#basically childe's whale isn't a whale

[blood-orange-juice]

I can't translate this.

[grubus]

Hi! do you have any svsss fic recs? I really like syonr and I'm curious about what you like to read!

*rubs hands together*

Alright alright. Now some of these are probably already well known, but still!!

I make no secret of this, but as Prim is my favorite author and very cool friend, I will HAPPILY recommend these first;

Masochism is probably THE qijiu fic of all time, absolutely adore it. It's set in their disciple era, with YQY just grabbing at whatever scraps he can even as SQQ tries to push the boundaries and see what will make him BREAK. So, so good. Happy ending!

Tarnished Gold is my favorite original Binghe fic, and I hope more people give it a chance. I think the summary scare some but it's GREAT! I love it! Binghe's thought process, the way someone perceives SY as GYX from an outside perspective, and omg LPM is such a great character in it...

of course I recommend basically everything Prim writes.

(Shen Yuan Voice) It's not gay if- by Nachtofthedead is porn. Just straight up modern time BingYuan porn. It is filthy and great and *thumbs up* love it. Bingge decides to play along with SY's delulu thoughts on gayness and everyone are happy.

The Many Trials and Tribulations of Ming Fan by The Feels Whale (miscellea) is great and I think often overlooked. A oneshot from MF's point of view on how to handle SQQ's wife beam, deeply funny to me. They also wrote-

Dust and Broken Grains , which is basically "Binghe discovers early that Crying Works" and it becomes a fix-it fic. but there's more to it than that!!! Love it a lot.

Celestial Afterglow by elanor_pam is just. So good. SO GOOD. It's hilarious, it uses the System in a way few fics ever does and it has me cackling every time I read it.

What Is Seen by CaveteDracones is a fix-it with a side of whump fic, where SQQ's trial at HHP goes VERY differently. Truth serum! Torture! System Reveal! Yay!

Dual Cultivate or Date by acernor is THE BingLiuShen fic out there. Adore it. I'm sure many have already appreciated it, but it doesn't hurt to remind others that it exists!

A Child Once by Tossawary is a very, very good BingQiu and MoShang fic, and I honestly love not only BingQiu being forced to play parents, but also the MobeiBing friendship? Great, amazing. All the relationships in this is great, and I know most have heard of Tossawary but if you haven't given this specific fic a chance you SHOULD.

easy fix by airplanelanding (TheCourtSorcerer) is a smutty cumplane oneshot, where they are friends with benefits (approved by their husbands) for whenever said husbands are unavailable for Dual Cultivation Cure. This fic just really captures the snark and is also *chefs kiss*

with the tail of the snake by tciddaemina is a very, very good monsterfucker!SQQ fic where Binghe became a dragon in the abyss. I LOVE IT. It's a WIP, but *clenches fist* it's just so good. Soft and gooey and so HHHH yes good. I would probably put all their svsss fics in here but I am running out of time!!

.... but I have enough time to recommend my other favorite fic from them, which isn't even svsss! And is how I found them to begin with!

come all ye mighty is a Solo Leveling fic! It's Igris/Jinwoo, from Igris' pov, and I love the world building in it. As they say in the author's notes, it's a little bit of an au since it doesn't follow the original plot of the comic, but I reread this so, so often. 10/10, if you like solo leveling at all please give it a go I BEG OF YOU.

[gold-rhine]

i wanted to talk about neuvi's expressions, bc i thought about it in depth while writing him (and other characters perception of him). he's canonically not very expressive, but he's not "stoic" in human kind of sense, i.e. he's not suppressing his emotions on purpose.

instead, it's bc dragon expressions don't look like human ones. like, all of us who ever had pets know that their faces are expressive, you can read their mood by eyes and eyebrows and mouth, but the emotion will not look exactly like it would on a human. like, happy cats will make their lil :3 face, but if you just put it on human mouth, it wouldn't be :D, it'd be just a tiny smile.

and neuvi is not a cat, he's a plesiosaur dragon, so he has even less visible facial expressions. think about it as like. he's a giant lizard whose face is being motion-captured like when they shoot actors for cgi characters, and then these lizard expressions are used to animate a human face. to human its gonna look like barely micro-expressions, no matter how emotional the lizard is. and a lot of human expressions like blushing just don't exist. embarrassed and awkward neuvi still gonna have intimidating resting bitch face >:|, he's just gonna be rambling out loud.

so, neuvi's expressions guide. cw: suicide mention (focalors)

default one, resting bitch face, chin up, mouth slightly downturn, brows on the verge of furrowed, looks vaguely mad and judgemental, but actually isn't. kinda >:|

actually confrontational, head lowered, eyes narrowed, brows actually furrowed, lips tighter, pictures from: stopping primordial sea(first 2), shady at childe, fighting the whale

deeply sad, mouth basically as on neutral, slightly downturn, eyes narrowed, but brows aren't furrowed (i.e. not in >: position), picturted: focalors is telling him she's gonna kill herself and focalors just killed herself

absolutely shocked: what would look like neutral on someone else, eyes slightly widened, brows in closest position to raised, pictured: focalors is killing herself right this moment in front of him

neuvi smiling, in good mood, tiiiny bit upturned mouth, relaxed brows and eyes, pictured: melusine POV and water tasting

tldr, when you want to portray neuvi having emotions, think "what would that emotion look like on a lizard's face". if lizard can't very well express that emotion by face alone, neuvi also can't.

[fatkish]

Hello, can I request some inner child HCs featuring Gang Orca? Where he saves a kid who has a quirk that makes them appear frightening, like, they turn into a monster when their adrenaline spikes and/or they get emotionally distressed. They were abandoned by parents who couldn't deal with the child's "outbursts", had a panic attack, and turned into the monster form. Heroes are called in to fight what appears to be a villain threatening civilians (actually just a child in a large, frightening body who is struggling to regulate their emotions). Orca realizes what's up and stops other heroes from attacking before he calms the kid down.

Inspired by how I'm haunted by the fact that Orca is on the heroes that look like villains list and is secretly upset that kids find his appearance scary. Let him adopt one with similar struggles who isn't scared of him!

Okay so I’m thinking that the reader would be similar to The Hulk as where the child will unintentionally transform after a certain amount of adrenaline is in their system and I’m thinking they’d be a buffer and more muscular version of RWBY’s Grimm Hound

Basically it’s got super intelligence and can even grow wings but with Hulk’s strength. That’s the idea.

Gang Orca x Child Reader:

Monstrous transformation

It was a disaster. Carnage and wreckage everywhere. You had been living on the streets since your drunken father kicked you out for being a monster. You had a hard time dealing with your quirk. You knew it was some kind of transformation quirk, but you had yet to fully transform. Until you did. You had been minding your own business walking down an alleyway towards where you had been sleeping. You hadn’t eaten much in the last few days and you hadn’t slept well. All of this was too much for your child brain so you broke down. You had a panic attack.

As you sat clutching at your head you didn’t notice how you seemingly grew and changed. Your bones shifted and realigned, muscles grew and redeveloped, you grew shard claws and fans as you turned into a beast. So caught up in your emotions, you were startled by a passerby who screamed at the sight of you. You then lost it. As something primal decided to act on the rage and pain you felt and built up over the years.

A hulking monstrous bear, wolf, human hybrid thing that looked like it was born from nightmares tore out of the alleyway past the innocent man and into the street where traffic pulled to a stop as people began to scream at the terrifying creature. The creature began to destroy its surroundings and cut cars in half, throwing them everywhere, damaging buildings as it wrecked everything and people scurried away in fright.

Heroes were called in to deal with this supposed villain. Amount the heroes was Gang Orca. As the creature threw heroes out of the way and tore through them it dodged their attacks and took heroes down. It wasn’t until Gang Orca used his sonic attack on the creature that it finally seemed affected and halted as it shook its head. Your head was splitting as the ringing got worse. It managed to snap you out of whatever was happening to you. As you decreased in size and eventually became your normal self, you fainted. Seeing that it was actually a child, Gang Orca quickly realized that what happened was most likely unintentional and was the result of a powerful quirk that got out of control for a child.

He took the child to a hospital where the police informed him about the child’s living condition and situation. When he thought about how everyone was scared of you, even your own father, he decided to take you in. When you wake up you start to panic as you’re in an unfamiliar place. Gang Orca hears this and enters your room and tries to calm you down. Upon seeing the Orca hero the first thought that comes to your mind, comes out of your mouth.

“Can you talk to whales?”

You look up at him with that childish curiosity and wonder. He can’t help but smile seeing that a kid isn’t actually afraid of him for once. He chuckles and pulls a chair up to your bed and sits down at your bedside.

“I don’t think I can, but I’ve never really tried.”

“Do killer whales like you and think you’re one of them? Oh, do you eat seal meat? Are seals scared of you? oh oh, do sharks swim away from you cause they think you’re an Orca? Would a pod of Orcas accept you as one of them? How fast can you swim? Do you like cold water or warm water better? Can you breathe under water like a whale? Who would-“

Gang Orca just laughed a deep belly laugh at your onslaught of questions. He even slapped his knee in delight as he tried to rein in his laughter. He smiled at you as you tilted your head in curiosity, not able to understand what was so funny.

