#her character arc is her trying to reclaim her humanity

[blueteller]

I found this on reddit it's not my opinion but it's kind of funny and disconcerting.

What do you think?

( https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/s/uwKw63Cgoc )

"A rant on Trash of the Count’s Family

Alright before I begin I would like to preface by saying that I am a long time reader of the novel and love this novel to death. It kept me company during my darkest and lowest points of my life and I am forever grateful for it !

The rant also in no way affects the brilliance of the story. With that out of the way here it goes:

This is an amazing fantasy novel filled with great visuals, writing, story and top-notch characters. However it has TWO big problems that broke the story smooth sailing for me and I need to rant about it because where I am from I am pretty sure no one reads TCF in a 6000 mile radius.

One big problem was the romance. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT. This is not a problem if the main character doesn’t want romance (he doesn’t nope) but NONE of the main/side characters that has been introduced so far also want nothing to do with romance. It was a little awkward to read the story based in medieval setting where characters are as pure as angels as they come.

Now, you can of course raise the point that romance was never the main focus of this novel (it’s not even a background focus or some D plot) but let’s analyse this novel here for a second okay? This novel is very gore and never ever shy away from very dark themes or stories.

- The main protagonist of the story (sorry forgot his name it’s been a long time) has his entire village with whom he has spent 20 years murdered and burned to ashes, all the men women and children are totally dead.

- The Prince story is also pretty dark and deals with some adult themes about race and identity.

- The dragon raon (is that the name?) backstory is…holy shit some hardcore torture and let’s not forget the revenge torture that happened later with raon eating steak.

- The butler and his butcher son

- The absolute crazy HUMAN EXPERIMENT arc that was happening in the Empire. I mean holy shit they really went into crazy detail about body mutilation and the scientists are absolute psychopaths in how they love their job.

And I am just scratching the surface about how dark this novel is and there’s plenty of it. The point is that it is very adult oriented novel with these stories but on the flip side their romance department is so negligible that even Tom and Jerry had more romance than this.

It actively avoids it like a plague. Why is this an issue? Let me explain.

Simple answer it feels a little jarring or disorienting when you read the novel like going back and forth between watching the looney tunes movie and switching immediately back to a Black Mirror episode.

But I have to give where credit is due. I didn’t notice the romance problem until after some 500+ chapters later (that’s how good the novel story is ) and how did I notice it?

After some battle trying to reclaim the south (north?) tower and this is the part where the Empire’s royalty is on the brink of collapse the redhead girl (I also forgot her name but she is part of the main gang) is extremely tired after a long battle and Cale tries to help her by giving her some healing potions (remember at this point she is the only female character that understands Cale the most and their relationship is the most developed of all) but she says she is so tired she can’t even lift her arms, so Cale (as logic would have it) offers to feed her the potion himself (see completely logical under the circumstances) but Raon the dragon out of nowhere says, “You are too weak Cale! Let me do it”. And I am like…say what? We know the main gang always comments that Cale is weak and all but come on guys we know he isn’t and in fact he’s been through crazy shit. During that battle he never had to fight and was in top condition so that remark from raon made even more less sense.

And then the redhead laughed it off and said “it’s okay I will do it myself” and she does…after a bit of struggle to lift the said bottle.

It’s a small thing but it did break my immersion (it was already broken before, I will explain later). It forced me as a reader to actually “think” about the author intentions something that should never happen when reading a fantasy novel. And it made me go “hmm wait a minute” and then I reflected back on all the 500+ chapters I have read and I came to a realisation that…forget main character romance there is hardly any romance of any proportions from any and every character in this whole novel! It was so impossibly impossible that it teared through the immersion completely.

The second reason for this rant and this is connected to when my immersion showed a small crack. And this reason is purely a preference thing so feel free to ignore this as you want.

I personally believe that when you make a “reborn in a fantasy world” story you absolutely must never collide “our” world with the fantasy world.

Don’t do that.

From page 1 you are setting up this fantasy life, fantasy way of living and thinking, fantasy people, fantasy stories and most importantly a fantasy you. Don’t break this immersion by literally making the world he (Cale) came from an integral part of the story.

When the main protagonist found out who Cale really is and confronted him about it by listing some Korean food items I was a little disappointed because it felt like a parent telling a child that role playing as a prince and over now put the castle made of pillows back in place and do your homework for school tomorrow.

Maybe it’s just a me thing but after that confrontation, every time Cale interacted with anyone be it the redhead, his dragon, butler or anyone it all felt so plastic and fake, like I was overly conscious of the fact that this is a fantasy land filled with fantasy people and well…it made me feel a little lonely."

Wow, this is quite interesting! Thanks for sending me this. Not because I agree – anyone who knows anything about my opinions on TCF would know that the very 2 points that the author of this post has "problems with" are the things that I embrace with great enthusiasm.

So, prepare for a long ride!

First of all, let me make this absolutely clear, the same way this person did at the beginning of their own post; they are allowed to have their own opinion on what they like or dislike. The same way I am allowed to like or dislike certain elements of stories. I don't claim that TCF is a flawless work either – it's just that all the flaws it does have, at least to me, are so minor I don't care about them in the slightest.

I might actually be "brave enough" in the future to actually make my own post about the "flaws" of the story for me, no matter how few. But not today. Today, let's focus on the reddit post.

