#for people who aren't familiar with it (which is most of the world except parts of western europe)

[marsuro]

Wordtober day 12: Taa (Swahili)

Lights/lanterns! Zoro getting lost on his bday in Utrecht while it’s St. Maarten

[pastorfutureletthembe]

I actually started this blog for one post only. The theory is that the story we are following is currently the 5th timeline.

I would need to watch the donghua again to find hints in the show itself but for now this post is exclusively about the content we keep getting served as fanservice. Now, people nowadays see this word as negative but in this particular case, we are evidently caught in an ARG (Alternative Reality Game), which is AWESOME.

For those who aren't familiar with the concept, it is basically a treasure hunt outside of the original media. For example, if you gather enough clues during your playthroughs of OXENFREE, you'll find the coordinates of an actual place where a real object, a gift FOR FANS was hidden. In the context of Link Click, I believe the rules and answers regarding the worldbuilding are hidden in plainsight for us to discover!

I will make different posts on the clues in lyrics, but for now we're gonna have a talk about VISUALS only. And boy, do we have THINGS to talk about

First things first, let's start with

>>>>> Promotional posters.

I'm opening this analysis with this particular one because it is the most relevant to current events. Black circles are V and white ones are IV. The huge clock is the background isn't supposed to be oriented this way for starters. One V is where XII should be, which could mean our journey starts here. The other V is between Cheng Xiaoshi and Li Tianxi, on the light side, while both VI are on the dark side. Every other VI on this artwork is a broken piece taken out of a quadrant except for the one on the right near Qiao Ling which is still part of the biggest piece.

It is interesting that we don't see any clockhands here, only the quadrant, and the only whole number is 5, ONLY on CXS's introduction.

Not so subtil, the mirror or "painting" is labeled 'V'. Lu Guang is also looking directly at US, viewers.

Probably five lines of five x but we only see 3, of which only the first one got 5x. Four diformed shapes can be seen at LG's left, under V/VI, which could be the four previous failed timelines. You might notice that LINK CLICK is written 5times. The clock says 00:05. Oh, familiar, isnt it?

As you can see, the V is a light in the darkess at Lu Guang's feet. it is a broken piece, though. The fact it is the enlighted one could mean two things. 1) It marks the spot, where we're currently at. 2) Hope. I would argue that until then Cheng Xiaoshi always died and now, at the end of season 2, Lu Guang is in the dark because he never went that far.

VI is there too, in complete darkness, blocked from view by a ring. There is something to say about VII being completely obliterated but I honeslty don't know how meaningful that could be.

>>> It is my understanding that if a character change the past, it breaks the timeline. Past changed, present and future cannot be the same ever again. It doesn't create a new timeline like in MARVEL, there is actually no going back from a changing node, it unravels this world. Either it already happened, allegedly because of Lu Guang, or will happen in the next season, we can suppose that Timeline VI is the actual doomed one. The fact Cheng Xiaoshi is trapped is relevant too. Destroying Present and Future would trapped him in the Past, hence Come back from the dive back in time.

>>>>> Dive Back in Time

There are many things to say about this one, but I'll keep it simple since it's already a long post. Let's start with something a bit out of topic: colors. Why? It actually indicates that LG isn't from the same timeline than CXS and QL. And I swear it would be useful at the end of this post.

Blue and Red are on the same plan, no matter if we're talking about RGB or CMYK, but Green and Magenta are not. It's like CXS and QL are anchoring LG in this reality, but Magenta is not supposed to be part of the mix. Primary colors in photography are Red, Blue and Green; not Magenta. Since we're talking about photography and this is not the original timeline, I think it is intended.

I'll leave the count of squares to you (spoiler: either 5 or 3 (I'll explain this one in another post) :D).

>>>>> Overthink

I recommend you read this glorious meta about this ending. I'll just "correct" mimicha on one point:

The way the hands are "cutting a piece" of the clock; just like in the promotional poster for Train Trail. It indicates 5. I'll also add this one:

If you look carefully, you'll see two words: TIME PARADOX. As said above, a paradox should NOT be possible with the rules LC gave us so far, but it could be related to the possible 6th doomed timeline. The "dark side" could try and make it happen. Just food for thoughts.

If you want more meta on OPs/ENDs, I recommend you also watch this glorious analysis. That's all I have to say for this one regarding the number 5.

>>>>> VORTEX

Not much to say, except for this "blink and you'll miss it" screenshot. If I missed anything, feel free to share with the class!

THE TIDES has, sadly, nothing to offer on this current topic!

>>>>> 3rd Anniversary: Surprising Click

Oh boy, do I have THINGS to say. Don't be surprised when I'll make another post about this Link Click monument haha. Note: 5 PVs were prepared for this anniversary. Coincidence? (I think not).

N O W A N D F O R E V E R

The only 5 clue I found is what looks like a clock with one hand going backwards, from X to IV, it appears while the chorus is playing. That might be a bit farfetched but I'd mention it for archives purpose anyway.

B R E A K

I won't be a smartass by pointing out BREAK is a five letters word but- okay that's infuriating of them if it is on purpose.

Most of it is obvious, the same logic applies, except for the cogs and hourglasses, we see four of each falling. Since LG's shadow/light goes from IV to V, it's safe to assume that those symbolize the four failed/achieved timelines. The ones left behind. I'll probably post something about cogs and hourglasses one day.

A last one, for the road:

S U R P R I S I N G C L I C K

You should take a look at this fan's brain! They did a wonderful work. I already had this part prepared so I'm still gonna share the obvious. Five mics ("time is like music"), and five letters (with photographs inside I'm guessing). Magenta and Green are very flashy in this one.

Oh, here are LG's five magenta squares from Dive Back in Time ;D

Four failed timelines/tasks, and... loading the first out of three chances. (Again, I can't address everything in one post, this one will have a long meta on his own, don't worry :D)

T R A I N T R I A L

Two occurances worth mentionning. Once again, V is the only timeline enlighted.

B U R N I N G P A L A C E

Many things are happening in this one but only one regarding our current meta. If you pay attention, you'll see it several times, while the chorus is playing:

x x x x x

Now, if you remember correctly, green is the exact chromatic opposite, the complementary color of magenta. They aren't on the same plan (primary vs secondary)/from the same timeline. Usually, they color Lu Guang but here, there is no magenta and no Lu Guang. With this in mind, could it be the paradox OVERTHINK warned us about? We can only assume Vein is from the same original timeline as LG. Red and Green are primary colors so yeah, we'll see.

That's all for today folks!

I had this brainworm eating at my life for weeks so I'm very happy that it is finally out there.

| Part 2 |

[rita-repulsa-ke]

Death and the Scarlet Witch

"She tried to wreck my life, destroy my family, literally murder me after she thought she'd stolen my power," Wanda says, using her fingers to count off all of Agatha's crimes. "She also tormented me with my past and lied to me. A lot."

That does, Rio has to admit, sound like the woman she loves. Especially the lying part. She can't keep a smile off her face.

This probably makes slightly more sense if you've read Scarlet. Rio goes to visit the Scarlet Witch, during the time Wanda is hanging out in that cabin at the end of Wandavision studying the Darkhold.

This one has warnings for lots of mentions of death, small-d, and also Rio is not always very nice. She is, however, very romantic over Agatha.

Death is everywhere. She is on a Road that doesn’t exist and, in that same second, she is next to the hospital bed of a young man, both of them ignoring the flurry of activity around them as nurses and doctors try valiantly to save a life that has already passed into her hands.

“I wasn’t ready,” he says.

“Most people aren’t,” Death replies. “How was what you had?”

He thinks about it, then gives her a tentative smile. “It was pretty good?"

She offers him her hand. “Sometimes, that’s the best you get.”

In the same blink of an eye, she sits on wet pavement next to woman staring at a mess of twisted metal.

“I wasn’t ready,” the stranger says.

Rio keeps her sigh internal. “Most people—“

An elderly woman in a nursing home. A child swimming where they shouldn’t have been. A man killed in a fight gone wrong.

Death is everywhere she needs to be.

And simultaneously, she is at a cabin in a beautiful, remote wilderness, a cabin that radiates an achingly familiar dark power.

She pushes open the door, startles a woman making herself a cup of tea, and has to hastily deflect the bolt of red energy flung toward her.

It isn't a very good deflection and in her head, she can hear Agatha murmuring, you’re so sloppy. You have so much power, but your technique—

Yes, Ags, I know. Shush now.

“Hi,” Death says. “I’m Rio.”

The woman stares at her, then gives a short, mirthless laugh. “I know who you are,” she says. “You have followed me all my life.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Rio says.

She can’t help but notice that Wanda is beautiful.

Not like that. No one is beautiful like Agatha, frustrating, gorgeous monster that she is. No, Wanda Maximoff is beautiful like an apocalypse. She is the end of any number of worlds, the potential for a sea of corpses the likes of which even Rio has never seen.

It does amuse Rio to imagine how jealous Agatha would be, though, were she here. She always hates when Rio is looking at anyone but her.

Rio never is, of course. Not really.

“What do you want?” Wanda asks, snapping her back to this moment alongside a million others. “Is it—is it my time?”

She sounds so hopeful.

"No," Rio admits. "I wanted to talk."

She isn't sure what she wants, not really. Revenge, maybe, but why should she? Agatha doesn't deserve her fury, would scorn her protection.

Rio wants to protect her anyway.

Still, there are rules. She can't simply take Wanda. And she's made enough exceptions for Agatha already.

Wanda's laugh turns softer and simultaneously more hollow. "To talk. Death wants to talk to me. Why not? I feel at this point we should be good friends, you and I." She sits in a chair that wasn't there a moment ago, and Rio is coming to the interesting realization that Wanda is not entirely well.

Agatha had told her once that the Darkhold broke weak minds. She'd told her that while throwing bolts of dark magic at Rio and crowing over her success in having mastered the Book of the Damned, of course, but the point still stands.

"Lots of people die," Rio says. "You aren't special."

"Aren't I? Aren't I special? The Scarlet Witch," she says the words with too much emphasis, drags her voice over the sounds. "There's a whole chapter on me in the Darkhold, did you know? If that is not special, I don't know what is." She laughs again and there has never been a more humorless sound.

"Riiiight," Rio says. She's starting to think she doesn't need to enact revenge, she can sit back and let the universe take its course.

Feels a little passive, though.

"What more can you take from me?" Wanda asks. "What more can I lose?"

Yeah, I'm trying to figure that out too, she thinks. "I'm not here to take," she lies. If Agatha can do it, so can she.