“Alright, I’ll answer your questions one at a time. But after I do that, do you think you we could talk about you a bit and that quirk of yours?”

“Um… sure. But my questions come first okay”

“Okay. Well first, I’ve never met any killer whales but I guess maybe I should. I don’t eat seal meat, I eat normal food like beef and pork and yes, I’d probably assume that seals are afraid of me. I’ve never been close enough to a shark to tell if they’re afraid of me. I think I’d have to find a pod of Orcas to see if they’d accept me but I doubt they would. I can swim pretty fast, at least faster than average. I don’t really have a preference on water temperature but I guess I’d have to say cold. And as for breathing like a whale, I do have a blowhole, whales don’t have gills since they’re not fish so they breathe air like you and me.”

“Wow, you’re so cool”

“Why thank you”

“Can I be as strong as you someday?”

“Well actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. How would you feel about coming to live with me and having me help you with that quirk of yours? I’d be your new legal guardian and I’ll take care of you and help you with everything. How’s that sound”

“Does that mean no more sleeping on the ground outside?”

“Yeah, we’ll go and get you a nice soft bed and we can even decorate your room however you want.”

“Can I have glow in the dark stars on the ceiling? And a pet bat?”

“Yes to the stars but I’m afraid bats aren’t the best pets but we can probably talk about some other kind of pet once we get a better understanding of your quirk. You wouldn’t want to accidentally hurt an animal.”

“I guess that’s true. I’m kinda tired. Will you stay here?”

Gang Orca smiled as you yawned and looked at him with tired eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll be here when you wake up”

“Okay, goodnight”

“Goodnight”

[dragonpyre]

PLEASE elaborate on those ideas (preferable dc but if you want to also talk abt the 911 ones absolutely go for it!!!)

I'm going to be evil and list every single one of them (all of these are Jason Todd btw)

Vamp Jason. He a lil guy (like 12) and doesn't realize he was turned into a baby vamp until like four months later when all the blood in his body starts to die off and he has nothing to replace it with. Cue frantic worry from his newly adopted family.

Selkie au. Bruce keeps Jason's pelt after he dies, which does fucked up things to Jason when he comes back without it.

Shifter au. to survive the streets, Jason stays in his shifted form. Dick, being like 15 or smth, sees a lil puppy and goes "aw, baby <3" and accidentally kidnaps a child. It's cool though, he's fine with it.

Emergency foster placement. Since Bruce is regestered as a foster parent, in theory he could foster an emergency placement. Well, this nine year old kid just lost his mom, and his dad's in jail. Free baby.

Banshee Jason. During UtRH, Bludhaven gets nuked or whatever. Jason, being a banshee, can feel the mass amount of death happening fairly close by and it's not a good time for anyone.

Kid Jason saves Batman from drowning after a massive moral dilemma.

Lab rat Jason. Ra's likes human experimentation, and now he has free test subject thanks to weird resurrection.

Bruce hires Slade to kill the Joker.

Amnesia Jason number who fucking knows. Fresh out of the pit Jason has literally no memories and Talia just goes "ok fine. new son. whatever". But Jason being dramatic and a teenager eventually figures out he's connected to Bruce somehow and decides to hunt him down with a sword instead of like. calling the guy.

Jason and Cass twins!!!!! Fresh from abandoning her dad, Cass finds a boy who looks eerily familiar and decides to stick with him. They're inseparable now.

Jason has Laz Pit powers. This one's my white whale. I wanna write it so bad but the motivation just isn't there. Basically Ra's commissions/hires a bunch of pregnant women to inject Lazarus juice into themselves to see if it will affect their growing fetus. His goal is to make a self healing fetus for ~mysterious reasons~. Only baby to survive to full term is Jason. Sheila drops him off at the league, gets paid, and leaves. Bruce witnesses all that while training there and is like "hey wtf". So with Talia's help, they manage to sneak both himself and the baby out with no one noticing. Eventually Bruce notices that Jason can heal from any injury in a matter of moments, thanks to the fucked up science done to him in utero. Blah blah blah, years pass, he adopts Dick, and so on. Then Talia shows up one day with a warning that her father is suspicious and then the real plot begins >:3.

Shoved through a portal. Dick and Jason get shoved through a portal by Bruce as their dimension is collapsing and they end up somewhere completely foreign and on their own. Angst. Sadness. Grief. Maybe they're in the MCU now, idk.

The Lazarus Pit regrew Jason's wisdom teeth and now he needs to get them extracted again.

Catalina Flores is Jason's mom via time travel. Yes, Dick is his dad.

Really dark shit I wont put in this cuz massive dead dove. But let's just say Sionis does smth REALLY fucked up during UtRH and that's how Bruce finds out about Jason.

Jason gets migraines. He doesn't know they're migraines cuz he never had them before dying so he thinks a wizard cursed him.

Jason gets drunk, gets arrested, gets ID'd as the dead Jason Todd, and Bruce has to pick him up from the drunk tank. Jason barfs on Bruce's shoes.

[noellevanious]

trying to lay out every single different plot point that's been cropping up since the start of the Succession Arc in Hunter x Hunter:

The Succession War itself. 14 princes (children of the current Kakin Patriarch), those princes' mothers, and their bodyguards, numbering anywhere from four or five to dozens, all trying to kill eachother discreetly and become the Heir to the Kakin Royal Crown

Kurapika, ostensibly the main character of this arc, is the 14th Prince's lead Nen Bodyguard. His Prince is a baby, while the other Princes are almost all fully grown adults, so in effect, he's protecting a completely helpless child and the mother from death.

The level of nen awareness/understanding varies based on the Princes' lineage, but all of them have at least one bodyguard that practices Nen, along with a weaker guard that is more just a militaristic guard.

Kurapika got himself hired specifically to hunt Tserriednich, the fourth prince, who he believes has the final pair of Kurta Clan eyes.

The princes themselves also have varying levels of knowledge and understanding of Nen, with Tserriednich specifically - characterized as a philanthropist psychopath, his introduction has him butchering random women and calling them pigs - being a big cliffhanger of "Oh my god if this fucked up dude learns how to use Nen properly everybody in the world will fucking die"

Nen Beasts are also a part of the royal family conflict, as each Prince, who may have a Nen power of their own already, also has a separate "Guardian Beast" summoned by a Nen Ritual that capped off the arc, explicitly to aid in the succession war. So far, it's been clarified that, while they all seem to have different "abilities", they're not constantly visible, they prevent each Prince from killing themselves or escaping the Black Whale (the giant whale-shaped ship the arc is taking place on), or escaping the succession war in any way that isn't being outright assassinated or murdered.

Most of the higher-level Princes are just trying to kill eachother through their guards, as each Prince also has guards stationed around their living quarters from other Princes' enclaves. This has been the main way the few princes that have already been killed went out. Tserriednich specifically hasn't really done anything yet, he's just scary because everybody knows he's a monster

The lower-level princes are trying to work out truces and alliances, because they know they'll be killed easily by the older princes' and their giant enclaves of Nen expert killers.

To aid this and create a standstill, Kurapika has established a sort of Nen learning group, "introducing" the concept of Nen to every single Prince and their guards (basically "We all know what Nen is now so you can't just kill each-other willy-nilly and get away with it). The higher-tier Princes are playing along mainly to figure out how to off Kurapika and break the standstill.

Lower on the Black Whale, Three mafia families lead by illegitimate Kakin Royal Family Members are essentially waging a succession war of their own.

The Phantom Troupe (Deuteragonists) are in this section of the arc, because Hisoka is here and they want to kill him. They (specifically Nobunaga, Feitan, and Phinks, the others aren't showing up much) are currently allying with the Xi-yu family (as they are helping them find Hisoka), who is also allying with the Cha-R family. These two families so far are basically your run of the mill Mafia Yakuza groups with Nen powers.

They are all allied to take down the Heil-ly Family, the final family, and a really fucked up group of mass murderers, with a nen ability that specifically gets stronger the more their subordinates kill. Otherwise it's a pretty standard power-struggle kinda situation

Beyond Netero, Isaac Netero's son and the reason this venture to the Dark Continent started, is currently being held prisoner by the Zodiacs, while they traverse the seas enroute to said Dark Continent. However, it's becoming clear that he's also connected to the Kakin princes in some way.

(Also, one of the current Zodiacs is revealed to be a traitor. It happens pretty early and hasn't factored in at all yet, but I won't spoil it just in case)

If I missed anything (I tried to focus on stuff that continues being relevant, so no mention of "this family controls x y and z" factoids) please feel free to add on :)

[rei-ismyname]

X-MEN #12 Review

Alien bounty hunters came for Cyclops last issue. We find out why and wrap that up, learn more about Alpha Flight, and Corsair continues to be a useless motherfucker. I suspect this issue and the last were killing time until X-Manhunt next issue - as both are quite skippable. Let's talk about why and discuss the future.

