#but it is weird we are getting one new character in a sea of established characters

[absolutebl]

Love Sea - A Trash Watch Smolder

Well my BLabies, do you have your drinks ready?

Are your smores stabbed on dildos, ready to roast over the stinking flames? (Or whatever one prods smores with, I missed that weird American tradition in my misspent youth.)

Can you smell it in the air? The smell of burning trash?

Let the dumpster fire begin. Another Mame offering is upon us.

The Background

The Mameverse tends to interlock, but all signs point to these being entirely new characters. (Click on that link if you want my thoughts on this author/producer and what I feel she does well and poorly.) Meanwhile, here's the brief:

Who?

FortPeat - established couple from previous Mame offering Love in the Air AKA LITA (trash watched here).

How do we feel about them? We likie. They a great pair. Steady, established actors, good a promo, but not too good. Bit one note but can't ask for too much when it comes with such great chemistry.

What do we know about them as actors? Fort is legitimately in Engineering (hilarious). Peat and he started in the industry around the same time with bit parts, but Peat is 4 years older. They do high heat and they do it well. They were quite popular after their first series and have received sponsorships. So they wisely stayed branded and it's nice to see them on our screens again.

What?

Love Sea

While travelling a writer has a one night stand with a very irritating man.

When?

Sundays

Where?

iQIYI (AKA icky)

Why?

Mame

To what degree?

Stick your thermometer into that fire, we gonna find out. 102°C I expect.

Episode One - That's An Outfit We'd All Wear to a Tropical Island

Here’s the thing. Icky has decided (in its infinite wisdom) that it will no longer allow screen caps on mobile devices. Which means you’re going to get my loquaciousness on this dumpster fire with no respite from the unmitigated madness via photos of pretty boys saying stupid things.

So. Read at your own risk.

I have a bottle of sake and a maple doughnut (don’t knock it 'til you’ve tried it) so let’s get started!

Hold onto your dildo smores BLabies we are in Mame Country. And apparently that country has its very own baby drone to film with now. (Look, the one thing BL rarely needs more distance shots. That’s not what we’re here for, people. Certainly not from FortPeat.)

Rak, baby, I'm loving the all-black western meets goth-rocker look but that eye make-up is the true star. This is how I shall dress when I visit Thailand next. (Oh, you think I'm joking? Gotta work on my smokey eye.)

Meanwhile, if your suitcases are that expensive, why aren’t they matched?

P'ABL asking the important questions for once.

Speaking of important questions:

Why are siblings always trying to pimp each other out in Mame’s stuff? Does anyone else find this creepy? I think it’s odd to be your sibling's wingman when he's chasing tail. It’s edging into the incest taboo. Oh dear, I said edging and incest in the same sentence, I’m probubly giving Mame ideas.

I’m getting Hometown Cha Cha Cha vibes from Mut.

Rak is such a cat, very picky and stand-offish. Mut is such a puppy. Very conflicting personalities. Not a bad combo. Also Rich/poor. Country/city.

The "let’s get it on" music is hilarious. But at least Mame doesn't use egregious sound effects in her shows. Well, not as many as GMMTV. Small mercies.

I will say, FortPeat do hurt/comfort very well. Peat is good at prickly fragile baby-girl. Fort is good at cocky arrogant prick. They are good at bouncing off of each other and still showing desire. Frankly, chemistry is not one of their problems. They’re fine little actors. It’s just the story is going to betray them. Characters are going to be inexplicably evil for no good reason. And we are going to feel manipulated as a result.

But right now?

It’s fine.

And that's it, that's how I feel about Love Sea.

All in all, I’m quite drunk and it wasn’t warranted.

Waste of sake. Not a waste of a maple doughnut. No such thing. Maple donuts are always put to good use.

Okay, so Mame? Just keep it on this level and we'll remain fine. Some light terrorizing and stalking, a smidge of breaking and entering. Nothing more offensive, okay?

But that’s my eternal optimism (and the sake) talking.

Right now I’m not feeling very strongly in any direction about this show. I haven’t been whipped into a verbal frenzy.

This has been a lackluster start.

Kortord tukorn

(sorry all)

This trash watch has started off as more of a dumpster smolder. A light recycling. (Like Mame and her character archetypes.)

We smokey rather than flaming (Like Rak's FANTASTIC eye makeup.)

Oof, I feel faintly ill. I think that is the sake, tho, not the eye make up. Which was on point! Although when he started to cry, it should’ve started running down his face. Life has very few stand out moments of glory apart from an adorable young man with eye makeup running down his face.

Catch ya next week. More sake, less doughnut.

su su na

Episode Two - Rack's Green Knit Shirt is Kinda Cute

I seriously cannot fault FortPeat's chemistry. And the opening sequence for this ep was intriguingly full of banter and then...

Surprise, BJ!

I do hope that beach is private. Starting with a BJ is very unusual in a BL. We certainly lick live in interesting times.

I feel like I haven't quite been warmed up to a sex scene yet. Kinda came out of nowhere. I mean it IS quite gay, making the prick front and center before the relationship gets going. But I was oddly indifferent to this start.

I'm on gd roll tonight apparently.

You know why? (Well, I'm me, but also...)

I feel like I have license. This show is kinda rude. Is that the word I’m looking for? Yes, rude. It's not very sexy, and it's not quite dirty, it's something else. Rude.

I’m not upset about it. It’s just odd. Like Thailand is trying on some Japanese button pushing for size.

I’m not mad just mildly confused.

Meanwhile, the GL sides are a "whipping girl" trope? Not sure I’ve ever we seen that combo before. Gay mean girls or something?

On an entirely different note, BL universe, I just thought I'd tell you that’s not where a gay man of Rak's caliber puts his perfume. Just FYI. 

I love claiming.

I love a public claiming!

I don’t care if this is Mame.

I LOVE A CLAIMING. 

Also, I am very much enjoying MutRak banter. Actually, I’m pretty much enjoying this episode.

OOOO, I typed too soon.

The second half is kinda dull.

Mame's little moment of "Author insert" was awful ham-handed and on the nose. On the prick? On the ego? She compared her own rampant mischaracterization and audience manipulation to the presence of dragons in a fantasy world? Basically saying: in BL my characters don’t have to be consistent, because that’s part of the genre.

I assure you, sweetheart, there are plenty of BLs and plenty of authors who have honest characterization that stays consistent throughout, and GASP actually bolsters faithful stories and drives plot with a conflict sourced in that consistency. Wandee Goodday... to pluck a randomly contemporaneous example out of thin air. You should try it sometime.

Ooo, now I'm salty.

Episode 3 - But Now, I'm Bored

Before we start....

Linguistics Corner!

Because I got an Ask here's a bit on these two and their pronouns! (We can see if my predictions are correct during the course of this trash watch.) We are in the realm of adult characters not school setting or friendship groups so Rak is using chan/nai and khun with Mut. There is a class & wealth difference with them, + Mut starts out as a kind of employee, so chan/nai makes perfect sense. It's an old fashioned but polite way of speaking that dodges age negotiations. Rak likely doesn't know their respective ages (he could be the older one). To even begin the discussion implies a willingness to use more intimate language so Rak likely doesn't wanna open that can of worms pronouns. He is using both chan/nai and his lack of flexibility around their use as a distancing tactic. Probubly instinctively. Pom or own name would be both intimate and status lowering for him to use. With most adult characters, phi/nong takes longer to establish (if ever), particularly if they start out as strangers. Also, it has much more intimate connotations. And by that I mean: emotional vulnerability not sex. It's fun to pay attention tho, because when these two pronoun shift (and they will) it's likely to be a significant moment in their romantic arc. If I'm lucky we will get a negotiation but that's not really a Meme thing so I suspect Mut will soften his language first. Because of Mut's characterization, and in order to ramp up the romance, I would actually expect these two to (eventually) parlay into rao/ter instead of phi/pom or guu/mueng. But I am looking forward to finding out how it's handled.

And now onto the episode.

...

..

.

Over a quarter way through and I have absolutely nothing to say. I apologize, this muse be a very boring trash watch. (Imagine how I feel?) I’m too tired to drink but even if there were alcohol in my system, I still think I would have nothing to say. 

Oh. Is that? Do I sense.... *GASP*

Traumatic backstories for our characters?

From Mame? Who seems to believe that no character can have depth without suffering?

Say it isn't so?

OK we’re now halfway through this episode and apparently there’s been a Time-lapse of some kind? A couple of weeks?

So this little cat & dog game they’ve been playing has been going on for a while?

Meanwhile...

I had a huge grin on my face at the moment Ja showed up. I guess I really miss him on my screen. Hi tall drink of water.

Oh, hydration.

Back to the show.

Just two boys with abandonment issues learning how to turn a vacation fling into a relationship mistake.

Also it’s a bit too early for that level of confessional. Isn't it? Well pacing-wise for a BL it feels that way. Are we now about to turn into a country mouse narrative?

On an entirely different note, it’s fascinating to have FortPeat and MosBank airing to high heat BLs at the same time. Especially as they're running on about the same release schedule. I’m enjoying watching 2 pairs both like in chemistry.

WAIT.

I sense a parody coming on.

Two branded pairs, both alike in chemistry, In fair Thailand, where all the cute boys yearn, From ancient grudge to suffer new Mame, Where trash watches make dumpster fires burn. From Fort the fatal loins of these two hoes (I HAD TO). A pair of branded pairs take on the heat; Whose narratives will oft include no clothes, Do with their smooches fight Tumblr critique. Such shameful usage of the dub-con trope, (Contrasted to others thirsty scenes,) Which, but for Mame's brand, all would say nope, Is now 12 eps of angst upon our screens. To wit, if you want sex without my diatribes, Give this a pass and watch Sunset X Vibes.

Thank you thank you. That is for the 3 people reading this who care.

Where was I?

Or right, no fault to FortPeat. Both pairs are working with the characters and scripts that they've been given.

But right now the sexitimes in this show just feel a lot more service and a lot less genuine (for lack of a better word) then Sunset X Vibes. Now, I know that the characters, narrative, and production company preferences are completely different, but the consummate interplay between surrender and hunger and consummation are oddly similar between these pairs, and yet they're reading (from this side of the screen) completely differently.

I don’t know where I’m going with this.

I just think we have an interesting study in heat and chemistry airing double down right now. And I wonder is anyone else is sensing what I'm sensing.

Writing that sonnet (or whatever) has utterly exhausted me. Nighty night. Don't let the guy-who-took-a-copy-of-your-hotel-key-and-broke-into-your-room bite.

Episode 4 - And Now, I'm Bored & Annoyed

I rushed back from the wilds of foreign climes to trash watch what exactly?

All this time spent establishing Mut as a

pillar of his community

really important lynchpin for oceanic conservation work

striving for his independence

building local friendships and surrogate family

the de facto mayor of this island

And he just leaves for Bangkok to be a boy toy?

And they JOKE about it?

Is the stuff between Mook and Mut supposed to be funny? It's not.

I got so bored I started looking up ways to organize my sunglasses.

Why is Mook so worried about Rak? He’s clearly an asshole who can take care of himself.

What is Mut doing with his life?

What am I doing with mine?

Too early in the series for an existential crisis.

I definitely need to start drinking again for this one.

Episode 5 - In which I simultaneously got even more bored & more annoyed

This time I armed myself with both booze and sugar. Unfortunately, there are some things even alcohol and chocolate can't cure. Mame is one of those things.

The bullying GL subplot is just BAD.

I’m getting an overall EPIC SQUICK from the fact that the two rich privileged characters are essentially taking advantage of the two lower class poorer characters. It’s not a power dynamic I enjoy at all. Ever.

So... everyone in Rak’s family is an extreme bitch, including him? Okaaay.

I mean Rak is pretty and all but I fail to understand the appeal. Maybe Mut just likes bitches? Maybe the sex really is that great?

I tell you, I wouldn’t put up with it.

ARGH. I'm just I’m not finding any of the character dynamics appealing in this show. I never thought I’d say this, but I wish I were back in LITA territory. 

I’m honestly sorry this trash watch is so bad.

This show isn’t inspiring me into anything but a general feeling of mild annoyance and slight fury.

It's like this rash I had in Stockholm one time.

Startlingly unpleasant, not what one might hope for, but also it could be worse, I suppose.

Episode 6 - In which I get very upset about jealousy

Tonight I'm combining my sugar with my alcohol and drinking chocolate soy milk with chocolate liquor in it. I'm aware that I have a child's taste in booze. The secret is I don't actually enjoy alcohol, I simply need it to survive Mame.

