#compared to shows with a looser sense of character and story

[eahtheramblings]

A deeper dive into how the destiny system would work in a rewrite

Alright, little housekeeping before I get into it, I have finally created a tag for the hypothetical rewrite fanfic that I keep procrastinating due to college - so people can use the tag to either find the posts related to it or block it depending on if they like/dislike my ideas. You can now find it under #RamblesRevamp. Felt after posting the time loop au idea that I should probably start creating tags for these or else it’ll get confusing very quickly.

Moving on, I have come across the problem that every eah fan and fanfic writer has to face after thinking about the story for a while; just how in the world does the destiny system actually work? 

The books and show give us some threads to make sense of it, we know it’s generational in most cases, and we know that signing the book ensures the story plays out again, but beyond that most things are speculation. It was definitely written as a looser magic system to ensure that no matter who was writing a special or a book for eah they would be able to bend the rules to fit the plot, but for something so central to the story it really feels like it should be fleshed out more. Luckly, this is the world of fanfic, and I am not beholden to make a story that can adopt different writers quickly, so I can world build as much as I want!

Below is a list of changes/rules/expansions upon the original destiny set up we were given that the Revamp AU follows. These rules are what the average character in the revamp AU would know:

Rule 1: Destiny is understood to be a set of two cycles, one for fairy tales that need to be retold every generation (snow white, goldilocks, etc.), and one for the greater myths that covers universal creation to universal destruction and would happen over billions of years (Greek myths like cupid would be here). Here's a very quickly made visual example: 

Behold! the Destiny Cycle, or Narrative Cycle as it’s sometimes called. When we start the story with Apple and Raven, they are on fairytale cycle number 1,017. No one knows how many myths cycle’s the universe has gone through since that encompasses the creation and destruction of the universe, but scholars enjoy debating about it and saying a person “thinks they know how many cycles the universe has gone through” is akin to saying a person thinks they know everything.

Rule 2:

Oftentimes in fairy tales the characters have set ages that are much younger or older than what someone who just graduated high school would be referred to as, such as little red riding hood and Hansel and Gretel being referred to as children, or other characters being referred to as old kings or hags. However, having everyone complete their stories at the age they would be in our version of the fairytales would negate the whole point of a high school to prepare students for redoing those stories. In the revamp au the storybook of legends gets around this by comparing the character’s ages not to each other or to a timeline but rather to itself. 

You see, the book is magic, it somehow holds signatures from every generation with an individual page for each character and yet looks to be the same size as a standard textbook. In essence, it is a non-Euclidian object, not tied to rational laws of time or space. If the book wants, a character can seem like a young child to it, it’s been around since the start of the cycle! And if it needs to write a character as old, then that character can seem old in comparison to it, it’s a magic object that for all anyone knows popped into existence with a new cycle last Thursday! It isn’t bound to time the same way the characters are, so it can get away with fudging the ages a bit when writing each generation's version of the stories down. 

Rule 3:

In ever after, there are 2 kinds of people, the common folk and the destined. 

All destined regardless of birth order have a destiny, but what type is dependent on various factors. For Example, there are two types of destinies in the land of ever after, blood bonded and soul bonded. Blood bonded destinies are the most common, they’re what happens when a character's first child takes on the same exact destiny for the next fairytale cycle. Apple, Raven, and many others fall into this category. Then there are Soul bonded destinies, which are either destinies that have a role in the fairytale cycle but aren’t exactly the same as your parents, or in extremely rare cases destinies bestowed upon a person from a non-destiny family.

 The Charming's are a good example of the former. The original blood bonded destiny of Siegfried passed down to Grandpa Auspicious's eldest son, but he had no other destiny to pass down to the younger children. Because they are a part of the destined, however, all the children needed destinies, so the book bestowed soul destinies of being prince charming's and damsels in distress onto them. Their children in turn also got soul destinies, which is why the Charming’s know what their general role in stories will be but not the exact character (with the exception of daring, which I will explain in a bit). 

The latter, the case of a soul bonded destiny going to someone not already part of a destined bloodline is extremely rare, but does occur occasionally, especially when an old charming line dies out. You see, to keep the destined bloodlines from getting too interconnected, those with familial soul destinies like Charming's will often have fewer children as generations go by because fertility issues set in. Eventually, the blood line will either no longer be able to produce children or will produce merely 1 every 1-2 generations or so. When this happens, a new charming family might rise from the common folk in the form of a rags to riches prince story like the penniless owner of puss in boots. Again, this is really rare, but is also why the Charming's push for Daring, Dexter, and Darling to have prominent destinies. The sooner they marry into blood bonded destined families the less likely their bloodline is to disappear or thin out. 

You can have a family with both blood bonded and soul bonded destinies. Holly as the presumed oldest got the blood bonded destiny of Rapunzel, but Poppy as the younger one has an unknown soul bonded destiny, assumed to be a damsel due to her royal blood but no one’s really sure.

 And furthermore, while we're on the topic of pairs of siblings, a story that includes a set of siblings will have those siblings born to the oldest child of the last generation, not the weird cousin thing that happened with Helga and Gus. This means that if you're a part of the twelve dancing princesses for example, only the oldest princess’s twelve children would have the blood bonded destiny of being a dancing princess. The daughters of the other eleven princesses would get random soul destinies like the charming's. 

Finally, the first line of this rule is a little false. While unofficially there are two types of people, the destined and the common folk, Headmaster Grimm, and those who truly believe in the destiny system from both camps of people, would say that everyone is destined, as it is the destiny of the common folk to continue on their family trades and support their kingdoms. They even have symbolic legacy signings in some villages where a single page is signed by every child of age and then sent to Grimm to bind into the storybook of legends, and the one held in Book End village each year is attended by nearly every child of age within reasonable travel distance as they get to see Grimm bind the page into the book at the end of the ceremony. 

Rule 4: this brings me to the next point, Grimm isn’t just the headmaster of the school in the revamp au, he is also the Oracle of the Storybook. Grimm is thought to be immortal, here since the beginning of the cycles themselves, and he interprets the Storybooks will through visions and the like. This is why Daring knows what his destiny would be, Grimm saw a vision of a blonde prince in armor that had the Charming crest on it leaning over a glass coffin and told his family. He doesn’t control when these visions come, but despite this his position as Oracle makes him almost the head of all the leaders in ever after.

Rule 5:

And finally, number five, the storybook will make little changes each cycle to continue its and the universe's ensured existence. When the original tales happened, they were quite violent, with villains always dying at the end and even some hero’s dying as well. This however started to become a problem for the cycle, as destined who died without having a child first didn’t pass on the story by blood and thus their destiny got spat out randomly to a soul bonded destined. To keep this from happening, two things started to emerge. 

One, for stories where the deaths happened right before the end, the book started to look the other way so long as the character was dead until the last words were written. This is how Ginger's mother and previous ancestors survived. Yes, she was pushed into the oven and died, but one, fire resistance potions exist, and two, her oven had a door on the other side that could be opened, so after the storybook wrote “the end” the second door was opened by Grimm/someone else he trusts, and she was given a powerful healing potion. This is the equivalent to your heart stopping for a minute and then being revived by a doctor. You were dead, but like, it was temporary. 

Two, for other characters whose deaths happen too early on to be reversible (or that kept the story from being retold entirely), they slowly morphed into other fates. Cinderella’s mother doesn’t so much as die now as she becomes a tree. Somewhere in the middle of the cycle Odette stopped dying and just became stuck as a swan. The little mermaid is an extreme example of this, as Meeshell's ancestors went from dying, to turning to seafoam, to living happily ever after through a very long line of generations. Some say these softer endings have to be repeated a number of times before the book considers them the new versions, but no one's sure what that number is. Some also believe that you can convince the book to give you a softer ending, but this has no proof and is vehemently denied by Grimm who insist the book decides of its own merit what to keep or change each generation when it comes to large plot points based on what's needed to ensure the safety and continuation of ever after. 

That’s it for now folks, tune back in whenever I get free time next for some light Snow White and Apple angst. 

[chibishortdeath]

Ok weird opinion of mine I guess idk how to start posts aaaa

I think Simon’s “barbarian” design really works story and character wise.

Yeah, it’s silly and absolutely not historically accurate whatsoever, but it kinda makes sense in a certain weird way.

We know from Lament of Innocence and Dracula’s Curse that the Belmont family is generally on rough terms with the public. Leon gets his title taken away and, even though he gets his sword back at the end of the whole Walter situation as confirmed by how Belmonts onward have that sword, he’s still generally kinda shunned for going against the church’s wishes and the tail end of the crusades happening at the time. And Trevor is straight up banished from the country for fear of his strength. He’s much isolated from other people off in the house in the woods until he’s called to help fight against Dracula and gets some friends on the way.

And this kinda sets up the situation that the family was living in during Christopher’s time. The Belmonts are social outcasts; their existence is acknowledged, but they’re not really associated with or thought of very highly at this point. So, it wouldn’t be unlikely that they just wouldn’t really care for or be caught up with social expectations like fashion. When people are going to be wary of you regardless of what you do, why not dress however you want? Especially if you know no one’s going to do anything about it! Especially if it’s practical; the longer, looser sleeves and pant legs of the time would be restrictive in a combat/acrobatic context. So Christopher probably just wore whatever he wanted, and to be fair he doesn’t really seem to interact with anyone besides family very much.

First I wanna mention that I am completely aware that Simon was designed way before any of these other characters. But these characters are chronologically before him and can explain where he gets these design choices from in universe.

So, what about Simon then? Well, Simon has a lot of themes of wanting to be like his ancestors. Christopher is directly mentioned as someone he wonders he’ll ever compare to. Judgment shows him looking up to Trevor as well, and even though that game is of interesting canon status lol, it’s an example of that character element being used again. And this is reflected in his barbarian designs! The cape he wears in the manual drawings resembles the cape Trevor throws off in the opening of CV3. The general light armor and skimpy clothing is reflective of both some of Christopher and Trevor’s designs. The metal armor in Simon’s Quest being reminiscent in shape to Trevor’s on the CV3 box art. It just makes sense that Simon would be trying his damnedest to emulate the guys he’s been looking up and comparing himself to his whole life.

And the sudden transition from the barbarian look the family had for years to the more with the times fashion that Juste has makes a lot of sense considering Juste grew up in a time when the family was highly respected and in the middle of town, somewhere where keeping social expectations and appearances would be expected of him.

