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thebastardofgloucester · 5 years ago

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So...The Rise of Skywalker (Spoilers, obviously)

No Star Wars movie is anywhere close to perfect. Frankly, they all have serious flaws of logistics or plot logic or characterisation changes or deus ex machinas or lack of originality (which includes A New Hope when you look at its inspirations). It's pointless and silly to pretend otherwise. At its best, Star Wars overcomes that with captivating characters, glorious spectacle, and John Williams.

I think you'll all be familiar with how much I disliked The Last Jedi (and chafed at being lumped in for disliking the movie in with bigots, unimaginative fanboys, and the like).

I liked The Rise of Skywalker. A lot. It had more than enough to offset its major shortcomings, in my opinion. It was not 'soulless,' it was not a complete recreation of Return of the Jedi anymore than The Last Jedi was a rough retelling of The Empire Strikes Back, and it was not as bad or incoherent as Attack of the Clones, jfc are you high

There are certain areas where I am more sympathetic to that not being the case for some people than others. I don't think it completely junked The Last Jedi, but it did demonstrate a huge gap in creative visions, preferred plot structures, and other priorities. Blame for that should not lie with JJ Abrams (or Chris Terrio) or Rian Johnson, who did what they thought was best, and what they were hired to do, and what they thought audiences would enjoy. It should lie with the Lucasfilm story group and Kathleen Kennedy, who had every opportunity to make a trilogy with a united vision and simply declined to do so. (There are a set of different issues with Disney that I'll get to)

Anyway, here's my take on individual components.

Rey ‘Palpatine’

We might as well start with the single most contentious part of the film, and where it is perceived (wrongly, in my opinion) to clash the most with The Last Jedi: Rey being of the Palpatine bloodline.

Rey's arc was about pushing past her own past traumas and doubts and the repeated attempts of other people to define who she was to make her own identity. It is about the refutation of destiny, of genetic determinism. I'm not really sure how anyone really came away with a different impression. I understand being annoyed that Rey couldn't just come from nothing, but call me an annoying fanboy - I wanted some explanation for how Rey was a match for the grandson of literal Space Jesus. Anakin being the most powerful Jedi ever born (and how he was failed by those who were supposed to guide him to that destiny) is kind of central to the entire mythology of Star Wars. Is it reductive and elitist? I guess. I certainly enjoy having Jedi not born of the Skywalker bloodline in the old EU and the Clone Wars/Rebels story. I was frustrated by killing off all of Luke's students as part of resetting the universe in The Force Awakens, and never learning anything about them.

Honestly, as somebody who was in the Rey Skywalker camp (and wrote fanfiction to that effect!), I was glad to be wrong. This was better. It gave Rey more agency, and emphasized found family.

The exposition is weird and clunky. JJ clearly meant for Rey to have some kind of blood link to the previous mythology of the series - you cannot watch the sequence in Maz's castle and tell me otherwise. Rian didn't want to tell that story. JJ did. Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm threw their hands up in the air and Disney raked in the cash. Looking at that Maz castle beat, there's a very good case to be made that Rey was supposed to be either a Skywalker or a Solo, and Palpatine was JJ's attempt to not completely throw out Rian's idea (that her parents went into hiding, becoming 'no one,' abandoning her and being killed somewhere else - their motivations in TLJ (drunks ditching her) are imputed by Kylo and Rey's own fears of abandonment, remember).

Weirdly, I think that of the outcomes, Palpatine was the best one. Explaining how Rey ends up alone on Jakku when she's related to either Luke or Leia is pretty hard without further damaging their characters. Palpatine having lovers, mistresses, whatever before Mace melted his face is gross but entirely plausible. The timeline is...confusing - I guess there's enough basis for Palpatine still having agents running around, chasing down Rey, that even years after his death Rey's parents would leave her behind in an attempt to protect her. It's a bit muddy, but so was Anakin being Luke and Leia's father before we had the prequels. A novel here would probably help if it is written competently)

The point is that Rey's arc refutes genetic destiny. Instead of being afraid of her, as the Jedi were of Anakin (and to an extent, the Skywalkers were of Ben) Luke and Leia (specifically Leia) allow her to grow into her own person, and ultimately she chooses to take the name Skywalker to honor them (and Ben's sacrifice). The problem in my mind is less that Rey is a Palpatine by blood or a Skywalker by choice, and more that she's the only Jedi standing at the end of the trilogy. Making Finn's absolutely obvious force sensitivity a bigger deal narratively in TROS would have helped a lot (more on that later). And we still have the important implications of Broom Boy! He's not erased from existence, there simply wasn't room for his story in these 2.5 hours.

The First Act (and a bit)

The first 30 minutes or so of The Rise of Skywalker are...nuts. They feel less like a movie and more like a series of trailers or a 'previously on' for a movie we never saw. It's about as well done as it could be at establishing plot threads, the situation of the Resistance v the First Order, and where characters are starting from, as you could reasonably expect, but it's like cramming the entirety of the Jabba's Palace segment of Return of the Jedi into about half its runtime, at most.

What it comes down to, and I said this at the time, is that The Last Jedi is a very bad sequel to The Force Awakens. That doesn't (REPEAT: DOES NOT) make it bad film, or even a bad Star Wars film. But in terms of what the middle movie of a planned trilogy should be. It is. Not Good. JJ had seeded hints of Rey's origins and opened a bunch of mysteries. You can contend that he never intended or was never capable of answering them, and I think that's entirely unfair and reducing JJ's opus to the unsatisfying ending of 'Lost' is stupid and lazy, but they were there. The Last Jedi threw all of that out with extreme prejudice. I deeply disliked that; other people didn't. Either way, you had a problem (and you would have had even more of a problem if Colin Trevorrow had directed Episode IX as planned - this could have been SO. MUCH. WORSE.). The Rise of Skywalker is a natural sequel to The Force Awakens, though Palpatine's return could have been foreshadowed much better (or at all, if we're honest?) and it really makes me wonder how much changed from the first drafts of The Force Awakens to the version of The Rise of Skywalker we saw on screen.

I saw some criticisms that we had to read the tie-in material (including a bit from Fortnite??) to understand all the specifics of what planets these were, who Kylo Ren was murdering, etc...I don’t really think any of that was particularly important. It actually opens up a ton of new storytelling opportunities and made the universe feel big again, which The Last Jedi didn’t, at least for me. Apparently the planet Kylo is fighting on is Mustafar. That...doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense (maybe we finally have a Star Wars world that isn’t a single biome?) but it wasn’t actually that important. We saw Kylo searching for the Sith Wayfinder and murdering anybody in his way, we saw Poe and Finn being pursued from one end of the universe to another, and we got the 16 hour deadline before the fleet was ready (which was...weird, admittedly, but not in the slightest less weird that the fleet running out of fuel on a slow-motion chase or needing to fly off to an entirely different system to find a ‘code breaker’ to counter a techo gadget thing that let you trace people through hyperspace.

And yeah, if you are going to forgive The Last Jedi the dumb codebreaker/fuel shit which led to the detached Canto Bight B plot, you have to just acknowledge the Wayfinder thing as a macguffin that gets the plot moving in a certain direction and gives a clear path from narrative point a to narrative point b. Rian is not ahead of JJ on this aspect.

The subsequent fetch quest is less about the macguffin and more about the character beats on the way. Kylo and his boy band pursue Rey, Rey realizes her powers are kinda scary and hella impressive (including the healing mechanic, which is entirely precedented in past canon), you get to see some brilliant, funny, and touching moments between the trio we were not allowed in The Last Jedi, Rey discovers hints about her past, and Lando shows up.

We also get to my least favorite part of the film.

Poe Dameron is Better Than This

I do not understand why they ret-conned Poe into having a past as a smuggler, or why Keri Russell’s character was even necessary. You could explain it as youthful rebellion, maybe after Poe’s mom Shara Bey died (both his parents were Rebel veterans - that’s a lot of pressure), but it fits awkwardly into the established timeline.

The one good thing that came out of it was a moment where Poe is tempted to leave the Resistance, but that only makes sense because of Poe’s terrible hotheaded, reckless characterization in The Last Jedi, neither of which at all fit with his portrayal in the Poe Dameron comics (which are excellent). Poe eventually gets where he needs to be, and the conversation with Lando after Leia passes is one of the best moments of the film, and justified bringing Lando all by itself. Oscar Isaac is apparently really frustrated with Poe’s character and I cannot blame him. Rian Johnson started this weirdness, and it is one of the greatest flaws of The Last Jedi and more people need to acknowledge how racist it was to reduce a 30-something brown-skinned veteran to an impulsive, out of control idiot who gets physically and verbally smacked around by two white women, and JJ didn’t really try to fix it. I guess his arc kinda works in a vacuum. I still deeply dislike it. Cutting that entire section down to the bare bones would have made more room for...

Finn and the Triad

The dynamic between Finn, Poe, and Rey was fantastic. There is abundant basis for Finn and Poe to be canon romantic interests, and I cannot conclude it was anything but Disney’s cowardice that prevented that from happening (and honestly, same for Finn and Rey). JJ is no more to blame than Rian - I genuinely believe this came from higher up. It sucks. A lot. What we do get is precious, and frankly makes Rian’s argument for separating them (that they would get along and it would be boring) kinda silly. They are also incredibly funny together - John, Isaac, and Daisy play off each other so damn well, and I was cackling when the Falcon was on fire and Poe was mad about BB-8.

Finn is absolutely force sensitive. It is apparently what he was trying to say to Rey, he has feelings that turn out to be correct like three times, he wielded a lightsaber with some proficiency in The Force Awakens. It’s canon. Why it isn’t explicit is a function of the Force User plot becoming divorced from Finn and Poe in The Last Jedi. JJ and Terrio also could have fixed that, and chose not to.

