#bog-standard is a pun

[markscherz]

Hello Mr Scherz! I don't know how you feel about receiving images, but I would like to show you my young man. This is Pancake. He's a pacman frog. He likes locusts and trying to bite me. Thank you for your time.

Yup, sounds like your bog-standard Ceratophrys to me.

[felikatze]

ISAT and Ludonarrative Harmony: Combat is a Storytelling Tool

Or: How Siffrin is stuck in the endgame grind, forever

Please Note: This is primarily aimed at an audience that already played In Stars and Time, because I am bad at explaining things, and it's good to already know what the fuck I'm talking about. I tend to only bring up game elements as I want to talk about them.

Spoilers for.... all of ISAT! Especially Act 5!

(image to show how i feel posting this and as an attention grabber over my wall of text)

To pull a definition of ludonarrative harmony out of a hat, game writer Lauryn Ash defines it as follows:

Ludonarrative harmony is when gameplay and story work together to create a meaningful and immersive experience. From a design implementation perspective, it is the synchronized interactions between in-game actions (mechanics) and in-world context (story).

It is, generally speaking, how well game mechanics work hand in hand with the story. I, personally, think ISAT is an absolute masterclass of it, so I want to take a look at how ISAT specifically uses its battle system to emphasize Siffrin's character arc and create organic story moments. I want you to keep this in mind when I talk here.

So, skills, right? If you've played any turn-based RPG, you know your Fire spells, your "BACKSLASH! AIRSLASH! BACKSLASH!" and the many ways to style those.

Well, what does casting "Fire" say about your character? Not all that much, does it? Perhaps you'll have typical divisions. The smart one is the mage, the big brawny one is your tank, the petite one's the healer. And that's the barebones of ISAT's main party, but it's much more than that.

Every character's style of combat tells you something about them. Odile, the Researcher, is the most well-travelled and knowledgable of the bunch. She's the one with the expertise to keep a cool head and analyze the enemy, yet also able to use all three of the Rock-Paper-Scissors craft types.

To reflect her analytical view of things, all her skill names are just descriptive, the closest to your most bog-standard RPG. "Slow IV" or "Paper III" serve well to describe their purpose. The high number of the skills gives the impression there were three other Slow skills beforehand - fitting, considering the party starts at level 45, about to head into the final dungeon. She's also the oldest, so she's the slowest of the bunch.

Isabea, the Fighter, has all his skills in exclamation points. "YOUR TURN!!!" "SO WEAK!!!" "SMASH!!!" they're straightforward, but excited. He's a purposefully cheerfull guy, so his skills revolve around cheering on his allies. He's absolutely pumped to be here, and you see that from his skill names alone.

Mirabelle, the Housemaiden, is an interesting case. She's by all means the true protagonist of this tale - She's the one "Chosen by the Change God," the only one who survived the King's first attack, the only one immune to his ability to freeze time, the only dual-craft type of the game - just a lot of things. And her skill names reflect that facade she puts on herself - she can do this, she can win! She has to believe it, or else she starts doubting. This is how you get "Jolly Round Rondo" and "Mega Sparkle Heal" or "Adorable Moving Cure." She's styled every bit a sailor scout shojo heroine, and her moveset replicates the naming conventions of "In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!"

Even Bonnie, the Kid, who can't be controlled in combat, has named craft skills. And they very much reflect that Bonnie is, well, a kid. "Wolf Speed Technique" or "Thousand Blows Technique" are very much the phrasings of a child who learned one complicated word and now wants to use it in everything to seem cooler than they are, which is none, because they're twelve.

Siffrin's skills are all puns.

You have an IMMEDIATE feel for personality here. Between "Knife to Meet You!" and "Too Cleaver by Half," you know Siffrin's the type to always crack a joke no matter the situation, slinging witticisms around to put Sonic the Hedgehog to shame. It's just such a clever way to establish character using a game mechanic as old as the entire history of RPGs.

This is only the baseline of the way the combat system feeds into the story, though.

The timeloop, of course, feeds into it. Siffrin is the only character who retains experience upon looping, whereas all other characters are reset to their base level and skills. And it sucks (affectionate).

You're extremely likely to battle more often the earlier in the game you are - after all, you need the experience (for now.) Every party member contributes, and Siffrin isn't all that strong on their own, since they focus on raw scissor type damage with the addition of one speed buff. (Of course it's a speed buff. They're a speedy fucker. Just look at him).

At first, the difference in level between Siffrin and the rest of the group is rather negligible. Just a level or two. Just a bit more speed and attack. And then Siffrin grows further and further apart. Siffrin keeps learning new skills. He gets a healing skill that doubles as an attack boost, taking away from both Mirabelle's and Isabeau's usefullness. He gets Craft skills of every type that even give you two jackpot points instead of one - thus obliterating Odile's niche. Siffrin turns into a one-person army capable of clearing most encounters all on their own.

Siffrin's combat progression is an exact mirror of story progression - as their experience inside the loops grows, they also grow further and further away from their party. The party seems... weaker, slower, clumsier. Always back at their starting point, just as all of their character arcs are reset each loop. Never advancing, always stagnant. And you have Siffrin as the comparison post right next to them.

I also want to point out here a change from Act 2 to Act 3 - Siffrin's battle portrait. He stops smiling.

Battles keep getting easier. This is true both for the reason that Siffrin keeps growing stronger even when all enemies stay the same, but also for the reason that you, the player, learn more about the battle system and the various encounters, until you've learned perfect boss clear strategies just from repetition. Have you ever watched a speedrunner play Pokemon? They've played this game so many times, they could do it blindfolded and sleeping. Your own knowledge and Siffrin's new strength work in tandem to trivialize the game's entire combat system as the game progresses.

(Is it still fun? Playing it over, and over, and over again? Is it?)

You and Siffrin are in sync, your experience making everything trivial.

As time goes on, Siffrin grows to care less and less about performing right for their party and more and more about going fast. A huge moment in his character is marked by the end of Act 3; because of story events I won't delve too deeply into, Siffrin has grown afraid of trying something new. And his options of escape are closing in. They need an answer, and they need it fast. He doesn't have the time or patience to dumb himself down, so you unlock one new skill.

It doesn't occur with level up, or with a quest, or anything at all. At the start of Act 4, it simply appears in Siffrin's Craft skills.

(Just attack.)

No pun. No joke. Just attack. Once you notice, the effect is immediate - here you have it, a clear sign of how jaded Siffrin has become, right at every encounter. And it's a damn good attack, too! The only available attack in the game that deals "massive" damage against all enemies. Because it doesn't add any jackpot points (at least, it's not supposed to), you set up a combo with everybody else, but Siffrin simply tears away at the enemy with wild abandon. Seperated from the rest of the party by the virtue of no longer needing to contribute to team attacks (most of the time. It's still useful if they do, though).

Once again, an aspect of the battle system enhances the degree of separation between Siffrin and the static characters of his play. You're incentivized to separate him, even.

Additionally, there are two more skills to learn. They're the only skills that replace previous skills. You only get them at extremely high levels, the latter of which I didn't even reach on both of my playthroughs.

The first, somewhere in the level 70 range, Rose Printed Glasses, a paper type craft skill, is replaced by Tear You Apart. It's still a pun about paper, but remarkedly more vicious.

The second is even more on the nose. At level 80, In A While, Rockodile!, a rock type craft skill, is replaced by the more powerful Rock Bottom.

I didn't get to level 80. If you do, you pretty much have to do it on purpose. You have to keep going much longer than necessary, as Siffrin is just done. And the last skill he learns is literally called Rock Bottom.

What do I even need to say, really.

Your party doesn't stay static forever, though.

By doing their hangout quests, side quests throughout the loops that result in Siffrin and the character having a heart to heart, all of them unlock what I'd call an "ultimate" skill. You know the type - the character achieved self-fulfillment, hit rank 10 on their confidant, maxed out their skill tree, and received a reward for their trouble.

These skills are massively useful. My favorite is Odile's - it makes one enemy weak to all Craft types for several turns, which basically allows you to invalidate the first and third boss, as well as just clown on the King, especially once Siffrin starts racking up damage.

But the thing is. In Act 3, when you first get them, yeah, they're useful. But... do you need them? After all, they're such a hassle to get. You need to do the whole character quest again, you can't loop forward in the House or you'll lose them. If you want to take these skills to the King, you need to commit. Go the full nine-yards and be nice to your friends and not die and not skip forward or skip back. Which is annoying, right?

Well, I sure did think so during Act 4. After all, a base level party can still defeat the King, just with a few more tricky pieces involved. Siffrin can oneshot almost all basic enemies by the time of Act 4. It's this exact evalutation that you, the player, go through everytime you return to Dormont. Do I want this skill, still? Would it not be faster to go on without it? I'm repeating myself, but that's the thing! That's what Siffrin is thinking, too!

I also want to take a quick moment to note, here - all skills gained from hangouts have art associated with them, which no other skills do. This feature, the nifty art, hammers home these as "special" skills, besides just how they're unlocked.

Siffrin also has one skill with associated art.

Yeah, you guessed it, it's (Just attack.)

At first, helping the characters is tied to a hefty in-game reward, but that reward loses its value, and in return devalues helping Siffrin's friends every loop. It's too tedious for a skill that'll make a boss go by one turn faster. You, the player, grow jaded with the battle system. Grinding experience isn't worth it, everybody's highest levels are already recorded. Fighting bosses isn't worth it, it's much faster to loop forward.

Isn't this what all endgame in video games looks like? You already beat the final boss, and now... what challenge is left? Is there a point to keep playing? Most games will have some post-game content. A superboss to test your skills against, but ISAT doesn't have any of that. You're forever left chasing to the post-game. That's the whole point - to escape the game.

As most games get more difficult as time passes, ISAT only gets easier. The game becomes disinterested in expanding its own mechanics just as I ran out of new things to fight after 100%-ing Kingdom Hearts 3. Every encounter becomes a simple game of "press button to win."

The final boss just takes that one up a notch.

Spoilers for Act 5 ahead boys!

In Act 5, Siffrin utterly loses it. His last possible hope for escape failed him, told him there's nothing she can do, and Siffrin is trapped for eternity. So of course, they go insane and run up the entire House without their party.

This just proves what you already knew - you dont need the party to proceed. Siffrin alone is strong enough. And here, Siffrin has entirely shed the facade of the jokester they used to be. Every single skill now follows the (Just attack.) naming conventions. Your skills are: (Paper.) (Rock.) (Scissors.) (Breathe.)

To the point. Not a moment wasted, because Siffrin can't take a moment longer of any of this. Additionally, his level is set to 99 and his equipment becomes fixed. You can't even pick up items anymore! Not that you needed them at this point anyway, right? Honestly, I never used any items besides the Salty Broth since Act 2, so I stopped picking items up a long time ago. Now you just literally can't.

Something I've not talked about until now - one of the main equipment types in this game are Memories, gained for completing subquests or specific interactions and events. They all by and large have little effects - make Odile's tonics heal more, or have Mirabelle cast a shield at the start of combat. For the hangout events, you also gain an associated memory that boosts the characters' stats by 30. It lets them keep up with Siffrin again! A fresh wind! Finally, your party members feel on par with you again!

...For a time. And just like that, they're irrelevant again, just as helping them gave Siffrin a brief moment of hope that the power of friendship could fix everything.

In Act 5, your memory is set to "Memory of Emptiness." It allows you to loop back in the middle of combat. You literally can't die anymore. Not that Siffrin could've died by this point in the first place, unless you forgot about the King's instant-kill attack. This one memory takes away the false pretense that combat ever had any stakes. Siffrin's level being set to 99 means even the scant exp you get is completely wasted on them. All stakes and benefits from combat have been removed. It has become utterly pointless.

Frustrating, right? It's an artistic frustration, though. It traps you right here in Siffrin's shoes, because he hates that all these blinding Sadnesses are still walking around just as much. It all inspires just a tiny fraction of that deep rolling anger Siffrin experiences here in the player.

And listen, it was cathartic, that one time Siffrin snapped and stabbed the tutorial Sadness, wasn't it? Because who enjoys sitting through the tutorial that often? Siffrin doesn't. I don't, either.

So, since combat is an useless obstacle now meant to inspire frustration, what do you do for a boss? You can't well make it a gameplay challenge now, no. The bosses of Act 5 are an emotional challenge: a painful wait.

