#for now i have a vague story plot and character built

[arolesbianism]

It's so miserable making side characters for a story and getting attached because now not only are you obsessed with a guy that only exists in your head even if they existed out of your head they'd still be basically just in your head. Like no you guys have to trust me they're so deep and intricate no none of this stuff ever comes up you just have to believe me and like them as much as I do

[valtsv]

what is like. The vague plot of the silt verses

Cause I wanna listen now but idk if I'd actually be into it?

the most concise summary i can give you is that the silt verses is a folk horror/weird fiction show set in a world which sort of mirrors our own in terms of its sociopolitical landscape, but with the key difference that gods are real and worship - including human sacrifice - is not just a part of everyday life, but a fundamental foundation that the entire social system is built on. it starts out as a sort of detective thriller-style story following two worshippers of an illegal river god, carpenter and faulkner, as they travel through the territory of the peninsula (the main fictional country that much of the story takes place in) searching for signs of their god's activity, and a miracle to bring back to revitalise their dying faith, whilst also grappling with their own personal relationships to faith and the world they live in, and the people they have to share it with. the scope of the story widens with each season, however, as carpenter and faulkner's search leads to altercations with law enforcement, the forging of surprising connections, and the unfolding exposure of horrors enabled by struggles for power far beyond the reckoning of any one individual. as rising tensions between the peninsula and its neighbour, the consolidated linger straits, threaten to plunge everyone into another conflict of god vs god - corrupt and overfed belief system vs equally corrupt and bloated belief system - we get to see the impact of both societal upheaval and stagnation on several characters in a variety of social positions, from a number of walks of life, and how they respond to both large-scale developments and personal conflicts of equal importance to them as individuals. it's not a story of good vs. evil, or even justice vs. injustice, but of people in all their infinite, messy complexity, and how they navigate the world and their relationships to each other. also there's some morbidly hilarious political satire which is always good fun.

[ganxiously]

Okay a lot of you keep worrying about the future and that is just unvibing my vibe over here. So we are just going to go over a few things right now so that the collective panic doesn't boil over sometime soon -

Tommy gets reintroduced in 8.11 and not directly during the two-parter - As I have said earlier in this post, for the reconciliation to seem believable, they need to show us the story on both sides. Buck's view is okay if he's moving on but if they're getting back together, they need to show us what Tommy is feeling. And they need to show us both of them want to get back together. Which is exactly what the show has done.

Tommy having screentime in an episode other than the two-parter - Don't know about you but if Tommy was going to leave, they just wouldn't have bothered with this hook-up plot. Even if you argue that it might have been a treat to appease the fans, the backlash would now be even greater than what happened after 8.06. ABC would be very rightfully accused of deliberately messing with the fans. So if he was going to leave, his appearance would have been akin to Abby's - a brief sighting during the emergency and then a final scene of resolution.

The context of the fight - I know a lot of you don't like what they have done but this is literally killing two birds with one stone. Now this isn't Breaking Bad or something of that level so you can't expect too much from them but you have to understand that the only reason they would ever try to 'close the door' on Buddie would be if Buck's endgame was in sight and they don't want anything from the fandom threatening it. If Buck was still going to be on the hamster wheel, they would have had Buck be vague and hesitant so as to keep the ship around as a future possibility. Which they could then use to bait the fans in order to drive up engagement for upcoming seasons. (if you think buddie has a chance, take a look at this post of mine)

They are adding more and more meat to Tommy's character - I had said a long time ago that season 8 was going to turn Tommy into everyone's little meow meow. It didn't pan out in 8a but here we are finally in 8b. Tommy before yesterday was this cool, sarcastic guy who was maybe a bit jealous of the 118 and he clearly cared about Buck but not enough to risk his heart. One could also say he was a bit biphobic. Today Tommy is a lonely 40-year old gay guy who was at a bar alone so he probably doesn't have any friends. What friends he made in 118, dropped him after the break up. He is deeply insecure and has probably zero self-worth so much so that he spent six months expecting that his bf would leave him any day for his best friend. And he loves Buck so fucking much that he was ready to try again and take what he could until someone better or Eddie arrived. After all that I dare you to tell me this episode was not specifically intended for us to become ride or die for Tommy. The audience is no longer hoping for Buck's happiness but also Tommy's and that would be a dumb thing to encourage after all the complaints filed against the show with ABC.

Eddie is coming back and will need his house - So far there is no reason to believe Eddie is going to leave permanently so assuming he's coming back with Christopher, he will want his house back. It would look pretty idiotic to have Buck stay in that house and give Eddie a new one. More idiotic would be to have Buck move into a new bachelor pad because then what was the fucking point when you already had a set built of his previous apartment. Add in even more idiocy and you would expect them to be roommates but the house doesn't have anymore spare rooms so is Buck going to stay on the couch and sell off all his stuff? The only narratively logical choice is either Buck moves back to his own loft which would be so weird like was it just sitting empty and then where is the life altering change that was supposed to happen or solving every problem out there, he moves in with Tommy.

The narrative in the show itself - I am begging you to forget for a minute that buddie as a ship, the buddie fandom and the journalists exist and that you are being 24/7 bombarded by their opinions. You need to forget all of that and judge the story for itself and you'll see that things aren't as hopeless as you are expecting it to be.

Ps: There are also people who think that the buddie thing will cast a permanent shadow on BuckTommy and for them, I'd like to again point out that had this been a real issue, Eddie would have been here. The fact that they're doing this when he's not is because this is a Tommy issue. Tell me you have never been insecure about something that you don't fully believe in and merely clung onto as a scapegoat. The person Tommy is insecure about is himself but the fact that he is not enough just because he is himself is too painful so what is the next best thing? Making himself believe that of course he is could never be enough, not when Eddie is there, who has history with Buck and can offer him a readymade family. Trust me when I say if Eddie had not been in the equation, there would have been some unknown person to bear that brunt.

So yeah while there is like a 10% chance that Tim will do something crazy, logically there is only one direction everything seems to be pointing to. Hope this helps and thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

[barrenclan]

How do you decide on motifs? Like sleep being associated with death, roses being associated with death? And how did you go about assigning each motif to a character (especially more character specific ones)? Like I get that Rainhaze was seen as a coyote in omens because of his association with Ranger, but why is Nightberry associated with visions, why is Cootstorm associated with never changing, conservative ideals?

Here's a good way to think about this: PATFW is not coming out of nowhere. Seems obvious, right? But every decision made is one that I had to intentionally choose, with a goal in mind for what I wanted to do with them. So I don't have real animals, or real people - I have certain stories in mind, and the characters are tools that I use to express these ideas. Let's take two examples brought up here, and I'll show you what I mean.

Asphodelpaw's death. For this story, I wanted to have a big, climatic moment that really jerks around the story, much in the same way that Shellspring's reveal did in TDS. I know that I want Rainhaze to be an exploration of a character who starts out good and turns complicated, and that I want him to not be redeemed. Okay, so how do I make sure Rainhaze is beyond redemption? He'd have to do something really awful, like killing someone important. The rest of the Clan wouldn't be as impactful if he killed them, so it should be one of his family members, and someone we really care about. Okay, who do I want him to kill? Pinepaw is my narrator, so if I want him to keep narrating, I can't kill him. I want Slugpelt to feel the consequences of this murder Rainhaze makes, and I want her to later confront him about it, so he can't kill her. I can't quite get into why I want Daffodilpaw to live yet, because of spoilers, but I have a certain message I want to create with Daffodilpaw, and she can't die as part of it. So Asphodelpaw is the only one left. Okay, why would it be impactful for her to die? Because she just came into herself, and apologized to Pinepaw, and is on track to grow into a better person. So it's extra tragic - and extra irredeemable - of Rainhaze to kill her. There you go, that's the reasoning behind Asphodelpaw's death.