Alpha Flight were indeed jailed during Fall of X, for supporting the mutant members of the team and mutants in general by subverting the sentinel/camps from the inside. Interesting that they're still prisoners and the team is basically a Thunderbolts program. I would have thought that ORCHIS and their laws would be seen in a different light after they tried to extinguish all life on the planet. Maybe they are, but no pardons for Alpha Flight. Shaman is a conscientious objector to this bullshit, and good for him.

Heather is still in a coma so their handler, Agent Arsenault, is the new Vindicator. Nobody respects her though. It's nice to get a follow up on their bittersweet ending in Fall of X, but this book has enough characters that aren't getting much attention. Having Alpha Flight take up half the issue is a choice. I haven't forgotten that Mac joined ORCHIS briefly either.

On to the X-Men! They're in deep shit, with the bounty hunters, aided by Xanto Starblood, having prepared for Cyke, Magik and Juggernaut well enough to neutralize them. He remembers his time teaching at the Hellfire School run by those infuriating child billionaires, especially Quentin and Idie. Dude has really good intelligence on the team, though I guess he'd just have to check Earth media. They've been acting publicly. Quentin and Idie never find out he's here and thus don't comment on him or anything from Wolverine and the X-Men. He's a war criminal, if I remember correctly, but he doesn't seem especially dangerous here.

Turns out they want Scott for the obvious reason - as a way to manipulate Phoenix. I'm not giving myself points for calling it, what else could it be? Interesting phrasing by Starblood here, that Scott is 'one of the few [Earthers] with Galactic importance.' Not sure how true it is, as Earth seems to produce a lot of people who are galactically important. Nova, Star Lord, Adam Warlock, Carol Danvers, Hulkling and Wiccan, the FF, most Avengers and X-Men. Scott is in a unique position as the concubine of a God, but I'm skeptical how well thought out this plan is. Sounds like a good way to get incinerated or upgrade a Phoenix problem to a Dark Phoenix problem. I suppose Thanos rules the galaxy, so dumb ideas reign.

These idiots don't get to enjoy the fruits of their plan for very long though, as they didn't plan for Canadians. Temper has been holding back to avoid burning the rest of the team, but Vindicator and Guardian can bring finesse to that strategy. They can manipulate electromagnetic fields, apparently. I know someone else who used to be able to do that, but for reasons he's on the sidelines and Alpha Flight save the day.

Feels like hanging a lampshade on it, which irks me. 'Can we get Magneto for dinner?' 'We already have Alpha Flight at home.'

The uber capable bounty hunters of last issue are gone. In their place are passive and ignorant chumps that are easily defeated. The Alphans take out one heart chamber, which I assume is vital to ship functions. I zoned out a lot in the Brood saga. Storm would know. Captain Fucko isn't bothered, because there's a second heart chamber. I wonder what happens next.

Extreme Zoologist sounds pretty cool, like a space Steve Irwin or something. I remember Starblood being very proud of his doctorates in Xenobiology, Xenozoology etc. It doesn't really matter, he's a smarmy fuck who's tempting fate by pointing out the single point of failure for the space whale they're on. Psylocke is right where she needs to be to cause that failure and it's not guarded at all. Not a lot of tension here. The good guys identify what they need to do and just do it without difficulty or resistance.

Heart chambers destroyed, prisoners easily retrieved by Magik, Acanti crashes into the snow. Ilyana even has time to throw up a shaka and call them losers (which I love.) Problem solved! A little too easily, but it's the price we pay for 4 intro pages of Alpha Flight and their team dynamics. They weren't narratively necessary, and interestingly the letters page has Brevoort say Mackay really wanted to get Alpha Flight into the book but he said no way. As much as anything Tom Brevoort has to say is worth taking at face value, it's pretty strange.

This was a choice, and we know more about what Alpha Flight wants than we do for Glob, Ben Liu, Xorn, Jennifer Starkey, and Magneto (unless you've read the Infinity Comics and that Avengers issue.) This wide focus at the expense of main characters is a problem several books in From The Ashes have, so I have to assume that editorial wants this. Writers only have so much latitude (though that changes depending on who's in charge) and Mackay/Simone have to work around two crossover events within the first 13 issues. I'll come back to this.

As is standard for anyone not from Earth, they think it's a shithole. It's a shithole with a lot of superpowered individuals, though, as Starblood is faced with when crawling out of the wreckage. Poor space whale. Nice to see heroes side by side (and Guardian) without a single punch thrown at each other. Game over for this bozo, crisis averted. The implication is that this crew of dozens came to Earth at someone else's behest to capture Scott to get at Jean. They failed, of course, but the Phoenix is considered an existential crisis by most space empires, especially the Shi'Ar. I wonder if this will be an ongoing thing. Something for Scott and Jean to talk about, and that's 3 times in 11 issues The Phoenix has been mentioned. It's certainly set up, as so many things are, so as ever we'll see where it goes.

Scott is grateful the drama didn't reach Merle, which definitely tracks. Corsair the useless gets to collect the bounty on the bounty hunters, which is probably a lot of money. Yay for him, I guess. He didn't help even a little bit, I'd even say he was a hindrance. It's not clear whether he's sticking around, but it's not likely. I think it would be very interesting to have Scott's bio dad around when having it out with his fallen adopted father. Cyke thanks Mac and offers to break them out but he refuses.

Oh so now Scott's interested in jailbreaks? What if they have a space weapon? Just as I'm thinking how odd it is that so many people want to stay in prison, Scott gets the news that Xavier has broken out. The X-Men have been dealing with back to back problems since Graymalkin. First the O*N*E visit and then this. Last issue he referred to that event as 'earlier' which suggests it's the same day. That can't be right, can it? Chuck refuses a rescue then breaks himself out <24 hours later. I've never heard anyone use 'earlier' for anything but the same 24 hour period, at least not without a qualifier. I guess it doesn't matter.

Would Scott actually care about that? He was pretty emphatic about not allowing him to be freed on the grounds that his freedom reduces everyone else's. The solicit says the X-Men will fight Storm over Xavier, which sounds silly but I put zero faith in solicits these days. I guess we'll find out what the deal is in the, *sigh* second crossover event in what, 8 months? Less? NYX and X-Force are getting cancelled after issue #10, and it wouldn't surprise me if X-Factor and Phoenix followed. Phoenix is confirmed for issue #11, but the scattershot approach to publishing is bearing fruit. I stopped caring about X-Force (though I love the characters) but NYX has been pretty good. Plenty of potential and trying something new, but 10 issues is not a lot of space to build something sustainable especially when there's 17 other X-books on the shelf. 10 came out last Wednesday alone.

Those books aren't this book, but it's the same hand at the wheel and the lack of faith in books/creators makes me concerned for this one. X-Men has had some great issues but it's also had issues you could skip without missing anything, like this and the last issue. That many of the characters are underdeveloped in favour of seeding new threats each issue and navigating events is a problem for me. If those characters aren't really being used, why are they there? We'll only be able to truly judge in retrospect, but after Raid on Graymalkin's deflating resolution it bodes poorly for X-Manhunt. I know what I want out of the event, and I'm being very cautious with my expectations. I'm sure we'll see friends punching each other, but I'm not holding out for character development or earnest engagement with the recent past. That's fine, I guess. I just prefer a little more ambition from my X-books.

[cleverthylacine]

Just watched Ep 1 of Earthspark S2. And I'm furious.

Don't read this if you don't want spoilers. Or if you think the showrunners can still do no wrong, and are unprepared for the level of Incandescent Fury of which I am capable. But if you DO have spoilers for the whole season and understand my particular vibe, PLEASE read this and reblog with answers (but use the cut for the sake of my followers)...

Reasons why I'm mad:

A year goes by in which all of the stuff I was actually interested in presumably happened: dealing with GHOST, the Decepticons and Autobots cooperating, and also, Mo and Robby getting cool mech suits.

Then for no reason other than "Decepticons huh" the Decepticons apparently forgot their alliance, turned on Our Designated Good Guys (tm) and just randomly started trying to conquer and/or kill everything again. Or were they screwed over, yet again? I really hope so, not because I want them to suffer but because there needs to be a freaking reason why they turn on other Cybertronians when they are stuck on Earth. But I don't have a good feeling about it given the contemptuous attitudes displayed by Bee (as usual, because ES Bee is a fucking asshole) and Robby (disappointing, he wasn't like that before).

And we never did get to find out what the fuck was up with GHOST or why the Decepticons were all in jail (and no, "Decepticons huh" is not an acceptable reason--they have every reason to hate us.)

Breakdown is a terrible parent for no reason? BREAKDOWN?

The Chaos Terrans thing gives me the same willies that the Orcs in Tolkien (I am not a Tolkien fan) used to do. I am not comfortable with the eugenicist/ableist notion that people can be born corrupt and innately evil, especially not if it has something to do with HOW they were born.

Soooo... if you've finished the season (I know you've been posting a bit about it) is there any reason for me to continue?

Reasons I would continue:

Ravage continues to be basically the same Ravage I write, only much smaller.

RavWave (as a ship, not just platonic interaction, mostly because I would watch anything for that no matter how messed up)

Explanation that there actually is a reason why the Cons turned on everyone, and what that reason is. Did they want to put them back in jail? Did they want them to do forced labour? Did Megatron start whaling on Starscream again? I note Tara isn't around Con HQ, what does Tara know?

