters.  Well, not all of them...  the Extreme Ghostbusters plot was that Egon stays alone in the firehouse with Slimer as his only companion for ten years before he acquires a new crew of misfits and the return of Janine.  Immediately, we were all under the impression that this new show was the continuation of the REAL Ghostbusters, however the IDW Comics had discredited it and set it up with it's own canon.  

In 2009 the Ghostbusters Video Game came out.  Now, there were many other smaller games released much before this one, however, this was the first game to not only be interactive with the player, but used the original voices of all the actors as well as gave us that conclusion to the Shandor plot.  Many fans and some GB Officials, and Dan Ackroyd, this video game was declared as the official 3rd Ghostbusters movie.  This game also introduced the canon that Egon has a nephew named Ed, which many fans believe this was a shutout for a character in a fan made GB movie named Ed Spengler.  In the movie canon, it has been confirmed that Egon has a twin named Dr. Elon Spengler, a environmental scientist.

In 2011, IDW released the Ghostbusters new Comics based off the first two movies.  In the GB Multiverse, this is the PRIME dimension.  

2014 Ghostbusters: Answer the Call.  A completely different AU, this one has an all female team with different dynamics than the main canon.  Regardless of how one feels about the movie, they are canon. Period.  

2014 also introduced The X-Files/Ghostbusters AU.  In this AU, the Ghostbusters live in the same universe as the Lone Gunman.  The 3 FBI agents investigate the Ghostbusters and their claims of spirits. This AU also has the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many other IDW titles in the same AU.  We also see Egon as a strawberry blond.

Ghostbusters 2020 is an AU where the guys have sort of retired and set up a new fresh team of young Ghostbusters to take over the fieldwork capturing ghosts.  

2021 (hopefully)  Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the final movie for the main canon line, where we are introduced to a new cast of future Ghostbusters including Egon's grandchildren.  In this AU, Egon has passed away and left his legacy to his grandchildren.    

In the IDW Crossing Over series, we are introduced to many canon AUs, including 'Slimer!' the cartoon designed for small children and others not mentioned before.  The Ghostbusters Universe keeps expanding, from canon writers to fan fiction writers and artists.  

Which AU is your favorite?

[greeksandmagic]

'Your grandfather was a Peculiar-Hunter, Mr. Portman.'

I apologize for literally vanishing off the face of the Peculiar-Children planet for a while, but, I have finally returned- with a new alternate universe!

(Disclaimer: Some parts are very twisted, so, if you don't want to see our beloved peculiars being murdered, this isn't the story for you.)

As you have most probably deduced, this alternate universe is based on the almost-absolute inverse of the Hollow Hunters, and their relationship with the wights.

I'll be focusing on Jacob navigating the world of normals in a distinctly 'A Map of Days' way, but learning to oppose the peculiars (and Peculiardom in general).

This'll be a combination of the first book and 'A Map of Days', which, of course, means I'll also bring the Hollow Hunters into this (hence the use of 'Peculiar-Hunter' in the title).

The previous statement naturally indicates that Horatio will be introduced as well; but, to spice things up, he's going to make his appearance the way he does in 'The Desolations of Devil's Acre' (AKA, as a wight).

I also have plenty of plot twists in store (I'm not revealing them as of now).

Anyhow, here's a list of a few things you may see in this alternate universe!

Horatio! Horatio, a million times over!

Caul, being himself- except, maybe, slightly more tolerable (and that's only because the Peculiar-Hunters are on his side).

Abe's absolute delicacy of a car.

Occasional rants about the 'communist matriarchy disaster' of a system the peculiars have to deal with.

H, but alive (which changes about a dozen plot-points of the original series, I might add).

'Find the bird,' as Abe's last words, but with a very different meaning.

Absolute chaos, with almost all of the Peculiar-Hunters being normal.

The reader is (indirectly) invited to question everyone's morality.

The normals being sore about not having cool powers (well, at least that hasn't changed).

Jacob being the only one trying to play the hero.

Guns (it's America, what did you expect?).

(Not necessarily in this order.)

At any rate, there's still a lot I am yet to work out- but this much, to all intents and purposes, is guaranteed.

[mightyecho]

rosamund pike . cis-female . she/her . wasn’t that polgara dragola walking the palace grounds ? it’s nice to see the king’s sister & socialite out and about on such a fine day as this. i’ve heard from the court spies that they notoriously aloof, whilst also managing to be quite wise. the forty-two year old is eager to find out who exactly is behind the killings from what’s being said at court. i heard that they themselves aren’t vrajiit . it’s funny, whenever i think of them, i think of dried roses hanging in a window over a desk, careful fingers tracing over the spines of books, delicate smiles and observing eyes, a gentle hand laid over a strong wrist. great to see the diplomat around, isn’t it ?

———   GENERAL

NAME  : polgara ‘pol’ islena dragola TITLE : sister to the king // socialite AGE :  forty-two GENDER : cis - female   PRONOUNS : she  /  her SEXUAL ORIENTATION : pansexual BIRTHPLACE : trasnavda RESIDENCE  :  trasnavda ALLIANCE(S)  : the dragola family

———   RELATIONSHIPS

SIBLINGS : basradu iii dragola, vladimir dragola, marcel dragola HUSBAND : tba. -deceased. CHILDREN : eriond - deceased ; tba. ( possible wanted connection ) EXTENDED FAMILY : mircea dragola - sister in law -deceased ; erszebet ataegina- dragola - sister in law  ; lumina dragola-anastase - niece ; servaos dragola - nephew ; varian anastase - nephew in law ; aleyna dragavei - future niece in law ALLIES: tba. ENEMIES : tba.

———   PERSONALITY

LABEL : the diplomat POSITIVE (+) : patient, thoughtful, practical, strong-willed, nurturing NEGATIVE (-) : aloof, brusque, cunning, manipulative, intimidating Optimist or pessimist? Introvert or extrovert? Daredevil or cautious? Logical or emotional? Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Prefers working or relaxing? Confident or unsure of herself?

———   HISTORY

TW: physical abuse; mild gaslighting; death; child death

her father named her polgara— beloved daughter— and oh, that she was. last born- darling baby of the family- and the only girl among a slew of older brothers. basradu had been a man when she’d been born- a young man to be sure, but a man nonetheless- and vladimir was chasing after his heels, but marcel grew with her. a half a step ahead, his two more years of life experience ahead of her own, but always close enough where she could reach out her hand for his when her own life felt too big and overwhelming. the youngest and the only girl left her isolated, sheltered for most of her earlier life, her aging father’s focus for her being seen and not heard. she focused on her studies,  devouring as much knowledge as her young mind could consume, watching the processions of court quietly from the side.

brothers that spanned from near pseudo-fathers down to closest companions but not a sister in sight and her heart craved that connection. she flitted among the young lord and ladies at court, her bright smile and wide blue eyes endearing her to those around her but it was in lady mircea that she found her heart’s sister. even before basradu had begun to court her, polgara would emulate the beautiful young lady, trailing after her like any younger sister would. when basradu and mircea were wed, it was hard to find someone who was as pleased with the match as pol.

she was fifteen when the twins were born and love she never known herself to be capable of overflowed in her heart when she held the newborn babes. they were two perfect pieces of mircea and basradu- the absolute best parts of them, she was sure- and they were so beautiful. for the first four years of their lives, she spent every moment possible in the company of her beloved sister and her darling niece and nephew. it was in those moments that she poured her heart out to mircea, the woes of a young lady at court and the battlefield of affection that came from being a beautiful young woman of influence.

when she was nineteen that battlefield was conquered, due mostly in part by basradu who had arranged a match for her. her idealization of love was based solely off her brother and sister in law, her young and girlish mind imagining a husband who looked at her with the same amount of love and respect as the king did for her queen. when she meets him at the end of the aisle and her veil lifts, she’s greeted with a hungry and self-satisfied look that is leagues away from the light that shines in basradu’s eyes when he gazes upon his wife. she had been a prize to be won- out of countless suitors that would seek her hand in marriage, it had been he who’d bagged the prize.

polgara isn’t one to give up easily and she worked hard on her marriage, met with indifference and dismissal at every turn— except for when her husband’s urges brought him to her bed. they hadn’t been married a full year before she gave him a son- eriond- and the love that she’d felt for the nephew and niece back in iarna keep had only been a taste of the love she would feel when looking into her son’s face for the first time. from that moment, everything else became secondary. her husband’s affections no longer mattered- he’d given her living, breathing love, he’d served his purpose— and truly, she only wished to go home.

her husband served basradu as master of coin and polgara would mark the passing of time by the meetings of the king’s small council. for the days leading to the journey, she would be a constant flurry of activity- ensuring every case was packed with any thing and everything, double checking with the escorts about the route ( that never changed ) - and the closer their carriages came to trasnavda, the faster her anxiety would melt to happiness and the moment she stepped foot onto familiar stone leading up to the towering castle, it turned to joy. seeing her brothers, embracing her sister and kissing her niece and nephew soundly on either cheek, she was sure that a heart was not meant to contain so much joy. she would drink up their company, reveling in the presence of those she loved most in the world, listening with wide eyes as the twins told her about their young but Very Interesting lives or attentive ears when basradu, vladimir and marcel spoke of war. pol would sit with mircea, their hands clasping one anothers while she poured out her heart to the safest harbor she’d ever had, telling her about the lack of love in her marriage, her feeling of being a stranger in a stranger land in a place she should call home by now, and the overwhelming yearning to be close to the family that loved her.

as meetings adjourned and their carriages pull away from iarna keep, a deep melancholy would overcome pol, lingering for weeks.  she would lay in bed, her eyes filled with tears that she would give no name to, missing social engagements and appearances that she was expected to be in attendance of as a lady of her position. it was an embarrassment on her husband- her behavior reflecting badly on him- and his temper flared in a way that made it so she couldn’t show her face outside for a weeks time at least. pressing her fingers against blooming bruise on her cheek, she let her heart harden against her husband. even after her bruise faded, she refused to leave, missing more engagements and causing the first whispers of rumors around the kingdom.