The sleep/death motif. I have suffered from personal difficulties surrounding death, specifically involved with intrusive thoughts before I go to sleep. So those two ideas are very linked in my mind, and because PATFW is a darker story, I wanted to explore it. Okay, how do I work it into the story? Rainhaze is a character who's disappeared, presumed dead, by the time the story starts. Alright, maybe I can work it in there. I used it for the first time in Issue 4, contrasting between Rainhaze and Slugpelt's views on what happens after death. Alright, so now I have a thematic parallel between their characters and their views. Okay, how does this affect the future plot? As Rainhaze gets further involved with Defiance, his views on killing change, and that strengthens this association with sleep. So later, when Slugpelt kills him, I can bring this thematic parallel back around and make it really resonate, because I've built up the connection over the whole story. There you go, that's how you create a motif.

I hope you found this interesting. Often I find that a lot of writing advice is vague and nonspecific, so I tried to make my reasoning behind these things as clear as possible. From the outside, it may seem like absolutely anything can happen in a story, but from an internal perspective there are only so many ways to get to a point I want to make, so those decisions have to lead to each other if I want to create a natural thread.

[sanctus-ingenium]

I’m really inspired by your world building and the creatures you use. I’m trying to kickstart my own world using Celtic, Norse and Scottish myths (it also involves werewolves because they’re cool)

But I’m stumped and a bit overwhelmed. How’d you start your project and what were huge sources of inspiration for you as you worked on The Black Horse?

hi there!!! this will probably get wordy i have a lot of thoughts on this but here's how i built up my inver setting

i had the characters first, and the werewolf establishment was basically the first thing invented about the world. I wrote a decent amount about the characters in the pre-1st draft slush pile just getting a handle on their voices, their history together, etc. the first slush draft was in painstaking chronological order telling of their lives from birth to like age 40 - it wasn't pretty to read but it meant I knew what big moments formed their worldview, their relationships with others, things like that. and then i got to pick and choose which ones would feature in the actual 1st draft, and which i would leave unsaid, in flashback form, or only in the form of vague allusions. the plot and world events changed significantly as i wrote the actual 1st draft so this ended up only being useful for backstory stuff and not book plots, but it was still good to have.

There was an important moment of a character being kidnapped into a faery realm, which is what started me off thinking about fairies in general. they weren't originally a part of this world - it was an undefined space before just for the characters to exist in, because i was (and still am) more interested in the characters than the worldbuilding. but i still like for there to be SOMETHING there in the background, and it gives a lot of opportunities to inform characterisation, so i started to make my setting. I picked the Púca as a pivotal being & major inspiration source to include because of its relatively large presence in the fringes of my childhood in stories told by my older relatives and i like the unusual aspects about it as well, how it has been both heroic and malevolent in different stories. you have to remember i grew up in this culture too, i knew a lot already, and that's what got me thinking of alternate Earth history - as in, the setting of Inver as alternate history, not wholly original fantasy set in a fantasy land.

So then I had to think about the implications of that, and here is where I think a lot of authors adapting extant mythology fall short. A world where faeries/mythological monsters/gods based in real cultures exist and people interact with them is indistinguishable from our own. We already live in a world where people interact with faeries in their own way; I've heard many older relatives recount stories of being trapped in their fields by faeries, how you can only escape by taking off your jumper and putting it back on inside out. There was no question as to whether they believed this was a concrete, meaningful interaction with a supernatural being. We have a motorway that was diverted while it was being built because the builders didn't want to risk cutting down a hawthorn tree. There is a deep stigma against harming hawthorns. Now, tell me how things would be any different if faeries were real irl? ftr I do not believe in the supernatural whatsoever, not even a little bit, but it is impossible to deny that I live in a world deeply shaped by it - I need only look out the window at the stands of whitethorn around my house to know that. because the main expression of that supernatural element is in how the people of that culture react.

you cannot, you cannot pick and choose only the monsters from a legend and leave behind the people who made & propagated that legend. you're only taking a single thread from a rich tapestry. I'm not arguing that other cultures should be untouchable, far from it, I'm just saying that to truly appreciate it, you need context for everything you adapt. you gotta know what you're writing about

in that sense, the people are more important to building Inver than the faeries. a citizen of Inver not immediately affected by the main plotline would likely never see or interact with magic in their lifetime, but their society is still shaped by it. so is mine (though that's more on the catholic church than anything else)

So now that I'd had that realisation, I decided to dump a lot of the traditional fantasy tropes I'd been working with. Think basic fantasy setting stuff, pop culture "The Fae" tropes, even the terminology of 'Fae' at all - that is not something I've ever heard the older generation in my life call them. It's just 'fairies' to them (although I did shift the spelling to match the Yeats poem because I could not handle writing characters making accusations of being A Fairy and have it not come across as a unintentionally homophobic accusation lmao). I did some research; mostly on JSTOR, using my institutional access, because my own university is mostly science and didn't have a big library of anthropological texts. I read An Táin Bó Culainge which is honestly one of the greatest stories of all time PLEASE READ IT if you are at all interested in Irish myth. It is a fantastic story and extremely comedic as well (a canon mmmf foursome lol). In terms of academic sources specific to the Púca, I have a drive folder of pdfs I will share with anyone if they ask.

I decided I was not going to include anything from what people actually think of as pre-christian Irish mythology - no fianna [rangers notwithstanding], no Ulster cycle, no Tuatha Dé, no Irish gods. All the things I include are post-colonial aside from the notion of the Otherworld in general. This decision wasn't necessarily accurate to what might have happened in this alternate history (given that christianity still has no real foothold in Inver) but it is a colonised society after all. It's why I got slightly steamed once when someone filed my Púca art into their irish deities/irish polytheism tag (I have my own issues with iripols/gaelpols for the same reason I dislike people taking myths out cultural context and in this case contemporary cultural context), because the Púca is in fact a postcolonial being - it comes from the UK, and likely the mainland as well

One of the last things I did before starting on my 2nd draft, which is what turned into Said the Black Horse, was decide to always capitalise the word 'Púca'. Because what really clicked from doing my research and remembering what I'd heard as a child was that the Púca is a specific character. Not a species, not a class of monster. A character, one guy. And you'll find this everywhere - the obvious example is the Minotaur being one specific guy, the son of Minos, not just 'a minotaur'. One very funny consequence of speciesifying mythological characters is dnd ppl saying their character is A Firbolg (fir bolg is plural!!). Fantasy bestiary books like Dragonology or Spiderwick Chronicles have done some amount of damage to how people relate to myths and legendary creatures, and I am not immune as someone who loves speculative biology, but in Inver I decided to cut all of that out.

Next once I got that out of the way I had to think about tone, atmosphere, and intended results. I didn't achieve my holy grail of a very atmospheric, undefined, and uncertain story that provides no answers, due to limitations in my own abilities, but I tried. I have given less than 1 second of thought to how magic or faery biology in Inver works because that is not conducive to the atmosphere of a fairytale. Many of these source myths and legends are really about the fear of the unknown. They are rationalisations to explain away something unknown, some mystery of life, and you cannot explain the unexplainable and expect it to carry the same punch as the original myths that you are drawn to adapt. That's also why I try to never actually give facts about fairies, but instead I talk about what people think of them. The word 'considered' does some insanely heavy lifting in that linked post lmao. Is any of what I wrote true with regards to the Red King?? It is for the people who believe it.

