#but still! i think stuff gets interesting there for the recurring cast

[riiye02]

WKBRL Transcript Part 4

As seen in this video This post will cover the 10th hour to the 12th, ending the first part!

10:03:39 (Music gets reversed) -[Smile Person, reversed. I think it says]: "Isn't happiness easy?"

10:06:24 -[Smile Person, reversed]: "What you are hearing is how it feels when you feel happy."

10:07:21 (Music stops) -[Introducer Person]: "Start tomorrow tomorrow. Start your day right now with me, a real live person who plays popular radio music, on the WKBRL." (Celebratory music plays, not reversed anymore)

10:20:08 (Music stops, news and weather intro plays:) -[News and Weather]: "News! Weather. News! Weather. News! Can you believe this weather? Weather. News! Weather. News. Have you heard the news? WKBRL news, and weather." (Jingle plays) "Live from Starr Park! This is the news and weather report from a news and weather person." -[News and Weather Person]: "Hello, and good day. I'm anchor name here. Or am I? The last thing I remember is news-" (News and weather outro plays while News and Weather Person is talking) "- outro cuts him o- Hmm? Oh. Yes, ha, I see what you did." (News and Weather outro stops) "Oh, thank you. I am a puppet." (Celebratory music plays)

10:32:10 (Music stops, KairosTim theme plays) -[KairosTim Person]: "Hello, fellow Brawlers! KairosTim would like to remind you that there is no better, safer way of wearing your Starr Hat than wearing it all the time. Even when you sleep. Even when you shower. Even when you try on another hat. This is Kairos!" (Celebratory music plays)

10:40:20 (Music stops) -[Introducer Person]: "You are tuned to WKBRL and because of that, you've won! And now, we must sing! We must sing! We must sing directly into the microphone or they won't know that we are singing because you won and therefore are happy." (Celebratory music plays)

10:43:09 (Music stops, jingle plays) -[Smile Person]: "This is your reminder to smile!" (Jingle plays, celebratory music starts)

10:53:39 (Music stops) -[Intermission Person]: "That was an hour of uninterrupted victory. I hope you feel it in whatever skin you're wearing. I hope your feet are marching in the correct direction. I hope you keep it tuned right here to WKBRL. And don't make the mistake of leaving!" -[People]: "WKBRL! The voice that hears you." (Echoes) -[Introducer Person]: "Up next, we will find happiness in the limitlessness of space. Our origin. Let's go back there, together." (Space music plays)

11:00:56 (Music stops and jingle plays) -[Smile Person]: "This is your smile reminder! Smile. Smile! Smile! Smile. Smile. Smile. Smile. Smile! SMILE. SMILE! SMILE! SMILE. There. That's better." (Jingle plays and space music resumes)

11:13:30 (Music stops) -[Intermission Person]: "Project yourself onto the outer reaches of the infinite galaxy. With laser focus, you can find yourself shining brighter than any star there never was. Because you're tuned in to WKBRL. And you, are drifting… through…" -[Distorted]: "space…" (Space music plays)

11:19:55 -[Smile Person]: "Technology has been domesticated to meet your insatiable appetite for fun."

11:40:07 (Music stops, news and weather intro plays:) -[News and Weather]: "News! Weather. News! Weather. News! Can you believe this weather? Weather. News! Weather. News. Have you heard the news? WKBRL news, and weather." (Jingle plays) "Live from Starr Park! This is the news and weather report from a news and weather person." -[News and Weather Person]: "Hello, and good day. I'm definitely anchor name here, and this is the news. This just in, everything is perfect! Ha haha, soo perfect. Too perfect, pfft- if you really think about it, hahah… Where the weather at?!" (News and Weather outro plays:) -[News and Weather]: "News! Weather. News! Weather. That was news, and weather." -[Introducer Person]: "This commercial free hour of space jams is made possible by the Ogawa Roofing company. Ogawa Roofing has not been fixing roofs for decades. Because there's been zero roof trouble to speak of whatsoever. No fiery objects have landed in the middle of any roofs that Ogawa knows of, but their roofers are always at the ready and happy to help if and when your roof collapses under the weight of a gigantic robotic foot, which it won't! But if it does, call Ogawa today." (Space music plays)

11:53:43 (Music stops and KairosTim theme plays) -[KairosTim Person]: "KairosTim here, and I have a riddle for you! What's fake, and not real, but says that he is real, but is fake? That's right, fake Kairos! Click, like and subscribe to the REAL Kairos. KairosTim." (Space music plays)

[egophiliac]

have u watched gavv's first episode yet? it is so good. it is so freaking good.

sorry to be getting to this so late, but I have finally seen the first couple of episodes! and! I am enjoying it immensely! :> I do think the second episode has a much better sense of what the tone and story is going to be; the first one had some interesting stuff going on, but felt more like a prologue than anything else. I'm feelin' it though! (and I hope Hajime is a recurring character, I liked his dynamic with Shoma and I was sad to realize he wasn't going to be part of the main cast. 😔)

it's still pretty early on (especially since I find riders tend to need about 10-12 episodes to settle into themselves) but I'm liking the intrigue they've set up, and the main characters seem promising! and I'm also very into the unexpectedly sweet reason for Shoma to be so obsessed with junk food. I wouldn't have thought you could do a tragic backstory for something like that, but...it kinda works?

[madlori]

i'm nervous but also excited for gerrard as captain simply because i hope it'll allow tommy to be fleshed out much more, give him more backstory and show his development since leaving the 118 and address his loneliness (defense mechanism?). we know people filed in complaints abour gerrard years ago. maybe this is the opportunity for tommy to finally face all his past demons and get much needed relief and closure, maybe allowing him to finally accept his past mistakes 100% instead of just 99%? at the same time, i am interested to see how the new 118 will handle gerrard. when he left, the 118 was still far far far away from being the found family that it is nowadays. what are your thoughts on that?

I think you're on to something. I do NOT think it's an accident that Tommy has been woven into the Gerrard "storyline" (I put it in quotes because it was really just foreshadowing) all season. He mentioned Gerrard on their first date in the context of how repressive it was and how he couldn't come out until he left. Then Gerrard showed up at the ceremony, and tossed an actual homophobic comment at him (and by extension Buck although who knows if Gerrard knows they're dating or not). Then he brings him up AGAIN at last night's date, AND tied it to how being there under that guy made him not the best version of himself. Most of what we know of Gerrard that's from this season is from Tommy, not Chim or Hen.

The writer in me thinks this is a way to weave him into the 118's storylines more solidly, which you'd want to do if you wanted him to stick around.

That being said, I think most of the Gerrard stuff will involve the 118 itself (those people are the main cast, after all - any involvement Tommy has will be secondary or via Buck).

I'm gonna say this, though...after this Gerrard stuff? My estimation for the odds of them trying to add Lou as a main cast member and not just recurring went from 5% to like...25%. I still don't think they will - recurring seems like a pretty solid guess - but the degree to which they're tying upcoming storylines back to the pre-Bobby 118 is interesting.

