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themonotonysyndrome · 4 years ago

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Hey i just want to know that if you still make headcanon holy quintet in twst series , if you not is okay ,but if you still make , i have several question ,

What if madoka transform to madokami i want to know boys reaction especially diasmonia boys ?

I want to know what if sayaka got corrupt and the boys reaction(especially adeuce) see witch form sayaka for first time and their think sayaka got overblot but they wrong it worst than that!

I want to know that what boys reaction if they see the witchs and Walpurgisnacht for the first time are they gonna fight or not?

What all boys(especially dorm leaders)reaction homura tell the truth of soul gem and she tell how she looping time to time for 12 years and 100 looping

And btw i am boy its weird boy love twisted wonderland(not really but i love the character design and story(i just hate riddle mom treat him to obey all rules, he need freedom:( ))

Sorry for making many question

Hello! I’m happy that you enjoyed the TWST x PMMM series! Most of my writing projects have taken a back seat due to work and since it’s currently the Ramadan season, I just don’t have a lot of energy to write anymore more than for work. I mean, it took me half a day to answer this ask.

I definitely want to get back to writing for this crossover series and maybe even copied what I’ve written so far into my AO3 for easy reading and navigating but we’ll see. For now, I’m indulging whatever plot bunnies that come my way so I won’t stop writing altogether.

So lay them on me, dude! Expanding the series is always fun. (Also, bear with me. This is gonna be a long post).

@lionheartanotheraccount and I had discussed these actually on Discord! Some were pinned, some were not (I’m an idiot. I should have pinned all of our crossover texts!), so lemme explain what I still remember. Feel free to pinch in if I forgot something incorrectly or left something out, Lion!

1. What if Madoka transforms to MadoKAMI, I want to know boys’ reaction, especially Diasmonia’s boys

After the anime ended, Lion and I talked about how not that she’s a Goddess, she has the ability to visit Twisted Wonderland on her own and she approached Malleus and the rest of the Diasomnia gang in her human disguise so as not to freak them out. Well, Lilia and Malleus could feel the divinity within Madoka and you can expect the immense shock that not only could Madoka travel across worlds, but she’s also no longer human too. It’s a teary reunion and Malleus’ and Lilia’s hearts break when MadoKAMI explain everything. They comforted her to their best ability but ultimately, it’s been done. There’s nothing else they could do for her. It’s bittersweet for Lilia. Why, a human child ascended into a Goddess so she could save the fates of her friends and every Magical Girls in the past, present and future - she grew up out of necessity and love. Both Lilia and Malleus is proud to be her friend.

2. I want to know what if Sayaka got corrupt and the boys’ reaction(especially Adeuce) see Witch form Sayaka for the first time and they think Sayaka got Overblot but they wrong it worst than that!

The existence of a Witch’s Labyrinth is enough to make the boys instantly wary and a bit frighten (not that any of them would admit it). Bad times for everyone. The boys so confused, wanting to help Sayaka. The girls are horrified at the truth of Witches and Magical Girls and Homura is rushing in to kill Sayaka. Chaos everywhere with Octavie shrieking and trying to kill them all, Symposium Magarum blaring in the background and the Witch’s familiars flying everywhere to make sure their Witch could enjoy the music.

No one could fight Octavia so they had to retreat. Homura causing enough distraction for them to escape. By the time they went out of the Labyrinth, shouting and screams begin.

Adeuce would the most horrified, Madoka of course, heartbroken. Mami is losing it (to which Homura’s getting trigger happy and refused to look away from her. She’s ready to put Mami out of her misery the moment Mami so much as flinch) and Sayaka is both furious and still in shock. At this point, Homura has no choice but to reveal the fact she knows the truth about Magical Girls in order to explain that no, they don’t Overblot. They... mature into Witches when their Soul Gems turn pitch black. Here’s a little gem(lol) from explorerofsy on Discord: vil internally: mami is a gem

vil later when he finds out about soul gems:

when i said that mami is a gem, i did not expect that to be literal

It’s sad but it made me laugh sick.

3. I want to know that what boys’ reaction if they see the Witches and Walpurgisnacht for the first time. Are they gonna fight or not?

The moment Homura explains that turning to Witches is irreversible and is the ultimate fate of all Magical Girls, some would deny it. Their magic is different from the girls, maybe they have a way to stop the transformation here in Twisted Wonderland. The academically-inclined students (Malleus, Riddle, Jamil, Vil and even Idia) would delve into hours of research, only to find nothing (I mean, Kyubey is akin to an Eldritch being, something beyond their comprehension so how on Twisted Wonderland would they push their magic against his strange abilities?). The other students are keeping a very close eye on the girls’ Soul Gems. I mentioned in a long-ago post that even Lilia would demand Madoka present her Soul Gem to him for inspection once every week since Madoka is still distraught over what happened to Sayaka.

Will the boys fight the Witches? Well, in terms of Octavia, the Heartslabyul boys will struggle to kill her, even after Homura explains that the Witch is no longer Sayaka and it’s better to put her out of her despair and give her Grief Seed to Madoka (though Madoka would let Adeuce keep Octavia’s Grief Seed; it’s the only thing the boys have left of Sayaka after all. Madoka at least have years worth of memories of them together).

In terms of Walpurgisnacht, Homura would debrief the girls and boys the strongest Witch to ever exist (Keeping Kriemhild Gretchen to herself. For now. She really, really doesn’t want to open that horrible can of worms) and showed them just how powerful and destructive she can be using her magic. Malleus would be intrigued in fighting her though.

4. What would the boys’ (especially dorm leaders) reaction be when Homura tell the truth of Soul Gems and she tells how she looping time to time for 12 years and 100 looping

Characters like Leona, Lilia and Malleus would be shocked stupid. Time magic is already an insanely OP power and Homura, a human child, been abusing and looping time just to find a way to kill Walpurgisnacht? Leona will straight up spit out that Homura’s insane and Lilia will silently agree with him, wondering if Homura has gone mad. Malleus couldn’t help but applaud Homura’s will and her careful planning in making sure her Soul Gem remains pure. Kalim will cry for her; he couldn’t imagine what sort of pain Homura purposely gone through just to save her friends (cue Homura’s awkwardly patting him on the back, telling him not to cry because she made her choices)

5. And btw i am boy its weird boy love twisted wonderland(not really but i love the character design and story(i just hate riddle mom treat him to obey all rules, he need freedom:( ))

It’s cool! Twisted Wonderland and its fandom are some of the very few fandoms I really enjoy. But then again, I tend to keep to myself and some close friends so I don’t really see the dramas. And you’re right, the story and characters’ design are what hooked me in. I was introduced to Twisted Wonderland when I saw a fanart of a little Azul holding hands with Floyd and Jade, looking disgruntled at being treated like a kid while the Tweels just smirk. That’s why Azul and the Tweels will always be my favourite in the fandom!

Yeah... when you think about it, most of the characters have unhealthy relationships with their family. Riddle with his Mum, Leona with his status and brother, Azul with his childhood bullying, and while we don’t know what exactly happen with King and Queen Draconia, Malleus probably knew them for only a short time (hell, they could even pass away before he was hatched).

#Monotony's rambling #Holy Quintet in TW series

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curestardust · 3 years ago

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if you want: “group of young girls with special powers have to save the world” trope / very pleasing art style and animation / story and set-up had potential (but were wasted by inconsistent writing and pacing)

"Assault Lily: Bouquet” was a disappointing watch to me due to just how much potential this anime held that got wasted by bad writing, pacing and inconsistent tone shifts.

I’ve started dubbing certain anime “PMMM-likes” (you know like Roguelikes in video games) because these anime have quite a few things in common: a main cast of girl characters, who fight with magic or some sort of enchancement, usually in order to save the world from some enemy. And the “depressed, lone wolf” dark haired and “ditzy, naive, self-sacrificing” pink haired protagonist duo seems to also be a must. An anime I *really* liked that I’d put in this sub-genre is “Granbelm” (x) (which I’d urge everyone to watch tbh).

“Assault Lily” is somehow based on some kind of toyline and by that I don’t mean figures but literal barbie like dolls that you can customize and such. Although, I didn’t look much into it cause I’m not interested in that stuff. This whole anime feels more like a showcase than an actual story, almost like a build-up for a mobile game. We meet a shitton of characters, get exposition dumped on every little thing and see the workings and aesthetics of the fights on a few occasions.

Again, I’m quite sad at the potential this anime could’ve had. I think the story, if well written, could’ve even lasted 3 seasons.

In short for the story, there are some sort of weird lifeform called the “Huge” that’s attacking humanity. These creatures use a power called “Magie” to function and certain humans (yes, young girls as usual) were found to also be able to use Magie. These girls are called “Lilies” and they use special weapons called “CHARMs” to channel their Magie into and fight the Huge. The protagonist of “Assault Lily” is Riri (the ditzy pink haired girl) who wanted to become a Lily due to being saved by one when her hometown was attacked by a Huge. She meets this girl, Yuyu, but she has changed. She’s cold, uncaring and a loner.

Instead of explaining the story in more detail as I usually do, I’d like to write things out as what each season could’ve focused on if this were a multi-season anime. The 1st season’s content takes place in like the first 3 episodes but spoiler warning from then on.

- Season 1

In this academy, 2nd years can become “Schutzengels” (Guardian Angels) who can take on a younger student to become their “Schild” (Shield) and help them improve. [Sidenote: the younger student herself is referred to as “Schild” even though that doesn’t make much sense to me. I feel like they wanted to go with “Kind” (Child) but that might’ve been confusing to English speakers?].

Yuyu has become a loner because she lost her Shutzengel in a fight and as her memories are fuzzy, she thinks she might’ve had something to do with it. Lilies have “Rare Skills” and Yuyu’s is called “Lunatic Trancer” where she becomes insanely powerful but also can’t differentiate between friend or foe and is thus seen as dangerous to be around on the battlefield.

This issue comes up twice in the anime for some reason, with the exact same conclusion as well. I think an entire season could’ve focused on Riri improving as a Lily, Yuyu getting herself in more and more risky situations as she uses her Lunatic Transfer during fights and then concluding with what the anime did; that Riri for some reason can “cancel out” Yuyu’s Lunatic Trancer state and then the 2 of them work together to take down a huge enemy. The season could’ve concluded with them making the Shutzengel/Schild pledge.

- Season 2

Lilies also create Legions which need to have at least 9 members. This anime also has an insane amount of supporting characters besides the Legion members so some of the characters we barely get to know. In season 1, while the main plot is going on we could’ve gotten close to certain side characters. As this is an in-between season, it could’ve been more low-stakes and relationship focused. Riri and Yuyu decide to create a Legion, we have the side characters from S01 join and meet more characters to create the 9 member Legion. These characters could’ve also been lacking in some areas so, training segments. Character improvement! Always better than being perfect from the start. Toward the end of the season could’ve been the introduction of what was supposed to be a huge character development arc for Riri: the meeting of a girl with amnesia who Riri takes care of and kind of becomes her “Shutzengel”, although unofficially.