I'm saying all of this because these are all points I had to think about before writing that 2nd draft, but also because I think they're worth considering for your own story as well. I'll admit I invented my werewolves from scratch, they have no mythological basis, because they pre-date the faery stuff and also I wanted them to fill a very specific role and appear a little more concrete than the other supernatural elements. It is what it is; I wanted a werewolf element that didn't match myths and legends (and honestly was partially inspired by me rolling my eyes about those posts going around moaning and whining about 'the doggification of werewolves missing the point of werewolf stories'. I thought, well, there's more than one story you can tell with a werewolf - it isn't always 'i fear the beast within', sometimes it's something else! sometimes it's daddy issues! it's okay to make something new)

ok i think that's all i have to say.. modern Inver is a bit different, that worldbuilding is largely the same but with a big dose of actual ecology because the main characters are rangers and in Inver in 2017, rangers mostly do environmental monitoring. and that's a whole different sort of worldbuilding lol

good luck with your story!!

[tokiro07]

Ichi the Witch ch.20 thoughts

[And the World Will Turn to Ichi]

(Topics: character analysis - Jikishirone/Ichi/Desscaras, narrative analysis - prophecy/speculation)

AwooGA!!!

God damn, that's a hell of a design Jikishirone's got! And her expressions are so fun, I'm such a sucker for that style of toothy grin, especially on girl characters

It's just such a shame that she's clearly only meant to be an occasional cameo at best if not a simple one-off at worst. Her design is just too busy to be a consistently recurring character, and being an oracle doesn't offer a lot of utility outside of being a plot device, as prophecies don't serve a story very well if they're being thrown around left and right

Not that she would do that, though. Jiki's clearly pretty fickle, only sharing an extremely important prophecy mere minutes before it came to pass so no one could do anything meaningful about it, so while she's not a Human Hater, she isn't necessarily a Human Lover either

Desscaras mentioned in ch.2 that there are Magiks that work alongside humanity, and clearly Jiki is one such Magik, but the fact that she's not going out of her way to make her prophecies as useful as possible suggests that she isn't actually interested in helping humanity. It may be that she's just looking to be entertained, or that since she knows the entire world is at stake, this is all just for self-preservation

Or she just has a nasty personality and she really is doing everything she can. She said she "received" her prophecies, suggesting that she doesn't have the power to look though the future on a whim. While she may be capable of withholding information, we don't have any proof yet that the 15-minute prophecy was available any earlier than that

Ooor it did exist earlier, buuut Jiki knew that if she shared the prophecy, Ichi wouldn't meet World Hater, and the dominos wouldn't fall the way they needed to afterward. Jiki may be playing 4D chess, and she knows exactly when a pawn needs to be where in order to set up a checkmate a thousand moves down the line

We simply don't know enough about Jikishirone's motivations or abilities to say how her personality informs her actions, but at the very least she's made it clear that she can't be relied on as a perfect preventative measure

Like I said, her prophecies are more of a plot device, giving us and the cast a sense of direction for where the story is meant to go next rather than serving as a comprehensive strategy guide

Time is Like a River

Now, I'm personally not a fan of prophecies that are so...blatant. "No Witch will ever acquire the World Hater Magik" is fine, because like Lord of the Rings' "no man can slay me," the original Japanese specifies that no "Magic Woman" will acquire the World Hater, leaving it open-ended that anyone who isn't a Magic Woman (like a Magic Man or a somehow non-Magic Woman) feasibly could

However, when the clause that "hope lies within the one who acquires the Uroro Magik" is introduced, that takes any and all ambiguity out of the equation: only one person can acquire a Magik at a time, so unless Ichi dies and another Madan comes along, the prophecy can only be referring to him

Vague prophecies give a lot of wiggle room and allow for narrative deception, giving the audience the opportunity to figure out for themselves what the author's true intentions are without it being spelled out for them. A specific prophecy like this becomes a question of "will it really happen or won't it" rather than "how will it happen." which I simply find less interesting

Of course, we've already established that Jiki can't really be trusted

As she's presented herself, she seems to be willing to hide information until the last minute, and even if her prophecies are perfectly accurate, they clearly don't inherently tell the whole story. As Jiki says, the part where "the Light goes out" was a recent addition to a previously existing prophecy, and one that already had an escape clause built-in with the Light existing at all to avert the destruction of the world. In other words, who's to say that Jiki doesn't already know the way to save Ichi that she just isn't sharing? Or that she won't find one down the line?

This uncertainty doesn't go unnoticed in-universe, either, as Ichi immediately agrees to throwing his life away for the sake of defeating the World Hater

Here For a Good Time, not a Long Time

Ever the optimist, Ichi looks at the prophecy as a win-win situation - either it's true and he dies doing what he loves (hunting and killing a strong opponent) or it's false and he gets to keep living to do what he loves. Either way, Ichi has always accepted the possibility of his own death during a hunt, so he takes the prophecy as more of a comfort that, even if he's fighting something strong enough to kill him, at least he'll take it down in the process

What's especially interesting though is that there's a little bit of a contradiction between this scene and when Ichi first killed the wolf in ch.1. Back then, Ichi thought there was no value in his life, and yet in order to survive, he found the strength of will to kill something else. This gives the impression that Ichi is the type who will do anything to survive, and yet here he's perfectly willing to die for the sake of the hunt, implying that he still doesn't value his life

This is probably something that will be touched on more next week, but I think it's less that he's willing to die and more that he's not bothered by death so long as he lives without regret. If he were to die of old age on a deathbed, I think he'd be pretty disappointed that he's not doing something fun with his last moments, but dying while taking down something stronger than him would be a hell of a story to tell in the afterlife (not that he believes in one)

The question isn't so much what Ichi thinks about death, though; the real question is if he's right to think that way about death, and it looks like Desscaras is going to be the one to answer that for us

It Should've Been Me

As Ichi emphatically agrees to Jikishirone's command that he heroically martyr himself, Desscaras can only stare in silence, her fist clenched in apprehension

There are a few ways to read into this. Since Desscaras was the one who was supposed to acquire Uroro, she may be upset that her failure means that someone else has to die fighting World Hater in her place. She may feel regret that she failed to acquire Uroro, she may feel responsible for getting Ichi killed, she might even feel jealous that she won't be the one to avenge her fallen home. It could even be a combination of all of them and any number of other emotions

It may also be that she's grown attached to Ichi and doesn't want to lose him. Seeing him be so glib with his life, especially since he's giving the same response that he gave when she invited him to join Mantinel in the first place, may well be heartbreaking for her, and again may make her feel like she's the one who got him killed. She may be reading into it the same way I am, surprised that he doesn't value himself as much as she expected

Whatever she's feeling though, her reaction next week will likely lead into a major thesis statement for the series - either she will say what Ichi needs to hear for him to understand just how valuable his life is, or Ichi will reveal a personal truth to Desscaras that makes it clear that while he does value his life, living it in a way that isn't true to himself isn't living at all

Basically, what it comes down to is whether or not Ichi is meant to have a positive character arc or a flat character arc. Is Ichi meant to learn a lesson, or is he meant to teach a lesson? The way this interaction goes will dictate the course of the narrative going forward, though certainly not immutably. It may turn out to be a misdirect, and whatever we're shown may end up reversed further down the line

Either way, I'm excited to see how Ichi and Desscaras' relationship develops from here. Desscaras having an actual emotional response to Ichi's attitude and fate already puts her on a different level than most shonen mentor figures, and I think that will only serve to make her vastly more interesting than the majority of her archetypical cohort

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[darkstarofchaos]

I believe I’ve mentioned this before in a post but by now it’s lost to time, so as another blog who has issues with the Megatron redemption thing being very flat:

I wish Earthspark had taken the same route as Steven Universe’s did on Rose/Pink Diamond but with Megatron, the younger members of cast who have only ever known this ‘good’ version of them get to slowly learn new things and experience his redemption in reverse.

