#but as a character (which is to say: 'a tool of storytelling') he's kinda weak

[gamebunny-advance]

Hm.

I think one of Kliff’s worst qualities as the “number 1 fan” is that he really doesn’t “geek out” that much.

Call it cliché, but I feel like if you’re gonna have a character that’s a self-proclaimed "biggest fan”, then you’ve gotta show them geeking out at least once. Kliff doesn’t *really* have a scene like that. We kinda get that when he’s reminiscing about Kul Fyra to Mayday after she properly geeks out, but Kliff’s whole lecture really isn’t a geek out so much as it is recalling fond memories. It’s just too sentimental to sell the idea that he’s as obsessive as he turns out being.

I get that he’s supposed to be “mature” or whatever to contrast with the “childish” Mayday, or how maybe he’s trying really hard to repress that side of his personality, but I think just one or two “cracks in the facade” would have done a lot for his character. Something like B2J making an off-hand comment and he starts fangasaming about it, but he stops mid-sentence when he realizes what he’s doing. Ya know, little moments like that.

Like, the dude doesn’t even have a single band sticker on his tablet, and you want me to believe that he’s such a big fan of rock that he helped orchestrate the takeover of an entire city?

[heinzpilsnergonewild]

Vegeta’s Character Analysis Looooooooooong Read

Oh my, what can I say? I just really love to write long essays in a language that isn’t even native to me, lol.

Well, nobody’s perfect, I guess. ... Were you expecting a Cell joke here? I may not be perfect, but that doesn't mean I have to be that predictable.

Ahem, anyway.

This isn't exactly a psychological analysis of the character - more like, hmm, a storytelling analysis. Or something in between, really.

You may not find anything fundamentally new in this text, but I definitely had fun writing it, haha.

It's mostly amateur. I have a useless psychology degree, but not a literature one.

My classic rant about vegebul fics is included, of course.

Summary: proper psychological analysis requires a single continuous personality, which Vegeta simply doesn’t have.

The more I think about Vegeta, the more I come to the conclusion that he is only pretending to be a consistently evolving character.

In fact, he's a bit like 10 different characters in one, which abruptly replace each other (and that's without considering the difference caused by the voice actors’ approach and the changes in his looks). Essentially, Vegeta's a collection of disparate images, arbitrarily lined up by Toriyama and hastily glued together. And the beginning of this line is so far from the end of it that these two extreme images cannot be perceived as belonging to the same person. Well, because human psychology just doesn't work that way.

(Not that Vegeta is unique in this respect – it’s a common feature of characters in long stories that authors compose as they write. Still, his case is quite extreme and interesting as example.)

I mean, take Vegeta in the Saiyan or the Namek arc. He's a complete psychopath. He clearly doesn’t suffer at heart from the unnecessary violence (as, for example, Guts from Berserk). His behavior looks like something natural for him, not an unhealthy defensive reaction. He enjoys it, he smiles happily, killing and torturing weak innocent people. And such a degree of psychopathy is not something that can be healed by a couple of deep personality crises or years of peaceful family life. Vegeta's redemption arc works through strong emotional impact and forgetfulness of the audience, but makes very little sense when viewed in retrospect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps the biggest, hmm, splitting of the personality occurred with Vegeta right after the Namek arc. Toriyama had already made a small retcon of the character’s motives before (to include Vegeta in the context of the Freeza army after the Saiyan arc), but it didn't feel that drastic.

You see, until Vegeta was invited to Bulma’s house…..

(Gosh, Toriyama, you could’ve done it more subtly, really. Vegeta killed Yamcha, threatened to kill Bulma, gutted Zarbon in front of her eyes, slaughtered an entire Namekian village... Oh well.)

…Ahem, anyway, right up to Bulma's invitation, Vegeta looked to me like a character who, hmm, has a life of his own? I mean, you have always felt that his motives and behavior were generated by the bizarre social system, not related to the little world of Goku and his friends. Simply put, Vegeta was a natural product of the big space civilization, an organic part of it. His whole personality was formed by it, all his plans, motivation and ambitions were associated with it. And although in the Saiyan arc, he gave the impression of an independent entrepreneurial chief at the head of a small hierarchy, in the Namek arc it was revealed that Vegeta is actually far from independent. He lost his throne and his people, he was in slavery to the tyrant all his life, and wants to take power for himself. So, his social background and the motives caused by it post factum get much more complex. But in short, Vegeta wanted a highest possible position in the hierarchy he knew. In this way, he was… social? His belonging to the Saiyan race was only a small (although important) part of the overall picture. Because the Saiyans were dead, but the Freeza Empire was alive.

But when Toriyama realized Vegeta's popularity and decided to keep him in the story after Namek, it came as a blow to the character's personality. Apparently, the author simply couldn't come up with an elegant way that could keep the character in all its complexity around, and therefore did a very clumsy thing. He roughly cut Vegeta out of his social context and almost forcibly glued him to the main character group like a poorly done appliqué. But although you see rough edges and glue drips, the story moves on rapidly, distracting you with Freeza and Future Trunks, and you don't stop to think about what happened. This is how, almost imperceptibly, Toriyama changed Vegeta's motives (and, consequently, the basis of his personality). Yes, Vegeta's saiyan pride was also significant part of his character previously, but when it became his sole and central motivation after Namek, you feel like a very big and important piece of him has been arbitrarily cut off. This wouldn't have happened if Toriyama had followed the logic of previously established social motives, rather than his desire to make Vegeta a convenient figure. Now, bound hand and foot by the author, the character is forced to behave as the plot requires.

Still, all this can be justified by the fact that Vegeta experienced a deep emotional shock as a result of death, which forced him to rethink his life priorities and wait for Goku (especially in the manga, where he just lived with Bulma for a whole year after Namek, without even trying to use dragonballs) ... And then he waited for the androids (despite the final death of Freeza and his father, which was an excellent chance to try to take over the decapitated empire). Anyway, this rationalization doesn't negate the fact that the character, as a result, has lost a significant part of the fire that he demonstrated in the Namek arc. His new energy, the energy of obsession with surpassing Goku, turns him into a new character – bitter, marginalized and focused on training.

(Ironically, the very splitting that made him a less attractive character in my eyes allowed vegebul to take place. After all, imagining the romantic relationship of the nice Bulma and Vegeta at the height of his villainous ambition is really difficult. That just would be a psychologically implausible story.)

In the Android and Cell arcs, after brief glimpses of the SSJ superiority, Toriyama turned Vegeta into a plot tool, whose personality flaws he could use to spoil the situation favorable for the heroes. As a result, Vegeta continued to be an angry and unhappy character who has lost most of his charisma, but on top of that, he also started to be really annoying. ... Still, also kinda amusing thanks to his truly impressive inability to draw obvious conclusions from the ego bruises he gets.

(If you ask me, the character's biggest contribution to the Cell arc was to ignore the existence of condoms, lol. Although strictly speaking even it was an achievement of Future Vegeta (RIP). But seriously, Vegeta's relationship with Trunks turned out to be one of the few things that I was really interested in about this part of the story.)

And then there was Goku’s death and the 7-year-gap. ... At the end of which Vegeta still didn't look like a happy man who has found his place in the world. Even though he had seven whole years (and a spaceship) to change something. I mean, this is the case when it'd be logical to expect changes in the character, but for some reason they didn't really happen (or they did, but veeery quietly and unstable). I mean, Vegeta trains with Trunks, yes. And he's married to Bulma now, apparently (which we learn only at the end of the arc though). And he hasn’t killed himself yet, which means that he sees some meaning in his existence. Hurray, I guess?.. The problem is that when we first see Vegeta after the timeskip, he keeps walking around with such a sullen expression, as if Goku had died just yesterday. (Remember Vegeta in the Saiyan arc? He smiled quite often. For the wrong reasons, but hey.) Basically, Toriyama tried to sit on two chairs at the same time here - 1) keep Vegeta as recognizable as possible (because he hasn't decided what to do with him yet) and 2) keep him around (which doesn't make sense for the character if he hasn't undergone significant changes during the timeskip). And the result of this hesitant approach is an undesirable effect - it feels as if Vegeta hasn't built a new life for himself all these years, but only waited for Goku to return.

As if the man is unable to evolve without Goku's influence. Until Kakarot does or says something, or is just around, everyone else in Vegeta's life and his own reflection has little or no meaning. Old social ambitions? His wife and child? New insights gained from life on Earth? Pffft. Goku is able to destroy the seven years’ worth progress (no matter how small it may seem) in one day, and at the same time, one fight with him is enough for Vegeta's character development to jump forward explosively. It sounds like a solid ground for shipping, but In fact it’s just a direct consequence of the author's poorly chosen narrative structure.

The thing is, Toriyama tend to avoid romance and slices of life, and shows Vegeta's personality mainly through fights and their consequences. And at the time Goku just turned out to be the only significant character for Vegeta, the fight against whom could be used as an excuse to develop the character in front of the audience. Well, Toriyama couldn't get Vegeta to fight Bulma or himself, you know.

I believe that the plot structure chosen by the author (rapidly changing action events immediately after a long timeskip) is not a very good basis for a redemption arc. For a good redemption, a character had to have screen time during which small changes accumulate gradually, between the big points. And Vegeta simply didn't have it. Besides, the scheme by which Vegeta develops is really messy. Because at first, Toriyama kinda froze his development at the neutral point (thereby partially devaluing the influence of Vegeta's family on him). Then in one moment, the author abruptly reversed even this the-end-of-the-Cell-arc development with Majin Vegeta (this time completely devaluing the family factor, because the betrayal was Vegeta’s conscious decision). God, how I hated the Majin Vegeta idea. And in the next scene, the author made a quick retcon, which gave the family’s influence the status of a ground for Vegeta’s personal growth again for no apparent reason. It's as if a huge bundle of family values was post factum squeezed into the character in defiance of everything that we just saw with our own eyes. This is a complete narrative mess.

But... oddly enough, Vegeta's redemption still manages to work, and work spectacularly. My guess is that it's because by that time the audience is already SO sick of Vegeta, frozen in his bitter anti-heroism, that it desperately wants the author to finally do something new with the miserable guy. Well, at least get him out of his misery. So people are willing to accept it in any possible form.

... And the author chose the form of a powerful emotional catharsis. The explosion was legendary, haha.

I don't even know if this is a good reason to call Toriyama a genius (after all, he found a very clever way out of a difficult situation, in which he found himself thanks to his own bad decisions.)

The only thing I'm sure of is that despite everything I was very sad because of Vegeta's death. I didn't even realize that I had become emotionally attached to this asshole until he made such a spectacular exit, lol. As if something had broken inside of me, and all the analyticity of my mind couldn’t prevent it. I was surprised when I found myself crying really hard - usually my emotions don't reach this level due to fictional stories. (Well, maybe it was due to the fact that my own father was dying of cancer at that time, and the moment just triggered my emotions. ... Oops, it seems a little too personal, doesn't it? Well, at the end of the day, this fact is an integral part of my unique dbz experience. Come to think of it, in dbz, fathers die regularly).

But while this scene greatly affects emotions and forces a new viewer (or reader) to truly reconsider their attitude towards the character for the first time, the absence of a neat gradual movement towards this moment weakens its influence somewhat.

At this point, Vegeta’s character splits once again (perhaps the last time within DBZ). You simply cease to understand who this man really is and who he was before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, when I look at all the images of Vegeta in general, I come to the conclusion that I like this character the most in the first two arcs and in the end of the last arc. Two directly opposite moral poles.

(Funny enough, because my initial reaction to Vegeta and Nappa was annoyance: "Well hello, the next stereotypical villains who like to chat and laugh maliciously instead of simply killing their victims." (Still, against the background of Freeza, Vegeta turned out to be a much lesser evil in every sense, haha). You see, usually I'm not a person who likes villains. Basically, I only distinguish such characters from others as a result of romance or redemption. It’s only after that I begin to see aesthetics in their villainous charisma as well.)

And now, in retrospective, I believe that at the beginning of the story Vegeta is at the maximum of his vitality and charisma. Especially compared to his ever-crisis moody version (who supposedly lives happily with a loving family). In the Saiyan arc, he's objectively the most powerful character (Freeza didn’t even exist in Toriyama's head at the time). Vegeta is domineering, playful and unpredictable, but most importantly - his self-confidence is fully justified. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. He's really in control. These are, if I may say so, quite exciting qualities in a man, haha. Even if he looks like an evil dwarf in stupid armor and bullies some weaklings. I'd even say his demeanor in the Saiyan arc (especially with the voice of early Horikawa) is suspiciously easy to translate into a sexual context (well, until he loses control and gets hysterical, lol).

The Namek arc, placing Vegeta in a broader context, somewhat spoiled his original image (after all the big words, it turned out that he was running errands for Freeza all this time), but gave him a more interesting background and a strong drive. He had ambitions and a socially significant goal, and he actively and passionately fought for them against a clearly superior enemy. In addition, his inability to defeat Freeza by brute force forced him to use his brains from time to time, and not just pull another power up out of his ass, as is now traditionally done in DragonBall. (Needless to say, I consider high intelligence to be one of the most attractive traits). All this made his position in the plot as interesting as possible. He literally sparkled with energy.

Well, we know what happened next. Brain Death, an eternal chase after Goku, and an off-screen family life on a backwater planet that Vegeta is supposedly happy with. Until he suddenly became a really beautiful character without a proper justification for this (well, at least the explosion was spectacular). Really, I like the general concept of redemption, and yet... the way Toriyama portrays it in the story just doesn't work convincingly enough for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another point I’d like to cover in this already too long essay ahhh I'm a monster is Vegeta’s personality in fanfiction.

Reproducing (?) Vegeta is a bit like playing with a lego set - his personality and behavior is always the result of a conscious reconstruction, which is based around a specific point on the long contradictory line. Depending on which end of the spectrum the chosen point is, the author is forced to shade facts related to the opposite end, or to give new context to Vegeta's past (or future) actions. It's always noticeable when the author extends the later, sympathetic Vegeta's image to an earlier segment of the story. Apparently, it's possible to kill the person who raised you (with an evil smile on your face) just because the situation was too stressful lol. Likewise, when the authors allow Vegeta to remain a charismatic psychopath, the story wouldn't work without ignoring some parts of the later canon.

