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akatsuki-shin · 4 years ago

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Review: Scum Villain’s Self-saving System (SVSSS)

Notes:

(Very) long post ahead

Contains spoiler

This is my personal review and does not represent the entire audience, you are free to agree or not agree with what I’ve written here

Feel free to reply/send me a message if there are things you want to discuss

Summary:

SVSSS tells the story of Shen Yuan, an avid web novel reader - particularly the stallion genre - who died suddenly from food-related incident after having just finished reading a famous (yet controversial) web-novel "Proud Immortal Demon Way".

Upon his wake, he discovered that he had been transmigrated into the world of that very novel, moreover into the body of the story's most-hated scum villain, Shen Qingqiu.

In his previous life, Shen Yuan had frequently criticized the "Proud Immortal Demon Way" and its author, "Airplane Shooting towards the Sky", for he found the web novel full of wasted potentials. Now having been sent to live in that novel's story, a mysterious system assigned him with a mission to fix the very plot he had been denouncing - and of course, to save himself from the tragic end of the original Shen Qingqiu, who was fated to be mutilated into a human stick by the story's protagonist, Luo Binghe, his own disciple.

STORY: 7/10

I personally have not read a lot of "isekai" stories. However, what makes SVSSS interesting to me, compared to most transmigration stories I've seen in the past, is because the main character was not thrown into a completely strange, unknown world, but rather into the universe of a novel he had been closely following up until the very last second of his life.

And what's more? He does not have complete freedom in modifying the story however he wants, but supervised by a mysterious system that will reward him for correct decisions, and punish him for wrong choices - with being deported to his original world as the ultimate punishment should his points fall below the set limit (a.k.a. he would really lose his life because he is already dead in his original world).

The fact that Shen Yuan, now living as Shen Qingqiu, possessing complete knowledge of the original story, yet still unable to foresee what butterfly effect his actions will cause to the plot and characters is perhaps the most appealing aspect of this novel.

Shen Qingqiu in his previous life was no different than us - a normal, modern young man from the 21st century. His thoughts and opinions on the situation, the way he reacts on certain matters, his internal monologues are all realistic and easily relatable. It feels as if I myself have partly become Shen Qingqiu, as well, looking at how the story progresses from a first person point of view, because if I were to be in his shoes, I would probably react in the exact same way as a modern person thrown into an ancient fantasy world.

Nevertheless, this "omniscient reader" point of view is not without a flaw. Although Shen Qingqiu himself is gradually blending in, accepting his new life in the ancient cultivation world and no longer seeing the other characters as mere "fictional characters", because his mindset is that of a modern man, I find it difficult for myself as the reader to perceive the world of SVSSS as an actual, stand-alone world. Until the very last page of the story, I still feel like I'm looking at a fictional world, feeling detached to the universe and characters because I'm not "living" in it.

Another aspect that I think could've been improved is the romance development between Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe. I have full confidence that post-story Shen Qingqiu loves Luo Binghe with all his heart, but I seriously have no idea when and how he reached that point.

In the first half of the story, upon having accepted his new life as Shen Qingqiu, his feeling towards Luo Binghe is more like fondness and endearment. Perhaps he does like the character Luo Binghe, and considering that he, along with the rest of the web novel's readers, hated the original Shen Qingqiu to the core, of course he wants to treat Luo Binghe and the other characters better (otherwise, how could he save himself from that nightmarish fate as a human stick).

Later on, he learns of his mistake, how he could've made better decisions, and tried to understand Luo Binghe better, redeeming himself. Perhaps his love towards Luo Binghe began to grow along this path, but I honestly don't see it being told to me, as the reader. All of a sudden he is willing enough to "offer" himself to calm the maddened Luo Binghe. He's been proclaiming himself as a straight man all this time and never once did I see him agreeing with himself that he is going to accept his feelings for Luo Binghe. When I read this later part, I feel like I've just jumped over a huge chunk of development. Because up until that point, Shen Qingqiu still only gives me the feeling of a teacher who adores and cares for a special disciple of his.

All in all, if I were to summarized the plot, I think SVSSS is an interesting, curious story. The fact that Shen Qingqiu was tasked to fix the original novel's flaws makes me want to continue reading for as long as I can. What change is he going to make? What effect will be caused and what chain of events will follow? Furthermore, if you're looking for comedy, then you've come to the right place. With an internet-literate modern man experiencing living in an ancient, fantasy novel, Shen Qingqiu's reactions will never be boring to see. Even the banters and exchanges between characters are so realistic to the point that it is almost possible to imagine them visually.

Also, BingQiu is cute, I take no criticism.

CHARACTERS: 6/10

The distribution of that overall score of "6" is actually as follows:

3 --> Shen Qingqiu

1 --> Shen Jiu

1 --> Luo Binghe + Yue Qingyuan

0.5 --> Liu Qingge

0.5 --> Everybody else

Notice that in the previous section, I barely talk about any other character than Shen Qingqiu? It's not just because he is the main character, but because the other characters are seriously that un-interesting. In fact, I regret to say that personally, I think the characters are this novel's weakest point.

Or to be more precise, the characters' depth.

Shen Qingqiu by himself is a great character. He is calm, logical, knows when and where to put his "omniscient reader" knowledge to good use. He is effortlessly hilarious even if he himself doesn't realize it, but at the same time, despite the mountain of curses he often uses, he is still a good person at heart. I think he is the sole reason that the story could remain interesting until the very end.

But sometimes he is a bit too ideal, almost always having the correct solution and/or countermeasure to every situation even if the plot has changed massively from the original web novel that he knows. Especially when it turns out that he has discovered a way to revive himself after self-destructing at Huayue City, it makes his initially heartbreaking sacrifice less......touching. Because it feels as if he's been scheming this to be freed from the current ordeal, maybe to escape the system, as well.

Furthermore, no matter how much of an expert he was of the "Proud Immortal Demon Way" universe, he still just passed away and was transmigrated into a foreign world. Although the system initially banned him from being OOC, other than some panicky internal monologue, there was almost no trace of him looking distraught when being faced with the unthinkable situation.

Plus, Shen Yuan was different from Airplane Shooting towards the Sky who, even if he were to return to his original world, would have nobody waiting for him. The description of his family was pretty clear. Not only he comes from a well-off household, his family seems to be quite a happy and harmonious one (especially how he used to dote on his younger sister). How come there is not one single moment when he thinks about the family he has left behind and simply carries on with his new life as if nothing happened?

Now Luo Binghe, the second main lead and the one paired with Shen Qingqiu.

Before he fell into the Eternal Abyss, his character actually seems pretty solid. But post-darkening, I don't know why I can't get a good grasp of his character.

The "clingy, crybaby boyfriend" aspect is pretty clear, no complaint there (although the moments of his crying feels too comical for me). Other than that, I don't really feel the "powerful Demon Lord" vibe from him.

Yes, there are descriptions of how powerful he is, how frightening he can be. But it's just not solid enough for me. I understand that he is supposed to be a character with unstable mental, but there are simply not enough part where he is shown to be a proper, powerful Demon Lord because he keeps breaking down each and every single time. The "glass heart maiden" aspect isn't bad, but when it's used in an overly comical way, the character simply loses the charm he's supposed to have.

Even Yue Qingyuan, who's only a minor character, had such a strong charm that slaps you with the biggest plot twist in the whole story when it was revealed (to us, the readers) who he actually is.

Ironically, the original Luo Binghe (Bing-ge) was able to present the character's true image and complexity even if he only appear in less than 10% of the entire story.

And even more ironically, the original Shen Qingqiu a.k.a. Shen Jiu, is probably the most complex character to have ever existed in there (and he only appears in, what, a couple of extra chapters).

(You know what? If MXTX just goes with the original Luo Binghe x Shen Qingqiu, including all of their complexity, I think the development, conflict, and resolution could've been more deep and complex - but yeah, it ain't gonna be "Scum Villain's Self Saving System)

Liu Qingge is okay and actually quite lovable. It's just that I feel it's too easy for him to appear anytime, anywhere there is a problem, as if he's some easy way out.

Other than those I've mentioned above, I literally don't have anything to comment on the other characters because... I don't even know if there's anything to comment. They really come and go just like that and leave no big impression on me.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS: 6/10

This here is basically just some technical things that were a bit unfortunate, because if only they were improved, the story could've been better.

1. The story is clearly written from Shen Qingqiu's point of view, but it will suddenly switch to Luo Binghe's inner thoughts every now and then, making it inconsistent.

2. Description of time and environment. Sometimes it's really difficult to tell in what kind of place the scene is happening, whether it was day or night, whether the characters still remain in the same place or have move elsewhere. Transition when switching locations is also not described enough.

3. As much as I love the story, I feel like it's progressing too fast without any significant crisis. It just ends like that with no massive ordeal or mystery to be solved. I think this is related to Shen Qingqiu's "omniscient reader" point of view because it makes me feel like "hmm yeah, it's just another part of the story, they're going to go through this just fine"

Still, I understand that this is MXTX's first novel. In fact, most of the aforementioned issues (including the characters) have undergone immense improvement in her second novel (MDZS), so I don't think I have anything to worry about.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.3/10

It's worth to read, really. If you just want to enjoy a cool, funny, and cute "isekai" story, I can definitely recommend this. But don't expect some deep philosophical shit, because half of this novel is made of shitpost (I shit you not).

Moral of the story though?

See how market demand kills content creators' freedom and creativity.

Airplane Shooting towards the Sky, the author of the controversial stallion "Proud Immortal Demon Way" literally told Shen Qingqiu at the final chapter of the main story:

He's actually written deep, aesthetic stories before, but they were all unpopular. Only when he wrote this harem novel full of fan-service - disregarding plot depth, plot holes, cheap characterizations - did he finally gain popularity and was able to obtain sufficient income to feed himself.

He was grateful to Shen Qingqiu for "messing" up the plot of his novel, changing it into how it is now, because it allows everything he originally wanted to write - but couldn't - to come true.

In previous chapters, he also said that he actually wanted to make the original Shen Qingqiu into a three-dimensional, more complex characters, but the netizens didn't appreciate it and were complaining instead. Hence he was forced to make the original Shen Qingqiu into a plain old scum villain with no redeeming quality at all - even though in his original script, this character has a complex background that causes his current known personality.

Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua might be talking about it in their usual, funny bantering, but who dares to say that this isn't an issue being faced by almost all content creators in the whole world?

How many content creators have been forced to sacrifice the creativity value and quality of their work in order to satisfy the taste of majority?

How many content creators have been made to revise their works by editors in order to fit into a certain agenda or market trend?

Unless you're a massively popular creator or a powerful individual, chances are you will never have the chance to create a content you truly want to make for a living.

In any case, there may be other authors who are better than MXTX in this world, but I love her works because despite the fictional content, the comedy, the silliness, etc, there are still at least one aspect that reflects the situation of the real, current world, and when you realize it, the realization can be quite a slap to the face like "hey, wait a minute, she's right you know?" See less

#Scum Villains Self Saving System #SVSSS #BingQiu #Shen Qingqiu #Luo Binghe #Review #Danmei #Mo Xiang Tong Xiu #MXTX

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clairen45 · 6 years ago

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About that Dark Visions comic...

I think it’s fair to say that when Marvel’s Dark Visions miniseries about Vader as seen from a different perspective was announced, everybody was excited. We have been hammered on the head since ROTS that “there are heroes on both sides” , and with the expectations concerning the end of the saga as a massive redemption and hope plot, you were bound to be curious about what they would come up with. TBH, I was not expecting to see a softer side to Vader. It would be wrong to expect anything like that, and it would somehow diminish from what happens to him in the OT. He is supposed to be more machine than man. So, no, I definitely did not expect him, or wished him to be the kind of guy operating as the Death Star Secret Santa, knitting socks for the poor and needy, or rescuing people’s pets. It was not my understanding that he was much loved by his Imperial “colleagues” either. When we first see him in ANH; he is derided and dismissed both by a colleague (sorry, forgot the name but you all know whose faithless person I am thinking of) and Leia. Respected for sure, because of the fear he instills in people. So if awe is obviously the right word to use, in the most etymological sense of the term, that is to say “ a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder”, how many people found Vader awesome? Besides the audience. There had to be. And as a concept, it was pretty cool.

That being said, if you think of the title for the series, there were already many ways of interpreting it. Dark Visions... Visions of the power of the Dark Side? The way some people saw Vader? The way Vader thought people saw him? Did the stories happen for real or are they just what the title imply they are: visions. Images. Fantasies. Daydreams or nightmares? Possibly just the imagination of some deranged mind. There is something there that implies that we are not dealing with something too objective. But rather something unhinged and disturbing.

Now, I intend to keep this in mind about the issue that has been raising so much concern: “Tall, Dark, and Handsome”. I think malaise is really the word we should settle for. This issue is problematic in many ways.

For those who haven’t read it or just heard about it through social media and people complaining about it (possibly people on the other side of the spectrum fanning about it), this is how you can sum it up: this is the first person narrative of an unnamed nurse, working on the Death Star for Vader’s personal doctor. The nurse has developed an obsessive infatuation for Vader that has her snoop around him and collect bits and pieces about him (mostly gorish remains of his time at the medical bay) that she hides in her room. She keeps on daydreaming about him and the connection she thinks they have, until one day she musters up her courage and goes to talk to him in his private quarters in order to let him know of her love for him. He cuts her off in all the meanings of the word, both interrupting her speech of eternal devotion and undying love, and piercing her through with his saber. Last moment we see her is lying dead on the floor while he moves away and asking for the sanitation to rid him of the “garbage”.

Ok, that’s a tall order. Here are points that I find entirely problematic.

1.The Question of Agency:

The authors decided to give a voice, a narrative agency to a character that is presented as inconsequential to the story. She is an anonymous nurse, a dot, in the bigger picture of the Empire. Much, let’s say, like our current ST heroes: Rey, Finn, and Rose, who started as “nobody”, even more so in the case of Finn and Rey who have literally been deprived of their identities. You could think it’s cool to thus give a voice to this nurse. Even more so when you consider that throughout the comic, she is presented as downtrodden, poor, pushed over, abused physically and verbally, dismissed, and despised. Her employer disrespects her constantly, calling her “fool”, “idiot”, or “stupid”. He shoves her around, and also diminishes her job, calling it “not a real job” or insinuating that she does not do her job correctly. Cases in point:

And what do we get in this story? A female nobody who starts asserting herself. Wow.

She tells her own story. First person narrative. She becomes an agent.

Look at the evolution of her daydream fantasies. She starts from damsel in distress who needs a man to protect her from her daily abuser

From nurse whose job means something, to a solid professional, and equal partner to her fantasy Lord:

And finally a powerful woman in her own rights, even overshadowing her partner, and who is able to defend herself.

Which then matures into her mustering up the courage to speak for herself, and tell her feelings to the (unwilling) object of her affection.

Except that.... well...she is just presented as a massive psycho. And, ok, it’s fair, we all know that there are female stalkers, and that her obsession for Vader is totally crazy because she doesn’t know anything about him, and she actually fell for someone who was treating her as poorly as the others. But there is the malaise there... The mix of female empowerment and batshit craziness. That’s what put a lot of people ill-at-ease. I wouldn’t even call that subversion, because, dudes, what are we subverting there exactly. It’s not like women are not daily abused and treated poorly at work and in their relationships on a daily basis... And are we supposed to take that as a cautionary tale about fangirl craziness? Because, there again, why did they need to have that girl get such a shitty treatment all through the comic. It is like the comic says that she deserved it. In the end it’s not just Vader calling her trash. It’s also the doctor calling her trash for most of the comic, and even have her literally waddle in a trash compactor. Cause this was supposed to be subtle?

Like, fine, if it were only Vader calling her garbage because the man is just dead inside, which, fairly, is represented in the comic. But it’s just not Vader, it is the way the character is presented through the eyes of the doctor AND even through the eyes of a cartoonist who keeps on representing her with the stupidest darned faces.

And there is no other viewpoint. Family, friends, other nurses or colleagues who could give us another idea about her. Or explain why she is like that. Nope. Basically, this woman is given a voice just so she can be cut off mid-sentence and made... fun of... I guess? Was that the author’s goal? Is it what we are supposed to feel? About this pathetic character and her pathetic life, dreams, goals, feelings, and eventual demise?

The “Subversion” of Female Romantic Tropes

Like ... LOL... How is that “subverted” anyways? But, ok, let’s go through them. It has all the classic elements of female literature.

The Cinderella story: nobody falls for high lord and expects to be swooped off her feet. Complete with ball scene, because, yes, why not? I give them a point, though, for the cool reflection on the ground which has her in her regular scrubs... BTW, Beauty and the Beast in the mix as well.

the nurse complex! Otherwise known as the Florence Nightingale effect. You know, woman is going to take care of the guy... They even made her a real nurse! Again, so subtle. Couldn’t make her any other profession and still be victim of this complex.

the reference to so-called “trashy” female lit, think bodice ripping, Harlequin, and their infamous covers. Even the title of the comic: “Tall, Dark, and Handsome”

The effing Phantom of the Opera!

and of course all the female discourse about love, because, yep, trashy: “kindred spirits” etc...

And again, how are we supposed to interpret it? Well, hang on, this woman, remember, is a bat-shit crazy deluded psycho, who has delusions about life and love. Oh, and the doctor says she is trash. And he throws all her stupid gory, disgusting trickets in the trash. Oh and also Vader says she is garbage. Well. Ok. So, I guess all of that which mattered to her, all her ideas, all that she loved, was just that. Trash. Garbage. Well, take that, you female reader!

But wait, it gets even better...

Star Wars is just trash!

Yep, because on closer look, most of the fantasies this woman has are very Star-Warsy. I am floored that they are actually trashing these:

Anakin and Padmé’s Naboo scenery, green, lush, terrace, nightgowns...

The scene when Anakin learns about Padmé’s death:

and of course, the one that you were not expecting... Reylo... “You are not alone”

Again, why is this problematic? In itself, it is fine and fair to be making fun of trashy female literature and campy romance novels, it is also fine to make fun of crazy stalkers, and it is also fine to be making fun of Star Wars. So why does it feel so icky in this comic somehow?

You can’t help but feel disgusted when you consider how poorly this woman is represented. There is not one aspect of her life that is not ridiculed. And again, this is about a woman who has NOTHING. They could have the girl fall in love with Vader and being killed by him because he is a cold-hearted machine. He killed his wife, the love of his life, so yea, of course he will feel not a pang of remorse or hesitation at killing this nobody who thinks she is in love with him. But they did not need to make fun of the very little she had in her life: her dreams. Her effing dreams. Plus the crazy stalker psycho. And the crazy face. And the fact that again we are talking about a woman, who had NOTHING. No family, no connection, no friends, no respect at work, not many possessions except her sad little Vader treasure chest.

