#for the plot to make sense. to make sure i actually include all the context required for everything to make sense

[elftwink]

started working on an older unfinished project today which necessitated me trying to decipher my notes and plot outline from 4+ years ago (an outline that was actually already fucked anyway because I accidentally fucked up the chronology when I was actively writing it and never bothered to fix my notes) and can I just say. what in the shit does half of this mean

[vvanillavveins]

On the WTNV finale:

Look, i like Brinknor. They helped me fall back in love with Night Vale when i was feeling particularly uninspired. It's hard to put it into words; i have adhd & i struggle to remember big intricate plots unless something reoccurring has really grabbed hold of my attention, and before Brinknor, i was struggling to sink my teeth into anything attention-holding, so to speak. I guess i was becoming less enthusiastic in Night Vale's storyline as time went on, even though i couldn't really work out why. I just couldn't stop tuning out. But, with Brinknor, there came a bunch of shiny new plotpoints- at a faster pace. The show could actually hold my focus properly, and my wtnv fixation was suddenly up & running again.

All this is to say that i know it's just my impatience talking when i say that i wish that the loose ends of those new, interesting plotpoints had been tied up a little more by episode 250. I adore the way they write about Cecil's childhood and his family, and i want Kevin & The Boy's arc to be given the same amount of love, and attention, and time that the Palmer siblings' arc got. The same goes for Tamika. And Carlos. And Lauren, actually. Yes, i know she was a central figure in the last 2 episodes, and i loved that because she's one of my favourite characters. I fucking adore eldritch Mother Lauren. But still, it was all too vague to really learn anything new about her or the desert otherworld. And, above all else, i can't help but think of how wonderful it would've been if Charles and Donovan were included in the finale- especially Donovan.

When Kevin first came back in 2023, one of my silly little hcs as to why he was apparently in the Smiling God's bad books (and why he didn't mention Charles or Donovan) was that because Charles & Donovan aren't from Desert Bluffs they haven't devoted themselves to the Smiling God like the rest of the townsfolk. They wouldn't "smile" properly. One of my darker ideas at the time was the possibility of Kevin having to choose between making them part of his faith, i.e., making them "smile" like the rest of Desert Bluffs (which i doubt he'd go through with after his mudstone abyss arc), or having Charles & Donovan leave town (which i doubt they'd go through with), or, doing neither & keeping quiet about his life with them to avoid drawing attention. If he chose the latter and then got found out, it would make sense that he'd stop being the Smiling God's favourite. Obviously, i never thought any of that was correct- i was just having fun- and i was excited to find out the real story further down the line.

But that didn't happen, and we still don't really have many answers. Everything to do with Kevin, and Lauren, and The Boy got wrapped up in about 10 minutes flat. We've already had an emotional Fatherhood themed episode with Cecil & Abby; we didn't need another one just for the sake of it.

With the context of what we already know about Kevin's father, the ending of episode 250 was just uncomfortable. Sure, Kevin's talked about his father positively before, but that's always been in contrast with the actual content of his memories. It's always been made clear that the script/the writers disagree with Kevin's sunny outlook, and therefore the listeners should too. Those moments are there to demonstrate just how fucked up Kevin really is, and that his positivity is just a coping mechanism. But this time Cecil spoke for him, so we didn't get Kevin's usual sing-song rambling. It was calm, and collected, and matter-of-factly. And this time there were no sugar-coated descriptions of abuse, only genuine praise. We were actually supposed to agree with him this time, and it made the whole speech (and ending) sound hollow and forced.

I really didn't like this episode. It felt rushed. It tried to cover far too much far too quickly, and it failed. But, despite all that, i am hoping that future episodes will bring some sort of clarity about what happened. And hopefully some closure about Kevin and his family, too. I want loose ends to get tied up properly and i believe that maybe, with time, the important ones will be. Slow burning subplots are kinda quintessential to Night Vale's writing at this point anyway. Brinknor definitely missed the mark with this one, but they're still incredibly talented writers and i'm not ready to give up on them like some of the other fans on here.

Besides, i think that some of Night Vale's worst episodes are still incredible pieces of writing in their own right. The bad episodes are only bad in comparison to the dozens upon dozens of absolutely phenomenal episodes that make up the rest of a show that is, for the most part, a joy to listen to. So, here's to some hopefully better episodes in the future, i guess.

[thediktatortot]

I would very tentatively like to put feelers out there for anyone looking to write long-form roleplay for final fantasy 7. I haven't written it with anyone in a very very long time and with getting back into the remake games it's spurned me to want to get back into it.

If you would be interested or are curious, I'll write all my info and what I'm looking for under the cut.

First things first.

Adults only, preferably someone 20+ though the older you are the more comfortable I will be as I am 32 and like to write about a range of topics including darker ones.

How I write

I write book style like you would see in a published story, so "talking like this" and story like this, with variations for emphasis.

Hard No's and discomforts

There isn't much I'm not open and willing to write, and usually it's a story by story basis, but I get squicked out by non-trans mpreg and would like to avoid overly ooc and crack fic style story.

What I like to write

I like to write from the Vincent POV and I like to keep the timeline pretty canon unless writing in parts of the timeline that have not been filled in.

My favorite parts of the timeline to write about pre FF7 events, DoC events and post Advent Children.

I don't have any concrete plot ideas just yet as I usually form those alongside my writing partner, but I am particularly interested in the Turks pre-Soldier program or post FF7 events.

How I write Vincent

I am of the mind that post-getting shot, Vincent is way more subdued due to memory loss from actually dying for a period of time, lucrecia even saying that she couldn't prevent decay of tissue in DoC. So there is a lot of himself he just does not remember due to that, however I do believe he has a sense of humor, is more talkative with those he is close with and has an interest in experiencing the world around him that is so new and updated.

Pre-getting shot Vincent however is a professional man who knows when to keep his personality subdued for his job. He is a Turk and he does his job well, this doesn't mean he doesn't have a life outside of that. Most of the memories we get outside of the few Vincent has of the time at the lab, are from lucrecia POV.

I like to give him a soft energy outside of work, open with his coworkers and his friends, but not willing to make a fool of himself as he takes pride in his ability to be calm, cool and collected. He will however dance, drink, play games and generally enjoy himself with those around him.

I like to give Vincent a tense relationship with his father, nothing bad just more of differing opinions and typical son butting heads with father.

Pairings I like

Almost forgot to write these as I really just like writing Vincent in any situation, but I do like Cid/Vincent and Reno/Vincent the most. I tend to enjoy Vincent with Cloud, Barret, Reeve, Veld & Sepheroth depending on the story and context.

Anyway:

I'm disabled and unemployed so I tend to have a plethora of time at my disposal so I am flexible to writing with people at most times. I am also not someone who is impatient with responses though I do tend to go through spurts of replying very quickly. I may occasionally give a boop or nudge just to make sure we are still golden and see if maybe we need to put things on hold, but I'll never push.

Just to note I played FF7 for the first time in 1998 so if there are any headcanons that may seem weird to you that I have, it's because of the near 20 years of reinforcement it's had.

[barid-bel-medar]

I’ve been squeezing up brains to find Bakugou actual plot relevance… there’s so little that he may perfectly be absent. At least in the early stages. In the late late stages there’s some but for then the divergence may have fixed up.

Anyway, i kind of found a couple and here are as aks:

Will Kamimari and Mina be affected in their academic progress by Bakugou not being there tutoring them?

Aizawa showed a huge bias towards Bakugou since the beginning. Is there any other student occupying that spot? Is he still salty about the top scorer being rejected for the new rule? Given Izuku early progress in handling OFA, is he less biased against him?

