#but actually maybe sometimes the main character should have successes

[mixelation]

i wrote. con stuff

Kakashi was refilling water canteens when he saw him up close for the first time. 

There were water jugs, set up along the hallways of the hotel. They came with nearly useless paper cones, and the space beneath the spigot wasn’t quite right for a Konoha-issued canteen. Kakashi was tucked into an alcove of one of the less trafficked corridors, finagling water into his canteen with the grace of a genin field-dressing their first wound, when he was hit with the scent of cinnamon. 

Kakashi looked up. There was a gaggle of people headed his way, their loud civilian footsteps muffled by the carpet. They were all clearly orbiting around one person. 

Kakashi found himself craning his head to look. He’d seen that guy from afar, before– he was the three-time winner of the Hokage Look-alike contest. He was in full costume, and Kakashi had to admit: this guy did make that cloak look good. He had cooler boots than Minato, even, and a roguish smile that made him look just a little dangerous, and a sword at his waist that Minato would never use but certainly offered a specific aesthetic. He was tanned and tall, and even though his hair was clearly bleached, it was cut well to frame his handsome face. Instead of a flak jacket zipped up to his neck, he had a low V-neck shirt that showed off he was as fit as everyone thought a ninja should be. He even smelled cool: sandalwood soap and cinnamon whiskey. 

Kakashi watched him as he passed by and then entered a screening room for some terrible TV show, his entourage of men and women alike babbling along behind him. The guy walked with the confidence of a Kage, even if his swagger was painfully civilian. 

Kakashi had spilled water all over his gloves. This was not a big deal, except he’d been refilling fucking Itachi’s canteen along with his own. Kakashi found him with the rest at a table in the little food court, and as he took his canteen, Itachi’s eyes traveled from his damp hand to his face with a look of judgment, like he knew exactly what happened. 

Itachi’s judgment, if one were to qualify and analyze all his facial expressions (or lack thereof, considering he had on an ANBU mask today), was mild. But it still felt like intense scrutiny. 

“Maa, Sensei, I saw your clone,” Kakashi said, sliding into an empty seat. Someone had bought him an extremely disappointing looking lunch. Wonderful. “He had about ten people following him.”

“Oh, so like the real Hokage,” Tori quipped. 

Minato amicably rolled his eyes, pushing a drink at Kakashi. Kakashi was pretty sure Itachi was technically on duty now, as Minato’s guard lost their shit whenever he decided to randomly leave Konoha for the day. There were a lot of cosplayers in bad ANBU masks wandering around, but Itachi wasn’t the type to break regulation for a quick costume. 

Tori would probably wear anything, though, Kakashi thought as she unpacked a plastic bag to show off her purchases. He should buy her a bird mask. She’d hate that. 

A chicken, he decided, flipping over a doujin to read the back. 

“Well?” Minato prompted, leaning forward conspiratorially. “Was his costume accurate?”

“Not really,” Kakashi replied. The doujin was about a fictional kunoichi realizing she was the Third Kazekage’s lovechild. Weird. “He sort of had… pirate vibes?”

Minato squinted at him uncertainly. 

“But cool,” Kakashi assured him. 

“His name is X,” Tori said very authoritatively. “Just X. That’s what’s on all his registrations.”

Minato frowned thoughtfully at his own lunch. “Is that cool? I can’t decide if that’s cool or not.”

“They think it’s cool,” Tori said, pointing to the entrance of the food court. 

X must not have liked the TV show very much, because he and what looked like an even bigger gaggle of fans spilled into the food court. Minato turned to watch blatantly and Tori followed suit, like gossipy children. 

(Itachi was much more subtle as he checked out the guy. He was in uniform, after all.)

“Wow,” Minato half-whispered, turning back around. “He does have pirate vibes. But, like, cool?”

“Is that an earring?” Itachi asked. 

“Should I get a shirt like that?” Minato wondered, staring down at himself. 

“I’m going to go talk to him,” Tori announced, kicking her feet over the bench. “Investigate. Find out his secrets.”

“Find out who made his cloak,” Minato told her. “Mine’s getting raggedy.”

Tori sauntered off. She always stomped around cons with the gait of a civilian, but Kakashi watched her add a little sway to her hips as she sashayed directly up to the mass of people floating around X as he ordered a shave ice. 

Kakashi watched Tori’s mouth as she twirled a strand of hair and asked if X also had Minato’s famous ANBU tattoo, which Minato absolutely didn’t have. She punctuated this by brushing her hand against his bicep. 

Kakashi read X’s lips as he smiled back at her: A true fan, are you?

“Damn, those dimples,” Minato commented. “I think I’m a little in love.”

One of the women who’d been floating around X looked absolutely stricken when Tori replied to a teasing accusation of being bold with, The Yellow Flash is quick but I’m quicker. 

“Does that even make sense?” Itachi wondered. 

“Should we…” Kakashi started. That guy was at least thirty, and Tori was seventeen. But also: Tori would eat him alive. Kakashi wasn’t sure where this train of thought had been going. 

Now she was leading him back over to them. She was quick. She had a little skip to her step on par with the time she’d shown him a seal made out of bacteria in a Petri dish. 

“This is X,” Tori introduced. Five separate people had sort of filed after them. “X, this is my Uncle, Minato.”

Itachi did a sort of full body twitch that made Tori’s eyes glint. If anyone connected the dots, no one showed it. Minato’s actual name wasn’t very common knowledge among civilians. 

“Er, hi,” Minato said, awkwardly standing to bow. His cheeks were pink. “Um– nice costume.”

X’s return smile was a little too cocky to be truly friendly, but also, those cheekbones. 

“Oh, you have a whole little group,” X drawled. “That’s cute.”

Itachi twitched again. Tori’s smile was starting to gain a sort of manic quality. 

“Thanks,” Minato replied slowly, clearly completely unsure what else he was supposed to say. “Uh, I was wondering– your cloak–”

X laughed, patted Minato on the shoulder, and promised him his own cloak was good enough. Then he shot Tori a wink and walked back to the rest of his entourage, just like that. 

“Umm,” Minato said, standing there dumbly. He twisted his face down to stare at where X had touched him. “Hmm.”

“I planted a tracker on him if you want to follow him,” Tori said, plopping down into her seat.

“I…” Minato continued to stand there, staring at his shoulder. Kakashi, somehow, understood this. 

(“I think we should find his hotel room and go through all his things,” Tori said. “Maybe steal his girlfriend. It’d be fun.”

“Entirely unnecessary,” Itachi replied.)

[rockrosethistle]

If there's one thing TGWDLM fans are gonna do, it's think about the implications. And the implications of the opening number are crazy.

So. We know that the show isn't completely chronological since the opening number takes place before the meteor hits. So that song is a sort of "flash forward" moment. But when you think about it, we don't really know how far in the future it takes place.

What we do know is that by the time it's happening, Emma is infected. She has a little solo in it singing about how Paul is pining over a barista

And we know that this is meant to be an infected Emma specifically. Lauren had other characters in the show, if they wanted to avoid the Emma implication they would've just dressed her as one of those.

So we know this is meant to be Emma.

And Emma isn't infected until the very end of the show. She's dragged off stage during the credits. So since she's infected in the opening number, we know the number takes place after the events of the show.

Another important detail is that Paul is infected before Emma. He's the one that passes it on to her.

So back to the opening number, Emma is infected. Which means by just following a simple timeline, Paul must also be infected. He should be singing and dancing, right?

But that's not what happens. Paul misses his entrance.

If Paul is infected, then there's no reason he should be missing his entrance. Furthermore, if he's a part of a hive mind, there's no reason other members of the same hive mind shouldn't know where he is. They are literally all connected by one brain, and yet both Mr. Davidson and Bill express they have no clue where he went.

What I'm saying is that Paul is not infected. He was infected (again, we know that because Emma is infected and he was infected before her) but now he's not anymore.

I'm saying there's a way out of the hive, and Paul found it. That's the only explanation that makes sense given the facts of the situation. Sometime after the events of tgwdlm, Paul is able not only to break out the hive mind, but to hide from it.

And if he broke out, others could do the same. Maybe even Emma.

Edit because a countertheory has emerged: Yes it's possible that everyone is infected the entire time and the show itself is just Pokey replaying the events for the fun of it. But it seems unlikely to me. First of all, each of the Lords in Black has a distinct personality. They all are evil, but within that they seems to fall somewhere on a spectrum of "silly billy" to "prick." For example, Tinky is more of a silly billy. He toys with humans without much of a motive and more for just shits and giggles. But in every instance, Pokey's more on the extreme side of prick.

He's one of the few with an actual motive behind what he does. In Yellowjacket, it's confirmed that Pokotho hates the sound of anyone's voice except for his own. The events of TGWDLM don't happen because Pokey is bored, they happen because he is executing a plan. So I don't think that he would just have them play out their little scenario just to entertain him, especially just one small island? I just feel like he'd be more focused on world domination.

If the theory is that all this is happening after Pokey's already taken over the whole world, no one was successful in stopping him, then yes it's plausible, but still weird. There are a strange amount of things in that show you just think an eldritch god wouldn't include.

Edit 2: New evidence has emerged???

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is loosely based off of Invasion of The Body Snatchers. Paul's last name is even a nod to the main character, Matthew. At the end of the film, Matthew survives, and continues living among the infected, pretending to be one of them. And wouldn't that be just such a fun little parallel...

Obviously it doesn't prove anything but the source material doesn't lie folks.

[fast-moon]

"Agatha All Along" and "PvP" vs. "Co-op" writing styles

Agatha All Along (née Coven of Chaos) is the show that, when announced, seemed like a hastily-concocted attempt to keep riding on the success of Wandavision and its break-out supporting characters, leaving everyone wondering, "But... what would they actually do?"

I really should have had more faith in Jac Schaeffer.

A frustration I have with certain writers, Steven Moffat in Doctor Who and Sherlock being a prime example of this, is when the writer feels like they're competing against their audience. I could call this the "PvP" form of writing: The audience is a newbie, and the author is a level 100 Dark Knight who immediately slaughters the noobs to show his dominance.

The author has an adversarial opinion of the audience, and their goal is to keep the audience guessing as long as possible. But also makes sure that none of those guesses are ever correct, because that means the audience has "beaten" the author. The author claims "victory" over them when they get to "the reveal" and no one had guessed it correctly.

This is usually done by feeding the audience red herrings, and leaving out a crucial piece of information that is only known by the main character, until it's time for the reveal. Either that or the overarching mystery is simply never solved at all, aside from the main character indicating they've gotten it all figured out but there's no time to explain.

Contrast that to how Jac Schaeffer handled Wandavision and Agatha All Along. These were written under the view that the audience is a partner in this story. The "co-op" form of writing. The audience is a newbie, and the author is a level 100 Dark Knight, and the author takes the noob under their wing and guides them through how the game is played until the noob gets it. The author is victorious once the noob doesn't need their help anymore and can figure it out for themselves.

This is usually done by feeding the audience breadcrumbs. Characters behave with consistency before the full reveal, but because not all the information is available to the audience yet, there are noticeable "quirks" to characters' behavior to clue in the audience that not all is what it seems. All the necessary pieces are given to the audience in plain sight, and if the audience is able to put them together before they're completely revealed, the final reveal is more of a congratulations for a job well done.

Sometimes I see complaints that if it's at all possible to guess the "twist" before it happens, then the story is "too predictable". But I'd argue that being at least somewhat predictable is a good thing to have in a story. It means the characters and world are behaving in a consistent way.

Contrast to the "PvP" manner of writing, where the characters "break all the rules" to solve their problems in unexpected ways. But I find this significantly less interesting, because it means the characters don't actually have to be innovative. Characters who have to devise solutions while working within the constraints of their universe are much more compelling than ones who effectively win with cheat codes.

And so that's why I really have to hand it to Jac Schaeffer. She gave us a twist in episode 7 that was wholly consistent with everything we'd seen up until that point, but then forced us to completely re-contextualize everything we just watched.

And then just to show off, in episode 8 she did it again.

I do hope that she continues to have a hand in the Vision Quest series, since I heard that project has since been passed to a different show lead. But if it means that Schaeffer has instead been given the green light to rescue Wanda from what Michael Waldron's PvP writing did to her in Multiverse of Madness, then maybe there truly will be glory at the end.

[sir-subpar]

Striker redesign/reimagine!

Might tweak a few things in the future, but here he is!

I'll talk about him under the cut, because I have some things to say

Okay! So: Striker

Let me start by saying that I don't really hate his design as is. I think he looks fine. But! As somebody from the southwest, I wanted to add a little extra southwestern style influence on him. And I also wanted him to look more like a rattler.

Now if some of you might be a little confused by the blue, I do have an explanation for it. Admittedly this is more personal than logical, but here's a cool little factoid about my nick of the woods.

As I've mentioned multiple times, I'm from the southwest, and we have a local very old Superstition around here, the Superstition goes that West is the direction of evil. It's where the sun is swallowed and darkness rises. What time were evil spirits would rise and torment the living. But it was said if you painted your window sills or doorways blue, you would be safe. Blue was the color of safety and protection.