We got a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been with Janna and the other defectors. It was really good, but it wasn’t nearly enough, and I am Mad about it. To borrow from some great ideas on twitter, Janna could have revealed that her unit heard about Finn on Jakku and it inspired them to defect. They could have together swayed a bunch of reluctant stormtroopers to rebel (they were otherwise just treated as facist canon-fodder, which, not great when a lot of them are child soldiers!). It was perfectly set up from TFA and they just...dropped the ball.

Like I said, I’m Mad. TLJ did nothing with Finn as a defector or the child soldier thing in general, and TROS did the bare minimum. Huge, huge wasted opportunity. We got promises that we’d get to find out more about who Finn is and...we didn’t, or at least, not in the theatrical cut. TLJ had a scene of Finn and Phasma talking about his being a traitor/defector. Rian cut it down to a fight scene and the ‘Rebel Scum’ line. Writers jail for both of them, tbh, though JJ clearly cared about Finn (he’s why the character exists as he does, as why Boyega was cast, and maybe if TLJ doesn’t make Kylo into Rey’s co-protagonist we get something different. I'm not going to blame Rian for something JJ could have fixed if he cared to.

And least we got something, I guess.

Kylo Ben

I think the first time I actually cared about Ben Solo as a character was when Kylo symbolically ‘died,’ and Ben was saved by Rey’s healing abilities. That was excellent writing, even if it was not subtle. I liked Leia and Han (as part of Ben’s memories) have a role in helping him find some sort of redemption. I was frustrated and mad that Anakin Skywalker’s grandkid could be a straight up space fascist with even fewer redeeming qualities. He still deserved to die. He had no family to go back to and he was directly responsible for thousands of innocent deaths and closely linked to the death of trillions. Like Vader, you don’t just come back from that.

Like Anakin, Ben made his own choices. Was he manipulated by Snoke/Palpatine? Sure. He still had multiple occasions to chose differently and did not. It’s part of his flaws as a character. Han and Leia did their best as parents - we find out Leia even abandoned her Jedi training because she was afraid for her son. Ben’s inevitable fall (which mirrors that of Jacen Solo, a truly fascinating character who I will always be Mad about) soured the sequel trilogy from the start in some ways, but it is hard to envision it without Ben turning. I don’t know. I think without Ben being who he was we simply have a different set of movies.

The kiss is...I don’t even know. Rey clearly cared about Ben, and believed he could change, but also refused to compromise who she was in order to pull him back to the light. I would have vastly preferred a forehead kiss or something along those lines.

On balance I’m glad he got a Vader redemption. I think Palpatine came back in part because Ben simply was not a particularly captivating villain, and without him to provide contrast and make the stakes clear, Ben’s redemption is not possible, and that’s arguably an even worse outcome, especially given how he was manipulated so much at an impressionable age. I’m really glad Leia had a chance to influence his turn as her final act in this life (Carrie deserved a better ending but it was the best they could do after Carrie’s death imo).

Grandpa Palps

First, Palpatine finding a way to survive and setting up multiple contingency plans to return to power is completely in keeping with his portrayal in both the old and Nu EUs (a big part of the post-Endor stuff is Operation Cinder, where Palpatine posthumously ordered the scouring of dozens of Imperial loyalist worlds to spread fear and prevent the Empire from continuing without him). Palpatine also LOVES his superweapons - he built two Death Stars, ffs. A fleet of them is not exactly a stretch in terms of strategy. The Rise of Skywalker definitely felt like it owed a debt to one of the more divisive bits of the old Star Wars EU - the Dark Empire series of comics by Tom Veitch and Kevin J Anderson, which have cloned Palpatines, Luke turning to the Dark Side, an ungodly number of superweapons, and a planet where Palpatine hides and builds them after his defeat.

I don’t think his survival ruins Anakin’s arc - Anakin’s actions still destroyed Palpatine’s Empire (that he helped to build) and its 26 year reign of terror. The galaxy got 30 years of relative peace and then a war that was not nearly as destructive or large scale as the Galactic Civil War. People saying it makes Anakin’s arc irrelevant are just being silly.

Retconning Snoke to a cloned puppet (probably an unwitting one) is actually not a bad writing choice. It explains why he was such a cardboard cut-out villain, and why he was so easily defeated. Honestly, I’m far more okay with how he died in The Last Jedi now that I know this (even if the pacing and the placement of that scene is still utterly bizarre).

The new EU set up cults and fanatics around the Dark Side and its avatars in the emperor and Vader. None of that felt particularly implausible to me as a result.

Legacies in the Sequel Trilogy

I really loved the ‘thousand generations live in you’ conceit. I loved the power of the old Jedi, snuffed out by Palpatine, helping Rey defeat him one last time (including my girl Ahsoka, RIP, I'm sure you went out like a badass). These are legacies and powers that don’t require blood ties or dynasties, they just rely on the force spanning the whole of the GFFA.

Ben is offered the chance to either turn away from his grandfather’s dark path early enough to warrant redemption, or to follow it through until the end. He actually chooses to do neither. With Leia’s dying intercession, he ends up following Anakin’s path to an extent, but his story is ultimately about the tragedy of expectations, fears, and the immense weight of the Skywalker name and legacy. All of his family are caught up in it. Rey is mostly apart from it, and then explicitly subverts her destiny to be Palpatine’s heir, and faces her fear of ending up there, by intent or just fate. As Luke says, some things are stronger than blood. Rey’s story is the ultimate testament to that, and it’s a pretty powerful message.

Leia. Oh god. I was absolutely thrilled when we found out she trained as a Jedi, and then served as Rey’s Jedi Master after Luke failed Rey so badly (after failing Ben). I think Luke’s story from TLJ to TROS is easily the most consistent, honestly. He made mistakes, both with Ben, and then with Rey, and he recognized it. The Rise of Skywalker acknowledges that Luke wasn’t right in how he handled training Rey either, and that went a long way to making me better accept how Rian portrayed him as flippant and dismissive and cynical.

Carrie’s absence was so badly felt. As I’ve said previously, I think they did the best job they could with the footage they held back and Carrie’s recorded audio. They managed to give her a relatively coherent story and an effect on the plot which she didn’t really have in The Last Jedi. I’ve seen speculation that it was supposed to be Leia, not Luke, who gave Rey that pep talk on Ahch-To, and in some ways it might have made more sense. Selfishly, I’m still glad it was Luke, because it helped reconcile my feelings about him in The Last Jedi. But they really did a great job in a really, really tough situation.

Rose Tico

Let’s just get it out there: the film’s treatment of Rose Tico and Kelly Marie Tran was inexcusably bad. Whether her character was a great addition to the cast in the Last Jedi or not, KMT faced horrendous abuse from various bigots and assholes, and after making a lot of public promises they reduced her to barely a minute of screen-time and no real impact on the plot. It’s shitty, it’s bad, and JJ and Disney should feel bad.

Introducing a character like Rose mid-way through a trilogy is risky, and while it worked with Lando, JJ clearly had no idea what to do with her. It’s just a mess, it’s the biggest black mark on the film, and on the sequel trilogy more broadly. Nobody comes out looking good here, and Rose Tico needs a Disney + series of her own or something. Protect Kelly Marie Tran at all costs.

The Rest

- Lando was great. So great. I wish we’d gotten the line that his daughter had been stolen by the First Order (and thus was potentially Janna) - we’d better get a book or a film or something. Lando’s conversation with Poe salvaged his character arc. Billy Dee Williams did a damn good job getting in shape for the role. He came out as genderfluid recently. He’s an absolute treasure and thank god they didn’t waste him.

- I just wanted to reiterate how HAPPY I AM THAT JJ ABRAMS MADE LEIA A JEDI HOLY SHIT

- It was a blink and you’ll miss it moment for people who didn’t read Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath series, but the death of Temmin ‘Snap’ Wexley in a battle where his step-dad (Wedge Antilles) made a brief appearance was devastating and I still don’t know how to feel about it.

- The space battles were awesome. Lando and Chewie bringing in the cavalry was what we were so cruelly teased for in The Last Jedi, which I am still mad about. Forget the logistics, forget the story logic, it was awesome. Maybe in the future I’ll be more annoyed. I honestly doubt it.

- Hux lives (and dies) for drama. He’s the pettiest son of a bitch in the GFFA, he would absolutely turn informant to win his fight with Kylo Ren, especially if he suspected that Kylo had killed Snoke and then was an incompetent child. His dying shortly thereafter is honestly exactly what the character deserved.

- On the cavalry moment, and the galaxy rising to destroy the First Order - I loved it in Return of the Jedi’s special edition, I love it here. There’s a thematic resonance with our heroes overcoming their fear and the galaxy at large being stirred to action. I just wish we’d gotten a few ragtag forces to show up at Crait, but that was a choice Rian made. I’m glad JJ chose differently. It was incredibly Star Wars.

- The 3PO stuff was weird, especially given how emotionally centred it was in the final trailers. It was also tied up in the Poe stuff I disliked. I don’t really know what else to say. At least R2D2, BB-8, and him felt like characters, not purely plot devices.

- Chewie - his reaction to losing Leia was absolutely devastating, his relationship with the next gen trio was great, and his death fake-out was...weird. I could go either way with that - killing him would have been a huge risk I could have respected, on the other hand if he was going to go out he deserved better than that (like, say, a moon getting dropped on him saving the life of Han Solo's kid). His ‘death’ did set up a crucial character beat for Rey. And there were, in fact, two transports, I remember that.