[frenchkanna1808]

i'm so mad at the missed potential of the yabusame post chapter 3, they do nothing!! i sometimes forgot that reko was even there and that is a waste, actually like 80% of the cast became npc this chapter which makes me terribly mad but i think alice and reko are the worst case (yes worst than shin even though he became just a regular npc in logic route which is the worst waste ever, but he compared to the yabusames will have his story developed you know, since nankidai completely gave up on the yabusames, especially reko). The entire reason for that is because nankidai had planed to kill them in logic route so he pretty much forgot that they didn't die in emotion route and kinda forgot which is a recurring pattern in emotion route. Which i loathe because favoritism isn't good and all the emotion route haters will use this as a point. Nankidai clearly has is more interested in some characters than others and doesnt know the fuck to do with them. i am still baffled that alice had this little screen time considering that he is THE GUY THAT """""KILLED"""" midori, ESPECIALLY IN EMOTION ROUTE. he just say random line from time to time to remind you he exist which is a crime because alice is best boy and i love him. At least reko gets some good scenes with ranmaru and like talking about nao (once tho), and like the little singing where kanna did death metal head shakes. But alice gets nothing, NOTHING. and that is all caused because in logic route nankidai planned him to die either way so both reko and alice get nothing. Why i'm mader at this that the zero screen time shin or gin have is because i know they are gonna get stuff later on, shin because he is kinda in the center of the story and gin because he is close to sara, but i don't think we are gonna get that much with the yabusames honestly and that makes me mad. The lack of screen time for the main cast is mainly caused by the terrible pacing of chapter 3-1 but with the yabusames its just no real work because nankidai didn't consider it useful since he planned to kill them either way. And the worse is that so much could have been done really god dammit. Alice lost his little sister and kanna lost her older brother, they are shown to have hanged out together, make them build a connection build on their grief, which would lead to kanna having actual positive interaction with anybody in this cast and alice to be less of a loner. For reko focus on the grief of like in a single day pretty much lose her brother, losing nao unfairly, and finding the man who ruined her life and her brother's too. I know we already have some scenes that way but make them more impactful like in chapter 2. Make her be more protective after losing so much in like a day. MAKE HER HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH ANZU PLEASE. EVERY CHARACTER DUMMIES PAIR MAKE SENSE AND ARE LOGICAL EXCEPT THE YABUSAMES AND ANZU. Oh also i think of sara finding out alone that that nao wasn't supposed to die and was brought here for no reason except raising mishima survival rate should be something that the whole cast should know actually, in general can THE WHOLE CAST be involved, this is the closest they have ever been and yet they are so distant. its a waste and i don't think it will be better because considering new characters and everything i don't think the yabusames will be relevant until the ending which sucks.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Bee Villain Audrey would be fun, especially given her previous interest in the temple. I agree she'd not be second fiddle, anytime Audrey lets others make decisions its cos of one of two reasons:

1: Its so unimportant that a plebian is tending to it. IE, she told them to. 2: She's indifferent enough to the situation that she doesn't care to handle it herself, IE most stuff she tells Andre to do.

Basically, yeah she's not gonna be second stringer, co conspirator at minimum.

Also, having a super powerful magical artifact, right after Gabriel and Ladybug humiliated her and Hawk Moth Akumatized her and- Wait a second! Gabriel was using Miraculous BS before, oh it is on! XD

Low key I have actually toyed with AUs built on similar premises and I think she'd be a very self motivated villain. Like maybe she wants a wish (If she knows about it) but she may just want other Miraculous, or to fuck over her rivals, or go on rampages. The line between Audrey & Style Queen is rather thin after all.

Also given the "Order & Subjugation" angle and how many write Miraculous powers as evolving or shifting based on the user. I could see Audrey's power being less Venom and more like, the power to command and control others perhaps?

Ultimately I'd say it comes down to how much one wants to do with her character. How much does she know, how much can she figure out, what does she even want out of life, ETC.

I know Audrey tends to get written off as just cruel and otherwise brainless. But I confess I always find that disappointing; there's nothing making Gabriel more inherently suited for supervillainy or competence than Audrey if you get my meaning?

As an amusing aside, her going out with a Miraculous power could lead to a very similar situation to Queen Wasp. Not identical, but in the sense that some Gabriel related event is disrupted by a Bee User. The heroes show up, Gabriel slinks away to try and Akumatize her, ETC.

Though in this case, maybe cos Audrey can re-use her powers, its instead him trying to AKumatize Ladybug or Chat as the fight turns against them?

(Oooh it could be Nathalie actually, like Gabriel is literally Veom-ed?)

But this gives a sense of how powerful a Akumatized Miraculous Holder would be (Even if it fails to take over Audrey or one of the heroes, the effort gives a sense of power), along with Ladybug losing the Bee, a signal to Gabriel not to quit. Or allow Nathalie to step up and take the role maybe?

Also, if/when Audrey is beaten (If she's a one episode wonder over a recurring problem) One could have Chloe snag Pollen up in the chaos (She was helping perhaps even jumped on her mothers back and grabbed the comb during the fight?) So now she's Queen Been, but no one knows she has it?

Sorry, rambling.

Honestly the only reason I haven't written Audrey as a villain is because she often has no genuine power over the rest of the cast.

Like.

The worst she could do herself is tank Marinette's career, but even then in a universe where Gabriel favors Marinette and her talents he could counteract Audrey's influence

Her influence over Chloé is limited and dependent on other factors. Is Chloé still vying for her attention? Is Chloé still a child or a legal adult? Does Chloé have a support network or not?

A lot of Audrey's other power would be dependent on Andre and what he's doing. Is he still willing to do things for her or has he kicked her to the curb yet? Even if he /is/ still under her spell, is this an AU where he'd break any rules for her? Or, though he is a man who wishes to grant his wife's every whim, does he put his foot down on things that would cause major problems?

But yeah in most of my AUs, Audrey has no genuine power over any of the rest of the cast. So she often is more of an annoyance or a short-term problem rather than a major player.

If I give her some kind of power though.....

[mylordshesacactus]

As I've picked it back up again after a long hiatus, I've realized that I probably have a lot of people around now who have no earthly idea what the hell my current longfic project even is anymore!

Anyway, this is a GREAT time to start reading

Reunification

Darnassus falls. In some timeline, in some version of the story, Nathanos Marris makes a mistake. In some timeline a word of kindness somewhere, a show of support somewhere else, a moment of humanity for lack of a better term, heads off a preemptive strike at the pass. In some timeline, Alliance intelligence is just a tiny bit more paranoid, a tiny bit more thorough, and the Horde stalls in Ashenvale. But today, Darnassus falls. Darnassus does not burn.

It's a single-point divergence AU of the War of Thorns--I was genuinely shocked that "AU where Sylvanas' original plan, to kill Malfurion and occupy Darnassus intact, succeeded" wasn't more prominent in the fandom. I was ALSO shocked to find so little Tyrande/Thalyssra anywhere, so I folded the two into a single project.

Some highlights:

Thalrande arranged marriage as a political-hostage bargaining chip

Sylvanas displaying both political and military competence while, crucially, still being a deeply obnoxious asshole (affectionate) the whole time

Valtrois TM

Anduin Wrynn, Living Embodiment Of Sunshine

Jaina, traumatized and angry and heartsick, dragged into overseeing the joint administration of Lordaeron and finding herself again in a city she's terrified to let herself love

All of my favorite minor NPCs/Hearthstone protagonists getting their day in the limelight (Rokara and Cariel Roame and Elise Starseeker my beloveds--)

The stark divide between high-level faction politics, and the lived reality of (what I hope you find to be) a rich cast of ordinary, sub-Champion citizens of Azeroth whose lives are a lot more complicated than killing people over a simple blue or red banner

(Seriously, if you like my OCs in general, the little folk of Azeroth are a major recurring thing here.)

Cannot emphasize how emphatically Valtrois is both Present and Extremely Herself.

We're currently right in the middle of a really interesting arc that's REALLY intertwining the parallel plotlines; I'm referring to them in my planning notes as the Ruby Dragonflight and Lordaeron Crisis arcs.

