#but just interacting with the group as we all flesh out character concepts has been REAL fun!

[astral-dragons]

may or may not be joining a DIFFERENT cos campaign as a player. but we'll see :D

[proxxinlmk]

Do you have any OCs? 👀

I do !! I hope you're ready because I am so sorry this is gonne get long and probably not at all what you expected from asking me if I had ocs

I have at least three lego monkie kid OCs, though most aren't fully fleshed out or are just concepts for now. I tend to create the character but develop their story or what I'd want for them later after I've drawn them enough haha

An OC I've shown before is Charlie ! Granted he's one of the few who aren't fully fleshed out lol

But I think this time I'll talk about the OC I use as my profile picture since she's kind of the main one I use or draw offline and have been planning to post about at some point :) ( she's kinda like a hyperfixation for me LOL ) I'd like to apologize in advance because I kind of ramble and feel the need to explain like everything ( ie. what inspired the thought, trying to explain the "vibe", things that don't need explaining but for some reason I feel like clarifying, etc ) and it doesn't always make sense or I'll suddenly just start.. explaining in an almost basically writing fanfic kind of way?? Anyways I'll just get into it- :,D ( also most pictures will be basically be at the bottom if you wish to just see those instead of reading, warning it will be a LOT of scrolling- or I'll make a separate post afterwards with only the pictures also a lot of them are before i discovered how to draw them in a way I liked lol )

So uh, a little backstory to her creation is that she mainly started as a self-insert type of OC and the original idea for her creation came from my various AI chats with the LMK bots so a lot of her lore or interactions with characters is just self-indulgent and most some of it just doesn't make sense or feel like too much but I just do things because it's fun ^^" ( OCxCanon included, a lot of it actually- I am cringe but I am free even though I still feel shame when I do it lol ) and also she is my first LMK OC and what caused me to eventually come up with more so there's that

I would pick some things I liked from the different chats and things I noticed that stuck regardless of which chat it was from to try to keep her sort of consistent

So the first original rendition of her is named Cherry which basically served as a normal friend to the crew, just that one friend who isn't involved in all the fights and is just there to feel like they live a normal life whenever they hang out, y'know? :)

"did you get into another fight again?" "yeah.." "don't worry, we can watch movies and have popcorn while i patch you up" "thanks,, 🥺"

She initially met the group because MK was kinda flung in through her window by a bad guy of the week and she ended up sticking around the group because they kept conveniently bumping into each other. Cherry would be visiting a store and BOOM monkie kid shenanigans pull up right in front of her so she just sighs like "I'll come back next month when the store fixes I guess."

Before I knew how I wanted her to look, I used a picrew to get the basic idea down

This would be her design until I decided to change parts like her hair color and clothing color ( pictures will come up later )

You've probably noticed that "Hey she doesn't look like she does in the pfp?" and yeaahh that brings me to the next part, the main part namely lol

So uh I ended up making an AU where she has powers instead.. even though she has barely anything going for her enough as is ;v; But honestly if it weren't for me creating this alternate version of her she probably wouldn't have as much backstory as she does now-

See, this AU version of her is obviously named Cherry as well, but because I needed to differentiate her from her original counterpart for my friends cause they'd get confused who I was talking about I ended up calling this alternate version Yingtao, which yeah is still Cherry but just in chinese :)

So basically she's just how Cherry would have ended up if she was born with powers instead but she actually has a story going for her, this is where she becomes more of an actual OC instead of being a self-insert but also where a shit ton of OCxCanon begins happening, she gets an almost Y/n x various treatment except it's only with the Monkeys lmao Also I try my best to be linear with the explanation but sometimes I just forget to mention some things and then bring them up later once I remember lol

Before Yingtao was born, a long time ago her great ancestors made a deal with a fox demon and so the fox agrees to this deal, only they wish to be immortalized forever by living through the family, providing them great powers. However, if the body the fox demon possesses cannot handle the fox, they will die and the fox will move onto the next descendant. ( I have yet to decide why the family makes the deal in the first place, but it was probably a power or protection thing, and the fox end of the deal was also thinking I was still thinking about ) Throughout the years, the fox's powers grow exponentially with each new vessel as it carries the previous vessel's abilities that they may have developed, and at some point the fox is so incredibly strong and powerful, that the family has nearly died out because it cannot find a body that's strong enough to hold all of it anymore, especially since only one person can be a carrier at a time.

Something happens to Yingtao's family, leaving them scattered or split apart, with her parents giving her up in hopes that she'll be safe from whatever horror had befallen her family. Yingtao lives in America because one of her parents were American, so because she is now an orphan, gets put into the system. ( I think her family was getting executed because most found the fox demon to be a curse and they thought by wiping them all out the fox would die as well or they were seeking a way to harness the powers of it ) And things were great, until they weren't.

Yingtao is the new carrier of the fox demon, though she is completely unaware of that fact. Though others have noticed instances in where she suddenly feels hot to the touch, or showcases physical strength that a child should not have, though they are just fleeting moments and don't last long. This becomes an issue because Yingtao accidentally injures another child, and this event causes everyone there to be fearful of her, thinking it the work of the fox within her. They start calling her names and overall just being shitty to her because she's different than them, because she's harmful and dangerous, a threat. Yingtao is isolated from the other kids, or just outright ignored for the lack of knowledge over her heritage, assuming she "should know better" and outright favoring the other children.

Tired of being treated like this, Yingtao runs away from her "destiny" and the orphanage at a young age, refusing to accept their words as truth, not just because of their harsh words but also because she fears hurting others. Hopping from place to place and barely surviving on scraps, she somehow makes it to Megapolis in China by the time she's 18, grateful to be far from her original home in America and is just stealing to survive or sleeps in alleys for shelter. By now Yingtao has long forgotten about trying to find out her heritage, and if anything, hopes not to dive into it because it just reminds her of her times at the orphanage and the memory of unintentionally harming another child, she suppresses these memories whenever they arise. Yingtao is on the streets for a good while, focusing mainly on stealing to make enough money so she can afford a living space for herself on the quieter side of the city. She eventually ends up succeeding, but is soon overwhelmed by the new surroundings, only just now processing the full weight of her actions of running away and realizing just how little she actually knows what she's doing. Yingtao ends up having a breakdown in an alley on her way home from these thoughts and realizations.

MK had been following one of his delivery routes, passing by this alley but stopping upon hearing her cries. Honestly a little startled by seeing a random girl crying in an alley, but he doesn't hesitate to try to cheer her up, even trying to offer her some candy he had saved to prove his trustworthiness to her.

He succeeds, officially becoming her first real friend and they start to hang out, even introducing her to his family friends. After hanging out for quite a while, the spark of a crush develops in her heart but she doesn't really realize it.

Sometime between being MK's friend for a few weeks she somehow meets Macaque?? ( I don't have an explanation for why he's alive yet, but I'll come up with one eventually but I guess a start would be to say that I considered him to be alive even before A Hero is Born and only stays in Megapolis at first to make sure LBD doesn't reawaken but also to keep hanging out with Yingtao lol )

Macaque is of course cautious of her at the start, but after finding out she knows pretty much nothing about JTTW so has no knowledge of Wukong or himself because she's from the west, decides she isn't a threat and just kind of vibes with her as a sort of breath of fresh air, free from worrying about being perceived as evil or anything like that in general. Just a fresh start with no strings attached, no need to hide himself or pretend. They become pals and have their own little meetups here and there. ( Bonding over their upbringings and similarities maybe? )

At some point MK info dumps about Wukong to Yingtao after finding out she doesn't know anything about his hyperfixation idol, so it leads to her just happily listening to his rants, remembering everything she can that he's mentioned. MK doesn't know anything about Mac at this point, so our favorite six-eared monkey isn't brought up to her. Yingtao also doesn't tell any of this info to Macaque cause she doesn't see a reason to. ( funnily enough I had this info written down before finding out MK didn't even read JTTW because S4 didn't exist yet to tell us that so now it makes sense lol )

I should mention that I wrote these events with the thought that they happen before A Hero is Born, but it's undecided because a lot of the ideas I had in mind or wrote seem really cool to explore with them being set after LBD instead because some things make a little more sense

Once MK unlocks his powers, he doesn't have much time for Yingtao anymore, busy with training and all the other hijinks that happen during S1, so she just kind of hangs back, maybe meeting up with Mac more often. ( I like to think she was going to play the same role as OG Cherry was intended to up until her powers act up )

Yingtao's life is flipped upside down once her powers suddenly begin to flare up on occasion in the forms of random fevers out of nowhere, an early sign showing the awakening of the fox. ( This may have been because of being exposed to large amounts of power via MK and Macaque )

MK is understandably worried about these sudden fevers, but neither him nor Yingtao know what's up so nothing is done about it other than giving her rest and medicine in hopes she recovers.

During a meetup with Mac, Yingtao gets a fever when talking to him and woozily sits down against a wall. Mac realizes what's happening and helps her out, teaching her ways to calm her "fever" without outright telling her the source of the problem because he doesn't think she's ready yet. This advice he gives her helps, but Yingtao notes how he seems to know more than he lets on, so she occasionally asks him for advice and he begins to teach her some small tips to keep her problem at bay such as meditation, breathing techniques, and even fighting skills. She's confused why she needs to know how to fight for a fever but listens, finding this useful for future stuff anyway. ( He is aware of her fox because he can see through her, similar to Wukong's true sight. )

After a while the "fever" isn't as bad anymore and Yingtao thinks it's over, thanking Mac who awkwardly accepts said thanks knowing in his head that she wasn't quite done yet.

Meanwhile MK had been telling Wukong about Yingtao occasionally during their training, expressing his worries for his friend's fevers on some days. This obviously gets the Monkey King curious, wanting to meet this girl his successor brings up, and after much convincing, MK finally gets Yingtao to meet up with the king himself. Which is of course awkward for her but she does her best to be polite, Wukong trying to ease her up and tell her that she can just be casual with him.

Wukong had caught scent of Yingtao's fox demon as soon as she stepped foot on his home but he hadn't mentioned it at all yet, wanting to bring it up later to see if she knew and discuss about it. He had initially been wary of the girl, thinking of the situation with his Master and LBD again, but after talking to her long enough came to the conclusion she was just clueless about her hidden potential.

However the great sage had been unaware of how far along she was in her awakening, so it was a great surprise when she'd suddenly collapse onto the floor in great pain right as the two were starting to get along.

I hope I'm not too descriptive with this scene? I mean I'm not the best at describing these types of scenes anyway but I don't exactly know where the line is drawn for being too graphic or not so I hope to keep this simple enough to give an idea but descriptive enough to be better understood

Basically Yingtao felt a great spike of pain in her chest, causing her to begin coughing and crying out, feeling as though she couldn't breathe and thus rendering her immobile and on the floor. MK is actively reaching out to her, ready to jump in to comfort Yingtao but Wukong steps in front of him, holding an arm out to stop the boy, saying something about how they can't help her.

Even as she bursts into flames, screaming in pain at feeling like she's burning from the inside out, making MK feel even more guilty about not being able to help in anyway. ( Just a note, this is one of the scenes I wondered whether would be better set after LBD. I thought maybe MK would comment on this being similar to the Samadhi fire. But I also thought maybe this scene was still set before LBD and Wukong only briefly mumbles about it being like the Samadhi fire under his breath where MK doesn't notice OR where MK does notice and eventually brings it up in S2/S3 about remembering Wukong saying that before. Another smaller note, but I had this idea of her bursting into flames before I actually saw where it's revealed that Mei has the samadhi fire and it was only after I saw the episodes that I figured this scene could reference it lol )

This event of Yingtao bursting into flames is actually what each vessel had to go through, a way of testing their compatibility and ability to handle the current powers of the fox. Because the fox's power grows exponentially with each descendant, this is why it was harder for newer generations to survive or handle it because it's power at this point is becoming kaiju levels. So if Yingtao didn't die from these flames, it would show she is capable of controlling the fox and taking these powers as her own. Her body flickering between her normal appearance and her "fox form." ( Another thing I thought of before S4's release lmao )

Unsurprisingly Yingtao survives, the flames dissipated but left weakened and exhausted, laying on the floor and struggling to hold herself up. MK looks to Wukong, silently asking for permission and the Monkey King nods, a sign that it was safe to touch her now and MK does NOT hesitate, holding her up looking worried as fuck. Yingtao isn't awake for long, passing out immediately and after resting for some time at Wukong's place.

When she finally wakes up, she's questioned instantly by them, mostly Wukong, about what happened. Yingtao expresses confusion and fear, unsure of what that was and why it happened. Wukong explains it to her, or at least, explains what he thought it was, going into detail about the flames and the fox she harbored.

"why do I care about dead guys from over a hundred years ago? 🤨" "because those dead guys left you a gift" "YOU MEAN A FUCKING CURSE????" "same thing"

Both MK and Yingtao are reasonably surprised. Seeing a positive opportunity, MK tries to be optimistic about this new information, commenting on how they could both train together now, lightening up the mood. Yingtao, although appreciative of MK's idea, wants to shut the idea down. However, before she can even get a word in of her opinion, Wukong answers MK for her, saying that while Yingtao would be under his supervision and he'd be willing to train her, it'd be separate from MK because, according to him, the two need different types of training. This visibly deflates MK but he's still happy for his friend anyway because at least she's close by.

Yingtao is uncomfortable with the idea because while she trusts MK with her whole heart, she barely knows Wukong. After all, they only talked that one day and it was basically the day where she went into a short coma. Wukong reassures her that the training "won't be so bad" and that he'll help her control her newly reawakened powers.

So now we've reached the arc where Yingtao is training unwillingly to control her issues, finding out that they often come out during moments of great emotional turmoil or just when she's experiencing a lot on her mind or in general.

Wukong is trying to teach Yingtao but his ways of teaching her are more like he tells her what she needs to do but expects her to do it alone or sort of "figure it out" as if she's learning some sort of lesson, which doesn't help her all that much and makes her feel as if she's on her own. That, or he isn't even actually teaching her and is instead bothering her when she's trying to focus because he just has some really bad timing and gets bored watching her sit there meditating.

( a very simplified drawing I did a long while ago )

Wukong only does it because he can't help but be curious about her because she still hasn't fully opened up to him yet so he's trying at any opportunity to get her know her better. He finds it'd be much easier to teach her if she would just let him in and stop holding him at arms length.

Between these sessions with Wukong, Yingtao goes to Macaque to train as well, telling him about what happened and completely missing the way Mac's face scrunches up at the mention of Wukong. He's afraid she might turn on him now. Though he is pleasantly surprised when she in fact, doesn't, because she still isn't aware of his relationship with Wukong because again MK only told her about Wukong's great feats, not the entirety of JTTW. So then Mac begins teaching her as well, in a way that she actually understands much easier than Wukong. ( They both taught her the same thing, just Wukong phrases it poorly or in a way she doesn't understand lol )

I forgot to mention that sometime between meeting Macaque and meeting Wukong that Yingtao has developed a full blown crush on MK, becoming a little more aware of her new feelings for him. Yingtao occasionally talks about MK to Mac, just praise after praise about the boy and getting all flustered and shy as she gushes about her close friend. Macaque finds her to be adorable in this blushy state, sometimes teasing her about it and develops a small crush on her.

( Another note, but this is another thing where I thought that maybe it would've been better for Yingtao to have met Mac sometime after MK gained his powers because it'd add on to why Mac was cautious of her because he'd know full well who MK was and be extra wary due to her affiliated with the Wukong's successor, not wanting to be found out. This is also why I imagined that perhaps MK doesn't always tell Yingtao of his adventures and stuff, probably feeling bad about some things coughs like when he got some powers stolen by Mac coughs so he didn't think to tell her about him )

This is the part where I cackle and reveal that this entire time I had been very obviously writing Yingtao's story as an almost comedic love drama. It wasn't my intention originally but I had too much fun writing OCxCanon so all of it stuck lol

So regarding dynamics sorta:

It is uncertain whether or not MK feels the same affections for Yingtao, but there are moments where it seems like he might. It's just hard for either of them to tell because they both just write off most of their interactions to be purely platonic since they've always been really close with each other. Close enough to hug, hold hands in public, having their foreheads touch when comforting each other, things like that.