"…Do you understand grief? Can you?" Wanda asks without prelude, and now Rio isn't sure this broken woman, sitting in a chair that doesn't exist, is talking to her at all.

She's also starting to notice a very interesting similarity between that chair and a certain Road she's currently walking, a Road she always knew wasn't real.

"I do understand grief,” she says, no lies this time. There is something she grieves more deeply than she'd ever thought possible.

Wanda is still talking, still mostly to herself. "I had a husband. I had children. I had everything I ever wanted."

"The ones you made with magic?" It had taken her some time to find Agatha—she isn't sure how long, she's never been good with time—to find the strange little town and the stranger situation her beloved had gotten herself into this time. But find and save her she did, unsticking her from that miserable curse.

Not that Agatha had appreciated Rio sweeping in to save her. She never does.

Still, she remembers Agatha screaming herself awake, sobbing in Rio’s arms, and she does hope there is something more she can take from the Scarlet Witch.

Wanda nods in listless agreement, that family, the fake magic ones.

How fake is suddenly a very interesting question.

"Hey, I want to ask you something," Rio says.

Wanda only nods again, staring vacantly into the past with the expression of a woman who has not fully lived in the present for some time.

"When you broke the spell, you also broke a woman's mind and left her in that place, imagining she was someone else. Someone even more annoying. Why'd you do it, Wanda?"

Now Wanda's attention snaps to her, rivulets of scarlet magic racing up her neck and down her arms, and oh, she is dangerous, all that power with so little control. Rio can picture Agatha's sneer.

"Agatha," Wanda hisses the name. "Is that who you're here to ask me about? Death has come all this way to ask me about Agatha Harkness?"

"That's the one," Rio agrees.

"She tried to wreck my life, destroy my family, literally murder me after she thought she'd stolen my power," Wanda says, using her fingers to count off all of Agatha's crimes. "She also tormented me with my past and lied to me. A lot."

That does, Rio has to admit, sound like the woman she loves. Especially the lying part. She can't keep a smile off her face. "Still. Aren't you supposed to be the good guy?"

"Not that good, I guess," Wanda says, and now even more of her attention is focused on this conversation. Though much like Rio, some part of her always lives elsewhere.

Motorcycle accident. Liver failure. A bad heart. Death deals with all of them without taking her eyes off the Scarlet Witch.

"Agatha did also break you out of your weird sitcom project," Rio points out. "Made you realize that what you were doing was hurting people. Did you know, I wonder? What you were doing to them? Did you know and try to ignore it, in order to keep everything you wanted?"

Wanda comes to her feet, surges like a wave, staggers like a corpse. Her teeth bare with fury, her eyes leak pain. "Of course I didn't! Are you just here to torment me?! Do you think that I don't have nightmares about what I did to those people? Do you know what I lost to make it right?"

Wow, she's dramatic.

"She only did it because she wanted my power. I was in her head. That woman has never done a single kind thing for anyone in her life, not without getting something in return," Wanda continues and Rio can't hold back her laughter, high-pitched, shrill giggles that contain a note of unfettered delight.

"You've got that right," she agrees, and ugh, she wants Agatha, Agatha smiling, Agatha laughing, Agatha complaining about things not happening fast enough, Agatha kissing her—

Agatha whirling her around with a crown of flowers in her hair, her expression that of someone being tortured on the rack. Agatha, laughing too loudly, cheeks flushed with cheap beer, toasting to them both. Agatha, explaining some ritual in intricate detail while she inscribes runes, talking to Rio mostly to keep herself on track.

Agatha, in their bed, lit by the fireplace behind her, head on her hand, looking at Rio like she hasn't in centuries. "I've missed you," she admits, with a sly smile. "I've been thinking. You and I always made a great team. What do you say we get the band back together?"

This isn't right. This isn't how it happened.

"Can you forgive me?" Rio asks anyway, hating how desperate she sounds.

Somewhere a man falls from the top of a building, several stories too high for survival to be a possibility and lives anyway.

"Of course I can," Agatha says. "I love you."

Hah, as if. Even during their best times, Agatha never would have said it so easily. But her hand is on Rio's cheek, and she's so warm, she feels so real. It would be so easy to lean forward and kiss her.

There’s something important she's forgetting.

An ICU has a quiet night, no deaths even among their most critical patients.

"Rio, kiss me," Agatha prompts, and the smile on her lips is so close to being right, a taunting, teasing, tormenting expression. "My love, come to bed."

This is what she wants, isn't it? This is what she's always wanted, Agatha, gentled a little, sweeter, softer, but still the woman she loves.

No, she thinks, this isn’t what I want. I want the real thing. I want the jagged edges, I want the cruelty and the manipulation and the way she screws up her face before she says anything even slightly romantic. I want the way she makes big, sweeping gestures to prove her own power, the way she kisses me like she owns me, the way she sings silly, made up songs to herself when she thinks no one is listening and how she can never sit still, not even for a minute—

I want my Agatha.

A girl falls from her bike, in front of a car and—

Death roars back into the world.

Now it’s Rio’s turn to stagger, as reality reasserts itself. "...You got into my head," she says, and she's still so shocked that she's not even angry about it, only impressed. "Congratulations, no one has ever done that before, not even Ags."

No wonder Agatha went after Wanda. Enough power to, however briefly, divert Death. And suddenly, she's very glad that Agatha, who at least claims to hate her, did not succeed in gaining that power, no matter how much Rio loves her.

"You love her," Wanda murmurs. "You really—kind of creepily—love her."

Rio throws her head back and laughs, a shrill, sharp sound, the squeal of tires on the road, the scream of witnesses. "I do," she admits. "I really, really do."

"I could see you, for a moment. The whole of you," Wanda continues. "All the places you are. All those people. So many, all the time. I don’t know how you stand it." She sags suddenly, leans her weight against the much more real counter. "…Can I ask you something?"

"Go for it."

"When I die, will I see them again? My boys and Vis?"

"Yes," Death says, with absolute certainty. "You'll see them again."

Wanda sinks to the floor, pulls her knees to her chest and shakes with relief, tears rolling silently down her cheeks. "That's all. That's all I needed to know."

"Not yet, though. It isn't your time. You still have things to do," Rio says. "Because you know what, Wanda?"

Wanda only stares up at her, face slick with tears.

"You're right. Death will follow you all your life. In fact, I think we'll be seeing each other again very soon," Rio says, letting her mask drop, and she can see her own skinless reflection in Wanda's widening eyes. "You and me? We are going to have so much fun."

Then, as Wanda starts to form a question, Death is gone. After all, how could she take Wanda now? There is still so much the Scarlet Witch can give her, so many bodies.

Besides, it would be breaking the rules.

But it turns out that there is something of Wanda's she can take. Something waiting for her on a Road that doesn't exist, something she's overlooked, something Agatha, manipulative as always, has been hiding in plain sight.

Rio will make certain that Wanda sees her boys again.

She leaves the cabin, but remains everywhere else.

Somewhere a girl sobs on her shoulder and Death pats her back with practiced movements, perfected over millennia. In that same blink of an eye, she holds an old woman's hand, kisses an old man's cheek, listens patiently to a priest perform his own last rites and guides a protection witch beyond the veil.

Then she steps back onto the Road, hands behind her head, whistling to herself. She's going to go find Agatha. She's already annoyed by all that has been kept from her, and she has no doubt it will be a fight, one where her beloved will probably say something manipulative, cruel or both.

Still, even knowing all of that, she can’t wait to see the real thing.

Want to read something sad? Try Nicky

Want to read something fluffy? Try Flirting

Want to read more Rio thinking about Agatha? Try the thief

[ticenchantedtoc]

crack theory 🤨❓

Okay, how do I explain this...

There are parts of this theory that are rooted in logic and parts that are wild speculation, but I think the overall theory is possible, albeit a little crazy. Then again, a lot of things in this game are crazy.

In short, my theory is that Zetta also has a form of Archetype power just like Melia does. But I don't think it comes from the actual Archetype; I think it's something similar but opposite. Because the Archetype is depicted as a golden triangle, I've been imagining this inverse Archetype as an upside-down silver triangle. Hey wait a minute.

Yeah, my theory is that this "inverse Archetype" is actually the Core. Outside of the visual similarity, we know that the Core is linked to the Interceptors' power, and they can transform just like Melia and Erin. The Core is also connected to the Ley Lines, and in the Karma Files, it mentions that Rifts form whenever a Ley Line is pierced. Zetta is the only character we know of who can directly interact with the Ley Lines to create Rift Pokemon*. Perhaps this is his version of the "superpowers" Melia, Erin, Allen, and Alice have because of the Archetype. If that's the case, then it would make complete sense that his power comes from the Core instead.

(*Quick note, I'm aware that there are other "Rifts" not created by Zetta, but a lot of them aren't Rifts in the lore, just in the gameplay mechanics. Carnivine, Dufaux, and Talon all became "Rifts" through alternate means, and though Ferrothorn and Hippowdon are real Rifts, they were created from rift matter that Bladestar stole from Team Xen (so they likely come from Zetta's power too, in a very roundabout way). The only other Rifts can't be explained this way are Volcanion, which Zetta very well could've made off-screen, and Aelita, which makes sense because Aelita turned into a Rift due to Vivian's curse. And Vivian already had a connection with the Ley Lines, that's how she could sense where people and Pokemon were. Okay back to the theory!)

The description of the Core also mentions that it contains and transports information about all life on Earth. That sounds a lot like something Zygarde, the pokemon responsible for keeping balance, would use, right? We currently don't know anything about the Zygarde host except their age: 25. Oddly enough, this is Zetta's biological age too. I say it's odd because most of the Xen Executives don't have specific canon ages, and if he's a clone of Melia, why make him so much older in the first place? It could be a coincidence, but I find it suspicious. Especially considering that everything with a Z name has been linked to the Core in some way: Zygarde, Zeight, Zorrialyn being where Castle Zygara once was.

To be clear, do I think Zetta being connected to the Core means he's an Interceptor? Absolutely not. Do I think there are three other Core-hosts like with the Archetype? Probably not. But I can't look past the fact that just after we get this lore dump about the Core, Crescent gives Zetta's pokeball to Melia. And in this teaser screenshot for v14, there's a new icon in the top left with Zetta's face and what appears to be the Interceptor's Wish. I'm not going to speculate about this screenshot because I have no idea what it means really, but at this point it's impossible to deny that Zetta is going to be important in Chapter 16.

Some last bonus points in this theory, aka the part where I start wildly speculating: When you combine the Archetype triangle and the proposed inverse Archetype triangle (whether it's actually the Core or a different thing), it would make the alchemical symbol for aether.