a letter from the keep inquiring about her health incensed her husband and her quiet rebellion caused her more grief than she had bargained for. for two weeks, she would let no one see her aside from one of her ladies, her face mottled and swollen and her ribs sore from where his boot had landed— even her sweet son, her living and breathing love, was kept from her. she wouldn’t let him see her like that. as the last of her swelling had receded and the bruising faded, another letter came from trasnavda, written in response to her husband explaining her difficulty, her refusal to perform her duties as a noblewoman and a wife and the embarrassment she was causing; polgara read her eldest brother’s familiar script, drinking in his words like they held the key to her escape from this less than happy ending she found herself in and was gifted with the message: every one has their position and their expectations— this is what we do; this is who we are.

it wasn’t a key for escape but a tool for survival. with her head held high, she stepped back into the public eye and into the sharks tank that is court. when pol slipped back into the role she’d been raised in- a princess, a sister of the king, a lady of walochnia- she did so as herself, not as the wife of a man, no matter how important he thought himself. she forged her own connections, outside of what would be beneficial for her husband. she found love- the kind she’d dreamed of as a younger more naive girl- in a member of her guard and with no care as to how it would appear to her husband, she promoted him to the captain of her guard- she made him her personal guard, never to be far from her side. the rumors of the rich and powerful never cease and when her stomach started to round with her second child, there was more than a little speculation that the child was the product of an affair.

the offense became too great, the shame too great to bear- the thought of his wife carrying someone’s bastard- and he came for her again but when he raised his hand, she didn’t cower— she remembered who she was. pulling her blade, she held it out  in front of her in warning and let him know who she was: she was polgara dragola, daughter of king basradu ii, sister to the king of walochnia, trained by the master of war and he would not put his hands on her again or it would be the last thing he did. and by a miracle of god- or the understand that one good shove and her sword would go through him- he listened.

her second child was born and whispers continued to circulate but not a word was said edgewise to pol and her husband’s lips stayed tight. in public, they were the picturesque look of rigid nobility, grace and regal ( this is what we do ) and in private, they were strangers ( this is who we are ). when he fell ill with a serious fever, pol spared him the only barest of passing concern, sitting by his bedside when his breath rattled in his chest, holding his hand and patting it while he choked on his own breath, her face never changing from the look of general disinterest as her husband expired. she accepted condolences and expressions of sorry with quiet gratitude, more focused on her children— and on how she wanted to spend not another minute in this castle. she wanted to go home. she traveled back to iarna keep with her two small children, the three of them head to toe in mourners black but when she raced into the arms of her family, there was no trace of mourning in her smile.

there had been so much time wasted on a life that didn’t fulfill her, surrounded by faces of those that didn’t love her and when mircea passes, bringing the lovely dimitri into the world, it shatters her heart, knowing that she would never again get that time with her dearly beloved sister. the weight of expectation that’s put on lumina where the young prince is concerned feels too much to ask too soon. it was almost natural to take the baby, her heart flooding with the love that it felt for servaos and lumina when she looked at his small face and she decided to help alleviate the burden on the grieving princess’ shoulders, choosing to care for the newborn. he’s not hers and she would never for a minute think of him as such- he was mircea’s and basradu’s son and she would love him as fiercely as she does her own children but until lumina was ready to take a more active role in his upbringing, she would be that soft and motherly influence. she would tell the young prince about his family- his father the king, his brave prince brother fighting the ottolan horde, his beloved princess sister who had endeared herself in the hearts of their people for her goodness, his beautiful queen mother who had been light and love made human- and make sure that he knew who he was, that he would grow strong and wise in the knowledge of those who went before him.

despite her prayers for her children to be spared of the curse of the vrajiit ( because it was a curse, she saw how her dear nephew’s powers plagued him ), god had other plans. eriond could create light- little balls of light that would float slowly from his hands, rising up and up into the stars— it looked almost like a party trick. her son had never belonged on a battlefield. he was young and scared, armed with a sword and light and the ottolans had cut him down without a second thought to the roundness of youth he had yet to grow out of in his face or the downy soft hair on his cheeks. when her boy’s body was returned to her, she thought her mind would shatter- her heart was already in pieces, why not her mind as well? the moment she saw his body, a scream rang in her mind but not a sound left her trembling lips. when they buried him, her lips never moved but her eyes screamed silently at basradu and vladimir, accusation and blame shining in hot tears that fill her eyes before spilling over her cheek: it was your war— you were supposed to protect him— i will never forgive you for this.

but they were dragolas and they would persevere. since mircea’s passing, polgara started to gather her own spies and informants- some employed in the court of spies by her brother, slipped extra coin for their knowledge and others employed by her personally, spying in her own house. she is a constant face at any court event or social gathering, maintaining relationships with the warden houses and with the lesser nobility, being that demure face and gracious demeanor that colored the dragolas favorably and gathering what information ‘friends’ allow to pass between one another while her network of spies works their own angles. of course, she shares what she learns with her brothers should they seek her council— but there is some pieces of information she won’t. one never knows when they’ll need leverage.

from the beginning she’d been a staunch supporter of mina’s marriage to the lord anastase- it was a good match, danruba was a powerful ally. the most she’d been prepared for was a post wedding baby boom among the maids and ladies in waiting— certainly never imagined a dragon attack. her mind had been on dimitri, grabbing him and carrying him through the crumbling ballroom, running for safety. she’d thanked god on her knees that night, holding the young prince close and weeping when news reached her that they were all alive- her brothers, her dear servaos, her brave mina. the attack had shaken her and at first, she had been in favor for the trials— justice had to be served. however the manner in which they were performed and how things quickly devolved had the first edges of doubt in her brother creeping around the corners of her heart and mind and when he named accused traitors with no evidence, that doubt flared and her mind was a panic in how on earth would she repair the bridges basradu was burning?

the pardons were a smart move— the right move and polgara stands behind princess mina’s decision in the face of her brother’s anger towards his daughter. pol has never has a problem telling her brothers they were wrong and she tells him now, unfazed by any anger that might be directed her way; mina had been right in setting those people free, trying to earn back the trust of the people. the rumor mill continues if not thrives in the wake of tragedy and whispers of madness have reached pol— once upon a time she would have scoffed and dismissed them with a wave of her hand; nowadays though, the word pops in her own mind more than she’d care to admit. and basradu still has not named an heir— polgara knows that’s a shit storm coming and she will do whatever is necessary to get ahead of it in order to ensure that what the people of walochnia saw was a unified front: house dragola.

[darkspellmaster]

Sex and the Castlevania series

So you may have all heard by now that the new seasons of Castlevania will have more gore and sex involved in the series. And for me at least this is a bit of a surprise. Not because Castlevania has not had sex as part of its storyline, (how else are the Belmonts going to be born), nor that nudity would be shown (see the Succubus for example) but in how it’s going to be used. 

As a player of the games, one thing has always stood out to me about the Castlevania series and the idea of fan service and sexuality and sex itself, it’s never used as a means of just titillation. There’s always a meaning behind it. And the reviews have me wondering if this is going to still be the case with the show, or is it going to be used as an “Oooh look how edgy we’re being this season.” because that’s not what sex in Castlevania is about. 

Sex, or the idea of intimacy between two romantic partners, has always been at the heart of the backstory of the Castlevania series. From the outset there’s has always been a sense of family and love and devotion in Castlevania. Even with the Arcade edition of Haunted Castle in 1988, the addition to the story of Simon was that he was newly married to his bride Selena, who was taken by Dracula. Years later Selena and the Mysterious Woman in Simon’s Quest II were mixed to create Linda Entwhistle who was Simon’s girlfriend in the book series based on the games. 

Years later during the more story-driven games that came out, sexuality and intimacy became part of the game in how it was presented. Namely the use of sex as a way to pull the innocents to the darkness ala the Vampire Brides in the original Dracula, and the loss of innocence (as with Lucy in the novel) and the idea of devotional love that conquers that darkness and temptation. 

In this sense, we’re seeing the use of the deadly sin of Lust acting as a temptation to the heroes as a means of making them be killed for their wanton desires. Yet love and intimacy also plays a huge part in fixing issues in the story and leading to tragic and happy endings. 

So with that in mind, I want to do a quick walkthrough of the way sex and love is used in these games and discuss why the idea of sex and violence shouldn’t be on the table with Castlevania as a metaphor as much. 

Let’s start with the timeline, rather than the game order because it makes more sense that way. 

The story of the Belmont Clan and Dracula are intertwined for all time, this is just a fact of the matter and not just some random accident. And Love plays a huge part in this story as the cannon story stands right now. Prior to this, Castlevania was a fun romp through the idea of beating up Old Universal Monster Movie characters (every one of the main bosses in the first game was tied to some form of Universal Horror Monster and it even has some Hammer Horror connections as well). But with the growth of the franchise, it was clear that a story needed to be told, so over the years, that story had evolved until in the early 2000s we got the very first story in the Belmont vs Dracula timeline in the form of Lament of Innocence. 

Now Lament isn’t just a story about the loss for Leon and his world view that there is nothing lurking in the dark. It’s the loss of friendship and of love, but also it’s the reinstatement of belief of the good of people and that there are those that can and will stand up to the darkness and that even as one loses everything, you don’t have to lose your soul in the processes. 

But let me start from the beginning in this case. Leon Belmont was a knight templar in the crusade. He was best friends with and cared deeply about his fellow Crusader Mathias Cronqvist. Now Mathias was a man of science and of learning and of a lot of things, he wasn’t a fighter the same way Leon was, so he was more into spells and magics, something that his family kept mostly from the Church at the time. 

Both Mathias and Leon were in love and devoted to the women that they felt deeply for, that being Leon’s fiance Sara Trantoul, and Mathias’s wife Elisabetha. Leon’s devotion to Sara was known by everyone, especially Mathias and this is very important since it’s Leon’s Love of Sara that drives him to abandon his cause with the Crusades and pretty much take up Vampire Killing for the rest of his life, training his children and their descendants, on how to defeat the man that took that love from him. 