And again, context. Here we are, reading a Star Wars comic where a lot of fanboys have been using the EXACT same terms to ridicule women in the fandom. Especially in the Reylo context. Trash. Garbage. Crazy bitches. Ridiculing theories about ... well, well, ain’t it a sweet surprise... Phantom of the Opera, or Beauty and the Beast parallels with Reylo. I’ll be damned. It feels crazy awkward, if you ask me. I mean, again, it’s all fair, but you don’t do that when you are in the midst of a toxic fandom war.

So why do I give zero F... about it in the end?

If some antis in the fandom saw that as validation, well, let them have their moment of happiness. It won’t last. We can give them that.

One, I don’t think for one second that it means anything about what will happen in the ST as far as Reylo is concerned. Again, they are even making fun of Anidala in the comic, and dude, that thing happened. As my good friends from @lordsofthesithpodcast would tell you after their glorious SWCC panel : Romance, these ships belong in Star Wars.

Two, as I highlighted in the introduction, this belongs in the Dark Visions series. It is meant, in my own opinion, to be disturbing and unhinged. Not sugar coated. So maybe the whole point was shock value. Mission accomplished. It was poor taste again given the context and the awful treatment THEY (and not just Vader) give their female character, but yea, dark visions. Not Star Wars Adventures. You have to look at the target audience and everything.

Three, if it were not for the in-your-face references to female tropes, I actually took most of it as a critique of fandom in general. The problem is not that she is a fangirl. There are some crazy obsessive fangirls, mind you. The problem is that they are making fun of all things female on top of that. But, remove the romantic aspects. Couldn’t that apply to fanboys as well? I could totally picture a cadet, or some other young imperial, developing the same crazed obsession over Vader. And it was just as toxic. And, tbh, it could very well be. Collecting trinkets is not just a girl thing, and after seeing with my own eyes the tons of merch purchased by fanboys at the recent SWCC convention, or the obsessive way some guy could talk to you about Vader and the minute trivial details in his life, or that they are the only ones understanding the guy, well yea... it works...

I’ll even go a step further. I wondered for a sec if the whole thing was not even a critical meta about the franchise as a whole. Let me explain. Some fanboys have complained about the femininization of the franchise, that is “polluting” the shades of Pemberley, I mean Star Wars. Claiming that what is happening right now is utter garbage. Also also, I have another possible reading which has the nurse representing the current state of the fandom and how crazy obsessed they can be over a franchise that some currently view as tired and dead inside (especially since it has fallen into the fold of Disney). Representing the unhealthy relationship between the two. And guess what, it doesn’t end well for the fandom. Who will never get what they want.

I will finally quote this from Chuck Wendig who was fired from the project and came up with that particular comment on Twitter, and which actually seems to go with how I tried to read it myself:

Apropos of absolutely nothing, my issue three of SHADOW OF VADER was about a toxic fanboy (a morgue attendant on the Death Star) who became obsessed with Vader. (And it didn’t end well for him. Er, obviously.) I thought it was good and I’m sorry you won’t see it! Onward we go.

I think they kept some of the original idea from Wendig, but it took a turn for the worse. It would be great if the authors cared to explain about their intent for this piece if any. I am not saying they should. I actually totally respect and support full freedom of speech and authorial choices. It is our choice, then, as a reader to read or not the material we don’t care about. I am just curious to know their opinion I guess, and I was not able to find any comment online. If anyone has a reference, I am interested...

In any event, I think everyone should read the comic for themselves if they are curious about it. Better to make your own opinion about it.

#reylo fandom #star wars comics #dark visions #darth vader dark visions #tall dark and handsome

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wherestoriescomefrom · 5 years ago

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sorry to bother but i remember reading something about you writing a paper on how happiness is weaponized in hp and i was wondering if you had any links? i'd love to read that

Shit, anon! I lost this ask entirely because I thought my tumblr glitched or you deleted it!! Don’t worry though, I’ll do my best to answer it and I hope you find out that I answered it. I’m really unsure about the notification system on tumblr currently.

So unfortunately, the paper you are talking about was never published because it was one of my earliest papers as an undergrad student, so it requires a lot of cleaning up before its anywhere close to publishable. If you would really like to read it, you can dm me privately, and I don’t mind emailing it at all. It wasn’t specifically about weaponised happiness, but rather the role of laughter in talking truth to power. The title of the paper is “MischiefManaged: The Interaction of Humour and Fantasy in Harry Potter.”

I’m going to take out some of the arguments I had originally written, so you can have a sense of the paper and the overarching thesis. I’ll also attach my bibliography under a Read More link. Anytime you see a line break, assume that I’m quoting from a different part of the paper!

“The regulation and order of theDursleys is a method of exercising control over Harry. Their sense of normalcycomes from having avoided this complex other world and from making sure Harrynever finds it. Hogwarts becomes a welcome world, one of mess and magic,disorder and laughter, where Harry finds himself through the contrasts.

Hogwarts becomes Harry’s escape – “frombeing the oppressed and ignored, Harry becomes the often feted cynosure. Frombeing alone, he gains the huge new family of the school and the domestic familyof the Weasleys, with whose children he becomes friends. From being without apurpose, his life is given structure and meaning.” (Manlove 186)

The world of Hogwarts is analternative – a carnival of belonging and acceptance. The normal rules do notoperate here, and Harry often notes this. The mirror image to life with theDursleys is in life with the Weasleys, a motif that repeats itself both in anemotional acceptance and a physical difference. For instance:

Lifeat The Burrow was as different as possible from life in Privet Drive. TheDursleys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys’ house burst with thestrange and unexpected. Harry got a shock the first time he looked in themirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouted, ‘Tuck your shirt in,scruffy!’ The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he feltthings were getting too quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George’sbedroom were considered perfectly normal. What Harry found most unusual aboutlife at Ron’s, however, wasn’t the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: it wasthe fact that everybody there seemed to like him. (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 23)

Themad world of Hogwarts gives Harry the language to rebel against the Dursleys.Magic becomes a liberating force, and, interestingly, we find this languagetranslated into humour. One of the first instances of the Dursleys being unableto bully Harry is in Hagrid’s arrival. Hagrid’s response to Vernon Dursley’sattempts to control the situation are simple – giving Dudley Dursley a pig’stail. This comical image is meant to invoke laughter in us, and seems to teachHarry as well. Harry’s first active act of rebellion against the Dursleysoccurs in Harry Potter and the Prisonerof Azkaban, where Harry blows his Aunt Marge up. Images of comic releaseare used alongside magic for both the young audiences, and the larger politicalpoint being made about translating the language of resistance. Magic existsbetween gaps of reality and unreality; interacting with humour allows it tobecome a powerful statement against overpowering authority.”

“By creating this identity, thearistocratic ‘Purebloods’ ensure a binary between the two identities. Bylocating this identity within a body, a target is created, and the way theauthority interacts with this body determines the nature of this body. It isthis very body that is later punished. This identity itself is constructed:there is no definite way of being able to trace a bloodline back to itssources, and as the ‘trimmed’ portions of the Black family tree demonstrate,almost all the so-called ‘Pureblood’[1] families have a certainamount of ‘Muggle Blood’ mixed in. However, they very naming of the blood status is what allows the society to assumethere are differentiations.

Thenaming itself gives authority figures like Dolores Umbridge the legal authorityto ‘cleanse’ the Wizarding society. Nomenclature is crucial in the creation ofa shared enemy – similar to the innocuous ‘Mudblood,’ Voldemort’s regime in theMinistry of Magic brings out similar chilling identifications. Emily AsherPerrin analyses that Harry is termed an “Undesirable” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 190) – once again, aninnocuous term, once stripped of the political connotations. Therefore, thesocietal situation created by the very existence of the term ‘Mudblood’ is whatallows a Voldemort, and, more importantly, an Umbridge.

The segregation of identities occursbetween racially different creatures, as well. The most touted example for thiswould be the treatment of the Houselves. Once again, common place, everydaynames and objects are used to define their identity. Wizards have the privilegeof defining their relationship with Houselves, and lack of education ensuresthat they will never find a framework outside this definition to operate in.”

“Thelanguage Harry learns to assert his identity against the Dursleys is intimatelysimilar to the language that the youngsters of Harry’s communities have tolearn to assert their identities against legally sanctioned authority figures.Harry’s wit and sarcasm against figures who hold power over them is a commontrope within the Dursley household; the threshold is crossed when he uses thesame language to speak to figures like Severus Snape and Dolores Umbridge:

‘Whodo you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?’ enquired ProfessorUmbridge in a horribly honeyed voice.

‘Hmm,let’s think ...’ said Harry in a mock thoughtful voice. ‘Maybe ... LordVoldemort?’

Rongasped; Lavender Brown uttered a little scream; Neville slipped sideways offhis stool. Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch. She was staring atHarry with a grimly satisfied expression on her face. (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 213 - 214)

‘Doyou remember me telling you we are practising non-verbal spells, Potter?’

‘Yes,’said Harry stiffly.

‘Yessir.’

‘There’sno need to call me “sir”, Professor.’ (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 138 - 139)

Wedo not necessarily see Harry directing sarcasm and wit towards teachers beforethis – Professor Umbridge breaks this barrier, and we see Harry rebellingagainst the corrupted undercurrent of the world he loves so well. His responseto this corruption is similar to his response towards the Dursleys, accessing alanguage of ridicule and mockery to make his point.

The effect this has is manifold: themethod to critique authority becomes humour. By belittling Umbridge’s ideas,Harry is able to expose how hollow they are. This method also helps to establisha sense of community: since humour is a function of a shared set of values, wesee its use as a tool of rebellion a way to unite a voiceless minority. NevilleLongbottom articulates this himself, when he points out “It helps when peoplestand up to them, it gives everyone hope. I used to notice that when you didit, Harry.” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 432) Oppression and restrictions are battledby communities, communities willing to laugh at the ones who create theseoppressive structures.”

“The schoolwide campaign of pranksagainst Umbridge is instigated by them [Harry and Friends], used by them to undermine herauthority, to make her rules seem worthless and arbitrary. Their act oftransgression has interesting consequences, for the community that they aretrying to bring together. “Now you mention it,’ said Hermione happily, ‘d’youknow ... I think I’m feeling a bit ... rebellious,” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 533) becomes a sentimentthat gives the language of rebellion to the students of Hogwarts, many of whomhave not faced ideology in operation before Umbridge. In fact, expressinghumour in the face of oppression seems to erase “signs of fear” from Fred’scountenance. The creation of the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes is what allowsstudents to access this sense of power over Umbridge, and it is usedeffectively against her over and over again.

The similarities between Umbridge’sregime and Voldemort’s regime are uncanny. As a foreshadowing, Harry’sexperience with Umbridge teaches him how to articulate himself againstVoldemort’s claims to power. When Harry attempts to infiltrate the Ministryduring the rule of Voldemort, hidden under the political façade of PiusThickness, once again, the products developed by Fred and George Weasley. DecoyDetonators, Extendable Ears, Skiving Snackboxes, and other pranks are used toinfiltrate a serious political institution, and used effectively. The Weasley’sWizard Wheezes becomes a rallying cry for humour even during the time whenVoldemort is at large, without the legal sanction of the Ministry. “U No Poo” (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince 91)is a masterminded subversion of the Voldemort’s attempt to construct hisidentity as something larger-than-life. Voldemort uses names to terrify peopleinto submission. By making his very name inaccessible, he makes his identityuntouchable, inconceivable and fearsome. The prank created by Fred and Georgeis extremely clever in the way it recaptures this space, reducing Voldemort’sunspeakable terror into something that everyone can access withoutapprehension.”

Foof!! That Went long. Hope it answered your questions, Anon, and I’m including the bibliography. Mind, if I was writing this paper again, that bibliography is going to be much longer, so if you want more reading material, let me know!!!

Works Cited

Bakhtin, Mikhail. “Introduction.” Rabelais and His World. Indiana UP, 1984. 1 - 59. E-book.

Barrat, Bethany. “Azkaban: Discipline, Punishment, and Human Rights.” The Politics of Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillian, 2012. 85 - 95. E-book.

Barrat, Bethany. “‘By Order of the Hogwarts High Inquisitor’: Basis of Authority.” The Politics of Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillian, 2012. 85 - 95. E-book.

Barrat, Bethany. “Purebloods and Mudbloods: Race, Species, Power.” The Politics of Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillian, 2012. 59 - 85. E-book.

Barrat, Bethany. “The DA (Dumbledore's Army): Resistance From Below.” The Politics of Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillian, 2012. 85 - 95. E-book.

Foucault, Michel. “The Body of the Condemned.” Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books, 1995. 3 - 32. E-book.

Manlove, Colin. “Frightened of the Dark: The 1990s.” From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England. 2003. 169 – 193. E-book.

Mendlesohn, Farah. “Crowning the King: Constructing Authority in Harry Potter.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon, ed Lana A Whited. University of Missouri Press, 2002. E-book.

Perrin, Emily Asher. “The Harry Potter Reread: The Deathly Hallows, Chapters 13 and 14.” 26 February 2016. Tor.com. Website.

Westman, Karin. “Spectres of Thatcherism: Contemporary British Culture in JK Rowling's Harry Potter Series.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon, ed Lana A Whited. University of Missouri Press, 2002. E-book.

Whited, Lana A, M Katherine Grimes. “What Would Harry Do: JK Rowling and Lawrence Kohlberg's Theories of Moral Development.” The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon, ed Lana A Whited. University of Missouri Press, 2002. 182 - 211. E-book.

#the people??? want me to answer???#harry potter #speaking truth to power #fandom meta #My writing #hello void this is ridiculosity

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tessatechaitea · 5 years ago

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Teen Titans Spotlight #10: Aqualad

Who s the head that looks like a shark? Starfire?

Nine issues into Teen Titans Spotlight On and it's better than I remember. It seems to have run for 21 issue but I definitely didn't buy the entire series. My guess is that the last issue I bought will turn out to be Teen Titans Spotlight On: Cyborg before I became unwilling to spend the extra 75 cents per month to keep up with the series. I'm actually surprised I didn't dump it with Aqualad but then this issue was written by John Ostrander so I can see why I didn't mind picking it up. I have no memory of ever reading it though. The artist is Erik Larsen of Savage Dragon fame. I assume he's famous for that even though I've never read it. I'm only a fan of Savage Dragon in that he's the only Image founder who stayed true to the premise of Image Comics, drawing and writing every issue of his creator owned comic book. Obviously he didn't have to do that to stay true to Image's manifesto. But he certainly would have needed to pay anybody who worked on his book royalties on any characters he created. Just like Todd McFarlane should have done and eventually failed to do but then was finally forced to do by the courts. Because sometimes people believe the ideology that backs their effort to make more money and sometimes people just want to make more money.

Garth to his adoptive parents: "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck yoooooooouuuuuuuuuu!"

Garth has awoken in dark water unable to remember how he arrived at this point in his life. When you awaken from a blackout submerged in water, how do you know if you've pissed yourself? Garth could probably taste it with his super powers. I don't know what Aqualad's super powers are but what good is an underwater superhero who can't tell if some kid pissed in the pool? If that were canon, I'd finally stop claiming that Aquaman is a useless member of the Justice League. Garth finds himself in the throne room of his real parents, King Who-Fucking-Cares and Queen Whatever. King WFC is shooting everybody he sees with his finger guns because he's convinced they're going to kill him. And Queen Whatever, pregnant with Garth, believes everybody is trying to kill her baby. So I guess I now relate to Garth being that we both had a paranoid mother and an alcoholic father? And I can probably taste pee in a pool too except I've never tried! Because, thinking about it for even a second more, that's probably not a super power. Being able to taste pee is just part of the human condition. Jericho and Nightwing show up to kill Garth's dad. Jericho possess Garth to do it because that's hilarious.

Judging by the art, I guess this is supposed to be comedic?

Nightwing and Jericho kidnap Garth's pregnant mom. Garth tries to stop him but he can't because he's just Aqualad. Also because he gets sucker-punched by Cyborg.

The voice my brain read this panel in makes me think my brain is racist.

No wait! It's not my brain's fault! It's Aqualad's prejudiced perception of Cyborg! He's obviously never met Cyborg or else that panel would containt three "Booyahs!" and be super boring. Instead it's mildly interesting due to its exposure of Aqualad's bigotry! If I didn't love John Ostrander's work so much, I could have blamed the stereotypical black voice on him. But I know better! He's a true writer which means it's canon that Aqualad is fucking racist. Aqualad blows Cyborg to bits because Cyborg is just like Robotman and Red Tornado. It's fun writing stories where they wind up dismembered because it doesn't kill them. Next Aqualad runs into Changeling who's doing an impression of Jon Lovitz's pathological liar character, Tommy Flanagan. I didn't remember that's the name of the character. I used Google! Sometimes I want people to believe I know things I totally didn't know to make me look smart. But other times, I want to make sure people don't think I knew stupid bullshit that makes me look like a fucking asshole. So I guess the entire tone of this comic book is supposed to be humorous and surreal. It was hard to tell if Nightwing and Jericho threatening to kill a pregnant woman was funny because they were drawn in a goofy way or because threatening pregnant women is just inherently funny. See how you're thinking, "Is it funny? I don't know about that." I get it! You need further proof. Like that panel above where Garth shoots his dead square in the face! Sure, I found it funny! But I know not everybody is me. So for further proof, let me introduce "Cyborg's racist caricature" as further evidence of how wildly hilarious this comic book is! No, still not convinced? Well, the Gar bit has to convince you, right?!

What's funnier than an impression of a Saturday Night Live character?! Yes, yes, I know. But The Office didn't exist in 1987!

Some of you might not have read Teen Titans Spotlight On: The Changeling so you might be wondering, "What the fudge is going on?!" Well, for those people who didn't read my commentary for that comic either, Aqualad has been captured by Mento. He's being mentally tortured right now. Oh! Mentioning Mento, I just realized that maybe Aqualad isn't racist! Of course he knows how Cyborg speaks! It's Mento who doesn't understand the Titans and thinks of them as caricatures! He's providing the totally racist and not-at-all funny and super aggressive dialogue by the other Titans!

Weird. Mento totally nailed Wonder Girl's vibe.

I feel better now that I've concluded Garth isn't both useless and racist. While trying to save Tula, Garth learns from Mera that everybody who ever died did so because Garth couldn't save them. He finally breaks down and screams, "Nooooooooooooo!" Which I guess was the secret to breaking Mento's hold on his mind! Garth wakes up in a small aquarium to see Mento jerking off in his wheelchair. Catching him unawares, Garth is able to use his sea creature telepathy to take control of Mento's helmet. I could explain how it all makes sense since Mento and Garth explain it all but how much detail do you really need? It's a fucking comic book, people. As soon as you flip open the cover, you should be ready to buy into whatever lit-slop the writer shovels into your brain mouth. In Aqualad's fantasy for Mento, we learn that Garth might not be racist but he's super ableist.