All the older bots they know like Elita and Bee and Optimus all get along so well with Megatron except for minor things, so to them it would likely be hard to imagine it could be THAT bad. Even hearing from other Decepticons how he used to be could’ve been interesting and they half-way opened the door to that possibility with the Starscream arc and then slammed it shut by making Starscream so much worse.

Thinking of it from a kid/teen perspective like the terrans, Starscream described him as cruel and how he rules with fear. Hashtag sort of gets an understanding that Megatron didn’t exactly risk his ass for a soldier who was left behind, and yeah that all sounds pretty (vaguely) cold and cruel, but then Starscream rips the life out of two children right in front of them rather maliciously. They’re probably gonna have Starscream as the worst of the two from their views. Like everything he non-descriptively told them about Megatron is gonna pale in comparison to the trauma he just caused them.

(On a side note, I saw a clip from season 3 where Starscream is sitting trapped in the dome having propped up the chaos Terran’s bodies and that’s not really taken as something horrific? Like they all blatantly ignore Starscream as if he poses no threat and the terrans aren’t even a LITTLE disturbed or angry with him? Theyre all just sighing and rolling their eyes??? Pls PICK A TONE they never seem to portray anyone the same way twice whyyyy.)

Focus on Megatron backstory being revealed to the terrans is always so weird and passive. Like them seeing an earlier version of him in that training simulator wasn’t enough for me. I’m not saying ‘traumatize the kids’ cause that’s mean, but like idk an old war story from an oblivious autobot who hasn’t been in touch with the others! That’s an easy option! There’s so many ways and they didn’t utilize it they just… RGH I’m no good with words sorry it’s just so many wasted opportunities and ill-planned plots.

The thing about the "old war story from an Autobot who hasn't been in touch" option is. They literally had the opportunity to do that in S3. Because they introduced Prowl, who had no idea Megatron changed sides, didn't trust him, and didn't like the Autobots relying on kids. So like. He was literally the perfect character to be uncomfortable with how much the kids trust Megatron and want to talk to them about it. And not only did S3 not do that, it ended with Prowl and Megatron on good terms, so they actually removed the possibility of it coming up later (Prowl also decided relying on kids is fine, actually. Mostly I liked how EarthSpark handled him, but they wasted no time forcing the worst parts of the status quo on him).

I'm not super familiar with Steven Universe (mostly I just watched a few Peridot episodes), so I don't know how they built up the reveal with Rose, but I feel like SU is a perfect example of why Megatron's redemption doesn't work. Rose/Pink Diamond was at the top of her society, and when she changed, so did everything around her. She was one of the most important characters in the story while being dead.

Meanwhile, Megatron is just kind of... There? Sure, you have one-off episodes like Shockwave's and Soundwave's debuts where they were specifically mad at Megatron for betraying them, but his redemption doesn't serve the narrative at all. None of the other Decepticons went with him when he defected, there's no evidence that he tried to end the war through negotiation, none of the Autobots have any lingering mistrust. His defection changed nothing, and if the war had ended because of his death instead, you could tell the exact same story by just modifying a few episodes.

And yeah, you have people who'll say it doesn't matter because the story is about the kids, not the legacy characters, but we're talking about the leader of the Decepticons. You don't just redeem the leader of the enemy faction and handle him the way you would handle a random low-ranking soldier.

Honestly, I don't think anything short of a complete rewrite of his character and his impact on the story would fix his redemption. At very least, you'd need to revert back to S1 Starscream, because making the victim worse than his abuser is the surest way to ruin a redemption for me. Just come right out and say the abuse was justified, why don't you.

(You also have people who'll say there's no evidence that Megatron abused Starscream in EarthSpark. I assume those people just kind of ignore Starscream explicitly saying he's not safe around Megatron).

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #20 – Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

I’ve in theory been a big fan of Bennett for a couple years now, having adored American Elsewhere when I read it. I say ‘in theory’ because I had not actually followed that up by reading any of his other stuff until I happened to see him doing an AMA on r/fantasy and was jolted to go put something of his on hold. The most convenient option was Foundryside so, here we are.

The story follows Sancia, a former slave-turned-magical-experiment who now uses her rather inconveniently always-on sort of object empathy to be a really excellent thief for hire in the hopes of earning enough cash to pay some black market surgeon to make her normal again and then stay quiet about it. That price tag lures her into accepting a job for an eye-watering amount of money from what it clearly one of the merchant houses who rule the city – which she discovers to be an ancient relic, a key that can open any lock. And talk to her. And revolutionize the entire industry of enchanting upon which the city’s fortune and empire are built. She correctly assumes that there’s no way they’re planning to let her live after turning it (him) over, and things spiral out of control from there.

It’s fundamentally a heist story, with all the main action setpieces being about breaking into places and stealing things. And like all good heist stories, the protagonists are totally incapable of winning through anything like brute force, and have to be clever bastards about it – sneaking past guards, not slaughtering them in the night. Those heist sequences are all vividly described and just a lot of fun, almost worth the price of admission on their own.

So this is the rare story where calling it ‘magipunk’ is both accurate and helpful. Which is to say, it is almost literally a cyberpunk story translated into the idiom of vaguely-early-modern fantasy city states instead of corporate arcologies. Scheming oligarchs, overmighty corporate states, miraculous technologies that are only felt by the underclass as news ways of being oppressed and objectified, the works. The most triumphant and hopeful part of the ending involves the founding of a worker’s coop that doesn’t get immoderately crushed. Notably useful and plot-relevant enchanted items include a listening device, trackers, and a powered gliding rig. It’s only when you really get into it that the magic starts feeling at all magical, is what I’m saying – you could translate almost all of this into Cyberpunk 2020 terms in a couple of hours. I think it’s quite fun.

Sancia’s whole backstory – a slave on one of the plantations supplying the city with food and spices, taken as a subject for bloody experimentation in creating perfectly obedient magical cyborgs, surviving and escaping because they got sloppy with occult grammar and reality interpreted ‘be like object’ as ‘be like [INSERT NEAREST OBJECT HERE]’ – is fun on a few different levels. The story definitely leans into a running theme of the reduction of the powerless and subordinate to literal objects and tools wielded by those who control them, both metaphorically and literally. But also there’s an absolutely great beat where she’s explaining her story to the rest of the main cast who are all horrified and disgusted that anyone would do such a thing. To which she reacts very angrily and goes ‘you know that isn’t, like, worse than the whole rest of the chattel slave economy, right? More people get horribly tortured to death as part of everyday operations than creepy magical experiments?”

Sancia as a character is just a lot of fun to spend time in the head of, honestly. Her relationship with Clef (the magical key, the more literal example of being objectified and insturmentalized by one’s masters) is the core dynamic of the first ~half of the book, and it absolutely carries it. Though in the final act it then runs into the very common action/adventure story issue where she starts talking about this guy she’d known for barely a week like a life-long friend she’s shared more good times than she could count with. Entirely forgivable but like, it does stand out.

There’s this whole subtheme of, like, futile misogyny running through the text? It’s never explicitly brought up, and the only character whose actually vocally sexist on the page is the asshole philistine moneygrubbing abusive husband wannabe-coupist you’re clearly supposed to hate. But it’s a repeatedly mentioned point that the culture of enchanting grew significantly more patriarchal in the previous generation (for unstated reasons, possibly just the one epoch-defining genius being a misogynistic ass) and that this was very bad for the career prospects of several major characters. Despite this, important women in the story include a) half the main cast, b) the only competent and attentive head of any of the four merchant houses and c) the enchanting-prodigy wife of aforementioned sexist asshole who turns out to have been feeding him every useful idea he ever had until she could kill him and scoop up everything he’s gathered. This is one of those things that amuses me because it’s clearly deliberate but is never directly mentioned.