I'm having fun and I think there's some stuff here for a lot of people if y'all want to check it out! I have a much more sustainable approach to writing these days (and a partner who's ALSO writing warcraft longfic, and that's helping to keep the muse alive).

Anyway! Hope to see you over there.

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

GUYS I'VE OFFICIALLY LOST IT-

So. Awhile ago, I saw this post, right? Basically it just said that Sera and Sir Pentious' cards have very similar compositions, and that Seraphim, which is what Sera is, are often associated with serpents. Interesting, but could still be a coincidence, right?

So anyways I checked the reblogs and saw somebody say they should kiss. And now I'm insane.

Because like... the only thing we know really about Sir Pentious' potential story arc in the show is that he's gonna have a crush on one of the other characters. And the only thing confirmed about his sexuality(to my knowledge) is that he is attracted to women. We don't really have any way to know who his crush is, because there are a lot of women in Hazbin Hotel, but could still be noteworthy, right? And like... okay this is gonna sound like the most "trust me, bro" evidence I could possibly pull out of my ass at first but I just need you to hear me out here, okay? Sera's crown and Sir Pentious' hat have a lot of visual similarities. Here's a helpful diagram :)

Which like. Okay. Could literally be nothing, right? Except for two small things that I can't let go of: One, Sir Pentious' goggles + the v-shaped brim on his hat were added to his design AFTER he was given a more prominent role in the show-

(Pilot design, back when he was meant to be a one-off villain of the week vs current design as a member of the main cast)

And two, the Hellaverse shows kind of have a tendancy to use visuals in order to signify characters' relationships to eachother. It's also just a pretty popular form of symbolism as a whole tbh, but the Hellaverse has a lot of really good examples. Like, for instance, how Vaggie's new outfit is a lot closer to Charlie's color pallette than any of her previous designs, or this really good breakdown by @/raeynbowboi about the symbolism of hearts in Hazbin Hotel and how they pertain to Angel Dust/his relationships! It's from awhile ago so some of the info is a tad outdated, but overall I do think the analysis holds up. Meanwhile, in Helluva Boss, Moxxie and Millie have basically the same color pallette and they were the most functional relationship in the entire show before before Fizzmodeus came along. Which, speaking of those two...

See, I made this diagram because, after I pointed out the similarities between Sera and Sir Pentious' headgear to my dad and asked him if those kinds of similarities were a valid form of analysis(because I am but a humble highschooler that doesn't know everything about media analysis, and also I felt like I was losing my mind-), my dad said that I should look at the creator's(Vivziepop's) other works to see if couples having similar motifs was a recurring theme. So obviously, I picked my favorite couple in either show and disected their designs for every little detail that could maybe possibly be an intentional parallel. And while some of it is kind of iffy, like Fizz's limbs being the same kind of blue as Ozzie's tufts could just be a way to show that Ozzie made them, or both of them having uh, two things sticking off of their head(that one's definitely a reach-), I think stuff like both of them having hearts as a recurring detail in their designs or having lITERALLY THE SAME EYE COLOR??? Are pretty good evidence that Viv/the Hellaverse design team tend to use visuals to signify characters relationships.

ALSO!!!! If the Fallen Angel Vaggie theory ends up being true, there could be some interesting parallels to draw between Chaggie and Sera/Sir Pentious! Something about like... demon royalty/random angel vs angel royalty/random demon. Could be used to draw parallels between how the two societies treat that kind of thing idk.

So, now that all the meta evidence is out of the way, we can get down to what really matters: would these two work as a couple? Do their personalities mesh well togther? And the answer to that is!

IM SORRY FOR USING THE GIF IT WAS A GOOD JOKE IN MY HEAD BUT TYPING THIS OUT IDK IF IT'S ACTUALLY FUNNY-

But in all seriousness, I don't actually know. We just... haven't seen enough of Sera to know for sure. In fact, this whole theory is based off of small details that definitely add up to SOMETHING, but could very well be pieces to some very different puzzles that I'm trying to shove together because somebody jokingly suggested that they would fit. Like, the parallels really COULD mean something, and it COULD have something to do with Sir Pentious having a crush on another character, but like. There could also be a million other answers to both of those questions, y'know? I also have a tendancy to make wild conspiracy theories about genuinely inconsequential details... I almost never talk about them publically, but still. Though I will say, based off of Sera's description in the leaks, I could definitely see a world where she bounces off of Sir Pentious pretty well. Her description in the leaks very much gave me uh... Isabela cover of Surface Pressure vibes, y'know? Shit that is- that is a weird way to describe that but most people on here have seen Encanto right? Y'all get it? And Sir Pentious is both a Victorian Gentleman Type and completely unhinged. Like... idk there's something there. I could maybe see it working. But at the end of the day, it's just too early to tell.

That being said I WILL be trying to pump out some fanart of these two before the actual show comes out and crushes my crackshipping dreams. Also their ship name is either SeraPentious or PentSera I can't decide.

Edit: Wait a second... SeraPent. Serpent. PUN!!!!!!!!!! Okay I think I'm going with SeraPent-

[pteropodidaes]

it's been a while since i interacted with the marauders fandom, (like a month or two) but one recurring theme that i saw was the drastic recon of a lot of the slytherins in that era.

i remember when your main cast in your average marauders fic was mostly gryffindors, and then a lot of the antagonists were slytherins. barty and evan were almost always villains (bullies, toxic exes, etc) and regulus was an angst device for sirius. nowadays, the main cast is split into two main friend groups, gryffindors and slytherins. most gryffindors have a slytherin they're paired with (lily and dorcas [which btw i remember when dorcas was a gryffindor], james and regulus, etc etc). the slytherins all have family issues where their parents are blood purists and they don't agree with them and it's a whole thing blah blah blah

i like that there is more diversity in where the characters come from, but there is so much nuance that is stripped of these characters to make them all get along. regulus is the number one victim of this.

i've noticed there is a desire to make the characters people like morally good. they preach about grey characters, but when it comes down to it there is always a justification for the "bad" things they do. sometimes people do bad things because they believe bad things. regulus is a bad guy. he is a death eater, he gets the dark mark and everything. a lot of people write that regulus secretly agreed with sirius the whole time, but it makes it so much more interesting if sirius and regulus's morals actually clash instead of regulus just agreeing with his parents. i personally love when sirius and regulus are close in their childhood and then it changes as they both mature and find themselves.

i think if we look at the characters realistically, regulus barty and evan would never truly get along with people like james and sirius. they're both righteous people (ESPECIALLY james) who would not tolerate blood purism. and that's interesting to explore and to write! sirius watching his brother become a complete stranger who resents him because their morals conflict is so interesting!! you don't have to take away murky morals from a character so they can make out with your fav... which leads me to my next thing.

the jegulus boom. i remember when jegulus was a crack ship and now i think it's literally up there in popularity with wolfstar. i used to ship it as a joke, and in the beginning it was cute but honestly i don't see this ever being an actually healthy relationship. again, james has very strong morals and he would not tolerate regulus being a death eater. he would also ALWAYS choose sirius and he wouldn't stay in a relationship with someone who would cause sirius so much pain. there are a select few circumstances where i see them in a select few dynamics??? but i just don't see it happening.

it's sad because i feel like lily has been tossed aside for fandom's new bl ship. like i love wlw ships with all my heart but sometimes it seems like they come out of people wanting to do something with the canon female love interest. jily is such a beautiful and adorable ship, and the chemistry is honestly so much better than jegulus if i'm being honest. lily is also such an interesting character and you can still get your enemies to lovers fix out of jily. you don't need to compromise the morals of both james and regulus for your yaoi.