TLDR;

It was a fun movie! It tried to do way too much because The Last Jedi was not an effective sequel to The Force Awakens, and that’s on Kennedy and the LFL story group more than anyone else. It nailed the broad strokes of the Jedi/Force plot in my opinion, including subverting genetic destiny and the power of blood ties over everything else. In the process, it let a number of characters down, who were unfortunately also the characters of color, which is: not great.

I found it rewarding as a fan. It rewarded my faith in the goodness of the denizens of the GFFA and the power of found family. I’ve loved Rey from the start and I’m thrilled with how her arc ended with her burying the Skywalker legacy and making a new start with her new family in Poe and Finn (and Rose, damn it). I’m glad it made me feel better about Luke Skywalker and finally made Leia a bona-fide lightsaber wielding Jedi. I was exhilarated coming out of it, instead of exhausted and frustrated like I was in The Last Jedi. It didn’t make me hate Star Wars. It had extreme Return of the Jedi energy, and that is literally all I needed out of this film.

Here’s to a load of more complex, nuanced, and adventurous storytelling that the Skywalker saga never really allowed. I’m still excited for the prospect of Rian working with his own characters in the universe. I think JJ should probably be done.

Chuck Wendig said that the Star Wars universe was junk. Fun, whimsical, exciting, but ultimately not really a well-crafted piece of art. I’m inclined to agree.

#martinus watches the star war #tros spoilers

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mirage-babey · 6 years ago

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Apex Legends - Hogwarts!AU

full character AU breakdowns under the cut

(will be updated as more details are thought of)

Bangalore

Hogwarts House: Gryffindor

Bravery, Daring, Nerve

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Fir wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 12 1/2”, Rigid flexibility

Fir: “Gerbold Octavius Ollivander always called wands of this wood ‘the survivor’s wand’, because he had sold it to three wizards who subsequently passed through mortal peril unscathed. There is no doubt that this wood, coming as it does from the most resilient of trees, produces wands that demand staying power and strength of purpose in their true owners, and that they are poor tools in the hands of the changeable and indecisive. Fir wands are particularly suited to Transfiguration, and favour owners of focused, strong-minded and, occasionally, intimidating demeanour.” [via Pottermore]

Dragon Heartstring: “As a rule, dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most power, and which are capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tend to learn more quickly than other types. The dragon wand tends to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it will not incline that way of its own accord. It is also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Defence Against the Dark Arts

Patronus: White Stallion

“Those with the white stallion patronus possess a strong sense of self. It is difficult to convince them to turn away from personal beliefs or change who they are. Strength and durability in character make the white stallion especially formidable compared to the conjurers of other horse type patronus. However, those who wield the white stallion can often be provocative and rub people up the way.” [via patronusmeaning]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Wampus

Extra:

Gryffindor Quidditch Team Beater and Captain

Gryffindor Prefect

Actually pretty good at charms but that doesn’t quite live up to the rep she’s built so she keeps that on the downlow

Bloodhound

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Dedication, Loyalty, Fairness, a good finder

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Hornbeam Wood, Phoenix Feather core, 12”, Unbending flexibility

Hornbeam: “Hornbeam selects for its life mate the talented witch or wizard with a single, pure passion, which some might call obsession (though I prefer the term ‘vision’), which will almost always be realised. Hornbeam wands adapt more quickly than almost any other to their owner’s style of magic, and will become so personalised, so quickly, that other people will find them extremely difficult to use even for the most simple of spells. Hornbeam wands likewise absorb their owner’s code of honour, whatever that might be, and will refuse to perform acts – whether for good or ill – that do not tally with their master’s principles. A particularly fine-tuned and sentient wand.” [via Pottermore]

Phoenix Feather: “This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Care of Magical Creatures

Patronus: Crow

“The crow is a very well-known bird that some believe is an omen of dark magic, but the crow is very resourceful, ambitious, and cunning. Once they set a goal, they always seem to get what they’re after. Crows are also fearless. Regardless of what sort of creature they find in the way of their goal, they will do anything they can to overpower it. They are also very smart and have been observed using tools to achieve their means.” [via mugglenet]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Thunderbird

Extra:

Was a hatstall (in addition to their Hufflepuff nature, they demonstrate a few Slytherin traits too, particularly with their resourcefulness)

Hufflepuff Quidditch Team Seeker

Hufflepuff prefect.

Caustic

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Intelligence, Learning, Originality

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Walnut Wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 12 1/4”, Stiff flexibility

Walnut: “Highly intelligent witches and wizards ought to be offered a walnut wand for trial first, because in nine cases out of ten, the two will find in each other their ideal mate. Walnut wands are often found in the hands of magical innovators and inventors; this is a handsome wood possessed of unusual versatility and adaptability. A note of caution, however: while some woods are difficult to dominate, and may resist the performance of spells that are foreign to their natures, the walnut wand will, once subjugated, perform any task its owner desires, provided that the user is of sufficient brilliance. This makes for a truly lethal weapon in the hands of a witch or wizard of no conscience, for the wand and the wizard may feed from each other in a particularly unhealthy manner.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Potions

Patronus: Buzzard

“Those with the Buzzard are natural observers, rarely missing anything. Often less talkative but still involved in what happens around them. However, choosing to watch goings on and be less talkative does not mean they lack communication skills. Those with the Buzzard patronus have great communication skills and can be very persuasive.Those with the Buzzard are often goal orientated. They know what they want and will do anything to achieve it.Analytical, those with the Buzzard are often found thinking and can outsmart there way out of any problem.“ [via patronusmeaning]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Horned Serpent

Extra:

you’d think he was a Slytherin given how much time he spends in the dungeons

Gifted at Herbology, but he doesn’t actually have much interest it in - he’d rather show of his talents in Potions and DADA

Gibraltar

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Loyalty, Fairness, Dedication, Hardwork

Blood Status: Muggleborn

Wand: Rowan Wood, Unicorn Hair core, 13 1/2”, Reasonably Supple flexibility

Rowan: “Rowan wood has always been much-favoured for wands, because it is reputed to be more protective than any other, and in my experience renders all manner of defensive charms especially strong and difficult to break. It is commonly stated that no dark witch or wizard ever owned a rowan wand, and I cannot recall a single instance where one of my own rowan wands has gone on to do evil in the world. Rowan is most happily placed with the clear-headed and the pure-hearted, but this reputation for virtue ought not to fool anyone – these wands are the equal of any, often the better, and frequently out-perform others in duels.” [via Pottermore]

Unicorn Hair: “Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard. Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Charms

Patronus: Buffalo

“Few possess just the right strength of character for their patronus to take the form of a buffalo. Those that do are dedicated individuals who are fiercely protective of those close to them, and not in a general way, either. Anyone foolish enough to attempt to harm another under a buffalo’s care is unlikely to come out unscathed. When all is well, they are placid but often outgoing, with strong personalities and who like having fun with those they bond to. However, going too long without contact with friends or family can lead to a buffalo feeling anxious or sad, and they will usually be at their best when sharing time with others. They are steadfast friends that enjoy being helpful and lending a hand to complete a task, or just making someone feel better.” [via patronusappreciation]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Pukwudgie

Extra:

Hufflepuff Quidditch Team Keeper and Captain

Head Boy

Always ready to lend a helping hand to younger students

The best to go down to Hogsmede with

Lifeline

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Ambition, Determination, Preservation, a certain disregard for the rules

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Aspen Wood, Unicorn Hair core, 11 1/2”, Surprisingly Swishy flexibility

Aspen: “The proper owner of the aspen wand is often an accomplished duellist, or destined to be so, for the aspen wand is one of those particularly suited to martial magic. In my experience, aspen wand owners are generally strong-minded and determined, more likely than most to be attracted by quests and new orders; this is a wand for revolutionaries.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Potions

Patronus: Chow Dog

“The loyalty tends to only extend to those they have chosen to bond with, and they are fiercely protective of these individuals. They don’t usually bond too well with just anyone and tend to be aloof around those they do not yet know well. Chows may also chafe under authority if those in charge do not suit their taste or if they think the person in charge doesn’t seem to be a good leader. As such, they can be very stubborn and strong-willed in the face of anything from a small argument to some great danger. When at rest, they’re generally easy-going people, but an occasional temper in those with a chow patronus definitely isn’t unheard of.” [via patronusappreciation]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Pukwudgie

Extra:

Helps out in the hospital wing

Stays at Hogwarts over the holidays because she’s not fond of her family’s views

Sometimes struggles with whether or not she actually likes being on Slytherin - one on hand, the traits and values match her, but on the other, the house was founded on the pureblood-beliefs she disagrees with

Mirage

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Intelligence, Wit, Creativity, Acceptance

Blood Status: Muggleborn

Wand: Spruce wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 13 1/4”, Reasonably Supple flexibility

Spruce: “It is quite true that it requires particular deftness to work with spruce, which produces wands that are ill-matched with cautious or nervous natures, and become positively dangerous in fumbling fingers. The spruce wand requires a firm hand, because it often appears to have its own ideas about what magic it ought to be called upon to produce. However, when a spruce wand meets its match – which, in my experience, is a bold spell-caster with a good sense of humour – it becomes a superb helper, intensely loyal to their owners and capable of producing particularly flamboyant and dramatic effects.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Charms

Patronus: Magpie

“Those with the Magpie patronus have an impressive mind. Although they may not seem it, conjurers of the magpie are often very intelligent. Perceptive, those with this patronus are often able to understand and process information exceedingly fast. Those with this patronus are the most intellectual of all. Another feature of those with this patronus is the ability to observe, this watchful nature allows people with the Magpie patronus to absorb information just by watching things happen around them.The downfall of those who conjure this patronus is that they can sometimes be willful and will not change their mind easily, sometimes this leads to disputes. However, this willful nature comes from the need to constantly be improving. Those with the magpie patronus strive for better.” [via patronusmeaning]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Thunderbird

Extra:

The youngest in his family, he’s also the only wizard - when he got the letter from Hogwarts, he was incredibly excited but felt guilty about leaving his mother as at the time his brothers were all beginning to move out

Incredibly talented at Charms, Transfiguration, and Arithmancy - he’s good at combining the muggle and wizarding worlds

Secretly enjoys creating his own spells.

