#didn't include more characters bc there's already too many

[deripmaver]

What does Kentaro Miura have to say about Casca?

I think, due to fandom's general preferences towards Guts and Griffith, there's been much more discussion of the relevant Kentaro Miura quotes about their characters and relationship. There also appears to be more translation effort made towards the parts of the interviews centered on Guts. This also means that a lot of discussion of Casca and her place in the narrative is filtered through the idea that he has had very little to say about her over the years.

While I do wish that Miura had more to say about her, and about her path in the narrative, he certainly hasn't been completely silent. I wanted to compile as many quotes directly from Kentaro Miura about Casca as possible in one place for anyone to refer to. I also wanted to provide my 2 cents on some of them, though with the disclaimer that neither I nor anyone reading a quote or soundbite can know they're fully correct about his meaning. After all, no one reading these quotes in an article or magazine knew Miura personally, myself included.

Most of these you can find translated on the Berserk fanwiki. I've linked to them all.

Cheating a bit by not including that quote from the 1996 fanmagazine that caused such an uproar a while back, where Miura said he thought Casca might feel pleasure during rape if the perpetrator was Griffith. TBT to that hot mess. I'm not including it bc it's a third party source from someone not particularly close to Miura and also because I've already discussed it in depth here.

So, moving on...

The source for this first quote is a bit... Tricky. It's not that I don't believe it exists, but because most of this is being done through fan translations, it's hard to provide a direct link. This one I've found which is apparently from an interview in 1996, but the only sourcing I've found is kojion on twitter and this reddit post. I think this might be from the Berserk Illustrations File interview from 1996, but if it is, then it's clear that interview has only been partially translated. I guess the translator wasn't interested in the parts involving Casca. Lol. Below is the translation from the reddit post:

Miura: I have never been in love. In the past I have only dated a woman I didn't like twice. I have never had a first love. I have never been in love. My image of women is made up of my sister and stories from my best friend who loves women very much. In the case of Casca, rather than portraying a woman, she’s a character made up of a collection of my own complexes and weaknesses. So I am not good at real women. I have a longing for love itself. But I have no time; there are only 24 hours in a day.

Interview with Yukari Fujimoto in 2000. Yukari Fujimoto is a feminist cultural critic/women's studies professor at Meiji University in Tokyo, which I always found very interesting.

Interviewer: Getting back to the topic of planning Berserk, though, there's a long flashback arc that starts in volume three, showing things like Guts' youth and leading up to the Eclipse. Did you at least have parts of that long story in mind when you started drawing, or did you just make it up as you went?

Miura: Back then it was more like I was making it up as I went, I'd say. I actually hadn't planned for Guts and Casca to get together, you know – it just occurred to me partway through that it'd be more dramatic that way. As I remember it now, all I'd really decided at the time was that there'd be about five characters, and I'd make them similar to five of my friends.

Interviewer: I see – so those five friends are the base models for the characters.

Miura: Pretty much. The only difference is, there aren't any Griffiths or Guts in our group. There really was a guy similar to Judeau. We had a Corkus too, and a Rickert. There's no Casca, though, since it was a group of guys. And then Pippin is me, in terms of physical appearance.

[...]

Miura: Yeah. It's sort of been vacillating back and forth up until now, but now Griffith is going to come to terms with having become a demon. I basically see it as the beginning of the relationship between the two of them having become adults. And also, the demon child that Casca gave birth to is going to become something of a key point – despite the fact that I didn't even plan for it to be Casca's baby when I first drew it.

Interviewer: Really?

Miura: I didn't even have Casca in mind at the time.

Interviewer: Ah, right. That means it wasn't supposed to be a fetus at the start, then. And I guess there was no plan to have Guts lose his eye and arm the way he did, either...

Miura: None at all. That part was left open. Basically, I had planned that he'd have it done to him somehow by Griffith, and then a love story came into the picture, and taking that to its extreme just happened to fit together nicely with the climax. It's not as though I had it planned from the start. And now it turns out that the demon child is similarly going to snap very usefully into place.

My own commentary: This interview is the source of a claim that I've seen around a lot, which is that Casca was an ad-hoc addition and that therefore undermine any importance she might have to the narrative. However, my personal interpretation is simply that these quotes exist to show how the general plot structure of Berserk came to be in Miura's mind, and how he sort of... made shit up as he went along. I think there are two ways to take "I actually hadn't planned for Guts and Casca to get together, you know – it just occurred to me partway through that it'd be more dramatic that way." Firstly, the way I've usually seen it, that Casca was added in thoughtlessly with no regard for her character just to be a tool for Guts and Griffith's stories. That's partly true, but I think additionally this indicates that Miura elevated Casca's narrative importance in order to create a better and more dramatic story. It's also easy to extrapolate Miura's love of shoujo manga to this point here, considering how shoujo's focus is so often the drama and tragedy of romantic love.

This next quote is another kojion/reddit combo, with kojion claiming its from 2013.

Miura: I had the idea that the medieval European period was a very male-dominated world. And I wanted to depict a girl who was working very hard in such a world. The female characters in Berserk are drawn with the hope that women of the same gender will like them. Female characters drawn by men tend to be somewhat convenient for men. I wanted to avoid that, so I drew them in a way that was not disrespectful to women, because this is a story about a male-dominated world.

[I initially had a picture of one of those gold star "you tried" memes here but then I felt bad about it lol. Honestly I can't help but feel some affection for Miura here for saying this, though there's a conflicting element here too, that he genuinely didn't consider that drawing so much explicit sexual violence might also be considered disrespectful to women (even though he's pretty obviously talking about outfits here). I also think that over-exaggerating Miura's views on women, making them seem worse than what they are is often done only in service of sidelining the women he has written, and written well in my opinion.]

Berserk Official Guidebook Interview, 2017

Interviewer: You put so much emotion into those characters, and when the Eclipse happens, they're all gone. That must have left some scars on you as the artist.

Miura: I was emotionally invested in each character, so I felt more depressed than scarred. And the story went way down in popularity with the readers around the time of the Eclipse [laugh]. Many readers were furious that I'd do such a thing to the characters they liked. My editor at the time was concerned but also of the opinion that we'd just have to follow it through to the end. The point I had to pay attention to was making sure the flow of the story wasn't completely severed with the Eclipse. That's why I spared Casca. If she had died and the serialization had continued for a long time, I feared the reason for revenge would become something of the past; and if Guts were to establish new relationships, then his incentive would waver. It may seem calculating and unpleasant, but it's because Casca's by his side that he can never forget the Eclipse.

My own commentary: this again shows the interplay between Casca as a plot device and Casca as inherently narratively necessary. Interestingly, this particular translation has it be slightly vague whether Casca's survival is to keep the memory of the eclipse alive for Guts or for the readers themselves. It seems to me that there's a little bit of both in this decision. Also of note - this interview was done in 2017. By this point, Miura must have had a decently clear picture of what he intended to do with Casca's revival. I think this interview would have implied something very different if it had been done during conviction arc or just post golden age.

[...]

Interviewer: After that, Griffith was resurrected and Guts picked up some travelling companions. One of them is Farnese. How did you go about creating her?

Miura: I imagined Farnese as the second heroine after Casca, but I had a little trouble. I simply crammed my own tastes into Casca to create her character. She's loaded with what I considered ideal: a warrior woman, dark brown, strong but with a womanly side [laugh]. When it came time to make a new heroine, I couldn't use the same method as with Casca. So I thought I might as well make a heroine with whom female readers could sympathize. Mori is popular with girls, so I asked for his opinion as I pondered. The concept was "a female office worker who's been in society for a year or two, may or may not be accustomed to her job yet, and is ill at ease in a masculine society" [laugh]. She's doing her best with a band of knights in a masculine society, but she's unsociable since she can't seem to fit in with those around her; and her frustration is moving in a sexual direction, although half of it includes my own delusions [laugh]. In the face of Mozgus' intense impact, such an ungrounded woman is sure to get hung up on religion. In other words, "an office lady who's caught up in a dangerous new religion." That's Farnese [laugh].

Interviewer: How about Serpico?

Miura: Serpico is those female readers' "dream". My intuition was that he's the kind of man they would want to have around. To be frank, he's André from The Rose of Versailles. For a woman exhausted by society, he sees to her needs and considers her before all else. I thought this might be a woman's everlasting dream. To take it further, I think there are three dream men that a woman has. Someone like Serpico who sticks close by, a prince on a lofty peak for whom she longs, and someone wealthy and down-to-earth who will come and woo her. And I recently saw the stage production of Onna Kaizoku Bianca – based on Glass Mask by Suzue Miuchi. In it, those three types of men show up around the heroine. I realized, oh, the same thing's happened by coincidence in Berserk [laugh]! Farnese has Serpico close by, Guts to long for, and Roderick the rich guy. That's all three present and accounted for!

Interviewer: Conversely, Guts has three heroines in Casca, Farnese, and Schierke.

Miura: Maybe it's just a good balance to have three members of the opposite sex around. Although it's a coincidence here, too [laugh].

I don't have anything really to say here lol I just think Miura's gender commentary is so funny. It reminds me a little of the way Terry Pratchett comments on dynamics between men and women in his books. I guess both of them are men who got their start in the 80s and continued writing into the 2010s where the treatment of women in fantasy became far more a part of the public consciousness, and it seems both of them tried to alter their writing accordingly. Up to the reader to what extent they succeeded though.

Kojion/reddit from 2017, apparently - is this possibly from the Berserk Official Guidebook interview as well?? Or did he do a second interview in 2017 that isn't listed anywhere?

Miura: In regards to Berserk’s Guts, Griffith is a character who draws out impatience, fighting spirit and loneliness, Puck is “relaxation, laughter and a “seriousness crusher”“, the current Casca is “a character who draws out feelings of guilt, uneasiness and pity”. By arranging the characters with the intention to pull a certain something about Guts to the surface, he becomes a multifaceted protagonist.

My commentary: Guts has complicated feelings on both Griffith and Casca due to the trauma of the eclipse. Just as Casca still associates Guts with her trauma, Guts too associates Casca with his. If his feelings towards Griffith were solely anger and his feelings towards Casca were solely caring that would be a much less interesting story. This quote is very frank about how Guts and Casca's relationship stands currently; it says nothing about its eventual outcome in the manga. It also says nothing about Miura's feelings towards Casca, or makes any comment on her importance to the narrative.

Interview with Comics Natalie in 2019

--So does that mean love is an important theme in "Duruanki"?

That's true. When I chose this androgynous character as the main character, I knew I had to depict a love story properly. I haven't been able to do that properly in "Berserk" yet, so I'm a little nervous and unsure of my chances.

-- Eh, what about the relationship between Guts and Casca...?

Even though they look like that, it's like the stage before they get to love is still going on forever (laughs).