As for her thoughts on Wukong, Yingtao sees him as fatherly/brotherly, not necessarily to herself but sometimes she just straight up thinks Wukong acts like a dad/brother to MK. He's also just sort of her teacher from her perspective, and she isn't actively trying to get to know him but it isn't like she avoids him either. ( Yingtao primarily thinks Tang and Pigsy as MK's dads though. )

On the other end, Wukong also is sort of developing a crush on Yingtao too as time progresses, enamored with her personality and will and he finds it amusing and fun that she doesn't hold back on her remarks towards him just because he's a legend. ( Granted he has no idea she literally didn't even know who he was until MK told her and even then she doesn't see him as "all that" XD )

Macaque likes Yingtao for similar reasons as Wukong, finding her quick wit and strong-willed. Her determination is admirable as well. Especially loves when he teases her or makes a sarcastic comment and she retorts back with one of her own, it makes light banter easy. Plus they relate to each other and are each other's comfort a lot of the times, reminding each other that they aren't as bad as others make them out to be.

Both Wukong and Macaque like to tease her, just Wukong does it more frequently given Yingtao's at his temple/mountain more often. ( I made this a key factor of her relationships with them because my mom once told me that monkeys like teasing dogs in reference to my baby brother playing with me and like Yingtao's technically like a dog because of the whole fox thing, canines y'know? )

I've also thought maybe Mac calls Yingtao nicknames like Plum, Blossom, or fruit/flower related nicknames ( cause cherry blossoms yk )

And Yingtao calls him Mac, Mac n cheese, or like Mango, maybe even calling him Plum too sometimes

Also Wukong calling her Peaches or other sweet names meanwhile Yingtao mainly callin' him Sun or Wukong because she's not super casual with him yet. Maybe calling him Sunshine in an almost mocking way that's lighthearted ( also maybe Impulsive King because she gets kinda sassy with him sometimes lol )

I like to imagine that before Yingtao met MK she had a very obvious "American accent" and wasn't very good at speaking Chinese and by meeting him she'd gotten better at speaking the language because he started teaching her ( with the help of Tang and others of course as well, but mostly MK )

Completely unrelated to these dynamics but eventually Yingtao would accept the fox as part of her. She and the fox are a complete match, so she pretty much is the fox. I know I made the fox out to be its own person, but actually after testing the compatibility with Yingtao it merged with her soul or something like that. Because the fox immortalized itself by feeding off its vessels' souls, so all the fire abilities are soul flames or just powers fueled by souls. This kinda means that because Yingtao is the fox, she's immortal and because of the exponential powers of the fox, it basically multiplied all the souls it had harnessed, I often joke that it would make her as much, if not more immortal than Wukong. Though I haven't decided if I actually want this to be true because she's already powerful as is and while I love making absolutely overpowered OCs I didn't think it'd click well with LMK.

Her main story or thing to get over is "what if I'm not the same person? what if I hurt someone?" as she learns to accept the fox as part of herself instead of trying to reject it like she'd been doing her whole life. So sort of unlike MK, she actually is learning to try and embrace her destiny. Only she changes it to what she believes is right for her, not unlike S4 where Macaque tells MK to follow his own path.

Oh and I don't have any sort of ending for her planned or if there ever will be, I mostly just use her for scenarios so it's unsure whether or not this will for sure be her timeline of events lol

I know there is like so much more stuff written for Yingtao compared to Cherry but like I swear I have things written about her too 💀

I love the idea of "i don't need to be heavily involved to be relevant + i don't need cool superpowers to kick ass" it has it's own good slice of angst of "am i good enough? am i a burden? am i getting in the way?"

but also Yingtao is just "your life suddenly ripped apart at the seams + constant struggle and fear of hurting people + slow and steady embrace of who you've always been" and I know I described Cherry as chill, laid-back, movie nights + patching up while Yingtao seems to be.. well, not that while cussing out her ancestors💀

they have the same personality I swear- just Yingtao is more upfront with it because her struggles are physically manifested so she has more blunt and loud moments of sass whereas Cherry's is an internal struggle and so her sass comes as light jabs here and there

A fun thing to note here that I purposefully did with the designs is that I made Cherry's under shirt color black while I made Yingtao's white. It was a completely conscious decision :D

While I know Yingtao would probably look really nice with a black shirt, when making her I just thought she needed the white to show she's definitely got good in her despite her whole fox spirit thing going on, plus it was kind of a small nod to the way her hair inverts to white as well when in the fox form

Cherry meanwhile has the dark shirt because while she is a civilian and all that, she's gotta be tough if she wants to be able to protect herself and others

So yeah I was sort of doing an almost ying and yang thing when drawing them

Some other pieces I've drawn are these

this very obviously a reference to Yingtao's past I was listening to Christmas Kids and suddenly had the brilliant idea to draw this

Yingtao being the part with "You'll change your name" because I quite literally changed her name for the AU and Cherry being "or change your mind" is also a way to show that the two don't act very similar or that Yingtao's mind is "changed" due to her different upbringing compared to Cherry

In the next panel I purposefully drew her as Cherry because the idea is that they're the same person, just ending up different due to running away from their past. But also to show Yingtao changes her hair to avoid being associated with it in the next panel. The last two are sorta self explanatory lol

Some other doodles of me mainly practicing how to draw her

This one I tried to show how they're still the same person, just with slight differences :)

And this one was just a cute scenario I thought of

And with that I'm finally done talking about Yingtao/Cherry ( I mostly refer to her as Yingtao because she's the one I draw the most lol )

Again so sorry about how long this got but I didn't realize I wrote so much until like 2 hrs later and it was a little too late to back out, so I just went all in LOL

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

Carrie watches Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep. 5-15

okay i’m just gonna start a running list of highlights of my breakneck-speed binge of Fantasy High: Sophomore Year for myself here (warning, this is gonna be just riddled with spoilers)

the “I disguise myself as him” disruption of that one dwarf’s attempted hate crime is a thing of beauty far surpassing the Hilda Hilda incident to me. just the whole thing. this is clearly something Brennan had plans for, and instead he just triggers Emily’s fight, flight or insanity response and gets bulldozed. you can fully see him break it’s the funniest thing in the world. and everyone is SO ready to immediately jump in with even wilder shit, like the moment Ally comes in with “yeah you’ve been dead this whole time!” they all start gaslighting this guy (and Brennan) in complete unison. Also Brennan’s desperate “is it me?!!” is directed at Murph which makes it even funnier, “it’s me right you can’t possibly live like this??”

the group has two reactions to Emily’s bs which are “what are you doing no one asked for this and this is the worst possible thing to ever happen” and “oh okay we are derailing this train!” but this may be the first time they’re all on the same page

unrelated but Bill Seacaster running a full-on demonic MLM from hell is the most incredibly in-character thing I’ve ever seen

The Friendship Section

maybe my favourite episode ever

the librarian. his whole deal. the book in a chain holster keeping the flesh on his bones?? his resignation with the issue of trying to run a library in a town of pirates where all the books are stolen but also keep being stolen

Ayda

everyone is doing serious and intense research and Gorgug is just wandering the halls looking for a book on how to cheer up a friend??

the Friendship Section being this whole secret room full of books behind a lacklustre little shelf?? with the little poem?? and it clearly being the secret pride and joy of the librarian?? NO WORDS

for real i love how much this whole campaign is just a story about friendship

the ultimate pirate tip on how to be nice to your friend is to give them an orange. so they don’t get scurvy. obviously.

The Row and the Rumption

the whole concept of this openly bar-brawl-based political system tbh

the Davy Jones rip-off villain

how terribly this fight goes for them, especially Ally and Lou, will never not be funny

Emily, whose modus operandi so far has been to interact with Riz least of all the Bad Kids, getting incredibly anxious at the thought of having to pick between saving her husband’s PC or her character’s NPC mum before it even happens

enough so that Murph preemptively goes “hey you absolutely shouldn’t help me over your mother it’s fine”

met with immediate outrage “I’m taking you up!!”, and her getting talked out of it but not without fully breaking kayfabe twice to really emphasise how much she hates this. which is entirely unnecessary because Murph is second only to Lou in terms of “I *see* the correct strategical answer but will make the absolute worst choice because it’s right for the character”.

Adaine!!! The bravest of girls!!

Fallinel

Brennan has really tapped into some weird mirrorverse Elrond

both FH and EXU: Calamity are really reminding me how much I love not just characters from a totally different genre in a fantasy setting but specifically pseudo-noir detective characters in a fantasy setting. Riz is handling this whole situation terribly and it’s hilarious

Gorgug has never got this worked up about anything, not even physical harm. He’s so mad because the elf talks weird.

giving a guy named Fathethriel a lisp is a truly cruel character choice

The Dangerous Mind of Aelwyn Abernant

“the boys are having a WEIRD day”

Aelwyn secretly trusting nobody but her sister to a) try and rescue her b) try and salvage her mind and c) be a good enough wizard to do it is incredibly sweet despite everything

Revelations & Revivifications

them just straight up forgetting Gilear for over an episode

CHOKE ON GRAPES BITCH

Crustaceans & Crushes

Ayda just in general. She is SO intense I love her.

Everything she says to Fig is so sweet. Honestly just God tier compliments. And their interactions, despite all the legal paperwork involved, just feel so perfectly teenage drama without being cliché or condescending in any way

Observing the table during that whole scene is the BEST. Lou and Ally are so here for it. Delightful.

Also, when Ayda is giving her little speech about how she doesn’t get why Fig enjoys being other people because she is so exceptional as herself, the looks on everyone’s faces are so soft and I invite you to pay attention to the eyelines: Emily, Siobhan, and Ally all looking at Brennan (whose character is speaking), Lou and Murph looking at Emily (whose character is being spoken to), and Zac just... watching Murph watch his wife.

The recurring bit about the increasingly absurd crustacean party cutting in and out of this heartfelt scene is excellent. Many bonus points for whatever Gorgug is doing (”I’m a little crab!”), Zac is being PEAK drunk himbo this entire time

Excellent character work with Murph’s drunken bit actually: Riz is having a full meltdown that starts with “I’m a small creature and shrimp are small creatures and we just kill them by accident this is fucked up” (Riz is working through all the racism he’s encountered), dips briefly into “No I’m not gonna kiss the shrimp, Kristen! it’s dead!” (Riz is getting very frustrated with how stuck everyone is on making out), and ends up at various versions of “Fig is dead” or “Fig has left us” (Riz is terrified everyone will lose interest in him and/or the friend group and leave) and finally “I’ve always been the shrimp and I really just wanted to be the crab king” (Riz can’t always tell if he’s being lovingly teased or bullied because he’s so anxiously protective of his friendships, also his self-esteem is Not Great). That is so clever and also how I’ve felt at SO many parties and also I’m genuinely wondering if this is where Brennan got his cues for the upcoming Baron scene now.

the cutest kissing scene. Big fan of Fig running (but not far) and Ayda calmly asking if that’s like, normal

When Fig comes back from her makeout sesh in the woods and is like “I’m... gonna go into the hot tub for a while” and everyone loses it at very tellingly different speeds and degrees except for Lou who stays in character by sheer force of will to start some more shrimp party lore

Brennan is so disappointed they’re all going for “What does the fox say” like that wasn’t BOUND to happen with this group

Gorgug being the only one who doesn’t speak any Elvish is still funny

also I love that he tinkers now. A true Thistlespring!

for once, Murph is the one to try and start shit by investigating Fig, and still gets immediately out-chaosed. Brennan watches in horror and despair. This whole dynamic is such a gift.

Kristen maintaining her cool under pressure but having a mild panic attack right after is very relateable, and honestly i’ve been in scary situations with friends and immediately dogpiling on the ground to calm down sounds like a very valid strategy

the Kalina mystery is SO COOL. Obsessed.

“The fucking research squad fronting one of the missions is so funny” it IS though. Everything from Riz being so hungover he’s fully failing at social interaction to Adaine being the world’s worst improptu liar but then somehow salvaging it and also trying to bail Riz out with “hey have you ever seen a frog this round”. them being so socially inept they pay over 20 gold just to get a room number out of a pretty chill barkeep

then they stumble onto a horrific crime scene and are both like “oh thank God. that’s better.”

Brennan forgetting to shut the jaunty background music off for the Se7en-style crime scene

Hellbound

“You explain to them sort of loosely how a cell tower works.” “Yes... of course...”

Adaine and Riz spending some non-horny non-emotional silent co-working quality time <3 I love them so much

Lou watching Siobhan and Murph work in awe is adorable. “Y’all are smart as hell, I’ve heard all the same information and synthesised NONE of the same conclusions.”

Also the contrast of this scene where they’re immediately picking up giant chunks of what Brennan is putting down and the scene with Gorgug where Brennan keeps being like “okay so we’d just need a satellite. A Satellite. So if we could somehow connect your phone to a satellite, if that was a thing that you had access to.... somehow.... if only you knew people who would maybe know about satellites....” is excellent comedy (though I have no idea who Brennan expected anyone to remember that minuscule detail, it rang the tiniest of bells with me at the third repeat and I’ve finished season one this week)

“Brennan, it seems like there’s some dice back there that you’ve been waiting to eat.” that is the most threatening tone Zac’s voice has ever taken

Brennan having to give that big info dump with a huge chunk of sharp-edged hard candy in his mouth

Brennan trying to get out of Siobhan rules-lawyering him “Because the Van cannot ambulate itself [it isn’t a sentient creature]” and getting hit with “that’s ableist”

“Oh, we’re cool with devils.” “Well, we’re not super cool with them.”

“A long time ago I stole a first aid kit, and Gilear got actually pretty mad at me for stealing the first aid kit. But, um, check this out, Gilear!” *brings Gilear back from the brink of death*

Ayda and Adaine! What a stellar combination, I love their dynamic

“If I don’t get to smell Fig’s hair again I will incinerate myself”

Daddies & Demons

“I might just not sleep.” “Noooo! You should definitely sleep! ...I mean if you want to stay up all night that’s also cool.” In which Emily worries about Murph’s PC not getting enough sleep? In the first circle of hell? And he looks so charmed by it

“I haven’t really been paying that much attention to the lore so I’m just gonna run this by you” oh that dynamic definitely checks out on every level

Riz getting bullied by his friend, the creature made from a drop of her blood, and a motorcycle for listening and knowing things, and immediately missing Adaine

i love how proud the players are of themselves whenever they do something that makes Brennan have to think about his own Shadow Cat mechanic

Fig “I am so closed off and hard to read” making a point of checking in with Riz about how weird it is they parade the picture of his dead father around the whole quest <3 she is so sweet. Also “no no it’s great, I like seeing my dad, he’s been gone a long time” ugh

I love that Riz falls for Kalina’s offer. It makes so much sense, he misses his father and clearly has *not* processed that shit, and yeah, he’s violently paranoid but he also needs to know things. And this isn’t endangering his friends, just him, so of course this boy and his nonexistant sense of self-preservation or self-worth are fully hooked THIS IS SO SAD

“frankly, bringing up the rune in this context would be homophobic”

when the girls all bring up the hot tub thing from earlier and none of the guys get it

“this dude is an informational sti”

“Hi Mister - Doctor - Professor - long time no - anyway.” I adore Siobhan

Brennan still being pissed that Aguefort dropped the two most important hints of season one in his speech in the first episode and nobody caught it

Fabian purports trickle down economics of course, and of course Brennan immediately jumps in fully out of character to argue with him

“Is this loud, do I hear this?” “Well, I’m gonna say no because right next to that there are thousands of screaming souls plunging into the abyss...”

why is the villain giving Riz a help action so scary

Riz impulsively hissing at people is my favourite new-ish thing

“We are in hell. But I trust that they will find me, if something goes wrong here.” ugh

“I will. I will.” ooooooh they’re out to get me this episode

“You’re special. You were born with me.” big yikes

“All for you, Riz.” “Please don’t say that!”

Riz, fully sobbing, holding out a demonic legal text: “See, solving clues helps! Solving mysteries helps!”

the fun thing about live games versus a fully pre-written thing is you can see the moving parts. Like Siobhan and Zac voice a few theories and you can see Brennan suddenly get very animated and busy while they’re talking. Uh oh.

Garthy and Adaine the Fish

Ayda and the group post kiss revelation are so heartwarming. “Life is significantly better around you all.”

“That is actually the first step in any first queer relationship. Just a blanket warning to all the world -” “Multiple worlds!” “Yes.”

the inexplicable and hilarious dynamic of two people who have been married for several years playing two very good friends where one is lying very badly to the other’s face and the other is deeply paranoid but also failed the roll to figure out the lie so he’s now convinced she’s telling the truth. It’s incredibly funny and they’re having a ball with it

Fig blowing the majority of her very tight character limit to be weird and cagey about her crush and then failing to communicate anything useful is peak teenage behaviour

“Is she king of like a weird shrimp party, is this some weird brag, or...?”