Idk if any of this makes sense, but aaaaaa random stream of an idea I guess. I like Simon getting to being weird and out of place for his time period and country lol. Also I’m not saying that other designs are bad!!! I like all of Simon’s game designs tbh, Ayami’s is really cool too and works for some of these points cause it’s also kinda barbarian esque but just in black and red, I’ve cosplayed it before lol. Yeah idk that’s it and I am sleepy goodnight—

[mementomori-s]

[ristoranteivorykeys]

twst mermay 5 — casual wear

in which floyd is dealing with the heartbreak from knowing you didn't like him back ft. floyd leech, ace trappola, and jamil viper; floyd x reader

╰┈➤ 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: fifth prompt! this was probably the hardest one so far because i didn't know where to start or how to write floyd's character for a scenario like heartbreak. i think basketball club is also pretty fun, and their interactions should be explored a bit more. :D ╰┈➤ 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐨: mermay masterlist

Floyd had the urge to snap something in half. 

His footsteps were notably heavy as he walked out of the store that he, Ace, and Jamil were in. Hands in the pockets of his teal jacket, he was gripping the inner fabric. He wanted to snap something, he wanted to grip something until it cracked and broke, but at the same time, he didn’t have the energy to do anything except walk ahead.

“Hey Jamil,” he could hear Ace whispering from behind, “what’s up with Floyd?” 

“I’m not sure,” Jamil replied back in an equally hushed tone, but Floyd had the sense that he wasn’t being completely truthful. “But it’s better to leave him alone.”

“Do you think it’s because of what [you] said,” he asked. “Is he bothered that they’re buying Azul a bunch of clothes?”

Floyd gripped the fabric tighter. He wanted to snap, but he wasn’t in the mood. 

“Drop it,” the Scarabia student warned. “Let’s just leave him be until he calms down.” 

Their whispering stopped, but the merman couldn’t let go of what Ace said. There’s something about another person saying out loud the things in your mind, like a sort of confirmation. It’s one thing for Floyd to merely feel bothered by the irritation felt when you said why you were shopping along with Jade. It’s another for someone to pinpoint the reason why it started in the first place, especially if that someone is a freshman like Ace Trappola. 

It’s not that he’s embarrassed to act in such a manner in front of a freshman—Floyd never cared about image, and he doesn’t think there’s any reason to start caring. If he wants to shoot hoops with scary accuracy, he’ll do it. If he wants to gobble on a burger and leave a mess, he’ll do it. If he wants to mess with someone until their face goes red, he’ll do it. But rather, he’s irritated that someone else could say his dilemma out loud without any problems while he’s dealing with the embarrassment of feeling something as cheesy as heartbreak. 

Really, he should have been expecting this. Floyd wasn’t dense. Compare the way you act around friends like Ace versus with him, and there wasn’t any notable difference. You carry the selfishness characteristic of Night Raven College, and you’re vigilant and clever, but none of those qualities change the fact that you have a bigger heart than many of the students. You would share a bag of chips with him for a few seconds before handing the same bag to Ace and Jamil. 

But compare the way you act around everyone else versus Azul, and it’s a different story. You don’t display it—because he knew that showing such emotions could potentially land you in a room with a safe at the back and a golden contract presented to you—but there’s a spark in your eyes when you see Octavinelle’s dorm leader, even from afar. One of the greatest teachings of the Sea Witch is to never underestimate the importance of body language, and she has yet to be proven wrong. 

Still, what reason did Floyd have to stop hoping? So long as you never confirmed anything, he could still hope that you brushing his hair back on occasion meant something. So long as you never chased for Azul, he could still chase after you. 

But then he saw that white paper bag in your hand. He heard Jade say that he was there to accompany you in shopping for clothes for Azul. And he most definitely heard you say that you want to give him an outfit where he can be looser while still maintaining class, all for the reason that you wanted him to enjoy land fashion more and hoped to be just a little more relaxed. And from glimpsing at the way you chose the clothes for Azul, Floyd could tell that you knew him well and took the time to learn about the sort of person he is. 

And that’s when he knew there was no more chance. He hated backing down, but he also didn’t want to start anything bad with Azul or with you. He wants Azul to be happy, he wants you to be happy, and he wants to be at peace. When did it get this complicated? And he hated asking this sort of question—because why look back to the past when looking forward to the present was much more fun?—but why couldn’t he go back to when things were simpler? 

“Yo, Floyd.” 

He felt Ace’s hand tap his back and glared at him. If he was to wallow in such feelings, couldn’t he be left alone at the very least?

“Ace, what did I just tell you?” Jamil’s irritated sigh punctuated his sentence. 

“Hey, just wanna let you know,” Ace shoved his hands into the pockets of his newly bought red jacket, appearing to ignore Floyd’s glare, “I’ve been there before, and I’ve seen a ton of guys getting their hearts broken too.”

Floyd’s face relaxed, morphing into brief surprise. 

“Love sucks, you know,” he continued. “Whether you’re going for a girl, another dude, or anywhere in between, if they don’t like you back, then it’s gonna hurt for sure.” 

From behind them, Jamil watched with a stunned expression. 

“And well, since we’re here,” Ace’s eyes started shifting towards the surrounding stores and restaurants, “what do you say we get some grub in Pizza Planet? They’ve got this limited time flavor of pizza, and as a pick-me-up, tab’s on me. Sound good?”

Floyd’s laughter was instantaneous. It was loud enough to cause people to turn their heads and stare at him, but he couldn’t care less about them. “You’re funny, Crabby,” he said. “You better hold onto that promise, k~? Because I’ve been curious about that flavor too.”

“Ahaha…” The Heartslabyul student’s laugh sounded slightly more nervous. “Of course I will!”

“Well then,” Floyd took hold of both Ace’s and Jamil’s wrists, taking a good look at two of his friends as a grin made its way on his face, “we gotta get there quick before the dinner rush starts! Let’s go!” 

And with a panicked Ace and Jamil dragged behind him, Floyd let out a laugh as he ran across the streets.

[audreydoeskaren]

What do you think of the costumes on Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty?

The plot of the drama is a mess, but the costumes look pretty, btw I'm not an expert:3

Hi, thanks for the request. To be honest I don't watch the dramas I review beginning to end because I don't usually have time for 50+ episodes dramas but the costumes in this one are so good that I actually watched 5 whole episodes, before getting put off by the plot...

Please stick around for this one because it is really good.

Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty 梦回 (2019)

There is no English Wikipedia entry that I can copy and paste from for this drama (no love 😥) but it's basically about a modern working woman who time travels back to the Qing Dynasty and gets involved in court drama and romances. It's directed by Lee Kwok Lap and Chui Wai Hong (Rakuten Viki). I think in episode 4 or 5 they mention that the historical bits take place in the 45th year of Kangxi which is 1706. With a significant portion of the plot taking place in court, many characters should wear Manchu fashion and court dress. All the screenshots are from the Youtube uploads. The credits list Guan Qiwen as the stylist, Gu Fengxian as the costume designer, Lai Zhuping as the hairstylist and Ma Jingjing as the makeup artist. I wanted to credit all of them because as you will see, the entire team did such a great job.

Source here

I think the costumes look great, although they do lean more toward the mid and late 18th century than 1706. Finally for once a Qing period drama landed in the 18th century and not the 19th, this is a watershed moment in the history of Qing drama costuming ok? This is exactly what Story of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace should’ve looked liked but failed to deliver (they teleported themselves to the 1850s).

The construction of the 便服 bianfu (informal dress) robes here is extremely satisfying: they're collarless, they have the thin black binding around the neck, they have the horse hoof cuffs and they're in plain fabrics. The colors are also quite realistic and achievable in the early 18th century court. I do wish the male characters had less hair though; in the beginning of the Qing, men were practically bald with the exception of a teeny bit of hair at the back (about the size of a coin) which was grown into a pigtail. This is too much hair for me, although it is still a massive improvement compared to older dramas where the dudes barely shaved off any of their hair. The 褂 gua or coat the guy on the right is wearing is also very legit, it has the conventional five buttons and the sleeves that are looser and shorter than the robe sleeves. I’m super impressed!

Source here

Kangxi in a similar informal robe.

Source here

Kangxi in a similar coat.

The look on the right is highly questionable, maybe it was a specific type of uniform. I already trust the costume designer with my life so I’m sure whatever they came up with probably had historical precedent. The robe with a standing collar and the wide binding at the 大襟 dajin or lapel/front closure was something that existed, I’m just not sure if this particular color and pattern would be used.

Source here

Qianlong era portrait featuring a similar robe. If you look at the dajin you can see that binding was used.

Her mother’s entrance look is very intriguing: while all the other characters in this seem to be Manchu, she is wearing Han clothing with a Han hairstyle. From the description given in the show it seems that her family was originally Han but served the Manchu emperors and got elevated into the Banners (the Manchu aristocracy) so it’s not completely out of place for her mom to wear Han clothing I guess. With that said, this hairstyle is pretty interesting. It looks like they were trying to do the 1710s/20s hairstyle that looks like poop and they got it almost right, it’s just that the “poop” part could sit closer to the forehead. Her robe looks very late 17th century which makes sense for her age, though the collar could be taller and have two buttons.

Source here

Painting from the series 雍亲王十二美人图 showing the hairstyle they were referencing.

Source here

Closeup of the painting 乔园之三好图 by 禹之鼎 from the 1680s showing the back of women’s hairstyles. The giant pompadour front has fallen out of fashion in the early 1700s.

In this scene we see again that the Manchu women’s robes featured in this show have slits at the sides, which shouldn’t exist for 衬衣 chenyi. They also layered a robe on top of another, going the 19th century chenyi + 氅衣 changyi route which also wasn’t a thing in the early 18th century.

Here it looks like the mother’s robe is way too long to be a Han robe? Han robes were pretty long around this time but they would still show a bit of the skirt underneath. Her father’s outfit is great though, he has the wine colored robe with horse hoof cuffs and a coat with a 补子 buzi (square badge), which was appropriate for an official. I like that the buzi is also colorful, with waves and cliffs motifs and a single bird, which were the norm in the Qing. 

In this scene where the ladies go to court it becomes more obvious that the costume designer completely understood the difference between Han and Manchu women’s fashion at the time. The Han girls are wearing two piece ensembles whereas the Manchu girls wear a single floor length robe. They gave the Han girls white, heavily pleated skirts and hairstyles with swallow tails which were popular in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. I can’t really tell how the Manchu hairstyles are achieved but if they were indeed braided I need to give the hairstylist a trophy.