My commentary: I already said a bit about this in previous posts. In my view, this is saying that Guts and Casca were beginning a relationship and in the beginning stages of falling in love prior to the eclipse. Then, of course, the eclipse happened, and it destroyed their budding relationship completely. Their relationship currently is defined by the tragedy of what could have been. I again think it's Miura taking a very realistic view of Guts and Casca's relationship as it stands currently, but it says nothing about how it will eventually end up, good or bad.

-- In the latest volume 40 of "Berserk," Casca finally regains consciousness. I'm sure there are many fans who have been waiting for this.

I'm also deeply moved. However, things get tougher for Casca from here on out. For Casca to truly recover, she must analyze and understand her experiences and resolve them herself. She must face what Griffith did and the monsters.

--So this is a necessary process for Casca to truly recover. I think there was also a route where Casca would fully recover once she regains consciousness, but Berserk doesn't let its characters take the easy way out. I think Miura-san also needs to be prepared.

It's a story about humans, so it's bound to be like that. If you don't do it properly, like what a human would do if this situation occurred, it won't be a compelling story.

My commentary: You've all seen this quote before lol. Well, this is the source. It's part of a larger interview about the future of Berserk and Duranki, and just a quick note that this version is from me using google translate on the Japanese website. There was a blog that translated part of it, in particular the above quote that "Casca must face what Griffith did", that now redirects to a 404 link because of course it does. It's up on the wayback machine here.

Now I have various undated quotes, most of which come from kojion and were compiled on reddit.

"I didn't want to make a sexy female warrior, which is often the case in fantasy films, although the idea of a female warrior is nothing new. But now I am not so particular. I am not restricted by the form of a female warrior, but am trying to depict her as a human being." (kojion alt source)

"Miura took on the apostle; I'm going to kill all the humans, I'm gonna mess them up. Mr. Miura has been working for months. Mr. Miura kept on drawing and Finally, he messed up Casca And then Mr. Miura, who had painted it all over After this, he actually suffer from depression." (kojion alt source)

"I want today's readers to experience what once shocked me when I read the manga. Last month, Mr. Mori revealed the scene in the Eclipse chapter where Casca is raped by Griffith. He was inspired by a manga published by Go Nagai in 1979. In this manga, the woman he loves is raped by a demon in front of the main character. Mr. Miura arranged and expressed this scene." (kojion alt source)

This is apparently a panel from that particular manga, btw. No explicit sexual assault, though there is clear implication.

One last third party quote, this time not directly about Casca, but about writing women on the whole. It's from this cute interview made into a comic by the interviewer:

It echoes a sentiment he's expressed in other interviews, that Miura himself doesn't feel like he understands the female mindset so he asks people he assumes know better - in this case Kouji Mori, his friend who is heading Berserk's continuation, and Chica Umino, another mangaka who was close friends with Miura.

Miura's such a mess of contradictions when it comes to women and his female characters. One of his most well known interviews is with a feminist cultural critic. He has said multiple times he's terrible at writing women. He thought deeply about writing Casca not just as a male fantasy. He literally designed her with all the traits he thought were sexy. He wrote a 20 page rape scene with Casca and then fell into a deep depression after.

What can you even say lmao.

[thatdeadaquarius]

PowerPoint night with the genshin cast ✨

NO BC I SAW THIS IN MY INBOX AND I WAS FROTHING AT THE MOUTH WITH TOO MANY IDEASSS, the energy is just this:

You introduce the wonderful concept of powerpoints, then a powerpoint night and you should expect absolute chaos

Mondstadt over here like,

"Why I Deserve Wine:

I am a god

I am YOUR god, give me offerings duh

(insert conclusion here)"

by Venti, he didn't even both filling out some slides, and they're all just plain text with maybe a nice selfie of himself on the first slide lmao

STOP, DILUC'S POWERPOINT BEING A 40 SLIDE PRESENTATION RESPONSE TO VENTI'S AHALKSJ

or better yet, Creator!You version:

"An Explanation of Why the One Above Us All Would Enjoy Living in Liyue During Their Stay Here" by Zhongli, which takes approx. 4+ hours to get thru, and its his case for why u should stay in Liyue Harbor - half the ppl there are actually paying attention and the other half are fast asleep (u included)

Meanwhile Yae Miko trying to stir the pot like, "Which Vision-User, God, or Nation is Our Ruler's Favorite" 💀

Also another presentation that would make several ppl give response presentations and it just becomes: HER SISTER WAS A WITCH BRO = THE CREATOR LIKES SUMERU MORE BRO

CRYING- people like Zhongli, Albedo, Alhaitham, Xingqiu, Neuvillette, Xiao, Sucrose, Jean, Ei/Raiden Shogun, Faruzan all misunderstanding and thinking u actually want a real presentation from them 😭😭

ngl all the Sumeru/Akademiya/Fontaine characters have probably gotten somewhat close to doing some kind of equivalent to this, mostly bc ppl will debate abt the stupidest stuff over there so they get it, wonder if they made drinking games out of it lol

(first question from Sumeru characters is "what is powerpoint night, and why has Alhaitham probably already won it")

pls im so braindead rn there are ENDLESS possibilities for this, if anyone has more I am LISTENING!!!

Safe Travel 0rah,

💀♒

If you wanna join a taglist, DM me what for! "Pspspsss, please tag me for [All SAGAU posts, Only SAGAU Language AUs, diff fandom, etc.]!"

(If you ever wanna drop, just DM me! "No more taglists/[specifically this AU/fandom] please!")

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche / @chocogi / @fallen-starr / @areaderofbooks / @devilangel657 / @esthelily / @justinsomniachild / @nanithefuck / @questionotmystopit / @chinuneko

@kiyomi-uchiha777

[scoobydoodean]

Apologies if you’ve talked about this already but what do you think of the Sam being a Christlike figure analysis? I’ve never understood it

It's not something I take seriously, but I can see why some people with certain aesthetic interests choose to play in the sandbox with it.

The relatable characteristics:

Long hair in keeping with DaVinci's depiction. (Except Sam's hair is actually too short.)

Mom's name was Mary (but then that also means Dean's mom was Mary)

Sam sacrificed himself in Swan Song to save the world from the devil. (Everybody else fought the devil and sacrificed themselves in various capacities fighting him and others so meh)

Sam came back to life (Soulless, which definitely didn't happen to Jesus after an angel yeeted him out of the cage. Also Dean and Cas also came back to life after dying. Cas like a billion times. I suppose we can claim Dean is Lazarus tho bc of the title of 4.01 and his resurrection proceeding Jesus!Sam's)

Sam cast demons out of people which Jesus did a few times (though Jesus just did it with words, which anyone in SPN can do by saying an exorcism, while Sam exorcised demons with powers he got from drinking blood from demons, which isn't christlike at all)

One time Sam imagined himself being tortured by Alastair on the rack and his arms were in a t-pose and some people think this is very important for some reason (Many other characters were tortured at various points, including ones who actually got tortured by Alastair, not just imagining it bc they were hallucinating).

Then there's characteristics Sam clearly does not share with Jesus.

Sam is literally Satan's vessel.

Sam is clearly not god or the son of god

Jesus healed the sick all of the time and Sam does not do that (sounds more like Cas)

Jesus had a mountain of friends who followed him around and would do anything for him. (Sam simply does not have the rizz.)

Jesus's whole virgin birth thing.

Jesus raised his bestie Lazarus from the dead just by crying and telling him to come out of a tomb. (Sam could not bring Dean back no matter how hard he tried.)

Jesus was tempted by the devil while fasting in the wilderness but never gave in. Satan specifically tempted Jesus to demonstrate his power and divinity from a place of pride and boastfulness and Jesus would not do it. On the other hand, Sam was tempted by demons and gave into temptation, and one of the reasons Sam drank demon blood was specifically so he could feel more powerful and better than everyone else. Jesus's refusal to give into temptation and his sinlessness when he died on the cross is absolutely essential to traditional Christian canon, the Christian depiction of Christ, and the Christian view of salvation.

Note: Jesus is embraced in some other religious traditions and among some liminal Christian groups as only a prophet or an angel, but I think it's clear that the "Sam as a Christlike figure" take examines Jesus through the lens of traditional Christian canon shared among the major Christian sects where Jesus is God, is crucified for the sins of mankind, etc.

I think in particular, Sam being the vessel of Satan and Sam very specifically giving into the temptation of demons make the idea of him as a christ figure feel too clunky (and to many devout Christians, would make the idea outright offensive). It's more like Sam is "supposed" to be the anti-christ, but subverts the story despite all his issues to save everyone, which I actually think is way more fun. He isn't a christ figure and he doesn't need to be to save the day. That's way more empowering and meaningful for everyday people.

I think if people want to play in the sandbox with christ figure Sam because they're just really into that whole religious aesthetic, that's totally fine, but I also think it isn't hard to build similar analyses about Cas and Dean mirroring Jesus in equally compelling and clunky ways, so I find it funny how seriously some people take Jesus!Sam to the point that when one of my mutuals joked about christ figure Sam very subtly, they got this hilarious message.

Also see: The infamous Christ figure bracket... which—at the time—I voted against Sam in because I knew samgirls would get big heads about it and act like they were being persecuted for their beliefs. And then they proved me right. And I got a long rambling hate mail message about what a horrible mean bully I am for laughing at the insanity.

[genericpuff]

Hello! I’m just here bc I’m a little confused on what you meant by Smythe drawing out “each individual asset” when she was making comics? Now, granted, I can see that it made her file ginormous, but me personally as someone who knows nothing about making online comics but is really wanting to get into it (and also as someone who has a ‘too many layers’ problem myself), is there a way to avoid using too many layers?

My current way of making comics has been to draw the panels individually and then format them (which I know is terrible management wise and also messes with the quality) but I honestly have no other idea of how to do it properly, and seeing how stunning Lore Rekindled looks, I don’t know how you would manage to put all that lighting effects and little details on the same layers. (But also I may be thinking of it wrong so I’ll let you talk qwq)

Ah I can actually give you a visual breakdown of what I meant by that!

So in this you can see there are a TON of layers, and not even all of them are visible because some of them are stuffed into FOLDERS that have been left closed. BUT if you look REEEEALLY carefully-

^^^ These layers right here? That's specifically Minthe from this panel in Episode 61:

(the unique pose here makes it real easy to tell that this is the corresponding panel, you can see the matching body shape with the dark shading that's clipped to the base layer below it!)

So what this means is that Rachel didn't draw all her characters on one base layer, she drew every single character in every single panel separately. Now of course, she could merge all these layers together as working on separate layers helps make it easier to work on elements that collide separately (like one character being 'underneath' another character like Hades is here) but because she has all of those clipping layers with the shading already added in, she likely didn't merge them afterwards because that would actually create MORE problems (because if she merged the Minthe layer in with Hades, then the shading for Minthe that she painted outside of the lines would show up on Hades and then she'd have to erase it which is just a bunch of extra work).