OK let’s do it.

Rich boy shops when sad.

Frankly, that always makes me feel better too. I prefer the snack aisle myself.

Oh. Goodie. You get to now watch ABL completely losing an entire brain due to raging at the machine because of one sentence.

Ready?

Chapter 6: Jealousy is a Sign of Love

Jealousy is a sign of love?! You absolute fuckers. Jealousy is not a sign of love, jealousy is a sign of possession, insecurity, insanity, and often abuse. Jealousy is a sign to dump that shithead as quickly as possible.

I mean, we all understand the story beat: in BL possession is revered and admired and used to drive plot when all other avenues have been exhausted. But you can’t just say it as the title of an episode! That’s too blatant.

TOO FAR!

Returning to the traumatic backstory. 

No, actually. Let’s skip that part.

I do like it when Rak gets all bossy. I love it when a spoiled boy manipulates his man's body to be his bolster pillow. Taiwan is particularly good at this.

Should I just go watch We Best Love for the 1millionth time instead of this show?

Too tempting.

Where was I?

It’s not even halfway through and I’ve already finished my drink in desperation. And am day dreaming of better shows.

Honestly, I have had many feelings about Meme over the years, but I don’t think I’ve ever been this bored with any of her stuff. I’d rather feel something than nothing.

Meanwhile, the GL moves on from bullying to outright manipulation and gaslighting. Cute. Added French for flavor.

I do like a smile kiss. And a lap sit. And so forth. So Fort.

Yes these two do sex scenes very well.

Give me something more.

Anything.

On the bright side... so far... no singing.

Episode 7 - I'm Too Drunk for This

This time, I decided to pre-game. So I went in tipsy. I’m hoping this improves my mood.

Look, I'm doing my best for you here. (Or am I doing my floppyest for you? Eh, same difference.)

Frankly, what’s really annoying me is that I am neither upset nor pleased with this flipping show. Turns out, I like to be driven one way or the other by Mame. But this show? Nada. It's a VOID.

At this juncture I'd prefer to feel rage than indifference.

I gotta say that thinking about this purely as a soap opera makes me understand it more. I don't like it any better, but I get what's going on. These are the Days of Our BL.

Oh hey, I know that convention center! Best food in the biz.

The revenge bit was fun I guess?

Ooo. Now I kinda wanna rewatch Shelter. It’s been ages. Such a great movie. 

Where was I?

Oh, right, the crazy cousin character. I don’t understand what’s going on with her. Why do we need her? Why is she here? What’s her motivation?

I’m too drunk for this shit.

I'm going to bed.

Episode 8 - I'm Not Drunk Enough for This

(I detect a theme)

Okay so the hotel wifi is not awful, we gonna try watching icky with it. Always a challenge. Wish me luck!

Wouldn't it be fun if Mut has been conning Rak with this good guy persona the entire time and he really is just after money? I kinda love the idea.

Sadly, I think this is way more boring.

Rak is just a bitch, not even a sublime bitch, but a boring bitch. That's worse than a basic one.

The drama with the dad just seems manufactured. I mean what does the dad want except to be evil?

I mean I know what Mame wants, an excuse for Rak to break Mut's heart.

And now, I'm annoyed and hungry. Imma eat hotel snacks and disappointment in equal measure.

Episode 9 - Perhaps I'm the problem?

I did this already and then tumblr ate it so this time around it's not as witty. Trust me that in the first assessment I was all charm. Now I am all sarcasm.

I enjoyed the random fight scenes. At least something happened. Also the collapsing in his arms was very dramatic.

I can see why Mame reused this pair for this show, because Peat is so good at being broken & fragile (see previous role).

But also… I feel like I’ve seen all of this before. Oh right, the psychotic breakdown scene in TharnType. The fragile broken uke from Love By Chance. The seme with a heart of gold and fists of steel from… all of them. 

I find this exhausting.

Is anyone else exhausted?

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again (AKA watching Mame) and expecting a different result. I must be certifiably bonkers at this juncture.

Second half of this show I begin to wonder one thing. (Well my mind wanders a lot but this particular thought bubbled to the surface.) 

Is this show actually an okay Thai BL?

Wait! Hear me out.

If this were ones first Meme, would it be… fine? In other words, if I didn’t have this storied (or lack of story, nash) history with her creative endeavors, would this bore me this much?

Is this actually just an average mildly enjoyable high-heat Thai BL to others, who are coming to her stuff for the first (or maybe the second) time?

Is it over-exposure or the has traumatized me in this way?

Am I corrupted through overindulgence?

Is this all my own fault?

Should I be taking a break from her? Should I not watch the next 3 productions that she does, and then return to her with fresh feelings of openness and amenable temper?

Is it me who is the problem? 

Yet the act of asking that last question makes me feel like I’m in the same kind of abusive relationship with Mame that Rak was with his father.

Then I feel like I need to drink more. Or see a therapist.

So that’s enough philosophy for one evening.

And then, at the very very end A THRILL DESCENDED UPON ME.

Watching the stinger for next weekI was all… 

Is this a 10 epper? Oh my God it is! Fantastic. Next week is the last one! I SEE THE LIGHT. 

Episode 10 - The Lingering Scent of Disappointment

Today I am drinking a soju cocktail. Which I can highly recommend. If you're a lightweight but you like vodka, Fresh Soju is actually a pretty decent substitute with a lower alcohol content. 

This has been your bartender lesson for today, moving on.

Wait. 

If the Maa could’ve fixed this all along by throwing the Dad in jail, why didn’t she? Why did she put her kids through all of this bullshit with stalking and abuse? Also the mom character was basically a deus ex machina, except she didn’t even happen on screen. It was action taken to solve what little plot there was... entirely off screen. How weird. I don’t even have a term for that. Bad writing? Recon explanation? Of screen resolution?

OK, Fort is acting so well in the breakup scene. I adore that “how much do I need to pay you to fall in love with me” parrots the original “how much do I need to pay you to sleep with me”. I must give props for that level of emotional manipulation in a romance drama of this type. 

That said, I feel for Rak, it’s rough to learn that someone else is playing a long game with feelings while you were playing a short game with d**k.

Meanwhile... I have run out of alcohol and I am now eating brownie bites. Because life (and d**k) is too short and so is my patience. 

Why is that tattoo so absolutely terribly obviously fake?

Someone take tattoos and wigs away from Thailand. Just strip them out of all wardrobe departments in the entire Thai film industry. Clearly they can’t handle that level of POWER. It’s giving me trauma.

I do like that the solution to the drama of the break up was an actual sincere and abject apology. Very mature and grown up of you Mame. 

I wish they’d woven the number 8 throughout more of the show, like into the pattern of Rak’s shirts and maybe an earring or cuff.

Did they entirely forget about the GL side not-plot? Or is it just me not paying attention because I’m distracted by brownie bites? 

Regardless, I genuinely let out the biggest yawn during the very ending scene. It’s nowhere near my bedtime.

And… that’s it I guess.

I’m going on the record at this point. I don’t think I can do a trash watch of Mame again. It’s exhausting. And also is it really worth my (or your) time? This screed was so lackluster.

Final thoughts? 

This is probably a solid 8/10 show but I’m mad I wasn’t madder at it, and mad I was so bored throughout.

So It gets a 7/10 and let us not speak of this again. I’d like to simply forget about it.

Conclusion? I’m left residually upset that FortPeat and all their talents are wasted on Mame. That seems unfair to them. And to us, quite frankly. 

************************************

All my trash watches are here:

(source)

[gandalfsalt]

Solavellan Angst and Dido & Aeneas

Here's an "essay" (more like notes) I wrote about a year ago after finishing Trespasser, and surprisingly it holds up ok! You can watch a video essay version on my TikTok @gandalfs_alt. I think the video version is a bit more polished because I wrote it yesterday, this old one is pretty rough.

Unfortunately no citations... feels weird to post w/o citations. Future posts I think I will start citing my sources.

A great love story that I see relating to Solavellan is the story of Dido and Aeneas. This story is even older than Tristan and Isolde, dating back to ancient Rome (specifically Virgil’s The Aeneid, completed in 19 BCE, about 2000 years ago). It is widely considered the archetypal love story that symbolizes the tension between love and duty in Western literature. 

Dido was the Queen of Carthage, a city located in North Africa. In some versions she is a sorceress, and she is beloved by her people. Aeneas was a Trojan hero who escaped the fall of Troy. Aeneas and his fellow Trojans fled across the Mediterranean Sea after the fall of Troy. They landed in Carthage, and were welcomed by Dido, who offered them hospitality.

Dido and Aeneas spend a significant amount of time together, and fall deeply in love. Over time their love became increasingly intense. In some versions they marry. However, Jupiter (Zeus), the king of the gods, sends the messenger god Mercury (Hermes) to remind Aeneas of his duty to establish a new homeland in Italy (what becomes modern day Rome). After contemplating staying by Dido’s side, Aeneas feels that he must fulfill his divine mission to re-establish his homeland and he abandons Dido, departing for Italy.

Dido is devastated by Aeneas’ departure. In her anguish, Dido constructs a funeral pyre, on which she places Aeneas's belongings, including a sword he had left behind. She then took her own life by falling on the sword. Aeneas, unaware of Dido's fate, continues his journey to Italy, where he eventually fulfills his destiny and founds the city that would become Rome.

I think some of the parallels are pretty clear. A mysterious wandering hero fleeing the aftermath of a fallen civilization joins up with a group of people and falls in love with their leader. He then abandons said leader to fulfill what he believes is his divine mission, which is to re-establish what has fallen in a new place.   

There’s two ways I think this story is helpful for understanding Solas, Lavellan, or Solavellan:

It has inspired so much art, we can look at how other artists have handled this theme to get insights into the characters, learn more about them, and learn about different ways this conflict (love vs duty) can be interpreted or represented.

If this story did in fact inspire the DA:I writers, learning more about it can possibly help uncover where they may take Solavellan in DA:D (dear god, I hope they don’t go the Dido route with Lavellan, pls no 😭)

Even though Solas is a pretty clear Aeneas type, I actually see him share a lot of attributes with Dido as well. One of the most famous versions of Dido and Aeneas is an opera (yes, opera again, lol) composed by Henry Purcell in 1689. It is one of the first operas composed in English, and is pretty much considered the premiere retelling of the Dido/Aeneas story in the English language. One of the most famous pieces from the opera is Dido’s Lament, and it’s the song Dido sings after she decides she can’t live without Aeneas, and is about to, literally, fall on a sword. 

The lyrics of Dido’s lament are:

More I would, but Death invades me:

Death is now a welcome guest.

When I am laid, am laid in earth,

May my wrongs create no trouble, no

trouble in thy breast;

Remember me! Remember me! But ah!

forget my fate. 

To me, this is 100% Solas’s psychological state when he leaves Lavellan. The lament is obviously very tragic and sad, but there’s something extremely stubborn and self-centered about it. It feels like a lot of self-imposed misery. In Dido’s case, she was certainly wronged by Aeneas, she was treated very unfairly and it’s not her fault at all, but her reaction to it is very self-pitying and self-sabotaging, literally and figuratively. I got the same feelings from Solas during his final confrontation with Lavellan. 

“Death invades me, Death is now a welcome guest,” - Wait a minute, who says anyone has to die? Why is dying the only option here, Dido and Solas?

“May my wrongs create no trouble in thy breast,” - It seems like Dido and Aeneas have the option not to commit these wrongs or additional wrongs, so why act all stubborn and resigned about it? 

The “wrong” I think Dido is referencing is her impending suicide. Solas may be referencing the same thing if he knows he is going to die, but in his case destroying the world and loving then leaving Lavellan are some other wrongs. But again, based on what we know, it seems like he has the option to stay and not destroy the world a second time. So why so stubborn?

“Remember me! But forget my fate.” My dudes. It seems to us like you’re choosing this fate. And you think we can remember you and not remember how you left us? You want Aeneas/Lavellan to hold the torch, but just forget a very monumental decision you made? That’s a little delusional. This line is so simple, but it does an excellent job of underscoring the conflict between love and sense of duty. In both cases, the heroine/hero want to be remembered by the ones they love, but at the same time they don’t want their choices to impact their lovers, or their lover’s recollection of them. Which really is impossible.  