This is also one of those books that’s queer rep not in the revolutionary groundbreaking it’s-a-core-part-of-the-tezt way, but in the ‘wow isn’t it great how normal and unremarkable queer representation is now?’ way. Like, Sancia is gay, which is one of remarkably few things about herself she never expresses a single moment of angst, anger or self-doubt about, and she has the sort of C-plot romance subplot every adventure story is obligated to (right down to agreeing to go out for a drink if she survives the last big heist), but with a woman. Her sexuality otherwise basically doesn’t matter. When people ask for queer SFF book recommendations I’m never sure if offering stuff like this is missing the point or exactly what’s desired.

As mentioned, the only other book of Bennett’s I’ve read is American Elsewhere. Which was an absolutely horrible way to set my expectations going into this. Foundryside is fun adventure fantasy, but it has far fewer literary pretensions. The prose is incredibly readable – it’s absolutely a page turner – but that’s basically all it aspires to be. Elsewhere had several different passages I stopped and reread just for the pleasure of it, Foundryside I went back and reread only when I skimmed past some important detail and got confused.

But it’s a really fun fantasy heist story, and the sequel promises to be about a rampant artificial intelligence clockwork djinn which turned against the ancients who made her. So I’m sure I’ll get to it sooner rather than latter.

[markantonys]

Was talking with a moot and they were saying how they don't feel like the show is doing a good job of explaining the lore. How right now we don't know what being the Dragon actually means, what ta'veren are, what the Dark One even is, what does he want, why does the Dragon fight him, how all of these mythologies are built into the worldbuilding in the books but aren't as clear in the show/feels disconnected. Idk I feel like the show is just introducing these things at a slower pace than the books did and that's not necessarily a bad thing

i just don't get these arguments because most of these lore points literally have been explained in the show???? do these book fans just miss it when lore is incorporated via natural dialogue or via Showing Not Telling instead of via somebody sitting us down to do an infodumping monologue for 5 minutes? i swear to god so many readers just don't pay attention to the show and then whine that it's missing stuff it did in fact include.

dragon stuff: this has been abundantly explained in both seasons, meanwhile in the books the concept of TDR wasn't even introduced until book 2. we will get more specifics at the same time rand does in upcoming seasons, just like in the books. at this early stage we don't need to know any more than "the dragon is a chosen one figure whose purpose is to fight the dark one and lead the last battle."

what the dark one is: a bad guy (duh) but otherwise left intentionally vague to build up mystery, just like the books did. we don't have the slightest conception of what TDO actually is until his first onscreen "appearance" in book SIX.

what does he want: to break the wheel and end existence. ishy's literal entire season 2 storyline was about this, and it went into way more detail than books 1-3 did. i'm not sure we got much of this stuff in the books until moridin came on the scene.

ta'veren is the only one i'd agree the show hasn't gone into much (though it DID explain the concept in 1x08), but, again, do we need to know that much about it right now? we know that our EF5 are Special, and that's enough if you ask me.

(i also wonder if the show might go a bit lighter on ta'veren than the books. idk, some of the stronger Main Character Energy stuff like plot armor and convenient coincidences and people blurting out secrets around them might come off a bit silly, and as for the stuff relating to the pattern controlling ta'veren's paths, it's interesting but it's pretty deep lore and the story doesn't really change whether or not we're explicitly aware that the events that happen to our gang are predestined. like, we'll obviously get plenty of predestination stuff with rand's dragon prophecies and min's viewings and likely the finn, so how necessary is it to also go into great detail on ta'veren predestination?)

having watched both seasons with my show-only non-fantasy-literate mom, i can attest that there is SO MUCH information for newcomers to wrap their heads around and i think her brain would have exploded if these seasons had tried to squeeze in any more than they did. she made me take down notes she could review between episodes! you should've seen her poor eyes glazing over at all the lore & worldbuilding stuff getting thrown at her in 2x05! this also goes for stuff like the whining about the show not yet using the words saidar & saidin - if they'd been throwing those around constantly since day 1, my mom would've had no fucking clue what they were talking about because she really struggles with remembering fantasy jargon, whereas consistently referring to it as "the male/female half of the source" in these early seasons is way more intuitive and way more effective at teaching her how this magic system works.

at the end of the day, the show simply is not ever going to flesh out the lore and mythology as deeply as the books do due to limitations of this different medium, and people need to accept that. it will explain as much lore as is necessary to understand the story and not much more than that, and that's absolutely fine. show-onlys are understanding the story just fine with the information the show is choosing to include, and lore nerds can knock themselves out rereading the books anytime they want.

[physalian]

The Pronoun Game

*This is not about preferred pronouns, this is writing advice.

I don’t actually know if this is the official term but it’s what we’re going with, otherwise known as contrived vagueness on a character’s identity to keep the secret from the audience.

“You know… ~him~.” “Who?” “HIM.” “One more time.” “HIIIIIIIM!” “…”

Stop doing this. No one talks like this. Or at least come up with a better in-universe code name even if it’s just “the client” or “the target.” Anything is better than this glaring contrivance.

It’s not so much the secret name, it’s how clunky the dialogue becomes without it (ignoring when this is done for humor and supposed to be a little ridiculous).

This is a partner post to how to introduce new characters’ names and the point I’ll be making there applies here: exposition, including new character names, should tell us more about your story than just the information within the text.

But first: just stop doing this. Just name the character. Do it. Audiences will be as confused as if you use a vague “he/him they/them she/her,” but at least they have a name to keep track of, even if it’s faceless at the time they hear it.

It doesn’t even work as a mystery. Characters only play when they’re obfuscating the villain. It’s almost never a red herring. Sure you didn’t say the name, but by deliberately hiding it, you’ve shown your hand.

Real people don’t play the pronoun game unless it’s motivated. So? Make it motivated.

Best example in history: He-who-shall-not-be-named

Why? It’s not just a pronoun, it’s got lore and myths and mystery baked into it. There’s a plot-based reason to be vague. Everyone who says this moniker admits they’re at worst terrified of and at best spiteful of its owner.

I have my own "he who shan't be named" and, can confirm, it's born from glorious spite and satisfying to use every time it comes up.

You can’t copy the epithet, but you can learn from it. Give your characters a reason to be vague beyond preserving the secret for the audience.

Names have power, speaking theirs draws too much attention or bad vibes

Character f*cking hates them, and pronouns them out of spite

Character is being vague to mess with the narrator on purpose

Character fears eavesdroppers and is being careful

Character is testing whether they can trust another by being vague and checking if they’re in on the secret

Character is drunk/high/exhausted and cannot remember the name or care about it to save their life

Optional substitutes here can get quite creative, my personal favorite is “what’s-his-nuts” because I like the cadence but you get the idea

All of these reflect back on the story and the world you’ve built, to give an in-universe reason for the obfuscation.

Now stop playing the pronoun game.

—

Thoughts on the shorter format? I can’t tell if #longpost is supposed to be an insult or not. I have a few of these coming.

[ii-neg-confessions-2]

Speaking as an old guy in the OSC (joined here a little while before BFDIA 5e released), I'm a little surprised that the audience acclaimed show in the community is...II? Like I get that it's the second biggest show (and biggest, for a while) in the running at its time, and I liked it for what it offered, and I totally get why it has fans, but I feel like it was always sort of milquetoast, underplanned, and diluted?

Like, BFDI built a show with an exaggerated premise and kept expanding on how wild it could get, but it had grounded characters where you could sit back and watch their arcs unfold in realistic ways as they succeed or mess up. ONE built a show around the bleak premise and kept the momentum going to make characters that were hard to root for but sympathetic nonetheless. ITFT, AIB, and TPOS (and my personal recommendation, POSSUM,) do great subversions of the genre by hinting at something bigger than the shows themselves, just hiding behind the plucky exterior that no one else acknowledges. Even shows with lower stakes like BOTO, AIB, C2BC, OLD, and OSO find their strengths by building from the comedic perspective or the character dynamics. They all feel confident in what they set themselves out to accomplish, even if they miss.