This comic book should be framed and hung on Ethan Van Sciver's living room wall.

In the mental battle of wills that follows, Garth and Mento learn that each of them has lost their greatest love. The suffering they share breaks their mental link and Garth's prison shatters. While Garth feels pity and sympathy for Mento, Mento feels only anger that Garth would learn of his weakness. He curses Garth with a mental command that if Garth ever returns to Steve Dayton's residence, his body will believe it's been out of water for three hours and he'll instantly die! How come Grant Morrison never remembered that bit of continuity and used it to kill stupid Aqualad in a later book? Teen Titans Spotlight #10: Aqualad Rating: C. This was an average story about an average character. The theme was grandiose but I don't think Ostrander managed to convey the emotion of it with all the silly hallucinations. It was called "Scar Tissue" because it was about grief and opening oneself up to be available for healing even if it also opens a person to more pain and suffering. Garth is on the road to healing while Mento is covered in scar tissue. It wasn't until the very end where any of this becomes obvious and by then, I'd already been turned off by Changeling's Jon Lovitz impression. I mean by the sexism and racism!

#Teen Titans Spotlight #Teen Titans #Aqualad #DC #DC Comics #Mento

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6stronghands · 6 years ago

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Goodreads interview with Seanan McGuire

Author Seanan McGuire is the busiest person you know, even if you don't know her yet. She's that busy. McGuire has 33 novel-length works currently listed on her bibliography page, and that's not counting her pseudonymous acquaintance, Mira Grant. Scroll down and you'll find short fiction, essays, comics, nonfiction, and poetry. The crazy part? She didn't turn to full-time writing until about three years ago. Along the way, McGuire has won several marquee book prizes, including Hugo and Nebula awards for speculative fiction. Her series of fantasy novellas Wayward Children was recently picked up by the TV network Syfy for development. McGuire's brain is clearly a restless explorer, and her ambitious new novel, Middlegame, maps out another enormous chunk of notional real estate. In the new book, a pair of separated twins named Roger and Dodger endeavor to solve a series of increasingly sinister mysteries. Why were they separated? Why are they being hunted? Why are they developing world-breaking powers? And perhaps most importantly—why did they get such ridiculous names? The brother-and-sister team find themselves squaring off against a cabal of eldritch predators who have cracked the ancient code of alchemy, the missing link between science and magic. Speaking from her home outside Seattle, McGuire talked with Goodreads contributor Glenn McDonald about the new book, the weird science of alchemy, and the curious case of the prescription typewriter… Your bibliography is really astonishing. Are you just writing all the time? Seanan McGuire: Well, I'm not writing at the moment because I'm talking to you. But yeah, I was writing right up to the point where my phone rang. That's pretty much my life, because I am a workaholic and I enjoy what I do. GR: When did you make the leap into full-time writing? SM: I made the transition around January 2016, I think. The best advice I ever received from anyone, about professional writing, was from Todd McCaffrey. He said: Don't quit your day job until you're reasonably sure you can pay your bills off of your royalties. My last job was for a nonprofit, and I was basically sick all the time because I was writing all these books and I was still working a full-time day job. My friends never saw me. Like, never. Then the ACA happened, the Affordable Care Act. I don't think people realize what a difference that made, for all of us that work in the creative fields, to be able to get affordable insurance. I kept my day job for a few years after I strictly had to, just because I was terrified of dying under a bridge. The attacks on the ACA that are happening now are terrifying. Genuinely terrifying. Especially if they take away the protection for preexisting conditions. GR: Were you into writing as a little kid?

I was. I did not figure out that writing was an option until I was about three. I started reading before I was talking, really. Then I started getting migraines because I was trying to write, but I didn't have the physical coordination to actually write at the speed that I could think. So the doctor prescribed a typewriter. Really. My mom went to a yard sale and got me this gigantic thing. It weighed more than I did. I started writing stories. At the beginning, they were all very factual. I would write stories about going to look for my cat. A lot of my earliest work was what we would classify as fan fiction now. There were a lot of adventures with My Little Ponies. The thing about being a genius when you're a kid is that you grow out of it. I was perfectly average by the time I hit school. But there was that brief, frustrating time when I was so far ahead of where they wanted me to be that they just didn't know what to do with me. I would write until 3 a.m. on my typewriter, which sounded like gunfire. GR: There seems to be some of that experience in the new book, with the child prodigies Roger and Dodger. Their relationship is fascinating; it's a sibling thing but also this deeper connection that suggests they're resonating on the cosmic level. SM: I love that this is my best-reviewed book so far and it's about characters with intentionally terrible names. It's a delight to have people have to try to talk seriously about the relationship between Roger and Dodger. It's terrible, and it makes me so happy. Roger and Dodger really are soul mates because they are functionally the same person. They're one person split into two to embody the Ethos [the alchemy formulation sought after in the story]. I don't think that's a huge spoiler; that's basically the premise of the book. We know that, but they don't for a good part of the story. Locking down their relationship, a lot of that was looking at my own relationships with my siblings and the places where it's good or weird or awkward. GR: For readers who might not be familiar, what do we mean when we talk about alchemy? SM: Alchemy is sort of like magical chemistry. It's this idea that you can transform parts of the world into other parts of the world. You just have to figure out the right combination of elements. The classical example is lead into gold. But alchemists also believed that there were spirits and such that could be called upon to help with these processes. It has some of what we might call sorcerous ideas. They were trying to find the magical formulae for these things, like the panacea, which is the cure for everything. Or the alkahest, which is the universal destroyer, a fluid that could dissolve literally anything. Then there's the Philosopher's Stone, which was said to give eternal life. Harry Potter fans are probably familiar with alchemy, more than previous generations, because of the character Flamel, who was an actual and quite famous real-world alchemist. GR: Did you research the actual history of alchemy?

Yes, this was the first time I really jumped into it. I did a lot of research, and research makes me so happy. I hunted down every book I could find on alchemy; they're all downstairs in the library now. Alchemy was a real thing, even if it never worked, even if they never turned lead into gold with these processes. Really smart people spent a really long time trying hard to make these things happen. I wanted to make sure what I was trying to do would fit into at least one school of alchemical thought—and there were many, many schools of thought. Alchemy sounds a little ridiculous now, but there was a time when it was a commonly accepted belief. GR: In the book you have a great villainous force in the Alchemical Congress, who are modern practitioners of the ancient art. They reminded me of historical groups that purported to be keepers of secret knowledge, like the Masons. SM: Right, or like the Order of the Golden Dawn. I never found a specific historical analog to that in alchemy, but maybe that's because they never got it to work. My Alchemical Congress is a group of people who can actually say that alchemy works. They're able to do all kinds of ethically negotiable things. With that kind of power, you're absolutely going to have a group that locks it down so it stays in what these people consider the right hands. GR: The cover image of the book depicts a delightfully creepy magical item known as the Hand of Glory, which also has a historical basis. Do you recall when you first came across that? SM: I feel like I've always known. I don't remember where I first read about that. I studied folklore in college, and the Hand of Glory was very common in certain parts of Europe. It's amazing. Everyone was chopping hands off for a while there. GR: When did you actually start writing Middlegame? SM: Middlegame is kind of unique. I'd been thinking about it for ten years, but it took me a while to develop the technical skill to tell the story and have it make sense to people who don't live inside my head. My brother must have heard me explain this story 90 times before I even sat down to write it. At this point in my career, I have the enviable problem that, for the most part, I don't get to just sit down and decide that I'm going to write. Everything has been pre-sold. I'm working off contracts until 2023. So I know exactly what I'm going to be writing every day when I get out of bed. GR: Don't you ever just get burned out? SM: Well, I think I'm dealing with ten years of systemic burnout because I'm exhausted all the time. But if you mean: Do I ever get to the point that I can't write? Thankfully, no. I think everybody's wired differently that way. So much of my storage space is devoted to people who don't exist. There's a certain concern that if I leave them alone, those parts of my brain will go offline. GR: There are fictional lives at stake! SM: There are! You don't depend on me for your persistence of existence. If I forget about you, you'll still be fine. GR: Your series Wayward Children was just picked up for development with the Syfy channel. Is there anything you can disclose about that? SM: No, not really. For the most part, for myself and other creators, we can't disclose anything because they don't want to let us know what's happening. We have family members that are going to ask, and they don't want us to be the leaks and endanger the production, so we're frequently not told things. I've basically just sold them my canvas, because I'm a wee baby author from the perspective of Hollywood. I have no properties under my belt, I have no track record. There's not a lot of bargaining power on my side of the table. But I trust the people that are involved in this project. And even if I didn't, honestly, television changes everything. The worst show that absolutely butchers my concepts—which is not a thing I'm expecting with this team at all—but the worst show in the world is going to be seen by more people than have read the first book. So that bumps my book sales, almost guaranteed. That sounds very mercenary, I'm sure, but that's just the math of it. Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, even Neil Gaiman—they weren't household names until they got something on TV. My mother raised three daughters on welfare, and she lives with me. I'm basically her sole support. I worry fairly regularly about what would happen if I get hit by a bus and can't write anymore. But what happens with a successful TV show—or even a failed TV show—is that my mom lives off my royalties for the rest of her life. GR: This is a question we've been polling authors on: When you read for pleasure, do you read one book at a time or do you have several going at once? Some people say it's insane to read multiple books at the same time, but I usually have two or three going. SM: Well, I'm currently reading six. GR: Is there anything else you'd like to highlight or discuss about the new book? SM: Middlegame is currently a standalone, but there are two follow-ups I'd really like to write, so please buy Middlegame from your local bookstore so that my publisher will let me continue!

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gingerbreton · 6 years ago

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Dragon age questions

Tagged by @bitchesofostwick thank you my dear ❤️

01) favorite game of the series? Origins by far. I love the story and the characters and how we were introduced to the world. Followed by DA2, I love the dynamic with the companions and how different it is to the first game. It’s also an easy nip in do a mission if you’ve not got much time. You’re not going to be stuck in the fade for hours!

02) how did you discover Dragon Age? I bought it as a present for my hubby (then bf) when it came out in 2009. We already loved mass effect but fantasy was more my thing than sci-fi (don’t get me wrong, I do love sci-fi) so the idea of dragon age was just fantastic.

03) how many times you’ve played the games? The first two I have played quite a lot. Origins maybe 15..? DA2 maybe 7? I’ve only played Inquisition once. The first two I tend to always have playthrough on to the go, whether or not I’m regularly playing it.

04) favorite race to play as? Human (not that there is a choice in 2). I don’t know why, but I’m more likely to play as an elf in other games. Maybe my need for power means I just have to be able to rule Ferelden 😬

05) favorite class? Rogue! I’m all about the loot! I get way too frustrated in DAO if I’m not rogue and I can’t open shit until we pick up leliana. I have been known to shout ‘what is the point of you’ at Daveth. I’m more likely to go mage in DA2 because you pick up varric so early (plus force mage specialty is the best).

06) do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? I have to make a conscious decision to try and change my choices, otherwise I’ll slip into making the same ones over and over. Although to be honest, I love the story and still enjoy it even if I do make all the same choices. It’s your game, play the story you want to.

07) go-to adventuring group? DAO always Alistair, usually Morrigan, then either Lel/Zev (definitely if I’m non-rogue) or Wynne. DA2 always Anders and usually varric (swapping for Isabella for certain quests), I’ll take Carver in Act one and Aveline in 2-3. I can’t say I’ve played enough Inquisition to have a go-to group.

08) which of your characters did you put the most thought into? My warden, Ysabelle. She is far from DA canon though, her background is more like Daveth than Cousland. She does have a long fic in the process, featuring Aedan Cousland as well (my other properly formed warden oc), and she has taken over basically all my one shots and exists in multiple AUs now.

09) favorite romance? Alistair definitely but followed fairly closely by Anders.

10) have you read any of the comics/books? I’ve got the comics, the world of thedas books and the novels. I’ve read most of the 2 volumes of World of Thedas. It’s a fab reference and has some wonderful bits of history in there. I’ve just started Stolen Throne today and I’m loving it. The comics are a new addition to me, so I’ve had a flick through and they are beautiful but I haven’t read them properly yet.

11) if you read them, which was your favorite book? I don’t think I could chose! They are so different and they all add so much. I am in World of Thedas most often.

12) favorite DLCs? DAO Soldier’s Peak has an important significance for Izzy (plus you get a storage chest that levels things up!), but personally I love Return to Ostagar because I think Ostagar is my favourite location in all the games. I just think how breathtaking it would look with modern graphics. The idea and location were stunning enough back then. So yeah, any excuse to get back to Ostagar (plus fantastic weapons like Maric’s sword and Duncan’s).

13) things that annoy you. How slow combat is in DAO. It can feel like it takes 5 mins to get to a spot where it’ll let you stab someone, and by that point Morrigan has zapped them to death. In DAOA and DA2 being so restricted to when you can speak to your companions devastated me. I loved how much you could chat in DAO.

14) Orlais or Ferelden? Ferelden all the way!!

15) templars or mages? I am definitely a mage girl. No chantry sympathy here. Free the circles!

16) if you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? Ysabelle and Aedan are in the same universe as wardens together. I haven’t decided on a canon Hawke for that universe yet though, let alone an inquisitor.

17) what did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc) Aedan’s mabari is The Bann. I can’t say I’m too inventive with naming with other names though.

18) have you installed any mods? Ugh I’m not sure I’m emotionally ready to talk about bloody mods. Got dragon age on pc for said purpose just this week and it’s been a nightmare of crashes and inexplicably disappearing npc hair. I’m very close to telling the pc to do one and go back to my vanilla Xbox gaming.

19) did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden? It would have been a dream for Aedan except for the circumstances it came about through. He resented Duncan for a long while. While Izzy would have been hanged for her repeated thievery in Denerim if she hadn’t ended up recruited (but like I say, she isn’t exactly a traditional DA origin).

20) hawke’s personality? Purple with the occasional blue flutter. My Hawkes are just plain sarcastic.

21) did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition? Nope

22) if your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? Aedan would have stopped Fergus and the men marching to Ostagar so Highever was properly protected. Izzy would have come clean about her family’s past warden association and avoided disruptive drama to the group. Selene Hawke might well have thrown herself in front of the ogre near Lothering in the hope of saving her family from suffering the loss of one of the twins. An event she sees as the beginning of the end of her family.

23) do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon? Ysabelle is 100% against canon! Outside of the long fic, Aedan’s OTP is actually with @magpiesandmabari ‘s warden Yana Surana. They are a very entertaining couple.

24) are any of your character(s) based on someone? I suppose everybody’s ocs must have a bit of themselves in there. But I can’t say I’ve purposefully set out to create any character in someone’s image.

25) who did you leave in the Fade? I will never leave Alistair Theirin in the fade. Anyone else is potentially fair game.

26) favorite mount? I don’t have one

Tagging: @magpiesandmabari @laurelsofhighever @weirdnproudofit @allisondraste and anyone who wants to. Just tag me, I’d love to see it!

#tag game #dragon age

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preserving-ferretbrain · 6 years ago

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Garth Ennis Is A Hack

by Rude Cyrus

Friday, 10 April 2009

Rude Cyrus is deservedly rude about The Boys.~

Once upon a time, superheroes were seen as protectors of the innocent, bringers of justice, and saviors of mankind. When I was a kid, there was no greater thrill than watching Superman pummel giant robots or stop a plane from crashing into a city. As time went on, the public began to tire of flawless beings that could do no wrong, so creators began to make the heroes more “realistic”, at least in terms of character. Antiheroes like Wolverine and The Punisher became popular while concepts like vigilantism would be explored in comics like Watchmen.

Unfortunately, the pendulum swung a little too far during the ‘90s, a decade where you couldn’t swing a dead badger without hitting some DARK and GRITTY antihero. This is the same decade that gave birth to Image Comics, a publisher that needs to make an acquaintance with an H-Bomb. All you need to know about Image Comics is that it took over the canceled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesfranchise and turned Donatello into a cyborg. That says it all.

This brings me to the present and The Boys, a comic series written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson (which I keep pronouncing as “da’ Rick”).

Let me just say that I hate this series. I don’t hate it because it’s ultra-violent and ultra-sexualized. I don’t hate it because it makes superheroes (or “supes” as they’re called here) turn out to be a bunch of amoral douchebags. I don’t hate it because I think Garth Ennis is an overrated hack who’s convinced everyone he’s a genius. No, I hate it because I can’t stand the characters.

Everybody, with few exceptions, is thoroughly repugnant. Just look at the main characters:

Billy Butcher is a sociopath with a neck the size of a ham and a perpetual smirk plastered on his face. He owns a bulldog named Terror that can fuck things on command; seemingly hates supes because one raped his wife, who ended up dying because the fetus ripped through her stomach. Butcher ended up beating said fetus to death with a lamp.

Wee Hughie joined The Boys after his girlfriend was accidentally killed by a supe named A-Train. Much of the series is focused on following Hughie’s thoughts and actions, which is unfortunate because he’s a wet blanket with exactly three facial expressions: anger, incredulity, and shit-eating grin. He’s also a dead ringer for Simon Pegg – I suspect Ennis was sitting around, smoking pot, and said to himself, “Dude, wouldn’t it be cool if Simon Pegg had superpowers?”

Mother’s Milk is a somewhat decent guy, which means he gets shoved into the background more often than not. He seems to derive his powers from an entity he calls “Momma” in a process that makes him vomit. Why does he have to do this? Who cares, let’s watch a midget use a massive vibrator!

The Frenchman and The Female are psychotic killers with the ability to rip people apart with their bare hands. Defining characteristics: one is French, the other lacks a penis. Garth Ennis doesn’t give a shit about them, so why should I?

And what would a team of morally dubious antiheroes be without a team of superheroes to oppose them? Enter the Seven, an analogue of the Justice League, filled with characters that make The Boys look like The Boy Scouts. The only good member of the group is Starlight, and she’s constantly degraded by the other members, whether it’s forced into wearing a more revealing outfit, giving fellatio to the male members of the group as a “test”, or nearly being raped by the aforementioned A-Train. It’s also strongly hinted that Homelander (leader of the Seven and Superman analogue) was the one who raped Butcher’s wife.

What a charming bunch. Thankfully, it’s not all bad, as Starlight later becomes Hughie’s girlfriend. It’s a match made in heaven, as they’re both outstandingly bland.