[cranberrymoons]

hi! i'm sage. I'm glad you're here!

you can find my writing on ao3 here and under the 'my fic' tag on this blog and in the masterlist under the read more. reblogs of other peoples' fic are tagged as 'fic', and writing resources etc are tagged as 'writing'

fic masterlist 🩷

look who's inside again 16,846 words | rated m | buckley-diaz family, chris character study, reconciliation, follow-up/prequel to i'm holding on (barely)

chris misses his dad. he misses his mom. he misses buck. he's still trying to figure out what it means that he misses them all in the same way.

close ain't close enough (til we cross the line) buddie | 9,884 words | rated e | infidelity, possessive sex

buck and eddie are not even approaching normal about each other; things escalate quickly (aka: the sexting fic, part 2)

don't slow this down buddie | rated e | 2,581 words | getting together, domesticity, intimacy, hand jobs

They’re twenty seven hours into ninety six off, three more days of nothing stretching out in front of them. Nothing but this, and Buck, and the early afternoon sun pouring in through the big loft windows. "I guess I don't have to go."

911

i'm holding on (barely) buddie + helena character study | 12,543 words | rated m

August comes, and with it comes Eddie. Eddie and that friend of his who was there back at the start of the summer, the one Christopher has talked so much about over the past few months. Buck this, and Buck that, and – All of it. Helena takes one look at them, and she knows. eddie and buck take christopher home to california; helena and ramon decide to follow

nothing wrong with me loving you buddie | 4,496 words | rated e | infidelity, sexting

He’s not thinking about it. He’s not. He’s definitely not. Buck leaves for the night, gets in his car and drives away like everything’s normal – normal because it is, it literally is, it’s the most normal night in the world, and Eddie is the most normal he’s ever been, and then maybe an hour later, he gets a text. buck and eddie watch red white and royal blue together; one thing leads to another (aka: the sexting fic)

breathe in, breathe through buddie | rated t | 1,045 words | 803 coda, pre-relationship, pining, bed sharing

Eddie blinks back at him, and Buck feels his heart give a lazy thump in his chest. “Long night,” he says after a moment. It’s the first thing either of them have said since they left the station, since they ended up here by silent agreement. Eddie nods, and Buck feels himself smile. “Did I tell you I got to steal a motorcycle?”

ring like silver, ring like gold buddie | rated e | 1,163 words | established relationship, car sex, being FREAKS about domesticity etc

“Did you see the way Parker’s mom was looking at you?” Gasps. Huffs against his neck where Eddie’s skin is flushed and hot, sticky from their mingled sweat and the flat expanse of Buck’s tongue. “Asking if you wanted to help chaperone the Spring Fling.” 

late night high (i'm floating) buddie | 1,649 words | rated e | drug use, self-realization, mustache burn 😌

eddie gets very very high and realizes several important things about himself; buck's just trying to follow along

an aching in my heart buddie | rated m | 1,154 words | first kiss, beach camping, poetry

It’s dark out here past the lights of the city, air crisp and fresh and new in a way that makes him feel like his lungs can finally fill up for the first time maybe ever in his whole life. No smoke. No smog. No haze of dust or ash hanging over everything and sneaking into the crevices. Just air and the salt spray of the sea and Eddie sitting next to him on the beach with their shoulders pressed together.

i'm a cliché (who cares) buddie | 7,326 words | rated e

“You okay?” Buck asks, and Eddie blinks, lets out the breath that had gotten caught in his throat. “Yeah,” he says, even though – no, not really. “Sorry, just – a surprise, I guess. Hearing from him.” Which is weird, come to think of it, because they used to be close. Closer than anything, as close as – well, as close as him and Buck, but in a different way. In a way that felt frantic and clinging and desperate, something to hold onto while they were being shot at. Eddie hears from an old army buddy; it brings a few things to the surface.

let me put my lips to something buddie | 2,524 words | rated e | blood kink, possessive sex

It’s a rush, having sex with Buck. And he thinks part of it is probably down to this, the fact that it’s something that finally feels right-sized after a lifetime of not. That’s a big part of it, but another part of it is that it’s him. Him. Everything. The way it feels like they could consume each other like fire and it still wouldn’t be enough.

we all fall down pre-buddie | 1,634 words | rated m | infidelity/angst

Buck hates that he was here for this. He hates that he was here for this, Eddie and his girlfriend and the fucked up thing with the woman who’s not Shannon, and Buck just standing there in the middle of it, the four of them trapped together in Eddie’s living room on a random Thursday night like something out of a soap opera because they all happened to converge at once. when the metaphorical house burns down, you don't want to be the only one left standing in it

closer than my hands have been buddie | 4,578 words, rated M

Eddie never feels easy. Tommy feels easy, but Eddie – he doesn’t. He doesn’t feel easy now, and he didn’t feel easy last night, and he didn’t feel easy the night before that or before that or before that. Well, except for the parts where he did, when everything felt easy and loose and uncomplicated. Free. He misses that feeling. buck and tommy are together, and eddie's fine with that. it's fine. it is.

i feel a change in the weather (i feel a change in me) buddie | 2,133 words | rated M

It all comes to a head on the hot dusty path up to the top of Runyon Canyon. It feels inevitable, feels like something they’ve maybe been inching toward in fits and starts ever since they met. Feels right and easy and lived-in already, like a favorite shirt that’s been folded in the back of the closet for years, just waiting to be picked up and put on. buck and eddie go for a hike, kiss in the sunlight, and fall in love, not necessarily in that order.

you and tequila make me crazy buddie | 1,533 words | rated M

His arm is still draped over Eddie’s shoulders, hand still holding the other side of his head, and he shifts so that his fingers push up into the hair at the back of his neck, thumb slotting up against his ear. And he’s so close. Half an inch closer and he’d be able to feel Eddie’s heartbeat under his tongue, solid and sure and alive, and – “Hey,” says a voice above them, sharp enough to cut straight through the fog that’s settled over them. “There you guys are.” in which buck and eddie lose chimney because they're drunk and horny

for the rest of mine buddie | 644 words | rated M

It happens on a Tuesday night, with the soft whirl of the dishwasher running in the kitchen and ESPN on low in the background and Chris’s homework left laying out on the coffee table when he went to bed about an hour ago. 

heart in throat (am i dreaming?) buddie | 1,227 words | rated T

I kissed someone, he imagines himself saying eventually, when he’s ready. I think I really like him. Just like that. No big announcement, no declaration, but just – just letting it sit there and breathe between them.

already standing on the ground buddie | 1,195 words | rated T

Buck lets out a laugh, one hand coming up to scratch at the back of his neck. Laughing like he’s relieved, like he can’t quite believe the words coming out of his own mouth. “We were on a date.” And – Eddie blinks. “Oh.”

such a sweet thing (i wanna do everything) bucktommy | 5,582 words | rated e

Buck doesn’t want to take it slow. He doesn’t want Tommy to ease him in or treat him gently. What he wants is to suck a dick.

stranger things

here you come again stommy | 16,172 words | rated e

Steve and Tommy haven't talked in nearly three years. After everything, maybe the best way forward is back.

so fondly today steddie | 8,267 words | rated E processing trauma, getting together | tumblr post

Eddie's hair is pulled up on top of his head, and there’s a piece of it falling down to frame his face, and Steve’s sleep-deprived brain sends a shock of want rushing through him. Want: he wants to touch? Wants to look? He’s looking. Wants to… something? He feels electricity crackle at the backs of his teeth and he blinks, wanting. Wanting so badly that something aches inside his chest. (it's been a few months since everything, and steve is beginning to realize some things about himself)

get it off your chest steddie | 7,415 words | rated E rough sex, spanking, read the ao3 tags! | tumblr post

“You think this is me taking you apart?” Eddie asks. He lets go of Steve’s hair and plants a hand in the center of his chest, then gives him a shove toward the bed. “That’s adorable, Steve. Seriously.” (or, steve and eddie have life-affirmingly good sex) aka my Consent Is Sexy manifesto

dressed up to the eyes steddie | 8,737 words | rated E rough sex, spanking, read the ao3 tags! | tumblr post

Steve almost didn’t come out tonight. It’s been a long day, and he kind of just wants to be at home in his sweatpants, curled up on the couch with takeout and an old movie, but – But he’d agreed to be social tonight – if nothing else, in Robin’s honor since she was supposed to have a date tonight but is trapped in bed with the flu – and so… here he is. Being social. Ish. Socialish. Steve and Eddie are strangers in a bar... or are they?

something so pretty steddie | 3,087 words | rated M | tumblr post

Eddie raises Steve's hand to brush a kiss over his knuckles, then catches him around the waist again, swaying them back and forth to the rhythm of a Bangles song coming from the radio. “I said you look pretty, and I meant it. Deal with it.” Steve feels a reluctant smile pull at the corners of his mouth. “Really?” (the girls paint steve's nails and it causes him to feel several enormous feelings)

can't start a fire steddie | 3,831 words | rated T | tumblr post

“Are you sure this is okay?” Steve asks in an undertone once everyone has arrived that first night. He looks genuinely nervous, which is… insane; he’s a bat-wielding, bat-biting jock who saved the world, and Eddie’s just – “I don’t think your friends like me very much.” Eddie feels the corners of his mouth draw down as he follows Steve’s eyeline to where the others are huddled in the corner talking amongst themselves. (steve doesn't need people taking care of him. except, maybe he kind of likes it when they do)

the sweetest thing steddie | 14,022 words | rated E

It had started out simple enough between them, Eddie making some off-hand comment about Steve not being able to hold out for a whole month and Steve, ever unable to back down from a challenge, rising to the bait. “Whatever,” he’d said, rolling his eyes. “A month? Please.” He could do a month. Easy. He just hadn't counted on Eddie being – well. Himself. eddie goads steve into a No Nut November challenge; he never said anything about taking it easy on him

the seas be ours (steddie pirates au) (2 works, 10,943 words, rated E)

Eddie The Dread Pirate Munson captures the Harrington heir with the intent of ransoming him back to his family for an easy payout. He really could not have guessed what he was getting himself into.

back in the new york groove (26,823 words, rated E) summer 1999 | tumblr post | ch 6/? rockstar eddie/middle school teacher steve, soft dom steve

“Ha!” Eddie says, jabbing a finger into Steve's chest. “I have a publicist. That automatically makes me cooler than you.” “Oh yeah? Well I have about eighty twelve year olds back in Santa Monica who think I’m the coolest guy on the planet.” (new york isn't home, but it's the next best thing) Steve and Eddie chaotically parenting their gen-z toddler in the late 90s (part of the future fic series)

future fic series (23 works, 64,995 words, rated G-E)

a love letter to the idea of home or, the happily-ever-after future in which Eddie is a rockstar and Steve is a middle school teacher and they have a bunch of kids and live by the ocean (rockstar eddie + middle school teacher steve)

a love to last past saturday night (3,550 words, rated T for now but will go up in later chapters) | ch 1/? coffee shop au

There’s a little cafe at the end of Steve’s block that he’s only ever been in once.  It’s called Corroded Coffee and it’s dark in there and maybe a little pretentious, but not pretentious as in… people reading classic novels or having discussions about French Cinema. Pretentious in the sense that there’s an intimidating collection of vinyl records taking up half an entire wall and they use single origin arabica beans and the scary baristas look at you sideways if you order regular milk in your latte.

misc. series:

kinktober 2023 (14 works, 39,566 words, rated T-E, stranger things)

a collection of fics written for kinktober 2023 and eddie month 2023 prompts – works can also be found on tumblr under the "kinktober 2023" tag

steddie microfic (16 works, 6,502 words, rated G-E, stranger things)

a collection of microfic written for the monthly steddiemicrofic challenges – works can also be found on tumblr under the "steddiemicrofic" tag

discord drabbles (16 works, 8,479 words, rated G-E, stranger things)

a collection of drabbles/microfics written for daily discord prompts – works can also be found on tumblr under the "discord drabble" tag

steddie holiday drabbles (29 works, 21,715 words, rated T-E, stranger things)

the 2023 fic advent calendar! a collection of fics between 300-1,000 words each, written for steddieholidaydrabbles' prompts and warm-up rounds – works can also be found on tumblr under the "steddieholidaydrabbles" tag

[majorasnightmare]

Zora Cultural Differences

Yona canonically comes from a different domain than Hyrule's Zora's Domain but in true TotK-fashion does little to no elaboration on what her domain is like or her role or position within it, with us only learning that she's Sidon's childhood friend and his fiancee. With her character not existing at all whatsoever in BotW, having no mentions in memories, flashback scenes, dialogue, or diary entries, or even scenes where we get to see Sidon's childhood, that means nearly everything about her origins is left completely blank. And the one thing I hate more than a disrespected female character is a barely-written disrespected female character.