In alchemy, aether represents the space that isn't filled by any of the natural elements. It was thought to be the breath of gods, and harnessing the power of aether could connect the physical world to the spiritual one. Since Rejuvenation is a pokemon game, most players are already familiar with the word aether because of the Aether Foundation. The Aether Foundation created Type:Null, which was intended to be a manmade Arceus but failed, and they had to put on the helmet to contain its power. Rejuvenation acknowledges this backstory, calling it an "inconsistency" that two more Type:Null can be found in Aevium. Zepto is an obvious metaphor for Zetta's backstory as a clone, but I'd like to think the aether connection could mean something.

Speaking of inconsistencies, when you play chess against Zetta in the Nightmare Realm, all of the pieces depict characters in the game, and they all have a quote related to the character. For example, Neved's piece says "Your family before all else." All of the Xen executives are depicted as chess pieces here except for Zetta. This might just be because he's literally sitting across the board from you, but Risa (the Risa from the Nightmare Realm, not Clear pretending to be Risa) is also a piece on the board. Her piece is broken though, and it's not the only one. Eden's piece is broken too, and their quote ends in "Defiled." One other chess piece ends this way, one that seems to be missing a head. The full quote is, "To perpetuate consistency through inconsistency. The descendant of Zed. Defiled." There's the letter Z again. In an absence of other characters this could refer to, I'm assuming this piece is meant to be Zetta, which would mean that inconsistencies and being a "descendant" are more important to his character than we've been lead to believe. Could this be a hint that he's connected to the unknown Zygarde host?

Again, this last part is just wild speculation! The core (pun not intended) of this theory is that Zetta has his own version of the Archetype powers and maybe even his own transformation. I think it's likely that those powers would come from the Core, considering the lore we get in the Karma Files, but I'm not entirely sure. Whether I'm right or not, I'm just really excited for my favorite solosis to get more screen time.

[putschki1969]

hello! would you say the girls are popular in japan? like if they walk down the street is someone gonna come up and be like omg hi i know you? i know they're not like uber world famous or whatever, but never really thought abt it from that perspective

Hi there!

Sorry for the really late reply, this has been sitting in my drafts for a very long time.

Hmmm, no, I have personally never considered them to be famous in the traditional sense of the word. Even back in their Kalafina days, they weren't very well-known outside of their admittedly quite big but rather contained fanbase (which always surprised me considering the almost-idol-like marketing strategies employed at certain points of their career). Whenever I mentioned them to anyone in Japan (people from all walks of life), that person had no idea who I was talking about. Sometimes not even die-hard anime fans were familiar with them beyond maybe knowing a song or two. I think it's because they never quite crossed into mainstream with their music (which of course was both a blessing and a curse).

Needless to say, they are even less well-known as solo artists.

We know the girls walk down the street, use public transportation, have appointments at salons, engage in leisure activities and eat at a variety of cafés/restaurants without being bothered. Some of those places are more exclusive than others (especially the ones Keiko frequents) but for the most part, they go to regular places with lots of random people. Usually, when they are going out we see them wear some sort of hat and a face mask, nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary, they are clearly not trying to disguise themselves but it's probably an attempt to keep a somewhat low profile.

But honestly, Japan isn't really a place where people would outright approach "famous" individuals in public unless they feel very confident. People generally mind their own business, keep their distance and just try to appear as inconspicuous as possible. With this mindset, I would assume stalking is much more common than active engagement. That's not to say that there aren't exceptions to this rule. Just a few weeks ago a Japanese YK/Kala-fan more or less orchestrated a situation in which he was able to meet Yuriko Kaida and LINO LEIA after finding out where they would be going. He handled the whole thing in a respectful/subtle manner and it worked out pretty well for him so it was fine but it's definitely not something that happens on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about really big idols/actors/artists but I am sure things are a bit more complicated for them, they are probably more careful with how they act on a day-to-day basis but I doubt they would lock themselves up in their homes. After all, we have seen someone as popular as LiSA casually hang out with Keiko at a random restaurant so she seems to be comfortable being out and about in public.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Bear with me here. I only started playing DA games a couple months ago, so still a huge special interest for me.

Perspective is such an interesting part of these games, and I love how they juxtapose that against current events and characters' personal goals/needs.

Let's say you're the bodyguard of someone you really respect. You fail in your job to protect. You're doing your damnedest to save people who need to be free. You're a freedom fighter, because you care, deeply.

Your protectee is murdered, but you survived. I would imagine this would be something that could piss you off.

You imprison the perpetrators in the only way you can.

Then because it was such a big magical undertaking, you pass out and slip into uthenera for thousands of years.

You wake up, a bit groggy, find out how weak you are (which, to someone who has never been lessened in power is awful) possibly panic a little and fuck up.

You see you fucked up, while dealing with some pretty massive mental illness issues (PTSD, Depression, anxiety, survivor-complex) just for starters).

The entire world feels like a bad dream. Like it felt for people seeing the alternate future.

Humanity, a species you last remember as 'beings setting up tents in mud, selling bone beads, who stank a lot' have somehow flourished and enslaved the very people (or the descendants of your people?) you gave so much to free.

I don't see how, given that, at the beginning of the game Solas could honestly feel any different.

It'd be like waking up and finding out some sort of creature you thought of as vermin (sorry human lovers, perspective here) was running the world and harming your grandkids.

And worse, because of how you imprisoned the murderers, it actually tore the world you were trying to save apart, dooming said grandkids.

Except, familiarity can breed caring as well as contempt. He learns over time, as he's repairing his strength and healing his mind, that these 'tranquils' are still actually people. If romanced, you even fall in love with one of them!

Aaaand, you're probably also (originally) a wisdom spirit with any spirit's ability to demonize. Into Pride in his particular case.

It's a miracle he's not even more stand-offish with people.

Pride can blind us to a lot of things. In many established world religions, pride is bad. It's a deadly sin in xtian mythology.

And Solas is both wisdom and pride. Two sides of the same coin.

It's warped into his very being.

His character growth arc from who he is at the beginning of the game, to who he is at the end is so well written.

I hope Dreadwolf continues his growth arc in some way. I really love growth arcs. He might even have a redemption arc.

I think it's utterly delicious when authors play with perspective like this. It's really well done with Solas.

I only wish I felt more of the other characters were as well written so I could analyze them, too. But honestly, most of them really aren't well characterized. On a professional level, I'd send them back to the author with a gentle suggestion that they do some more character development & much needed writing for them.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Note that I base all my analyses on the base game and DLCs. I haven't managed to afford the books yet. (Being poor sucks.) So there could easily be information I don't have access to. And wasn't there a show? Was that any good? (I struggle with passive entertainment like tv shows.)

[streamdotpng]

Or Maybe Its Your Words (That Keeps Me Up at Night) Bodyguard Enid au - 1

Wednesday doesn't come back to Nevermore for the next semester.

Enid was definitely hurt when she comes back to an empty room but its been like...

What? nine? No, ten years. A decade has passed and she has never been one to hold a grudge. Instead, she'll think back to that sophomore year and wonder if her roomie for such a short moment remembers her as much as Enid does to her.

Wednesday Addams is definitely a person. Her being in danger was the catalyst of her wolfing out and its hard to forget someone like that. Not to mention that she hasn't at all met another person like her.

Yoko says that she had a crush, Enid feels like that's a gross oversimplification. What she felt wasn't a crush. Gratitude? definitely, she taught Enid so much in the tiny time they spent time together. Admiration? maybe, there's alot to admire about someone who doesn't at all care about what other people thinks. But saying that what she felt was a crush?

that was too..

tiny.

Yes, a tiny way to explain it.

Honestly, she's a little embarrassed now that she's older. Sure, what she felt was too wrong to call a crush but it was those feelings that drove her through life.

Protecting someone, protecting Wednesday showed her that she could be more than a girl with aspirations and bark. So the pipeline of protecting your crush to protecting people wasn't that surprising.

So here she is, Enid of Nowhere lounging in her bed for today.

A decade does a lot to a person and well, if Enid Sinclair were to see her, Enid knew that she'd be unrecognizable. Not at all surprising, Yoko definitely didn't believe that she was who she said she was during the five year reunion either.

Speaking of reunion, the next one was coming up.

Would Bianca join them this time? Maybe Xavier? Who knows but the idea of meeting her friends in so long does spark something in her. An excitement that has dulled overtime but it doesn't stop a smile from growing on her face.

Then her phone rings and Enid rolls over with disappointment. She doesn't hear the familiar chorus of 'Money' by Lisa, instead it had the dull tune of her work phone.

Boring, here she thought Yoko was reaching out.

She swipes to answer and brings it to her ear with a "Yes, boss?"

Boss as always, is straight to the point. "You're assigned a practice run for some fancy upshot, so be on your best behaviour tomorrow."

She winces then she pouts, "You make it sound like I'm a trouble maker! I'll have you know that I get the job done!"

"You get the job done, sure," he drawls, thick with what is most likely a recent smoke. Addict. "Except this is a blueblood, so keep to yourself and be professional okay? I'd rather not have my prized employee be sued to hell and back."

The werewolf clicks her tongue, sitting up to lean onto her headboard. "Which blueblood: A royal? The President's family?" she jokes. "I didn't think I was that good to be reached by such people."

Boss scoffs. "Your record is spot clean, you're young and an outcast built like a wall- People need that kind of protection nowadays."

"You didn't answer my question," Enid points out, shifting her phone to her shoulder as she digs into her pockets for a packet.

"Its an Addams." At that the werewolf stills, swiftly pulling her hand back to properly press the phone into her ear.

"Excuse me?" she whispers and the steady beat of her heart began to rise, slowly but surely. There was no way. There must be tons of Addams in this continent. The world must not be that cruel as to give her the opportunity to meet Wednesday again. She was excited yes but at the same time..

See, Enid had this little problem of being a coward.

Just a teeny bit.

A part of her always wanted to reach out, maybe ask Wednesday why she didn't come back to the school but the moment she finally gained courage to do so, it was two years later and she was graduating.

Some things aren't meant to be y'know? Maybe their friendship was meant to last that short semester.

Enid would groan if she could as her grip tightened on the phone. Why is she so hung up over that?

Its just a girl, dangit! She really shouldn't be sulking over this. Its been years!

"Will you forget about me?"

"Enid, the mark you have left on me is indelible-"

Boss sighs and that's enough for Enid to listen once again. "Listen, I know that Addams have their eccentrics but you're there to act as a blocker. Both for Ms Addams and the crowd."