Source here

Closeup of painting 豪家佚乐图 by 杨晋 from the late 17th/early 18th century showing the white skirt with many pleats and floral embroidery.

Source here

Late 17th/early 18th century portrait of a Manchu lady showing her braided hairstyle and collarless chenyi with roundel motifs.

I just noticed that they did give the Manchu characters three earrings on each ear, a practice known as 一耳三钳 yi’ersanqian, to differentiate them from the Han ones, who wear one earring on each ear; that’s a nice touch. Ok I think the biggest problem with the Han women’s costumes in this show is the collar height and fit. It should be much taller and more fitted to the wearer’s neck. Oh and I love the embroidery on all of their costumes, they’re often in roundel patterns or at least follow the pattern distribution common to the early 18th century. The choice of florals and butterflies is also really cute and true to the era and season (this is probably springtime), in addition to adding contrast to the menswear which usually features plain fabrics or those with brocaded geometric patterns. 

This square necked garment is very interesting and does have a historical precedent, they got the construction correct even down to the wide facing at the collar. I don’t particularly agree with the use of fake hair for this lady because I think it’d be more authentic to braid her hair or use a turban to cover it (it’s also a little too big).

Source here

Early Qing portrait of a Manchu lady. You can see her hair is much smaller.

They did recreate the smaller hair with another character, who is Han but probably changed into Manchu garb for riding. I cannot tell you how much I respect their attention to occasion.

Usually I would stop at episode 10 but I really want to see the winter clothes featured in the promotional photos so I skipped ahead. The winter clothes did not disappoint. The black fur collar trim is completely correct and so is the white fur trim for the rest of the coat. They’re also wearing winter hats with fur. 

Source here

Winter clothing.

Omg this cloak YASSSSSS!! This might be the most legit early Qing cloak I have ever seen in a period drama. The construction is great because: 1) it doesn’t have a hood like in most period dramas, Chinese cloaks didn’t have attached hoods 2) it’s collarless, which is true to the early Qing 3) it’s pleated around the neck and most Qing cloaks were constructed by pleating or gathering around the neck 4) it buttons at the front with five buttons, which was conventional for Qing outerwear 5) it has no other shenanigans like openings or sleeves 6) it’s in a wool/felt fabric that actually looks appropriate for the season. I think 6 is particularly important and refreshing to me personally because fabric choice is something that’s very often overlooked in Chinese period dramas, like you would see people running around a field of snow in shiny silk adjacent fabrics and you’d just think “aren’t they cold in that?” Woolen fabrics, especially worsted wool which was waterproof, was usually imported from Europe to make rain coats and other outerwear and was quite unique to the Qing Dynasty, so I really appreciate the use of them here.

Source here

An artifact for early Qing cloaks. This one is pretty interesting since it also has a built in coat inside, but we can still see the construction of the outer cloak.

This Han look is very, very legit, and I love that it’s in a winter fabric too. The sleeves are a bit too short though, that’s also a recurring problem.

She’s probably wearing a 抹额 mo’e underneath her winter hat, which was a very popular accessory throughout the Kangxi and Yongzheng eras. Her 吉服 jifu robe looks pretty good too. I’m not sure if she would wear 朝珠 chaozhu (the bead necklace) for jifu though.

I leafed through 38 episodes and finally managed to get a screenshot of an outfit with the suspended kerchief. This is such a cool look that never got representation before this. You can see in many 18th century export paintings that sometimes Manchu women attached a plain white kerchief and other jewelry to the button at the dajin and just left them hanging there. My only quibble is that in the 18th century kerchiefs didn’t have this deliberately created rectangular shape yet, so they more than likely would just be loose and flowy instead of ironed and flat.

Source here

Late 18th century export painting showing the kerchief.

Conclusion

Phew this got really long. I absolutely loved looking at the costumes in this drama, words cannot express how refreshing and well made they are. Because this drama has such bad ratings I was expecting some sloppy costuming but this totally blew my mind. They pulled out some rare garments and looks that no other period drama (that I know of) has done before and executed them almost flawlessly, e.g. the suspended kerchief, the cloak, the square necked jacket, the fur trimmed winter clothing etc.. The differentiation between Manchu and Han womenswear was perfectly handled, in a lot of older dramas you couldn’t tell the ethnicity of the female characters at all where you should be able to. The construction and cut of the clothes are almost entirely period and I commend the costumer for not adding unnecessary details to “spice things up”. The attention to occasion and season is also remarkable, in spring the female characters wear clothing with floral and butterfly motifs and in winter everyone wears warmer, heavyweight fabrics. This is something that usually tends to be lacking in a lot of older guzhuang dramas which paraded their characters around in gaudy colors and fabrics regardless of weather and occasion. There is still the classic Qing court drama problem of the costumes being accurate to a different era; the Manchu clothes look more appropriate to the Qianlong era (mid to late 18th century) whereas the Han ones are more on point. A couple recurring problems also exist, such as the use of the not-yet-invented changyi, standing collars that are too low and sleeves that are too short. However, that does not at all detract from how much I want to give the costuming team a cookie----no, my entire fucking cookie collection. It’s such a shame that the plot was mediocre because the costumes really have the potential to make this show groundbreaking. I rate the costuming in this drama a solid 7/10 and I will be naming this the most historically accurate Qing drama to ever grace this earth until a worthy contender appears. Bravo.

[free-pancakes]

I see you that you’re famous in the levihan fandom, but can I request that you start a post asking why people ship Levihan so that we could reblog it and and start telling our stories to why we fell in this hellhole too?

i’m sorry? *spit take* famous? anon, pls follow the other levihan blogs with owners who have real talent and excuse my mediocrity. im out here just tryna have a good time lmao

hm well maybe i can give you a top 5 reasons why i personally like shipping levihan? In no particular order:

1. I really enjoy their companionship and how comfortable they are being themselves with each other - when i watch/read aot, it feels like levi is very comfortable and looser around hange compared to when he’s around other characters.

2. I love friendships/bonds that transcend words - i find it significant that they have scenes where they speak with simple looks at each other, or the “telepathy” ordeal. kinda like when you’re out in public and something happens and u look at your best friend and u already know whats on their mind

3. I don’t believe in “opposites attract”, but i do like relationships that complement each other - i think they bring out the best in each other. i think of the scene where levi goes along with her faking that she’s not upset when she kicks the table after being frustrated with sannes. Like levi knows that hange is putting up a front, and he uses his quiet demeanor and expression as if nothing happened to affirm her in that situation. Or when Hange just talks his ear off but he seems just content listening. basically like the introvert that keeps the extrovert in check, and vice versa. Like they’re just good/healthy people for each other?

4. I value humor over a lot of other qualities in a relationship because taking yourself/each other too seriously can severely limit your happiness/well-being - i like that they tease each other a lot, and are just so casual around each other. in a world that’s so serious and sad, they find a way to keep it light with each other. and other than sasha and connie, and occasionally the rivalry between jean/eren, there isnt much room in the show for humor. so i find it significant that the two of them are depicted in this way. 

5. Based on a recent convo i had with some friends, i think that something really important in a relationship is that you are you, and you choose your partner because you care about them. None of this “you’re my other half” or “you complete me” tropes

- i like that in the end, they are independent people who simply care for each other. they have a strong sense of duty to humanity and the people they care about, and they respect that in each other. I think of Levi prioritizing armin/moblit getting hange to safety after she almost died in the crystal cave. it’s like he knows that she would never approve of them bailing on the mission if she was injured, so he respects that and simply makes sure she’s safe, and carries out the mission and taking care of the 104th kids too. Or in ch 126 hange has a moment where she breaks their light/humor-filled relationship and asks him to live with her in the forest, but levi respects hange too much to let her give in to that, because he knows that “she cant stay out of the action”, and he prioritizes hange being who she is before anything else. Or when levi lets hange go in ch 132, there’s no begging to stay. he doesnt question hange’s decision, because he cares more that she is who she is all the way to the end. i think “you complete me” can be selfish in that u want your partner for your happiness only, whereas i dont see room for that in levihan

thanks for le question, anon

[yumgrapejuice]

Hello there! I recently found your fic A is for accidental dimensional travel on ao3 and would first like to say good job! I am thoroughly enjoying the story so far. As an amateur writer, I wanted to ask if you have any writing tips?

First, I’m really happy to hear you’re enjoying it, thank you!! And second, of course!!!:D That’s very flattering haha, and it’s something I can talk about for hours, though I’ll try to keep it condensed:’D I’m an amateur writer myself, of course, but, hey, I think every writer has something valuable to offer in terms of advice, and I have been pretty obsessed over the topic for years I guess lol.

I will say, though, that writing is like any other skill, and certain advice fits certain levels (I’ve had someone come to me about writing tips who didn’t have a grasp on the most basic concepts, so I told them different things from what I’d tell someone who’s actually been writing for a while). I don’t know what level you’re at, anon, so I’ll try to keep it to tips that I personally use whenever I’m writing, just a few quick things:D However!! You can always directly dm me and I’d be more than happy to offer more personalized/specific advice if that’s something you’d like:))

(I’d also like to mention that, to me, fanfiction writing is different from original writing. In fanfics, I usually go with the first draft of any chapter and I focus more on the Fun stuff, whereas with original stuff I’d have multiple drafts and be more careful. I just don’t have the time nor the need to perfect my fics if I like them enough as is, and I don't expect anyone else to perfect them, either. But, hey, that’s just me)

(Also, also, don’t look at me for grammar lmao sorry)

Putting the rest under the cut!:D

Dialogue is my favorite part of writing, so I’d like to share a few things I keep in mind whenever I’m constructing it.

First, unless a character is monologuing, I try to keep each person’s lines to no more than 3-4 sentences at a time. That way the dialogue flows more naturally and feels like people are actually talking.

Second, people are rarely graceful with their words, especially if they’re flustered for any reason. Cutting off sentences is a good way to show that, but don’t overdo it, either. That goes for stuttering, too. A couple of cuts or stutters is more than enough. I tend to break this "rule" when someone is really struggling, but that's only on special occasions.