Mathias, on the other hand, was emotionally devoted to Elisabetha, and, given the way he speaks of her, it’s clear that the devotion and love was returned. So much so that his love for her basically poisoned his mind and made him into the monster that would later come to regret his actions. As it was, Elisabetha died due to illness and Mathias abandoned the Crusades, became ill, and holed up in his home unable to be reached by any of his friends, Leon and Sara. It’s only when he learned that Sara was in danger from Walter Bernhard that he was able to get out of bed and warn his friend Leon of the danger, but, by then, it was too late and Sara was captured and taken to Walter’s castle. 

Now one of the huge parts of the story of Lament is is that it deals with devotion, honor, and the choices we make based on love. So while Leon is trying to save Sara he meets up with an alchemist, Rinaldo, who had lost his daughter Justine to Walter and was unable to save her. 

Leon renounces everything; his baron title, his home, his lands just so he can cast off his duty to go and save Sara. His love for her runs that deep that he’s willing to go into the Castle of Walter with just a sword and prayer and god save anyone that gets in his way. Rinaldo is far more of a pragmatic person and in this way juxtaposes Leon’s love of Sara.  Whereas Leon is far more optimistic about his chances against Walter, Rinaldo knows the bitter truth, that Sara has no hope of making it out of the castle and not becoming a vampire in the process. 

This becomes an important part of Leon’s story as he traverses the castle to try to locate Sara and comes across a number of characters that play a part in the story and the idea of love. Medusa, though not a sexualized being in this one, mentions that the whip he’s using is far more powerful than that of the version that Rinaldo used to save his daughter. 

Now, why is that? One could speculate that Rinaldo lacked the will to save his child, or that he knew the truth and couldn’t bear to have to take his daughter’s life. His feelings, however, whatever they lacked, caused the Whip to fail in what it needed to do, and thus he was forced to kill his own daughter. Leon on the other side of things has nothing but the will and drive to save Sara, and his love for her and desire to bring her home urges him on. This love, this need to help her, is what makes that whip work. That need for protecting something, it’s why Trevor needed to find Sypha and Alucard to eventually come to a reason why the Vampire Killer came to him. 

Joachim is an interesting one in regard to love in this game and how it is presented. Walter seduced the young man with the idea of immortality and when Joachim gained his Vampire state he realized that Walter was above him and rebelled. This lead to Walter putting him in captivity and driving him mad, for his own amusement. But how is this love? It’s a very dangerous and bad form of it, as Joachim both loathes Walter but also seems obsessed with him. He hates him with all he is, and at the same time wants to overpower and control him. This same sort of hate and love is what drives Mathias as well in his story. 

Then there’s the Succubus, the one character that really hammers in the idea of desire/Sex and love in this game and the differences between them. So the Succubus in Lament is an actual boss, vs. just being an enemy. She has no name, but her role is critical in understanding what’s going on in Walter’s castle. This succubus had previously disguised herself as Justine for Rinaldo, allowing him to lower his guard and possibly may have harmed him in the process. His rejection of this form of his daughter may have to lead him to make some critical mistakes. Mistakes that Leon doesn’t seem to make. Namely, after a bit, he sees through the Succubus using Sara’s form to trick him. 

Leon recognizes that the woman isn’t Sara based on her actions and way of moving, showing that though his connection with Sara he can’t be tricked and lured in by kind words from a monster. This is the opposite of what happened to Mathias. 

As I said there’s a tragedy to the love and sex in this game and the use of it. Walter luring Justine away with his beauty and her desire for him lead to her downfall, which leads us into Mathias. (We will circle back to Leon, I promise.) For Mathias Elisabetha was his whole world and when she died while he was away it leads him to reject all of his desires for hope and love and feelings. He lost his way and decided to renounce God and live as an immortal as revenge for God taking away his beloved wife. In order to get what he needed, he made a deal with Death, and the two decided to use Sara as bait for Walter and Leon was to be his sword. Mathias’s own devotion to Leon, and some of his humanity as well, shows up later in the story where he sympathizes and connects with Leon in regard to his own loss. Showing that they’re the same and that Leon should join him, which Leon rejects. 

This moment in the game is interesting because by this point in the story Leon has learned about how to defeat Walter and that Sara was bitten. In a lot of Vampire lore, biting is used as a way to indicate, in some cases, a sexual desire or a need that is fulfilled in a more intimate way. After all the neck is a body part that is known for being very much something that can be used for erotic aspects of lovemaking or showing desire. Which brings us back to the fact that Sara didn’t want to be turned. This wasn’t a choice on her part, unlike Joachim, and it leads to her rejecting the idea of wanting to remain a vampire. She desires death over having to be a monster and leads to Leon, at first vehemently rejecting Rinaldo’s order to kill her, and then accepting Sara’s desires to become one with the whip. 

It’s an important moment because it shows that Leon is willing to ignore his own desires for that of Sara’s, again showing his selflessness in putting what she wants ahead of his own, showing his love and devotion in a more adult and complex way. Sara’s own love is what fuels that whip and her need to protect Leon are the quintessential factors of  Love (Leon) to the opposing one of Lust (Walter) and in this case. 

Trevor and Sypha come next in regard to the issue of love and sex and while the show is clearly going to be showing more of their romantic escapades, it should be noted that the game doesn’t really make much mention of it at first, as Sypha in the game has a bit of a love triangle going on with Grant and Trevor as the main choices, although it seems like she only had eyes for Trevor. We know the two eventually had children but Sex, or lust, in the game never was a thing. Their devotion to each other in the show is telling, and in other games, both do pair up frequently, even in Judgement there’s an underlying tension between them. 

It’s of interest that in the show, we get to see the two of them acting as a couple, much like how Lisa and Dracula were shown acting like a couple. But actual sexual acts are, as with Lisa and Dracula, put on the side and in the case of Trevor and Sypha it’s only hinted at and not a full on display. Which falls into the same idea that most Castlevania games seem to have, the hero’s love interest typically is not shown engaging in sexual activity, or rather, only after bad things happen. 

I’ll jump to Richter and Annette, because that seems to be the next one in regard to how sexuality is used heavily in Castlevania. So in Rondo of blood, Dracula has Shaft take Annette since she is engaged to Richter Belmont. In a scene with him during the game, Annette threatens to take her own life rather than have relations with Dracula who intends to drink her and turn her into his bride. For the original version there’s a dramatic moment where Annette is talking to Dracula and he tries to lure her into becoming immortal to stay with him. She says she will not fall in such a cheap manner, the implications there are more along the lines of sex and him taking her physically from her fiance Richter. In the PSP game, if you take too long or go the wrong route you get the bad end where Annette has been transformed into a vampire and is placed in an overtly sexual outfit, down to a thong and bodice. Her hair goes down rather than the updo she has when she’s not turned and she very certainly is meant to be a temptress and a signal that Richter failed to save her from the deviousness of the vampire. 

This idea of sex, or the sexual, being used as a temptation and a devious thing in Castlevania has been around for a long time. However for every moment of some devious succubus being in the way of the hero, there’s always a moment of love that shows the positive side of it’s nature vs. the lustful side. Again, looking at Annette and Richter we get a moment when he frees her of her embracing him and happy that he’s there to be with her. That she knew he would come and that everything will be okay. 

Sexuality plays a heavy role in tempting Gabriel Belmont in his game, Lords of Shadow. During the game, as he tries to get to see his dead wife with a specialized mask. During the game he meets the Vampire Carmilla who offers to him a chance to become a vampire and enjoy the idea of a lustful existence. Every inch of her in the game is designed to pretty much be a temptress and lure Gabriel from his path to finding a way to see his dead wife. Yet it’s in this moment that we get to see how deeply his affection for his wife runs as Gabriel rejects this offer even more violently than with other Lords of Shadow that he’s faced. It’s a pretty strong moment for him as a character, and shows a deeper feeling in regard to his connection to his late wife. 

The reason I bring all these moments up is because even in the games where there’s hints of the sexual, as Vampires now are associated with Lust and temptation, the show uses sex as a means of connecting it with violence and some pretty dark ideas. Which contradicts the idea of how Love is the most powerful thing to defeat the darkness in Castlevania. 

Take Hector’s story right now. In the show we have his sexual encounter with Lenore which is contrasted with Isaac’s battle with Legion. The idea here is to show that both Isaac and Hector are being used, one being brought to his knees via false affection and entrapment by a woman who doesn’t love him and is using him as her own pet, who later slips the ring on him to collar him as she would a dog or cat. While the Isaac, even though he’s doing a good thing in defeating Legion (and i’m still damn sure that woman is Death in a false form) was used to destroy the wizard in the tower, releasing the village. In both cases manipulation was used in order for the opposing party to achieve their goal. 

For Lenore it was to get Hector to trust her enough to trap him and use him in her own way and for her own needs. She controls him now, making it impossible for him to escape from them, or so we are told to believe. On the other hand you have Isaac who, while used, acknowledges that he was so, accepts it, but is free to move on as the use of him wasn’t against his will, nor was it something changing him down. Rather the manipulation was used to not only stop something terrible, but also show him that there were others out there that were worth saving. Thus, in the poster, we have Lenore holding onto a bound and trapped Hector, and Isaac not quiet twisted up in thorns. 

The use of violence that we see shows that there’s a thin line in this world causing people to become entrapped by their own desires. For Isaac it was his revenge, for Hector it was his need to feel human again. Which brings us to the point where Rosaly comes into play in regard to Hector’s story. In Hector’s game Curse of Darkness, we see how his life drastically changed when he and she connect. From where he was in the story she brought the idea of hope and light to him, vs the darker aspects in the game that hint at someone who was cursed to believe he is a monster. In this way, I hope that if they bring in Rosaly we can see the opposition to Lenore’s way of using him for gratification and chaining him to her. 