Pathfinder

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Ambition, Fraternity, Determination, Resourcefulness

Blood Status: Halfblood

Wand: Vine wood, Unicorn Hair core, 12”, Whippy flexibility

Vine: “Vine wands are among the less common types, and I have been intrigued to notice that their owners are nearly always those witches or wizards who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best. Vine wands seem strongly attracted by personalities with hidden depths, and I have found them more sensitive than any other when it comes to instantly detecting a prospective match.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Muggle Studies

Patronus: St Bernard Dog

“Those with this patronus are playful and bright in character. To cast this patronus takes a large and loyal heart. People with this Patronus are typically thoughtful and committed. Once they pledge allegiance to someone, those who cast the st Bernard show true commitment to friends, family and lovers. Ever thoughtful, those who cast this patronus can seem in their own world. Those who cast the St Bernard are very positive and emotional, often warm and bright. Those with the St Bernard can sometimes be hurt easily by others but more often than not, offer a ray of sunshine in a dark world. Often adventurous, conjurers of this patronus are always looking for fun. Often following a quest all of their own.“ [via patronusmeaning]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Thunderbird

Extra:

Grew up with his muggle mother, never met his wizard father

Aims to succeed in hopes that one day he will find his father

Slytherin Quidditch Team seeker

Wraith

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Self-preservation, Cunning, Determination, Resourcefulness, a certain disregard for the rules

Blood Status: Pureblood

Wand: Silver Lime wood, Phoenix Feather core, 11”, Unyielding flexibility

Silver Lime: “This unusual and highly attractive wand wood was greatly in vogue in the nineteenth century. The reasons for these wands’ desirability lay not only in their unusually handsome appearance, but also because they had a reputation for performing best for Seers and those skilled in Legilimency, mysterious arts both, which consequently gave the possessor of a silver lime wand considerable status.” [via Pottermore]

Favourite Class: Defence Against the Dark Arts

Patronus: Adder

“Serpents in general are often seen as wise, as well as symbols of healing or change, and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. To have a snake represent any part of you is very powerful indeed. Those that associate with the serpent tend to be wise and cunning individuals, known for being both sympathetic and beautiful. Adders in particular are very intuitive about people and situations, and may have a healthy sense of foresight. Adders tend to have very good self-control and are able to accurately judge things as they happen.” [via patronusappreciation]

[alternatively] Ilvermorny House: Wampus

Extra:

Unaware of her blood status as she doesn’t know her parents - she was abandoned at a young age [they thought she may be a squib and couldn’t have that], and though she initially viewed Hogwarts as a place to find answers, it’s grown into a place she finds refuge

Really talented at apparition. her favourite class is DADA, but her best class is Divination, in which her grades are almost supernaturally good

A fairly decent Legilimens, though it’s not a talent she’s necessarily proud of.

#apex legends #my post #apex hogwarts!au #bangalore #bloodhound #caustic #gibraltar #lifeline #mirage #pathfinder #wraith

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isroselalondebisexual · 7 years ago

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What about ASPECT trollswaps? So Rose Serket, John Nitram, Dave Megido, and Jade Maryam *Jade Maryam the Jade blood wow*

Heehee! Jade Jade sounds fun ^_^

Rose Serket, raised with moderate wealth and a piece of shit spider lusus. I think Rose would start out killing other trolls for her, but hate it, and would resent being forced into doing someone else’s dirty work. I think it would… probably eventually result in Rose killing her lusus, to be entirely honest. She can kill people on her own just fine, she doesn’t need Spidermom to protect her, she doesn’t want Spidermom around telling her what to do and forcing her to kill people who she doesn’t know and who very very likely don’t deserve to die just to feed some lazy spider who’s too awful to go get her own food. Definitely a traumatized girl, as it goes. Angry, resentful of the world and life in general, puts out a “cool n deadly” persona that is also “i’m smarter than you, I’m tougher than you, I’m cold and aloof and untouchable, don’t fuck with me” when in reality it’s mostly just constructed out of her trying to find a sense of control in the world, and not wanting to have to deal with people being mean to her. She’s moirails with Jade, who tries her hardest to gentle Rose down and remind her that she’s just a kid, that life’s not fair and that cruelty should never be the norm. Rose starts out resenting her, resenting her “help” that Rose is certain Jade is giving with disdain, but Jade is no quitter and Rose wants to be loved, wants that assurance that she’s valuable and there is kindness in this life for her, and the two of them end up with an incredibly strong moirallegiance in which they help and love each other, despite a hard and rocky start. They tell stories of how it was difficult, but worth it. She’s still the Seer of Light, so her role is still to foresee the most fortuitous outcome, which she throws herself into full-throttle, converting her anger and resentment with the world to the relentless pursuit of the Light, of making things go RIGHT for once, seizing the control that her role allows and delighting in the way that she can now affect her reality, things are no longer being done to her, but she’s got the power to change the timeline with her sight and her actions and her words. Probably wants to solve all the puzzles and treasure maps on her own, and grows frustrated when she can’t just magically foresee the solution. The solution is “ask your friends for help you dumbass” and so she must begrudgingly ring up John or Jade or Dave to come help her with this goddamned treasure map, pirates are stupid anyways, who came up with the theme for this planet it’s dumb why are there compasses in the sky that doesn’t even make sense grumble grumble. A pissy, ready-to-stab-things-with-needles kind of girl, a bit of a know it all and a bit of a showoff, untrusting of other people’s intentions but ultimately brought around by the love of her sweet moirail and eventual-alien-soulmate-Kanaya. So, pretty close to canon Rose, just angrier and with a different origin story.

John Nitram, a soft, relatively poor boy with a lusus who thinks the world of him and encourages him to do his best, but be careful around danger. John’s probably gonna end up a little more skittish than we know him to be, less likely to walk into situations assuming they’ll all work out. His lusus has always loved and taken care of him, but Fairybulldad is a prey animal and that means you don’t really fight your way out of things, you either run or you bring the situation down away from danger. He jokes around, compliments people easily, is quick to laugh, just in general he likes it when the air around him is kept light and friendly, and will work to keep it that way with his own breezy and friendly demeanor. He and Dave are the greatest bros to ever bro, and everyone keeps wondering when the two of them are finally going to just GO PALE already, it’s so obvious to everyone except the two of them. Mutual pale pining? Mutual pale pining. Defo. John probably gets a huge kick out of being able to commune with animals, and will DEFINITELY make them do stupid shit for kicks. Dave has had so many birds fly in through his window at random, inconvenient times. So many. Curse you Nitram!! John laughs it off and to be fair, Dave does really like birds. John also has like, a million friends that he can just sorta cuddle with at any given time. All the meowbeasts and barkbeasts love him. All of them. Is very likely scared of Rose, who is a very cold midblood and like, constantly furious. Danger that way lies. Jade keeps telling him she’s actually a sweetie deep down and John isn’t quite sure if he believes her, so he and Rose have a relatively distant friendship until the Game happens and John gets to interact with her regularly and he finds out that yeah, she is really cool, and she’s FIERCELY loving of her friends, she’s just really really really fucking intense basically all the time always. The two end up hitting it off, just, later in their lives than they did in canon. As Heir of Breath, his role is still one who must embody freedom, freedom from the shackles of their old society, freedom from the restrictions placed on the various castes, and freedom from his own neuroses, which are as multitudinous as ever. Naturally, he cannot accomplish this when acting on his own, and the four of them must still work together to bring out their own best qualities, and each others’.

Dave Megido, lowest financial station but with a cool Kangaramdad who does, by all known accounts, love his child. Probably has a sort of “time is money” kind of outlook and a “spend it while you have it” motto for finances, the fanciest thing he owns is his camera and he loves it to bits and pieces and he takes pictures of everything, starts up a whole series that’s just about documenting beauty in the day to day life of himself and his neighbors. He’s got a HUGE warmblood following, people like him who enjoy seeing great things in little moments that he’s somehow managed to capture on film. He loves it because Dave, as always, Craves That Mineral Validation, and also it’s his own way of fighting back against the system. He doesn’t really think there’s a whole lot he can do, but he CAN do this, and it’s what he likes and it’s how he does it. Has a super big fucking huge giant pale crush on John who always takes the time out of his night to make Dave smile and remind him of how important his friendship is to John and Dave looooooves him he’s the beeeeeeest. The two of them grow up not too far from each other so they hang out regularly and play around and are children together and Kangaramdad and Fairbulldad get along well and it’s GREAT. Dave has a somewhat-normal childhood, as much as “normal” can possibly be on a planet that repeatedly and constantly tells you that your life means nothing and you’re going to die soon anyway. Probably maintains his fascination with death and dead things, probably still has a “dead things in jars” collection, and it’s very likely because he lives in a society that really requires Dave to reconcile with the concept of death and think about it often. It’s always right there, looming behind the corner, and he can ignore it and be scared of it or he, being a child, can engage with it in a frankly weird, but ultimately progressive way. As Knight of Time, his job is to protect the alpha timeline and foster its happening, so he still winds up seeing his own dead body a lot and he still has to be VERY METICULOUS in the time loops he creates, and it’s nasty and awful but he has John around. Tbeh, I think Dave might just forgo his planet’s quest entirely and hang out on John’s planet. Do some puzzles, crack some jokes, like they usually do, only this time in a weird magic Game that is apparently birthing a new universe. He and Rose very likely poke a lot of fun at each other, sorta nudging at “how far can I push” but also “ahaha, I am aloof and unbothered, you cannot rattle MY bones” so it’s just this weird, vaguely antagonistic friendship where they both REALLY like each other and are glad to be friends but sometimes they just can’t resist being little shits. He and Jade are also good friends, Jade making sure Dave is okay and checking in pretty regularly and Dave sending her things he knows will brighten her day and making sure she feels like one of the cool kids too, because she is cool, he thinks she’s so cool and really looks up to her as a person and as a friend and is really glad that he knows her. Eventually Dave meets a surly alien named Karkat and falls ass over heels in love with him and it’s DUMB and JOHN HELP WHAT SHOULD HE DO and oh god is he pitch for Karkat??? Flush???? Should someone come mediate them??? Is he pale for Karkat??? What’s going on he’s feeling so many things for this awful, stupid, beautiful dumb hilarious compassionate-yet-selfish boy John help Dave’s going to die of alien-gay. John pats his shoulder and smirks at him, and then proceeds to relentlessly tease him for his crush on an alien.