Third, not every line needs a dialogue tag!! You need to evaluate what’s actually important. If you’re using a dialogue tag, you’re drawing attention to it. Why? Is it unclear who’s speaking? Are they performing some action that adds to/reinforces/conflicts with what’s being said? Is it funny? If there isn’t a good reason, you can just leave it without a tag. (Also, dialogue without tags flows much quicker, so that’s something to keep in mind. That's good for a quippy exchange.)

Fourth, I try to always progress some aspect of the story with every line. Usually, that can be plot progression or character progression. They can chatter about their day, the weather, work, sure, but it needs to progress something. Maybe it’s used to showcase the tense/awkward atmosphere. Maybe they learn information that’ll be useful later. Maybe it’s a way to show personality. Just, have it have a purpose.

And last, ‘said’ is not dead. Our eyes when reading barely register the word, so if you don’t wanna draw attention to how something is being said, use… ‘said’ lol.

A few more general things:

I don’t switch POVs often, but when I do, I try to make each POV have its distinct voice, which is something you hear a lot about in writing classes and such. People far more advanced than me can explain it much better, but the way I go about it is similar to dialogue. Different people use different phrases, some go on long tangents, some introspect a lot, some would rather die than think for a second about what they’re feeling (doesn’t mean you shouldn’t describe their emotional responses; just that some may draw more attention to them and linger longer). Switching between more formal styles to looser and rambly is also an easy and quick way to distinguish different narrators.

If you focus a lot on a certain detail, that detail needs to be important. Listen, I didn't spend multiple paragraphs on Dream fawning over an ender chest for that to be trivial in the future lol. The more attention you draw to something, you more weight you put on it. I really recommend that you bring it back eventually.

What’s the worst that can happen? Make it happen, and make it worse lol.

Your readers aren’t stupid, don’t spoon-feed them information. They’re smart cookies, leave some clues and they’ll figure it out. Hopefully. Use your judgement lol. But that goes for descriptions, too. Help them paint the scene, don’t actually paint it for them. Use different senses to describe something, such as smell, touch, sound. Once again, draw attention only to what’s actually important. (I’ve really enjoyed the way descriptions were done in Path of Golden Green)

If you want a line to have a lot of weight, put it in a separate paragraph. That’s probably obvious, but good to have it in mind haha.

Decide what atmosphere you want your story to have. If you’re going for a lighter one, don’t focus too much on serious, dark things. Likewise, tragedies and comedy don’t mix well unless it’s a tragicomedy lol, but that’s a whole other thing. I usually like going for a nice middle, sometimes leaning more towards light stuff. It’s why in A is for Accidental I didn’t dwell too much on the possible effects the prison could have had on mh!Dream because I wanted to keep that storyline relatively light (at least, compared to dsmp!Dream’s storyline lol). Possible trauma just. wasn’t the point here lmao. I just slap on a “eh, not his first rodeo” and I’m done haha. Not everything needs to be heavy angst and not everything needs to be all funny and fluffy. Find what balance you wanna have. Basically, it’s usually not a good idea to betray your readers lol.

This is more of a pet peeve but I really dislike head-hopping lol. It's basically when one paragraph is from one character's POV, the next one is from another's. I guess there's the third-person omniscient POV where that can fly, I suppose, but I'm more of a third-person limited kind of person lol. If that's the POV you're going with, decide on your POV character and stick to it (until the change in POV, at least), pretty please <3

This is very unorganized but each aspect of writing has so much that could be said about it that I thought I should stop here lol. If there’s anything specific you’d like me to talk about or to elaborate on something, please, feel free to ask; again, I’d be more than happy to ramble more about writing lol. I could go on forever, honestly:’D

[demi-shoggoth]

COVID-19 Reading Log, pt 18

Man, this past month has been a heck of a year, hasn’t it? I’ve still been reading books, but my pace has ebbed and flowed, and I forgot to update this for a while. So here’s my thoughts on ten of the most recent books I’ve read.

91. The League of Regrettable Sidekicks by Jon Morris. I had no idea this book existed until I was doing image searches for this project for the other “League of Regrettable X” books. This one covers the sidekicks, minions and goons of comic history. Unlike the other books by Jon Morris, the spread is more even of Gold/Silver/other ages of comic books. After all, the 70s is when Jaxxon the green rabbit appeared in Star Wars, and the 80s had a shape-shifting penguin named Frobisher in the Doctor Who comics. It also feels like it’s a little looser about what makes a character “regrettable”. Some of the sidekicks in its pages, like Woozy Winks and Volstagg the Voluminous, are legit great characters.

92. Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were by Michael Page and Robert Ingpen. I wanted to like this book; I really did. For one thing, it was recommended to me by @listmaker-lastcity​, who I was working with on commissions. For another thing, it was fairly pricy used. Thirdly, to its merit, it is gorgeous. Michael Page, the illustrator, is credited first, and rightly so. But for an “encyclopedia”, it makes up a lot of stuff. It opens with a disclaimer that “the creators of this book have… unlocked their own fantasies”, which means that it invents Arthuriana and Greek myths wholeheartedly. Several of the entries do not exist outside this book, and others are so distorted that their actual folkloric origins have been clouded and obscured by people using this as a source. For material I’m not familiar with the primary sources of, like Gulliver’s Travels, I have no idea if it’s reflecting the source material accurately, or making things up whole cloth. As a fantasy, it’s intermittently fun; some rather nasty misogyny does sneak in and the book is wildly anti-science. As a reference work, it’s useless to the point of actively harmful.

93. Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh. I was a huge fan of the “Hyperbole and a Half” blog back in the day, and knowing Allie Brosh’s history of mental health problems, I was worried when she seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. Her release of a second book was a pleasant surprise, but also showed that some worry was appropriate. This collection of essays, cartoons and heavily-cartooned essays is sadder than the first collection, as it was written during and after a series of family tragedies. It is still very funny in parts, however, and has an overall message of self-care and love that turned out to be extra relevant in the nightmare year that is 2020. It’s the only book for this project that I read in a single sitting. Highly recommended.

94. Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. This book is half memoir, half biography. The composer Mozart owned a starling during some of his most productive years as a composer, and even wrote an elegy to it when it died. The author used this as a launching point to adopt her own starling, and to examine how this invasive species is seen in American birding culture. The writing is humanistic and charming, and very self-aware (the author worries that her starling is going to die, because that’s what always happens in “this animal changed my life” books). The message is one of respecting all other creatures and of valuing the lives of animals, which is not much of a surprise from the author’s other books (I covered The Urban Bestiary earlier in this project.

95. The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris. The subtitle says it all; this is a biography of Joseph Lister, focusing on his research into antisepsis and promotion of sterile technique in surgery. It takes ample digressions to talk about other major surgeons of the time, the state of hygiene and disease theory in Victorian England, France and the United States, as well as things like labor conditions and women’s rights. These bits and pieces are woven in successfully, so they feel like appropriate context setting. Fitzharris is empathetic despite the often grisly subject matter, but readers with a sensitive stomach and a low tolerance for gore might want to skip this one.

96. Twice the Thrills! Twice the Chills! by Bryan Senn. This is a big book, 400 pages in full sized paper. It is an overview of the horror/SF double feature, covering every movie released initially in that format between 1955 and 1974 in the United States. As such, it reviews more than 200 movies, with behind-the-scenes anecdotes, critical opinion and box office, and general coverage of trends and themes in genre cinema at the time. I enjoyed this book greatly, especially since it covered some movies I’d never even heard of. The timing is perfect, too, as I read this book just before @screamscenepodcast​ covered the first entries in it, Revenge of the Creature/Cult of the Cobra. My one complaint is that the author seems biased against Japanese films. He discredits the special effects and monster suits in kaiju movies compared to even movies like Attack of the Giant Leeches and The Killer Shrews, and complains about acting and scripts in Japanese films much more than he does for other dubbed films. He also consistently refers to Ishiro Honda as “Inoshiro Honda”, which is how his name was misspelled in the 60s. That level of disrespect for some of my favorite genre pictures is a constant low-level irritation in what is otherwise a fine resource.

97. Cursed Objects by J. W. Ocker. This is a fun catalog of objects said to be cursed, including the whys, supposed effects and current locations of these artifacts. The book is sorted into categories, like “cursed objects in museums”, “cursed furniture”, “technological cursed objects”. It takes a skeptical, folkloric look at the topic, being more interested in the stories than in any legit supernatural powers. It even talks about things that “should” be cursed because of their odd appearances or eerie provenances, but aren’t, like the Crystal Skull forgeries. The book is a pleasant and breezy read, and the author has a good sense of humor on the topic. He curses the book itself with an epigram against thieves, and buys a cursed dog statue on eBay that sat on his desk throughout the writing process.

98. Death in the Garden by Michael Brown. This book is wildly misnamed, being light on both the “garden” and the “death”. It’s supposedly a social history of poisonous plants, but is more interested in English herbals specifically. It refers to the authors by name extensively as if we should have all of these memorized, and the only place where the prose has any energy is in the biographical section for these herbalists. There’s very little information about the actual plants and their poisons. I would use the word “doddering” to describe the prose style, which is simultaneously rambling and boring. The photography is pretty, though.

99. Ripley’s Believe it Or Not! 1929-1930 by Robert Ripley. IDW puts out lovely volumes of vintage American comics, and this is no exception. Being a kid into weird facts and trivia, and an adult who is still into them, the Ripley franchise was a major part of my childhood. This is the first modern collection organized chronologically, covering the first two years the strip was in national syndication. The strips cover the typical Ripley mix of sports trivia, weird facts, word riddles and puzzles, misleading statements and the occasional outright lie. The book has a warning about the racial attitudes of the time, which is fair, but it’s not nearly as bad as I feared. Ripley’s habit of drawing from photographic references means that people in ethnic minorities look like real people. But the language is decidedly “of its time”, with slurs used to identify foreign ethnicities (particularly Asian ones). So be warned.