On the other side of things, and something a bit easier to get at, is the idea of  trauma through the use of sex as shown in Alucard’s story. In the show we get to see Trevor and Sypha in bed, but it’s clear what’s happened there and the idea is that it’s less about their sexual encounters with one another than about their growth as a couple and how they interact outside of the bedroom and how they show love for one another. We see also they have a sense of betrayal when dealing with the Judge and the idea of Sypha’s world going from it just being fun and doing the right thing, to realizing the world is not black and white, and that not all people are good. 

In Alucard’s case we see the idea of the twins (I’m using the term as it’s easier for me to call them this, it doesn’t mean I’m saying they are twins just that they look alike) as filling a void and clearly being a representation of Trevor and Sypha (They even share the first initial of their names) that Alucard is looking for. Through their interactions we see that Alucard is, like Sypha in the other town, trusting them regardless of how many red flags they raise. The whole issue comes to a head when, after sharing a lot of things with them, Alucard is seduced by the two while trying to sleep. During the scene, as with Hector and Isaac, we see the sex as being connected to the violence of the battle that Sypha, Trevor and Germain get into. The twins end up wrapping Alucard in iron rings, much like Hector is imprisoned by Lenore with the ring, so to is Alucard. We see then that like Hector he’s betrayed and harmed by the emotional aspect of the betrayal. But unlike Hector who feels trapped, Alucard now feels anger at those that hurt him. 

The sexual act leads into the idea of him no longer trusting humans, especially with his heart. This of course is being used to drive Alucard to decide to lock himself back to sleep until the time of Richter and Maria (the warrior and the Mage), three hundred years later. The idea here is that the physical act of it is being used to show people being harmed in vulnerable states, and that sex is used as a tool to harm or destroy others just as certain acts of violence can. 

Yet, part of the story line of Alucard is that Maria chooses to go after him even after he says he’s cursed. Again, like Hector and Rosaly, showing that love is more of a counter to the anger and hate that seem to embolden those that would do bad in the world of Castlevania. So then, I must ask, why is the sex in the show being used not as it should be, showing how love can change someone, but rather as a connector to the violence. That wasn’t the idea of Castlevania, so I have to wonder what Warren is driving at here. 

[komoryriku]

Queering KH Part 4: Hearts in Tune

Actually KH Finally lol

Pictured: Riku humming Sora’s name in a soft, adoring, wistful voice the way a swooning straight person sighs the name of their beloved of the opposite gender.

Kingdom Hearts gives off so many subtextual signals of queer coding that it genuinely BAFFLES me how people can really believe it is straight. You may be wondering what makes me so confident in that when there has not been anything in the games to explicitly prove any of the characters are not straight, and I will be happy to tell you. It is because in order to believe Kingdom Hearts is straight, you have to ignore WAY too much subtext. To truly believe that Sora is in love with Kairi and only coded to be interested in Kairi, you have to ignore his questioning of what love is. You have to ignore the combined keyblade he shares with Riku. You have to ignore how much the narrative is driving him to understand that Riku is his most important, cherished person. This all goes doubly for Riku who has a coming out story not unlike Elsa’s metaphorical one, in which his love for Sora is his greatest source of strength. You have to pretend the necklace gifting plot point is entirely straight and cannot possibly mean anything homoromantic. You have to ignore the way Sora cries while clutching Riku’s hand compared to his subdued and non-emotional reunion with Kairi- that’s just too much “accidental subtext” for me to confidently ignore lol. Intentional or not, KH is Gay~

Here’s how we’re gonna do this.

So where the hell do I even begin with coding KH? Well- I can’t possibly queer the whole of KH text in 1 summer, so what I plan to do is this:

Give you the tools to understand KH’s coding so that you can code it yourself~

Queer a few major KH scenes so that everyone can see that the proof is in the pudding.

I’m gonna try to break down various scenes to decode them and queer them so you can see what’s at play in KH. Originally when this meta was a single doc, I was only gonna cover 4 scenes. But since I’m breaking it into parts to update at my leisure, I’m gonna just add scenes and meta as I go~

Now without further ado:

How the Hearts in Tune scene is Gay Coded

This shouldn’t be too hard at all.~

This scene is almost too easy. 

The scene opens with Sora bringing Mickey the sound idea he found but as it turns out, one sound idea is not enough. Sora tells us not to worry because he has a friend who is always picking up the slack for him. Likewise, on Riku’s end, he brings his sound idea to Mickey and is surprised to see that Sora’s sound idea is necessary to complete the song. 

Once the sound ideas meet, this beautiful visual plays out in which the 2 sound ideas swirl around each other and the soundtrack title “Dearly Beloved” plays. 

Now, there are several things I want to note about this sequence- heck this visual alone before we move on. 

Recall earlier when I discussed Shiki’s point that blue and pink (likewise blue and red) “go together”, romantically.

I will let the visual of Sora’s sheet music being pink while Riku’s is blue speak for itself. But I will also add how this ties into the yin and yang themes I’m about to discuss:

Yin and Yang

This concept gets its own section because it’s such an influential concept in so many aspects of various cultures around the globe.

Yin and Yang is an eastern philosophy which illustrates the concept of dualism. In short, it is the concept that 2 opposite halves are complements to a whole. The original term in fact translates to dark-bright.  

I am neither a philosophy professor or student so I will keep this as brief as I can and simply encourage you to study up on Yin and Yang at your own leisure. I will however paste this section from wikipedia because I think it is extremely helpful information to have for studying eastern media in general. 

Yin and Yang: husbanded opposing forces. Dark-Light, Moon-Sun, Chaos-Order, Winter-Summer, Negative-Positive.

Female (Yin)-Male (Yang): Yes this is often used in a heteronormative heterosexual context because people are homophobic and believe in gender binaries, unfortunately, but I implore you to consider the concept in more figurative, spiritual, aesthetic themes, especially since Yin and Yang is a much grander philosophy than mere sexuality discourse; it’s about complementary forces creating a whole. 

For shipping purposes, think opposites attract. Think concepts that are traditionally associated with femininity meshing with concepts that are traditionally associated with masculinity. Queer media has a wonderful way of subverting heteronormative Yin and Yang tropes by showing that cis-hetero standards can be hypocritically non-compliant with the complementary concept.

Rather than thinking of this, 2 heteros in love based on being just- the same person with opposite genders:

Think of this, same gendered couples with complementary personalities:

Think about how an aloof scrappy butchy vampire queen attracts an uptight calculating femme princess.

Think about how this goody-goody dumb jock with a martyring hero complex attracts this naughty cunning jock with a self-loathing villaness complex.

And now think about how badly we need more canonical mlm couples in children’s media lol. Oops my finger slipped. But I’m getting ahead of myself lol.

The concepts of interconnected opposite forces are so important and prominent in literature throughout the world, but yin and yang is ESPECIALLY important in Kingdom Hearts because it is a story that explicitly explores Light and Dark forces. It explores how they both oppose one another in catastrophic ways,

and how they complement each other in harmonious ways.

Getting ahead of myself again… But hey speaking of harmony, back to the matter at hand.

Hearts in Tune.

This scene shows a number of romantic symbols. As I was saying before the yin and yang tangent, pink and blue (nee red and blue) are already symbols of romantic suggestion. And in the case of them representing 2 parts of a whole song, these song pieces act as complementary halves, adding another layer of dualism to the scene. Furthermore, the music sheets swirl around each other in a yin and yang fashion. Harmony has been achieved. This lets us know these forces belong together. These forces representing Sora and Riku. They are husbanded together. These 2 hearts in question are part of each other. In fact, Mickey even says so:

Perhaps most damning, however, is that the song in question is “Dearly Beloved”, arguably the theme song for Kingdom Hearts as far as the score goes. I’m sure it goes without say that “Dearly Beloved” is not only in itself a romantic sounding phrase but it is also the phrase specifically said by officiators of weddings to the congregation before the wedding vows are exchanged. “Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today…” 

I will also mention that Riku’s dream eater symbol visible in the shot is specifically designed based on a bleeding heart flower, a symbol of passionate love. Credit to Steam for pointing this out here, please follow them and read their posts they are magically delicious:

So almost everything about this scene is aesthetically romantically coded, and I didn’t even mention the fact that Dream Drop Distance’s whole color palette is themed with rainbows, which as I said earlier is absolutely still a gay symbol in Japan. Note the rainbow of colors animating from the sheet music. 

So in terms of the atmosphere of the scene, its already incredibly homoromantic in every way I can think of. But what about the dialogue?

Well lets talk about the dialogue. Dialogue should always been read with care when you’re trying to queer a text. Often a lot of queer messaging in a text is subtextual. This means the text itself may actually say something gay, but you have to read further into it. This is an old method of queer writing designed to protect the writer from getting in trouble for their gay crimes.

Historical aside on this:  If you’ve ever read Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, you may have note that Lord Henry can never just simply say that he is gay, lest Oscar Wilde be charged for homosexuality in 19th century England. Instead, Lord Henry simply tells us he is married to a woman, but makes it clear throughout the text that this marriage is mostly performative and he is not emotionally invested in it whatsoever, going against the puritanical, heternormative ideals of Victorian prudery. Lord Henry is by contrast MUCH more invested in following the life and times of his very close friend Dorian Gray, with whom he shares a hedonistic philosophy in the name of Fin de siècle. Not to be a downer but for the sake of understanding how real this subject of oppressed gay censorship is, despite keeping the homosexual themes as purely subtext, Oscar Wilde was tried and convicted of homosexuality and this book was used against him in court. 

What we are privileged to have today with KH is a cutscene and not just a script. Meaning we have visuals, animation, voice acting, musical cues, etc etc to follow along with to enhance our subtext. 

On Sora’s end of the conversation, Mickey points out that the song is incomplete with just his sound idea alone, and Sora tells him not to worry, as Riku is his dependable friend who will fill in where he fails. The text in the official English translation is:

Mickey: That's strange... Is one Sound Idea not enough?

Sora: Don't worry. I've got a friend out there who will help. He's always 

picking up the slack for me.

This on its own sounds platonic. But note just how affectionate Sora’s voice acting is when he says it. Not only that, he clutches his heart to let us know how close he is to Riku and how much his connection with Riku matters to him. How much confidence he has in this friend he cares so much about. He then closes his eyes after saying it, smiling up in the air blissfully while he waits for their hearts to make their connection and finish the song.