II now feels disingenuine in that same regard. They started out absurd and immature, as well as a little self-aware that they're absurd and immature, and it certainly feels like the most Total Drama-ish show out of all of them. Toilet humor, fat jokes, cheap laughs at stutters and alters, a few harmless antagonists until the grand finale? It's not deep, it's not even polished, but who needs it to be?

Then they tried to make things deeper, and the cracks began to show -- the foundation is unpaved, the structure falls apart the more you look at it. Characters that were treated as one-dimensional archetypes gain nuance that comes from nowhere with no buildup. Consider Balloon's arc of secretly wanting to get back in everyone's good graces and how the audience doesn't see it until Suitcase reaches out to him, even during the early parts of Season 2 -- compare it to how Pencil post-debut tries to warm up to her "alternate" FreeSmart members before she has her rant about how alone she is and how she needs the past to change. Consider Paintbrush and how their one-sided beef with Lightbulb went from "they're trying, I guess" in S2 to "the OG fam" in post-S3 with little to no interaction with her in between those periods -- compare it to Clock having a slow burn with Winner over combined standom and crippling loneliness before he's able to realize the errors of his ways and apologizes after episodes of idolization. Consider how Candle and Silver make the false claim that Balloon drove Nickel away from Baseball, and how this one misstatement of established canon lore is the one thing that kicks the Nickloon divorce into action -- remember that Suitcase is not brought up once in this conversation until the next episode, and she isn't even used to be seen as a person there.

Consider the ending reveal that, actually, MePhone4 was always God and that he made everyone and everything, and that the whole shebang's flaws can be chalked up to in-universe explanations. Consider that the "foreshadowing" that fans touted was just vague dialogue, semi-meta wordplay, speculation over Cabby's and Suitcase's mental disabilities, plot details that don't even stand out in relation to the absurd worldbuilding, and then adopted as "it's been here since the show began" when it clearly was just another plot they tacked on about 60% the whole story. Compare to a show like TPOS where the twist was always planned and the seemingly mundane scenarios don't overshadow the oddities (the vote counts, the grass, the fact that contestants disappear fully).

There's nothing wrong with a genre switch in a comedy series, but II seems to come from a shaky understanding of what builds conflicts or forms friendships or drives emotions. If something doesn't work, it tries to shift the narrative to make it fit or backpedals clean out (see Blueberry's villain arc lasting one episode, or Cabby getting a genuine talk about her memory aids after that fiasco with Bot). And since it fumbles the plot, its attempts to make emotional connections can seriously come off half-planned. II's shift and plot twists come off as disingenuine, almost manufactured, like if BFDI suddenly tried to pull a ONE in the span of half an episode. They get a lot of things right -- Marshmallow and Bow, Suitcase and Balloon, even Paper and OJ despite how little we see -- but it really isn't the emotional masterpiece that everyone claims it is.

(kinda agree on this one tbh. specially post iii & iii itself. things felt forced to feel serious and everything but just failed miserably. or even i dare to say pre iii tbh. lightbulbs & paintbrushes relationship felt forced just to give paintbrush an alt for marshmallow and even they just made lightbulb feel like the better version of marsh. not only i kinda think some other shows played it off better but also didnt force it in all in one little scene & instead made it slow-burn (take by exampleeeee plasma & knight helm they hated eachother episodes before but started to slowly become friends even after caramel cube got out (need to rewatch ppt2 btw, but iirc i liked this ver allat more) or the nickel & balloon situation. not only it felt unrealistic kinda but also just throws it in for arc purposes. it doesnt have a build up or anything but instead its because nickel wanted an ally or someone to rely on now that baseball was gone. some things actually go good as you say (marsh and bow, suitcase, taco kinda?? etc.) but the other part felt incredibly rushed (post iii taco, lightbrush, etc.) & could have been somehow better… at some points i kinda disagree? but its still coolio /gen) (ALSO before i go i still adore the show just. kinda dont like some parts guh)

[autumnslance]

Hey Aeryn, I was wondering what you recommend to get past FOMO and overthinking. I know I shouldn't feel this way but I can't shake it. I want to play all of the story but I start to feel anxious. I start overthinking and second-guessing and the cycle starts again. I have a WOL I'm enjoying writing but I can't get her to translate in-game. Any advice?

I admit, I don't often get FOMO, but when I do, I stop and ask myself: is this something I actually want to do? A place I actually want to go? An experience I need? An item I want? Or am I just reacting to others, especially friends, having fun and talking about a thing together, so it's pinging a social desire/need?

Cuz I can interact and talk with my friends in other ways and places. I don't have to do all the things they do, play the games they play, etc. I use in built filters and blacklists on my social media to not see things about games/shows/etc that I don't want hear about, and I stop following a lot of (usually sideblogs) accounts that deal with those topics. When I left WoW behind, I dropped a lot of those blogs, for instance.

(I think some people would be happier if they put down media they don't actually enjoy but only watch/play because the people in their lives do.)

What about playing the game is making you anxious? Is it doing the content? Most can be done solo now, but friends can help with the stuff that can't be, or there's always duty finder. Is it story and character direction? Afraid things will happen to your faves, or they'll grown and change in ways you don't care for? That's a risk in any ongoing media, and up to an individual where their "I'm done" point is where they don't enjoy that lore and canon anymore, and then make the decision to change it in fanfiction or drop the story altogether.

With everyone talking about new content right now, even trying to keep spoilers under wraps, it can be rough for sure. Everyone has opinions! And screenshots! And there's new fanfic!

Is the anxiety because of the WoL you started writing, and how she doesn't "translate" in game, and afraid the lore will continue to make that harder?

In that case, look at what the character is, what you've written...and what the character (your subconscious, really) is telling you they actually are, or need. If they don't fit the canon lore...It's OK. Change the story to fit as needed. Or....play through it and see what ends up working after all, with the benefit of knowledge.

You can't lock a character in stone; a story happens because characters want something (large or small), and in the course of the story they are changed in some way (large or small). WoL is an anime protagonist with plotstrong abilities and gifts that give players a lot of leeway in any direction. Some people don't play WoLs at all. Their OC is a person they roleplay and write about in the setting, the plot happens to someone else, and they just play the video game with that avatar.

So what isn't "translating"? Is it appearance related that can't be done without mods and artwork? Disabilities that likewise are tricky to show in game (which assumes a mostly able-bodied WoL)? A backstory that seems to not fit (the world's bigger than what we see)? A lot of detailed backstory and supporting cast that now make you feel boxed into a corner?

It can be hard, seeing people with deeply developed stories and characters and supporting cast, but you also have to remember: a lot of that is built over time. Aeryn didn't have nearly the detailed list of relatives to start, didn't have the "dad was a secret heretic" backstory until 4 years into playing her. I still haven't named all of Dark's siblings. I've seen some folks entirely rewrite their characters cuz something in an expansion spoke to them and it made more sense and made them happier than what they did before.

When I start overthinking a character story, I put the backstory away, and just play them for a bit. I keep a vague idea of what I think their personality might be, what reactions would seem right. And then I let "them" guide me as I play. And sometimes what a character tells me ends up far more interesting. Or I find the stuff I was anxious about adding to them...ends up being canon, or at least working out, anyway.

And if the concern is what other people will think about one's WoL....well, you can't control what others think. And trying to please everyone leaves you with a milquetoast bland sop who isn't interesting at all. Care about the character you want to write, even if that changes, and make them as interesting as you want.