First, Siffrin fights the King, alone. This is already nervewracking because of one factor - in every other run, you need Mirabelle's shield skill, or else you're scripted to die. You're actually forced to fight the King multiple times in Act 3, and have to do it at least once in Act 4, though you'll likely do it more. Point is: you know how this fight works.

You know Siffrin's fight is doomed from the outset, but all you can do is keep slinging attacks. Siffrin is enough of a powerhouse to take the King's HP down, what with the healing and buff skills they have now, not to even mention you can just go all in on damage and then loop back.

(And no matter which way you play it, whether you just loop or use strategically, it reflects on Siffrin, too. Has he grown callous enough not even death will stop their mission? Or does he still avoid pain, as much as he can?)

This fight still allows you the artifice of even that much choice, not that it matters. The other shoe drops eventually - Siffrin becomes slower, and slower. Unsettling, considering this game works on an Action Gauge system. You barely get turns anymore. The screen gets darker, and darker. Until Siffrin is frozen in time, just as you knew he had to be, because you know how this encounter works, know it can't be cleared without Mirabelle.

And, then, a void.

Siffrin awakens to nothingness. The only way to tell you've hit a wall is if Siffrin has no walking animation to match your button inputs. You walk, and walk, until you're approached by.... you. The next enemy encounter of the game, and Siffrin's absolute lowest point: Mal Du Pays.

Or, "Homesickness," in english. If you know the game, you know why it's named this, but that's not the point at the moment.

Thing is, where you could damage the King and are damaged in turn, giving you at least a proper combat experience, even if its doomed to fail, Mal Du Pays has no such thing.

You can attack. You can defend. But it is immune to all attacks. And in return, it does nothing. It's common, at least, for undefeatable enemies to be a "survive" challenge, but nope. The entire fight is "press button and wait." Except, remember the previous fight against the King? The entire time, you were waiting for the big instant death attack to drop. That feeling, at least for me, carried forward. I was incredibly on edge just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And, as is a pattern, Siffrin is, too. As Siffrin's attacks fail to connect, they start talking to Mal Du Pays.

But he gets no response, as you get no attacks to strategize around. The wait for anything to happen is utterly agonizing. You and Siffrin are both waiting for something to happen. This isn't a fight. It just pretends to be. It's an utter rugpull, because Siffrin was so undefeatable for most of Act 4 and all of Act 5 so far. It's kind of terrifying!

and it does. It finally does something. Ma Du Pays speaks, in the voice of Siffrin's friends, listing out their deepest fears. I think it's honestly fantastic. You're forced to just sit here and listen to Siffrin's deepest doubts, things you know the characters could not say because it references the timeloops they're all utterly unaware of. This is all Siffrin, talking to himself. And all you, all Siffrin, can do, is keep wailing away on the enemy to no effect whatsoever.

So of course this ends with Siffrin giving up. What else can you do?

And then Siffrin's friends show up and unfreeze them and it's all very cool yay. The pure narrative scenes aren't really the main focus but I want to point out here:

A) Mirabelle is in the first party slot here, referencing how she's the de facto protagonist, and Bonnie fills in the fourth slot left empty, which shows all characters uniting to save Siffrin

B) this is the only instance of the other party members having act specific battle icons: they're all smiling brightly, further pushed by the upbeat music

C) the reflecting shield Mirabelle uses to freeze the King uses a variation of her hangout skill cut in, marking it as her true "final" skill and giving the whole fight a more climatic feeling.

It's also a short gameplay sequence with Siffrin utterly uninvolved in the battle. You can't even see them onscreen. But... it feels warm, doesn't it? Everybody coming together. Siffrin doesn't have to fight anymore.

At last, the King is defeated. Siffrin and co. make for the Head Housemaiden, to have her look at Siffrin's sudden illness. Siffrin is utterly exhausted, famished, running a fever. And this isn't unexpected - after all, their skills in Act 5 had no cooldown. For context, instead of featuring any sort of MP system, all skills work on a cooldown basis, where a character can't use it for a certain number of turns. The lowest cooldown is actually Siffrin's Knife to Meet You, which has a cooldown of 1. In universe, this is reasoned as the characters needing a break from spamming craft in order to not exhaust themselves.

Siffrin's skills in Act 5 having no cooldown/being infinitely spammable isn't a sign of their strength - it's a sign that he refuses to let himself rest in order to rush through as fast as possible.

Moving on, Siffrin panics when seeing the Head Housemaiden, because seeing her means one thing: the end. Prior to this in the game, every single time you beat the King, the loop ends when you talk to the Head Housemaiden.

Reality breaks down, the whole shebang. It's here that Siffrin realizes - they don't want the loops to end, because the end of their journey means their family will leave, and he'll be alone again. The happiest time of his life will be over.

Siffrin goes totally ballistic, to say the least.

As it turns out (and was heavily foreshadowed narratively), Siffrin has been using Wish Craft to subconciously cause the timeloop because of their abandonment issues. It's rather predictable if you paid attention to literally anything, but it's extremely notable how heavily Siffrin is paralleled to the King, the antagonist they swore to kill by themself at the start of Act 5. The King wants to freeze Vaugarde in time because it is, in his mind, "perfect," for accepting him after he lost his home - a backstory he shares with Siffrin.

Siffrin has become the exact antagonist he swore to kill, and it's shown by how the next fight utterly flips everything on its head.

Siffrin is the final boss.

In a towering form made of stars, Siffrin looks down at their friends. His face is terrified, because of his internal conflict; he can't hurt his friends, but he can't let them go, either. The combat prompt is simply changed to "END IT!"

This fight is similar to the previous, in that you just need to wait a certain number of turns until its over. However, this time, it's not dreadful suspense. It's... confusion, and hesitance.

You have two options for combat: Attack your friends, or attack yourself.

And... you don't really want to do either, I think. I certainly don't. But what else can you do? It's Siffrin's desires clashing in full force. Attack your friends, and force them to stay? Or attack yourself, and let them go safely without you?

Worth noting, here - when you attack Siffrin's friends, you can't harm them. Isabeau will shield all attacks. And when you attack yourself, Mirabelle will heal you back to full. And the friends don't... do anything, either. How could they? Occasionally, Mirabelle heals you and Isabeau shouts words of motivation, but the main thing is...

(Your friends don't know what to do.)

None of them want to harm Siffrin. Both sides simply stare at each other, resolute in their conviction but unwilling to end it with violence. It's of note that this loop, the last one, is the only loop where the King isn't killed. Just frozen. And now here is Siffrin, clamoring for the same eternity the King was. Of course everything ends in a tearfilled conversation as Siffrin sees their friends won't leave him, even after the journey ends, but I still have to appreciate this moment.

Siffrin is directly put in the position with their friends as his enemies, forced to physically reckon that keeping them in this loop is an act of violence, against both their friends, and against himself.

It's a happy ending. But... what does it mean?

Of course, ISAT is obviously about the fear of change. Siffrin is afraid of the journey ending, and of being alone. However, ISAT is also a game about games. Siffrin is playing the same game, over and over, because it's comforting. It's familiar. It's nice, to know exactly what happens next. These characters might just be predictable lines of dialogue, but... they feel like friends. Have you ever played a game, loved it, put countless hours into it, but you never finished it? Because you just couldn't bear to see it end? For the characters to leave your life, for there to be a void in your heart where the game used to be?

After all, maybe it became part of your routine! You play the game every day, slowly chipping away at it for weeks at a time. For me, I beat ISAT in four days. It utterly consumed me during this time. I had 36 hours of playtime by the end. Yeah, in that week, I did not do much more than play ISAT.

And once i beat it, i beat it, again. I restarted the game to see the few scenes I missed, most specifically the secret boss I won't talk about here. I... couldn't let go of the game yet. I wanted to see every scrap I could. I still do. I'm writing this, in part because I still do. It's scary to let go.

Ever heard the joke term of "Postgame Depression?" It's when you just beat a game, and you're suddenly sad. Maybe because the ending affected you emotionally and you need to process the feelings it invoked, or you search for something that can now fill your time with it gone.

The game ends, for real this time, the last time you talk to the Head Housemaiden. But Siffrin gets... scared. What if everything loops back again? And so, his family offers to hold his hand. They face the end, together.

For all loops, including the ending, you never see what happens after. After they leave the loop for good. Because the loop is the game itself. It's asking you to trust that life goes on for these characters, and it holds your hand as it asks you to let go. There's a reason for Siffrin's theater metaphors. He is the actor, and the director, asking everyone to do it over one more time. He's a character within the game, and its player.

There's a reason I talked about endgame content. This, the way it all repeats, there's nothing new, difficulty and stakes bleed away as you snap the game over your knee - it's my copy of White 2 with two hundred hours in it. It's me playing Fire Emblem Awakening in under 3 hours while skipping every cutscene. Are you playing for the sake of play, for the sake of indulging in your memories, because you're afraid of the hole it'll leave when you stop?

Of note: the narrative never condemns Siffrin for unwittingly causing their own suffering. He's a victim of circumstance. It's seen as endearing, even, that Siffrin loves their friends to the point of rather seeing the world destroyed than them gone. But Siffrin is also told: we'll stay with you for now, but we'll part ways eventually. And one day, you'll have to be okay with it.

Stop draining the things you love of every ounce of enjoyment just because you're afraid of what happens next. I'm not saying to never play your favorite games again. Playing ISAT a second time, I still had a lot of fun! I saw so many new things I didn't before, and I enjoyed myself immensely, reading the same dialogue over and over. But... it makes me look at other games I love and still play, and makes me ask... is this still fun? Do I still need to play this game to enjoy it? Even writing this is an afterimage of my enjoyment, but it's a new way to interact with the game, to analyze it through this lens. Fuck, man, I write fanfiction. Look at me.

All of this, fanart, fanfic, analysis, is a way to prolong that enjoyment without making yourself suffer for it. Without just going through the motions of enjoyment without actually experiencing any. But one day, the thing you love won't be fun to talk and write and draw about. And it's okay. You'll have new things to love. I promise.

In the end.... I'm certain I'll replay ISAT one day. Between great writing, art, puzzles and unresolved mysteries, it's my shoe-in for game of the year.

But I won't replay it for quite some time. I've had enough, for now, so I let my love take other forms.

Siffrin is never condemned, because love is no evil. Be it love for another person, or for a game. And please, if you're overempathetic - it's still a game, at the end of the day. The great thing about games is that you can always boot them up again, no matter how long its been.

A circle within a circle indeed.

To summarize:

The repetitiveness of ISAT's combat, lack of new enemies, and Siffrin's ever increasing strength eventually allows you to snap the combat over your knee, rendering it irrelevant and boring. Though this may seem counterproductive at first, it perfectly mirrors how Siffrin has also grown bored with these repeated encounters and views them only as an obstacle to get past. The reflection of Siffrin's own tiredness with the player's annoyance increases the compassion the player has for Siffrin as a character.

Additionally, the endgame state of the combat system serves as commentary on the state of a favorite game played too often, much like how Siffrin has unwittingly trapped themself in the loop. Despite the game having no more challenge or content left to over, a player might return to their favorite game anyway, solely to try and recreate the early experience of actually having fun with it. This ties into ISAT's metanarrative about the fear of change and refusal to let go of comfort even when the object (here, your favorite video game) offering that comfort has become utterly bereft of any substance to actually engage with. Playing for the sake of playing, with no actual investment to keep going besides your own memories.

Later on, stripping away even the pretense of strategy for a "press button and wait" format of final bosses highlights the lack of options at Siffrin's disposal and truly forces the player into their shoes. Truly, the only way to win is to stop playing.

[sentientgolfball]

Ghoul Files: Cumulus

Welcome to my little series of ghoul character sheets. The Files are basically little living documents of how I headcanon/characterize each ghoul. I've made one for every ghoul (yes every ghoul) and I'll be slowly uploading them alphabetically by era just for the hell of it.

Find the rest here!

Also pspspsps @holleringhollowfolk its baaaaack

Check out her design here!

Name: Cumulus 

Element: Air

Pronouns: she/her 

Powers: can throw her voice to make it sound like it’s coming from a different direction/all over, use airflow to lift small objects, she can’t fly but if she jumps off a high place she can float down, create gusts of wind, create small clouds. 

Love language (giving): big physical touch person, words of affirmation and acts of service are her go to, though. 

Love language (receiving): gift giving and quality time. She just loves her pack! And she feels so loved when she gets trinkets from them and she gets to be with them! 