Once it is finished, Mickey remarks that their sounds joined together to make something more powerful. Sora then says looking thoughtful, “Yeah. Two forces are better than one. Right, Riku?”

Following this, Sora leaves to fight the boss.

On Riku’s side, Mickey questions what happened, and Riku looks up thoughtfully, and says tenderly, “Sora.”

Mickey comments “Sora? Funny... Just hearing that name kinda makes me wanna smile.” and Riku tells him warmly, “Yeah. That's how he is.”

Mickey then goes on to say some really shippy stuff:

“Whaddaya know... Riku and Sora. The Sound Ideas you two set free joined together. And when they did, they made a great and powerful harmony.”

Riku then nods and tells Mickey brightly that “Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull off miracles like there's nothing to it. It's pretty hard not to smile around him.”

And I would like to pause to look at that line. “It’s pretty hard not to smile around him.” Although Mickey says the same thing, that just hearing Sora’s name invokes a smile, we sense a somewhat deeper meaning in Riku saying it. Why is that? Well, for one thing this game is entirely about Riku protecting Sora and exploring how much Sora actually means to him. This game is continuing Riku’s redemption arc from KH2, but it is also doing something perhaps even more important: it is providing him a journey of self discovery. This test resets Sora and Riku to level 1 so to speak, not just in their powers but even their models revert to variations of their KH1 selves. This helps to underscore Riku re-examining himself and his feelings. 

And then guess what? Mickey makes some even SHIPPIER commentary. He exclaims “Wow! No wonder the music sounded like so much fun. But I bet he's got you to thank for that. Having such a good friend means he could really enjoy it.”

Riku is taken aback by this comment. “Huh?”

Mickey continues, expressing some extremely yin and yang themed sentiments, 

“It's like each of you is holding on to a little part of the other. Your hearts are always in tune, so they're free to sing. Gosh, I hope I can be part of the team someday.”

Mickey did us a wonderful favor and expressed to us explicitly, for those who didn’t understand the romantic coding of the scene already, that Sora and Riku are a good match. Mickey tells Riku that the music sounded like fun in English, that it was a happy, pleasurable time, and tells him that Sora has Riku for a friend which is what must have made it so enjoyable. 

So from this dialogue we get assurance that Sora and Riku are two very close friends, whose hearts are connected, and they are 2 powerful forces that merge into an even greater one. Their hearts are in tune.

Now if this were a scene about a boy and a girl, I doubt anyone would question whether it was romantic. Why should we be asked to look at it platonically just because it is 2 boys? The romantic imagery is clear. 

And let me ask you this while we’re still on the subject of Dream Drop Distance: 

According to Riku’s character files, he had previously thought of Sora as a little brother, and tried to be a cool older brother to him. 

He then tells us that this has changed. What did it change to? 

The surface level, heteronormative answer would say it changed to them being merely friends. 

But isn’t that an odd regression? After all, found family is a thing, and that’s a bit weird for him to question since there is no reason for those feelings to change on that notion. If Sora loved him like a brother, that clearly hasn’t changed. Riku clearly loves Sora as deeply, so that didn’t change. The other problem with this phenomenon Riku is dealing with is that there is no reason for him to feel this strange sense of repression we keep seeing over this change. He is constantly holding back on some feelings for Sora but platonic and brotherly feelings are entirely acceptable. What is it that he is hiding? What sort of feelings for Sora would be hidden?

From the Kh2 Novel: 

He really did want to see Sora and talk. But that was impossible with this appearance. The things that mattered the most were what he couldn’t tell Sora. It had always been that way.

What sort of feelings might be systemically oppressed?

This scene is pretty much EXACTLY what I would do to say as explicitly as possible that Riku is gay without being able to say it outright due to censorship. 

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 6 of 26

Title: The Killing Moon (Dreamblood #1) (2012)

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, First-Person, Third-Person, Female Protagonist, LGBT Protagonist, Asexual Protagonist.

Rating: 8/10

Date Began: 2/07/2021

Date Finished: 2/13/2021

Peace is sacred in the walled city-state of Gujaareh, and must be maintained at any cost. The Gatherers are a priesthood tasked with maintaining this goal. In the name of Hananja, Goddess of the moon, they walk the city at night and harvest Dreamblood-- the magic of dreams-- from Gujaareh's denizens. They bring the peace of death to those who need it... and to those judged criminal or corrupt.

But something else haunts Gujaareh's streets. A Reaper, a rogue Gatherer driven to endless madness and hunger from Dreamblood, is preying on the innocent, casting their souls into an eternal nightmare. Ehiru, one of the elder Gatherers, finds himself caught in the middle of a political conspiracy between his priesthood, the holy Prince, and the monstrous Reaper. An insidious corruption runs deeper than Ehiru knows-- and it may be too late to stop. 

The Gatherer’s eyes glittered in her memory, so dark, so cold--but compassionate, too. That had been the truly terrifying thing. A killer with no malice in his heart: it was unnatural. With nothing in his heart, really, except the absolute conviction that murder could be right and true and holy. 

Full review, major spoilers, and content warnings under the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Graphic depictions of violence, gore, death, warfare, and murder-- including death of children and mass murder. Discussions of p*dophilia/grooming (nothing graphic). Brief reference to r*pe. One character is a minor infatuated with a much older character-- not reciprocated. Rigid gender and social roles, including slavery. Magic-induced addiction and withdrawal. Loss of sanity/altered mental states/mind control/gaslighting.

Last year I read N. K. Jemisin's short story collection How Long 'Til Black Future Month?  One of my favorite stories was The Narcomancer, which explored a vibrant, ancient Egypt-inspired world with themes of faith, dreams, violence, and duty. I wanted to read more from the universe, and finally got to do so with The Killing Moon, the first book in the Dreamblood duology.

Jemisin's creativity in worldbuilding is, in my opinion, unmatched in the fantasy genre. I thought Gujaareh was super interesting and fleshed out. While the ancient Egypt inspiration is obvious, it's also clearly an original fantasy culture in its own right. Everything from religious practices to social castes to gender roles to the fucking architecture felt methodical and thought out. The base premise of assassin priests compassionately harvesting magic from people is a fascinating idea and totally gripping. The pacing is a little slow, but I didn't mind so much because learning about the world was so fun.

While there's a hefty amount of worldbuilding exposition in the story, Jemisin doles out information gradually. Bits and pieces of Gujaareen law, etc are introduced at the beginning of each chapter, and usually have a thematic connection to the events of the story. Information is sparing at times, meaning that one doesn't have a full picture of how everything ties together until pretty far into the story. Even something as crucial as the dream-based magic system isn't fully realized until near the end. I like the mystery of this approach, and I can appreciate how difficult it must be to keep the reader invested vs frustrating them with a lack of info. Jemisin consistently does a great job with this in everything I've read by her.

I did want a little bit more from the narcomancy aspect of the story, since dream worlds are such a huge part of Gujaareen religion and culture. In The Killing Moon we see just a few dreamscapes, and then only briefly. There's so much potential with narcomancy as a magic system, yet most of what we see is an outside, "real-world" perspective, which isn't terribly unique compared to other kinds of magic. Dreamblood being a narcotic (heh) with some Extra Fantasy Stuff is interesting, but I wanted more. Perhaps The Shadowed Sun expands on this. 

Characterization is the other Big Thing with this book, as it's very much a character-driven story. Overall I'm torn. There's some things I really liked, and others that felt underdeveloped. I'll go over my favorite things first.

Ehiru is probably the strongest of the main cast, and I really enjoyed his character arc. Here's a guy who is completely devoted to his faith, regardless of what others may think of it. Yet he's not a self-righteous dick. He sees Gathering as a loving and holy thing, so when he errs in the line of duty, it totally consumes him. And things just get worse and worse for him as the story progresses. Say what you will about the Gatherers and the belief system of Gujaareh; Ehiru comes off as intensely caring, devoted, and compassionate, and I genuinely felt bad for him throughout the novel. I'm not religious but these kinds of faith narratives are super interesting to me.

Looking at characterization as a whole, I appreciate The Killing Moon's gray morality. No one in the story is wholly good or evil. The Gatherers are an obvious example, considering they murder people in the dead of night in the name of their Goddess-- but do so to help those in need. Despite being a megalomaniacal mass-murderer, the Prince has believable reasons for his horrific actions, and they’re not wholly selfish. Even the Reaper is a clear victim of Dreamblood's addictive and mind-altering nature; it sometimes regresses into the person it used to be, which is sad and disturbing. There's a lot of moral complexity in the characters and the laws and belief systems they follow. This kind of nuanced writing is much more interesting to read than a black and white approach.

Beyond this, though, I struggled to connect with the other leads. Nijiri's utter devotion to Ehiru is basically his whole character, and while the tragedy of that is interesting for its own reasons, I kept wanting more from him. Sunandi is a good "outsider perspective" character but I had a hard time understanding her at times. For example, the two most important people in her life, Kinja and Lin, die in quick succession. Yet besides a brief outburst when Lin dies, this barely seems to affect her. I get people mourn in all kinds of ways but it seems odd. Her sexual tension with Ehiru is also weird and underdeveloped. Perhaps this is meant to be a callback to The Narcomancer, but it doesn't accomplish much in this narrative.

Another issue I had was emotional connection to minor-yet-important characters. Kinja dies offscreen before the story, yet is supposed to be a big part of Sunandi's past (and thus emotional arc). But he's never even in a flashback, so I never felt WHY he mattered to her. Una-une is the big one, though. It's pretty easy to figure out he's the Reaper by process of elimination, but he's barely in the story outside of a few early mentions. There's this part near the end that's clearly meant to be an emotional moment; Ehiru realizes his (apparently beloved) mentor Una-une is the horrific monster, and thus a foil to the situation between himself and Nijiri. But we never saw the relationship between Ehiru and Una-une, and nothing really established this prior... so there's no emotional payoff. It felt at times like this book was part of a much longer story that for whatever reason we never got to see. In some ways that can be useful to make the world and history seem vast, but here it made me feel emotionally distant from several characters. Perhaps flashbacks with these important characters would have helped bridge the gap. 