(And, of course, there is always a "medium" type of Vegeta - Vegeta from the 3-year-gap, whose personality is almost entirely based on anime fillers. Yay, here comes the promised vegebul rant

Honestly, I'm pretty tired of this "gravity room exploded again woman grrr" type of Vegeta.

Because if you take the manga, we have no idea how Vegeta actually behaved with Bulma and her parents, what his training regimen was, and what he did in his free time besides unprotected sex. People elevate his rudeness and irrational self-torturing to the absolute because of all these filler patterns, but this is just one of the possible versions of the events and the character's behavior during this time (albeit partly canonical). But... there are also alternatives. There are smart Vegeta, curious Vegeta, civilized Vegeta. Honestly - I don't think Bulma would've married him later if there was nothing in his personality that’d make communication with him enjoyable. I mean, she's a rich modern woman, she doesn't need a husband just for convenience and Vegeta is a marginal freeloader anyway. And if we subtract good looks (which people often attribute to Vegeta) from the equation, then the idea that he has no interest in anything other than training and cannot maintain an interesting conversation becomes completely unconvincing. Toriyama clearly didn't attach much importance to the fact of their marriage, and generally avoided romantic scenes as if they were on fire (and, perhaps, did the right thing), but these two just had to be capable of adequate and mutually pleasant personal interaction in order to take this step.

In general, Toriyama's lack of attention to most aspects of the characters' lives other than fighting and training, on the one hand, can be considered a drawback of DBZ, but on the other, it creates a lot of room for fans' imagination. But not everyone uses it. Most authors generally repeat the same tropes over and over again and don't try to look at the three-year-gap from a new angle, although the canon provides all the possibilities for this. Because of this, fics in this genre often seem boring. But in fact, it's not the setting itself that is boring, but only dusty formulas in the heads of the authors.)

Ahem, so where were we?.. Oh yes.

Actually, Vegeta's inconsistency is a very handy character trait for the authors, as it minimizes the chance of accidental OOC. Indeed, it's quite difficult to make someone to behave out of character if he has many different canon versions of himself, lol. On the other hand, this leads to the fact that the character seems to... kinda disintegrate. You never see his whole face, because he simply doesn't have it. As a result, Vegeta turns into a mosaic that must be reassembled each time. And I keep staring at this crazy kaleidoscope like an idiot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, that's... quite a lot of contradictions in my relationship to Vegeta, haha. Still, life without contradictions would be somewhat boring, I guess.

Thanks for your attention I suppose?..... lol, as if someone really got to this point

The End.

P.S. 1: The antisocial version of Vegeta who doesn't understand stupid human rituals and hates crowds, but puts up with it for the sake of his family is my spirit animal, haha. This is just so damn relatable to my autistic personality. Maybe I'm an alien myself.

P.S. 2: Actually, my favorite dbz character is Piccolo. Yep.

[schrijverr]