You can also tell all these characters are on their own layer because the layer thumbnail EXCLUSIVELY shows those characters. A layer will show as much canvas length as it needs to cover what's in that layer, so if the thumbnail is only showing one character, that means there's NOTHING ELSE on that layer. If there were more elements on this layer than just Minthe, the layer thumbnail would look more like this:

Now let's compare it to Rekindled's layers! I'll use a completed page to make it fair as we use a lot of extra layers in the post-production phase where we add the texture effects and glow and all that fun stuff, plus I'll even make it a more complicated page like that big nymph explanation spread from Episode 51:

So I'll break it down to make this make more sense:

BG 2 Copy (technically this is supposed to be BG 1) - Basically the panel shapes, what I'll do is mark out the panels with flat blocks and through that we'll add background elements in a clipping layer (usually done by Banshriek). Often times they'll do multiple layers to make the process easier and then merge them all together in the end. With these shapes operating as panels, it means I can just auto select the whole layer, invert the selection, and easily erase whatever's outside of it (such as the lineart and base colors that I put down afterwards). I could just use masking layers like I did in [AFTERBIRTH] but I find this way works better for the process of making Rekindled.

BG 2 - This is where we add objects / foreground elements. So stuff like furniture, interactables, anything that needs to be kept separate from the larger background to make it easier to work with. This can also include "floating" panels that need to be above other panels, such as this:

All of the backgrounds are then nested in a folder for organization purposes (we also sometimes use clipping layers on top of those folders to apply extra effects over anything contained within that folder without affecting other folders, that's a common technique that Banshriek applies)

Then we get into our Characters folder:

BASE - This is where I do the majority of my work, all the characters in every panel on a page are flatted into this layer. Sometimes I do have to create separate layers to, again, make it easier to work with overlapping characters, but usually those layers will be merged before I go into the shading process. I simply shade on a single layer by using the lasso / magic wand tool to select my area for painting, the flat colors make it really easy to do that. Sometimes I need to create a secondary shading layer if I've put down dark colors that start to bleed into the lighter colors, but again, I merge when I'm done into a single shading layer. We also sometimes employ an Add (Glow) layer into the clipping set if we need a glow effect that's exclusive to the characters and doesn't travel outside of their base colors.

There's a (leaves) layer here that I used for the dryad because I needed the leaves to be above the base layer, after that I selected the leaves elements so that I could erase the lineart in the layer above it where needed.

LINEART - It's lineart, enough said haha That said, I do think Rachel actually uses clipping layers for her lineart in places, it seems to be visible in some of her process videos where you can see the lineart present in a clipping layer, and that would explain why there are panels where the lineart suddenly 'cuts off' and doesn't travel outside of the base layer, like so:

GLOW - This is where we do an Add (Glow) layer that isn't restricted to the base layer, it's where we add all the fun lil' glow and sparkle effects over the characters !

The CLOUDS layer is, like the leaves, a background element that needs to be above the base layers rather than constricted to the background.

Above the Characters folder you can see what I mentioned earlier where Banshriek has added more post-production effects that are exclusively clipped to the contents of the Characters folder. This means the effects / blend modes do NOT affect the background layers or anything above it.

The BLUR (Overlay) layer is something we just started doing over the past several episodes, it's a technique I actually picked up from 66 of City of Blank where I merge all the layers into a new visible layer which I then apply a Gaussian Blur to at around 60% and then set to Overlay (and then I adjust the layer opacity until it looks right, usually around 25-35%), it gives it a bit of a softer "dreamier" vibe in the final colors and really helps unify everything!

CANVAS - This is an Overlay layer which is also set to an opacity of 25-35% where I go over the panels with the Add Canvas brush from the Kyle Webster set, unlike the Canvas overlay texture in CSP I can actually choose the colors I want to use which means I can match the canvas texture color to the mood and environment of the scene (ex. I'll use a very light blue for scenes in the Underworld). Not only does it give it that signature texture from S1 of LO, but it also helps balance out the effects of the BLUR layer.

The SKETCH layer sits on top of everything and gets turned off once all the base layers and lineart are down, and ofc the SPEECH folder is just where all the text is kept.

I know everything I just laid out is a LOT but ultimately it's how we operate, it works for us! But it also begs the question of why Rachel operates the way she does because a lot of it seems extremely unnecessary and more likely to bite her in the ass (the more layers there are, the bigger your file size gets, the risk of drawing on the wrong layer increases as well as the risk of posting a panel that's missing elements because the layer was left turned off by mistake, etc.) And it's more so concerning with how she operates with her assistants because if she's still using this many layers when collaborating with other people, hooo boy. Though based on what I've observed of what her assistants contribute, I get a lot more of the sense that she circumvents this by having the artists do the flats separately and then importing them in as separate assets that she then just imports into the page and places them where they need to be. Still not a great workflow IMO because it's what's led to a lot of the issues of characters "floating" rather than feeling like they're actually in the environment-

-but that's still an issue that could be solved by Rachel just taking more time to actually flesh out the backgrounds and lighting to give more of an impression of the characters actually existing in the space. Like that Hestia panel could easily be fixed by just giving the background a bit more detail and putting actual shading underneath her (and lighting from whatever direction it's coming from).

Either way, regardless of whether or not Rachel's process is productive or not, I hope that breakdown helps explain how we do it in Rekindled! Learning how to manage layers is definitely a skill that can be tricky to harness, but once it "clicks" there's a lot you can get away with. Ultimately how you do it is up to you, but my best piece of advice to offer is to just be open to other types of workflows because you don't know how much you might be shooting yourself in the foot doing things the hard way when there are often way easier and more efficient ways to get the same job done. That's basically the vibe I get from observing Rachel's workflow, it seems like she's still using methods that she thinks are working for her (and probably did work just fine for her when it was JUST her) but could be vastly improved for her and her team if she'd just get over the initial hump of stepping outside of her comfort zone. Would probably make for a better comic too LOL

I hope that helps! Good luck! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

[mxtxfanatic]

sorry for mdzs ask !! next time I'll ask ath about bingqiu I swear 🥺 feel free to ignore it !!

I know that many ppl think that lwj's main conflict is that he put the rules of his clan above actual, real righteousness and bc of that I think too many ppl try to put him down and say that before wwx he didn't know what is morally correct and what's not and attribute his moral standing entirely to wwx

but, imo, his conflict is more external, not rules vs self but more his own righteousness vs what others, especially his elders and family, claim to be correct. he didn't help wwx more not bc he was unsure whether wwx was right or wrong in helping the wens, but more about his own filial duty and the attitudes of his elders and ppl whose opinion he valued and trusted towards the situation. and yes, he was in a better position to help wwx than, for example, jiang yanli, but his situation was still not ideal — and despite it he still tried his best and, if I remember correctly, spoke for wwx even before the yiling date

but with so many ppl claiming that he was entirely all about rules right before saving wwx during the nightless city massacre I start to have second thoughts and doubt myself. so, my question is: what do you think is lwj's main conflict?

Disagree. Lan Wangji has never valued or trusted others' opinions over his own morality and actions. The "Lan Wangji is a stickler for rules and wants to be the Lan's golden child" idea in the book is just as false as "Wei Wuxian was a natural troublemaker who caused issues for everyone, and that's why he ended up evil hated" idea is. It was an image of Lan Wangji meant to be deconstructed by actually seeing his character in real time. Lan Wangji at 6 unflinchingly faced punishment for refusing to budge from his mother's doorstep because no one would give him an explanation for why he couldn't see his mother despite having fulfilled the proper requirements. Lan Wangji at 16 kept pets, which was against the rules, because Wei Wuxian gifted him rabbits. Lan Wangji during the war risked resentment from his fellow cultivators by persistently attempting to convince Wei Wuxian to give up the ghost path mid-war. Lan Wangi in his 20s was debating how to convince Wei Wuxian to follow him back to Gusu despite his uncle's dislike of the other man, spoke up for Wei Wuxian publicly multiple times including during the emergency conference, helped him bring Wen Ning back to consciousness in the Burial Mounds despite this being clear manipulation of resentful energy that his uncle raged against, and spoke up for the Wen siblings during their sham trial. He never struggled about what his clan believed was correct because he has always had his own strong sense of righteousness that he followed.

There was no "helping" Wei Wuxian because, while fandom likes to focus on food and money as a problem, the actual problem was that the rest of the cultivation world were genocidal bigots dedicated to destroying a whole people as petty revenge against a man that had already been killed and a clan that had already been soundly defeated. No matter how many times Lan Wangji spoke up for them, the Wen remnants still died. No matter how Lan Wangji spoke or physically fought for him, Wei Wuxian still died. And when Lan Wangji stood by Wei Wuxian's side in his second life, speaking up for him and physically defending him, instead of the cultivation world to take his words built on a 20-year humanitarian reputation into account, they turn on him, too, during the second siege. So what else, exactly, was Lan Wangji supposed to do for Wei Wuxian in his first life that would have prevented the tragedy that befell everyone?

[karmacharmeleon18]

I think it's good to call out the gratuitous amount of SA in this series. Obviously I love these books, I wouldn't be here if I didn't, but there really is far too much SA in them for it to not be criticised. Obviously SA is something that can happen in a story and it's not inherently bad for a writer to include it especially if it is portrayed as a traumatic and evil thing, which for the most part it is. But there's just.... Too much of it. I always had issue with the "I was seven" thing bc it's one random scene that tells us that Drake was in fact NOT the only person to rape Andrew, and it was so unnecessary?? Being raped by one person is traumatic enough, him being raped before at an even younger age added NOTHING to the story other than shock value, especially seeing as it's NEVER mentioned again and Drake is portrayed as the biggest villain of Andrew's past, we don't even know who that other person was. And quite honestly Jean being an SA survivor is unnecessary too, because all the stuff he endured at the nest was already traumatic enough and even without rape he suffered more than any other raven (eg waterboarding). That being said I think the way Nora has handled Jean's SA so far has been okay, not perfect but I don't have major issues personally, but you're absolutely right that the gratuitous amount of SA in these books certainly attracts a certain type of fan. I've seen so many people theorising that characters who haven't canonically been raped actually have and we just don't know about it. Obviously that Thea anon, I've seen people theorising about Neil, and about Jeremy (obviously Jeremy has his own issues with sex, but it's a bit more nuanced than full on rape, I saw people theorising Bryson raped him 🥴). Like, it's enough guys, we don't need every character in this series to be a rape survivor, it's more than enough that BOTH main romances include a rape survivor

Couldn't have said it better 🙌🏾

Jeremy having a history of CSA is actually my biggest FEAR - not a theory or hc tho, just a straight up fear - because I know how much Nora is obsessed with it... and I hate that a fear like this is actually a concrete possibility in this series 😭😭 sometimes I wonder why, why did I have to like a series that inflicts so much emotional damage on me? 🥲

Shock value is honestly the best way to explain how Nora generally handles rape (in the extra content as well). She just sees it as a character trait that makes a character more interesting and it's disturbing at this point

(Especially her obsession with CSA, specifically repeated CSA... what Andrew went through because of the Spears is BAD ENOUGH NORA GODDAMMIT)

One of my biggest thrills for this new series was to see how Nora had matured as a writer and I have to say... not much? Not only writing-style wise (which I actually appreciate, she's consistent and that's good considering the new books are a direct continuation of the old ones) but also in the way she sees these very important, terrible real life issues as just something to use to make her characters interesting...