Credit where it's due, though; it's clear a lot of the dark, often brutal tone and stylistic flair in The Killing Moon was adapted into Jemisin's fantastic Broken Earth trilogy. Probably the most notable are the cryptic interlude chapters told from the perspective of a mysterious character whose identity is unknown until the end. We learn bits and pieces of the beliefs and lore of the world through excerpts of common laws and wisdom. I also liked the occasional stream-of-consciousness writing during tense or surreal moments. The Broken Earth is an improvement overall, but I can appreciate The Killing Moon for establishing some of these techniques early.

I enjoyed this book overall and am planning to read The Shadowed Sun. While I have some criticisms about The Killing Moon, I think it just suffers in comparison to other works I've read by Jemisin. It was still an entertaining and intense read, with a captivating and original world. It's not a story for the faint of heart, though, so please mind the content warnings.  

[comixconnection]

Choose Your Three Free Comics!

At long, long last...Free Comic Book Day is here! Unlike the usual “first Saturday in May” celebration that has defined the even in normal years, due to issues with the ongoing pandemic the folks in charge have decided to move this year’s celebration back to August 14th. Want a sneak-peak at the books...?

The following titles will be available at Comix Connection on Aug 14th (while supplies last!). Everybody gets to pick three! Unlike previous years, we will NOT be accepting FOOD DONATIONS in exchange for additional comics. Instead we will be collecting monetary donations to give to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. For every DOLLAR donates, you may select an additional free comic book!

We know the line for the FCBD comics can get long (if you want to come in and shop first, you can skip the line and head straight inside!) so in an effort to both entertain you while you’re in that long line and to help it go a little faster by giving you a preview of the various titles so you can decide ahead of time what looks good, the Comix Connection Counter Monkeys have read and reviewed all of the available FCBD books! Take a peek!

CHOOSE YOUR FREE COMICS:

One hundred years before the Skywalker Saga began, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy! In this prelude to the ongoing Star Wars: High Republic Adventures comic series, follow padawans Ram Jomaram, Lula Talisola, and Zeen Mrala as they try to save Lonisa City from the dreaded Nihil. Also read the beginning of Star Wars: High Republic Adventures #1! [All Ages]

“Two brand-new adventures from the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender! In Clearing the Air, Tenzin attempts to teach his rambunctious children a lesson Aang taught him about how to resolve conflicts. In Match Makers, Iroh runs into some trouble with a few friends...that just might lead him to something fun he’s been trying to hide from!” [All Ages]

Who Sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott? gives a sample of the upcoming graphic novel by the same name, a tale telling the true story of the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” Rosa Parks! This excerpt features the immediate aftermath of Rosa’s arrest, and her decision to start a legal battle that would change the course of American freedom! [All Ages]

“There's nothing better than a beautiful sunny day reading comics, so join us for a look at this summer's fantastic all-ages reads, courtesy of Oni Press! From the gentle, magical worlds of The Tea Dragon Tapestry (by K. O'Neill) and The Sprite and the Gardner (by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt), the adventurous magical mystery of Mooncakes (by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu), and the action-packed Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters (Chris and Laura Samnee), there's something for everyone. Sneak a peek at these four fantastic fantasy graphic novels!” [All Ages]

Sonic is 30 years old! Celebrate the anniversary of the world’s fastest hedgehog with this peek into the ongoing Sonic comic series. Things get meta when Amy Rose starts drawing a comic about Sonic, Tails, and their friends...but what will Sonic think when he finds out he’s been turned into a comic book? Prepare for the big 30th Anniversary Sonic Celebration here! [All Ages]

It's the crisis of infinite Archies! Celebrate 80 years of the Riverdale Gang with this tale featuring a dimension-hopping Archie Andrews in his quest to save the multiverse. Then, witness Archie go toe-to-toe with... himself?! May the best Archie win! Plus, get a preview of the newest Archie One-Shot in shops! This title includes several versions of Archie (from classic to TV to horror) and showcases his evolution as a character over eight decades, all while being a tie-in to the company's 80th Anniversary plans. [All Ages]

“Despite the pandemic and the swirl of world events, back issue comics are booming! It's not all record prices (though there are many) or bargain basement deals, but rather it's many different categories! The team that brings you The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide shines the spotlight on this exciting part of the universe of comic books. Includes tips on how to collect, care for your comics, and preserve them, among other things.” [All Ages]

“Get a sneak peek at book four in the bestselling InvestiGators series! With agent Brash trapped in a mysterious coma, the technicians at S.U.I.T. have designed the ultimate replacement: RoboBrash! This high-tech replica has been programmed with all of the original Brash's crime-fighting skills and know-how--but it seems he's got a few bugs in his system! Will Mango and his new partner be enough to stop the giant ants that are on a rampage in the city? Orchestrated by the spaced-out villain, Maestronaut, and Houdino, the dinosaur escape artist, it seems criminals are certainly upping the ANT-e!” [All Ages]

“My name is Grace, not ‘Kyle's little sister’!” Having a good-looking, friendly, outgoing older brother sucks--especially when you're the total opposite: someone who likes staying home and playing video games. Your parents like him better (even if they deny it!) and everyone calls you "Kyle's little sister" while looking disappointed that you're not more like him. Grace was really hoping she'd get to go to a different middle school, but no such luck. At least she has her friends...until he finds a way to ruin that, too! What will Grace have to do to get out of his shadow?! [All Ages]

Jewish mythology has it that when God created the universe, He left one corner of it unfinished. Opinion is divided on why, but everyone agrees that the Unfinished Corner is a dangerous place full of monsters. Twelve-year-old Miriam is too busy preparing for her Bat Mitzvah to care about the Unfished Corner. She spends her days wrestling with whether she even wants to be Jewish--until a peculiar angel appears, whisking her, her two best friends, and her worst frenemy off to this monstrous land with one mission: finish the Unfinished Corner. [All Ages]

“The City of Gloomhaven isn't "safe" at the best of times, but lately, more folks than usual seem to be disappearing. In a city paralyzed by an unknown menace, only one adventuring crew will do: The Jaws of the Lion! Based on the hit games, Gloomhaven and Jaws of the Lion from Cephalofair Games, comes a fantasy adventure with humor and heart.” [All Ages]

The Last Kids on Earth and their friends each tell their own best story of the Monster Apocalypse, including Jack's high-stakes baseball game, Globlet's attempt to take over the world, Quint's bad-day-away invention, Dirk's bragain with a witch, and June and Skaelka's creepy carnival--plus a surprise story from some bad guys on the run... [All Ages]

Being the new kid is tough, even for a superhero/ward and heir to a billionaire, Damian Wayne (aka Robin)! Join Damian as he struggles to learn patience and understanding from the students at Gotham Metro Academy, including star student and all-around Great Guy, Howard! Plus, an adventure of Amethyst, princess of the mystical realm of Gemworld by bestselling authors Shannon Hale and Dean Hale! [All Ages]

To celebrate the new animated TV series premiering on Nickelodeon Fall 2021, Papercutz is releasing a new series of graphic novels entitled The Smurfs Tales. Preview it here with a number of silly short Smurfs Tales, with a back-up appearance by one of Peyo’s other beloved creations: Johan and Peewit, the young page and the court jester. [All Ages]

In Edge of Balance, a new High Republic story set in the wake of the Hyperspace Disaster, meet new Jedi and their enemies 100 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga! Young Jedi Knight Lily Tora-Asi is assigned to help displaced civilians relocate to Banchii in the Outer Rim. She and her padawans will face more threats there than just anxious settlers, from the insidious Drengir to the Nihil! And in Guardian of the Whills, encounter Baze and Chirrut before they join the Rebellion against the Empire in Rogue One! Presiding over the Kyber Temple on Jedha, the Guardians of the Whills had hoped to maintain the balance despite the growing presence of the Empire in their Holy City. Yet when a rebel named Saw Gerrera appears, Baze and Chirrut must decide if they're willing to compromise for peace, or if Saw's plan is too dangerous to risk. Read the first chapter of these two new Star Wars Manga Graphic Novels here! [Teen]

It wouldn’t be the Teen Titans without heightened teenage emotions and romance! Fan favorites Beast Boy and Raven are travelling away from the dwellings they know to find homes they can feel comfortable in. Along the way, their paths cross, sparks fly, and even a destiny or two might be found. [Teen]

“Street Fighter heads back to school, as the world's young fighters flex both their academic and martial arts prowess! Fan favorites Sakura, Ibuki, Karin, Makoto, and Elena come face-to-face with a new challenger - the leather-clad, motorcycle-riding Akira! It's a square-off of (rival) schools in this action-packed one-shot!” [Teen]

[NOT FINAL ART] “This Fall, jump on board here as VALIANT UPRISING overthrows the status quo with new titles, new creators, and new takes on Valiant's most iconic characters! The VALIANT UPRISING FCBD SPECIAL features: A brand new X-O MANOWAR story from Harvey Award-winning writer Dennis Hopeless and breakout star Emilio Laiso. It's the perfect jumping-on point as Valiant's flagship hero prepares to "Upgrade the World"! Then, get a special advance preview of THE HARBINGER #1, an all-new series from co-writers Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly join superstar artist Robbi Rodriguez that promises to take Valiant's psiot rebel in a vivid new direction! Plus, find out how the world's greatest spy responds to being unmasked, hunted, and trapped in a first look at NINJAK #1, the pulse-pounding thrill ride from Ringo Award-winning writer Jeff Parker and legendary artist Javier Pulido. Finally, get a sneak peek from writer Cullen Bunn and artist Jon Davis-Hunt of what's to come when SHADOWMAN returns!” [Teen]