"i didn't know she'd need a bodyguard." If she remembers correctly, Wednesday did beat up a bunch of kids back in Jericho. The sight of her beating up some pap has her smiling.

"She doesn't," is Boss' sharp answer. "Like I just said, you're there to keep the annoying people away so she doesn't end up with a different body count."

A laugh comes from her. Yeah no, that's Wednesday alright. With up quirked lips, she humms with curiosity in her mind. "Why me?"

Does she remember me?

Did she pick me out specifically?

"She doesn't like men," Boss says and with that, her expectation falls. Right, right. That makes more sense. "You're bulky enough that if she ever does decide to stab you for acting out of hand you'll be fine!" he pauses then he offhandly mentions, "Speaking from experience, we know that you won't bleed out as easily."

Enid winces at that.

She was used to the occasional stab, like there was this lady who hired her to protect her and her family because of a stalker. In the end it was some dumbass pack in freaky masks but luckily she sniffed them out and now they're all dead.

Hm.

Thinking on it now, that sounds rather callous but it is what happened.

She should really check up on the sisters.

"Now you're making me reconsider," Enid wonders.

Boss immediately cuts himself off. "Which are all speculation! she would treat you absolutely golden, Enid. You should take the job."

Enid lets out a breath, "How much is the pay?" she wasn't struggling, sure but as a lone wolf, she has her needs too. She definitely was not trying to find an excuse to turn it down or anything, like no way!

Aha..

Then boss listed out so many zeroes that it leaves Enid's mouth agape, practically turning into the same zero that was just stated.

"But you need to pass the test run first," Boss stresses. "Pass the test run and you'll get paid that sum and more."

"Rich people are crazy," Enid murmurs with brows reaching all the way up to her hairline.

"Rich people are crazy," he agrees.

"..."

A sigh. "Is that a yes? Are you coming tomorrow?"

Enid pauses. "Are you going to pick me up?"

"..Sure."

"Can we get mcdonalds too?"

Boss sighs.

"Sure, Enid."

[cantsayidont]

March 1985. Whatever else one may say about the Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was a triumph for truth in advertising: Worlds lived, worlds died, and the DC Universe was never the same. A cynic might add, "And nothing ever made sense again," since the event kicked off almost 40 years of retcons, revisions, and successive reboots, which DC used to internally describe as "white events," after the cataclysmic moment in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #10 where the original multiverse was shattered and recreated:

Even before the Crisis event was ever conceived, DC had a long history of fairly dramatic editorial and creative shifts, some of which hung on specific story events (like the de-powering of Wonder Woman in 1968) and some of which did not (like the inauguration of Batman's "New Look" in 1964). With the benefit of hindsight, it's possible to make some general observations about editorial revisionism and efforts to tear down and rebuild internal continuity:

It's ultimately easier (and more effective) to ignore than to change. When Julius Schwartz became Batman editor in 1964, he dispensed with many characters and concepts that had been staples under his predecessor, Jack Schiff, such as Batwoman and Bat-Mite. With one exception, there was no story explanation of where they'd gone — they just stopped showing up and were soon forgotten. The exception was Alfred the butler, who was killed off dramatically in DETECTIVE COMICS #328. When the producers of the 1966 Batman TV show decided to incorporate Alfred into that series, Schwartz was obliged to resurrect him, in a singularly preposterous way, after which he was regarded as indispensable. By contrast, while most of the characters who'd simply been ignored also returned, it was much later and generally in quite minor ways; their long absence reduced them to marginalia that could be incorporated or not, as seemed most useful.

Crossovers are the most serious and persistent enemy of change. The nature of company-owned comics is that the characters will inevitably show up in crossovers, team-ups, and events of various kinds, often written, drawn, and edited by people who aren't familiar with the finer points of the characters' history, inevitably resulting in troublesome contradictions, up to and including characters who were previously supposed to be dead inexplicably popping up alive. The more convoluted a change to a character or their history, the more likely that it will misrepresented, accidentally undone, or just ignored the next time the character shows up in a series other than their own.

A true line-wide reboot is commercially infeasible. A publisher like DC or Marvel has many different titles at once, and at any given time, some of them are selling better than others. If a title isn't selling well, there may be nothing to lose by rebooting it or making drastic changes to its characters and direction, but doing that to a series that's currently a hot seller is foolhardy. So, the bestsellers will generally stroll through a "white event" with only minor cosmetic adjustments, while weaker titles may undergo a whole series of radical reinventions. If the former bestseller goes into a slump and one of those radical reinventions transforms an underdog into a hit, the situation will be reversed. Surely this won't backfire later …

Timing is everything. A lot of the confusion that resulted at DC in the wake of the Crisis stemmed from the fact that different revisions happened at different times. For instance, the headaches surrounding Hawkman began in large part because of the editorial decision in 1990 not to treat the Tim Truman HAWKWORLD series as a kind of "Hawkman: Year One" (which is how it was conceived), but rather as a reboot, even though that threatened to retroactively remove the Hawks from books like JUSTICE LEAGUE, which had become very popular following its most recent revamp. This kind of thing creates situations where creative teams have to come up with desperate contrivances to explain retroactive changes to very recent stories. Having Hawkman and Hawkwoman stop showing for Justice League adventures for a while wouldn't have been a big deal, but trying to assert that the Hawkman and Hawkwoman who'd previously appeared were either never really there or were actually somebody else was another matter, and the problems this created were never fully resolved.

Continuity-tidying for its own sake is almost always a creative dead end. This is a lesson that Nelson Bridwell and Roy Thomas demonstrated over and over throughout the Bronze Age: It's one thing to have some flashbacks, if it serves the story, or maybe to retell a character's origin with a few nips and tucks, but if your main purpose is to explain, e.g., why Namor once wore the wrong shorts, the results are likely to be either silly or tedious. This hasn't stopped DC and Marvel from wasting a lot of ink and paper on specials and miniseries that exist to retell earlier stories in an updated, continuity-compliant manner, usually to no good end. The fundamental problem with such things is that their main object is to regurgitate familiar older stories (if they weren't familiar, there would be no point in retelling them) while urging readers who have read the original version (who are the most likely audience) to ignore their lying eyes. This is, with very, very few exceptions, a dismal exercise that routinely defeats even usually reliable creators like John Ostrander (see for example the tiresome 2001–2002 JLA: INCARNATIONS), and frequently results in yet more contradictions to explain or ignore.

The bottom line is that while you can blow things up all you want, the likelihood that they can be reassembled in a clearer, more cohesive way is really quite low, and diminishes the more frequently you try.

I want to be clear here that this isn't a criticism of the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS series (which has many virtues, along with some significant flaws), or even any of the individual revisions and retcons that have followed, some of which are, in their own right, perfectly fine. The dilemma is that the project that an event like this represents is ultimately a doomed one. It might spark some commercial interest, at least briefly (which is of course at least half the point), but simplification and unity are just not in the cards and probably never will be.

[jimintomystery]

Foodfight! (ugh)

I voted for Dex Dogtective in a poll the other day and it reminded me that I never actually watched that shitty Foodfight! movie from 2012. So I did. This was not a good idea.

There isn't a whole lot to say about Foodfight! that hasn't already been said. The project was in development hell for so long that it defaulted on its debt, and investors took over to at least get something out the door. The most obvious issue is the bad animation, though that speaks for itself.

But here's the thing: This movie could've had Pixar-quality animation and it'd still be hot garbage. "What if mascots for popular products lived in your local store?" is a middling idea at best, and the story mishandles it every step of the way.

It would be easy to say this movie needed a lot of popular corporate mascots to really work, and the best they could do was Charlie the Tuna and the Vlasic stork. But I remember thinking the first Toy Story wouldn't work without heavy hitters like Barbie and Lego, and yet they got along fine with just Mr. Potato Head and Etch-a-Sketch. Similarly, Wreck-It Ralph succeeded with a cast of skillful pastiches of familiar video game characters, and mere cameos by the big names. In theory Foodfight! could make up a cereal mascot that reminds you of Tony the Tiger while leaving room for changes to fit the plot. But in execution we get...Dex Dogtective.

Dex is the mascot for Cinnamon Sleuth cereal, and also a detective, and also a dog, and also he dresses like Indiana Jones, and also he likes raisins, and also he runs a nightclub like Rick Blaine in Casablanca. So he has like six different gimmicks, and the cereal mascot part is easily the least important. The only reason you'd even suspect Dex is a character from a box of cereal is because he's in a movie about brand mascots. Indeed, none of the characters created for this movie look like they were designed to sell anything, least of all groceries.

The strongest concept in the movie (which isn't saying much) is that the brands are facing an invasion by the evil Brand X. This makes sense, seeing as Brand X is by definition generic, with no iconic mascot except the pejorative and mysterious implications of that term. Listen, I know this sounds dumb, but you could do something with this. In a world of where brands come to life in the form of their mascots, who or what emerges from a brand without a mascot? How would such a being differ from the likes of, say, Count Chocula? Such a character might reject some fundamental principle that the good guys hold dear.

At this juncture, a sharper "secret lives of things that aren't alive" movie could make some insightful point that ties the story together. Something about how the world needs brand mascots, I suppose. But nobody actually needs brand mascots, for pete's sake, except for the people who came up with this movie. So there's no core idea for Brand X to oppose--the good guys' world exists just to exist, so the bad guys exist just to destroy it. With that baseline laziness established, Brand X paradoxically has lots of mascots, all of whom look like Nazis for some reason.

Well, okay, technically Brand X's leader, Lady X, looks less like a Nazi and more like the Baroness from Cobra. But it figures that she doesn't quite fit in with the rest, since she created Brand X! Yeah, so at the end it's revealed she was a mascot for a poorly-marketed brand of prunes, and when she was discontinued she went to Brazil (???) for plastic surgery (???) to make her all hot. Then she somehow amassed the resources in the real world to create Brand X, complete with a human-sized android (!!!) so she could pass herself off as a real person and sell her wares to stores.

Dex is astonished by this backstory, since the mascots are like three inches tall and can't even leave the store. Lady X explains the plot hole by saying "Humans! When you look like this you can get them to do anything. Size only counts for men."

"Size only counts for men."

"Size only counts for men."

(She's talking about fucking.)

(fucking)

(-ucking -ucking -king)

Anyway, I need a nap now. Please don't watch this movie.