Pairings: She’s almost never seen without Cirrus around. Even when the two are with the whole pack. She’s also really close with Sunshine and Aurora and usually goes straight to them if Cirrus isn’t/can’t be around. 

Influential Others: Mountain is someone who helped her a lot when she was first summoned. She was struggling real bad with getting used to life on earth and her role as a band ghoul, but Mount was there, along with Cirrus, to support her. Copia also means a lot to her because he was so gentle and so patient with her and was even willing to go through the trouble of summoning another ghoul if she found she didn’t want the pressure of band life. She loves her earth ghoul and her silly little human more than words could describe. 

Kinds of People Liked: She just loves people! Like literally, she finds humans so fascinating. Though, her favorites are the ones who don’t take life so seriously, those who can just laugh at the mistakes they make. She doesn’t like to get bogged down by constant self deprecation or the bleakest outlook on life. 

Kinds of People Disliked: Generally speaking, there are very few people Cumulus doesn’t like. She tries her best to see the good in everyone! However, if you’re the type to try and take advantage of that constant kindness and patience you may disappear soon. Also people who can’t see past how someone looks. Sorting people into a category based on weird arbitrary societal standards is an immediate turn off. 

Time in the Pits: Cumulus was Cirrus’ mate in the Pits. Because of that she was kind of the co-leader of the flock. In a way. The others respected her and anything she had to say, but it wasn’t like she was going around with orders. Though, she’s had to break up her fair share of fights and chase away scavengers. The only real thing she was in charge of was the hunting pairs. Air ghouls hunt in pairs rather than parties and it was her who organized them. When the light of the summoning took Cirrus she didn’t hesitate to go after her. She didn’t want to know what a life without her was like. Forcing her way through nearly killed her but it was worth it to make sure she didn’t lose her heart. 

Sense of Humor: Puns. She’s going to find a way to make a pun out of even the most obscure things. She also likes to purposefully act like she doesn’t understand memes/uses memes wrong just to watch the others groan. Especially loves to do it to Phantom, Aurora, and Swiss. 

Basic Nature: Cumulus is the most supportive ghoul you’ll meet, though sometimes this does result in chaos. She’s going to encourage every little thing her pack does so she can take so many stupid videos and pictures of them. She’s going to be there for them when they need her. She may also embarrass them subtly but totally on purpose from time to time. She’s just a big affectionate, goofy ghoul. 

Compulsions/Habits: When she’s really stressed she has a bad habit of unconsciously pulling out her feathers. She also needs background noise when she’s working, like she’s tried working on little projects quietly when Cirrus gets migraines and she just has trouble focusing without. 

Fears: The sky with no clouds…it’s too open. Snakes, she’ll puff up her feathers and trill if one gets near her. 

Attitude Towards Own Body: She’s attractive and she knows it. Like she’s not flaunting it unless she’s in a mood…but like she knows she has the goods. This definitely influences the type of clothes she wears when out of uniform. 

Sees Self As: She’s always been the second half of a pair. She’s never been the star of the show and she likes it that way. It makes her life easier. That’s why when people say she’s cool and she’s their favorite or something else along those lines she’s touched. Confused and a little flabbergasted, but touched nonetheless. 

Hobbies: She crotchets. She actually does a lot of crafty stuff. She can knit, sew, crotchet, cross-stitch. She loves making art! She loves that it’s something she can do Topside! Also baking, ghouls have weird sweet teeth and she provides for the pack…mostly to stop them from stealing from the kitchens. 

Pastimes: She likes to go on walks around the Abbey and the surrounding land. She’s only second to Mountain about the layout and the flora and fauna in the forest. She also very much likes hanging out with Aurora and doing makeup, skin care, hair care etc. while telling the day's gossip. There’s a reason why she’s the abbey information broker. She likes to people watch and listen to what goes on. 

Collections: She collects preserved bugs! Out of all the little creatures on earth, she is most fascinated with bugs. She has some framed butterflies, amber scorpions, necklaces, and mounts. Aurora refuses to go in her room unless everything is put away minus the butterflies. 

Reading Materials Preferred: She likes those very obviously fake news magazines. Like how everything is over dramatically talked about is funny to her. 

Most Prized Possession: A quilt she made that is composed of each of her packmates shirts. Everytime they get a new member she goes back and alters it to add them to it. She takes it literally everywhere, she can’t sleep without it. It’s how she keeps them close even when they’re not there. 

Favorite Colors: Baby blue, silver, lavender 

Favorite Foods: Fruits! Oh she loves fruit so much, bring her a little bowl of fruit if you love her. She really likes those fruit, cream, and granola bowls. Her absolute favorite thing though is strawberry shortcake cupcakes. 

General Likes: warm weather, floral perfumes, romcoms, sherpa fabric

General Dislikes: getting dirty, sand, wearing her glasses, beige aesthetics 

Is Seen By Others As: Just as fierce as Cirrus but in a different way. She uses her silver tongue to get what she wants and it’s a little scary but also. It's Cumulus. What are you gonna do say no to her? 

Typical First Impression: Soft and caring and kind and level headed. Just as fluffy as her namesake. 

Morning Routine: She gets up just a bit before Cirrus, going to the kitchen to get her coffee ready before she’s awake. She’ll try to help Swiss and Mountain with making breakfast but she can’t cook for shit, only bake, but she’ll happily hand them ingredients. When she gets tired of that she writes lovely little notes to put in lunch bags or books or guitar cases for the pack to find throughout the day.

Evening Routine: Do not talk to her until she’s had her evening shower. After that she curls up in the common room with the pack writing in her journal while they wait for dinner to be made. Last thing she does before going to sleep is throw on her face mask and put curlers in her hair. 

Strongest Character Trait: Her strongest trait is how easily she can let stuff roll off her. She’s a bit clumsy, she gets so excited in the groupchat that she usually has tons of spelling mistakes, she gets excited when she sees her packmates and runs at them and smothers them not caring who sees. She never cares who sees. She didn’t always love her life Topside, and now that she has learned how to, she’s not wasting anymore time. So what if she types a message that can only be deciphered by Cirrus? It makes the others laugh and she loves it. 

Weakest Character Trait: She can’t keep her mouth shut. I say this with affection, but Cumulus cannot keep quiet when she learns something. Nobody ever tells her when surprises are given out. There’s not necessarily malicious intent, she just gets excited and needs to tell someone before she explodes. The only exception to this seems to be when someone comes to her to vent. Not a word will be spoken to another when she leaves that room. 

Mental/emotional blocks: Even after all this time Lus struggles with feeling like she doesn’t belong. Sure she wasn’t sure if touring was for her in the beginning, but now she couldn’t imagine not doing it. Since she wasn’t originally in the plan she worries one day she’ll be told she’s not needed. That one air ghoul is enough. She was terrified when changes for the Reimperatour began happening. What if she was asked to stay behind just like Aether? 

Chores/other job: Cumulus is a shepherd for the flock of Ministry sheep! She occasionally helps with the cattle, but the sheep are hers. Shearing season is her favorite because she gets to collect all the wool and help spin it into yarn. 

Long Term Goals: She wants to hone her skills with her fiber arts enough to create a tapestry for the Ministry. Even though Copia is Frater now, she’s still worried about the rest of the Clergy's perfectionist tendencies. She is not going anywhere near them until she creates something worth that meeting. 

Present Problems: Honestly, besides her occasional bad day, she doesn’t really have any problems in her life that are so persistent that it heavily impacts her. Though, when she does have those bad days, go check on her with a warm bowl of soup to offer. 

One Line Characterization: Cumulus is a goofy, good natured ghoulette who loves this new life she was given. 

Room description: Cumulus’ room is very neat and orderly. Her bug collection is on full display all over. Honestly besides that and some other small decoration her room doesn’t look lived in. That’s because she usually sleeps in Cirrus’ room. Her assigned room is more like a glorified storage unit than an actual room. She really only uses it when she or Cirrus is sick, she’s spending the night with another ghoul(s) that’s not Cirrus, or when she’s crafting. Her potted ranunculus sits next to Cirrus’ flower in her room. 

Summoning: She clawed her way out of the Pit when Cirrus got surrounded by the light of summoning. She didn’t even hesitate to throw herself into it before it disappeared. When she finally made it Topside she was weak, drained from forcing herself through. She passed out before Cirrus could even say her name. She was very reserved for a very long time until Mountain started slowly introducing her to the inhabitants of the Ministry. She fell in love with humans and learned to fall in love with her new life. 

NSFW

Favorite position: She just likes to be really really close with her partner. She likes to either have them on her lap or her on their lap. 

Dom/sub: Soft dom. Ohhh she is going to take such good care of her partner. She’s going to bend them over and coo softly and praise them the whole time. 

Risk: Ask and you shall receive but it’s not her go to. Besides public sex she fucking loves public sex. 

Kinks: Tit-fucking and nipple play. She just likes her boobs being played with. She’s a little too into cockwarming and edging, she just likes to hear her partner beg just a little bit before taking such good care of them. Humiliation, but not for herself. Loves to watch her partner make a fool of themselves just for her. Blood. She really likes blood. It’s a little concerning how much she likes blood. 

Aftercare: She is going to bundle up and just absolutely shower her partner in praise and kisses. She does keep snacks and water nearby so she doesn’t have to leave if someone gets hungry or thirsty. If any toys are used she does try to clean those immediately before cuddle time though. 

Noise level: She's talkative but not noisy. She's constantly praising and checking in. When she does make noise, it’s very quiet and breathy. 

Surprise: Lus has a massive toy collection. Like bigger than Swiss. She absolutely loves using toys. She will use multiple. She really likes her strapless strap ons though. 

[arc-misadventures]

Secrets Well Kept

Jaune was having a bog-standard day until the moment his day was flipped on its head.

Literally.

Right now he was suspended in the air by his leg hanging over the roof of a building situated away from prying eyes.

He was surprised how quickly he got up here, how a single thread was holding him suspended in the air, but more importantly, that he didn’t throw up his guts in the process of getting here.

But, considering he was hanging upside down he suspected that there was still a possibility of that happening.

Peachy.

Fortuitously he wouldn’t have to worry about that for long. Hopefully.

For his captor have finally revealed themselves before him, and he only had one thing to say to them.

Jaune: If you dare say, “How’s it Yanging?” I will deliberately throw up on you.

: You wouldn’t dare!

Jaune: Unless it is by the form of a vile semi-non-lethal case of projectile vomit, how else could I, a common human possibly harm you, Spidergal.

Spidergal, the wisecracking web-slinger that swung around the city, saving people from a variety of things: Criminals committing crimes, cars speeding out of control, an introductory lesson of the ramifications of underestimating gravity. She will come in, and save everyone, be they petty criminals, or crazy men in monster suits. There were too many of those weirdos around town lately.

Jaune: Or… should I perhaps say… Yang Xiao Long…?

Spidergal stared at him for a moment before pulling off her mask, revealing a mane of golden hair, vibrant amethyst eyes, and a face that vibrated with fear.

Yang: Why?! Why did you do that?!

Jaune: Seemed pretty simple really; Your name is, Yang. I’m hanging from a… Crane? Yang, hang: Yanging. Seemed pretty simple considering you like towards making cheap puns.

Yang: it’s good I’ll give you that! But, why?!

Jaune: Why?

Yang: Yes: WHY?

Jaune: Why what?

Yang: Why didn’t you tell anyone that I was, Spidergal?!

Jaune: Are you talking about that time I caught you changing into your spider suit, and I caught you in that tantalizing lacy violet underwear?

Yang: Yes tha…?! Wait, you peaked?!

Jaune: To be fair, I couldn’t help it. You were changing your outfit at the time, and I just happened to walk on you in the process.

Yang: …

Yang: That’s fair… But, why didn’t you tell anyone?!

Jaune: Yes, I’m going to tell everyone I found out, Spidergal’s secret identity because I caught her in her underwear whilst changing into her suit. Who the devil would believe that, that could possibly happen?

Yang: Well… uhhh…? Honestly I wouldn’t believe that either.

Jaune: Precisely! Besides, I try to be a gentleman; I would have legged it out of there if it wasn’t for the fact that your friends… What are their names… Weiss, and… Blake?

Yang: Yes, their names are, Weiss, and Blake.

Jaune: Yeah, they could have caught you in that compromising position. Short of confessing you were, Spidergal, or a nudist how could you have gotten out of that?!

Yang: Definitely not the nudist route…

Jaune: Not to mention that squid guy…

Yang: Dr. Oc!