So I kind of gave Striker little blue accents, as a reference to that color of safety. I like the idea that it's a comfort color for him.

Anyway! Aside from my barely filtered Self Indulgence, here are my thoughts;

I don't like his fingerless gloves, 90% of the characters seem to have fingerless gloves, literally everybody in the main cast has fingerless gloves or something similar. I like fingerless gloves, but I'm sick of it being everywhere in this show

As mentioned before I wanted to make him look more snake-like, so I gave him a rattler Style tell, larger fangs, more orange toned, a different horn Style just a match a little bit better. And eyeball imagery on his clothing. Since rattlesnakes sometimes look like they have eyeball patterns

Gave him scars, I was just like with millie, I feel like he's got into a lot of fights, and since they're both from wrath they should both have some Battle Scars.

Speaking of Millie, I had this idea for a rewrite, let me know what you think. What if Millie was actually considered the weakest in her family growing up? Which has caused her to be very self-conscious about her strength and constantly want to get stronger. All of this leading to her currently being extremely competitive to the point where it can be detrimental. And what if, when she wasn't able to actually help around the farm, the family had Striker come over and help?

Striker could be a long time family friend she grows up with, but also goes on to resent because she feels he is, in a sense, replacing her.

So the Harvest Moon episode would be more about her feeling an internal rivalry with him rather than a cliched masculinity episode with Moxxie

Maybe he goes easy on her because he cares about her, and she notices, leading her to feel like he sees her as weaker, which is very insulting to her Pride.

This could be why she eventually joins IMP, maybe assassinating humans makes her feel strong.

Those are my thoughts with Millie and Striker. Now, to explore another Dynamic that I'm sure you guys have been eager to hear my thoughts about...

Striker's dynamic with Blitzo

It probably doesn't surprise any of you, but I thoroughly believe that they had far more chemistry in this one episode, then Blitzo and Stolas do throughout the rest of the show

Clearly Blitzo likes him, and at the very least, Striker does have some respect for him upon their first meeting

The way he talks to Blitzo, it plays into what Blitzo actually *wants*. He offers a ticket out. A way to success without being shackled to Stolas

Striker calls Blitzo: impressive, sir, above sucking on a pompous Goetia.

Stolas, on the other hand: my impish little plaything, adorable, itty bitty imp, constantly baby talks him, "Blitzy" which was established Blitzo hates.

I will get to Stolas eventually, I have some thoughts I'll Explore More with him. In due time.

Would I make Blitzo and Striker a couple in my Reimagined Helluva? I don't know, because I don't really think it's necessary. I do think however that Striker eventually could become one of Blitzo's friends.

I have a very specific scene in my head:

____

Blitzo's uncertain about Striker's offer, he doesn't know if he should actually trust him, if he should uproot his whole business for the stranger just because he's saying the right things, or if he should just do what he's doing now and see if he can get success.

They fight, for a bit, Striker keeps talking throughout their tussle, tempting Blitzo to join him on killing Stolas.

They are equally matched, both holding the blessing tipped rifle, in a tense game of tug o' war.

Their rumble goes on for just long enough that now, Striker looks out the window, to see his opportunity to kill Stolas while he was on stage has passed.

Striker sighs, dissapointed as Stolas is once again surrounded by guards blocking his clear shot.

He releases his rifle, causing Blitzo to stumble back a bit.

He composes himself, straightening his clothes and dusting himself off.

"Tell you what Blitz, I'll give you some time to think on it."

Striker takes Blitzo's hand in his own for a moment, his tone of voice more welcoming than before.

He pulls away, revealing je placed a Buisness card with his phone number in Blitzo's palm.

"And when you decide what you want, you give me a call."

____

So! Those are my thoughts!

If I were in charge of the show, I would let Striker's business card sit on Blitzo's desk, or in his wallet, showing the audience that Striker is still in the back of his mind, even if Striker doesn't make a direct appearance in a few episodes.

I had a lot of fun with Striker, as you all can probably tell, he was one of my favorites before season 2 happened.

[raayllum]

It's hard to tell because it's only been some posts but you sound somewhat frustrated with pre-season discussions happening elsewhere for The Dragon Prince? In any case, I thought you might appreciate the note that some people certifiably do like Rayla and Callum as characters perfectly well (I know I do at least and have since the start)?

I'm sure you're aware of it already but it felt somewhat like it'd help you not feel like you're typing into a void of dissent for enjoying them and the show concurrently? Even if I'd disliked the time skip in some capacities (I didn't particularly, I thought Rayla had good instincts wanting proof of death etc she just perhaps should have taken more backup for higher success chances if at all possible) Stella's introduction would have won me over entirely anyway.

There's no shame in being easily charmed by adorable animal characters, after all! She really is cute and also useful in limited capacities, like Bait.

If you wanted an actual ask with the above I suppose that I'm intrigued how similarly you thought Bait and Stella functioned as extended powers/company of their respective people and in the group?

Mostly on twitter (which is a reason to stay off twitter) but, in all honesty, it's mostly because it's annoying to see people use ship names or main tags for their complaining (I have "tdp critical" blacklisted or whatever for a reason y'know). Like as someone who truly deeply loves every character and every part of the show, when Claudia or Terry or Aaravos or anyone else gets promo I'm thrilled and intrigued and theorizing. And there's a minimal but loud portion(s) of the fandom who are either currently expressing (or have a track record) of annoyance when Callum and Rayla, as main characters and as the show's consistently most developed dynamic (which, I want to stress, has been the case even in s1 and s2) dare to be main characters and have marketing, there's an uproar of complaining. (Again, not the majority, but still baffles me that it exists at all.)

It'd be like if I complained about ATLA being primarily about Aang, its main character, for the majority of the show's run because I thought Toph needed more of a character arc (she's the least developed of the gaang bc she comes in s2 and has a general self-acceptance arc that doesn't need a ton of steps, for ex).

Sometimes favourite characters are there to have minimal screentime, execute their story purpose, and highlight other characters' arcs. The divide between characters where that's generally understood (Gren, Lain, Tiadrin, Opeli) vs characters where it's not (Aaravos in S4/S5, Runaan) again irks me because of the inconsistency, and therefore bias accordingly affecting judgement. Which maybe isn't fair - most people, myself included, are in fandom as a hobby, and for some people that means not evaluating their biases and not wanting to adjust their expectations; I just can't imagine doing anything else

I think Bait mostly serves as emotional support to Ezran and a lil guy to Talk to for Callum (2x05, 4x02) when a human character wouldn't quite make sense or is gone (Rayla is his usual confidant, for example). Stella is more interesting to me from a structure standpoint as 1) a character connected to the Star arcanum who thus far doesn't really need to be, so I'm curious there and 2) a juxtaposition to post-timeskip Rayla's "we can't save everyone" that her big heart and soft insides is still there, and still something worth listening to.

[clowngames]

This is a dangerous question.

How would you build a House spin off game for the PlayStation II or Xbox 360 that would be nostalgic to people who were born in 1994.

So this is interesting, because the TellTale style would be great for House, if you ignore the way the dialogue selection would mess with the pacing of a House episode - but that wasn't popularized until the PS3 era, so we'd have to get more basic.

My first impulse is to ask what we want out of a House tie-in video game and answer that with "it should feel like an episode (or multiple) of House." House has a solid formula, which is:

Patient comes in with a problem.

House and co. try to treat it as they try and figure it out.

Patient gets worse, sometimes in direct response to treatments.

These often manifest as new symptoms, which House and co. can use to get a more accurate reading.

By the end, they figure it out, and most of the time the patient doesn't even die.

This is the same narrative arc as Wordle, so we know it can be replicated in a game. So maybe we start with a more complicated version of Wordle, where there are a bunch of illnesses a patient has and each respond differently to treatments, which give us clues we can use to get closer to the answer. If the patient dies at any point then we've lost the case.

This is a pretty good start but it's missing that PS2 late millennial gamer element.

It's tempting to add, like, platforming between the patient and the pills and call it a day, but House himself is famously not great on his feet. It's better to lean the other way and move more toward RPG mechanics. We want mechanics that value analysis and planning better than reaction and execution; that's more compatible with the spirit of House MD anyway.

But turn-based combat is really not the vibe. At most a conversation simulator where enemy HP is their patience for House's bullshit and when it reaches 0 they give in and do what he wants. I still don't love it.

What if instead it was a game where you got to decide what House, Cameron, Chase and Foreman spent their hour doing, each hour in the case. On the main menu during this selection is House's board of symptoms, and there's a menu where you can go through the file in more detail and see how the case is going. This style of gameplay would allow for extra menu options for "Deal with Cuddy," or rest mechanics that require that characters spend a certain amount of time a day sleeping. You could have a series of stats that determine each character's specialization which makes them more suited for certain tasks but still able to do any other if the others are unavailable.

Since actually having a mental glossary of every condition in the world is beyond the expectations of a given player, each character can come up with options to pursue in response to symptoms appearing, and maybe a Creativity stat can be tied to how quickly they come up with options. Naturally, all of their stats need to be able to be raised through practice.

Also I don't think the death of a patient should represent a fail-state for this game. Patients do die sometimes in House, and while there are long-term consequences on the wellbeing of the doctors when it happens they don't lose their jobs over it... until they do. I think the punishments for losing a case should be devastating enough that players want to avoid it - like maybe lose enough patients and a major actor quits - but it's not a run ender.

Instead, the campaign tracks how well you do across several patients, and gives you one of several endings based on the decisions you've made and your success rate. Of course there need to be some random elements so you can't just memorize the diseases, but this encourages multiple playthroughs.

In short, the ideal House MD video game is a Princess Maker.

[blueikeproductions]

Sometimes it seems to me that the problem with female characters in the transformers franchise is that in the end, few people need them? Sometimes, here and there on social media, you can see the dissatisfaction of individual fans who do not like the current or past state of things with regard to female characters, but there is very little response from the audience. Fans have little support for existing female characters or new ones. Fans don't actively rebel when Hasbro once again makes a bad toy of a female character. And a personal observation in a familiar to me, but not the smallest part of the fandom - many female fans are more interested in male characters anyway. And of course there is a part of the fans who want to change the gender of previously existing male characters. And again, it seems to me that there is more love for the characters here, rather than a desire to add a female character.

What should we do about it? Probably nothing, the audience of this franchise is quite established for any changes, so we can only be happy when one of the authors really tries to make a high-quality female character, namely, to make a character and personality first of all.

P.S. A separate camp of fans are those who argue about how to explain the presence of females among transformers and whether it is necessary in principle. Why didn't anyone figure out that you can just explain it through the main origin? There was a Primus - he created Cybertronians in the image and likeness of the alien races he liked, which would explain all the strange appearance in general. If we take the origin of the Quintessons, then it's even easier, they created a product that was convenient for them / customers wanted / in the image of some race that they had previously enslaved.

Yeah it’s a weird circle jerk. Theres nothing wrong with having gals like Elita, Carly, Botanica, Glowstrike, and Hashtag, but writers and fans have a bad habit of needing female bots explained leading to Shockwave’s back handed comment about thinking female Autobots were extinct and IDW’s own confusing over corrections “We never had gender until Jhiaxus rebuilt Arcee for sick kicks, no wait wait, lady bots were a thing, they’re just maybe extinct on Cybertron for some reason, no no wait we still had lady bots all along, they’re just trans women on Cybertron while biological (technological?) women exist on colony planets!” Good grief pick a lane and stick with it.

Not helped is Hasbro’s own stance now that female robots exist only because of Solus Prime, which itself is a little insulting from a “diversity” standpoint because she’s the only lady among the Primes. One could make the argument Amalgamus is gender fluid because of his (their?) ability to Transform into anything, so in a roundabout way there’s two women among the Primes if one wanted to look at it that way, with Adaptus in a similar position (as the Guiding Hand in IDW are all men otherwise).

It’s the same problem I have with modern “diversity” initiatives because all they keep doing is drawing attention to people who are female, ethnic races, or LGBT, but never organically making them actual characters people can relate to and enjoy.

Sari might’ve had Indian roots, but they never drew attention to it instead focusing on making a fun little girl character who was best buds with the Autobots. Sort of the Gosalyn to their Darkwing. They did however draw attention to her (still unresolved) Cybertronian heritage but only because it was important to her backstory and character development. I guarantee if Sari were made today, she’d be a surface level checkbox brat akin to Ironheart who waxes about her people’s hardships and her own perceived problems despite not having any because of her father’s successful company. She forces herself on the Autobots to prove a point that didn’t need to be made, creating an old Stockholm Syndrome where the Autobots love her despite not offering any reason for them to. (It’s worth noting Ironheart’s comics are at least self aware she’s kind of a dipstick because her classmates and her black teacher she goaded into treating her “poorly” were visibly confused at her behavior and hesitantly indulged her whims.)