Now, imagine a person (the author of this post) is given an apple pie in a restaurant.

This person very much enjoys apple pies. They continue to visit the same restaurant and keep ordering this apple pie. But after a while, they discover "two big problems" with the apple pie.

First of all, it does not contain cinnamon. So this person is like – why not! That is, they did not notice before, but it is SO jarring to them now that they know! Because they believe all apple pies should contain cinnamon. Secondly, this apple pie is made out of a species of apples they do not like. In fact, they are convinced this apple species is not fit for apple pies! So, they quit ordering apple pies at this restaurant.

Meanwhile, there's a second regular customer (me) who orders the apple pie at this restaurant. This customer, in fact, is kind of sick of cinnamon. They were so happy they discovered a restaurant that doesn't use it! This person also notices this apple pie has a very interesting texture to it, one they very much enjoy, because of the specific apple species this restaurant uses. It quickly became their all-time favorite dessert.

Obviously, neither customer here is wrong. "The customer is always right in matters of taste" is a saying for a reason (although people usually say only the first half of it, forgetting the second part), and just because I love the "apple pie" in question, I am not going to shame the other person for their own taste.

With all that said, please allow me to address to the post properly, step by step.

First, when addressing the lack of romance as a problem, this is this person's argument: they list major dark moments in the story, like Choi Han's village getting massacred, dark race racism, Raon's torture et cetera. Then they say, "The point is that it is very adult oriented novel with these stories but on the flip side their romance department is so negligible that even Tom and Jerry had more romance than this".

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe… Tom and Jerry had any romance either. That cartoon did not even have dialogue. So like, huh??? What kind of argument is that? Should I say that Tom and Jerry has a critical flaw that is has no talking despite being all about comedy? That it would have been better if it was dubbed or something? Well, there was that one movie I remember from childhood but – never mind, we're getting off track here. This argument kind of, completely falls flat for me.

I get the implication. "TCF is has so many dark themes, it should be mature enough to contain romance as well". Which is, completely off the mark for me, personally. Maturity and romance have NOTHING to do with each other.

There's also the statement that "It actively avoids [romance] like a plague." And I agree, kind of. This story avoids romance on purpose. But It never felt unnatural for me. I was kind of expecting it to pop up eventually, back when I first started reading. I thought for SURE Rosalyn would be somebody's love interest – because she had to be, right?? But it gradually dawned on me that there are so many cool, pretty, strong, independent female characters… And none of them are representing a specific fetish or exist solely to be somebody's wifu. The women are PEOPLE, they are fleshed-out, complex characters who have goals and ambitions and just like for the men, there is no thought about romance here because there is so much going on – most of it world-ending, in fact – that focusing in romance would actually DECREASE the maturity of the story instead of enhancing it.

The author of the post said, "It was so impossibly impossible that it teared through the immersion completely". What, do you need characters getting laid to be truly realistic mature adults or something? I think you have the wrong idea about adulthood… Let me say it again, those people are too busy in this story to focus on dating. Even if Cale himself wasn't so obviously ace, his life has been so crazy since he transmigrated, I have no idea HOW on earth he could have found the time (or anyone else for that matter: just look at poor Alberu, swimming in paperwork 24/7!). He can't even sleep for more than 4 hours per day during the war arc. What I personally would find jarring is exactly this: characters trying to freaking date or play off romantic subplots while the world was LITERALLY GETTING DESTROYED. That would have been so petty and ridiculous.

So, the expectation that there HAS to be romance, just because… I think it is a faulty expectation to have in the first place. And it is NOT unnatural that the characters don't do romance (especially with how many species there are among the cast and the age gaps between them, it would have been awkward to say the least; unless you're the type to like Twilight style of romance). The story put a lot of focus to forge familial bonds between the characters. It doesn't lack in the relationship department, just non-platonic one. And if this is a problem for someone and they find it jarring, well… Again, no cinnamon in apple pie, I guess.

Next, we have the argument that "when you read the novel like going back and forth between watching the looney tunes movie and switching immediately back to a Black Mirror episode". I don't know Black Mirror, but I get it. The author of the post claims that the comedic character interactions – the ones that had been very well established in the first 200 chapters of the story, covering full 2 years in the timeline – are… what, unrealistic? Inaccurate? Cartoonish? I’m not 100% sure what the exact issue is here.

They quote a scene where I assume Rosalyn is too tired to lift her arms and Cale offers to help and Raon says he's too weak and let him do it instead. The author of the post then acts confused, as if it was completely unreasonable, because Cale is not weak. Um…. I don't know if they were not paying attention, but that's just false. Cale is PHYSICALLY weak, despite all his Ancient Powers. That is exactly the whole reason why he keeps coughing blood and fainting and stuff. So it was funny, and in-character, and fitting with the rest of the story – at least in my opinion. If that broke this person's immersion, then fine I guess, but I really don't see the reason. I guess they don't enjoy the "texture" of this "apple pie".

Speaking of texture, the last point pf the post I want to address: the belief that you should not mix "real world" and fantasy. They say, "I personally believe that when you make a "reborn in a fantasy world" story you absolutely must never collide "our" world with the fantasy world. Don't do that". Excuse me, but uh… why? That is not the case at all, for many stories? I mean, you could approach it that way, nothing wrong with keeping it separate. But most classic isekai examples usually stray from that idea, actually. Are you familiar with Chronicles of Narnia, by any chance? Did you know that the magical lamppost that Lucy found in the woods actually came from England? It was a very fun bit of backstory from the Magician's Nephew.