[theaceofskulls]

The Original Gundam: Thoughts About the Show that Changed Everything

I've made no secret about the fact that during my watch through of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, I've been miserable. If you're here for a random person on the internet to give a number at you to see how it measures up to your own number that you use to validate feelings, it's 5/10. I have anon asks turned on so you can scream at me there if that helps.

For everyone else who wants to understand the journey, more complicated feelings on the subject, what I feel holds it back, why I still argue it's something to watch, and my feelings on meeting aged media on its own terms, I'll try to make this a post I hope you'll enjoy.

First off, let's get this out of the way, viewing this through the lens of a toy commercial cartoon from the 70's and 80's, it's punching well above its weight class and the cultural significance of it is hard to overstate. I also acknowledge how frustrating it is to hear people disparage the mecha genre as "just robots fighting each other for a full series" when this series itself broke that mold back in 79.

It's also frustrating beyond all belief to hear people react to anything with any mecha influence with "ew gundam" which is a feeling I'm sure anyone who has ever interacted with people in the 40k community will have familiarity with.

I understand why people are defensive of this show. It's the foundational story for the largest timeline with the most amount of other works in it for the Gundam franchise.

What is the Show?

For those not aware, Gundam as a series is divided up into different timelines that all have different canons that for the most part don't intersect. The only exception to this is that there are a few works that are implied to be far futures of this one timeline we're talking about: Universal Century, which is a time period denoted by the change in the calendar to "UC" (implied from AD).

All of the shows, movies, OVAs, manga, novels, and so on fit onto the timeline with definitive years on this calendar, with the original being set in 0079 UC, during a period called the One Year War between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon which we follow from just after its start to its conclusion.

The story follows a ragtag crew of a prototype spaceship/mobile fortress called White Base with its own set of prototype robot weapons including the titular Gundam, with all of the crew being fresh faced youths most of whom aren't even part of the military at the start of the show after an attack on their space colony leads them to a prolonged escape that changes the fate of the war forever.

It's an interesting setup that immediately hits a lot of tropes with its own unique twist to them and drives a lot of the plot. Sadly that plot is where the issues show.

Before we go any further I want to note something important: I watched the English dub of this series. I have no doubt this influenced my feelings on the show but also I feel it's no less a valid way to experience something like this as it's not as though you can simply discount the existence of a version of the show that is meant to be there for its target audience to be able to connect with it.

I also did this because I knew that it would be dated and that I would struggle even more to finish the series if I did not have an option for it to not be the only thing I was doing at the time. This was how I had to meet the show and it worked out because I actually finished it, which is better than a lot of other series I've bounced off of even when I try to watch them for their significance.

It's also important to note here that the show famously brushed with cancellation that shortened its runtime down to 43 episodes, the last few of which were obtained by a lot of begging by the director to see it through. So when I mention pacing issues, I know there's a knee jerk reaction to be defensive here.

The Problem Pace

But all the acknowledgements in the world don't change what the actual viewing experience of the show is like. The pacing is atrocious, and when I say that I mean the following:

-The pacing of the overall plot -The pacing of individual episodes -The pacing of individual fights inside of episodes.

So just pacing problems in general. Some things feel drawn out, some feel like you're watching with the fastforward button held down and it's all related to the fact that the show is fitting into a trap that holds it by the throat and is to me the fundamental flaw of it that it only manages to escape with scant few episodes remaining: it's a villain-of-the-week format.

That villain could be a new character, a new enemy robot, or a strategy that's being tested on them but inevitably the end result is that it's almost always resolved by the end of the episode, usually by Amuro, our main character.

I hear some defenders about to cry out from that description so let me cut you off: the single greatest strength of the show is that it keeps a main plot going throughout the entirity of its run, usually by shuffling a different arc and threading it through individual episodes so that something always happens and its always moved forward by the events of an individual episode. This saving grace is actually really powerful at keeping the series watchable even as its animation and story structure have aged like milk.

Sometimes this even includes advancing character arcs. Sometimes.

But all in all, it begins to wind into a repetitive structure that begins to weigh on you when you realize that these episodes are running together and all the names are changing and the mechs they're fighting are different but it's frustratingly the same with the exception of the background which is never completely stalled so you keep going.

I kept deleting "watching Amuro saves the day" while typing out the story structure because technically sometimes its someone else but I realized that I couldn't continue discussion of why the show is hard to watch without addressing the other big issue in the room: the characters.

Characters, aka Char, Amuro, and the people who aren't as important

This series mostly focuses on Amuro Ray and his nemesis Char Aznable. One of them is extremely interesting and helped carry the franchise on his back. The other one is our POV character.

Amuro is not the most frustrating protagonist I've watched, nor (due to the glut of isekai I've seen) the most generic. But he's a hard sell. Just a regular kid stuffed in the cockpit is as bland a trope to the mecha genre as having a startup sequence for the first time in the cockpit is. It does allow him to suffer the stress of the constant war which is interesting on paper, but outside of that he doesn't have much.

He's a gear rat who pushes himself so that his friends (when the crew actually manages to become friends almost a quarter of the way into the show) don't suffer. And when you get towards the end and track his progress on paper, it seems interesting. It's just very... flat in practice. My favorite moment is him being called out for fighting for no ideology or homeland and he doesn't have an excuse beyond "so what" compared to another character who at least acknowledges they're ride or die for their found family.

Amuro instead gets defined by being the Hero who most episodes have him save the day, and not often in too interesting of a manner.

So this leaves the rest of the white base crew with not much to do as they wait for Goku... I mean Amuro to finish off the villain for them. Sometimes they're allowed to be the main character but all too often they're here to handle the background fighting.

I'll say I enjoy Sayla and even Kai's eventual arc's, though it takes almost 30 episodes for the latter to get his and until that point I legitimately wanted him to die off and I'm normally fine with Heel allies in these types of shows because most of the time they're written to showcase why they're like that. Kai is just insufferable until that point and he then rarely gets to save the day on his own afterwards.

Sayla meanwhile has a lot going on with her playing catchup at being a pilot midway through the story in an attempt to get close to her brother, Char, which considering he has his own great story going on really helps elevate her. I don't have many notes here other than it feels odd that she never gets her own mobile suit and fades away after this series, but she's the one side character I feel like I'd miss if I'd gone for the compilation movies instead of watching the series proper.

Well maybe Commander Bright qualifies too, as he's fascinating. A 19 year old who is the only military officer on board at first who still is unqualified for the role he's found himself in who struggles to hold the crew together. Him being tied as strongly to the overall plot allows him to develop over the course of the series and makes him standout.

Of the remaining main characters:

Fraw Bow, Amuro's childhood friend, quickly becomes irrelevant

Hayato doesn't get anything to do until the final couple episodes and it boils down to an inferiority complex

Mirai suffers from some great 70's/80's anime writing of women that's somehow slightly better than your average writing of female characters in shounen or isekai these days until it's time to talk about her love life

Ryu is a big guy in anime who does what you expect a big guy in anime on the good guys side to do

Slegger is introduced right near the end and is a chauvinist disruption to the crew's dynamic towards the end that the show makes me want to believe went through the same development as Kai did around the midway point but never really gets the time to be likeable in the same way

The three children who the show desperately wants me to agree should be on the military base headed into battle because they're family through justifying them helping the crew once every 12 episodes or so. I feel like my opinions here should be self explanatory

They just don't resonate with me at all that much in the end. The protagonist side ends up fairly flat because of this, with the antagonist side being made up of the Zabi family, Char, about 2 or 3 arc villains who last at least 3 episodes, and villains of the week who die often the same episode they appear in.

It's no surprise that like almost everyone else, I enjoy Char the most, but acknowledge how the story's rushed conclusion sees him declaring that his vengeance for the Zabis doesn't matter and that he must kill Amuro to within 2 minutes of that exact statement saying "I now realize the Zabis are the true enemies" with no one making a speech that actually gets through to him. Beyond that however, Char remains a fantastic character with more depth than expected who had his own arc and motivations that didn't always revolve around the protagonists and makes for an enjoyable part of the show to watch.

The Whole Love Triangle Subplot

And I've been avoiding the Laylah in the room, the woman at the center of Char and Amuro fully becoming each other's true rivals and the start of the introduction of Jedi to the series.

Yes if you don't know, Universal Century has Jedi, they're called Newtypes and while they do try to foreshadow it early on, it abruptly comes out of left field in the final 8 or so episodes and takes over every aspect of the plot. It didn't fully gel with me but it worked well enough.

My issue with Laylah is instead the love triangle that abruptly occurs and Amuro's entire motivations changing during the fight with her to be solely about how he's in love with her. While him getting bad crushes is not new to the series it's a two way thing that also comes out of nowhere for a single episode with Laylah who until this point has been solely motivated by Char and the entirety of the pivotal episode that defines the rest of Universal Century regarding this had me shaking my head with the knowledge that this was doing nothing for me. It sucked and I couldn't feel anything and this is going to be massively important for future series.

I literally knew the exact plot beats that were occurring and part of why I was watching this show was to see it in action and it just didn't work out at all. Performance wasn't the issue, the pacing, lead up, the abrupt "we were destined to be together", and lack of any interaction or introspection of Amuro and Laylah's feelings about each other just sabotage the scene and its effects entirely. You can understand what the scene is going for but it doesn't stick its landing.

Sure I grokked the Char side of things in the ensuing aftermath of the fight, but as for the moment itself, it fell flat.

The Animation

Look, this is really easy: The animation aged harder than anything else. This turns into a larger problem when it intersects the structure problems I talked about earlier where episodes are very Villain of the Week and are resolved by Amuro Mercs a Man.

That being that a lot of episodes are centered around a fight scene in the mechas, and those fights don't hold up great. It's not the worst animation you'll ever see, but when it feels like it's meant to be the core of the episode and it's underwhelming, it drags the show down.

Geewoners

Part of why I decided to put my thoughts together on this series is that in looking for other Gundam series to watch, I've seen plenty of people's ratings on other shows in the franchise and listened to them explain why a show that others rave about fell apart for them, and I realized something when I was reflecting on this show: With the exception of "aliens", almost every thing that killed another show dead for them is present in this show in some way. It's a mess of creative decisions that are divisive and drive away viewers but it's still rated highly by its fans. And I wanted to see it through to understand that.

One thing I should explain is that I am a Transformers fan who got into that series because of reruns of its original work and therefore have experience with something that fandom likes to call Geewoners, people who are superfans of the original show. The term itself tends to get a negative connotation because they insist that the show is better than anything else in the franchise, and I can't help but see reflections of that in this fanbase.