Jade Maryam, raised middle class out in the middle of FUCKING NOWHERE (again), with a lusus who loves her. Probably ends up pretty well adjusted, all things considered. She has to fight off zombies, so that’s something, but she gardens and she does her sciency stuff and she’s awake on Prospit and friends with the chess people, so really her upbringing is nigh-identical to that of canon, but this time with a guardian of pretty high intelligence, compared to all her friends’ custodians, instead of a magic dog. The violence of Alternian society probably makes her a little more prone to physical violence as a response to her anger, and she likely has like a million and five rifles, but ultimately I can’t see a whole hell of a lot of difference between Jade Maryam and Jade Harley. Still the Witch of Space, whose job is to bring about the new world and alter the whole of the universe for the good of the people residing within it. Good pals with her friends, dating Rose in pale and acting as something of an anchor for them all, the reliable, solid member that they can all fall back on. Idk if I’ve talked about this often but I associate all of the kids with certain elements and I’ve always pegged Jade for earth. She’s grounded, solid, and focused on growth, and I love her

#Rose Lalonde #John Egbert #Dave Strider #Jade Harley #Rose Serket #John Nitram #Dave Megido #Jade Maryam #answers #trollswap #trollstuck #Homestuck #homestuck meta #analysis

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terryblount · 6 years ago

Text

One Piece: World Seeker – Review

When I first heard of One Piece: World Seeker, I remember thinking it was about time they brought one of Shonen Jump’s most widely-beloved exports to gaming. Unbeknownst to me, the now eight hundred and seventy-three episode anime has actually ventured into our industry numerous times over the last nineteen years. Some quick research revealed that One Piece has inspired several beat ‘em ups, fighting games, turn-based JRPG’s, action-adventure games, and even a baseball game.

Now the series has finally sailed the treacherous waters of the open world, sandbox genre. Veteran One Piece developers, Ganbarion, have yet again given players the chance to don the straw hat of protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, but this time with unparalleled freedom to explore, find collectables, and pummel hoards of marines with his iconic, elastic fisticuffs. Thanks to the power of modern platforms, and not least of all the might of the Unreal Engine 4, gamers have the chance to immerse themselves into Luffy’s adventures like never before.

Monkey D. Luffy, one of the most famous faces in anime.

So close, and yet so far. While there are merits to the idea of building a One Piece game out of a sandbox formula, I don’t think One Piece: World Seeker represents the ideal solution. The combat mechanics were relatively enjoyable, and it is obvious that the developers have put some serious elbow grease into the game’s visual representation. Nevertheless, the repetitive nature of side quests and the underwhelming attempt at world building simply did not take advantage of the rich and varied source material that is its namesake. This is simply not the game it should have been.

Watashi wa Luffy!

For the unfamiliar, One Piece is a long-running manga and anime series based around the escapades of Monkey D. Luffy, a pirate who seeks to obtain the eponymous ‘One Piece’ treasure. Whoever holds this legendary booty will be proclaimed as king of all the pirates, so the series is sort of like Treasure Island, but stretched to an encyclopedic length with the distinctive quirkiness and fanfare that only an anime can pull off.

Yet, Luffy’s whimsical straw hat and flip flops belie his true abilities because he accidentally ate the ‘Gum Gum’ devil fruit as a boy. The fruit made him stronger, highly resistant to enemy attacks, and enables him to stretch his body into extraordinary shapes much like Mrs Incredible or Mister Fantastic. With the power of his rubbery physique, Luffy sets sail on an epic treasure hunt across endless seas where he encounters new friends, gains crewmates, and confronts formidable enemies.

Eight hundred plus episodes later, and we have One Piece: World Seeker opening with our man being detained in a sky prison floating above a union of islands named ‘Prison Island.’ It seems Luffy allowed himself to be incarcerated as a distraction while the Straw Hats crew break into a vault somewhere below. Unfortunately, the plan turned out to be a trap, resulting in Luffy bailing the flying fortress to escape the clutches of Isaac, the tyrannical warden of the whole region.

Isaac, the warden of prison island.

Once our hero crash lands on Prison Island, he befriends a new character called Jeanne, who eventually explains that the island’s populace has been split between Pro- and Anti-Navy factions in the aftermath of a protracted war. The Pro-Navy inhabitants live a life of comfort afforded by Isaac and the Navy as their new governors, while their counterparts struggle under their draconian regime.

Never one to turn a blind eye towards the troubles of the little people, our hero agrees to help Jeanne and the Anti-Navy resistance to rebel against their oppressors. As such, the player will take part in various missions such as reuniting Luffy with his crew, getting to know the colourful inhabitants of Prison Island, and steadily crippling Warden Isaac’s (literal) iron fists over the islands. Of course, you also get to beat up lots and lots of bad guys and bosses.

Missing the treasure in plain sight

One Piece: World Seeker’s setting is one of the most obvious links to its anime and manga roots. The narrative brings out the tried and trusted theme of Luffy stumbling upon a new island with a dilemma, and then going on a spontaneous adventure to assist the inhabitants with their struggles. It is the old, ‘good taking a stand against evil’ trope that has sustained the One Piece universe since its origins.

Moreover, fans should be pleased with how the writers have transitioned the characters and some cameos into the game from the One Piece chronology. Everything from their dialogue, to the depiction of the main villain feels like an authentic production from the central story line of One Piece. Considering that Eiichiro Oda, creator of the series, was involved, it is no wonder the game convinced me that I was playing through an actual episode of the anime during its best moments.

Nami, the resident thief of the straw hats. I cannot stop staring at her big… belt! Is she promoting Bitcoin!?

Unfortunately, it is also here where I began to notice how the gameplay of World Seeker ends up linking to the story in a rather shoehorned manner. After the tantalising opening cinematic of the narrative, most players would probably assume that Luffy will become the centre of a complex operation to overthrow Isaac. Instead, the game just falls into the same loop where he must travel to a certain location, and beat the crap of everyone he finds there.

Generally it boils down to you are at A, bad man at B. Go from A to B and remove bad man’s front teeth. World Seeker does try to mix things up with a few sections where you must infiltrate strongholds without being detected. As is usually the case with sandbox games that include ham-fisted stealth sections, they just feel like tacked on filler meant to lengthen your play time. It doesn’t take long for the gameplay to deteriorate from fun, to repetitive, to monotonous.

Gum Gum BAA-ZOO-KAAAA!

Luffy has a basic, three-hit combo that he can unleash upon thugs and navy soldiers, as well as his famous Gum Gum pistol serving as a ranged attack. There is also the option to sneak up on enemies either from behind or inside a barrel Metal Gear Solid style, which then creates the opportunity to perform stealth takedowns. It was rarely necessary to be stealthy though, since the bad guys are not only easy to kill, but sneaking around as Luffy just feels like a disservice to his character.

I must admit that the combat is very well animated, and fighting does a superb job at making you feel powerful. The camera also has the delightful habit of shifting to slow motion when you deliver the KO blow to the last man standing much like Batman and the Arkham games. Seeing the poor sod being launched slowly off a high building after receiving Luffy’s catapult fists was very entertaining… for the first fifty times I pulled it off at least.

Adding some variety is also the ability to switch between the blue and red ‘stances’ of combat on the fly. The red mode is essentially reserved for Luffy’s heavier, more focused attacks along with the ability to guard. Blue mode is faster and deals less damage, but the broad sweep of the attacks makes it appealing for confronting whole groups at a time. The dodge mechanic is also useful in this stance since you can zip out of the enemy’s reach if you need to.

While One Piece: World Seeker’s traversal fails to achieve the fluidity of recent super hero games, I thought that the mechanics of swinging and propelling my way through the game’s surprisingly big open world was implemented nicely. Like the combat, you really feel the forces at work in Luffy’s special ability, and it became a particularly exciting system once there were some high trees and buildings around me. I even managed to gain a bit of fun out of collecting the overabundance of pointless loot scattered throughout the world.

To my dismay, the majority of the side quests have actually been built around this idea of collecting random loot items for citizens of Prison Island. I was horrified to catch myself looking for small flowers at the request of a random man standing near a wooden shed, or finding pieces of copper for a random little kid. Why must I do favours for bland-faced NPC’s who the game does not even bother to introduce to me? This sort of meaningless filler has no place in a One Piece game; I’d rather go looking for Riddler trophies.