“We’re gonna call our principal here and... jump him?”

“She lies about being middle-aged women sometimes, maybe she’s lying about being okay!”

Gorgug giving the Agueforts impromptu and very deep family therapy??

“Don’t buy Gilear a panini press...”

“Hiss at her, litigator!” “Motion to hiss.”

“My legal advice is that this would be super rad.”

the Goldenrod

[melonnade]

OC-TOBER DAYS 2-4 (commentary about each character under the cut)

2: NEW OC - Luo Yuqing

3: OLD OC - Tess (joint effort between @millidew and I)

4: REDESIGN - Sanya Harris

Day 2 - new OC: technically Xiang Wanyi is my newest OC but he was Day 1, so I’ll just do my second-newest. for a long time, Luo Yuqing didn’t really get much character development from me. from the onset, I knew I wanted a character like Song Riyuan as the protagonist of this OC universe. SRY needed a friend of some sort but I didn’t really have a clear-cut idea, so I just quickly scribbled in LYQ’s design without thinking much about it and made their concept “cloud recesses wangxian but lesbians.” so for a while, LYQ has just been “what if Lan Wangji was a girl?”

after fleshing out SRY a bit more though, I figured LYQ deserves some more actual thought from me too, so she has this sort of inverse character development thing with Riyuan. Waymond Wang in Everything, Everywhere, All At Once has a quote that lives rent-free in my head: “When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary… This is how I fight,” and “We have to be kind. Please, be kind.” This is SRY’s mentality at the beginning of the story. LYQ has a more cynical worldview: sometimes kindness hurts more than it helps. It’s more similar to Megumi from jjk’s “who’s to say that someone you save won’t kill anyone in the future?”

not going to get too much into plot, but over time, stuff happens and the two begin to slowly swap ideologies. after a time skip, LYQ has basically SRY’s original mentality, while SRY has taken on LYQ’s. I get so excited just thinking about how they’d interact when they meet again—they’re still so, so important to one another but there’s this distance now that they’re not sure how to navigate. to SRY, her old mentality was the reason why she wasn’t able to keep the two of them from being separated—she hates that part of herself. to LYQ, her memories of SRY were what got her through everything—she takes on that ideology as a sort of homage initially, but grows to believe it completely. there’s so much fun potential here for different situations.

I’m just going to try to describe her in a sort of stream of consciousness way. overall, LYQ makes me think of the North Star—always there, always constant, never wavering. basically, she doesn’t give up ever. not in a Naruto Uzumaki bold, confident kind of way, but in the same way Sisyphus keeps pushing that boulder, slowly but surely, over and over again. Luo Yuqing’s character is like the way waves against cliffs over the course of centuries can turn rock to sand. not sure how much this makes sense, but these are the types of associations I have in my mind with her. the vibes, if you will. she’s very fun to think about, now that I have more of an idea of what she should be.

Day 3 - old OC: Tess is the very first OC I ever made, before I even knew what an OC was. she’s a group project of a character, so I guess Millie and I have shared custody. she’s very edgy, very cringe, and was very fun at the time to make. I don’t think I ever drew any ref art of her, so this is just a drawing that I made today of what I remember her looking like. Tess is so funny to me because I remember thinking, “if she’s an assassin, she can’t be 12, because I’m 12, and 12 is too young to do anything like that. she can be 13 though.”

I drew her with her manic pixie dream girl traveling companion Sel, since I didn’t want to separate them!

I think Tess & Sel’s creation was a formative time in my life because this is basically how I make every OC now. they always come in pairs—their personalities are developed around one another, so I almost never make individual OCs. you can pretty much group all my OCs into two: Luo Yuqing & Song Riyuan, Qin Tianxiao & Xiang Wanyi, Haneul & Anna, Zach & .Soren, Atlas & Louisa, etc. If a character on my Art Fight doesn’t have an obvious foil, it’s most likely just because I haven’t drawn their ref sheet yet. anyway, I just think it’s funny how that moment in my life influenced my entire creative process, even now. if you spend enough time looking at my OCs, there are definitely clear patterns that I tend to follow though!

Day 4 - redesign: another part of my OC creation process is when I scrap certain universes, I try to reuse the characters if possible. either I’ll essentially blend them up with another character to create someone new or I’ll just stick them in a brand new universe. Sanya Harris initially was a best friend/sidekick-type character in an urban fantasy monster-hunting OC universe that I’ve abandoned. (like all of my other OCs, she had a partner OC too, but he’s been recycled into Zach lol). she was a college student working a part-time job as a motel receptionist in rural Kansas. now, in her current backstory, she lives in California and is a teenager going to summer camp. this whole situation is very funny to me.

actually, a lot of my OCs would fit for the “redesign” prompt because all of the recycled ones are basically redesigns. for example:

let’s compare the art I drew of Tess to Haneul’s original design from 2021. “they’re the same photo” meme etc, etc.

their personalities are very similar too—they’re basically the same person. again, I find this hilarious, but yeah, there are definitely character archetypes that repeat in my OCs that are easily identifiable if you’ve been watching me make a lot of them over the years.

[transhawks]

Just read the latest chapter of Minutes to Midnight and I actually love the 4th universe so much! It's so very different from the other 3 universes (not saying that they aren't unique, they are). But the spin on Hawks joining LOV and the LOV found family trope being explored with a different approach (and in my honest opinion, a realistic one at that) had me putting my phone down on many occasions and try not to scream because it's. JUST. SO. GOOD. And the cherry on top was definitely the Shigahawks interactions. Like bro I didn't even realize something totally not-platonic was going on between those two until I read the tags and had an 'oh' moment. I was literally so immersed in this chapter and then you said that maybe you would like to come back to this AU some day in the near future. And just know that if you ever do I'll definitely read it 😊💕

Hi, thank you so much for sending an ask about Minutes.

Yeah, I think... All the other verses were leading up to 4 so I think perhaps 4 is where I really get to just...go off? I think, as a writer, I really like character exploration and fleshing out, so the chapter just appealed to my passions, perhaps?

And yeah - halfway through writing, I had to change a lot for this chapter because my perspective on the LoV changed. The more I realized that the LoV found family is a myth in canon, the less I could really discard that realization. I feel like the process of becoming a tight-knit friend group is just never written. People just want their LoV found family right off the bat. No one wants to make the characters work for it.

So that's what I did. I went back to Compress's speech in 194? and essentially reworked it for Minutes.

“It's what I think caused this. I love the League, make no doubt. But those early days, during our first act as a troupe, when we were simply the dregs and wretches of society banding together around a simple concept with little want or need to dig deeper into each other outside of comradery… I think that was too fragile for what we have to deal with now. Suddenly, we cannot not pry into each other’s pasts. The egotistic existence we led before we pried him open from that canister has been left behind and now all I can do is… try and weather this intermission and hope the curtains haven’t closed on us for good.” 

Compress's words of how they just didn't pry into each other's pasts and just accepted each other get shown to be something that backfires when a character really needs to do maturing and needs to be protected by his group. Namely, Tomura - because they took him from the pod earlier, AFO and Tomura are essentially fighting over his body and given there's no AFO to make them comply, the League are actually in a position where they have to make decisions about and for Tomura, and that requires coming to terms with the fact they all could have watched him get possessed. The guilt from that too.

For the friendship to get deeper, they have to move beyond the superficiality of sharing the same goal and really let each other in. Vulnerability is so important in bnha. Allowing other people, to help, is so important. Not all the League did that and it shows. Also, yeah!! Mind you the shigahawks is subtle and it's really like... it's just a window into another universe that Keigo is seeing. TBH in the actual reality universe 4 is based on, Keigo and Shigaraki, have at the point of Minutes, probably kissed once and it was immediately a "shouldn't have done that". I see shigahawks as a very slowburn sort of pairing due to Tomura's character. However, Keigo and Tenko have like... I always explain Shigaraki and Hawks meeting would have been interesting in the "people who are in extremely circumstances meet someone who has taken the lessons from those circumstances and done the opposite of you, and seeing them teaches you a lot about yourself". It's why I think Horikoshi didn't have them interact in canon; Keigo is also a button-pusher and would have pushed too many buttons that would make Tomura think. Meanwhile I think Tomura would have so much to say on Keigo's denial and hypocrisy.

I'd probably just make a post explaining the universe tbh. It would work well for a fic but I don't think I have the energy for a long fic like that right now, unfortunately. Thanks again!

[talenlee]

How To Be: Samus Aran (In 4e D&D)

How To Be: Samus Aran (In 4e D&D)

In How To Be we’re going to look at a variety of characters from Not D&D and conceptualise how you might go about making a version of that character in the form of D&D that matters on this blog, D&D 4th Edition. Our guidelines are as follows:

This is going to be a brief rundown of ways to make a character that ‘feels’ like the source character

This isn’t meant to be comprehensive or authoritative but as a creative exercise

While not every character can work immediately out of the box, the aim is to make sure they have a character ‘feel’ as soon as possible

The character has to have the ‘feeling’ of the character by at least midway through Heroic

When building characters in 4th Edition it’s worth remembering that there are a lot of different ways to do the same basic thing. This isn’t going to be comprehensive, or even particularly fleshed out, and instead give you some places to start when you want to make something.

Another thing to remember is that 4e characters tend to be more about collected interactions of groups of things – it’s not that you get a build with specific rules about what you have to take, and when, and why, like you’re lockpicking your way through a design in the hopes of getting an overlap eventually. Character building is about packages, not programs, and we’ll talk about some packages and reference them going forwards.

Really gotta specify that ‘in 4e D&D’ on this one.

When we talk about How To Be, the point has always been to take characters that are interesting in some particular way then see how we can carry that vibe into the creative space of 4th Edition D&D. What we’ve seen, when we try and make things like a real-world-alike gangster or a robot dinosaur, is that there are some concepts that seem very easy to translate into the play space that really aren’t. Zelgadis is a D&D character and he was very challenging to translate to the game just because he’d already been filtered through another set of different game rules. Minfilia showed us that when a character leaves large parts of their method and ideology as blank slates, there’s a challenge creating something in the space that fulfills that character.

Extremely defined and extremely vague characters, in both directions, are hard.

Anyway, let’s look at Samus Aran.

Examining Samus aran

Samus Aran is a great big tough, heavily armoured lady walking around with basically a tank on her shoulders, a gun for an arm, and a basket of tricks that just happen to make exploring and moving really fun and engaging. She’s also one of the longstanding combat characters in the videogame Super Smash Bros, which adds a complication of being a game that’s already about translating Samus from one form to another and in the process present just the way the character feels.

Samus has a lot of different ways to apply her guns, with bolts, missiles, charged up beams, freezy beams, waves that travel through barriers, bombs, bigger bombs, bigger missiles, and probably some other stuff I forgot from one of the games or other. Essentially, ‘has and uses gun’ is a lot of what she does, which tends to look like ranged attacks. Ranged attacks and big dump-truck tough armour aren’t a common overlap in D&D.

In some iterations (mostly Smash Bros), she’s also got a whip or some form of lash ability that gives her short-ranged melee attacks that nonetheless let her huck people around. This iteration is also the Zero Suit look, which eschews the heavy armour in favour of jet boot high heels.

Across a huge number of games, though, Samus cooks down to being extremely mobile, with the ability to turn into a little ball and roll through tubes, jump very far and across chasms, and even eventually, kinda-fly with screw attacks.

All told, that gives us this list:

Highly mobile

Shoots things

Doesn’t die

Heavily armoured

Badass

The Unified Samus Theory

… Okay, we’re screwed on this one.

The list of Samus Aran traits we have is a little bit like one of those ‘pick two’ triangles, where you can have cheap, fast or strong. Heavy armour works against mobility. Mobility tends to be paired with melee damage, not ranged damage. Ranged damage tends to not work with heavy armour.

What this means is there’s no real overlap between all the options here. Instead, these Samus Arans are all going to be bespoke.

Samus The Snake

First up, let’s look at Samus Aran as a combination of infiltrator and damage dealer. Armoured or not, Samus can very much be a high-femme high-heels wearing run-and-gunner who has an armoured suit for most of the time, but without it, is still basically a stealth game protagonist who can best the space pirates with ingenuity and wits. In this context, the most important part of what Samus does is kill people in the face with her laser weapon, even if sometimes that laser weapon is letting her charge people shoulder-first or even sneak through their ductwork as a ball or a person.

This version of Samus goes where she wants and deals a lot of damage. This build also avoids a conversation about whether Samus is strong or charismatic by instead forwarding that her most important stat is her wisdom. Pick a target and chase it down, like a bounty hunter does.

Here’s the problem: Avengers don’t favour heavy armour. In fact they have a lot of things that benefit from not being armoured, including an armour bonus that makes your armour class almost as good as wearing heavy armour you’d have to spend feats on. This build definitely gets you the reliable, hostile and agile Samus Aran, but the armour, the power suit, lacks substance.

I think this build is only going to be satisfying if you’re looking at the Zero Suit Samus as a default, and want to play with that aesthetic. The lack of heavy, chunky armour feels like it’s a hard stop for the idea, and that’s okay! But it’s also the simplest version of the character and the version I’d recommend you pick up to start with. This blasty build would do things like pull enemies away from the tank to deal with them one-on-one, leaping away and keeping them chasing you. Very in keeping with how Samus plays, but it doesn’t play how she feels like she should play, right?

Samus The Tank

Gunna level with you, there’s a Samus from twenty years ago that the current Samus evolved out of and she’s a very different person. She’s big and strong and green haired and makes promo videos of herself. The personality of the quiet, introspective stoic Samus Aran we’re used to now, complete with the blonde hair, beauty spot and Zero Suit, is pretty much not evident here even if this character is also equally the work of fanfiction distributed by Nintendo Power.

On the other hand, in terms of play experience, it’s hard to look at a seven foot tall woman wearing heavy metal armour and not think of her as being tough by definition. Samus can be seen as a deadly opponent (because of all the killing) but she can just as much be seen as someone who endures enormously difficult circumstances to protect other people from the threat she’s in a position to stop. Basically, there’s a tankiness to the idea of Samus Aran. With Metroid: Dread adding more blatant melee combat finishers, and Smash Bros presenting us with more of Samus’ physicality, it’s very possible you have a long history of thinking of Samus in terms of who she can beat up.

(And then the Zero Suit version gets involved there too and it’s complicated all of a sudden.)

If you want to do this kind of Samus, you have options that can range from the simple to the weird, but I’d start with the Paladin as my baseline. Talk to your GM about it, since she by definition doesn’t have a hand free (because of the gun) and this is just a question of how it looks. Treat the armoured fists of the suit as a hammer, and play a melee Paladin who smashes things very hard. There is of course, one little wrinkle here, because uh…

It’s kind of hard to neglect the gun. The question becomes ‘how do you make a mostly-melee character who still wants a ranged attack?’ And how do you make that ranged attack good? Ranged attacks can open you up to attacks of opportunity, and that’s bad.

The solution gets a little ugly. The two best options I found for getting a shooty beam on the melee paladin Samus are both multiclass-like:

Use the half-elf to pick up a Warlock blast like Eldritch Blast that uses your constitution or Charisma, depending on your type of Paladin. Eventually, you can use Razordark Bracers to protect yourself from the attacks of opportunity.

Multiclass Battlemind with the feat Awakened Potential. Then, power swap one of your at-will powers for Concussive Strike, which is a blast 3 that provides meaningful utility and provokes no attacks of opportunity.

Another option, which means you shoot less often but do shoot well is to take a Cavalier, and to treat her Righteous Radiance as blasting people who get close. This build can also spend powers choices to pick up the big splashy daily beam powers, like Radiant Delirium. This kind of split attacking does mean you’ll need to improve her Charisma as well as her strength, but it’s the best way to do it all if your thinking of Samus is as a physically impressive, tough shooter.

Samus The Samusn’t

In Metroid Fusion, we’re treated to the presence of the SA-X, a pile of goo made out of a shapeshifting monster that wants to be Samus Aran. It stomps around after you for most of the game, stalking the original Samus in the look of her original design, and eventually, after being fought and defeated, winds up teaming up with you (and sacrificing itself) to fight the most dreadful of Metroids you’ve met(roid) so far. This Samus Aran has ranged attacking powers, a dreadful melee threat, and can shapeshift into a monstrous form that controls the space around her by slapping you around and shooting you.