Cyberverse and EarthSpark are also horrible about this because they feel the need to gender bend most characters like Skywarp & Frenzy, rather than just use Slipstream (which CV did to be fair), create a brand NEW female jet, or in Frenzy’s case, just use Flip Sides.

Interestingly I’ve heard that Hasbro has limits on this, as the CV and ES teams wanted to make Thundercracker into a woman, but Hasbro said no, he’s a legacy player and has to remain a boy. (Or something to that extent.) Why Skywarp gets hit with the gender stick, I don’t know, but Skybound keeps the character male anyway, despite also being a legacy character. I imagine there’s more leeway with the Rainmakers because they were one off generics, and only recently-ish got names and expanded relevancy so it didn’t really matter if they were men or women. (That said, they appear to be still all male in IDW, with only Cyberverse and Earthspark making Nova Storm into a lady bot. Acid Storm was clearly meant to be male in CV, but an animation error and Catt speaking up led to the character being gender fluid unintentionally… who then died horribly. Organic representation, my actuator…) It’s nevertheless created an odd expectation perhaps, as the Seeker trio fluctuates in cartoons now, leading to the idea it’s now two ladies & a dude, with Nova Storm a permanent member in this idea. I don’t mind this in principle since Screamer, Cracker & Warpster were never really a cohesive trio anyway. Starscream was the star, the other two were just there and forgotten in most media. That Starscream/Slipstream, Thundercracker/Skywarp, & Nova Storm came about in modern stories as a group because of modern “diversity” soap boxing and muddled storytelling doesn’t help though.

There’s no real need to explain lady bots, they’re just there and if handled correctly you get awesome ones like BlackArachnia or memorable ones like Strika. Handle them poorly and you get Eren Jaeger Windblade, RiD Ultra Magnus wannabe Pyra Magna, and Primus forbid IDW Slide.

Primus and/or the Quintessons including ladies just because is acceptable because there’s no need to dwell on it, anymore than they decided to make LGBT bots. Live and let live, don’t dwell on it is my feeling. Just have said Transformers be cool and memorable and they happen to be this or that, I don’t know why that’s such a lost art anymore.

[s7arcr0sser]

I have to get this off my chest because I've seen these two get misunderstood a lot already, and with the little attention the pairing is given, maybe it's time to contribute some. If you're willing to read this please just keep an open mind, i understand that Buzz and Ozma aren't the fandom's favorite pairing especially because of the appeal some other non canon ships have (even i see it - i don't blame anyone for it) but it really makes me sad when bias influences people's ability to enjoy things outside of their main interest.

***i should also emphasize that this is just how i interpret it - the beauty of art is that it's subjective***

It always tics me off whenever someone says that Buzz is arrogant or anything of the type. The creators of the show describe his character as "...his biggest flaw is that he believes in his own legend." He's confident. He's overconfident even, which isn't without reason considering he has nearly 100% success rate. It's easy to confuse the two but the difference is in that, he does not belittle anyone and doesn't feel threatened by someone being as good as him or even better. There are times when he has joked at other people's expense (notably - Opposites attract, Speed trap and Plasma monster) but here's the catch - he always learns and by the end makes up for it. It's because he's not the stoic emotionless type of hero, he has personality and sometimes says things he doesn't fully think through. His whole team, Buzz included, loves throwing jabs at each other all the time, their goal never is to genuinely offend.

That leads to my next point. He always means well. Again, he never belittles ON PURPOSE. It's more or less confirmed he's introverted - before Team Lightyear, he worked alone and still loves spending time on his own. That means he likely spent most of his time around Warp and not much of anyone else, his communication skills aren't great because he focuses on his job too much and hasn't spent much time developing them. Sometimes he misses social cues and misunderstands situations or how people feel. He wasn't a jerk to Ty on purpose, everyone is constantly outdoing each other in praising his achievements so he had no idea it annoys Ty to pieces. The moment Buzz found out how he truthly feels he did everything he could to make up for it.

It's a recurring theme that Buzz isn't crazy about wildlife, it's not just his interactions with Ozma but the whole episode Dirty work is about that very topic. He's stubborn and because that's so far removed from his usual line of work he tries everything he can to use his old methods rather than to try something newer. Little by little he gives into it once he starts to allow himself to understand.

That character only cares about their working field, is willing to completely disregard anything that's outside of it, no matter how that may seem unethical to everyone else, and because they haven't gotten enough perspective from the other side they don't see why that's wrong, but is slowly learning throughout the show and could have gotten more development if the show continued.

I'm talking about Ozma this time. See how that can apply to both of them? Ozma is just as wrong as Buzz and they both can get across as irrational, but they actually are trying to protect what they believe in. Buzz doesn't care about nature and Ozma doesn't care about people - directly opposing fields, they are fighting for what the other would sacrifice. That's why their clash is so interesting, they have EVERYTHING in common, with just one difference that's so detrimental that it completely overwhelms their relationship.

Just like how Buzz is misunderstood to be arrogant, Ozma is misunderstood to be cold. She so isn't in the slightest. She treats the ugliest, most dangerous and scariest beast with utmost care and admiration, she gets excited at the sight of a rare specimen even if it could bite her head off in a second, and would risk her safety just to study or help it.

It's people where her enthusiasm dissolves, she is presented as introverted as well which is why sometimes she says things that don't come across all that great. Sure, sometimes she doesn't care because she's not interested in socializing, but she sometimes just doesn't know (example - the bloody water and floating guts comment in Beasts for Karn).

I gotta admit, it also confuses me how Buzz could come off as misogynistic towards Ozma - dammit that guy went in and memorized the most boring stuff in the universe (in his opinion) just to go in and try to impress her. He respects her work greatly - it's just in a field he's never cared for until now. Ozma could've been a male character and it would've been the same thing, because it's not Ozma herself that Buzz doesn't understand, but it's her cause.

He frankly just doesn't know how to act towards people he's interested in or that are interested in him. That's why he gives her unwanted validation - he's just genuinely impressed with her, which is why he's interested in the first place, but has no idea how to express it. He doesn't think any less of her.

Ozma was willing to team up with Zurg to protect the millennial bugs, Buzz was willing to kill Karnian beasts to get back on track with his mission. Both are just as bad, we gotta admit that. But throughout the three episodes we see them together, we see them learn to make more and more compromises for each other. They learn to see the other's perspective, and in their last chronological episode Return to Karn, they barely have fights at all (sure, there's a bit of banter, but it's nowhere near as agressive as it was before). I would kill to see how it would have progressed further.

She just reminds him of himself too much. Remember Good Ol' Buzz? He could barely stand himself because of how stubborn, abrupt and close minded he can be. It's the same thing with Ozma! She has the same traits, and so does he, and it turns into a screaming match until it turns into something else. Because that's just how they are.

So how the hell could this ever work for them? Simple - they are the only ones that could understand each other. With any other partner it would be "you chose your career over me!". If Buzz wasn't an awkward mess he could pull anyone he wants - he wants Ozma because she doesn't care who he is. Because she's brilliant, assertive, a badass and fearless. Because he has to prove himself and it doesn't come easy for him. If she doesn't care for his reputation, why is she interested? For the same reasons - he's just an awesome and determined person. He doesn't give up and believes in everything that is good, to the point of naivete. Because if anyone can give you hope in humanity's goodness, it's him.

And as much as I want to add the darker layer that Ozma might also be subconsciously reminding Buzz of Zurg but from a safe distance, that's a bit too much of a biased interpretation, and we might not be ready for that talk yet.

If you've read all of this, you're crazy, and thank you for coming to my ted talk

[sugaredcosmos]

I got into One Piece at the start of this year

and overall I really like it. At the moment I'm in the 800's range of chapters so I'm on Whole Cake Island and I wanted to share my thoughts on it since so much is happening now with the franchise between the manga seemingly headed towards an endgame right now, and the live action's success and confirmation of a season 2. The first thing I'd like to say is that I think I can overall recommend reading/watching it. However, I do have a few problems with the series that I think people should be aware of when getting into it. For one thing it does have many of the issues that plague the shonen genre.

In particular, it has a few issues in its portrayal of female characters at times. However, I will also say that those female characters, while often drawn in very limited body types and facial structures, have easily as quality and engaging stories as the boys in the show. All of them have their own unique, interesting, and emotional backstories that are consistently on par with the men's. However, at the same time, they are also undeniably more prone to sexualization and are often on the sidelines in a lot of the fights, the ladder of which is especially apparent after the timeskip as of where I am now. So, overall I think the depiction of women can be hit or miss but I will also say that it's still a lot better than some of the other big works in the shonen genre, namely Naruto and MHA.

Another quirk I've noticed about the series is that most if not all of its characters definitely suffer from flanderization as time goes on and lose a lot of nuance that they had in earlier chapters. I think there are standouts among the cast of this but it's pretty universal. To give an example, I'll use the relationship between Luffy and Chopper. In chopper's introduction story there's a bit where luffy thinks that reindeer meat would be pretty yummy. Somewhat on brand for Luffy but it still feels a bit out of character. Later on in that same arc Luffy is shown fighting for chopper and defends him for his ideals (see episode 88 of the anime for referene). Later on, however, there are numerous "emergency food" jokes made by luffy that genuinely bother me with how much it feels out of character for him. Like I know that "having all of the food" is on of the reasons that Luffy is a pirate but I would also think that his friends are a lot more important to him than that. Especially with the influence that Shanks had on him when he was younger (spill a drink on my and I can forgive that but mess with my friends and you're fucked etc etc).

The anime also has its own set of issues. The early one piece anime I think got the vibe of the story phenomenally well. The animation and art style is incredibly faithful to the manga and consistently gives of so much charm and vibrance that I think is lost later on, especially with things like the first opening, the soundtrack, and the eyecatches with the wanted posters accompanied by character's musical motif/theme. Where the problem comes in is when these really sweet and charming elements start going away upon the end of Skypeia/G8 and the start of the series' run in a 16:9 aspect ratio. The artstyle has a noticeable change, and the pacing begins to suffer a bit more than it had previously. You can look up what episodes cover what chapters in the manga and early on it was usually a ratio of like 2-3 chapters per episode, sometimes more, and around enies lobby it goes down to 1-2 chapters maybe 3 sometimes, and post timeskip it's one chapter per episode and sometimes 2 or 3 which is why I switched to basically exclusively reading the manga after awhile of bouncing back and forth between reading and watching.

The final issue I really have with One Piece is that the manga's content has a few weak parts. The 3 main ones that I found were Long Ring Long Land (specifically the davy back game), Thriller Bark, and Fishman Island. Two of these actually have something in common, Long Ring Long Land and Thriller Bark both have really really good parts at the end of them. My main thing with Long Ring Long Land is that the Davy Back Game feels like it was made under editor pressure to have a tournament arc. Because it just kinda pops up and never comes back again with very little if any character development or change in the status quo. However, after the davy back game has concluded we get a loooooot of new stuff, worldbuilding, a character introduction, and foreshadowing. Similarly, Thriller Bark is another arc that I wasn't a super big fan of until the very end with the musical number and subsequent conflict involving a fair amount of spoilers which I wont go into now, but just know that my main issue with thriller bark is that I think it should've been a shorter island more in line with something like Whiskey Peak, Drum Island, or Amazon Lily as a bigger part of the Sabaody Archipelago/Impel Down/Marineford Saga. Finally there's Fishman Island. I wont say much since it's post timeskip content and very spoilery, but I think it's a very thematically rich saga that suffers from too many new and underdeveloped characters, and a loooooot of pacing problems not to mention a lot of annoying character quirks and out of character actions of both the straw hats and a lot of the villains and local characters. Luffy in this arc is just really mean to another character for very little reason and it feels VERY out of character to me, and a lot of Sanji's really annoying character traits from an otherwise likeable character come out swinging here. But other than that and a slow start in the manga (which the live actions kind of fixes if you watch that first) One Piece is GOOD. Like, really good.