it always struck me as weird that these canon death eaters are suddenly heroes now, as in they never believed this shit at all and they're actually victims of their families and society and stuff. don't get me wrong, they definitely are, but it would be better if it wasn't just "i always thought this is wrong and i'm the rebel in my family!" people in these systems actually do get brainwashed and manipulated, and they do believe these things wholeheartedly.

i understand the whole thing with marauders is that there is no canon and you can do whatever you want, but sometimes the characters are just so flat. regulus is interesting to me because he was a bad person but he ultimately chose to sacrifice himself for something good. there's also the issue with changing the characters to the point where they're completely unrecognizable from canon. jkr is a shit writer, but that doesn't change the fact that james has been repeatedly described in canon as a righteous man with incredibly strong beliefs. he may have been a little shit, but never to the point where he would date a death eater. he literally pantsed one upside down and washed their mouth out with soap.

i'm also not saying the old fics were better. there used to be a LOTTT of inconsistency with the characterization of a lot of side characters like dorcas and mary and marlene. i love that the new fandom has given these characters a chance to shine. (well, the male ones at least...) i'm also also not saying that the slytherins should be just bad guys again. i feel like we've flopped from making them total assholes to angels that rebel a little bit.

i could honestly talk about the issues within the marauders fandom for literal hours, but the slytherins are something that has bothered me for a while now. don't be scared to make your skrunklies evil, they don't even have to be evil the whole time you can give them a killer redemption arc 👍

[theneighborhoodwatch]

i see a lot of speculation on this blog but its kinda hard to see where you're coming from when there's so little out, is there somewhere specific you look for secrets? a lot of the spooky images on the artist's main website are beta designs that will be changed (perfect example is the baphomet image of wally where he has 5 fingers instead of 4 and poppy's neck is still bent down-ward, also we know images with wally's cross cuff is beta and not up to date).

i'm liking your theories btw, this is not me critizing you, i think what you're saying is genuinely interesting but it feels,,, too easy? we know that the story itself will have something to do with the idea of "home", what it means, etc, etc. if you wanna talk more in dms i'd love to chat, im just very confused and feel like something is missing from the source. if you want we can work together to compile evidence about the story and stuff. it might help a ton in laying out the story as it progresses.

[2nd ask] omg i totally didnt see the resource doc, that's so embarrassing. dms are still open tho

no worries! although i will admit i was VERY confused for a second there lol (and quite frankly, a bit wounded that you'd think i'd forget the importance of The Home in the grand scheme of things!)

you do bring up a good point about it being a risky move to cite concept art as evidence, since there's always a chance of Something getting shuffled around or outright scrapped in development. even now, i don't really like looking at WH's concept art from a literal/Plot-Heavy perspective just yet; i tend to look more for recurring visual motifs, possible symbolism, that kinda thing. to help myself out, i have a very basic sorting system when it comes to combing through concept art, which looks something like this:

concept art from around 2018-2019: pertains to a now scrapped version of welcome home. harder to find since it was all on clown's old blog before partycoffin. you likely won't find much here that applies to welcome home as we know it today but it's fun to track those little Evolutionary Changes through it.

concept art from around 2020-2022: home is introduced! the cast lineup is finalized! the Themes begin to take shape! i keep an eye out for Motifs here, but it's important to keep in mind that if there's any era of concept art where shit gets shuffled around the most, it's Probably this one.

concept art from site launch (feb. 14th 2022-onward): the most dependable era. concrete plot details that can be gleaned from concept art alone are still scarce, and to be honest, i don't mind that at all - but the visual design, and any recurring motifs by proxy, seem to be set firmly in place. it's like a chew toy for my brain.

as for your offer - i have plenty of folks in the discord and friends from elsewhere trawling through the site with me, but if you have any findings that haven't been recorded in the observation document or any theories that you'd like to discuss, then yeah i'd be happy to dm!

[veebs-hates-video-games]

And now for something completely different: I actually finished an entire game and even liked it! Wild, I know.

I think 8 is still my favorite, but I had a lot of fun with Ys X and overall probably liked it about as much as 9, with some things a little better in one or the other.

Adol continues to be the most upbeat and wholesome and aroace shounen protagonist. He's just here to go on adventures and make friends and go on adventures with friends. I tend to be less likely to get invested in games or series that center around male protagonists, but Adol is just a decent guy who happens to get caught up in shenanigans constantly, and there's always an interesting cast of other characters surrounding him.

That's actually something I've really been appreciating about the modern games in the series. They've done a really good job for the most part of having a good amount of variety in terms of ages and genders of both important characters and minor ones you spend a decent amount of time with. The main party members tend to be in their teens and twenties, but it's nice that you end up hanging around with extremely mixed groups ranging from eight-year-old kids to middle aged parents to 70-year-olds, who all also tend to have interactions with each other too and are developed enough to get their own side quest storylines.

And it's also been fun jumping backwards and forwards through the timeline and seeing how recurring characters like Dogi develop too. In this one he's just barely joined up with Adol (I think it takes place immediately after 2 if I remember right?), and he's still not quite sure what to do with his life, while in 9, the previous game that takes place several years later, they've each grown to be the most important person in each other's life and someone they can count on no matter what happens. It's fun seeing little slices of that from different points in time, and it's always nice in general to see guys being genuinely good people with healthy relationships who just want to take care of the people around them.

I won't say too much about the story, but it's enjoyable too and has some good moments in it. I don't think it has anything super deep to say, but sometimes you just need to go on an adventure through absolutely bonkers European history fanfic.

And as far as the gameplay side of things goes, I think overall it might be my least favorite of the three recent-ish games in the series while also doing some things the best of the three.

The ship sections aren't bad, but they're definitely my least favorite thing in any of the three games. It gets better as you get more upgrades to make movement and stuff suck less than it does early on, but it still kinda kills the pacing at times compared to when you're on foot, and even on foot the movement options don't feel as good as their counterparts in 9 did.

I think the combat might actually also be my least favorite when fighting regular trash enemies, but at the same time it probably has the best boss fights. Switching to a block-heavy system and really de-emphasizing dodging didn't really click with me at first for a while, but a lot of the later boss fights get to be pretty satisfying as you learn their patterns and start pulling off perfect blocks and getting a huge damage multiplier as a reward. It's also fun how a lot of late-game enemies reward you for charging directly at them like an idiot and dodging directly into an attack so you get a free random finisher as a counter. It really works well with my tendency to be reckless, be stupid, have no plan, and improvise something when you get there.

The new engine works great on the Switch too compared to the previous one. Shadows and stuff still aren't great, but overall most things look much cleaner than they did in 8 or 9, and it feels a lot better to play without it constantly dropping frames like 9 did.

I'm just glad there are still people out there making mid-budget games like this that have almost disappeared in the sea of $100+ million AAA games and indie stuff made in someone's bedroom with a budget of like a buck fifty. They can still have the scope and polish most tiny indie games can't afford to, but without having to make too many concessions to reach the wildest possible audience because they need to sell 20 million copies to turn a profit. They can just keep doing their own thing for the niche that happens to be into that.

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

Well, that’s it then! That’s me finished B-Fighter Kabuto -- and I imagine I’m one of the first people in the west to do so?