That’s right.

This is a druid build.

I’m not just doing this because I want to talk about a druid build. I’m also doing this because I love character who are the monster that wants to be a person. The fountain of blood in the shape of a girl. The Samus Aran that is trying very hard to be Samus Aran because being Samus Aran feels good. I love that stuff!

First up, the druid. Druids can wear bulky armour (hide, but you know, it’s not bad), and make ranged attacks in a humanoid form. Then they can shapeshift into a beast form that makes melee attacks to control enemies. By default, they start out pretty tough (12 hit points, 5 hp a level, 7 healing surges, the top standard for controllers), and their ability to corral a single target makes them pretty safe from day 1. They also get elemental blast powers, like Chill Wind, that lets you shove enemies around and pick where they stand (and allies too, really).

Druids can benefit from picking up powersets that care about distributing slows, or about forced movement, which tend to blossom as you advance in the levels. The Alfsair spear, available very cheaply, lets you use spear feats on your attacks in both beast and human form, which can include polearm feats and oh look who put Polearm Momentum in here? Even if you don’t want to multiclass fighter for the Most Stolen Feat Chain, you could look into using Savage Rend and proning tools to make ‘sitting on the enemy’ your job.

Basically, a druid build can be a single opponent’s boss monster.

Junk Drawer

The challenge of needing ranged attacks, heavy armour and high mobility are very much in your ‘pick two’ category of character building. I did look at and reject a lot of almosts and not-quites, with the Warlock lacking the toughness, Sorcerer/Paladin hybrids lacking coherence, and the elegance of the Battlemind crashing into the limits of a class that doesn’t quite work at range despite having powers that want to keep you there.

Samus is a really awkward character to love because almost everyone who loves her tends to love different versions of her, different ideas of her, and most of them are doing so without any want to diminish other people’s (but…). She’s iconic, but like all icons, she’s been reduced at scale and distance to make sure that whatever she is, it doesn’t hurt your imagination of what she is or should be.

Because we did that once and it sucked.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#DungeonsDragons #Games #Making #DnD4E #HowToBe

[alexissara]

I Am Hexed Volume 1 - Quick Review

I wish I liked I am Hexed but I don't. This comic's is sadly deeply flawed and even outside of the flaws I am not sure if the story would have been for me. I Am Hexed doesn't feel complete in a first read which makes sense it isn't it has a ending for book one but this is clearly meant to be a longer term project so in part I feel like I am judging it early but also I don't think I'd buy book 2.

I'll start positive and say there is really amazing talent across the board on this project, everyone on the book is great. I think there is a lot of potential in the concept of this story and there is clearly passion and love in this story. Making comics is hard and I am glad they made a comic even if it wasn't for me.

Okay so I said the nice things and now I can say my criticisms. The game is deeply entrenched in politics but has no real execution on these politics. We don't get a gran shifting political plot it's a girl on the run plot with the under pining of Washington D.C. as the back drop. Witches are kinda every single marginalized group but also the X-men and also they have some level of authority but also people basically can just do a hate speech on TV. There is a lot of name dropping witches into every moment in every time or whatever but it makes witches feel far less clearly fleshed out when they are kinda a metaphor for just oppression but also their magic and also the enemy is also a witch and also the witch advocacy group is a little bit evil but also they maybe aren't? The politics seem fairly left of center, ala Democrat with slogans at protests like "We Are Not Radical, We Are Magical" and I simply can't imagine a group of real life activists proclaiming their lack of radicalness post the shooting of a member of their group. They do these cut aways to fox news being bigoted and protests but these don't appear to be things the characters in the plot give a shit about at all. It is kinda like reading a book about queer people being hunted by queer people but because they were trying to stop oppression of queer people but randomly we cut into either homophobic debates or pro queer protests but it never figures into the actual plot. I think this is just a situation in which a lot was happening in the world when this was being written and as a writer myself I know there is a desire to comment on all of that so there was commenting on this stuff while also it just kinda doesn't interact with the plot at all.

I have no idea what Jaya's deal is, who she is as a person, what she wants, she is just Charlie's hot ex girlfriend who she seems to kinda get back with. Which I mean, I am all for cool magical hot ex girlfriends who the protagonist gets back with but I thought there would be more to her. She says early on that Charlie could work for her side of the circle, that isn't really explained because Jaya is not at all involved with "The Circle" the organization that Charlie's mom is the head of she doesn't know about Circle training or anything. I thought maybe Jaya was a more radical witch like an anarchist, a communist or something further to the left than Charlie's interacting with the system on it's level and believing in the Senator she worked for's ability to change the system from inside of it. Maybe they broke up because ideological differences or something but it's just confusing especially when something in the book is literally called The Circle. Also Jaya seems be pretty well off but how does she have money, we don't know, maybe she is a criminal master mind, I have no idea because the plot doesn't really get into it. I kinda get her ex boyfriends deal he's a lawyer, it's pretty clear on the tin what he is like, that he is a messy dude but ultimately a good one who cares about Charlie. Jaya I don't even have an idea for occupation other than she was or is in a coven which we don't really get to interact with much either.

I think this story boils down to an issue of too many ideas and not enough pages for those ideas and the way it was created gave it some wide gaps in time between issues to have a lot of things to say between issues for a small single issue of story to tell and still end up with an ending that like clears. Outside of that I found the shift in art a bit jarring, I like art style changes from time to time but typically I like a tonal reason for it to happen or a for it to happen between volumes or something but in the same flow of the story without a breath feels very jarring in the collected issues. I am aware this happens in comics regularly but it's been so long since I read like a story that was sold in single issues I still did find it a bit strange. I also think tone wise it feels a bit weird because this is written like it's for teens but also it's clearly made for adults. Like no teen is gonna care about the politics in Washigton D.C. especially a what now Gen Alpha kid. It really feels at home with a Millennial audience but it also kinda feels like it wants to be YA or New Adult or something when I think maybe it would have been better served aiming at just a firm adult audience.

Ultimately, it didn't work for me, I wish it did, I think the story does have a cast of characters who I would like to like, it has ideas I would like to engage with, it has concepts that are interesting but it sadly just misses the mark.

If you enjoy these reviews you can read more, I write lots of them and if you really enjoy them I can always use support over on Patreon and Ko-fi.

[razzle-zazzle]

Use this as an infodump button and tell us all about whatever ur working on rn :)

"I don't want to get stuck in the cycle of constantly making more AUs. I want to focus on the stuff that I have."

I say, as I add a section to the docs for the Terraria thing because brainrot over the character arcs i have created in my head have me by the throat.

I don't even have a proper tag for this yet 😩 I'm just putting it under concept until I know what to call it lmao

putting this under a cut because it got long

Anyway 💅. Thinks about Morris respawning post Wall of Flesh fight. Thinks about the group spending the next several days dicking about because dammit, they've come this far, they deserve a break. Adam and Sam buy from the golfer and set up some funky little courses. Lizzie and Frazie figure out how to throw a party. Gisu continues to fuck around/find out with shimmer and wires and works together with Frazie to build a convoluted fireworks display. Gisu and Morris make an Announcement Box and bug everyone with it. Dion and Morris go to a minecart track that Sam found and dick around for an hour. Norma reads through every entry in the bestiary. Sam adds little notes and annotations to the bestiary. They decorate their base. They redecorate their base. Lizzie makes a little campfire setup for smores and scary stories.

Thinks about the group interacting with the NPCs. Gisu and the Tinkerer have a fun little mentorship where the Tinkerer helps her exploit the mechanics of the world while she rambles about psitanium-based technology to him. Dion's terrible at fishing but finds it relaxing so the Angler ends up almost like a little-brother figure to him. Lizzie chats up the Clothier and trades Strange Plants with the Dye Trader. The Tavernkeep won't give alcohol to any of the group because he recognizes that they're underage, but they're free to come into his little bar for nonalcoholic beverages and someone to chat with. Sam pranks any Traveling Merchant who comes through, and has a good rapport with the Nurse and Arms Dealer. Norma and Adam make small-talk with every Traveling and Skeleton Merchant they encounter. The NPCs have enough free will to recognize that the group are all kids and to interact with them all as more than just vendors.

Thinks about Frazie grappling onto the Destroyer and managing to somehow just barely control it like it's a giant horse. Thinks about Gisu and Norma both becoming friends with the Steampunker for vastly different reasons. Thinks about the chaos of a Pirate Invasion plus a Blood Moon being one of the few small things that Hardmode smacks the group in the face with to end their brief respite.

Thinks about Plantera's defeat and Dion & Norma's push to go after the next boss now being what causes rising tensions in the group to explode into a full fight. Thinks about the conflict being driven by Lizzie and Morris wanting to take a Goddamn Break, We Can't Keep Going At This Pace Guys, but the entire group also wants to go home sooner rather than later. Thinks about the conflict splitting everyone up because as emotionally equipped as some of them are, they're all teenagers and this world has been putting them in a pressure cooker ever since they got here. Thinks about Sam chilling on her own in the Hallow and Dion throwing himself at the temple and Adam trying to get everyone together and Lizzie taking her break alone in the snow and Morris keeping the book closed because they do need a fucking break, goddamn it.

Thinks about Frazie and Norma challenging Duke Fishron alone and getting thrashed, and that being the point where Frazie realizes that Lizzie was right: as much as she wants to keep going, she can't keep up at this pace. She needs a break. They all do. Thinks about Norma wanting to keep going because that's how she's coping. Thinks about Sam encountering the Empress and dragging Dion out of his little spiral in the Jungle to beat it. Thinks about the group slowly gravitating back together from Sam and Adam's efforts, because if everything in this world is out to kill them then they might as well stick together. Thinks about the little character moments as they slowly resolve the conflict in the group bit by bit. Thinks about them finally going after Golem as a group, now, after working together to gather resources and prepare. Thinks about the slow buildup from first spawning in the world and bickering and working together and figuring things out to the team confronting Moonlord as a team.

Thinks about my silly little "let's throw the interns + Dion & Frazie into a Terraria-esque world and see what happens!" idea and quietly brainrots,,,

[a-lil-perspective]

I know I sound like a broken record but Tech’s characterization has been absolutely phenomenal. I’m so in love.

A particular point I have to blabber about is his dynamics with Omega.

I had wondered how Tech in particular would react to her and likewise, interact. It’s not that he lacks interpersonal skills, it’s just that he is so often in his own little world and hyper focused during his performances that he tends to be disengaged from most interaction unless it’s to provide factual insight. I had wondered if this point would remain relatively the same in light of Omega, especially given that she’s a child, or if he would adapt as quickly as the others.

There’s also the trope/misconception of “nerd remains impersonal unless you’re a piece of tech and also kids are eww”, and I was worried that Tech would fall subject to this implementation to some degree.

But it has been absolutely delightful watching Tech with Omega.

I am actually really proud of this guy. I’m pleasantly surprised. All of the boys shine with Omega in their own ways, some more definitively than others, but Tech absolutely has some budding chemistry with her. He isn’t as overtly paternal as say, Hunter, but he overall has had a great attitude about navigating the change. Given his pragmatic and logic-driven disposition, I was surprised to see this.

Then again, this further reinforces that rich development he’s getting. I think Tech realizes the gravity of the situation, to some degree. These are unprecedented times, one that he in all his brilliant calculations are unable to predict the trajectory of. Yet Tech is very willing and very able to adapt already and this is such a wonderful aspect of his character that I am so excited to see flesh out further. This adaptation carries over into guardianship. While Tech doesn’t have near the tact Hunter has, he’s trying. He sometimes makes brash decisions without considering Omega as a factor, as we saw in episode two with him having the ship impounded without assuring Omega’s welfare beforehand. He doesn’t quite yet understand how to tailor the circumstances to her presence, but none of them do, and that’s something they’ll all learn together.

But Tech is very much an active participant. He performs well and seems completely untroubled by the presence of a child, which again is surprising given that Tech is very sequential in his dealings; it’s understandable that the slightest variable could present as afflicting. I think that Omega’s curious mind will appeal greatly to Tech, which will open the door for some profound bonding. They both have an affinity for knowledge. I am very much looking forward to seeing Tech pass on his skills to Omega. She is very astute and hands-on. Her and Tech are going to take to the skies.

Some stand-out scenes:

This entire scene was emotionally packed, but Tech’s reaction in particular was so very jarring. We don’t typically see Tech in such an emotive state, in fact it’s rare we witness him so openly expressive. It’s rare that we see him actually immersed in the moment, away from his gadgets and gear. This is a very profound moment for Tech. He is paying attention here, he is quiet and observing. He is sympathizing for Omega. This was such a raw and tender reaction that I think was purely instinctive for Tech. This is not a reaction that can be fabricated. It comes from the heart. This was wholly a paternal inclination, to feel deeply for Omega and her state of discomfort. Look how pained he is. This was so beautiful and heart-wrenching, and I am very much looking forward to seeing more emotionally-rich moments from the brains of the group.

Another bit here. This scene literally had me😍❤️. One of my absolute favorites. This was really the first time Tech had made physical contact with Omega. I’m sure it was somewhat strange to him, a bit of a foreign concept to assimilate for someone used to dealing with inanimate objects and pieces of technology. In spite of this, he performs admirably here. Tech absolutely has the manners for Omega. The way he motions gently for her, secures her in his grip, and gingerly places her down was just so natural in a way that can’t be forced or faked. He did great.

Like I said, Tech has a lot to learn; he is not the most emotionally attuned to a child and their many needs, but his reactions and interactions have been nothing but kind and natural. He is a Dad and he doesn’t even know it.

Tech is absolutely wonderful.

[likeadog]

okay so im seeing people get anons about this and its coming up in friend groups so i think now's actually a pretty good time to tackle the idea of religious (specifically cultic) abuse in media and how we as an audience interact with it

TLDR: dehumanization and sexualization of cult victims furthers the misunderstanding that cults "don't exist now", and RA survivors would feel much safer in fandom spaces if people acknowledged and analyzed the harmful portrayals of cults in media.

cw: discussions of cults, abuse, and sexual assault

also, if you have questions, please shoot me an ask or dm (off anon preferably, though)

let me start this with a disclaimer that i dont think every media that features ra is inherently bad. i think thats a bit harsh and as an ra survivor ive come to terms with the fact that there are going to be depictions of it in ways that maybe dont give it the respect it deserves, and trying to "what about [x]" everything will only lead people to talking in circles with themselves. what i want to address here is how you, as a consumer, respond to and parse out what cultic abuse means in any particular portrayal of it.

*also please don't harass people about their RAS status, like, if you see someone enjoying something with a less than stellar portrayal of cults, don't send them asks or dms like "well are YOU a cult survivor?" reducing the consumption of media to a yes or no game based on identity-- especially an identity that comes as the result of explicit pain and spiritual violation is not only derivative but also degrading to survivors and the people you're grilling. all we want is for people to think carefully about what they spread and portray, and how they think about those situations.

so, i think the first thing to tackle is...what is a cult? This is something that's surprisingly hard to define, especially in fictional settings with fictional cults. For example, (and pardon the use of this example, I don't feel like hunting for others), My Hero Academia has an organization in it that I would say fits the criteria for being a cult, but by and large isn't considered one by fans because it's not explicitly called a cult. (Although numerous cult jokes have been made about it). It also has an organization that IS explicitly referred to as a cult.

So, when you're dealing with how to process what is and is not a cult-- and how to make your presence safe for RA survivors, you have to be able to sift through more than just "did the narrative tell me this is a cult?"

There's a few different models people use; one of the most popular being the BITE model-- but I should clarify that the BITE model is really tailored towards religious and strictly hierarchal cults, but can be applied to other kinds of cults.

(and yes, there are cults other than religious/spiritual ones. corporate cults and wellness cults have been on the rise, and it's good to keep that in mind both when engaging with media and also in the real world.)

However, I'm a religious cult survivor, so a lot of my experience is strictly irt this, so please take what I say with a grain of salt, and know that I don't speak for every cult survivor, every religious cult survivor, or every religious abuse survivor. I am One Guy on the internet.

When it comes to media, I have a few questions I run through in order to figure out if something is A Cult.

1) Fringe Ideas. This one is one of those that most people know-- and often incorrectly use to attribute cult status to other things. However, it is worth mentioning, that you don't become a cult by following mainstream ideologies. BUT. BUT. not every group with weird ideas is a cult! Some groups are just weird and are fine being weird. It's a rectangles and squares situation. All cults have fringe ideas and behaviors, not all fringe ideas and behaviors belong to cults.