Three epic new Marvel moments begin here! Read the beginning of the upcoming Spider-Man Beyond story that will be starting in Amazing Spider-Man #75! Big changes are coming to everyone’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man...but are they for good, or ill? Also discover the new Venom series, which will take spider symbiosis to whole new levels in the wake of King In Black. And last, sneak a peek at the Luke Cage: City On Fire mini-series, which will pit Luke against not just the Kingpin, but Daredevil too! [Teen]

Gotham is under attack, and it’s by the people claiming to keep it safe! Billionaire Simon Saint has slowly been taking over the institutions of Gotham with his insidious private security Magistrate program. Meanwhile, Batman finds his mind infected by Scarecrow’s fear gas, forcing him to question every decision he makes. It is all leading to the DC-spanning event FEAR STATE that will rock Gotham to its core. Plus, read a preview of Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridely’s I Am Batman series in which the sons of Lucius Fox struggle with the legacy of both their father and Bruce Wayne as they take up the cowl to defend Gotham. [Teen]

Who is Avenger Prime? And what has spurred the chronal collapse that has them sending their army of Deathloks out to save all of space and time? Discover the start of the end here! Then, journey into the unknown with the Incredible Hulk! Bruce Banner never wanted to smash, he wanted to discover. Now, it’s finally time for the Hulk to expand his horizons with Operation: Smashtronaut! [Teen]

In this story from Critical Role, explore a small but important corner from the adventures of the Mighty Nein. Then, in The Witcher, it's an original tale featuring the iconic witcher himself, Geralt! Created in close collaboration with CD Projekt Red! [Teen]

A fascinating graphic adaptation of historian Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny, a collections of essays and reflections on lessons from history and how they can help America steer away from the course of authoritarianism. Recommended for anyone looking to learn more about how tyrants all through history have manipulated people and systems to take away the freedoms of others. [Teen]

“Side A: "BLACK: Interlude" What else was going on the night Kareem Jenkins was shot by police and discovered only Black people have superpowers? Find out in this FCBD one-shot! Side B: "CALEXIT: Hollywood Babylon" Once California refused to be ruled by the US government, its resistance fighters became overnight celebrities. Zora used her infamy for recruiting, but Emmie-X has other ideas.” [Mature]

In 2019, James Tynion IV (Batman) and Werther Dell'Edera (Briggs Land) introduced the world to Erica Slaughter, the iconic monster hunter who came to Archer's Peak, Wisconsin to save the town's children from the monsters only she can see. But Erica is not the only member of the House of Slaughter... With nearly half a million copies sold, Something is Killing the Children has become a true comic phenomenon and this Free Comic Book Day you are invited to enter the House of Slaughter...if you dare. [Teen]

Crewed by teenage geniuses frozen in cryosleep, the JEMISON is on a mission to terraform other worlds and provide hope for the human race. But when the ship is mysteriously stopped over a planet that isn't on any of their maps, the crew finds themselves suddenly awoken ten years early. One half remains behind to try and assess the damage and the other is dispatched to the planet below to figure out the answer to a perilous question: What stopped the ship, and is it friend or foe? [Teen]

As the earth dies, salvation is offered to five thousand children who will be spirited away from our planet’s apocalypse -- but what of the other children, still hoping to find one of the bracelets that give them their ticket off planet? In this wistful one-shot from the sci-fi hit We Live, go into the Broken Lands with a group of friends...but there are four of them, and only one bracelet to be found. How will they decide who gets to leave? Then, preview the Rainbow Bridge graphic novel where Andy has to help his beloved dog Rocket save eternity! [Teen]

“The comic adventures of Max, Chloe, and Rachel from the award-winning video game Life Is Strange continue in this exclusive lead-in to an epic new story arc! This FCBD special features the first comic book appearance of an all-new character who will feature heavily in the Life is Strange universe in 2021! This FCBD issue contains exclusive original material!” [Teen]

“To reclaim the Dungeon that fell to the scheming William Delacour, the plan is simple: Marvin the dragon, Isis, and Herbert the duck must find some magic “fugus purit” and use it to dislodge the current occupants of the fortress. But is this really the Guardian's plan? Our heroes will have to fight against everyone to save the Dungeon. Meanwhile, will Marvin succeed in his engagement blast-of-firebreath 'Tong Deum'? Preview the new series here!” [Teen]

See the next chapter of the super-powered scifi epic The Resistance, and then meeet the “Moths”: a subset of the super-powered Reborn. The pandemic that granted the Reborn their gifts during The Great Death gave power to people like  Emily Kai and the rest of the Moths, too...but the moment they use their gifts, their clock starts ticking and they have six months to live. Also, get a sneak-peek at the just-released Not All Robots futuristic techno-depressive-thriller! [Teen]

The second semester of School for Extraterrestrial Girls is in session! Peer into the lives of Tara Smith (fire lizard!), Misako Sato (extra-dimensional fairy!), Summer Cortez (pink tentacle void beast!), and Ekaterina and Zvenislava (anthropomorphic Russian kittens!). They’re all normal teenage girls...except that they’re all aliens stuck on Earth, and since Tara partially destroyed their old school they’ve been sent to bunk at the School for Extraterrestrial Boys while it’s repaired...that’ll go fine, right? Read the first issue here! [Teen]

This official spinoff manga of Rent-A-Girlfriend, the rom-com turned hit anime, features fan-favorite Sumi, the shy girl longing to come out of her shell. Written and illustrated by original creator Reiji Miyajima! Catch up on the manga before the Rent-A-Girlfriend anime returns for a second season, coming soon! [Teen]

Zom 100 is a violent and funny take on the zombie apocalypse! Its main character, Akira, is so depressed in his soul-crushing job that he uses the undead hordes as motivation to finally complete his bucket list! Also included is a sample of the hit fantasy manga Demon Slayer. [Teen]

“Known as the the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind, E-rank hunter Jinwoo Sung's contribution to raids amounts to trying not to get killed. Unfortunately, between his mother's hospital bills, his sister's tuition, and his own lack of job prospects, he has no choice but to continue to put his life on the line. So when an opportunity arises for a bigger payout, he takes it...only to come face-to-face with a being whose power outranks anything he's ever seen! With the party leader missing an arm and the only healer a quivering mess, can Jinwoo somehow find them a way out?” [Teen]

In the small Pennsylvania town of White Ash, there isn’t much going on aside from mining...and keeping the fact that there are elves and dwarves living in the town secret, of course! In this pre-launch of Season Two of the ongoing series, a romantic rendezvous for the grieving dwarf Alex and mischievous elf Lillian doesn’t go as planned...with potentially disastrous consequences! Also read a preview of The Game, a new series where your every action affects impacts the score of your life! Plus a sneak-peak at some vampiric troubles in colonial America in Stake! [Teen]

World of Zorro gives readers a peak at the upcoming titles for the legendary masked swashbuckler, both new stories (that range from the familiar to supernatural horror) as well as newly-translated classic tales! [Teen]

For FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, enjoy this special expanded edition of the hit IMAGE series, STRAY DOGS! Stray Dogs is a comic thriller that features art inspired by classic Don Bluth-style animation, telling the story of a group of dogs brought together by a mysterious loner. Rather than behave like four-legged humans, the brilliance of Stray Dogs is that it gets inside the heads of its canine characters, showing the human world from their perspective. Unique, entertaining, and creepy. [Teen]

The undead Vampirella has been around since 1969, and as the celebrations of her 50th anniversary draw to a close, Dynamite presents a reprint of the first issue of their series that kicked-off her modern adventures! [Teen+]

Take an inside look at everyone’s favorite bipedal shark god, King Shark (aka Nanaue)! Suicide Squad’s many-toothed muscle is currently inside Belle Reve prison, but he won’t remain there for long. PLUS: a sneak peak at the just-released Suicide Squad miniseries Get Joker! [Mature]

“After 20 years of antics coming out of Sunnyvale trailer park, the underground TV phenomenon Trailer Park Boys is finally coming to comics! Full of short stories and activity pages, several of comics' finest join to create a series of comic book specials in 2021 and beyond honoring Ricky, Bubbles and Julian and everything fans have come to love about the series.”  [Mature]

Fungirl is a humor comic that is as unpredictable and hilarious as it is observant and smart. Cartoonist Elizabeth Pich’s creation does as much smashing the patriarchy as she does dreaming of delicious donuts and being spit on by llamas. [Mature]

“Tensions between the clans are high, so when Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire under her wing she finds herself in over her head and dragged into a massive undead conspiracy! Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the city, a rebellious found-family of clan-less vampire cast-outs investigates a vicious killing.” [Mature]

“Preview the forthcoming full color, original Space Pirate Captain Harlock series from ABLAZE, personally overseen by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto!  In this brand-new Captain Harlock adventure, planet Earth is threatened by an upcoming invasion by the Sylvidres and despite being banished as a pirate, Captain Harlock won't give up trying to save the world. Will Captain Harlock and his crew manage to solve this mystery and save the Earth from yet another menace?  Also includes teasers for 3 highly anticipated upcoming manga/manhwa releases from ABLAZE, including The Breaker Vol 1 omnibus (critically acclaimed martial arts manhwa), Versus Fighting Story Vol 1 (Capcom e-sports shonen manga) and Crueler Than Dead Vol 1 (zombie horror seinen manga).” [Mature] 

“An evil so profound it threatens all mankind... the mightiest heroes on the planet uniting to defend us all... a secret crisis of such utter finality that a countdown to civil or infinite war seems unavoidable... but have you ever wondered what really happens during Crossovers? The Seven, Payback, Teenage Kix, Fantastico and every other supe on Earth team up for an annual event like no other... and where the supes go, can a certain "five complications and a dog" be far behind? Vought-American prepare to make their move, in a story that will change the world of the Boys forever: Herogasm #1. The first-ever Boys spin-off mini-series features the pairing of Ennis with Hitman artist John McCrea and covers by Boys artist and co-creator Darick Robertson!” [Mature]