100. Unlucky Stiffs: New Tales of the Weirdly Departed by Cynthia Ceilan. I’m ordering material to pick up from my local library again, which is great! This book was actually recommended by the library website based on the morbid slant of some of the other books I was putting on hold. Unfortunately, this book sucks. It’s pitched as a “weird deaths” book, something like a more literary version of the Darwin Awards. But the deaths are often not all that bizarre, instead being typically sad accidents or murders. It just comes off as mean spirited and misanthropic. Not recommended.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Hey! Feel free to ignore this long question but it was just something I was thinking about. I’m interacting with this fandom for the first time since about mid season 12-ish, I was an avowed deancas meta reader and I’m trying to catch up on some goings on. Something that’s really been bothering me since it went canon was something I was trying to figure out since I left: what happened during the carver era? Was he setting it up to be canon, because I can’t not see that when I watch s8 and 9, but post-Charlie dying it all seemed so disorganized, and bad. He set it up perfectly then lost the thread totally. Do you have any insight on what happened there? And 2, if I couldn’t stand the first half of season 12 but really liked 15x18, do you think I’d like the rest of the dabb era? How does it compare to peak carver era? Thanks for reading and no pressure! Forgot how much I love this meta stuff and now it’s all I think about again lol

Hi there! 

I think Carver era behind the scenes might end up being something we have to wait for tell-all interviews to understand... At least Dabb was there for all of it so maybe after the show is over, someone might grab him for a sit down to explain some shit and go over the old territory :P I’d guess that Carver was not committed to canon in the same way but he was open to exploring and expanding the relationships and Cas’s character just because he liked Cas and these dynamics, and definitely wasn’t adverse to at least ironically thinking of Dean n Cas in a certain way, hence the “jilted lover” thing. 

I think also there was generally less of a cohesive overall voice to the show from season 8 onwards, which is not a bad thing in that it meant we began to really see each individual writer putting their talents out there (or not-talents) but does mean the interpretation of Dean n Cas or gay subtext in general was an absolute rollercoaster, depending on who was writing, because combining looser control on the creative direction per episode along with a deeper focus on character overall... Bobo could roll right up in season 9 and immediately start serving Destiel but Dabb had been writing since season 4 and it was still season 8 where he first starts flexing any what would become shipper muscles :P 

Considering how Carver era fizzled out and Dabb took over with a stronger sense of what to DO with the dang show and what radical burn-it-all-down steps that involved to take it to a conclusion, including absolutely freewheeling the plot for a little while, throwing spaghetti at the wall and even letting Buckleming serve total curveballs and all, for the sake of really digging into character stuff instead, I do think the change is obvious again. I don’t even know if Dabb took over MEANING to make Destiel canon, but that he was absolutely of the mind that Cas was important and a TFW ending would be necessary. And then once he spent some time on that, the obvious answer that Destiel was integral hit at last through some sort of self-reflection on what the fuck they’d been writing all this time as it came to tying up loose ends. 

Honestly the writers he picked kinda do obviously compliment Destiel but maybe it was even just having so many fresh young voices at the table all at once that LATER shifted the conversation into “why the heck wouldn’t we do this?” after they settled in. 

Anyway, I’m not caught up on the current season, but I would say that Dabb era was as far as I watched, loosely written on the plot front and managing Buckleming nonsense about as deftly as a bunch of excellent writers who are trying to have a consistent vision but need to constantly work around someone lobbing bricks at the story can do. But it got better and better as it went on, because it was focussing more on the emotional stuff and the character dynamics, and taking them all seriously. Season 13 was an important shift in really taking Destiel seriously, and from the sounds of things Dabb was maybe considering Destiel by season 14 and ready to hit the ground running with 15? 

I personally think that Dabb era really started to be very very good as soon as Jack was properly introduced, especially as I spent a whole hiatus dreading him and convinced this was a terrible idea (he’s buckleming spawn, from one of their worst episodes overall behind their true classics like the racist truck) but Dabb wrote the first episode with Jack and it made him instantly endearing, and his whole story was well-handled from then on, making even some of the more garbage characters at least temporarily interesting or at least relevant or to make the scenes they were in easier to endure. 

So I’d say try again and power through until you’ve given Jack the 4 episodes at the beginning of season 13 they use to introduce and explore what he means to the show, and see how you’re feeling about those dynamics and storylines, as they really are where the show goes from then onwards. 

I also have to admit that season 9 is my favourite Carver era season, and overall I don’t like the seasons so much as loving certain episodes, and having a whole lot I don’t like in between. Dabb’s crack team of writers demonstrated what it was like to enjoy every single writer except Buckleming, and have a much more reliable run of episodes in a row consistently so if I was comparing them, especially with hindsight, Carver era is really left in the dust for me. My only regret is that Buckleming never retired early and left the show in the hands of competent adults for a full season.

To really emphasise how much I trust the writers these days, I’m pretty much assuming without watching them that the dozen episodes I haven’t watched will be good and I’ll have a great time watching them, and that Bobo’s last episode will be amazing quite apart from the bizarre mark it left on the historical record. 

[natsubeatsrock]

Anime Recommendations Based on Fairy Tail's Big Four Ships

I've been meaning to do this for a long time. (I feel like I'm saying that a lot, nowadays...)

The Big Four ships of Fairy Tail are ubiquitous among fans. It's hard to find too many people that don't like even one of them. If you're a fan of Fairy Tail, chances are that you like all of them to some degree. It would make sense to find shows that have dynamics similar to the ships we love. Who better than I to make a list like that?

Someone that actually likes the Big Four ships, for a start.

Anyone who's followed me over the years knows I was never going to write that kind of list. Originally, I was only going to deal with shows that handled the dynamics in ways I personally thought better. However, I put it on the back burner for a few months. And a few months became a few years.

Now that I'm actually setting out to try to write this, I've decided that I would make a bit of a compromise. Two recommendations for each ship. Both play with the dynamic in some way. One plays with it in a manner closer to the ship it's compared to and is what I would recommend to true fans of the ship. The other is a much looser parallel and does things I'd imagine people who didn't like the ship would like. Hopefully, you'll find some show that you like regardless of your feelings about the ships.

Nalu (Positive Recommendation): Twin Star Exorcists

This wasn't as tough a decision for me to make as one might expect given my history with the ship. When Rokuro and Benio have something of a chance encounter, they don't get off on the right foot. However, they realize they have more in common with each other than they'd like to admit. They go from outright hating each other to loving each other throughout 50 episodes. Of course, it helps that the fate of the world is dependent on them getting married and having a kid together. When I think of the best things about Nalu, I think about the relationship between Rokuro and Benio.

Nalu (Negative Recommendation): Snow White with the Red Hair

Shirayuki, the character the title describes, is an herbalist. The show focuses on her journey to becoming recognized as a court herbalist and her growing romantic relationship with Prince Zen Wisteria. As the show progresses, they each end up encouraging each other towards reaching their own ambitions. I could see the argument made that this is a better parallel for Nalu than the show I recommended. But, as someone who's made a name ragging on the ship, I think I'm in a good position to make this call.

Gruvia (Positive Recommendation): Momokuri

The heck is a Clannad? The show starts with a confession of love and a couple starting to date. That would be the end of most romances, but the fun only starts there. It turns out that the guy is not entirely confident with himself and is not sure how to properly handle a relationship with a girl older than him. The girl, on the other hand, has been borderline stalking him before their relationship started and still struggles to stop following him. I hope it doesn't come off as an insult to say that I kept thinking about Gruvia watching this show. This is one of the fluffier shows I've seen.

Gruvia (Negative Recommendation): Golden Time

Stop me if this sounds familiar. There's a girl who's been really in love with a guy for years, to the point some would call it unhealthy or obsessive. Unfortunately, the guy's not into her and all but shatters her heart with the declaration that he's found someone else he likes and can only see them as friends. But in swoops someone else who has been watching everything go down and sympathizes with her. How will their romance go? On a completely unrelated note, it's weird to see Golden Time and think that this was both written and animated during Fairy Tail's serialization. Almost as if writing Toradora gave the author psychic powers.

Jerza (Positive Recommendation): Romeo x Juliet

If you're going into this with the expectation of a straight adaptation of William Shakespeare's famous play about star-crossed lovers, you will be disappointed. However, Studio Gonzo took the story and turned it into an interesting fantasy and romance series. This show gets my nod on account of playing up both the romance and inter-family conflict of the original play. Jerza represents people on opposite sides of a conflict trying their best to work together against an enemy they're slowly but surely realizing they share. Be forewarned, though. This is still an adaptation of Romeo x Juliet.

Jerza (Negative Recommendation): Our love has always been 10 cm. apart

Hear me out on this one. Jellal and Erza's relationship involves a desire ultimately to be together despite the things pulling them away from each other, namely themselves. But... does it need to involve the whole "I can't accept that I may or may not be responsible for deaths and human atrocities" plotline running through Jerza? The characters in this show have a similar internal struggle, as the title describes. They just happen to be students in different clubs struggling with how they'll handle their passions before and after graduation, along with their potential romance. Before you watch this, it might be a good idea to be introduced to the characters via the movie “I've always liked you”.

Gajevy (Positive Recommendation): Ookami-san and her Seven Companions

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away- wait, wrong story. Ookami is known as one of the more intimidating people in their school and is the main muscle of one of the school's influential clubs, Otogi Bank. The club's newest member is on the frailer side but proves himself to be both competent and reliable in a pinch. He's been in love with her since the start of the show, but she's pretty slow to accept her own feelings for him.  This one may be a fun pick for people who liked seeing how Gajevy played out. Especially given, that the ship roles are somewhat gender-swapped.

Gajevy (Negative Recommendation): Chivalry of a Failed Knight

Part of me says that I could have put any romances involving a tsundere in this spot. After all, Gajevy's about falling in love despite bad first impressions. Though, my reason for picking this story deals with a rather interesting complaint about the ship: Levy's descent into the background as the series continues. In this story, the characters get together and prove themselves to be competent fighters. Of course, this means more for Ikki Kurogane, the main character, starting from the bottom to become the strongest fighter the school has. However, you never forget that Stella Vermillion is also strong in her own right. Though I'd caution against this if you're not a fan of fan service.

Bonus: Tsuredure Children

As a fun bonus recommendation, I'm throwing in Tsuredure Children. I often worry that fans here care more about the romances in the series than anything else happening. Tsuredure Children provides a fun solution to this problem: make it about nothing but romances. This anime follows a handful of romances at a high school, following different personalities, tropes, and levels of success. There are probably some parallels to these ships, but that's what the other recommendations were for.

And that's all I've got. See you!

What are you still doing on this post?

You saw the title. I did everything I said I was going to do. I even threw in another recommendation. There was no other reason to continue this except for satisfying your own curiosity.

How much more are you expecting of me? I'm only human.

Well, since you're here, it won't hurt to reward your curiosity. Here are two more recommendations, for Zervis. Thankfully, neither deal with the whole “Is this pedophilia?” thing because I never want to talk about that again.