G1 of Transformers is an aged piece of media meant to sell toys. It had an amazing amount of thought put into its world for a show that was basically there to sell you a robot that is also a truck. And some episodes are great ideas that are given life by colorful and memorable characters. It's also extremely cheaply animated with mistakes all over it because of the way it was produced.

And like MSG, it's also foundational for what came after. It's hard to comprehend Transformers in its entirety without looking at G1 at some point. But it's understood that it has aged and that it's important to acknowledge that for newcomers.

Aged media is an interesting subject, because you have to acknowledge on simple fact: there's a lot of things competing for your time these days, and a lot of things that have been done poorly have ended up being done better even by their own franchises, so why should you watch something older if something newer and better exists?

In part, the answer is academic. And I don't just mean looking at something purely to write out a report or an overly long social media post on the subject. I mean that sometimes it's important to consume media to understand other media as well as yourself.

While I spent a good amount of time berating the show for its format, it should be noted that it was done in an era where it wasn't assured you could see the reruns, so missing the part 1 or part 2 of a multipart episode was a bigger deal. Thus it choosing this format is not a dumb decision on its part, but rather something necessary. It still ages the material and I'd argue that makes it harder for newer viewers to enjoy it as much. While it's possible to acknowledge that this format fits its era, it's equally important to discuss that viewing it as a modern viewer, it holds back your enjoyment of it.

Meeting media on the terms it was made is a complicated matter. Everything makes compromises and nothing is made in a vacuum, but that doesn't change the viewer's experience of it. You could argue the merits of changing the score to be weighed in light of that, but I kept it to the more shocking number of 5/10 because that's still a valid takeaway. It's an approximation of how I felt when I ended it, where I thought I had equally as many complaints as I did enjoyment of the material.

It's equally as important to understand material as it is to see media without the history or the understanding of landscape at the time, as it can be consume in either manner.

It's also worth remembering someone else's opinions don't invalidate your own experiences. MSG can be good to you and mean a lot because of your own experience with it even while to me I see it's age.

And aged media involving robots isn't just limited to 80s cartoons. I want to take a brief moment to talk about the fact that one of the hardest other recommendations you can give for mecha anime is Evangelion despite what the anime community believes due to its status. Eva is amazingly influential but that alone also damns it. Everything mecha made after it pulls from it, and as is often the case that means returning to it often makes it hard for those who grew up with its successors to understand why it's so good. If you get into any video essays on video gaming that stray anywhere close to Resident Evil 4, you'll hear this subject a lot.

Still it's hard to talk about the giants that everyone stands on the shoulders of being anything but great for someone. How can someone not enjoy the experience of something as important as they are? And the answer does often boil down to: experiencing something well after it came out or consuming media after consuming those it influenced is a different experience entirely.

I'll say this: there's a lot of nostalgia rose tinting going on when discussing Mobile Suit Gundam. I maintain it's a hard watch for people that have no attachment. Hell, the fact that I made it through was in part due to me having an attachment to the franchise as a whole.

But also I did make it through this show. It's 43 episodes and despite me consuming it at a snails pace at times and being incredibly frustrated with it in a variety of ways, it was something I could still finish. And while I stand by all my criticism above, I have to acknowledge its merits.

Okay, Time to be Nice to Grandpa

I'm not going to talk about the historical significance of the show. Others are better versed on that have made posts you can search and find. I'm not even going to discuss that this is the foundation of the Universal Century because that's not important to the experience of viewing it.

Instead I want to talk about the fact that despite the pacing issues and the performances and the animation, the story of the show is at its core an interesting examination of a ragtag crew who end up as the unlikely heroes that help end a war.

Core ideas of plots throughout the show are enthralling in ways that are hard to explain so I'll give examples:

Char's original misunderstanding that base is crewed by special forces and his attempts to understand why they're using such odd tactics

The fact that the show plays with the idea that the titular mech begins out as overpowered and everyone else is quickly catching up to it and Amuro needs to learn to use it properly before the gap it provided at the start is shortened completely

The way the Earth Federation treats the White Base, first with indifference since their attention is elsewhere to treating them as a decoy after they realize Zeon is overly concerned about the base, to finally having to depend on them. The Crew's relationship with the military as a whole is interesting to see play out

The way supply lines are actually part of the show ranging from an early episode where the threat of Char being able to resupply could effectively end their escape from him to having to figure out how to rest and repair in hostile areas

While I don't think it sticks the landing since it had to rush the arc, the way Newtypes begin to change warfare the same way the mobile suits early on had shows the war ramp up at its tail end with both sides becoming more desperate

The animation improves towards the end and becomes far more coherent even if some of the final battles are definitely stretching the budget

While I've mentioned the animation's quality, there are plenty of good standout moments even early on, mostly when mechs are exploding

The mecha design is great. While some of it definitely looks awkward, they're all captivating and the villain of the week format did allow for a lot of different designs (which in the end did save the franchise since it sold enough model kits)

The way the show handled death as something sudden and abrupt is different than almost every other mech show out there. Danger feels real most of the time and the fact that almost no one gets a parting speech even if their mech doesn't immediately explode adds to a realistic feeling that doesn't cross the line of "too grim"

The show manages to find a balance where the protagonists feel important but not as though they're destined to end the war. Even as the ending ramps things up, it feels as though circumstances work out the way they do without feeling contrived. They end up at the final battle because Zeon used its last superweapon on the larger fleet and that final battle worked the way it did because of infighting and just enough tactics to find the right place to hit. It doesn't feel like the Death Star as much as an actual military battle.

Things like these keep the show watchable for reasons beyond just "you gotta appreciate the classics" or "well you need to watch it to understand what comes next", especially in an era where every detail of what happens is recorded in text for you to read on a wiki or a fan site.

MSG is not something I think everyone can love, but I think there are things in there that most people can appreciate beyond just the anime that shows the One Year War or being the official start of the Gundam Franchises' history book.

After all, there have been novelizations, video game adaptations, and other material that adapts the story and summaries of its events. But the show and its compilation movies remain with enough solid material there of worth that they're something you can chew through.

Wrapping Up

This is one of the longer posts I've made. Probably the longest I've actually posted in literal years. But this was inspired primarily because the frustration I experienced with wanting to enjoy this as much as others did. It was inspired by listening to critics dissect the other shows in the franchise extremely harshly only to turn around and sing praises of the Ur-entry in the series and wondering if it held up to the hype.

My journey was inspired by me wanting to consume exactly one work in the Universal Century Timeline and realizing when I looked at another along the way that I would be lost without starting earlier on and setting myself up for a longer journey than I wanted.

I feel like I understand not just Gundam, but also Mecha in general better. It's interesting to see what was abandoned along the way, as from episode one the idea of them actually using a mech that's stronger than everything else seems like an unbearable powerfantasy that the genre outgrew only to watch them utilize the trope in an interesting way over the 43 episode run. But at the same time I watched as it fumbled episodes or arcs that I've seen other shows nail.

When I finished the show, I let out the biggest sigh of relief at having finished it, but it also left me hungry for more content from the timeline.

Despite the flaws, it didn't drive me away. Despite the fact that it literally took me months to finish, I felt like continuing and not just jumping to another timeline or franchise entirely.

But I still maintain a lot of my feelings that I did from the beginning. It's rough, it's hard to recommend, and I'd never start a newer fan here. I still hate how central it is to being able to look at most of the rest of its timeline with those other labels on it, but I can't fully bring myself to recommend a complete alternative to it either.

I feel like it would be a niche recommendation if it wasn't central to what came next or if it wasn't first out the gate, something only for those really interested in the series to check out, but also it's something that I feel like still might be worth checking out on those merits, even with a huge amount of caveats attached.

In the end, I can't really give a general recommendation for if Mobile Suit Gundam is the type of show for you other than this: If you ever find yourself enjoying Gundam, at some point I feel it's worth looking at in some manner. Maybe like me you'll need to have it running while doing other things. Maybe you'll only be able to do it in the compilation movie format. Maybe you'll need to go with a novelization or some new version of it.

But the story ideas and some of the plot directions are captivating and worth looking at.

Just don't start here.

[larissa-the-scribe]

Terrarium Lights 3.3

Previously on Terrarium Lights: Gail found the ghost. The ghost had found.... some kind of an answer. Maybe. (Next part >>here)

"I… I see," Gail replied, not seeing.

"That's most everything I know," Samu—no, Jonathan—admitted. "As I found those reports, and looked around the city, I did remember bits and pieces. And I think… somehow… the operation did work and did not work at the same time. I… I would definitely classify the weird places that I remember going to as something unlike anything from here, that I’ve seen, and you didn't seem familiar with any of it, either. But… well… when I accidentally lit the lightbulb back at your place, I remembered, vaguely, a kind of blazing, blinding light, and being in agony."

"Oh. Sorry to hear that." A distant part of Gail wondered if either she or Jon—Samuel were going quite mad. This conversation was so normal despite its departure from all familiar wisdom. But also, she was talking to a ghost, and she wasn't sure if that made her more mad or less. At least in relation to discussing different worlds. "So… you said you found your body?"

"Oh, right. Well, the records indicated that the test was held at the lighthouse, six years ago. And I remembered the lighthouse. When we went to the church and I saw it, I knew I remembered it. So… I finally worked up the courage to come here. Just a couple days ago, in fact. I… I haven’t been sleeping at all,” he added, as if self-consciously. “I don’t seem to need to."

"And… your body was here from six years ago?"

He shook his head. "More recent. I don't know how recent."

"A few weeks ago, maybe?"

"That was the impression I got."

"How… how does it look?" Hopefully the lad hadn't gotten too traumatized.

"Well, I have a theory," he said, playing with the buttons on his vest. "I can't feel the cut on my shoulder, right? Well, my body is wearing pretty much the same clothes as me, except that there's a patch over the shoulder. So I think it must have been healed and my shirt fixed. So I appear to you as I arrived here in this world, but my perception of myself has changed along with my original body.” He paused, looking down at his vest and away from her eyes. “Which… I-I was planning on going back and talking to you, I really was… I just… didn't know how. And I felt bad about the terrarium breaking."

"O-oh. You have been through a lot, so it would take time to process." Gail reached out to pat him, stopped, then shook her head, as if by rattling the thoughts around in her head more physically they would make sense. "I beg your pardon, are you saying that the only thing that's noticeably different about your body is that your shoulder isn't hurt?"

"What should be different?" Jonathon asked after a long pause.

"Well, because, you know." She gestured at him vaguely, making an effort to keep her voice from rising at her general befuddlement. "You're, well… dead."

"Oh, right." He tugged on his vest. "I guess I forgot that, too. Forgot to tell you, I mean. I'm… well, I’m actually still alive."