I was saying in a convo yesterday that the shrieking about "Mary Sue and how to not be one" caused lasting societal trauma and people are still afraid of giving characters interesting traits and stories. A person was anxious about giving their WoL traits that might make them 'too much' or 'too special' but they're traits WoL canonically has. We're in an anime story as anime protagonists, be wild and weird. Not everyone will like it, and that's good, actually. Cuz others will love it, and it means you gave your writing and characters personality.

Final Fantasy XIV is a game that 90% of the time, the content isn't going anywhere. You go at your pace, you enjoy the story and side content. There's a lot, after 11 years. Do what you gotta to avoid spoilers, gushing, complaining, or otherwise talk about content you're not in yet to reduce the worry everyone else is having fun while you're spinning wheels a few expacs back. Figure out what you enjoy and love about the game, and focus on that for awhile. Let your WoL breathe, and just play without plotting out how they translate or fit, and remember stories aren't set in stone; they have to be malleable. Especially when trying to write/roleplay in someone else's world!

You should be in this for yourself. Because you find it fun, relaxing, enjoyable to experience. Because you want to tell a character's story even if it takes a hard left turn from canon lore. And if you have to mute and filter out and block some things and people on social media or chat or whatever, do what works for you. But when overthinking, turn that around and interrogate yourself: "OK, why do I feel this way? Why would this be bad? Do I want this or am I trying to follow the crowd?" Make lists, pros and cons. Figure out if it's actually FOMO and anxiety...or if you're trying to tell yourself something and you're just not listening.

Give yourself grace. This game is just one piece of our life's tapestry, and while there's probably friends who want to see you clear content, the world won't end if you don't catch up to the current patch right away, or write a 200k fic about your WoL's life by year's end, either. Go at your pace.

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

I need people to understand, as someone who was big into both Supernatural and Sherlock at 16-17 and never once felt the urge to ship Destiel or Johnlock or any of the other myriad of ships therein, as someone who was generally neutral or actively distasteful toward shipping culture at the time and thought people were always getting up in arms about or reading too much into things that weren't actually there, and even with explicitly canon/obviously going to be canon ships only had a vague secondary interest in them relative to plot... I took one look at Always Sunny and it was the *first* time where I was like, oh, oh, this is real, Macdennis is real, and even if it *maybe* started out as a joke as many of these things tend to do, it's not a joke anymore, and I don't think it's queerbait either, and you can see that in their writing choices, in their interview answers, in the silly, twisting/twisted and ridiculous, yet simultaneously complex and sincere dynamic, love story for the ages, greatest will-they-won't-they, while it shouldn't be your sole focus in regards to the show, this is something genuine to the fans, and genuine to the creators that they want done right, even if people who can't see it act like you've lost your mind, even if you yourself start to think you've lost your own mind every other day in those sobering moments because shit, yeah, Always Sunny is the first time I saw, I get it now, and I even get the appeal of all the other ships in the show, too. Even though it's a sitcom, even though it's "the meme show," they're clearly not just having a laugh, they have stake in this, their work and their characters, and all the relationships they've built on through the years, though silly, are earnest and serious to them, and thus become serious to us.

[the-desolated-quill]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Review

Not going to lie, I didn’t go into this film with high expectations. I loved Mad Max: Fury Road, and Charlize Theron’s Furiosa was a big reason for that. So the idea of doing a Furiosa prequel without the woman who helped make the character so iconic in the first place in my opinion seemed destined to fail, even with director and Mad Max creator George Miller still at the helm. Not to mention prequels are notoriously difficult to get right because you’re already at a disadvantage thanks to the audience’s prior knowledge of what’s to come. It’s hard to get people to care about your film when they already know how it will end.

Never have I been so disappointed to be right.

Anya Taylor-Joy is no Charlize Theron. Her shoes would be difficult to fill for even the most accomplished actress, and Taylor-Joy barely touches the sides. I don’t exactly rate her highly as a performer because in the few films I’ve seen her in she only ever seems to have one facial expression; vacant bewilderedness. But in her defence, she really has almost zero material to work with. It’s amazing really. Mad Max: Fury Road was able to tell a compelling story with very little exposition or dialogue. Furiosa, on the other hand, has tons of exposition and dialogue and yet has no story. To summarise the plot would be a fool’s errand because there really isn’t a plot to summarise. There’s some warlord played by Chris Hemsworth, wearing a very unconvincing prosthetic nose, who wants to take over Immortan Joe’s territory, except we know he won’t succeed and his reasons for why are vague and uninteresting. Furiosa gets passed from warlord to warlord like an unwanted sweater, and then she remembers that her mother was killed by these psychos and she should probably avenge her I guess. Meanwhile Immortan Joe (in name only because the original actor died and this new guy they’ve got cosplaying as him has all the stage presence of an irritable floor manager at your local supermarket) is busy discussing politics with his son Rictus, the People Eater, the Bullet Farmer and that guy from the Mad Max video game everyone has forgotten about. And good God do these guys love to talk. They talk and talk and talk some more, and then Chris Hemsworth arrives and starts talking and talking, and then some guy covered in tattoos starts talking and talking. There’s so much talking in this movie and yet, strangely, nobody is actually saying anything.

This film is an excellent example of the difference between story and lore. Furiosa has loads of lore. Loads of lore. But the story is practically non-existent and the information they provide is neither valuable nor necessary. This film is essentially a theatrical reenactment of the Mad Max wiki. No stone is left unturned. Ever wondered how the Organic Mechanic came to work for Immortan Joe? No? Well we’re going to tell you anyway. Do you want to know how the People Eater came to be in charge of Gas Town? Tough shit if you don’t because we’re going to lay it all out for you in laborious detail. Were you curious as to how the War Rig was built? I hope you were. Because we’re going to dedicate a significant section of the film detailing how it was built and them test running the fucking thing before having to fight a bunch of nameless goons in quite possibly the most boring action scene ever put to film. (This was the cardinal sin for me. I was so bored I actually fell asleep. The only time I’ve ever fallen asleep in a cinema was during that twenty minute underwater sequence in Avatar: The Way Of Water. Dozing off during James Cameron’s CGI circlejerk is one thing. Dozing off during a Mad Max film should be impossible).

It’s hard to believe this was made by the same person behind Fury Road. Back then George Miller seemed to understand that there was no point in bogging the narrative down in pointless exposition or needless backstories. What mattered was the characters, the relationships, the here and now. Remember the scene when Furiosa discovered her home was destroyed long ago and she takes her mechanical arm off, falls to her knees and screams her head off. All that pain and anguish and sorrow and regret all perfectly conveyed without a single line of dialogue. What can a prequel possibly add to this scene? Does knowing that Furiosa’s mother was beaten and burned alive in front of her when she was a little girl make that scene any more powerful? Of course not. It’s just an unnecessary detail that I didn’t need nor do I really care about. She lost her mother. Okay. So? I had already assumed that from watching Fury Road. I didn’t need her life story explained to me in a PowerPoint presentation. I suppose the only thing I was vaguely interested in was how Furiosa lost her arm, and even that is anticlimactic. She basically loses it by accident in a car chase. Now some of you may be getting annoyed that I’m giving away ‘spoilers’, but the truth is there’s nothing really to spoil. There’s no plot. Only lore. Specifically lore nobody really asked for in the first place. They don’t even bother fleshing out Furiosa’s relationship with the Wives. How’s that for irony? Fury Road was deservedly praised for its feminist themes and giving its female characters agency. Meanwhile the prequel has its male characters spouting literal pages of dialogue while the women, including Furiosa, get almost zero development and barely get a line in edgeways. Oops.