The Media in a Quirk Society

An essay or more a thought piece about how the media adapted to the appearance of quirk. How genres changed and how the media influences and is influenced by society.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: none

~~~~~~~~~~~

Something that makes me so very curious is how media must have developed in the BNHA universe after the appearance of quirks.

We hear almost nothing of media other than the news within the universe itself. For now it escapes me if All Might Cartoons are actually mentioned in the show or something of fanfiction. But another fanfic phenomena are pre-quirk movies, aka movies of our time.

The latter is a thing we must agree on, since there was a time before there were quirks wherein movies were made. This also implies that the pre-quirk superhero genre has existed (think MCU or DC)

I want to examine how that must have changed with the appearance of quirks based of what we’ve seen in the show.

When we see the beginnings of a quirk society, we meet AFO, who rises in the chaos and especially the scene where he takes and gives a quirk stand out the most. Quirks weren’t excepted yet, especially visible quirks, while at the same time a quirk means power. We also know the hero profession rises here, because it was too much for just law enforcement.

So we have these components, which all make for really great stories… in hindsight.

After the fact there must have been many stories about a lone police officer, becoming a hero as he saw the force around him crumble. Or a weak person, suddenly developing a powerful quirk that helps them get out of an impossible situation. Or maybe even about someone who feels they are deformed and shunned from society by their quirk and how they overcome it.

But at the moment it was happening there was still a lot of resentment about quirks and people who had them.

When quirks first entered the stage, people who had them plunged the world into chaos or had to hide like the man who goes to AFO to get his quirk removed.

I can imagine that if movie productions could continue in those turbulent times they would focus on the normal guy, still fighting against a suddenly super-powered villain or a quirkist (as I shall refer to it) take on a person who gets a quirk and turns evil.

Or they might even ignore the whole quirk situation in general with a new genre that can be boiled down to ‘No Quirks – AU’ wherein the movie is based in pre-quirk times. This genre would have a lot of nostalgia at first, probably, trying to call upon how simple life was when villains weren’t terrorizing the streets and heroes were just a funny thing of TV.

Maybe it will develop later.

Maybe it will become how difficult it must have been back then with no simple quirk solutions to problems. It might even turn into a genre about invention, mostly, with a fascination in the public of how things that run on quirk-solutions now, could have been solved by a quirkless scientist in the before times.

But back to the developing genre that is set the BNHA real world. Wherein quirkless people might have gotten a center stage in the early years, before quirks became so entrenched in society that quirkism developed against what used to be a majority.

I can picture a young Midoriya watching old movies wherein the quirkless protagonist was the hero against the evil quirks, telling himself that one day that could be him.

However, with the rise of heroes the media attention probably shifted.

The manga/anime describes it as ‘ordinary civilians with their own Quirks decided to take matters into their own hands to bring order to society, and thus the first "Heroes" appeared.’ as it says on the fandom wikia.

This shifts the narrative of quirkless hero against the chaos of quirks, to brave citizen stands up using the power they’ve been granted. Maybe they gave it religious undertones or maybe it was the story of taking the moral high ground and doing what was right for your country and neighbors.

In those early days you probably have more stories reflective of the pre-quirk fictional heroes, wherein the main character has to hide that they’re out there every night breaking the law to bring order.

It can be that at this time the narrative that the police is just the ‘villain taxi service’ starts to originate among bitter storytellers, who have seen the police fail where heroes did not. Though this would be more older filmmakers after this era is over, who start this. When heroes have become accepted, but they still remember how bad the police reacted before.

But on the topic of heroes becoming accepted, that must have been a civil right movement, a right that had to be debated with villains reflecting how bad an idea public quirk use could be.

You can see in the ‘Liberation War Arc’ how something like that could have played out and how it makes for interesting media entertainment as it is a story arc in our world, meant to amuse. Mixed with the fact that the first heroes created order in the chaos, there must be a ton of movies following activists or a hero not only having to fight the villains, but also the system.

And then over time heroes morphed into what they are now.

Hero became a profession and quirks the norm. After a while, just focusing on quirks got less interesting and using quirks as just a backdrop became more interesting.

Sure, you still had the hero genre and with actual figureheads these can range from documentaries to inspired by real life movies or just fictive fights with characters that are obviously based off a real hero or just the real hero. Especially when heroes became depended on their popularity, there must have been plenty that signed an acting contract in the hopes of getting their name and image out there.

With Midoriya’s comment about Todoroki having the backstory of a protagonist, it is clear that the hero genre is far from forgotten.

However, the “normal” genres also developed with society and with quirks becoming normal and no one truly aching for the before times, they must be set in the BNHA world we know.

The tropes we know (and maybe love) will get a new twist to fit this society or maybe disappear completely. New stereotypes and assumptions based off quirks appear, even quirkism might become prevalent in media, teaching kids that those without quirks are freaks or weak and weird.

In my mind I picture a movie trailergoing “She has a water quirk, he has a fire quirk. Will they fall in love despite their different personalities?!?” or “When his family is murdered, he must track down the killer with only the quirk as clue. Will he find out what happened on that faithful day or will the path this sends him on be the last of him???”

The horror genre will also be transformed with the fear of people misusing their quirk being a big thing in society.

As for fantasy, this genre will change with super-powered people being the norm, you can have to get more creative to make it truly fantastical. World building, visually, will be more important to distinguish it from our world, creatures too since there are literally people with bird heads, for example, walking around.

Not to mention the potential of quirks being hereditary that can be used in dramas where the partner has cheated or as plot point as grant reveal of a main character being related to one of the antagonists or even in gang movies as them training together to use their quirks and them all being the same. That would make for a cool visual tbh.

Disaster movies also will be different than they are now. With protagonist who can have quirks that work against them in their situation or if it’s a more hopeful movie how they work together, piling together their quirks and other skills to survive.

And the crime genre will be so intrinsically tied to hero society and with the police being seen as kinda useless, it will be so different than how we know it now. Did crime become part of the hero genre? Is this a piece of cop propaganda left wherein the police tries to save their reputation? I don’t know, but I wanna think about it.

It’s just interesting to me how in a world where the super is normal, media has adapted and this has been keeping my mind busy over the past few weeks.

The transformation in society of quirks as something dangerous that needs to be stopped, to a few brave people standing up for what’s right to finally the commercialization of heroes so that they can keep doing their job.

You see these changes, that’s unavoidable.

Media is such a powerful tool and it’s hardly referenced within the source material (which I understand because there are already so many movingparts), but with the fall of hero society it is interesting how all that propaganda for heroes might disappear back to when quirks first appeared and how the cycle may start again.

~~

A/N:

There are probably so many genres and other stuff thatI haven’t considered, so tell me your thoughts about the media in BNHA!

((also I didn’t want to dive in how racism, homophobia, ableism will develop with quirks and notions people will have about them. It is important to think about, but I do not think that I am the right person to talk about it. If anyone does, tag me or comment the link, because I will 100% read it))

[bigskydreaming]

Y’know, I’ve posted before about how important it can be to survivors to be in charge of determining when they disclose what happened to them and to whom in what ways.....and thus how the trend of Dick’s ‘secret’ (what happened with Tarantula or Mirage or both) being found out by his family or friends despite his wishes or even his active efforts to keep it secret, and he’s forced to confront it and deal with all of them knowing before he’s ready and made any kind of peace with it himself, and this is often framed as being what’s best for him and its better now that everything’s out in the open and its like....no, that’s not how it works, you can’t FORCE people to recover on YOUR time table, and it happening in a way that gives them no agency or control over it is often a SETBACK instead of like....to their benefit, because while at its heart, disclosure is a relatively simple action, it can be hugely empowering to survivors because its the first time they’re able to definitively take what happened to them and DECIDE what happens next, to take back some of the CONTROL that was ripped away from them by the event and sent their life into a tailspin ever since.....

Ahem. Anyway. Like I said, y’know how I’ve posted before about....all of...well, that?

LOL.

Yeah, so anyway, I’ve been thinking lately about an ideal ‘counter-trend’ that I think could add so much to the view of these parts of Dick’s narrative and character and to discussions about them....and it also IMO is one of the most likely and in character ways that Dick WOULD be likely to disclose what happened to him and make it known to family or friends.....WHILE letting him retain full personal agency over making that choice HIMSELF, for his OWN reasons....

And that’s like.....letting them all find out because Dick makes the personal decision to open up about that to a survivor or recent victim he sees struggling in the aftermath of their own assault. 

Exposing his own vulnerabiltiies and hurt in order to HELP someone, to make something from his own pain, which is one of the key ways IMO that Dick tends to his own trauma and recovery.....using what happened to him as an opportunity to better help others, be there for them, connect with them and give them an easier time of it or more tools to help in their own recovery than he’d had himself. When he’s able to say and do the things a victim really needs to here right then and there, because he’s been there himself and he’s just saying or doing what he wishes someone had said or done for him but hadn’t known at the time he needed or wanted or even had someone available to ask even if he were able to.

I’d love to see a Dick Grayson who finds the strength and will to open up about his own secrets and traumas even if it means people close to him finding out and maybe pitying him (which he hates and I think is one of the primary reasons he doesn’t tell people when something bad happens to him oif he can help it) - and who does so because its the strength someone needs from him in that moment, and Dick’s personal call to heroism is the need, the drive, to be what someone needs in order to save them if its at all within his capabilities. That’s why he’s a hero: he doesn’t know how to NOT intervene in a situation where he knows his unique talents and skills could help protect or defend someone, save them from pain or loss or dying. He doesn’t WANT to know how.

Gimme a Dick Grayson who swallows down his fears, straightens his shoulders and defiantly tells his primal reptile brain “Fuck his secrets” - he couldn’t save this person from having this thing happen to them, but he can still be a kind of hero to them, for them, by CONNECTING with them, revealing that even he, a bonafide SUPERHERO, can and has been hurt that way, and it sucks and its painful and it wakes him up sometimes in the middle of the night, but he’s still here, he’s still the person HE chooses to be, someone who still laughs and cries and has friends and goals and dreams and bad days but good days as well....show me him being their own personal superhero by cutting straight through the shit their own demons try to convince them of - that this is their fault or they deserved this or it wouldn’t have happened if they were stronger, smarter, BETTER - because when freaking Nightwing, son of the Batman and leader of the Titans and someone superheroes the world over speak of in glowing terms....

When THAT guy looks you straight in the eye and tells you none of that is true, that he knows this because it happened to him too, and it had nothing to do with strength or weakness or deserving it or wanting it......its a HELL of a lot easier to believe coming from him. To internalize. To take in and make a mantra in your head that you can summon forth to remind yourself of whenever doubts start to sneak up on you again. That you can call to mind whenever you have a PTSD flashback or a panic attack - that memory of him standing tall and strong  even as he relayed his own story of being struck low, and offering you a hand to help you up when he saw you trapped in a place he recognized, a labyrinth he’d found his own way out of. 

That image of him smiling at you with no trace of the pain you’re feeling now, or so much as a hint of judgment or pity as he’d said:

“I get it. I was there once too, lying right where you are now and unable to even imagine a day when I’d be able to stand up again. But in time I did, so I could be here when you needed me to be, when you needed a hand extended from just the right height and not an inch higher. Something for you to grab onto and just use to steady yourself as you regain your feet and stand on your own, rather than a puppeteer dragging you upright by unwilling strings, legs extended but still completely incapable of supporting you on their own, ensuring dependency on that puppetmaster to prop you up from behind and move your limbs the way they think they should be moving as tell themselves they helped.” 

“Maybe so I could be here keeping you company when you’re afraid to be alone, or just be here to be a mirror until you’re ready to face someone and look them in the eye.....a mirror in whose reflection you see your past behind you, and a glimpse of a possible future, one with hope. One with joy. With good days as well as any bad ones, and confidence and security in yourself and your ability to stand on your own.” 

“Maybe so I could be here when you need someone to stand beside you when you’re ready to face society again, so you don’t have to depend on the kindness of strangers whose faces only reflect a pity for your past, their eyes always straying to where they expect to see it anchored around your ankle like an albatross that will only ever let you rise so high, never able to venture further from it than that anchor’s chain will allow.'” 

“Or so I could be here when you need a guide who’s familiar with this road and has walked it before, can help you navigate the hidden dangers a little more safely, head in the right direction a little more confidently. Or maybe you could use a comrade in arms to back you up when you’re in the thick of that struggle, that personal war that countless others have fought their own versions of before. Each of them knowing just how hard it is and how fiercely you have to fight just when it feels most hopeless. And many of whom are ready and willing to return to the fight and battle alongside you if that’s what you need instead. Like people say, there’s strength in numbers....and there’s also strength in others’ stories of their own past victories, in knowing that people before you have won that war or found some measure of peace somewhere away from the battlefield, that its happened before and it can happen again, maybe even to you. Or hearing in their tales inspiration for your own tale of triumph, and even just a single flickering thought, there and gone in a single moment but still there, still counting....of an After where you could someday be one of the storytellers giving someone strength with your own.”

No matter how simple or eloquent the words he uses, even the prettiest words only have as much substance as the actions behind them. Anyone can say those things, anyone can coach you to say those things to yourself, but believing them is another story entirely. And if that belief isn’t there yet, won’t come when you call.....when you’re not quite ready to believe in yourself again - well, that’s when having a hero to believe in can come in quite handy.

And if you need a hero to believe in? To believe when he says he’s been where you are and where he is now is where you could be someday too....its hard to do better than Nightwing.

(This is where things kinda got away from me and turned into a very experimental thing I didn’t intend to write or realize I was writing until I finished it and I’m still not entirely sure what exactly it is. Oh, me.)

Because Nightwing flies, he soars. No matter how low a depth he launches himself from, there’s very few who can claim to ever rise to his highest heights. 

They say he’s the first Boy Wonder, the laughing sprite in brilliant red and green and yellow that stood out in stark contrast to the violent backdrop of Gotham’s darkest nights. A human light source, a mortal star that shone so brightly he powered a whole city’s hope for the future by himself - a singular focus for an entire population’s belief in the strength and power and spirit of youth. Standing at the very forefront of the heroes of tomorrow, first out of even their initial vanguard, the frontrunners who unrepentantly choose a headstart to saving the world and race into the future’s unknown dangers and uncertainties well ahead of the starting gun. Even among his own peers, he was the one to launch the opening sally, to rally the others to arms, all by pitching his flag in Gotham of all places. 

The first shots of the war for the future were fired in a city famous for its dead. And its’ Dark Knight’s famous antipathy to guns aside, it was his brightly laughing Robin who pulled that particular trigger. Oddly fitting, despite any initial bemusement that might raise - its those trapped in the darkest of places who need the brightest lights if they’re going to see which way they should go.