Zervis (Positive Recommendation): Real Girl

If you've seen my end of year favorites, you'll know that I've enjoyed this show. If you'll ignore the laughter of those who've seen this show, I chose this for one important reason. This show plays with the idea of having someone who sees value in you that others don't can be life-changing in a positive way. I have to assume that, were Zeref and Mavis allowed to be happy, that would be the end goal of their relationship. By the way, their relationship comes as a shock to those watching it go down.

Zervis (Negative Recommendation): Hyouka

This shows also takes the idea of a life-changing relationship but plays with the guy's special talents to both solve and create problems for the series. I don't know how much of this pick is a "recommendation for people who don't like how Zervis played out" and a “I can’t think of another series I’ve seen to fit what this ship could have been if it didn’t involve people who could kill each other” pick.

But for real this time, see you! 

[ithinkthingsaboutstuff]

Well I am bored and can’t get back to sleep. So it’s time for a supergirl s5 rant no one asked for.

Now every season has its issues and there were some outside “issues” this season (COVID-19 and Melissa being pregnant) so I will keep that in mind.

That being said.

This season had problems from the word jump. This was for a few reasons.

1- The plot was all over the place

And I don’t mean, ‘oh there was not enough of [blank character] so it was bad.’ No, I mean it was literally jumping between to many elements. Like what was this season about really?

Was it about a new tech environment taking over people’s lives? Was it about an ancient occult power coming out of the shadows to “take” the earth? Was it about adjusting to a post crisis world? Was it about the Luther siblings joining forces to achieve common goal and brainy is a secret inside man?

Now I understand that most tv shows have multiple plot points to follow that’s normal and expected. However, you need to have them meet up in away that is rewarding to the viewer and makes sense for the story that you are trying to tell. And there is an old writing trick called “one step at a time” Basically it boils down to, The audience will only believe one thing at a time.

Eg. You tell the audience this character can only do something in a certain way, (like the sups and the yellow sun,) but then you say that actually never mind this is another way to do it,(like Kara can keep her speed and only her speed under a red sun). This is bad writing as there is no set up or pay off and you cheated your audience by just changing the rules you made for no reason. (Think that kid on the playground that does that “unbeatable force field” thing in a game of tag.)

This can also apply to story concepts this is called a “conflicting narrative” in season 5 this apples to leviathan.

At the start of the season (ep 1 -8) we are told that they are ancient and magical based villains, all good. 

and their big plan is to therefor, of course  *checks notes* to use advice sci fi tech to achieve their goals and do something? with the people inside, yeah that makes sense what else would they use? Magic? that thing the super family is vulnerable to? Nah.....sarcastic’s aside, if you establish one thing you can’t turn in round with no explanation. 

They actually have a good example of this concept working in this season, in ep 10 with Brainy and his changing physical appearance. 

It was set up in the ep early on that our brainy was ‘off’ compared to the other Brainy’s, we get an explanation in the bar scene with the Rath siblings and then it is built upon with a Kara and Brainy scene, then after a build up and a reason (a character based one I might add) it is then and only then that it gets revealed and guess what.... that is hands down the best ep of the season. 

I literally have re-watched that ep so many times cause it’s that good. It is great self contained episodes and builds on per established character moments and plot points (brainy’s character inconsistency and the crisis plot aftermath) it’s the gold standard of what I’m talking about.

it sets up and pays off what it is trying to do and give character base reason for the story. 

But the season as a whole don’t do this effectively because 

2- They focus on making the plot the compliment characters, and not the characters complimenting the plot.   

the blanket term for this is, this is called “build up and release” this is used to drag out tension effectively. there are 2 ways to do this but basically 

1- answer one thing, then that answer leads to another question     

2- give partial answers through out a space of time, to keep attention but not make it the only focus of any given moment.

but anyway,

season 5 has this issue where they bring up a point then either don’t carry it through or don’t ‘step it out’ in a way that leads well to the story.

remember what i said about accepting one thing at a time? now let me ask.

If Leviathan is secret why did they reveal themselves now?

I don’t know and guess what, I don’t care, because the show didn’t care either. they never set up why they came out of the shadows or why that even mattered? so why would anyone care outside of “season’s bad guys”. 

you know what this season did care about the Luther siblings. there is nothing wrong with that per say, I just don’t see why they needed Leviathan if they didn’t actually want to develop them in anyway. If the post crisis season was just about taking down the Luther’s then fine nothing wrong with that.

but here is why they NEEDED the Leviathan ‘plot’ (and i use that loosely) is that they needed it to justify Lena working with Lex and not have her come off as “too evil” that way she can say

“i’m only working with you because I want to get rid of Leviathan” 

instead of 

“i’m working with you because i have the same motives as you”

which would not play well in her “redemption” (and i use that term even looser) they kept an aspect to the story purely to complaint a character they wanted a particular outcome, so they kept a plot element around regardless of how well it actually worked with the story.    

and then there’s the bitch himself LEX (John did a great job tho tbh)

he is the biggest example of ‘plot fitting character’, Lex didn’t fail ONCE the whole season, no problems or surprises and it was “oh so easy for him” like that is just frustrating for everyone, i’m not saying “the hero’s should win all the time” No, but the villains need to earn their wins to. here is why that is an issue if you make it to easy.  

1- the audience wants to see every character have their problems with achieving their goals and how they go about solving the problems as it is and hear me out...entertaining   

2-  when a character always has things “go to plan” it feels super forced, the Human error, is built into us (the audience) as people, so to see it not come into play at all, at any point, feels fake as we all know life don’t work that way for anyone. especially if there are people actively trying to stop you. 

overall you shouldn’t force a plot to fit a character, you should write a character to fit the plot their in (or in other words have them adapted to new situations they don’t even have to do it well) 

Ironically a good example of this in s5 was William

they built up that he was a journalist and that he was hiding something, fast froward and it turned out that he was trying to uncover Leviathan (unknowingly to him) and not apart of them. 

this is a good way for a character to compliment the plot. 

they said here is a new journalist and he doesn’t even know the depths of what he is looking into and that’s a smart move.      

i’m just going to leave this clip here...

this tied in character and plot really well it exampled character and now after this scene they can shift his behaviour and have a reason for it. not just ‘oh actually he was never a jerk and he is nice now’. no it was “he is trying to achieve a goal using this method and now he has been exposed”. This gives a plot based obstacle and character reaction (that failed to work) and it works actually quiet well for a network conspiracy plot.

character completing plot.

and finally 

3- Rushed endings  

now this one is actually treaty to talk about, cause of well the COVID- 19 problems so i can’t be to judgemental about it cause that is a dick move. And on top of that the lead actress (of an action show) was pageant so they had to use he a little less (in fight scenes anyway) so again I’m not going to be a dick about it, and you know i don’t want anyone being forced to work during a pandemic if its not at all necessary. So, i will keep this brief.      

There are still things that fell flat due to being to rushed.

1- the tech/ VR take down.

It was built up for at least 10 eps and they took it down in 5 mins with a pep talk from Kara, like um ok that was easy i guess, don’t know why y’all were worried if you could fix it in an afternoon. this is not a bad plot line in theory, but it was given to much attention for the solution it was given. 

2- Leviathan lady (don’t know and don’t care what her name is) being a robot alien thing.

this one is not too bad? but it was shown way to late in the game and again they didn’t focus enough on Leviathan for this to be of any real audience value outside of a surprise/ shock value. So why should i care now? they barely did anything interesting this season but then you give me something cool 2 mins after it doesn’t matter anymore (with the others bottled). why was this not done earlier in the season? but anyway.   

3- Lena’s “redemption”  

I could write a whole separate rant about this, but for time and my sanity i won’t. but basically, my main issue is that the whole season Lena was spiralling downward and doing worse and worse things to people, and that’s fine from a story pov, but after at least 15 to 17 eps of this and countless bad decisions and judgements she dose ONE good thing and, well that’s all your needed to do, all is forgiven.

now i am all for redemption arcs but one of the main words there is ARC!!!

there needs to be a reflection, apologies, rejections and making mistakes and then truly changing for the better, and still making mistakes!!

it was disgustingly quick and it honestly made me a little uncomfortable. I want to see people grow and learn but people have to earn their own way there. and another thing redemption is not something another person should be reasonable for giving you. (*cough* Kara *cough*)  redemption is something you give yourself through hard choices, personal loses and hard work. and guess what you can do all that and still NEVER get back what you messed up, that was real change and growth is as, 

redemption, real redemption         

comes in the moments when you don’t benefit from it, Lena loses nothing in helping Kara in the end and gains everything she throw away in a minute flat. So, yeah i think it was rushed in a way that made my jaw drop in disbelief because of how badly rushed it was. 

But getting out of that head space.

I like trying to end on a positive note the only part of the ending that was not rushed was Brainy’s bottling of Leviathan, 

it was set up as a thing that be could do (ep 10),it was a hard choice to make (as it was going to kill him) and was given time to feel the full weight of the choice, the Rath sibling hand hold, then Lex taunting him and taking the bottle, and then Brainy being left there alone, Then a bit of hope with Nia’s vision. it was the best part of the ending this season and i want to see more.  that is how you don’t rush an ending let the audience feel the consequences for the character choices with the character.   

anyway season 5 rant over.

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 2

and moving right along w/the 2nd issue!

[sees cover w/skids] MY MAN!!!!

brainstorm calling himself the ‘ships genius’ and then rodimus mistaking him for multiple other people bc of this is hvbhjaksfbskfdl

love that rodimus is a self-recognized himbo. he doesn't know what a  science is and he doesn't care 

i love brainstorm callously joking about the duobot guy being killed horribly via generator melding...brainstorm ily 

and there's cyclonus! 