<SPOILERS> - Season 3

The most depressing shit left for last. The afformentioned girl with amnesia comes to be called “Yuri” and turns out to be an experiment in creating artificial Lilies. The government thus wants her back and Riri runs off with Yuri. This whole debacle is simply solved through a 5 minute long scene where the character responsible for exposition dumps reveals that Yuri doesn’t have any Huge DNA and thus that makes her human aka under the protection of the academy. This is great but like 2 seconds later, Yuri runs up to a Huge that appeared out of nowhere and gets herself killed. This doesn’t have the effect the anime wanted. We’ve only known Yuri in the original anime for like 3 episodes. Her loss doesn’t feel as depressing as it should and thus sympathising with Riri’s sudden depression is harder as well.

So, the way I’d fix this, is to have the first half of the season more normal, with Yuri getting to be a part of the group. The second half of the seaosn would be the “depression/drama/conclusion” starting with Riri and Yuri running away. As Lilies fighting humans is a big ethical question in the anime, I’d want a stand-off that lasts longer with a Huge appearing in the middle of the whole thing. Lilies fighting humans on one side and the Huge on the other, leading to a struggle, where eventually Yuri decides that the only way to resolve this is for her to sacrifice herself. Cue Riri’s depressive phase and Yuyu’s hallucinations of her Shutzengel coming back. Their Legion’s atmosphere is also soured due to the loss of Yuri, the chance that they might need to find humans in the future because they disobeyed orders and their 2 leaders’s moods being in the dumps.

Cue big threat, Riri and Yuyu coming to an understanding and accepting what happened, ready to take on the “Final Boss” where they might even die in the process, their Legion and other classmates showing up in that dramatic “Hey, you guys weren’t planning on getting all the glory for yourselves right?” and pulling of an incredibly powerful move that wipes the Huge nest out. (If you watched the anime, you know this is kind of sort of what happens, I just cut out some stuff I felt was unnecessary.)

Well, anyway, now that I’ve finished daydreaming about what could’ve been, I’m still left with a badly written anime in the end. I mean, the art was there, the music was there, the set-up was there, the characters were there but the writing felt half-hearted, like whoever wrote it didn’t believe in the potential of “Assault Lily”. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

EDIT: I just found out a mobile game called “Assault Lily: Last Bullet” was actually released so I was right about that.

[6/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | There was actual money spent on this

#dusty reviews #Assault Lily: Bouquet #Assault Lily #Assault Lily Bouquet #why this so long

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ninthfeather · 3 years ago

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Fanfic Review

Thanks for tagging me, @sapphireswimming!

How many works do you have on ao3?

80! There are a few older works on FFN that I haven’t ported over yet, but most of my fic and certainly everything written in the past few years is on AO3.

What’s your total ao3 word count?

506,547, and I’m not sure if I’m proud or not.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I’ve written fics for a total of 31 different fandoms, which seems like a lot. But I’ve written more, longer fics for some than I have for others. In general:

Several fics/longer fics: Gundam 00, Detective Conan/Magic Kaito, Fullmetal Alchemist, My Hero Academia, M*A*S*H, Jibaku Shonen Hanako-kun, MCU, Persona, Sherlock, The World Ends With You, Critical Role, Arknights, FFXV, The Untamed, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Code Geass, Kingdom Hearts,

Only short oneshots so far: VLD, Yoru no Kagi, Christopher Nolan’s Batman, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Sarashinohara, Kanata Kara, So I’m a Spider So What, Fruits Basket, Danny Phantom, The Magnus Archives, Harry Potter, The Umbrella Academy, Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Are there any new fandoms you want to write for?

So my current main project is a Genshin Impact longfic, but I’ve also got WIPs for Jujutsu Kaisen and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Down Time [BnHA oneshot]

aim to repaint these days [The Untamed oneshot]

Adjustment [DCMK oneshot]

We’ll walk upon these streets (and think of little else) [KH/MCU crossover chapterfic, I’m listed as co-author but @hawk-in-a-tree is doing most of the writing now]

Steeplechase [DCMK chapterfic]

It always surprises me how much better oneshots do than chapterfics when it comes to kudos. Also, the fact that a fic from this year (the one for The Untamed) passed several fics that have been online for years really speaks to the power of big fandoms.

Which of your fics do you want more attention for?

So, in general the fics that get the most attention for me are more governed by the size of the respective fandoms than by how good the fics themselves are. Fics for Gundam 00 just don’t as much attention as fics for BnHA because less people are in the fandom. So, like, I’d love more people to read my Gundam 00 and Arknights fics, but really what that means is that I want more people in those fandoms.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to but I get overwhelmed really easily and like everyone else I’ve had a lot going on this year, so if I didn’t respond to your comment, please know that I did read it and appreciate it.

What sorts of things do you normally write?

I write a lot of crossovers, a lot of outsider POV fics, a lot of found family stuff, and a lot of hurt/comfort, especially emotional hurt/comfort. Recently I’ve been leaning more heavily into writing fics about disability as well.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

So despite generally preferring “angst with a hopeful ending,” I’ve written a surprising number of downer fics. In terms of what happens in the ending, the angstiest ending is in “drink in all of this apocalyptism,” the PMMM/Umbrella Academy crossover fic I wrote. You’re probably not gonna be shocked to hear that it involves an apocalypse. In terms of the ending that is written as being the most bleak, I’d say it’s a toss-up between “I’ll Call You Tomorrow” and “to somehow escape the burning weight.”

What's a fic that pushed you out of your comfort zone?

Speaking of “to somehow escape the burning weight,” I was not comfortable writing even the implication of two characters sleeping together. Unfortunately, while I am very, very ace, the characters are not and it became clear that if I wanted to write them interacting at their respective points in their character arcs, they were going to want to make bad decisions together. I had to figure out how to structure the fic so that I didn’t feel out of my depth but the characters were still in character and still had the interaction I wanted.

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I write a lot of crossovers! I’m not sure what the craziest one I’ve written is, to be honest, but I think the FMA/M*A*S*H fic, “A Recurring Nightmare with Popcorn,” wins if for no other reason than because I committed to that crossover. Most of my other odd crossovers are oneshots, but RNwP is long enough to be a short novel.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Surprisingly, it’s “the memories you want to forget are hostages,” which isn’t all that popular in English! It’s on Ficbook in Russian here.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Several times! As mentioned above, @hawk-in-a-tree and I worked on These Streets together, though I kinda stepped back and let her take control on later chapters. There are also a few other fics we’ve collaborated on that aren’t ready for publication yet.

It’s been a while, but my friend miladyRanger also co-wrote fic with me often. We have four fics (one for FMA and three for DCMK) posted over on FFN under the penname miladyFeather.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I have a BnHA WIP that needed major revisions after the Dabi backstory reveal; I don’t know if I’ll finish it or not but if I do it will probably take a while.

What are you currently working on?

Like I said above, I have a WIP longfic for Genshin Impact that I’m really excited about. It’s not done yet but it’s already pretty long, so I’m hoping I can make it through that final stretch.

What are your writing strengths?

I think I’m pretty good at writing interesting, relatively natural-sounding dialogue, foreshadowing, and establishing tone.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I’m crap at remembering continuity—not just of canon works I’m writing fic for, but also within my own longer works. Avoiding cliches and remembering to describe the setting are both areas I’d like to improve in. Also I have a bad habit of leaving fics unfinished.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Most recent?

The very first fic I wrote was a xxxholic crackfic; the most recent fic I published was for Persona 3.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

It’s hard to say? I love several fics for different reasons. I think “Riddle in Reverse” and “I love it when a plan comes together” would definitely be on the short list, though, because they were fun to write and they’re fun to reread.

What fic are you most proud of?

If I’m being honest, I’m probably proudest overall of “Riddle in Reverse”—it’s a solid fic, it got much more popular than I expected, and I love getting reviews from people who are a mixture of happy and angry about the twist.

Tagging: @sleepdeprivedfemale, @kaedahara--kazuha, and anyone else who’d like to do this!

#ask meme #about fanfic #about writing #kaedahara--kazuha #since i'm not sure tagging you in the body of the post worked

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thewhitefluffyhat · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Karin’s Magical Girl Story

Another collection of thoughts and reactions, plus analyzing some small changes the NA translation made (similar to the translation comparison I did for Alina’s MGS a while back).

Starting off with not a change, but an interesting note: Karin and Alina’s club situation is rather strange. Alina is the “outsider” from the Art Club, while Karin is part of the Manga Club. The classroom they share, though, doesn’t appear to be the main space for either club. I’d initially assumed that it was the room originally used for the Manga Club, but once Arc 2 updates these backgrounds...

It turns out this actually is an art classroom! I guess the school just has two?

First major change: Just like in Alina’s MGS, they removed direct references to Karin and Alina’s ages. The reference to Karin’s age at the start of the Magical Halloween Theater event was also changed.

(In JP here, Alina was said to have won a lot of different awards “for a 16 year old,” while Karin stated her age as 14 in the MHT event.)

Again, unsure of why the change, but it could be in order to fix the continuity issues. Because good lord, that continuity is snarled...

I think the order that makes the most sense is Karin MGS > Alina MGS > Magius forms > one year passes > MHT > Main Story Ch5 > Holy Alina’s MGS. In theory, then Karin should be 13 and Alina should be 15 in their Magical Girl Stories and then 14 and 16 in the present, but as mentioned that’s contradicted by the start of Karin’s MGS in the original Japanese.

There’s also the weirdness around when/how Karin learned Alina was a magical girl, since Karin seems aware of it in MHT, yet it’s unclear if she knows in Holy Alina’s MGS.

… Anyway, stuff like this is why I gave up on constructing a coherent timeline for Magia Record. There’s just too many continuity tangles. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

References to Karin being in her second year in middle school and the third years leaving – also changed. Probably because it’s both an uncommon way to refer to grades in English, and also, once again, another continuity issue. (If the third years left, why is Alina still there in one years’ time if she’s at least one grade ahead of Karin?)

Another change: some specifics in why Karin and Alina are in the same classroom together. In JP, it’s not specified who made the deal to let Alina use the room. If anything it seems like Karin is the one making a deal directly with Alina.

Which actually makes far more sense all around – why does “the school” care that Alina is giving informal lessons to some random kid?

And it makes more sense from Alina’s perspective too, in that it explains why she tolerates Karin constantly bothering her – putting up with Karin is explicitly the price she’s paying to Karin for using the space.

Oh boy, this. Karin having this mindset is why it took me so long to really ship AliKari. Because the dark undertone to “if only I improve, then surely Alina will treat me better” is that Karin is blaming herself when Alina is cruel to her. And that can very easily slide into an abusive relationship - if you don’t consider it one already.

Alina treating Karin decently should not be dependent on Karin’s art skill. Or anything else, for that matter. Full stop.

(Tangent time, including some Arc 2 spoilers)

What ultimately made me come around to AliKari is some of the early Arc 2 stuff, where Karin starts thinking the reason Alina disappeared is because Alina is mad at Karin for not improving. Karin’s explanation is spectacularly wrong, so I’m now more trusting that the game is implying that Karin’s mindset is going to change. That she’ll stop believing she’s at fault for Alina’s actions - and hopefully stand up to Alina too while she’s at it.

The other half of the equation is Alina, who as far as I can tell, is genuinely not interested in bullying Karin. She certainly has every opportunity to do so – especially given how her teacher punishes Karin for Alina’s behavior – but Alina never takes advantage of it. So while she is overly harsh and blunt about expressing her opinions to Karin, I don’t get the sense there is any manipulation underlying it. Indeed, very unusually for Alina, we also never see her enjoying or fantasizing about Karin’s pain or distress. She really, truly, just wants Karin to get better at art already!