Other notable characters include a CIA analyst with a fetish for female paraplegic athletes, a CIA director that frequently has humiliating sex with Butcher, and recurring cameos by Stan Lee – okay, he’s called the Legend, but it’s supposed to be Stan Lee. Perhaps “Exposition Man” would be a better name, because all he does is talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk…

Speaking of stereotypes, there are quite a few on display here. For example, there’s the two fat, hairy, greasy, comic book store-owning Italian brothers who are constantly using variations of “fuck” and threatening their customers with graphic violence; the enormous bearded Russian who talks about communism and the Motherland all the time; the “East Coast vs. West Coast” superhero teams that are always fighting each other, throwing up gang signs and using the n-word. I kept wondering why Garth Ennis was doing this, and I settled on “because he thinks it’s funny.” See, Ennis is pointing out how absurd these stereotypes are, so it’s not really racist, right? Right?

Despite all of this, I forced myself to read all 29 issues, which, at times, felt like I was cutting off my legs with a rusty hacksaw – oh, look, the Russian guy is called “Love Sausage” because he has a fifteen-inch cock! Oh look, Hughie has menstrual blood on his face from oral sex because Starlight was on her period! Oh look, one of the superheroes can vomit acid! Isn’t that a knee-slapper? Worse still was the heavy-handed social and political commentary that Ennis shoehorned in, ranging from how St. Patrick’s Day sucks, to how the military-industrial complex has the United States in a chokehold, to American politics (the President and Vice President being analogues for Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, respectively), to how superheroes are evil. He even uses 9/11 to make his point, for fuck’s sake. Basically, one of the hijacked planes crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge (the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were spared) because the Seven tried to save the day but bungled it due to incompetence and selfishness. Do you see? SUPERHEROES ARE EVIL!

No, that wasn’t what made me stop reading this comic. What made me stop was the latest story arc, called “We Gotta Go Now”. The Boys have to investigate the public suicide of Silver Kincaid, a member of the G-Men (no prizes for guessing who they’re supposed to be an analogue of), for reasons I can’t be bothered to look up. Hughie has to go undercover and infiltrate one of the younger G-teams (as “Bagpipe”, because he’s Scottish, get it?) called G-Wiz. See the subtle pun there?

It’s immediately apparent that something is off with G-Wiz – sure, they might seem to be your average fraternity (i.e. boorish drunks obsessed with bodily functions), but they’re a little too comfortable with each other, if you catch my drift. Couple this with the revelation that G-Men’s leader, John Godolkin (analogue of Charles Xavier – apologies for all the analogues) actually abducted almost all of the G-Men when they were kids and turned them into superheroes, the fact that he refers to the G-Men as his “children”, and all of the dark mutterings of “what we had to deal with” and things start becoming clear.

At this point I thought, “No way. There’s no way Ennis would be so cheap and unoriginal. There has to be more to this.” I read issue 29, and, lo and behold, one of the characters confirmed my worst fears:

John Godolkin is a child molester.

That was the last straw. It wasn’t because one of the villains was a pedophile; rather, it was because Garth Ennis had resorted to such tacky exploitation in order to wring an emotion from his audience. Instead of taking the time to craft something novel, Ennis, out of sheer laziness, decided to go for the biggest heartstring and yank. Why have a complex villain when you can just say, “He’s an evil kid-toucher! BOOGA BOOGA!”

I’m sure Ennis pats himself on the back every day for what he thinks is scathing criticism on the superhero genre and insightful commentary on numerous aspects of life. He isn’t clever, creative, or even likable. He’s just a lazy hack. My smoldering ire also extends to the fans that keep buying this dreck and give it good reviews. What the hell is wrong with these people? My guess is that, in their minds, they equate DARK, GRITTY, and SERIOUS with being good. In my mind, it’s just BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, and more BULLSHIT.

Themes:

Damage Report

Sci-fi / Fantasy

Comics

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~Comments (

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Wardog

at 17:17 on 2009-04-10I don't know what to say ... I am completely flabbergasted by the awfulness of this. Why on earth is it garnering praise?

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Arthur B

at 17:26 on 2009-04-10Once upon a time the publishers of

2000 AD

thought it would be great to hand over all the writing duties for the comic for a few months to Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, and various hangers-on. Why they thought this was a good idea was a mystery because Garth had already proven he shouldn't be trusted with other people's properties when in

Strontium Dogs

(the sequel series to

Strontium Dog

) he pulled a blatant retcon out of his capacious arse to turn the sweet, gentle comic relief character The Gronk into a psychotic gun-toting protagonist. Nonetheless, the magazine went ahead with the Summer Offensive, as it called the promotion (because, you see, it's Garth Ennis and he likes being offensive, and it happened in the summer), and the general tone of the comic went from "12A bordering on 15" (in movie age rating terms) to "18 certificate and a big argument about violence in the media on the side", which prompted the parents of certain younger subscribers, such as myself, to cancel the magazine.

And that's how Garth Ennis ruined

2000 AD

for an 11 year old Arthur.

Seriously, the man is awful. I think the only thing he's done that I've actually liked was

Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits

. Frustratingly, that was brilliant. He's capable of not being an idiot if he tries, he just

doesn't try

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Rude Cyrus

at 19:49 on 2009-04-10This was actually nominated for an Eisner Award for "Best Continuing Series" in 2008. And comic bok fans wonder why so many people don't take comics seriously.

Thanks for the image, by the way.

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Wardog

at 20:35 on 2009-04-10For a moment there I was wondering if you meant the image of an 11 year old Arthur but then I realised you meant the literal image that illustrates this article. I hope it's okay - I chose the cover that most annoyed me :)

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Sonia Mitchell

at 23:23 on 2009-04-10This series sounds horrific. Thank you for the warning.

(I badly want to google cyborg Donatello. I'd like to think it can't be as disastrous as I'm imaginging, but that would probably be naive. I'm therefore restraining myself...)

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Arthur B

at 00:46 on 2009-04-11

Oh hey look what else Image have published.

On the other hand, they also put out

The Walking Dead

, which

I really like

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Guy

at 03:59 on 2009-04-11Speaking of Image, this is one of the most funny/disturbing things I've ever read: Rob Liefeld's 40 worst drawings: http://progressiveboink.com/archive/robliefeld.html

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Arthur B

at 15:04 on 2009-04-11I'm amazed they were able to find 40 drawings worse than

the infamous Captain America one

Actually, I'm not amazed, Liefeld is terrible. Oh God, the feet...

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http://webcomcon.blogspot.com/

at 06:31 on 2010-07-11Thread necromancy: After reading this article from the random button, I'm reading

The Boys

out of morbid curiosity. I've gotten through the first couple of storylines, issues one through ten. It's about as disgusting as Rude Cyrus has said, with everything as juvenile and pointlessly violent and so forth.

One of the annoying things is that there are occasionally glimmers of interest that make me think "You know, if Garth Ennis actually gave a shit, and stopped dropping tons of stupid violence and stupid sex and stupid ham-fisted 'haha the gay activist is violently afraid of actual homosexuals' shit, he might actually be able to make some points about 'how do we make superheroes accountable?'" One advantage of

The Boys

is that, unlike

Civil War

, it's just one author, so there aren't a bazillion different axes being ground. And it doesn't seem like it's constrained by being a DC Comics Continuity Event, the way

Civil War

was a Marvel Comics Continuity Event. And every once in a while, it seems like Ennis might have something to say on the matter.

But it inevitably degenerates into "hurr hurr supes are pervs, butcher punches them." Fuck you, Ennis, for being wasted potential.

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http://webcomcon.blogspot.com/

at 06:32 on 2010-07-11Aack, unclosed HTML tags. Sorry! (I'm used to a forum that won't let me post if I have unmatched tags, and didn't check.)

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Rami

at 05:43 on 2010-07-12@webcomcon: Fixed it for you. I'm afraid FerretBrain doesn't really do warnings -- but we do suggest using the Preview button!

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http://blackgeep.livejournal.com/

at 18:20 on 2010-07-13Continuing thread necromancy!

I am a comic book artist. I detest

The Boys

with a deep, abiding disgust. My employer thinks it's brilliant. He is also a big fan of Liefeld (needs more pouches!), so go figure. While

The Boys

is bad, try having your only income being working on the dream project of someone who likes

The Boys

, and feel your artistic integrity shrivel.

I actually considered sending in issue one of

Polis

(what I'm paid to draw) to Ferretbrain for a review; I may yet do that alongside

Polis

issue two and my own side project for what the great minds here could find a fun comparison. "The world is corrupt and drug-addled, corporations are evil, and our main hero is an amoral Cape [superhero] with few redeeming qualities." versus "A space princess and space pirates act terribly toward one another, but all in good fun." I asked my employer, and he thinks any publicity is good.

Speaking of "Cape" and "Supe", what is this allergic reaction to the word superhero? Yes, superhero is a long word, but so is computer. From my perspective, it would seem more likely that superhero would get shortened to just hero. Then advert campaigns about "The

real

heroes of X city: our policemen and firefighters" would take on a whole new weight. Plus, I haven't met many people who say 'puter, and compy only caught on after Strongbad popularised it.

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Dan H

at 19:11 on 2010-07-13I think the thing about abbreviating "superhero" to something like "cape" or "supe" (did Watchmen use "mask" or am I making that up) is that it highlights the fact that this is an EDGY SERIOUS WORK OF FICTION about EDGY DARK CHARACTERS not some KIDDY THING about SUPERHEROES.

Because as we all know, nothing screams "maturity" like going to great lengths to appear mature.

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http://blackgeep.livejournal.com/

at 21:32 on 2010-07-13The thing which screams maturity the best is to have everyone swear all the time, and put blood and torture on every page. The ability to engage in traditionally adult themes while employing transgressive story elements such as bodily fluids, misogyny, and rape is the hallmark of an individual whose mind has progressed past puerile adolescent fascination. As you said, superheroes are so childish. We aren't writing stories about superheroes under a different name. These are adult stories about well rounded characters employing serious themes. Just like Terry Goodkind is definitely not a *pfft*

fantasy author.

Sarcasm over, I honestly don't remember if

Watchmen

used "mask." I guess I've just lost some comix-cred.

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/O9dPXbw3peUAacFQM4aervEXf232TbhO0FE-#dcc46

at 13:13 on 2011-10-28Hey guys. I'm aware this is a few years old but just discovered the site and enjoying it, even when I disagree.

But this is the only one I think I needed to comment on.

Firstly, Garth Ennis is demonstrably not a hack. That's just incredibly lazy.

Secondly, this review seems to have totally failed to come to terms with the text.

OK. I'm not going to argue against certain points here. There's gross out humor, there's swearing, there's a hamster well-up in a zombie's bum. There's puke and disgusting, disgusting periods that no man should ever have to read about (cos girls, right! ew. The writer of this article agrees!) and there's even some blood and guts and a superhero orgy and someone strangles Scarlet Witch with a belt!

But.

The scene where poor old Annie, Starlight, has to service six members of the Seven to get in? It's awful. And a considerable part of the text is concerned not only with her coming to terms with the assault but (and how often to you see this?) actually come to terms with and starting to heal from the assault.

The two black teams who scream the N word at each other? There's no discussion of the young black man who is going to be forced into one of the teams who sees nothing he recognises of his experiences in tired mainstream hip hop lingo and posing. A man who has begun to understand that to become a superstar, he has to enter into a well-dodgy narrative.

No discussion of the good people warped into being celebrities and what that costs them, which is the central metaphor of the book.

Or the actual honesty when Hughie, who's never met a gay man but has to hang out in a gay club and suddenly finds his liberal sensibilities a bit overwhelmed. A scene that's never, ever played for cheap gay joke laughs.

The point of Hughie going down on a girl with a period is not that it's gross and his mates laugh at him. It's that he refuses to let something as dumb as that get in the way of his relationship with Annie. He cops some jokes and some pisstaking but then will not let the deathly embarrassed girl freak out over what turns out to be ... nothing at all.

In recent years, we've also seen a cheap man-on-man 'Dark Knight Returns' rape joke actually turns out to actually be a proper discussion on the reasons why a chap might not be able to discuss it with his friends. And what that cost him.

St Patrick's Day sucks? Surely an repatriated Northern Irishman who grew up in the Troubles has nothing to say about the immigrant experience to the United States. What a hack!

As for scoring political points off 9/11.... mate. Welcome to the world. I fail to even see an argument here.

I'm not going to say everyone should love The Boys. And sometimes I get a bit weary of schoolboys bleeding out of their arses and all the rest. And I think Ennis has made his point about religion by now. I do. (Spoiler alert: Preacher)

I like the comic but I don't expect everyone to be able to laugh like I do when the mentally ill Batman analogue has sex with a meteor.

So don't like it. That's cool. It's not like I'll gnash teeth if you don't like what I like. But this review has really failed to come to grips with and has actively misrepresented the text.

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Arthur B

at 13:32 on 2011-10-28Hi dcc46, welcome to Ferretbrain!

I've not read

The Boys

but I have read enough Ennis to at least address this point:

Firstly, Garth Ennis is demonstrably not a hack. That's just incredibly lazy.

You know what else is incredibly lazy? Basing your writing career so heavily on cheap shock tactics which come across like a 13 year old trying to be edgy. I couldn't get past the first volume of

Preacher

because Ennis' obsession with gore, fucking, and other scatological subjects just became intensely monotonous. His contributions to 2000 AD were much the same. His

Hellblazer

run started out brilliantly - I think

Dangerous Habits

is both the best thing he's written and the best

Hellblazer

story that

anyone

has written - but I couldn't abide the rest of it precisely because he kept falling back into bad habits.

When a man makes a career out of indulging his puerile instincts to an extent where consistently and repeatedly his material degenerates into lame attempts to be shocking for the sake of it, that's pretty hackish.

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/O9dPXbw3peUAacFQM4aervEXf232TbhO0FE-#dcc46

at 13:51 on 2011-10-28Well, if that's all you've read of Hellblazer, that's cool. When he was, what, 21, he wrote that. There was a bit of a fall off in quality before he'd come back with stories of Kit and Ric the Vic and end up telling stories of the devil contrasted with the nasty realities of racial politics in early 90s London.

If you passed on Preacher, that's cool. That second story arc is uninspired. But you missed out on a a meditation of faith, friendship, watching a man try to navigate between his old-fashioned 'chivalry' and a woman who refused to be patronised or left behind.

So I honestly don't see shocking for shocking's sake. I see bad taste. But I've never felt there's a kind of splatter punk aesthetic at work.

That's sort of my point.

I see humour that may or may not work for you. But I'm suggesting to you that if you can get past the guts and jizz all over the shop. And if that's really a sticking point for you, then you won't ever get into it.

But I think your wrong if puerility is all you get out of the work.

I know you had issues with his early 2000AD run. I never got that. I'm Australian and 2000AD seemed to ship... on a madman's calendar. So I can't comment on that.

So I tell you what. Try something like his PG Hitman. His war stories, where he reigns himself in. His Punisher MAX, which is humorless as a Derek Raymond novel.

But I'll split you the difference: Jennifer Blood is fucking awful.

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/O9dPXbw3peUAacFQM4aervEXf232TbhO0FE-#dcc46

at 14:05 on 2011-10-28Anyways, I'm off.

But, a hack writer is a bad writer. Matt Reiley is a hack writer. He's bad at the English language, his plots are hackneyed, his haircut is stupid.

If you don't like Ennis' work, that's cool. But just because you think he wraps things up in grossness doesn't make him a bad writer -at all-. He's an accomplished writer with themes and metaphors and all that writery stuff.

Nevertheless, good site. Talk later.

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valse de la lune

at 16:00 on 2011-10-28

So don't like it. That's cool. It's not like I'll gnash teeth if you don't like what I like. But this review has really failed to come to grips with and has actively misrepresented the text.

How quaint; you appear to be gnashing your teeth exactly because Cyrus didn't like the thing. I also agree with Arthur's assessment of Ennis: overrated hack pandering to things teenage boys--usually teenage white boys at that, what with the n-word thing--find oh so edgy and clever.

Preacher

is absolutely fucking unreadable and I spit in its general direction.

And, while you can certainly use the word "hack" to denote a poor writer--which I'd argue Ennis

, at that--his general attitude and output are pretty hacky too, in the lowest-common-denominator sense.

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Rude Cyrus

at 20:31 on 2011-10-29Here's the thing: whatever good points or ideas Ennis may have are ruined by the juvenile shock tactics he wraps them in -- it's one thing to use violence and sex occasionally and for great effect, it's another to use them

all the time.

For example, I can agree with Ennis that St. Patrick's Day is an excuse for every American with a drop of Irish blood to wear green and get sick on beer, but when he ends this commentary on a close-up on a hat filled with puke, it makes me roll my eyes.

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#Ferretbrain #Rude Cyrus #The Boys #Garth Ennis #Superhero

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davidmann95 · 7 years ago

Note

I read your post about why Batman is great and I love how thoughtful that is. Can you do one for Superman? Thanks ^_^

Unsurprisingly, I’ve touched on a lot of the basic aspects of it before, so for a couple parts of this I’ll keep it restrained (speaking entirely relatively), but given I think about Superman more than most people think about their best friends, I feel qualified to state that yes: Superman is great. As I said with Batman, the reasons why on a mass cultural basis are much broader than ‘he’s a really well-written character’ - hell, too often that isn’t even the case, even if plenty *have* stepped up over the years - so I’ll start with the lizard hindbrain stuff and work my way down to the finer details.

Superman has iconic power by default

What it really comes down to, at least in terms of keeping him afloat in the public eye when actual public opinion on him has been shot completely to hell over the last couple decades, is that Superman is a Big Deal. He’s the founder of his own genre: literally every surface-level aspect of his mythology is shorthand for the concept he created as well as for plenty beyond superheroes, from the suit (trunks included) to Lois Lane to Lex Luthor to Clark Kent to flying to Kryptonite to Bizarro and Brainiac to super-pets and x-ray vision. A red cape fluttering in the breeze is itself an evocative image entirely sans context, because people know that means him, by which it really means all superheroes. That means he takes the hits of getting all the complaints other characters duck even as others write thinkpieces on his place in culture and how he represents everything from America to Jesus to conservative values to the immigrant experience, all from people who may well have never picked up a comic or watched a cartoon of his in their lives. Even when most people don’t know much about him as a character, he as a symbolic figure is too massive to not grapple with one way or another, even via shorthand such as ‘he’s dumb’ or ‘he stands for us at our best’; while many of his recent woes can be traced back to people telling stories solely about or defined by that iconography, it still has power. Kids on the other side of the world from wherever you’re sitting right now know he can leap a tall building in a single bound. There’s maybe two or three other fictional characters in the world with that level of exposure and impact, and the unconscious emotional connection that comes baked right into it.