That alone made for a pretty fun and unique experience -- by the time I got into Toku all the 2000s stuff I was interested in had been subbed, and then by the time I decided to look into a broader range of 20th century Toku all of Sentai and Rider and Ultra and most of the other notable ones had been subbed, too! Which is a really really cool thing to say, it’s great we live in such an age; but it also means I kinda missed out on this “watch along with an old show as it’s being subbed” thing, so I’m glad I got to catch the train on one of the last Metal Heroes shows out there to be subbed. Like, man, I started watching this in September!

Anyway uh yeah the actual, the actual show. ... I had fun! It’s alright! Some of what I was saying about Decker last night applies -- it’s just a decent solid season where there’s not much wrong with it, but it’s also because it doesn’t take a lot of risks. It does a lot of cool shit for sure but it’s... pretty standard? I think I said a lot of the same stuff about B-Fighter, actually... it’s a bit like a Sentai without the specific limits of a Sentai, though that comparison is a bit of a shame when I feel the Sentai from around this time really outclasses it.

There’s a lot of stuff that just kinda gets dropped or changed around the middle of the show for the worse, too? The initial conflict is a pretty good one of invaders from beneath the Earth rather than last season’s outer space, cast against the current citizens of the planet for ownership of who gets to live here. But then mid-season they do this whole big continuity backstory thing with the original B-Fighter which is WILD to watch but it recontextualises everything as this “battle between the will of light and the will of darkness” and it’s about as bland and meaningless as it sounds; just kinda robs the gravity from the characters at times when they’re saying they’re soldiers of light and fighting in its name or whatever rather than the much more natural initial conflict.

Still! It’s got some really fun stuff for the time. 11 whole guys, four of which are antagonists; some really great mecha stuff including one of the hypest robo introductions and build-up I’ve ever seen, an awesome soundtrack, a fun rotating door of a recurring cast to keep episodes feeling fresh... again, it’s a good, fun watch, just not one you should go into expecting to get a lot out of as a whole. It’s a decent time, but not much more than that.

[psychewritesbs]

even though I do not mind the weekly or bi weekly chapter releases and enjoy them, I kind of wish I would wake up one day and the final chapter of jjk would be here lol

I mean this as like the time left with the series is fast forwarded. I don't like rushing in any context, but I feel like I want to know the ending before I fall out of love with the series. I've enjoyed what gege has given in the story so far, but there is plenty of choices I would say I do not agree with imo. He seems like he has a vision of how things need to go, but getting there seems to have some issues. I also kind of hate it when authors say they want to end the story especially when it feels like it will be rushed, and is JJK's case it's sometimes hard to enjoy the story after its been said bc I'm just wondering if we're spending too much time on one thing before we need to move to the next point, but I'll still try to see the story's good and the bad and enjoy what I can. I'm going to reread the culling game arc soon, but I feel like those first fights were about gaining allies, but I can say I wasn't expecting it to go like that if that was the intention. I don't mind kenjaku having secret plans bc it's obvious when it comes to them, but I feel as though that plan overshadowed the point of the cg?? I thought there would be more focus of to kill or not, etc and I see that the most for megumi and yuji (they had my fav colony battles), and I get it somewhat with yuta, but I dont see it too importantly with hakari or maki. I'm going to reread the arc regardless because I can always be confused or a bit slower in catching on so forgive me if my insight is lackluster. I liked the running themes during yuki vs kenjaku, but her "death" felt very unnecessary because she seemed really important in achieving a curse free world and idk about you but that seems like an important goal imo and yeah someone else could lead that charge but what was wrong with yuki doing that? I don't know, but I can only hope the remaining part of the story alongside its ending is something not only we can gain some satisfaction with, but the author too can look back and say, "hey it was pretty good at least"

Gege doesn't seem to drop the ball too much with Yuji or at least megumi too, and I'm not too worried since they're my characters of interest currently, but I want to reread this story and actually believe it when I say I thought all the cast was good and I believe the writing can be better or can get worse (idk) but time will tell it all. I'm a recurring anon, so I'm sorry if the apologies are constant and sound like emails at the end 😅

Dear Recurring Anon,

HOLA! Thanks for being my recurring anon and reaching out again!

Ok but listen... I’ve been sitting on your ask for a while thinking of what I wanted to say and how to say it. I’ve probably started 3 different drafts for my response. So thanks for your patience!

Truth of the matter is that when I read your words, what it comes down to is that, even though you don’t like the recent direction the manga has taken, Jujutsu Kaisen still holds an important place in your heart. 

So I think the most important question to keep in mind is that, in a story like JJK where the strongest sorcerers have the most overwhelming sense of self... where does your sense of self stand in all of this?

What do you want to take with you from JJK? 

The stuff you didn’t like because it didn’t live up to your expectations? 

Or the stuff you loved even though JJK was incredibly flawed?

Of course there’s more word vomit under the cut lol... you know how I roll.

I’ll start by asking you to forgive me if I’m wrong and you just really needed a container where your thoughts on the current state of JJK would be honored and acknowledged. The truth is that I totally get where you’re coming from. 

I do. 

I hear you.

It’s just that it’s in my perhaps annoying nature to be stupidly optimistic even when I am being a realist. There’s always a silver lining to everything if you are willing to make the effort to find it. 

So, yes, I agree, and I’m also going to challenge you to find a way to continue loving JJK if that’s what you want for yourself.

That said... lets get on with the bitching lol.

Problems with JJK, problems everywhere!

Your concern regarding the pacing in the story is something that I share with you. Most especially the concern that, moving forward, Gege is going to cut corners. I’d also say that at this point this “concern” is factually canon lol. 

I also agree so much with the sentiment of “is he taking too much time on this when he should be addressing this other plot point?” And I think nothing captures that dilemma quite like the Culling Game arc does--ESPECIALLY with the way he handled the chosoyuki ordeal.

Like we got pages upon pages of all of these characters and exposition and dialogue and like... wait, what was the point of the Culling Game again? 

Why has no one died yet?! 

Why is Yuta kissing a cockroach and why are Kashi-chan and Kin-chan trying to see who has the biggest ego (pun intended)? 

Like I swear for weeks I've been like “ok it’s going down!!!! yeah here comes the angst and the deaths aaaaaaand ok never mind then.... maybe next chapter? ok.... next chapter? ok next chapter for sure. no? next chapter?”

FOR WEEKS! It’s all recorded in my chapter liveblogs lol.

Truth is, to me, the Culling Game is a weird arc because I am still trying to understand its significance within the larger Jujutsu scheme of things.

Perhaps he bit more than he could chew with the Culling Game? And as a writer myself I find this kind of relatable. I’m actually seeing what is happening with JJK and taking note of how having too many themes and plot lines can ultimately be detrimental to a story if you can’t, or are unable to execute them all to a satisfying conclusion.

So to your point about re-reading the Culling Game arc... let’s hope that Gege manages to bring it all full circle. But as things stand right now, we’re in the middle of whatever Gege has in mind so it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.

What I’ll say is that I have enjoyed parts of it with reckless abandon...

Literal picture of me reading through the absolutely ridiculous battle between Kashi-chan and Kin-chan:

I also think that, at best, we have gotten in-depth character studies (because Gege is harping on the idea about the sense of self being at the core of power in JJK) and needed exposition. 

For example, even though Naoya coming back was soooooo cringe to me, I can still see the purpose it served in the narrative. Did I enjoy the journey? Not really. Same for Maki’s development.

The thing is that even if I agree with you on everything I just mentioned... I can’t unsee the story written between the lines even if the execution of the panels falls short, because I am always reading at a meta level.

I am passionate about story telling and how stories move humans, so to me, now that I’ve seen and acknowledge these flaws in the work, reading JJK is less about what’s on the panels, and more about the story he is trying to tell on a meta level through the panels.