"Don't break this immersion by literally making the world he (Cale) came from an integral part of the story." Why not, man??? It was so brilliantly done! In fact, it was so freaking cool, the way TCF did it! What, is "our world" so boring and terrible you must keep it separate from the fantasy at any cost? It was plot relevant, it gave Cale legit ties to the new world, it fleshed out his character, it was incredible! 10/10! If TCF lost that element, it would have been a great loss.

And even if you don't like the mixing of "fantasy and reality" as something "immersion breaking"… there is one problem with this kind of argument, in TCF at least.

Kim Rok Soo is NOT FROM OUR REALITY.

Let me repeat: the man is not from regular, modern Korea! HE IS FROM A FANTASY MONSTER APOCALYPSE DIMENSION!

The whole reveal of what kind of place KRS comes from is what make this story so good to me. It was an incredible twist. The "regular, normal man from modern world" was a red herring meant to hide the fact that he was an ability user from what is basically a superhero world full of monsters! It is not! Regular! Modern! World!!!

"When the main protagonist found out who Cale really is and confronted him about it by listing some Korean food items I was a little disappointed because it felt like a parent telling a child that role playing as a prince and over now put the castle made of pillows back in place and do your homework for school tomorrow." That… you really, REALLY missed the point here, man. That was not the vibe of the scene at all! Choi Han and Cale are both essentially war veterans, mentioning foods from their childhood! This the "Frodo and Sam talking about the flavor of strawberries from Shire at the foot of Mount Doom" from Lord of the Rings type of moment! Only, well, a bit more comedic. Still, it was so touching!! But, well… again, you don't like the taste of the pie, there is nothing I can do about it.

And lastly, there was this paragraph at the end of the post:

"Maybe it's just a me thing but after that confrontation, every time Cale interacted with anyone be it the redhead, his dragon, butler or anyone it all felt so plastic and fake, like I was overly conscious of the fact that this is a fantasy land filled with fantasy people and well… it made me feel a little lonely."

I never noticed such a thing. I do not know if more people felt that way. But I always thought that the characters were well-established and their behavior natural. I am sorry that the immersion break made the author of the post lonely. I hope they can spend time with their friends and feel a little better. Fantasy shouldn't just be a tool to "fill an empty void in your life and escape terrible reality". For me, stories are meant to create something beautiful, to inspire, and to make one consider the possibilities of reality. I mean, if Cale can stop world-ending threats by being brave and making good strategies, why can't I handle the minor problems that reality has to offer? It's all a matter of perspective.

So, that is it. That's my whole response. I hope it satisfies you! Have a great day!

[stackslip]

your post about fma03 are good and i'm stuck thinking about scar for hours at a time again. stories talking about 'revenge' can read really bad to me because a lot use 'this oppressed minority trying to fight state violence is bad' plotline. fma03 was honestly pretty unique in that scar was this tragic hero instead. it's sad, it's clearly difficult for him and he see him struggle, but everything he does was also necessary to prevent further genocide.

YEAH, it's a trope i absolutely loathe and scar in the og manga is its poster boy and everyone and their mom loves to pretend it's super progressive or something lol. there are aspects to scar's manga character i wish i could have enjoyed more were he not constantly scolded by half the cast for being an Evil Murderer when the war criminals' redemption arcs are assumed to be done by now and they're good people we should all root for. bc like. i genuinely LIKE the idea of scar's brother's other arm being about reconstruction. i LIKE the concept of scar holding destruction and rebuilding at once, and being able to one day move on and participate in the rebuilding of ishbal! but it comes with the idea that he is wrong for wanting to destroy amestris's military and the people who've murdered his people in the first place, it comes with him calling himself scum for being a Bad Murderer, it comes with the only other major talking ishbalan character BEING A MEMBER OF AMESTRIS'S MILITARY, UNDER THE COMMAND OF A WOMAN WHO CURSES HER BROTHER OUT FOR NOT HAVING JOINED IN THE GENOCIDE, basically scolding scar in turn for daring to want revenge. lol. i likewise would like the thing between him and mei a lot better if it didn't feel like it didn't play in tropes of "this big brown scary man is actually sweet bc this cute pale skinned girl makes him Soft" which.... i'm not fond of. i like mei and his relationship to her a lot, I Do Not Like The Framing. i do not like what arakawa does with scar in the manga, and this will always, ALWAYS be my biggest contention with fma, my line in the sand that i refuse to back down. so many things i can chalk up to taste, but i'm never not going to argue that scar's treatment in the og manga is absolutely abysmal.