(There’s a kind of tragedy in how few will ever truly know what a fitting champion for Gotham he’d turn out to be. The worst of its villains tried to claim the hallmarks of childhood, of joy - of circuses and spectacles for his calling card. And in turn, it was a joyous child straight out of the circus who would return those to their rightful owners. Who made a hero’s covenant with an unsuspecting city the first time he stood in some forgotten alley helping up an almost victim who will never know the significance of it being the first time that boy refused to let their brush with violence be the last and most vivid memory they carried on from that night, and so who instead provided something unexpected, something memorable, something powerful - the strange miracle of a child laughing in the same shadows that only minutes earlier had hidden terrible dangers, proof positive that no matter what horrors the dark corners of Gotham hide.....there can be joy and happiness and laughter found in those same places too.

The Joker may have laughed first, taking something good and warping and twisting it into a celebration of sadism....but its the children of Gotham who will laugh last.)

But this is about the credentials of Nightwing, when offering comfort to survivors. About proof of the power backing up his words when he extends a hand and says this too shall pass.

Because Nightwing is who that boy became, grew into, the shape that promise of the future poured itself into on the day that future finally arrived. Who made himself a hero even among heroes, the Pygmalion of his own inspiration, that he in turn passed on down the line. A brand-new mythology born into a world that thinks mythologies only belong to the dead; a creation story that just so happens to double as Gotham’s ultimate success story: 

Once upon a time, a monster murdered a child’s parents and innocence with a single vicious blow. That alone would definitively see to this being shelved among the Tragedies - but its not in Gotham’s nature to resist an opportunity to double down. Thus rather than help him find a new happy ending, the champions of justice who claimed to have ridden to his rescue instead just dropped him into the worst of Gotham’s filth; no way out in sight, even upon the most distant horizon. 

And even when Gotham’s own darkest of angels (the only kind she’d allow past her gates) even when the Batman himself reached a hand down to help lift him out, the boy chose to stay down there at his side each night instead. Because there were others stuck in the swamp still, see. Others not so different from him. Why should he hide behind clean, austere walls when he had two hands that could help lift others out just as well? And he waded through the endless swamp for years without ever letting it drag him down. Slogging determinedly through it no matter how hard it made it to keep lifting his feet. 

They say back then he was so small, even the smallest wave in that sea of corruption should have crashed far above his head rather than breaking upon him like a shore. Should have drowned him in Acheronian waters of wailing and woe with even just the sheer weight of their vastness. But he just kept forging his way forward, as if it were the Styx and the river’s violence only made him stronger instead. He was so tiny, they said, he should have succumbed to being dragged down to its depths by a Gotham that tried to sing him into eternal sleep like it was a siren with a repertoire of lullabies. 

By all accounts, the boy Robin who seemed to have sprung forth fully formed from Batman’s shadow, already a warrior ready to wage war from the moment of his birth - he was a paradox, a contradiction to himself. The figure they told stories of, the height they lowered their hands to when describing him with tales twice as tall as the hero in them....well. Gotham is a graveyard for bright lights, not the wellspring that births them. It should never have produced even a grimly avenging hero like Batman, let alone the cheerful champion at his side. By all rights, the Boy Wonder’s only destiny should have been to be another statistic lost in a war of attrition against Gotham’s signature entropy. One more casualty to its chaos as it inches ever closer to its own demise: an inevitable implosion of its own making, the serpent that eats its own tail.

But the wonder of the Boy Wonder is that despite all expectations, despite all logic, despite all the reasons his only fate should have been to fall....he grew up. Rose up. Flew to heights most lack the context to even dream of. He was another Icarus, one who’d learned nothing from the fate of the first; determined to fly even higher while everyone else cried warnings of already being high enough. But he was an Icarus the sun welcomed as a kindred spirit instead of a trespasser, rejuvenating him at the apex of each flight he made rather than burning the wax from his wings. 

He lasted...and that alone already made him a legend. From his first flight as Robin, everyone had expected his story to end as a mere cautionary tale. And slowly but surely Robin taught them to expect the unexpected.

(Not quite as fast as they could’ve, however. You’d think the citizens of Gotham would have taken a note from seeing their Robin live past even the longest odds that’d been laid against his longevity, bets made and never paid because he just wouldn’t die. But the stubbornness that keeps Gothammites rooted in Gotham is a double-edged sword. They made fresh bets when a new Robin took to the sky.....and again, most people defined “Robin” as an inevitable word of warning spoken to anyone who might follow  But if bookies called it a nightmare when the first Robin stayed alive and a success story from the city who hated seeing an underdog succeed, they ran out of ways to curse the second Robin when he proved that Robins can double down too, and screwed their bets all to hell. But after all, what did people expect? There’s no better sequel to the boy who refused to die, than the boy who died and refused to stay dead. But that too is another story entirely.) 

But in this story, the story of Robin the first - that story turned out to be just the first chapter. The Robin that sings Gotham into a new spring with nothing but his refusal to stop singing becomes the Nightwing who hunts with all the grace and strength of any bird of prey, both by day and all through the night. He’s the man that grew out of the seeds a Robin planted in the memory of his home, and then nurtured with his own light. Who blossomed thanks to roots that may have been transplanted from a far distant garden, but still took to new soil so vigorously, so firmly, it didn’t matter how much the city tried to wash away the ground beneath his feet......his footing stayed level and steady as he kept moving ever forward.

Year after year, head always held high - and only rising higher and higher as he grew taller with the passage of time. Making him all the more visible even to those further and further away, until finally he reached the end of the path he’d stuck to even through the roughest neighborhoods of a childhood done Gotham’s way. But the end of that road was no more an ending than the last page of Chapter One. 

Because where others might have seen a wall, Robin saw a springboard and the possibility of any number of new roads on the other side of that wall, just hidden from sight. And so he just stepped right up to it, on it, and he bent his knees and leaped into the air and flew. High enough and bright enough he could be seen no matter where you stood below. Free as a bird, with feathers who refused to be stained by the oil and garbage that Gotham tried to paint him with, every day of the childhood it had tried its hardest to knock him off his chosen course and force him down another path. With wings that had refused to be clipped, refused to get caught and trapped by deception, by corruption, by defeat. By whatever the city could find to throw at him in its attempts to stop him in his tracks, to keep him from going any further, or better yet, to turn him around and sent in the opposite direction. Because Gotham is a city who likes its stagnancy, likes its despair. Likes having a strong brand with a clear message for the rest of the world: that Gotham is the city where even hope goes to die. That you’d best abandon hope all ye who enter here, because the city will find some way to destroy any that gets smuggled across its borders anyway.

And Nightwing. Well. Nightwing is the the proof that Gotham is a liar.

Nightwing is their child hero Robin, the embodiment of youth’s hope and potential and self-determination, now reborn in a new image and with a new name. Gone to spread his light to a new city desperately in need of illumination, but never forgetting where he came from. Never flying so far away that he couldn’t swiftly make the return journey any time Gotham’s citizens needed him once more. Needed that bright and carefree grin to again shine defiantly through the shadows like a lighthouse that stands strong and sturdy and impervious through even the worst of storms. That stays on task as it tunnels through the darkness and makes its point of origin the light at the end of the tunnel for all in desperate need of one. Confident in its walls’ ability to remain unmoved by even the most vicious and violent winds throwing themselves bodily against them. Certain the ground beneath it will remain unshaken by any attempt to erode its foundation. Trusting the worksmanship that crafted the roof to keep the pounding rain shut out and nothing but an offbeat melody overhead. Powerless to douse the life-saving, hope-birthing, reliable, consistent light. 

Nightwing is a lance of light and the one hurling it like a javelin into the night, both at the same time, two parts in one. A brilliant spear that cleaves through any and all darkness, no matter how thick a blanket of it Gotham hurls over rooftops in its need to stamp out any and all light before anyone can see it and take hope. But in that it is its own undoing, because its been trying that trick since Nightwing was just a tiny little Robin, and every attempt to dial down that brilliance and reset it to dim - they’ve only ever prompted and spurred the Gotham-forged hero to shine all the brighter, refusing to be beaten down or snuffed out. 

(And his flight to a new city, a second city - well, that was probably always inevitable, in hindsight. After all, in the fullness of his realized potential, the mature wings of the Robin that was once just tiny little spark - now they spread too wide to be contained by a single city. Gleam with a brightness too blinding to be focused on just one city, especially one more accustomed to living in shadow.)

And whether he called Bludhaven or Gotham home, whenever Gotham was most lost, he was always right there and ready to light that lighthouse lamp the moment the sun goes down. Its guiding, inspiring, hopeful light leaping forth with that same youthful exuberance that had stayed the signature of their Robin through all the years he grew. A brilliant arrow fired from the bow of a champion taught by the best archer in the world how to always hit his mark....unfailingly burning through any fog and confusion that tried to get in the way of that fearless beacon shining on despite the vastness and inevitability of night. As it guided people through tempest-tossed waves, no matter how distant the shore. Remaining lit for as long as it took them to reach a safe port they could take shelter in and ride out the chaos. Weather it until it was safe to come out again.

If Gotham was a crucible, Nightwing was both the weapon it forged and the flame it fueled, the inferno it unleashed. If Gotham was the city where even hope dies, Nightwing was the hope so enduring, so willful, it simply....refused to die. If Gotham was a city of men and nightmares, Nightwing was the boy who learned to fly in defiance of all physics, all the reasons mere mortals were meant to stay earth-bound. All so that all his fellow mortals could point to him in the sky and say this. This is the reason we still dream of the impossible anyway. And yet he’s also the man who still held on to his dreams despite all the times and ways life tried to convince him that dreams are meant to fade in time, to grow distant and indistinct with age. That the death of dreams was a strength, that it was freedom...rather than the very things that once convinced a boy he could fly.

Because the impossible is simply possibilities that haven’t happened just yet. Something that is only unreal until the day someone or something does it first.

And then suddenly, it turns out it was possible all along.

That’s the truth behind any words he speaks, the reason they can’t help but ring as true in your ears when you’re face to face with an ordinary man who somehow kept pace with gods when he was still waiting on growth spurts.

That’s the bedrock he’s standing on, when he’s standing beneath someone about to fall saying don’t be scared, that he’ll catch them. That’s the iron hidden beneath his frame that makes him into an Atlas prepared to hold up the sky, if that’s what needed to be sure he can keep his word, that his footing is sure and his stance won’t waver an inch.

That’s the superpower of the man with no superpowers, the paradox of being the impossible made possible and for whom no possibility is too high to reach.

Plus, you’re pretty sure he’s like, literally saved the world.

So when Nightwing stands before you and somehow feels at your level rather than like he’s looming over you right when you’re at your worst....when its Nightwing who looks you straight in the eye and you can actually see the sincerity in his eyes even though the whited-out lenses that are technically hiding his eyes from sight.

When Nightwing offers you his hand and says its just for support, for you to use to pull yourself to your own feet. When he says its not going away, that it’ll be there until you’re ready to use it, that its up to the task and so are you.

When its Nightwing who tells you that once it was him in your place and that someday it could be you in his place instead. When he says everything you’re feeling right now is real and valid and earned, but to remember that whatever those feelings are they coexist with facts and the facts are you once stood on your own using nothing but your own strength before you were knocked down, and being knocked down isn’t proof you can’t do it again when you’re ready.

When its Nightwing who spreads his arms wide and says here he is, proof of concept that there’s life after this just like there was life before this. That there were your good days and your bad days then and its no different now. That here he is existing, here he is living, here he stands as a survivor and living proof that this can and will be survived......

Well.

Its a lot easier to believe any and all of that, when its Nightwing that’s saying it to you. Its a little bit easier to imagine taking that hand and actually climbing to your feet, a little less of an impossible to picture feat when a living legend tells you that his offer of a hand only means he knows he could have used it once and so its there whether you need it or not. That everything you do here and now is entirely up to you. 

When a man who has ordered around actual gods stands there and says this is entirely up to you, you call the shots here, he’s just here to play back up....you think......maybe I can do this. Maybe I can move on from this.

Clearly, stranger things have happened.

No matter how impossible it feels right now to imagine a day when everything doesn’t hurt, everything isn’t terrible, when you don’t see monsters lurking in every shadow and a knife for your back in every stranger’s hand, no matter how certain you are that if it were just you right here you’d probably just lie here forever, that you don’t even have the strength right now to sit up on your own. No matter how fake and trite and Kitten Posters on the Walls of the Guidance Counselor it feels when people tell you that you’re strong enough to do this, beat this, get past this, whatever the hell this actually is...

Sometimes the thing that can make all the difference is a hand that’s just there in case it becomes necessary or welcome. Someone saying its okay if you can’t believe in yourself right now, I’m going to do the believing in you until you’re ready to take over again.

Sometimes the who of the hero is irrelevant, and the only hero you need is someone there to tell you that you are hurting, its real. That someone hurt you and that’s why you’re hurting, that the effect of how you feel has a cause and its not in your head. That everything has a cause and effect, even if its not a step by step road map, and the road to the end effect of saying here I am living, I’m standing here now as proof I survived - all it needs to get started on that road is a cause. Even if that cause is just you saying I want to see what happens next. Maybe its better. Maybe its good.

Sometimes a hero is just the person who says I’m here solely to be a somebody who’s in your corner, and I’m going to be there while you see what happens next whether it does turn out good or not. Someone who is ready and willing to say it as often as it takes for you to believe it.

Sometimes the pain is too great and the thoughts-that-lie are too loud in your ears. You can look at a bonafide superhero standing strong and heroic in front of you, offering a hand and telling you you’re strong enough to take it, and still not buy it, still not believe a single word out of their mouth and its not because you’re broken its because the world is often good at lying and its burned you often enough that being cautious around what might turn out to be fire is not only warranted, its the very thing you need. Before you’re ready to take that next step, whether that’s taking an actual step yet or not. Maybe you think you were wrong about someone being trustworthy and that’s why this happened, and maybe now what you need is to be wrong about someone not being trustworthy and for the sky not to fall, for being wrong to come with no consequences, before you feel safe trusting someone again and hoping this time you’re right.

A hero will stand there regardless, or maybe take a seat if you prefer. Showing up when promised just so they can keep their promise and be proof that promises can be kept. The person who doesn’t dream of saving you, because they’re busy dreaming dreams where you save yourself. Who is there to be there even if all you end up needing them for is their hand and just for five seconds....and who’s still glad to have been there, to have been nothing more than a five-second hand for you to pull yourself up by. Because if its what you needed them to be, their performance as the five-second helping hand is the only starring role they needed or wanted for themselves.

They can be family or they can be a friend, they can be someone you never thought twice about before or someone you hated in third grade. They can be a professional or a total stranger to whom you’re a blank slate. 

They can even be you.

Maybe the real hero all along turns out to be one of those stupid fucking Kittens Who Care calendars on the wall. A dumb cliché whose only superpower is being the exact thing you need to hear at the exact moment you need to hear it. The reminder that in the here and now, even at rock bottom, even if you’re all by yourself, that just means that your past isn’t there in that moment with you, and your future is still up to you. An awareness that the thing about rock bottom is no matter how far down you fell before hitting the floor....it is, in fact, a floor. And a floor is a thing you can stand on. A floor is what new things can be built upon.

The great thing about heroes is even the strange magic of hearing a child laughing when you can’t imagine laughing yourself, that might all you need to save you. A recipe for a brighter tomorrow, that reminds you that here you are, still alive, and with an undetermined future: the only ingredients needed to make a possibility, a chance that somewhere ahead of you there’s a day when you’ll laugh again.