Consider this a sequel to my other zora post, link in reblog

Going under a readmore because i like the zora to be shamelessly weird

Yona's domain is further east in the Akkalan Sea, and takes about a week of travel time to get to Hyrule's Domain. Her ocean climate is tropical, and is reflected in the marine life the zora of that domain emulate and resemble

Yona and Muzu are both from the same domain, both being manta-emulating zora

When the great flood swept hyrule, most zora perished in the illusory waves. A small population survived with the help of Valoo on what would become Dragon's Roost Island, but an even smaller population managed to escape beyond the borders of the ocean. This population would slowly recover, and post Wind Waker began to thrive. This population of zora would begin to migrate outwards and diversify as they adapted to their new ecosystems, and some would eventually make their way back to Hyrule once the waters receded, establishing themselves as what would become Sidon's Domain.

The Zora are fairly consistently long lived, and new zora hatch from eggs laid in clutches. Your average individual zora will typically only have kids once or twice in their multi century lifetime

With these circumstances, you'd want to find some means of adaptation to help ensure the survival of the next generation, and each domain adapts to their ecosystems in their own unique ways

Yona's domain is built into and alongside a massive barrier reef, fed by the myriad currents flowing into their tropical ocean. Zora here tend to be brightly colored and varied in their marine animal appearances, with zora resembling nudibranches, mantas and other rays, and a plethora of fish types.

The Zora of Yona's domain have adapted to open ocean on all sides by having specially dedicated nurseries built into the coral, full of small nooks and crannies to help protect the zora eggs. They tend to be laid in small clutches of four to six, and baby zora will hide in the corals until their strong enough to swim away from danger.

Siblings will stick together as they grow, and will have food brought to them by their parents until they're capable of accompanying them. Afterwards, the siblings will school together with other clutches of siblings for safety and companionship, and will be supervised by two to three of the school's parents while the remaining family members take care of non child rearing tasks

Yona's domain, in continuing the ancient zora tradition of music (seen in the zora fingerlings (REAL TERM FOR FISH YOUNG BTW i just googled that) that resemble music notes and the tadtones in skyward sword) helps keep schools together via a distinctive series of whistled notes audible underwater

Sidon's Domain notably has a fairly large population of predator-emulating zora, Sidon himself resembling a shark. This is in part because Hyrule's rivers and lakes are home to particularly aggressive species of octoroks, who can squeeze their mollusk bodies into the small nooks and crannies zora usually use to keep predators away from their egg clutches. The Zora of Hyrule's Domain have adapted to these circumstances in a collection of ways other zora may find... off-putting.

Lacking the protective reef barriers of Yona's domain, and Hyrule's rivers being prone to flooding in times of crisis (alongside mudslides and other geography altering disasters that can strike at a moments notice), the zora of hyrule's domain have opted against hiding their young entirely

Early in the spring, the Zora celebrate the turning of the season, and the snowmelt it brings down the mountains, with a week long celebration. Emphasizing the chaotic nature of water, and the resurgence of new life, most years it is simply the domain's biggest festival. As the years pass, Zora couples interested in raising a family will inform the festival leaders of their intentions, and when a certain amount of interested families are gathered together, the zora come together to decide whether the coming year seems auspicious enough to bless with children. This is a decision that often takes weeks to months to arrive at a conclusion, taking into account both the state of the zora's population, the river and lake ecosystems and their health, and trends in fish population and other food sources

When all the conditions are right and everyone's in agreement, Zora's Domain closes off access to their waterways as best they can, and expecting couples return to the rivers that once raised them. The strategy Hyrule's Zora settled on is one common to sea life everywhere: sheer overwhelming numbers.

The Zora of Hyrule's domain have another advantage: they hatch bloodthirsty. In addition to losses from predation, newly hatched Hyrule Zora will often eat each other, similar to tiger sharks, to increase their odds of survival and having enough food. Unable to hide from octoroks (who try to prey on even adult zora), Hyrule's Zora rely on overwhelming the octorok population with potential food, ensuring that at least some of their young will survive, and that those young will be able to take care of themselves early on in life, able to hunt and feed themselves almost from birth.

For the duration of the festival's week long celebration, Hyrule's rivers are a horror show for those unacquainted with Zora ecology. Octoroks are tenacious nocturnal predators more than willing to squeeze through the metalwork of the elaborate zora architecture, and zora eggs suffer at high elevations and without flowing water, and attempts to raise zora eggs higher on mount ploymus have ended in tragedy for those reasons.

The Zora claim their children as soon as they can, which is usually around a few months after hatching when theyve grown past the fingerling stage and have defined limbs. Similar to the Blaschko Lines on humans, Zora have near invisible patternings on their scales that non zora simply don't have the eye structure to perceive, though underwater they may be faintly visible. Zora parents use these lines to identify their young, as they're incredibly distinctive. This trait is present in all Zora, though Hyrule's Domain has a stronger reliance on it

Of the multitude of eggs lain, on average one to three zora will survive to be claimed by their parents and raised in the domain proper. Most of the instinctive bloodlust has worked its way out of the younglings system by then, as they grow more curious and explorative as they age and develop, but it takes some time and careful parenting and socialization before the kids will be comfortable interacting with strangers

Notably this keen battle instinct can be honed as a Zora grows older, and the Zora of Hyrule's Domain balances their love and appreciation of art, decoration, writing, and engineering with a proud (and vicious) warrior culture (though some zora can never quite tap into the instincts of their youth again)

Having such a brutal early childhood has resulted in Hyrule's Domain having a strong appreciation for the arts of healing and medicine. To survive at all is blessing, to live is a gift, and should be nurtured whenever possible. Mipha is honored both for her skills as a warrior, and for her dedication as a healer, and many young zora, injured in the frenzy or otherwise disabled, thank her for the greater quality of life she helped to bring them. there is no wrong way to live, for to be alive at all is a joy

This cycle is seen as being spiritually emblematic of water's free flowing chaotic nature. Water brings both great life AND great death, and which one it chooses to bestow on you can be as random as luck. Subject to the full force of nature's brutal circle of life, Hyrule's Zora find spiritual meaning in their struggles and allow tragedy to enrich their joys. Mipha's death was such a cultural shock that it was enough to jar the Zora from this mindset, unable to find any comfort in her loss or any healing from the destruction the calamity inflicted upon the Domain and Hyrule at large.

Hyrule's Zora set their dead adrift on the river, as after a long life rich with experience, their body must now feed the waters that birthed them, and the guardian spirits that have protected them and aided their prosperity. In return for this feeding, the myriad spirits help guide the Zora to the horizon line where the ocean meets the sky, and cross over into the heavens where the light of Hylia can glint off their scales and provide light and guidance to their relatives down below

By contrast, Yona's Domain entrusts their dead to the wings of seagulls, who consume the body for energy and take the soul into the sky with them. They construct boats and rafts, and decorate them as befitting a proper celebration, before sending them on their way to contribute to the grand cycle of life that governs the ocean.

Mipha's manner of death was considered ESPECIALLY blasphemous, as she perished alone inside her divine beast, her body unable to be recovered, unable to be returned to the waters of her home, unable to be guided by the guardians of their people, unable to receive funeral rites from her family, trapped in a metal beast too far below to be reached by anyone

needless to say its all a bit of a culture shock to yona lmao

[ashikarin]

Ai-hyperion / Ai-Λ

Honestly, she's the biggest red flag in the story - and her colour palette is green. That's saying something.

A rant about Ai-Hyperion, lazy story writing, and an unneeded Deus Ex Machina.

I'm definitely not the first person to say this, but Ai-Hyperion was the worst thing they have ever introduced into the main story. She literally appeared like: "Hey! I'm Ai-chan, no I'm not the same one you know, I'm not gonna tell you where or when I came from, and the only information you're getting is that I come from this weird pseudotime crystal thing!"

And then we never get an explanation as to what this pseudotime crystal actually is beyond 'it allows me to see every possibility that could happen and therefore I am basically god!' The game itself pretty much is self-aware of the fact that Ai-hyperion's power scaling is utterly ridiculous and trivializes the problems the main cast have been facing – the problems that they fought to find an answer to – by simply going "haha fourth wall break haha captainverse haha hello captains of Honkai Impact 3rd!".

(The main cast also just... accepts it? Like with no question? I get Kiana being the Herrscher of Finality and having its authority but does that suddenly mean she's privy to the fourth wall that Ai-Hyperion broke down with a sledgehammer too? But that's a different complaint)

Her introduction was just a lazy (and literal, given the definition) deus ex machina that stemmed from the writers wanting to finish the first part of the story as quickly as possible for some reason (perhaps the release of Star Rail?) and also to connect the current story to the APHO continuity (despite its glaring flaws and plot holes). Maybe part of that was also them wanting to insert the player in as the 'captain'. But we already have Captainverse - which is canon to the Honkai continuum, as it's the captain travelling the sea of Quanta - and it's been established early on that the captain has no bearing on the story.

This view (the 'player' as an observer) is also compounded by the multiple different POVs we have. We view the story in the beginning through Kiana's eyes, then through Mei's in the Elysian Realm, Bronya's in the Sea of Quanta and the Deep, and various other characters throughout the story. Seele, the twins, the other flamechasers, and even Grey Serpent are just some examples of that. We view the story from their point of view, which makes the narrator lines themselves unreliable, as they're in the POV of another character. There was absolutely no need to integrate the player into the story in my opinion - the story has been perfectly enjoyable even without 'us'.

That brings me to the ending of HI3 pt 1. Ai's involvement with the captain breaking Kevin's shield is such a cop-out. Like the writers couldn't be fucked to end the story properly with the characters we had followed until now doing it themselves - despite Bronya saying that she could break the shield. Like maybe they wanted to demonstrate that Kevin was still stronger than the trio even after their powerup (eg. he had the power of finality and they didn't), they could have shown Finality picking Kiana and the power leaving Kevin for her. It'd be a more fitting ending than this. Or the baseball fight could have been a metaphorical battle of wills between the old generation of Kaslanas and the new. Kevin's will versus Kiana's hopes. HI3rd has always been about fighting for what's beautiful, not "hehe power of friendship deus ex machina".

It genuinely seems like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too? Like they wanted Kiana on the moon stuck with Finality radiation but also wanted her to get a happy ending? HI3rd writers, you can't have both at the same time! You were setting Honkai up for a sad ending! The previous arcs all but pointed to Kiana being sealed on the moon without a way to contact earth, but this is less of a seal and more of. a forced vacation. She can be visited in the future and she can video call with them? What did Fu Hua sacrifice herself for then? The Flamechasers? The entire PE? Even Kevin to an extent. All of them sacrificed so much just for a half-assed fourth-wall-breaking ending that invalidated all of their hard work. It's so anticlimactic no matter how you look at it. It's sweet, but it's a complete 180-whiplash difference from the tone of the chapters before.

tl;dr honkai part 1 ending writing was really fucking lazy, ai-chan was nothing more than a literal and figurative deus ex machina, and the writing in general took a nosedive in the ending. thank you for nothing, honkai writing team.

[darkfeanix]

Feanix Reads Dragon Age Comics

#1: The Silent Grove

I'll be posting my thoughts on each series as a whole, rather then individual issues. Below the cut are all the thoughts I had while reading The Silent Grove.

WARNING: It does get a bit Alistair critical, as I feel like this series really brought out the worst in his character, which in turn brought out the worst in me.

Anyway, here they are, my thoughts:

The Silent Grove (I)

So, first thing's first, it's strange seeing young Varric here. It's a bit surprising how quickly I've gotten used to silver fox Varric in The Veilguard promotional materials, with the longer hair and a bit of beard growth. Younger, cleanshaven Varric just looks weird to me now. The art style also doesn't help. I'm pretty sure the art style was one of the things that turned me off the first time I tried to read them when they first came out.

I'll admit, as far as protagonists go, King Alistair wasn't a huge draw for me, and even when the comics were first releasing, I don't think I actually read them until after the final issue of Until We Sleep had been released. I was always more of a Morrigan boy, and even in the first game, there were times when Alistair grated on me. We'll return to that point later.

Now, Isabela on the other hand? Yeah, she's the reason I even started reading these comics. I do love my captain.

I'd forgotten that Zevran is mentioned by name in this story. Apparently he was meant to be in the comic in Varric's place, but was "cut due to concerns about party dynamics", which to me sounds like a skill issue. Zevran has a pre-existing relationship with both Alistair and Isabela, and it's well-established that Varric doesn't like going out (to the point that the entire party will roast him for it in Trespasser no matter who you have with you).