in comparison, the way 03 reframes scar from his very first appearance as someone a lot more vulnerable/human and understandable, how his violence is put into context for what amestris has done to him and how al and him have this direct connection and mutual understanding, down to al flat out saying "if someone killed my brother i'd probably want to burn down the world too".... it's just. really good all around. scar's arc does not revolve around the elrics' plot, but when he does encounter them it's not so ed can scold him for being a murderer--because scar can and does bite back ed for participating in the military in the first place. his encounter with lust, the dynamic between him, his brother and his brother's love and how all three of them have been denied even their very names and identity in the aftermath of the genocide..... unbelievably bleak. how lust and scar likewise are trying to reclaim an identity as specifically Ishbalan in different ways too! lust by remembering what she was made from, going against dante and realizing what has been taken away from her, dying while proclaiming I WAS A WOMAN FROM ISHBAL. and then you have scar, who refuses his past name because he died with his brother and he died with the old ishbal. amestris murdered him along his people. there's no coming back from this. and like.... it's tragic, because it means scar is doomed from the start. he sees himself as a ghost and he is unable to not be one. but he also *chooses* to do something of it. to not simply pursue revenge but to actively stop amestris's military from repeating the genocide in liore! he is STILL enacting violence, he is using ishbal's own old alchemy and usurping amestris's claims so he can turn their own weapon back on them. ishbal was murdered for amestris's principles, and likewise scar is going to destroy as much of the amestrian military as he can in the name of not only avenging ishbal but stopping it from ever happening again! and his plan works. it works, and it's tragic, but also triumphant. it's tragic because scar was a good man.

that's the difference between the treatment of scar in og fma and 03. in the former, scar is the one character who has to Grow Into A Good Person, because it is assumed that no good person should use violence even to defend their people and avenge genocide. because violence is the prerogative of the protagonists, and because it is easy to remove the "bad people" from the premise--you can just excise them as a tumour, and then amestris is no longer a fascist and genocidal hell state. never mind that a sympathetic character (one often touted as a feminist icon ffs) is actively defending her choice to participate in the genocide to the end and derides another for NOT participating in it, but apparently she's fine! but scar has to Learn To Forgive and becoming a good person means settling down and things will magically improve. and scar has to learn this from the elrics, even as they talk down to him and see him in a very negative light, because apparently the two blonde protagonists understand violence better than a survivor of genocide does.

in 03, scar is a good person. or at the very least, he's entirely justified. and he might not be right 100% of the time, but he is from the beginning considered to understand a lot more of the world than the elrics are! he is a tragic hero because he died long ago, and there was no other path for him. and he isn't.... wrong. it's been shown in 03 that ishbalan survivors literally get hunted and displaced wherever they go. they can't rebuild, as long as amestris is as it is! you can't just spout platitudes about how violence is bad, because even if you give up violence it will show up at your door and burn your refugee camp and the only way to counter is meeting it with violence yourself. where ed sacrifices himself at the end for his brother in another tragic hero ending, scar sacrifices himself for not only the memory of his brother but for all of ishbal AND liore to be able to live. and he's right! he's destabilized the military enough that when roy makes his choice and kills bradley, the military has been crippled and is forced to take a step back, and amestris is suddenly on the defensive and no longer able to take on offensive wars. ishbalans and liorites are shown rebuilding in peace, as amestrian soldiers are no longer able to attack them. scar's sacrifice worked. he took on the identity of old ishbal's avenging ghost, and he pushed it to the end. he finally accepted his brother's love and sacrifice, and sacrificed himself in turn--like the elrics do! his last words are words of love. they're tender. in the moment that he kills hundreds of amestrian soldiers, music swells. yes, it's tragic. fma 03 isn't saying that justified violence is all glory and roses, it's still painful--the soldiers' death isn't a fun happy time, but.... they were coming in to murder thousands of liorites, possibly rape some of them like they did rose. their lives, 03 says again and again, are *not* more important than the lives of marginalized people. they've made their choice. violence here was the right call, it was an act of love, and it is framed as such. scar's final act is mirrored by the final act of the protagonists, there too an act of love. scar in 03 is so much more humanized and respected a character than he is in the manga, and regardless of 03's other failings or differences in taste, i will argue that his story in 03 is more relevant and real as ever today as it was during the political context of 2003-04

[haven-of-dusk]

Thoughts/theories/predictions/ideas/possible plotlines/etc. for S8

I thought I would compile these so I don't create seven or eight posts in a flurry.

Bobby/Athena: Some type of tandem storyline as part of Bobby reclaiming the 118 from Gerrard's grip where he and Athena uncover a corruption scandal in the LAFD tying to Councilwoman Ortiz, Gerrard (obviously) and others. If more plotline is needed for them after that (if it wraps up by the midseason finale for example) then I would like seeing Bobby's health issues worsen bit by bit and him struggle to be honest with the rest of the team about that. Related to that plot, perhaps have Athena learn from Harry that Michael's cancer resurfaced with a vengeance and claimed his life (it's not like we're getting Michael back on the show anytime soon considering the actor's behavior), which compiles with learning about Bobby's health and starting to worry she'll lose him too. Plus both of them spending more time with Harry.

Hen: In addition to participating in Bobby and Athena's plotline of uncovering corruption and taking down Ortiz, I'd love to see Hen become more comfortable with leadership around the 118, especially in response to Gerrard. Perhaps have something happen in the field where Hen contradicts Gerrard's orders and the rest of the team (beyond even just our main cast, the whole rest of the team) follows her orders instead of his. And subsequently when he tries to punish her, say, by trying to make her scrub the rigs by herself, he finds the entire group cleaning together, chatting, and having fun (Hen didn't ask them to help, they just did so of their own volition) Despite being enraged, Gerrard struggles to find a way to punish them since it's not like he can fire the whole house, and any punishment he tries they find a way to circumvent, with Hen leading the charge. Basically she gets to be the ringleader of the 118's internal war with Gerrard. And along the way we get more Henren home stuff and building on the connection with Mara.