At least the game is generous in dishing out experience points from these meaningless exploits. You can use said points to purchase new blue or red fighting moves, or you can spend them on Luffy’s traversal abilities and health points. However, let us not forget that One Piece has had an entire manga and anime saga to build up Luffy’s resume of moves. Does it really make sense hiding them behind experience points which can only be gained by grinding away at meaningless loot quests? No, it doesn’t.

It feels Unreal how much I love this game engine

Sorry about that atrocious pun, but sweet mother of monkey milk this game is pretty. I am not sure why many studios from the Land of the Rising Sun have made the Unreal Engine 4 their engine of choice lately, but World Seeker is yet another example of what a brilliant move this was. Just like the anime, this game is so colourful and vivid that I bet it would cure a defective monitor from stuck pixels.

This game can be seriously beautiful at times.

I cannot deny that the environments were eerily empty at times, nor can I look past at the lack of variety in enemies. However, the character animations, the sheer scale of some buildings, the beautiful landscapes and the particle effects really captivated me on a visual level. Honestly, if Toei Animation did an entire episode in these graphics I would be happy, and I cannot imagine better aesthetics for a One Piece video game.

If only for more time

What struck me from the moment I launched One Piece: World Seeker is that this game feels unfinished. There is nothing overtly broken in its mechanics, and certain elements of the gameplay are undeniably polished. Yet, the lack of voiced cut scenes, the general empty feeling of the world, the repetitive nature of the side missions, and using the same models for most of the enemies are all the tell-tale signs of a studio being pushed for time.

In fact, the stark contrast between the excellent visuals and the bland mission design makes me suspect Ganbarion had plans to make World Seeker more like a JRPG. In any case, it is clear that their plans never came to fruition and they settled on making a more fast-paced, open world game from what they had already finished.

If you are looking to play a good One Piece game, I suggest you look at any of the Pirate Warrior instalments, because World Seeker just feels like too much of a mixed bag. This is not the kind of game we want from this beloved series at this point in time, and playing it makes it clear that the developers share our sentiments. If, one the other hand, you don’t own a PS3, wait for a sale. There is still fun to be had with this game, even if it is very short lived.

Beautiful cut scenes

Graphics and sound design

Story fits the universe

Sterile world design

Very bland side quests

Too many collectables

Insipid mission design

Upgrades locked behind XP

Playtime: 22 hours total. For the single player campaign and light grinding

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox One Controller

One Piece: World Seeker – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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rhuemis · 7 years ago

Note

13. Introduce your current party.

hoo boy so we got:

-Scales

-Rhys

-Jeckyl

-Isiah

imma put the lengthy descriptions under a read more aha

Scales ((I dont think Scales even has a surname lmfao)):

-Warlock but insists that hes the party medic

-A white dragonborn that was born without scales due to a birth defect who has more than a few screws lose, calls himself a ‘doctor’ and we cant quite tell whether thats the truth or not

-Grew up in a brothel and now travels with the party to gain ‘medical knowledge’ whatever that means

-Has dissected the corpse of a literal god, harvests organs from whatever we kill and puts them all into bottles and then offers to transplant them into you if you get even remotely injured

-Is already mildly possessed but then ate some of the tentacles from a weird squid god for fun and then got DOUBLE possessed and tentacles shot out of his mouth and we had to drag him to a temple

-Something burst out of his chest one morning and now its his familiar. We were all stood at the door to his room like ‘This is Scales, this could just be part of his morning routine for all we know.’

- Speaks with a heavy German accent which makes anything Scales does like 4000 times better

-Isiah has literally promised his corpse to Scales

- Despite his quirks is protective of his party and deserves a pat on the snoot every so often

Rhys Lignius

- Half-elf sorcerer that currently has more levels in warlock than sorcerer

- hes the mom friend of the group and is a pretty serious guy, hes the one who gets shit done but not before he monologues so hard that the rest of us party members say ‘oh fuck no im not listening to Rhys’ spiel again’

-Came from a very important family and is very proud of his Latian heritage, doesnt let you forget that hes a big fuckin deal lmao hes on a mission to do something in relation to his father but hes not quite spilled on exactly what yet, hes just trying to get to some ancient ruins

- Is so much of an actual loser that whenever he casts Prestidigitation he clicks his fingers and the whole party has started doing it back at him jokingly

-Despite being a square we all love him and hes probably the most reliable in the group. Lawful Good™.

-Flavours my bacon.

-Is the metaphorical designated driver of the party, cleans up after us shit monkeys.

-Is physically around 22 years old but might as well be 55 years old.

Jeckyl Corvus:

- Newest party member, a half-elf rogue that keeps getting cockblocked from actually stealing anything

-Wrote a really intense anonymous love letter to my character and slid it under his room door at a tavern a few years before the campaign started after watching him perform and recognises Isiah but Isiah doesnt realise it was him who wrote the letter yet

-Spent some time in gay baby jail for being part of a group of thieves that got bamboozled by a rich and powerful family and was abandoned by the people he thought of as family.

-Wanted to be a tailor in the years before his taste for adventuring kicked him in the nards. He ended leaving his family to go and explore but this decision ultimately ended up with his family being stripped of everything they had so now hes plagued by The Guilt™. Wants to eventually save/steal enough money to get his family back on it’s feet again.

-Rugged and handsome but the most important thing you need to know about Jeckyl is that he keeps a pet mouse in his pocket named Rupert and that one day Jeckyl wants to fucking transmute him into an owl or some shit because he just cannot be satisfied huh. ‘Oh Rupert was my only friend whilst I was living on the streets blah blah blah’ yeah sure tell that to his face whilst you go fuckin Fullmetal Alchemist on his ass. Love Rupert for the contents of his character, not his form smh.

-Acts suave and cool but loses all of that composure when it comes to Isiah. Would probably commit sepukku if Isiah died.

-Has a lot of knives, which Scales finds ‘respectable’.

-First combat fuckin crits the fish plant man that had Isiah grappled 15ft underwater out of sheer gay panic. RIP Shape of Water fish man, you’ll be sorely missed.

Isiah Vakalyn:

-My character so you know hes....really something. Half-elf bard.

-Comes from a weirdly strict family who were actually fucking cultists and were ((and probably still are)) planning on sacrificing him to a demon or some shit but Isiah didnt even notice this shit and still has no idea. He thought everybody was taught Infernal and that families were just like that. His family told him to become a bard and he obeyed. They told him study and he obeyed. They limited his interaction to the outside world and he only really started thinking for himself after he made his first proper friend who then also later fucked him over real bad.

-Ran away from home after being cucked by his “only friend” into maybe murdering her dad we dunno if he died or not but I sure did stab him a lot. She lied and told him she was being abused by her dad and Isiah saw red and agreed to her murder plot only to be abandoned midway through. He also pickpocketed for her for like a year beforehand bc she said she was poor. She was very not poor. Bring on the subsequent trust issues.

-Is a bard but hates getting attention so he wears a black rabbit mask when he performs in front anything that isnt a small crowd. He found that mask in his house so you know thats gonna be some spooky cult shit.

- Is only 5′4 and is very conscious of it. Luckily the party is very understanding and calls him ‘the halfling’ or ‘the midget’ lovingly to watch him implode.

-Once accidentally stole a dwarven baby. Named it Isiah jr.

-Has a pet eel named Illius who is the most fuckin talented eel you’ll ever find. He glows! He talks! He beats your ass at card games! Translates languages! We found him behind a door that was sealed by magic and was only opened after Isiah played the music notes on the map we found. Those notes were an exert of a song by the most famous of all bards, Rickus Astelyus. Lo and behold behind the door was a huge tanks with a heckin good boy inside and Isiah adopted him IMMEDIATELY. Loves bacon bits and scritches.

-Received an anonymous love letter a few years back that gives him major anxiety and literally avoids the city he got it from. RIP Jeckyl youre gonna have to talk to him about that, Isiah is oblivious and has no idea lmao.

- Loves to eat bacon and recently bought out the bacon from the local tavern. Feeds some to Illius because its what he deserves. He’s also currently carrying a fuckton of bread, cheese, jam, and flour. Food is practically his way of diplomacy as he gives some to whoever he meets. It’s almost like his way of nervous self-defence. When tentacles shot out of Scale’s mouth Isiah just started shovelling bread into the tentacles and Scales woke up feeling incredibly full lmao.

-Has also in his inventory: a gay erotica book, a romance novel in a language he cant read, a rainbow slinkie, a magic mood ring that gives him poison resistance, 6 wolf teeth, a wolf leg bone, some gems, 4 days worth of rations on top of all the food he already has, a violin, a flute, and a fancy lute that he found in Illius’ chamber.

-Hes just nervous but loud mouthed and contradicts himself a lot. Anxious and eccentric. Says that hes just a bard and wasnt meant for any kind of greater scheme but the universe has other plans.

-Was once dabbed at by the god of entertainment, Apollon. ((Apollon is the only god Isiah really cares about lmao)).

and despite him not being in the party anymore im gonna give honorary mention to my favourite skyrim-glitch-of-a-barbarian, Florys:

-Was the character of a guy who played with us for one session. At the beginning of the next session he was on webcam with us all and we were about to start playing when suddenly his camera cut out and he went offline and weve literally not seen from him since. He’s not been online in over a month now. Some common theories in our group is that hes off fighting ISIS or got arrested for weed right there and then.