This is baseless speculation on my part, but I feel like they went with Varric because Varric is probably more popular than Zevran.

The Silent Grove (II)

Okay, I'd like to lodge a complaint: Isabela deserved a new outfit. Varric and Alistair both got spiffy new outfits. Isabella doesn't even get pants. And it's meant to be freezing cold. We open with a guard complaining about how cold it is (cold enough that we can see his breath). Then we cut to Isabela climbing out of the sea. Does she not feel the cold?

She obviously feels the cold; later in this very same issue we see Alistair putting his cloak on her. Why didn't Isabela get an outfit upgrade again? (Don't answer that, we all know why.)

I feel like Varric literally questioning what he's doing there proves my point; maybe it's fitting with his luck that he gets dragged into this sort of thing, but his role just as easily could have been filled by Zevran. Of course, that being said, I do enjoy it when he narrates his circumstances out loud. It's a fun character quirk.

I appreciate that we see a Vashoth (or possibly even Tal Vashoth) as a member of the Crows; it emphasises that the Crows really do take anyone into their number. A pity that all the others basically look like human men. Not elf or dwarf in sight, and no women.

I wonder if the intention was for the reader to believe the prisoner was Maric. He says it's too late, and Alistair's narration says that his quest has failed, but I'm trying to imagine reading this for the first time without having spoiled everything for myself. I feel like I would assume that the man Alistair finds is Maric.

The Silent Grove (III)

First shot of Yavana, flashback, from behind. No pants. Pretty sure she is only the second named female character in this series so far, and neither of them have been drawn with pants. I can literally see Yavana's butt cheeks. Ugh.

Lack of pants aside, she does have a really cool design, though.

This part felt like a lot of exposition, some pretty scenery, and Alistair saying that high dragons are worse than darkspawn. Really, Alistair? You fought during the Blight, and you think that high dragons are worse than darkspawn?

"In my life so far, I've taken the sword to three dragons. The big ones, I mean – not the ones that look like scaly, tooth dogs and love horse meat, but the high dragons that make the earth shake. Not even darkspawn are that savage. A dragon feed on anything. A dragon exists only to kill."

This reminds me way too much of Iron Bull's speech about dragons.

"Dragons are the embodiment of raw power. But it's all uncontrolled, savage… So they need to be destroyed."

Ugh. At least right after Alistair gives that speech in his narration, the dragon literally chooses not to kill him. He never gives any indication that he learns from his interactions with the dragon, though – at least, not that I remember. Maybe the next two issues will prove me wrong.

Anyway, we will come back to this later as well.

The Silent Grove (IV)

I love Yavana. No surprise, right? She's Morrigan's sister, and she's written almost like a mix of Morrigan and Flemeth. I do wish we could have gotten to know her more.

"In destroying what it does not understand, mankind would destroy itself."

But gosh, I really dislike the way Alistair is written… well, I was going to say here, but the truth is everything about his interactions with the dragon and Yavana makes him come across as narrow-minded and really unlikeable to me.

"Meaning you don't understand either, but it's what your mother told you."

Yeah, we'll come back to that later.

Claudio is… eh. He's a bit player. His connection to Isabela's past makes for some interesting plot developments, and he's obviously tied to the larger story involving Maric – though, as above, I'm not sure if I would have made that assumption if I hadn't been already spoiled the first time I read this. I probably would have assumed he was just planning on ransoming Alistair back to Ferelden or something. Or, heck, putting him in that prison like Maric was.

I appreciate Isabela deciding on the spot that she's not going to abandon Alistair. She's grown a lot from the women she was at the start of Dragon Age II.

The Silent Grove (V)

Isabela marching back into the Silent Grove and yelling Yavana's name is very funny to me.

I'd completely forgotten about Isabela and Varric making a deal with Yavana. That makes me even more annoyed about the ending of this arc. But we'll come back to that later.

"You wanted me alive. Now you have to try to keep me."

Okay, I'll admit, that's a good line. Some of that charming, funny Alistair shining through. A shame there's so little of him in these comics.

I do wish slut shaming Isabela wasn't something that the writer felt the need to carry over from the game. Even with Claudio being a bad guy, it comes across as really distasteful considering they've designed her character to show as much skin as possible.

Badass final page with Yavana standing over Claudio's body and talking about how getting the truth even with him being dead.

The Silent Grove (VI)

"You almost missed the fun. Evidently we're going to ask Claudio how it feels to be stabbed in the chest."

Oh Isabela, how I love thee.

Yavana's idea of a séance involves a lot more pyrotechnics than one might expect, but it is quite exciting. I am curious if she burned his corpse, or if it was some magic of Titus's to try to keep his name out of Claudio's mouth?

Yavana's explanation of the Hall of Sleepers, and what Maric's deal was, really convinces me that Alistair was wrong and that she does understand what she's talking about. In the same way that Morrigan prioritised sparing Urthemiel's soul from death even after Flemeth is killed. I don't think either one of them (certainly not Morrigan) does what they do simply because their mother told them to.

Which brings us to possibly my least favourite part of this entire eighteen issue series.

Fuck you, Chantry Boy.

It's later, so here we are. I hate this moment. It makes me hate Alistair, for doing exactly what Yavana says mankind has always done and killing what he doesn't understand. And yes, he says he does it because he blames her for everything that happened in Ferelden after Maric left, but here's the thing: Yavana didn't make the fucking deal with Maric! Flemeth did!

And the thing is, two issues ago he accused her of simply parroting what Flemeth told her. He accused her of not understanding what she was doing. Which is it, Alistair? Is she another pawn of Flemeth's, or is she the wicked witch who took your daddy away?

Except she didn't take him away, Maric made that choice on his own. He made a deal so that he would be able to save his country, and then he held up his end of the bargain by travelling to Yavana.

Uggghhh!

Issues ends with Alistair bemoaning his own status as a pawn and saying he's going to kill Titus.

And then his final narrative just feels so shoehorned because it's close to the kind of humour we're used to getting from Alistair in the game, but this isn't that Alistair.

"My name is Alistair Theirin, and I'm king of Ferelden. Long live the king, long may he reign! And so forth. Pray to the Maker he doesn't do something stupid…"

You just did! Seriously, fuck you, Chantry Boy.

Final Thoughts

Oof. It had some okay moments, but to be honest, the best part of this comic for me was Yavana and, well… Yeah.

The thing is, I don't feel like I'm familiar enough with Alistair's character to say whether or not he's acting out of character. Is all of this something that a hardened King Alistair would do? Or is it the writing emphasising all the worst parts of him without balancing it with what made Alistair so popular?

Anyway, not a great start to the re-read. I really hope I have more fun with Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep, but I'm done for the night.

[bluepunkmon]

Going to awkwardly transcribe the Last Voyage of the Demeter ravings I subjected my friend to. This is on the 0.01% chance I need to retrieve them for any reason.

The movie has A LOT of issues but I do appreciate this scrunkled Dracula.

Ok here we go

Last Voyage of the Demeter has the ELEMENTS to be a perfectly fine B grade schlock horror fest but I feel like its pieces are in the wrong places.

first thing wrong is the lead, Clemens, played by Corey Hawkins

the black guy here

I really really liked him, both his character and the performance

the character is a Cambridge trained doctor who is working on the ship for passage to London to look for a job (having trouble finding non racist employers)

his whole deal is that he likes science and reason and he wants the world to make sense

Only other 2 main characters of note are the ship captain, old guy who wants to retire after this voyage, and his grandson toby, small scamp, has a pet dog, likes livestock animals on board

its unclear why the grandpa has sole custody of Toby, but eh whatever

one of the movie's main mistakes is there's no buildup of tension - almost immediately went eh first sailor is attacked, dracula bites his neck, lots of gore, and every other kill goes about the same

(I realize I can just copy messages timestamp and all and will do so)

[9:37 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: theres no escalation

[9:38 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: another mistake is that Clemen's character trait leads him to all the wrong conclusions - other sailors immediately start talking about some great evil on the ship, he's slower to come around, but the random superstition ends up being right

[9:39 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: later on (spoilers) toby gets chomped and dies. By this point there's like 5 guys left alive on the ship. its been established that some bitten people come back as like, weird grey eyed vampire lackeys. right before they dump toby's body into the water old captain man is like wait I see life! don't do it ! and toby comes back all snarly and then Clemens shoves him into the water.

[9:41 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: right ok SO

[9:41 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: i think the kills and Clemens' role should be altered slightly

[9:42 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: ALSO they shoehorn in a whole character just to exposition dump and explain that dracula's a bloodsucker - would toss that element, I would trust the audience to figure what a vampire is. in this version no one says the word dracula except maybe at the end

[9:42 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: OK SO ANYWAY. NEW STORY

[9:50 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: beginning stays the same, crew signs on, Clemens signs on (he was almost left behind but Cpatain actually took him on bc Clemens saved his grandson's life and he was grateful, I like that part of the movie) and they take on cargo from a weird rich guy in translyvania

[9:57 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: MAIN DIFFERENCE is that on the voyage, pretty early on TOby starts getting sick. Clemens takes him into his care, but despite his efforts poor kid passes away

[9:57 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: everyone is devastated , captain beside himself yada yada

[9:58 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: maybe some crew members bit distrustful of Clemens

[9:58 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: anyway they're about to dump his body at sea when captain says wait I see movement, and everyone thinks its just an old man in mourning, but wait the shroud is moving, and wow Toby's alive !

[9:58 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: his prayers have been answered its a miracle !

[9:59 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: and theres some sailors joking later - about how hey Cambridge standards are pretty low maybe they're sign on and try the whole doctor thing once they hit land - but Clemens isn't laughing

[10:05 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: no matter what anyone says he knows his shit, and he knows the difference between almost dead and dead dead , and that kid was dead he should not being walking around now

[10:06 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: (in the movie the ships cook is big on religion maybe he can throw out some lazarus verses or something)

[10:06 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: point is Clemens uses his love of logic and science to go towards the supernatural here, rather than denying it

[10:06 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: he observes Toby and notices that the kid is def different - the ships dog keeps growling at him, and the livestock animals he cares for seem to freak out whenever he's around

[10:07 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: later on they find that all the chickens and goats have been murdered (this happened in the movie too) and like, idk they blame it on ship dog, even though clemens examines the bodies and finds that they don't look like dog maulings

[10:08 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: Toby gets paler and weirder. eventually ship captain says that he's still sick, so he stays in his quarters from now on. Clemens offers to examine the boy but the Captain straight up refuses

[10:08 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: other crew members start getting ill, paler and sickly. Clemens tries to treat them, but their ailments continue. he doesn't recognize the disease, but finds that many have strange marks on their necks, almost like a bite

[10:11 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: THEN at this point things escalate. first crew member vanishes. no blood on deck or anything he's just gone

[10:11 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: people are on edge, assume that he fell overboard, keep working

[10:12 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: few sailors are so sick theyve collapsed, Clemens is suspecting something is like, SUPER wrong.

[10:12 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: if he has a Watson esque sidekick (maybe picked young sailor to be his assistant) he has to tell him "look if captain hears me he might throw me overboard but I'm like 80% sure he fed a crew member to his grandson"

[10:13 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: and it sounds insane, but i want him to use his science and logic schtick to lead him to the source of the disaster befalling the ship

[10:13 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: how does dracula factor in? honestly idk - maybe he turned toby into a vamp for kicks after the kid was sneaking into the cargo hold to mess around

[10:13 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: anyway thats it thats my pitch, thank you for coming to me TED talk

[10:26 AM, 10/19/2024] Owl: i almost sent a text yeasterday saying a new horror game, mouthwashing, wasn't that scary ( watched whole lets play yesterday) but the game was enough to give me a night of very anxious dreams so I retract my retracted statement

[presidentdisastraofgallifrey]

Judging Doctor Who: Thirteenth Doctor

(This is all in good fun, I don't take fandom seriously)

Good episodes I like

The Ghost Monument - Good start of bonding for companions that don't actually know each other that well. Slow in places, but also funny with a good series of ridiculous dangers. Also I like that we're back to companions via accidental kidnapping!

Rosa - There are so many good things here! I appreciate the show finally acknowledging the historical racism companions face. But also the heist-level antics their ever-changing plan has to deal with are so good and amusing. Good familial tension between Ryan and Graham.

Demons of the Punjab - I really enjoyed the historical, and it was really complex but also sweet. And it was time for an episode where the scary aliens aren't the real bad guys.