It's a show that, despite being the kind of premier shonen manga for the past like 25 years breaks from a lot of the genre's tropes. A lot of action manga, including the newer ones like JJK and Demon Slayer all seem to portray the characters in a place within a kind of societal system where they find a place to belong. One thing that One Piece does that I love is that it places its characters in direct opposition to that system. As pirates, the Straw Hats are outlaws being hunted by a system that's consistently portrayed as unfair and unjust. Oftentimes what they do when they visit an island is take down some illegitimate ruler that's been forcibly put in place by forces outside of the people's control. That's not something that happens in normal shonen. In fact, it's usually the other way around. Typically a shonen series villain is someone within or outside of the current system that's trying to change it. Shigariaki in MHA, Suguru Geto in JJK, the Phantom Troupe and Chimera Ants in HxH; all of these villains are bad people in the same position as the Straw Hats in One Piece. It's incredible how much nuance goes into the series villain's place in the worldbuilding. There are heroes and villains on both sides of the story's central conflict of Pirates vs the World Government. Usually the world government is portrayed as oppressive, unjust, and serves to keep the cruelly wealthy Celestial Dragons in power. However, we also see certain agents of this system that are good apples or neutral forces just trying to do good in a bad system such as Captain Smoker, Koby, Aokiji, and Garp. On the reverse side we also have a rogues gallery of pirate antagonists who usually end up being shorter term villains but sometimes evolve into overarching threats such as Blackbeard, Buggy, and a few of the Seven Warlords and Four Emporers. Ultimately the series main conflict is one of Freedom vs Control as well as who deserves to be in power and a leader's right to rule. Overall, I recommend you take the journey through One Piece. It's funny because it really is a journey. If you tell a One Piece fan that you watch or read it the first question they'll usually ask is where you are in it and it feels like that's a mark of progress in an adventure and i think that's really special. Just like the characters in the show, you're embarking on a journey. If I were to give any advice to new readers/viewers it would be to savor the moment you're in. One Piece is a piece of fiction and art that is truly about the journey instead of the destination. Don't worry about "being caught up" take it at your own pace and enjoy the moment you find yourself in and realize just how far you've come and how far you have left to go. Btw, in case anyone asks, my favorite character is Sabo and my favorite Straw Hat is Chopper

[mandalorianchronicles]

Who should be Mand'alor?

I'd like to begin with one vital point.

Din having the Darksaber doesn't make him Mand'alor. If I have to make this an automatic message from my blog every week, so help me. Please, I'm begging you - go watch Rebels if you don't believe me. That isn't how the Darksaber works. That's NEVER how the Darksaber worked. It was passed down person to person in the Vizsla family line for generations. Sometimes a Mand'alor had it. In legends, if you defeated a Mand'alor in combat, you could become the new Mand'alor. But the Darksaber didn't always get won from one Mand'alor to another Mand'alor. It's a heirloom of House Vizsla more than a Mand'alor sceptor. Here's a recap of how many times the Darksaber changed hands from The Great Clan Wars (which Jango Fett and Bo-Katan's father fought in) to the present timeline: 1)Tor Vizsla (who founded Death Watch) had the Darksaber *while* Jastor Mereel was Mand'alor. It was entrusted to 2)Pre Vizsla after Tor died. Pre was immediately defeated by 3)Maul in battle. 4)Sabine found it and learned to use it. It was taken by 5)Gar Saxon, and then she won it back from him in battle. 6)Sabine, as its rightful owner, entrusted it to 7)Bo-Katan, who accepted it only after the rest of the clans united to follow her lead to defeat the Empire. When the Purge happened, 8)Gideon took it (he most certainly did not win it from her in single combat). 9)Din won it in battle from Gideon. He could decide to keep it or to give it up. He wanted to entrust it to Bo-Katan once more, but Bo would not accept it again because some of her people have come to think that the *only* way to be its rightful owner is to win it in combat. Bo wielded it again to defend Din, but chose to return it to him, even though one could argue she had a claim to it. In summary, out of the last 8 different people to wield the Darksaber, only Bo-Katan has been an actual Mand'alor.

Also, I'd like to remind the fan base that Din doesn't have to become Mand'alor just because he's the main character. I'm not saying that he couldn't or that he shouldn't, though, I'd honestly prefer he didn't, at this point. If he becomes Mand'alor, he's pretty much going to be tied up in rebuilding and reconstruction efforts forever. Can you imagine Din Djarin in Greef's shoes? Me neither. Din Djarin's shebs are not suited for a throne, but maybe that's just me. I could see him as more of a Protector, like Fenn Rau. They were comprised of Mandalorians from all clans. I think Grogu would also be suited to that role.

Bo-Katan is a natural leader, which we have seen time and time again in TCW, Rebels, and The Mandalorian. The repeated failures of the Mandalorians to throw off the yoke of the Empire were not because of her failures as a leader. Rebellions are not always successful, but those who survive the aftermath can rebuild. Bo-Katan had kept faith in her people and the dream of restoring their civilization. When the last of her followers lost faith in that cause, it all but extinguished her hope.

But then Din Djarin came strolling down her halls and asked to join her. She bitterly told him there was nothing to join. She was alone. But when he needed help, she came without hesitation. And then when her home was destroyed, he offered her a place in his home and with his people. She soon realized that - though their beliefs were very orthodox - these Mandalorians still believed in a restored Mandalore. And as effortlessly as she always has, she became a leader among them.

Bo-Katan's failures have never been due to her inability to lead...but rather because of the insurmountable odds that have been against them all from the beginning. But here and now, in the breath of space between Empire and First Order, the Mandalorians have a chance to rebuild and gain strength once more. They have an opportunity to remake themselves into something better than what they were - hopefully, even do away with the archaic system of feudal clans and shoguns and create a new, sustainable system of government that can pave the way for future generations of warriors and non-warriors alike.

[ariel-seagull-wings]

FICTIONAL CHARACTER ASK: RAY STANTZ

Asked by anonymus

@amalthea9 @angelixgutz @thealmightyemprex @goodanswerfoxmonster @spengnitzed @bixiebeet @themousefromfantasyland @stantzed @filmcityworld1 @professorlehnsherr-almashy

Favorite Thing About Them: Ray is one of the first dorky geeks that was proud of his geekness in visual mass media. He is optimistic, resilient, outgoing, curious, sometimes shows concerns and reservations, but when pushed into a new situation, he jumps with entusiasm at the adventure, and he loves to share his passion about the supernatural with people, and even if he appears at the wrong hour, or some people are just not interested and may judge him as a "weirdo", he never looses his entusiasm or acts ashamed of who he is. A lot of people in the audience would love to have him as a friend because of how quick he is to embrace new people into his life, and he is also one of the first plus size characters that many fans to this day consider phisically atractive, wich should be considered an important mark in the Body Positivity movement.

Least Favorite Thing About Them: When in the novelization of the 1984 movie, there was an insertion of "Innocent Insensitivity" in his character in a scene where he reacts surprised for Winston being black, saying that "the supernatural reacts more strongly in the presence of black people". I hope Winston had a talk with Ray about the concepts of positive discrimination and exotification, and why they are harmfull, in private after that.

Three Things I Have In Common With Them:

*I enjoy the taste of roasted marshmallows as a comfort food;

*I love comic books;

*I have a fascination with mithology and folklore from around the world;

Three Things I Don't Have In Common With Them:

*I'm too easilly frightened to want to make physical contact with a ghost;

*I don't drive;

*Both of my parents are still alive;

Favorite Line:

From the October 1983 Script Draft:

"Drop everything; Venkman. We got one."

"Peter, at 1:40 this afternoon at the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, ten people witnessed a free-roaming, vaporous, full-torso apparition. It blew books from shelves at twenty feet away. Scared the socks off some poor librarian."

"No, this one's for real, Peter. Spengler went down there and took some PKE readings. Right off the top of the scale. Buried the needle. We're close this time. I can feel it."

"Spengler and I have charted every psychic occurrence in the Tri-State area for the past two years. The graph we came up with definitely points to something big."

"What do you mean by "seen?""

"Well, I was at an unexplained multiple high-altitude rockfall once."

"I told you it's real."

"Okay. Okay. I got it. I know what to do. Stay close. I have a plan."

"Okay, now do exactly as I say. Everybody ready?Okay... GET HER!!!"

"I guess I got a little overexcited. Wasn't it incredible! I'm telling you, this is a first. You know what this could mean to the University?"

"Then we were right! This is great. And if the ionization rate is constant for all ectoplasmic entities, I think we could really kick ass - in the spiritual sense."

"You said you floored ‘em at the Regents‘ meeting."

"My parents left me that house. I was born there."

"But at nineteen percent interest! You didn't even bargain with the guy."

"Wow! Does this pole still work?"

"Are you troubled by strange noises in the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your family actually seen a spook, specter or ghost? If the answer is yes, then don't wait another minute. Just pick up the phone and call the professionals —— Ghostbusters."

"Everybody can relax. I found the car. How do you like it?"

"Just needs a little suspension work...And a muffler...And maybe brakes."

"You know, Peter, this could be a past life experience intruding on the present."

"I just realized something. We've never had a completely successful test with any of the equipment."

"All right. Let's cool the negative vibes. These things can sense them."

"Sir, what you had there was what we refer to as a focused, non—terminal repeating phantasm or a Class Five Full Roaming Vapor...A real nasty one, too."

"I couldn't help it! It just popped in there!"

"It can't be! It can't be!"

"It's...It‘s...It's the STAY-PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN."

"I tried to think of the most harmless thing...something that could never destroy us...something I loved from my childhood."

"The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man! He was on all the packages we used to buy when I was a kid. We used to roast Stay-Puft marshmallows at Camp Waconda!"

"Either way we're history."

From the novelization of the 1984 movie by Richard Mueller:

"It's not a car, it's an Ectomobile."

brOTP: Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, Janine Melnitz, Dana Barrett, Louis Tully, Slimer, Jake, Buster, Louise, Irena Cortez, Bryan Welsh, Ilyssa Selwin, Melanie Ortiz, Kylie Griffin, Eduardo Rivera, Walter Peck.

OTP: Winston Zeddemore, Elaine Phermon, Jenny Moran, @amalthea9 OC Peggy, @spengnitzed OC Michelle.

nOTP: Kylie Griffin.

Random Headcanon: In the 2009 videogame, Ray briefly mentions that he went to study in a Seminar, so I assume he was raised Catholic.

Unpopular Opinion: I wish he made use of the camera that he appeared at the beggining of the 1984 movie more often, as a way of documenting the ghosts behaviours, maybe even interviewing them. Is a pity that this filmaker side of Ray never went furter explored.

Songs I Associate With Them:

Frankenstein Twist

Monster Mash

I'm a Believer

The Night

Ghostriders in the Sky

Favorite Picture of Them:

Dan Aykroyd in the 1984 movie

His design in the pilot and first two seasons of The Real Ghostbusters

[emptylotfiasco]

my review for yakuza 1 on the ps2 it is a really good game. you should play it forever and ever. i will probably replay it one day or like get round to finishing kiwami cause it was really fun i had a lot of fun with it <3 the minigames are cool and the substories are good and the localisation is funny and worth experiencing for urself but it also like its not a haha play this game cause its so bad its fun it is acutally a good game and i liked it a lot. 10/10 ten million thoughts under the cut

first of all minigames love in heart massage parlour my favourite it is very funny. talking to prostitutes minigame is fun i completed all of them. almost. haruka cock blocked me for one of them. baseball is good it turns me into the devil sometimes but i like it. gambling. suprisingly not that bad everytime i had to do it. i wish they would have let me skip the 60 second long roulette animation because i know that is not real. crane game. AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! moving on. slot machines. sucked but thats okay idgaf they should have figured out not to put it in subsequent games though. colliseum yeah i did it it was fine pretty typical.

substories were good i did almost all of them excepttt i missed the casino royale one because i progressed the main story too far rawr </3 oh i didnt finish the gangbusters either because i run away from random encounters as much as i can. so i also didnt fight amon. but i like how maybe because ps2 limitations and resource limitations substories were super short and simple. i think in kiwami it was mixing the longer formatted substories with what were originally very basic premises and it didnt work for me. it is what made the substories feel like a slog to me in the remake. but in this game it is easier to gaf about a simple substory when it doesnt take that long to complete. the original game had a lot of the funny ones the one where you give tissues to a guy who ran out of toilet paper in the public bathroom and the one where kiryu picks up a dead guys phone and follows every instruction given to him by a complete stranger until he is eventually hired to kill himself. and the one where tghe guy makes kiryu get all the toys from the crane machine for his sugar baby. and the one where kiryu has to talk a guy down from suicide. and there were ones that werent funny but i still liked like that one with the street artist because I thought it was cool how you can use items from that substory to complete other substories and that one really long chain of substories that takes you all over the map.

Unmm jingu is a shitty villain but I think that has been knew. I thought the story and the way it unfolded was really good until the very last few chapters where the government stuff really kicked in. I did know most of the story already but like. Some parts I liked were helping the counterfeiters at the hostess club and them saying they did a forgery for kazama 5 years ago. The body of the fake mizuki being explained by a a copycat bar that was trying to capitalise on Ares success having someone pretend to be mizuki and that person getting killed. I thought that was cool and interesting I like this level of detail in my weirdly complex crime drama plotlines. I think it was funny that he was voiced by Robert atkin downes. i liked haruka trust meter i thought it was so cute i liked increasing it by buying her things. I think Yumi is interesting and Reina <333 Reina <33 Reina <3 lalalalala Reina <3 kazama. nishiki wasn't interesting but like I've played yakoza 0 so like I know he is so it's fine. Sera... Idgaf like I kind of gaf but not really. I think maybe because the only involvement he had was the jingu stuff and jingu sucks so. That one guy that tortured kiryu. Actually that is an interesting part of his character that I have heard surprisingly little about. Who else. Oh yeah shinji. Anyways. Who else.