Jaune: Lame. Anyway he was on a rampage, so you had more pressing matters to attend to.

Yang: But… T-That was a month ago! Why haven’t you done anything?!

Jaune: Anything? What do you mean by that?

Yang: you could have blackmailed me into doing stuff for you, or you’ll reveal my identity! Like stealing stuff for you, o-or… m-making me doing something lewd…

As, Jaune lazily hung from the air he shot her an infuriated look that shocked her as she gazed upon a face that screamed offence.

Jaune: I’m tempted to tell everyone now for how insulted I feel that you would dare think that I would do something like that!

Yang: I’m sorry! It’s just… you know… secret identity that she has to keep secret… smoking hot babe… teenage boy…

Jaune: Get your head out of whatever gutter its in lady!

Yang: Okay! Just, why haven’t you told anyone about this, hell why didn’t you come to me about knowing this?! I’ve been on edge all month thinking you were planning something?!

Jaune: Hmm… That’s a fair concern. Well, I’ll tell you precisely what I was planning! But, first, I require a favour…

Yang recoiled in fear, her nerves were on edge as she saw the loopy smile across his face. She didn’t think he was planning anything sinister, but she couldn’t risk it.

Yang: What favour…

Jaune: Get me down from here! The blood is rushing to my head, and I think the projectile vomit is more of a warning, not a threat now!

Yang: Oh shit, yeah, sorry!

Yang quickly brought him down where, Jaune promptly laid on his back as he let his blood settle. After a few minutes he stood up, shaking the dizziness away.

Yang: You better?

Jaune: Somewhat? Imma gonna need to lie down for a while… that is so uncomfortable…

Yang: You can get used to it.

Jaune: Yeah, but I’m not… whatever it is you now are.

Yang: Hey!

Jaune: Okay… What I was planning to do was this: Nothing.

Yang: Nothing; you weren’t planning on doing anything?

Jaune: Not a gods dammed thing.

Yang: S-Seriously?

Jaune: Yep, I wasn’t planning on doing anything. You’ve been a great help to this city, it needs people like you, honest to god hero. I didn’t want to mess that up for internet clout. I mean, image how many people will be impacted if they knew you were, Spidergal. I mean… How many people could be hurt if your secret got out. And, I don’t just mean your family, but your friends, and any random schmuck on the street. Me telling who you are puts so many people at risk. I couldn’t dare dream of doing such a thing. So, don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.

Yang: Oh… T-Thank you…

Yang fidgeted with her hair nervously as she looked away with a faint blush on her face. She did this because she thought the heroing was cool, and the overall right thing to do. But, to hear someone thank her for doing what she did, seeing that her being a superhero, and doing the things she does, and for who she does it for was more important than knowing who she was, meant the world to her, and really gave her that boost of confidence she needed.

Jaune: So don’t worry about it, Yang. I’ve kept this a secret for over a year now, I can keep it secret still for years yet to come.

Yang: Thanks, Jaune, I really…?! Wait… ‘Over a year now…?’ Hold up! You’ve know I was, Spidergal for over a year now?!

Jaune: Yep!

Yang: How?!

Jaune: Remember when we first met?

Yang: Uhh… We met in the hallway at school… you were helping me by putting a textbook back into my backpack?! You saw my suit when you were putting that book back?!

Jaune: Close, I saw your suit in your backpack before I put that textbook back in. Why do you think I zipped up your backpack when I put the textbook back, and gave you that warning about letting stuff fall out?

Yang: You’ve known the whole time that I was, Spidergal since our freshmen year?!

Jaune: You weren’t really famous for a while yet, but yeah, pretty much.

Yang: H-Have you been protecting my secret the whole time as well?!

Jaune: More, or less.

Yang: Oh… okay…

Jaune: So… now what?

Yang: I don’t know… You know my secret, and have been keeping my secret for over a year now… I guess we just carry on as we are?

Jaune: I can do that.

Yang: Do you… Would you mind if I came to you… To talk about all these things I’ve been through? I don’t have anyone to talk about this to, and I could really use someone to talk to… do you… Would you mind?

Jaune look at her before walking over to a vent box on the roof. The metallic box echoed as he sat upon it, he turned to her, and tapped a spot besides him. Yang smiled at him before jumping, and summersaulting in the air, and landing gracefully next to him.

Jaune: So… Lets start at the beginning shall we?

Yang: How I became, Spidergal? That’s a good place to start.

Jaune: Oh, I was going to ask how you hide all that hair under that mask of yours; like seriously, how?!

Yang laughed as she lightly punched his arm before she told him the origin story of the, Astonishing Spidergal.

And, Jaune had to admit, it was too ridiculous to be true. But, such is life: Too ridiculous to be true.

///

Ahh, finally get to play out that Spiderman idea I’ve had stuck in my head for months now!

That was fun. Well, back to the grinding stone.

Do enjoy~!

[necronatural]

otome isekai/regression tends to be more of a guilty pleasure for me so its easy to disregard a lot of its… disappointing factors. it would be awesome if otome isekai explored the whole idea of, well. being IN an isekai world. i was just talking with some friends about how the MC tend to lean in favor of treating everyone as just characters/game pieces than in regression stories because they haven't actually had the experience of knowing them. (of course not every otome isekai is like this, as some will even have the MC retain the original body's memories, but that complicates things)

but, as i mentioned, otome isekai tends to be more of a guilty pleasure read, so its easy to suspend belief. i also like villainess level 99 because the MC's whole thing is just so entertaining that the 'isekai' part feels like too much.

in the end, i think a lot of it comes down to the MC accepting their position... rather quickly? once they realize whats going on in an otome isekai, theres usually no identity crisis and the MC acknowledges that they are now in a new world. and, thus, get wrapped up in the drama/romance plot that otome isekai is generally aiming for. visual adaptations are still rather new so theres not too many that have had their story wrapped up yet, but if you look at the ones that HAVE (+ some light novels) you can see that they do eventually return to the isekai plot? but its usually some half-baked explanation because the isekai mystery was never a core part of the story

this is a very messily thrown-together word dump but i hope my two cents make sense (pun not intended)

Otome Isekai is like the midlife crisis mommy of romantic fantasy where she flourished in her heyday (Fushigi Yuugi, Red River, Inuyasha) but in an attempt to keep up with the times (LitRPG Isekai) realizing she's not able to stay hip the way her kids (regression romfan) do effortlessly

In terms of isekai...I do not favour many. Geni Yuu, I Raised A Black Dragon, Beware the Villainess, The One Inside the Villainess, and When The Villainess Is In Love <- WHATS HER FUCKING PROBLEM. are some solid reads.

The thing to be careful of is that Japan has a Wattpad-adaptation pipeline mass production industry so their otome isekai is like. Uniquely bad.

Regression truly is the cream of the crop for a compelling bog standard template plot because you can do literally everything isekai does but with stronger stakes and a far easier job of naturally explaining why this is happening when you want to get back to it later

[rawk-chikk]

I have a wetroom.

Finally.

Just waiting on the Closomat now. They were going to install it immediately after the floor was laid, but because there's now a 'shelf' that extends along the bottom of the wall where the toilet will go they need to construct a box to cancel out a portion of the shelf, as the back of the toilet has to be flush (no pun intended 😋) against the wall.

Hopefully it won't take too long. Till then I'm stuck with a bog standard...er...standard bog 😁.

At least I have a working shower now, so that's something.

[bl1tzm1k3]

Triplet Dupain Cheng AU

So I thought to myself , what if Marinette had 2 siblings that formed a triplet trio with her? AND some aspects & characters from canon were changed to fit this goofy idea of mine. WELL, have I got something for you all.

Post 1: Marinette's Siblings

Michael Dupain Cheng

"I can be the definition of chaos, but a good friend in need."

Son of Tom Dupain & Sabine Cheng. Brother of Marinette Dupain Cheng.

Michael is a tall & slender teenage boy that's around 6.5 feet. He's the tallest of his siblings. He's got regular black colored eyes compared to the rest of his family, his hair is medium length that's combed smoothly towards the right with a slight left side split. He also has bangs slightly covering his forehead that is combed similarly to his hair.

Whilst his hair is blue like Marinette & his mother, it's slightly darker & sleeker looking that has caused some people assume to think it's black. The color does get more pronounced when he uses a little bit of his favorite hair conditioning & shampoo.

He regularly wears 2 shirts, one collared & another with no collar. Both are specially made by Marinette.

Both shirts is 2x2 checker board style on the front but a horizontal split on the back with a stripe in the middle. For the front, the upper right is black, upper left is purple, the bottom right is blue & the bottom left is white. For the back, the upper half is black, the bottom half is turquoise & the stripe separating both halves is magenta. The collar on the collared shirt & the neckline on the collar-less shirt are both dark grey. The sleeves on both shirts are white for the right sleeve & light grey for the left sleeve.

He sometimes likes to wear a zipless hoodie that starts at blue at the top & fades into a purpleish-magenta color going down.

For pants, he either wears either long, pocketed pants that go to his ankles in either a black or grey color or cargo shorts in either black or grey.

As for footwear, he wears either some bog standard grey strap slippers with orange detailing or light grey lace-less sneakers with some black & white striped socks.

In terms of personality, Michael's personality is a big mess of many traits.

Positive Personality Traits

Most of the time, Michael is a big guy with an even bigger heart. He's essentially a big, happy pile of sunshine & rainbows, rivalling Rose in this regard but in a boy-ish way.

He likes to act silly, his humor is mostly derived from memes & puns, & he always tries to look on the bright side of things.

He can be a very chill dude, as much as Nino & Luka, in an almost zen-like way & can be very laid back.

He's also very smart in the academics department with great grades across the board much like his siblings. It helps him to be creative in many situations.

His imagination is the size of the universe & has helped in five ways; it gives him a high level of creativity, it's helped him to think outside of the box, it helps to inspire himself to have big dreams of anything he can think off, it has given him a very open mind to anything as he has a good eye for fashion like Marinette, a diverse palate for food, & a keen ear for good music regardless of genre, & it lets him be brave enough to try new things & experiences.

Due to the fact that he has two sisters that share everything with him & vice versa, Michael has a vague idea on giving dating advice to any of his friends. Emphasis on vague.

When anyone is feeling down, Michael is a good friend to talk to & a good shoulder to cry on if needed. He always tries to think of the best things to say in any situation no matter how dire or deadbeat it could be.

He has a sheer amount of determination & willpower. He never gives up no matter what's thrown at him & refuses to throw in the towel when he knows there's a way to solve a problem but that doesn't mean he's stubborn.

He can be very passionate about the things he likes, particularly his loved ones, & is very loyal to those he loves.

Despite his kindhearted & goofy nature, Michael can be as serious as a soldier in a war when the situation calls for it.

Neutral Personality Traits

Taking in all of his personality traits, Michael can sometimes be the living, breathing definition of chaos. He can be mix of any of his traits at any time when he's feeling a little chaotic.

He's very emotional as he can very happy & cheerful one moment, very angry or aggressive another moment & very sad or bored in another moment. So be VERY careful when he's feeling sensitive or passionate about things.

Michael can be very protective for his family, friends & his stuff. While it's a positive thing, it can be a bit too much at times.

While he's a stickler for cleanliness, it has lead to some annoying habits that he's ashamed to have such as the fact when he suddenly feels the need to wash his hands or use hand sanitizer/wet wipes.

He can be very rowdy sometimes & it has lead him to be a bit unpredictable when he's at different kinds of events or parties. He can either very reserved & gentleman-like or a party animal that knows how to control himself.

Negative Personality Traits

While not an entirely negative thing, Michael is the foulest mouthed member of his family. He essentially can curse whenever he wants in whatever way possible towards anyone or anything but he can control it. While his family are used to this, they're worried it might land him in trouble, which it rarely does.

Much like Marinette, Michael can be a bit clumsy. Compared to her though, he can make a very quick recovery & is trying to help Marinette do the same.

He can be a bit forgetful about things at times. In fact, due to the fact that he knows so many things & people, it can be hard for him to keep track of things & has led him to forget some basic things.

When he's in serious mode, Michael can be a bit cold at times & can be a bit harsh, although he knows not to be too harsh.

Michael, despite the fact that he's a hard worker, at times can be a bit lazy. Sometimes it's due to being tired or due to being too laid back. But when push comes to shove, he'll get off his ass & do what needs to be done.

Michael can be a little bit overdramatic at times, exaggerating situations when it's not really that big of a deal. However, this particular trait has helped him at times.