-Due to this weird player disappearance our DM, Benjamin, had to take control of Florys whilst we looked for a new party member. In the session that the player disappeared from we didnt know if he was gonna come back or not so Benjamin had Florys suddenly contract a horrific stomach bug and was just in the tavern toilet presumably making a fuckin hole in the floor with the noise it apparently made lmfao Isiah actually had to try and play music over the top of Florys’ shitfest at one point and only just managed to drown the sound out. But as time went by days were eventually passing in the campaign and the player still hadnt come back so poor Florys was not having a great time in the bathroom for several DAYS.

-Eventually the DM realised that this player was not gonna come back and that the party was short on a tank so he started piloting Florys for a while to accompany us on our quest ((and miraculously recovering from his terrifying stomach illness)) but hed forgotten how the player said Florys was so just was making shit up on the fly. I specifically remember the original player of Florys saying ‘Oh Florys isn’t like those stereotypical dumb barbarians’ which is why I lost my shit when the Florys being piloted by the DM turned around and said ‘What the fuck is a triangle?’ ... Florys is practically brain-damaged at this point, I think it might be the DMs retribution for the player disappearing lmao

-Threw all of his hand axes into a river during one fight and then into a cieling the next, which provoked Isiah to jokingly call out: ‘Oh, Florys! You’re so handsome and cool!’ which Florys with his last 2 braincells took seriously. The handsome and cool line became an on-running meme and gets used whenever any of us fucks up lmao

-For some reason grew rlly attached to a piano he found in Illius’ chamber and carried it around with him out of two parts stubborness two parts piano LUST.

-We ended up using him as a mule to carry all of our heavy shit bc he’d just do it and he literally wouldn’t think anything of it.

-We found a giant birds nest and Florys for some reason picked it up and carried it away and got fucking kidnapped by a giant bird so now hes literally just in fucking sky somewhere sat in a birds nest and being flown around which is wild bc we expected the DM to just kill Florys but instead hes just in the fucking sky where he belongs. Like legit hes just sat in there. Hes just in the sky. Godspeed.

HEAVES I could write so much more but this is already incredibly lengthy so here take it

also @redthebattler idk if any of this would be interesting to you lmao

#dnd ask #Anonymous

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olyer-reylo-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Revenge of the Myth: A Reylo Meta

OMG I wrote 2500 words on Reylo. All errors mine as I don’t do betas. Feel free to share. Feel free to comment. Criticisms will be welcomed. Abuse will be ignored. Disney owns Star Wars. The fans own Reylo. I own the arrangement of these words. In a recent meta, further discussed on her podcast Fansplaining, Flourish Klink addressed "The Problem of Reylo." For Flourish, the problem is that the Star Wars universe has relied on mythic tropes, but the Sequel Trilogy's humanization of these archetypal characters has led to a somewhat unresolvable tension in Reylo fanfic. Flourish observes that "If we think about the plot of the new movies in the same mindset as we watched the original trilogy, then, Kylo Ren can’t be considered a mass murderer in any real world sense. He’s simply an embodiment of Badness, which means he can be saved by the embodiment of Goodness, which is probably Rey (because when has there ever been a Star Wars movie that didn’t feature a battle between Good and Evil?). (More on this later.) In this context, Reylo seems not just reasonable but almost required. We aren’t really talking about any action either of them has taken, any person either of them has killed. We’re talking about sweeping themes of redemption, forgiveness, and Light and Darkness in balance." The problem, Flourish notes, is that once we see these characters as humans, once we see the greater psychological complexity in them, beyond the Original Trilogy tropes of good and evil, we then have to make these characters responsible for their choices. Realism renders the characters of Rey and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo to be pretty much un-shippable.

Maybe.

When confronted with an either-or proposition, my instinct is to go all Kobayashi Maru and find a third way. And so I propose a third way of looking at the Sequel Trilogy.

No (Mono)myth

The OT was a relatively simple tale of Good vs. Evil, Light vs. Dark. But the Sequel Trilogy is not retelling the monomyth so much as problematizing it. Those who live in the 21st century have seen the ways the myth of good vs evil has been leveraged against us, the way that it has been used to enact horrible crimes against humanity. One example, of course, is the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. Currently we see the demonization of the "other" in all sorts of ways, from the War on Terror, anti-immigration policies, Gamergate and online misogyny.

If we stop thinking about the ST as part of a Campbellian monomyth, as in the OT, and instead consider it as a rejection of the monomyth because monomythical thinking is inherently flawed, we may see Kylo Ren differently and thus perhaps see Reylo differently.

The text of the ST explicitly addresses the power - and flaws - of the mythmaking surrounding the Star Wars Universe. The myth has power, of course. But how much should it have? Both Luke (the "good" guy) and Kylo Ren (the "bad" guy) want to discard the past. Rian Johnson has said that the question of how much of the past to keep and honor and how much to discard is one of the issues of the ST.

The ST has made a conscious effort to destabilize the monomyth by creating characters that are more than tropes, by humanizing and naming a Stormtrooper, by giving emotional depth to a low-level maintenance worker, and by explicitly calling attention to the human costs of a world built around endless war. Flourish recognizes this in her meta but sees it as a problem because the monomyth cannot co-exist with realistic depictions in a story about galactic war.

Monomyths do not talk about themselves as monomyths. They simply live their monomythic-ness. That's part of the monomyth's power. The ST is profoundly different. The language of the ST, especially TLJ, is to talk about myths *as* myths, about stories *as* stories. This is important. TFA is about trying to locate the mythical hero, Luke Skywalker. The movie ends with Rey's triumphant visit to the island where he has lived in self-exile. But TLJ begins with the rejection of Rey's quest. Luke just throws the lightsaber over his shoulder. Fuck This Shit, he seems to say. The myth of Luke is very different from the reality of Luke, much to Rey's disappointment. Lesson the first: we should not mistake myth for reality.

At the same time, mythmaking does have power. At the end of TLJ, the myth of Luke Skywalker is shown to prevail, representing hope and the spark of the rebellion. Luke projects himself onto Crait and buys time for the Resistance to escape. Luke saves the Resistance, but it only works because Luke himself is not some immortal figure able to deflect blasters with his light saber. He works by distracting Kylo Ren into fighting a projection, a figment. If Luke Skywalker embodies the monomyth, the hero's narrative, well, it's an incorporeal, unsubstantial, ephemeral narrative that can't hold up for very long.

But perhaps the other story that has to be destroyed is the one that people in the galaxy, like Rey and Poe Dameron and Rose Tico, have grown up to believe: that someone like Luke Skywalker will come save them from evil. The myth has power, but it cannot save everyone.

We all use these myths, these stories to try to make sense of our worlds, to give meanings to our lives, to understand our identity in the world. But these myths come with costs. They are ephemeral and cannot replace self-help, or the help members of a community give to each other.

Another cost is ignoring the humanity of others. That was Luke's mistake when he thought about killing Ben because Ben had "the dark side" in him. For a brief moment, he turned Ben into the Bad Guy who needed to be destroyed. That dehumanized Ben at great cost.

So, if there is no monomyth in the ST, what is left? Is it pure reality? Is Reylo doomed because, in the end, Kylo Ren is nothing more than a mass murderer?

What's the Story, Allegory?

Well, we can still see Rey and Kylo Ren as symbolic figures without having the story follow the pattern of a Campbellian monomyth. We don't need the Good vs. Evil tropes or the Heroic Journey tropes or the so-called romance tropes. We've got ourselves a contemporary allegory happening.

Much to the surprise of many viewers of TFA, the backstory of Snoke was not explored. In fact, his bisection by Kylo Ren came as a bit of a shock to viewers, many of whom were pretty angry at the lost storytelling opportunity. However, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Snoke himself is not important. Snoke's *actions* were important.

And what did Snoke do? He whispered in the ear of a young boy as he was growing to adulthood, corrupted his soul and used the boy's ability to achieve his own ends. And therein lies the heart of the allegory. What else whispers into the ears of adolescent boys and encourages them to embrace the worst parts of themselves? As the mother of a 15 year old boy, I can tell you my greatest fear is that despite my attempt to raise him to be a feminist ally and to respect and value the rights of all, he will end up being "seduced" by the easy white supremacist misogyny of the Internet.

Snoke isn't evil personified. He is actually a very banal evil. He is the alt-right and 4Chan and the Reddit Red Pill community and every "MRA" or "PUA" community out there. He is Steve Bannon and Milos Yiannapoulos and PewDiePie and Roosh, every toxic male that populates online communities today. They don't wear masks, but they wear pseudonyms. They hide behind these masks and they yearn for an imagined past of white supremacist patriarchy because it makes them feel stronger.

This isn't a new idea. Kayti Burt at Den of Geek made this argument first, though her focus was mainly on Leia and Holdo schooling Poe Dameron and the delusions of heroism that motivated him to take the ill-considered step of fomenting a rebellion. Poe learned from his mistakes and earned a leadership role at the end.

It's clear that Kylo Ren is Ben Solo wearing a mask, trying to be like his grandfather, who lived in a world where his toxic male power was unquestioned and abused; Vader even abused (physically and emotionally) his own daughter (the torture of Leia and the destruction of Alderaan).

Ben's adoption of the name Kylo Ren is not unlike an online gamer's adoption of a gaming name. The best ones often take from one's own name, of course (Kylo Ren pulls in Ky from Skywalker, Lo, from Solo, and Ren from Ben). He has a "posse" of "Knights" who think like him and support him. The word "Knight" suggests chivalry, a social dynamic that relies on prescribed gender roles that emphasize male heroism and female weakness and submission.