Majima category oh yeahhh Majima oh yeah . Majima was awesome because Majima is alsways awesome. People like to say wow can you imagine playing Yakuza 1 on the ps2 and thinking that one day people are gonna want to bone Majima. That must be so crazy so insane. My asnqwr is that you're not a real Majima fucker. I've always wanted to fuck him. I've alwayyysss wanted to fuck him. I was there from the start. And I want to fuck mark hamilljima too. There is no shame in this. I don't care how many polgyons he has the sleazy bpd princess with the steel tipped shoes leather pants snakeskin jacket eye patch knife bat and tits out is a monument to sex. When he threatens that one sex worker and he's like so what do you say you wanna be my bitch I'm like ohhhh do I. plus the whole point og his appeal is that hes kind of ugly. he was pretty in yakuza 0 because they gentrified him that is not the real majima. look at his ugly ass hair cut. hes fourty yhears old and a bowlcut on his head. So if you do nat wanna bone him then you cannot be trusted and I'm the only one allowed to fuck him sorry that's the rules. I swear I was going to actually write a review part here I don't know what happened. I'm just gonna move on.

the localisation is my favourite part of the game i really love how comically vulgar it is it gives me the same enjoyment factor as the silly writing from yakuza 0. it made the game very interesting and i would miss it dearly if it wasnt there. i liked it when kiryu said are you retarded or just deaf. and when yuya said look at you fuckhead. and when kiryu said i did have the urge to hit some balls today. seems like yours are gonna have to do. and when he said step the fuck up its time to die. i loved ten years in the joint fight. come on fucker bring that shit kazuma ten years in the joint made you a fucking pussy it made me say its kiryu time and i kiryued all ovedr the millenium tower. the delivery made everything really funny and like ueah it undercut the dramatic moments but it also made me like enjoy the finale scene with jingu because i kept laughing at everything everyone said so i think there was a net benefit. there was two scenes where i thought the english dub delivery made things funnier on purpose. one was where kiryu took haruka to the bath house and he was like its take your daughter- its a social studies field trip and the one scene where date was like lets break open the amulet and reina and haruka were like NO!! and he was like haha nevermind just kidding. and the one where kiryu explains what a bath house is to haruka was funny too. i love this va i think like. as strange as the action hero deep voice is for kiryu when u have not expereinced this game hes also so sooooo awkward. so awkward. and it wraps around to sounding very kiryu. cause like that kind of is him like hes intimidating but hes also awkward and autistic and doesnt know what a cell phone is or how to babysit a child so he lets her gamble away all his savings. by the way his ps2 model has very beautiful eyelashes.

OH YEAH. i like the combat. sorry. i forgot about the central gameplay mechanic of the whole game i got distracted. like of course it is clunky its a playstation 2 game. but it also was really fun <3 i especially liked. i forgot his name but the moveset of that guy that is like the captain of the nishikiyama family is kind of sick and it was cool to fight against. the combat in this game is the exact mixture of satisfying and so frustrating makes me want to rip the skin off my face and eat it that i love. kiwami is also like this. and i liked how short andd snappy the heat action animations were not to say i prefer them but just that like. i guess it made the fights feel fast paced and it felt just as good to do them as the overly animated ones. i liked how even hough some guys had huge healthbars fighting them didnt take ten million kajillion billion years. WAIT but fuck the komaki training i couldnt even complete it cause it was too hard. that was fucked up they were fucked up for that.

i really liked the style of this game i liked the art and i liked the models and. i looked at some of these cutscenes in a very damnn that looks good kind of way. that one post that is like ps2 is peak aesthetic is so true cause it looked really nice at times.

okay the end. do not expect anyone to read this becuse i said it all for myself. i wish i did get round to making the html copy of kiryus blog work cause that is probably where id ramble about yakuza. but i hate java script and also i dont care. so tumblr post.

[loveless-scribes]

✨🛒👀🥺🤩🎉🌞🎢

Oh, wow! That's a bunch! Thanks so much for sending the ask, let's dive right in! <3 ✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉 This is hard, especially right now because I'm really struggling with my writing. My ideas aren't clear and I feel like they don't line up with one another or that the tone shifts abruptly because the way I'm feeling has changed between one writing session and the next. I guess I hope that my writing makes people FEEL things. That's my main goal most of the time. And I think I'm pretty good at surprising people, too. So, to put that in compliment form I think I'm alright at conveying emotions and I have a knack for those plot twists. XD 🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc. I feel like I'm always writing about death even when I'm not planning to, it just kind of works its way back in there. Also, I guess another common theme would be the deep connections that people can form with one another, against all odds, against their better judgement, and sometimes even to their own detriment. I guess that's a hopeful theme in a way, people staying even when you're sure they'll walk away. Also, my protagonist needs to be a little messed up in the head. Anything else is hard and boring to write. I love writing crazy people and then humanizing them to the reader. 👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please! Barring AM spoilers, and the Sukuna fic I teased about on my alt, I want to write a short story about a world where voluntary self-elimination is both legal and readily accessible. The idea's been floating around in my head for a while - what that would look like, what the logistics around it would be, how friends and family would react, the inevitable desensitization towards death. I do hope to get that one down sometime soon because I'm really inspired to write it. 🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels? I think I hinted at this already, but I love it when one character is sure the other is going to leave them, but they don't. Not even necessarily in a romantic sense. It could be a friendship, or a parent-child relationship or what have you. Just that feeling of, "I've gone too far, it's over" but it's not, because that person would never leave. Staying by each other's side whether or not they understand the full context. Not even necessarily needing the context to know that they're on your side. I guess that's why it's a recurring theme in LS's relationship.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write? This used to be an easy "Levi, hands down - all day, every day." But lately, Slayte has become my favorite. Especially with her current struggles in the story, I just have a soft spot for her and the stuff she has to go through, I guess. She's also the character that most meets my "crazy protag" criteria, so there's that. 🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success? When people tell me I made them cry. It sounds mean, but there's no better feeling. That's when my inner critic has no choice but to shut up because OMG THEY SHED REAL TEARS. (I've defo cried, too, while writing AM so no worries.) 🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write? When everyone is either asleep or out of the house. Early mornings are the best, but work always gets in the way. I would be better able to answer this question if I wasn't so tired all the time. ^^

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride? I think it's the Sukuna darkfic duology on my alt @azureashes. It's just so crazy and out there. Idk if I would consider AM a "wild ride" since it definitely has its wholesome and comforting moments. I actually think hurt/comfort is a huge theme in AM. Maybe we should add it to the tags. Thanks for the ask, Anon! <3

[popculturebuffet]

Into The Spider-Verse: Spider-Man, Miles Morales (Ultimate Fallout #4, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #1-5)

Hello all you happy wallcrawlers! It's time to once again swing into the Spider-Verse as we cover the various people who've worn the mask across the merry marvel multiverse, all building to a look at Into The Spider-Verse in time for it's sequel.

So naturally after looking at the humble origins of the first spidey as he battled with loneliness, fame, dead uncles and of course Crackers and Milk, it's only fair we look at the actual protaganist of the film, the ultimate spider-man, the one the only Miles Morales!

To properly get into Miles and his origins in the comics though we have to talk about the world he was created for: The Ultimate Universe. The Ultimate Universe was the idea of then editor Bill Jemas, who felt Marvel's massive continuity could be daunting to the new readers the company badly needed after the comics crash and marvel's subsquent bankruptcy.

So he tapped writer Brian Micheal Bendis. Starting with Spidey.. honestly makes perfect sense to me, as while a major part of the marvel universe, his corner is diverse and unique enough to carry itself and to see if this could work, something EIC Joe Quesada had doubts about, doubts he somehow didn't have later for the character when he decided "Huh you know I don't like his marriage because my ship didn't win, maybe I should just have satan break it up eh?", born of a previous attempt, not helped by Bendis famous love of using decompressed storytelling, i.e. spreading a story out over several issues instead of packing it into one or two barring big sagas.

Despite these doubts from Quesada and from Artist Mark Bagely.. the book was a MASSIVE hit. It likely helped Ultimate's stripped down back to basics peter was a RELIEF after the complex shenanignas of the clone saga nad after. It was just what people loved: a down on his luck kid dealing with usual life struggles while also having to fight crime on top of that. It had a bunch of nice updates too that would become a staple of adaptations from here on out: Harry Osborn being a close friend from the start, MJ being a high school friend of peters, and Aunt May being a cool old lady instead of on the precipice of death, something that would carry over. This success helped revitalize the main spider-man with JMS' fantastic run.. that granted petered out into Sins Past and One MOre Day, but both are stories for another day.

Ultimate Spider-Man was such a hit the universe naturally expanded.. and that became a problem. See Bendis' ultimate spider-man really nailed the idea of the ultimate universe, a clean slate allowing the writers to really play around with things, while not threatning the main universe. Death was permenant, the stakes were high and it allowed new fans a godo start. Sure it buitl up it's own complex story, but with graphic novels plentefiul, it was easy to keep up. I read a good chunk of it in my teens and loved it and it seems to mostly still hold up.

The problem is out of the three spinoffs only one really got what you could do with the concept, Ultimate Fantastic Four, which simply made the team all teens connected to a fancy think tank while keeping the tight knit "family of choice" dynamic and adventure, simply in a more grounded context.

The other two were by mark millar

I'm not a fan of his, and these books are a large reason why. Ultimate X-Men is a mixed bag, having good ideas, such as a teenage storm and nightcrawler ala evolution along with a gay colossus, and the more military costumes ala new x-men, and is a book i'd love to review sometime now i'm more deeply entreinched in x-men, especially since I read that as a teen too, on the wohle it's got a LOT of edgelord in it's dna, with Jean sleeping with a 40 something year old wolverine, Wolverine trying to murder cyclops to get to jean, and Magneto being simply a racist dickhead. It has great parts and Brian K Vaughn's run after Millar's is even better, but it's just a bit too edgy for it's own good.

Ultimates however…

Ultimates is fucking awful. The designs and art are top notch, Thor , Cap , Hawkeye and Nick Fury all got their MCU designs here, but the actual story is a bunch of edgelord bullshit. IT's clear Millar at least had SOME respect for the x-men, but he hated the avengers and it shows: Tony is constantly drunk, Thor is a new agey asshole, Hawkeye and Black Widow are black ops murderers, and grossly the scarlet witch and quicksilver are mostly defiend by being a couple.

He also pissed me off personally as a fan of the ant family by making Jan an airhead, and making Hank's abuse and inferiority complex his entire character instead of the worst moment of life and his greatest flaw respectively, and had him ATTEMPT TO MURDER JAN. As you can probably guess i'll also have to tackle this at some point, and I wouldn't be suprised if one of my patrons inflicted this on me at some point via comission. Oh and of course we have Captain America, whose a racist sexist jingoistc asshole because Millar REALLY hates the character and considered the idealistic depecition of him being a progressive "unrelaistic. " It's bad and we'll get to it.

This edgelord apporach to these books worked at first as early 2000's audeinces ate that shit up, but eventually it reached it's apex, ironically after Millar had left. He was replaced by Jeph LOeb, who I don't care for as much these days but HAS made good stories. His ultimate work.. seems to be truly awful, with the confusing mess that was ultimates 3 and the utter nightmare that was ultimatium.

Ultimatium was a crossover event.. that started the universes march to death. Granted it took a while for it to kick in, but this crossover wrecked it so throughly it never really recovered> It was an edgelord mess where magneto killed most of new york, blob ATE the wasp on panel, and dozens upon dozens of characters died, with the x-men and ff utterly decimated and scattered as a result.

It killed Charles Xavier and Magneto which COULD'VE been intresting.. but in practice it just lead to more mediocre stories, a status quo no one liked, and exttra super duper mutant prejudice that was somehow legally legislated.

So why hash all of this out. It's simple, while the Ultimate Universe was in it's slow years long death spiral that would cumilate in the universe being wiped out in secret wars, though it may be making a comeback with Ultimate Invasion, there was one part of it that caught massive attention, did great sales and was critically loved. Just as he was the one to jumpstart the universe, Spider-Man was likely what kept it alive as long as it did, only the costume, and the person inside it both changed.

Miles came from editor axel alonso floating around the idea of a black spider-man in the ultimate universe shortly after Barack Obama won presdiency, though they decided not to introduce him post ultimatium as planned to give them time to work out the story for this. Bendis was further inspired by Donald Glover showing up in spider-man pajamas during the first episode of season 2 of community, a nod to Glover trying out for Amazing Spider-Man and somehow not getting the part. Glover would continue to be an influence on the character, and got to voice him in Ultimate Spider-Man and play his uncle aaron in Spider-Man Homecoming. Artist Sarah Pichelli designed his now iconic costume, smartly giving him the awesome looking black and red look, with the two color sbecome a staple of any version of miles costume while also serving as a nice nod to spider-man's orignal colors.

So now we have the behind the scenes stuff out of the way how did a 13 year old, yes really, from Brooklyn become the Ultimate Spider-Man? What happened to the previous one? And will anyone actually accept miles in the role? All valid questions, so swing with me under the cut as here comes a spider-man.