2) Hierarchies. Cults always have people in power, at least in my experience. There have been ideas thrown around about "completely decentralized cults"-- but to be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about that concept, and I don't know enough about it personally to say whether or not it's legitimate. If you have any sources, hmu.

BUT. Most cults have a power structure. You're going to have leaders, usually with a handful at the verrrrry tippy top, whose word is law. This can be associated with things like religious ideas (channelling god) or being "a genius", like in corporate cults.

3) Control. I cannot stress this enough; cults are all about control. How you think, feel, behave-- they discourage critical thought, encourage snitching on each other, buddy-group behavior; the BITE model explicitly lists these models of control.

4) Us V Them. Cults will give all those that oppose them or simply don't believe them a bad name. They're uneducated, they're evil-- it varies cult to cult, but you'll see them turning the non believers into a homogenous, frightening group. They want to discourage looking outwards, and they want to viciously isolate members.

Other things of note are extremism, talks of enlightenment, harsh punishments, the cult eating large portions of the member's finances, etc.

However, this post is largely to address FICTIONAL cults. and the unfortunate fact of the matter is that fictional cults are rarely fleshed out in a way that can be held one to one to a model, and, more often, don't even afford the victims of a cult humanity.

and this is one of THE biggest issues you find in cult portrayals. the leader is usually a charismatic, or perhaps menacing, figure, one that usually our protagonists-- who are rarely cult victims, they are typically outsiders (not inherently bad, mind you)-- faces personally, with the hoardes of mindless zombies forming one giant hurdle.

Naturally, this can be...hurtful. There's nuance to who is and is not a victim in a cult (although my rule of thumb is to look at what abuses that person specifically exerts over others-- and you can be both a victim and perpetrator of abuse. to treat them exclusively is lacking all nuance), but the people are the bottom, even if they joined willingly, are people who were preyed upon. Not only that, but many media cults forget that people can be born into cults, and never really had a choice to begin with. To treat these people like they are mindless-- or that they deserve the suffering they are in because they are there-- completely erases all nuance, humanity, and understanding to the cult survivior struggle. Not only that, but it continues to sensationalize and deify cult leaders, which is doing their job for them, really.

The second biggest issue is the romanticization and sexualization of cults, religious abuse, and cultic abuse.

(yes...this is a thing.)

The use of cults as a way to make a character edgy or tragic is one thing, but there's something sinister about using it to project a certain sexual behavior onto that character-- whether it be as the subjugator or subjugated. Sexual abuse is rampent in cults, and ritualistic sexual abuse is used to justify it. To sexualize the idea of a cult(ist) raping and abusing someone is...beyond offensive to anyone who has been in a cult where their sexual safety and autonomy has been compromised. Or, in some cases, the cultist is so naive and sheltered they can be easily coerced and taken advantage of due to their brainwashing.

This is...bad? This is bad. To ignore the fact that these depictions are just as harmful as any other romanticization of abuse is to ignore the real suffering of cult victims.

Really, the larger problem is that people don't really think cults exist, not really. They're all things of the past, or things that exist solely in fiction-- when in reality, every day cults form and continue to grow. If you've ever met a mormon, you've met a cultist. The moment you begin to process and parce the fact that this isn't as bizarre and unusual and fictional as it seems, you take the steps to respecting people who have been in that situation and become better at detecting cults, cult recruitment, and are able to more clearly assess what you take in.

Once again, there's so many bad portrayal of cults that it would be...stupid to call for an immediate disowning of anything with it in it. I personally have come to terms with the idea that I will have gripes about these portrayals in most cases, but rarely do I see people other than fellow RA or cult survivors discussing these portrayals. I'm hoping people can become more aware and willing to discuss cults in a serious and analytical context and criticize how they're portrayed in the things they love.

And once again, cult survivors are NOT a monolith. If a cult survivor expresses they are uncomfortable with something I said here that I'm not, or vice versa, listen to the people who actively surround you and whom you care about.

[mybg3notebook]

Astarion Analysis Summary

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were made up to the game version v4.1.101.4425. As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information.

This will be a summarasing analysis integrating most of the main characteristics shown and proven in the post (Astarion Analysis)

Additional disclaimers about meta-knowledge and interpretations in (post)

The number between brackets [] represents the topic-block related to (this post), which gathers as much evidence as I could get.

Alignments are usually a topic of discussion since characters can be so complicated, that they are hard to put in some place on the spectrum. However, for Astarion’s case, it’s clear that he is an Evil-aligned character, like Shadowheart and Lae’Zel. Whether he lies on a Chaotic side or a Neutral one is a bit less important (personally, I believe this small shift is the most you will be able to change Astarion through the main game, but I will explain that in another post Astarion and Power -Part 2). 

What is most important is to understand that we are analysing an Evil char, so his personality will lay in the negative characteristics. He likes all degrees of cruelty [3,6], violence [2, 13], and murder [2], having a particular taste for animal cruelty [4]. He finds this cruelty funny.

When it comes to animal cruelty, he has a broader concept of what’s animal than most Tavs would consider: he includes kobolds, goblins, and gnomes as such [5]. So all the cruelty upon them would be labelled, for his standards, as “animal” cruelty. This is why I specify he has a particular taste for this type of cruelty: he doesn’t only enjoy the death and torment of animals, but also of races he considers as such [5].

He has many racial biases [5] (hardly any char in Forgotten Realm lacks them): he only sees valuable elves and some humans (not all, since he despises the Gur) probably as a consequence of his backstory. Let’s remember that a group of Gur put him at death's door, forcing him into accepting Cazador's proposition. However, it’s also important to keep in mind he put himself in that situation with his corrupted magistrate role as a mortal (Swen’s interview).

He supports the most common biases about Tieflings and Gurs [5], and mocks halfling and Dwarven Tavs. He sees goblins, kobolds and gnomes as animals. Probably the list is broader, since all this information is what's present in the EA game at the moment.

Astarion as a character has a play of concepts with the duality animal/owner [14]. He speaks about choice as the element that separates animals from humanoids. Animals react out of instinct, thinking creatures choose to act. This speech doesn’t end with him claiming choice but being an animal desiring to kill. If in any other instance he would show a hint of empathy, one would be inclined to think his character is about the overwhelming reactions of a wounded animal installed by the abuse. But I hardly see it like that. He was twisted before turning into a vampire.

As such, he speaks about “survival instinct” [14]. With the little we see and can read in his approvals and disapprovals, he is looking for acceptance from Tav about his vampire nature, for the sake of survival. This character is an extreme survivalist. Astarion would care nothing about endangering or even killing innocent people to guarantee his survival. Once more, we see in the way he speaks about survival, the constant repetition of the symbol of “animal”. 

He is greedy [1], no matter if what he gains is little or not; as long as it gives him a small reward (he hates to help for free), or if it causes pain, torment, or the death of the person he is interacting with, it’s enough. If Astarion doesn’t have a radical change in his background, we can be assured this greed comes from his past mortal life, when he was a corrupt magister to the point to double sell criminals to a local vampire lord and to slavers. 

Manipulation [7]is the main characteristic in him. His words and mannerisms change as the game progresses, playing with the tones and the half-truth/lies he keeps saying. During his first interactions with Tav, Astarion is very careful in sharing his opinion about the events, —his judgements are always vague—while he tries to appraise Tav. This can be easily seen when he has no opinion about Kagha’s snake killing Arabella and playing an obvious mind game to Tav. For further detail check (Astarion and his Standards).

He is sometimes considered a prankster [3], but I prefer to call him Evil Trickster (pretty much like Shadowheart, who has trickster domain as cleric) who enjoys pranks to a higher degree of torment, ending sometimes with the death of the person in question. He enjoys, following this Trickster nature, the humiliation of people in general and outsmarting small people in particular [6]. He is aware that outsmarting powerful ones can bring consequences hard to deal with [7] (as he warns when Tav thinks about outsmarting Raphael), but applying all these torments to weak people is inconsequential, and therefore, enjoyable for him without risks.

We already stated that he enjoys the suffering of people [2,3], but he has a particular taste for the torment of the weakest ones [6]. The root of this pleasure for humiliating weak creatures comes from his desire for power. Astarion is a char deeply related to power [11], not as a goal itself (not power for the sake of power), but as a means to obtain revenge, and in the process, become a Master. I will analyse this aspect in another post  (Astarion and Power part 1/ part 2). 

However, I think it’s worth noting that Astarion’s descriptions of Cazador reflect not only his need for power but also his desire for that kind of power applied in a similar goal. Astarion despises Cazador’s obsession for power, but he has little problem to aspire to it. The obsession with any kind of power, especially the one given by the tadpoles which bend the will of people (mind control) [11], his paranoia, his constant desire to become master [14], his pleasure in cruelty and humiliation [2,3,4,6]… all these characteristics are very descriptive of Astarion too. Cazador and Astarion seem to be each other’s mirrors ( for more details check post  Astarion and Power part 1/ part 2). .

Despite hating to be involved in anyone else's problems [9], he encourages and supports most acts of revenge [8,16], especially the ones against figures that can be interpreted as master. This will occur if and only if Astarion perceives the victim of such a master as a strong and resilient creature worth the trouble, i.e. Karlach [16]. 

He enjoys most Intimidation options you can pick [13], since they can result in the humiliation of a certain NPC, as a demonstration of power, or simply as elements for tormenting NPCs that would lead to murderous situations which are “funny” shows for Astarion. In general, most intimidation tags will be approved by him, except the ones that could be used to defuse violent outcomes.

All these evil pleasures can be considered as “the result” of turning into a vampire, but if we stick to what Swen has explained during the first demonstrations of the game and interviews before the release of EA, we know Astarion has been an Evil character during his mortal life. He was a corrupt magistrate in Baldur’s Gate, who fed the local coven of vampires with criminals. Being greedy, and trying to bite more than he knew he could chew, he sold this food into slavery to earn more money. As a consequence (directly or plotted by Cazador, we don’t know) he was attacked by a group of Gurs who almost beat him to death. Cazador appeared soon afterwards to grant him immortality with the curse of Vampirism. As we can see, he is not better than he was when he was a mortal elf.

A deeper relationship with concepts such as power, abuse, and victim will be explained in another post ( Astarion and Power-part 2). From Astarion’s brief background we can see that he has been an abuser in his mortal life. Due to his own actions, Cazador grasped him into his power and inflicted torment, humiliation, and violence of many kinds, for two centuries, twisting his personality into evilness even more than before (we also need to remember that not only torture may have twisted his personality, vampirism via Dark Desires causes a natural perversion of the persona as well). He now aspires to become more powerful, a reflection of Cazador himself, as a way to acquire his freedom. He wants power to be free [7, 11, 13, 14], and the power of mind-controlling others excites him [10,11] to no end, ignoring completely the cognitive dissonance of his own mind as an ex slave [12]. Although he suffered slavery in his own flesh, he is pretty apathetic (or even supports) slavery [10]. Some players may understand his narration of Cazador’s torments as a means to manipulate Tav, others, as a self-dismissal of his own traumatic experiences. 

His story seems to narrate the story of an abuser who found a greater abuser and became a victim of the latter, seeking to return to a stronger power position (the greatest vampire of the world—description in Larian web page—). Despite suffering this abuse, that could be understood as poetic justice to certain degree, he never developed empathy for those sharing his condition. He cares little when he sees others in the same situations he had been ( for more details check post (Astarion and Power part 1/ part 2). 

Some fans see that Astarion detests slavery, and he is just putting a show of a thick-skinned survivor, pretending that it does not affect him. I can’t see it with all what we see in EA. This “supposed” repulsive emotion should be a matter of narrative (we should see it in clear approvals or disapprovals as meta-knowledge), not a baseless imagination/wish of the player. We know that there are hundreds of resources to show hidden emotions in characters. Remorse or a desire to improve can be perfectly shown without being explicit, even when he may not be conscious of them. We can see how this is managed with Shadowheart, and we know there is something going on under her cruelty despite knowing little about herself (she knows less of her past and still yet we manage to see some degrees of goodness in her despite her evil inclinations). 

So I don’t believe that Astarion has some remorse going on, because if it were the case, it has not been shown in any scene so far. To me, it makes much more sense for him to develop as a full evil character inside the spectrum of evilness. After all, and following the tradition of the mechanics seen in BG1 and BG2, a redemption arc of an evil char of this magnitude makes little sense (We can remember Edwin,Dorn Il-Khan, Sarevok Anchev, Viconia DeVir, Baeloth Barrityl, Xzar, or Hexxat, all evil chars whose development was always inside their evilness or showed, in few cases, a slight shift of it). But further details and reflections will be addressed in another post (Astarion and Power part 1/ part 2). 

As a last detail, we can or cannot believe his statement of having lost his memories (he can perfectly claim it to hide his evil past from the main character to have a better manipulation of Tav) but considering Larian has kept most of the DnD vampire characteristics, I would like to bring awareness of a particular vampiric effect named Dark Desires (here). It’s the twistessness of the mortal-desires, which due to the fact that Astarion’s had always been dark, changed little with his vampiric nature, or just deepened in its perversion, and may cause sometimes the loss of memories (he was greedy and cruel before, now he stays the same, but darker and morbider.)

In short we can summarise Astarion as a moral bankrupt narcissist, a survivalist no matter the cost, a power-hungry character who wants to bend people’s will. He uses manipulation as his main tool, and enjoys violence, murder, and humiliation. Despite his slave past, he enoys acts of cruelty and torture on innocent or weak creatures. All his actions and words seem to ominously display a similarity with Cazador, as if his fate is to become the next Cazador.

This post was written on April 2021. → For more Astarion: Analysis Series Index

[genshin-impact-updates]

Developer Insight #4: Character Stories (I) - "Vigilant Yaksha" Xiao (Part I)

Greetings, Travelers!

It's been almost five whole months since Genshin Impact went live, and the time seems to have flown by! We do hope you're all enjoying a smooth journey through Teyvat. Since the game's release, we have received a great deal of feedback and suggestions from Travelers and we've systematically recorded each one for the developers. We deeply appreciate all the time, energy, and passion everyone puts in to these suggestions.

In the midst of this, many of you have expressed an interest in learning more about how some of Genshin Impact's characters are created. As it happens, one character who has received an especially high amount of attention is Xiao, who has now entered the live game with the release of Version 1.3, "All That Glitters." So, for this issue, we've invited colleagues from the Creative Concept & Writing, Concept Art, and Animation departments to explain a bit about the thought process behind everyone's favorite Vigilant Yaksha.

1. The Vigilant Yaksha Is Born: A Character Woven From Cultural Symbolism

Hello everyone, my name is Zhongyuan from the Creative Concept & Writing department of miHoYo.

The first part of the process when designing characters for Genshin Impact is to pin down who the character is at their core. In this step, we need to establish the features that set this character apart from other characters. Besides ensuring that this character will make a strong impression on people, these features are used to evaluate what this character's position in the world of Genshin Impact will be. Characters are not just lumps of rock that we can place anywhere we want in the environment; they are autonomous individuals, each one with a complex set of past, present, and future interactions with the world of Teyvat. Their core features, then, represent their initial points of contact with the world. They are the guiding principles behind all the character's actions and how they live their life.

Xiao was one of the first Liyue characters we came up with. He began with our colleague CiCi's proposal for a young warrior character, which everyone involved in the character evaluation process approved of. The Art team envisaged him as a young man of great beauty, while colleagues in Creative Concept & Writing hoped to position him as a beautiful adeptus. Both sides were on the same page, and thus Xiao became our very first character planned with the identity of "mighty and illuminated adeptus."

Although this is somewhat tangential, I'd like to take a moment here to give a little more detail on the adepti in the Genshin Impact universe, given that so many players have expressed an interest in this topic. The adepti are based on the idea of demigod-like "immortals" (仙人 xianren) in Daoism, and are referred to by the honorific title "sanyan wuxian" (三眼五显), literally "three eyes and five manifestations" (but localized in English as "mighty and illuminated"). The adepti are classed as non-human, based on the notion that "All who have nine orifices can achieve immortality through self-discipline," a line uttered by the "Monkey King" Sun Wukong in the Ming-dynasty novel Journey to the West. This means that animals are also capable of achieving adeptus status. However, humans have a higher purpose than adepti in the world of Teyvat, so for this reason, only those of non-human status can be referred to as "adepti" in Liyue. The "three eyes" part of the adepti's title refers to the "third eye" possessed by those with the ability to manipulate elemental energy, which for humans takes the form of a Vision. For adepti such as Cloud Retainer and Mountain Shaper, the human understanding is that they must have an "inner eye" that serves the same purpose as a Vision. Xiao, however, typically appears in a human form, so he dutifully wears a Vision to comply with the expected norm.