Kylo Ren does not make sense as a trope in a monomyth. He makes the most sense as someone who *sees himself* as a trope in a monomyth, the hero of his own story. But it's a story that has been told to him, that he has adopted in lieu of another story (his status as the crown prince of the Skywalker dynasty), and it is a story that is flawed. It's the story of white male supremacy that he holds onto because he fears he is nothing without it.

So when he tells Rey she is nothing, he is repeating the negging of toxic misogyny, because that is the language he has been immersed in. But the whole speech he gives is telling. He has killed Snoke. He wants a new order. All the myths - Snoke, Skywalker, the Sith, the Jedi - none of those matter. He wants to be free of all these stories. In Rey he sees someone without all the baggage of the past, someone he can start anew with. As Dickinson might say, I'm nobody, who are you? Are you nobody too? Then there's a pair of us!

It's not the best argument he could have made to Rey at that point, but it was the best argument he could have made to himself. Thinking he is nobody (because of abandonment issues or because all adolescents think of themselves as nobody), he has embraced an ideology that tells him he is somebody, an ideology that values his gifts. For him to destroy the source of that ideology is to say that he does not need it any longer. Rey knows him and, he thinks, accepts him for who he is. She identifies the fearful, insecure person behind the mask and still thinks he has value.

But Rey can't save him. She thought she could, and that was the old-school romance trope Flourish disparages, that scene from Pretty Woman where Richard Gere saves Julia Roberts from Snoke, and she saves him right back by throwing a lightsaber to him. But it doesn't work, and it was never meant to. The text of TLJ has already rejected the romance-y trope of a woman saving the man with love.

Relationships don't work that way. The existence of a "good" person in a "bad" person's life is not redemption in and of itself. But that doesn't mean that there is no role for love in redeeming another.

What Rey has introduced into Ben's life is compassion for another, a feeling he has not felt in a long time. It's not Rey's compassion for Ben that is significant. Rey's compassion for Ben cannot save Ben.

Rather, it is the compassion Rey brings out in Ben. Compassion, love, sentiment: these are all anathema to Snoke. They mean "weakness." It's not that different from the men and boys of the alt-right, of the GamerGate community, of these toxic internet spaces. The men and boys there lack and/or deliberately eschew empathy and compassion for someone not like themselves.

Snoke sees that Rey has made Kylo Ren feel compassion, and Snoke thinks that by making Kylo Ren kill Rey, he can kill the compassion that has developed in Kylo Ren. But Snoke's mistake is that killing Rey cannot kill the compassion because she is not the compassion. The compassion is now in Ben himself. The Force has been awakened.

The Real Humanizing Turn

The allegory then is an allegory of humanity. The alt-right trolls of the Internet play games for lulz, for spite, for power. They don't see that they are doxxing and bullying and hurting real humans. They hide behind their anonymous masks wielding power because they can and because they don't see their prey as human. They lack empathy. They lack compassion. They see themselves as heroes of some sort of story they are telling themselves, one that involves Good and Evil, and they are the Good and women/people of color/LGBT/"libtards"/anyone different are the Evil.

Feeling compassion for the "other" is the first step to radical change. Black feminist theorist bell hooks speaks eloquently and often on the need for love as a condition for social change. hooks cites Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call for love in the social justice movement and notes that after King's death and the black power movement's ascendance, "a misogynist approach to women became central as the equation of freedom with patriarchal manhood became a norm." This came, hooks says, from a shift away from a love ethic to an ethic of power. Sound familiar? Is the Force about power, or is it about love?

Love between Rey and Kylo Ren has enormous symbolic resonance. It represents the emerging compassion and love within Kylo Ren, and his acknowledgement of a woman, a "girl," as powerful as he is. A powerful woman, one without a fancy Jedi lineage, has no place in the monomyth, she has no place in misogynist ideology… but she has a place in a new story. That Kylo Ren is open to that story is a significant development. In a movie or even a trilogy we can't tell the story of a changing society by looking at every individual, but we can look at one individual as representative of that change.

So the story of Reylo can be read as an allegory of love, the turn to humanity, the humanizing of Evil, the shift from a power conflict to a love "concord," a word that means, at its root, a coming together of hearts. This is not a bug. It's a feature.

That there are viewers of the ST and readers of Reylo fanfic that want to explore this allegory is not a cause for despair. It is the new hope. It is the hope that love can transform society, and it's a hope that has parallels not to reductive tropes and monomyths but to social justice movements.

#reylo #meta #fandom meta #kylo ren #rey #shipping #shipping meta #reylo trash #reylotrash #star wars #the last jedi #tlj #star wars tlj #sequel trilogy

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jesscreason · 7 years ago

Text

Article Three (Systemet #1) by Anna Jakobsson Lund

Trust will get you killed - and trust will keep you alive.

In a world where the System governs everything, Ava's a rebel - one who can control other people's thoughts with her mind. As part of a resistance movement preparing for war, this is a useful skill.

Levi stopped believing in the struggle for freedom when it snatched his parents from him. Now he's just trying to live a quiet life and control the voices that threaten his sanity.

One night Levi's sister is arrested. To free her, he has to break old promises and get involved with people he swore he'd never associate with. Ava's ordered to help him, and together, they leave on a rescue mission. She says he has to trust the rebels. But should they?

About the Author:

I've always been a daydreamer. As a kid, I wasn't that interested in other children. I wanted to be left alone with my mind and let it tell me stories. Distant worlds and time travel were frequently reoccurring topics. I was usually the hero, with the occasional side-kick. Writing came naturally to me, as a way to try to catch the stories, and later on, to share those with the friends I did manage to get, despite being somewhat strange. Adulthood didn't stop the daydreaming, but it made me use less of it in my writing. Instead, I wrote poetry and more conventional stories. Boring stories. When I was pregnant with my second child, I'd enough of them. I'd self-published one novel; a neat piece of relationship drama where nothing happened. I loved the characters, but the plot was too slow. Writing, publishing and marketing were hard work, and if I was going to do it again, it would not be with a boring story. My brain rescued me by playing me a scene I'd first come up with as a teen. I knew that the street depicted was from the future, and that the boy getting beat up was on a quest to save his sister. I also had the idea that the girl saving him (who had been me in the original story, of course) was part of a resistance movement. I ran with that, started writing and discovered the kind of writer's high I hadn't experienced since I was a kid. As I finished that first book (Article Three), more ideas kept entering my daydreams. Not just about the other two parts of what would be The System trilogy, but ideas that could be turned into short stories and new novels. My mind is as creative now that it has ever been, which is no small blessing for a mum of small children. The wonderful thing about sci-fi and fantasy is that you don't have to be tied down by norms and rules of the ordinary world. You're still able to address modern day issues, though. I try to use this in my writing by exploring themes that make the reader question his or her own views as well as society's. I use characters that are not often depicted in main-stream literature. People I find interesting, who stretch our notion about what parts people usually play in literature. In my writing, there's no alpha-dogs and no damsels in distress. I've even declared my books love-triangle free. It sounds like a joke, but I want other things for my readers that the questions about which hot guy the main character is going to choose at the end. I'm an indie-publisher, which is equal part funny and exhausting, and I have four novels published in Swedish. The idea to get my novels translated professionally and try to reach a larger audience is more than a little crazy, but as I started discussing it with fellow writers, I couldn't quite shake it. As I grow older, I get increasingly less afraid, and also crazier, and I feel like I would be stupid not to follow my dreams while I have the chance.

Social Media Links from the Author:

Instagram: @anna_jakobsson_Lund Facebook: http://ift.tt/2wrNF0d

Review

Let me first say, that I immediately fell in love with the author about reading her About the Author section! I cannot recall how many books I've read that the story is awesome, but the author takes away the focus from the awesome story by inserting a cookie-cutter love triangle and trying to make the focus more about which guy the main character will choose. I am definitely interested in reading books by any author devoted to abstaining from that practice!

Also, I would much rather read about super strong, badass female main characters than damsels in distress. So, before I even started this book, I was already into it.

These were the only expectations I had when I started reading the book. Truthfully, I couldn't really remember what the book was about. All I knew is that it sounded interesting enough for me to request a copy to read and review. I like doing it that way! It makes it easier to choose which book to read next... I just pick a bunch of books that sound interesting, then read them in the order they are due or due back to the library.

This book was AWESOME! The author stuck to her word, and there was no cookie cutter love triangle stuck in the middle of the story. The focus remained on the characters and their story, and she did an excellent job with both!

I zoomed through this book! The author did an amazing job at world building and depicting such complex characters.

I am also super impressed that the author wrote this book in Swedish and had it translated to English. I wouldn't have known if I didn't read the author's comment about it in her bio. The translation is excellent, and it seems like it was written in English originally.

This book takes a lot of aspects that I've seen in different YA fantasy book, then the author makes them her own and combines them in such a unique way.

I love the main characters! Levi is stubborn but brave and completely devoted to his sister. Ava is a badass, struggling with the past, and Leymah... goodness, I love Leymah! She is more of a free spirit, with a thirst for knowledge, in a world where both of those things are pretty much dead.

If you couldn't tell from this review, I immediately became a fan of Anna Jakobsson Lund before even starting this book! I hope all of her stories are translated into English! I plan to read all of them!

Most of all, I hope the sequel to this book is in the works for an English translation! I want to be one of the first to read it!

I am so excited to see what happens next with Levi and Ava and Leymah! The only negative thing I have to say about this book is how sad I am that the sequel isn't out yet, and I can't pick it up right now and keep reading!

Besides my impatience, I have nothing negative to say about this book. It's AWESOME, and I definitely recommend it!

I received a copy of this book from the author, via The Review Chain, in exchange for an honest review.

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#IFTTT #Blogger

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