The cool thing about a hero with the superpower of achieving the impossible is its the one power that doesn’t need to be a superpower to exist.

Because all the impossible is is a possibility that hasn’t happened yet, a performance still waiting backstage before making its debut. All a possibility is is anything and everything that has yet to be proven impossible.

There’s another word for that superpower. For holding onto a dream no matter how unlikely it is. For aiming for heights that are still possibly in reach until the day its proven for sure that they’re not. For believing that the memory of a time you couldn’t imagine ever being in this much pain....even that can be your tool, even that you can somehow make yours. Presenting as evidence that the flip side of that coin is none of the pain you’re feeling is proof there’s not maybe a day still to come, that’s full of more happiness and joy than you can possibly conceive of here and now, in this time and place..

Another word for that is hope.

Hope is the only power that can always claim to be the thing that saved the world again.

Because as long as it exists, you exist, life goes on....a better future, a future where the day is saved, its still a possibility. And no matter what ultimately claims credit for saving the day, it didn’t do it alone. Hope played a part too.....its the machinery of potential, the forward momentum and the reason it exists. Its the origin story of every wizard and scientist to ever try something with the sole cause of thinking they might get an effect that is new, is unexpected, that surprises.

And when you’re at your absolute lowest, one hundred percent convinced this is as good as it gets. When you can’t imagine or picture any future where things could possibly improve...

You don’t need Superman. You don’t need Wonder Woman. 

You need whomever and whatever it is that you can look to, and in them, from them, because of them.....somewhere in all of that is something you can find, can see, can make into a reason to hope.

After that?

The sky’s the limit, and the only really limit is on the other side of the sky.

Its all up to you, and whatever it is that you decide to do next.

[vardasvapors]

DRUNK LIVEBLOG OF THE AKALLABETH BC I PROMISED @rose-of-the-bright-sea​

Uh unfortunately i’m not too drunk since once again my job was to bounce everyone once the party ended but uhhh it is early morning and i’m still not asleep and i did just spend 5 hours dancing and doing shots so...

ANYWAY: first scene of the Akallabeth, remember how the edain were the only Men who fought against morgoth in the war of wrath etc, and when morgoth was defeated the Evil Men who fought for him ran away and conquered all the Stupid Men who were still living in the middle earth area and these men’s lives sucked and were constantly attacked by orcs and monsters and they were dumb and wild and stuff. this explanation is like 20 kinds of LMAO NARRATIVES but also not like, in a lying way, just in a framing way.

otoh the edain got given a giant island in the middle of the ocean as a reward for fighting against morgoth and stuff, osse and aule and yavanna did it. (valar: ‘have an island way out in the sea’ elros: ‘SOUNDS LEGIT’). meanwhile the elves of ME are long-sufferingly granted permission to come to tol eressea because their lives kinda suck. the difference in the tone of the edain’s gift and the elves’ gift is totally not noticed by the narrator but the fact that avallone was build on the eastern edge of tol eressea where it could be seen from numenor is. lol.

there’s this super gorgeous entrancing description of how earendil burned super bright so that he shone night and day and the edain followed him over the calm enchanted sea until they found the island of numenor -- andor the land of gift, elenna that is starwards. however we all know all this incredible rich storytelling stuff isn’t important compared to the tiny scrap of smugness that can be wrung out of making elros hate earendil and/or elves, bc everyone knows that no character’s narrative matters except the feanorians’.

elves of ME also brought all the edain to numenor and elves of tol eressea gave the edain a ton of tools and gifts and stuff to help build their new nation, but you know it’s fun to headcanon elros as a bitter chest-puffing supercilious self-satisfied little prick who finds these elves embarrassing and blinkered and their existence pitiful and tut-tuttingly Wrong. bc that makes sense and is woke for some reason.

the numenoreans became taller than all the sons of middle earth, not all the men of middle earth, so numenoreans are taller than elves. also they didn’t have a lot of kids, bc i guess population explosions on islands with almost no death outside of like 300 years of old age is a Bad Time.

also “and the light of their eyes was like the bright stars” hahahahahahahahaha lmao! kill me! lies down. does not get up.

WHITE TREE FRACTALS

the numenoreans are super cool and get to talk and visit with both elves of tol eressea and elves of middle earth, which seems to lead to the completely inescapable conclusion that numenor is a place where the peoples of all lands can pass messages to one another but this is never mentioned. the numenoreans could totally also have prob defeated the evil human kings of middle earth if they tried but they were totes peaceful -- at an undefined point in time. nice vague timeline blurring bruh.

instead they like, instructed the dumb middle earth men on how to grow grain and grind flour and make stuff out of wood bc uh i guess the middle earth men are too dumb to figure it out, for “the ordering of their life, such as it might be in the lands of swift death and little bliss” hahahahahaha this is the most condescending line in the entire silm it’s great.

then the numenoreans start getting dissatisfied with how they still gotta die and stuff. it’s vaguely described as being something to do with how even their long lives are still not as long as elves’ loves, but every time i read this it reminds me how pissed about mortality i’d be if my great-great-great-uncle who was totally allowed to choose to become immortal kept popping in to talk about how he got to see the cool millennia of my country’s history first hand and debate with my revered ancestral founding king. so.

however the numenoreans totally brush over these sorts of super compelling and sympathetic and valid points and instead just whine about how they’re A Bigshot Kewl Superior Race and HDU Say We Can’t Control Everything If We Wanna, 36 Presents? But Last Century I Got 37! because they’re fucking useless dumbasses.

The valar reply that Aman Will Not Make You Immortal, Yo, and also that elves being immortal and men being mortal aren’t rewards or punishments, which are reasonable points. they then go on to go ‘TBH shouldn’t WE be the ones envying YOU bc you get to peace out of this clusterfuck world, huh, huh whaddaya think about that. also btw the whole mortality thing is some Secret Plan To Fight Inflation eru came up with, and none of us will know it until you and a bajillion generations of your descendants are all dead, lol!!!!’ THANKS VALAR. THAT’S REALLY HELPFUL. GREAT JOB OF ACTUALLY ADDRESSING ANYTHING THE NUMENOREANS ARE BOTHERED ABOUT. KUDOS. i love dumb gods.

the numenoreans are super dissatisfied but instead of anything constructive the king decides to hold his breath and throw a tantrum stay king until he’s totally senile and his son is old, bc of spite, then numenor gets divided into the king’s men and the faithful. the faithful are also bleh about death but assume that the valar have some kind of good reason for what they said, because um, reasons, i guess. no one says if the reasons are more mindless dogma or more a grounding and strengthening faith, but since numenoreans sound like RL humans to a tee it’s probably both. the king’s men aren’t skeptics tho -- they just conquer and enslave and colonize and steal from middle earth, bc ‘the west was denied to them.’ some fans find this to be a ‘yes, but--’ where it’s not the best thing to do but sympathetic and better than those un-nietzschean faithful. i’m gonna assume every single person who finds this nod-worthy is as White as sour cream.

later on Ar-Gimilzor bans the Faithful’s language, sends secret police or smth to find out everyone who is Faithful and forcibly remove them from their homes, relocate them to Romenna, and corral and watch them, call them and the elves of tol eressea spies, chase them out of numenor, and force the faithful leader’s sister to marry the king. some fans still somehow think this was a morally grey and understandable thing to do because secular-culturally-christian libs are vile and have never parsed a history book in their lives.

Tar-Palantir becomes king after being secretly taught Faithful stuff by his secretly faithful mom, but nothing he does to fix things helps and he eventually dies young from depression. His daughter Tar-Miriel becomes queen but her cousin Ar-Pharazon forces her to marry him and give him the kingship instead. exactly how this happened remains unexplained! Boo! I want more details. Anyway Pharazon is a Fragile Masculinity poster boy and when sauron starts causing trouble he decides he’s just gotta go capture him and bring him to numenor to show off and stroke his ego, bc he is an Heir Of Eärendil and Respect Meehhh!! God this guy sounds SO UNPLEASANTLY FAMILIAR DOESN’T HE EH. (parenthetically i am delighted beyond words at how absolutely bang-on it is that the King’s Men, both here and earlier with the convo with the Valar, totally Do Not Mention the fact that they’re heirs of Elros, not just Earendil, bc that would be super inconvenient to their vision of themselves and their mortality grievance!! lol!!! i love it!!!! god!!!!!!!! *fingers and thumb in a circle emoji*).

anyway sauron is super smart and an awesomesauce genre-savvy villain and way too good for pharazon and he flatters him and manipulates him into making him his councilor and convinces him that the valar are lying and and to worship morgoth and slaughter the faithful by sacrificing them on.....hm....altars....as rebels and as scapegoats for all numenor’s Problems(TM)....>_>....lmao tolkien can be really fucking dumb and scattered about his mythology and religion patchworking, and yet the wokeness-masturbating section of fandom is infinitely worse in the most predictable ways.

WHITE TREE FRACTALS (this time featuring bonus BAMF and Super Awesome And Lovable 21 Year Old Isildur......have i mentioned recently how much i hate peter jackson......)

anyway when Pharazon has a mid-life crisis about getting old sauron also convinces him he can become immortal by invading aman, which he should totally do bc The Strong Do What They Will And The Weak Bear What They Must (remember this is tragically admirable if flawed, because it’s defying fate!) and a super armament is built to invade aman and ar-Pharazon’s ex-bff Amandil who’s secretly friends with the Faithful freaks and makes secret plans to sail to valinor to beg the valar to do something and has his son elendil prepare to go to middle earth to see the elves who are hunkered down there doing.....uhhhhh???? probably hiding from numenorean conquest????

but anyway when pharazon invades aman and chases the elves out of tol eressea and then tirion, he has a Uh-Oh I Think This Was A Bad Idea feeling but can’t back down now so he lands ashore and camps out around tirion and then manwe prays to eru to bail everyone out and says he will lay down rule of arda for a minute since he doesn’t know what to do, presumably a la ‘omg dad i fucked up and totally crashed your car,’ and eru solves this by getting ar-pharazon & co buried under a mountain until the end of the world (funny how so few fans ever address this thing re: tirion in valinor fanfic eh? oh yeah i forgot silm fans don’t give a shit about humans), opening up a big crack in the ocean, pulling aman and tol eressea out into space, turning the earth from flat to spherical, and letting the island of numenor get buried under the resulting tidal wave and fall down the crack to wherever. because you know overkill is great! also sauron is too busy doing an Evil Villain Laugh to realize he’s about to get drowned and he totally dies and has to make himself a new body out of Anger and he’s now ugly, which sucks for the fanartists.

anyway manwe saves elendil and his fleet (it doesn’t say manwe, but it does say ‘but the great wind took [elendil], wilder than any wind that Men had known, roaring from the west, and it swept his ships far away...’ which, duh) and they wind up washed up on middle earth, but totally grief-stricken over the destruction of numenor.

I can’t liveblog the rest any better than verbatim so I’ll just quote:

Among the Exiles many believed that the summit of the Meneltarma, the Pillar of Heaven, was not drowned for ever, but rose again above the waves, a lonely island lost in the great waters; for it had been a hallowed place, and even in the days of Sauron none had defiled it And some there were of the seed of Eärendil that afterwards sought for it, because it was said among loremasters that the far-sighted men of old could see from the Meneltarma a glimmer of the Deathless Land. For even after the ruin the hearts of the Dúnedain were still set westwards; and though they knew indeed that the world was changed, they said: 'Avallónë is vanished from the Earth and the Land of Aman is taken away, and in the world of this present darkness they cannot be found. Yet once they were, and therefore they still are, in true being and in the whole shape of the world as at first it was devised.'

For the Dúnedain held that even mortal Men, if so blessed, might look upon other times than those of their bodies' life; and they longed ever to escape from the shadows of their exile and to see in some fashion the light that dies not; for the sorrow of the thought of death had pursued them over the deeps of the sea. Thus it was that great mariners among them would still search the empty seas, hoping to come upon the Isle of Meneltarma, and there to see a vision of things that were. But they found it not. And those that sailed far came only to the new lands, and found them like to the old lands, and subject to death. And those that sailed furthest set but a girdle about the Earth and returned weary at last to the place of their beginning; and they said:

'All roads are now bent.'

Thus in after days, what by the voyages of ships, what by lore and star-craft, the kings of Men knew that the world was indeed made round, and yet the Eldar were permitted still to depart and to come to the Ancient West and to Avallónë, if they would. Therefore the loremasters of Men said that a Straight Road must still be, for those that were permitted to find it. And they taught that, while the new world fell away, the old road and the path of the memory of the West still went on, as it were a mighty bridge invisible that passed through the air of breath and of flight (which were bent now as the world was bent), and traversed Ilmen which flesh unaided cannot endure, until it came to Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle, and maybe even beyond, to Valinor, where the Valar still dwell and watch the unfolding of the story of the world. And tales and rumours arose along the shores of the sea concerning mariners and men forlorn upon the water who, by some fate or grace or favour of the Valar, had entered in upon the Straight Way and seen the face of the world sink below them, and so had come to the lamplit quays of Avallónë, or verily to the last beaches on the margin of Aman, and there had looked upon the White Mountain, dreadful and beautiful, before they died.

[baphelon]

The Ancient Magus Bride/Mahoutsukai no Yome and the magic of its world

Since the Anime has now come to a close and the next Manga chapter won’t be out soon I will state my thoughts on The Ancient Magus’ Bride in a little ramble-review-thingy.

So first I will give a little tl;dr without spoilers: I very much recommend this show. Go watch it now, or read the Manga (best is both) if you want to treat yourself with one of the most heartfelt, creative and beautiful fantasy dramas ever made. It is really something special and it is my favourite Anime BY FAR. The Manga is also an amazing read. Go check it out. But I would advise to watch the three ova episodes after episode 13. It is at least worth checking out if you are into fantasy, dramas, romance (but only to a certain degree), mythology and if you can take some mild body horror.

WARNING! THERE WILL BE A LONG POST AND SOME SPOILERS AFTER THE CUT!

So first I will go over the stuff I liked about the Anime, then some stuff I disliked and then I will ramble on in a kind of conclusion.

PROS:

- The art direction is just incredible. The Backgrounds, the designs... everything fits together perfectly and creates an at times breathtaking world of magic and fantasy. The way they combine illustrious panoramas with heavy symbolism is like nothing I’ve seen so far.

- The animation for the most part is above average at it’s worst and just simply stunning at the high points. - The soundtrack is one of the best animation soundtracks out there in my opinion. - The structure of the storytelling works really nice. Every phrase counts and nothing is just said to be filler. Even in the last few episodes there are callbacks to the first episodes without having to rely on flashbacks or such things.

- I love the characters. The idea of putting a traumatized main character with depression in fantasy setting that is rooted deep within mythology and folklore just works so perfectly. The way the story takes elements of Chise’s emotional state and mirrors them in fantastical settings is a very creative and deep reaching approach (like for example the way she starts seeing her childhood trauma as a curse and deals with it as she deals with the other curses she encounters). I know that she comes across as a little shallow in the first like.. 2 episodes (?) but there is a thing called “character development” and subtly but very very steadily Chise becomes stronger, independent and a very VERY lovable protagonist. I also love how Elias’ last name is Ainsworth which is a clever little nod to the developmental pychologist Mary Ainsworth who developed many theses on the bounds between a child and parents and how traumatic loss of parental figures can shape a child in its later life (recognize something familiar??!! Maybe one redhaired protagonist???). The fact that both protagonists have severe issues and are not perfect in any way shape or form makes for great drama and also great chemistry between the two.

- The supporting cast of characters is great aswell. Renfred, Alice, Simon, Titania and Silky (just to name a few) are all very interesting and cool characters to show the different points of view of the world this show builds.

- The relationship between Chise and Elias is a very interesting character study because it is never explicitly stated if it is romantic, family or even just emotional attachement. I know the finale and many other scenes point directly onto the romantic side but the show still takes its time to explore every little facet of these two. Even the negative sides of the relationship they share... like Elias getting overly possessive... or his emotional detachedness in the beginning... or Chises willingness to obey and be depended only on him just because she hasn’t been welcome anywhere in years. The whole thing is so multilayered and constructed very cleverly. We see a nonhuman magic being of unthinkable power become attached to a (VERY) mortal human and the other way around without it becoming like beauty and the beast. It is -and I cant emphasize that enough-  very much different from that!