Quints are interesting and not just scary (the Quints in Cyberverse scared me more than many adult horror movie villains did, BUT they are also just kinda evil and mean and we have no idea why, which would not have been particularly interesting at all except for the fun of watching Hot Rod and Soundwave become the faction leaders while OP and Megatron were unable to be)

Chaos Terrans are not innately bad or do not need some mystical power of nuclear heteronormative family to make them good

The Decepticons get something out of the ending other than screwed

We find out more about Dot and Megs

Some Cons are good parents

More Tarantulas and Nightshade content

Hashtag continues to have a relationship with Starscream that affects the plot as it develops

We are actually told what happened during the year they missed

Reasons I would not continue:

Cons are just bad because cons are bad.

Ravage is Soundwave's daughter or pet or in some other way not actually a grown-ass adult Decepticon officer, making Soundwave a father who raises child soldiers or a guy who runs dogfights, which is not cute even if he is snatched af

(they don't have to be lovers though my shipping heart was pleased when their PDA in the deleted scenes embarrassed Starscream, but she has to be a Real Independent Person who could be someone's partner if not his)

Chaos Terrans are innately bad until "saved" by the Power of Love And the Nuclear Family (or just innately bad)

Emberstone continues to be Allspark Mark II so why even change the name?

Bee's incredible assholery is never called out (it's not funny when a starving person accidentally kills their starving teammate due to a mistake they made because they were starving)

Only Autobots and people who form nuclear families can be good parents

Everyone being friends with the cows goes to the PETA place

Cons get nothing but screwed

Please tell me this series hasn't gone where I was afraid it would. Or let me know that it has so I can decide if it's going to be so bad I'll be mad the whole time like I was in Ep 1.

Warning: anyone who clowns on this post to be a RavWave anti or say "The Decepticons are supposed to be pure evil, duh!" will get blocked.

[theactualsunshinechild]

Fontaine archon storyline still has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever and try to make Mr. "Genocide on a Whim" Childe a Christ figure by somehow trying to sacrifice him to the primordial sea for the sins of all of Fontaine

That's definitely not the plan, but it would be very funny. I love the concept of making completely un-christ-like characters into christ stand-ins.

I just keep thinking about how much opportunity they have to pull off something very biblical here with the whole "born with sin" "flood to cleanse sins" "literally building Noah's ark" "statue of the seven technically holding a cross" "passing final judgment only belongs to one entity" shit they have going on.

The entirety of Fontaine so far is so full of Christian references, whether intentional or not, that they could absolutely Christ-ify Childe if they wanted to! They're like, halfway there, they just need to sacrifice his ass and bring him back to life and they'll check off bingo.

I would be so grateful if they literally killed and revived him. can you imagine how much extra MC level Angst TM they could stuff into this man?

I love giving my most pathetic meow meows the hardest battles.

plus the added moral quandry of "is it right it to kill one guy to save our whole country even though he is not Fontanian and is blessed(???) by the primordial sea whale thing (pure of their inherent fontanian sin, kind of a son of god equivalent moment)? Is it right to do even if he isn't exactly a good person?"

And then of course the fact that the vast majority of the people affected by this decision would probably say yes, hesitantly or not. Like, if it were a guaranteed fix to the prophecy, there is no doubt in my mind that Arlecchino would be willing to nail Childe to the metaphorical cross herself AND cover it up to his family.

Neuvillette would probably consider it unjust, but could maybe potentially be swayed by the weight of just how many lives would be saved vs One Dangerous Criminal argument. (A Christ and Pontius Pilate reference? Childe WAS arrested and tried and found guilty for a crime he didn't commit by a guy who was unwilling, but forced to pronounce him guilty).

Wriothesley would be against the idea of sacrificing someone legally under his care, but if it's that vs everyone else in the fortress??? He would rather it was himself, as hell bent on fixing issues thrown his way as he is, but the man doesn't even know if he's Fontanian or not, he doesn't have the same circumstances surrounding him as Childe does to even offer to stand in his place.

Basically, if it is a guarantee, sacrificing him is simply the most practical choice that most people would make. In fact, out of all the characters we have in Fontaine, I think only the traveler might even bother truly standing up for him to the very end, because everyone else is very Personally affected, since it's their own lives on the line as well.

And that would be heartbreaking

The ANGST of Childe looking around him and seeing no one in his side in the face of impending sacrificial execution would shatter me into pieces.

Oh god, can you IMAGINE a cut scene of Childe being the first person to be sentenced to death in Fontaine in over a century and desperately looking around and meeting the traveller's eyes and we fucking grit our teeth and look away? Can you IMAGINE?!

That would break me.

Anyway, I don't think they'll do it since that's just not how Genshin writes, but it sure would be a missed opportunity.

[denmark-street]

Regarding Avatar 3, I just hope it'll be more interesting than the 2nd one cause that one was so bloody boring, it dragged on so damn much. Also I hope that chick voiced by Sigourney Weaver gets so much more screen time cause she's the most intetesting character by far. The main dude continues to be annoying, the main chick was sidelined and like she was the most interesting part of the 1st one, the boys were so boring, especially the one that kicked the bucket, so less of the one that lived please. And the bad guy is so blamd that I'd rather spend watching paint dry for 3 hours lmao. So yeah more of Sigourney.(hahah sorry I forgot all their names, so dunno if the character that post hoped more of is Sigourney's or the main chick lol) Oh and if the movie will be 3 hours long again, I hope it's less of a snooze fest lmao

Noo I loved The Way of Water! Even if I kinda agree with some of your criticisms: not enough Neytiri ; Jake is an idiot (he's an american marine!). I'd add that the music is less good (RIP James Horner).

Kiri (Sigourney's new character) is the best ; i can't wait to see where her characters goes in the sequels. Especially since she's basically Eywa made Na'Vi and they're going to this desolate place in 3 where the villain (?) tells Neytiri that her goddess isn't real or something.

Quaritch isn't bland! Especially in his 2.0 version where he's forced to live in the species he wanted to colonize, and force to deal with his former self child. I loved his arc in TWOW.

Also 3 will have a whale love story.

If you're more interested in the symmetric structure of Avatar: The Way of Water (and speak French) I can't not recommend M. Bobine's video Le scénario d'Avatar 2.

[titleleaf]

Various Wills Graham & The Man Your Haunted Eideteker Could Smell Like

I promised you a really long-winded post about why the "ship on the bottle" aftershave exchanges don't work for me in the TV show and I am here to deliver. Thoughts on Will and Clarice's respective ~*~*~*signature scents~*~*~* in the novels, how the scent motif gets updated for the NBC show, and the smells I want 2013 Will Graham to smell like. Come with me on an olfactory journey.

(That second ad: dude, ew.) Gird your loins because there is so much corny sailing imagery to come.

In The Books

Dr. Hannibal Lecter lay on his cot asleep, his head propped on a pillow against the wall. Alexandre Dumas’s Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine was open on his chest. Graham had stared through the bars for about five seconds when Lecter opened his eyes and said, “That’s the same atrocious aftershave you wore in court.” “I keep getting it for Christmas.” Dr. Lecter’s eyes are maroon and they reflect the light redly in tiny points. Graham felt each hair bristle on his nape. He put his hand on the back of his neck. “Christmas, yes,” Lecter said. “Did you get my card?” “I got it. Thank you.” Dr. Lecter’s Christmas card had been forwarded to Graham from the FBI crime laboratory in Washington. He took it into the backyard, burned it, and washed his hands before touching Molly. [...] “Your hands are rough. They don’t look like a cop’s hands anymore. That shaving lotion is something a child would select. It has a ship on the bottle, doesn’t it?” Dr. Lecter seldom holds his head upright. He tilts it as he asks a question, as though he were screwing an auger of curiosity into your face. Another silence, and Lecter said, “Don’t think you can persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.”

(Red Dragon, Thomas Harris, 1981)

Will is in his mid-to-late 30s circa s1 of the NBC show, airing in 2013; his book counterpart is ~40 at the time of Red Dragon (at least prior to some later timeline shuffling? I think?) which would make him ~34-35 at the time of his briefer encounter with Lecter in that continuity. The substantial difference is when they're born -- the early 1940s rather than the late 1970s. Show Will's Gen X. Book Will isn't even a baby boomer, he's Silent Generation! These generational cohorts don't mean very much but in some things, like fashion and marketing, they flag differences in how certain products are marketed and how they're viewed.