Rape is not simply something her characters go through.

It's something they need to endure, otherwise she doesn't think they're worth writing about.

(And maybe that's why Thea is such a non-character... she was just in an abusive cult, after all)

That's my biggest issue with her as a writer.

She uses rape not because she wants to portray a character's healing journey, but because rape is needed for them to be her main characters at all. Without it, they wouldn't be interesting enough for her to write about (which she has admitted to in the past)

I hoped we would see a different, more self-aware and respectful side of Nora

But "shock value" and "torture porn" are still the best way to describe her books. Which is why I never recommend them to anyone

I too think the way she handled Jean's history is overall ok. But I have some major issues, namely Grayson and Zane showing up again (Grayson in particular). That was absolutely unnecessary imo and goes back to the gratuitous amounts of sa/mentions of sa 😕

Nora uses rape/the threat of it/mentions of it to continuously torture her characters on page and after a certain point it becomes just exhausting to read

(Drake, Proust, Grayson...)

We get it, Nora. I promise we get it. No need to keep tormenting your characters and us with it.

At this point it's less about a character's healing journey and more about a character's continuous suffering. It does feel like she has a fetish for it :/

[theboombutton]

Bad Fictional Data vs Fictional Bad Data

WARNING: This post will include discussion of a name that might be Alice Dyer's deadname. I won't be calling Alice by this name or using it in the context of that name being a pointer to Alice, but I will be using the name, uncensored, when talking about where and why the name appeared in chdb.xls .

----

You may know that as part of the ARG, the sleuths on Statement Remains uncovered a document called chdb.xls, allegedly a list that has something to do with The Magnus Institute. There's a list of names, ID numbers, first and last names, dates of birth, and information apparently related to each person's "score" in an assortment of psychological/personality tests. Three of the names in particular have stood out in a lot of analyses: Samama Khalid, Gerard Kaey [sic], and Connor Dyer.

You likely don't know that the commonly linked version of the spreadsheet, ported to Google Docs and linked in the TMAGP ARG Masterdoc, is presented out of order. (I'm guessing they didn't lock down editing until it was already all out of order from various people messing with it - totally understandable, this is not a callout post, thank you for making this easily accessible to people.)

But let me tell you about something I discovered by looking at the spreadsheet in its original order, and the almost certainly incorrect rabbit hole of theorizing it has sent me down.

Bad Fictional Data

Until episode 2 I had the same thought about the Dyer listed in the spreadsheet that I think most people did: that it was Alice's deadname, and that she had therefore been one of the Institute's young subjects. But after Alice had absolutely no reaction when Sam mentioned the Magnus Institute to her in episode 2, I now think this is significantly less likely.

Don't get me wrong: it's still reasonable to think that the Dyer listed in chdb.xls is Alice. Maybe she had some kind of supernatural experience that wiped her memory. (It probably wasn't that Alice was too young to remember, as the Dyer on the spreadsheet is listed as being at Piaget Stage 3, which occurs from 7-11 years old; but it's always possible that the Magnus Institute was using the names of legitimate psychological tests to hide their tracks when recording more esoteric data.) The point is, this isn't hard evidence that Alice has no connection to the Magnus Institute; it just made me go looking for more evidence.

I went back to the spreadsheet to look for more clues about whether or not this was Alice's deadname. What I found instead was some extremely sloppy fake data at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

For context, here are first ten names in the spreadsheet:

Note how each ID begins with the name's first and last initial.

Now check out the last ten names:

Not only do these IDs no longer always match their subjects' names, they occur in order: CD, EF, GH, IJ, KL, MN, OP, QR, ST, UV. The first names of each pair match the first letter of each ID, but many, though not all, of the surnames don't match the second letter.

My first thought was that whoever Rusty Quill had contracted to generate these names had gotten sloppy at the end of the list, created the IDs all at once using this alphabetical pattern, and picked names to fill in that roughly matched the IDs. But hey, we could use this to our advantage! Any name that was filled in as part of a series of IDs with an alphabetical pattern like this could be removed from consideration for red string analysis - we'd know they were meaningless fakes added by a lazy contractor, and not clues or characters that might show up again later.

Scrolling back up the spreadsheet, we can see the person generating the data having more care the earlier we go. We find the beginning of the AA/BC/DE/FG/HI pattern at line 136, but at first, the names mostly conform to the initials they've been given. JK09874 "Josie Jordan" at line 154 is the first break from the "first two letters of the ID are their initials" pattern; and breaks occur more often the further you go down the sheet.

Scrolling up to before line 136 (AA09911 - Aaron Atkinson), while the pattern isn't yet at AB/CD/EF/GH levels of obviousness, the first initials are still in alphabetical order. Zoe Hart follows Yara Logan follows Xavier Freeman follows Wyatt Edwards. The data creator skips a few letters - for example Niamh Fenton is followed by Phoebe Emmett, and S and T are together in the same line in Skye Travers.

We can follow this less-obvious version of the alphabetical pattern up to an abrupt break right at line 118, above which the IDs don't follow an alphabetical pattern at all. (They might follow a different pattern, but it's not one that I've found yet.) So that means we can discount all the names in line 118 and below as purely fake, generated lazily by a contractor, and not worthy of our attention for the purposes of red-stringing. Right?

What the fuck?!

(highlight is my own, it is not present in the original document)

My first thought was that the sloppy data generator had done the funniest thing imaginable, sending everyone on a wild goose chase about Alice's deadname just by having the name "Dyer" on the brain while looking for a surname that started with D. This would be Very Funny. No plot relevance, no implications, just the brain fart that launched a thousand theories.

My second thought was that maybe Connor Dyer was the last legit name on the list, and whoever started filling the rest of the sheet in with alphabetical junk data was inspired by the "CD" initials in the first place - whoever it was went on from there.

These are both valid thoughts! But I prefer my third thought:

What if it's on purpose?

Fictional Bad Data

There is a very obvious break between the set of data that doesn't look obviously* fake, and the set of data that is immediately identifiable as such. If we assume that this was intentional - and I want to reiterate that it all being unintentional is still a very real possibility here - why would someone at Rusty Quill want the data to be structured like this?

If the sharp dividing line between reasonable-seeming data and obviously fake data is intentional on RQ's part, it would suggest that we should take the data above row 118 as in-universe real data, and the data below row 118 as in-universe falsified data. It suggests that someone, either at the Institute or after its demise, was adding nonexistent children to the roster of The Magnus Institute. Why would someone want to do that?

There are all kinds of possible reasons, but here are a few off the top of my and my theorizing buddies' heads:

Financial fraud (institutional edition). If the Magnus Institute received funding on a per-child basis, they'd have an incentive to inflate their numbers.

Financial fraud (researcher edition). One or more people on staff were blowing off their child-analysis sessions and recording fake numbers for fake children. This would be ballsy as hell if they could be fired for it, but it was the Magnus Institute, so there's decent odds they couldn't be.

Scientific fraud (faking conclusions edition). The Magnus Institute in the Protocolverse claimed to be doing research on giftedness in children, which is the kind of thing that you'd normally publish in a scientific journal. It's not unheard-of for dickhead academics to falsify data to generate statistically significant results, since statistically insignificant results aren't going to get you published.

Scientific fraud (obscuring paranormal bullshit edition). If the Magnus Institute was using legitimate psychological test names to record Fear-related test results, it's possible their results showed different patterns from what you would expect from the real tests. They could have added the fake children to balance out the dataset as a whole.

Pseudonyms. The children are all real, the Institute just started using fake names for them for privacy purposes. They couldn't go back and change the names they'd already written properly for some reason. Probably something paranormal.

Those are all pretty interesting possibilities, and if we could narrow them down, it might tell us something about what things were like at the Magnus Institute before it burned down!

And the other big question is: why did RQ make the dividing line between the two sections, the first likely-fake entry, Connor Dyer?

One straightforward reason could be as a troll, a red herring to watch fans get in a lather over. And once the community inevitably noticed all the obviously falsified entries, RQ could eat popcorn and watch us lose our minds over whether or not that's even a real entry! (That sounds really fun, I would absolutely do that.)

But let's dig a little deeper, and look at what Connor Dyer being on the border between the real and fake entries would mean in-universe. Because of its position as the border between real and fake, it would be very easy for that entry to be accidentally included in the wrong group - a real research subject discarded as fake, or perhaps more interestingly, a fake research subject accidentally reclassified as real.

Remember, if a name is fake in the context of the Magnus Institute's research, that doesn't mean that the name itself is made up. If I was trying to think of a name that fit the initials CD, and those were the initials of my next door neighbor's kid, I might just write their name in as a lark. Especially if it was my first time trying to get away with falsifying information: this is a kid that verifiably exists and lives in the area.

My theory, supported primarily by my love for The Implications instead of actual evidence

Twenty years on, after all institutional memory of the fraud was long gone, trans icon Alice Dyer applies to work for the OIAR - an institution that (according to this theory) has an unofficial preference for hiring former Magnus Institute kids.

They are very confused when Alice proceeds to act nothing like a former Magnus Institute kid. It doesn't occur to anyone that her entry might have been falsified. What reason would anyone have to do that?

----

* Of course people with a background in data analysis or statistics will see immediately that even above line 118 this is a wild-ass dataset that would raise red flags for falsification, but at least it's not "the alphabet over and over" levels of obvious.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Heyy, hope you're doing well.

So I've been tracking a lot of my media consumption since I was like 14 and only started paying more attention to diversity a couple years later. Nevertheless I didn't consciously seek out diverse shows, I just watched what piqued my interest and I still do (it just so happens that narratives centering white people increasingly bore me and I'm more interested in narratives that center Black, Indigenous and characters of color and their stories now).