Chimney: WHERE THE HELL WAS ALBERT?! I would not at all mind Chimney having an arc where he realizes he hasn't heard from Albert in a while and ends up decrypting where Albert ended up (could be as malicious or innocent as they want, anything from Albert deciding to join an Amish community temporarily while traveling the country and not having a phone while there to straight up human trafficking. Take your pic, writers). Outside of that, I want more of Chimney getting to be the Dad he never had. More of him and Jee-Yun in general. Along the way, maybe have Gerrard's treatment trigger Chimney? Situations Gerrard puts him in drag up Chimney's trauma about Kevin, something like that.

Maddie: I don't really know what I want for Maddie per se, outside of I wouldn't mind this season being her turn to not have trauma or pain. Kind of the way her brother got off easy this season. See more of her interactions with everyone, give her the occasional intense dispatch call to show off her skills, show her being happy and domestic with Chimney and Jee-Yun, all that good stuff. If we need to give her a full plotline, perhaps she could get involved if something were to happen between Buck and their parents (we'll talk about that in a sec in his section), or be a rallying point for the other plotlines whenever they need her help, or, if we wanted to go far afield from her usual stuff, perhaps have her express interest in returning to the medical field to some degree, maybe even thinking about trying to be a paramedic? Idk, I love Maddie, but I'm not certain what to do with her character at the moment outside of just letting her be happy, since she probably got the least amount of setup from S7.

Buck: What I most want from Buck, at least in the first half of the season, is to focus on how his bisexuality affects him and his mental health and let him continue to explore those emotions, perhaps with conversations with Hen, Josh, Karen, etc. As the season continues, he realizes his relationship with Tommy has...stagnated, they go on dates, they hang out occasionally, but there's just not much energy to the proceedings, so Buck thinks maybe that means it's time to propose. (This may not be going where you think it's going). So he has an episode where he goes around to Henren, Bathena, Madney, asking all of his married friends basically how they knew they wanted to get married, and while they give different, unique answers, the general takeaway is that you shouldn't feel you have to marry someone, but that you want to. That they are your forever person. And the episode ends with Buck going to look at rings...and deciding not to buy one, leaving the store looking a bit conflicted. Within a couple episodes of that, he and Tommy break up. (I would probably want it to be amicable in this scenario, to demonstrate Buck making the mature decision that he didn't have anything against Tommy, he just wasn't his forever person, but if there had to be some drama there, Tommy making a nasty comment after Buck says he wants to break up to reassure Buck's decision and leave him with no regrets. Then after that...give Buck time to realize that Tommy was, in a lot of ways, store-brand Eddie. But Buck doesn't like Eddie, right? I mean he likes him, but he doesn't like him, right? (Spoiler alert, he does)

Eddie/Chris: The first half of the season needs to be Eddie in therapy leading to Chris' return, though I would love for Chris' choice to be...borderline untethered from Eddie's plotline. Not in the way that it his absence then subsequent return has no effect on Eddie, but I think it would be good for Chris' character to have him converse with Eddie's parents, family, etc, and have him realize on his own what his father has been through and the extent to which Eddie loves him, and then the talk with Eddie is the final piece of the puzzle, not the only piece of the puzzle, if that makes sense. And I also think it's crucial that Eddie not be "cured" when Chris returns. He's still working on himself, he's still healing, but Chris is ready to be back with him and stay with him. Building on that, I think it'd be powerful for Chris to be the one to force Eddie to confront the idealized version of Shannon he's built up in his head. Even if it happens indirectly through something Chris says, it'd be powerful for them to start healing that wound together. Then once Chris is back in LA (by the second half of the season at the latest), part of Eddie's therapy arc involves him realizing piece by piece how much he's pushed the past few seasons' girlfriends away, and why, and perhaps even he runs into Ana again and finds out she has a fiancé, and they chat about finding love like that. Along the way have Eddie talk to Athena for sure, since for some reason they haven't really interacted despite her being a pretty perfect person to talk about lost loves (Bobby too, but he and Eddie have talked more than once). But all this forces Eddie to confront who he is, who he's always been, what he's been pushing down and pushing away for years, and when that arc collides with Buck realizing his feelings, the season ends with the big Buddie canonization.

I realize I went into more detail with Buck and Eddie than the others, but part of that is down to mixing their personal arcs with the 'relationship' arc which could honestly be its own section. And possibly should have been.

Every section here is compressed anyway, but part of this post's purpose is to be an organizer for my thoughts that I can add to and expand upon as more come during this hiatus (as relatively brief as it is, it will probably continue to get more and more brutal)

I can also obviously expound on something if someone wants me to...though I know that's unlikely.

[cyranonic]

Just read Lex Talionis (very good by the way!) and I was really interested by how you portrayed Edelgard in it, so I was curious as to what your thought/opinions were regarding Edelgard/CF in general?

Hello and thank you! Glad you enjoyed the fic!

My thoughts on Edelgard and Crimson Flower Route are definitely complicated. I really love Edelgard and the Black Eagles as characters and I would rank CF as my second-favorite route (my main issue with it being the classic take of 'it feels kinda unfinished and needed 3-4 more chapters dealing with the Agarthan plotline).