- The mythology and the way the portray magic is one of my favourite depictions of that kind of stuff ever. A+ for the Mangaka Kore Yamazaki for doing her research on celtic mythology and european folklore!

Some of my personal favourite highpoints of the show include: - The entire ep 3. That episode blew my mind when I first saw it. The introduction of Lindel and Nevin aswell as the land of dragons was soooooo good. Nevin’s last dream is still one of the biggest highlights in the entire show. -  Definetly ep 14 in which Chise tries to help Joel Garland and the leanan sidhe Redcurrant. This episode was full of great emotions and the twist ending shocked everyone, I think. - Chises past as portrayed in ep. 22 was touching and the scene where her mother tries to kill her was one of the darkest scenes I think I’ve ever seen in an animated show. - The finale as the one singular original episode of the show did a very great job of tying everything together and deliver a satisfying ending without ruining the possibility of more to come. It is the end for now, but it is a great goodbye... I will miss being able to visit new sights in this wonderful world of magic on a weekly basis but the Manga will still go on, so I got that.

CONS:

- The main part of the second half is not as strong as the first half of the show. There are some pacing issues around episode 16-19 that are not ruining everything but after the deliberately slow dramatic pacing of the first 12 episodes it just feels weird that suddenly much stuff is happing in every single episode. Though granted... the Manga also suffers a little bit from that (the whole Ashen Eye turning Chise into a Fox story is solved equally as qucik and awkward in the sourcematerial for example). But it bounces back from those few a little bit weaker episodes by delivering very much in ep 20-24.

- In my opinion they kinda messed up the whole role of Mariel and the other witches. In the Manga Mariel is a very good developed character that is grounded in one of the coolest side aspects of the world... the witch coven... but in the Anime she just comes across as shallow and confusing. Especially since they decided to only introduce her and Phyllis (the witch stuck to the tree... if you haven’t read the Manga I don’t blame you for not knowing who she is) from the coven (and they even did a bad job at that) whereas the Manga shows us all the members and their little quirks. This also meant that the confrontation between Phyllis and Mariel was weird and nondramatic... but in the sourcematerial it was a very dark and heavy scene that had a lot of buildup.

- Also weird was that they decided to mute some dialogue in some of the later episodes. It worked in episode 20 when they played the music over Chises walk through the village and muted her talk with Redcurrant and the old Lady because they were no real plot relevant talk and in this situation it was just a very interesting idea to let the scene speak quietly for itself... but then they muted the talk Elias and Tory had at the college... which was plot relevant... and very confusing for everyone who hadn’t read the Manga. It felt weird and cheap. “Go buy the Manga if you want to know what they talked about and why Elias did the weird magic thing, you nincompoops!”

- They changed some of the most striking and iconic lines from the Manga that didn’t need to be watered down... the worst contender is in episode 21 when Chise hits Elias and says “You were no different”. A strong and well done line, dont get me wrong... but the original line was “You are no different than him... you are a monster aferall!” which is a faaaaar more deep cutting line. - Some of the “Chibi”-Comedy moments don’t really work in my opinion. They felt awkward and forced at times and can take you out of a scene. I tend to blame this on the way they left out some comedic parts out of the Manga, where situations like these are more frequent. The Anime takes itself more serious for the most part so it just feels a little bit out of place (though some of these moments are really funny and a good tool to release tention like the one in the finale for example). - For nearly the whole show Cartaphilus/Joseph is a very generic and weak villain. He gets some very much needed development late into the story which makes hima ctually interesting as character but up until that he is... meh. Not bad but also nothing special. I feel like there should’ve been more of the interesting (literally) split personality stuff earlier. Like... The Cartaphilus we saw in episode 5 doesn’t even remotely resemble the Cartaphilus in Episodes 20 to 24 at all.

CONCLUSIVE THOUGHTS:

Mahoutsukai no Yome is in my opinion an outstanding anime. It wrapped it’s arms tightly around my heart and it is easily my favourite anime I’ve ever watched. It is definetly not for everyone since the slow pacing, the story that sometimes calls back to every little sentence spoken in episodes before and the dark themes and complex characters aswell as the big BIIIIG chunk of iconography, mythology and symbolism thrown in can repell many people. But for me it was a perfect experience I really needed in ym life. After I found this show and binged the episodes that were released up till the point I started watching (I think it was episode 15 but ???). I read the Manga online and then ordered every volume available at once. Judging by the small Tumblr and Reddit Fanbases I saw so far I think this one will not make it big in general but it will be a sleeper hit. For me it is a 10/10 show that I will remember for a long time. I love it to pieces. Also the OVA is worth watching but do not watch it as an introduction to the show like many did... it does a very poor job in welcoming new people to world of The Ancient Magus Bride.

I kinda feel like I have to adress the “controversy” some people try to force onto this show and it’s fans. I saw many claims of this show being “pedophile propaganda” or it “romanticizing a toxic predator relationship”. I see where these claims come from when it comes to VERY FIRST impressions of the series. But if you watch further than... I don’t know episode 1 or just the trailers????? It is not that??? Like... at all?? Especially since all the involved characters are at the age of consent in their cultural environment??? And it is not sexualized... at all??? And it is critical of everything regarding that no later than episode 2?? What the fuck are these claims?! Even the name Ainsworth shows how much the creators cared to make an interesting drama involving a complex relationship... So don’t talk shit about something that is kinda harmless and that you obviously don’t get.

I could still go on for ages which aspects I like about it, which little details are amazing, how many things you can find by looking deeper into scenes... but that would be an herculean task :D

Phew that was a long one... If you are still reading this... wow thank you for tolerating my rambling! If you liked reading this, let me know! I think I will start doing more of these “review type of things” (I would like to do one for Mob Psycho 100, Re:zero or even Konosuba... maybe Hero Academia??? Who knows what I come up with).

Thanks to Kore Yamazaki and Wit Studio for giving us this amazing experience!

[zlukaka]

Dishonored 2 - LC - Impressions

My first impression of the game was very mixed (great gameplay and visuals / cringy dialogues and poor writing, good actors’ talents wasted), but further along the good outweighed the bad. So, yes, it was an enjoyable game, all in all not worse than the original - totally worth playing.

So far I did a Low Chaos Corvo. Later I’ll also share the impressions on High Chaos Emily.

Lots of spoilers (and some screenshots) below cut.

Let’s start with the weak points of the game:

Non-mute Corvo. Having a silent protagonist in the first part left Corvo very open for interpretation. The Corvo I heard in D2 was not Corvo to me. As much as I like Stephen Russell as Garrett, his Corvo felt like a week-old piece of bologna that someone microwaved out of sheer desperation. It’s not his fault, though. I think it’s the writing and whoever directed the voice acting. I blame the same party on my next issue.

Jessamine / The Heart. In D1 I would go out of my way to poke everyone and every location with the Heart to hear what it had to say. Its lines were fun, inspiring, eerie. In D2 I would accidentally click the Heart and shudder in disgust at Jessamine’s lines. 90% of the time they were clumsy, unimpressive, banal and spoken in almost the same tone regardless of the graveness of an NPC’s crimes. Speaking of which a ridiculous number of the NPCs turns out to be psychopaths or assholes with no redeeming features. The fact everyone except the main characters only gets one line makes it even worse. I understand why they did it technically, but the end result was awful. I never played High Chaos in D1, I couldn’t bear to kill any of those people because each of them had a bit of good and a bit of bad in them, just like real people. It was an integral part of Dishonored for me, the message that most people will do horrible things during a crisis, but that there’s still hope for them and killing them is bad. But D2 seems to go out of its way telling me “you know what, they’re all assholes, annoying unlikable assholes, kill them all”. A weird message to send when you want people to get a good ending. As a result I can’t wait for the HC playthrough where I’ll slaughter every living person in the Empire. It will feel so good.

Generally, the weakest link in the game for me was the writing. Interestingly, the more important the character, the weaker their lines, with Corvo’s early game lines being some of the worst, while some banter between ordinary citizens was fun, witty and refreshing. Also I get the impression the message the game tried to deliver kept getting lost in the clumsy storytelling. The Outsider and Sokolov would tell us how Delilah has such potential to change the world for the better, and then we return to Dunwall, and it’s a post-apocalyptic mess, and her plan for ‘improving the world’ is filling it with statues of herself. The Outsider would preach that being a witch is so much better than being in a loveless marriage, then we meet the witches, and they’re a bunch of murderous psychos. For a game about how oppressive institutions are bad Dishonored 2 sure keeps flopping on the show-not-tell part. At the end of the day, despite all the in-game finger shaking, I feel fully justified siding with the Overseers. According to Jess, most of the people on Karnaca are some flavor of violent criminal. Might as well let the zealots have their way, the only way from here is up.

Ghost Jessamine is another complaint of mine. Her being more than a piece of meat stuffed with clockwork takes away from the mystique surrounding her state. Her in-person ghostly conversations with Corvo make her feel alive rather than an echo of her former self, taking away from the strong impression the Heart created on its own in the original game.

The Voguing in the Void. Bad writing makes it hard to take characters seriously. Having them teleport and take a different pose every time they utter a sentence only makes things worse. Maybe the intention here was to make me want to kill the Outsider in the new game? If so, good job.

Continuing the Dishonored tradition of introducing a female character and killing her off in the first three minutes of the game. And then telling us post-factum how noble, good and interesting she was. Only this time after one more mention she is completely forgotten, which is even worse than last time. I’m talking about Captain Mayhew. Cool design, ok story, but feels extremely like a token character. Maybe her part in the story was meant to be bigger, but got cut? I don’t know, but she felt completely unnecessary, so did her death. At least Jessamine and her death were integral to the plot of the first game.

The atmosphere of the game wasn’t as strong as in the original. I blame the Heart for it. The Heart and the weak storytelling (not the weak story, the story was actually alright).

The bloodflies were less of a threat than the rats in the first game. Most of the time you could sprint to their nest and wack it to pieces without even getting hurt. They should be harder to get rid of to live up to their intimidating reputation.

Oh, and this:

(whoever decided to use this number of fonts needs to go back to design school)

Now, you might think after all those complaints that I hate the game. I thought I might, but I didn’t. After I got used to the bad, the good eventually shone through and dominated my impression. Here we go:

Music. The music is just as good. Such a pity Daniel Licht is no longer with us. May he rest in peace.

Gameplay. No complaints here. The levels seem bigger and more fun than in the original game, sneaking is a little tougher. No more killing people by throwing them on beds. Being able to use the Heart on unconscious people, the unconscious indicator is a great addition in its own right.

Meagan Foster and Sokolov. Ok, the writing on these two was actually pretty cute and solid. I wonder if different people worked on these two compared to Corvo and Emily, or if it was the same writer, but having a bad/good day, etc. For once, I love how Meagan was written.

Kirin Jindosh. I didn’t get too much of him because he never knew I was there, but from what little I saw of him - best baddie in the game. 11/10, would reduce to below average intelligence again.

Good Guy Overseers. Yes, they will drown the occasional kiddo because witchcraft, but come on, their preaching is pretty reasonable. Notice how the Abbey actually comes last. Sounds better than many real world religions to me.

The Overseers were the turning point in the game’s writing for me. I realized the NPCs actually say fun stuff, it’s just the main cast that’s being boring.

The visuals. Often with a new game in a series I fear the HD-photorealism takeover, but Dishonored 2 stayed loyal to its artistic direction while making things more high-res. It’s beautiful.

The second half of the game. I thought the Clockwork mansion would be the best part of the game, but then I was very surprised to discover things actually truly picked up in the Dust District, or more precisely in the mansion. The time-shifting was a great addition to the gameplay! Moreover...

The plot was decent. The storytelling was kinda mediocre, but the story they were trying to tell was actually quite fun. Breaking Jindosh, saving Stilton and replacing Abele were some of the highlights of the game. There was a number of rather fun twists, like Delilah and Luca actually being truly in love?? Who saw that coming? I didn’t. I thought she was just using him, like she was using Breanna, but then in the end she calls him ‘my love’ right after expressing nothing but cold disappointment that Breanna is no longer a useful tool. That makes Delilah a little less of a calculating cold monster and a bit more human. For once, I actually sort of like her after hating her guts since forever. So that’s pretty good.

Giving Billie her arm and eye back. Holy shit, that felt amazing.

Keeping with the good tradition of not-in-your-face gay characters. The occasional Overseer who dates millers behind said millers’ wives’ backs. The emphasis on how close the old Duke and Stilton were. Good stuff.

The Oracular Order and its role within the Abbey were expanded upon. 

Killing Paolo in slow-mo and gobbling up all the white rats.

The non-lethal takedowns were all satisfying.

The very freaky nest keepers and their delusions.

The Ultra Low Chaos Happy Ending:

(look, Mom, both hands!)

My conclusion from all of this is that when I play High Chaos I will try not to use the Heart almost at all not to spoil the fun with Jess’ banalities. And I will let Jindosh know I’m there so he can comment his heart out about my escapades around his home. 

I am so pumped for the Death of the Outsider now, because if Dishonored finally manages to address its theme properly, that would be nice. Also, finally playing as Billie is amazing, and killing the Outsider sounds like fun to me (please, remember I enjoyed low chaos Jindosh take down). I won’t be watching any more trailers, gameplay videos and such, I prefer to go into a game with minimal knowledge. Thankfully the game will be out soon enough. I will doodle some silliness meanwhile. Also, D2 left me wondering about what would happen to Heathen-Go-Lucky folks under Delilah. Pretty sure someone would end up turned to stone. XD

[vjdarkworld]

The Witcher 3 Review (NO SPOILERS)

Score: Recommended, for people that enjoy Storytelling

Best:

Storytelling

Adult content

Difficult Choices

Embodiment of Polish folklore

Quests

Good:

VisualsOnce you have a lot of good tools to use, gameplay is funExploration and Open World

Observations:

Lots of tools but all singular use, instead of few tools with dynamic usage.

Bad:

“Slavic jank”

Requires playing of Witcher 1&2 OR read the books

Performance

Best:

Storytelling

This not only includes how the stories unfold, but as well the characters and world they inhabit.

One word to describe it would be believability. Of course, it’s fantasy but the way standard fantasy things would be handled is done well due to the characters.

A plot is a series of character interactions, so ultimately a story is only as good as the characters it has. Truly what sells the world is how the characters interpret it, and they all have differing viewpoints. Some take the Dark Fantasy world seriously, others find it a chance for a Fun Adventure, and most attempt to drink their sorrows away. But my personal favorite interacts in the series is between Geralt and his friends.

This is where it becomes real for me, relationships. Throughout Geralt’s adventures he meets many people. He doesn’t get along with most, but there are some he actually befriends. And even though nearly all his friends are eccentric which contrast the stoic white wolf, he still has long and ongoing friendships with em. As the director of the game said, “friends are the backbone of your life” (he was talking about life not the witcher but oddly enough it connects to the witcher for me) and that is exemplified by Geralt.

All in all, the relationships between the characters make the storytelling real.

Adult content

While other games have sex in it, The Witcher series has been able to portray sex for what it is…. Sex. Bioware has the lovely dovey sex after you Romance them, but in the Witcher it’s different and more Realistic. Adults have sex for various reasons and it’s not always romantic. Most of the time it’s just for the act itself, having a single fling cus sex is Fun.

Since witchers shoot blanks they have the stereotype of being promiscuous. It’s up to the player (no pun intended) if they will let Geralt succumb to Hook Up Culture, or actually stay in a dedicated monogamous relationship.

Something like this just isn’t address in any other mainstream RPG.

Other serious topics are brought up as well related to sexual violence and racism. They are all handled well due to one simple theme present with each situation. That is the fact that you can’t be neutral, you have to pick a side.

 Difficult Choices