Obviously, for any kind of relationship between the two to work, they would both need to undergo significant character development. But that’s the draw of AliKari – while other characters have stagnated (sigh, RikaRen), Alina and Karin are still some of the most dynamic characters in the game. And in general, the direction has been that despite starting out in a bad place (like Karin’s mindset above), they’re growing to become very positive influences on each other.

(End tangent)

Enjoying the extra cliches thrown in here and there, and in general how they translated Karin’s dramatics by adding additional cheesy and on-theme descriptions. Stuff like “dark and dreary night” or “cauldron of trouble” aren’t in the original Japanese, but they’re wonderfully in-character – honestly probably an improvement over the original!

Not a change, but more reminding myself that I really need to read Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne. I’m like 97% sure that’s what’s being referenced here – the plot description and even the comments Karin makes about “Phantom Thief Kirin” In her later Magic unlock quotes are all a very close match.

Interestingly enough, I’ve heard KKJ mentioned as an earlier dark magical girl series that Madoka Magica rips off. So it’s quite interesting to see it referenced again back in a PMMM property – I wonder which part of the creative team was responsible for this detail?

Hm, so, the subject and detail of Karin and Alina’s conversation in the middle differs between translations. In JP, the subject is vague, so the fan translation has Alina going off on an extended metaphor comparing the history of art to the protagonist of Karin’s manga. Meanwhile, in NA she just makes vague comments comparing her own growth as an artist.

I think I prefer the former - Alina usually doesn’t like talking about herself, but she sure loves to ramble about art history.

The translation I can find for the metaphor Karin’s grandmother uses here in JP renders it “barely able to keep a business going” - so did Karin’s grandmother possibly own a business herself? That’s a bit more interesting than just “struggled to make ends meet.”

Speaking of Karin’s grandmother, I really like her as a character. Her relationship with Karin is really sweet - I mean, how often do you see a teenage girl and an older woman being fans of something together? It happens in real life plenty of times, but it’s so rare to see this kind of interaction represented in fiction.

And it’s nice to see an example of mental illness being treated as just that – an illness. I especially like that there’s consent to the cure – Grandma outright says she wishes to be cured, rather than Karin deciding as such on her own. (As Karin is often wont to do…)

This is a fun illustration of how Alina has a very strong internal logic to her, but she’s really terrible at communicating it to other people.

Karin, naturally, takes Alina’s comment here as an exceptionally mean thing to say – it sounds like Alina is callously implying the thing Karin worked so hard on was so bad it wasn’t even worth Alina’s time to destroy, so she’s making Karin suffer even more in having to destroy it herself.

And the way Alina elaborates makes it quite clear that yes, she did mean to call Karin’s work garbage. This isn’t Alina having difficulty with Japanese or English.

But while Alina’s sense of taste can be quite sadistic, I don’t think that’s what she was aiming for here. Remember that Alina believes that “only the artist themselves has the right to destroy their work.” So this is actually Alina acknowledging Karin’s work as art, and therefore only Karin has the right to rip it up.

And why rip it up? Because whenever Alina finds her own work unsatisfactory, she destroys it. Hence Alina’s question at the end of this little back-and-forth:

If Karin doesn’t want to rip up her manga, then according to Alina’s logic, that means she must be happy and satisfied with it. But even Alina can tell that Karin is still unsatisfied and lying to herself, hence Alina’s frustration and confusion at Karin not destroying her work.

Another timeline note: Alina doesn’t lie, and even if she did, she doesn’t have a ring here. So I think it’s pretty settled that Karin’s MGS takes place before Alina learned about magical girls.

Oh huh. In NA, Alina thinks she’ll be the one in trouble if Karin isn’t ready. In the fan translation I’m used to, it seems like Alina is saying she’d just be mad herself… but I think NA has it right here. (In the original JP, Alina is using the passive form of “get angry” without a subject.)

Both work, but the impression NA gives with both this change and the earlier one is that someone at the school is basically putting Alina in charge of supervising Karin. Which… what the hell, Sakae Academy?

Going back a bit, Alina’s advice and its effect on Karin is interesting. One of Karin’s flaws really is that she makes excuses for herself and only half-commits, so Alina pushing her to think about what she truly wants and work hard to get it was genuinely what Karin needed to hear at the time.

However, Alina is also an obsessive perfectionist that tends to push herself to very clearly unhealthy levels…

So it’s rather fitting that on following Alina’s advice, Karin ends up pushing herself into doing something very dangerous: insisting on fighting a witch alone even though Kaede tries to get her to retreat. Karin is so determined she’s risking her life to fulfill her goal – something Alina would no doubt approve of. But also a great illustration of why Alina and her advice is flawed too.

Which, come to think of it, is part of why Karin and Alina’s MGS actually form a nice pair of complementary short stories. If you read them in chronological(?) / original JP release order, you first get to see how Alina helps Karin to grow as a person, and if you think hard about it, you can kind of see foreshadowing for Alina’s own issues. Then in Alina’s MGS, you get confirmation of that foreshadowing about Alina, and furthermore, the payoff to Karin’s development with her now being the one to give Alina some hard-hitting advice.

#magia record #misono karin #alina gray #alikari #magia record analysis #my ramblings #na translation changes #magia record na #magia record jp #read more

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pumpkaaboo · 4 years ago

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Madoka Magica rewatch: episode 1

Hey guys! I’ve decided to rewatch Puella Magi Madoka Magica (considering that the last time I watched it, I was 12, up past my bedtime, and at a sleepover with my friends. we watched the whole thing in one night. needless to say, a lot of things flew over my head). I want to pay attention to two things in particular: symbolism, and parallels to Revolutionary Girl Utena (specifically, eggs. that will make sense if you’ve seen utena). Most of what I’m going to talk about is probably a reach and/or not intended by the creators, but hey, overanalyzing every minute detail of things to the death is fun. (Note: these posts will contain spoilers for the entirety of madoka magica, and probably bits of utena as well) If you don’t want to see these posts, you can blacklist the tags “#pmmm” or “#pmmm rewatch”. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

So right off the bat, we have a parallel to utena. The very first shot in both...

...is a curtain being raised. This is very interesting to me; it gives the idea that what we’re about to see is a performance of some kind. Whether it means that the whole thing is a performance, or just the dream/flashback we’re about to see, is something I’ll have to look out for. Regardless, just as in utena, I’m going to take this as an indication that what I’m about to watch should not be taken at face value.

Also worthy of note that this is the first time we get to see the beautiful paper cutout style in the witch labyrinths. It’s one of the defining artistic features of this anime, and I can’t wait to see it again.

Then there’s a shot of what appears to be a grief seed with some text in a conlang I can’t read and then... this.

...yeah, I’m at a loss. Is this Madoka’s witch? I think it might be. The background kind of looks like a record from this angle, but broken by that black... slice? bar? witch? Also, there’s the sound of what I think is a tape running through a film projector-yet another indication that what’s to come is a story a performance, not necessarily reflective of reality. However, in contrast to Utena, which uses theater/live performances and plays, Madoka seems to be using film. Film is static, unchanging-you can watch a movie as many times as you want, but aside from file corruption or physical damage to your equipment, it will play out exactly the same way. Theater, meanwhile, is much more dynamic-the actors and the audience have a tremendous amount of influence on the way things go, even if specific plot points must remain the same. I like that, as a difference between the two, because while in Utena, the duelists are always different and the circumstances of the cycle are always changing (even if the end result is always the same), while in Madoka, Homura is repeating the exact same month, and everyone else stays exactly the same except for her (the audience? much to think about).

We have several shots of Madoka running through this stark black and white landscape. She’s the only spot of color in it, and each shot is more impossible and dreamlike than the last.

Finally, she comes to this bright green exit sign-a complementary color to her hair. It’s surrounded by darkness and metal fencing (only visible in the previous shot)-perhaps meaning that, for Madoka to be able to move forward, she will have to travel into darkness, towards something the opposite of herself? I also find the framing of the shot to be very reminiscent of this:

Madoka must ascend the stairs before opening the door, however, not after. I’ll talk a bit more about this parallel later, though, because Madoka opens the door and sees...

...that. Walpurgisnacht has the same pattern behind her that the weird shot of the record did earlier, so maybe I was misreading that and it’s supposed to represent her, not Madoka’s witch whose name escapes me. Also worthy of note that Madoka is moving from an unreal space of equal parts light and dark (where the two were distinctly separated) to a more “real” world of black and gray-and where darkness and the few patches of light often blend together smoothly. I think this is supposed to represent her idealistic worldview clashing against the world where Magical Girls must constantly risk their lives, make morally gray decisions, and fight witches for survival.

I’m not really sure of what to think of the parallel between Madoka entering the battle with Walpurgisnacht and Utena entering the dueling arena, but if we take it as her going from a place inside of her own mind, where her assumptions about the world are unchallenged, into a place where a battle of ideology where no one is truly, 100% noble (even though some may hold the definite moral high ground) might work, but Utena’s dueling arena is also a place of trying to obtain that true nobility. Then again, that could be a parallel to Madoka’s wish in the end, couldn’t it? But I don‘t think it’s a 1-1 parallel, nor do I think it should be expected to be. I’m happy to think of it as a (possibly unintentional) nod to one of the show’s major influences.

Also I just noticed that Walpurgisnacht’s design sort of mirrors itself and works just as well upside down as right side up-hold on let me just-

yeah.

Here we have a shot of Madoka standing on a maze of scaffolding-the path ahead of her will be treacherous, full of dead ends and places to plummet to the ground. But we don’t have time to talk about that because HOMURA

So our first shot of this character-arguably tied for “most important in the show” with Madoka herself-is from a distance, standing on a pillar of darkness, surrounded by flashing red lights. The camera constantly focuses in and out-she’s distant, and it’s hard to figure out what she’s doing or thinking. But then we cut closer to her-

-and we see her face right before she gets hit by a skyscraper-

-and it becomes clear that whoever this is, she’s someone to pay attention to, someone whose inner mind and motivations the series will be exploring. Also I love how she’s not scared of the skyscraper at all, seeming to view it as more of a minor inconvenience more than anything. Because to her, it is!

Also, here we have the first actual bright colors in the show besides the green exit sign. I note that Homura is raising her shield here, not firing one of her (many) guns/explosives-our first impression of her is a mysterious one, but also of protection, though who or what she’s trying to protect remains to be seen.

...and here we have the first voice line of the series. Seems appropriate, given the general tone, but I also think it’s important to note that our first impression of Homura is protectiveness, and our first impression of Madoka is compassion and sympathy...

...while our first impression of Kyubey is fatalism and discouragement. Not exactly a good look for a character who’s supposed to be guiding and supporting the heroes, huh. Kyubey knows exactly what he’s after, and he knows exactly how to get it.

And here we have the entire thesis of Madoka’s character in one line.

Seriously, all of it’s right there! Compassion for those suffering, an acknowledgement that the current circumstances are unjust, are wrong. This isn’t how magical girl shows are supposed to go, this isn’t how heroes are supposed to have to fight, and Madoka is unwilling to accept a world where this level of injustice is the norm. God, what a great way to introduce the entire main conflict of both the protagonist and the show!