After the character's fundamentals are established, the next step is to design their Constellation and refine their cultural background.

Outside of Genshin Impact, the term "sanyan wuxian" can be traced back to ancient Chinese texts and also appears in supernatural fiction from the Late Imperial period (c. 1368–1911 CE). In both cases, it typically describes the Daoist deity Huaguang Tianwang (华光天王, "Heavenly King of Radiant Light"), also known as Ma Lingguan (马灵官, "Numinous Official Ma"). Huaguang Tianwang is a well-known guardian deity, who appears in the Ming-dynasty novel Journey to the South, in which he has an altercation with Sun Wukong. Research into folk culture also shows there is precedent to connect deities known as Wuxian (五显, "Five manifestations" or "Five Named Xian") with a group of malevolent deities known as Wutong (五通, "Five Powers" or "Five Named Tong"), which includes the one-legged, people-eating, mountain-dwelling demons known as Shanxiao (山魈, "mountain demon").

So, at the most hidden but fundamental level of this character's core, we decided on the name Xiao (魈) and the identity of a guardian-adeptus. The name Xiao is used to hide his past, but also embodies this character at the innermost part of his soul. It is the starting point for all further character development and cultural embellishments.

Another dimension of Xiao's design was that he wields an Anemo Vision and has a fleet-footed and agile combat style that includes the unique ability to propel himself through the air. To stay true to this, we decided to design his Constellation and skills around the idea of the yaksha in Buddhism. This meant we were conflating ideas from different sources; nevertheless, the yaksha had become a well-established figure in Chinese folk legends by at least the end of the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE). The yaksha element ended up being a crucial part of Xiao's design that really helped us flesh him out in terms of his image.

The two archetypal stories of "guardian yaksha" and "numinous official's redemption" both involve a malevolent spirit on a path towards goodness, which was consistent with the general direction of Xiao's character core. Furthermore, his physical agility matched very well with another term for yaksha in Chinese, "Swift and nimble spirit" (捷疾鬼 jieji gui). Through further development of the yaksha concept, we arrived at the decision that the other fundamental aspect of Xiao's identity would be his role as a guardian yaksha in service of a monarch, or in this case, an archon.

One detail is particularly worth mentioning here. There is a well-known group of guardian yakshas in some Buddhist denominations known as the Twelve Heavenly Generals. All but one of them correspond to different animals in the Chinese zodiac, while Mekhila, who would otherwise correspond to the rooster, is instead associated with a bird deity, the golden-winged Garuda, a figure from various Indian religions. The story goes that this golden-winged bird deity was a fearsome predator who ate only evil dragons, until one day the dragon poison he had consumed became too much for him to bear, and he burned to death, leaving only a crystal heart behind. This story seemed to resonate with aspects of Xiao's character. Furthermore, the Chinese name Jinchi Peng Wang Niao (金翅鹏王鸟, "Golden Winged Great Peng") embodies a history of evolution — it represents a convergence between Garuda and the Peng, a Chinese mythological bird, showing that some adaptation occurred in the process of his adoption into Chinese religion. After much consideration, we decided to use the Golden Winged Great Peng as the basis for Xiao's Constellation. In English, Xiao's Constellation has been localized as "Alatus Nemeseos," in reference to the bird deity and Xiao's role as the nemesis of evil.

Finally, we conducted an overall review of Xiao's character profile. During this process, we noticed that Xiao's origins were very complex: Some aspects of his identity were based on folk legends while others drew on religious stories. From mountain demon, to Daoist deity, to guardian yaksha, to mythological bird, this was a uniquely rich character formed from the convergence and refashioning of many ideas in one place. More importantly, all these elements were consistent with each other at the narrative layer, creating a strong and cohesive impression of who this character is and adding clear, nuanced substance to his story. This degree of complexity gave Xiao just the depth and appeal that we were hoping for with this character: we hoped to create something entirely new through the convergence and fusion of various cultural elements, and we hope that the end result, Xiao, possesses the power, aesthetic value, and maturity to become a true cultural icon.

The next step was shaping the character's personality and behavior.

After close consultation with Concept Art colleagues, Creative Concept & Writing further fine-tuned the details of this character's content. To pick one example, we all felt that the distinctive image of a young warrior was an important one that we wanted to keep. This begged the question: if Xiao is a warrior, who or what is he waging war against? We quickly got to thinking about a war between the gods. (See section 2 of this article for how Concept Art developed the mask design based on this idea.) One of the basic rules of the Genshin Impact world is that gods cannot be completely destroyed — even if a god's physical form is destroyed, its will and power live on. The remnants and the wrath of the defeated god will remain in the world, waiting for opportunities to cause chaos. To keep Liyue safe from this threat, somebody has to go and keep them at bay.

The decision to release Xiao at Lantern Rite was to tie in with the Chinese custom of driving away evil spirits at the new year, since Xiao's role in Liyue is that of a protector in precisely this capacity.

During festivals, people offer up incense and pray to the adepti for their protection.

But they do not pray to Xiao.

For Xiao is no lucky star that promises fame and fortune — he is a demon-hunting yaksha.

After the lantern lights of Liyue have faded, the thankless battle to protect the city goes on unseen. It is an endless battle, and there can be no victor.

The Traveler's first impression of Xiao is most likely to be of a silent and brooding individual, a courageous and competent fighter, and someone who harbors great suffering. This suffering comes from within Xiao himself. One aspect is that the years of intense, never-ending battle against the remnants of defeated gods have led to him resigning himself to the fact that fighting is all he is good at. The other aspect is that the remnants have a negative effect on him, while the constant killing places a karmic burden on him, causing him mental and spiritual anguish.

This inner suffering is present in the design of his skills: when Xiao uses "Bane of All Evil," he dons his mask, which continually enhances his combat abilities but also continually drains his health. This demonstrates the great suffering he must endure as a consequence of using this power.

After the Traveler has spent some time with Xiao, perhaps they can sense that deep down, Xiao has a gentler side. Xiao is by no means a cruel and callous individual, he is simply reticent to show his emotions to others.

Xiao always keeps his distance from the hustle and bustle of human society. This is not because he doesn't care about humanity, but is due to his role as a protector. He must wage war against dark forces out of sight of humans, and endure a suffering that is incomprehensible to them. Despite this, he does not despise humanity. Humans are the foundation of his millennia-old contract with Rex Lapis, and the reason he silently fights to protect every living soul in Liyue.

The player's first offer to Xiao is to go to the Lantern Rite together to experience the atmosphere. Xiao instinctively refuses requests of this nature— not because he dislikes the idea, but out of avoidance. For Xiao, who has lived for millennia, the human world is a brilliant but fleeting flash of light; a wisp of cloud floating by; a firework on the horizon. And as the one tasked with defending this flurry of activity, he is like a caged beast circling the fire of a stove: fearful, but also full of curiosity. Having watched from a distance for so long, he would not know how to join in with the crowd even if he tried.

The lanterns rise up into the night sky, as if to shine along with the stars. Xiao watches this beautiful sight alone from a mountaintop, and just like anyone else, he senses the sentiment behind them, and he understands that the reason people craft these beautiful things is to remember those who fought alongside him in the past. As one who lived through the events of the past and remembers it all, he is, of course, able to appreciate the well-wishes that the lanterns represent. He understands kindness and gratitude, but doesn't know how to interact with ordinary people, nor does he know what his place is among all the excitement and noise. This lonely state of existence is the source of his melancholy. It has caused time to stand still, leading to him still having a very young mentality even to this day.

During the main Liyue questline, Xiao came to the Traveler's rescue in their moment of peril. In Version 1.3 "All That Glitters," we invite Travelers once again to experience a story that provides a glimpse into Xiao's seldom-shown gentle nature, as well as the trust, hidden deep within his heart, that he places in you.

2. A Young Adeptus: Detail-Based Design

Hello everyone, this is D and SS from the Genshin Impact Art team. We worked on the concept art for Xiao.

After the initial brief, we produced a first draft of Xiao's design based on the young warrior concept. As you can see, Xiao's expression in this version is far from the stern one he wears today. He has a gentler temperament and he is smiling. In this sense, he captures a more traditional notion of what a Daoist immortal (or in Genshin Impact terms, an adeptus) might look like. After more discussion with Creative Concept & Writing colleagues and taking more of his back story into account, we decided on the green version.

Xiao is an adeptus who protects Liyue, and in the course of his long battle against the remnants of defeated gods all over Liyue, he has become poisoned by their nefarious energy. Based on this background, Xiao's upper body uses white and green, which represent the adepti and correlate to his Anemo Vision. For his lower body, we used darker colors to represent the dark, malevolent power that exists inside him.

Based on these same principles, we gave him dark hair with highlights, and also created some interplay between light and dark in his attack animations. The darkness represents the destructive power of fierce battle, while the fragments and orbs of light that he gives off come from the fact that he is an adeptus.

Xiao may have the appearance of a young man, but his true age is something over two thousand years.

Fortunately, people do not tend to underestimate him on the basis of his appearance — one only needs to spend a short time with Xiao to recognize that he is not someone to be trifled with.

Xiao is a man of few words. He is highly dangerous, and has the most piercing gaze you've ever seen.

Given Xiao's true age and his identity as an adeptus, we decided to give him some jade jewelry to bring a sense of longevity and mystery. Accordingly, his legs, wrists, and shoulders feature decorative jade as well as various other objects bearing simple motifs. Meanwhile, to match his young appearance with striking good looks, we tailored his clothing (especially on the upper body) using a more modern design, displaying his vibrancy and agility.

On the one hand, Xiao is an immortal adeptus, while on the other hand, he is a young warrior. This is a great variance in image, and it posed a significant challenge for us from an art perspective. Traditionally, an immortal is imagined as a scholarly figure dressed in long, flowing robes with wide sleeves, who is fairly reserved in the movements of their hands and feet. But Xiao, as a master of the dance-like art of polearm combat and a fleet-footed yaksha, required clothing that offers both protection and freedom of movement. Furthermore, we also knew that there were strict limits on any flowing parts of his outfit due to the risk of clipping they would create after 3D modeling.

So we made Xiao's garments close-fitting and short-sleeved, put some light gauntlets on his wrists, and added some religious paraphernalia such as a censer and a vajra. Meanwhile, his streamers and the breechcloths around his waist are decorated with a cloud motif to add a sense of antiquity. In this way, we achieved a union between practicality and ethereality.

"Bane of All Evil" — the four words that sum up what Xiao has experienced over the past millennia, according to Liyue's rulers who know the truth about him.

In the design of Xiao's mask, we referenced aspects of the masks traditionally used in exorcism rituals as part of Nuo (傩) folk religion.

The main colors used in these masks are black, blue, and gold, the eyes are bright but not flamboyant, and in general the masks look solemn but also mysterious. The sinister-looking bulging eyes, fangs, and horns instill fear in the viewer. The eye in the center of the forehead represents omniscience and the flame motifs make it all the more imposing, the intent being to cause all onlookers to cower in fear.

Xiao's release coincides with the ancient festival of Lantern Rite. We would like to use this historic occasion as a chance to send our best wishes to everyone — here's to deliverance from the ills that plague the real world as well as those that face us in the world of Teyvat. To fans of Xiao reading this, we hope you feel that learning a little about the design ethos gave you the chance to better understand and connect with this character.

(Continued in Part 2)

[fandumbstuff]

The Star Wars Saga, ranked best to worst.

1. The Empire Strikes Back Directed by Irvin Kershner

Upon close consideration, I’ve come to the shocking conclusion that Empire is the best Star Wars film. There’s a wealth of world-building and character development here that in many ways makes Star Wars the living breathing universe it is now. A richly complex melodrama lies at the heart of Empire, giving a whole new meaning to the term “space opera”. The performances here are some of the strongest in the entire franchise. Mark Hamill not only fleshes out Luke’s character, but in his training with Yoda and his duel with Vader he establishes the profound nature of the force, and how every future character interacts with it. As Han and Leia, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher create authenticity to their characters’ relationship. Often misinterpreted as playfully hostile or sassy, there’s a real and endearing sense of affection between them, particularly in the infamous “I love you”/”I know” line- shedding their previously petty flirtation and affirming their true feelings. The emotional crux of Empire lies not in the most memorable twist, but in the moments immediately following it - In Luke and Leia reaching out to each other, reconnecting a relationship that was lost, rekindling hope in the force after we thought it was lost.

2. A New Hope  Directed by George Lucas

I’ll be the first in line to make fun of dorky George Lucas and his woeful attempts at writing dialogue or romance. However, it’s pretty damn impossible to ignore what he achieved with Star Wars in 1977. The sheer audacity of his vision and his determination in executing it despite the naysaying from producers and supposed friends. Lucas had the bold idea of using cinema for it’s absolute worth- more than just a storytelling medium but a theatrical one. A cacaphony of sight and sound that could draw mass audiences and create a lasting impression. It’s a formula that every Hollywood and Bollywood blockbuster strives and more often than not fails to follow. It’s hard to dissociate A New Hope from the cultural phenomenon it helped create, but when you do, it stands as an impressive film on it’s own. Groundbreaking in terms of it’s visual effects and nostalgic in the simplicity of it’s sci-fi serial story, Star Wars ticked all the right boxes for so many people. If I was to boil Star Wars down to an essence, i think it lies in 2 scenes: Luke looking out at the binary sunset on Tattooine, and Han Solo yahooing after the Falcon saves Luke in the Death Star trenches. Those two scenes, Wistfulness and Exuberance, are the two sides of one concept- Adventure. Star Wars ignited those emotions in every child’s imagination, and it’s a flame that’s likely to never go out. 

3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Directed by Gareth Evans

Hard to believe this is a Disney movie. While the house of mouse may have a reputation for emotional gut punches in kids movies, it’s never felt quite so... permanent. Rogue One is an unrelenting emotional journey barelling towards surefire tragedy. We spend moments with characters that seem to be carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. The sense of desperation that permeates the movie almost overpowers any sense of heroism. It’s so unlike anything we’ve seen in a Star Wars movie. Their courage comes from a place that is wholly genuine and believable. We see the rebellion for the despondent group that they are. Sorely outnumbered by the Empire, their actions in this movie show a reckless, darker side to them and makes the morality of Star Wars so much more complex. The first time we meet Cassian Andor- the stand out performace of the film by Diego Luna- we see him kill another rebel to protect their secrets. It’s a movie that reframes the original Star Wars trilogy, making it a richer, complex universe and more intriguing as a result. Also, the last five minutes might be the best five minutes in any Star Wars movie.

4. Return of the Jedi Directed by Richard Marquand

The one sore spot in the original trilogy for me are the Ewoks. I realise it's ridiculous for me to complain about kid-friendly creatures in a kid's movie, but Star Wars has done this a lot more tolerably in the form of Porgs and Baby Yoda. Just something about these furry, Tibetan speaking monsters who somehow have the wherewithal to defeat an elite and well equipped empire rubs me the long way. Anyway, other than that, the movie's pretty fantastic. The culmination of Luke's journey comes to a head in an extremely emotional and effective climax. John Williams score crescendos to operatic heights and Mark Hamill's stellar performance sells Luke’s torment. It’s also worth noting that in those final moments of moral dilemma, Darth Vader is silent- it’s David Prowse’s performance entirely that sells this. His incredible presence throughout the trilogy builds to this moment and you can feel the weight of it in those closeups on Vader. Every other cast member rounds the story out perfectly- from Lando and Han’s playful rapport to Leia’s more militaristic side in planning the rebellions final moves. I still bemoan the fact that they changed the final song- an opinion that I’m apparently a minority on- but it’s a pretty incredible ending altogether and wonderfully cathartic to watch over and over again.