It’s funny cus the white wolf almost embodies the “grey area” of neutrality that generally serious RPG fans walk the line of. That the player will be understanding for all Characters and trying to figure out a solution. But most situations aren’t like this realistically. Theoretically sure you can be critical of Both Sides, but in practice you HAVE to pick a side. Or maybe you don’t pick a side and “stay neutral” which can be the worst option cus you could be letting bad stuff happen that you could of prevented. This is why when choices pop up for Geralt, it’s pretty serious. Especially cus the effects of them happen way later in the game before you realized what you did wrong.

These choices impact the fates of certain characters, among other things. Choose wisely, or you may not be happy with what you did.

 Embodiment of Polish folklore

I’m no expert in Polish culture, or of ye’ old slavic and pagan mythology, but the entire game reeks of something being different. It just doesn’t seem like your typical Tolkien fantasy. There’s a unique twist that is clearly the result of the entire game being developed in Poland, thus polish culture shining bright within it.

Some people joke that the Witcher series is Poland’s main export, but atleast for entertainment it seems quite true. It seems like a major group effort from creative minds of Poland, banding together to present their folklore to world. Major props and respect to the CD PROJEKT RED team!

 Quests

Quests are designed like episodic content. For side quests and hunter contracts, they all tell a good standalone story from start to finish of the quest. Sometimes quests interconnect too, reference each other, presenting how much the world is connected. It makes doing the quests quite addicting cus you want to see what’s going to happen next in the quest, and then when you finish it you want another good story so you start another one. It’s almost like bingewatching a tv show. Having good stories for the quests makes even the most mundane tasks more appealing too. Trying to tell a story… WHAT A CONCEPT!

 Good:

Visuals

They are pretty nice looking if you got the Specs for it. Sometimes regular real lofe animals like cats and dogs look weird but overall its good. Landscapes pretty, monsters spooky, humans all raggedy. The aesthetic sells the world quite nicely.

 Once you have a lot of good tools to use, combat is fun

When starting out the game, you have limited options for combat. But through the course of the game, gaining abilities, new gear, etc etc, gives Geralt more tools to play around with. This is when the game opens up and you can mess around a bit. The white wolf can get pretty OP too if you play your cards right. To which if you think the game is too easy, you can always play on higher difficulties.

 Observations:

Lots of tools but all singular use, instead of few tools with dynamic usage.

Due to how alchemy and signs work, signs, oils, potions and decoctions generally have only a Specific situation use. Some are more versatile, but most times you will be looking up the Bestiary to figure out what tools to use.

On one hand this kinda makes the combat seem flat, cus of the limited options you can do, BUT thematically it makes sense why. It makes sense why it’s like this for a hunter of monsters, there’s a lot of monsters and they all have different weaknesses so it makes sense as to why the design is like this.

On top of that, it’s kind of deceptive cus you CAN experiment but only when you have a LOT of the tools and you know what all their purposes are. It’s a barrier, but you can get over it.

But still, in the end the gameplay still isn’t as dynamic as other combat systems which is a shame in my opinion.

 Exploration and Open World

Points of interest are labeled on the map. You get good loot and fight monsters at these points most of the time. It doesn’t truly make the game world feel Alive necessarily, it just seems more like extra stuff to do. I appreciate the effort of given the player stuff to do if they completed quests and are bored, and you get neat goodies from going these places but it’s really just There.

 Bad:

“Slavic jank”

There’s a bit of a joke about games made in slavic related areas. They are often associated with janky games, but games with so much dedication behind them that even though they are janky it’s so unique that it’s fun. Something like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for example. This phenomena is due to how the gamers in these territories are completely out of the typical western Triple A bubble. And generally dedicate their time to old CRPGs, which causes them to grow a fondness for more Detailed and Dense design instead of Simple and Elegant. This isn’t a bad thing, and this type of thing can be seen in The Witcher series, where it’s both Triple A BUT has that old school CRPG style to it.

All that is good in my opinion…. But I have to be honest and say that the gameplay can be too janky at times. Movement in general feels weird with its velocity and acceleration. Roach controls awkwardly and doesn’t feel like a horse, more like you’re on something sliding around. When you run into other animals or enemies on Roach you just push them away and not run them over.

Also, for some reason the controls completely change when in combat mode and you can’t control at all when combat mode happens. This causes awkwardness where you are not moving the same way as before, as in… an enemy triggers you to go into combat mode but they are too far away for you to hurt so you are stuck moving around weird. It’s just an odd system, which I prefer to have a full range of movement and attacks, not being arbitrarily pushed into combat mode.

Also, the inventory is a bit confusing to navigate especially if you are trying to find a specific item hidden in the Other tab.

The whole character upgrade screen too is not clear cus there’s clearly abilities that are better than others WHEN you actually know their potential, but unless you’re looking up guides and the wiki you won’t really know which are the good ones to actually invest in.

All these little things that kind of ruin the “game feel” make people not want to play it past a couple hours cus they think the game is “janky” anddd the game is actually kinda janky. I have to admit it, can’t lie. There’s other open world games that have better movement overall, and I wish that this game did.

 Requires playing of Witcher 1&2 OR read the books

Now you may wonder, what’s so bad about that? Well, I was being critical about this games jankiness, but really it’s not in the slightest as janky as Witcher 1. Witcher 2 isn’t as much janky, but Witcher 3 improved on a lot of Witcher 2’s problems so Witcher 3 is in fact the least janky.

Now it would be a hard sell to say “you need to go through 50+ hours of the previous installments to play this?” BUT if the other installments were as polished as this than it wouldn’t be as much of a problem… But it’s like I can’t tell someone “Oh you have to play through these janky games to play this game, don’t worry it’s worth it bro” cus that’s disrespecting their intelligence AND worst of all their time. Not everyone has time to look play through decent games to get to an Amazing game just so they can understand the story… which is sad.

Cus don’t get me wrong, I adore Witcher 1 more than most, but I can’t lie and say it’s worth “slogging” through the awkward gameplay to see the amazing story unfold down the road.

Why? Even if it’s a unique OK… there are better games to play that are more than just OK.

And to the book point, you shouldn’t need to read a book series before playing a videogame, the entertainment should be as singular as possible. The witcher videogames too have a different storyline than the books anyways, so it’s a moot point of them being in the same continuity and being “required”… even though they technically can help if you didn’t play the other games. Still not fair though, so nah, just nah.

 Performance

You need to make sure you have a midrange build atleast so you can run the game. But man do the frames drop in cities. Back on my old-midrange build I could play at around 50-60fps outside of Novigrad… but IN Novigrad I had 10-20fps due to NPCs and who knows what else. Also just some areas would lag on that build regardless if something was at low or medium. Very finnicky. I think by now with all the patches and optimization it’s probably better buuut I can’t say the game is well optimized. It’s serviceable with a good build… but ya get kinda screwed if you don’t and that’s a shame.

[theskyexists]

series 10 finale

can i just say- that thing, that they do in series ten, that thing where

the universe rhymes and if you really listen, you can hear its music?

that’s some good shit

‘what does he call you? companions? pets? SH-nacks?’ god michelle gomez is just! so! good!

‘time lords are friends with each other dear, everything else is cradle-snatching’ pfftjlkdjsfkalkds she’s got perhaps...a point? (not really, but)

‘these are my disposables, exposition and comic relief’ FULJSDFJSDFJ MOFFAT YOU he really went there. HE REALLY WENT THERE HALJSDKD

‘we’re not functions’ ‘darling those are genders’

ok????? hahahahahaha

wow, doctor who meta dslafldk and then a dab

‘is this the emotion that you humans call...spanking?’

‘are you human’ ‘oh don’t be a bitch’ ljsdldsajlfjlkdf (moffat got so surprisingly woke that he knows exactly what he can have her say, damn. and michelle’s delivery what the hell so good hahaha)

oh no. no no no no. this is the moment she gets shot huh? what. no i. why do the Doctor’s companions in moffat’s era always die of being bravely stupid? (well..clara) like, not stupidly brave, but bravely stupid? i don’t like that narrative

why did Bill say that???? like i don’t get it.

jump in front of her??????? why. does he not stand in front of the damn gun?? why does he walk past it? why? dude?? now i understand why Thirteen keeps saying ‘STAY BEHIND ME, BEHIND ME’ always catching bombs to the face and shit.

those were some great flashbacks peppered in. ‘she scares me’ yeah well the Doctor was the one who fucked up here. he wasn’t fast enough. he didn’t reach hard enough for the right card in the pack.....but there was another time lord there - maybe she reached harder.

‘assumption!’ ‘deduction!’ ‘hope!’ ‘faith!’ ‘idiot!’ ‘always!’

this is the thing. like, the Doctor just lets her get shot and lets her get taken away - it’s barely believable.

yeah the crew went down, time dilation, they procreated, somehow they grew some shitty cybermen. (why does human society keep producing them?). YUP i called it.

365000 days, a hundred thousand years. yoikes. but if they have such fast lifts why is it a problem? and why go up to get the humans (yeah cybermen always wanna make more) i think knowing moffat we won’t really get an answer to these essential plot-driving questions

ohhh that’s chilling huh. makes you think they got some more anaesthetic but they’re still pressing the button - it just doesn’t make any noise any more.

but it’s hard to hear such pain.

and SUDDENLY, the theatre broadens - it seemed like just a part of the ship - narrow - but then we see the whole colony ship populated and a dystopia, this hospital just a building in a landscape. very cool.

How does the Doctor not realise that he hasn’t got TIME for explanations??? Bill is either dead or DYING RIGHT NOW BECAUSE HE’S WASTING TIME.

i do love this concept always have and it is executed well here - but look. the Doctor is written as very dumb to make it so.

‘how many more years’ YEARS????? oh my god. why does she close the window? interesting

fuckin bullshit. they never returned because time went slow for them. he KNOWS this, so why does he think it’s because the people were ‘weak’? he knows she came from command, that it’s possible to go up, because they took her! the conversion is only controlling her. so does she buy it? (I do like this guy, but he’s probably evil)

how has Bill remained SANE? years of this. years of this??? what an exceptionally resilient person.

yeah we’re not getting an explanation for why these people uh managed to go up and take her down huh? except ‘evil villain lied to everybody’ i think. oh well that can be satisfactory

wait. is he the master? is he the MASTER??? i mean i was considering it but.

he spent like 10 years living with Bill and it didn’t make a dent in his psychopathy hmmm. so the explanation is that the Master has taken over and wanted to fuck over the Doctor just for laughs. lol

why scarecrow them??? xD sometimes these aesthetics make zero sense in real life. do love how they went back to : look how these settlers went up to the solar farm! living a lovely life except they’re being attacked by cybermen.

so what im learning from moffat’s writing is - push your concept first thing you can - something incongruous - and something familiar to those familiar with the work.

woah that gloating wasn’t quite long enough for teh Doctor to have a win. i thought the Masters were having him on. (fascinating though, that he attributes the emergence of cybermen not to the Master’s presence but simply to the humans - and the Master’s responses prove him right. do feel like he messed with it all though...)

‘there’s only ever been one way to stop that many cybermen. me’ hmmmm hmmm, i always dislike the Doctor boasting like this. just pride. though i would welcome it for thirteen, just a couple of times.

‘i’m in two minds - fortunately the other one’s unconscious.’ hah

we gotta cut away from this because we don’t know how this unwieldy Bill cyberman got the Doctor into the ship.

The Master constantly veers between almost killing the Doctor and then kinda deciding not to because they’re having so much fun or caring about their complex relationship a bit too stupidly much. lotta storytelling packed into this ep, bit unwieldy.

great switch, making Bill look human again as we switch to her pov

where the FUCK did the Doctor get jelly babies

this is a beautiful scene, but also, goddamn, they made her into a cyberman and now she can’t be angry any more?? i mean that’s not very woke

they didn’t allow bill the opportunity to hit the Master?? AGAIN?? Bill should have been able to hit the Doctor AND the Master this season for the cruelty they showed her!!

I do think the Master is THE character for Moffat because all of the plot bullshit can be explained as: the Master is just that dramatic. like, why wait with Bill’s conversion until the pain part was developed and the Doctor would be coming down? could have converted her right there. and he only kept her around to rub it in the Doctor’s face. like all of that - somehow explained by what a particular person they are.

redirection, the cryptic, it’s one of the Doctor’s main tools for hope. the beyond, the in-between, that which we cannot yet know, may never know - that’s flux babey, that’s hope.

but ya can’t un-call the lifts? what. they won’t have ‘thousands’ of years if you run straight at the TARDIS.

so im not sure why they had time to build a weapon’s grade cyberman but not uh time to send lots and lots of them up?

AND NOW THEY’RE JUST GOING TO BURST THROUGH??? THE FUCKIN SHIP? xD ahahahaha why???

i do love how you SEE the Master use make-up while male. fuck gender roles! I do love the Masters’ dynamics hahaha

the Doctor always makes time for fuckin - explanations. the cybermen are coming up but WHATEVER!

that Master on Master kill was honestly hella tender and i loved it.

‘can’t find the words’

Bill was glad that her space granddad knew she was a lesbian- ha. somehow that....how did Moffat write that? seems uniquely gay but maybe he’s just drawing on - yeah gotta make sure that this time it is NOT read as romance.

NOOOOOO!!!!!! NO!!!!! MISSY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so...are they just not evacuating teh adults? like was it so hard to get them adult actors in the shot a few times too??? like wtf these kids aren’t like: MY PARENTS!!! before they blow it up? before the blow up a WHOLE countryside?

he didn’t get blown to pieces? fuckin bullshit lol

but BILL survived? enough to walk. I KNOW it’s for drama but it’s just lol

ok but Heather is SO CUTE HOLY FUCKIN SHIT. i don;t understand how this freak of sentient oil puddle got to create an immortal ethereal being - but WHAT EVS. (I can pilot anything, even you.  what a come on lol)

where there’s tears, there’s hope, yes but you also gave him a tear huh, as a puddle-being, so you can track him hmmm

all the flashbacks to modern companions!!! i loved that!

i actually think the christmas special kind of ruins this real good finale!

i am gonna miss Missy, Michell Gomez did something truly incredible there. but i also liked the return of Simm!Master, and i loved their chemistry.

anyway i genuinely think this was a good finale. very complex, and very moffat. but mostly his strong writing, very little of his shitty tics.

GOOD STUFF!!

meanwhile cybermen are still coming up the colony ship converting people on every deck though, so that’s unfortunate.

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Moooore Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow stuff, courtesy of another Tom King interview: 

King was on the Supergirl Radio podcast this week, and while a lot of it is just a repeat of what was said in the previous interview on ComicPop Elseworlds Exchange, there were still some interesting bits, IMO!

They opened with some general questions--how did he start writing, when did he get into superhero comics, etc. 

And then, the Supergirl portion!

The hosts asked where he first encountered Supergirl, and as before, he said that Supergirl is one of those characters that everyone just knows, like Batman and Superman. So he felt there was never a time where he wasn’t at least aware of her.

If forced to pinpoint something specific, though: the cartoons (Superman: The Animated Series and JLU) and for Kara Zor-El in particular, hardcover trades of the 70s stuff.

He had some AWESOME Carmine Infantino art, from the issue where Supergirl fights a bunch of mini-supergirls, in Daring New Adventures.

When asked if he used any of those stories for this new project, King again said that he went back to the ORIGINAL origin, in the Silver Age Otto Binder stuff.

Because he’s written Superman, the hosts asked if he thinks about the differences/similarities between the two when writing Supergirl.

He said that Kara’s more of a survivor than Clark, she’s been through more; he feels that Superman is always striving to be the icon that is Superman, whereas Kara can just be herself. 

He describes her as harder, more cynical, ‘she’ll drop an F-bomb here or there,’ she’s ‘old and crusty.’

The hosts asked him how he came to be on the book and while it’s basically the same story he told on the other podcast, there were a few additional details he mentioned here.

He specifically said that editors were frustrated, because there is this. Thought? Among creators, that Supergirl is perfect, and there are no fun Supergirl stories to tell. 

(Brief, opinionated interjection here: HOGWASH!)

He again brought up the idea that people can be precious with Supergirl; he said she is precious, but she’s also badass.

When asked if there was any particular piece of Supergirl mythology that he wanted/was excited to use, King said that this book isn’t really about that--he again used the expression of stripping off the barnacles that have built up on the characters over the years, really getting at the most basic, pure take on them.

He was like, ‘we keep the dog, maybe the horse if we can make time for him, because [Comet] is the weirdest thing in all of comics.’

Elaborating on the book/lack of Supergirl mythology: He put her in space, gave her a simple mission, and let the story be a thesis on why Supergirl is awesome.

Next question was about the comic writing process.