Here’s our first clear shot of Kyubey, and he looks even more blank and eerie than usual-I think it’s the fact that he has no visible pupils. Also a great bit of foreshadowing; you don’t typically introduce a character that’s going to be helpful like this.

Kyubey tells Madoka that she has the power to change this fate-to alter the horrible destiny in front of her. “Can I really?” asks Madoka.

That’s why Madoka wants power-she wants to be able to help. And she can, but she’ll have to be very careful about how she words her wish, because otherwise, she might just end up making things worse. It’s worth noting that she wants to change the ending-perhaps foreshadowing her eventual wish to stop magical girls from becoming witches (any girl who cannot become a princess..), changing the inevitable end of their lives.

I love how the branches of the tree(?) are breaking up the frame, making it look fractured or like slash marks, showing how the characters are broken and disoriented, and visually representing the separation between Madoka, Homura, and Walpurgisnacht. It’s a neat trick that was used to great effect in Adolescence of Utena (though usually it was associated specifically with blades or impalement in that case).

Kyubey offers his contract to Madoka, and she looks at the camera, determined, crowned and wreathed by the rubble around her...

...and then wakes up, in her bed, surrounded by warmth and pink and soft things and hearts. Also, I think the aspect ratio changed at this part? I’m not really sure why that is-maybe to convey that they’re going from the cinematic final conflict to Madoka’s everyday life?

Silhouetted by the warm window behind her almost like a halo, watched by her stuffed animals and embracing another, Madoka asks if it was all a dream. She noticeably sits up so her entire head is in the light, and then leans down so only half of it is-she hasn’t fully committed to the heroism she’ll come to embody yet.

Okay, that’s enough for now, it’s been like two hours and I’ve only gotten through one scene. I was hoping to be able to get through this quickly, but I should have known better. Part 2 of this episode coming... at some point, hopefully.

#pmmm #pmmm rewatch #puella magi madoka magica #pmmm 1

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takerfoxx · 4 years ago

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When trying to write a big balloon of good feelings with the EXPRESS INTENTION of bursting it... how big is too big before it's just cruel?

A very good question, and it comes down to purpose, execution, and follow-through.

Now, given my history and reputation, those sorts of situations are something of my forte, and I’ve had a lot of experience and trial and error to work things out, so here’s how you get maximum impact out of your dark, cruel plot-twists.

First, ask yourself why are you doing this? Is it purely for shock value, or does it serve some greater purpose for the plot and characters? If it’s the second, then go ahead and skip to the next section. If it’s the first, then go ahead and put that idea back in the oven because it’s totally not ready yet.

Look, as a writer, I get the appeal of shock value. Shock value got Imperfect Metamorphosis on the map. Shock value is in my blood. But if all you have is that shock and nothing else, then it’s shock value for shock value’s sake, which is just shallow and useless. You want to shock and disturb, yes, but you also want your audience to keep going to find out what happens next! Dangle that emotional catharsis in front of them! Give them some measure of hope that this is leading somewhere satisfying! Even stories like Chinatown and The Mist, which ended with the protagonists losing in horrible ways despite all their efforts, still felt like they were saying something bigger about the human existence and didn’t feel like they were cheating the audience.

For example: Marisa’s death in IM. I’ll freely admit, the idea first occurred to me and became part of the plan for the shock value, a way to throw down the gauntlet and show that no one is safe. But since the idea came to me early in IM’s run, I had literal years to refine the idea, build towards it, and map out how the fallout would go down, so that by the time it came around, it had turned into an essential part of the plot, from which the rest of the story would lead.

See, here’s the thing you need to understand about dark plot twists: they follow the same rule as edgy humor that breaks societal taboo. And that is this: the twist is not the payoff; the twist is the set-up. Think of the difference of between a rookie “comedian” who thinks that saying shocking things that you’re not supposed to say constitutes as “funny” and those who are offended just don’t have a sense of humor, and a genuine master like George Carlin, who used edge subject matter and taboo breaking not as the punchline, but as the set-up to the bigger joke and thus earn the big laughs when he managed to land the punchline and say something bigger about the topic at hand. It’s a wire act without a net, something that is spectacular if you can pull it off and lead to something greater, but will end in disaster if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Now, let’s move onto the next part: execution. Here you have to be careful, because while it’s perfectly acceptable (and in fact encouraged) to break the rules and conventions of the story’s genre, you still have to ensure that it’s keeping with your story’s internal consistency and rules, and that it makes sense! You want such-and-such a character to betray their friends and turn bad guy? Okay, but it has to make sense and be consistent with their backstory and motivations. You want to pull the rug out from under the heroes and ruin everything they had been working toward? Okay, but it has to be consistent with the rules that you had set up.

I’ll give you a few examples. Now, Game of Thrones might be in the doghouse due the dumpsterfire of a final season, but there was a time when it was upheld as the gold standard of dark plot twists, with the two big examples being Ned Stark’s execution and the Red Wedding. The reason why those moments were so shocking and effective wasn’t because they came out of nowhere, but because they broke the conventional rules of storytelling. OF COURSE the main character would survive! They even gave him an out by having him sentence to the Wall where his bastard son was, where they would no doubt reunite and plan their next steps! Ned’s the hero, after all! Except no, this isn’t that kind of story, Joffrey is still a sociopathic narcissist, doing what sociopathic narcissists do.

And the Red Wedding? OF COURSE it would work! Walder Frey had accepted the compromise, and we’ve put a lot of time and investment in Rob and Cate and their retainers. Rob was practically the new main character, and the driving force against the Lannisters. What was more, he was winning, and he was going to keep winning, even with his one or two slip-ups...except no, he wasn’t, because he had been warned about Walder Frey’s easily bruised ego, he had broken his word, so there was going to be consequences when the Frey’s cut a deal with the Lannisters, so welcome to Medieval-style skullduggery!

Hell, you can have some real fun with this too! And if I may toot my own horn, let’s look at the most recent dark twist from IM: the return of the Shadow Youkai.

Now, I know what my reputation is, and what people expect from me. As such, I can use those expectations to play a sort of follow-the-cup game with the plot. Everyone knew that the Shadow Youkai wasn’t gone for good; the epilogue of Fires of the Sun pretty much showed that. But no one knew when she’d be back, and that let’s me play with expectations a bit.

So I put together a big beach trip, where Rin takes all of her friends, new and old, out into public. And since this is Rin’s story, everyone expects it to go wrong. She expects it to go wrong. Because things always go wrong for Rin!

Sure enough, here comes Hong Meiling and Koakuma, two people with reasons to ruin Rin’s life! Surely they’ll catch and bust her! In fact, it turns out that Koakuma is Elis’s cousin, so surely that would mean she would...except no, they have a short chat, Koakuma doesn’t expose them, and they all go their separate ways. Nothing happens.

Oh shit, here comes Reimu! Not only does she know Rin, she also knows everyone in Team Nineball, and has fought most of the other girls as well! This isn’t good, how will Rin wriggle out of this (no pun intended)...except she doesn’t need to. Reimu and Rin’s various friends walk right past each other over and over without noticing, she chitchats with Hong Meiling and Koakuma for a bit, and then she’s called away to the next chapter’s plot. Rin never even so much as realizes that Reimu was there. Nothing happens.

But wait! Flandre is still a problem, and Seija’s still loose out there! And there she is, taking advantage of Rin’s absence to trigger Flandre’s madness! Surely THIS is the big disaster that’ll...except no, Kogasa quickly gets Seija to piss off and Wriggle coaxes Flandre back to sleep. Nothing happens.

Wait, the beach party was...a success? Nothing bad happened? Everyone had fun and made friends like they were supposed to? And it ends with Rin actually saving a stranger’s life and getting praised for it? Which story was I reading again?

Oh hey, there’s Minoriko, someone who hasn’t been seen a long time, and she says that Hina successfully devoured the Shadow Youkai’s essence, so there’s nothing to worry about. Well, that’s a relief! Strange though that a little curse goddess could handle something of the Shadow Youkai’s caliber, seeing how Sariel already mentioned how unsafe it is to use anything other than the original sword to do so, and how Rhapsody of Subconscious Desire already established that the Shadow Youkai is capable of taking over a secondary host, provided that she had access to their subconscious, and-

Click.

Boom.

So if you’re going to do it, make sure you set up believable reasons why it would happen in advance, even if the audience doesn’t notice them at first. Otherwise, you get Vince Russo’s booking of late-90′s WCW, where everyone was switching allegiances on a dime left and right just for the sake of having a SHOCKING SWERVE! Remember: it’s a highwire act without a net. Know what you’re doing.

Also, for the love of God, if you’re going to have a bad guy do a really bad, shocking thing in one part of the story but later join the good guys later on, don’t just sweep said bad thing under the rug. If Cain the Bloodspiller butchers little Timmy in book one but becomes Cammy the Bloodsaver in book five, then don’t let little Timmy be forgotten. Make sure that there’s still consequences.

And finally, the follow-through. Justify this shocking twist. Have it mean something. Take your time to explore the consequences. Show how it affects the characters. Dig deep into their psyches and make it feel real. The reason people STILL talk about Aeris’s death in Final Fantasy 7 is that the gameplay itself was designed to make you feel her loss, both from the viewpoint of the characters and you, the player.

One of my favorite dark twists is Mami’s death in PMMM, because it follows all of these conditions and does so spectacularly. It sets up how dangerous fighting witches is and explains that someone could really die while doing it, while tricking us into not expecting that to happen by already showing us how Mami kicks ass and establishing her as a main character with a promise to form a lasting bond with Madoka right before pulling the trigger. And afterward, it takes the time to really dig into the consequences of her death, from Madoka’s depression to Sayaka’s increased recklessness to being the catalyst that brought Kyoko into the story in the first place. Everything that happens after does so as a result of that moment.

So yeah, by all means, do that shocking thing, but make sure you put in the work to both earn and justify it.

#writing advice #game of thrones #puella magi madoka magica #pmmm

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fearidescent · 4 years ago

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Code Lyoko: Transistorized

I’ve made a post earlier about how a hypothetical Code Lyoko reboot could use some of Transistor’s elements, but the elements I mentioned (monsters and weapons) would likely cause copyright infringement if these concepts were straight up copied. So I’ve been thinking about what other elements of Transistor this reboot could use, and I’ve come up with the following.

Spoilers for Code Lyoko and Transistor under the cut, obviously. Also spoiler warning for Psycho-Pass and Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

So the first thing I came up with was what XANA’s master plan was. In canon it was a bit unclear; likely to take over the world or destroy humanity, but then what? This is the first thing I updated.

Reboot XANA’s master plan is to convert all of humanity into processing power for itself. It wants to do this via forcing humans into the scanners to Lyoko, then sapping away their consciousness via the Scyphozoa, then returning their soulless bodies to earth, take out their brains (which can still function, just not support a human consciousness anymore) and hook them up to itself. Think like the Sibyl system in Psycho-Pass.

Originally, this XANA was created by an organization which the Men in Black are enforcers of. This organization is either France-based or USA-based, and it intended XANA to be used as a (somewhat extreme and definitely unethical) kind of war machine. So originally, XANA had a limiter that it could only attack the people of a set country (or set of countries) once set loose. However, once Franz Hopper discovered that he was working on a program with this person, he removed this limiter and uploaded the limitless XANA to a drive, and fled with it to the city where Kadic Academy is located, which also housed a supercomputer, originally intended as a facility for people to be scanned. Without Lyoko, this would be enough for XANA to sap people’s consciousnesses.