Now since I'm already tracking, I was curious what percentage of what I've watched (TV shows and movies) and read is actually primarily white and what isn't. (I left out music bc I know I listen to mostly Black artists, though I do want to explore more Indigenous artists after I listened to some recommendations recently). And unsurprisingly I found a pretty large gap between how many TV shows and movies centering white people and centering BIPOC I've watched thus far. Books were pretty balanced, I think if I finish the ones I started and read one more by an author of color the balance is even (though here, too, I have more authors of color on my to read list than white authors so that balance will probably tip over to authors of color taking up the majority soon).

To get to the point, I have now challenged myself to close these gaps and watch at the very least an equal amount of TV shows that don't just center white people as the ones that do (ofc BIPOC are not a monolith and include many groups and cultures so the more I get to explore the better, i.e. I don't need it to be a perfect balance, I just don't really want white shows/movies to stay the majority). Even though this is not something I do publicly or simply to game the numbers to feel better about myself but out of genuine interest in these stories and cultures, I sometimes worry it has a tokenizing effect? Or that it's a weird thing to think about in terms of numbers?

I'm just curious what your thoughts are on challenging oneself like this privately and what you think one should keep in mind when exploring diverse stories this way to see if I'm missing something.

Much love x

It sounds like you're doing fine so far, hell that's probably more effort than most people 😅 very thoughtful. I have no real concerns; just keep making sure you're doing it for a genuine reason and not to claim that "I'm not racist, I watched ____" (which would be tokenizing). If this is the methodical way you surround yourself with perspectives that aren't like yours, and it works, so be it. 👍🏾

[rvb-canon-tuckington]

here are some "quick" rvb restoration thoughts before i go to bed that i may expand upon later, in no particular order:

this movie was ABOUT tucker but tucker is not in it. there is a tucker sized hole. we see tucker only a little bit more than we see donut, but tucker is still there the whole time!!! at the beginning, i was excited for the tucker whump, but does it count if not a single character reacts to the truly horrifying news that their friend has been controlled for a few months by eight or nine ais, at least two of which have tried to kill him and everyone you love before? like even if they had retconned red and blue teams being friends (which they didn't), you're telling me that we never get to see wash's reaction to this news? carolina's? two people who lost a different friend to this exact gruesome process of de-personing? no one ever tells carolina that tucker is in there and no one objects when tex goes to fucking decapitate him? like i get that caboose was the only person to see that tucker was actually still in there, and he can't really be trusted to communicate things clearly, but they could have even just included some sort of discussion where they decide that they think that tucker would rather be dead than be dragged along in this parody of life (and with the way the ais were torturing him, he probably would have agreed.)

speaking of caboose knowing that tucker is still in there - grif and simmons abandoning caboose rubbed me SO wrong. usually if a character is trying not to involve themselves, they'll "run away" to the nearest place to hide, not GET ON A SHIP TO FLY AWAY LEAVING CABOOSE TO DIE AT POSSESSED TUCKER'S HANDS. i get why they (the writers) did it, but that doesn't mean i have to like it lol

why weren't they FRIENDS ANYMORE

where was donut

what was that wash b-plot. what did the wash b-plot add?? what it did: make me feel weird about dr. grey's character, kill doc off screen, and make wash useless in the main plot. what it did not do: make sense. when did wash get injured post chorus? why is he hallucinating, period? why was he institutionalized? (and why is the room number the same as his prison number?) why did they spend so much time on it for it to have no real conclusion? they didn't need to have this weird "wash is hanging onto the past via doc" plot to have the carolina-wash-freelancer ghost heart-to-heart. (also i have never laughed so hard as when i saw the post pointing out that they left wyoming out bc neither my friend or i noticed lol) why wouldn't he know there was a manual way to activate the recovery beacon since he was LITERALLY recovery one? so many questions, no answers. what have you done to my boy, burnie.

the pacing was ATROCIOUS. nothing happened for the first half of the movie, a bunch of stuff happened in the second half, and none of it felt resolved.

where was donut

why was everyone separated at the beginning? why was no one worried about it? where was donut? where was carolina? why was no one worried about where tucker was? had caboose been the lone blue for the few months that tucker was gone and wash was hospitalized? genuinely, my friend and i thought that the reds and caboose had been mind wiped and dropped into their undisclosed locations without knowing why, and the plot was gonna be them all reuniting and piecing together what had happened and getting tucker back. alas.

it felt like it was the grif-simmons-caboose show, which was interesting because that's not a problem i feel like i've had before with this show. even if i saw less of a particular character than i wanted to. they usually have a pretty good balance of characters and this movie felt like they suddenly Realized how many characters they had and fumbled it.

i did actually really like the tex reveal that was BOSS i LOVED IT

i have more thoughts but this is far too long already so i'll save it for later lmao

[ladyloveandjustice]

So many Batfic ideas, so little time to write

Me returning to comics is worse than like, Dunmeshi and Natsume combined because I have stored up YEARS of missed opportunities in comics I wanted to write about bc comics don't care about stuff like letting emotional resolution or showing the aftermath of a tragedy etc. And reading AUs or alternate takes in fanfic makes me HUNGRY to write them

So I'm gonna list them just to keep track!!

Cass and Babs series

Cass tells Babs Bruce adopted her (this will be an attempt to address something that bothers me. To have my cake and eat it too. Probably won't work but I can TRY.) (Slowly writing this one)

Tim talks to Babs immediately after Evil!Cass (they both immediately know she must be mind controlled or something and are upset like what should have happened in the comics) (Will probably include some angsty one year later stuff) (i don't like acknowledging the stupid plot but it IS good angst material)

Babs reuniting with Cass after getting un-brainwashed

Immediately post-Shiva fight death wish. Babs would be so fucking mad about Cass going off to commit passive suicide and nerve striking her so she couldn't stop like.

Babs reuniting with Cass after she comes back from Hong Kong

Cass visits Babs in the hospital after her seizure/first round of Braniac stuff in BoP

There will probably be a lot more as I read Batgirl and BOP

Cass

Hong Kong and reintegrating after coming back to Gotham

AU where Cass never got brainwashed

AU where Cass wasn't shuffled off the Hong Kong and actually stayed with the fam during all the events.

Time traveling and meeting herself as a little girl :'(. Or another younger character like (has an idea adds it to the Steph and Cass list)

Cass and Damian something something child assassin bonding

Cass and Steph

Cass reuniting with Steph after coming back and talking about what Batgirl means

AU where when Steph ran off after telling Cass Batman fired her as Robin, Cass stopped her. Cass talks Steph out of doing something reckless. They both talk about the fight with Babs and figure out a lot of things. (already writing this one),

Follow up to You Don't Need Your Old Shame--Cass asks about Dean and Steph gives some details about their relationship since we never GOT ANY other than the implication it was bad

Cass and Steph reuniting after Steph comes back from the 'dead' (the fact we never got this still kills me a decade later)

ike I JUST thought of the possibility of Steph meeting a time traveling Cass when she's hiding from that incident with her babysitter and Cass taking her to Babsgirl so they can do something about it and my heart cracked in two.

Steph

Au where Leslie didn't go through with faking Steph's death (aka AU where Leslie is actually in character and not thrown under the bus to absolve Batman). Steph struggling through recovery and crushing shame as people visit her in the clinic. Actually already in the process of writing this one)

A fic where Tim and Steph actually get to like. talk?? about Tim's anger at Steph for faking her death. It's still so wild to me that comics didn't to this. It was just established that Tim was mad but he never said anything and we never got any explanation from Steph even though there's obvious angsty reasons (Guilt, feeling Gotham and Tim are better off without her, trauma from being tortured, she probably had a really long recovery etc). But no. that's boring apparently. why don't we give Tim and Steph more forced conflict instead.

Steph and Damian fic, they're injured from villains and hiding out and Damian learns some stuff about Steph he didn't know)

(I probably won't get to these below they're too complicated but)

AU where Steph kept training with Dinah and Babs as a Birds of Prey member

AU where Steph wasn't fired as Robin

Jason

Bruce finds out he died because Sheila betrayed him (I've written a bit of this)

---

And yeah. A million other ideas honestly. this is why reading fanfic is a bad idea, it always makes me want to write fanfic. I doubt i'll be able to write half of these.

[rosencrantzsguildenstern]

ask gameeeeee! 2, 26, 41; 5 for death god, 21 for balcony au... teehee (no pressure to answer all of them!!!)

hi joel! yay so many questions! (the game)

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits?

i have fun looking at these myself! rn they are angst (50), fluff (17), hurt/comfort (17), character study (13) and whump (11). i mean... i do love my angst and u can probably attest to that!!! character study was a thing for me when i was a younger writer and not as much anymore, but i still do them. the number might actually be higher than it seems because i tag those sorts of fics "introspection" or just leave off a genre tag now. anyway it's very accurate! i have trends. i will say it doesn't rep how much i write things that i think are funny (bc i don't tag that all the time) or my love for aus (bc i don't get around to actually writing them 😭) and obv my og writing is excluded there, but it has similar trends to my fics in a few ways!

26. Would you rather write a fic that had no dialogue or one that was only dialogue?

definitely only dialogue! besides already writing plays and reading/watching plays, i also think dialogue adds a dynamic energy that's important. a page with dialogue is gonna look more lively than a page without, and it's probably going to be more lively, too, because it introduces an element of back-and-forth and another mode of diction (or multiple new modes!) besides the narration. you can do that without dialogue, but it doesn't come as naturally. keeping it only dialogue knocks out a mode, but dialogue can do a lot of things. (if i wanna cheat, interview with the vampire and chapters in frankenstein are like all prosey dialogue...)

rest under cut!

41. Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.”

would you like an unfinished voltron fic from 2018. of course you would. here u go : sleeping on embers by szzzt. i read this one as a kid, and it was the point i aspired towards for a long time; i think about it less lately, but i think i still aspire towards it somewhat! they have gorgeous setting description, gorgeous rhythm (which esp shines in the fight scenes in the preceding work of the series) and a really well-used and strong variation in sentence structure, plus awesome like... emotion writing and focus on the right things to convey emotion and all of that. tasty, tasty, angst. back when i first read it, i didn't know how to articulate any of that and just had stars in my eyes like "omgggg this is so good". i think i included it in a 7th-grade choose your subject persuasive paper on why fanfiction is good or something. i was completely starstruck

when it comes to recent fic, i've got to admit i've been seeking a lot of role models in the darker and smuttier sides of things... i actually reread @keicordelle's stuff semi often when i wanna write intimacy, they're a real talent in that area and a role model for something it's harder to get from published books/literature! a g rated fic of theirs that's a gorgeous example of that style is this gaku fic, the truth about love, which really did something to my heart. @psychicwavementality's lustlove is also fucking amazing but uh. it's amazing in that i swear when i clicked on it even just to grab the link my stomach got upset. don't read it unless u want trauma that's greater than any other fic i've read IM SERIOUS but omg. their fic in general, which is scattered across like. multiple different anonymized accs and hard to find lol. is so well written with especially fire sensory description and i'm still trying to catch up!