5. The Last Jedi Directed by Rian Johnson

With Last Jedi, Rian Johnson analyzed the universe Star Wars inhabits, and what drives it’s characters. The characters that we love are pushed to their limits, struggle against insurmountable odds and their own innate flaws. And we see all of them fail in turn. It is remarkably bleak, but not without purpose. It is out of this failure that the Resistance needs to recoup and come back stronger. The performances here, are arguably the best you’ll find in the entire franchise. Daisy Ridley has to break down Rey’s naivete and find a deeper sense of self actualization. Adam Driver hands in some of his best work, by swerving the audience into believing Kylo Ren and then creating a desperate plea in THAT throne room scene, and eventually turning him into a snivelling villain, all in the same movie. Mark Hamill’s performance here is heartbreaking- revealing the bleakest version of Luke, and struggling to find his redemption. Last Jedi is a bold deconstuction of these characters, of what they stand for, and what makes Star Wars beautiful.

6. The Force Awakens Directed by J. J. Abrams

In many ways, a safe movie to announce the return of Star Wars. But it’s hard to fault this. Disney’s decision making was shrewd here, bringing on J. J. Abrams to pay homage to George Lucas’ original vision, returning the franchise to it’s roots of practical effects and shooting on film. There was something truly special about experiencing this film in theatres, so much so that I did it eleven times. It captured a sense of wonder for fans new and old- hearing the scream of Tie Fighters, John Williams herald the return of the Millenium Falcon, and the look of awe on Rey’s face as she clutches her destiny in her hand. I’ll be honest, the film loses some of this magic without the shared experience of an audience, and it’s flaws are more noticeable. But being swept up in the excitement of adventure felt so darn good in 2015, and that’s so key to this franchise.

7. Revenge of the Sith Directed by George Lucas

This movie has risen so much in my opinion, entirely due to the animated Clone Wars series. Revenge of the Sith depicts the overwhelming tragedy that frames the original Star Wars. Watching Clone Wars explains explicitly what makes this film so tragic. But it’s more than that- it’s a catastrophic failure on behalf of the Jedi Order. Ignorance and pride allow evil to fester and grow. George Lucas took the simplicity of the moral struggle he established in 1977 and tried to give it depth and complexity with the prequels, and it pays off in Revenge of the Sith. It leads into the original trilogy quite brilliantly, with a promise of hope and resilience.

8. The Phantom Menace Directed by George Lucas

It has not aged well. While the advent of CGI I’m sure felt exciting at the time, and you almost can’t fault George Lucas for his insistence on staying at the forefront of VFX innovation as he has always done, it’s his reliance on so much of it that fails horribly. Like a kid in a candy store, Lucas stuffs the pockets of this film with so many bizarre effects for absolutely no reason. That sea monster scene is one of the worst displays I’ve ever seen and it’s absurd that it sits in a Star Wars film. Add to that the boring political plotline and ridiculous midichlorian dilemma and there’s very little redemptive about this film. However, it does have podracing, and Duel of the Fates, and it’s remarkable how much that salves the wound.

9. The Rise of Skywalker Directed by J. J. Abrams

Alright, well obviously this film has been problematic. However, I’m not about to bemoan the idea that Disney has ruined Star Wars and I have nothing left to live for. So let’s all just calm down. Ultimately J. J. Abrams was faced with the impossible task of wrapping up the Skywalker saga, with very few Skywalkers to work with. I firmly believe this would have been a very different film if Carrie Fisher was around to complete her performance. But left with nothing but the new cast, Abrams is caught between summing up the past while also looking to the future. It forces an awkward plotline with Palpatine- despite Ian McDiarmid's solid performance, the writing here seems wildly derivative of the franchise. There are some truly beautiful scenes, most notably the chemistry that Adam Driver gets to share with Harrison Ford, and Joonas Suotamo’s critically emotional outburst as Chewbacca. Some of the production design and score is so entirely different from the rest of the franchise it's inherently intriguing. But there’s very little here to save some of the poorer choices the film makes: the open plot hole with Finn, the derailing of Rey’s character development, and most crucially, the deeply perturbing culmination of Rey and Kylo’s relationship. The audience literally went “ew”.

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story Directed by Ron Howard

The biggest problem with Solo is that it operates under the presumption that people will be enamoured and invested in it. Not just in one movie, but in an entire series of movies. Solo clearly operates as a setup for further sequels. As a result, many plot lines remain unresolved, and Qi’ra winds up being a completely under-baked character. Her motivations make no sense, and a twist ending that I assume was supposed to be exciting is instead downright confusing. There’s a lot of unnecessary exposition into Han’s past too. As an origin story, I don’t need to know every aspect of Han’s past- especially not cute winks at inane things like “Why’s he called Solo?”. All this being said, The movie features some solid performances- Donald Glover is expectedly phenomenal as Lando, and Alden Ehrenreich excels as Solo, adding some welcome flavour to the character- particularly his friendship with Chewbacca, and a brilliantly executed final scene between him and Woody Harrelson’s Beckett.

11. Attack of the Clones Directed by George Lucas

How in the world this film made it all the way to production and into filming, with no one pulling Lucas aside and saying “Hey George, those kids have no chemistry” is beyond me. And I’m not going to blame Hayden Christensen or Natalie Portman on this one, because the whole damn love story makes no sense. Maybe falling for a dude who admits he murdered women and children isn’t such a great idea? Then there’s the increasingly convoluted political climate set up in Phantom Menace, and the machinations of the dark side that would take the entire Clone Wars series to fully explain. All this being said, Temuera Morrison, Samuel L. Jackson, Ewan MacGregor AND Christopher Lee are all in this movie. And they’re pretty damn fantastic.

12. The Clone Wars Directed by Dave Filoni

It’s inexplicable that Dave Filoni would go on to have a hand in some of the best Star Wars content ever made in Clone Wars, Rebels and the Mandalorian. And yet he got his start in the franchise by putting up this piece of junk. And junk is being a little generous. The humour is so juvenile it’s insulting to even the youngest of audiences it’s intended for. The plotline feels way to thin to warrant a feature film, and if this was in fact intended as a pilot for the TV series, they sure picked to most uninteresting story to pique our interest. Skip the movie, watch the show. 

[xb-squaredx]

Rise of the V-Tuber

As a platform, YouTube has gone through a variety of “eras,” wherein a particular trend catches on and defines the website for some time. In the early days, you had funny cat videos, then Let’s Plays of video games became rather popular, and now we seem to be deeply entrenched into a new era that has exploded in popularity as of late. If you’ve frequented the website at all in the past few months, it is almost inescapable. Cutesy, anime-styled avatars that play games, sing, chat with viewers, or even cook! What does it all mean? Where did they come from? Are they here to stay? Most importantly, how does one crawl out of the rabbit hole once they fall into it? All that and more will be revealed as we delve deep into the wacky, wholesome and sometimes worrying world of V-Tubers. (photo credit YuuGiJoou. Check her out on YouTube, Twitter or Twitch!) 

THE ORIGIN

To begin properly, let’s define the subject. A “V-Tuber” is a “Virtual YouTuber,” someone who streams on YouTube (or any other streaming platform) using a digital avatar as a proxy. The streamer in question typically uses face-tracking software so that the avatar can emote (or at least attempt to emote) to match their own reactions as they provide entertainment for their audience. While it may seem as if V-Tubers are rather new, in doing research on the topic, you’d be surprised how far back things go.

For starters, the concept of a virtual celebrity has been around for a while, with one of the most notable efforts being Hatsune Miku, a Vocaloid voicebank program. Hatsune Miku is every bit as famous and beloved as a flesh-and-blood singer or entertainer despite being nothing but voice synthesizer software. Vocaloid got its start back in 2000, eventually being reworked into a commercial product in 2004, though it wasn’t until the programs started receiving anthropomorphic character designs that it took off, with Hatsune Miku’s own debut in 2007, and the rest is history.

Many will consider “Virtual Idol” Kizuna Ai as the true pioneer of what we call a V-Tuber today, making her debut in 2016, however one could make an argument that Ami Yamato, a 3D-animated vlogging channel debuting in 2013, beat her to the punch. Honorable mention of course goes to Any Malu, a Brazilian animated YouTube vlogger who debuted in 2015 and eventually gained her own show on Cartoon Network Brazil. While Ai may not be the first, she is undoubtedly considered to be the codifier that many later V-Tubers would follow. Ai’s entire shtick was being an AI program that wanted to connect with humans, playing games, singing or interacting with fans. Following her explosive popularity, it was clear that other companies would follow the model established by Ai, with their own spins on it of course.

Nijisanji, established in 2018, proved that this trend could be incredibly profitable, becoming trailblazers in their own right as they established various “branches” of their company in several countries with their own unique performers that could cater to a wider range of viewers. As of this writing, Nijisanji employs over 164 “Virtual Livers,” most of which come from their Japan branch, alongside their Korean, Chinese, Indian and Indonesian branches. Similarly, there is the Hololive corporation, which saw substantial growth throughout 2020 in particular. Established in 2016 originally as Cover Corporation, at first Hololive was the name of an app meant for use in 3D motion capture, though following Nijisanji’s success, Hololive was rebranded as a V-Tuber competitor and also features a variety of colorful characters spread across many different main branches. There is of course the Japanese branch, as well as Hololive Indonesia, the relatively new (and highly successful) Hololive English, a defunct Chinese branch and an all-male Holostar branch in Japan.

Other, smaller V-Tuber groups have sprung up alongside the corporate powerhouses, such as VOMS Project, established in March of 2020, as an independent trio of streamers, and more recently at the tail-end of 2020 with V-Shojo, featuring a group of Western streamers (who ironically mostly stick to Twitch). Outside of this of course are the countless independent streamers who utilize avatars for one reason or another across many different platforms. Even prominent Twitch streamers seem to be getting in on the act, such as Pokimane, though that one has not come without some backlash. So consider that a rough history of how V-Tubers got started in Japan but how did they gain a more global fanbase? Well, in a word…”memes.”

GOING INTERNATIONAL

I won’t deny there had to be at least SOME overseas fans who enjoyed watching V-Tubers before they became more well-known, but for many Western fans their introductions to V-Tubers in general typically came from viral videos taken from various streams that spread like wildfire, eventually getting people curious enough to check them out. For Kizuna Ai, her playthrough of Resident Evil 7 gained notoriety for her mimicking the cursing of the English-speaking player character, and for Hololive, arguably the first real Western breakthrough for the company came from a now infamous moment from Sakura Miko’s stream of Grand Theft Auto 5. 

Also from Hololive, Inugami Korone in particular had a variety of memes spread about her due to playthroughs from various games that even got acknowledged by the developers themselves. Her playthrough of DOOM 2016 resulted in a short-lived Easter egg implanted into DOOM Eternal, and her video on Banjo-Kazooie (and the animated Eekum Bokum fan video that spawned from that) got the attention of Rare, Xbox and even Grant Kirkhope, the composer for the original game.

Honestly, the real unsung heroes of sorts for V-Tuber popularity might just come from foreign fans that would clip and translate various moments from streams that helped to build an international audience. There are dozens of Twitter handles and YouTube channels that specialize in spreading these clips around and if you factor in the YouTube algorithm, once you see one video your feed will be flooded with similar videos. It is no surprise fans call getting into the fandom “falling into the rabbit hole.” When you look at the more popular members of Hololive, often the ones with various viral clips have the higher subscription counts. In the case of Aki Rosenthal, one of the older members, her sub count exploded after a fan translated a section from a then-recent stream in which she talked candidly about her less-than-stellar growth as well as the difficulties of standing out in general. While at one point having the lowest amount of subscribers (well below 200,000), in the months since that video her sub count has more than doubled going past 400,000. Sometimes the talent needs a little push.

Now, within Hololive itself, I think Kiryu Coco is also partially responsible for expanding the fanbase, being one of the few employed talents with the ability to speak English (likely a native speaker), she gained a large international fanbase as she would work to translate what she or other members were talking about on the fly, and later on established an ongoing series where she would directly engage with fans over websites like Reddit and “rate” the various memes they would send in. Coco also pushed for establishing what would become Hololive English, which has proven to be a gigantic success, each member of that branch blowing past more established talent’s subscriber counts, with Gawr Gura becoming the first Hololive V-Tuber to pass one million subscribers and just recently passed the two million mark. So yeah, V-Tubers are a big deal now but…what is about them that makes people want to watch them in the first place?

THE APPEAL

So, right off the bat, if we’re going to ask why someone would want to watch a V-Tuber I think it’s fair to ask that of virtually ANY internet personality. The reason why someone would watch Game Grumps or Pokimane or Jojo Siwa or whoever else is the same reason they’d watch Kizuna Ai or Inugami Korone or Ironmouse: they’re entertaining. I guess that seems like a bit of a cop-out answer, right? There MUST be a reason why V-Tubers have blown up in popularity over the last few years, so are there things that make these particular Internet entertainers stand out from the crowd?

Undoubtedly, the fact that these streamers are playing a character is a deviation from the norm, though the dedication to staying “in character” seems to vary from person to person, and over time many V-Tubers tend to open up and are far more genuine. At any rate, even the best actor out there can’t possibly make up various daily happenings or childhood stories for their characters on the fly, day after day, stream after stream. Still, I’d imagine the decision to use a proxy as opposed to their real self can be liberating, a mask they can wear to speak more freely or a role they can play up for entertainment. For the most part, I think the persona aspect is mostly harmless fun that makes the streamer seem more distinct; ask yourself which is more eye-catching: some normal human playing a game and occasionally cracking a joke, or a one-eyed pirate girl discussing her raunchy past? Or maybe you’d rather watch the grim reaper practice her raps? Even talent that don’t really play up their character much still often have interesting character designs; we have princesses, dragons, devils, robots and more. A little something for everyone!

Speaking a bit more personally, I find it interesting to watch streamers from an entirely different culture and how they interact with fans or engage with games. I find it funny when Inugami Korone or Sakura Miko plays more Western-oriented games like the DOOM series or Grand Theft Auto V respectively. Often times they’re blown away by the culture clash, or they view these games through a different lens since it’s so different from what they’re used to. In particular, those two are just genuine goofballs that are funny all on their own. More chat-focused streams are an interesting view into daily life in Japan, such as the stories Houshou Marine tells, though obviously a given V-Tuber’s viewpoint isn’t a metric you can apply to the whole country, but she’s still interesting to listen to. Takanashi Kiara is also notable for her multilingual skills, which has helped her bridge the gap a bit more between the various Hololive members through her Holotalk segments where she interviews other V-Tubers. Outside of Hololive, Amano Pikamee from VOMS Project is just a bundle of energy that’s fun to watch as she rages in Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Sunshine. Her tea-kettle laugh is also just kinda charming. The V-Shojo group stands out for being super vulgar compared to the more corporate V-Tubers and while I don’t watch them all that much, there’s still some fun chaos to be had. Still though, I think there’s one big elephant in the room that would also help explain V-Tubers catching on at this specific point in time: the pandemic. Streaming is one of the few jobs not really affected by the pandemic, and with people stuck inside, they’re more likely to scroll through YouTube or Twitter and find a funny clip and then…well, you know… It’s one bright spot in an otherwise dark time…but I’d be lying if I said it was all sunshine and rainbows.

THE DARK UNDERBELLY

The overall idea behind V-Tubers, at least in Japan, seems to be an extension of Idol Culture…and uh…if you know anything about Idol Culture in Japan, it is all kinds of scummy. Exploitative, filled to the brim with harmful rules and regulations and largely catering to some vary unsavory “fans,” I’ll make it no mystery that I find it incredibly distasteful. Look no further than what happened to Minegishi Minami from the idol group AKB48. To keep a long story short, the obsession with “purity” and being this idealized Japanese beauty means idols are effectively locked into their work, unable to discuss or in many cases partake in romantic relationships, as that would make them less “desirable” to their audience. This unfortunately does at times extend to V-Tubers.

Take Tokoyami Towa, who was suspended for some time and forced to make an apology video for…having some male voices briefly heard over Discord during an Apex Legend stream. She even lost a lot of subscribers and support from Japanese fans following this, though once learning of this, Western fans flocked to her as a show of support. Hololive has also dealt with a variety of issues coming from Chinese fans; though that’s a particular hornet’s nest I don’t want to delve into here too much. To sum it up, fans can get obsessive and toxic, which can lead to the talent being harassed. It is for this reason, it is generally agreed upon by fans to not delve too deep into the personal lives of the V-Tubers, for fear of being doxxed and the illusion being broken. These kinds of issues certainly bring up some interesting questions regarding how talent should be treated moving forward.