So now there are two things for Franz to do: first, make sure that the Men in Black cannot access this particular site, and second, to ensure that XANA is left considerably less powerful.

For the first thing, he constructed a sort of terminal, which continuously scans the internet to find information on the current Men in Black, particularly their looks. This terminal also controls the elevator with a face scanner thingy, which scans the faces of the people who want to access the elevator. If a face is identical to the face of a Man in Black, the person with that face will be barred from the elevator. (Also, this means that only one person can enter the elevator at a time, before the doors are shut to the next person.)

For the second thing, Franz constructed Lyoko, as a sort of prison for XANA. He also created the Towers on Lyoko as a way for potential administrators to Lyoko to interact with the real world on a much larger scale than they normally could. However, there was a bug in this program, which allowed XANA to also access the Towers. Franz began to work on solving this bug, but it was at this point that the Men in Black discovered where he was hiding out.

He also discovered that the Men in Black had discovered a way to “posses” people (the Spectres), but these possessed people also had a very specific brain wave pattern. He then installed a brain scanner thingy to the terminal, which prevented the possessed people from being able to access the facility.

Soon after, the Men in Black managed to abduct Anthea. Now Franz was really starting to get nervous. His administrator function was still buggy, in that any being who became an administrator lost their memories and became unable to return to Earth (he found this out by experimenting on the pets the family had*. Classy action, Franz). So he decided that, while he himself would not become an administrator, Aelita would, so that she wouldn’t be completely helpless on Lyoko. He deemed that staying in the real world would be too dangerous for her.

(*Also, the earlier monsters are based on these pets. It’s only when XANA gets powerful enough to access the internet that the monsters become more monstrous.)

He also updated the terminal to scan the internet for information specifically related to the organization the Men in Black belonged to. He then virtualized himself and Aelita, and then the terminal shut the supercomputer down, only to activate it again when that organization was disbanded, or when an outsider (i.e. not a Man in Black) turned it on again.

Ten years later, enter Jeremy Belpois, who turned on the supercomputer, activating Lyoko and XANA again. However, due to another limiter Franz installed on XANA, the program was considerably less dangerous. It could still increase in power via the Return to the Past function, however, this function can also only be accessed via the terminal, by a non-possessed, non-MiB person.

(The way this power increase works is kinda like how Madoka from PMMM got more power potential any time Homura rewound time. The hypothetical power XANA had in the timeline that got cut short by the RttP got transferred to the new timeline (albeit with a not insignificant loss, so that XANA’s power doesn’t get doubled every time the RttP was used). This is at the cost of XANA being unable to use any power during the time the RttP rewound.)

So Jeremy discovers Aelita, without memories and with an inability to go to earth. He starts working on a way to recover at least Aelita’s ability to return to earth, so they can turn of the supercomputer and neutralize XANA again. With the help of his friends, Yumi, Ulrich and Odd, he battles against XANA’s activated Towers.

(As for why Franz Hopper didn’t rematerialize himself, he took a while to recover his consciousness after the ten years the supercomputer was turned off (administrators do not have this problem) and by the time he recovered, XANA had already messed with the rematerialization ability. Jeremy had no idea Franz was still around until the end of season 2.)

Also, due to XANA’s power loss engineered by Franz, it is unable to construct the Scyphozoa and use Spectres until season 2. After this, it starts to chase Aelita to reconstruct her ability to return to Earth without the Code Earth. Obviously this is not with the intent to let Aelita live a normal life on earth, so Jeremy and co try to protect her from the Scyphozoa until they find a way to reconstruct Aelita’s rematerialization ability without XANA immediately possessing her. So that is basically the plot of season 2.

Season 3: due to the administrator privileges it retrieved from Aelita’s mind, XANA is now considerably more powerful, though still only able to affect reality with the help of Lyoko’s Towers. It starts to construct Replica’s without the Lyoko Warriors’ knowledge, and starts to try to destroy Lyoko so that the Lyoko Warriors can’t interfere anymore. It’s towards the end of the season that the Lyoko Warriors decide to have William join them. Obviously this goes wrong, but XANA decides not to erase all of William’s consciousness, just enough to make him a puppet, but still enough left to make him able to more effectively manipulate the Lyoko Warriors. (Also, William’s also an administrator now.)

Season 4: due to figuring out how administrator privileges work, Jeremy has given Yumi, Ulrich and Odd these privileges as well (which also comes with an outfit upgrade). They start hunting for the Replica’s, but on the Replica’s they are unable to access the privileges and return to their normal forms.

Hope this didn’t turn out too rambly (oh, who am I kidding, it totally did) and that if you read it until this point, everything is at least clear enough. If you want to ask questions about this au, just send me an ask or reply to this point. Obviously if I want to really write this au, I need to sit down and think about it a lot more, but your questions may be able to help me flesh things out.

#code lyoko #code lyoko au #code lyoko transistorized #mal writes some shit #long post

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littlepurinsesu · 5 years ago

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V Watches MagiReco - Episode 5 Review

*Spoilers for Magia Record Anime Episode 5*

I won’t deny that I was both extremely nervous and excited for this episode at the same time. There was just so much building up and so many vital things to introduce this week. I was anticipating an interesting conversation between Yachiyo and Mifuyu, a much longer and more difficult Rumour battle, Iroha’s doppel, and a possible Mami appearance.

And I can say for sure that not only did we get all of that, but we got them all done very well, with a few unexpected twists and additions, too!

I feel that they’re deliberately making Mifuyu and her relationship with Yachiyo extremely vague for now; it’s hard to judge as a game player because I already know everything, but I do wonder how anime-only fans feel about Mifuyu, what with how little they’re telling us so far. The scene with Yachiyo and Mifuyu really goes to show how shackled to the past Yachiyo is, which is a nice irony when we consider the short lecture she gave Iroha last episode about being a prisoner of her past. The whole Seance Shrine ordeal basically showed that if anyone’s a prisoner of their past, it’s definitely Yachiyo, and the contrast between how she and Iroha respond to the fake Mifuyu and Ui is a great way to illustrate that. All the symbolism and visual imagery going on while Yachiyo and Mifuyu spoke was also really, really well done. I especially liked the little detail of how much Yachiyo’s hand was shaking when she was trying to purify her Soul Gem; this is probably our first time seeing her so disturbed and shaken up, which really goes to show how important her relationship with Mifuyu was to her.

I was not expecting such an amazing fight with Mifuyu, though! It’s always amazing to see these characters fighting outside of the fixed actions and movements shown with their game sprites, and I really love how graceful and agile Mifuyu is shown to be, jumping and gliding all over the place with such little effort. Yachiyo’s spear going right through her chest was OUCH EW, but I did enjoy that powerful moment from Yachiyo, who shows that she isn’t completely lost in her longing for their past relationship and does retain some good sense after all.

The Rumour looked slightly different from what I imagined (which is okay), but what I really appreciated? Finally a battle of some sort that doesn’t end way too quickly and easily; we finally see characters other than Iroha struggle with a monster that actually puts up a real fight. Iroha is continuously portrayed as weak but very eager to help out regardless, and I like that a lot about her character, even if I’d be just as frustrated as Yachiyo if I were in her position xD I’m really looking forward to seeing Iroha finally growing in strength and becoming a magical girl who can hold her own against the Kamihama Witches and Rumours!

As for the Doppel? I LOVED IT. I’m glad they went into detail about what went on inside Iroha’s mind before it happened, rather than having the monster suddenly exploding out of her with no explanation. The imagery with the bandages was done very well, too, and the creepy face “dark Iroha" makes before the Doppel is released has a very distinct PMMM style to me. My only slight complaint is that I would have liked a good look at the Doppel before she went up, up, and away and tore that Rumour to shreds xD The eerie bird-like sound effects were a very nice touch, but it was a little difficult to see what the Doppel was doing sometimes because everything happened so quickly with so much movement; I had to rewatch the scene a few times and pause on some frames before I understood what exactly was going on ^^;; (Iroha looks super pretty with her hair out, though! ♥)

It’s also really interesting to me that the anime shows that the Doppel doesn’t just effortlessly disappear like no big deal after the big attack. We see that even after the Rumour is destroyed, Iroha’s Doppel is still very much active and rampant, which makes me wonder what it exactly takes for a magical girl to “control” and “rein in” the Doppel and return back to normal, since, in Iroha’s case, it’s interrupted by the appearance of a very familiar magical girl!!!

When Mami appeared with her signature theme and chanted “Tiro Finale,” I legit felt chills down my spine (♥ω♥*) What an entrance!!! I also loved how they presented the tension between Mami and Yachiyo, both of them being the oldest and most mature of their respective groups and one of the most respected magical girls in their city. I think they have a very nice balance between including the original characters enough to keep old fans happy and allowing the new characters a chance to shine on their own, and I really hope they keep up this balance in future episodes :)

I know there’s been a few jokes in the past about Ui sounding like a broken record with how she repeats the thing about magical girls being saved in Kamihama. But this episode takes that idea and turns it up a few hundred notches to present one of the creepiest and most disturbing sequences I’ve seen in this anime so far. There’s something especially unsettling to see Ui looking all cute and happy and “normal” while sounding... well, like that. The fast-paced editing really adds to the urgent, almost claustrophobic kind of atmosphere, and builds up an even greater sense of mystery surrounding her character.

And the final part at Yachiyo’s place? We finally have our first glance at Mikazuki Villa! ^___^ It’s nice to see Yachiyo showing a much more gentle and caring side; she’s not as cold and brash as we’ve seen her, but there’s still a good bit of coolness and an aloof attitude that will defrost slowly as the characters get introduced one by one and the quintet forms :) Iroha sleeping in Mifuyu’s room was also a really nice and bittersweet touch, and I do like the way they’re using this kind of symbolism to set her up as a “new partner” for Yachiyo. Seeing all those mugs (and a quick Kanae cameo!) did hurt, but I like that the story will slowly allow Yachiyo to break free from the burden of her past and welcome a new and loving family. I do, however, wonder if that final scene of Mifuyu’s “ghost” or “spirit” would make anime-only fans think Mifuyu is dead or something xD

And that post-credits scene... OKAY I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT. That was one of the weirdest yet strangely entertaining scenes I’ve seen in any anime in a good while. I know Kaede summoned her Doppel, but... was the incident even real? Is she “still a Doppel” in the end, and not quite back to human yet? Was that the real world, or a labyrinth? Why was Mitama there? I take it that this is the first time Kaede has ever released a Doppel and doesn’t quite know what’s going on? And the last shot is most likely emphasising how the Doppel purifies the magical girl’s Soul Gem? The entire scene was just super trippy and things didn’t really make sense, yet I loved every second of how strange and wrong it all felt. This is probably one of the most “original” things the anime has done that wasn’t in the game (apart from Kuroe), and if they can somehow make sure that it all makes sense and ties in well together, then I’m all for these kinds of deviations if it means we get an even better and more suspenseful story!

I absolutely loved this week’s episode, and I was definitely not let down even with all the expectations and hopes I had for it. Many people say that the fifth episode of an anime is what “seals the deal” on whether someone will continue watching or end up dropping it, and even if it’s not accurate for me, being a game player and all, I do feel that I’d definitely stick with this series to the end if I was experiencing the story for the very first time.