Thank you for giving me brainrot with your story. I kind of started a pilot fic with this trope thanks yo you!

Yeah it was the realization I had a number of months back that you can pull Bakugou out of basically all the early plotlines and it doesn't really effect things (hence FtE's entire existence). Even in context of the training camp attack they could have just as easily made a different student a target, like Izuku or Shouto. In contrast if Izuku isn't there, things change dramatically (which yes obviously he's the protagonist so that should be the case), including for Bakugou's own character evolution. If he succeeds when Izuku does not, his worst traits would have definitely gotten amplified and problems would have spiraled.

Like if Izuku wasn't at UA I think it's perfectly reasonable to write it that Bakugou wouldn't make it to graduation. He'd either get himself killed or expelled.

But to answer your other questions!

No, because I feel they would have found other students to help tutor them even if he wasn't there. It's just in-series it's a good means of explaining him succeeding in making friends/a social group that isn't followers ala Aldera.

There's presently not entirely a student holding that role though I would describe Aizawa as being grudgingly fond of Izuku and Neito despite himself. He actually wasn't really too salty over Bakugou's failure because he did get the point the Commission was making and it wasn't that unreasonable. His salt more related to him feeling Izuku got too many rescue points than anything else. I will say that in context of that, Izuku *wasn't* entirely wrong to suspect there was some fuckery going on with his practical score because Nedzu did want to make sure he got in and his rescuing of Uraraka made for the opening he needed. To some extent though it is also a different form of red flag the rescue points only since it does raise questions of potential martyrdom issues/lack of care of Izuku's own life versus the person he's trying to save.

Yeah Izuku's sense of heroism is utterly disconnected from Bakugou when it comes down to it. Even in the case of Bakugou his own desire to be a hero is disconnected from Izuku's existence, there's other issues specifically there (like the seriously concerning detail of how many of Endeavor's more toxic trait he happens to have when he's a kid; at least with Endeavor it's pretty clear those issues were more ones that started when he was older)

[the-boney-rolls]

The Great Covid Beatles Binge, Day 2: Give My Regards to Broad Street

Hoo boy, here we go!

OK so we open with a stern/bored looking Paul stuck in traffic in the rain and it looks like he's spacing out... hey, Paul, are you starting to daydream? Paul? Is this whole movie about to be a dream, Paul? Oh god

This silly little car! The computer, the carpet, the pool ball gear shift. It's giving the 80's car version of the Beatles house in Help! It's also giving hyper-masculine in a way that is, I'm sorry, not convincing.

This plot is already deeply inscrutable. Something about some missing tapes, a reformed criminal that Paul knows somehow and trusts for some reason, and some ominous business men. Something bad will happen at midnight if the tapes aren't found. OK!

Ringo looks so cool and hot! That vest over that sick as hell dragon shirt. Yes. This scene is genuinely funny, too -- Ringo spends the entirety of "Here, There and Everywhere" and "Yesterday" searching through his mountains of drum equipment looking for brushes, only to find them too late. Apparently, the reason for this scene is that Ringo just didn't want to re-record old Beatles songs!

And now we have Paul, Ringo, George Martin and Geoff Emerick all together in a scene! Makes me think about how George Harrison apparently was a little miffed Paul didn't just call him to ask for filmmaking advice since it was something he had experience with. What could have been!

“Wanderlust” is such a great song, actually, damn.

“I’m not a bad boy, really. I’m just — er, manipulated” John??

Now this is more like it! Surprise Linda in drag, hell yes!

I don't know why this scene is happening? It's a rehearsal for... something? But I'll take it. I love "Ballroom Dancing" and I love vaudeville Paul.

I'm starting to feel like Paul's grandpa in AHDN, "so far, I've been in a train and a room, and a car and a room, and a room and a room." Did Paul's experience on that set define what a movie is to him? "Ah yes, a movie must include lots of transportation from one location to another and then some musical scenes." But dear, it worked because there were jokes! And all four of you to play off each other.

I.......... what

This is Silly Love Songs, of all things!

Again, I don't know why this scene is happening in the context of the movie. Is it another rehearsal for something? A music video? Television special? Who knows, Yoko! But OK here we go, I sure am having fun! Linda is extremely into it. That slap bass kills. There's a Michael Jackson impersonator for some reason? Sure! It makes no sense but I love this man and his bizarre beautiful mind.

So now we're doing band rehearsal in some kind of barn? Or abandoned warehouse? Or something? All of the plot of this movie seems to happen in dialog in cars en route to some ambiguous musical engagement.

“Do you think we can get some heat in here or are we practicing to be Canadians?” God bless you, Ringo.

“Should we try Not Such a Bad Boy” “Do we have to?” “Yeah” Bossy Paul bosses around a Beatle, we love to see it.

Is this song about him or John? 

The French horn player coming in late to record "For No One," inexplicably in a bright red motorcycle helmet, so late that he’s preparing up until right before the solo starts. Reminds me of that story of Ringo recording Hey Jude. But it also feels very symbolic of something. There are so many odd inscrutable details in this movie, it could almost be Lynchian in someone else's hands.

“We’re running, and running out of time too” It feels meaningful but I don't know how.

Hello Mr. Darcy! Wow, can I have an entire movie that’s just this Victorian dream sequence? Can we go back in time and do a Beatles movie period piece, please??

The strings in this which are inspired by but are not quite "Eleanor Rigby" are lovely. Apparently this whole sequence is called "Eleanor's Dream," which implies that Paul is Eleanor. Make of that what you will, I suppose.

I like that Linda is a pants-wearing photographer in this period scene. Linda's gotta Linda.

This strikes me as very Evil Beatles. Again, make of that what you will.

Barbara and Linda are acting the HELL out of this going over the waterfall scene damn.

I don't know, I could screen grab this entire segment, it's amazing, it's insane.

But I can't gloss over Paul being horny for Ghost Horse Girl Linda. Incredible.

"That’s it you’re finished. What are you gonna do now?" Well ok at least this one is pretty obviously a reference to the critical reception of his career after the Beatles and again after John.

"Uncle Jim" Ok so I guess this is supposed to be his dad, but what is the point of this scene? And why the monkey? The further I get into this film the more I feel like I am looking deep into this man's psyche but through the murkiest of windows. I'm here for the weird dream symbolism, Paul, but if you're gonna go that route, again go full Lynch and get even weirder.

Just the straight up original recording of "Band on the Run" feels out of place with all these re-records. I wonder why that choice.

His car license plate is "PM 1" That's right, baby, you're number 1.

Another little cute but inconsequential day dream (presumably within the dream that is this entire movie). He looks like Roy Orbison here.

Oh ok Harry was just locked in a cupboard this whole time. So the whole "plot" was pointless. Cool cool cool.

Paul and Harry being giddy and laughing together is cute though, and it makes me wish that that relationship was fleshed out more. Who are they to each other, exactly??

Yup it was all a dream. Love it, love that for us. Thanks, Paul.

OK so this was definitely barely a movie. There could have been something here, but I'll go back to what I said above -- I wish he'd gone weirder with the whole thing! And I wish Paul himself had been weirder. The character Paul is kind of a dud, just plodding along from place to place and only coming alive when he performs. It's like that Hawaiian shirt is supposed to be a stand in for characterization. But worth it for the music video scenes and for getting a tiny glimpse into Paul's psyche.