Furiosa astounds me. It astounds me that it’s made by the same man who made Fury Road. It astounds me that after nine years of struggling to get this film off the ground that this is the best George Miller can come up with. It astounds me that this cost $168 million to make when it would be much cheaper, quicker and less painful for the audience to just smack them in the face with a copy of the Mad Max Encyclopedia and be done with it. It astounds me that this boring slog of a film is actually getting positive reviews when this is a textbook example of how NOT to do a prequel. I’m just astounded. Apparently this film is bombing at the box office. Good. That may sound harsh, but it’s true. This is one of the most mind numbing, dull, pointless films I’ve ever had the displeasure of sitting through, and I’m never going to get those 150 hours back.

Sorry, did I say hours? It sure felt like hours.

[inactive-jellynyann]

I have come to bother you for any details on your Fairy Tail Self Insert you'd be willing to share because I am staring. At Samuel my beloved little freak guy. As your Exceed Companion. I would love to know more.

Okay, so when I watched FT for the first time I had a S/I and Natsu was my F/O too, I don't remember it much because I was like 10-13 also ofc now a lot things changed so yeah, my current S/I is different than my first S/I. So when I started rewatching FT of course I had to think about what kind of magic I want to use. I wanted to be a dragon slayer and my fav element is water, but if my S/I is part of the team Natsu (so one of the 'main character') then I didn't want to make myself a water dragon slayer because of Juvia. Okay, then something else that I like - since I was a child I was fascinated by space so I thought it would be cool if I could be a dragon slayer connected to the stars. Then when I was looking at wiki I saw that in fact there is already canon moon dragon slayer magic (and I literally was thinking between moon and stars XD) so I thought I'll go with it and then when I start watching 100 years quest and I'll know Selene (since I didn't know her character at that point ofc) I'll connect my backstory and magic somehow with the canon story so it'll make sense. My S/I backstory is pretty vague because of that and I need to read more of the manga (I finished watching everything but I need to catch up with manga). I think either Selene manipulated me and taught dragon slayer magic or I can learn it from someone else, like idk her mother (if she canonically doesn't appear) or it can be someone from another dimension. Okay so I (my S/I) joined Fairy Tail about 1,5 year before the plot began. I bonded with Natsu quickly because we're both weird and audhd, also I remind him of Lisanna so yeah. It's also why Mirajane is my found family big sis/big sister figure, I love her character and I like to think she likes to treat me as her younger sibling (btw also in my S/I world Lisanna didn't come back because I think it's just better for the plot). Oh also Natsu was breaking into my apartment first, I mean it was 'breaking' at first but I'm clingy so he was breaking consensually if that makes sense XDD After he met Lucy he still spent most of his time at my place but he also was breaking into her place. And I'm also breaking into her apartment sometimes because I want to be with Natsu (and Lucy is my bestie too), so in general we spend a lot of time together (I mean me, Natsu and Lucy). About Samuel, ofc I wanted an exceed, in his first appearance I found him annoying but I really liked his character development and he became one of my fav exceeds and since he's "free" I decided that I want him as my exceed. Also like, me and Natsu would make too much chaos so Sammy is the one who tones me down and is the responsible one XDDD And he's cool. I see him as a bit of tsundere, like he would be so annoyed with me all the time but he would genuinely care for me. After the 7 year timeskip I didn't have a place to stay so I stayed at Natsu's and since I thought about living together before, it just stayed like that. Tbh I don't really see Samuel in his house so he built tiny house literally next to his, so we're like, basically live at the same place but he has his own separate space in which he don't have to endure our chaos XDDDD I ship Sammy x Lily so I see Lily coming into his tiny house a lot, and since Happy lives next door he spends with them time too, later Happy brought Carla (even tho she didn't really want to XD) and it's how Sammy's place became a place of exceed's meetings XD I also totally see Gajeel fighting and arguing with Natsu about Lily spending too much time in our place XDDD Ohh also about the dragon slayer magic, even tho I'm first gen I'm not like rest of the first gen (I wasn't in their program and I didn't have a dragon sleeping within me) so when I joined Fairy Tail I already started to dragonize and I learned transformation magic from Mira so I can be in human form, later I completely dragonized so I'm basically a dragon but I keep being in my human orm since ofc it's the most convenient, I sometimes change into my real dragon form in fights tho.

[aro-geo-turtle]

TMA’s narrative structure and its reflection in character dynamics

With the end of @a-mag-a-day, I though it would be a perfect time to post this meta-analysis I’ve been thinking about for ages! Its always fun when a story’s ending wraps back around to its beginning in some way, and TMA dips into this a tiny bit via the “can I have a cigarette” moment, but I think the wider narrative structure and parallels in TMA actually get way more interesting than that. Long rambly analysis below cause I’m a writing nerd, and also remember this is purely my own personal interpretation.

I have three main points to make here.

A: season 4 is a twisted mirror of seasons 1 and 2, which act as a singular narrative unit, while season 5 is just like season 3 but more so in every way.

B: these parallels and mirrors between seasons are symbolized through Jon and Martin’s ever changing relationship.

C: the grand finale of Last Words feels like such an abrupt ending because it breaks the pattern established for how season finales are meant to work.

So let’s look at this chronologically:

Seasons 1 and 2 can be viewed a single unit in the overall narrative structure. They follow the same basic premise: Jon in his office at the Institute, alienated from his 3 assistants, trying to find out the truth about the supernatural. They both have a very slow pace, with only a handful of plot-furthering episodes among mostly world-building statement episodes. Then we have a cliffhanger leading into an action-packed climax, and then a calmer epilogue episode to clarify exactly what just happened and set up the new status quo for the next season. There are obviously differences (added supplementals, the paranoia, Gertrude’s murder, you know), but they follow the same general format. We also see the classic Jon/Martin dynamic established and shared between these two seasons: Martin reaching out to care for Jon, Jon rejecting and pushing him away. 

Season 3: Status quo? Out the window! Jon’s out of the Institute, traveling the world, we’re gone from the traditional 3 assistants to 4. The goal is no longer vaguely learning about the supernatural, we got most of those answers from Leitner. Instead we’re building towards the Unknowing from the very beginning. And the pacing here speeds up dramatically. So much happens, plot moving forward most episodes. This is where Jon and Martin’s dynamic first changes, too, finally becoming a lot more friendly. Some parts of the format stay the same, though. The ending is still made up of high-action climax episodes followed by an epilogue episode to set up the next status quo.

Season 4 is a return to the format of 1 and 2, but all twisted and reversed. Jon is in his office at the Institute, alienated from his 3 assistants, but it’s a totally different set of assistants (Tim, Sasha, Martin to Melanie, Basira, Daisy). We’re back to the slower pace, but after the mile-a-minute speed of S3, it feels agonizingly slow, a waiting game. The characters spend a lot of time sitting around. We know how the supernatural works, and now Jon’s looking for answers on what he’s meant to do about it. Of course, S4 also sees the reversal of Jon and Martin’s early season roles. Now it’s Jon reaching out and Martin rejecting him. And then we hit the finale and the tension that’s built up all season suddenly snaps. Once again, it’s a high-action climax followed by a slower epilogue that sets up season 5.

Season 5 is obviously the biggest status quo change of all. Literally all the rules of the normal world are shattered. It’s season 3 but even more so. We’re not at the Institute (there is no Institute), we don’t have the typical 3 assistants (that role doesn’t really seem to exist anymore). Like with the Unknowing, we have a clear goal from the very start: get to the Panopticon, kill Jonah, bring the world back. While the pace of 3 is rapid-fire, 5 is a steady march forward, episode by episode. Jon and Martin are once again friendly, and even more so, have finally connected and realized their feelings. And then we get to the grand finale. I think the reason the ending feels so abrupt to me and many others is because it finally breaks the format of season finales. Last Words is the action-packed climax episode but it has no epilogue episode. It just ends.

So, yeah! Those are my points. I just find looking at this all very cool.