Looking forward to Felicia’s debut next week! And... could that possibly mean that Kyoko will be showing up, too? (⊙ꇴ⊙)

Oh, and as a sidenote: I knew from the very first time I watched the OP that they would slowly add characters to the last part where Iroha turns around and runs towards Yachiyo >:) Sure enough, we see Tsuruno join them this week, and I can’t wait to see the full team slowly assemble! ^3^

#magia record #magireco #puella magi madoka magica #puella magi madoka magica side story #pmmm #fandom #mine #anime #review #magia record review #v watches magireco

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mahoutoons · 6 years ago

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Unpopular opinions: Magical Girl edition

I’ve seen lots of people make unpopular opinions on various topics so I decided to make one for Magical Girls.

1. Yuki Yuna and Madoka Magica are both good shows.

They both have their good points and their problems. PMMM fans say that YuYuYu is a ripoff while YuYuYu fans say that their show is actually a lot better than PMMM. They’re both equally good shows. I don’t see the point in fighting over them.

2. Seasons 1 and 2 of Sailor Moon Crystal aren’t that bad.

Yes, they had their problems. I will admit, the animation WAS off sometimes. But it isn’t the worst thing to ever exist like some people make it out to be. People love to praise season 3 as if its perfect and trash the first two seasons. I’ll admit, season 3 WAS an improvement, but you can praise it WITHOUT bashing the first two seasons.

3. Mahoutsukai Pretty Cure isn’t that bad.

I can certainly see why some people dislike it but I didn’t find it terrible. I will admit I found Mirai a boring character but I loved her bond with Riko, Mofurun and Ha-chan and found it an overall fun season. Nothing too special but it wasn’t too bad.

4. Ichigo x Masaya is my favourite pairing in Tokyo Mew Mew.

Its the canon pairing yet its the least shipped because people either ship Ichigo with Ryou or Kisshu and hate on Masaya for being bland. I ship Ryou x Ichigo but I can’t see why people hate Masaya so much. Okay, you find him boring, but it hardly justifies all the hate. He’s a caring boyfriend and genuinely loves Ichigo. He even waited in the rain for her. Sure, he was mean as Deep Blue but that wasn’t Masaya there.

5. Villains like Kisshu and Demande don’t deserve to be redeemed.

They both harassed and sexually assaulted the underage main female characters and did a bunch of other horrible things, yet they’re easily forgiven because they made a sacrifice. The fact that both these shows are aimed at a young female audience doesn’t help matters. It sends a dangerous message to young girls, that even if someone sexually assaults you, you must forgive them if they do one good thing. I get they’re trying to push a message of forgiveness, but this is NOT how you do it.

(On a side note, Demande doesn’t get redeemed in the manga or Crystal. He’s actually killed off and I’m glad for that)

6. I don’t ship Amu Hinamori with anyone.

Not with Ikuto, or Tadase, or Utau, or anyone for that matter. I prefer her as a girl who finds herself before jumping into romance.

7. While I adore Madoka Magica to bits, I’m not a fan of its impact on the genre.

Sure there were dark magical girl shows BEFORE Madoka but they weren’t a lot of them. But ever since Madoka came out, there’s a wave of these Magical Girl shows that try too hard to be dark and edgy. They think killing off characters left and right and making them suffer makes for an emotional story, when that’s not the case. The reason we were sad when bad things happened to PMMM characters or when they died was because we had time to care for them. These edgy Magical Girl shows try to put as many “dark” things as possible in an attempt to be cool but they fail miserably at it. I feel Yuki Yuna is the only post-Madoka dark MG that doesn’t try too hard to be dark and edgy. It shows us the happy parts and lets us get attached to the characters BEFORE tragedy strikes.

8. While on the topic of Madoka Magica, the people who hate it just because its dark are just as annoying as the people who hate the happy Magical Girl shows.

Its fine to not like the show or if dark shows just aren’t your thing, but some people who hate on PMMM to be cool are really annoying. You’re not any better than people who hate things just for being light and happy.

9. I’ve said this before but, I don't ship MadoHomu or KyoSaya.

90% of the PMMM fandom only cares about those relationships but I don’t really ship both pairings. MadoHomu has always been unhealthy for me, even before Rebellion and as for KyoSaya, they lack development. They only met for one day and hated each other, then suddenly Kyoko is Sayaka’s biggest regret in Rebellion. I honestly prefer MadoSaya and KyoMami (and even MadoMami).

10. This isn’t specific to Magical Girls alone but, there is no such thing as a worst fandom or best fandom.

Every fandom, from Sailor Moon to Madoka Magica WILL have some toxic fans as well as some good fans. The most we can do is just enjoy whatever it is we love and try to avoid the toxic fans.

Which of these opinions do you agree or disagree with?

#magical girls #mahou shoujo #sailor moon #sailor moon crystal #pretty cure #puella magi madoka magica #yuki yuna is a hero #tokyo mew mew #shugo chara #unpopular opinions #rebecca talks

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weaselandfriends · 5 years ago

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Your works feature a lot of casual references to and appearances of sexual trauma and sexual violence. Characters frequently discuss or threaten it towards young women in a way that makes me think unavoidably of bad shock horror stories or internet edgelords. Your stories demonstrably have a lot of depth and thought behind them, so I was wondering how and why you choose to deploy that kind of (normally very delicately handled) topic when you do?

I think about this question a lot: What divides “dark” from “edgy”?

I love dark stories. There’s some stuff even I consider distasteful, but generally my affinity for dark topics and themes in narrative is higher than the mean. This has the adverse effect of me liking a lot of things that are generally disliked, so I’ve become acutely aware of the need to compromise on the dark themes in the stories I write. Many years ago I was even one of those internet edgelords myself, writing a shock comedy that received harshly negative feedback.

But at the same time, I never want to abandon those dark themes entirely. They’re what I want to write about, and honestly I think stories would grow rather boring if anything potentially brutal or unsavory was tiptoed around or treated with some kind of hover-hand level of respect. My whole writing career has been finding that compromise, that location in the middle where I can communicate and connect with my audience. That’s why I write stories, to connect with people, and I can’t do it if I’m obliterating myself entirely to write what they want and I also can’t do it if I’m in such a different universe that nobody wants to read my story.

A lot of the specifics of how to handle dark material lies in tone. Tone is the most underrated element of storytelling. It’s often forgotten entirely in favor of elements like “plot” and “character,” but I think in many contexts tone is more important. Consider, say, PMMM. Dark show. Young girls get their heads bitten off and several other unsavory things. Why does PMMM get away with this, when other stories would be derided as edgy? Some may point to the redemptive ending as the answer, but I would disagree with that. It’s not like PMMM was some highly-derided show as it was airing until the final episode totally changed everyone’s perception of it. And it’s not like people were hanging on the far more-maligned Magical Girl Site to see if a similar moment of redemption would draw it out of the depths of MAL mid-6 purgatory. The answer is not in the summary content of what happens but in the tone. Urobuchi is a ponderous, psychological writer. He may be known as Gen the Butcher but as constant as his violence is, his endless philosophizing is even more ubiquitous. And while at times he can push the dials too far on either the violence or the philosophizing and leave people displeased with one or another individual work, on the whole this esoteric, thoughtful tone dilutes the brute impact of his grimmer moments and has led to him putting forward several slightly-off-the-mainstream hits.

Or consider Hereditary, a horror film everyone except me likes, and which like PMMM also features the brutal and sudden decapitation of a young girl fairly early in the story. Hereditary is a total tone piece, so much so that if you read a text summary of the story it sounds plaintively absurd. For most of the story jack dick actually happens, it’s people acting disconcertingly offbeat and faintly odd happenings, framed in strange ways with a weird motif of miniatures and dollhouses. It’s slow, it’s ponderous, it’s steeped in speculation about mental illness and family history and so by the time the actual decapitation occurs the audience has already been put at unease, is already anticipating something bad, is in some way psychologically braced for the disaster that is about to occur. (PMMM also does a similar thing in the episodes leading up to Mami’s death; the semantic content of those episodes might be innocuous, but the tone is anything but.)

Then Hereditary becomes about a cult of old white people who want to resurrect Paimon, God of Mischief, and any pretensions to a serious tone are dumped into the ridiculoid bin.

The point I’m getting at here is that a storyteller can either prepare their audience for shock content or assuage the blow via tone. In Modern Cannibals, Mitchum Graves is a walking piece of shock content. He is, in fact, one of the internet edgelords of the original question. My goal was to mentally prepare the audience for Graves via the opening roadtrip scene of the story, where a similar specter of violence and/or sexual assault hangs over the characters in the form of Maximillion, only for this threat to go unrealized as it is eventually revealed that Maximillion is more-or-less harmless. It’s about the same moment that Maximillion ceases being a threat that Graves appears, and while Graves’ overtly unsavory speech and actions are a dramatic step up from what was in the story prior, it’s not a complete turn out of left field. How effective I was at pulling this tone-preparation off, I’ll leave up to you guys; I knew more than a few people who dropped Modern Cannibals shortly after Graves appeared.

I’ve rambled for quite a bit, so I hope this at least in part answered your question. I like this topic a lot and could probably ramble on it some more for about fifty more paragraphs, but I really need to rein myself in.

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wheremytwinwatches · 4 years ago

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[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 1

All right, time for a new show! Tephi’s been pushing me to watch Fullmetal Alchemist for a while now, and now that I’ve finally moved into my apartment I can sit down and watch this show. I understand that there are two versions, one original that outpaced the manga and another that was made after, and based on recommendations I’m going with the second, Brotherhood. For those following along at home I’m going with the iTunes version of Brotherhood, as this lets me watch on my phone and type at the same time, and frankly at my pace of reviewing any subscription way of watching Brotherhood would probably be more expensive than just getting the series. Here’s what I know starting out: -The main characters are Edward and his brother. -Due to Reasons, Bad Things happened which resulted in Edward getting a robot arm and his brother(‘s soul?) getting put in a giant suit of armor. -The magic of this setting is Alchemy, with all sorts of rules and laws. -The phrase “Equivalent Exchange” is something that comes up a lot, and whenever I say those words where Tephi can hear she starts cackling. And that’s it! So Tephi’s highly recommended this show, I’ve got the first episode downloaded, and some spare time this afternoon. Let’s do this!