(all my Old Spice bottle images in this post come courtesy of OldSpiceCollectibles)

The aftershave lotion with a ship on the bottle that Hannibal is bitching about is almost certainly Old Spice -- the OG Old Spice, as formulated in the late 1970s. This was a golden era for aftershave in gift-giving (witness the dozens and dozens of different collectible Avon bottles) and while the classic Old Spice bottle very much does have a ship on the bottle, Willy might have given his stepfather any number of novelty bottles designed for gifting, all of them with roughly similar early-Americana/nautical themes. Ship's wheels, ship's lanterns, ships in general, scrimshawed whale teeth, binoculars, basically anything you could possibly want. (I'd wager this is at least in part to keep up with similar collectibles coming out of Avon, but I might have that the wrong way around, or be completely off the mark altogether.)

http://www.oldspicecollectibles.com/Bottles/novelty bottles.html

The fragrance inside the bottle is a spicy floral with resinous basenotes, what for decades has been called an "oriental" fragrance. (Mercifully some parts of the industry seem to be beginning a shift toward less racist language, and I hope that shift continues, I'm seeing people float "ambrée"/"amberesque" and other language to evoke the spicy, warm profile of some scents.) It's an alcohol-based aftershave lotion, so it stings like a mother when you put it on freshly-shaven skin, and it's not great for hydration.

For cultural context, most of this will probably be stating the obvious, but I think it's interesting with the book's themes around social class, family -- Will's little family, Dolarhyde's family of origin, Dolarhyde's victims' family -- and masculinity.

In 1981, Old Spice is already positioned firmly as a highly accessible men's fragrance in the US -- available pretty much anywhere at the drugstore level, with a coordinating line of toiletries like shaving cream if aftershave isn't enough for you. For a wide swath of people of a certain age, it carries associations with dads and grandfathers, or the transmission of rituals around masculinity and coming of age from father to son. (This is weird for me as a person who came of age during the whole "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign, which aimed at revamping Old Spice's product line and aiming it toward a younger demographic, in competition with Axe. That Old Spice revamp was probably my intro into men's fragrances and it's so fucking embarrassing to say that -- it seemed very transgressive and butch to me to be wearing men's deodorant with my Catholic schoolgirl 'fit every weekday.)

It's chronologically feasible that Will's dad also wore Old Spice, and it makes sense as the kind of gift you'd give your new stepdad -- it's an impersonal gift, reflecting a fairly conservative, mainline, American masculinity. The unease many American men still felt about using scented products — even deodorant, which remained a squeamish topic — could be mitigated by the association with shaving the face as some distinctly male ritual and one taught by fathers to sons as part of their entrance into adolescence.

Have another incredibly corny print ad from 1970:

(the text is tiny here, but the gist is: hey, all these different dudes love Old Spice! Grandpa Hal! Uncle Fred! Jack! Dave! Even that goofball Pete! Just a whole bunch of guys.)

So Hannibal's remark has layers -- he's needling Will about the fact that he knows (or suspects) that Will now has a wife and child, which he likely didn't have when they last encountered each other. He's taking a swipe at his social class and his lack of sophistication — for someone with a dainty nose and a decidedly bitchy sensibility (especially in RD) Old Spice is very much déclassé. And in a narrative level, the fact that Hannibal is distinguished by his aesthetic refinement and a certain degree of fussiness as well as viciousness sets him and Will in opposition, two different modes of masculinity. I have… a lot of thoughts about how Thomas Harris uses aesthetics and sensory pleasure and refinement — certain fabrics, certain garments, certain styles of penmanship — to frame social deviance in these books but that’s for a different post I’m definitely not going to make.

This moment gets a fun parallel to Hannibal's first meeting with Clarice in The Silence Of The Lambs (1988):

“Now,” Lecter said, sitting sideways at his table to face her, “what did Miggs say to you?” “Who?” “Multiple Miggs, in the cell down there. He hissed at you. What did he say?” “He said, 'I can smell your cunt.”' “I see. I myself cannot. You use Evyan skin cream, and sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps, but not today. Today you are determinedly unperfumed. How do you feel about what Miggs said?” “He's hostile for reasons I couldn't know. It's too bad. He's hostile to people, people are hostile to him. It's a loop.” “Are you hostile to him?” “I'm sorry he's disturbed. Beyond that, he's noise. How did you know about the perfume?” “A puff from your bag when you got out your card. Your bag is lovely.”

This is definitely a different tone than he takes with Will Graham, both because he has a very different past history with Will and because of Clarice's position as a woman, placed in front of him as an object for scrutiny. L'Air du Temps is also an old school fragrance (premiering in 1948) and had been popular for several decades by the time the novel's set — a warm floral with the kind of powdery iris note that gets really annoying people on perfume review sites fighting over the words "old lady". (FWIW I own multiple bottles of L’Air du Temps and all but one are from estate sales. The one that isn't, I... uh... bought because I was thinking about Clarice Starling a lot at the time.) This one was and is a ton of women's signature scent, and there's nothing juvenile about it. Clarice wears it, and her mother might well have worn it too. That shit is iconic but for different reasons than Old Spice is for men.

(This little '80s spray is not what any of my bottles look like. If you want more on the various ways this one's been formulated over the years, check out the PerfumeShrine piece I linked above or this blog post on how to identify its different bottles and flankers.)

Someone on Fragrantica compared L'Air du Temps to the olfactory version of a pair of pearl earrings or a cashmere sweater — conveying polished, (small-c) conservative femininity. The inside of Clarice’s handbag is the recipient of scent here, not her body (that part's conveyed through the remark about her hand cream) and the indirectness of the detail under observation is what conveys the keenness of Lecter’s senses and how closely he’s paying attention to his visitor. He also huffs her business card because of course he does.

All of these elements of class and restraint are set in opposition to the crassness of Miggs’ unwanted commentary on Clarice’s body. With her good bag and her cheap shoes Clarice is faking a certain degree of maturity and presenting herself in the most palatable way possible for this interview ("determinedly unperfumed" and all the things that can mean; pretty but serious; feminine but not too feminine; performing the right social class, all along in flight from her "common" origins) but she’s still facing virulent misogyny from damn near every direction. The book doesn’t have quite the same pointed sense of a Theme(tm) around misogyny that the film manages, though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have plenty going on with regard to gender, but I think the differences around how Hannibal identifies these two perfumes, and what the reader is meant to gather from each allusion or name drop, are telling and very fun.

Hannibal then goes on to give Clarice advice about how to zhuszh up her add-a-bead necklace with some semiprecious stones in order to best set off the color of her hair and eyes, which… again, I do not have time to get into that, but I’m obsessed with it.

In The NBC Show

Hannibal stands behind Will, his NOSTRILS FLARE as CAMERA SLOWLY PUSHES IN on the back of Will’s neck. WILL GRAHAM Did you just smell me? HANNIBAL Difficult to avoid. I really must introduce you to a finer aftershave. That smells like something with a ship on the bottle. WILL GRAHAM I keep getting it for Christmas. HANNIBAL Have your headaches gotten any worse lately? More frequent? WILL GRAHAM Yes, actually. HANNIBAL I’d change the aftershave. (s01e05 "Coquilles")

Love the mention of the back of Will's neck, already intimating that it's not his aftershave Hannibal's huffing here. This is something I just can't fanwank for the television show's remixed timeline -- if Will doesn't have a partner and child in his life, or really anyone else in his life in a position to be giving him presents, this recontextualized snippet about getting the offending aftershave for Christmas doesn't make a lot of sense. It works on the level of "hey, I recognize that bit!" and it establishes for the viewer (or reminds them of) Hannibal's highly developed sense of smell, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

INT. HANNIBAL LECTER'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT Hannibal comes into the dark room. Moves toward the refrigerator. Stops. Lifts his nose to the air. HANNIBAL The same unfortunate aftershave. Too long in the bottle. Hannibal opens the refrigerator door and the light illuminates a gun pointed at his head, Will Graham behind it. - (s02e07 "Yakimono")

HANNIBAL LECTER. He lies on his cot, asleep, his head propped on a pillow against the wall. Alexandre Dumas's Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine is open on his chest. Eyes still closed, he takes a long slow breath through his nose, smelling the current of air that the CAMERA traveled. He opens his eyes. HANNIBAL That's the same atrocious aftershave you wore in court. - (s03e09 "…And the Woman Clothed with the Sun", very directly drawn from Red Dragon)

What’s the modern-day analogue of the original Old Spice in 1981 — ubiquity, maturity, connotations around class and gender? I don’t know if there is one. In 2013 Will's more likely to be wearing Old Spice deodorant, post-rebrand, still with a ship on the packaging but called Fiji or Denali. Or Bearglove, or Wolfthorn. No doubt Hannibal would find that offensive, but offensive in a different way than his book counterpart way back in the Reagan administration.

There's no shortage of drugstore-y scents in 2013, highly accessible fragrances for a person giving a generic Male Gift at an accessible price point, or habitual buys for a guy who mostly wants to smell like he's at least attempting to be a put-together human being: D&G Light Blue, Davidoff Cool Water, CK One, CK Eternity. (Or their body spray equivalents, if you really want Hannibal to suffer, and I do, every day of my life.) But in general there's a* lot* more diversity in fragrance worn by American men in 2013 than there was circa the events of Red Dragon or at whatever age book!Will might have started using fragrance. There's no one scent that stands in for such a broad section of gender and class as Old Spice aftershave would have in the 1970s.