Superman is a protector

When kids talk about loving him because he can do anything, and adults talk about how he brings back those memories of joy and comfort, I think this is what it really comes down to a lot of the time. Superman’s the one who looks out for us, the guy who cares about you. Yeah, there’s gotta be the odd story about how NOT EVEN SUPERMAN CAN SAVE EVERYONE! to keep him honest, but by and large, yes he can. He wears a fun flashy uniform and he can wrap you up in his cape and fly you away from whatever bad’s happening, and even if something can catch up, no bullet or bomb in the world is going to get through him to you, or even hurt him enough to at least be scary. Nothing’s so hard or so big or so scary he can’t help, not really; he naps on clouds and swims in the sun. He’s polite, and never aggressive towards the innocent (not even that often towards the guilty), and he doesn’t talk down to people even though he’s stronger and knows better. He’s as confident as a cool big brother, as supportive and sturdy as a good dad, as vaguely ethereal and perfectly impossible as Santa Claus. It’s not an act, it’s not impersonal - he wants you to be okay, he cares about you and he’ll do whatever he can to make sure you’ll be alright. When that’s done just right? That kind of unreserved, unconditional, powerful demonstration of kindness making a difference, even from a cartoon alien, can knock a lot of typically steely emotional walls down like balsa wood, especially when that can save the day just as much as quick wits or a fist, the way anyone here could too in the right circumstances when they try their best.

Superman is a romantic figure

Something overlooked or deliberately sidelined by many is that a huge, huge part of Superman’s appeal in lots of circles is that he can be a romantic ideal rather than (or as well as) a protective one. He’s a sweet, funny, confident, smart guy who’s built like Adonis and doesn’t think he’s better than everybody else even though he’s literally the best. He holds down a socially valuable job he’s successful and happy at, he’s gentle and considerate, and he’s entirely comfortable being second in his household to a commanding career woman who he’s instinctively protective of, but also willing to back off of when she feels smothered because he acknowledges her independence. He can fly her to the moon, he never lets her forget how happy he is that when he was left lost and alone on the other side of the universe he fell to the one place he could find her, and he wears tights. The comics may forget that, but Lois & Clark knew it. Smallville sure as hell knew it. So have the last couple movies, and Supergirl. Even Christopher Reeve, America’s Dad, got it on with Margot Kidder in that weird shiny Fortress hammock. You wanna talk about the aspects of Superman that go for…ahem…primal instincts, that he’s the member of the Justice League historically most likely to go shirtless* is worth bringing up.

* Aside from maybe Batman, who’s usually beat to hell and too miserable to leverage any of that playboy charm, and Aquaman, who’s Aquaman.

Superman is an easy power fantasy

Obviously, superheroes are often power fantasies in general; they do stuff we can’t do but wish we could. And Superman’s near the top of that list not just because he’s iconic, and not even because of the scope of his power - Green Lantern and Thor are comparable in terms of raw ability, GL even has an honest-to-goodness wishing ring, but they don’t measure up in that regard. What is is, I think, is that Superman’s powers are rooted in physicality, and therefore easy to imagine yourself doing. Everything most people can do, he does best, from lifting to running to looking to hearing to punching. Even his non-physical powers have a connection to actual physical acts: to see through objects he focuses as if peering through a fog, he doesn’t shoot power blasts from his fists to light things on fire but instead burns them with a furious glare, he doesn’t dispassionately levitate through the air as a standard but takes off and holds his arms forward as if in a mighty never-ending leap. Batman may be ‘real’, but if you imagined suddenly being him, you wouldn’t be Batman, you’d be a rich dude with a weaponized theme park in his basement, because you have no training and no tangible point of reference for thinking of how anything works beyond “punch and throw things”. But it’s easy to imagine being Superman in a visceral, physical sense - just imagine everything you did worked optimally, even the way it only could in a dream.

Superman is fun

All of the above makes him grand and likable, but that’s not the same as being able to support decades of monthly adventure stories. The basis of that is that he lives in a universe-sized, Earth-shaped toybox. He doesn’t just have superpowers and a nifty suit, he’s got a cave at the North Pole right near Santa with a time machine, statues of all his friends, a space zoo, a gun that turns people into ghosts, and a bottle city full of real people, plus robots to keep it all tidy, and only he can get in because the key was forged in the heart of a star. His cousin, kid, dog, and a few of his best friends wear capes too, and his ‘brother’ with reverse-superpowers lives on a cube planet where it’s perpetually opposite day. His friends and wife often go on their own adventures and get temporary superpowers just by being in his vicinity, he dated a mermaid in college, his after-school club was in the future and he commutes to the moon for work, and his deadliest enemies include a crazed mad scientist, an evil robot with a death-heart, a mischievous imp in a derby hat, and brilliant alien computer literally named Brainiac. Superman lives in a sci-fi fantasy dreamland of childish archetypes that can exist on any scale from the microscopic to the galactic to the other-dimensional, and as a result of that he can go on any adventure imaginable, to any time and place, and as a super-man who doesn’t often have to worry for his own safety, he can survive and appreciate and care for it all.

Superman mythologizes the mundane

And it’s where the fun and the big, mythic aura Superman carries meet that the magic happens that makes him as versatile and effective a character as there is in fiction: everything he does is rooted in something incredibly normal and human. His wild super-suit of circus royalty is made to reconnect with his heritage the only way he has, and to try and make himself colorful and unthreatening to a world he needs to accept him. When he travels through time, it’s never just to save reality, it’s to go see family and friends. He walks his dog around the rings of Saturn, he looks at his city in a bottle and wonders if he’ll ever be able to get around to taking care of that, he walks on the bottom of the ocean to think things through privately, and spends an entire day saving the world to get away from a conversation he doesn’t want to have. Every mad, cosmic aspect of his world is something totally normal blown up to be as big as it feels, and even when he does interact with the truly ‘mundane’, his presence alone elevates it to myth in a way no other superhero can. That’s the true source of his ability to adapt, rarely tapped but always potent: he can do anything, because he’s us.

Superman’s an actual good, interesting character

I place this at the bottom because it’s the aspect that’s most rarely captured, especially in the public eye (though the handful of times it has been are why he’s my favorite). But when he’s handled properly, then even divorced from everything else, Superman is fascinating as a *person*. Raised knowing there’s something different about him even as his weird alienness lets him understand people and the world around them in ways no others can, he learned one day he was born of the most mind-shattering act of cosmic horror imaginable, with a place greater than Earth in every way destroyed by coincidence, a signpost by any measure that the universe is a chaotic, meaningless, cruel place that destroys the innocent with indifference…and he became a good man who treasures life over anything. He has power that lets him do literally anything he pleases, and he spends half his life among us at a desk job because he thinks we’re just swell and he wants to keep being part of it all. Even though he can never entirely, not really, divvying his life up into discrete, manageable chunks that let him interact with the world on his own terms and try to see through what he sees as his responsibility, until a woman sees through the deception and self-deception and gets the real him to tentatively come out.

He has fun little hobbies, and unusual friendships, and a complex rivalry with the one man in the world who could’ve been his equal. He’s seen the best and worst of the world, and he accepts it all, but he still radiates a decency and innocence that can be mistaken for naivete by those who don’t know him. He’s clever but easy to catch off-guard in the right circumstances, always struggling to be the god people expect him to be rather than the inadequate fake his humility can make him look at himself as, he likes football and pretzels and pulp novels and Metallica, he gets a kick out of writing because it’s one of the few things he can do on an even playing field, he’s not sure how best to raise his kid, he worries that that one alien dictator is going to pop by again soon and he might not be ready to deal with it, he has to coordinate dates with his wife precisely because they both have such busy schedules, he counts dust particles in the air when he gets bored, and he believes in everybody. There’s so much going on with this guy, this identity-case, this brute, this pacifist, this establishment-man, this rebel and idealist and weirdo and a dozen other conflicting things. He’s been and done just about everything with charm and style over the decades, and it works, because it all adds up into one nice guy’s unusual, well-rounded life. And because it’s always anchored by an understanding: for all that he’s a unique freak of creation, he knows that in all the madness and uncertainty and horror, the one thing we have to rely on is each other. So he’ll put on his suit and throw himself out there against the only things in the universe that could kill him when he could be doing anything else, because he’s found a home with us little people when he lost his, and he knows we’re worth the fight; everyone is, aliens just like him in their own ways, waiting to be saved the way they saved him when he landed in a field. That’s why Superman’s great.

#Superman #Analysis #Opinion

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utopianparadoxist · 7 years ago

Photo

2. The Neverending Story - Muse/Lord & The rules of Paradox Space

[Spoilers for The Neverending Story]

I’m not the first to note Homestuck’s references to AURYN, the magical amulet from The Neverending Story. The symbol of the intertwined black and white snakes is directly referenced only twice in Homestuck’s story, and both times it tells us a mind-boggling amount about the nature and function of Homestuck’s universe.

And even that only scratches the surface. So instead of starting off with Homestuck itself, let me tell you a little bit about The Neverending Story itself.

The Neverending Story is a book split in two. In the most commonly printed version, it comes in Red and Green text halves. The real world, the realm of humans where you and I live--those sections are printed in Red. Fantastica, the world of fiction and stories and all things imaginary, is printed in green.

And as with two sections, The Neverending Story is split into two central figures:

The Childlike Empress, and Bastian Balthazar Bux.

Muse & Lord

In the green-lettered plains of Fantastica, The Childlike Empress rules over all. Although her authority is accepted by even the most evil and mostrous in Fantastica, she never gives orders. Even so, she is both eternal and eternally childlike. Good and evil are equal in her eyes.

Sometimes called the Golden-Eyed Commander of Wishes, The Childlike Empress’ authority only manifests when she grants her gem of wish-fulfilling powers--AURYN--to another. This other is treated as though the Empress herself were present, and acts as an emmisary for her.

She is the embodiment of Fantasy itself, inspiring others to act out her will. She is a question, a mystery, a wonder. She is, in short...A Muse.

And she has a direct parallel in Calliope, who similarly draws no distinction between good and evil (people forget that she read what was likely the worst of Vriska without being exposed to her growth, and seemingly wanted to be friends with her anyway)...

And who similarly has absolute power over reality, yet never gives orders, even as the entire narrative is shaped around her. Just as with the Childlike Empress, without Calliope’s existence, none of the other characters in the comic can exist either.

Everyone is entangled in and created by Lord English’s Alpha Timeline, but that web is Calliope’s as well, and she’s causally entangled in the creation of all four of the universes we follow.

And again like the Childlike Empress, Calliope who bestows her Symbol on others, granting AURYN to humans--an emblem which endows in the wearer the ability to make any wish come true.

Hell, Calliope even seems not to grow up normally in Act 7 and [S] Credits. A Childlike Empress indeed. And as for her counterpart? Bastian may not be as much of a jerk as Caliborn, but the parallels between them are even more explicit:

Where The Childlike Empress is a Muse only by implication, Bastian is textually and demonstrably a Lord.

But let’s back up a bit.

Bastian Balthazar Bux is a little boy who steals a book named “The Neverending Story” from a bookshop and hides in his school to read it in one sitting. His sections, those taking place in the Human world, typically feature text colored Red.

However, around the halfway point of The Neverending Story, he realizes that the story is not only aware of him, but calling out to him. And he eventually finds himself pulled into the realm of Fantastica.

Bastian is a human, you see, and only humans can create stories--the inhabitants of Fantastica themselves cannot. And once the Childlike Empress is reborn with a new name, Fantastica must be reborn as well. So The Childlike Empress meets Bastian in the void between the two realms of Fantastica, and gives him the amulet AURYN, the symbol of her power.

And so, she entrusts him with a quest: To fulfill his wishes in Fantastica, and re-create the realm of Fantasy as he goes.

Incidentally, receiving AURYN also changes Bastian’s race. Bastian is explicitly white, but upon arriving in Fantastica transforms into “a young prince from the Orient”. I’m not sure why that even happens, to be honest? Let’s note that this book is from, like, 1979 and definitely not perfect.

Anyway, I only mention it because this lends some credence to my assertion that Trickster Mode’s whiteness is not at all tied to the “actual race” of the kids-- since whatever that race is, changing it would be within AURYN’s power.

To be honest, I should’ve noted that was explicit earlier, since Homestuck all but explicitly states that Tricksterfied Cherubs would look like Lil Cal, which definitely entails a primary skin color swap. And there, as with Humans, the transformation always renders the subject Caucasian-looking.

Now, where were we?

Ah, right. So, the first thing you might notice is that Bastian’s ascent to Lordship also coincides with him leaving the World of Men and entering the World of Fantasy/Ideas.

Which strikes his first echo with Caliborn. Both characters’ entries into power are marked by changing their text color to Green--the color of their respective Muse figures. And like Calliope dies for Caliborn to Enter, The Childlike Empress disappears from Fantastica as soon as Bastian becomes it’s Lord.

Bastian spends most of his adventure in the realm seeking to meet her once more, on some level--just as Lord English spends an eternity in the Void, trying to find and destroy the Calliopes.

And during his search, Bastian also accrues subjects and followers who carry out his will. Bastian is adored for his ability to create stories--which instantly become Real-- across Fantastica. With The Childlike Empress’ AURYN around his neck, nothing can resist his will. Bastian becomes, for all intents and purposes, a God.

Although he loses his humanity little by little with every wish he makes. The memory of being weak, the memory of being ugly, the memory of being scared-- as Bastian travels, he grows more self-satisfied and arrogant, desiring the adoration of others without true regard for their feelings and hearts.

Until in the end, he’s exploiting those he calls friends through sheer force of will. At this point, Bastian seeks to replace The Childlike Empress entirely, attempting to become the Childlike Emperor--just as Lord English seeks to emulate Calliope through a multitude of stylistic choices in his personal aesthetic.

I think banditAffiliate puts it well in this forum post:

“Doc Scratch was born to serve as Lord English's other half, replacing the role Calliope served when the two shared one body. From Caliborn's warped perspective, the two share many similarities. They're both wordy, intelligent, and (as Caliborn saw her) quite smug. He scrapbooks with a ~ATH book like she did, and carries her weapon. In addition to being a pastiche of his sister, Scratch is also a symbol of his other weakness, the cue ball. Both are heralded to be the key to his defeat, after all. He does double duty then by killing Scratch, hatching out of his body and growing more powerful (by assimilating Scratch's first guardian powers), "predominating" over him and asserting his dominance over both his vulnerabilities once again.”

And Bastian, well...

Sound familiar at all?

By the end, Bastian is at risk of becoming what is essentially a Yaldabaoth--an arrogant God with full dominion over his material reality, but blind to the world of ideas outside of him.

Luckily, Bastian escapes this fate, and goes on to live a happy life, becoming a world-renowed storyteller. His path is not the path of the Lord forever. But that is another story, and shall be told another time.

There’s one last thing to note about AURYN, because it appears in two places in Homestuck. There’s the Lollipop, yes--and by linking AURYN to the Cherubs, we learn a great deal about both Muse and Lord, Calliope and Caliborn.

But AURYN’s impact is a bit more far-reaching than just them.

The emblem is also depicted during the mating ritual of Cherubs, remember? And it’s important to view this image in context, because as Aranea tells us...

Mating Cherubs tap into the forces of power presiding over all that is eternal. Cherubs are linked to the primordial forces of reality by their nature. The source of Cherub’s powers is their intrinsic connection to the flow and nature of reality. Which suggests that the principle that AURYN is inscribed with, the principle that guides the power of its magic, is also the fundamental principle of Homestuck’s universe. Cherubs are simply beings with a unique ability to tap directly into it. And that principle is...

“Do As You Will.”

Nothing in Homestuck’s reality happens except by the Will of someone living inside it. Individual will is the backbone of all events and objects, all circumstances and beings, all people and universes in Homestuck. In Homestuck, everybody always gets what they want--one way or another. That is what AURYN-- placed here, at the center of the forces of creation and destruction-- suggests. A good example of this is Lord English’s creation, where Caliborn and Gamzee’s wills to become Lord English meet Arquis’ desire to have a heroic moment of unfathomable impact onto reality:

Thus resulting in a scenario that fulfills all of their desires, and results in the creation of Lord English and Doc Scratch:

I’m not going to list a bunch of other examples because this kind of stuff is literally always what happens in Homestuck. The only thing that trumps a person’s desires in Homestuck is the desires of another willing to undermine or exploit the former.

And that kind of authoritarian behavior is the closest thing to “Sin” Homestuck’s setting has. It always comes with consequences. This is also why Karma exists in Homestuck’s causality, as noted by Latula. This is what the cycle of revenge was about.

Not even killing someone can truly erase the impact of their will on reality in Homestuck’s universe, and usurping or denying others their wills always comes with a whiplash effect back on yourself. So what does that mean for Lord English, who has so thoroughly usurped and denied the wills of every other member of the cast?

Well that... is another story, and shall be told another time.

Next time, we’ll talk about the Mother franchise’s two later installments: Mother 3, and Earthbound. There’s much to discuss. Perhaps we’ll even find an echo of Lord English’s karmic punishment there?

Ah well. That’s all for now.

I hope you’ll check in next time.

[Master Post]

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Keep rising.

#Homestuck #The Neverending Story #Lord/Muse #Calliope #Caliborn #The Childlike Empress #Bastian Balthazar Bux #Paradox Space #AURYN #Do As You Will #My MSPA Analysis

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armsinthewronghands · 7 years ago

Text

Terra Frank’s Lying

Terra Frank is referring to a conversation that Chirstopher Mennell erased because it was off-topic. Here it i before it was erased:

Christopher Mennell Roleplaying Games Aug 14, 12:59 PM  What game sounded awesome when you first heard about it but ended up being a total let down when you finally got a hold of it? 2 plus ones 2 75 comments 75 no shares Shared publicly•View activity Hide 69 comments Rob Monroe's profile photo Rob Monroe 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars was sold to me as a gritty survival horror RPG in space. In play it felt like a bad board game with tacked on and trivial story game elements. 5h S. M. Kelly's profile photo S. M. Kelly D&D 4e ....after having been out of tabletop RPG's for about 20+ years. 5h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank LotFP. It was all dickmonsters, women being murdered as art direction, and patronizing DM advice telling everyone but the author they are wrong. I do not understand the appeal at all, especially when it’s really just a more restrictive basic D&D with a warped sense of history. This is my opinion, of course. A lot of people seem to really like it. 5h

Christopher Weeks's profile photo Christopher Weeks Nobilis (2e, if it matters). The book, the art, the snippets of fiction -- they painted an image of something really grand. And there were pieces of a game in there, but not a coherent system. Not something that drove, or even facilitated play. Just not enough game. 5h Cris Sidhe (Dra8er)'s profile photo Cris Sidhe (Dra8er) The new Star Trek from Modiphius. 5h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath +Terra Frank It seems like your "opinion" contains a lot of assertions of fact. "Warped sense of history" "All dick monsters" "Women being murdered" these are claims a person can check against a source, not statements of taste. 5h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath +Rob Monroeoh GOD it's terrible. The art is cool but there's just nothing to it. It's like "Flip a coin!" "You win!" 5h Eloy Cintron's profile photo Eloy Cintron +Cris Sidhe Curious to see what you disliked about the Modiphius Star Trek. I'm reading it right now. Care to elaborate? (Genuinely curious, no agenda here :) ) 5h Christopher Mennell's profile photo Christopher Mennell +Rob Monroe agreed; loved 3:16 when I first heard about it, but the actual product fell short. 5h K Yani's profile photo K Yani Any Conan d20 based RPG I tried - through cover art and premise it gives impression of fierce warriors and crushing mighty magic, while books start with teaching me how to climb walls, and the magic (if available to players) is usually too meek. Best Conan game I've played run on Risus. 4h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath one of my favorite conan comics has him shoving daggers hilt first into the toes of his boots so he can climb a wall 4h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath

EDIT: Though she seems to have erased it, this was in response to a comment Terra Frank just made tagging me, telling me to stop "antagonizing" her, and telling me she didn't want to talk to me. It's gone now, so I have no idea if this is still relevant. fwiw this is the only exchange I'm aware of ever having with her in my entire life Original comment below: To whom it may concern but I shan't tag Terra Frank directly since she has a disturbingly low bar for "antagonism" and tagging her at all might trigger it . I asked a question of Terra Frank (or rather, raised a question by pointing out a fact). I didn't make a hostile anything toward Terra Frank. Anyone who doesn't want to talk to me should just block me. Also I recommend everybody block Terra based on this exchange which is weird and scary. 4h Cris Sidhe (Dra8er)'s profile photo Cris Sidhe (Dra8er) +4 +Eloy Cintron I purchased the limited Edition Borg Cube. It looks absolutely stunning. I do like parts if it. When I initially read it I liked the vibe it was giving off. But when I actually played it felt like I was playing a resource management board game where each player would add to the pool on their turn, then use it and generate more.