So naturally for Miles to take over… Peter Parker had to go. In this universe he was still a teen as like most comics despite a decade and change worth of continuity at this point, time moved slowly. But his life was going pretty well: he finally got back with Mary Jane Watson after a long time hinting towards it, Gwen Stacey, his friend and live in roomate, long story, forgave him, and after ultimatium new york loved the hell out of him.

So naturally this being spider-man, this coudlnt' last and soon his precious little life.. came to a tragic and epic end. This Peter was the character who really made Bendis' career, for better and for worse, so if he was going to die, Bendis was going to have him go down epically.

Like in our universe Peter's worst foe was the Green Goblin, only here he was more of a monster man and less a creepy guy in a suit, but no less psychotic or obessive, having attempted to kill MJ, actually killed his own son and peter's best friend, and in general been the worst. So wanting to kill peter once and for all, on his sixteenth birthday he broke out of jail, took the sinister six with him, and went on a rampage, heading straight for peter's loved ones. Peter went to intercept but had to stop the punisher from shooting captain america as a war between Frank's avengers and Captain America's ultimates, which was a thing that happened but I don't care enough to find out why. I have limits.

So while nursing a bullet wound, peter stared down his foes, with aunt may assiting by fucking shooting electro, putting him in a coma and as a result casuing his powers to go hawywire and narrow the fight down to just peter and Gobby. Sadly while Peter won… an explosion and his wounds from botht he fight and the bullet meant he didn't survivie it, but he got to go down defeating his greatest foe, saving those he loved like he coudln't save ben and in the arms of the girl he loved most.

So as a result the ultimate world was left a world without spider-man, and the ultimates themselves shook, paticuarlly cap who, as is his nature, was a massive dick to peter right before peter took a bullet for him. But it wouldn't be too long…

Miles was first intorduced at the tailend of ultimate fallout, a mini dealing with the fall out of this and setting up the three comics for the ultimate comics relaunch: ultimates by jonathan fucking hickman, which would end up vitally important ot his future works, x-men by nick spender and later sexual harassment brian wood and this very comic.

Miles part of it is very brief but well done: post peters death he shows up in the costume, battles d-list villian in any univers kangaroo, and admits the costume probbaly is in poor taste while taking it off to reveal a fairly young kid. and that spider-man is black. Which naturally isn't the shocker it should be after years of the character being rightfully promoted to hell and back.. nor was it then as it got revealed in the press ahead of time and was a big deal and put a LOT of expectation on the book.T here was also of course stupid racist idiot backlash about WEH THEY MADE SPIDER-MAN BLACK and your standard "people dont' get there's multiple versoins of this caharacter' misreporting, but it's best to plug your ear. My faviorite part of this coverage is that when I was binging it a while back, the comic strip baldo naturally comented on there being a prominent latino spider-man (again but we'll forgive cantu and costelanos for not knowing 2099 existed)

Tia Carmen being judgemental aside, it showed just how big a deal it was and thankfully the book was high quality enough to match thehype. So now we finally come to ultimate comics spider-man itself.

We open issue 1 with Norman Osborn citing the myth of arachne a while ago, back when he was a respectiable industrialist. This is how ULtimate Spider-Man #1 started though it almost feels like Bendis parodying himself as this time the guy listneing to osborn is bored and then thrown off when Norman threatens to kil lhim if he tells anyone this is how spider-man got his powers. Classic norman.

Anyways they do manage to make a new spider using peter's blood, as in this universe the oz serum was used on the spider, and then on norman himself instead of radioactivity and such. One of the spiders gets loose though with no one noticin

We cut to.. some time later as the Prowler, a masked thief in purple, breaks into Ozcorp.

Yeah it took a bit of googling to answer all of this, as I was confused both by Ozcorp still being around even after it's CEO publicly turned into a monster man and killed a bunch of his own employees, and by the spider somehow being ALIVE.

The former..was shockingly easy. It's nightmarishly hard, nay impossible to peg most comic universes into hard and fast years, with character ages being "whatever we need" and holidays being thrown around, not to mention countless time skips for story reasons to start off a run (Both Spider-Man and Fantastic Four just did this for their latest volumes). At this point i've just given up and say "it takes place because shut up" Granted I still peg peter parker as over 30 as anyone should, same with the original x-men and co, but that's not really the takeaway. So while a lot of stories have happened probably not a lot of time has passed.

Adding to that spiders live up to two years average according to a quick google and can live up to 20 in captivity… and of course this is a genetically altereted super spider, so in hindsgith I have to ask myself why that was one of my questoins to begin with.

Finally as for Ozcorp it's SOMEHOW still running. I mean a ceo's bad behavior not tankin ga company isn't unheard of: Papa Johns fired their racist as hell ceo and are doing just fine, and Tesla somehow manages to function despite it's ceo being Elon Musk. Really the questions I have say mroe about me than they do abotu the actual writing of htis comic.

Point is Prowler steals some neat stuff and accidently takes the spider with him. As for who he is.. well under the mask we'll naturally meet. As for overal the Prowler is new to this universe but is an old foe turned friend of spidey's in the main universe. Inventor Hobie Brown created a super villian persona in order to commit a crime, then return the money as himself to get funding. He fought spider-man about once, but the two became friends and Hobie wore the costume on and off. Prowler is also specail to mne as I had a guide to spider-man as a kid and the costume, backstory and intresting status as a former villian when most of spidey's foes really .. dont' stay reformed for long, comic books and all, have made him a faviorite of mine, and I ended up loving this version even more.

We then cut to our hero, Miles Morales, a kid about to enter middle school… and having to rely on pure chance to get into a good one. Miles is going with his parents, Jefferson and Rio to a charter school raffle something I still can't honestly belivie is a thing. A charter school is a fancy, private style school outside of the regular school system, that will have raffle for those in poorer areas and thus a child's future can literally be determined by a plastic ball. America everybody!

I love the choice by bendis to do this: Peter got to go to a pretty nice school simply by luck and where his grandma was, if a public one. For Miles to have a better chance.. he has to simply rely on luck and HOPE he gets it, and even fi he does.. it's at the expense of other kids who didn't quite make it.

You'll also have likely noticed the "Enter middle school part", especially if your more familiar with into the spider-verse, where he's 17 (even older than his 616 self), or most adaptations where he's a year or two older , usually to match peter. Yeah Bendis decided to further crank things up by making Miles way younger, forcing a child into this. I'm entirely used to this as most cartoons use 13 as the default age for their heroes, but it , like the ultimate universe did at it's best, uses htis realistically: this is a child thrown into this. Peter was only slightly older.. and the comic pulled zero punches showing how much this fucked with him. And now we'r ethrowing a younger chlid into an ultimate universe.. that's frankly only gotten worse; at this same time the goverments being torn down, more on that if I ever do any of the followup arcs, mutants are hunted and thrown into camps that are somehow legal, and new york just got flooded b y magneto 6 months ago. And i'ts only going to get somehow WORSE from there. A child is going to have to face all this.. and starts having to just wait for pure luck to get school.

While fate isn't on Miles side in inevetibly throwing him up against super villians, a collapsing us goverment and the end of the fucking world, TWICE, it is in getting into the Brooklyn Visions Academy. What I like is that artist Sarah Pichelli takes time to focus on two kids who DIDN'T get in and miles face after. It's simple but i'ts the clear guilt of a child who simply feels bad his getting a nice school means other kids didn't. HIs parents try to ease his guilt, but he ends up instead going later that day to visit his uncle Aaron. Uncle aaron.. both has solid advice.. and looks like this

Yup for whatever reason they decided to base Aaron on Snoop Dogg, and I for one loved his duet with kirby so i'm entirely for this

So i'm fully on board with this. Naturally Aaron is the prowler, and while he swipes whatever he stole from a curious miles, the spider bites his nephew, causing him to pass out. Naturally Aaron calls his brother.. who then accuses him of drugging his own nephew, yells at him, and is generally a dick, especially since while he told him to "stay away from my family".. MIles came here of his own free will and is ONLY here because Jefferson didn't tell Miles WHY he dosen't like his brother anymore. This naturally causes the small child to flee…., and to find out something new about himself.

Next issue Miles discovers he can also jump good and zap people, doing so when some idiots try to rob him.. but we also get a sense of WHY unlike both Peters, who were naturally excited to have dope new powers, Miles.. is fucking terrified. He thinks he's a mutant, and while we know he isn't, I was NOT joking about the camps thing. Since Magneto destroyed new yorks mutants are turbo hated and feared and if you've watched or read ANYTHING x-men related, you know the regular hated and feared is bad enough.

Miles goes to one of the best parts of this book and his best friend Ganke, a loveable chubby lego loving lad. It's a funny sequence at first as miles tries to do the invsiblity thing but instead looks like he's about to take a dump (Ganke's words) and then displays his other power by destroying.. something Ganke had been hard at work on with Ganke begging him not to try it again on something that took him three weeks.

Ganke thinks the powers are dope.. and is the rational one here, realizing that mutant powers wouldn't manifest overnight, and that he got bit by a spider with the bite suddenly disappering. They don't have time to figure things out as Jefferson tries to prove to his son he's a calm reatoinsal indivdual.. by barking at him to come with him and then asking him this

While Jefferson.. has good reasons… what I like about this is while he is sympathetic, something bad could've happened to miles.. and nearly DID had he not found out he has spider powers.. Jefferson is also an asshole, often far too stern and gruff at this point for his own good. It takes him a minute to get why maybe accusing his brother of hurting him, yelling at his son, then yelling at his son AGAIN and yanking him out of somehwere he feels safe might be rattling, and as we'll learn right after this.. Jefferson is a racist towards mutants, blaming them for things. What makes it work though is that he's complicated… his reason for being so hard on aaron.. is that both of them used to be criminals, which gives nice weight ot what Aaron said earlier: NEITHER of them want Miles to end up like them and to have a better life, not having to steal and do worse just to get by. The diffrence is Aaron stayed in the game while Rio convinced Jefferson to turn his life around. Granted his whole understandable speech about "You shoudl feel you can open up to me" gets ruined by his bigoted statments towards the all new all ultimate x-men a second later I hinted at, but it still shows Jefferson is'nt just an asshole or in the case of pre-character development 616 aunt may, an obstacle just so Miles can't easily reveal his identity. Instead Miles has good reason as his dad hates superheroes and may not have a heart attack but as we've seen can be quick to rash decisions. He'd come around eventually but to a 13 year old kid already scared at what he's becoming, this may not be something he wants to risk dealing with.

At any rate the next night Ganke texts miles with a bunch of message board bits that can basically be summed up as "Your a spider-man, spider-man, genetically altered spider-man" and a bit of celing crawling confirms this to Miles horror. Onto issue 3 as Miles naturally goes to Ganke again and I like the continuing contrast, likely mirroring the two types of reader this would hit: Ganke sees the escapism element and the awesome: MIles has fucking spider-man powers and now can be a spider-man. This is so cool! Miles… is the more realistic reaction, not wanting to throw himself in danger. Ganke also easily figures out that the spider was an experiment: miles mentioned numbers, normal spiders dont' have that, case closed. While Ganke is clearly operating off of a 13 year old nerd's perspective, he's not exactly wrong. He's also got a howard the duck shirt, which adds nothing to anything, I just think it's neat.

Ganke also convinces miles to go visit Aaron. Miles is reluctant given well.. everything that just happened yesterday, but Ganke has a point: he's the only one who'd know what the hell is going on and might be able to help them, sketchy or not. Naturally though after brothegeddon, Aaron has bugged out, pun not intended, as he had other buisness to attend to...

So Miles is on his own in figuring this out and finding a way to try his powers out

Cue plot convience as a fire has broken out and Miles charges in there to help… and once again we get a nicely realistic reaction: While Ganke is , like us an observer and sees what miles did as cool.. Miles is still a 13 year old that just charged into a burning buildling so while he did good and saved some people… he also is scared out of his mind, seeing the current spider-man as having action as his reward and loving it , not getting that peter was also scared out of his mind, but hey , that's part of why you wear the mask. He cries and decides not to do it and Ganke reluctantly agrees. It shows not EVERYONE would be super hyped to do this and not everyone has to: at the time there is STILL a spider-man. Ther'es no reason for miles to use these. .yet.

Our heroes get moved in, as naturally Ganke is Miles roomate along with Judge. He's mostly around to make hiding Miles identity difficult. He's alright. He likes legos. At any rate we get a nice montage of Miles having nice classes and being encouraged to read… before a not so nice nightmare of electro killing him…. and this turns out ot be prophetic as news of peter being shot has hit.. and his death is in progress.