[traincat]

hi!! ikesoren height anon again, thank you for the detailed answer!! i honestly loved how thorough it was, but you talking about the height and weight stats in-game also made me think—soren's probably not wearing any armor into battle with a weight stat like that, huh?? ike being even heavier than he is tall makes sense because he's got armor and a big sword and whatnot, but soren is really just charging into battle in nothing but a shirt and cloak... i know mechanically it's somewhat normal for mage classes in these kinds of games to only wear light/leather armor or even just cloaks, but i wonder how ike feels about soren waltzing into fights with zero padding lol

Hi height anon! Yeah, like you said, it's pretty typical for Fire Emblem mages not to wear much in the way of armor. Typical fantasy RPG things. (His strength stat in FE9 starts at, uh. Zero.)

But on the general topic of Ike worrying over Soren/being protective over him, there's a couple of things this ask brought to mind, like these quotes from Soren's introductory chapter.

Shinon: All right, Ike. Let’s see how you handle the role of captain. Well? What are your orders, boy? We’ll do what you say, so long as you hurry up and spit it out! Ike: I know, I know! I’m thinking! Give me a moment, will you, Shinon? Shinon: Bah. Useless! We’d be better led with Mist than this soft, untested whelp. Ike: Let’s see…We’re in the middle of the road, and there’s not much cover. Soren and Rhys are vulnerable, so we have to protect them from enemy attacks…Right? Soren: That’s a sound strategy, Ike. I can attack from behind your defenses. Good thinking. Ike: Do you mean that? Um…all right! Let’s do that then.

(FE9, Chapter 4.) For context, Ike's the son of a mercenary commander and this is the first job he's been given lead over, so he's very much still learning how to command -- so this is a little bit tutorial-y for players, built into the script, since Soren is your first mage and positioning him behind a character with better defense like Ike is a pretty good strategy for training him up. (There's also some boss dialogue much later where Shinon accuses Soren of, quote, "hiding behind Ike's apron.") The above is the default, where everyone is alive, but there's this variation if you've (somehow) gotten multiple other characters killed.

Soren: Ike, do you have any ideas on how you want to approach this fight? Ike: Let’s see…We’re in the middle of the road, and there’s not much cover. You’re vulnerable, so I have to be sure you’re protected from enemy attacks, right? Soren: Right. Er…sorry for the trouble…but I appreciate the consideration. Ike: Sure. All right, let’s do that then.

I think the awkwardness of this variation is really cute, tbh, down to Soren apologizing for the trouble. It fits considering how young they both are at this point in the game, and that it takes place in the early chapters before war breaks out.

And then a variety of "death" quotes -- Soren is too plot important to actually be killed before the very final chapters of FE10, so if you do get him killed, Ike will order him to retreat. (Classic Fire Emblem has permadeath for characters, and it's sort of an in-joke-that's-not-entirely-a-joke that a lot of players, including me, will just reset if characters die. Listen, it's the right way to play. But I always like looking at the death quotes, they tell you a lot about the characters, and Soren has a lot of special ones.)

Soren: Oof! That was…poorly done. Ike: Retreat, Soren! You’ve done all you can here! Soren: But, Ike… Ike: You heard me. Fall back! You can still help us with our planning. Besides, if you tell us all what to do, we’ll be better off, right? Soren: I… I understand… Please…be careful!

(Up until FE9, chapter 17.)

Soren: Oh… Ow! Ike: Hold it, Soren! You’re not staying in this a moment longer! Withdraw! Soren: Ike, I can still– Ike: Our tactician isn’t allowed to make faces like that. Ever! Listen, we need you planning our strategies at base, so leave that attitude behind. That is unless you have a problem with the two of us in command. Soren: Of-of course not! I didn’t see… … I understand. But listen… Stay safe, Ike.

(FE9, chapter 18 until the endgame chapter.)

Soren: Argh! Not now… It’s the last battle… How could I be so careless? Ike: Soren! Just fall back! This may be the last battle for Crimea, but it won’t be the last battle for us, will it? Soren: What? Ike: We’re mercenaries. After this battle, there will be hundreds, maybe thousands of fights ahead. Am I wrong? Soren: I… No… Ike: Right. So get out of here. Our little group needs you! Do you understand? Soren: Ike… I understand. I will withdraw… Ike! Don’t let me down!

(FE9, endgame.)

Soren: …Ugh… What a terrible place… to die… Ike: Soren, retreat! Soren: But, Ike… Ike: Aren’t you supposed to be my strategist? Use your head! I need your help. Soren: …I see. As you command…

(FE10, part 3.)

And, okay, listen, not on the subject of Ike being protective, but Soren's endgame actual death quote is a lot.

Soren: Ike… Please live… Even if all the cities burn, and the seas swallow Tellius… You mustn’t die… Not you…

(FE10, part 4 endgame.)

There's also some fun game mechanics at play -- if you have Ike and Soren next to each other in FE9, Ike negates critical hits against Soren. Soren is the only character he does this for, notably.

The possessed version of Ike from the mobile game also explicitly warns only three characters to stay away from him so he won't hurt them -- Mist, his sister; Titania, his surrogate mom; and Soren.

[faithlesbian]

ive been holding off on posting this bc ive been formulating my thoughts (also i never post) but since it seems we're having a racism in the buffyverse/fandom moment (should be every moment!) I figured now would be a good time to vent my feelings on the first slayer.

I do a lot of hobbyist research into the stone age its a long running special interest of mine, and ive just finished writing my dissertation on a number of things including primitivism in contemporary culture. so drawing from that i wanted to expand on the tags I left on the previous post, with the clarification that i am white and european and therefore am speaking from that perspective on this subject.

as far as I can remember, the original Buffy movie had flashbacks to the medieval period, with a white medieval woman in these flashbacks implied to be the first slayer. if that's right and I'm not just misremembering, this would tie in to the pop culture associations of this era with catholicism, witch hunts, gothic castles; all of which further ties into popular vampire lore. however, the tv show leans away from this, with vampires being the only demons vulnerable to christian iconography and most of the worldbuilding drawing from multitheistic (not sure if this is the right word) traditions, preferring pantheons of minor gods, demons as folkloric monsters rather than fallen angels, and the existence of multiple hell dimensions.

the way the show does this is often very primitivist, primitivism here meaning the (often harmful) romanticisation of cultures and eras considered "less advanced", interpreting them as therefore more exotic, interesting, or just plain better than modern western society and in doing so flattening them into solely an appealing primitive fantasy.

examples of this can be seen in the foreign and/or dead languages used in magic and demon research, the appropriated eastern and African imagery used in weapons and costumes, the writing of characters like kendra (who's "people" seem to know a lot about the supernatural but are never actually named), jenny calendar (who carries plot-relevant cultural knowledge from her mysticised "people"), and nikki wood, through whose son buffy learns the ancient - primitive - origins of the first slayer.

the choice to relocate the origins of the slayer from medieval europe to (im assuming, since they never specify) paleolithic africa make a lot of sense in context of the shows de-emphasing of christianity in their vampire lore. this would change the slayer from a warrior chosen by the church to fight unholy creatures, to a defender of humanity at large from folkloric monsters. it also makes the slayer line a lot longer, extending far back into human history.

you'd think.

because the problem is im not honestly convinced anyone writing these episodes knows or cares about the accepted findings that show homo sapiens originated in africa, I can't honestly say it comes across that they were trying to imply that the slayer existed before the first waves of human migration by depicting her as they did. i dont actually know if these characters are intended to come from the stone age or just an ambiguous pre-colonial africa and im being very generous by writing this post the way i have. I think they made the very simple connection of "primitive = cool and mysterious" to "black = primitive". the depictions of the first slayer and first watchers are tangibly racist. their treatment by the narrative is tangibly racist.

the first slayer is depicted as animalistic, brutal, and vengeful, but rather than have buffy empathise with her over their shared experience of being used as a tool of violence, the episode has buffy mock and belittle her down to making a joke about her unprofessional hair. the first watchers are set up as the backward patriarchal villains for buffy and willow to overcome by rewriting the terms of the slayer lineage, in both cases black characters are vilified to make white women seem cooler, more self-possessed, more powerful.