Creativity did not feel like it had any impact on some of the challenges. In the end, I just could not care if the people lived or died.

The "HEAVILY" modified 2d20 just feels to 'clunky' & just to many rules to crunch. I wish it was trimmed up a little. Probably to used to FASA Star Trek. But in the end it just didn't end up being the game I thought it would be or wanted.

4h Arthur Fisher's profile photo Arthur Fisher +2 Trail of Cthulhu I heard really good things and I was hoping to use that for my Thurber campaign stuff, but once we say down at the table I found that I really liked the investigator points and not much else. But really, I feel like I can replace that with "You've got a 70% in Biology? You don't need to roll. You find the thing."

And that was disappointing because I was really excited about it and really wanted it to work for me. 4h Christopher Mennell's profile photo Christopher Mennell +Zak Sabbath okay...I have no idea what happened here, but I think something got a little out of hand because you didn't like what +Terra Frank said about LotFP? I don't see anything wrong with her expressing her opinions about the product...she certainly doesn't have an issue with people who like LotFP, it's just not her personal taste. I don't think you have to recommend she be blocked. 4h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath To whom it may concern : Terra Frank didn't get "called out". I just posted an alternate take because threads are for discussion . Just like I did with Conan and climbing up there. 4h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath I didn't say I didn't like anything +Christopher Mennell nor did I say there was anything wrong with her opinions. I recommend you talk to your friend off-thread. Also maybe reread what I wrote because you got it completely wrong. It has not been altered since I wrote it. And obviously I recommend she be blocked NOT because of her opinions on games but because she's apparently liable to accuse people of "antagonizing" her for leaving innocuous comments and therefore dangerous to any discussion. 3h K Yani's profile photo K Yani +Christopher Mennell I think I cannot see several posts here. Is it something breaking from my side or something else was done to the thread? 3h Christopher Mennell's profile photo Christopher Mennell +K Yani some comments were deleted 3h Eloy Cintron's profile photo Eloy Cintron +Cris Sidhe Interesting! I'm reading it, and so far looks like a very, very crunchy version of Fate. Haven't played it yet, so can't comment on how it feels at the table. Thanks for the insight! What IS your favorite Trek RPG? FASA? Are there different editions? Which one? 3h Cris Sidhe (Dra8er)'s profile photo Cris Sidhe (Dra8er) +1 +Eloy Cintron yes FASA is my favorite. West End Games has a version they published in the mid 80's I was not very fond of.

Yes it does have a FATE feel to it. 3h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath if anybody wants to see the deleted stuff, just ask me in a pm, I screencapped them as soon as I saw how disturbing Terra was acting.+K Yani 3h Matt Horam's profile photo Matt Horam World of Darkness 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank Here is an example of him interacting with me 3 days ago. Every time I post in a thread he is also in, he tags me, antagonizing me. This time, I was supporting a friend who he leveled a misandric attack at. Photo 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank Here is that attack. As a feminist, I believe men deserve to show their emotions without being Shamed for it. This is misandry and toxic masculinity and it's gross Photo 2h Wayne Rossi's profile photo Wayne Rossi Two very recent games.

1: Cthulhu Confidential. The promise was a system designed for one player and one GM. The delivery was a framework for running pre-written adventures (basically built on a decision tree) focused on defined set-piece encounters, with pre-generated advantage and penalty cards.

2: Mutant Crawl Classics. I haven't written a full review because the final book was revised, but it's not very good. It clings too hard to Dungeon Crawl Classics, and the result is neither a good Gamma World type game, nor a good fantasy game. Also it doesn't have most of the charts it should have (there are no tables for making monsters, robots, or artifacts), and the ones it has (recognition table, artifact checks) are clunky and bad. 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank This person has a refined harassment tactic, he repeatedly Antagonizes people and when they finally ask him to stop, he tries to make them sound crazy, an attack rooted in misogony when used against a transgender woman, or any woman. It's gross. 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank +1 I've had dozens of interactions with this person, every time I've been silent because I'm afraid of him. I am a trans girl with no power in this industry even approaching his. I have deleted my posts in other threads he's called me out in because I was too scared. No more. It stops here. I've been through too much as a trans woman to deal with this in silence. I won't be silent anymore 2h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath That isn't an attack. I literally was expressing the sentiment that being that sensitive must make life hard for Rob Donoghue. (And the thread proved it was true). I wasn't saying this was a bad personality characteristic to have. Then Terra said something confusing, so I asked her a question. Which I guess now she is revealing she misinterpreted as somehow "antagonizing". But because Terra freaked out and didn't do what an empathetic person would (ie, engage and make sure her suspicion was sound before assuming guilt without proof), she falsely assumed it was an attack and has now begun to harass me. Again, if she can't be reasoned with, I suggest everyone block her. 2h Kelvin Green's profile photo Kelvin Green +2 Rogue Trader. Twenty-five years of waiting for a bloated and fiddly mess of a game. 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank I am not going to bother tracking down every instance of this boy Antagonizing me, because I've already proven him a liar with this screen shot of him interacting with me only 3 days before he claimed never to have interacted with me before. With that, I'm done. Unless people want to voice their support to me personally, I don't want to hear anymore. 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank I'm not giving any more of my fear and anxiety to this man. I am not going to be ashamed of myself and delete my posts anymore. I am proud of who I am. I will not be bullied and silenced. 2h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath I said I never had an exchange with her before, an exchange involves A say something B say something that responds to that . Me typing something, you saying something unrelated later down the thread, and then me asking a question and you ignoring it is not an "exchange". - Terra is apparently not empathic enough to be genuinely interested in whether her victim deserves her harassment. . 2h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Also she doesn't seem to have much of a theory for what the motive for the crimes I've allegedly committed would be. 2h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Oh and Mouse Guard. Connie wanted to play with mice so bad she even volunteered to GM and then it just sat on the shelf because the rules were so bad. 2h Christopher Mennell's profile photo Christopher Mennell Wait, +Zak Sabbath: was Mouse Guard a game that sounded awesome to you when you first heard about it? 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank Directly addressing someone is an interaction. Period. This boy is caught in a lie he is trying to wiggle out of, a lie rooted in misogony to try to make a woman sound irrational. Gross. This woman is not putting up with misogony and lies. Period. 2h Arthur Fisher's profile photo Arthur Fisher +Zak Sabbath Did y'all ever just do "D&D, but you're mice?" 2h Alex Mayo's profile photo Alex Mayo Aftermath. 2h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath +Christopher Mennell it sounded ok to give to connie and the art (which is from the comic, is good). 2h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Terra: " Directly addressing someone is an interaction. Period. " True. " This boy is caught in a lie " False. Here's my quote (see above_: " fwiw this is the only exchange I'm aware of ever having with her in my entire life " +Christopher Mennell Please erase the harassing comments in the form of false accuations from Terra in your thread. Harassment has no place in discussion of tabletop games and should not be tolerated 2h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath also, it's spelled "misogyny" if anyone was confused about what the harasser meant 2h Christopher Mennell's profile photo Christopher Mennell +3 +Zak Sabbath +Terra Frank I don't know what's best for the two of you, other than maybe talking to each other rather than past each other. I respect both of you and I hate to see this kind of argument transpiring.

It's also way off topic of the OP. 2h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath "Talking past" is avoiding points. I am addressing all of Terra's points. 1 she keeps claiming things are hostile that aren't, and assuming meanings without checking (innocent until proven guilty) 2 she attacks then acts like if I fact check the attack its me harassing her 3 She's quibbling over the definition of "Exchange" vs "interaction" instead of just admitting she misinterpreted things as hostile. Please +Christopher Mennell do NOT accuse me of "talking past" someone whose every comment I have addressed in full. 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank I can't really talk rationally with someone who has been Antagonizing me for years, using misogony and Ableism as abuse tactics. Last time I spoke up about his abuse, he made blog post about how people who have mental illness should not be taken seriously if they allege abuse. Ableist and gross. Here is the post: Mental Illness In The RPG Community dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com 2h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank Here is direct evidence of his targeting me with his blog and his Ableism. Note, this is using my dead name and it's extremely painful for me to share. I'm sharing this in spite of that pain. This, again, shows him to be a liar. Why should I have a conversation with someone who has Antagonized me for so long and then lies about it? He can't even own his own actions. Photo 1h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank All this because I asked to not be antagonized. That's what set this boy off in the first place. 1h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath If anyone can identify any sentence in that post they disagree with or think is untrue, they should say so. In the mean time, if Terra Frank can't talk rationally because she believes I have been "antagonizing" her for years, then she or a friend or ally she trusts to act in her stead in the important issue of harassment should post evidence of the accusation . Not random posts full of facts nobody disagrees with that don't even mention her. . Harassment is serious issue. If I have been "antagonizing" someone for years then someone should take the issue seriously and provide receipts so we can all look at them and I can be punished Because Terra and I never met irl so far as I know so all this alleged "antagonization" must be online somewhere. If not: Terra should stop participating in a harassment campaign, and stop being an abusive harasser with no empathy who dogpiled on a harassment campaign for reasons unknown. 1h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Oh, Terra (EDIT: I accidentally used her old name here, my bad) is the person who smeared James Raggi. Mystery solved. Here you go. Terra Frank is a longstanding harasser. Block her.

dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com - The (Incredibly Weak) Case Against James Raggi The (Incredibly Weak) Case Against James Raggi The (Incredibly Weak) Case Against James Raggi dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com 32m Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank Zak would rather lie and play the victim than just own up to this. All he had to was not antagonize me, he didn't even need to respond. He could just stop tagging me. Instead, he is throwing a fit and trying to wiggle out of this. 1h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath tl;dr Raggi talked about the movie Kingsmen Terra Frank made an inaccurate analysis of it and spelled misogyny wrong People pointed it out . Later when people were dogpiling on Mark Diaz Truman and OSR gamers in general Terra lied about it, reframing this as attacking her "for being a feminist". You can check the links if you don't believe me. . Obvious logical problem: if Raggi hated feminists, all his work with feminists including Stacy at Contessa doesn't make much sense. . Terra never addressed any of this harassment she inflicted but has now left the name she did it under behind. . Thus my confusion. .

Either way, she is obviously a longtime harasser and she has never apologized to her victim and so it isnt' a good idea to have her in your circles. 1h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank So, if you want me to address you directly, like I did in the first place, +Zak Sabbath, once more PLEASE STOP ANTAGONIZING ME. It's really that easy, but since you have a long history of abuse, lying, Ableism, and misogony directed towards me personally, I don't really have much faith in you to take responsibility for your own actions. I will not let your Ableism and misogony and abuse go unchallenged. I will not let you paint me as hysterical. I have offered clear evidence of you lying and being abusive towards me. You can lie and rationalize and try to hand wave it away, and I'm sure many more people will believe you than me because you are a powerful cis man and I don't have those advantages. That's okay, I've been through this with you before and you haven't changed, you are still pretending to not know who I am as you always have after everytime you've gone out of your way to hurt me. An entire blog post attacking mentally ill people, calling abuse survivors into question, among the many times we have interacted, and you continue to lie. I have called you out and offered proof of your abuse, your Ableism, your misogony, your misandry. Check your privelage. I'll be praying for you to learn how to be a better person. To stop lying. To stop targeting people like me. You need love and prayers young man. I can't show you love as you continue to lie and project and shift blame. I can't show love to a coward. I can, however, pray for you. I'm going to call for others to pray for you now too, because at this point that is probably the only thing that can help you. I'm praying for you Zak. 1h Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath If anyone believes a word of that, contact me to confirm so you don't hang an innocent person out to dry. If you prefer anonymity: ask.fm/TheActualZakSmith 1h Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank None of the links presented show me harassing Raggi in any way. I have never attacked Raggi, even if I disagree with him. I don't have to like his game. And once again, I've asked him directly to stop Antagonizing me and zak has continued to do so. 50m Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank And the links show me in my dead name, but no evidence of me harassing anybody. I'm brave enough to share my dead name and you are using it to harass me now +Zak Sabbath. That is transphobic, young man. You and I both know there is no evidence of me harassing you or anyone else, but plenty of instances of my dead name and pronouns. You are clearly sharing that as a transphobic attack against me. 46m K Yani's profile photo K Yani Is it possible that there can be agreement that there was a miscommunication about terms/usage of 'exchange' and 'interaction' (which, I think, meant two different things to two different people)?

Mr. Sabbath is/can be a difficult person to communicate with, but I don't believe he is 'throwing a fit' as far as I understand the 'throwing a fit' meaning. 46m Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank Now that this has turned into transphobia, I have to block him. No amount of standing up for myself is worth that. 45m Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Is Terra Frank denying that she claimed lied and falsely claimed Raggi and OSR gamers attacked her? I get that she deleted all her attacks, (which s understandable being under an old name) but that doesn't mean that they didn't happen and she's not a harasser any more. 37m Wayne Rossi's profile photo Wayne Rossi +Zak Sabbath you deadnamed a trans woman, that deserves an apology 39m Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Here's the smear from Terra Frank that she erased from the Raggi thread " I'm pretty bummed about the push to support someone like Zak, who slammed me with ableist insults when I stated that I was a feminist (FOOTNOTE1), and later called for me to be silenced, quite literally, by saying I should not be allowed to produce material. When I stood up for myself, I started receiving anonymous threats. When I later came out as a rape survivor I had thankfully blocked Zak already, but I was shamed publicly by his publisher Raggi (FOOTOTE 2). I was made to feel very unwanted and unsafe by a portion of the OSR community. I'm slowly bouncing back through therapy, but what I dealt with caused some difficulties with my mental illness. I'm bummed because I want to be able to reach out to people in the storygame and Feminst gamer community but, much like my local community here in Albuquerque, abusers seem to get support. It makes people like me just sit down and shut up. It makes us feel ashamed. And right now, I feel like I can't reach out like I wanted to. Most of the OSR doesn't want me around because of Zak (FOOTNOTE 3), and now I don't know if anyone else would either. This makes me pretty sad, especially after feeling so included at the mini con " " FOOTNOTE1: Lying FOOTNOTE 2: Lying FOOTNOTE3: Lying 30m Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath +Wayne Rossi (oops, i was wrong, see below) 33m Wayne Rossi's profile photo Wayne Rossi You used her dead name in a comment. 35m Christopher Mennell's profile photo Christopher Mennell This is moving too fast for me to keep up with.

Regarding blocking Zak, by all means, I think it's obvious it isn't healthy for you to engage with him.

Zak is not dead naming you though by sharing links to the past, you shared the link yourself making the connection to your dead name on his blog. I'm sorry you feel he's being transphobic...he isn't.

This is a matter of what one person feels vs. what one person is saying. I don't want you to feel attacked or threatened by Zak, but I can't change the way you feel about something, or the way someone's words make you feel. 35m Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath +2 +Wayne Rossi Oh, you'r right-sorry. It's confusing going back and forth to dig up all this evidence, edited: Terra I'm sorry I left your deadname in that comment, please stop abusing and harassing people and lying about them. 33m Wayne Rossi's profile photo Wayne Rossi Thanks for removing that +Zak Sabbath 31m Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath +Wayne Rossi No problem. 30m Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank He shares me talking about my feelings of fear over the way he has treated me as though it is harassment. Sharing my own fears and feelings are not lies, especially when I'm so vulnerable. This was a transphobic attack, plain and simple. Just because I share my dead name does not mean he has any right to, especially when it is not pointing out anything other than my dead name and pronouns. I'm brave enough to share that in the face of abuse and it's being used to further abuse me. And now he wants people to apologise to him for his transphobia being called out? I'm so happy G+ has stopped showing me the rest of his posts at this point because it is becoming straight up hurtful 28m Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Feeling bad doesn't justify false accusations against me or James, or attacking people without talking to them to make sure your first impression is accurate. If you're too upset to do that, that's ok, then just do not get online and attack people then Photo 23m Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank +Christopher Mennell please don't cisplain transphobia to me. Trans people decide what is transphobic, not cis people. 22m Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Then the thing for Terra to do is argue with all the trans people who would point out she's lying about me being transphobic rather than harass me in a thread full of cis dudes. 15m Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank He could have copied and pasted the relevant text, instead he shared posts that mention my dead name and pronouns over and over and over. Seeing that was VERY painful for me. It was transphobic and careless. Not considering the damage he did to me with sharing those posts was transphobic. Just because I share my dead name does not mean every cis person I know can too, especially when they know it will hurt me... Just like a black person calling herself the N word doesn't give white people the right to. This has hurt me deeply and now you are telling me I have no right to point that out? 9m Terra Frank's profile photo Terra Frank Not seeing the transphobia in this is cis privelage 10m Evlyn M's profile photo Evlyn M Seriously no one should ever be entitled to suggest to other people to block someone else.

Zak often critic storygamers for not calling out shitty attitudes. Ok so I am calling these suggestions to block people really shitty and unacceptable.

People have enough judgment to decide by themselves if they want to block someone or not.

This behavior is really hurtful.

And asking someone to nuance his or her comment to better understand them and to discuss is one thing. Calling them like they have committed somekind of major offense is a other thing. This don't encourage discussion at all.