My chosoyuki meta is a great example of me recognizing the story being told between the lines. And once I went down all of the rabbit holes I went down, even though I agree wholeheartedly that the execution fell short, the story told in the symbols was amazing to me. It honestly made me wish that Gege would have had the patience, time, energy, and space to birth that side story into the world the way it deserved to be told.

To me, I want Gege to be able to ground his vision onto the page, but if he is not able to, I’m still there for the “story” told between the lines because there’s so few mangaka whose imagination has captivated me.

In the end, as you say, it does feel like Gege is struggling to ground his vision into the page. And it kind of does suck because we, as an audience, have to work that much harder to understand the story he is trying to tell.

But the story being told is still there... so now it’s up to you to decide what you want to focus on: the flop, the bad execution, the failed attempt, JJK not living up to your expectations, or Gege, the flawed human behind the manga, trying and showing up.

What is good enough for you? That’s something for you to decide. 

I’m not saying to ignore the execution. 

I’m saying to remember that this is Gege’s first manga and that JJK is not what it started as--but not because it’s gotten worse, but rather because JJK is now more like Gege than it has ever been... because in a story like JJK where the strongest sorcerers have the strongest sense of self... yadda yadda yadda.

Trust the process: life is a journey, not a destination

I think your concern that you want to experience the ending makes a lot of sense and feels very relatable even at this point in my life. 

But the truth is... 

Foregoing the journey in favor of the destination is a recipe for perpetual dissatisfaction. Look at what happened to Denji after he finally got to touch boobs!

Ok yeah, there’s a lot more to it than that in this particular case but the concept still applies.

It also applies to JJK. Again, right now we can’t see the forest for the trees because Gege is executing a complex arc.

The timeline is confusing af, and I think it’s because he may be trying to pull a similar literary trick to what happened in Westworld’s season 1 and 2 where the timeline is scrambled out of order to purposely confuse and mislead the audience. 

Perhaps the timeline is out of order for another grand purpose. Perhaps he just thought it would be fun and wanted to try to execute a fun literary trick.

But we won’t know until he delivers--and delivering is a process, not a destination.

And you know what... if you still get to the end and realize that you didn’t like JJK and the latter part of the story ruined your love for JJK, well...

It’s personal

Dude like... I respect that people LOVE Chainsaw Man, and I also think Chainsaw Man is ridiculously overhyped. I’ve seen countless of videos with people hyping it as the all end be all of manga and that Fujimoto is a genius and...

I. 

just. 

don’t. 

get. 

it.

I am just not a fan of Fujimoto’s brand of navel-gazing existentialism. It feels so anti-climatic to me.

Does that mean that CSM objectively sucks and is bad?! No. It’s personal.

Similarly, I overhype the hell out of CLAMP manga, and I am also aware that people might read CLAMP manga and not like it. 

Even so, to me, the four women behind CLAMP are genius story-tellers.

Shameless Subaru and CLAMP plug because this is one of my favorite Tokyo Babylon panels.

It comes back to personal taste, right?

For me, I love JJK despite the flaws because I still love the story being told between the lines, I find Gege’s brand of ironic humor funny, and I like how the story has progressed. 

Say goodbye to mainstream, Gege’s work might become a cult classic moving forward

Now... I bring up Fujimoto and CLAMP to illustrate the idea that there are people who are going to be dedicated fans of a mangaka and their work, people who enjoy and appreciate their work but don’t necessarily love it,  people who are in it for the hype, and people who don’t like their work.

CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura is mainstream hype. Tokyo Babylon and Clover are what you read when you’re a hardcore fan.

Fujimoto’s CSM is mainstream hype. Fire dude punch something something and Goodbye Eri is what you read when you’re a hardcore fan. 

Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop is mainstream hype. Zankyou no Terror and Carole and Tuesday are what you watch when you’re a hardcore fan.

Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen is mainstream hype. 

Gege followed the Battle Shonen recipe, added his own twists, and created an accidental mega hit. In fact, oddly enough, JJK has always been known as a story that defies expectations and uses tropes in new and unexpected ways.

So what happened? Why are people not liking Gege’s current execution?

To me, there’s something about how JJK is written that has changed, and it has nothing to do with Gege’s ability to write, and everything to do with his sense of self, who he has become in the process of writing JJK, and what he wants to express through his work.

In other words, JJK is more like Gege than it has ever been. Some people are going to like that, and some are not. 

Truth is that Gege is one of the VERY few mangaka who can write beautiful, multidimensional, engaging and extremely human characters who are true to their nature and aspirations.

He also writes on a very meta level and you don’t see that very often... like at all. 

All this to say that I think this is why you see such vastly different reactions in fandom right now. 

Some people still think he’s a fantastic writer and that he’s writing a unique work that has transcended generic Shonen tropes (like yours truly), and some people think that the way JJK is right now is generic Shonen. I don’t understand this last take but...

Who is right?

Who holds THE ultimate truth?

It doesn’t really matter because it’s personal.

All I know is that I am going to keep up with anything Gege publishes moving forward because I like the story he is telling through JJK.

Above all, I’m curious to see what other stories want to be born through him into this world.

Now, I HIGHLY recommend you listen to this 20 minute Ted talk by Elizabeth Gilbert to understand what I mean when I say that Gege is giving birth to stories. Her talk is a mind-opening take on what happens to your sense of self when you accidentally write a mega hit, and how that in turn affects your creative process.

I don’t know that this is how Gege sees his work as a mangaka, but I have to wonder about the possibility that Gege, someone who has very clearly studied the psychology of Carl Jung, sees JJK as an exercise in creative imagination, and/or as a story he’s been handed from the collective unconscious.

His job as a mangaka is to show up and write, to play, to express himself creatively.

That means that sometimes what he writes is going to be magnificent in the eyes of others, and sometimes it’s going to fall short of everybody’s expectations.

And that’s what it comes down to... 

Expectations

I see a lot of people complain about JJK failing to live up to their expectations without acknowledging that their expectations are simply that, expectations.

There’s nothing wrong with having expectations per se, and it is also important to realize when expectations are defining what we think is and isn’t good enough. 

And let’s not forget that you too probably don’t live up to other’s expectations. Does that mean that your effort too isn’t good enough? Gosh now I sound like Lacus.

Again... who holds the ultimate truth?

In the end, Gege is the one telling the Jujutsu Kaisen story. 

I also cannot emphasize enough that Gege is also a mangaka in the very early stages of his writing career. 

I don’t buy that his writing was better in the beginning of JJK. 

Quite the opposite, I see his writing AND art in the beginning of JJK as having followed a recipe: the three man team, found family, the strong mentor figure, etc... all the tropes are there executed in fresh and unexpected ways. 

But that was 5 years ago. Again... in a story like JJK where the strongest sorcerers have the strongest sense of self... what does that mean for Gege?

That said, Gege isn’t following the same recipe anymore, he’s coming up with his own recipe and he’s learning how to write his own recipe.

This is not to make excuses for him, it’s just something to think about because most people aren’t born naturally talented at anything that requires mastery, and writing is a craft that requires mastery through execution. 

As a quick side note, if you read Tokyo Babylon and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP, the 10+ year gap between both manga shows a marked improvement in the writing. AND EVEN THEN CLAMP MANAGED TO FUCK UP THE TSUBASA PLOT!

In other words, Gege has to fail to get better. 

Now add to that the pressure of a weekly publishing schedule that dampens the creative process with tight deadlines, and then on top of that having to draw the whole thing. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

Gosh, if I had to guess, I would have to say Gege is ready for an extended vacation. 