When meeting someone new, especially girls, Michael can be a bit shy & won't open up to people until he knows slightly more about them. Once he's comfortable, he will open up more when around them.

Michael can act bit childish at times, particularly around his loved ones like his family & very close friends. He feels like it's his coping mechanism to some things but is trying to steadily grow out of it.

The dude talks to himself a lot due to his large imagination. It's even caused him to talk in his sleep in both good dreams & nightmares.

Michael has a huge fear of abandonment. Despite the fact that his family & his friends have all assured him that he's never going to be alone, he still has doubts about that a lot of the time & has a hard time opening up about it.

Shelby Dupain Cheng

"Life is a very beautiful thing, just like my loved ones."

Daughter of Tom Dupain & Sabine Cheng. Sister of Marinette Dupain Cheng.

Shelby is a tall & slender teenage girl that's around 5.9 feet. She's between Marinette & Michael in terms of height. She's got dark brown colored eyes compared to the rest of her family, she has long hair that flows neatly until her waist with bangs that flow neatly over her shoulders. Much like Michael, her hair is slightly darker & sleeker looking blue compared to Marinette & her mother.

However, Shelby decided to dye her hair a dark orange color as it goes up her hair before finally reaching the dark blue area around the top of her head. She has light freckles that gives an 'adorable' appearance according to her family, but she likes to wear makeup a lot so it's not shown often. Her makeup appliance isn't very heavy & even without it, she still looks very beautiful.

Her usual body wear consists of a black short sleeved dress with puffed shoulder sleeves, white polka dots, & white lines that split the upper & lower part as well as flowing down the skirt area, &/or a sky blue short sleeved blouse that she pairs with a few things.

Speaking of which, she pairs her blouse with either a matching sky blue skirt or black slim fit pocketed jeans. She of course wears a pair of shorts when wearing her dress or skirt.

Her shoes consists of either black Mary Janes shoes, peach colored 2 inch heels or dark brown combat boots. Shelby also likes pairing them with either regular or thigh high socks, usually colored white, or fishnets stockings.

Personality wise, Shelby is much more simpler compared to her brother.

Positive Personality Traits

Much like her siblings, Shelby has a big heart & is very kind soul. Between her, Marinette & Michael, she's the most gentle.

Much like Michael, Shelby likes to act silly to lighten up the mood & look on the bright side of things like her brother.

She's the most chill between her siblings but doesn't border to the point of lazy.

In fact, academically speaking, Shelby is the most hardworking of her siblings. Often times she has the best grades among herself, Marinette & Michael but these two aren't slouches & keep up with her very closely. Let's just say Sabine & Tom find it cute that their children are competitive concerning their grades.

She's also very smart in general. In fact, Shelby has rarely had a dumb moment in her life & is always careful to a T.

Between the three, Shelby tends to act the most mature as she acts as the older sister of the trio.

This lends her to be the most nurturing of the three, alongside Marinette. She is often Michael's source of comfort as she's often on the receiving end of a clingy hug from her brother & is very careful with how she handles Marinette when giving advice to her about anything.

Shelby is also surprisingly effective at negotiating, followed by Michael.

Unlike her siblings, Shelby is rarely ever if not at all clumsy. She's always managed to avoid situations where she would get herself in trouble.

Neutral Personality Traits

Speaking of clumsy, while Shelby is rarely clumsy, when she does slip up, it hits her hard & leaves feeling very guilty. But with two siblings that are very supportive, the guilt doesn't stay long & she's quick to fix her mistakes.

Shelby is very protective of her family. While mostly a positive, depending on the situation, the way she is protective is either wholesome or even slightly scary.

She loves giving strangers a mysterious vibe when they first meet her. She can either be silly & goofy, calm & mature, cold & calculating or just outright mysterious. Only people that get close to her know what Marinette & Michael get with her on the daily.

Negative Personality Traits

Despite not being a perfectionist when it comes to her looks, being a very simple girl when needing to look good, Shelby can be very self conscious about her looks. She hates when her looks are ruined in any major way that makes her look near unfixable but tries to keep a calm when it happens.

However in some scenarios, when she can't keep her cool, the waterworks start running & Michael & Marinette have to come to her rescue. She & Chloe (who's changed in this AU) resonate with each other in this regard.

In the event that either Marinette or Michael get a partner, she would be the one to judge them after their parents. And let's just say that she can very harsh & critical when it comes to this. IF their partners are lucky, they'll get judged still but to a less harsh & more friendly degree.

Shelby can very distrustful of people sometimes. This was because of some old friends who left her behind to be friends with her old bullies when she was younger. In Dupont, she's trying to be more trustful of people outside of her family as she's already getting closer with the Akuma Class.

Let's just say if anything bad happens to Marinette & or Michael, & it wasn't their fault & was caused by someone else, you don't, & I repeat, you DON'T want Shelby to find out. Because if & when she does, you're in for a dreadfully bad time.

AND THAT'S THAT! Phew let me tell you all. It took a very long time for me to write this as I didn't want to make these two look like Mary Sues. Keep an eye out for more posts on this AU coming in the future. That's all from me. Bl1tzM1k3 out!

[shaftking]

I was watching a video comp of scenes from Tangled the Series and the top comment said, “I don’t think Rapunzel’s bisexual. She’s probably pansexual, considering her trusty weapon in the movie.” I rolled my eyes, but accepted that it was just a shitty pun. But, the replies, OH GOD…

“Yeah she may like people based off their personality.” What???

“If you’re pan, you love every gender and focus on personality.” Huh???

I literally cannot go anywhere on the internet without stumbling across biphobia and it’s disgusting. So bi people are just shallow fucks who wanna smash? And also again with the every gender bs- if we all just accepted that there are two genders/sexes, this wouldn’t even be controversial (Ik the Bi Manifesto states “don’t assume there’s two genders” or whatever, but whoever wrote that was clearly a radical who doesn’t represent every individual bi person, as they refer to a biological observation as an assumption). Anyway, I’m simply exhausted from this shit.

yep its literally just bog standard biphobia from the pannies. We are all exhausted.

[afactaday]

#aFactADay2022

#587 (DLXXXVII): with bog standard numerals, you can only get as high as 3999. if you used the crazy additive numerals (an add-on to the basic set (please excuse my puns)), you can get as far as 6999, depending on how far you push it. if you really want to go for it, you could get the fractions DLC and reach 6999+1727/1728. but one method was adding a vinculum (pl. vincula). this is the bar used in the NOT function, in recurring decimals, and encasing radicands. drawing it on top of a letter or group of letters has the effect of multiplying it by 1000, meaning you could reach 6,999,999.999421296 with this new (1900 year old) DLC! unfortunately, many examples of Roman numerals already have excessive serifs and sometimes an entire line above to distinguish from neighbouring Latin alphabet words, so it is often difficult to decide whether it is truly a vinculum or not.

so the Romans went bust and their system was adopted by medieval devs. these guys needed the dosh, so they kept on making more and more content to add. so they say you can surround a letter with pipes/vertical brackets to multiply it by ten. combined with the vincula, these allow for up to 7*10^7-12^{-3}.

I've just spent an hour trying to draw this number in LaTeX, but I can't get it to work, so you'll have to put up with my bad handwriting with a barely working biro on a random envelope.

but that's not all! there is an alternative system called Apostrophus, which is sorta archaic, even by the Romans' standards. it originates as a leftover from Etruscan numerals, from which Roman numerals originate. it basically works like brackets, where you surround something with C and Ↄ to multiply it by 100. you can technically stack this infinitely, unlocking practically infinite reach with your Roman numerals, even without downloading any more expensive DLCs.

try NEW APOSTROPHUS! with this simple trick, you can reach infinity! medieval scholars hate this* ! every one includes a SECRET SURPRISE**! (T's and C's apply***)

*it's thought this system inspired the vincula system

**the secret surprise is that you can use just the last Ↄ in conjunction with an I, you get 500. some people thing that's where the letter D comes from (IↃ -> D).

***can be easily confused with C, denoting 100. it's no wonder they got rid of this, it was a nightmare to decipher.

I remember learning about the vincula in year 5 (age 10) so it was interesting to see the history, fallacies and downfalls of the system

[ratleyland]

I was 'in the dark' going into this movie (No Pun Intended)

What started off as a promising sci-fi horror; quickly became a bog standard 'Run-of-the-mill' survival-fest.

[fadebolt]

Personal room ranking:

1 - Shoreline: I01 (9/10) 2 - Chimney Canopy: B04 (8/10) 3 - Metropolis: ruin01 (8/10) 4 - Outer Expanse: JUNGLE04 (7/10) 5 - PAST Garbage Wastes: B02 (7/10) 6 - Submerged Superstructure: ARTERY12 (6/10) 7 - Submerged Superstructure: splitsewers (6/10) 8 - Shoreline: H03 (5/10) 9 - Submerged Superstructure: bittersafe (5/10) 10 - Subterranean: TESTC (4/10) 11 - Industrial Complex: A24 (3/10)

Extra comment: Having 11 rooms is definitely a bit unusual, but I'm guessing that was on purpose this time. On the surface, it doesn't seem like that hurt any particular room too badly. I suppose it depends on which specific room that extra addition is.

In this case, the addition was TESTC. (Unless the polls aren't made the way I'm assuming, but just attaching the room to a random poll sounds like the most convenient solution. No hard feelings about missing it btw, I understand the difficulties of having to sort thousands of rooms xd) And well, it's really nothing crazy, and it didn't seem like its presence changed much. I'm not trying to imply that the room is horrid or anything, and by round 1 standards, it absolutely would be a decent one. But here, it's bogged down by its problem of failing to have a unique identity outside of being "one of those rooms you take to avoid The Centipede Pit of Doom". And when you look at all the rooms that are bundled up in that category, you have TESTB, the food room, C02, the neat watery room with loads of shrooms, and TESTC, the…. one that's… a little sunnier than the others? I don't think that Caramel Lizard really fits here either, but I guess the Infant Centipedes can distract it, so it's not the end of the world.

Despite the higher number of options, there was only one other room from my request list, which is H03. Now, you could look at the rankings and conclude that I think this place sucks, but it's a little weirder than that. Because the thing is that H03 succeeds perfectly at what it's trying to do, I just don't like its approach. And my main reasoning is that the room has 2 potential ways it plays out - either you're lucky, and you don't get enemies, so you do nothing but swim an annoyingly long distance towards the right, or you're unlucky, and you now have to deal with a fast, aggressive, gigantic and deadly Leviathan or Vulture (potentially Vultures), in what is essentially the longest fully open area in the entire game.

I get what the devs were going for, trying to make the final room tense, so that reaching the safety of LttM would feel like a huge relief. And the thing is that this works. It's just unfun, and I wish they would have approached this idea a little differently. (For instance, U04 in Spearmaster's LttM is great example of doing the 'last dangerous room before a safe area' thing, where it actually works well, because the layout offers the player a ton of options, even if the spawns themselves are a lot more excessive) One positive I could at least say is that the entrance to the subregion is quite solid (pun not intended), and the left side area is mostly fine too. It's really just the big swimming section that bugs me.

Pick Your Favorite Rain World Room, Day 246 R2

This is not single elimination! Every room with at least 15.0% vote will move on to the next round.

There is a hidden slugcat in one of the rooms (they can be in any color). If u can see it comment or reblog with where they are and if u are first, u get a cookie!

Credit for game screenshots goes to: Rain World Interactive Map, Rain World Wiki and me

Congratulations for day 245 winners!

[myth-carver]

Rambly ass liveblogging impressions of Legend of Vox Machina ep 1 Japanese dub by a pro translator

I am literally just copypasting all the stuff I wrote in Discord lol...

so I started ep 1 in Japanese and my first impression is... the person they got to play Vex sounds startlingly like Laura holy shit 😂

the writing in the first couple minutes was ok, they preserved some of the jokes fairly well but ofc some things just don't translate very well

the opening with the LotR type dudes was still pretty funny but the names of the merc groups I didn't feel like they completely succeeded in keeping the joke there, unsurprising since that would be a hard reference to translate

oh I turned on the Japanese subtitles and they're a straight translation of the English rather than being CC of the Japanese dub, damn. I mean that's great for Japanese viewers that want the closest-to-the-original experience that they can get but less helpful for yours truly lmao

writing this down for my own notes/amusement...