it's not just the treatment of individual characters. its fundamental pillars of the lore. non-european (and some minority european) cultures are consistently used to be spooky, occult, and exotic set dressing, while two whole season finales hinge on abject primitivism and antiblackness.

to clarify, i think in another show with a different writing team, the depiction of scientifically accurate (i.e. dark-skinned) early homo sapiens could be achieved in a wholly inoffensive way if these characters were simply written as people. removing the layers of primitivism from the first slayer reveals a traumatised girl who was forced to fight, just like fandom-beloved characters buffy and faith, albeit from a very different time period. but the layers of primitivism are the reason why she was written in the first place. the "primal" is mysterious, spooky, powerful, and therefore makes for good writing without ever having to clarify what it is you mean when you say "primal".

stone age people were not animalistic manifestations of modern-day people's repressed subconscious. they were people. the refusal to see this is another branch from the same root - that the writers see cultures and people outside of the modern west as less-than. but if their language sounds cool for a summoning chant, then they get to be less-than in a ~cool and mysterious~ way, i guess.

[kalirarecs]

Angel's Feather (anime)

This one will be spoilery.

. . .such as it is, since the plot is a bit of a giant ???

Also kind of long? But without much reflection on the plot, because, as stated, it was a giant ???

I watched this anime (two short OVAs) with @mad-madam-m on a 'let's have fun and watch a couple of short, bonkers BL anime' night. Bonkers anime night was a definite success. XD

I actually thought this one was more likely to be good/enjoyable than the other one we watched that night (Sex Pistols; I'll eventually write a post about that one as well) but man was I wrong!

This anime is. . .

Fuck. It is very difficult to encapsulate, because it is so very batshit. As I said to M as the end credits were rolling, ‟well, that sure was an anime” and ‟that did not make sense at all, even once, even by accident”. (She laughed, but she did not disagree.)

The description I have seen for this OVA just about everywhere features the tidbit that:

A mysterious earthquake drags Hamura Shou, newly-enrolled in Yuusei Academy, and two other students, into another world, where an attack by a monster causes Shou to unfurl great, white wings.

That scene does indeed happen, but it has no bearing on the plot, it is basically a side-note very early on, before the plot actually begins. Which is not something I would have anticipated of falling into another world and fighting a monster, let alone discovering that one must be royalty of another world.

Because that is what the wings signify - The Winfield Chronicles (never defined) tells us that in the Kingdom of Winfield, the males of the royal family all have great, white wings.

(Me @ M: if all the men of the royal family have giant white wings, I am going to headcanon that the women have bat wings. There's nothing behind this, I just do. I’ve decided.)

It is a total of 1 hour long - two half-hour OVAs. However, watch it, and you will get the distinct feeling that it was supposed to be a full 13-episode anime (with a season 2 of at least the same length to follow). It lulls one into a false sense of security, as we get most of episode one . . . and then 2-10 minutes from episodes two through thirteen, at a guess.

Not ‘should have been a full anime, was rewritten to be shorter’, no no nooo, it was as though we got selected scenes from those never-existed episodes. A scene changes and you get the feeling you have missed 1-3 episodes worth of plot. With no context as to what it might have been.

Friendships and relationships appear to have developed, changed, evolved without any notice; situations happen or disappear without notice; characters appear and are treated as though they're part of the core group even though we have never seen them before.

At one point while watching this happened: he’s new, right? he’s new? red hair? we didn’t have a red hair, did we? where did red hair come from? holy shit red hair has a gun???)

That moment happened immediately after a scene change from the group in the headmaster's office being assigned to hunt down ghost rumours (no context did not make that make any more sense; they’d never been cordial with the headmaster or hunted ghosts, rumours, or mysteries) to them somewhere in a ruin (?) fighting giant werewolf things (not ghosts???).

Oh also? The headmaster? We called him Headmaster Commander Evil Bishie; his assistant was Homeroom Teacher Bad Touch Bishie. (He legitimately stuck his hand down our MC’s shirt at one point, stroking his chest/side, to pluck out his necklace/amulet, then put it back down inside his shirt and lingered, leaning close, to pet his neck.)

The headmaster’s office was the most obviously, blatantly bad guy base it could possibly be. The corridor was tiled in white and green marble, with white walls - and then there was a turn off it where the flooring is dark, with a red runner, the entire length of the short hallway was in dramatic, deep shadow, leading to very dark, looming double doors.

Our other characters included Baby Bard Bishie, The One Not-Bishie, Blue Hair A, Blue Hair B. . .

There’s implied pre-twincest featuring our MC and his long-lost brother? Only . . . not really/quite. Whether that ‘not really’ is that they’re twins or that they want to bang is up for debate. >.> (Regardless of the railing against it by one of the boys? Definitely twins. Their backstory is, of course, never explained.) They are not the pair with blue hair, incidentally.

They would definitely have started banging in S2 . . . but the one of them who vehemently denied he was adopted or could have a brother did immediately start fantasising about being kissed and petted; why are you stepping into my heart? approximately 45 seconds after their reunion *coughs* meeting.

(Also somehow despite almost everyone looking the same, the twins were the easiest to tell apart.)

There was nothing shown how our group even formed or started working together . . . or on what they were supposedly working, I guess; including two teachers (if we count the mysteriously appearing red hair, at best guess) and several students, some of whom are romantically involved, sometimes in unpredictable manners. (But not the twins. Yet.)

Sadly, that full-length anime does not exist, because M and I agreed we would, actually, watch that if it did.

(Maybe it would have had a plot . . . or more with the wings . . . or an explanation of ‘magic royalty’, or Winfield, or the parallel worlds, or what Headmaster Commander Evil Bishie and his right hand were doing, in this world or with/against our protagonists, or. . .)

. . .yeah.

[frumfrumfroo]

I'm still reeling from the fact that they decided to include the kiss during a reshoot. What didn't they include during a reshoot? That theory that Rey's parentage was changed during reshoots sounds pretty believable to me now, if they're willing to alter Ben Solo's final moments.

Actual trainwreck is a trainwreck.

Now I want to complain about something: I like watching Red Letter Media. I like when they talk about niche films, they're in their element there. But I was watching their old Infinity War review, and I cannot believe that they think the 'subversions' of that film worked better than The Last Jedi. Like, the Marvel films are soulless, if they didn't have Marvel branding, nobody would be talking about them. It's the greatest stunt ever pulled in Hollywood. Sure, they've gone off Marvel now, so this doesn't reflect their current stance as much, but lollllllllll

Endgame is incoherent, if a few steps ahead of TROS on the basis that it's a technically complete film.

Anyway. Star Wars is not fitting for the superhero genre, but they're sure trying.

I've blocked it out now, but for months after it came out we kept learning new depths of what a shitshow it was. All of the most insane leaks were accurate. At this point I would believe almost anything about their level of incompetence pinching out this turd. It's absolutely fucking embarrassing.

Yeah, I like RLM but sometimes they really don't Get It. The Plinkett reviews of the prequels raised some great points and were generally fairly quality criticism, but they also missed a lot and sometimes focussed on things that aren't valid arguments. Their review of TFA I found much less well constructed and more shallow. I don't remember which video it's in, but their discussion of the climax of RotJ shows some serious holes in their understanding of the themes of SW and Luke's character arc. And that's exactly where not getting what TLJ was doing will come in.

Nothing about the narrative shape or character arcs of TLJ should have been surprising to anyone who understands the structure of SW or the literary tropes it was consciously modelled on. The only thing about the main plot which is/was genuinely 'subversive' in concept or shocking was Snope's death.