The complicated part for me with Edelgard and CF is that I think it is a really good story, but I think some interpretations of her arc tend to simplify and flatten her in frustrating ways. Part of why I like her is that she is this courageous, radical, person who is willing to make huge sacrifices for her own convictions, but she is also very human and able to make horrific mistakes in certain circumstances. I feel like her fate in AM and VW routes really demonstrates the problem with her unwillingness to compromise and her "ends justify the means" approach to the Agarthans.

But I don't think that those flaws make her a bad character at all and I would even say that I find her very likable and relatable! I've written a few fics from her POV and I tend to see her as someone who puts pragmatic concerns above her own feelings, but she definitely has this softer, more vulnerable interior world. It is delicious and good drama when stories put her in situations where she is trying to maintain her stoicism, but she's also dealing with her own messy emotional state and the unresolved trauma of her past >:D

Final point: I find the idea that CF route results in the best overall worldstate for Fodlan pretty dubious. While I think the idea of destroying the Crest system is portrayed as unambiguously beneficial, I find myself unable to take the game entirely at face value when it suggests that taking 3 independent nations and unifying them forcefully into a single Empire is going to work out in the long run.

I know that I'm reading a bit against the intended meaning of the text here, but I find too many parallels between the Adrestian Empire in CF and real-world historical events wherein former Imperial powers try to reclaim independent territories in the name of restoring a strong, centralized government.

I don't think Edelgard is evil, but based on my own personal politics, I do not see the society she creates in Fodlan as destined to succeed. I recognize that all of the routes in 3h love ending with this weird "all 3 nations unified" trope, but Edelgard is the only Lord who intends to take over other nations and actively pursues that goal. That's why I like writing about her having to confront this problem in a post-game setting; I think it's a really interesting continuation and a fun moral problem for her to grapple with.

tldr: Edelgard is a wonderful, complex character who I love to write about, but I dislike it when CF is portrayed as utopian/the only good outcome for Fodlan because I think too much about irl imperialism

[randomnameless]

Land 3 and 4 done!

Elves and furries!

Or the worst double standard with Alcina's tragick backstory while Gary eats scraps, and Reimann puts devoted Fodlan fans to shame with his bias against subhumans!

Elheim was...

Very green compared to Drakengard lol, however the interactions between the characters felt... stale.

I mean, compared to the constant back and forth + exposition from Virginia about how cities are different from Cornia, who is Gilbert, the people living in the desert and all, for the first part of the plot, we just follow Rosalinde, a dark elf, to meet her sister so she we can save her from the bad guys, and ask her where is the second magic mc Guffin ring.

Sure, we rescue some villages and characters along the way, but they aren't, imo, as integrated in their setting as the Drakengard ones. Still, we find former thieves/brigands/bandits Alain decided to spare in Cornia - and apparently they want to turn over a new leaf, so when their old gang wants to sell elf ladies (young and not so young) as slaves, they rebel and we deal with them.

I guess the difference in setting/atmosphere is due to Drakengard, well, being conquered by the bad guys, but it feels like they just conquered it and left it there, not really caring about it.

In Elheim, they're still around - it can be sort of explained by the fact that Drakengard was conquered 6 years ago (Cornia, Alain's home was done in 10 years and Bastorias was subjugated 8 years ago) when the conquest of Elheim is supposed to be more recent? - but I guess it plays/is due to the main boss of this area's agenda -

Unlike Cornia and the small villages here and there, or Drakengard and the large cities sprawled on mountainsides, here the cities are located kind of far from each other, with a lot of forests/green/lakes/small mountains around - it makes for long maps without a lot of stuff to seize, but at the same time, it means you have to check your stamina more frequently so it's different enough to be a regional difference compared to the previous setting.

The units are... something - all jokes aside, having units deal both magic and physical damage was a nightmare for my poor 0 res armors lol, but I reckon they can be kind of useful with the proper setup, too bad the "proper setup" was something I never found and actually, I like how the game still gives you "human classes" enemies too (from the evil empire, like a red loldier) so you're not only fighting against elves, but also against the same kind of enemies (albeit promoted) than you did before, and they use mixed teams like ones with elves and humans, to make you sure have to still rethink your strategies and can't send the same team you used in the former land and expect the same results.

The BGM though... is sort of there - a bit disappointing compared to Drakengard's but I got a newfound appreciation after hearing the final boss' theme The Witch's World, it's not the banger Heir of the Dragonlands was but the fantasy/dream TWW conveys made me realise what Elheim was all about (hell those titles have a meaning lol) :

Drakengard's final theme is all about Gilbert reclaiming his castle and being the true heir of his country, not by birthright but when push came to shove, he stood up and restored the country. Which is why Drakengard had some exposition and character drama centered on Gilbert, his family and helping him.

Elheim is, as sad as it is... all about Alcina's fantasy/dream, her downfall and a sense of tragedy, both because of what she used to be, and what she actually did for the sake of her dream.

Regarding Alcina, I'll try to keep the sodium levels to minimum but :

@megafan1993 I know your comment wasn't under an Unicorn Overlord post lol, but this is basically my feelings regarding Alcina, and the comparison with the boss of the following arc stings even more, all things considered.

Who is Alcina?

A witch who acted as the court witch/mage of Cornia (MC's land!) who has the "uses magic to not grow old too fast but will eventually" syndrome, and was around during the time of MC's grandpa, a dude named Gerard.