Personal pronouns and grammar:

Vax: ore. so far he's bog standard modern Japanese male like you'd hear as the main character of basically anything anywhere lol.

Vex: watashi, speaks kinda femme with ~wa on the ends of her sentences

Pike: watashi or atashi, probably watashi, will listen for another one. grammar is pretty bog standard modern Japanese girl style but it's funny to hear her use ~deshou bc I'd picture her being the type not to break out desu/masu with her friends personally

Keyleth: watashi, so far bog standard modern Japanese female, she feels a little less formal than I would expect

Percy: ore. he's a lot more informal/less old timey-sounding in Japanese than he usually is in English, but tbh there's not a good way to translate the way he talks that wouldn't also make him sound like kind of a weirdo/imply unintended stuff so it's probably for the best

Scanlan: ok he first used boku when seducing the tavern keeper's daughter but when he's alone with VM he uses ore. Boku has got more of a like softer nonthreatening image to it and musical artists often use 'kimi' and 'boku' for their 'you' and 'me' in song lyrics, so I could see him using it on purpose to try to project that 'romantic lead' kind of image lmao. Ore is more what you expect to hear a typical young guy use, it's kind of macho.

Grog: ore, not much to say here, he's exactly what you'd expect a big macho bruiser dude to sound like. He doesn't quite have Travis's funny sideways way of phrasing things unfortunately, it's more standard Japanese. They did not use any dialect or anything to sub for the accent but that sort of thing is hard to translate.

oh my god I got to Scanlan's bedroom scene 😂

they don't really translate the joke in the song alas, like I think it's still a funny scene without it but

"My lady's rose I will pluck/My love it's time for us to (fuck)" got turned into "Kimi no hanabira wa / Mou boku no mono sa" meaning "Your petals now belong to me" or "your petals are now mine" they didn't try to put in a pun here but they did keep the meter and rhyme lmao

amusingly when Percy asks Scanlan to put on some pants, they kept that exact line in Japanese, but "pantsu" in Japanese means specifically underwear so Japanese Percy is asking something a little different 😂

Japanese Scanlan is very polite to the tavern keeper. 😂

I feel like the dub writing is pretty sharp. I haven't checked out the more direct translation in the subtitles yet but they gave the dub script to a competent dialogue writer. the gang is as funny to listen to bantering with each other in Japanese as I would expect Vox Machina ought to be.

ironically in some ways it's easier to listen to than the original cast bc they're just actors doing a job and less self conscious about the fact that they're Acting as their D&D characters lmao

it's not quite the first time the CR gang ever got into a recording booth as Vox Machina but almost lol

lmaoooooo when Keyleth's like "Vex and Vax only care about themselves" Japanese Vex and Vax are like "we'll fucking kill you"

boo when Scanlan's like "I want to bed everyone in the realm" they translated it as "I want to bed every girl in the realm"

not surprised though sigh

they translated the "drain the basilisk" joke pretty directly but Japanese viewers if they're into this kind of cartoon do probably know what a basilisk is so

...ok I really like Scanlan's actor

when he gets on a roll he resembles Sam kinda like 3/4ths of the way lmao and he can do the falsetto shriek thing

and I do feel like he captures the spirit of the original performance pretty well, even thinking about the original tabletop performance

oof they tried on the "introducing Vox Machina" song but that one was a lot rougher than the previous song 😂 I imagine adapting all these songs was probably pretty hard to pull off

oh my god I can't decide if Kima sounds so off bc they're having her use really polite grammar since she's talking to Uriel or if they really just gave her Generic Girl Femme Grammar, god I hope it's the first one

but she used "kashira" ffs

that's like something you expect to hear out of the mouth of the main character's sweet middle aged anime mom who's gonna die in the 2nd scene lmao

....lmao Pike's dubious blessing is funnier in Japanese tbh

I felt like Ashley didn't quite know what to do with the scene in the original version, or maybe the dialogue was just a little off idk? but Japanese Pike flubs it up a little bit and is like "I'm sure everything'll be, uh, super awesome!" that kind of mood 😂

it's the same idea as the original ofc but maybe a little better executed

I'm ngl obviously nothing can beat the original Critical Role cast when it comes to the actual voices, but I kind of like the dialogue writing better in Japanese 😂

I think so far my only real gripe with the dub is they should've used Keyleth's speaking style for Pike and Pike's speaking style for Keyleth lmao. neither of them sounds totally off, it's not super bad or anything, but Pike sounds a smidgen more goody two shoes than she should and Keyleth sounds a smidgen less goody two shoes than she should

I'm sure that just comes down to, y'know, the person doing this adaptation is only working off these episodes to interpret who these characters are as people

one thing that is interesting to me is Japanese Percy and Vax are very very close in speaking style

it feels like Vax leans sliiiightly more toward "nice approachable guy in his 20s" and Percy is slightly more clipped/businesslike, but very slight differences at best

ok that's the end of ep 1, I'll probably finish watching the dub later

it is still so surreal to me that you can now watch Vox Machina speaking like 9 different languages 😂

[spaceorphan18]

Marvel Movie Nights: The Avengers

Admission time.  I’m not a huge fan of action movies.  And.. after watching the first half of this list (as well as having watched a lot of the Batman films, too), I’m not surprised why I came into these kind of films with a bit of apprehension.  I didn’t have background of comics knowledge like I did with X-Men.  And because I had only seen the original Iron Man before this one, the first time I saw this movie, I was a blank, and somewhat apathetic, slate.  

The thing that surprised me when I first watched it was how captivated I was by it.  It was fast and snappy and even the action sequences held my attention.  It was not just a good action film.  It was a good film all together.  

And it’s a fact I still stand by today. I had been anxious to get here, especially after we hit the MCU films, because the beauty of this film is that it is an accumulation of what comes before it.  There are layers to this film -- that it can be appreciated as a stand alone but also as a climax of the three-ish (do we really need to count Hulk?) films that came before it.  

This film is brilliant.  It’s almost simple in its brilliance now -- we joke about Marvel films being standard three-act structures (I’d argue this one follows the five-act format), and this one follows the structure pretty closely.  The story telling is pretty simple - evil guy trying to take over the world, superheroes come to stop him.  But it’s the way this story is told that seems pretty genius.  

This is a story about characters.  What really works is the fact that these characters have all been introduced in earlier films, so we don’t need the origin stories of how all of them are heroes -- we already know they stand on their own individually.  But this is a story of these very, very different characters coming together to form a real team.  This is the origin story of not of one individual character -- but of the Avengers, of how this group of various strange and superpowered individuals work past their differences and save the world. 

And it’s incredibly effective.  

The thing that stands out to me on rewatch is how brilliant the little scenes are between the characters.  Black Widow, in particular, gets some stellar scenes with her individual scene partners; but the entire cast works well together.  They play off each other beautiful in a story that’s relatively tight and yet is weaving all of these individual character threads through the main plot.  It’s no easy feat.  And while I’m not huge on crediting Joss Whedon on things, this is one time his style of filmmaking is well suited for the project.  

The Avengers stands out among other comic book films.  It’s light and fast paced.  It has a sense of humor, knowing when to take itself seriously and when it doesn’t need to.  It’s bright and colorful like a cartoon, and yet is grounded in some very human emotions like a good drama.  It doesn’t stray outside of its story even though the baggage of each character complements the storytelling instead of working against it.  

And it's a testament to how good this film is that ten years later, and after seeing quite a lot of times, it still can hold an emotional impact.  

I’m not going to go into huge detail about the characters here.  I think everyone is served pretty well -- even if I have small quibbles such as Chris Hemsworth (or the writing) still not feeling like he has a handle on who his character is or the lack of development with Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye.  Marvel is often (rightfully) criticized for its villains but Tom Hiddleston shines as Loki.  The cast is truly a joy to watch on screen -- making us care about these characters -- which is a big part in why Marvel continues to dominate the genre today. 

The production of the film is pretty stellar, too.  I’m not bogged down by too much CGI (though there’s a lot of it) and since we’re entering an era of better technology it isn’t hampered by the awkwardness of special effects being outdated.  The film itself looks (and sounds) nice and clean and effortless.  

I have a few (very minor) quibbles; there are a few comedic one-liners that fall a little flat, as stated above Hawkeye and Thor both feel a little underdeveloped (or underserved); the battle of New York drags on just a hair too long; and despite the presence of Nick Fury - it’s very much a white-guy fest.  

But at the end of the day, I still love this movie.  It’s a simpler film to me now -- as this is a Season 1 finale rather than a Series Finale, but it was bold and groundbreaking, and is still a marvel (pun intended) a decade after its release. 

Final Verdict: I’m glad I can look back on this film and still have a very fond feeling for it. 

Next Up: The Amazing Spider-Man -- which I have never seen.  Andrew Garfield just isn’t gonna feel right... 

[jupitersflytrap]

behold! a man

pinky for scale

it’s 1am and i just spent a solid 20 mins carving a tiny little bog body king out of soap

[dweemeister]

NOTE: This is the second film released theatrically during the COVID-19 pandemic that I am reviewing – I saw Wonder Woman 1984 at the Regency Theatres Directors Cut Cinema’s drive-in operation in Laguna Niguel, California. Because moviegoing carries risks at this time, please remember to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by your local, regional, and national health officials.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

It took decades for a female superhero movie to make a lasting cultural impact. The honor fell to Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman (2017) – no matter what you think of it, the film dispelled any perceptions that a female-driven superhero movie could never be a cinematic phenomenon. Jenkins returns, as does Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman and Chris Pine, in Wonder Woman 1984. This sequel is at its best when not proclaiming to the audience its self-importance – an aspect commonly found in and that plagues the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – and, unfortunately, its poor screenplay oscillates between a flighty romp and superheroic maximalism. For Patty Jenkins, whose filmography is regrettably small mostly due to the lack of opportunities afforded to women directors, she could not have envisioned Wonder Woman’s success, nor the impossible expectations put upon her to surpass the first film. As it is, WW84 is an entertaining, if troubled sophomore effort.

Seven decades after we saw her in the first film and after a prologue during her childhood on Themyscira, Diana Prince (Gadot; Lilly Aspell as young Diana) is working as a restorationist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. In her off hours, she performs the occasional heroic act as Wonder Woman. One of the newest hires is gemologist Barbara Ann Minerva (Kristen Wiig). Diana and Barbara, from an FBI request, identify a stolen artifact as the Dreamstone – a gem that, according to legend, has the power to grant a person one wish. On accident, Diana wishes for her long-dead lover Steve Trevor (Pine) to come back to life; envious of Diana’s looks and wallowing in self-pity, Barbara off-handedly wishes to be like Diana. Both wishes come true, but in ways profaning the literal meanings of the respective wishes. For Barbara, this means a transformation into one of Wonder Woman’s archnemeses, Cheetah. Elsewhere in D.C., struggling television infomercial pitchman Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) wishes to procure the stone to revive his flagging business.

Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen are barely in the film as Antiope and Hippolyta, respectively. Lynda Carter, who played Diana on the ABC television series Wonder Woman from 1976-1979, has a self-aware moment which will delight fans.

1980s American culture is the nostalgic fixation at this moment in popular culture (with the march of time, each decade seems to be beholden to its own moment of nostalgic media cycles). Think of television shows like Stranger Things; movies like Adventureland (2009) and It (2017). The generation that came of age during Reagan’s America grew up in a time where the veneer of the Soviet-backed Eastern bloc was crumbling from within, and where Reaganomics spurred prevalent materialism and indulgence. Unadulterated greed and desire are in every corner of WW84 – from the terrible attempts at flirting with Diana and Barbara that easily qualifies as harassment, the difficulty in renouncing wishes on the Dreamstone, Max Lord’s inability to balance his business commitments in order to make time for his son, Alistair (Lucian Perez). WW84 captures this consumerist, entitled attitude throughout, and remarks on how corrosive this mindset is. Admittedly, it is simple messaging from the screenwriting team – Jenkins; Geoff Johns (a DC Comics writer and producer for comics, television, and film since 2000); and Dave Callaham (2014’s Godzilla, 2019’s Zombieland: Double Tap) – but they never contradict that central message.