Are these V-Tubers characters or just alternate sides of real people? Where does the fantasy end and reality begin? Ultimately, the lines are somewhat blurred. Talent certainly brings some of their own personality into the performance, but they are forced to remain anonymous and as can be seen in the case of Kizuna Ai, they are not always in control of the character they’ve been given. Kizuna Ai’s initial actress was for a time replaced, and “clones” of the character with different voices and personalities started to spring up, likely as an attempt to compete with the likes of Nijisanji and Hololive. In cases where V-Tubers retire from the industry, or “graduate” as some call it, all of their hard work cultivating a fanbase might end up being for nothing as they were forced behind a proxy that isn’t truly themselves and I imagine it can be hard to start over again from square one. Never mind the attempts to step out of the shadow of your older work. Man, Perfect Blue was downright prophetic at times, huh?

I don’t want to dwell on the negatives too much though. It’s worth noting for one thing that Nijisanji seems relatively lax regarding how their talent operates, whereas it seems Hololive is the standout for adhering to the idol ideal, though considering how some of the talent acts (in particular Kiryu Coco), one has to wonder if they’re softening their stances a bit. Many V-Tubers generally talk about the positive aspects of the industry and being given the opportunity to reach people from all over the world. Shortly after Ina’s debut in Hololive English, she was actually brought to tears when told her art streams convinced people to get into (or back into) the hobby, which had been one of her goals for becoming a V-Tuber in the first place. Ironmouse, now a member of V-Shojo, has an immune system disorder that keeps her bedridden and forced to stay inside, so the opportunities afforded by this particular type of streaming has allowed her to reach out to others and as per her own words, has changed her life for the better. While there are definitely “fans” that go too far, corporate practices that are outdated, or harmful and a slew of potential unfortunate implications, ultimately I think most people out there are just looking for quality entertainment, and these digital proxies give these entertainers an outlet to connect with fans in a way that they might not have otherwise.

CONCLUSION

V-Tubers are in a bit of a boom at the moment, though I can’t imagine it’ll last forever. We’re quickly approaching market saturation and after a point, people can only follow so many streamers at once. Hell, as I was editing this up, it seems as if prominent YouTuber Pewdiepie is about to step into the ring, so who knows what kind of shake-up that could bring. The bubble will undoubtedly burst and what becomes of V-Tubers then is still up in the air. Or who knows, maybe V-Tubers will endure and replace all entertainment and we’re just watching the beginning of a cyberpunk dystopia. Stranger things have happened! Considering the world is still reeling from the effects of the pandemic, that should largely have an impact on the popularity of V-Tubers for some time to come, though as we emerge into a “new normal” in the world, it’ll be interesting to see how these entertainers continue to evolve. Now, I suppose there is one question I never quite went over before now, isn’t there? How does one escape the V-Tuber rabbit hole? Well, I’m sorry to say but there is no escape.

Enjoy your new home!

-B

[kitkatopinions]

I know alot of people thought this volume was Weiss time to shine but her contribution has been marginal at best. Now she's in the same situation as Blake and Yang then their arcs were ended in volume 5. This means when can we expect her to be shipped with someone and be mostly useless?

The way that Weiss was benched this season and the way her seasons-long story was just glossed over is confusing and frustrating. I was really looking forward to seeing Weiss not only interacting with her family in meaningful ways, but seeing her - the Atlas born and raised girl who’s used to how everything works there - not considering things as big of a deal as the others, being something of a celebrity, coming up with solutions only an Atlas born person might know, her having a full arc with her brother Whitley, her interacting with her team more and relying on them for strength instead of being mostly a support character. Instead, Weiss’s arc with her family not only is resolved like it’s easy, and Weiss doesn’t have to grow at all to get it, but it also barely involves Weiss’s friends at all. Also was Weiss treated like a celebrity? Or recognized by the people of Atlas or Mantle? As the very public singer-celebrity daughter of Jacques Schnee? And also, Weiss has spent the past volume acting like Ruby’s sidekick, barely doing more than throwing in some quips and taking four minutes or so to talk to her brother, and then the rest of her story in volume eight is just, being an extra fighter, making the appropriate faces when the creators want us to be shocked or sad or smug. Her last thread with Whitley and Willow has been tied off in a very unsatisfying and weird way...

And oh gosh, you’re right, this sounds really familiar.

Caution, this post isn’t super kind to B//umbleby or the characterization of Blake in particular. Bees I’m sorry if this shows up in your tags, I tried my best and used filterable tags. This is all just my personal opinion.

As soon as Blake’s arc, which was tied up in the problematic White Fang/Faunus racism plot was mostly solved in volume five, the quality of her character started going down, but there was still something there for her until they killed her abuser, and then her whole character was more or less stripped away and she was left hinting at her past in awkward dialogue, doing nothing but emoting in the proper way, occasionally patting Ruby or the others on the back, and being one half of a non-developed ship. Blake has had two moments in the past two seasons that seem to even somewhat include real fleshed out character, and that’s when she decided to trust Robyn, convincing Yang to go along with it, and now showing anger because Neo ‘killed’ Yang. Both of these are framed - and taken by the fans - as ‘bees moments’ though, so it’s still all tied up in her romance.

Now we’ve had some of the same sort of thing for Weiss. Her arc was also tied up in the problematic White Fang/Faunus racism plot (considering her family’s history that Weiss was originally trying to ‘reclaim’ despite her own racism never being fully called out and addressed in a meaningful way.) Once Weiss had broken away from her abusive father and thus at least somewhat solved her arc by volume five, then her quality of character started going down in volume six, and then she had a couple moments with her family in volumes seven and eight - although again, solved in fairly unsatisfying ways. Outside of only a couple of semi significant scenes in the Atlas arc, Weiss has been regulated to emoting in the proper ways, occasionally patting Ruby or the others on the back, and being an extra fighter in the group.

It is possible that she’s going to get some kind of romance and then kind of just... Fall into the same kind of stuck position as Blake and Yang - CRWBY won’t commit to them enough to give real confirmation or make them grow their relationship in significant ways, which means that in order to get across that their is a relationship, they keep the two mostly together, have them seem to revolve around each other and care about each other more than anyone else, and diminishing the connections the other characters have with both people in order to make Blake and Yang’s connection seem clearer. To be completely fair to CRWBY, Yang has been allowed to branch out and have real and natural interactions both with villains (taking on Salem, protesting Emerald’s involvement) and teammates (arguing with Ren, talking with Jaune, acting like Ruby is her close little sister again!) This season, Yang has started to act like her own character again, but Blake hasn’t been allowed much growth. I’d say Weiss would more likely to wind up in the ‘Blake’ position than the ‘Yang’ position as far as being allowed to grow, especially because we’re already seeing her character start to kind of falter now that they’ve tied up her arc in a messy bow, and especially if she wound up with Ruby or Jaune, who I think are the most likely romantic partners for Weiss at this time. But there’s also the possibility of them starting to force a relationship between her and literally anyone else, including any of the three boys waiting in Vacuo, or Emerald, or Marrow.

As a quick note, please keep in mind that this is all speculation for fun and it really might not amount to anything. It would be kind of funny and frustrating both if CRWBY repeated how they’ve done Blake with Weiss, but it’s possible that they’re going to give Weiss a more significant arc and growth in season nine, put more focus on her relationship with Whitley and Willow once things cool down a little after all of season eight was equal parts ‘a crisis mode’ and a ‘sit around and wait for the plot to come around’ storyline. This post is kind of running on in length pretty badly, but here are a couple of ways I think Weiss could really shine next arc.

1. Have her and Yang trapped in the void together without Ruby and Blake. I’ve talked before about how Ruby’s ‘protagonist’ framing swallows up her friend group before, and how Blake and Yang’s relationship tends to swallow up one or both of them, as well as other characters having to be a bit more diminished to try and make bee moments more significant, and I think splitting up the team between Weiss and Yang, and Blake and Ruby could make Weiss grow more significantly and have her and Yang interact meaningfully again (which we haven’t gotten since season five.) In an ideal situation, I’d personally throw Jaune into the mix as well, since I’ve started to enjoy both the concept of him and Yang as friends and the concept of him and Weiss as friends. I think it’d really speak to Weiss’s character and show growth if she made the choice to go in after Yang, since Ruby is needed more in the world immediately (because of her Silver Eyes,) Penny is needed too (because of her Maiden powers) and Blake is needed at least somewhat (since she’s the one with the connections to the reformed Faunus group and Ghira and Ilia and all.) This could add a layer to angst, with Weiss proclaiming herself the least important, but also make Weiss’s character seem much more selfless, as she’s willing to risk her life and is willing to risk being alone in the Void herself even though her whole thing is loneliness, in order to save Yang. Jaune then surprising everyone by going with Weiss, and having an emotional moment where Ruby and Blake realize they have to trust Weiss and Jaune to do this and try and force themselves to still fight and work while they wait and panic and worry... That’s some good stuff! Of course, that would unfortunately bench Weiss’s relationships with her family, but I’d still be very happy with this outcome.

2. Have Weiss go on to Vacuo and not go after Yang, but be the one to rally the people, help them all to the city, deal with Theodore, etc. If Blake and Ruby went after Yang, or Blake, Ruby, and Jaune went after Yang, or just Ruby and Jaune, I think there could be some interest there. Not quite so much for the Void Team, but for the Left Behind Team. Having Weiss have to deal with being thrown into a leadership position when she’s not a leader at heart would be really interesting. Having her trying to hold it together and not let any grief, worry, or panic take her over so she can focus on her mission would be really interesting. We could have at least one member of Team RWBY facing the consequences of their actions and taking the brunt of it, while defending their choices and trying to find a place for millions of refugees. Once again, this could play into Weiss’s themes about loneliness, and Weiss could maybe even wind up resenting her team for leaving her and knowing it’s unfair and knowing they did what they had to do, but it would still create tension when they come back. And this sort of arc could also really push and flesh out her relationship and interactions with Whitley. There’s a lot that CRWBY could do with their relationship in this sort of scenario, but I would love it if Weiss’s themes of loneliness played a part in the early episodes of the volume, with her kind of secluding herself because she doesn’t have her friends and she thinks she’s alone, but then getting closer and closer to Whitley and realizing that she’s not alone, because she has her little brother who she loves. Idk, I just think it could be really good and sweet.

So... Yeah. Those are the ways I think Weiss’s character could grow and be fleshed out. Currently, I’m not happy with how she’s been, but there’s still hope for her. However, I will laugh so hard if she gets some romance and starts being one half of a pairing. XD

[sepublic]

A Palisman from a Grom Tree?

           I’ve heard speculation about Luz and Amity’s Grom Tree being used to create their Palismans respectively… And this is a charming concept, I like it! I’m also partial to the idea of Luz adopting one of the discarded Palismans that the Bat Queen is guarding, as I feel it just makes a lot of sense for her character and ties into her themes and motifs; But at the same time, I can’t deny the appeal of Luz and Amity getting their Palismans from a symbol of their sapphic love! And if not Luz, at least Amity could carve her Palisman from the tree…

           Though, it does raise the question- If Plant Magic can create Palisman Trees, then why is it such a dwindling resource? Is Belos actively regulating and restricting the growth of these trees, and hunting down those who break his law? I wouldn’t put it past him… And I have to wonder if a magical staff can be a potential workaround to Belos’ coven bindings, as Luz lacked a bile sac, but was able to cast spells through both the Training Wand and Owlbert. I also have to wonder how a Training Wand functions, for that matter- Amity’s seems to be wooden and it apparently has to be recharged. Are these wands carved from a weaker form of wood, or at least use less of it? Are wands that need recharging the result of this dwindling resource, and witches being forced to make more from less?

           How do you recharge a Training Wand? I’ve speculated in the past about the idea of Bile transfusions… Is this a way? Do some witches donate magic bile that can be used to recharge a wand- And it works, because that wand is made of magical wood that can actually process that bile into spells? Perhaps Palisman Wood, or at least the material for wands, is like a botanical version of the organs that process bile and convert it into actual magic… It needs bile to actually work with and function, just as Eda’s hands can still cast circles, ideally- But her bile sac has been drained, so what it does produce is powerless. A drained wand being reminiscent of Eda’s current condition would be an interesting parallel, actually, and maybe further recontextualize Eda making a point of Luz needing to learn Glyphs; Especially since it’s helpful to have Glyphs AND a Palisman anyway, not to mention that magical bile could be used for others without access to glyphs.

           But, I digress… It’s worth noting that the magic doesn’t seem to come from JUST the wood itself, as Belos cracks open a palisman like an eggshell to harvest its bile within. Is the wood inherently magical, or just able to process magic? Maybe both- Maybe the wood produces magic and then turns it into spells. Regardless, back to my point… I wouldn’t put it past Belos to restrict the creation of palisman trees if staffs could be a workaround to his bindings. Perhaps that’s why we see so few of them- Only one from Eda a wild witch, another from Lilith, who likely has privilege as Head of the Emperor’s Coven (the way members of that group lack coven bindings)… And we hear of one of Willow’s dads having a staff, though we technically don’t know if his has a Palisman on the end, either; Or if it’s basically just a bigger Training Wand in function.

           Dana refers to the resource for palismans as dwindling, so maybe Belos is involved, who knows? Regardless of why those trees are becoming rarer, there leaves the question of why they can’t be replenished… And perhaps regular Plant Magic can’t grow them, period? At least Plant Magic generated from bile… If magic ultimately comes from nature and the Titan’s own body, then perhaps only nature can spawn these trees, naturally; Attempts to spawn them from bile-magic comes from an individual witch and not the Titan itself, and so they end in failure. But Luz… Well, Luz uses Glyphs- The earliest form of Magic, taught by the Titan itself! And Glyphs directly interact with, interface, and manipulate the nature around the user; AKA, the very body and flesh of the Titan!

           So perhaps Glyphs have a more innate connection to nature and the Titan itself, and through this connection, Luz’s Plant Glyph was able to spawn a genuine Palisman Tree from the Titan’s body by triggering its production/growth! If so, then does Bump or anyone else recognize this is as a Palisman Tree? Did Eda, or were the characters not simply paying enough attention? It’d be interesting if the characters find out later that the Grom Tree is made up of Palisman wood… If so, is owning this tree illegal? Or is Bump allowed to do it, in addition to not caring much for the law anyway… It’d be neat to see Luz and/or Amity carve a Palisman from the tree, and then let Bump use the rest to help other students create Palismans!

           And instead of cutting down the entire tree, harvesting it all at once for instant power and gratification the way Belos probably would- Hexside lets the tree flourish, and has Plant Witches –Willow and Jerbo likely among them- regularly tend to it… Clippings and branches are removed, but enough of the tree itself is preserved so it can heal, regenerate, and continue providing palisman wood for future generations! It’d be a nice message about environmentalism, about preserving nature so others after you can benefit from it… And the value of temperance, doing things in moderation to keep in mind the needs of others. It’d contrast with Belos, who seems associated with mechanical industry, which tends to completely devour resources immediately for itself, leaving nothing behind to grow and supply for others, all for that short-term profit… And really, that seems pretty in line with how the Coven System functions and what this show has to say.

           Overall- I don’t know if Luz will specifically make her own Palisman from that tree, much less what kind of Palisman it’d be… Maybe Amity, and even a bunch of other students from Hexside, could get in on the fun! I’d like to see Willow make one for herself, given her connection to plants- And maybe Jerbo, as he is older, and he’s well-versed in Plant-Abomination magic, which was basically what was used to create the Grom Tree… Actually, the discussion of the Grom Tree could be a neat segue into bringing Jerbo back into the picture, but I can also see the writers not doing that either. Even if Luz doesn’t use the tree, it’s totally in-character for her to provide opportunities for others in this way; And it’d be a neat opportunity to discuss the nature and origins of Palismans and the resources that go into them, as well as how the Emperor’s Coven might react and its stance on Palismans.

          We know that witches typically get their staffs after graduating and make them at school, which suggests they’re legal… So, maybe they aren’t a workaround to Coven Bindings, or they’re a privilege only for particularly skilled witches. Maybe the Emperor’s Coven will try to confiscate the Grom Tree, hoo knows? This does remind me of how in Escape of the Palisman, we see the Bat Queen fly off to a particularly massive tree in the background. Perhaps this tree is where Palismans are carved from- It’d make sense given how she and other palismans gather nearby, and maybe it has something to do with how the Bat Queen made her own kids! Imagine that, a Palisman creating Palismans… Maybe THAT tree will be utilized, maybe it’s the Grom Tree- Maybe it’s both, because the more trees, the merrier!