King Gerard knew how to use his sword very well - to the point of being called a sword saint! - and liked to use it "for the good of the people", but he was the kind of guy who didn't like doing King work, found his coronation a nice distraction and didn't like when his PM modified his bills/papers etc etc. Pissed with the life of a King, especially since he felt like he couldn't do what he wanted, he left the land, without warning anyone, to explore "Cornia" and see what her people needs, only taking Alcina with him : effectively ditching the country - but no worries, his father was still around !

Exploring the land, Gerard finds himself in an ambush/skirmish against Drakengard - the neighoubing nations with whom Cornia has had border issues/problems for centuries - and takes an arrow meant for Alcina, thus dies unceremonously.

Alcina returns to Cornia and people are starting rumours, like how she had been the king's "favourite" and how the situation sucks, because now Gerard left his kid daughter* (whom he never mentionned even once in all of his voiced lines) Ilenia (MC's mom) alone to assume the role of the ruler of Cornia**.

Now, Alcina was pretty much in luf with King Gerard, so much that when Ilenia faces a rebellion (aka the prologue) and asks for her help, Alcina accepts to help her, because Ilenia is King Gerard's daughter.

Then...

Ilenia is supposedly "dead", Cornia has fallen and the Gharnef-like Baltro tells her (or she deduces it herself?) that his magic doesn't turn people crazy, but use people as mediums to put foreign/other souls inside them and take control of the bodies. It's more like a channeling magic.

Seeing the possibility to be reunited with her Gerard-poo again, Alcina switches sides and joins with the evil Zenoiran Empire, but she has her own agenda you see?

Alain lived peacefully on a small island because Alcina, who knew where he was, never told anything to the evil Zenoiran Empire people. It's not out of the goodness of her heart, hell no. Alcina had an interest in keeping Alain alive... because she planned to use him/his body to channel Gerard's soul inside - with the added bonus that Alain is a pallet swap of his grandpa.

She knew Gerard would most likely despise her for using his grandson as a medium to bring him back (from the lines we got spoken by the guy, I doubt it, he never mentions his kid!children not even once, why would he suddenly care about his grandson?) but she just wanted to hear/see him one last time sad uwus

(which raises a fucking giant red flag, Alcina who knows this and knows Ilenia's body isn't around, would obviously have guessed she was too, used as a medium for a Zenoiran soul much like Renault and Hodrick! So, with that knowledge, she wouldn't have tried to find a way to save her? Especially since she came to her in her "direst time of need" in the first place! I guess seeing Gerard >>> saving his daughter, after all the man himself never gave a fuck about said daughter...)

I don't have the exact timeline, but Alcina then accepts to march on Elheim - which resisted the Empire because they elves protect their land with a magical forest, and only taught a select few humans they are friendly with and trust a lot how to cross it, but could never have guessed that Alcina would later turn on them! - and leads the evil empire there with a dude named Gary, the land is conquered and while Eltrinde, the current elf leader (the eng/european script comes up with a lot of "exclusive" elven words, in the script she's called a turenos (??) but the jp!audio just has her be a "miko", I guess mikos don't sound elvish enough to the western lolcalisers and of course they couldn't translate her title by the word "sibyl", aka her class name :/) surrendering to avoid casualties...

Nothing is heard about her, save for Rosalinde (Eltrinde's twin sister!) who worries about her, and we believe when we face her that she's also possessed like the other people we used to fight against (by, and it'll later be revealed, ancient Zenoiran souls channeled by Baltro's magic in those bodies) but no, Eltrinde was possessed by... Alcina herself!

"But why would she need an elven body? She already has hers!"

Apparently, given some clues here and there (Yana - Alcina's apprentice - rapport conversation with Rosalinde), we can surmise that Alcina wanted an elven body to get a longer lifespan without needing to use the dangerous "rejuvenation aka turning from a dried old fig to a stripper" spell.

Tl;Dr : Alcina wanted to have her romance/spend time with Gerard again, using Alain and Eltrinde's bodies as mediums, even if it means dooming the elven kingdom and the world in general -

And oh boy do we see the elves being doomed, because while the two other human countries had a suspicious "plague" going on, here Baltro - like our beloved Riev - drops any sort of subtelty behind his title as a necromancer, and revives elves he previously killed to fight the party, which enrages both Eltrinde and Rosalinde (a feat, because so far their plot mandated interactions where very lackluster, their reunion scene had no pathos or similarity to the Drakengard brothers or even Virginia reuniting with her long lost cousin!) and they swear to take him - and Alcina - down.

Ultimately, after Baltro rewarps away like the good dark mage he is, we fight Alcina - who saved both Alain and Eltrinde from Baltro and prevented a game over lol because she still wants their bodies for her uwu ritual - and both the map song (witch's world) + her various FB's and ultimately Yana asking her to rest in peace after she's killed participate in selling us the "tragic/doomed by love" vibe about Alcina, like, the tragedy is about her, this arc is about her, hell, the entire Elheim plot is about her.

I guess I already let some salt flow lol, but even if this isn't as hamfisted as Hresvelg Grey, I felt like this was a disappointment and a bit of a letdown compared to Drakengard's story.

Double-standard hour : I was loitering on redshit to find some stuff and I saw so many people trashtalk some dude called "Gailey" that I wanted to know what was his story and...