"You're… still alive?" Gail certainly felt she ought to be pleased at this, but instead she just found herself more confused than anything. "But… aren't you a ghost?"

"I will be honest," Jonathon said, shifting on the dirt, "I don't quite understand it myself. I thought I was a ghost, too. But if I go in there, I can see myself, looking just like myself, but… physical, and lying on what looks like a sickbed. There's a bowl of water nearby, and a towel on my forehead, and once when I went in there was a doctor. But… well… I can go into places and look through papers and find things out and all that, but… I can't… talk to people." He looked down at his hands. "They don't see or hear me. And… there's still a lot I don't know. I don't really know who Samuel is, though he was my friend. I don't really know who Jonathon is, even though I found my name and my body. I don't know why I'm still at the lighthouse, and I don't know if I have any family anywhere. I don't know why I'm sick and lying there and why I'm out here, too, at the same time. I was… I didn't want to have to ask more of you… but… I think I was also delaying going to see you because… well, I needed to go back and apologize and talk to you. But there was more… and… I don't know."

Gail reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know you feel bad about taking my time, but I promise, you can ask me for help whenever you like. I want to give you my time, if that means I can help you. In fact, I was actually out here at the lighthouse because I was looking for you." He looked up at her with wide eyes. "I was worried about you," she said softly.

"O-oh." He blinked, looking from her hand to her face.

"So, to make it as clear as I can: if you want my help, I want to give it to you."

The distant rhythm of the sea filled the moment between them.

"That's… that's extraordinarily kind of you," he finally said, looking back down at the ground. "I… I don't really know what to say in the face of all you've done. I wish I had some way to repay you."

Gail nodded. "I know just the thing you can do to start on that."

He tilted his head to look up at her from the side.

She patted him again. "You can start by telling me what it is that you still need, and then, after I do what I can, and once we figure out how to get you back to your body, you can live a good life. And try and visit Michael and I every now and then."

If he had possessed the physical capacity for producing tears, the rapid blinking and puckering of his eyebrows hinted that there would be a lot of them. "I… I don't feel like that's really a fair form of compensation."

Gail heaved herself off the ground, dusting herself off, front and back. "No, it isn't," she grinned, "but never you mind that. I'm assuming you want me to talk to the folks in there and see what I can learn about you and your condition?"

He nodded. "Thank you."

"You can thank me after I've actually done something," Gail said with a wink, and, double-checking that she hadn't gotten too unpresentably soiled, marched around and in through the front door before she could think twice. She whispered a prayer as she walked through the door.

Previous

Next

[ronmanmob]

[ establish ] Beth knows that Ron isn't one for certain public displays, and for the most part, she's been extremely amenable to keeping up public appearances. But there's something about being in Esmeralda's that she can't quite put her finger on; maybe it's how much of the place seems more Panini than it does her publican. The lads gathered around aren't as familiar to her, except Pat, though there are one or two others she'd put money on would have Ron's back. She doesn't hate the fact that he turns heads ~men and women alike~ because he certainly has that effect on her, too. No, she isn't sure what it is. But unlike some people she knows, she isn't going to raise voice and make a fuss, which will in turn provoke a scene. She has far more respect for Ron than that. So instead, she lets them speak for one another. Broad back and shoulders to a part of the bar where he can survey the domain and not have anyone come up behind him he makes the perfect bulwark against the other patrons. Beth leans into him then, tucking her head under his chin, and pressing every slight curve into his equally broad chest.

Lean Into Me Meme

The automatic six foot berth Esmerelda's High Top clientele gave him almost his comical at this point. Propped up by the bar, quite at ease in the world, Ron watched London's high and mighty breeze by him like he had the plague; their courses bowing out to keep that distance constant every time he so much as shifted position. The impassivity of his mien...well, that heightened the effect he had, but it was serving double duty now. Both deflection and mask, it hid his amusement; derisory and edged with self-deprecation as it was. His condition--

..'Ee's a fuckin' monstah..

Ah yes.......There it was.

His condition made true enjoyment of the moment impossible, but what jollity those fuckers upstairs didn't douse in ice water remained despite the look of a scowl on Ron's face. If you didn't laugh you'd cry as the saying wisely went, much as weeping bought him no relief these days. So it was that he watched with a dispassionate gaze as a thousand elegant chiffons meandered by on the arms of a thousand more tailored hats and tails.

It was a Reginald night here, a Proper High Class Affair with all the attendant glitz and glamour that one of those attracted. Ron was sure a celebrity or five was in attendance, much as he couldn't pick them out the crowd. His disconnect from that strata of society was such that he'd given Reggie a heart murmur by treating such people like people instead of the rarefied things his brother seemed to want them treated as. After the last of those debacles Ron had just pulled back from these nights completely, hence his being a guest this evening instead of working staff or security, and hence as well...God bless her...

His lady Beth was in attendance.

As if called by his thoughts of her his angel emerged from the crowd and came right to him, breaching that six foot berth like it was nothing; like it wasn't between her and the most dangerous man in the room. That to her he couldn't be that, wouldn't ever be that didn't matter to all and sundry passing. More than one wanderer cast glances Beth's way as she tucked herself right into the personal business of The Smiling Man's twin brother who looked, to them, like he was waiting only for a pretext before committing some atrocity or other but to her looked like, and was, home.

The moment her slight weight pressed into him Ron shifted, tucking his arm round her body and resting his chin atop her head. His eyes were on the crowd still, mindful of it always, but his bulwark against the room and its denizens protected Beth now, not just himself. Into her hair then dipped his nose, his lips; a kiss landed, then a second and then, a question rumbled through the room's encompassing din:

"--Can y'take much more'a this?"

He'd lost the cog for it a half hour back, but keeping face was keeping face.

[spookyreibones]

The Crux S2: VII of Swords

You cannot deny your nature, nor run from the past forever.

Betrayal, deception & trickery.

They made their choice, moving on from the 2 of swords to the 7 of swords. But what about the other c- no shut up, they don't matter right now. This is the card for the next story beat that happens in session 2.

For the uninitiated, I am making a series of tarot cards for my d&d group, with whom I run a homebrewed campaign. I send them out around 2 days before their respective session. This one made them intensely suspicious of the NPCs' quest they had accepted.

Perhaps the scar-faced countryside folk who are unusually good with guns aren't the holiest people out there. Just a thought! Fanning the flames, one of the NPCs grew antsy during dinner, as if he'd been wearing tight clothes for too long. His wife gave him a knowing look and put their child to sleep, and he then headed out to the backyard, claiming to go check on the night guard, but a keen-eyed bard caught the hint of a bipedal canine running off into the night.

If werewolves are normal, then why would he hide it? They live amongst society happily, but some see them as barbaric criminals which is partially true as a significant part of the turned (as opposed to born werewolves) are or were criminals. And they don't like the government? Dunno, maybe there's something cooking there?

Here's the song that goes along with the card! I didn't send it out along with the card for my group but I will for the future ones :3

Well, that's as much as I'll reveal above the cut and before issuing the respective SPOILER WARNING for my d&d group and STAY AWAY.

Aight, so last time we mentioned the symbolism of the eye being stabbed: it represents turning a blind eye to what is clearly obvious. This is what would happen if they took Sergio's (rural doctor) quest, which on the surface looks far more noble as it means saving a monster-infested village.

However, the 2nd time the party saw the two NPCs that give out the quest they literally slammed a tied-up person's head on the police officer's desk, divvying up the bounty amongst themselves. They have scars all over their bodies and faces, smell of gunpowder and wield guns with the same familiarity that most use pens. There's no denying that these folk are rough. But hey, that doesn't mean they're bad people. Right?? Right?

Both in the world's lore and in metagame symbolism, werewolves are a representation of savagery. To some, turned werewolves invite side-eyes and bag-clutching as most of them have violent pasts. However, it is an undeniable and inextricable part of our world: our savagery, violence and ruthlessness.

The seven of swords paired with the werewolf reminds us that though we may try to hide it, this part of us is so deeply rooted that it cannot be hidden or denied (hence the accompanying text 'you cannot deny your nature').

The party didn't ally themselves with a known criminal, making the 'right' choice and remaining in the good graces of the law. But is it really right? Honourable? Were you not motivated by self-interest? Is that any better than the criminal who desperately wants to get her brother out of jail?

The werewolf in the card and the one the bard saw is Jace, the co-quest giver of the Honeymeadow/Honourable questline. He is a turned werewolf, being bitten in a skirmish with an opposing gang when he and the rest of the folk belonged to the Santorini gang. They lied, stole, killed and shot people like every other gang of criminals. All NPCs except the child, who was sheltered, were involved in the violent criminal life. They have paid off their bounties and renounced their old life of crime, being lawful and helpful citizens, but the past is not something we can run from or hide. It is a part of us, and this is the pill they (particularly Jace) must swallow moving onwards with life.

Jace hides that he is a werewolf from his son because he is afraid Jaime (son) will see him as even more of a monster. Jaime was born into the gang, sheltered, yes, but aware of the violent life his parents and relatives lived outside the quiet comfort of the gang's campsite. He knows his parents are criminals. He also knows they have morals and a good heart, but it terrifies Jace that his son might see him as anything but a monster, which is why he hides that part of himself from his son and the party. He doesn't trust the party to keep it a secret.

Overall, the party and the questgivers & co don't quite trust each other. But they need each other. At least for now.

[anaverna]

Ecarden: Machinery of the Heavens

Ecarden is a very advanced and high-tech world, populated by a single biological sentient species self-named the engrath. Technically, there is also a bunch of sentient AI which was made in spite of the ban, but we will talk about those later. Despite a clear sci-fi focus, Ecarden has an unexpectedly vintage and even art deco look, with a great balance of urbanization and the preservation of nature as it is.

The entire Ecarden is divided into 22 autonomous cities called Districts, which in action are full-fledged states, forming together a strong alliance ruled by Ecardian Council. The common language, which was created at the beginning of the Era of Watchmaker, left all of the older languages in the past. However, each District possesses its own culture, laws, and general appearance. Power (except for the judiciary) belongs to the parliament and the Governor (aka the head of state), each elected for a five-year term.

And, perhaps the most important thing…

Ecarden is a world, where there is a rightful God!

*** Main characters

The main events take place in the 4th District in the backdrop of a few sudden serious problems, hence the main characters: the God themself, the Clergyman of the 4th District, his assistant AI in a body of an android, as well as the Governor of the 4th District.

As a deity, Watchmaker can shapeshift to any form, however, they rarely use this ability, dwelling on the images familiar and tested by time.