Taking a moment between issues , i'd like to take a moment ot discuss how much I love the pacing here. While decompressed storytelling can be bad, there have been event comics that coudl've easily been a few issues shorter and didn't need tie in one shots and shit, this comic shows why when Bendis or others using it are at their best, it works well. We're three issues in and HAVNE'T seen miles really be spider-man yet. We saw it in ultimate fallout, but that was a jump foward and maybe a few pages, pages many readres probaly don't see. Yet everything here is important: it defines who miles his, who his family is, lets us meet hima nd get to know him as a shy, inquisitive, smart young man whose DEEPLY terrified of what he's been thrown into. Some comics would try to jam in flash fowards as him as a hero to get more action in.. but Bendis gets that's not really wha'ts important. It's awesome and the superhero stuff matters, it's why the comics called ultimate comics spider-man and not ultimate comics: miles morales, but who this character is, why he's doing this and why he does things matter> He's a kind, empathetic boy unsure of his place in the world. It's the key to a good superhero comic: you have to care about the hero or heroes at the core as a person, or it just dosen't work. And this.. this works.

So next issue, Miles has Ganke cover for him to go see what's going on and arrives just as Peter smashes norman's head in and collapses, being happy he could save those he loved as htey all sob. Miles saw peter's death and it was likely planned by Bendis he'd been there the whole time, but it's a nicely done retcon, if you can even call it that, as MIles is angeld off camera and the only thing we see from him is asking Gwen who he was.

And the next day… Miles blames himself. In a nice twist of fate… Peter is his uncle ben and his reasons for not having acted are way more undrestandable.. but it's understandable why Miles feels this way: he could've done something, he coudl've helped. Ganke does help again though.. this time not with wide eyed fanboying but again showing that while Miles is emotonally and empathetic and thus blames this on himself, Ganke his logical and thus uses the logic to help miles; He could've helped.. or he could've died too. He did get these powers for a reason.. but it wasn't to pitch in not knowing his powers and to die… but that with Peter gone… Miles can take up the mantle. It dosen't come off as wide eyed as before either but just one friend helping another realize both what he can do with his powers.. and that this death isn't his fault. Peter died a hero.. and while Miles could easily share the same fate he can also do what was right.

Miles isn't convinced though and they go to peter's funeral the next day. We do get a nice moment with Gwen Stacey. In this continuity Gwen was a close friend of peters, being his best friend besides MJ. They dated very breifly in the previous volume.. but it was clear Peter was still hunt up on MJ and only lasted to just before his death, and was never really something fans liked. Still she was close to him, a major supporting character.. and will continue to be here eventually. Not during this arc, she and Aunt Man, her legal guardian and surrgoate mom hence why the romance thing also felt kind of eugh, are going off to france for a bit to mourna nd do some work for tony stark (his mentorship of peter, while breifer and less involved, was taken from this universe), Miles does have a question: Why did he do it? and her answer.. is one of my faviorite moments int he book:

It sums up Spider-Man perfectly: He does it because something that wasn't his fault he still felt responsible for, it's the right thing to do and the mask is both because he wants to protect those close to him.. and because it looks fucking cool. As are you gwen, as are you.

That night Ganke brings Miles something from home: his halloween costume from last year.. the bombastic bag man@!

No of course it's spidey and this leads into the scene we saw earlier, miles first outing where he does beat the kangaroo if barely.. but everyone thinks him doing this is in bad taste. Aftewords Miles is understandably freaked given being told your disrepsecting the dead man your TRYING to honor isn't a great start, and the boys discover they can't lock the room as it isn't policy and the dorm guy's a real dick about it. Like.. did you tell them this at orentation? and if so WHY did you put locks on the rooms? I mean I get it if a shooter comes in or something but why not have electronic locks then. Also why would Miles being seen be an issue just say he was doing some cosplay, most people arne't going to connect the dots. What i'm saying is this scene, while necessary to set up the unique challenges miles has, is very dumb.

MIles decides to try again the next night though, and we get a nice bit of internal monologuin as he enjoys this… right before a bad case of boot to the head

It's obviously spider-sense. This isn't Funky Winkerbean.. but whose boot it is… isn't good for Miles

Okay so while the comic itself dosen't explain it, i'll explain who Spider-Woman is. In the Main Timeline it's.. a lot to unpack: She's a private eye whose dad experimented on her. It's a very long story ill get into more another time, possibly next year when we do this all again for Beyond the Spider-Verse with the spider-men and women from Across. I love her and her solo series which is on my very giant to do list.

This Jessica Drew has the same name.. but is actually a clone of peter complete with memories but as a woman, woh works closely with shield and has joined the ultimates. I don't know much about her, just that she saw peter like a brother for understandable reasons.. and that she's naturlaly very pissed at the small child wearing his costume without realizing it's a small child. So we've come to our final issue for today, and the confrontation.. goes how you'd expect. Jessica demands to know who Miles is… Miles not knowing there was a spider-woman or WHY she's taken this personally refuses, and it's a comedy of errors as she webs him up , he tries to go to the cops and she takes him to the Triskeleion, headquarters of the Ultimates and finds himself in a cell.. and in front of the ultimates, or at least Nick Fury, Jessica, Iron Man and Hawkeye. Cap is missing and that's a good thing. We'll deal with him, much like gwen, if we pick this up again another day.

For now Nick questoins what he actually DID, while Tony finds out he's enhanced to everyon'es shocked.. and Clint rightly points out Jessica could've asked him instead of laying in screaming. While it's understandable why she opened the coversation with boot to the head… it also meant MIles tried to you know run and get the police instead of actually talk to her. Nick Fury shoes everyone out. Nick is a bit more of a bastard here, and given 616 Nick Fury (the older one not the one resembling this nick whose that nick's son because comics everybody) tried to buy out Tony Stark's company to force him to make weapons again and once lead a bunch of heroes on an unsanctioned black ops mission he didn't tell them was unsanoctioned, that's a low bar to clear but manipulating other universers and basically telling Peter "When your 18 your ass belongs to me" before easing up into "Okay we'll just train you and stuff), he clears it.

He's more sympathetic here, clearly having grown a bit and thus is gentle with miles. While he's frustrated with miels just kind of nervously spouting off whatever, the humor in this book is really good and makes me question why Bendis is so awful at it not long after this, he's gentle asking if his parents want to let him know, letting him know he knows aaron was the one who gave him the spider.. and it turns out while Jefferson coudl've handled things better… yeah Aaron is an fbi wanted criminal not just a small time one so.. good call on keeping his son away. Or trying to anyway. Nick understands though: With great power comes great repsonsiblity. He also gets i'ts you know a child.

But naturally things can't go easy as Electro is under sedation..a nd the nurse gave him 10cc's instead ofa 100 meaning he's awake and pissed and starts rampaging through the triskelion, easily taking out iron man and hawkeye since… well Tony's suit runs on energy and Tony gets super cocky when facing electro instead of you know.. .readying a countermeasure, while Hawkeye.. didn't think to go get any arrows or equipment. EARTH'S MIGHTEST HEROES PEOPLE.

Jessica does slightly better but still gets jobbed out and Nick Fury, no matter the universe.. is still nick fucking fury and tries shooting him. It dosne't exactly work.. but ti's clear he's more trying to distract the guy and get his people clear than actually win. Unfortunately their in the chill of the night at the scene of a crime.. and while he may not be in a streak of light.. he's certainly arrived just in time

While obviously Miles isn't really on the skill level to beat electro normally, the combination of Electro thinking h'es peter and having a breakdown over it and a Venom Blast, the electricty thing hinted at earlier, powered punch get him weak enough for Nick Fury to play count the bullets with him. Electro is down and the next day Nick Fury says they'll talk.. and MIles finds out what that means that very conversatoin as jessica shows up with a new costume for him.

It's a nice parting and with that Miles now has his iconic costume, his one shot… and as Ganke puts it as his friend swings off having finally achieved his destiny

As you could probably guess I fucking love this arc and this run on the character in general. But this story well sets up who miles is, what the stakes are him for, stealthy sets up the big bad and miles first real threat for the next arc, and is an expertly crafted story about honroing legacy. While Into the Spider-Verse's story is mostly it's own, a LOT of the dna of who miles is was there at the start. As i've hinted at I do not like Brian Micheal Bendis, his writing took a hit and it was while writing several properties I loved with no regard for how to actually do that and he's only recently thankfully stepped away from the big two. But while he was there I can't deny he created two of the best spider-man runs of all time, one total if you count both spidey tenures together, and one of the best additions to spider-man period. Part of spidey's popularity is anyone could be behind the mask.. but this story made it a glorious reality, creating a spider-man just as compelling as one with a long storied history and tons of adaptations in 5 issues.

Will I return to Miles Story? Will you guys someday see what's up with his uncle, the country disolve, venom cost miles greatly, the rise of a new group of ultimates and so much more? Probably. When I can't say, that's up to either you guys to comission or me to fit into my schedule once this arc is done. But after reading this I was reminded how great this run was and how it deserved to be shared with webslingers all across the spider-verse

Next Time, we tackle our tritagaonist of this film series, as we look into the punkstastic origin of Spider-Woman, aka Spider-Gwen! Oddly not spider-punk, totally diffrent person we'll get to in that sequel I mentioned. Thanks for reading true beliviers.

[orangemocharaktajino]

Nozue - Old Fashion Cupcake - ISFJ

Si-dominant Fe-auxiliary Ti-tertiary Ne-inferior

Nozue is a single businessman who finds himself becoming acutely aware of his empty work-filled life coupled with his advancing age. He is consistent, modest, detail-oriented, polite, and practical.

His main conflicts revolve around being resistant to change / risk averse (Si), having low romantic confidence due to his view of himself as an “old man” who has resigned himself to a life of solitude because the time for that has passed (Ti?), not prioritizing his own personal desires (Fe), and caring too much about societal expectations (Fe).

At the beginning of the show we see that he has taken his daily routine to the extreme and his life has become a bit too predictable (Si).

Si-doms are focused on sensory details and like to compare previous experiences with current ones. They value incremental success and like to optimize their daily routines. Taken too far, this can lead to stagnation and  resignation or even pessimism about the future.

When we see Nozue thinking about the future, it’s usually in the context of him feeling the pressure of the new restrictions that he’s placing on himself because “that’s not what old men should do”.

Nozue has a long check list of all the behaviors expected of a man of his age and it stresses him out to do anything outside of what he thinks is appropriate, especially if (god forbid) other people are around to witness it. He also is afraid of being seen as unprofessional or rude so the fact that he starts having romantic feelings for his subordinate is super troubling to him.

We see him watching a news segment in the first episode about a restaurant and although he’s clearly interested, he isn’t willing to go because well--that would just be weird. What would people think?!

At the office, we see Nozue being a warm and supportive boss. ISFJs enjoy helping others and at work they often like to “save” people by helping them fix mistakes or being extra productive with menial tasks so nobody else has to do them.

 ISFJs don’t typically have much interest in aggressively climbing the corporate ladder. As bosses, they tend to prefer a mentor role. Although they value rules and regulations, they don’t care for conflict and they are typically understanding and accommodating of others.

ISFJs are tactful but they tend to be straight forward with people they’re comfortable with.

Nozue fantasizes about a life where he is free from his obligations. Who is the most free? Young girls apparently. They do everything he doesn’t allow himself to, after all.

What he’s not expecting is for his coworker Togawa (INTJ?) to come along and push him out of his comfort zone and say “okay, yeah, let’s do all that stuff. It will be good for you and keep you from going senile. Plus, who cares if it’s not socially acceptable because we’re just roleplaying here”.

For all of Nozue’s concerns, Togawa has solutions in spades and Nozue ends up begrudgingly going along with it because well, he does have a point.

He initially is resistant when Togawa suggests pretending to be girls by taking selfies together but after a moment he can’t resist the urge to pull out his dinosaur of a flip phone and snaps a picture (of Togawa only).

Fe-users love to back a good consensus

When it comes to actually dabbling in some girl-talk about love, Nozue breaks character immediately.

Not only does Togawa push him to try new things in the name of anti-aging therapy, he also completely clocks all of his deepest fears and lays the cold hard facts out for him. Togawa has had a crush on Nozue for a while so he’s been sitting back, observing, and analyzing the situation.

Nozue starts to initiate some conflict in response but he can’t go through with it.

He eventually eats the pancakes and loves them. Hey, maybe trying new stuff is fun sometimes.

Over reliance on Si paired with some catastrophizing through inferior Ne.

Well damn, I was planning on doing this through the whole series but I only got through one episode and it’s already so long. Oops.

To be continued because I have a lot to say about this apparently.

[lulullia]

Lyphuriaa Progress Report #1

Well, it's been a long while since my last post, because since then I've been in input – or learning – mode and spent my days absorbing information on my favorite topic: storytelling.

Before that, I was really creatively blocked, unable to do anything but stare at the screen trying to get my body to f-ing move and start drawing, writing, or coding – with little success. And so, in the process of searching for stuff to consume and kill time with, I remembered a favorite, huge resource I had already started reading but needed to finish, and that's how I ended up switching to input mode.

Lesson learnt: sometimes, if you're blocked and taking breaks doesn't help, it may just be because you're trying to output when you're really in need of input. That can take the form of inspiration (like browsing Pinterest or going back to a favorite book/movie/game…) but also actual education (like an online course or book, articles and videos on the topic, etc).