SKIIIIIIIDS

i fucking love the panel of skids saying ‘maybe I'm just being paranoid’ and in the background the words ‘YOU HAVENT ESCAPED THEYRE ALL AROUND YOU’ are carved into the wall....nice 

skids thinking his name is scum was funny until I had context, and now its just making me fucking SAD 

hbvahfjskfdbsajf rung praising ratchet, and ratchet being like oh thanks, excuse me a second- [hits hand with giant hammer] gotten loosen up the old joints eh 

mtmte is so fucking funny i always forget that bc the story and characters are so strong but its also hilarious. what an iconic series

tailgate is a dial-up robot. love it

‘buzzing with positive energy’ vbhjaksbhdfjsakf drift please

god i fuckgin love drift’s hippy nonsense. peak

wow rung hasn't caught a single break so far in the story huh

‘its your eyebrows! he’s jealous of your capacity for self-expression!’ vhbhsudfjsakfj swerve 

also i remember when watching tfp ruth and i would say that rung belonged there bc everyone in tfp had insane eyebrows 

oof, rung really goin for it there - not that you can blame him. also i get the feeling that the hipaa laws of cybertron are a little looser than earths

god i love how everyone on the ship is at least a little bit of an asshole. fantastic stuff 

swerve please vbjhsdkhfbjaskhfdn

love the detail of skids saying hes unarmed while holding the gun - bc he doesn't even realize/remember that hes holding it 

skids saying ‘fly, my beauty! fly!’ while throwing some guy’s dead body at his attackers....lmao 

cyclonus is so sexy and iconic i gotta say

oof i love cyclonus’s speech there...and the fact that that is what changed rodimus’s mind about him...and also contrast that w/their final moment in the last issue...OUGH 

also I'm too tired to remember/care how to pluralize names ending in s so I'm just fuckin goin for it lmao

magnus threatening to demolish cyclonus....sir

whirl saying ‘i cant remember who started it’ hvbhajkdsfbjajks ok

cyclonus is so ufcking hardcore. also i love him and whirl’s entire relationship progression...so good

the fact that tailgate lies about his function so smoothly is so interesting...i feel like tailgate mostly reads as innocent/naïve but his very deliberate lying shows that hes not just 1-dimentionally innocent (which is excellent)

and like, tailgate had to have quickly realized that he CAN lie about this here, 6 million years in the future, bc there’s nobody around to factcheck him - so now he can be as important as he wished he was back in his day...i love it

and still, as of now, we (the readers) don't know tailgate is lying - tho i feel like him saying that the ark launch would fail without him is a good clue, since we know that the ark launch DIDNT fail despite tailgates absence

fuckgin love worldbuilding stuff like metallurgy being ‘skin specialty’ in a world where everyone is made of metal. like, that makes sense!

i really want to know if tailgate genuinely thinks that whirls name is nutjob hbhdsjfkhbhjsakf

chromedome is so massive compared to the minibot squad hvbhjdskfbdksf

SKIDS WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO, I DONT REMEMBER AND I WANNA KNOW

love that in the crowd shot, cyclonus still manages to find a window to broodingly stare out of. icon

also is that cosmos???? bc im p sure he wasn't even on the lost light 

drift being ‘offensively upbeat’ as rodimus puts it is so fucking funny. sir please

im fuckgin crying at skids being like ‘well i guess i joined a quest? ok then’ lmaoooo this poor dude

also didn't someone do an analysis of swerve’s joking overexaggerated quest checklist to show that that all ended up being stuff that they did...bruh

rodimus really jinxed himself by overemphasizing how important any remarks had to be

also whirl once again dropping the issue title (”hanger ons”), nice

the crusadercons hvbdjkhfbhskdf

reclaim the suffix lmao god 

ohh i love the crew profiles SO MUCH

I love the contrast of brainstorm’s ‘prolific murderer’ to ratchets ‘prolific life-saver.’ also i love the retrospective irony of that particular epithet for brainstorm

chromedomes profession being classified is a nice touch

i love issue 2 too, it goes so well w/issue 1. we get a nice intro to our characters now that they’ve actually embarked on their epic space cruise, and the promising premise continues to feel fresh and exciting. ah, mtmte, so good. im excited for more...! 

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: The Eccentric Family S2, Episodes 1-3

Season 2, go! In which sidetracking ends up being the smart call, the details make all the difference, and a new addition to the cast makes a fascinating show.

The Road Not Taken

If there was one thing I appreciated about the first season of The Eccentric Family, it was its sense of detail. Through subtle character animation, richly textured environments, and countless little moments, it effortlessly crafted a unique, lived-in world bursting with new discoveries around every corner. Even if I struggled to jive with its particular storytelling sensibilities, there was fun in seeing what detours we would take en route to our destination. And apparently season 2 agreed with me, because it looks like this season is shaping up to be pretty much all detours. There’s no sign of an over-arching plot like Yaichiro’s quest for election, and the plot structure is even looser than the already fairly aimless season 1, fading from vignette to vignette on a whim. It’s the purest expression of The Eccentric Family’s interests yet, a series of moments scattered along a hidden forest path that exist merely to engross you in the feeling of this world and examine it from all angles. And you know what? I’m honestly down for that.

Sure, Season 2 is still very much the same show it always was, no worse for wear given the four-year gap between seasons. But without the specter of a larger plot making its confusing messages impossible to ignore- and the annoying twins shoved as far to the background as possible- it’s able to leave most of its baggage behind and just groove on the parts that actually worked for me. There’s something refreshing about the lack of pretension; we’re just here to soak in the evening autumn breeze under the light of a full moon, so why not just kick back and have some fun with it? And I am having fun! Now that I’m able to sit back and enjoy the details, I’m able to appreciate just how clever they are! Yasaburo daydreams about Benten so long it’s night before he knows it (and I don’t blame him, because good lord is she pretty), shoots the shit with Yashiro in the woods, turns into a freaking elephant to spook the enemy tengu (”When my little brother’s getting bullied, my seizures start acting up.”), and once again genuinely fools me by transforming into someone else. The new Nise-emon seems like a quality pick (”Welcome to Fake Hawaii.”), Kaisei’s hiding out in Yashiro’s backpack and saving her estranged fiancee from Eternal Bearitude, the Thursday Fellows have replaced the Friday Fellows and no longer eat tanuki for supper, we get to meet Yasaburo’s grandma who appears to have Alzheimer’s and doesn’t even know her grandkids... there’s life to these sideways glances. There’s life to the texture of this world. And if the second season is just gonna be about that texture, I think I’ll end up enjoying it just fine.

Magic in the Air

Indeed, there’s a real sense of magic in how free-form this season is allowing itself to be. Because the sidetracks have pretty much taken over the story, it’s able to indulge in those sidetracks and go to some really cool places. There’s a brief villain in the form of an illusionist who literally escaped out of a painting of hell by having an artist draw an escape hatch into it, and that’s just so fucking cool on a conceptual level I can’t help but admire it. Compared to how aggravating Kinkaku and Ginkaku were as bad guys, this guy makes an instantly striking impression just from the absurd spectacle of him scaring off some randos with his elongated chin. Plus, the fact that he just straight-up pulls a gun on Yasaburo when he starts losing at illusions is great. If only every villain were so pragmatic to keep a backup in case their gimmick isn’t cutting it anymore. But alas, his plans are foiled regardless by Benten’s sudden return from vacation. And can I just say, thank god she’s not being relegated to the tropics for the season as I was scared she might be. She’s too good a character to lose. Just look at her re-introduction scene; dropping a suitcase on the illusionist’s head, casually grinding him into the dirt (”Your skull might shatter, Tenmaya-san.”) deflecting a goddamn bullet with her bare hands, and tossing the moon back into the sky despite how much she wants it because even if she doesn’t admit it, she cares about Yasaburo like he cares about her (”Say you missed me.”) I don’t care how predictable I am, Benten’s fucking great and I’m glad she’s sticking around.

History and Mystery

That’s not to say this season is entirely absent of conflict. Professor Akadama’s son has shown up, and he’s instantly one of the most intriguing things to happen to this show thus far. There’s a long history between him and his father; years ago, they had a falling-out so bitter that Nidaime doesn’t even consider himself a tengu anymore. Whatever went down between them, it’s made Nidaime look down on the tengu’s stubborn pride, bristling with indignation and challenging him to a duel yet slipping off and embarrassing themselves before they can even start. And yet, it’s clear he’s still a product of the incredible sense of honor tengu are taught to value. He speaks to everyone with flowery respect befitting a Victorian gentleman (and dresses to fit the part), he offers fair compensation for Yasaburo’s help because he detests the idea of being indebted to anyone else, and he irons his shirts with the vigor of a seasoned veteran. There’s also a great moment where he repsonds to his father’s request for a duel by saying “Maybe I’ll come, maybe I won’t,” and then tells Yasaburo not to take his “maybe” as a “yes.” Akadama’s made a habit of saying “maybe” when he means “yes” to preserve his pride, so it’s clear Nidaime doesn’t want Yasaburo to think of him in the same way. That says so much about the kind of relationship these two have had. But what really brings it home is that for all his protestations, Nidaime accepts the offer in the end. His “maybe” ends up being a “yes” after all, just like his father. It’s evidence he’s not as far removed from his father’s influence as he wants to believe.

But what really excites me about him is the final scene of this chunk of episodes. As of now, Nidaime has become the first person who refuses to let Benten cow him into submission. She struts in and steals his chair as casually as breathing, but instead of backing off and letting her have it, he straight-up dumps her out onto the ground. After, of course, seamlessly pulling a tablecloth out from under a set table without disturbing the dishes and laying it out as a landing pad, because god forbid she get that beautiful dress dirty when he teaches her a lesson in humility. It’s a display of BDE so extra I think it sucker-punched me into the stratosphere. At last, we have someone else in the cast who’s able to match Benten on even footing. And that opens up the door for so many exciting possibilities. I can’t say I’m in love with The Eccentric Family let, but as long as the season season keeps this streak going, I think I’m gonna have a good time.

Odds and Ends

- Wow, Yasaburo, you can’t just kick your brother’s carriage off while he’s mid-speech. Rude.

-Okay, on the one hand, boo for tossing Benten out of the cast. On the other, Jesus wept she’s so fucking pretty

-”Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Sure, let’s go with that.

-Alright, y’all know I’m a slut for transposing animation onto real-life backgrounds, so this OP is right up my alley.

-”Why don’t you two get married already?” lololololololol

-”My confidence has no source, mister.” ksdjhskdf fucking hell Yasaburo

-”The beautiful live longer” Quality T-shirt, ma’am.

-ffs Yajiro you can’t just be a train in a well

Man, I’m glad it’s finally starting to click for me. See you next time!

[serenity-the-firefly]

Costume Design in the Magicians: Julia

A couple weeks ago I told an anon I would post my thoughts about costume design in the magicians, which took longer than I expected because I’ve been very busy but ALSO because this ended up being much more in-depth than intended. So buckle up, babes, this is gonna be a long ride.