Note: I have blocked Zak and he can't answer to this. (Just for the info) 4m Zak Sabbath's profile photo Zak Sabbath Why would you ever NOT suggest people block broken stairs and harassers? . That is how you detox a community. Communities must always recommend steps to protect themselves form abusers. When they stop doing that, they cease to be safe. This isn't a minor thing. Terra has been harassing creators for YEARS. 3m K Yani's profile photo K Yani What was just said about Mr. Sabbath using certain dead name over and over again is not true. He edited his post to correct pronouns and the name as soon as the error of the referencing became obvious, and even initially it was mentioned only once by my count, maybe two times, not what "over and over" usually means. It isn't mentioned now. 3m Christopher Mennell's profile photo Christopher Mennell I am going to erase the comments unrelated to the original post. +Terra Frank, I am sorry if I hurt you with my words. I do feel it's unfair to hold someone accountable to an expectation that isn't spoken beforehand; for example saying Zak could have copy/pasted the text rather than sharing a link directly to it...but maybe I don't understand well enough.

Screenshots below to prove this is accurate, sorry they’re not in order:

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narcisbolgor-blog · 7 years ago

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Meet the women and girls who rocked Comic Con – BBC News

Image copyright AFP

Image caption Fans dressed as their favourite characters at London Comic Con this weekend

Scratch below the surface at Comic Con and you might be surprised to find thousands of young women who go because they find it empowering.

It might have a reputation for attracting nerds and geeks, but as one female fan put it: "You feel very accepted, and you get to be whoever you want for a day - it's really special."

Here are some of the female voices from this year's fan convention in London.

Samantha Prosper - as Emily from the film The Corpse Bride

"I love the movie and the character. She's passionate and kind so I was inspired to be like her.

"I love the atmosphere here - it's really good for young women because it's non-judgmental.

"Any person of any shape or colour can come and feel absolutely welcome - it's so kind and friendly that nobody feels out of place. You can come as anyone you want and be absolutely fine."

Sophie Skye and Eliza - as Maleficent from the film

Sophie: "I'm playing Maleficent, the Angelina Jolie version. I love cosplay because it gives you the chance to play someone else for a day. It's escapism, pure fantasy.

"You can be covered or wear the smallest of clothes, it's a very respectful environment where you can express yourself. There's a lot of amazing female characters in the comic, anime and film world, so there's a lot of inspiration."

Eliza: "I love young Maleficent because her wings are ginormous and she can fly very fast and she's cool. My dad made my wings and I bought my necklace here.

"I love the different types of costumes here, they're all related to comics."

Phoebe and Martha - as Fionna from TV animation Adventure Time and Harley Quinn from the film Suicide Squad

Phoebe: "I love reading comics and watching animations and films. I came as Fionna because she's really strong and powerful - she once rescued a prince.

"I came here last year as well, and one of the best bits was meeting comic book artists like Jess Bradley."

Martha: "I saw the movie Suicide Squad and loved Harley Quinn because she's cool and sassy so I decided to dress like her. I really like seeing so many people dressed up here."

Grace Ford - as Blue Diamond from TV animation Steven Universe

"I've been coming for about six years. I love dressing up - you can escape reality and it's just a bit of fun really. I fell in love with Blue Diamond's look and design and thought, 'Why not go for it?'

"I won't lie, I was a bit worried about coming here after the Manchester attack but it's good the police are here. It gives reassurance."

Comic book artist and illustrator Jess Bradley

"Me and my husband love doing comic conventions because it gets your work out to a wider audience and the atmosphere's fantastic.

"I've been doing it for about 10 years and you get so much positive feedback. It's just so much fun.

"I draw comic strips and write and illustrate children's books and colouring books. I tend to focus a lot on self-publishing because you have complete control over what you do."

Vivian Park - as a character from horror thriller film The Purge

"My costume is inspired by The Purge - there's something dystopian about it and I'm really inspired by it. I bought my mask from the masquerade in Venice.

"I love Comic Con because everybody comes together and we all have something in common, no matter where we're from.

"It's a place where you feel very accepted and you get to be whoever you want for a day - it's really special."

Katie Berry and Kelly Peach as Mercy and D.Va from online game Overwatch

Katie: "I'm here because I'm a really big comics fan and you don't really get this atmosphere anywhere else.

"I made my costume - it took about a month for the breastplate and then about a month for the rest - it's made of Perspex."

Kelly: "I've been coming for five or six years and it's always the same people and there's such a community feeling - everyone's into the same things, everyone wants to celebrate all these interests that they wouldn't get to explore in their day-to-day lives. Dressing up is part of the fun."

Emily Hopkins - as Jillian Holtzmann from the Ghostbusters remake

"I'm here because I love everything about it. My confidence is boosted being around people who are carefree and appreciate the same things.

"It's helped me feel less worried about the stuff that I like - it's not nerdy, it's great! Everyone's so different, I just love it. I can escape and get creative.

"I came as a Ghostbuster because it's about time there were more female-centric films and I think the hate the movie got was completely unnecessary, and the majority came from people who couldn't be be bothered to see it and give it a chance."

Comic book illustrator Karen Rubins

"I'm here to sell my comics and prints and meet people who like my work.

"I work for a comic called The Phoenix with a strip called The Shivers by Dan Hartwell, and our characters include girl heroes solving mysteries and standing up to supernatural threats.

"In the comic village here at Comic Con there's at least 50% female artists and it's a great space to work, it's really inclusive and there's loads of different comics you can discover."

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].

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operationrainfall · 5 years ago

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Title The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics Developer BonusXP Publisher En Masse Entertainment Release Date February 4th, 2020 Genre Tactics, SRPG Platform PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One Age Rating E for Everyone 10+ – Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence Official Website

In some ways, it’s very surprising that I was the one that ended up reviewing The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. After all, I am not super familiar with Henson’s original series, nor have I yet seen the new Netflix saga. What I am familiar with, however, are tactical RPGs, most notably the one that got me into the genre, Final Fantasy Tactics. After demoing The Dark Crystal: AoRT at PAX West, I immediately noticed the similarities between that game and FF Tactics. And I mean that as a compliment, not as a dig. It’s clear BonusXP took inspiration from that classic title, while still implementing their own unique style and features. The question then is this: even though I’m not a giant Dark Crystal fan, was I able to fully enjoy Age of Resistance Tactics?

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The story for The Dark Crystal: AoRT is told through well animated comic book cutscenes that expand as you watch, with new images and dialogue appearing every few seconds. I appreciated this technique, since it gave the game a storybook vibe, and even reminded me a bit of The Hobbit (the cartoon, not Jackson’s epic saga). You watch from the viewpoint of an omniscient entity called the Aughra, who can apparently see the past, present and future. There’s a celestial event called the Darkening that is making wild creatures act violently, and during this the Skeksis are implementing some sinister plans. It’s all pretty ambitious in scope, but in execution I found the story a bit hard to follow. Not because it was necessarily poorly written, mind you, but because so many disparate threads are woven together without one sole hero to focus on. By the time I beat AoRT, I had about 15 characters in my party, and each and every one had relevant stories that didn’t necessarily contribute significantly to the greater whole. As such, it was hard to always feel emotionally connected to the tale, though there were some highlights nevertheless, such as when one character returns as an avatar of mind controlling Arathim, or when the Aughra sacrifices herself to save some Gelflings. I really did enjoy moments that occurred, and my primary issues were the lack of overall story coherence and how fast the animated cutscenes moved. Sometimes they transitioned so quickly I lost details, which also made it hard to take screenshots at opportune times.

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Though the story left me somewhat perplexed, thankfully the combat was much tighter. You pick from a party of three to five for missions, and place them on the field of battle. Once placed, battle begins, and you go about achieving specific objectives. Often these involve defeating all your foes, but you’ll also need to sometimes move your party to a certain point on the map, hit levers, rescue prisoners, read sand glyphs and much more. There’s sufficient variety that I never got bored, though there are also some quirks of missions I found irritating. One map has something called Nurloc holes, from which giant worm creatures will continuously rise from until they’re stoppered by rocks or your teammates. There are others that involve rising tides which will instantly drown anybody unlucky enough to get caught underneath them. Or take the recurring boss the Chamberlain, who can just take over your teammates after he’s confused them. Another frustrating map had me fighting enslaved Podlings and a devious Skeksis scientist, who poisoned the ground and then suddenly upgraded himself when he was on the cusp of defeat, gaining a powerful chain lightning attack that almost wiped me out. These are only some of the more annoying examples, and besides these, I felt the missions were mostly fair for one reason: you have a wealth of customization options at your beck and call, and the combat itself is very intuitive.

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Each character in the game can learn from various jobs, and you can even equip skills from both primary and secondary jobs. Any job can be qualified as either, but there’s some provisos. Jobs are determined by the race of the character, and though most are Gelflings, there’s others like Podlings. Gelflings have complex and interwoven job trees, and you initially have several Tier One jobs you can pick from. By leveling up to a certain point, you can go for Tier Two jobs, and then by leveling up a couple of those, you’ll gain access to the coveted Tier Three jobs. I liked this approach, though there was one complication. You only gain experience for whichever job you currently have set as primary, meaning it can take forever to level up your jobs and learn all your skills. It also means you’ll be shuffling between primary and secondary jobs to get them fully leveled and changing equipment accordingly. Also, only characters you use in battle gain experience, and once you have more than five party members, that makes it quite easy for most of them to get left behind and under-leveled. Once I realized this, I figured out which team I wanted to focus on, and ignored everybody else. Which is a shame, since it meant I didn’t get to utilize all the special clan abilities. These are passive boosts, such as characters of one clan being immune to poison or another gaining more advantage from equipment. There’s some good diversity there, but given that the structure of the game forces you to only use a few of your party members, I didn’t find clan abilities to be all that relevant.

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That said, I did like the diversity of jobs that could be learned. You could go the more aggro route and make a Thief or Paladin, or go the arcane route and make a Mender or Bramble Sage. The Tier Three jobs are the most powerful, and have some devastating skills, though I found it curious none of these were a sufficiently tanky variety. Pretty much all three of the available Tier Three jobs were very physically fragile despite their strength, and could be taken down with a few solid hits. An example is the Grave Dancer class, which is able to inflict multiple statuses and gets some great passive skills, but can be wiped out if hit hard enough. This made me a fan of the races that didn’t have Tier Three jobs, such as Podlings. Instead of a branching job tree, they have a circular one, meaning you can only pick from a variety of Tier One jobs, though I admit that made leveling them up easier. By far my favorite of the Podlings was Hup, who you get early on. It’s hard not to love someone who screams huzzah and attacks foes with a wooden utensil, especially when he can become a monster summoner, able to call upon a friendly Nurloc to even the odds.

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Once you have learned skills by leveling up, you can select which ones to take into combat. You are allowed to pick three primary and two secondary skills, and can select them from a handy action wheel. I found this pretty intuitive, and was battling without any confusion. I especially liked how you could always restart your character’s turn, making it so I never made any tactical errors that I couldn’t turn back the clock on. What I liked less was you could only navigate the command wheel with the joystick, and not the directional buttons. This was odd, since you can use the directional buttons in other menus in The Dark Crystal: AoRT. It’s a minor quibble, but I still found it noteworthy. Another more serious issue relates to the skills I mentioned earlier. Yes you can take five into battle at any time, but here’s the catch: passive skills take up the same slot as active ones, meaning you’ll often only have a couple of abilities and several passive at times. I really found this to be a misstep, and wish passive skills were relegated to their own slot. I would have much preferred being able to have five active skills and one passive than this format. Part of the reason I feel this way is how many two-part skills the game uses. You’ll often have to afflict a foe with a certain status such as Marking them or Spicing them before you can use another skill against them the next turn. That means you’d have to use one of your active slots for the affliction skill and the others for special attacks. To be fair, you will eventually get some passive abilities that help, such as one that inflicts Mark just when dealing regular damage, but many of these take a long time and tons of effort to acquire. I don’t like harping about these issues, since I really did enjoy the combat the most in the game, but I also feel it’s necessary to illustrate the inconsistent nature of the game.

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I did find the combat streamlined and fun for the most part, other than some frustrating boss fights. I especially liked being able to move the camera around freely, spinning the focus and zooming when needed. Once the game introduces the Encounter missions, which are basically just free battles to grind for experience on, the whole experience got much better. The game does start slow, but it speeds up after that point. However, much like everything else, balance was a bit wonky in combat. I’d be leveled up and kicking ass one battle, then crushed on the next, even with higher tier jobs and equipment. This especially was the case in missions where I had to get to a certain point on the map, and more enemies would keep spawning after I defeated them. And the bosses I mentioned earlier, which are all Skeksis bastards, are all pains. The Chamberlain likes to confuse and bewitch your party members and empower his allies, the Hunter is ruthless and powerful, leaping about and slashing you to ribbons, and the others don’t get any easier. Worst of all, you never get the satisfaction of actually defeating the bosses fully til the very end of the game, since they always flee right before you’re able to take them out.

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Visually, The Dark Crystal: AoRT looks like an attractive PS2 game. It’s far from ugly, but it’s also not super easy to tell one character from another on maps, other than the blue halo for allies and red for foes. Frankly most creatures of the same species look almost identical on the map. That said, the menus were functional and organized, and I really did like the comic book cutscenes peppered throughout the game. Musically, the game isn’t bad, and has a quasi Middle Eastern vibe to it, sounding like most fights took place in a bazaar from Aladdin or something similar. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of diversity to the music, and it kind of got relegated to the background most of the time. Overall though, the aesthetic design of the game was minimalistic but inoffensive.

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I hate mentioning other quirks, but I also feel obligated to touch on issues I encountered. Thankfully none of these were bugs or glitches, but they were instead odd design choices. For one thing, it’s odd you cannot sell weapons, armor or trinkets, or even scrap them for parts. There’s also no disposable healing or attack items at all in the entire game. That means if you want to heal or revive someone, you can’t buy a Phoenix Down, and are entirely reliant on your magical healing. It’s also more than a bit awkward that some status effects don’t indicate their effect til they’re active, like Spiced for Cooks. Other statuses are entirely overpowered, such as Stun, which can be inflicted again and again, taking away all your turns in dire situations, yet Blind barely works, as 90 percent of the time blinded foes can not only hit you, but critical you. Also, despite liking the job system, I don’t feel there was enough differentiation between the jobs. And lastly, I really think the game would have been served better if there were only five or six total team members, letting you focus on leveling up one core group and not being forced to pick and choose which ones get experience.

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Despite my complaints, I really did enjoy playing The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. As a fan of the genre, I found a lot to appreciate, despite my lack of familiarity with the source material. Though I can’t say this with certainty, since there’s no in-game timer, I estimate I spent about 22 hours playing through the game. Once you beat it, you unlock a New Game+, though I didn’t have enough time to test that out. Though it’s relatively linear, I felt I got my money’s worth for $19.99. If you’re a fan of tactics games, I’d say AoRT is worth the price of admission, even if I hope it gets some DLC to flesh things out and fix the quirks.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

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REVIEW: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics Title The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics

#BonusXP #En Masse Entertainment #Final Fantasy Tactics #SRPG #tactics #The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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The Strange, Nostalgic World of Obama-Biden Fan Fiction

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The Strange, Nostalgic World of Obama-Biden Fan Fiction

Those who choose to live in clinical denial, ahoy! This is a no-judgment zone, in which you will be urged to forget the current American president’s name—and instead enjoy escapist fan fiction about Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Yes, there is such a thing. Past presidential fanfic masterworks—like “Kim Jong Elmo vs Dick Cheney and George Bush featuring Lapis Lazuli”—might have been relegated to online speakeasies, but so great is thenostalgie d’Obamathat new books about Barry and Joe are bringing fanfic’s nerdy tropes into the light of day in print.

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Parodist Andrew Shaffer has just added a new entry to his enjoyably ludicrous Obama-Biden series, which launched last year withHope Never Diesand features the duo solving mysteries together. The second entry, published in July, is called, you guessed it,Hope Rides Again.Indie director Adam Reid’s gonzo graphic confection,The Adventures of Barry & Joe, which styles Obama and Biden as time-traveling superheroes, was released this past spring. It is here to, if not to save the day, then at least demonstrate the life-changing magic of putting our heads under the covers and pretending it’s 2015.

I respect you if you refuse to look back and entertain fantasies that Obama and Biden might return to deliver the Republic from evil. Biden on the 2020 stump might wield Obama’s name like a talisman to protect himself from criticism, but all sane voters know the Joe-Barack heyday is never coming back.

Still, tucking into the fantasies of Reid, a filmmaker whose 2010 filmHello Lonesomewas a festival darling, and Shaffer, a novelist who teaches writing in Kentucky, I decided to tolerate and maybe even open my heart to the authors’ poignant nostalgia for libmerica. It’s a powerful thing to mark the difference between today’s gruesome nonfan-nonfic—in which the Chosen One aims to delete China while annexing Israel and Greenland—and escape back to the relative paradise known as 2008 to 2016.

Now, to Uncle Joe.Hope Never Dies(Quirk Books), the first of the Shaffer mysteries—Hardy Boys-style with a YA version of the Dashiell Hammett narrative voice, but goofy—was released before Biden had announced his presidential bid; the second,Hope Rides Again,came out not long afterward. Like many an Obaman, Shaffer’s Biden opens the first novel frozen in time, just after the 2016 election, gorging on Ben & Jerry’s. This bothers Jill, Joe’s wife. In both Shaffer novels, Joe and Jill (and Barack and Michelle) are comparable to lovable, forgettable CBS sitcom duos of a decade ago:Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens.The dude is a charming galoot; the wife has his number.

But the real One True Pairing here—let’s not kid ourselves—is gonna involve Barack, whose communiqués Joe initially awaits like a schoolgirl scorned. “After Jill was sound asleep, I scrolled through old text messages Barack and I had exchanged a lifetime ago,” Shaffer writes. “It was an exercise in futility. If I kept picking at the wound, it was never going to heal.”

Biden mirrors the sulky American people. Is Barack Obama ghosting us?

Probably. But inHope Never Dies,he‘s not ghosting Biden, and after Encyclopedia Joe stumbles on the mystery of the murdered Amtrak conductor inHope Never Dies, the Dem Duo reunite to criss-cross Delaware in a farrago that leads them to find the mastermind of the opioid epidemic because why not. (It is not the Sacklers, FYI; fanfic is fic.)

On the cover ofHope Rides Again,the sequel, Obama wears tan as, in an Ethan Hunt moment, he dashingly mounts a rope ladder to a helicopter, giving a hand to trusty Joe. This choice, of course, expresses Shaffer’s fondness for no-drama Obama by reminding us that right-wing pundits had nothing to make hay about in summer 2014 but the president’s beige suit. In this novel, Joeisabout to announce his presidential bid, when Barack loses track of his BlackBerry—warning, the nostalgia goes deep; Obama even smokes again—and the device’s thief has been murdered. Off they go!