I've seen them have some dumb takes, mostly in their blockbuster reviews, but it seems to usually come from not bothering to understand a context they're not familiar with or not always recognising when a film is trying to do something different than what they expected. Like the MCU films were mediocre at best from the beginning so it makes sense to judge them as forgettable formulaic entertainment, but there are more interesting conversations to have and it doesn't mean all blockbusters should be judged the same way.

Yep. I spent a lot of time talking about this both before and after tros. So fucking depressing.

[aotopmha]

I have Endwalked!

The scenes that got me were the scene with Alisae, G'raha and Krile before Ultima Thule and the final scene with Meteion.

The scene with G'raha, Alisae and Krile felt so sincere in its concern for you. I just thought it was super sweet.

With emotionally evocative stories that are created under the wing of huge companies and/or related to massive franchises like FF, I always have this sense in the back of my mind going off saying that it's all product and it's really there to butter up the customer, but 14 really does feel sincere to me.

(While still sometimes buttering up the customer.)

If the writers don't believe in what they are writing, then I think they are at least thinking about what the characters believe in from an emotionally sincere standpoint.

I think stories that delve into these nuanced and difficult topics have to have some form of empathic human behind them.

And well, even if there isn't, they sure make me believe they stand by what they write.

(Which, I think, in itself is a characteristic of good writing: people believing in it.)

And my favorite part about the final scene with Meteion is that the answer she arrives at, the answer Hermes was looking for, is a substantial, clearly spelled out belief, which is also backed by ten years of story context.

It is one of my favorite thematic focuses for a story to begin with, but even without the ten years behind it, I think just how the prose expressed this idea is what made it so powerful to me.

The phrasing/expression of a sentiment itself can go such a long way to make age-old concepts powerful. (Which technically is just the fundamental truth of good writing, isn't it?)

I think that's another reason why the scene with Moenbryda's parents hits so many despite Moenbryda being a character from one patch back from years ago.

The issue with [insert trope here] never was the idea itself. It's always whether you can believe in the trope via the writing. Stories are made up of so many different aspects: context, story length, plotting etc. I think all of that kind of melts away in the face of powerful dialog itself, and in turn even if everything else is good, bad dialog can also take away a lot from a story.

I'm so happy whenever a long-running story ends on substance and I don't have to deal with awkward prose in its most final moments.

(Attack on Titan fan screaming in frustration here.)

Speaking of substance, though, I'd also like to bring up the few Alisae lines I've been really eager to talk about in relation to the story's exploration of emotional suffering.

I love this because it is just as much relevant to Alisae as a character and her relationship with her brother and their support for each other than it is thematically for Endwalker as a whole.

Again, it might lean into the age-old "power of friendship" trope, but I think It's such an important nuance to include in stories like this.

The sentiment of "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" is not actually true and with so many different beliefs in the story having this element, I think getting this detail as one of the final sentiments regarding this thematic idea is very good.

What is true is that everyone handles emotionally painful moments differently and as long as there are other people in the world, nobody is destined to suffer alone. Others are here to carry our burdens with us, so they aren't so heavy.

We just really need to work on understanding and patience towards those who are suffering.

I have so much more to say about the final stretch of the story, which I'll probably go into in much more detail in upcoming posts, but for a little bit more basic analysis of the game content itself, I loved the Dead Ends dungeon and the Endsinger trial.

Dead Ends had some great mechanics in there for bosses as well as fantastic narrative aspects. Might be my favorite "big moment" story dungeon.

And I love the planet positioning mechanic of the Endsinger trial. It's super satisfying to resolve right for me.

Actually finishing Endwalker has cemented FF14 as a whole as one of my favorite games ever.

In terms of Endwalker itself, I love the jobs at their full depth, but starting from Stormblood I've really liked the dungeon content and starting from ShB, even the solo duties have been ranging for solid to great! Only the expansion trials can be a little hit and miss for me (I think the trial series themselves have all rocked starting HW).

So it is onward to patch content, Alliance Raid and Raid series for me. Also Role Quests, Variant/Criterion dungeons and many other bits of content I haven't done yet. (Finally planning to try and go for a house since I have saved up a bunch of gil!)

[morethanaloveinterest]

An Outta Sight Look at Victoria Vinciguerra's Costumes in the Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The fashion in this movie continues to be amazing. Let's dig into what our villainess is wearing and it tells us about her.

(check out my review of Gaby's costumes here)

We meet Victoria Vinciguerra at a party she is hosting, which Napoleon Solo crashes to get close to her. The majority of Victoria's wonderful costumes in this movie are black and white, with gold accents, but this one has by far the most gold - even her sandals have it!

As an introduction to our villain, it's perfect. In a story where everyone has facades, with double agents and all, wearing an animal print is very appropriate. Is it a zebra pattern or a tiger? Is she the prey of super spy Solo or is she actually hunting him? A+ costume choice for this scene, no notes.

This also sets her apart from Gaby, our female hero. Victoria is far more done up - more makeup, dripping in accessories, complex pattern, there is nothing simple here. She is a fabulously wealthy woman and she is flaunting it.

As we'll see with the rest of her costumes, she's also clearly the one wearing the pants in the plots. Yeah, her husband may have inherited the business but she is definitely the one in charge at every point. While still looking fabulous.

Female representation: 10/10 Fantastic villain outfit, especially for a spy movie. Definitely set apart from the way villainesses are usually portrayed

Practicality: 10/10  It's obviously perfect for that context but I'm sure she could take care of anything that came up without breaking a sweat (or tripping over anything).

Both ladies wear their pajamas in this movie, and they couldn't be more different. Victoria continues to be the height of fashion, looking just as put together and intentional as she does in anything else she wears in this film. The geometric pattern on her robe is very fashionable and reinforces her black-and-white costuming. A little more gray here, perhaps begging the question of if she has been taken in by our charming spies (she has not)

Female representation: 10/10 I'm going to go off of the movie instead of this particular picture, lovely as it is. In the film, she wears this in a darkened room while behind her desk, on the phone. We do see her leave to go change, dramatically slamming the doors, but nothing else. Which makes it still one of the best filmed nightgown scenes I've come across - she continues to be gorgeous without catering to the male gaze (this isn't how women in spy movies are usually filmed, you know?)

Practicality: 9/10 Not sure they'd be the most comfortable pajamas but they're great for spending time in one's boudoir.

I wanted to include more detail, but couldn't in the distance shot. This is what she wears after hearing that someone has been snooping around, and she immediately goes to the hotel to investigate Solo. Her makeup is a bit less obvious than at the party, but she certainly has a full face. She even had time to accessorize before heading out. Her shoes might be gold, which is delightful.

The vest is clearly made of scales (alligator seems most likely to have been fashionable at the time, but it could be a kind of snake). Whatever the source, it is very appropriate for the villain of the story as she goes to investigate our hero with intent to kill. Before getting up to something a bit more entertaining.

Female representation: 10/10 For a snake-themed outfit our villainous lady wears to take out the hero, this is quite understated. Very focused on her own sense of fashion rather than the male gaze

Practicality: 10/10 One of the more practical things she wears in this movie, perfect for going to murder and/or sleep with a spy

I gotta be honest here, I'm not sure when she wears this (is it a deleted scene?). It's clearly in the lab, no doubt getting an update on what our spies have discovered. It's the least dressed-up we see her, while she still keeps to her color scheme.

Female representation: 10/10 Villain gets a report from her captive scientist wearing this? Perfection

Practicality: 10/10 It certainly rivals the last one in practicality, though I can't be sure what the whole ensemble looks like.