Disclaimer: all screenshots are by me, which is why they are so low-quality. It’s surprisingly hard to get good full-length shots of outfits! All you out there who make edits, I salute you. Anyways: business.

Every character has defining visual elements to their design, and for Julia it’s a combo of solid colors, darker and more muted colors, and form-fitting knit fabrics mixed with looser over-layers. Her silhouette is very columnar- it fluctuates between tailored and rather business casual, and more loose and goddess-y. In terms of accessories Julia wears a lot of long, dangly jewelry and high-heeled ankle boots. In general there is a very strong sense of the vertical- very stable, very rooted, calm, centered, and contained. (Okay, i know julia isn’t THAT calm, but compared to everyone else on this show...)

picspam + more analysis under the cut

Her wardrobe during her time with Free Trader Beowulf (second half of season 1) is pretty distinctive from the rest- you can tell visually that she is trying to atone, trying to be a softer version of herself because she wears a lot of lighter colors, velvets, squishy knits, and maxi dresses.

On the other hand, probably her sharpest outfit (in that it has the most angles/triangles) is when she is sans shade:

In general, season 2 Julia wears a lot of muted blues and greens, probably reflecting her struggles with ptsd & depression. She also wears long, drape-y top layers, which to me says she wants comfort. (apparently I only took one screenshot of her basic s2 look, but in my defense she wears this outfit or some variation of it for like 3 episodes straight.)

Season 3 Julia settles into wearing mostly crop tops and tight pants or variations thereof- still roughly the same silhouette and colors as before, with a sense of tailored femininity. She ditches the maxi dresses of season 1, probably a nod to her no longer trying to be someone/something she isn’t, but does wear more pinks, unlike the season 2 earth tones. She keeps the long cardigans she wears in season 2, though. All this helps us to keep in mind where this character has been- while the guilt of s1 or the trauma of s2 aren’t necessarily on the surface anymore, they are still a part of Julia.

For the record, I HATE her goddess outfit with a burning passion. It’s a cool silhouette but in all the close-ups it just looks like she’s wearing some kind of poorly fitted Victorian labcoat/pseudo-lolita top thing. She looks like the bride of Frankenstein. BAD.

Okay, that does it for the first post! Julia was actually the character I ended up screenshotting the most. I think this is because a) she’s the female lead and b) the costume department has been very consistent with their design choices with her and how they choose to tell her story. A lot of the other characters take longer to establish or their representation fluctuates wildly. Personally, I love the outfits they give Julia, and I think they do a really good job of tying her personality together. 

[eddycurrents]

Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland - Chapter One

Words: Kim Newman & Maura McHugh | Art: Tyler Crook | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland #1 | June 2014

Collected in Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder - Volume 3: The Mysteries of Unland

Plot Summary:

With a surprise death of one of the Queen’s agents in Hallam, Somerset, Sir Edward Grey is tasked with investigating in order to find the cause of the death and clear the continued use of one of the Queen’s favourite elixirs that is made in the town.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is solely in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything within the issue or collections.)

pg. 1 - I love the approach to colour for the story. From the pages to the characters, there’s a faded sepia-toned wash to everything that helps this feel “old”. It immerses us into a unique visual style to add atmosphere to the story.

pg. 2 - The art of the little animalcules in the gutter of the pages is a nice touch from Tyler Crook. Also like the newspaper ad from Clem Robins. Especially the fact that there looks like there’s four or five different typefaces.

pg. 3 - The build up again of people around Grey is nice. Showing him back in a working environment compared to his journeys alone in the Old America West. 

pg. 5 - Nice ominous warning from the dead.

pg. 7 - The kid with the fully black eyes is very creepy. This is a nice way to further give the impression that something is very, very wrong with Hallam.

pg. 8 - Likewise these angles, the almost Vaseline-like smear on the colours, and dropping of detail. All of it gives the feeling that there’s something weird going on affecting the environment. It’s telling that this is around the Poole’s Elixir plant.

pg. 10 - And it starts to look like a cover-up, given that the local constabulary has already decided on a culprit and allowed the hotel owners to clean up the crime scene. It’s basically rendered Grey’s investigation of the scene moot.

pg. 11-12 - The change in style to a black and white newspaper cartoon for the constable’s thoughts on what occurred for the crime (and changing thoughts at that) is wonderful. Also, hilarious. This is just terrible police work.

pg. 13 - It’s also hilarious that Grey pulls out a better clue as to what’s going on without even trying.

pg. 14 - And that the constable has already made up his mind about Grey based on a penny dreadful.

pg. 15 - The story circling back and continuing on from where we started in the opening, adding a bit to Grey’s communication, is nice.

pg. 16 - Giant eels flying through the air is certainly something different.

pg. 18 - Weird that they can talk, too. Granted, they are giant flying eels, so, yeah. I like that Newman and McHugh also give an explanation for Grey’s athame (though why it’s called an “athane” here is anyone’s guess). It underlines a magickal weapon within Grey’s employ as a tool. Something that would make sense for him to carry. 

pg. 21 - After he’s beaten and bloodied a number of these eels, their threats feel less weighty.

pg. 22 - And have just hardened Grey’s resolve to get to the bottom of it.

Final Thoughts:

This is one of those rare in-canon comics that isn’t written or co-written by Mike Mignola. Instead it’s handled by Kim Newman, author of the wonderful Anno Dracula series of novels, and Irish comics writer and author, Maura McHugh. It gives the story a very different feel, different voice to the characters, and a change largely into how dense some of the dialogue feels. Due to the Victorian speech patterns and vocabulary employed in the story, lengthening the time it takes to read the story, it develops a different kind of atmosphere than what we’ve seen previously, well suiting the time period and the shift in story.

This series also sees Tyler Crook cut loose, employing a style much more akin to the looser, impressionistic style that we’ve come to know and love in his Harrow County series with Cullen Bunn. With the faded sepia-toned pages and similar colour washes atop the art from Dave Stewart, it really helps set the story apart visually as well. It looks like an aged story, and takes some risks when changing style further in a kind of period comics piece.

d. emerson eddy sometimes feels sepia-toned.

[ganymedesclock]

What do you think of the idea that the lions are unintentionally malicious towards their Paladins? It seems to be a common “what-if” within the fandom, but it doesn’t quite sit right with me.

I mean, I think there’s a thing about characters like the Lions who are obviously sentient but don’t assert that sentience in “conventional” ways- they don’t speak in specific words we can see as an audience or emote much- where they fall into three traps.

1. Their characterization is subtle. Even with their personalities actively spelled out to us, they’re widely mischaracterized by fandom if they’re characterized at all.

2. Things that were outside of their control are blamed on them.

3. Fandom is playing into an overwhelming trend where the more “other” something seems the more threatening it’s perceived, disproportionate to any actual threat or something sinister.

The Lions are benevolent creatures. Loving creatures. Black actively refused to return to Zarkon and be used as a tool for evil. They are very obviously champions of justice tied back to Oriande and the Life Givers. They sought out heroic people to guide them. We see them doing things like celebrating Shiro’s return, running to their paladins to protect them, fondly remembering things they’ve done together.

The Lions love the paladins. Sometimes this means they’ll argue- sometimes it’ll mean they don’t see eye to eye. But the one time we’ve seen a Lion act against its paladin was Black with Shiro, and on every occasion there’s the obvious culprit of either Zarkon or Haggar’s malicious intervention. And even with Haggar’s intervention weakening Ryou’s bond with Black, Black still tries to save him multiple times- once in s3e5 and then again in s6e5.

But the Lions are big, and it’s hard to figure them out, and when that’s the case people tend to default to perceiving the big strange thing as scary and threatening. It’s not a good attitude- in the real world, it can fuel a lot of prejudices about, for example, mentally ill people, especially someone with psychotic symptoms. If I say the word “psychotic” and your brain flashes to Jack from The Shining that’s a problem and a misconception.

Of course, the other side of speculating about the Lions being evil is a very common fandom trend where people sorta latch onto “what’s the most unambiguously good force in this setting? Okay, what if it was secretly evil? I mean, nothing’s THAT good naturally, and it hasn’t disclosed everything about itself, so obviously this is proof it’s up to something sinister” and then they spin the speculation wheels combing over for anything even moderately suspicious.

I don’t mean to be rude to the idea, but I’m darn skeptical that the biggest emphasis on Voltron being suspicious seems to be “but it’s Big and Old and Came From The Rift.” Right, and we can also actively compare Voltron to Sincline as two specimens of the same species. Sincline has had zero hesitation this entire time fighting Voltron at Lotor’s behest. Even before meeting Lotor, Sincline has proven willing to kill ostensibly innocent people, the fate of Commodore Trayling and his crew.

It’s obvious Sincline is kind of an antihero compared to Voltron- playing faster and looser with morals. There’s a reason Sincline and Lotor are getting along. And even then I suspect Sincline is going to have future conflict with Lotor, not so much because he acted against Allura, but he’s acting against himself- against his team.

And sure you might say “well but of course the impressions we’re led to have contradict it! It’s supposed to be a twist that Voltron’s evil!” but that’s misunderstanding an effective twist.

Anything can be jarring or contradict prior plot. But Zarkon having been revealed to have faked his death and is living on Earth flipping burgers for a living wouldn’t be an effective twist just because it’s unexpected. It’s unexpected because it makes no sense. Sure, they could arbitrarily string an explanation together but it’s in complete contradiction of everything we know about Zarkon’s character.

Lotor’s Altean colony is an effective twist. It’s surprising, but we can go back and see the foreshadowing, the details, yeah where did you get that blue energy you use, Lotor, where are you getting energy at all if Haggar’s not giving it to you.

A twist is a bend in the path that hides itself but is still a logical continuation that gets the story where it needs to go.

The Lions turning out to be evil would not be an effective twist. Because there’s no evidence supporting that, because in every other regard they’ve been an unambiguously positive force in our paladins’ lives conflated with higher understanding. Because Blue literally pulled out all the stops because Allura specifically asked her for help. In s6e7 we even literally see the Lions at maximum volume celebrating Shiro’s return to life, and that was only possible because Black, who’s arguably been the most hit-or-miss with Shiro, did everything they could to protect him even after he was literally killed.

like this is a kid’s show literally named Voltron so why would they make Voltron evil, but, also, if they had any intention of actually doing that, they would have foreshadowed it by now. At all. Which they have not.