It Takes You Away - Very literal metaphor for getting lost in grief! A blind character played by a blind actor whose blindness isn't the biggest part of her character! The Doctor befriends a lonely sentient universe who is at the time shaped like a frog! Also there's a passing mention of a sheep uprising, and I now need THAT in the form of a novel.

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos - Sure the plot itself could be more put together, but I love the worldbuilding of the Ux and their religion, and it has been a while since there was a planet-stealing plot.

Fugitive of the Judoon - One of my favorites! I love the reveal you never see coming, the way this show only using established fob watching for ridiculous things every five seasons or so, the fugitive Doctor's entire character, the mystery around her, and the way that despite seeming to be part of the timeless child arc, she has the TARDIS, which means she comes sometime after the first Doctor and in no way messes up the timeline.

Praxeus - Love the confusion and the companions picking up companions thing. Love the nod to microplastics and pollution. Just generally pretty good.

Ascension of the Cybermen - I like them running around the apparent end of the (humanity's) universe, when we know there is a future but they don't. I like the cybermen reveals. And yes, I don't like where it's going, but the shock of walking onto a dead Gallifrey was such a good moment.

Revolution of the Daleks - This one has everything: the Doctor imprisoned and gaining decades more trauma! (while stewing in other horrific new trauma!) Companions on their own having to be the heroes! Yaz pining! Jack's back! Classic dalek plot! Excellent non-tragic send off for Graham and Ryan, letting them continue to help people!

The Halloween Apocalypse - The Lupari are so much fun!!! I love how much this season jumps around between perspectives and lets you catch up. If the entire universe has to be in danger (again), at least the flux is interesting and different. There could, however, be some more Halloween in this apocalypse.

War of the Sontarans - Hardly anything is set in the Crimean war, so that's fun. Also sontarans are always great enemies, and I love historical revision episodes.

Once, Upon Time - Still loving the jumping perspectives, and the fugitive Doctor backstory.

Eve of the Daleks - Time loop! Daleks! Sweet, awkward, imperfect love story!!

Legend of the Sea Devils - Was this the best use of sea devils? Nope! But it was fun—there was a Chinese lady pirate! And the Doctor and Yaz finally got to talk and yes, I ship them but yes, I think the most in character thing is for the Doctor to explain that she can’t maintain a relationship. She can barely manage the usual companion situation!

The Power of the Doctor - Yes, I hate the cybermasters. But the rest of the episode was too good for me not to like. This wonderful, unnecessarily complicated plan is so very the Master. He's literally Rasputin! Plus, the start of bringing back classic companions all grown up, which is a trend I love. And there's a weird sexual tension in the Master turning the Doctor into himself. And yes, I liked the utter confusion of regenerating into the same body again.

Bad episodes I like

The Tsuranga Conundrum - The setup was good, the conclusion made no sense and felt like they wrote themselves into a corner without an answer. But I enjoyed the characters along the way!

Survivors of the Flux - I struggled with where to put this one. I like it all except the actual conclusion of the season long arc! So it goes here. I loved Yaz and Dan being trapped in history, and Yaz pining again, and the weird doorways to everywhere. But Tecteun was random, and either should be dead or (if she gave herself infinite regenerations) should at least have been hinted at all season. And the flux was an interesting mystery, and the answer being that it's purpose was to destroy the Doctor and all the good she's done was a little boring. What happened to no one ever hearing about this one silly guy and just trying to take over the universe for their own purposes?

Good episodes I don't like

The Witch finders - It was fine, but I found it kind of uninteresting.

Orphan 55 - Also fine, but I really don't enjoy such hopeless climate episodes.

Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror - Again, it was fine but didn't really hold my attention. And not enough of it happens at night.

Bad episodes I don't like

Arachnids in the UK - Strong start, disappointing ending. They set up this evil businessman and then took care of the spiders but did nothing about him.

Kerblam! - What is this?? One of the worst episodes of all time, though I don't hate it quite as much as Listen. They set up cool space Amazon, showed just how awful it was, and then had the answer be a plot by the disenfranchised humans against the customers and stopped that and did nothing to deal with the company. It was awful! Why is it one of Thirteen's only 2 novelizations??

Resolution - I liked the parts of Ryan and his dad, but the dalek plot wasn't the best and we really didn't need to be giving daleks sudden new abilities.

Can You Hear Me? - The idea was alright, but the execution felt clumsy, and like it was trying to do several genres of story at once.

The Haunting of Villa Diodati - I really wanted to like this one, but I didn't. It didn't hold my attention. Plus cybermen don't need additional lore and abilities either.

The Timeless Children - I'm actually ok with the Doctor's foundling backstory. It exists as both canon and irrelevant to me, depending on what I prefer for the current story. But I absolutely cannot forgive, after bringing back post-war Gallifrey and using it for ONE episode, immediately killing everyone on the planet forever. I hate this, I cried so much the first time and hate it even more now after getting into the audios.

Village of the Angels - It just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the Flux series vibes.

The Vanquishers - I liked the Doctor putting her lost memories deep in the TARDIS for later, but don't care for any of the rest of the way the Flux was wrapped up.

Episodes that were kinda offensive

The Woman Who Fell to Earth - I actually like this intro a lot, but they fridged Grace, ANOTHER Black partner of a white companion. Come on, Doctor Who!

Spyfall - Ok, in some ways this was the perfect reintro of the Master. I liked the spy thing. However. It did so many things that were just offensive. Having the first non white Master work with the nazis, for instance, and then punishing him by revealing his race and leaving him to them! WTF!

[otakween]

Cyborg 009 BGOOParts Delete (2020) - Volume 4

Zooming to the finish line because frankly I want to be done with this manga so I can move onto something I'm actually invested in! Well actually, I realized that there are a few other Cyborg 009 things I haven't read yet, but they're all short and translated, so I'm not worried about them.

Ch. 22

I had to read this chapter twice because Hera's Japanese was so tricky. She talks in fancy-old-timey talk, no fair!

Essentially the Mythos cyborgs are brought back to life by Hera and Apollon is like "well wait a minute, we're now back to 100% health, but the numbers cyborgs are all beat up, I don't want to fight unless it's fair and square!" and then Hera's like "too bad!" and she uses her amulet to mind control all the Mythos cyborgs

Getting back into the "Mythos cyborgs are tragic characters" theme with Apollon being sick of being used over and over again by everyone.

Ch. 23

Finally stuff is happening other than boring battling/monologuing! In this chapter we learn Hera's backstory (she used to be Dr. Gaia's assistant Renate). I found it kinda hard to sympathize with her because in the flashback Gaia was like "mwahaha I'm going to take over the world with my Mythos cyborgs, sound good?" and she was like "power? Domination? Well...I guess!" Like, she didn't hesitate much.

Since Riko is incapacitated all of the Mythos cyborgs dissolve along with the battlefield where they were fighting. The double page spread where the numbers cyborgs were sent back undersea was well done.

It was kind of awkward how Joe was like "water? Pyunma's time to shine!" but then Pyunma was like "yeah, I can't do shit cuz if I bring Riko up to surface too fast she'll die." I feel like most of the cyborgs weren't exactly built to save people (like how Joe can't touch anyone while using his acceleration switch)

Ch. 24

Oof, this chapter was a bear to get through. At some point I gave up and started using DeepL translation (which worked surprisingly well). Basically the whole chapter was Gaia/Zeus/whatever monologuing about...idk world domination or something? Also, using and abusing the Mythos cyborgs for his own gain.

I lied, there's also a bit at the beginning of the chapter where Artemis and Francoise cry about how they don't wanna fight and Artemis is jealous over Francoise and Joe's relationship.

Ch. 25

Hera regains strength, this time possessing Riko' mom (Hitomi) instead of Riko. They drew Hitomi really goofy looking in the reveal and I couldn't take it seriously. Hera gets a monologue in while the numbers cyborgs regroup. God, this is boring.

Ch. 26

Now that I have DeepL translation on my side, I'm having more fun reading this lol. I can read normal character dialogue (like the butlers and the numbers cyborgs) just fine, but the Mythos folks and Professor Gaia/Zeus speak in an old-timey, pretentious way that's way too advanced for me >_<

In this chapter all the characters prep for the final battle. The Mythos cyborgs begrudgingly agree to fight one last time as they accept that they have no control over their own fates, but they also destroy the Mythos cyborgs copies/clones because they're sick of being resurrected over and over only to be used and abused. Zeus is like "how dare!" and then the orb thingy that they were all in sinks into the Aegean sea.

This chapter had some great, dramatic panels. Mainly the numbers cyborgs group shot at the end and the double page spread of the Dolphin.

Ch. 27

The fight begins between the numbers and mythos cyborgs and the mythos cyborgs debut a new strategy and new powers. The numbers cyborgs ponder the weirdness of their new tactics when they seem to send out one mythos cyborg at a time. They also learn that at least one of the mythos cyborgs now has the power to shape shift which complicates things.

009 picks up 006 to use him as a flamethrower. Was it established that Joe's acceleration doesn't harm other cyborgs? I can't remember, but that sounds right...(or do they all still have acceleration powers thanks to the Dolphin?)

Ch. 28

So it turns out that Zeus was the shape-shifter. He and Joe have a confrontation and Zeus transforms himself into Joe. They then pull that BS we've seen in every movie ever where Joe and Zeus try to convince the numbers cyborgs that THEY'RE the real Joe. Dun dun dunnnn.

002 proves which Joe is fake by flying him up into the sky and recreating the scene from the end of volume 10. He asks Zeus if he remembers the promise they made and Zeus!Joe gets the answer wrong. Jet drops him and all the other cyborgs fill him with bullets. At the last second tho, Hera teleports him away (potentially healing him?)

Onto the next! I thiiink the last volume is the last but I'm not entirely sure. Could be second to last, but 5 seems like a good number to end on. I'm pretty surprised after all this time no one has picked up this series for translation yet!! I'm not really a fan, but I know there a lot of Cyborg 009 superfans out there these days...oh well. I can deal with short series in Japanese. I just get fatigued after awhile with the longer ones.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Just watched the six episodes that came out today of Danielle Ward’s new sitcom, Daddy Issues. Watched them entirely because it was Danielle Ward; I wouldn’t normally be all that interested in a six-part comedy/drama-type series about parenthood. Though this was pre-parenthood, which is probably slightly more interesting than actual parenthood-based sitcoms.

I also nearly gave this a miss for reasons that are entirely not the fault of the people who made it, which is that when I was with my ex-girlfriend, I had her watch all of Taskmaster with me, in return, I watched with her the only British comedy show that she’d seen and I had not, which was Sex Education. It was a bit outside my usual wheelhouse, but it wasn’t bad, I enjoyed sitting on the couch and watching every episode of the first three seasons with my girlfriend, but unfortunately I’ll never know how it ends because we broke up before season 4 came out and I wasn’t about to watch that on my own. Shows we watched together are fine, shows I only ever watched with her, not so much. Same reason why I’ll never see more than the first three episodes of Taskmaster Quebec.

Daddy Issues stars Aimee Lou Wood, and the only other role I’d seen her do was starring in Sex Education, where she was quite a memorable face so I did nearly skip this show because of that. But as I often do, I took inspiration from the wise words of David O’Doherty – in this case, the words “she can’t have the sea” – it makes sense in context. Am I never going to watch anything with Gillian Anderson in it ever again? Come on.

So anyway, I watched Daddy Issues because Danielle Ward made it, and I'm interested in anything she's made. I liked it, overall. I liked it a lot more than I like most of the slew of six-part comedy-drama sitcoms that get released many times per year. I liked it a bit less than I was hoping for, given what I like about Danielle Ward. A bit more sitcom formula than I’d like, and the tonal shifts between comedy-drama and sitcom hijinks were sometimes jarring. It was weird that it set up fairly realistic worldbuilding, and then every once in a while would do a wild sitcom-y scenario that we accept from sitcom universes because our disbelief is already suspended there, but it’s weird in the “real world” show.

On the other hand, it had a fair bit of the Ward-esque misanthropy that I like. Deeply flawed yet likeable characters. The Ward-esque take of pro-feminism but anti-“girl power”. I liked the realism of characters with jobs who have to worry about money, the working class people occasionally mocked but they were the main protagonists, the middle class characters presented as being the ones with the “weird” life. I liked that there were several very obvious directions it could have gone, and didn’t.