Absolutely show-stopping, I love how the costumes step up a notch for the climax (as does everything else). The clearly divided black and white is perfect for the way this scene plays out. Is she fooled by Solo or fooling him? She's worn pants in basically all of her scenes (other than her nightgown), but this one is definitely my favorite.

Female representation: 10/10 Our female villain poisons our spy hero in this outfit? Perfection once again

Practicality: 10/10 Fantastic choice for revealing your plans and taking down your nemesis

She wears this coat and scarf over her previous costume, while out and about to cause mischief. It fits her color scheme and style, but now that we all know she is the villain, the white is just an accent while black has taken over.

Female representation: 10/10 Again, for being the black costume our villainess wears in the climax, I can't think of anything more lovely and empowering. She's definitely in charge here.

Practicality: 9/10 I am sure she has underlings to grab things for her, but I don't feel like she could move her arms very much - something I consider important in a coat. Still, it's gorgeous.

Her final costume in the film, when she is escaping on a fishing boat. Shockingly, she seems to have put on an outfit that isn't black and white, with even some blue! Presumably she was trying not to attract too much attention as she escaped on a simple fishing boat, but she is still incredibly stylish with proper accessories.

Female representation: 10/10 Again, female villain getting her comeuppance at the end, dressed very comfortably, you gotta love it

Practicality: 10/10 I can't see the whole thing, but Victoria always has the right outfit for the occasion, so I'm sure this is perfect for her current plot.

Want to hear more of my thoughts about female characters and fashion? Check out my other costume reviews or my YouTube channel (episode on Gaby out now!)

[comparativelysuperlative]

What was the book? With the Definitely Real Banishment

Spoilers (obviously) but it's the Lightbringer series. That villain was pretty good! The word-by-word writing is fine! The plot is, for several books' worth, aimed at being Very Generic Fantasy (for reasons that will make sense later). Incoming long post about its philosophy, with even more spoilers.

It's not often that I read a book and immediately go "I can tell you what kind of middle school this author went to." In this case, it was drawing on the author's experience of exactly the theology I grew up with, which was almost eerie.

(I read book one years and years ago, and didn't retain much other than "cool magic system." Probably everything in this post is true about book one as well, but I wouldn't know.)

Google will tell you that the series gets gradually very Christian, to the point where the climax of the last book contains a sermon. But it's more specific than that. These books scream "Protestant, American, classically educated, does not travel internationally very often, male, straight, probably white, the kind of person who would vote straight-ticket Republican until that meant Trump at which point all bets are off." I did not bother confirming most of those. They're just obvious.

The loudest part--to me at least--was the "classically educated." (If you're not familiar, it's this thing.) The series would mention quotes from fantasy medieval Catholics or fantasy ancient Greeks or whatever, and I'd recognize the quotes or the names because they'd be real people I ran across in school. Sure enough, author went to Hillsdale.

Lightbringer is interesting for having an actual vision of a conservative society, not just about hating the right/wrong people. Not being on that team anymore I don't actually like this vision very much, but compared to current conservatives, credit for having one at all.

Differences between people obviously don't affect your value as a person, they just might make it easier or harder or mean you have to specialize differently to accomplish as much For The Group.

(That opinion makes perfect sense for characters in an elite military unit/training for that unit. But that context is mostly specific to book two, and the philosophy really isn't.)

This applies to everything. Physical condition, including strength/weight/gender. Color-blindness. Superpowers. Being straight. (I'm genuinely not sure if that part was intentional. Characters kept getting distracted at terrible times, and the narration outside their head sounded exactly the same as when someone can't run a mile without Trying Very Hard.)

It does not matter whether your mental illness turns out to be literally demons in your head. Either way you've still got to either work through it or specialize around it.

Tradition matters, even when we don't understand the reason behind it.

If you happen to be in a fantasy book and have access to magic, consorting with demons is evil but fancy physics is fine. You can just BET this author got into fights with other Christians about whether Harry Potter was anti-Jesus.

"Irredeemably bad" isn't really a thing. "Not in fact going to be redeemed" is, but it's worth trying to show mercy if you have the chance. If you don't have the chance, kill 'em. Don't enjoy it, though.

Forgiving people for actually-bad things is hard, can't just go "idk, they're good guys now," but it's also important. (I do think this is underrepresented in secular fiction, where it's either depicted as "how could you work with THEM" or "come on, get over it already and team up against the whatever.")

One of the big reveals at the end is "the Christian God is real." The answer to the problem of evil is indeed the popular answer in the denominations I grew up with. Human choices something something mumble free will.

Very incrementalist. You do as much good as you can as fast as you can, but obviously without overthrowing the entire order or anything. Only evil opportunists would want to do that. Yes, even if the existing order is corrupt all the way through.

Speaking of which, you know that organization/political entity claiming to represent God? Corrupt all the way through. God is more personal than that. Protestantism!

Personal morality matters. Your leaders absolutely must be good people, or at least trying to be, or you're screwed.

Personal morality matters. It is safe to assume you'll end up as exactly what your peers expect of you, so pick good peers.

A man should be faithful to one (1) wife. Viewpoint characters speedrun figuring out the philosophy behind this.

(IMO monogamy was a legitimate human rights win by early Christianity, relative to what came before, and I think something similar applies in this setting. But since the real-life alternatives today are so much better than women being property, giving this a lot of screen time sounded like the book is fishing very hard for things historical Christianity did right.)

Also, once you are married you Are Married. It's not that changing that would be unthinkable, just that if you do treat it as an option you're obviously doing it wrong.

Gay people don't exist. Any variety of non-straight, really. Nobody says that it should be that way. It just doesn't come up. Characters are written in enough detail that I can tell you how they'd react if you asked them, and it's mostly the "not my business" + "prefer not to think about it" kind of low-grade homophobia. A few would be explicitly okay with it. But it does not come up. If there were a gay relationship depicted, I'd expect it to be "coincidentally" problematic in some other way.

(I guess there's that one slaver-antagonist whose sexuality is just "sadist." Yeah, one might call that problematic.)

Practically dripping with Great Man Theory of History. There's a scene where the protagonist has a self-affirming/emotional moment about not relying on his family name and meritoriously earning his first kingdom. This is played completely straight.

Don't worry, he uses it for good. At least as much good as he can without overthrowing the existing order etc.

If there are end times prophecies, they might well be true but you can't trust any specific interpretation so it's wiser to just do your best without reference to the prophecy. (This is an interesting take! And not heresy but also not common! I bet the author's reacting against some interesting strains of fundamentalism there.)

A cool idea where angels and demons can be anywhere in any world at any time in history, but are very reluctant to actually do that because they can't pick the same time twice. You can just tell it's the author's Christianity headcanon.

You win by doing your best and having faith in God. The villains are very much a sideshow.

(I think if everyone followed this book's philosophy more it would be a mostly bad thing. Let's not do that.)

(But wow, I wish modern conservatives were only this bad.)

It probably sounds like I didn't like this series. But I did read five doorstoppers' worth. This post is just about the opinions, and the opinions sucked.

Anyway. This has to be on purpose, right, and 10 or 15 years ago I was pretty much the target audience for this. Guess I'm old.

I used to explicitly think "I'm Christian, but atheist fiction is more interesting," and this book is the kind of thing that...tries...to counter that. Fails, because resolving major conflicts with divine intervention is tricky to make interesting. But you'll see why it's going for Every Other Book, But Christian. (Also, the amount of sex in these books is much higher than you might think, given everything. I wish I knew less about what body types the author is attracted to.)

Anyway, I can't really say I would recommend it. But if you're interested in what would happen if Card or Sanderson tried to be Evangelical Lewis for adults, Lightbringer isn't bad.