But, as you say, I also just want for him to be satisfied with his story. 

As for us being satisfied with his story... well, it depends on what we choose to focus on.

Will you focus on how he failed at executing his vision?

Will you focus on the beautiful story he told between the lines?

Or will you focus on how how he managed to tell a beautiful story despite failing at the execution?

Can you hold the tension of opposites?

Ok SO SORRY this took me so long to get back to you my dear recurring anon. I just had so many thoughts because, like I said before, I agree with you, and I also wanted to challenge you to see things a little differently without being patronizing.

In the end, you want to continue to love JJK, right? 

So love JJK! 

Acknowledge its flaws and be at peace with them for the sake of that love. Nothing is perfect.

Anyways, I love that we can be in conversation about this and that you have come to me to share your thoughts on jjk. 

Merci beaucoup. 

[doomerpatrol]

Comic Log: Agent Venom by Rick Remender

A mixed bag. I like a lot of the artists that worked on this book, particularly Lan Medina and Declan Shalvey, who do good jobs of capturing the emotional extremes that the Venom symbiote represents. However, I've yet to be impressed by Remender as a writer - neither of the runs I've read from him (this and his Punisher, which essentially gives up on its own concept halfway through) are particularly cohesive. Venom in particular is tonally inconsistent, riddled with scripting problems, and I think most frustratingly, lacks faith in its own premise. I don't know why that's a recurring trait in Remender's writing, but I'm two for two now!

While I think the dual concept of "Venom as secret agent / Flash Thompson trying to process the 'venom' in his bloodstream from a history of violent abuse and alcoholism" is very good, the book doesn't succeed at exploring either. We get approximately four issues and a "Spider-Island" crossover before all of the characters and concepts of "Agent Venom" are thrown out. What actually unifies Remender's run is not Flash wrestling with his status as a dog on a spiked leash for the military, or his struggle between living up to his hero and the temptation to slide back into a regressive stereotype. Instead, it is a supremely petty conflict between him and the "Crime-Master" (and a new, incredibly annoying and unfunny Jack O'Lantern). This central antagonist hires a "Savage Six" to torment Flash, menaces his family and his girlfriend Betty Brant, and is eventually revealed to be Betty's seemingly long-dead brother who appeared once in a Spider-Man story from the Stan Lee era. Ugh.

Somewhat ironically, Remender's Venom run repeatedly tethers itself to Spider-Man right when it's getting interesting, rather than take risks to carve out its own identity. It makes sense, since Flash Thompson and Venom are such fixtures of Spider-Man's mythos, and Spider-Man is Flash's hero. But 1) this era of Spider-books is revolting and I would rather not be reminded of its existence, and more importantly, 2) part of what is intriguing about the choice to put Flash in the Venom suit is that it's bold, it's different, it offers the opportunity for new supporting players and concepts. You can still have the "Flash trying to be less like his dad and more like Spidey" stuff, you can still do symbiote stories, but they should be stories that you would or could not get in the main Spider-Man titles. That's what makes the first issue work quite well, as well as the start of the "road trip" arc.

That sort of unique possibility is undermined by doing the same kind of Peter Parker-esque plots over and over again. "Our protagonist is always late or never around, and his girlfriend gets kidnapped because of his lies about his secret identity, and also he has to decide if he wants to kill someone (even though this moral quandary is insanely meaningless here because he is a long-standing member of a professional military and his reluctance to take life is not presented as an alternative to that militaristic outlook)." It's played out, it's karaoke.

But Remender's run also doesn't do the work of getting us invested as readers in the plots it does present. There is basically no real supporting cast minus Betty, and she's playing a generic love interest. Flash's family gets dangled as an "oh no!" moment, but we barely get any interaction with them, so the threat to them has no real weight. His military handlers are cardboard cutouts. And of course, we have the incredibly obnoxious new Jack O'Lantern, who sets himself up as arch-nemesis to Flash and basically acts as like a more politically incorrect, watered-down Deadpool. And my god, there are so many dangling threads of plot and characterization that just go nowhere in this run. (Thought Flash might have to face literally any consequences for going AWOL? Nope. Thought Flash might be a little more mind-blown by being an Avenger now? Nope.)

Flash is a character that had a lot of history before they decided to make him a superhero, so there's a lot to potentially explore: his former status as a bully, his alcoholism, his disability, his relationship with his abusive parents, his hero-worship of Spider-Man. But although these things are often alluded to, it's only in the final issue that any of them get meaningfully elaborated on, and even there it's not enough. It is very possible to tie these different concepts together - I think the most obvious move would be to very explicitly present Flash as wrestling with an alternative between emulating his hero and regressing to the things he hates about himself that he identifies with his father (deception, alcoholism, violent temper), which his involvement with the military relies on or exacerbates. But Remender treats them as disconnected, piecemeal elements: a little alcohol relapse here (with no consequences), a little abuse plotline here (handled very inconsistently in a way that suggests haphazard characterization rather than an authentic struggle with processing a parent's violence). It all just kind of adds up to nothing because the character doesn't really learn or develop or adapt - he ends in pretty much the same place he began, emotionally speaking.

I'm not sure if I'll continue with Cullen Bunn's follow-up run - it seems, at very least, like it might have a slightly more unified vision that seeks to set the book apart from just a second-tier Spider-story. But I was thoroughly unimpressed with Remender's run, so I'm not exactly eager to continue.

Favorite issue: the final one, "Father's Day" - it's imperfect, but the Shalvey art is gorgeous and I like the way that it ties up the themes of Flash's attempt to become a better person than his father. Wish the story had meaningfully addressed those things instead of just mentioning them a lot. And I liked the start of the road-trip arc because it promised brighter things, though those were quickly snuffed out when Jack O'Lantern came back.

[loregoddess]

no spoilers below the cut, I was just having a lot of thoughts about Engage earlier that I felt like I wanted to write--talking about the narrative themes and motifs in broad strokes, so no specific spoilers or character names (aside from a brief Alear mention bc, protag). Mostly just wanted to get the thoughts down, bc damn this game is so good

was thinking about Engage earlier, and specifically like, how really carefully written the themes and stuff are and just how well written they are, like sure, the plot's nothing special, it's simple and predictable, and that is honestly the beauty of it. Because when you're not trying to write the most interesting plot in the world, when you're not caught up in trying to plan the best plot twist or most deranged events to top previous games' deranged events, when you allow yourself to have a simple, even campy or corny, earnestly campy and simple plot, then you free yourself to have so much room to really dig deep and explore the actual narrative themes and motifs like, like--

there's a recurring theme of loss and grief. The entire narrative is arguably about grieving. It's not as easy to track as like, the symbolism of the Five Stages of Grief in Majora's Mask, but how Engage handles grief is still so deeply, carefully, thoughtfully written. There's the obvious grief of losing a loved one, yes, but it's also about the grief of losing the past, of becoming a new person (however good that may be, there's still the loss, a "death," of the past self), the grief of growing up and being unable to return to simpler times, the grief of the onward march of time and of losing what precious time one has. There's so much grief in Engage, and yet the story is so, bittersweetly, hopeful, for it is also a story of healing, and metamorphosis, and love.