It seems doubtful that in 2013 Will's using whatever he's using primarily for its shaving benefits, not least of all because he's a bearded king. (Presumably he cleans his beard up from time to time and trims his neck and whatnot, but bear with me here.) True aftershave is still available in many drugstores, including some venerable names — Aqua Velva, Skin Bracer, Pinaud Clubman — but they’re no longer the arena of younger men unless they're curious budding fragheads. And you can still be an outdoorsy dude in 2013 wearing Old Spice, but it's a bit more of a self-conscious put-on at that point, either someone's buying Will tongue-in-cheek dad cologne to go with his house full of boat engines and dog statues, or Will's bashful about his own taste for tongue-in-cheek dad cologne.

What might Will be wearing in 2013? This depends on which aspect we’re trying to reflect. For modest budget and ubiquity I can see him going for the OG Polo Green or one of its flankers. (There's a great piece of NBC Hannibal perfume meta by Genufa that I swear I only encountered after I already chose this, and it mentions Polo Classic in tandem with Will, so I'm glad we're in agreement here.) For stuff in an amber-spice neighborhood, CK Obsession For Men maybe? Still retro (premiered in 1986) but not 1930s retro.

What’s a step up? If I was out here somehow tasked with buying this man a nice smelling gift, what would I choose? If Will wanted to treat himself with something under that broad constellation of selling points — a single fragrance for steady wear, something unflashy and congruent with his presentation of himself -- I would be really tempted to put him in something slightly more niche, but not a lot more niche.

I am a huge fan of Etat Libre d'Orange Fat Electrician, a really fun creamy vetiver that's sexy in a clean soft-butch kind of way. It's not spicy in the least but as the scent's subtitle of a "semi-modern vetiver" indicates it has a nice timeless quality, warm and clean-smelling but not soapy. (And a very subtle gourmand aspect -- chestnut cream or marrons glacés.) Or something from DS&Durga, Mississippi Medicine, or Bowmakers, or Burning Barbershop -- there's a whole slew of "vintage barbershop"-inspired scents that might scratch the same itch for someone who wears a fragrance out of habit and to feel grounded in a solid, put-together masculinity. (Maybe especially when he's not feeling otherwise particularly grounded or put-together.)

For different ways of evoking Will's kind of dignified no-fuss outdoorsman thing, Profumum Arso ("Cedar leaves, incense, leather, pine resin") maybe, or Fumidus, though it sounds like peaty hell to me -- Will seems to be a bourbon guy and not a scotch dude. For something a little more glamorous and a little more established, maybe Guerlain Habit Rouge, idk.��

What’s the next step up from these -- the equivalent of Bella's Bolt Of Lightning? If someone (with a bankroll on par with Hannibal, or Bedelia, or Jack, or Bella) were to introduce Will to a still pricier class of fragrance, what might that look like? It's hard for me to say, since this isn't a type of perfumery I engage with, like... at all. I like my indie oils, I like niche perfumers, I love decants, but I don't have a cool $800 to drop on a whole bottle of... anything. Once you reach a certain level you can shop pretty differently from normal people, up to and including getting something one-of-a-kind commissioned for your boytoy/crime gimp/ex-husband's ex-husband/etc. (And as a gift for someone else -- since none of these people barring possibly Bella has a remotely normal relationship with Will -- it'd say as much about their intentions with the gift and their perception of Will as the reality of who Will is.) So I'm going to have to mull that a while.

Absolutely none of this gets into the bonkers Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella sequence in Hannibal, which... has a lot going on, idk. ("Starling, then. Clean, and rich in textures. Cotton sun-dried and ironed. Clarice Starling, then. Engaging and toothsome. Tedious in her earnestness and absurd in her principles. Quick in her mother wit." Please, sir!) Like basically every other element of the series, the smell stuff gets ratcheted up to 11 for that book, and it seems like its own separate thing to unpack. Hannibal fucking loves shopping in that book and I love reading about his weird little ass shopping.

[genopaint]

The long awaited Week 10 of Daily Dragons! Like the last post, I just didn't really get the chance to post these cause my laptop was packed up and what not. But it's finally here for your viewing pleasure :)

As always you can follow me on twitter where they’re posted daily

And read more info on each of them below the cut

Daily Dragon #63 - Seal Dragon

These large, semi aquatic dragons are often seen basking on rocky shores. When hungry, the largest in a pack will swim into the ocean, hunt large animals like whales, and bring them back to shore for the whole pack to eat

I had a concept for a walrus like dragon but ultimately this isn't exactly what I had in mind. However, I do kinda like it! So you can expect to see at least one more seal-esc dragon in the future i guess lol

Daily Dragon #64 - Flying Dragon

As the name suggests, these dragons are ALWAYS in flight! They only land when they need to sleep, but are actually able to go surprisingly long times without needing any rest at all. Sometimes even multiple days!

Up and early with dragons these last few days aha Another redraw! I keep seeing it while looking at the other dragons for a hot minute so I wanted to tackle it too! I think it's actually from 2011-2012 like the Ghouldrogon because... Well they were on the same sheet of paper!

Daily Dragon #65 - Magon

The first Wario dragon! There's actually quite a few in his series. Lately I've been thinking about Wario Land/World/MoD for a while now. They're some of my favorite games and it might honestly be time for me to replay them

I played all the Wario games back in highschool so it's been a hot hot minute. But I really do like them all. They're all good as hell even (especially) Master of Disguise which is so underappreciated

Daily Dragon #66 - Snoozozaur

This dragon lives and breathes for one thing and one this only: sleeping! Rarely ever waking up, only for occasional food and water, they can actually sleep walk and sleep fight using what scientists believe to be some type of psychic ability. Additionally, they can levitate! Meaning they can comfortably sleep ANYWHERE!

Daily Dragon #67 - Shrine Dragon

This dragon is frequently seen guiding heroes of all kinds to temples and shrines important to their quests. If you're looking for a secret dungeon in a large area and spot one flying in the sky, it's in your best interest to follow it!

Daily Dragon #68 - Green Dragon

Thank you for all your amazing monsters and characters over the years, Mr. Toriyama!!

The more I keep thinking about it the more it's making me sad. Chrono Trigger's character designs were SO influential on me growing up. And the design for Arasu is SO important to RPG protagonists that I had OCs inspired by him before I even saw the character. And yeah, of course, Blue Dragon has always been a very important game to me even when I was a tiny child who couldn't afford an Xbox 360.

Daily Dragon #69 - Cuddlodon

A dragon that just loves being friendly and playful! They have some very basic combat skills like small fire balls and teeth, but why would you ever want to fight one? Come on, don't be mean to them :(

Really really low energy today. I wanted to do a Super Mario RPG celebration dragon, but I have something big in mind for the SMRPG dragon so I want to save it for when I'm less busy. Instead, today I redrew this fella from 2012: The Cuddly Dragon!

And of course, in 2024 (that's 12 years later holy hell!!) they come in multiple colors :)

[stupidfateheadcanons]

Which servants do you think would play Mobile Games? (like Gacha, Idol games, Candy Crush, Fruit Ninja)

Gachas and Gacha-Adjacents

(don't spend money on gacha)

Tomoe Gozen

Despite being a #gamer, she wouldn't play most mobile games due to them, generally speaking, having pretty unskilled gameplay (unless some piece of canon I'm not remembering smites me down.) However, given all the hyper-intense Arknights blogging I've seen, Tomoe would be entranced by crunching numbers and solving her little military puzzles with her units. Also, she'd be into catgirls, and whatever the hell the Doctor has got going on with that scientist woman who hates them.

Blackbeard

tries all of them. even the bad ones. ...especially the bad ones.

has one of those AI Waifu apps.

Fusehime, Okita, Ushiwakamaru

Touken Ranbu players (the sword boy game). Ushiwakamaru nerds out about the history of the swords, Fusehime is a #collector, and Okita just likes the simple gameplay of mowing down people with her prettyboy units. Nobunaga also plays, trying to piss Okita off with her luck in forging boys, but Okita genuinely loves the low-rarity units so it's only half-way effective.

Shuten-Douji

Shuten plays a gacha game where all of the waifus are humanizations of alcohol. She's spent well over a thousand dollars trying to get Aged Red Wine, who's a milf that looks like Raikou. Don't question why.

Jalter

Plays one of the more lore-heavy gacha games. Whales for her favorites and writes intense meta posts. She's very insistent that this is just the natural course of things.

Gilles

Isn't huge into gachas generally, but he'll pick up whatever game has a Jeanne expy (or, because he considers Saber-faces to be 'Jeanne faces', Saber expies) to roll for the girl in question, max levels her, and then drops the game.

Valkyries

They play Obey Me and other Shall We Date games to debate over the best boys.

Kama

Gets invested in one hot girl in one game and her money is gone. The girl in question has glasses and a turtleneck like Medusa's casual form.

Gilgamesh

Plays gacha games with ranking and pvp elements like Epic Seven to lord his units over the plebs. Is also a pull streamer. A lot of his clips go viral, and the atmosphere of his streams are very fun.

Other Phone Games

Nobunaga

Downloads one of those 'We're under fucking attack!' games. Nero is the woman in the ad.

Helena

A daily wordle girlie. Shares her scores on Servantgram with Sherlock.

MHXX

Plays Angry Birds on her break.

Miss Crane and Phantom

Idol games. They're friends over it.