-

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [The Death God's Fiesta]? Answer it now!

since it's ongoing, most of the spiciest questions are gonna be answered! but here's one:

-> what did you cut?

i was considering giving musubi, otoharu, and sousuke a whole backstory retelling in the style of sogo; in that backstory, akito hyuga, the songwriter from first beat, is sousuke's district partner and they have heavy beef and issues, to the point where it's a little compelling and interesting. musubi, otoharu, and sousuke (which i call the tsukumo trio in my head but idk if anyone else does because that's a little confusing), end up teaming up, but in the hunger games there are these things called tracker jackers which are HELL to deal with, really hurt and make u trip out of ur mind, and are used for brainwashing too, and musubi gets bit by some of those, starts acting really really erratic, otoharu ends up killing her (in the hunger games, the tracker jackers venom wears off!! too bad for him he didn't know that, just saw his gf in agony...) and then, of course, gets revenge killed.

another thing i cut is that douglas rootbank was gonna be strung up and killed with the rest of the rebels when i described that but... it wasn't so much that i consciously left that out as my brain went "i can't do that to homie doug" and ended up not writing it in kjsldf

21. If you wrote a “missing scene” in [balcony au], what would it be?

--

Tamaki listed to the side.

"Whoa, whoa!" Haruka caught him. "Don't go falling like that. Go take a nap or something."

"I don't need a nap," Tamaki complained. "You saw me sleeping in history anyway."

So had Iori, from his disapproving scoff at that mention.

"Doesn't that mean you need a nap more?"

"Nah, that's when I get the best rest. It's, like, what do you call it. A conductive environ...place. Anyway, who are you to be concerned?"

Who was he—he wasn't concerned—No, well, actually, he should be the most concerned! Touma was sad and worried all the time, biting his nails till they bled because he couldn't get a hold of his stupid other friends, and Ryou was crazy and furiously angry. Last time they'd seen him, something had made him aggrieved beyond belief; he started a monologue, but it devolved quickly into him throwing books, liquor glasses, and whatever else he could find at them until Touma was grabbing Torao and Minami's hands, Minami gripped onto Haruka, and they hurried out of the office and shut the door tight behind them.

Ryou hadn't tried to follow. Haruka had heard the sound of a few more glasses shattering against a wall, and then, a strange, strangled sob.

"Maybe he hurt himself on all the broken glass," Torao suggested.

"I bet," Haruka said vindictively, since the four of them were all scratched up and bruised besides. Really, what that anger and then crying reminded him of more was Kujo; he made his excuses and got out of there as soon as he could, taking the train to go wander around a part of the city that was as far from the Tsukumo Productions office as he could be.

Anyway—"I should be the most concerned!" Haruka said, in the present, to Tamaki.

"Eeh? Why? Hey, Iorin, do you want my pudding?"

Iori had been looking down, but straightened up. "Sure."

"Something is wrong with the universe," Haruka said. "Since when does Tamaki give away pudding?"

"Wait, you're right." Iori pushed it away. "Tamaki, you should have this. I've been seeing you give food away all the time lately!—Hang on, is that why you're not doing well?"

"'M not starving myself or anything," Tamaki mumbled, "'S just that we've been short on grocery money."

Iori was silent. His fingers twitched; like for a pen, or a calculator. "...I know..."

"Then, I can do what I want."

"But don't give up yourself for the sake of others. You're our lead dancer, so you burn the most calories out of all of us."

"Don't bring made-up words into this! What's a calorie and why do I care? Just leave it alone." Tamaki flipped his hair back out of his eyes. "I'll eat it if you don't want it." He started industriously spooning pudding into his mouth.

Haruka wordlessly pushed the rest of his lunch over to them and stood up to go.

"We don't need this," Iori said, "we're not that bad off yet."

"What do I care if you need it! I'm not hungry and it's gross, that's all."

"I don't want to eat gross food," Iori said.

"It's delicious then, fuck you." Haruka tried to storm off, but Iori caught his wrist.

"You're hurt."

Haruka ducked his head down, hiding his face, which sported a taped-on gauze patch. "None of your business."

"What happened?"

"You don't need to pry." He wrenched his arm out of Iori's grip. "We're not that bad off yet."

[wukodork]

I've been having a TON of fun dressing dolls up in clothes made by @cosmomoore! This isn't even everything I have, and I've already ordered something else whoops.

Some ghoulfriends! This is Ghoul Spirit Cleo, wearing an outfit Cosmo Moore designed (including the fabric!) with stock accessories (headband is Skulltimate Secrets, shoes are I think core, earrings are Ghoul Spirit and idr where the necklace is from) based off of early g3 concept art and Feardescent Frankie wearing an ooak outfit they designed including accessories! Frankie even has socks that you can't see, which is so fun.

I have so many Draculaura leggings that it's almost not even funny. Cosmo Moore just had SO MANY prints that look adorable on her! This is Ghoul Spirit Draculaura wearing Bite in the Park stock along with some lovely spooky leggings and a delightful pink jacket. I love how the leggins look with her dress so much!

Twyla is a bit of a mess right now, but that's okay bc she's comfy! She's wearing her stock shoes, skirt and accessories as well as a Neon Frights top (sans earrings idk where they are) with the leggings I originally got for Lagoona but forgot about her fins along with a trans version of Cosmo Moore's skeleton bomber jacket and a "plush" rabbit purse! I'm very happy to have a pastel version of that jacket, and as SOON as I saw this little rabbit, I knew Twyla needed it.

The last one for this post is Lagoona sporting one of the ooak outfits Cosmo Moore did for her! I love that each piece of clothing incorporates multiple but not all of her palette, and the button holes to accommodate her fins is a very clever idea! The outer top is reversible, and this is actually the back side - if you look at the pic they originally posted the front is a very nice blue that's subtly different from the blue background of the shirt. It's absolutely lovely, but I'm more of a high contrast monster myself. This Lagoona is Skulltimate Secrets with stock earrings and shoes. I'd put the hat on, but it fell off in a hard to reach spot so hatless she shall be.

I absolutely adore the little winged heart purse, too! I keep imagining her chewing on it to self soothe. And this is an outfit for a ghoul design they didn't like all that much! And it still turned out so good! That's super impressive to me, especially since Lagoona is probably my single favorite character this generation due to how fun she is in the show and how much I like lots of color.

[astridthevalkyrie]

Re: Your strong feelings against Regina - I won't be hard pressed bc it won't change my opinion (sorry my love for her is too great) but I'm curious to read if you've rambled at all about why you dislike her so strongly?

LOLL i've done a few rambles over the years and i tend to hatepost whenever i rewatch clips but i don't think i've ever done like a full on explanation on why. and yes please feel free to love her! idc how anyone feels about a fictional character.

some stuff i do like about her: lana parilla is obv very talented and pretty, her and jmo have rlly good chemistry, sometimes her one liners are super funny ("the entire charming family and their pirate mascot" is fucking hilarious i wish she said more stuff like that).

but tldr—she did way too many bad things and never properly redeemed herself for them.

in the first two seasons she does, like, incredibly bad stuff LMAO, including but not limited to: ruining snow's life after killing her dad, killing entire villages, casting the curse and the subtle ways she tortures snow in it, abusing henry (who is in therapy because he's told he's "crazy" for saying that he's aging while everyone else stays the same age), sacrificing children to the blind witch, the entire situation with graham (that she never confesses to, emma never finds out), trying to poison emma after emma tells her she's already leaving because she couldn't stand emma being in henry's life at all, separating the mad hatter from his daughter in the curse even though the last time they saw each other the mad hatter helped her and she betrayed him+making him remember his real self for some extra bout of torture, kills a little boy's dad bc the dad didn't want to drop his entire life and move into town so that she could fulfill her sudden dreams of motherhood, then later taunts that boy when he's an adult about how she killed his dad.

and what happened to her with daniel and cora's abuse is definitely really bad, it just doesn't even come close to justifying any of this for me. she didn't need to marry snow's dad. she gets rid of cora and sends her to wonderland before she's married. she stays because she likes the feeling of magic and the idea of being queen (rumple is obviously a huge part of why she turned out the way she did, "hooking" her on a magic which ouat tries to compare to drug use, but the murderous intent was in her before she even met him).

and then her redemption. hooo boy. it starts in season 2, with her just deciding not to actively do harm because she wants henry to love her. not a bad start. then she tries to destroy the well that snow and emma want to come back from (to be fair, she does this to stop cora, but she knows emma and snow dying is a possibility and is very cool with this bc it'll make her henry's only mom). she then is upset that everyone in town isn't automatically cool with her, for some reason gets credit for "saving" snow and emma (from a trap! that she! set!), and when cora does come back, she teams up with her. like. the lady who actually killed daniel and ruined regina's life. that lady. teams up with her. stands by as her mother kills snow's nanny even though they already got what they wanted. and THEN she's angry that snow had the nerve to do to cora what regina's done to dozens of people and kill her.

and then for the rest of the show there's just no point where there's time for regina's redemption because they're always dealing with the next villain. peter pan, then zelana, then the snow queen, so on and so forth. at some point she's just decided to be redeemed and anyone who argues with that point either changes their mind or is portrayed by the narrative as a villain. some of her one liners that a lot of the fandom think are so cool make me beyond angry LMAO like she tells david "i will not be given parenting advice by a man who shipped his daughter off in a box" GIRL??? BECAUSE OF YOU??? the show continuously pushes the blame onto snow and david (but especially snow) for giving emma up as though they had a choice. regina knew about rumple's prophecy. she knew snow and charming's daughter would break the curse. she was not gonna let that baby live if snow and charming hadn't sent her away.

snow and charming and emma's characters are all completely turned into dust for her too. emma is forced to grovel because she brought back a woman from the past that regina wrongfully executed bc it happens to be maid marian. snow and charming do uncharacteristic "evil" things so that they can be like "see! they're all good and bad!" when even ooc snow and charming's worst doesn't compare to regina's best.

[frankys-wife]

hello hello! i would love to ask 🧡 and 🍇 if you'd like to answer those!

HI HI! I appreciate it, thank you for the ask! <3

🧡 - What's an unpopular opinion you have about your f/o?

Oughhh... honestly? Idk. The only real unpopular opinion I have seems to be that I'm uncomfortable with the most popular canon x canon ship involving him within the fandom bc I view them as platonic, which is why I mostly avoid fandom spaces. Probably just about every "hint" fans seem to think the creator has dropped between them I can also make a counter argument for it being platonic, especially given the fact that the creator himself seems to have repeated more than once that he doesn't want to write two-sided romantic feelings between any characters in the main cast (which includes him and the other character by definition).