Familiar little Aniplex jingle… Funimation logo… Overhead shot of a city at night. Interesting layout, what looks like a castle in the center, with brightly lit lines tracing away from it. And a hexagon street layout? Suddenly I’m getting the biggest Lumiose City vibe right now. But the screen fades to someone drawing a circly-chalk thing, while a bunch of string instruments make it clear that This Is Not A Good Thing. The amateur artist is some dude with dark hair and stubble, looking grim as the camera pans out of the dark alley to the brightly-lit castle. “The Freezing Alchemist?” says someone who the subtitles have helpfully named Roy. Another guy, apparently Bradley shows a file with a picture of yup that’s the guy trying to set up hopscotch. Seems he snuck into ‘Central’ a few days ago, and now Bradley (who has an awesome eyepatch, and I will now call Fury) is making it Roy’s problem. Wait wait wait, “Mustang”? This character is named Colonel ‘Roy Mustang’? Damn but that’s a manly name. Mustang’s ready to go catch Mr. Freeze, but it seems Bradley has one last thing: a certain ‘rising star’ is here as well. Hmmmm, my Protagonist senses are tingling. And Fuhrer Bradley- Wait. What? ‘Fuhrer’? Um. I am torn between the unfortunate connotations, and glee that I get to call this character Fuhrer Fury. But no time to think about that, because Fuhrer Fury confirms that he’s talking about The Fullmetal Alchemist. Edward Elric. “Aw damnit. The colonel’s never gonna let us get outta here, is he?” What’s this? Anyways, I can recognize this guy as Edward, our special little star. Wonder what this is about. “We already got our tickets to Liore, too. Does this mean we’re not going?” And this is…Alphonse? Not gonna lie, a little thrown by the voice here. I look at this metal helmet, with glowing eyes and stylized fangs, and it just seems… young… oooh, I just realized. Whatever caused Alphonse to end up in that suit, if it’s just his soul he wouldn’t technically age, would he? How young was he when whatever happened? And holy crap that’s a really big suit of armor, like Edward looks tiny next to it. What’s the story with this armor anyway, how did all this stuff happen? Eh, maybe I should stop wondering and just keep watching. Intro! Edward with a ponytail and ragged shirt? And I thought he had a robot arm? Lady smiling with leaves blowing around, then AAAAAWWWWW lookit the widdle babies, widdle Edward and Al ooooh so cute wait why do you look scared and the door’s closing? Sudden Shiny Glasses on frowning man with strands of blond hair. Explosion! Edward and Al facing a wall of fire as the title comes up. Burning tree/house? Shot of Determined Edward scowling at wind that’s mussing up his hair before throwing his hands out. Casting? Shot of what I believe to be the Shiny Glasses man from before, has a ponytail and epic beard along with those unruly hair strands. And the glasses are remaining Shiny. Is he their dad? Guessing at family connection here. Turns away. Absent dad? Back to cute widdle kids taking a nap, along with a blonde girl. Sibling? Now they’re walking along a country road. Al’s armor? Running through a field. Shot of Colonel Roy Mustang (so manly!) also with the Shiny Glasses until they fade so he can glare directly at us. Then another black-haired man? Wait, was the second one Mustang, because I don’t remember seeing him wearing glasses. Who was the first person? Then someone singing? Then what the heck Kid Edward just lost an arm and a leg. And then Kid Al completely vanishes. And Kid Blond Girl looking shocked and stumbling. Flashes of people dressed in black against a red background, I have the sneaking suspicion that they are Not Good People. Shots of scowling people in blue uniforms like Fuhrer Fury and Colonel Mustang, the good guys? Smug looking guy with sunglasses and a fur coat, who just turned into a Terminator? Shot of Terminator running towards the Castle, where a Disapproving Fuhrer Fury is glaring. Lots of glaring in this intro. Edward running along a vent of some sort, fighting people in black clothes before EXPLOSION. Guy in white jacket sitting in the rain until it passes and he rushes off, white hair and some sort of facial tattoo? Small smoking lady with a barking dog. Edward running along and Earthbending to fight the Goth Villains. Then another shot of someone singing, I think this might be the Blond Girl grown up. Edward dressed in a black uniform (noo, don’t join the Goths! ) and a metal arm breaking. Foreshadowing? Final shot of two people standing against a setting sun. So… fairly standard anime intro. Granted, after PMMM’s Intro of LIES I will take all of this with a grain of salt. Back to the dark alleys of the city, what sounds like a cop’s whistle. Seems the police are trying to catch Mr. Freeze, but yup he’s a Waterbender and is knocks them aside with some painful-looking ice spikes. Two more cops try to stop him but...oh. Oh my. “Water freezes, water boils. Either way you’re just as dead.” Um. Wow, ok. That’s legitimately terrifying. Sudden spear from the sky, Mr. Freeze remarks that it was Alchemy before oh ew ew ew they showed the hand of the guy who got boiled please don’t show that again. Newcomer (probably our Protagonist) remarks that it was a nasty thing to do, but Mr. Freeze spouts out about great deeds requiring sacrifice. “Isn’t that the Law of Equivalent Exchange?” Oh hey, there’s that phrase. You know, I feel like this deserves some recognition, and Tephi finds it quite funny. So I’ve decided I’ll keep track of each time this phrase is said. Equivalent Exchange Count: 1 Regardless of whatever the rules of Alchemy are (and believe me, I wanna know these rules soon so I can try and figure out ways to minmax them), Edward says they don’t justify killing people. Edward grabs the spear and electricity sparks as he reforms it as a spiky club- pffffahahaha! That- that face! He put his freaking face on the tip! He put his freaking hair! Mr. Freeze’s all shocked about “no transmutation circle” but come on! That face! Sudden attack from behind by a surprisingly stealthy giant suit of armor, but Mr. Freeze dodges that and blocks the Face Mace, before shocking Edward and throwing Al. But he’s surprised? Oh, I get it. He tried to one-hit kill Edward like the cops, but grabbed his metal arm instead. Edwards mostly ticked that his coat got ruined. “An automail arm…” Dramatic cloak swoosh and oh good he just wears dark clothes below the red coat, he didn’t turn to the Goths in the intro. That’s a relief. Young talented alchemist, who doesn’t use transmutation circles (is that like HP wandless magic?) and who has an automail right arm. The Fullmetal Alchemist: Edward Elric! Episode 01 - “Fullmetal Alchemist” Now Mr. Freeze is pointing at Al?... Ah! Ha! Mr. Freeze is confused by the giant suit of armor being the younger brother of the “runt”. Edward take offense to that. Caught in an Earthbending prison, Mr. Freeze mumbles about the Fullmetal Alchemist being just a kid, and *wham*. Yeah, I’m guessing Edward being called little is a peeve of his. But come on, man. You travel with a giant suit of armor, you really do look tiny compared to that. Well, regardless of height complexes, Edward has caught the guy, and the NPC cops are suitably grateful… to the giant suit of armor. Yyyyep, I think this’ll be a running gag. Oh hey, so Alchemy can fix clothes too! That’s handy. Edwards all set to catch their train, now the cops have Mr. Freeze cuffed. They should be able to handle- nnnope. Just a few seconds out of their sight, and Mr. Freeze has split the scene. Colonel Roy Mustang’s snarking at Edward now. I like this guy! And looks like we’re starting with the Overconfident Non-Team Player Protagonist Model #17 with this show, looking foward to his character arc. Ooh, who’s that blonde officer standing next to Roy? The third of the Blonde Kid Trio? To recap the ignored briefing: Mr. Freeze is Isaac McDougal, aka “Isacc the Freezer.” Former State Alchemist (like these guys in blue? Government mages?), served in the ‘Ishvalan War’, never gave any signs of turning, but resigned immediately afterwards and has been working with the “antiestablishment movement” ever since. Capturing him is top priority… dead or alive. Hmmm. Ok, so I gotta be blunt. I’m obviously not going to cut slack on the whole ‘boiling a person alive’ thing, but… State Magicians? Their leader is ‘Fuhrer’? Pursuing a Rebel with little concern about their vital status? Maybe I’m still in a mindset after seeing the movie, but I could see this being replaced with ‘Sith’, ‘Emperor’, and… well, ‘Rebel’ can stay… and we’ve got The Empire. Maybe I’m reading too much into this? Anyways, back to hunting the Rebels. Edward resolutely states that he’s not going to kill for them, and Roy seems to respect that. Edward just has orders to help them contain Mr. Freeze. “Off topic…” Roy asks if they’ve got any leads for getting their bodies back to normal. Ah, so they’re trying to fix their bodies? ...why? I mean, if my guess about Al being soulbound to the armor is right that’s probably something you’d want to fix. Although, maybe the process can be used for older people? Like, immortal bodies and all that? Sorry sorry, off topic and way too early in the series for big transhumanist discussions. But, does Edward want to get a flesh-and-blood arm back, presumably a leg too based on the intro? Why? You have a robot arm, dude. I want a robot arm, and you want to get rid of yours? Heck, it saved your life just a few minutes ago! If you had a flesh-and-blood arm, then when Mr. Freeze grabbed you we’d get a Boiled Protagonist and an exceedingly short show. Anyways, Edward goes into yelling mode about ‘if they ever gave them time to look’. Sorry Ed, them’s the breaks of being the Protagonist. Every NPC’s got a quest for you to do, not much time to study. Door bursts open and a guy with square glasses and a cheerful greeting bursts through… with an upraised arm (damnit show, stop making me draw parallels). Roy… does not seem pleased with the interruption. “Here comes that pest.” I like this guy! And yup, Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes immediately goes to the Giant Suit of Armor to introduce himself. “What?!.. You’re the Fullmetal Alchemist?” What’s up with that name, anyway? Totally misleading, Edward’s only about ¼ metal with the arm and presumably leg. Anyone hearing ‘Fullmetal’ would obviously assume that the guy who’s, y’know, made entirely of metal would be the Fullmetal Alchemist. But Hughes isn’t just fanboying, he’s here on Official Business. Since the Elric’s don’t have a place to stay, they’ll *Sudden Shiny Glasses* have to go with him. He pulls out… a picture of his wife and daughter. Nevermind, let the fanboying continue. Pffft, I’m loving these subtitles. [Wholesome Laughing Continues] as Hughes hugs his daughter. The daughter points… “Big Brother! Little Brother!” Ok, do I need to start keeping a count for this too? Off to supper they go, and man am I glad I made my own food before watching this, it all looks delicious. Hughes is smiling at his guests, and then… uh oh. He asks why Al’s wearing all the armor at the dinner table, suggests he take it off and relax. Um. Awkward. Edward starts claiming that he’s not “allowed” to take it off, says it’s part of his training. What, is it a secret that he’s soulbound? Later that night… [Evil Laughter] at “Central Prison”. Somebody named Kimblee is laughing that the Freezing Alchemist wants him to play sidekick. But the Crimson Alchemist works Alone! Mr. Freeze appeals to Kimblee, mentions the horrors of the Ishvalan War, the things that Bradley ordered them to do… coming from the guy who BOILED SOMEBODY (I am still not over that), my concerns about this government continue to grow. But Kimblee just laughs, says he killed people not because of “honor” or “revenge”, or anything like that. “The reason I killed all those men, was because I could. It’s that simple.” Damn, but this show’s proving great for the villain lines. Mr. Freeze leaves in disappointment… pushing over a frozen guard with the sound effect [crash and shatter]. Guh. Back at Hughes’ place, he’s having a Late Night Thought in the living room when his wife Gracie comes to ask what’s wrong. She says he’s worrying about the Elric brothers. Hughes talks about how State Alchemists are called “the dogs of the military”, not exactly popular. Being referred to like that at their young age… what made them take that path? Edward’s lying in bed staring at the camera- I mean, ceiling, when Al asks if he’s awake. He asks