They developed the characters pretty well for a season that lasted just under six hours. Often with those six-part half-hour sitcoms, I get to the end and find it was only in the last couple of episodes that I felt like I got to know the characters somewhat well, and only at the end that I started getting invested in them. I’ve ended up thinking I’d probably watch a second season as it was just starting to get good, but it takes that long just to establish things, and these days so many shows don’t get the second season anyway. That didn’t happen there; the characters in this one were well drawn from the start, I was invested for most of the season. There was a bit at the very end that set up a potential second season, but besides that, season one worked well as a self-contained thing.

And, you know, as much as I say that a main character having a kid while looking for romantic love is not something I find interesting in comedy, this is a premise that you don’t see all the time. Single woman who’s pregnant – compared to the proportion of people who have experienced that in real life, that scenario is probably underrepresented in sitcoms.

Also, I find it a very funny, and very Ward-esque joke that there’s a sitcom-style “zanily violent character”, but that character is the protagonist’s sister who’s literally in jail for attempted murder. That’s the sort of thing I wish there had been more of throughout the whole show – zany sitcom tropes played to their realistic conclusion (instead of, like I said, some zany sitcom tropes played straight in a world that was presented as too realistic for that stuff to happen). Their violent character isn’t just pulling out knives at unexpected moments, or randomly setting fire to things. She’s serving time because she tried to have her partner killed.

Anyway, I’d been looking forward to this one for a while and it was fun. Pretty sure Aimee Lou Wood was very good in it too (I say “pretty sure” because I know so little about acting that I’m never confident in my ability to assess those things, but I found her good). After I watched it I moved it to the big comedy folder on my hard drive, where I realized I don’t even have a Danielle Ward sub-folder. So I decided it’s high time to create one. I put Daddy Issues in there, as well as her excellent stand-up show Seventeen.

I then downloaded every episode of Do the Right Thing, because I listened to all of that last year and greatly enjoyed it, but hadn’t downloaded the mp3s before, and I’ve recently got increasingly paranoid about my media disappearing and I feel better if I have things saved, even podcasts that still have active RSS feeds. So it’s all right, I’ve now got all of Do the Right Thing in mp3 form, all nice and labeled with air dates and guest lists. (That reminds me that I assume we can expect that within two years, Matthew Crosby will have made a show starring Josh Widdicombe and James Acaster as roommates having a baby while living with their hapless father, and they have a sister who’s in prison for attempted murder.)

I then went looking for other things to put in my Danielle Ward folder, and I learned that there’s a recording on SoundCloud of Psister Psycho, the musical Danielle Ward co-wrote in 2007 about a killer robotic lesbian nun. I have known for ages that that show existed and I’m sorry there’s not a way for me to see it, it never occurred to me until today to check whether there’s an audio recording on SoundCloud. Well, that’s my commute to work tomorrow sorted (which means I haven’t listened to it yet, I’ll let you know what it’s like when I do). I threw that in my Ward sub-folder, along with her episodes of Isy Suttie’s The Things We Do For Love and Margaret Cabourn-Smith’s Crushed podcasts. Are there are any other good Danielle Ward things out there that I’m missing? I really really like her and want to find more of her work, though like with Brett Goldstein, some of her work is off the table for me because I’m not interested in hearing people talk about movies. But besides that movie podcast, any major things I’m missing? Is it worth digging up hours of Dave Gorman on the radio just to hear her?

[sandwormsummoner]

Ana Luiza Ferreira stars in “Beetlejuice” alongside Edu Sterblitch

By Marcelo Bandeira | 04/11/2023 15:56

Combining comedy and horror, the work, which runs until December 10th, provides fun for the whole family and is inspired by the film “The Ghosts Have Fun”.

Translator's note: this is the translation of the name used when the film was shown at the Brazilian cinema :] ... Honestly, Brazilian title adaptations are weird (°_°;⁠)

Born with a destiny clearly traced since a young age, actress Ana Luiza Ferreira found her great passion in the performing arts. Currently, she dazzles the stage at the Cidade das Artes Bibi Ferreira, in Rio de Janeiro, in the role of Lydia Deetz in "Beetlejuice: Os Fantasmas se Divertem — O Musical" and celebrates a new "turning point" in her career, after eight years since the debut that established her in the theater, as the aspiring Maria Roberta in “Sister Act”

“ ‘Sister Act’ changed my life. I was about to give up when I passed the audition. And it didn't stop there! We had a beautiful season of almost a year, I acted alongside childhood idols, and both critics and audiences welcomed me warmly. Undoubtedly, it represented an important change in my story. However, 'Beetlejuice' came to be a strong contender (laughs),” she said, demonstrating her excitement for the new project.

For Ana Luiza, music was her first love, and although today it's the "aggregation" of all the forms that complete her, the carioca keeps alive her other artistic vein as a pop singer and dedicates herself to original compositions like the hits and music videos "Hey" and "Fools," two of the trio she prepared for 2023. "What fulfills me is knowing that when I sing, I'm also acting, there's no way to separate them anymore, and that hypnotizes me," she emphasized to iG. Check out the full interview!

Beetlejuicet is a cult classic, with a passionate fan base, and will get a sequel in theaters in 2024. How has the public received it?

“The number of people we see dressed up or wearing striped clothes when the theater lights come on during the curtain call is surreal. I'm an admirer of the work, actually of the entire Tim Burton universe, so I see myself in each one. Surely, I would also be 'striped.' Besides the messages of affection that are coming, I try to respond to all of them and I'm happy that they like it.

Edu (Sterblitch) is a genius and a generous human being, and the cast is very talented. Touché's production is impeccable, and the humane direction of our dear Tadeu Aguiar has guided us down such a fascinating path that it's impossible not to love the "boldness of the Brazilian adaptation.”

Is there a part of your character that you personally identify with? How do you prepare to enter Lydia's mind and heart with each performance? Do you have a special ritual?

“I recognize myself in her in several aspects. I understand the pain of losing a close relative, and like her, I'm still learning to move forward. I was a bit of an emo teenager, feeling misunderstood by society and listening to pop-punk. I believe that helps with the musical references. Before going on stage, I connect with my castmates in a circle of energy, a hug, say my prayers, and it's show time!”

Beetlejuice will have a sequel and will bring back Winona Ryder in the role — with whom you, in fact, already have a certain affinity — after starring in a production of "Heathers." What do you attribute this connection to? Do they act in similar settings?

“Although cinema and theater are different languages, I think we find ourselves when playing unconventional roles. At times, I felt out of place in society. Even among my groups of friends, I considered myself the artist in a sea of engineers, doctors, and lawyers, or the one with the weirdest laugh and non-standard body. These "experiences" allow me to access an interesting aspect on stage; after all, I often say that the actor's greatest research tool is themselves.”

↓↓↓

[swordswoman97]

Okay having finished the Zora's Domain main quest I have thoughts. Below cut for spoiler reasons and because I have a lot of thoughts.

So Yona. She's sure... There I guess.

Look I'm not the first person on the website to complain about Yona, but I still have things to say. I would however like to preface this with the fact that while I do enjoy Sidlink, it's more in a "oh that's a nice ship" way than an "OMG I SHIP IT!" way. I'm also 100% not a Sidon simp. I get why y'all are so into him, but there are other characters I prefer. However, I definitely understand the frustration with Yona, and I have my own issues with her inclusion.

Now I'm not entirely convinced Yona was included just to spite sidlink ships and even less convinced it was just to spite the people who found him hot. Especially considering, I doubt they didn't see the thirst art for Ganondorf and that didn't stop them from letting the designer go whole hog on making him physically attractive. But I'll admit I can't 100% rule out the possibility that sidlink shippers contributed to that decision.

Instead, Yona almost comes off as just being a narrative shortcut by the devs to try and add some explanation to Sidon not immediately jumping into trying to investigate with the player and possibly to try and make it look like Sidon has changed in the 3-5 years since BOTW which, tbh wasn't even necessary. Zoras live a long ass time, I'd guess somewhere between 300 to 500 years. Sidon and the other Zora not actually changing that much as like people would make sense. In Zora terms it hasn't even been that long. As for the arc thing, you could have gotten the same affect by making Sidon afraid of failing his people or heck, if you wanna keep Sidon's fear of losing more people he's close to, have him know about Dorephan's state and have Sidon afraid that if he doesn't keep the water flowing into that chamber clean, he'll lose his father. Same damn affect.

Then you have Yona herself. For one thing she is so flat. Her only personality seems to be that she's nice and she's in love with Sidon. That isn't a character. Then there's her backstory. While more domains of zora makes sense, it's more the fact that any of these domains are still in contact with Hyrule's Zora's Domain that falls flat. We know Yona and Sidon met before the calamity, but you expect me to believe that any of the other domains kept in contact while Hyrule was crawling with guardians, let alone apparently visited enough for Sidon to not completely or at least mostly forget Yona? Where does she even come from? Across the sea? In the sea? Past the desert? Across that giant bottomless pit surrounding Hyrule on two sides? How did she even get here considering everything else going on?

Plus, one of the new monuments (why were those replaced anyway?) confirms that their marriage was arranged, and makes reference to Sidon viewing Yona as a sister... Nintendo what the fuck?! I don't care if Sidon's feelings toward Yona have become "complicated" or whatever he calls it, Sidon marrying someone he viewed as a sister is fucking creepy.

And then their relationship doesn't even seem meaningful. Now part of it is probably the fact that by the time we see Yona and Sidon interact I was already pretty iffy about the whole thing, but the limited screentime we get with them does not work to sell me on the fact that this relationship is actually romantic. They call each other an almost sickening amount of pet names but that just feels weird due to it. Like, there are times Sidon came off less as actually in love with Yona and more as trying to force himself to be. Like this relationship is way too forced to feel like anything but a slap in the face.

Plus tbh while I haven't finished the game, they might redeem themselves later, Yona is just a part of the growing feeling I'm getting that the devs just didn't consider how things fit into the already established lore. Like, why is Ganondorf knocking around when Hyrule is being founded when Hyrule was very much already a thing when Ganondorf first showed up in OOC. How does Sidon have a childhood friend from another domain with the calamity causing problems for the last 100 years? Why do the sages all have the exact same weapons as the champions? And the same models? Like... were these speeches originally supposed to be given by the champions and they switched it at the last second and couldn't be bothered to make new models? I love this game, I am having so much fun, but this story is just... I have so many questions. I really hope things start making more sense as I get farther in.

[writer-and-artist27]

🛏💥🤖

Hello to you too, Anon. Thankie for the ask.

(￣▽￣)ゞ Here we go with answers. And right before I go to bed for another work day tomorrow.

🛏 Is there a new trope you'd like to write this year?

Huh. Not sure on this one yet. Maybe slapstick comedy? Or just experimenting with the Unreliable Narrator.

🤖 Are you looking to change your current writing setup? (Or establish one, if you don't have one?)

...Maybe get a new laptop? My current laptop - a Macbook Air 11' I named "Penny" after the rose-gold cover I got for her - has been with me since college. So that's... 6 years. As long as my current writing career, even. She's still working fine, but maybe the different keyboard/screen feel might encourage some inspiration.

Otherwise, maybe just using the lap desk I bought from Barnes and Noble more often. Since it lets me sit on my bed with blankets on my knees while I write without risk of burning myself from the laptop heater.

💥Is there a chapter, scene, or WIP you're most excited to write? Share a snippet or tell us about it!

For my Naruto content - it's just finishing the arcs I have right now when inspiration comes back. The Sea and Stars - post Kannabi is all my hype once I get there. Civilian Pianist - Kakashi's ANBU days. Because I loved the Shadows of the ANBU filler arc from Shippuden when first getting to know Kakashi, and getting to wrie that would be a challenge once I get there too.

For Passing Days, it's actually the WIP Day 54 I have at the moment, because exploring Muramasa's POV in the first half has me returning to Shimosa and the dialogue is taken directly from my first reactions of seeing him as a character when playing through the story. I'll put my preview under the cut.

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

There were a lot of things Senji Muramasa had left behind when he went back to the Throne of Heroes with Shimosa’s resolution. The memories of the screams in that flaming castle, the kids that he took in for a time — he could remember faces, but not names anymore — even some of the expressions of his allies at the time. All he had left was his name, his strength, and the memories of two women.

One female Miyamoto Musashi, and the other one Chaldean “Master” calling herself Vy Duong.

Musashi was someone he knew he couldn’t forget, what with her swordsmanship and drive to protect the kids from the demonic Seven Swordsmasters. Even as a vagabond, she had determination, and his tired old mind couldn’t deny that from her.

Vy, on the other hand, struck something in his weary heart. What was it again?