[atuats-sidechick]

Question spam🐍🐍

6. What’s the last line you wrote?

8. Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip👀👀

19. Do you enjoy creating OCs or do you prefer to stick solely to canon characters?

37. What fic has been the hardest for you to write?

48. Who is your favorite character to write for?  Has this changed since you’ve started writing for that fandom?

You write mostly Heituat but which one of them👀 or maybe it's someone else

Yaaaay! I love a good question spam :) Thank you <3

6. Two lines so that it makes some kind of sense: "It was reasonable to assume Master Atuat was discussing Hei-Ran. That or she had some very impassioned opinions on tea." (Master Atuat 🤝 Uncle Iroh)

8. I'm not sure I'm going to include this, but Atuat and Hei-Ran go kayaking and nearly drown sdfghjhgfdsdfgh

19. Hmnnn I have many plot-convenient OCs, but only one "actual OC", yk, and I haven't posted anything about her. So I'd say I prefer to stick to canon characters.

Oh, but I had such a good time writing this nasty OC for the Fire Lilies prompt. I'm excited about her, she's awful. Idk why Hei-Ran didn't kill her.

37. I'm STRUGGLING with Rangi in Agna Qel'a. Mostly because it's so long. Gotta try not to get stressed and trust the process...

48. I LOVE LOVE LOVE writing Atuat. Writing in her pov, writing her dialogue, writing about her are all such joys. It hasn't changed yet, but I'm pretty new to this, so let's see.

When I'm feeling anxious, I like writing from Rangi's pov. Though, it's hard to write when I'm happy LOL she's so anxious, the poor thing.

[msviolacea]

So, I've been playing Ikemen Villains since its English release a week or so ago, and while I haven't finished a full route yet, I've been thinking about what I like and what I don't, so here, have an early review.

The tl;dr - I like it quite a bit, and am happy to keep playing. I don't like it quite as much as I like Sengoku, but I like it a lot more than I liked the other Ikemen games I've tried. I can recommend it to anyone who likes mobile game-type otomes with a darker tone.

The game setup: in an AU Victorian England, there's a team of men with questionable morals and fairy tale curses who work for the Queen to solve problems of even more awful moral implications. The main character is a letter carrier who accidentally witnesses their deeds and gets sucked into their world while they figure out if they can trust her not to spill their secrets.

What works for me:

The writing is top notch. It's light and fun when it needs to be, and hits the right combination of period melodrama and anachronistic modern that I enjoy in these kinds of games/stories.

The LIs are all very fun, and I'm looking forward to experiencing all of them. Even "wait, Motonari, what are you doing here, why are you alive like 300 years later and why did you change your name?" (I say this with all the love, I adore Motonari, but man I'm pretty sure they just recycled some cut dialogue from his IkeSen routes for Jude.)

I started with William's route, and I really enjoy the themes of "there's no reason to abstain from personal joy, you deserve to be your fullest self" that they're going for.

I also like the level of sensuality/sexuality they have going. If I'm playing one of these games, I want it to feel sexy!

I appreciate that they include content warnings for the darker content - one of the current event stories has a warning for potential dubcon content, which is nice. I don't mind reading the darker stuff, but I do like being prepared and being allowed to make a decision about when I want to read it.

I'm always a sucker for the fantasy Victorian aesthetic.

What works in comparison to the other Cybird games:

The chapter lengths are ... okay? One of the things that made me hard bounce off the other two Cybird games I've tried - Vampire and Prince - is that the chapters/segments felt REALLY short, in a way that felt like an over-the-top cash grab, in the "spend money to get a satisfying amount of story!" way. By contrast, the "5 tickets a day" amount I get from Sengoku feels like an acceptable amount of content - I don't know if IkeSen chapters are actually longer in terms of word count and scenes, but it feels that way, whether it's actual length or just quality of the writing/scene structure. In comparison, Villains chapters do feel shorter than Sengoku, but the content is presented in a way that feels generally satisfying to complete in the free daily tickets. I wish there was a bit more, but I'm okay with what they give overall.

The "oh no there's a time limit" plot contrivance is believable, in the context of the game and the genre. MC saw too much, they're giving her a month to prove herself trustworthy. That feels fair, with the genre conventions in mind. IkeSen's works well - Sasuke's "don't fall in love" warning is weirdly tacked on, but the actual time limit is the wormhole that would get MC home to the future, and the conflict is whether her connection to the LI/the characters in general will keep her in the past. I don't remember what Vamp's is, because I really bounced hard off of that game very early, but I remember that the Prince contrivance was the other major detail that made me ultimately abandon the game. What do you mean, the MC didn't read the whole contract she signed? All of this could be mostly solved if she'd paid attention? That just felt lazy on the part of the writers, and undermined the MC in a way that made me not want to follow her story. Anyway, I'm glad that Villains has one that makes sense and doesn't make the MC feel overly flighty.

The Villains art style is ... fine? Again, I don't like it as much as Sengoku, but it's comparable to/better than the other games I've tried from Cybird.

Some things I don't like:

I'm sure this is a tech issue, but GOD the loading screens in this game are SO SLOW. I can feel myself aging just watching the little lamp flash.

I know this has been a staple of the non-IkeSen Cybird games, but I really dislike the card system as it's integrated into the story mechanics. There's no benefit to the gacha. Oh look, it's .... a picture? There's no story involved, a la Tears of Themis, or anything other bonus content. I'd much rather stick with IkeSen's dress-up mechanic, at least dressing up avatars is a fun mini game. I am not tempted at all to spend real money to obtain so-so pictures that I can easily find on the internet if I really want them.

Ultimately, it's nice to have another otome that has grabbed my attention, and after playing a couple of the new event stories, I'm going to sit here and wait impatiently for Victor's route because I love him. But I'm certainly not going to be tempted to spend the kind of money I spent on IkeSen - which is good, I have a mortgage now, and I don't have the excuse of wallowing in my own grief + pandemic lack of leaving the house to excuse it, lol.

[douglas-rain]

Top Five Douglas Rain Recommendations From Yours Truly

You want to see more of Douglas Rain, but you're not sure where to start? Well, do I have the thing for you! As the internet's most preeminent Douglas Rain expert (except for Gerry Flahive I guess, but he's kind of slow at answering emails and more focused on other stuff these days. If he wants to reclaim the title, he can meet me in the parking lot <3), I've made you a handy little list of some of my personal favourite performances by DR that I think you should see and/or hear!

And by 'little' I mean 'I got way too into this, so it's pretty long now'. I put it under a cut; you're welcome.

In the interest of fairness, I've chosen one performance from each of his fields of work (namely: ON STAGE, RADIO WORK, DOCUMENTARY NARRATION, TELEVISION and FILM). Please know, however, that I can give reviews of basically everything in the masterpost, so if you're interested in hearing about any of them, feel free to shoot me an ask!

Without further ado, let's get into it...

-

ON STAGE: Henry V (1966)

Okay, this one's teeeechnically a TV movie, but it's adapted from Stratford's staged production, so I'm counting it. It's also a rare treat in that we get to see DR in colour! (Everybody say THANK YOU to David Rain, his son, for bullying the Festival into restoring this production and adding it to their online catalogue. I owe him my life.)

This is one of Shakespeare's histories, part of the Henriad (aka the collection of plays about the accomplishments of various English kings). Henry V, the main guy in this one, is actually the crowned version of Prince Hal from both parts of Henry IV, a role that DR had played previously at Stratford, so this is a fun bit of character continuity for him! The play centres around the king's invasion of France, with a lot of ruminating on hope and despair and duty and bravery. Harry - as he is affectionately referred to on occasion - is really going through it, and DR portrays him with such emotional intensity. He's proud, he's fierce, he's clever, he's a BITCH and I like him SO MUCH.