King said there’s no set way to write a comic script; he tends to write ‘full scripts’; they resemble movie scripts in that there’s panel descriptions for each page, as well as the dialogue for each panel.

His descriptions are light, though. For example, he’ll simply put: ‘Supergirl encounters a Space Dragon’, and leave the rest up to Bilquis.

Again had nothing but praise and excitement re: working with Evely and Lopes. 

Said Evely adds such depth and emotion and storytelling to the artwork.

Then there was a question from the live chat; the listener noted that a lot of King’s work contains romance/is focused on romantic love. They asked if this book would also be about romantic love, or another kind of love.

King: This is not a romance. The love in this comic is a friendship love, between Kara and Ruthye.

When asked if other pre-existing characters would make an appearance: There will be shout-outs, but this is first and foremost a book about Supergirl; she is at the center of the book.

The goal is to make her one of the pillars of DC Comics.

On the subject of the ‘western’ part of the space western: Again mentioned True Grit, as well as The Searchers, and Red River.

Compared Kara to John Wayne.

Likes the idea of a character who has a simple mission, needs to go somewhere, and travels through various lands to get there, like the Odyssey.

Initially, he was going to have Kara be a sort of ingenue who learns to be tough as she goes on this journey, but his editor said, ‘No, she should be the teacher, instructing this young girl on how to be tough’ b/c Kara has the life experience. And King was like, ‘yeah! Let’s do that!’

And of course, because it is Supergirl Radio, they asked if he’s watched the show.

He watched the 1st and 2nd seasons with his daughter, then they fell behind/stopped watching because she moved on to other things, but he loved it! Specifically loved that he could watch a superhero show with her; good bonding time.

They asked him about incorporating stuff from the show and he said that he opted not to do that, as it’s sometimes not done well/feels forced. The example he used is that it’s very hard to get something like Calista Flockhart’s performance from the TV show into the comics, both in terms of the actual writing, and also in terms of legal stuff like the likeness rights, etc. 

Then they talked about KRYPTO! And King’s own dog, Roxy. 

Because King is a dog owner, he said he found it very hard to write Krypto sometimes, because he never wanted to put him in danger.

He also said that you can feel like a dog is a family member, and that is how Kara views Krypto; he is not a pet, or a tool, but a member of her family.

Another live chat question: Does he think of Kara differently, now that he’s written her?

King said she’s a much tougher character, than he initially thought.

Compared her to Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark; you don’t see him become Indy, he just already IS Indy, and he’s done this stuff a hundred times over.

And then he shared a little bit of issue 2 to illustrate this point: Ruthye and Kara encounter a guy who has beef with Superman, so he decides to take it out on Kara, and Kara easily dispatches him; Ruthye (the narrator of the book) marvels at how this happens everywhere they go, and it’s just a daily occurrence for Kara, because everyone thinks she’s the weak link/a way to get back at Clark.

Final question was about what he hopes is his legacy/the takeaway of this book.

King said he wants it to do well, and convince DC/the editors that there ALWAYS needs to be a Supergirl book on the stands.

And now, SOME THOUGHTS!

As mentioned, a lot of this stuff was already covered in the prior podcast, BUT! There are some new details here that build on those points.

For instance: King is really committing to a harder, cynical Kara. Who knows if she’ll remain that way by journey’s end, but that’s the take he’s going with.

(And, as before: not my preferred/ideal Kara! But I am open to seeing this. Largely because it is rooted in like. Character backstory/history; he’s not being edgy for edge's sake.)

Also, NO ROMANCE. 

*insert happy muppet flailing here*

I will admit that I had the extremely cursed thought that he’d bring back Comet, or worse, 90s Comet as some sort of guest star--and maybe he will, who knows! But I don’t get that vibe, really. Like, maybe as a fun shout-out, but not a full-on character in the story.

I do like that he repeatedly emphasized that this is a very simple book, with Kara at the center, and that it’s basically about Supergirl, and why she’s awesome.

Especially given how Future State whiffed that one.

That said, was a little dismayed to learn that Ruthye will be the narrator of the whole thing. It brings back horrible visions of Future State, and it’s harder for the reader to get into a character’s head when you’ve got someone else narrating the whole thing, but. We’ll see.

(What might take the edge off of this narrative choice is Evely’s art, since you can better determine Kara’s emotions/thoughts/etc.)

Interestingly, King didn’t want to comment too much on this book’s potential connection to Future State: Superwoman which...has me a little concerned.

(Please, never let that book be canon. PLEASE.)

The further details on the BTS stuff is disappointing, but not surprising. ‘Supergirl is too perfect/boring’ is a take that 1.) mirrors the same nonsense you see about Superman, and why everyone would rather be writing Batman and 2.) has existed FOREVER, and was particularly prevalent after the introduction of Power Girl. 

(It’s also flat-out wrong, in the same way that ‘Superman is boring’ is wrong.)

Other little things: Love that King says Kara views Krypto as a family member (because he totally is), and the Camine Infantino art was SO COOL.

SO, OVERALL: Gonna have to get used to the idea of an old, crusty Kara.

(Honestly I can’t even be mad at that description because I kinda find it funny? I mean, what with the Superman Fortnite announcement recently, I’m feeling pretty old and crusty, ngl. XD)

But I like a lot of the stuff King’s said so far.

Some of it does give me a little pause--like the heavy emphasis on the Supergirl part of her identity, as opposed to Kara, and how she’s just this awesome badass, with no real mention of other aspects of her character--but.

As should be very clear by now, I’m not in it for the writing.

Rather. I am here primarily because of

*takes a deep breath*

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!

[megacarapa]

What are your thoughts on the recent manga developements? Like the climax of the vs stanley arc and the suika mini arc etc, idk ive just been loving the recent chapters and wanna hear more talk about it and your rants so far have been really entertaining ^^

ANON FCGB;;;😳

WELL i did make an entire playlist based off those 3 suika chapters so i guess you could say i’ve been enjoying the current arc gfgfh. ok here are my VERY extended thoughts on the last 10ish chapters under the cut (manga spoilers obv) (LUCY DON’T READ THIS ONE FR) (also cw for like.. discussion of diseases and stuff tho i dont go too much into detail, i’m not an actual doctor obviously dfgdfg)

this ended up being way longer than i expected so i tried breaking it into a few sections and adding images to make it easier on the eyes, i’ve really loved the south america arc as a whole but these last few chapters have been especially amazing

vs stanley climax

first of all, i gotta love how you called it the "vs stanley fight", and i mean, you're technically right since he is the antagonist of this arc, but it's interesting how they never have a direct faceoff with stanley, it's more like stanley and his troops attacking super one sidedly in a way the kos can't really fight against, so they use communication between their different teams to trap stanley & co in a situation they can't run away from and win in the long term

i love that dr stone "fights" are most often won strategically rather than in a straight up 1v1 brawl, in fact those more standard fights are most often used as a way to keep the enemy at bay until senku & co can figure out a way to actually win, also it's just really cool that the team that delivered the final blow was thousands of miles away from where the actual fight was taking place, or even hundreds of thousands if you count whyman as the "person who delivered the final blow"

stanley theorizes at the end that the kos will probably keep his statue as a hostage to make xeno work for them on the rocket if he wants stanley back (lmao gay), but considering their track record of letting past enemies join the crew, i have a feeling we’ll have both xeno and stanley (and the rest of the americans) back rather than just xeno

the only antagonist so far that hasn't been redeemed is ibara, who is just being kept as a stone statue somewhere, but you could tell that would be the case based on his design alone, he just screams *irredeemable villain*

xeno and stanley, while antagonists, are also clearly designed to be likeable characters, so i don't see them getting the same treatment

the only problem would be keeping a constant watch over xeno to make sure he doesn't do any Side Projects™ and develop firearms again, but it could also be that xeno was actually convinced of senku’s philosophy in their last talk before the beam hit, so maybe he will be willing to help even without having stanley be a hostage, but i guess we’ll just wait and see

as a side note, whyman periodically sending the petrification command was basically a chekhov's gun now that i think about it, so it makes sense in a meta way that a second worldwide petrification would happen, why establish it if it wont come into play later in the story? i actually felt kinda dumb for not seeing it coming fgdfg

aftermath/suika chapters

the first strategy they had for defeating stanley was a good one, but it wouldn't really make for good storytelling if it just Worked and they won just like that, it would be pretty anticlimactic after running from him for almost 20 chapters, so it makes sense then that what they had to go with in the end was the same strategy, but on a much bigger scale

suika being the one to be depetrified first and have to save everyone is also a good choice both thematically and to make sure the victory isn't too easy

having someone like senku or chrome who understands the platinum method to make revival fluid and then have it done in less than a day, or having suika simply find some extra revival fluid lying around like she was initially planning would, again, be anticlimactic, it would've lacked impact after everything they've been through

these 3 chapters also nicely bring back the theme of science not being exclusive to the “pros”, everyone can use it as long as they have the proper steps to follow, the most impressive example before this was the corn city crew managing to make a diamond by following senku’s instructions despite not having any scientists on board (and before that, gen and the villagers making a telescope)

and now suika is even more impressive, being a literal child and all, even though she wasn't able to understand the more complex methods, there was still a way for her to succeed, all she needed was to be patient and diligently go at it step by step, i adore these 3 chapters and i love suika so much now it's insane

suika being the one to get revived serves another purpose as well...

honestly, already around 188/189 i was starting to get really worried about how the story would handle the emotional aftermath

shonen jump manga has a tendency to just gloss over the psychological consequences of traumatic events (one moment i remember finding really frustrating was in bnha, when kirishima gets really fucked up during the overhaul arc but the next time we see him he’s just joking around about looking like a mummy because of all his bandages🙄), so i was worried they wouldn't treat the aftermath of an event like this with the gravity it deserves, (i think LITERALLY DYING could be considered a traumatic event but i'm no psychologist🤔)

suika’s time alone shows a nice contrast to senku, while senku is definitely not emotionless, during his time alone before taiju was revived he is still very cool and collected, not showing any emotional weakness like the king of repression he is

suika is a whole different story, she’s a kid, she doesn't repress her emotions like senku does, so during her time alone she is scared and lonely, especially at the beginning, we see her breaking down into tears multiple times, imagining her friends statues talking to her, hugging kohaku’s statue for comfort etc

this really provided the emotional catharsis i was hoping for, through suika, the audience is genuinely able to feel the gravity of what has happened

i do wish more of the older characters could be allowed to show emotional weakness like this, but i guess having suika serve as a proxy for everyone works well enough

on that note, senku was alone for only 6 months and even then its implied in treasure island that he may have a problem with loneliness

suika on the other hand was alone for YEARS, i can only imagine how that affected her mental state, tho honestly i can't say i expect the story to delve into something like that too deeply (or at all) since this is a shonen manga after all.. 

immortality

i’ve seen some people interpreting hyoga’s resurrection in 197 as “they can revive somebody that died from an injury, but people will still die eventually due to old age”, but i don’t think that's really the case, people don’t just die from “old age” by itself, they die because their body slowly degrades over time, which makes it harder to fight against numerous diseases, one of which will eventually get you and kill you

but dr stone (aka the combination of medusa+revival fluid) can nullify that degradation and bring your body back into a healthy state, we’ve already seen this with kaseki on treasure island where senku explains that dr stone healed his arthritis, a disease which probably would have lead to his natural death sooner or later

while we already know kaseki was in better shape than most people his age, it’s still surprising to see an old man like him jumping around so energetically, thats how much the restoration improved his health

we also know it healed mirai who was brain dead before being revived, so i think it's a pretty safe bet that it can heal other brain related diseases such as alzheimers

if so, then dr stone can heal injuries, diseases and even death as we’ve seen with hyoga, i think it’s pretty accurate of senku to say that humanity has gained immortality with it

honestly this development has been a long time coming, the idea of dr stone being able to bring back the dead was introduced as early as the first arc when tsukasa killed senku but taiyuzu were able to bring him back, but it really does seem like such an out there concept so i’m interested to see how they will base it in science... (and also how they will handle the whole… moral dilemma of immortality but i ain't ready to even attempt to think abt any of that)

my favourite theory that has sprung up from this is that if people really can live forever thanks to dr stone, it could be that whyman is actually a normal human who has been continually petrifying and reviving themself to live for 3700 years

wat will happen nixt?

back when 196 came out it kinda dawned on me just how much the crew has been set back in the progress they've made so far that it was giving me anxiety for real gfgdfg

seven years have passed, and in that time a lot of the tools they've made must have degraded, along with that, everyone they've revived so far has been turned to stone once again, there was nobody to upkeep the wheat fields and sundial and basically everything they've left in japan, and after all this time even the perseus must be in bad shape and in need of repair, as chrome suggests

how long will it take them to repair the ship? to repair all the tools they've lost? their original plan was to go around the world building cities where they can get all the materials to work on that rocket they’ll be making eventually, they already kinda started up corn city, but that has been out of commission for a while now, they were planning to build superalloy city in south america and have barely started on that

so they need to keep building these cities but also need to go back and revive everyone if they don't want their progress to go to waste, how will they go about this?? will they just tackle it one by one or split into teams, so one team can stay behind and work on superalloy city and the other can go back and revive everyone? who knows?? ryusui certainly made it sound way easier than how i've been imagining it dfgdfg

other than that, i gotta wonder are the kingdom of science really the only humans left on earth now that there's been a second worldwide petrification, or has some other group revived somewhere during the timeskip, OR maybe there might be another group out there who also devised the revival formula and was able to escape the 2nd petrification, which would then give them 7 more years to develop while senku n co are just stuck in stone 🤔 dr stone has always had some human antagonist so i wonder who’s next now that xeno and stanley have been dealt with

honestly my favourite arc has always been age of exploration precisely because it doesn't have any human threat and the characters are just left to craft and work on rebuilding society without the pressure of a looming war or a crazy american hunting them down, so honestly i'm hoping we will get another arc like that now, i think the crew definitely deserves it dnjd

random bonus ramblings

-using poop and shells to create nitric acid and it being a process that would take a long time is something that has already been mentioned multiple times in the series, so it’s really cool to see it actually utilized in the story rather than being random throwaway info

makes you wonder what other seemingly throwaway lines could actually be foreshadowing...

😬😬😬

-since joel managed to fix a medusa im very excited for him to be revived so we can learn how he did it and how the petrification works in the first place!! (and for joel and kaseki to finally meet in general)

-drst has a habit of introducing a character in one arc and having them be Just kinda There for some time until they finally have their time to shine in a later arc, examples being minami and of course yuzuriha, so i'm wondering if the same will happen later on with some of the americans, charlotte seems like a good contender for this (the girl that suika saved in 185, i gotta wonder how she felt having to shoot down the people who saved her life)

-on that note i feel like matsukaze also still hasn’t had his time to shine or contribute in any unique way yet (other than exposition gdvdj)

-i was also really liking dr brody as a character so i was kinda disappointed that he just blindly decided to kill everyone in corn city instead of talking and trying to come to an agreement w them like he has been up till then (though i guess it was necessary for the plot🙄), interested to see what they do with him as well

-i wanna see stanxeno on screen makeout sesh 🙄!

-will senku not losing his petrification cracks be explained? if he still has them, will xeno, stanley, luna etc still have theirs too? (honestly i hope so, i don’t wanna have to stare at xeno’s big shiny forehead for the rest of the series gsdhgfd)

ok i feel like i've finally exhausted all the numerous thoughts i had sdfdfd thank you for giving me an excuse to ramble on for so long and congratulations if you've managed to make it til the end <3

in conclusion