Even when floating in the space that the Throne of Heroes gave him, he could still vividly recall the shock on her face when he came out of his hut to berate her and Musashi for intruding on his workshop. Back then, with the red sky and the bright red moon hanging above them, Vy could’ve been a little girl with how she acted. Any other person would’ve been fooled with how she fidgeted in place back then. Her brown eyes had widened to the size of plates when taking him in, and when Musashi had screamed out “GRANDPA?!” in her own weird getup, all Vy did was clasp her hands together in front of her chest, meeting his gaze as though she had seen a ghost. 

“Shi…rou?” was all she said then amidst Musashi’s fumbling. Some kind of hope surfaced in her voice. “Shirou?” 

Even though the name should’ve been something foreign to the Heroic Spirit Muramasa, the vessel Muramasa took up to use in his manifestation stirred, making his anger melt away in an instant. “…How do you know that name?” left his mouth in a voice that was so much younger than anything he could ever remember since his creation as a Heroic Spirit, the blood starting to roar in the back of his ears as he took in Vy’s figure in return. A weird combination of white and black. Some long white shoes that came up to half of her calves and matching gray socks of some kind. When he took a few steps closer, Vy didn’t even flinch when he took a lock of her long hair in his hands, his brain searing the feeling of soft silky brown strands slipping through his fingers into what little memory the Counter Force would allow him to have. “Have we met before?”

It was thanks to their close proximity that Muramasa could remember the hopeful light dying from Vy’s brown irises past her weird eyewear of glass lenses as she ducked her head, and when backing away from his reach, he could still remember the glimpse he got of the green ribbon holding up some of her hair. “…No,” she said, eventually looking up at him with a tiny resigned smile. “I just thought… I just thought you looked like someone I knew by the name of ‘Shirou.’” With a giggle, she put a hand to her lips, her rapid blinking of her eyes making her look like she was about to cry. “I’m sorry for mistaking you as someone else.”

The heart inside Muramasa’s body nonetheless ached. 

[signalwatch]

Watch Party Watch: Birdemic III - Sea Eagle (2022)

Watched:  02/10/2023

Format:  Amazon Watch Party

Viewing:  First

Director:  James Nguyen

You can't really write about a Birdemic movie as a movie.  You could, I guess.  But what's the point?

A Birdemic film is an experience.  It's there to make you ask an infinite number of questions like: why?  So many "why's?".  So many "what's?".  And "how's?"

Jamie, Steanso and I attended what was one of the very earliest public screenings of the original Birdemic,  It was during a period where I wasn't blogging, so there isn't a record, I guess.  But I do have a record of seeing the sequel.  

That first screening was a profoundly weird experience.  We'll podcast it or something at some point.  But the point is:  Nguyen made the first film completely sincerely as one part sincere romance, one part Hitchcock homage, one part semi-Googled climate catastrophe film.  Nguyen rose to fame during Sundance when he drove to the film festival and drove up and down the main street blasting the sounds of sea gulls out of a mini-van with fake seagulls glued to the outside.  There was a screening in a local bar when curious gawkers finally asked what the hell he was doing.  I'd heard about it, so when the movie was coming to Austin, you bet your ass I went to see it.

It wound up becoming a hipster activity to go and see the movie with Nguyen there for Q&A's.  This went on for a couple of years.  Then, some party gave Nguyen some money to go make a sequel.  This time he indicated he was in on the joke, but I can tell you, from the Q&A - he kind of was not. 

It's been 10 years since that sequel, and I'll be honest - I wondered what James Nguyen was up to.  I have no idea.  But he was not studying up on how one makes a movie.

It's fine.  I watch a healthy number of films, and I'm pretty sure if you have me $30K and said "good luck" you'd get similar, no matter how sincere my efforts.  However, the budget to the sequel is listed at $300K.  

Nguyen did launch an Indiegogo to finance the three-quel, but apparently received about $570.  

This movie picks up some time after the first film, does not acknowledge the second, and lacks Nathalie, who was sort of the fizz in the Topo Chico bottle that was the first movie.  The jump in technology in the ensuing decade should have made shooting something on the cheap far easier, but instead, seems to have given Nguyen all new ways to now know what he's doing.  For the first time, I had to ask:  is this intentional?  But after three minutes of wildly unbalanced shots and I think Dug pointing out he was likely shooting multi-cam via multiple smart phones, the harsh reality of what we were about to see settled in.

You can't really prepare for these movies, because they will find new and exciting ways to confound the viewer while also retaining the insanity of the first two films, which your brain will refuse to hang onto in a meaningful way because dealing with madness is hard.  Both prior films spent a good 1/2 of the movie establishing a romance - no folding it into the A Plot for Nguyen.  But also, we'd receive some environmental awareness messaging to establish the "why?" of the second, thrilling portion of the movie where birds explode into balls of fire after kamikaze dives into hatchbacks.  This movie ups that portion to a full 2/3rds of the runtime, with endless opportunity for our characters (Evan and Kim) to learn all the ways that humans are giving whales and seals cancer.

Evan and Kim are played by two people who I am sure are lovely humans IRL, but may not have received the direction they needed with somewhat limited acting backgrounds.  My assumption is that Nguyen wanted a lot of angles and takes, and if he heard the dialog repeated back to him, good enough. The sun is only up so long, and that's his only lighting source.  Kubrick he is not.

We're still on the "say the dialog exactly as written" tip that gave so much flavor to the first movie, and left every character sounding somewhere between an AI chatbot and Nguyen himself.  If the actors ever knew how to act, walk, or act like normal humans and not NPC's in a 1997 videogame, there's no indication of that here.

Shots exist that are seemingly utterly unmotivated, and they just go on and on. And on.  Driving.  Walking.  Standing there in silence.  Dancing like no one is watching.  Protesting climate change on a weird loop while no one looks on.*

Former Birdemic lead, Rod (played by Alan Bagh) shows up with a new love interest 3/4ths of the way in literally out of nowhere, and he more or less saves the skin of the other actors and the movie.  At this point, he's like "Jesus, another bird attack.  Well, get the hangers."  

Notable is that when Nguyen has an opportunity to say how we could fix the climate crisis, he has an Elon Musk stand-in walk up to the couple (in front of a whale skeleton?) and explain how nanotechnology and space elevators will be what saves us.  which is to say:  (a) Nguyen's messiah is the guy who bought twitter solely to be dickish and spend his time trolling well-meaning dorks and (b) he, himself, has no concept of how to end climate change and did not Google it before writing his script.  

Now, 12 years after the first Birdemic, Nguyen seems to have little to no interest in his female characters.  And he seems perhaps jaded about romance.  But he does still seem to like a good motel room get-away romp.

I can't explain the movie.  I've now watched three of these, and in the world of Tommy Wiseau's, Neil Breens and now countless other auteurs, he still manages to produce a singular type of film.  This one may be smaller and way off balance in the romance/ ecological lecturing/ thriller portion, but that's just one more mystery of the man's oeuvre.  Long may he reign.

*there's no small allegory in that as our actual climate does change and who knows what happens in our seas, the only place you'll find someone passionately discussing this who isn't a small Swedish girl is a Birdemic film where they make it so annoying, you're good with Earth ending

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[alixhawkes]

Session zero: World building and characterisation.

When Alix was "born" (I guess?), it wasn't a big shock to many. In fact, the reason she was created was that a plethora of my friends on my personal account asked me for the spicy links after a "close friends" Instagram story of me in a bodysuit. It wasn't a particularly saucy bodysuit (K-Mart special ftw), but a comment from that story, and a quick conversation with my husband, and I was off to the races - so to speak.

It also worked out perfectly since I'm 100% WFH in my civilian job. I can reply to messages, manage my SM feeds, shoot stuff, edit, whatever as long as I was getting the job that paid done too.

A frequently asked question is how I came up with the name. True to my nerd roots, I used a fake name generator I use to name my Sims. It felt fitting - I was creating a new character for myself, so why not just leave it up to chance?

So, some of the other FAQ's I get:

Q: Why don't you show face? A: This is mostly a comfort thing on my end. I'm not some hideous sea hag or anything, but being anonymous (for the most part) means I can keep Alix and Not-Alix seperate. In saying that, I'm not exactly hiding my face well or anything. And the face card can be (and has been) earnt.

Follow up question: How does one earn a face card? A: Ever met another human and you wanted to get to know them better? Treat me like I'm a human and not a fuck sleeve (that's reserved for certain people lmao). Part of it is transactional, so tipping on my content, ordering customs, etc. But part of the reason I think I excell at the Girlfriend Experience (GFE) is because I like to talk to people. I like to know how they are, what their hobbies are, etc. It makes Alix more authentic and grounded, which I value, and I think others value too.

Q: Do people who know you are behind the persona? A: Yes! Some of my biggest spenders are my friends. People who circle the acquaintance sphere can be a little weird in the way they talk to Alix, and talk to Me. While I keep the two separate as much as I can, we are, the same person. It's weird when someone you met at a work conference in an entirely different industry finds your spicy sites and starts talking like we're old friends who used to fuck.

Q: Is your husband actually cool with it? / Are you really married? A: He is, and I am! My husband and I have been together for 10 years (Jesus) and married for 5 years as of August 2024. I've always put his comfort above everything else. If I get a request I'm comfortable with but think he won't be, I'll ask him. Some people get upset with that because they aren't paying my husband or whatever, but if you aren't respecting the (very reasonable) boundaries I've established about my content and the inherently parasocial relationships SW can lead to, then you're wasting my time.

Other Q's that come up will be added later.

-- Alix x

[magpiejay1234]

Day 276.

This one is just multiple cutscenes. The intentionally dream-like structure obscures a lot, but there are technically three things occuring at once.

**Roxas is remembering Sora, and Kairi's memories in Destiny Islands, which means Xion does not have all of Sora's memories of Kairi. The specific memory is of course the one we previously saw, about Sora, and Kairi deciding to leave Destiny Islands. However, the context of this scene, the latter parts of Days, and context of KH2 suggest this might actually be Kairi's memory of Sora inside Roxas.

**Xion is having memory seizures once again, this time due to passively absorbing Riku's memories of Illusion Destiny Islands wih Zexion in CoM, as real Riku is chasing her.

**Riku still doesn't get Xion's entire deal, but Naminé in a flashback told to him about her memory situation in relation to Sora. The flashback is more complicated than the pre-rendered scenes, so we will discuss it later, but this is where Kanemaki finally gets away with Rikunami against Nojima's push for Rokunami in KH2 (don't you love when ship wars occur between your actual writers). After catching Xion, Riku sees who is presumed to be Roxas running away.

After that, we see Xion in Destiny Islands, repeating the motions of Sora-Riku-Kairi with Sea Salt Trio. This is presumably inside the Destiny Islands inside Xion's heart, based off Sora's heart's Destiny Islands. Here, Axel is positioned as Riku, Xion is Sora, and Roxas is Kairi.

Ice Cream scene is Roxas talking about the dream-like nature of this day's mission.

The Roxas diary entry for Day 276 mentions how Axel, and Roxas decided to look for Xion tomorrow (Day 277).

This day is after a 18 day skip.

****

There is a lot of meta here, but I guess the most important, at least for the Rokushi part of this deal, is the implication that not only Roxas absorbed Kairi's desire to seek other worlds, and noncomforist personality due to partially being her, but this might be because the same way Xion's core is initially based off Sora's memories of Kairi, Roxas's core personality might be mostly based off Kairi's memories of Sora.

(Does this mean Roxas is the wave brother?)

Xion is supposed to be an idealized version of Kairi inside Sora's head, but Roxas, due to being a Nobody, has the repressed, negative aspects of Sora in the forefront, effectively being his Shadow Archetype. In the context of Days, though, it seems Kairi's idealized idea of Sora being latched on him averaged him into being mostly like Sora, but it seems when those memories start to return to Kairi, that was when Roxas defaulted to being the angry, destructive brat he is in KH2 after the illusion of the Data Twilight Town shattered.

This creates a weird narrative parallel with Naminé, since all the misery that befalls before her is largely caused by the personality aspects he obtained from Sora.

Don't have much to say with Xion absorbing aspects of Riku, at least not yet. This will be important in latter part of Days, but not so much in the later series overall, especially her new body in KH3 does not have this design flaw.

****

Another metanarrative topic, within the context of Days specifically, is that this scene basically establishes Riku as the third wheel in sort of replacement of Axel for the latter third, since Axel largely served his purpose for now.

So in the same vein as CoM/DDD, we can sort of argue this is also a Riku game, even though his role is similar to KH2 (being the important character for the last third of the game).