adjacent to the themes of grief are also recurring narrative themes of self and identity. There are several characters who, whether by their own choice or by forces outside there control, have a separation from their past self. And there's a variety of characters in different stages of this life change. Some are very near to their old self, trying to remake themselves into a person they want to be but they're not there yet, they're in the messy area between their past self and who they want to become. There's characters who've become the person they were trying to become, but are still haunted by their pasts. There are characters who seek to know their pasts, because the truth is essential and important, no matter how painful. And there are characters who know they will have to change, to become a new version of themselves, who either resist that or try to waylay that future. And it's so fascinating, because every character is treated as the best possible version of themselves, in the present moment, no matter where they are in their personal journey, because at the end of the day we can only be the person we are in the present, no matter how close or far it is to who we want to be or who we were, and there is beauty in that, there is beauty in that perfectly imperfect present self, and that self is okay for simply being and trying

there's just, so many weird little narrative themes I keep finding the more I reflect on the game, and reading through more character supports and learning more about the characters, and like, this really is a gem of a narrative experience. Because the scale of the narrative is so small, it's not like the characterization or worldbuilding can be easily mixed up or inconsistently written, there are no branching timelines to confound the writers with "what ifs"--there's just a simple, straightforward concept that allowed deeper thematic elements of the narrative to shine through, and the cast of characters is incredibly consistent and surprisingly varied, making the entire experience of the narrative overall just, really incredible

sure there's not the nuance of the horrors of war or whatever, but in my opinion FE has never been a good series for war-critical narratives, since the war is almost always just a game mechanics backdrop and narrative metaphor for whatever issue the characters are actually dealing with. And that's part of what makes Engage so good to me, is that, yes there's a war and a zombie apocalypse going on, yes these are part of the plot, but they're at best metaphoric devices to reflect the actual inner struggles of Alear and several other characters, for moving through grief can feel like a battle, and trying to gain a grasp of one's self and identity is a struggle at times, and what is fantasy for if not reflecting the most confusing inner turmoil in fantastic, over-the-top--and therefore safe--settings?

[perryhedge]

yugioh sevens - goha 6 elementary arc

finally finished this arc!

overall i liked it, but not as much as maximum. i didn't find asana particularly compelling on her own (same with her go rush counterpart) or as a foil to yuuga and some of the one-off duels were just alright. the major theme of this arc was freedom vs duty, so i thought it was weird that gakuto didn't have much of a focus when that's his whole thing...but instead that theme was mostly explored through tazaki and ranze. poor romin I don't think even had a duel past the one with the sushi lady where she LOSES......lol.

there was some of my favorite episodes yet though. the luke club episode...pure genius. when the show really gets into a certain rhythm of high-paced absurdity, i feel like i connect with its humor really strongly. loved the tiger episode as well...and honestly the rush duel / rappa duet gag killed me. there's this absolutely wild improvisational energy to the way the story moves episode to episode sometimes, which i find refreshing and honestly a little shocking -- it takes a long time to make anime, so i feel like you rarely see something so spontaneous as allowing entire storylines to be built on of silly puns or callbacks. of course, not all these gags are hits, since the giant cast of recurring characters mostly stick to a one joke quota. there are several who i'm already sick of (and the fact that they are brought into go rush exacerbates this). but i'm surprised at how many of the gags do make me laugh every time, and even when they don't i have to marvel at the absolute gall to write some of that stuff. this manic quality is definitely emblematic of bridge era writing, and i'm not 100% sure who to attribute it to, but i'd guess based on knowing a few fans of his work that director nobuhiro kondou had a hand in this.

the animation of the show is already catastrophic, which i expected, but still bums me out massively. if i didn't like the characters so much, i'd definitely have stopped watching by now, because okay is seemingly the best it will ever get. i remember being shocked that some earlier episodes looked actually good, but those days are behind me now, it seems. and look, i know why it's like this -- covid definitely plays a role, and looking at their work bridge seems like a studio that loves to push out as much anime as possible and that situation cannot be good for a production schedule. it just depresses me, because although even in the gallop era yugioh was never a super lavishly animated affair, and fan favorites (i'm fan) like gx were definitely not the prettiest anime ever made, i would like some flashy poses, some interesting layouts, just something, anything to look at. anyway, i guess that's just why i watch shadowverse, too.

i also noticed it feels like there's more luke focus this arc, which makes sense. though the final duel this arc ended up pretty hype, it seems like yuuga is a bit of a struggle to write conflict with. he can't really be allowed to fail, unless it's existential despair for him, or maybe even rush duels itself, lol. that's why I found the maximum arc so compelling. on the other hand, luke's whole life is failure in a sense, and I say that with love. it's much easier to write interesting scenarios around, both where he's the butt of the joke but also his unexpected triumphs. i really like luke as a character so i don't really mind if the show does shift more focus on him. as usual no idea where the show is going next so looking forward to it

[kitewithfish]

Reading Meme for Feb 1 2023

What I've Read Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Oh, man, the last third of this book is just payoff after payoff - stuff that I was certain was going to be left to be resolved in the next book was just laid out in front of your eyes and it worked so damned well. This was my second attempt to read this book - the first time, just after it came out, I made charts and tried to keep track of all the characters and figure out the mystery of the whole thing, well, I had some trouble. The second time around had a much better result when I just let the whole thing wash over me.  I really enjoyed this book and I'm starting on the next one immediately.   Penric's Fox - Lois McMaster Bujold - I am still really enjoying this series, which are short mysteries set in the Chalion universe with a metaphysical  'odd couple'- a young human man with no background in magic is host of a centuries-old demon who has the memories and personalities of nine previous women hosts as part of her constituent parts. They fight crime! It's also got touches of the kind of settled affection that I tend to associate with long-married couples who still adore each other. Penric gets roped into solving murders that are short and clear, with a cast of interesting recurring characters and a boss who is a badass woman in her 70s. The mysteries are a bit straightforward but explore some of the interesting edge cases of how magic in their world works. Fun palette cleansing reads. (I which Bujold had a little more eye for queer relationships in her books but what she does provide is emotionally solid, so, meh.) I'm Not As Think As You Drunk I Am - Mardiaz173 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33021898 - Clark Kent/ Bruce Wayne - DC comics universe - This was just a nice short little fic where Superman wants desperately to date Batman, but Bruce Wayne keeps showing Clark a side of himself that few people get to see. Which will our hero choose? (I read this on the recommendation of the podcast Clio/Mireille for their Sept 2022 episode on Superman/Batman Identity Porn fic.) It is a fun fic and a charming podcast. Living With a Tiger by x_los - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33488392 - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù - Original Luò Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán, post Post-Bingge vs. Bingmei Extra - I am delving at last into the fic for the Scum Villain fandom, and I love the set-up on this. X_los wrote an AU that really delves into a grey version of the characters from the canon, and I really enjoyed it. (If you don't care to read the canon, this is still mostly intelligible on its own.) The tags are accurate. What I'm Reading Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir has got her hooks in my soul. Like with Gideon the Ninth, I was spoiled by tumblr osmosis for some elements of this book, but I honestly don't think it matters! Starts basically directly after Gideon the Ninth and I am glad I followed my friend's recommendation to start this book immediately upon finishing Gideon, as my poor memory would not have helped with understanding this book. I find these books do very little explicit handholding of like, "Character realized that this new development related back to This Setup from Chapter 2" and yet Muir does indeed set up enough reminders to guide you back to the points you need to recall for the payoff to be satisfying. What I'll Read Next Phoenix Extravagant - Yun Ha Lee - Book Club The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - The library wants this back and I don't want to give it back! I might end up having to buy more of the Ihimaera books I want to read - local libraries are NOT great about having these around, and I am slow. The Good Lord Bird Library books Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys Unnamed Midwife (whole series)

Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, True Colors by Karen Traviss, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe, Aphorisms of Kerishdar