about Mrs. Gracie’s quiche, how it looked like their Mom’s… aw damnit, they’re orphans, aren’t they? What the heck is with anime and killing off mothers?! Heh! Hearing it was almost as good as their mother’s, Al immediately adds it to his Book Of Things To Eat Once I Get My Body Back. And then… hurk! Nope! Nopenopenope, I do not need to hear that young voice quietly say “I sure would like to get our old bodies back soon…” Right in the feels! I’ve known this kid for all of ten minutes, and already I wanna punch whoever stuck him in that armor. And aaargh Mr. Freeze is back at it, setting up hopscotch. What’s with the Transmutation Circle? I’ve gathered that (most) alchemists need one to do their stuff, but the powers I’ve seen worked from emblems on their armor or skin. What does drawing the Circle on the ground do? “One more… one more and ‘Fuhrer’ Bradley’s on his way to hell.” Yeah, I get it orchestra, probably not a Good Thing that Mr. Freeze is doing whatever this is. Intermission! Cards of Edward and Alphonse Elric. The next day, Roy’s reporting that Mr. Freeze broke into Central Prison. He orders all roads be closed, the city searched. “When you find him, shoot on sight. That is an order from the Fuhrer himself.” So much for ‘Alive or Dead’. Yes, I know he’s killed quite a few people already, but still, you’re Alchemists, right? Can’t you Alchemy some way to catch him without killing? Edward did it quickly enough… Man down! With a lot of steam coming off him, guh… and another soldier reporting five men dead. Edward remarks how it looks like a steam blast, how if water’s heated fast enough it explodes, and the human body’s 70% water… guh guh guh, Mr. Freeze is freaky. Mr. Freeze is in yet another alley, says he’s finished, when there’s a spark on the wall… he leaps back to avoid a burst of spikes. Somebody named Armstrong sounds amused that he dodged? Did… did this guy just punch through a wall? Caption [Adventure Strings]? “It is I! The Strong Arm Alchemist… Alex Louis Armstrong, in the flesh!” ...I am in love. This guy just punched through a wall, he’s got [Adventure Strings] as his theme music, the screen is shaking as he walks, and dat mustache. And… that tiny little spring of blonde hair… All Hail Armstrong! Mr. Freeze DARES to attack The Mighty Alex Louis Armstrong?! But The Mighty Armstrong dodges your feeble attack! And such a feeble foe will need far more than water to quench his fists! *EXPLOSIONS* Ohmygod there are busts of The Mighty Armstrong’s head flying out from the explosion. Yessss. Edward and Al arrive, but Mr. Freeze explodes his canteen and makes a break for it in the steamcloud. The Elrics follow The Mighty Armstrong in pursuit. Wait, it’s night now? How did Mr. Freeze manage to avoid them for so long? Anyways, he’s standing on a building, when… “It’s been a long time, Freezer.” Roy has arrived! And the Flame Alchemist has brought a bunch of guns with him. He tries to appeal to Mr. Freeze about being old ‘war buddies’, but Mr. Freeze takes offense to that, blocks a burst of flame, and then drenches the State Alchemist and soldiers before making yet another escape. Getting back to the alleyway where the last circle was made, he… … … Ok, that settles it. This is the best show ever, if only for the subtitles alone. The alleyway where The Mighty Armstrong confronted him? With lots of busts of his head still lying around, and scattered stones on the circle? Mr. Freeze started moving all of this, and the subtitle is, I kid you not, [Moving Stones and Happiness]. 10/10. Well, after that, Mr. Freeze is happy to see the circle is still intact… why is it still intact? Like, if you know that a Bad Guy is Up To Something, and is sulking around alleyways, wouldn’t you want to look for whatever they’ve been doing? And a white chalk Alchemy Circle isn’t exactly hard to spot. And seeing something used for Alchemy created by a rogue Alchemist, why would you not get rid of it? Anyways, Edward appears in the alley, and Al blocks the other end. Nowhere left for Mr. Freeze to run! “Clearly… but who’s running?” Um, what’s with the Red Glow of Evil? All the Alchemy Circles appear to have activated all over the city. Edward and Al are shocked at the scale of it, impossible unless he- “A Philosopher’s Stone!” Wait, what? Like, the Philosopher’s Stone of historical alchemy? The rock that turns base metals to gold and grant immortality? Interesting! With Alchemy being general magic in this setting, what’s their version of the Philosopher’s Stone capable of? Amplification of Alchemy to cover a city? Regardless, probably not the best idea to let him keep doing whatever he’s doing. But Mr. Freeze starts monologuing about how Edward’s a Dog of the Military, how his bosses have Sinister Plans- Edward cuts him off, says he doesn’t care and it’s Not His Problem. Um. What? Do… do you really not care if you’re actually working for Bad Guys? Al jumps in and kicks Mr. Freeze to the railing, says that they still need to stop the Alchemy. Edward asks where the Philosopher’s Stone is that’s powering it all. But… yup, they went and knocked the Waterbender right next to a canal. Brace for [wrathful water]! And Mr. Freeze rises up on the frozen wave with a [bad guy laugh]. I kid you not, these are actual captions. Things look grim… but lo! He has arrived! “Stand back and prepare for a display of Armstrong alchemy! Witness the alchemic arts passed down the Armstrong line for generations!” And then he punched the frozen wave… and redirected it into a nearby building. Um. Sorry, innocent bystanders! Whoops. Now the Ice Walls are merging on Central Command! Mr. Freeze is gonna freeze it over! The Mighty Armstrong, redeem yourself! Target the transmutation circles while the Elrics slow him down! “Fuhrer King Bradley…! For your cold-blooded (boo, that’s a terrible pun) crimes in Ishval, I condemn you to a frozen hell!” But not so fast! To [fightin’ strings music], Edward and Elric (ah, so Elcric can do Alchemy too, he’s not just muscle) jump to the frozen wave Mr. Freeze is riding. They trade blows for a bit, and then… no! Alphonse got grabbed by the helmet! And… confirmed for being soulbound, as he’s back up and fighting. Mr. Freeze is shocked- “You fools committed the ultimate taboo!” Wait what. “You attempted human transmutation, didn’t you?!” Wait WHAT. You mean to say that the Elrics are the way they are because of something they did? I was thinking they got attacked by an Alchemist or something, but it’s because they tried ‘human transmutation’?... What did they do? “Alchemy’s one and only unforgivable sin!” Flashback? A scream of “Al!”. Edward yelling and gah yup he lost a leg. A suit of armor falling over and Edward drawing a sigil in blood. Crying that his little brother was all he had left… Back to present, Edward looking down, background chanting starts up. “You know… there are some lines you really shouldn’t cross.” *braces for asskicking* Edward and Al lay the smackdown, knock Mr. Freeze to the ground. Says there’s no water for him to use… while standing maybe ten feet away from a giant iceberg, but whatever… 70% of Mr. Freeze’s body will be enough! And oh god he’s bloodbending now. “Why can’t you fools understand? I’m trying to save this country!” Dude, you’ve attacking the main keep of the city to the caption of [mad laughter]. Maybe if you stopped acting so Evil I might have more sympathy for you. NPC Soldiers are trying to blast the ice, but it keeps reforming. But here comes a drenched and ticked-off Roy! Down goes the ice, as Roy rants. Blonde lady with a case of alchemy-circle gloves complains that he’s bad enough on rainy days… so what, Colonel Roy Mustang is dead weight in a drizzle, always needs dry gloves to do his Alchemy? Interesting weakness. Mr. Freeze is stumbling through an alley, when… Fuhrer Fury. Not looking too happy. Screens gone black and white with Mr. Freeze’s blood standing out as a bright red, he laughs and transmutes a Blood Spear and charges… and Fuhrer Fury isn’t moving? Still not moving. Still not moving… he drew his sword and sidestepped? Oh. Damn. Note to self: don’t piss off <<The Flash>> Fuhrer Fury. Roy’s keeping up the blasting of the ice walls, calls out for the Major wHO BURSTS OUT OF HIS UNIFORM WITH A GLARE AND EYEBEAMS OF DETERMINATION YES. “Leave it to me! The Armstrong fists will not fail!” MANLY GLEAM, AND PUNCH THE GROUND. TAKE THAT, CHALK CIRCLE! Image of white-haired person looking down? Who dis? Edward and Al arrive in the aftermath, see Fuhrer Fury looking down at the covered form of Mr. Freeze. And back to the cheerful attitude from his talking to Roy, complimenting Fullmetal. He came out to “see if I could lend a hand”... sure, ok. Makes sense that the boss of a bunch of reality warpers would be fairly strong. He just seems happy that he’ll have an exciting story for his son. He has a son? Have we met him yet? Next day, the ever-cheerful Hughes jokes about Roy having a cold, and congratulates him for taking down Mr. Freeze. Apparently Fuhrer Fury is going around saying it was Roy who beat him? “Oh, it’s like that, huh? Suit yourself. But some friendly advice- next time a superior tells you to take credit for something you didn’t do, you might try it for once.” In the hospital, Edward and Al are talking about how they never found out about the Philosopher’s Stone. Maybe in the official report- what, flowers? WHAT. “Greetings, Edward Elric.” ARMSTRONG WHAT. “When I heard you were here in the hospital…” WHAT ARE YOU OH MY GOD DETERMINED EYES. “I DASHED RIGHT OVER!” *Edward and Al sharing my reaction* “And as I suspected, you are in desperate need of my assistance!” WHY DID YOU TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT. “You need the example of a perfect physical specimen to inspire your recovery! You see? You’re looking livelier already! Hahaha!” “Will you get out!” Scene transition to a lady in a red light, talking on a phone? “Ah… I see, so Isaac’s dead, is he? That’s a shame, I had such high hopes for him, too… But- the Philosopher’s Stone? Heh. Sounds like he overused it.” What the heck what’s with this pudgy guy with red eyes eating something, [disgusting chewing]. Wait, I recognize you from the intro. It’s the Goths! Lady tells Gluttony to eat quietly, she’s on the phone. Ah, so they’re naming themselves after the Seven Deadly Sins? Lady (who I’m making a wild guess and naming Lust) says that things are going well in Liore (hey, isn’t that where the Elrics were going to go before Mr. Freeze delayed them?), ominously says it all beings very soon as the string orchestra once again tell us that Bad Things are going down. End credits! Crayonish, drawing of Edward and Elric, taking a nap under a tree, blonde girl playing with a dog, the Elrics sparing, Edward flying past the State Alchemists until he bumps into The Mighty Armstrong, who throws him back and proves his Manly Spirit is bound by no medium. Shots of Edward talking with the blonde girl… and running off a cliff? Story? Workshop at night, blonde chick who I will now call Mechanic petting her dog and thinking. Al sitting in a dark room, Edward resting on a bed, then Earthbending and running along the pilliars with Al past the Goths (only three?), then closing a pocketwatch and the Elrics walking along a train track… and camera pans to show the Elric Kids were drawing all of this. After credits: Shot of the Blonde Kids, before the apparent botched Human Transmuation. Backstory episode? “Resembool. A quiet town.” The Elric Kids talking to a brownhaired woman in an apron. Their mother? Did… did she get caught in the Human Transmutation botch? “The place where Edward and Alphonse were born. The home they once shared with their mother.” Wait no, there’s both boys sitting at a grave. Wait. Um. Oh dear, I think I just realized. “In the hopes of returning to happier times, the boys commit the ultimate taboo, and are forced to confront the truth. Next time, on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood- ” Episode 2: The First Day “The day they resolved their hearts to begin their journey.” Well. Initial thoughts are I am very impressed with what I’ve seen so far. Animation is smooth, humor is topnotch, and my compliments on making this setting so that I can see the episode’s Bad Guy literally boil a person, but still be very uneasy about the System that the Protagonists are working for. Definitely going to get some mileage out of this.

#wmtw #where my twin watches #ranubis #full metal alchemist #full metal alchemist brotherhood #fmab #fmab 1

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