Nero and Elizabeth

They compete in rhythm games to get higher scores than each other.

Osakabahime

Plays mobile fortnite on her bed.

Chloe and Emiya also play, but Emiya gets dumpstered by the other two.

Iyo

Plays Stardew on her phone. Likes showing other Servants and her Master her farm layout and progress.

The Paladins

Collectively have an old iPhone 8 that still has flappy bird on it that they pass around. It's beaten to shit but still kicking.

Paul Bunyan

Needs to use the largest I-Pad ever, but she plays pretty basic Facebook-esque games like Candy Crush. In her Alt form, she posts game scores for likes.

Kintoki

Jetpack Joyride and the Hello Kitty games.

Author Servants

Hans gets them all into phone scrabble. They keep getting collectively mad at Shakespeare because he cheats and tries to make new words.

anderson voice: dumas that word is not allowed in scrabble

dumas: but it's a word in FRENCH

Ptolomey dominates

Among Us

The child servants generally play Among Us together, once it gets popular in Chaldea.

Jack: Loves to be the imposter because murder is fun! Pretty bad at keeping her identity hidden, though. LOVES the little hats.

Nursery Rhyme: Sees it as a game of Hide and Seek. Fails at being the imposter and doing tasks.

Jalter Lily: Does tasks, is decent at being the imposter. A generalist.

Voyager: Very good at doing tasks. Hates being the imposter.

Erice: Terrible at Among Us, but wants to play to hang out with Voyager. She gets really upset about losing, though. This genuinely affects her self-confidence.

Mephistopheles: Plays with the children. Pretends to be the imposter even if he's not.

Douman: Also plays with the children. Generally pretty wretched to Meph, but is a good and fun player otherwise. Hams up being the evil villain when they're shot out of the air-lock.

Pokemon Go

Achilles

Da Vinci Lily with Goredolf

Erice with Voyager

Iskander with the very specific intention of conquering the world and catching a Pokemon in every city he conquers. Waver cannot keep up with him, so Iskander would -- in the hypothetical world-conquering scenario -- get one of those phone holders and drive the car real slow to help him catch Pokemon.

Guda is a shiny hunter.

Carmilla gets all the dogs, eventually branching out into other Dark types (with the occasional cute animal.) Defends her team's gym with a massively overpowered Houndoom.

Bakin has a full dog team

Rakou has a teddiursa she named Kintoki. Kintoki would catch Raikou a Raikou. Gotta do things for your momma!

Michi teaches Izou how to use a phone so he can have his little Pokemon.

Sei plays with the girl gang (Suzuka, Nobbu, Okita, etc. Murasaki is dragged along too.)

Honorable Mentions

Beni Enma

Doesn't play phone games, but does have a DS and 10,000 hours in the cooking mama games and their offshoots collectively.

[abyssin]

mlb verse headcanon time! WE NEED TO GO DEEPER. what is childe's kwami's name? what concept does it preside over? what power does it give him? what is his relationship with his kwami like and why does it encourage him to be Like That™? how did he get his miraculous? what are his motives and/or goals for using it? what was he doing before he got his miraculous and how did becoming a holder change him? how does him being a miraculous holder affect his relationship with his family?

everything i am about to say is all come up with on the spot so it is subject to change! BUT HELLO HERE WE GO MIRACULOUS VERSE CHILDE THOUGHTS:

i. ㅤok so we already have a name for the whale thanks to the genshin leaks but just because i feel like it phonetically sounds close to the kwami names, i wanna name his kwami flood! he's a very calm and collected little guy who greatly contrasts childe in personality, but their goals for chaos to qualm boredom is the same! they're two peas in a pod as much as flood will try to criticize him for being reckless /: and yes he looks like an itty bitty narwhal, with the teeny horn and all!

ii.ㅤ i'd like to place flood as the kwami of disorder. it's rather close to plagg, but basically i think of it as a concept that breeds conflict, opposition, confusion. it thrives off the conflict between hawk moth and the ladybug-chat noir duo and Would like things to continue the way they are. perhaps he and childe have even helped one side or the other in order to keep things interesting? they're so annoying fr fr. ㅤㅤㅤbonus: ㅤflood takes the shape of a singular earring on his left ear, much alike to the one he has in canon. it glows a pretty blue shade much like ajax's own eyes when flood is communicating

iii. ㅤif not already hinted by the above answers, tartaglia (ajax's transformation) and flood are ironically neutral parties to miraculous conflict conceptually, but in action they both enable the conflict for their own amusement. of course, the last thing he wants is paris destroyed while he's here (i'm going to assume he's a transfer student in college rn but, we'll see!), but with flood as his companion, they can do absolutely anything together (❁´◡`❁) ㅤtoday, he's an ally to ladybug. tomorrow?ㅤ who knows...

iv. ㅤi haven't quite figured out how he found his miraculous... it isn't unusual for him to be finding different objects to send back home as gifts for his family, so i imagine it was something he picked up by accident and he awakened flood. i will have to get back on this for specifics on How it was found though...

v. ㅤi do like the thought that he's studying business management here, or if i do peg his age to the one i have in canon, he could be working as a toymaker? the reason i wanted to place him in college was to make interaction with the miraculous kids more likely and much easier to bump into HAJDAHD

the thing about how meeting flood is something i'm going to leave up in the air. i do want it to parallel to canon that perhaps flood corrupted childe too, and childe was a willing host? i also like the thought of tartaglia being able to consume the akuma butterflies 🤔 many thoughts!

anyways tartaglia here to be a nuisance. je suis fuck off dude!

[sizeable-star-wars]

Major Ahsoka Episode 1 and 2 Spoilers below.

This is my brief review of the first two episodes.

Ugh, Disney. For five minutes, can you not write formulaic, predicable stories. FOR FIVE MINUTES?!

I'll start off with things I like:

1) The Fan Service is strong with this one. Ahsoka is good, Rosario Dawson once again delivers a good performance. Having Hera featuring so heavily in it is great too, her actress does a good job. They even get a very good facsimily of Ezra, which was a nice bit. Hopefully they put him to good use.

2) The supporting cast have given good performances too. The male "Jedi?" seems cool, and his Apprentice is interesting. Though I predict she is going to change sides down the line. She just has that air about her.

3) The effects are good, on par with usual Star Wars. However some of the practical alien costumes are a bit... stunted. There's a Mon-Calamari officer at the start who can't seem to flex his lower arms or his fingers, just like the Rhodian guy in Book of Boba Fett.

4) Chopper is a highlight, a fun highlight 😄 You can tell what he's trying to say. Hopefully we get to see him commit more w*r cr*mes! 😄

5) The HK Droids are awesome. While they're not like our beloved HK-47, they are still decent side-adversaries.

Now for the things I don't like:

1) It is so, so predictable and formulaic. Ahsoka shows Sabine the show's first McGuffin device (more on that later) and tells her to stay put. Sabine did not stay put.

Sabine makes the McGuffin work, only for the enemy to show up and steal it. Things go bad. But luckily they left behind a clue for them to follow!

They go to the place, and surprise-surprise, people loyal to the bad guys are there! The bad guys escape, but not before a tracking beacon gets put on their ship!

It's just so formulaic and by the numbers. Andor didn't have this, I didn't predict much about that. This was entirely predictable, like they read a book on story tropes and just put it all in there!

2) Sabine gets stabbed through the stomach by a lightsaber. And she's fine! Totally fine after what, a day in hospital? No lasting injuries, no death, barely an inconvenience. First Reva (a literal child) and now Sabine. Poor Qui-Gon must be very grumpy after all these others surviving being stabbed! Her internal organs should be cooked! She should be dead!

But nope, Lightsabers just aren't what they used to be. Yet all those soldiers at the start die instantly from being slashed across the chest or arm. They forgot their plot armour!

3) The typical "Estranged Master and Student" thing with Ahsoka and Sabine. So predictable, they seem to do this all the time. They waste a good portion of time with them arguing or speculating about whether it's worth reuniting again. And they resolve that after two episodes, which is at least brief by most arcs.

4) The fight choreography isn't great. Not as bad as the Sequel Trilogy, but not great either. Gone are the days of the beautiful prequel fights. There's a point where Ahsoka is fighting the "Not Inquisitor" and is in a lightsaber bind with him, but one of her sabers is behind his. So she just had to flick it, and he's decapitated. Same goes for Sabine fighting the Apprentice. Very, very stunted and plenty of exploitable moments from both fighters. Sabine being out of practice, I can understand. But the Apprentice was giving her plenty of openings and also ignoring Sabine's lack of experience too.

That's my basic summary, I'm happy to discuss more with people who want to 😊

5) The McGuffin device! Yet another star map which leads to the person everyone is looking for! Just like Luke Jake Skywalker! How did they even know that was where he went? He got sent there by Ezra and the magical Hyperspace Whales! Did the Ancient Nightsisters forsee it somehow? Or did they know that the Hyperspace Whales would go there? Is that their home?