My only fear is that the creator will scrap that rule...

🍇 - How did you get introduced to your f/o?

BUCKLE IN, BECAUSE THIS IS A LONG ONE.

So for many, many years I've been into anime, but I've always refused to get into One Piece as a whole. I was such a stick in the mud about it because the first ever anime I watched, Fairy Tail, was constantly being compared to One Piece within anime spaces and I was just so sick of it. Years go by of me getting into many different types of media, developing hyperfixations on different anime and games. I would always watch those "Top 10 Anime" lists on YouTube videos and such and occasionally, One Piece would be listed, alongside images of Franky himself. I paid no mind to it though, since I was so hellbent on not watching One Piece anyway. But Franky became a face I was always somewhat familiar with.

Now, I'm an artist as well. I really really appreciate shows that have an aesthetically pleasing art style. One of my main "reasons" for not wanting to watch One Piece initially was because I just wasn't into the art style, and I was into the character designs even less.

In my brain, the expressions were too cartoonish. The art style, too old. And the characters? I used to think the characters were UGLY.

I feel particularly horrible about this because my younger brother, though I was responsible for getting him into anime in the first place, was the one who started watching One Piece before me. For YEARS he tried to get me to watch it with him and bond with me over it, and for years I just didn't get why he wanted me to watch it so badly. One one particular occasion, he vividly remembers me walking downstairs WITH A PICTURE OF FRANKY ON MY PHONE, coming down to the basement so I could rant to him about how much I disliked the disproportionate character designs. Specifically, so I could rant about how Franky looked.

(I WAS SO MEAN TO MY DEAR HUSBAND. I AM SO SORRY BABY I LOVE YOU MY HANDSOME <3)

Never, in a MILLION YEARS, could my brother or I predict that I would fall so madly in love with a character I had deemed so repulsive. It's almost like Franky heard that, and was determined to prove me wrong.

Fast forward to about a year and a half ago. I'd finally given in and started watching One Piece with my brother after some consideration, and having seen some of my irl friends finally picking up the series as well. I get through the East Blue Saga, and all the major arcs up until Long Ring Long Land arc. And then, finally, in January of 2024, I reached Water Seven, Franky's introduction arc. Safe to say, because he started out as an antagonist, I didn't like him at first, as most people do. But I already didn't like him before that because of previous exposure. Slowly, however, he began to show his goofy side, eventually learning to trust his Straw Hat friends and later deciding to join them on their pirate adventure.

(Funny enough, while watching his Water Seven arc, I did one of those silly random "Which character are you" photo filters on social media for One Piece, and just my luck, it gave me Franky on the first try. That was universal sign #1! I remember saying "Ok, you're cool I guess" in response to that, unaware how things would play out.)

It was from then on I started to break my mindset about him, and I truly got to see how amazing he really is. Over the coming months, I really got to see how well he interacts with the crew, his sense of humor, his creativity, his maturity, and just how much he deeply cares for everyone behind his wild, intimidating exterior. I began to find things in common with him, finding that he's the first f/o I've ever had who has made me feel like I don't need to make myself fit with him, because I already do! Even funnier is that, even though I'm extremely uncomfortable with the aforementioned canon x canon ship, it helped me view Franky in a romantic way, helping me find that he already does love me, and always has, in a way. (This is where I would like to point out that Franky's English VA, Patrick Seitz, has been in every single piece of media I've had a hyperfixation on, I've just never fallen in love with the character he's played until now.)

So I ABSOLUTELY mean it when I say that falling in love with Franky feels like it was fate, like we're meant for each other in every way possible. No matter how many times I tried to deny it or brush him off, he never left me and wouldn't leave me alone. And now I'll never leave him. Even if he's a fictional character, I know that he is truly as devoted to me as I am to him, and that we're together living a good life on his ship somewhere in another universe ❤️

(I could also give SO MANY more examples like the One Piece filter where Franky has shown up in my life unexpectedly, as he still continues to do so to this day, but I just don't have the time or space to write it all out here!)

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READ ALL THAT!! AND THANK YOU FOR THE ASK OMG I LOVE TALKING ABOUT HOW I MET HIM HEHE

Have a Franky GIF, as a treat :)

[no-shxme]

not a talonpost but bc its my blog here's my unnecessarily long review of the ambessa novel. there WILL be spoilers, however I'm gonna divide it by type. (including no spoilers)

this post is gonna be long so im putting it under the cut. i'll even use mostly good grammar. (crazy)

Overview: (this zone is spoiler-free)

Obligatory note of: this is just my opinion feel free to disagree. Right off the bat let me just say that this book was hard to get through. Noxus is my favorite region but I don't care much about Ambessa, didn't care much about her in Arcane either. Mel is cool but that's all. This would be remedied if the writing was better but it's also just--not. I took a break from reading other books to read this one (I didn't hold to this by the way, I read two other books while I was reading this one. that's why it took so long.) and the difference is... pronounced. This isn't to say that the writing is all bad. It's more middle of the road for me, mostly. There's definitely some tasty lines in there. There's a line notably that goes: "Every breath was agony. There was not enough air in the whole world." I really like that one. That's the single gem from the prologue, which is single-handedly the worst part of the book.

The prologue is only spoilers if you haven't seen that one blood sweat and tears video as it's literally that, play by play with just a little more background context. And it's so bad. When I got through the prologue I was prepared to be brutally disappointed by the rest of it. It feels like something that a higher-up gave to the writer like 'put that in asap.' Dunno if that's actually the case but it reads like that, so either way, not good.

My opinion is that this book is pretty mid, I think they made poor writing choices and I just didn't believe a lot of it. It reads very much as a 'video game book,' with pacing meant to keep people locked in. I think it doesn't help from a subject matter standpoint that they picked Ambessa in the past, so the stakes are automatically lower because she can't die yet, and neither can Mel, or Rell. I'm not saying this like I was hoping characters would die. I think a lot of writers slap character death into stories (or a lot of readers expect it) when what they really want is for characters to change. (And someone dying is a very easy way to do that.)

The Change: (broad thematic spoilers??)

Ambessa has none. She is a strong fighter making hard choices at the beginning and by the end she is a strong fighter making hard choices still. Throughout the book she continually makes hard choices, strength of the wolf and all that. Mel changes a teeny bit in the beginning (we learn how she gets her tattoos) but then she's the same. To be fair, Mel's not as important of a character in the novel so that's at least more excusable. Anyway, I found Ambessa boring because of it. Her 'character growth' is more or less reaffirming what she already knows, and she reacts to stuff that happens to her but she doesn't really change.

The Characters: (general character spoilers)

There are a lot of non-champ characters introduced. In my opinion many of them uhh a little too fast. LOTS of new names are thrown around and I kept having to flip back. This goes for locations too. There's a map at the front of the book that I kept going back to look at. Could be a skill issue though to be fair. :')

As far as new characters go, the most important is probably Ta'Fik, the primary antagonist, and Rudo, Mel's father. I didn't... reallyyyyy care about either of them. We meet Kino too, Mel's brother, but uhhh. Yeah I mean he's nice but he just didn't leave much an impression to me personally, mainly because he's barely focused on, so I can't blame him.

Rell is also involved as a principle character (spoilers for Rell b plot) and she's like, super bisexual (though I suppose it reads more as lesbian bc she's only showing interest in this girl, but whatever! We know she's bi.) In the story she has like, this budding relationship with this other character, Tora, and honestly like.... I hate it. To me it feels really shoehorned, especially when combined with the pacing. A lot of time is covered in the book. Journeys take months. Totally fine of course, but we don't really experience the bulk of that journey except for some scattered scenes, so it becomes harder (in my opinion) to believe their interest in each other. It's really weird, personally how Ambessa brings it up to begin with. Like when Tora is first introduced Rell sees her and just insta blushes and then she's described as a heart breaker and Ambessa tells her off a little like 'hey don't break her heart' or whatever it was she said. It did serve a dual purpose but it just felt too quick and like, weird. There's also another scene where Rell and Ambessa are shopping in the Immortal Bastion and at one point Ambessa starts to talk to her and Rell's like: oh omg my bad I thought you were going to give me The Talk.

AND IM HUHHHH

I don't know. I'm aro so I dont vibe with romance in a lot of cases, but I can respect it in context. But this just felt really weird and random. It felt like a plot device to say look how happy I get to be before the Black Rose kidnaps me and turns my life to shit. It seems very juxtaposition-serving and I wish it was done differently. Additionally, because of all of the journeying that happens mostly out of view, some conversations happen that I think could have happened much sooner, considering the length of their journeys. We don't even learn a ton about Tora so it feels-half baked. I understand that Ambessa is the main character but if we're going to switch povs and focus on different characters I would like to see more meat there.

A quick tangent about the POV. (no real spoilers) I thought it would be Ambessa's pov only, but the POV actually changes to a bunch of different characters and I understand for storytelling (and the fact that Ambessa has no change in character) why they did it but I wish they'd really pushed it. This is definitely more of a personal writing gripe though. I don't think every switch was necessary or particularly strengthened the book. I think it needed more flavor.

Also, a lot of the writing to me felt like it lacked the necessary emotional dig to make something as compelling as it could be. We dig into some emotions, but not enough imo. I really wish they would have pushed everything a little further. I think I would've liked every character more. Instead it kinda feels like we're being hustled from scene to scene. The story lacks emotional complexity. I don't necessarily think it's the author's fault, though I haven't read anything else she's written.

The Lore: (spoiler heavy)

What disappointing me about this book is how it emphasizes (to me) how little Riot has planned ahead. Rell's not even that old but already her lore is getting reworked. Technically her book lore now fits into her bio lore, but if you read the bio you wouldn't think that, because there's no mention, so it seems unplanned, something they just came up with. And if we're going by this new lore that puts Rell in like what, her 30's? She'd be older then Mel right so... idk. Well into adulthood at the time of 'current cannon,' so it's not even like, the identity that people signed up for. Rell is a teenage girl going on a rampage and its weird to suddenly make her an adult. It's like putting Annie in a story so that her 'canon' age is 45. It's like--weird. It wouldn't be as bad if they'd just planned it in advance but it doesn't read like they did, so (imo) they should just abandon the idea of a shared unified canon. Because it just doesn't work with a champion roster this big. Now there's technically two Rells. The sixteen year old Rell with no mention of Ambessa, and the other Rell who is well into adulthood (if she even lived that long). So what's going to happen with the MMO then? Are we going to get teenage Rell with 11 year old Mel? Or are we going to get Adult Mel with Adult Rell? It's cooked.