WW84 progresses to its hackneyed, natural conclusion. But along the way, the screenplay is bogged down in the havoc that ensues from fulfilled wishes via the Dreamstone. The film’s impressive, animated start cannot build on its own momentum when – after the fulfillment of Barbara’s wish – it begins to clearly delineate its time between Diana/Steve, Barbara, and Max Lord. In their respective thirds of WW84, each character learns more about their granted wishes and the Dreamstone’s nature. The set-up for each third follows the same process: a monologue dripping with disappointment with their life directions, confusion in discovering their wish becoming true, and the exultation of their wild imagination defying all sense of reality. WW84 cannot help itself slathering on the foreshadowing and the repetitive narrative structure. The screenplay’s sins are compounded by the screenwriters’ inability to properly and consistently define the limitations of the Dreamstone’s powers – leading to expositional dumps occurring in the movie well past their welcome. As morbidly entertaining as watching humanity run amok with half-baked and ill-considered wishes is (credit to whoever choreographed the third act’s mass chaos), WW84’s unpolished storytelling leaves behind a somewhat befuddling mess.

The movie’s relative lightness in its opening two acts, though entertaining, throws away Diana’s characterization of a solitary, somewhat maternal protective figure in favor of a decades-long yearning for Steve. Are we really to believe that she has spent every waking moment since World War I pining – no pun intended – for someone she knew for probably less than a month? Whatever chemistry Gadot (whose performance as Diana remains at a laudable standard) and Pine had in the first film has evaporated into a labored dynamic in WW84, and she is too quickly is prepared to leave behind her life as museum preservationist by day/superhero-if-not-by-night-then-during-non-working-hours for him. Her behavior concerning Steve – and this is not even mentioning the ethically murky fact that Steve’s soul inhabits the body of a male stranger for the entirety of his resurrection – does not square with any notion of human growth, especially as most of the twentieth century has passed Diana by.

Putting aside the amusing transformation of Barbara from a bookish, clumsy gemologist to an unspectacled femme fatale, the emergence of not one, but two, villains weakens the characterizations, motivations, and portrayals of both. Thus, WW84 spends less time sympathizing with Barbara’s status as a social outcast, so too the relationship between Max Lord and his forgiving – at film’s end, at least – son (the only aspect of Lord’s life that exists outside work). The film’s divided attention between Barbara and Max Lord assures that their concluding actions become too cartoonish, depthless. It’s not that I am demanding that WW84 (or any superhero movie) should provide brooding, soliloquizing philosopher-poets for a villain. Far from it, especially when noting what the likes of Christopher Nolan and, more recently (and exasperatingly), Zack Snyder have offered in their interpretations of D.C. Comics characters’ mythos. Instead, Barbara and Max Lord become caricatures, rather than fully realized, flawed individuals who retain strands of their goodness even as their actions plunge them into villainy.

Though lacking a moment matching the brilliance of Wonder Woman’s entrance into No Man’s Land from the first film, WW84 contains its share of pulsating combat scenes. Cheetah’s debut during a confrontation at the White House is crisply edited by Richard Pearson (2004’s The Bourne Supremacy, 2006’s United 93) and shot by Matthew Jensen (Wonder Woman). The fight, unlike so many littering action movies nowadays, makes geometric sense of who is doing what and where. This collaboration of cinematographer and editor reaches its peak with a vehicular fight in Egypt that resembles something out of an Indiana Jones movie (minus the comedy that usually occurs during an Indiana Jones vehicular fight). It is a wonderfully choreographed scene, but one mired in its poor depiction of the Egyptians involved. WW84 concludes with a dud of a fight. This is not because of terrible CGI, or the revelation that their mothers share the same name. Instead, it is the lack of lighting that destroys this moment. The final fight between Wonder Woman and Cheetah is so poorly lit that the combat becomes an amalgam of flailing limbs and incomprehensible movement. Cheetah, who by this point appears as if she wandered off the set of Tom Hooper’s Cats (2019), appears to be nothing more than a ball of spotted fur. It is a disappointing end to an erratic sequel.

Longtime readers know that I have pilloried composer Hans Zimmer again and again for dispensing with melodies and for relying too heavily on ostinatos, electronics, and musical texture on his recent film scores. I’m a simple person with certain biases: as a classically-trained amateur pianist-violinist, I prefer scores that have musical interest within and outside the context of a film (would I enjoy playing this score in an orchestra and listening to it in a concert setting?). The worst of his imitators and colleagues at Remote Control Productions are on a train to my musical shit list.  His score to Wonder Woman 1984 is a rare bright spot (aside from maybe his work in the Kung Fu Panda series) in a decade marked by excess. The film opens with “Themyscira” – a synth-y prelude quoting Wonder Woman’s motif, but one that blossoms into orchestral triumphalism. This cue crescendos from 0:27 to 1:11 on the back of string ostinatos, regal brass, and chorus chanting pianissimo. The orchestra and chorus explode to life at 1:11 in a majestic, ascending melody celebrating the joys of Amazonian life on Themyscira. A hummable, singable melody in a 2020s Hans Zimmer score? Yes! Alongside Wonder Woman’s now-iconic electric cello motif, Zimmer has composed a secondary motif for her beginning at 1:53 in “Themyscira” (and which eclipses the electric cello motif in terms of appearances in the score). Another throwback occurs during the cue “1984”, a jubilant cycling of rhythmic melodies that could easily been in a 1980s film scored by Alan Silvestri, perhaps even younger Zimmer himself. Even when Zimmer is introducing villainous motifs or the motif for the Dreamstone, his contemporary obsession for droning synth is tempered by ostinatos in the strings and winds, rather than ear-splitting percussion.

Zimmer’s love theme for Diana and Steve is “Wish We Had More Time” – and I cannot recall the last time the composer brought forth such affecting romantic music. A languid melody led by strings speaks to Diana’s longing – however one may disapprove of it – in ways reminiscent, but still inferior to, of Italian movie scores during the 1980s and ‘90s (think: Luis Bacalov, Ennio Morricone, Nicola Piovani). One quibble: beginning at 1:13 until 2:12 in “Wish We Had More Time”, the second violin tremolos are much too loud, and are just as audible as the melodies by lower strings, first violins, and winds. Hans Zimmer’s score to WW84 is the most thematically fascinating he has composed over the last decade, and it – not Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, not Inception (2010), and sure as hell not the sonic assault that is Dunkirk (2017) – represents the best of what he can be as a film score composer.

The temptation to elevate the dramatic stakes for sequels is present among all the major Hollywood studios. WW84 is not immune to this temptation, but it, at times, resists it. Its ungainly conclusion and dreadful narrative structure reflect those expectations, but one could not classify it as grimdark, such as almost everything Zack Snyder has directed. This is not a Wonder Woman limping her way through apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic times.  Patty Jenkins’ sequel, however flawed, unironically celebrates its own corniness and absurdity – one cannot say this about the MCU (which does so only via metatextual humor). Many of us can no longer experience for the first time Wonder Woman emerging from the Allied trenches of WWI, but Wonder Woman 1984 provides a vision of superhero movies particular to creator William Moulton Marston, director Patty Jenkins, and Gal Gadot’s portrayal of Diana Prince. It even allows for faint echoes of the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series that would not have been appropriate in the first film. Flawed though this film is, its approach, after a decade or so of building cinematic universes of dramatic escalations, signifies a refreshing change of pace.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

Also in this series: Wonder Woman (2017)

[neuxue]

Wheel of Time liveblogging: Towers of Midnight ch 2

Perrin and Galad deal with leadership and its consequences, and I continue to not deal with the narrative conspiring to make me like Galadedrid Damodred.

Chapter 2: Questions of Leadership

With a title like that, this can only be a Perrin chapter.

Because average leader questions himself 10 times per book factoid actually just statistical error. Wolfbrother Perrin, who lives in a tent and questions himself 1000 times per book is an outlier and should not have been counted.

And that might be a new low for this liveblog, which is saying something.

A few days ago, the pervasive cloud cover had turned black, darkening like the advent of a horrible storm.

Luckily for you and the rest of existence, that particular meteorological phenomenon masquerading as a man decided against total annihilation of everything. *shakes head* Weather forecasts. Can’t trust ‘em.

(The science nerd in me now wants to write, like, a short story or something in the form of a journal article called Impact of localised heroic systems on global atmospheric chemistry and I think perhaps this is a tangent).

Anyway, we are indeed with Perrin, who’s been having a great time lately dealing with mud and plague. Yes, well, aren’t we all.

Both Asha’man had nearly died

Yeah well they’re used to that by now, surely. All in the job description.

Perrin you’ve had a month to work on that blacksmith’s puzzle in your pocket and you haven’t solved it? Just – give it to me. There. Solved.

(I used to love these puzzles. Haven’t come across one in ages though.)

Perrin’s taking in refugees because either he’s lying through his teeth or he’s ta’veren enough to slightly counteract Rand’s spoil-everything-edible influence, maybe.

He had bigger worries to bother him, not the least of which were his strange dreams. Haunting visions of working the forges and being unable to create anything of worth.

Is this the blacksmith equivalent of dreaming you’re suddenly sitting an exam you’ve not studied for, and also you’re naked?

Moving so many refugees was slow, even discounting the bubble of evil and the mud.

Hey at least you’re not also dealing with border walls and immigration control.

Everything took longer than he expected, including getting out of Malden.

Oh, TELL ME ABOUT IT. Me? Still bitter about the Malden plotline? Whatever made you think that?

All in all it seems like a pretty standard Tuesday for Perrin: slogging through mud, questioning his ability to be a great leader (not to be confused with the Great Leader), and trying to keep four nations’ worth of soldiers and refugees away from each other’s throats. Only one we’ve not ticked off the list yet is denying his wolfpowers, but there’s still time.

“Find out where they’re from, learn whether they did serve a lord, see if they can add anything to the maps.”

In which Perrin Aybara invents the census.

Oh hey! The road’s getting less muddy! Which is definitely not symbolic or anything.

“Where are the others?”

“They went on ahead, my Lord,” Fennel said, bowing from horseback. “I volunteered to stay behind, for when you caught up. We needed to explain, you see.”

I’m sorry, hold the phone, forward-thinking and communication – a plan specifically about communicating, even – all in one statement? Well. You know the apocalypse is coming when.

So everyone Perrin sent ahead has taken a detour because there’s mud up ahead, which may be the Pattern’s way of saying ‘we’re running out of time can you please just go where I need you for once’ or may just be bog-standard (see what I did there) geology and meteorology, but will, if the glimpses of Perrin through Rand’s special colour vision last book is anything to go by, result in a collision course for Perrin and Galad, which I’m… weirdly looking forward to.

“But from the look of things here, you decided to bring the entire town with you!”

Think bigger, Fennel. ‘Nation’ bigger, at the least. More likely plural.

Perrin does briefly consider splitting the party army nation(s) at his back, but the Shaido are conveniently in the way so instead I suppose they’ll all just make their way, amoeba-like, to wherever they can engulf Galad’s own group. Or be engulfed by. Alliance, phagocytosis; to-may-to, to-mah-to…

No I’m not sure where I was going with that either. Moving on…

He himself could Travel back to Rand, pretend to make up – most people would still think that he and Rand had parted ways angrily

This strikes me as being strangely sad, and I’m trying to figure out why. Maybe it’s because there’s a secondary reading of this which is that their ‘making up’ would be as much a pretence as their ‘fight’ because both of those have friendship as a prerequisite, and are they even friends anymore after all this time and all that has happened and all that lies between them?

Especially because, in terms of timelines, right now-for-Perrin, Rand is… not really in a place to be anyone’s friend.

I wonder, though, because I’m a terrible person who finds opportunities for Suffering even in things that should be entirely free of it, whether Rand-after-Dragonmount is in a better place to be anyone’s friend. I think yes, because that was very much the point, but I feel like there’s a bittersweet potential to it where ascendance is just as bad as damnation for maintaining a normal social life.

Or, less flippantly, there’s a strange loneliness to the messiah’s role, to being a force of nature and a champion of fate as much as or more than a man. He is known to all and all look to him and he stands, surrounded, at the centre, and he has learned to see the hope and promise in that rather than just the despair but there is still the sense of being alone on a mountain, alone on a pedestal, existing alone on a level that is not quite human but not quite divinity, touching all but no longer, quite, as a peer. Forces of nature don’t have best friends, even if they turn towards benevolence.

I mean, I’m spitballing here, because I’ve seen exactly one chapter of Rand-after-Dragonmount, and in fairness he seemed at peace with himself and his role now, but I still can’t help but wonder. And by wonder I mean wish. Because see above re: Suffering.

I guess mostly what I’m looking for is something along the series-standard line of you can’t go back, you can only go forward. And even when forward is better, even when forward is healing, even when forward is hope, it’s not the same as what you had or who you were before, and sometimes there is a sadness to that.