“The most eagerly-anticipated series of 2021 gets the FCBD treatment with this ALL-NEW "bonus" issue of the series! Featuring 33 pages of comics produced exclusively for FCBD, from the creator of Hip Hop Family Tree and X-Men: Grand Design, designed as a perfect entry point for new readers and a must-have for those already on board. Aided by the anonymous dark web and nearly untraceable crypto-currency, there has emerged a subculture of criminals who live-stream and patronize webcam murders for entertainment. Who are the murderers? Who are the victims? Who is the audience? How do we stop it? An outlaw, splatterpunk masterpiece, as seen on Piskor's YouTube channel sensation, Cartoonist Kayfabe!” [Mature]

“An award-winning comic and soon to be Netflix anime series!  When dusk arrives in the city of Manila, that's when you become the most likely prey of the underworld. Kidnappers and thieves will be the least of your worries. Beware the criminals that can't be bound with handcuffs nor harmed with bullets.  Beware the ones that crave your blood, those who hold your heart ransom, and the ones that come to steal your soul. When crime takes a turn for the weird, the police call Alexandra Trese. Featuring a preview from TRESE Vol 2: Unreported Murders, a section on the forthcoming Netflix TRESE anime series launching this summer (including an interview with Director Jay Oliva), bonus pages with w/ background about the monsters of Philippine myth as told by TRESE creators Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, and a teaser on TRESE Vol 3: Mass Murders, coming this Sept from ABLAZE!” [Mature]

“2000 AD Presents All-Star Judge Dredd is a thrill-powered showcase of the past and shocking present of the iconic lawman of the future! Witness the birth of the world of Judge Dredd in an incendiary preview of upcoming prequel graphic novel Dreadnoughts by Michael Carroll with art by Watchmen's John Higgins. Fan-favourite Judge Hershey travels to the ends of the earth to dispense her own brand of justice in long-anticipated blockbuster spin-off, Hershey: Disease by Rob Williams (Suicide Squad) and Simon Fraser (Doctor Who). Along-side these teases for Fall 2021 epics enjoy a bone-rattling all new stand-alone Dredd caper from elite writer Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk, Marvel's Empyre) and Caspar Wijngaard (Star Wars, Home Sick Pilots)!” [Teen]

“Four titanic tales of pure fun and entertainment for everyone to enjoy! First up. It's no dog and pony show here! Bringing back the iconic puppets from the San Francisco Bay Area "Charlie and Humphrey"!! The modern-day Gumby and Pokey! A true love for al ages featuring a tale by Justin Sane and John Hageman! Next up is "Red Dawn" Written and created by Brandon McKinney, with inks by Bill Anderson and vibrant colors from Ross Hughes!! The government has created the first "controlled" superhero doing the bidding of a shadow operation until things go bad leaving our hero to blame and now on the run. The following story is only exclusive to this FCBD edition. Written by Greg Boucher and illustrated by Victor Moya they bring you "Rock and Roll Biographies: FIGHt" See how a troubled Rob Halford leaves the world biggest heavy metal band to form his own supergroup and take metal back!! Our last preview is written by Mel Smith, illustrated by Frank Cirocco/Alex Sheikman and hand colored by Gerhard! "Becoming Frankenstein" takes down the journey of a troubled Victor Frankenstein as he grieves the loss of his mother while harvesting the body parts of victims to create life again for his monster! Learn the tales of the victims and who they were before they became what becomes Frankenstein's ultimate creation! : This will be the only edition to feature this Rock and Roll Biographies story featuring FIGHT “ [Mature]

Enjoyed your Free Comic Book Day books? Want to read more? Let your friendly neighborhood Comix Connection Counter Monkey know which ones caught your eye, and we’ll be happy to direct you to the next part of the story!

[onyxedskies]

Happy birthday Dimitri!

All was quiet in the Fhirdiad palace, the festivities to celebrate the kings twenty-fifth birthday having ended hours before. Now, only the people Dimitri trusted and held closest to his heart remained in his palace, all crowded around a fire place to fight against the chill of Fhirdiad towards the end of the Ethereal Moon. 

Dimitri sat beside Byleth, an arm wrapped around his beloveds shoulder as his closest friends - the Blue Lions of 1180 - got settled. Many of them held packages to give to their king, despite his best efforts at telling them not to get anything. 

Seemingly sensing the fact that he had noticed the presents and seemed light-heartedly exasperated, Byleth laughed a bit. “Did you really expect them to listen?” she quietly asked the blonde as she ran her fingers through his hair.

“Not really, no. But a man can hope,” he murmured in response, earning another soft chuckle from the woman beside him. 

“Aww, Dimitri, you don’t mean that,” Annette said from her spot beside Felix, humor dancing in her eyes along with the light from the fire. “You always cherish the things we get us.”

“Ah, you caught me,” he said, an earnest smile making its way onto his face as his friends began to laugh. 

Despite the Blue Lions closeness, they weren’t able to all gather together like this very often. Ashe and Ingrid, being the captains of the Faerghus Knights, were often out on missions around the continent as well as occassionally off of it, having meetings in Almyra and Brigid twice a year. Dimitri would be lying if he said that he didn’t miss the nights the eight students and their professor would spend in the Blue Lions classroom by the fire, sharing stories and growing closer both before adn during the war. Now, he wouldn’t be surprised if they could pass as family.

Dimitri was pulled from his thoughts as he heard the door open, smiling and chuckling slightly as he saw Mercedes carrying a cake in as she walked in. “Sorry I’m late; the orphans at the church wanted to help make the cake, so the kitchen had been a mess. I helped clean up before coming here.”

“No need to apologize, Mercedes,” Dimitri said. “Make sure to tell the orphans that I thank them.”

“I will, don’t worry,” Mercedes replied, a happy twinkle in her eyes. “I’m sure they’ll be delighted.”

“Now that Mercie’s here, we can get started!” Annette said with a bright grin, earning laughter from the group.

“I suppose we can give our present first,” Ingrid said, glancing at Sylvain for the package. “We weren’t entirely sure what to get you, but I think this will do.”

Dimitri took the bag from his friend, digging through the paper that was concealing what was inside. He lifted it, and his smile softened as the cloak was revealed. It had the Faerghus emblem on the back, big and large like many of his cloaks had. But in silver thread beneath it, the names of the nine Blue Lions were sewn on, glimmering in the firelight. “It’s wonderful... thank you both,” he said, looking up at the blonde and redhead who were smiling at him.

“We figured you wouldn’t even think of getting something like that but would treasure it if you did get it,” Sylvain explained with a smile. 

“You were right,” Dimitri chuckled. “Thank you so much.”

“Of course,” Ingrid said with a smile.

Byleth took it from his grasp before swinging it around his muscular figure, kissing his cheek as she secured it around his shoulders. 

“It looks great, Your Majesty,” Ashe said, chuckling at the venomless glare Dimitri sent his way.

“You can just call me Dimitri, Ashe,” he said with a chuckle. “The knights aren’t here.”

“I know,” he said, laughing a bit at the eye roll he recieved.

“I’m guessing you two got him at least one present?” Byleth said, raising an eyebrow at Dedue and Ashe. 

“Of course we did,” Dedue said with a smile. He then handed a package to the king, who took it gently.

The gift was a book, a relatively new one based off the cover. He looked at the title, eyes widening slightly. 

“Wingless Hegemon... is this...?” he asked, looking at Ashe. He grinned back at the king.

“The first copy of Bernadetta’s book,” he said with a nod. 

“How did you know I wanted to read it?” he asked the silver-haired knight. Bernadetta had sided with the resistance, betraying Edelgard and working side-by-side with Claude. When he heard that the timid purple-haired girl was releasing a book, he had found himself wanting to hear it. But he hadn’t said anything about it; how had Ashe figured it out?

“I overheard you telling Byleth,” he said with a shrug, recieving muffled laughter from Mercedes and Ingrid and a cackle from Byleth as Dimitri flushed a bit.

“Regardless, thank you,” Dimitri replied, smiling earnestly at the two men. 

“Of course,” Dedue said, nodding with a smile.

Mercedes gave a small smile, though it didn’t hide the motherly mischief that gleamed in her eyes as she came forward and handed Dimitri a package. He opened it, raising an eyebrow as he accepted the gift. He opened it warily, before his eyes softened upon seeing the gift.

It was a dagger, oh-so-similar to the one he had given Edelgard all those years ago. But there were subtle differences; he noticed the letters spelling everyones names from the class of 1180 on the hilt with his and Byleths names embedded on the blade itself. “Mercedes...”

“I’m glad you like it,” she said with a smile. “It was the childrens idea; they had all heard the story of the dagger from Sylvain, and they thought that maybe the dagger would be a reminder of the good times instead of just dwelling on the bad.”

“I love it,” Dimitri said. “Though, you should really give yourself more credit. It’s clear the thought of the names was your doing; I wouldn’t doubt that the dagger would be the childrens idea, though.”

“Saw right through me, huh,” she said, giggling slightly. “All is well.”

“Us next!” Annette said, practically bouncing in her seat. Felix had an affectionate smile on his face as she crossed the room, handing the king a package. It was small, but based on both Felix and Annette’s faces, it almost definitely had sentimental value.

He discovered he was right upon opening the gift, feeling a tear prick at the corner of his eye as he saw the drawing that had been hidden by the wrapping paper. It was small, but he instantly recognized the scene it was depicting. 

It was five children; he recognized it as himself, Felix, Ingrid, Glenn, and Sylvain. It was a scene he hadn’t thought about in a long time, but he immediately remembered it. The five of them had their backs to the artist, all gazing up at the sky. There were stars in the sky, and he remembered Glenn teaching the four younger ones about them.

“Felix... Annette...” he said, looking up at them.

“I had a dream remembering the scene,” he explained. “I know that Glenn’s ghost haunts you; that much was clear back in the war, and I doubt it’s gone away. I figured - hoped - that it would serve as a reminder that his ghost self isn’t him.”

Dimitri felt a tear roll down his face, quickly wiping it away. “Thank you,” he said, looking at the couple as they smiled back at him. “Thank you, all of you.”

The room quickly lapsed into the controlled chaos that everyone knew so well and loved so much. Dimitri missed this; he was glad he could do this with everyone again.

The night continued on, and before long each of them drifted off to sleep surrounded by each other.

They were happy once again.