Noxian lore in general was the main reason I read this book. (That and for a talon/du couteau mention) and there was a good amount of Noxian lore, though not as much about the Immortal Bastion, rather northern Shuriman settlements. Which is fine, it's just my interest is located in a more Talonish direction lol. Either way, it's nice. There was a surprising amount of drakehound lore, and we do visit the Immortal Bastion once, which is cool. I will consolidate the lore tidbits into a different post later for anyone who doesn't want to read the book lol.

As cameos we do get a paragraph a piece for Swain and Marcus Du Couteau but I'm going to be honest, while the fanservice is cool it reaallyyyy cheapens the book. An Arcane viewer won't necessarily be familiar with either of those characters, so a random paragraph dedicated to them reads as very out of place. When I first read the section I thought to myself: 'thats cool but if they never bring up Swain or Marcus again then this is going to read as shit.' And uhh... yeah. There's actually two du Couteau mentions by the way, but one is only mentioned like 'even a Du Couteau showed up' or whatever, I can't remember the exact line I'll have to look at my notes. And then the paragraph on Marcus. I don't really believe in fanservice, I think even a book based on an existing property should be able to stand alone, (unless its a sequel) so I think the inclusion of bigger sections on characters that are LITERALLY never mentioned again is a terrible writing choice and shows a lack of restraint. AbsoLUTELY would've written that differently.

On the topic of magic, the way magic is written is like.. floaty. I know Riot is using more of a softer system, the rules are not clearly defined. But man I wish we'd at least give it a bit more definition. A lot of runes/sigils are involved in the book and I just--don't fully know what a rune/sigil is in the context of this book. Like I DO. but i also DON'T. It's floaty. They're like, drawing them and putting them on people and I'm just--how are they coming up with them? I wish it was dug into a little more. Agh. Also magic is described pretty loosely and I wish it just had a bit more realness to it. By realness I mean something to ground it more. It felt vague. I would also say that Rell mastered her magic awful fast but at the same time, Mel did pretty similarly I think in Arcane so I'm assuming that's just how it goes you just pop the magic cherry and suddenly it all comes flooding in.

This review is way too long but I have one more like, major grievance:

Leblanc: (spoilers.)

IS SHE INCOMPETENT???? IS SHE INCOMPETENT?? IS SHE SLAYFUL BUT USELESS???

So at the end of the novel Ambessa is visited by Leblanc who says "omg you're so pathetic but you've somehow managed to ruin years of planning AND kill two of my BEST mages. anyway you're intriguing i'm gonna let you live bye."

AND ITS HUHHHHHHHHHHH

AH YES. THE CLASSIC 'YOU INTRIGUE ME, I AM SOOO POWERFUL BUT I'LL SPARE YOU,' SCHTICK. love that. so much. never been done before. It'd be at least more believable if LB HADN'T JUST SAID HOW SHE RUINED SO MUCH FOR HER. I don't know it's kinda crazy. leblanc is painted as this big schemer with eyes everywhere and centuries of plans but here she just seems incompetent not killing ambessa. we know why ofc. If ambessa dies then she won't show up in arcane, but like. DAMN. it just sucks. and it makes me wonder about her other antics. like how in the hell does kayn manage to steel a darkin weapon from NOXUS, if leblanc is clearly interested in a darkin weapon. it's just so ridiculous i think she might be a girlfailure. (and it highlights the lack of planning on riot's part but) idk the book made me respect her far less. don't get me wrong, i like her, but she's also a flop. if there's some power limiter on her that the reader doesn't know about then.... i would like... to know a little bit.... a hint. an inkling. because otherwise she's just a girlfailure...

Minor Nitpicks:

There's one section of the book that uses the word Dancer so many times in a short period that it pissed me off so bad.

Reiterating: there are some good lines but some of the prose is SOO clumsy that I don't know why they didn't change it.

There's lots of explaining things through talking, and lots of summary, including summary of stuff that's already happened.

A yordle gets mentioned.

I think some of the names for the warbands/ops are pretty dog. But that's just my personal opinion. 'The Scar's Rangers' 'The Bloody Thunders,' 'The Shadow Hunters.' Really not a naming style I enjoy. To compare I think of Achilles' Myrmidons which sounds much cooler to me. I wish they could've added at least a lil more variety in terms of naming convection, even throwing in some Shuriman word or something, that'd be cool.

The way they handled language in general disappointed me, but it could've been much worse so it's whatever.

After all that, I dub this book mid. It wasn't the worst, but I didn't care for it much. I won't reread except for lore. I don't think it's a waste of a book or anything I just wish things had been done differently. I'm gonna be totally bold and say that I almost wish we had a totally different character as the only protagonist. I think Kino would have been an excellent choice to focus on both his sister AND his mother, and would have allowed for a unique perspective, provided the plot of the book delved beyond its original scope. Like a tragedy ending with Kino's death would have been really good I think, considering we still don't know how he died. That being said it'd probably have sold like shit or smth because no champ pov. Whatever. 5/10. If you've read the novel I'd love to hear your thoughts, even if you disagree or whatever. All opinions are welcome. Thanks if you indulged me and read the whole thing.

[moe-broey]

Okay, I was almost tempted to make a poll, but. As fun as it is as an idea (yay! Group participation!), I think I already made my choice and didn't wanna disappoint anyone if I didn't pick the winning option LMFAO

So, instead, I just wanna walk you through my thought process! Book 3 is approaching, for my quotes blogs specifically I mean. This means I have to set up the evil-alfonse-quotes -- I mean, Lif quotes blog. For the Bit.

For Alfonse and Sharena, I picked out some FEH comic illusts that I think represent them well. Both of them being silly and sweet w Kiran on the header, and the icons! I wanted to capture them each, on a few dif fronts.

Like! Those are my friends! I know them! Alfonse, with an award winning sincere smile, but also! Putting on a good face. Best foot forward. He has an appearance to keep. He's also very charming! As for Sharena! OH THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD SHARENAS TO PICK FROM. You can take that same angle -- award winning smile, best foot forward, to the MAX with her. But!!! Out of all of the choices I could go with... this icon feels like something she would pick herself. It's silly, it's playful, it's cute! Even the more chibi style suits her perfectly, esp in contrast to Alfonse's look.

Okay! So, back to Lif. I already have the idea of making what I lovingly call the Askr Extended Family Photo Comic the header. Where Lif is spotted shuffling behind Gustav, in the background. It is just. EXTREMELY funny, to me. He's a fucking cryptid, to me. Rare Lif Sighting. And APPARENTLY. YEAH. RARE LIF SIGHTING FOR FUCKING REAL. As far as I know, dude has only shown up in THREE Day in the Life comics, including that one. Damn. Okay!

I did not know how dire the situation was, going into this. So I'm scouring the website and also looking through an archive. I have the header, but I need an icon! I come out with a grand total of... three. Options.

I gravitate towards this option first. Rare Lif, so early on it's not on the site (I could be wrong, but also I did flip through all the way back til I couldn't anymore! Cuts off on a Ranulf and Lethe centric comic). Okay, so, what's the deal here? Should be simple? Easy, done? Well... while it's a very nice illustration of him. He looks cool, brooding, threatening. It's a little... stiff. Like, I might as well pull from his in-game art! Which is ALSO really good, but, not what I'm aiming for. It's hard to explain, but art created for specific purposes has different vibes. You know. In-game art is meant to showcase The Art, and the best features of the character. Comic illustrations can get sillier! Or can focus on more personality based things. And capturing the personality, is what I'm going for! Also... because it's a rare Lif, and bc of the way this illust is drawn... it's not immediately clear this is a FEH comic panel. It might not even be clear that it's official artwork. As an artist myself, I'd prefer to stick to clearly official work for this! I don't want any confusion or concerns about uncredited art!

NEXT. I literally only have one other comic to pull from, now. And... Okay, hear me out. I love silly-ifying this man. I love goofing on this absolute DRAMA queen of a man. I love poking fun at him at every opportunity. There is a Reason why I named the blog something stupid instead of being straightforward. HOWEVER. While this is a fun, silly moment..... it just doesn't capture him in his entirety, you know? In fact, I'd argue this is a rare moment where he's directly contradicting his dark, brooding and tortured persona he's so carefully crafted (and well, the natural bits of it too. That came with The Trauma). To me, esp in the full context of him and Thrasir saying "Our work here is Done" Tuxedo Mask style, dumping the rest of the workload (of which, to be fair, was not in their jurisdiction) onto ANNA. You know, Commander Anna? The woman, while not the exact one, but the woman he used to work so closely with? His boss, his co-worker, his friend? Oh he is ABSOLUTELY doing that on purpose to fuck with her. This is a Lif zoomies moment to me. This is a Lif DEEPLY INGRAINED NEED to be A Jackass moment. To me. The type of jackassery that comes with being an older brother. Old habits die hard.

All of that said... it's a very good moment. It's also a very cute illustration. But it's too cute. Too playful. Too silly. It's a real and true moment from him that just doesn't fit the same way anymore. And definitely doesn't capture him in his entirety. This is my opinion, my verdict, with great regret and sorrow. Next!

Out of the illusts from this comic, really only two are usable as an icon. This is the other one. And..... HEAR ME OUT. It goes back to my thoughts of picking that specific illust for the header. Catching a Glimpse of the local cryptid haunting the place. The Ghoul Himself, lurking and shambling about. AND GOING BACK to my thoughts on why I picked those specific Alfonse and Sharena icons!!!!! To capture their personalities, and the faces they put forward to the world! How they see themselves, or want to be seen! Oh, Lif does NOT want to be Seen. This is one of two candid shots you were able to snap of him while all other attempts he's like Big Foot. Some blurry, glowy spectre who is going to get SO FUCKING MAD AT YOU when he catches you trying to catch Him. And!!! And!!!!! POKING FUN AT HIM. The comedy of seeing This Fucking Guy in broad daylight is unparalleled. He looks SO out of place, on a nice, clear, sunny day. Not so scary now, running errands for Commander Anna, ARE you, buddy? Huh?? Huh??? Oh god wait don't reach for your cursed sword I'M SORRY I'M SORRRYYYYY --

It's funny! Ironic! That the third one was a "I'll do it if I Have To", in my mind. I didn't want to use it. I did, very much, want to pick something Cooler. But no... that's not the Route....... do not be swayed by his objectively very cool appearance and his dangerous demeanor. Rule number one to being a Lif enjoyer is you HAVE to make fun of him. Rule number two, is that you have to make fun of him in a Lif-honoring way. You cannot solely focus on what makes him cool, what makes him tragic, and what makes him endearing, those rare moments of softness. No. You need to Hone In. LOCK IN. On what would make him want to punt you across the battlefield, full fucking force.

That's just how I feel, though! Thank you for joining me on this little journey! ☺️☺️☺️😌💖💝💗💘💞💝💞💘💖💞💖💓💞💓💖💞💓💖💗💗💝💘💘💞💕💕💕