The book has been edited down slightly to fit into a two hour runtime for television, but beyond a few... very funny jumpcuts, it's not really noticeable at all. And while the sets are kept mostly simple, the costumes are gorgeous. I went in not expecting much (a mistake I keep making when approaching Shakespeare plays, for some reason lol), and was thoroughly entertained the whole way through!

It also contains the transcendentally funny line, "Tennis balls, my liege!" because Shakespeare was the most hysterical motherfucker on planet Earth. It makes sense in context, I promise.

Can be found on Stratfest@Home, the online streaming service of the Stratford Festival (there's a 7-day free trial period if you sign up). You may also check my masterpost of performances for a possible alternative, but shhh.

-

RADIO WORK: Fifth Business (1980)

I love this one; it's literally so fucking funny. This radio play is a dramatisation of the 1970 novel of the same name by Robertson Davies. Fifth Business recounts the life story of Dunstable "Dunstan" Ramsay, from his boyhood in an idyllic (on the surface only) Canadian village to his experiences in the First World War, his career as a teacher and all the loves and complications he runs into, and the formative experiences peppering his life where he's never quite the main character. He is instead 'fifth business' - neither hero nor villain, but still integral to resolving the play's plot. Ramsay is clever, sarcastic and a goddamn weirdo who's obsessed with saints for non-religious reasons. He dodged a snowball as a kid and the consequences of that haunt him throughout the entire book.

The radio drama features a whole cast of actors, including of course DR as the protagonist (who also narrates everything btw), doing an absolutely delightful job. Fellow Stratford actress Martha Henry, who also happened to be his wife at the time, is in it too!

The entire drama is delightful, honestly. I liveblogged my experience listening to it for the first time, and man there is some wild shit happening in this novel. The entire things is about three and a half hours, but it really doesn't feel that long.

Can be found (in eight parts) on YouTube or on Archive.org. (Or in a junkbox on a sidewalk in Toronto. I'm still baffled by that.)

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DOCUMENTARY NARRATION: Universe (1960)

A classic. Documentaries make up a sizeable chunk of the masterpost (thanks to the NFB website and archive channels on YouTube), so there were more options in this category than in any of the others. But I decided to go with this particular gem of a documentary.

It's about - who would have guessed - the universe, featuring the most advanced scientific knowledge of planets and stars at the time. The special effects are also quite impressive - if you move around Space Odyssey circles, you may have heard that the visuals of this documentary were a major inspiration for 2001. Also, DR's narration in Universe is what brought him to Stanley Kubrick's attention. You can probably guess how that ended. (Gerry Flahive has some articles about the whole thing if you don't.)

Anyway, Universe is a beautiful and meditative look at our galaxy and the many things it contains, and DR's narration is absolutely lovely. It clocks in at just under half an hour, so not that big of a time commitment either.

Can be found on YouTube or on the NFB website.

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TELEVISION: William Lyon Mackenzie: A Friend To His Country (1961)

It's so hard to find old Canadian TV shows anywhere online and I'm forever bitter about it. Our options here are incredibly limited as a result, so you're just going to have to accept that I'm recommending you a historical short film from 1961, alright? This is as difficult for me as it is for you.

Unsurprisingly, this movie is about William Lyon Mackenzie, who was... *checks Wikipedia* "a Scottish Canadian-American journalist and politician." Yes, DR is doing a Scottish accent in this role. Yes, I adore it. I know very little about Canadian history, so I can't exactly speak to the film's accuracy, but I found it charming and DR is doing a very good job. Most of the half hour runtime is spent on Mackenzie's various political struggles (some sort of failed revolution, I gather, followed by exile in the United States and some jailtime) and him trying to protect his family. His wife is played by Canadian actress Kate Reid in this movie, which I personally find very funny for... reasons. IYKYK.

Can be found on YouTube or on the NFB website.

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FILM: OEDIPUS REX (1957)

I'm sort of cheating again, but the only other options in this category that I have access to are the two Space Odyssey movies, and they seemed like too basic of a choice. So have some more drama instead! This is also a filmed version of one of Stratford's plays, but released in theatres this time.

Oedipus Rex is a breezy 87 minutes and adapts the English translation by Yeats of the classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles, with a little added prologue to set the scene. It was directed by Tyrone Guthrie, who you might remember as the Big Man from The Stratford Adventure. Or from the fact that he was a pretty famous theatre guy. If you need a refresher on your Greek myths: Oedipus was the guy who was prophesised to kill his father and marry his mother. He got done dirty by Freud somewhere down the line.

DR plays the role of the Messenger, a minor part who recounts some of the most famous plot points of the tragedy of Oedipus, which they couldn't show onscreen/onstage. Granted, he's only in this one for like five minutes, but he really rocks up to crash the party wearing the coolest outfit in the entire show. And yes, everyone in this production is wearing Greek theatre masks, so you can't see his face. You get to hear his voice though - and watch his captivating body language!

Can be found on YouTube. Or you can probably buy it on DVD if you really want to; idk, I'm not the boss of you. (I've also clipped his scene if you really, really don't want to watch the whole play. I get it's a big ask. Really beautiful production though, seriously!)

[egg-emperor]

people will say it's gatekeeping but I honestly do think you're always more likely to understand a story in a game and be more knowledgeable about it if you've actually played said game

I don't think it's impossible if you haven't but you're definitely much more likely to misunderstand if you don't. binging all the scenes to a game by watching a compilation of all scenes often isn't going to help you understand absolutely everything, especially if you only watch it through exactly once, all in a row

there's a few reasons why- there might be in game story based dialogue that the cutscenes might not cover but will still add more important details and context. plus seeing, or rather experiencing, the gameplay for yourself to see what's actually been happening within the game can also add more context

and one I find most important is that, when you're actually playing the game, the time in between the cutscenes gives you time to process and think about the scene you just saw. if you're being fed all this info back to back binging all the scenes in a row, you're just less likely to take it all in and make sense of it as well

I've played all the games I analyze, replayed multiple times, and rewatched the Eggman scenes through my own compilations multiple times, and memorize and analyze them all down to the smallest details. I'm constantly reanalyzing things I already have to develop my thoughts even further too

meanwhile, a lot of people who have disagreed with me the most haven't played the games they debate me on and only watched all the scenes all in a row once and didn't get to fully take in and analyze it and when I find out I'm baffled. latest example is with Frontiers on the subject of Eggman and Sage

now don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean I'm trying to say I'm automatically right because I have and those who haven't are automatically wrong but it naturally logically makes me more likely to be more knowledgeable on it just because I've looked at it, thought about it, and analyzed it and mulled it over longer

I personally wouldn't be debating people who have played, watched, and analyzed certain games, scenes, and characters more than me if my Switch profile said I've only played the game I'm debating someone on "for a little while" or not at all- but that's been the case with a bunch of those who argued lol

it seems there's a pattern and it shouldn't be considered gatekeeping to point it out. if you can't access or beat the games, I recommend not just watching all scenes in a row but a playthrough instead, or at least spacing out watching them to think them over and process each in between, and revisiting a few times after

make sure to check out plot related in game dialogue too because they're not always included in "all cutscene videos" despite also being plot based and providing important details and context that can help you understand further. for example, the in game dialogue conversations between Sonic and the other characters in Frontiers

I'm saying this because it's something I've noticed and I genuinely just want to help, so this is my personal advice and I'm not saying you should take it or you're not really a fan or something, I just think it helps a lot, especially if you want to interpret and debate the story and characters, so you're best equipped