Joe encounters thugs, a grenade, near-disaster on an airplane. And he and Barack do, it’s true, end up, “huddled together, arms twisted like a couple of pretzels”—but they’re in a hole the size of a washing machine in the hull of a ship. By the time the police helicopter arrives for them, unfurling its rope ladder, they’ve finished off the bad guys and are ready to fly away, like Obama leaving the White House on January 20, 2017.Sniff.

If this is all high corn, there’s some actual sweetness, too: Shaffer clearly admires and somehow truly gets Joe’s geriatric efforts to be cool and, especially cringily,downwith the 44th president, with fist bumps and (yikes) even pseudo-Ebonics. It’s good someone finds that side of Joe charming.

Reid’sAdventures of Barry & Joe(Dey Street Books), the product of a Kickstarter campaign,is considerably skeevier than the wholesome Shaffer books. To clarify: None of this is slash. That’s a blessing. Shaffer and Reiddo not, I repeat donot, reprise (entirely) the Kirk/Spock erotics from the earliest days of pre-internet fan fiction. In case you somehow dodged the ’70s zines, in which fanfic was first codified, “slash” were the sexy fairy tales, mostly by women, in which the fellowship expressed on the USS Enterprise tilted into loving tendresse and then—sweetly, slowly—into … make-out jams.

Presumably Reid wants a bigger audience for his graphic novel than he’d get with straight slash.Adventuresis ultimately something called “ampersand” fanfic, meaning friendship, not romance, defines the Barry & Joe relationship. (That’s “ship” in fanfic-speak—you D.C. squares got a lot to learn.)

But, unaccountably, Reid still wants to see the former president and VP nekkid, so by panel No. 7 of the chapter called “True Bromance,” they’re drawn in a locker room, preparing to participate in a time-travel experiment by stripping down to their briefs. By No. 9, we’re to full-posterior nudity. Joe, so you know, has the dusty-rose busting-at-the-seams body of geezer strongman Jack LaLanne. Barry, while also shredded, is only somewhat slimmer. Glutes have been diligently attended to by the artists in that section, Joe St. Pierre (of Marvel), Anwar Hananu (Image Comics) and freelance illustrator Dezi Sienty. (The Adventures, which includes a grab bag of stories, aphorisms and short plays alongside the graphic components, is very much a group effort.)

Before Joe and Barack disappear into a time-travel vessel that looks like KitchenAid made it, Biden says, “Barack, I want you to know … I wanna hug even though we’re naked. Is that wrong?” Barry: “Let’s not.” Joe: “I’ll see you on the other side.”

Much of Reid’s scrapbook concerns madcap travel in the “multiverse,” in what could be a tribute to the lateMadmagazine.The taste level isMad,also. In one of Reid’s short stories, Joe returns to the 1970s, looks uncannily hot, and gets a chance to talk to his son, Beau, then 9. More than the nudity, this fictional resurrection of Biden’s son—the real Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015—seems far too intrusive to be even campily enjoyable.

I winced. Until that point, I’d been reading with the simmering notion that liberal democracy, now globally stifled, might come back to life with a new leader in 2020. But Beau Biden will not come back to life. Suddenly the whole project of these wish-fulfillment Obama fantasias seemed like nothing more than fodder for Trump ralliers to, as the T-shirt says, oil their guns with liberal tears. And how in the world could I write about it? One false move—one mentionin fictionthat Obama and Biden (in fiction) are (fictional) witnesses to an (imaginary) gangland shooting (in a work of fiction)—and you might end up quoted with a straight face in some daft anti-Biden propaganda that ricochets all over the internet. While I could suspend solemnity for a few hours, in this current breath-holdingly paranoid climate, there’s not enough oxygen for this much playfulness.

If the Library of Congress shelving system were remade for our time, these fanfic works might be classified as “WAFF,” because they’re meant to generate—you got it—warm and fuzzy feelings. Those are the feelings most Americans still vaguely remember from four years ago. But we’re forgetting. And before we introduce delusions about what might have been, we have an urgent challenge in the present—Trumpism, which can be stopped only with something other than naked cartoons. Thus, the Biden-Obama counterfactuals,especiallybecause they’re meant to be fun, leave me with CAPs—cold and pricklies. Nowthat’s a phrase from the 1970s that should be brought back.

#Fiction #Foreign #Obama-Biden #Politics

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hermanwatts · 5 years ago

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Sensor Sweep: Roger Zelazny, Tros of Samothrace, Fred Saberhagen, Eyrie of the Dread Eye, Charles Beaumont

Authors (Rich Horton): Roger Zelazny would have been 82 today, but, dammit, he died way too young in 1995. I loved his short fiction but I haven’t written a lot about it, so instead I’ve taken four rather short bits, capsules, really, that I did of four of his novels, for my SFF Net newsgroup a while ago, and in once case for Black Gate retro-review of an issue of Galaxy.

Tolkien (Eldritch Paths): I have a confession to make. Up until last year, I hadn’t actually read The Lord of the Rings. I know, I know. I say I read fantasy and I haven’t read what’s considered one of the greatest pieces of fantasy ever written. To be quite honest, I was a bit reluctant to read the trilogy. The complaints I’ve heard about Tolkien being “boring”, middle-earth as a setting being cliche, and that the novels having way too much description put me off. Eventually, I hunkered down and bit the bullet. To my surprise, I was blown away.

Science Fiction (Tellers of Weird Tales): A long time ago, I wrote about Fritz Leiber, Jr., and the problem of the weird tale. The problem was and is this: How do we write convincingly about the supernatural, the rural, and the irrational in a thoroughly materialist, urbanized, and (supposedly) rational age?

Fiction (DMR Books): Talbot Mundy described the adventures of Tros in three books: Tros of Samothrace, Queen Cleopatra and Purple Pirate. We will look at each of these books in turn and you can find them in paperback, hardcover, ebooks or here, at the invaluable library of Roy Glashan. Although Tros of Samothrace was originally serialized in the pages of Adventure magazine in 1925 and 1926, it was not published in book form until 1934.

Pulp Writers (My Drops of Ink): The beginning of adventure novels for men—1901-1920 period. A few months ago, I wrote an article for Paperback Parade about Steward Edward White, an early 20th century writer of popular adventure, Westerns, and nonfiction about birds and nature. He was a conservationist, naturalist, and big game hunter, and his love for nature, conservation, and adventure were to become very much a part of his literary works over his long career. He enjoyed writing about pioneers, the West, logging, gold mining, and nature.

Dime Novel Westerns (Crime Reads): Two detectives came out to Wyoming in early February 1885, seeking a boy from New York City and the ten thousand dollar reward posted by his father. The boy, an eleven-year-old banker’s son named Fred Shephard, had disappeared the month before, but had not been abducted. An obsessive reader of Western dime novels, the young man broke open his tin bank one January night and climbed down the rain spout from his room to the street. His latest book was left at school, his heroic intentions scrawled across the bottom of its open page, “Ime goin West to be a cowboy detective.”

Fiction (Goodman Games): Science fiction and fantasy author Fred Saberhagen was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 18, 1930. Beginning his professional writing career at age 30 with a short story published in a 1961 issue of Galaxy Magazine, Saberhagen went on to become best known for his works featuring the characters Dracula and Sherlock Holmes. Fantasy role playing enthusiasts of a certain age are probably much more familiar with Saberhagen’s second-most popular work, The Swords Trilogy, which began being published in 1983, just as the Dungeons & Dragons craze was hitting its peak. Saberhagen followed that up with a subsequent sequel series, The Book of Lost Swords, which totaled eight additional books in all.

Fiction (Paul Bishop): Somewhere, jockeying for position in my top five favorite tough guy private eyes, you will find the six book Rafferty series by Shamus Award winning author W. Glenn Duncan. Like author John Whitlatch, who I previously posted about, W. Glenn Duncan has been an enigma to his fans for many years. A former journalist and pilot, Duncan lived in Iowa, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and California, before disappearing into the proverbial wilds of Australia with his wife and three children.

H. P. Lovecraft (Jeffro Johnson): Did this show with Zaklog the Great last Friday. Enjoyed talking Lovecraft and Lord of the Rings and… these obnoxious people that poison your mind until you’d begin to think that your “beloved past had never been.”

Lovecraft writes three times that “there was no hand to hold me back that night I found the ancient track.” After mulling this whole scene over in light of the Boomerclypse we’re in the process of rolling back, I’ve concluded that there was in fact a hand there. The hand of wisdom!

Westerns (Frontier Partisans): During the summer between junior high school and high school, a movie came to our little local theater that I simply had to see. It was titled The Long Riders and it had this cool gimmick — four sets of brothers played four sets of brothers — the James Boys, the Youngers, the Millers, and the Fords, played by James and Stacy Keach; the Carradine brothers; the Quaids; and the Guests. My parents thought it was too violent and they didn’t like the idea of “glorifying outlaws.”

RPG (The Mixed GM): Today, let’s take a look at AX5: Eyrie of the Dread Eye. I purchased the pdf and physical copy, but this review will focus on the pdf, due to the fact that the physical copy is still on its way. There is a 5E version of this, but I am only interested in the Adventure, Conqueror, King System (ACKS) version of it!

Sidebar: Really appreciate Autarch making the pdf + physical copy combo the same price as just purchasing the physical book.

Cartoons (Kestifer): Mobile Suit Gundam aired on Japanese television in 1979 and birthed a brand new sub-genre of giant robot fiction: the “Real Robot.” Where the 60s and 70s had a thriving “Super Robot” field populated with classics like Tetsujin-28 Go,Mazinger Z, and Getter Robo (worthy in their own ways), Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Gundam treated giant robots less as giant superheroes calling out their attacks, and instead as advanced weapons of war against a backdrop of space opera and large scale warfare.

Fiction (Easily Distracted): I first gave up on the paperback edition of Fires of Eden in August 1995. But powerful images and scenes from Fires of Eden stuck with me, particularly a legion of night-marching spirits filing through the wilds of Hawaii. Similar to the staying power of scenes of devouring lampreys in Simmons’ Summer of Night or the vampiric stomach siphons of Romanian orphans in Children of the Night.

Cryptozoology (Kairos): Cryptozoology has been a sporadic hobby of mine since childhood. I’ve studied the research of investigators like Loren Coleman, Jeff Meldrum, and John Keel for years. I can’t tell you what our guest blogger encountered. I can tell you that his account perfectly aligns with multiple data points consistently found in the most credible Bigfoot reports.

Gaming (Walker’s Retreat): WOWhead has more information as there are some significant difference between how it was and how Classic will go, mostly of a technical nature due to technology changes between 2004 and now, but if you weren’t there then you might want to read up on what you’re getting into.

Get ready for How Things Used To Be, folks, including everybody and their uncle rolling a Forsaken Rogue.

Fiction (Pulpfest): A prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction, Charles Beaumont was born on January 2, 1929. According to award-winning writer and editor Roger Anker, “In a career which spanned a brief thirteen years,” Beaumont wrote and sold “ten books, seventy-four short stories, thirteen screenplays (nine of which were produced), two dozen articles and profiles, forty comic stories, fourteen columns, and over seventy teleplays.”

Sensor Sweep: Roger Zelazny, Tros of Samothrace, Fred Saberhagen, Eyrie of the Dread Eye, Charles Beaumont published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

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stacks-reviews · 7 years ago

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Must Reads Part 12

Happy Friday everybody! This week we have children made of snow, a mysterious spaceship that has done nothing for three years, a feminist anthology, and more!

--Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean by Kirsty Murray “Little Red Riding Hood is a teen who wears a protective suit and has to fend off a very human wolf. Girls and boys walking to school band together to turn the tables on catcallers. A MasterChef contestant goes time-traveling to secure fresh ingredients for her famous recipes. This collection of feminist fantasy and science fiction stories weaves together impossibilities, dreams, and ambitions to reimagine what girls - and boys - can be. Award-winning Australian and Indian authors worked together and separately to create stories that bridge continents and will inspire readers to open their minds and take a fresh look at the world we know. Travel to outer space with a boy who’s a space miner; find yourself cast adrift and rescued by a pirate ship manned by women; get lost in an eerie airline terminal where your mirror image - a perfect version of you - wants to suck you in. Every story in this collection will take you far from the everyday, to push past boundaries and explore new possibilites. When you eat the sky and drink the ocean, you embrace the world and are connected to all humanity.”

This anthology caught my eye because of the beautiful cover. And after reading the description on the jacket I knew I had to have it. I do own it but I have not had an opportunity to read it yet. Some of the stories are comics and at least one of the stories is a screen play.

--Iron Hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill and illustrated by Iacopo Bruno “In most fairy tales, princesses are beautiful, dragons are terrifying, and stories are harmless. This isn’t most fairy tales. Princess Violet is plain, reckless, and quite possibly too clever for her own good. Particularly when it comes to telling stories. One day she and her best friend, Demetrius, stumble upon a hidden room and find a peculiar book. A forbidden book. It tells a story of an evil being - called the Nybbas - imprisoned in their world. The story cannon be true - not really. But then the whispers start. Violet and Demetrius, along with an ancient, scarred dragon, may hold the key to the Nybbas’s triumph...or its demise. It all depends on how they tell the story. After all, stories make their own rules. Iron Hearted Violet is a story of a princess unlike any other. It is a story of the last dragon in existence, deathly afraid of its own reflection. Above all, it is a story about the power of stories, our belief in them, and how one enchanted tale changed the course of an entire kingdom.”

There is a short preview up on Goodreads which I really liked. I really like how the story flows in that preview and its voice. The preview follows the storyteller of the kingdom as he recounts what Violet was like as a child and how she captivated the people with her own ability to tell engaging stories. It ends with how she meets her first friend, Demetrius.

--The Riverman by Aaron Starmer “’To sell a book, you need a description on the back. So here’s mine: My name is Fiona Loomis. I was born on August 11, 1977. I am recording this message on the morning of October 13, 1989. Today I am thirteen years old. Not a day older. Not a day younger.’ Fiona Loomis is Alice, back from Wonderland. She is Lucy, returned from Narnia. She is Coraline, home from the Other World. She is the girl we read about in storybooks, but here’s the difference: She is real. Twelve-year-old Alistair Cleary is her neighbor in a town where everyone knows each other. One afternoon, Fiona shows up at Alistair’s doorstep with a strange proposition. She wants him to write her biography. What begins as an odd vanity project gradually turns into a frightening glimpse into a clearly troubled mind. For Fiona tells Alistair a secret. In her basement there’s a gateway and it leads to the magical world of Aquavania, the place where stories are born. In Aquavania, there’s a creature called the Riverman and he’s stealing the souls of children. Fiona’s soul could be next. Alistair has a choice. He can believe her, or he can believe something else...something even more terrifying.”

This is going to be a surprising dark children’s book (or so I assumed it is classified based on the characters ages) if what is mentioned in the first chapter is anything to judge by. It starts with talking about lost children either due to them running away, bad custody battles, or being taken by strangers. Alistair remembers his towns lost boy by the name of Luke, who’s body Alistair unknowingly finds after he had been missing. He just didn’t realize it at the time until years later.

I’m already hooked. After that opening Fiona asks Alistair to pen her biography. And at first he says yes but then changes his mind. In part because it worried him and although not expressly stated, it could be because everyone thinks Fiona is strange and she does not appear to have very many friends. And it hints that she may be the next child who disappears in their town. It sounds like an enjoyable, dark read. And I’m sure there is an even darker story going on below the surface and I’m going to guess that the more terrifying truth Alistair will believe is an abusive household. I could be going way off rails here but it is what makes the most sense to me if the gateway isn’t actually real. What better way to escape that reality than by creating a world for yourself?

--The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey “Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse of a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place, things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.”

Based off the Russian fairy tale Snegurochka or The snow maiden. I really want to read this on a purely nostalgia reason. Someone at work showed me this book and it immediately reminded me of a children’s book my grandparents owned about an elderly couple who made a little girl out of snow. The girl lived outside in a snow bed and made friends with all the other children. But once summer came she left and the couple were heartbroken until the next winter when their snow daughter returned home. I then told everyone at work about it and hunted down the one I remembered at my grandparents house. It was The Snow Child retold by Freya Littledale and illustrated by Leon Shtainmets.

In this book here, the couple believe that the little girl living in the woods is the child they made out of snow (in the children’s book the child is actually snow, in this rendition that is not the case). Or so the wife believes as she is familiar with the fairy tale as it is mentioned in the book. I doubt that the little girl is really made of snow. She was probably left to fend for herself for one reason or another. Regardless, I never expected to find a full length novel of a children’s book I had read long ago. I did not even know that the book was based off a Russian fairy tale back then. My grandma let me have the children’s book and it is now sitting in my room on a safe shelf. I was not the first to read it and I am pretty sure I wasn’t the last.

--The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette “The world changed on a Tuesday. When a spaceship landed in an open field in the quiet mill town of Sorrow Falls, Massachusetts, everyone realized humankind was not alone in the universe. With that realization, everyone freaked out for a little while. Or, almost everyone. The residents of Sorrow Falls took the news pretty well. This could have been due to a certain local quality of unflappability, or it could have been that in three years, the ship did exactly nothing other than sit quietly in that field, and nobody understood the full extent of this nothing the ship was doing better than the people who lived right next door.

Sixteen-year-old Annie Collins is one of the ship’s closest neighbors. Once upon a time she took every last theory about the ship seriously, whether it was advanced by an adult, or by a peer. Surely one of the theories would be proven true eventually - if not several of them - the very minute the ship decided to do something. Annie is starting to think this will never happen. One late August morning, a little over three years since the ship landed, Edgar Somerville arrived in town. Ed’s a government operative posing as a journalist, which is obvious to Annie - and pretty much everyone else he meets - almost immediately. He has a lot of questions that need answers, because he thinks everyone is wrong: the ship is doing something, and he needs Annie’s help to figure out what that is. Annie is a good choice for tour guide. She already knows everyone in town and when Ed’s theory is proven correct - something is apocalyptically wrong in Sorrow Falls - she’s a pretty good person to have around. As a matter of fact, Annie Collins might be the most important person on the planet. She just doesn’t know it.”

The first four chapters of this is available to preview on Goodreads. It is very detailed like the description here. I didn’t mind it. I liked the voice it was giving the book and it really gave me a feel for what Sorrow Falls is like. Everyone so far seems pretty laid back and friendly despite the fact that there is a spaceship right outside of town.

I really want to read this because it makes me think of Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel (which was really good and is actually one of the few reviews I have written so far). Although the whole world knows about the alien object from the start and that this is classified as a teen book. And also makes me think of just a little bit of the great animated film, The Iron Giant. And as for theories. After reading the preview I’m guessing that either Annie is an alien from the ship but currently doesn’t remember it for whatever reason. Or the whole town is nothing but aliens forgetting what they are to better blend in with the populace.

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