Sorry, this is a Perrin chapter and here I am going on about Rand, but I just… like thinking about all the friendships and relationships between all these characters, and how they change over time, and how those ties can be so altered and sometimes strained and yet even then they can also be what saves them all.

(“My best friend turned into the world.” “That’s rough buddy.”)

Faile was back now, and it appeared that his truce with Berelain was over.

NO.

*throws book at wall*

WHY. Damn it I was so glad when that finally died and Perrin and Berelain got to just work together and appreciate each other’s competence! Why must we return to this? Don’t you know that you can’t go back; you can only go forwards? WHY THIS. WHY ME.

The Prophet was dead, killed by bandits. Well, perhaps that was a fitting end for him, but Perrin still felt he’d failed.

Probably just because he doesn’t know that Masema was Faile-d.

I’m sorry. I’ll see myself out.

(That’s a lie; you’re just going to have to put up with me and my bad puns for at least another book).

His duty was done, the Prophet seen to, Alliandre’s allegiance secure. Only, Perrin felt as if something were still very wrong. He fingered the blacksmith’s puzzle in his pocket. To understand something… you have to figure out its parts…

Because you’ve only done the middlegame part of your duty, Perrin! You still have to get ready for the ending! And that means… *dramatic hammerstroke* forging. But, you know, metaphorically.

Perrin feels awkward around Faile now because when you’ve focused your entire life and self and nation, waking and sleeping, on achieving a single goal, and rewritten your entire world around that goal, and then you do achieve it, it’s sometimes hard to know what to do with the reality of having achieved it, of having that person back at your side but an emptiness ahead of you where the idea of them once occupied everything. Or at least that’s my suspicion but Perrin when this is all over you may want to, I don’t know, talk to someone about it.

Seriously, a qualified therapist could make a killing setting up shop in this world.

“I should start turning them away.”

“I suspect they’d find their way back to our force anyway.”

“Why should they? I could leave orders.”

“You can’t give orders to the Pattern itself, my husband.”

Perrin: “WATCH ME.”

Maybe you could ask Rand to, as a favour? He seems to be on good terms with the Pattern these days. Er. These days in his timeline, I mean.

Yes, Perrin, this is you being ta’veren. Or have you been living under a rock for the last several books? Denial’s not going to last you much longer.

“And so coopers learn the sword,” Faile said, “and find they have a talent for it. Masons who never thought of fighting back against the Shaido now train with the quarterstaff.”

It’s such a ploughshares-to-swords image, and I still just love the way this is how Perrin’s ta’veren-ness manifests specifically: the one who was so careful lest he hurt someone, the one who tries so hard to deny his capacity for anger and ferocity, the one drawn to the Way of the Leaf and a dream of peace, is the one to cause that rippling of peace into war, farmers into soldiers, a quiet nation into a waiting army.

Because on one level there’s the sadness of it, of the only one who returns home bringing that home back out into the world with him and leaving it forever changed, of the one who wants gentleness rousing a people to follow and fight… but even that then ties into the deeper issue of acceptance. Of realising that the potential has always been there – for a ploughshare to be a sword or a blacksmith to be a warrior, or a man to be a wolf or a town to be an army – and that drawing that potential out and allowing it to exist and be used doesn’t negate what was there before. That man and wolf can coexist, that anger does not preclude gentleness, that fighting a war for survival does not negate the hope, one day, of peace.

And so Perrin’s ta’veren power becomes almost another level in playing out what he will eventually need to accept about himself. Just as Rand’s darkness and then light spread out to touch the world around him, it’s as if Perrin’s lack of acceptance of aspects of himself keep these people from truly coming together (the dreams of forging things that don’t come out right), whereas if he can accept what he is, and accept all parts of himself, forge them into unity, then the part of the world he affects – the people who follow him – will be forged together as well.

At least he acknowledges to himself that Faile’s right about this one. That’s a good step.

“Once we have gateways again, I’ll send these people to their proper places. I’m not gathering an army.”

Sigh. Or not. Two steps forward, one step back.

Understand the metal and the tools and the puzzle in your hands, Perrin. Look at what you have. Not at what you wish you had, or think you should have. Look at what the pieces can and need to be made into, rather than forcing them into what you want them to be made into.

“A man’s got to see a thing for what it is. No sense in calling a buckle a hinge or calling a nail a horseshoe.”

The hilarious thing here is that he’s making my point, whilst thinking he’s disproving it. Because Perrin, seeing a thing for what it is means looking at all these people around you and realising you’re their leader and they’re following you and you’re headed for Tarmon Gai’don. No sense calling a buckle a hinge, or an army a random group of refugees. (Well, they are that, too. But if you try to return them home now, soon they will have no home at all).

I do appreciate that he sees and acknowledges some of his flaws from when Faile was gone. He’s a little too hard on himself in places, and misses out others, but it’s a kind of humility and self-awareness and ability to recognise where he could be better that I like.

“It’s not [Berelain’s] fault,” Perrin said. If I’d been able to think of it, I’d have stopped the rumours dead. But I didn’t. Now I’ve got to sleep in the bed I made for myself.”

Perhaps not quite the idiom I’d have chosen in this particular instance, Perrin, but…

When she’d been a captive, nothing had mattered to him but recovering her. Nothing. It didn’t matter who had needed his help, or what orders he’d been given. […]

He realised now how dangerous his actions had been. Trouble was, he’d take those same actions again. He didn’t regret what he’d done, not for a moment.

Well… partial credit for self-awareness, I suppose?

Frustrating as this is, though, it also feels quite realistic. And there’s a certain kind of maturity in the devastating honesty it takes to look at something you’ve done and say ‘I shouldn’t have done that, but in the same situation I’d make those same choices again’. Even if it’s a mistake, being able to acknowledge that about yourself is… impressive.

You couldn’t make a drawknife into a horseshoe by painting it, or by calling it something different.

Yeah, and you can’t make a ta’veren lord, leader, wolfbrother, and warrior back into a simple blacksmith’s apprentice boy by sheer force of denial, but don’t let that stop you.

“I’ve been thinking on this for the last few weeks, and – odd though it seems – I believe my captivity may have been precisely what we needed. Both of us.”

*throws book against wall and lets out an Elayne-like scream of pure rage*

ARGH.

WHY.

‘It’s fine, Perrin, you see I actually think it’s good that I was just used as a plot device to further your character development because I was tossed a bit of character development as a last-minute consolation prize, so really it’s all good!’

Sigh. Okay. I mean, in-story and in-character… I get it. It’s over now, it’s past, and they’re both trying to move on, and Faile has always been one to try to find a pragmatic angle – even an optimistic one – on a situation. And she’s strong enough to say this and make it sound (almost) believable. To look back on harsh lessons learned in harsher circumstances and appreciate the fires that forged her.

Which of course puts me in mind of Rand and his if a sword had memory, it might be grateful to the forge fire, but never fond of it ‘gratitude’ towards his imprisonment in Far Madding, but with Rand and that thought, we are given fairly obvious narrative cues that point to ‘yikes, Rand, that’s maybe not the healthiest of responses to trauma’, and we know full well that we’re not supposed to think ‘ah, yes, being locked in a cell with his worst nightmares was good for his character development so everything’s fine’. (Which is not to say we can’t enjoy it, because sometimes you just want to see your favourite character broken and bleeding and chained to a wall, but that’s uh. Neither here nor there).

But here, it’s as if we’re supposed to take Faile at face value. As if we’re supposed to nod and think ‘yeah, actually, that probably wasn’t fun but it was What She Needed’ (which… wow that is an entire pile of yikes, because yes, what a female character in this genre needs is to be held captive and sexually coerced and deprived of all agency… is maybe not a point you want to be making?). It feels like trying to hang a lampshade on that travesty of a plotline and say ‘but look! It brought them both character development! So it’s fine!’

Anyway I’m still just bitter about the way Faile has been used as a plot device for Perrin’s character development across the last few books, and this… while entirely understandable from a character and story perspective, from an external perspective feels like salt in the damn wound.

Moving on.

*

To Galad, apparently.

Galad who is bound and in pain after being tortured. I’m listening.

(Why am I like this)

All was dark around him, but pinprick lights shone in the sky. Stars? It had been overcast for so long.

Huh. There’s something almost sweet about how closely this echoes that chapter in TGS when Gawyn is wishing he could see the stars. I mean I’m certain it’s not actually intentional because it’s a spurious connection at best, but it’s just a kind of sweet-sad note of similarity between two brothers who haven’t seen each other since they both got lost trying to find their way, and are still trying and wishing, just for a moment, for the stars for guidance.

They’re not actually stars, just pinpricks in the tent, but that’s beside the point.

What’s not beside the point is the inventory of Galad’s wounds because honestly, it’s as if everything from then he did dance, all his grace turned in an instant to fluid death onwards has been a targeted attack on me as a person by going down a list of all the things I like to see in a character and going ‘do you like him now? What about now? What about now?’ and I’m mad about it.

Galad did not fear death or pain. He had made the right choices. It was unfortunate that he’d needed to leave the Questioners in charge; they were controlled by the Seanchan. However, there had been no other option, not after he’d walked into Asunawa’s hands.

I’m not sure why I find it so fitting that Galad’s experience at Asunawa’s hands is not unlike Morgase’s in the end, but something about it just works for me. There’s a whole set of connections here that this bookends, between the two of them and their fall from and rise to power, and choices, and Valda and Asunawa and the Seanchan, and for whatever reason it feels satisfying to have this coming to an end much like it began. Though Galad is spared Morgase’s…………… choice. But I suppose there’s almost an irony here in him avenging Morgase in one way but then sharing her fate in another.

Or maybe it’s just back to the classic ‘I like fictional characters in pain’.

Soon the Questioners would come for him, and then the true price for saving his men would be exacted with their hooks and knives. He had been aware of that price when he’d made his decision. In a way, he had won, for he had manipulated the situation best.

STOP. TRYING. TO. MAKE. ME. LIKE. GALAD. DAMODRED.

I just. Damn it. This is such a good look! And yet it’s Galad!

Standing, beaten but unflinching, determined and himself, ready to face whatever they do to him. Well. That’s how Morgase began, too.

Oh hey it’s his friends! Which means probably no more torturing of Galad, which is kind of a shame (I’m sorry), but is also not entirely unexpected.

Oh wow Asunawa’s dead. Okay. Can’t say he’ll be missed, though it’s just a shame Morgase didn’t get to kill either him or Valda herself. Ah well, can’t have everything.

And it wasn’t Galad’s men who killed him, so now he has won the Questioners to him as well. Questions of Leadership indeed. I see what you did there.

It is an interesting contrast in this chapter, to watch Perrin constantly second-guessing or trying to deny his leadership, set against Galad just… accepting his.

I will give Galad this: he has won his leadership by being entirely and unrelentingly himself, and true to his convictions, and standing, despite everything thrown at him, despite the corruption around him, as a determined and unassailable symbol of what the Children of the Light should be. What they can be. He doesn’t try to steal power, doesn’t outright challenge their ways; he just leads quite literally by sheer force of example.

Galad nodded. “You accept me as Lord Captain Commander?”

But also, I just have to remind everyone that he’s buck-ass naked throughout this entire scene, and some juvenile part of me finds that absolutely hilarious.

“We were forced to kill a third of those who wore the red shepherd’s crook of the Hand of the Light.”

What a pity. No, really. I’m weeping. How sad. Terrible.

None of them asked whether he needed rest, though Trom did look worried.

Again! Characters beaten and exhausted and hiding their pain in order to just move forward is a whole Thing, and putting that on Galad and throwing it at me is just unfair.

Galad didn’t feel wise or strong enough to bear the title he did. But the Children had made their decision.

The Light would protect them for it.

(The fact that ‘Galad’ means ‘light’ in Sindarin is just an added bonus here, really).

But I like the way his thinking about this runs: he doesn’t feel wise or strong enough, but that’s not the part that matters. The part that matters is that they chose him. As Galad sees it, what makes a leader isn’t what the leader thinks of himself, but merely the fact that others choose to follow.

He is their leader now, and whether he wants to be or not, whether he feels up to it or not, is irrelevant. There’s an interesting question here around choices, and the lack thereof – that he has no choice, in a way, but to lead. Because whether or not he wants to, people have decided to follow him, and so by definition he is their leader now. And so the only thing to do, because it’s the right thing to do, is to lead them as well as he can.

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