Watchmaker is the creator of the universe, but not the origin of the life existing in it (appearance of which, by the way, had become a real surprise for them). Being a demiurge, they are not a "God" in the sense in which we are accustomed to using this word, and for this reason, they call themself Watchmaker by analogy to the profession of a master-creator of the time mechanisms. In Ecarden Watchmaker acts like a full-fledged patron of arts and sciences, who with their own free will is ready to help with the development of the world and provide assistance with technology. They're considered the "Blind God", which means that they aren't a deity reigning over the world and watching over everything and everyone, but rather simple architect who knows about what is happening from the interactions with the Clergymen, who are mediators and representatives of each District, the most outstanding engineers who create the most advanced technology under Watchmaker's guidance. As a patron, Watchmaker presents the most important discoveries and innovations to the public, participates in ceremonies (such as Governor's inauguration, for example), and leads the main holiday of Ecarden named Thanksgiving Day, giving parting words and wishes for the next year, while maintaining a festive atmosphere.

***

Even though Eve and the other employees of the Complex have their uniforms, mostly it isn't forbidden to wear casual clothes, which he does quite often.

Zhaneeve Hezenlight is a Clergyman of the 4th District, a talented engineer in several fields, and a little bit practicing bionic. Most call Zhaneeve simply Eve, including employees of the Complex themselves (not to mention his close social circle).

His duties, like any other Clergyman, include:

Application in the development technologies which already exist and solving current problems with their help;

Development of completely new technologies (optional);

Periodic reports to the Watchmaker about what is happening in the headed District.

In addition, as one of the most competent bionics, he is also responsible for carrying out the most serious and urgent prosthetic operations and, in fact, mechanization in these cases.

On paper, each Clergyman is the head of the Complex of their District, the research center in which most of all development is carried out. In reality, Clergymen are very busy people, and each Complex is led by its deputy, leaving only the most important issues to the Clergyman.

Positive and kindhearted, always young in his soul (and a bit like a fashionista) Eve does plastic surgeries twice as frequently as any other engrath, he’s nonetheless quite a responsible person and tries to lead Complex and all the work going on there in the best way possible. 

***

Helper uses his small size and funny robotic look as an advantage. To display his emotions, he uses emoji or emoticons, sometimes reaching a completely absurd look.

Helper is an AI in а body of an android. He was created by Zhaneeve and originally was planned as a simple robot for small assignments, but Eve's creative approach (and his reluctance to do everything "according to a template") led to an unexpected result — AI gained consciousness and an edgy personality.

Possessing highly doubtful morals and being an obvious nihilist, the outwardly sarcastic and unfriendly assistant is the complete opposite of his creator. Barely recognizing any kind of authority, he doesn't perceive Eve as his creator, and even less as his boss, and works with him in a cooperative on a basis more similar to that of a friend, which doesn’t bother either of them as of yet.

Basically, Helper is something in between an omnipotent intelligence and a 7-year-old child (his real age), has his own Vlog, likes rap, and is quite good at it. 

***

Dark clothes are quite rare for a visually light Eсarden, and yet Nahash approves only two colours in his clothes which are black and burgundy.

Nahash Сerdes is a Governor of the 4th District. In general, he’s a rather serious and domineering man, one might even say harsh but he does an excellent job, for which he is very much loved by the townspeople. As the head of an almost full-fledged state, he bears a huge share of responsibility, and in practice also the entire executive power, which, however, doesn't bother him that much. He had changed his name and hides any true information about his past, had some traumatic experiences throughout his life that caused PTSD nightmares which make Nahash suffer from insomnia.

Officially, Eve is Nahash's personal bionic, who solves all issues regarding his mechanization, but in reality, these two are connected by a love affair something… more.

***

Character's voice canons

Saint Motel — Eat Your Heart Out

This song perfectly reflects cheerfulness, love for playing the guitar, and, to some extent, even Eve's philosophy.

Slide — See Thru Blue

Nahash's voice is usually a little bit more bassy, but he almost always talks to Eve in exactly this way.

Son Lux, Mitski, David Byrne - This Is A Life (male)

Watchmaker has an exceptionally polite manner of communication, as well as calm, measured speech. However, their voice changes slightly from time to time, similar to their appearance.

***

And finally…

Small typing of characters according to the lyric heroes from the song The Oh Hellos - Soldier, Poet, King, which isn't a canonical display of their professions, remains very indicative for understanding what all three of them are.

[theimaginatrix27]

A peek Into My Childhood

So I recently (a few weeks ago) discovered that the story tapes/CDs I had as a child about various classical composers were 1. part of the same set, and 2. were available online. I mean I'd suspected the first one, but the second delighted me beyond words. I plan on buying/downloading the whole collection, but I wanna gush about these for a minute, because this is a fandom I didn't think of as such but which I may well have thought of some form of fanfic of back in the day, particularly with regard to a girl who was at that time older than me, who was featured in two of the stories.

But first, here's the general idea of this collection. Each tape centres around the work of a particular classical composer (Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart etc) or in one more recent case is just given a classical soundtrack with medieval overtones (It's a story about unicorns with Merlin and King Arthur in it, it's sweet, I only recently acquired it for the first time). With the composer-centric ones, they then create a work of historical fiction designed to educate the child on the life of said composer in an entertaining way. Usually this takes the form of a low-budget audio drama (I say low-budget because there aren't as many sounds as I'd personally prefer in an audio drama these days), though there are exceptions. One story is told almost completely in letters between a boy and his uncle (Beethoven Lives Upstairs). The music used as a soundtrack for the story is all by the composer it's centred around, and to this day some of the pieces are associated in my brain with scenes from those tapes.

I was enthralled by these story tapes as a child. I listened to them over and over and over. I had a particular love for Mozart's Magic Fantasy, where a young girl falls into the world of the Magic Flute (softened a bit for children), which enchanted me utterly. All the featured songs from the opera got English lyrics to befit the story the tape was telling and it can be a little strange to one who is familiar with the original (I was not. I still loved the Queen of the Night's solo even though she was the villain).

But one story I dearly loved was that of an orphan named Katarina who is sent to Vivaldi's orphanage/school, firstly because Vivaldi was portrayed as such a warm, kind man who loved his music and his girls, and because I got very attached to Katarina. Spoilers for a twenty-something-year-old story tape, a magic violin reveals that she's the missing granddaughter of a duke. The whole story was lovely and even listening back to it a few weeks ago, I was brought nearly to tears by it.

I thought that was the last I'd hear of her, so I was deeply delighted when I found out she got a sequel in the form of the Hallelujah Handel story. My stars, I fucking loved Handel. Not just because he was blind, but his whole vibe. He was a grumpy old man but he loved his music.

Also there was a boy who was selectively mute via trauma and didn't speak, but did sing beautifully. I love Thomas with my whole entire soul (this sequel is set in England, Katarina's grandfather becomes an Italian ambassador to England and of course Katarina goes with).

Anyways I know I had dreams about Katarina, and probably this version of Vivaldi as well because I liked him so much, and there's a small part of me that wants to write a little fic where Katarina returns to Venice after Handel dies at the end of his story (most of which is told in a flashback, like the Vivaldi one). But I don't know how historically accurate these stories are, just that they're not quite accurate, and I gotta google when Vivaldi died and probably blow any plans I may have had out of the water...

(Also if these people did or were associated with anyone who did bad things I don't wanna know. Lemme keep this part of my childhood.)

[fwoosheye]

This!

Apologies I for building on to this OP, but I've been stewing on this subject for a while, I just wasn't sure I should write it down but now I saw this (which sums up like 90% of what I wanted to say) sooo I'm just gonna add a bit more (with the context of fandom spaces bc this is tumblr)

Like, there are a few exceptions of when an apology is not enough to "clear" the accountability, the most obvious kind would be when they have committed a violent crime and should go to jail (eg murder or abuse) and similar irl stuff. But for the kind of stuff you'd find in fandom spaces these are pretty much the only three exceptions i can think of and I rarely see them (though maybe that's just because I tend to lurk in the outskirts of fandom spaces?)

They apologise but does not change their behaviour. Let's say an author is writing about a character who is living in an abusive situation but blame everything on the victim (and not in an unreliable narrator way (here's a wiki and a blogpost for those who aren't familiar with what an unreliable narrator is) but in a "this really looks like the author's opinion" way). They apologises when they are called out, but doesn't actually change how they write or talk about the subject going forward. This is what I world call an Empty Apology or a Token Apology

They apologise for the audience's reaction, not what they did. This could look like "I'm sorry people got mad when I called my character a Nigga". If that's it that's bad. But if they continue/begin with something like "I didn't realise it was offensive of me to use it. I will go back and adjust this and do my best to relearn my behaviour and use the correct terms. It was not my intention to hurt anyone" then I would accept this apology because it shows they understand why people are hurt. But without the addition it's what I would probably call a Midguided or a Move-On-ASAP Apology. Because they either don't understand what they did wrong or they just want to move on ASAP from the subject but they don't really care about having hurt people

They apologise for something different/part of it. Let's say the two points above was written by the same author and appears in the same work. Most people don't care about the usage of the word Nigga in that story, because it was said by a character who is a raging racist who wanted to offend the black character, so in the context of the story it made sense. But people are still upset about the blatant victim blaming that just isn't an unreliable narrator. The author makes a long heartfelt apology about the use of Nigga but does not address the other issue at all. This is what I would call a Diversion Apology. Behagar not only does their apology feel like a diversion it also makes the thing they did apologise for feel less sincere

Basically, the point of an apology is to accept that you've caused hurt and strive to do better in the future. If your apology is "Yeah I hurt you but I was only trying to X" you 1) haven't acknowledged that you've stepped on someone's metaphorical foot, 2) showed no signs that you will at least try to avoid it in the future.

Of course there will be moments where you won't receive (or give) apologises because the offender in question feel they have done no wrong, but when they do apologise and are sincere, you have to accept they are holding themselves accountable. You don't need to forgive them, you can still feel hurt and not trust them anymore, but it's not fair of you either to demand that they grovel at your feet when they have learned their lesson and are already working on bettering themselves

also im growing to hate the phrase ''hold accountable'' in discourse because its always so.... empty? like you see people saying ''sure this person apologized, but we need to hold them accountable!'' like cool. what does that mean. how can you get any more accountable than a public apology. do you want them to apologize... again? more? get a tattoo explaining their crimes so everyone they meet is informed? do you want accountability or are you repeating buzzwords because you cant find a nice way to say you just want them to disappear.