Disney, please stop with the McGuffin devices! Please, come up with something original! 😭

[brimstoneandbooks]

Frankenstein: Book vs. Movie Comparison

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to judge whether the book or movie is better. It is merely meant to compare the two for entertainment purposes and nothing more. Everything found in this post is merely my observations and opinions, and they are bound to differ from others'. 

By now, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus has dozens of movie adaptations and TV shows. Since I can’t watch them all, I picked out two movies. “Frankenstein” from 1931, directed by James Whale. And “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” from 1994, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Movie: Frankenstein (1931): 

“He's just resting. Waiting for a new life to come.”

The movie Frankenstein from 1931 is only loosely based on the book, but it is by far the most popular of the movies. It’s this movie that seems to come to most people’s minds when thinking of Frankenstein’s monster. The biggest thing it has in common with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus is the basic concept of a scientist, in constant pursuit of knowledge. He brings life to his creation and is forced to deal with the consequences. In both works, the scientist picks out the best parts from different corpses and brings them together, in an attempt to create a sort of superhuman. 

In the movie, the main character is not called Victor Frankenstein, like in the book. There is a Victor Moritz, who seems to be this movie’s Henry, acting as the main character’s closest friend, but he is only a side character. The main character in the movie is instead called Herbert Frankenstein. His fiancée is called Elizabeth in both the book and the movie. The change of names could be to establish that despite its similarities to the book, the movie should not be viewed as telling the same story

The first difference I noticed in the movie was that Herbert Frankenstein has an assistant, called Fritz, who helps him collect unharmed corpses to “give them new life”. He is deformed with severe kyphosis and seems to be either an inspiration for, or an early version of “Ygor”. A stock character who, in most cases, is portrayed as the deformed assistant to some sort of mad scientist or gothic villain. In the book, Victor Frankenstein does not have any sort of assistant. He works on his creation alone

In the book, the creation’s monstrosity is caused by others' expectations of him, leading them to treat him like a monster. In the movie, Frankenstein’s creation seems to be a violent “monster”, because he possesses the abnormal brain of a criminal. See, Fritz is meant to retrieve a brain for Frankenstein’s creation. He goes to a university, in which two are being held. A “normal” brain, and the brain of a criminal that appears to show abnormalities. Fritz is meant to get the “normal” brain. But upon accidentally dropping it, he takes the abnormal one instead, seemingly unaware of its origins. 

In the book, Frankenstein is entirely alone when bringing life to his creation. In the movie, Victor Moritz and Elizabeth (both worried about him and his sanity), Frankenstein’s assistant, and his professor accompany him. Even while he is animating his creation. And unlike in the book, Frankenstein is not horrified by his creation when it comes to life. 

“Quite a good scene, isn't it? One man crazy. Three very sane spectators.”

The image of Frankenstein's monster that typically comes to people's minds seems to be inspired by this movie. The monster has a square head and bolts going through his neck. If the movie weren't in black and white, I can almost guarantee that his skin would have a green tint. And he’s afraid of fire. Funnily enough, the people in the movie didn’t seem too frightened by him. Or at least they didn’t go running and screaming at the sight of him. In the movie, his appearance doesn’t seem to bother anyone all too much. They don’t treat him like a monster or try to get rid of him until he drowns a child. In the book, the monster's appearance scares everyone away and leads them to treat him like a monster. Despite him proving to be rather intelligent and peaceful. He saves a girl from drowning. He doesn’t actually start acting like a monster until he is treated as such by others. 

In the movie, an angry mob burns Frankenstein’s monster to death, to free the world of him. However, in the book he burns himself to death, to free the world of him but also to free himself of the world. 

In general, I’d say you can tell that the movie Frankenstein is meant primarily for the sake of horror. Meanwhile, the book brings up a lot of philosophical questions along the way. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein 1994 movie: 

“It’s alive.”

The movie Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from 1994 is much closer to the original book. Even so, it altered the story a bit to better match a movie format. It is faster-paced, more brutal, more dramatic, and more horrific. As such, it doesn’t leave space for philosophical questions. 

For one, the pace of the introduction is much faster, cutting right to the chase. Victor arrives at Robert Walton’s ship. But rather than being too exhausted to move or speak much, like in the book, he acts rather frantic. He seems older than I would have imagined. In the book, he is only about 21 years old when animating his creation. And Robert Walton seems more reckless than in the book. The book dedicates multiple chapters to Walton and his venture to the Antarctic, where he and his crew stumble upon Victor. Meanwhile, the movie barely reveals anything about him. 

In the book, Victor takes the time to describe, to the reader, how he was raised. And I loved that since we get to learn about what made him so ambitious, and what led him to the idea of creating new life. It also helps build up an emotional connection to the characters. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t show much of how he was raised. But then again, that works if the goal is to make the movie more horrific than philosophical. 

And although he is rarely mentioned throughout the book, it was a shame to see that Ernest Frankenstein (one of Victor Frankenstein’s younger brothers) was completely erased from the movie. 

Victor’s mother also has a different cause of death. In the movie, she dies giving birth to William. Meanwhile, in the book, she catches an illness from Elizabeth, and Justine takes care of her. Her death is used to flesh out Elizabeth’s and Justine’s characters. By having Elizabeth feel guilty, we learn that she is caring and tends to take the blame for things she can't control. And with Justine taking care of Victor's mother, despite the fatal danger, displays her undying devotion to the Frankensteins. 

In the movie, there is a plague going around that, as far as I remember, is never mentioned in the book. However, it adds more tension and it could be further motivation for Victor to want to find a way to defy death.

In the movie, Victor Frankenstein meets Henry Clerval much later than in the book. He meets him at university, where one of the professors teaches them that electricity is the key to life. As opposed to the book where the two are childhood friends. Although the two do reunite in Ingolstadt, right after Frankenstein has already brought life to his creation. 

In the movie, Frankenstein and Clerval's professor is killed, and his murderer is executed. Victor proceeds to take an eye out of the murderer’s corpse to use for his creation. And although it might be a little far-fetched, I like to think that it’s a play on the saying “An eye for an eye” since Victor is taking something from the man, who took his professor from him. Frankenstein’s monster actually has a scar around his eye in the shape that Victor drew before cutting it out. And I really appreciated the detail, considering that in both book and movie, all Victor is doing is taking parts from different corpses and sewing them together, which would undoubtedly result in the new creation being covered in scars. 

In the book, Victor never really takes time to think about what he’s doing. He is purely driven by ambition and the pursuit of knowledge. That, in turn, results in him not realising his mistake until he’s already finished animating the monster and his mind is no longer clouded by the single goal of pursuing knowledge. He is entirely alone in Ingolstadt before animating his monster. And since he tells no one of his goals, there’s no one around to try and snap him out of it. In the movie, both Elizabeth and Henry are in Ingolstadt before Victor brings his creation to life. And they try their very best to warn him not to act like God. It’s a minor difference, but I still believe there must have been a reason for Victor not having his loved ones around in the book. And I wonder if they might have been able to stop Victor. Especially since, in the book, Henry doesn’t come to Ingolstadt and meet Victor until after he’s already brought his creation to life. There’s such a cruel irony along with the looming question of what might have been had Victor reunited with his friend just a little earlier. 

“I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine, and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”

In both the book and movie, Frankenstein's monster frames Justine, the housekeeper of the Frankensteins, for the murder of Victor's little brother, William. In the book, Victor and Elizabeth have time to talk to Justine, before she is legally executed. At court, she confesses to the murder she didn't commit, in hopes that it will bring her absolution. But afterwards, Victor and Elizabeth assure her that they believe in her innocence, nonetheless. And it doubles down on Victor’s guilt when he sees someone innocent suffering for his deeds. In the movie, Justine is forcefully and unlawfully hanged by civilians. It’s a lot more brutal than in the book, with less time to process what’s happening. 

In the movie, Frankenstein’s monster kills Victor’s father himself. But in the book, he dies of a fit after hearing of the death of Victor's fiancée, Elizabeth (also caused by the monster). 

But more importantly, Victor reanimates Elizabeth, in the movie?? It was a confusing surprise, to say the least. After all, book Victor was set on not repeating his mistake. He was set on not trying to act like god or manipulate life and death again. I wouldn’t think it like him to try and reanimate Elizabeth when he knows the risk. Sure, he might consider it but I wouldn't expect him to go through with it. Then again, I suppose it aids in adding more drama and horror to the film. Of course, it does end up going wrong and Elizabeth burns herself to death after finding out what Victor has done to his first creation and now her. And that certainly leaves room for philosophical questions. 

The following chase where Victor Frankenstein tries to hunt down his monster, reflecting on himself and everything that’s happened, isn’t really in the movie. I found that the relationship between Victor and his monster is also rather unclear. In the book, Victor learns to let go of his anger and need for revenge, after having chased his monster for so long. He dies of exhaustion after being left with nothing but the desire for release. But the cause of death, in the movie, was rather unclear to me

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus is an old story and I understand that perhaps not every single detail of the book would translate well in movie format. As such, I can understand a majority of the changes made for this movie. 

I enjoyed both movies. The Frankenstein movie from 1931 is a classic, no questions asked, even though it wavers extremely from the story told in the book. And if you're looking for something closer to the book, I would recommend Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from 1994.