And sure enough, as I was expanding my knowledge on storytelling, I couldn't help but go and apply that to my current projects. I'll summarize the progress made on Lyphuriaa (or more like massive problem-fixing), and also share the two amazing resources I've been binging at the end, if you're making stories too!

Bird's eye view on the plot

For the longest time, Lyphuriaa was mostly in my head, and the plot was nothing more than "Lulu's life". That's because I started imagining it when I was a kid, and so it was never properly structured the way a story ought to be. Almost exactly a year ago, I realized the problem and started fixing it, cutting the boring parts, beginning the story at a more exciting point, changing up variables…

The result was already something that felt way more like I'd enjoy reading it myself, more mature and cohesive, but it still very broken structurally. It's only these past few weeks/months that I really started digging deeper and fix the core.

The core being, of course, the three basic components of a story – the Story Goal, the Protagonist (person pursuing the goal), and the Antagonist (person in opposition to the goal being achieved). Yeah, Lyphuriaa was that broken. Let's see how exactly, and then show the current fix.

The problems

The story goal was super fuzzy. I knew it was something along the lines of "taking back Lyphuriaa to rebuild it" but NONE of the characters, or events actually worked towards it. I also had no idea on the actual steps to fulfill it. Something fuzzy like "board airship or ship, fly/sail to the place, remove any stupid goons tryna stop you, plant flag, done! then epilogue showing the place rebuilt!" Plus, I didn't have enough details on the situation on Lyphuriaa (the place), like Why did it get abandoned if its people were literally genocided to take over the land? What's the situation outside Lyphuriaa – do the winners still have their eyes on it, don't care about it anymore, still claim ownership of the land? What about other countries? etc, etc.

The protagonists – Lulu and Vlad – are completely fleshed out as characters, but the problem was within their personal goals and motivations. If I just let them do whatever they wanted, they'd go live on a boat and sail the world, not "take back Lyphuriaa to rebuild it". I just struggled immensely to tie them to the "goal" somehow. That's part of the reason why none of the plot points worked towards the goal – the main characters don't even care about it. At some point I even considered the fact that maybe, they're not meant to tell this story, and that I should change either the goal or the protagonists.

That antagonists, well, they were almost non-existent. They're the least developed element. I just knew there was one group trying to get Lulu to use her unique power to open portals so that they could invade (a plotline that's now scrapped, because I figured a threat coming from inside the world is more interesting than one coming from outside, plus, I want Lulu to be special because of what she does, not what she's born with). And another group, the ones instigating the Lyphurian war, who don't want Lyphuriaa to be rebuilt again. And that's all I knew about the people who are supposed to bring as much conflict to the story as possible. Needless to say, they really did nothing throughout the story, it's as if they only woke up at the end when the cast finally set foot on Lyphuriaa, or something.

The glaring, glaring problem that took me a lot of time to spot, is the absolute lack of conflict. I had a 2k words outline of the story, but it was just about Lulu, Vlad and a few others going on about their life, smoothly. Then there were a few events that really had nothing to do with that, aka the "main plot".

Nothing is connected

I literally have a line saying, "somehow they find her father". Like, is it something that happens randomly (in which case it's lazy), or is it unimportant enough that we don't even need to show how it happens (in which case why keep it at all?), or it's supposed to be part of the plot (in which case why have the protagonists never even show a sign of wanting to do that)…?

"Somehow" is a red flag practically all of the time in storytelling, as it breaks consistency and believability. I know that in the outline, I wrote "somehow" as a shorthand for "this needs to happen and I have no idea how to connect it so I'm leaving it to you, future self :D" but even so it's a symptom of a larger problem underneath.

Literally the last bullet point of the whole outline: "I almost forgot that the story isn't Vladleen but Lyphuriaa. So I guess here be adventures to take back Lyphuriaa! yay!"

Random fluff adding dead weight

Another easier to fix problem was scenes or entire plotlines that were completely unnecessary to the story. As I said Lyphuriaa exists since my childhood and so, there were a lot of random stuff I added because I thought it was cool and I had no idea how to make a properly structured story, but that I never questioned when overhauling it. It's only when I realized that nothing is set in stone until I say so, and that I'm not bound by these boundaries just because they've been here a long time, sometimes even since the very beginning, that I started cutting stuff and, most importantly, change key parts to make them infinitely more interesting.

The scrapped plotline. The stuff about a virus, and Lyphurians having a special purpose, is scrapped too. Cutting such a huge part of the story led to literally no consequences, and felt so relieving.

Playing around with key variables

For example, I was under the assumption that Vlad can only come in later in the story and not the beginning, and that the Liance between him and Lulu can only happen waaay later when they start having feelings for each other. But one day I had this idea: what if we start the story at the point of their meeting, and have them be lianced right then and there, maybe even against their will?

And that's how one of the key moments in Lyphuriaa was born, bringing a ton of conflict and interesting situations and characterization with it to the table that could never have happened otherwise. Now both protagonists are on-screen right away (especially since Vlad is the most interesting out of the two at first), the Liance functions like a character arc for both of them because it's a problem they have to overcome, that results in a much more interesting relationship than just lovers, and is also an interesting concept to explore right off the bat that can play a part in hooking the reader, and on and on. All of that just from changing two variables.

Yeah, I write a lot in my notes. It's helpful to order my thoughts in the present, and leave a trace of the past for when I find it again in the future.

The fixes

This is getting very long, I wonder if you'd prefer if I split posts like these in parts…

The story goal – thanks to some adjustments and lots of inspirations from the resources below, I could finally find a goal that is similar to what I had in mind, but also agrees with the protagonists and antagonists. Even though I'm presenting this as three bullet points, the truth is, it's all interconnected and should be worked on as a whole, not just one at a time. So, now the main goal of Lyphuriaa is, "to (re)build a place where all Lyphurians can call home". It's not only clearer, but also more personal, and ties in perfectly with the theme of the story (finding the people you belong with – whose side you can call home).

The protagonists now have proper motivations and goals that align with the story goal! They became tied to it way more naturally, plus it connects with the theme again and provides conflict: Lulu is a Lyphurian, and because of her species' defining traits simply cannot feel like she belongs amongst Vampires and other people. Even better, she doesn't feel safe. Lyphurian blood is a luxury for Vampires, their horns valued products, and their glowing skin scare people away (especially since most people aren't aware of the existence of Lyphurians; they may be ghosts for all they know). And thus, coupled to something else that is spoilers, she sees Vlad as the perfect opportunity to stand up for her people and make a place where they can feel at home, together (Vlad has money and means). And what better place for this if not their original homeland? (The only issue still left is to tie Vlad into this as well, I already have an idea for this that also ties into the theme of finding home that needs tweaking, but it's spoilers too so I'll leave it at that.)

The antagonists… are still the least developed, but at least now I'm clear on who are the antagonizing groups, and what's their goal so I can build what they'll do on top of that. I still need to go closer and build them as individuals and give them a personal stake. What's certain is that I want them to be smart and unpredictable, playing an intense game of "who is actually one step ahead the other?" with the protagonists. They are active, just as active as their enemy. There are also a couple other surprise major characters that don't fit in either category, but will stir trouble in trying to achieve their own personal goals – aka pushing the story forward.

You can see the difference, now the story is packed with conflict and potential for conflict everywhere. It's starting to take the shape of one intense ride! There are a ton of little tweaks that improve the story overall, here's a few…

Everything is interconnected

Sharp contrast to how it was before, now every event serves a purpose in either the main plot or in major subplots (I took the time to clearly lay out the different plotlines, that's what the very first image is about; each "row" is one plotline). Not only that, but each character has a link to the main plot, or at least thematic relevance.

The side-character I'm most excited about is Ava, Lulu's bestie. It's through her that a lot of Vladleen's relationship is brought out, because these two mostly don't need to actually talk, they can just send brain signals. Ava is the kind of person who has no filter, can't read the room, but can easily spot subtle differences around her. Kinda hard to explain, but she does a good job of getting Vladleen to show themselves to the reader. Plus, she's gonna be the center of a very big choice (aka conflict) both Vlad and Lulu will have to make, you could say the ultimate choice that will show who they truly are, what they care about more than anything else (and thus ties into the theme as well).

Little preview of this energetic and fun character~

More playing around with variables

As I was reading up on the resources mentioned before, key points of the story kept getting challenged. Long-lost heir to a throne as a plot twist? Check. Heir characterized only by their blood? Check. Mentor who comes take said heir and push them forward themselves instead of letting her walk by herself? Check. Protagonists only acting after antagonist strikes, and never before? Check. Mentor keeping key info secret for no reason? Check.

That's a lot of hidden clichés I was aware of but thought I had added enough uniqueness to them, and I'm glad the articles made me see them in their true form and their bad consequences. So I took all of those and more and switched variables around.

The most important change was a set of tweaks to Lulu and her "heritage". She not only isn't a good fit to be a ruler, but also doesn't want to rule (remember when I said the MCs didn't care about the goal?). I didn't have any specific reason as to why her bloodline was special and why it had to be the ruling one. All of this made her into something I really didn't like: a person defined by what she was born with, not by her actions. She would have never been on this path if she didn't have this blood and powers. I don't know if you can see it but, it all feels like her actions are determined by her blood; she would have always made the same choices even if circumstances were different; she doesn't have free will. And when you know that protagonists' most important role is to make choices… Well.

So the first thing I did was dig into the bloodline's origin, which made me realize that if that's how it originated, then there should be more than one family with the same special characteristics, not just one. Just this change implies so much: the bloodline alone doesn't give you a right to the throne anymore, and Lulu can just rally her people and lead them to the goal, and step down then; Lulu is no longer the only one who can unseal Lyphuriaa, if there are other families, and thus her decision to do so anyway comes from inside her and not outside; imagine the amount of exciting stuff (aka conflict) that can happen with having other bloodline members around!!! and so much more.

Lulu getting back her agency to do what she wants is the highlight, though. I remember reading/watching a pretty long manga/anime (won't say the name to not spoil) where at the end it's revealed that everything that happened, only happened because a higher entity kept resetting time until they got the course of events that they wanted to see. It truly made the whole thing meaningless, just like "it was all a dream!" endings, it means the characters never earned anything by themselves, they're just puppets; I want to avoid that at all cost.

As much as I'd like to keep writing, I think I've covered the most important parts; this is long enough as it is.

Zeroth draft

Alright, I'm done talking about the plot changes, here's something more concrete: I think I'll participate in Camp NaNo this july to get a "zeroth draft" started.

Basically, that's a draft before the first draft. It's not meant to be the first stage of the final product, but something more meta before it. I have no pressure to make it make sense; I just write with what I currently have and improvise to fill in the gaps. What I actually write can range from detailed description of the action, to one-line scenes such as "here they fight". A barebones text that I can then use to make the actual first draft, later.

This is all because, for the longest time I thought I was a planner, but it turns out I may actually be a pantser, discovering the story as I write it. So I want to put that theory to the test and write like a pantser during Camp NaNo. I really, really want to write this story.

Here's a link to my NaNoWriMo profile, where I set myself a goal of 20k words for this month. I have no idea whether it's big or small, we'll see. (feel free to add me if you write too.)

This post took me a whole day to write, but I had fun summarizing these past months' progress. I also really want to try out animating a scene, and coding a prototype with it, but I'll make a post about that when I have something to show.

If you made it this far, I thank you sincerely. I know that people who enjoy long-form content aren't extinct, but it's getting harder to find them. Reblogging and sharing helps, but a simple like can let me know it's reaching some people at least c:

Storytelling resources

Two big resources that pack a ton of valuable advice and storytelling principles.

Limyaael literary rants – about 400 individual essays, mostly geared towards fantasy. Helped me improve my story in so many ways, and I'm still halfway through it. Start from the beginning, everything is useful.

Filmento – an absolutely incredible channel, each of his videos feel like a university-level lecture on storytelling and sometimes cinematography. The video is separated into clear points, always taking example from a movie, so you can see it in action, and it's super engaging and funny to boot. Most of the stuff applies to stories in general, don't let the word "movie" scare you! See his "Film Perfection" and "Anatomy of a Failure" playlists especially.

Taking notes is a must, if I had read/watched through all of these without taking notes it'd have been a monumental waste of time since I'd have forgotten all of it. Also, it's not enough to take them, if you can't find them later, be it tomorrow or in a year (looking at you, people who take notes in Youtube comments).

My Obsidian vault has close to 1,000 individual notes, and in 99% of the time I can find any note I need in less than 5s, even if I don't remember the note's title, because I have so many different ways to search for it. So find yourself a tool that helps you use your notes, not just create and forget them.

After only a few days of reading/watching, when I came back to my story's beginning that I previously thought was perfectly fine, I could 1) immediately spot problems and 2) immediately know how to fix them. Literally, I'm tempted to say that's all you need to learn storytelling in-depth.

Enjoy!