(FR-wise at least, "Gailey" is Gary lol.)

So, Gary was Unicorn Overlord's take on FE8's Carlyle, without the sympathy he had for Joshua.

Gary was very devoted to Queen Ilenia and part of her guard, when she "died" - pretty sure that if Alcina knew, she would never told him the truth - to him Cornia died, because there's no Cornia without Ilenia as its ruler.

So Gary accepts to work with Zenoira because his queen is dead, apparently he does this conquering stuff well enough to be distinguished during the Drakengard campaign, and is sent to Elheim with Alcina.

Alcina however is the main villain while Gary is a sidekick, and is relegated as such which pisses him - and he knows she is the one possessing Eltrinde! - but our party arrives, and he wants to take our head.

It doesn't work, apparently Galvius (the evil emperor who conquered everything and is the red emperor !) doesn't like it when his troops lose and Gary knows that if he returns to him, he'll be executed, but also can't remain in Elheim else the rebels will kill him and can't escape from that land due to the magic forest surrounding it (the one no one could cross save for elves and their trusted friends!).

To get rid of the magic forest, Gary thus decides to burn the "super magic tree" that gives power to the forest and fairies living inside who are also the source of power for the elves.

Alain's party finds Gary and kills him... or at least planned to do so, because he runs away after we rekt him and is actually killed by one of his soldiers (who wanted to bring his head to Galvius and explain that if the rebels got them, it's only because Gary was incompetent!). He has last words not to Alain, but to Jeigan Joseph and the other former members of Cornia's knights - they ask Gary why he betrayed and it's here that he tells them that he never betrayed Cornia, because Cornia died when Ilenia did, thus he had/felt no attachment/reason to fight for Alain.

He has the last word to Joseph though - who pulled a Finn when he escaped with kid!Alain while Ilenia fought (apparently to her death) to give him an opening - saying Joseph has no right to judge him, because when Ilenia was fighting for her life (and apparently died), Gary was by her side until the end (he was in her team) fighting for and with her, while Joseph ran away.

And we know - after Virginia's sidequest - that Joseph still feels guilty about having left Ilenia and escaped with Alain, wondering if their places couldn't have been reversed and if she should be the one alive, but he listened to her orders back then (something he doesn't reveal to Gary!).

In a nutshell, Gary had most likely unrequited feelings for his queen, did his best to save/protect her and fought with her, but when she died he felt like his world did and from that point dgaf about the world or what it was supposed to become.

Alcina... most likely had (unrequited ?) feelings for her king, felt like trash when he died and she couldn't save him, thus abandonned her job and while she did help his daughter at one time, in the end she was willing to see the world and her king's family burn to get another chance to live her love story with him.

They are pretty similar, but somehow treated differently when both did horrible stuff, however only Alcina gets the "tragedy sad uwus" framing when Gary dies unceremonously.

Yeah :/

Not find of that plot arc.

In their rapport conversations, the elves are more interesting than what their plot interaction led to believe and I liked the devs adding maybe like 70% of the elven npcs around being sort of assholish and quite biased because Alain'n'pals are "humans" and have a huge superiority complex regarding the rest of the continent (watermelon time for that one NPC who calls Bestrals "unclean" or "corrupted" like dude, what do you have against bunnies?).

-------

I heard Vanillaware rushed the ending of the game because they had a money problem or something, and well, Bastorias shows it lol.

We have maybe 5 plot quests - sidequests you are supposed to unlock way way later lol - and a cast of 3 characters who talk in turn, but don't really exchange or interact with the NPCs or the rest of the cast found there.

So yeah, I can see where the rush was lol

And yet, I still prefered the Bastorias arc -

First because while the maps are also as empty as the Elheim ones in cities and all, well I sort of prefer the "vast snowfields" vibe to the "large forests" one, even if I confess I really liked seeing/talking to the various people around - even if it was only for a sidequest (tfw a dude wants to sell Laguz slaves).

Second, because the BGM is both relaxing and yet foreboding/mysterious enough to keep you focused, even if I confess, I pressed + during some fights when wereowls were busy giving each other blue points lol

Oh, and werefoxes were... I won't judge people based on their kinks, but personnally, I was kind of weirded out by their sprites, like when I can crack jokes at F!Elven Fencers like "if they fall on their back they can't stand anymore like turtles if you flap them over", werefoxes are just... uh yeah. Not my cup of tea.

Plot-wise, Alain wants to get rid of Zenoira in this region too so it will diminish their forces (ludonarrative point : if you don't do Bastorias and go to the final map, Reimann pops us as a reinforcement unit with the feral plot characters you're supposed to meet in Bastorias, aka feral!Ramona and feral!Morad :( I guess Yunifi died alone, I hope she wasn't killed by her adoptive parents !) but everyone realises that there's some "illness" or stuff that makes some Bestral go mad/feral (does this remind you of something?) and while some pop up as yellow units who attack everything on sight, through the plot we later learn that it's not "illness" at all!

Much like the best Gharnef out there (sorry for your poll @crushednugget, but I believe science should have won!), Reimann - a former Cornian noble who was part of the band of traitors who sided against Ilenia in the prologue - uses his science + a magic rock to turn the animal people in feral versions of themselves to control them, and calls himself a genius while also revealing that this magic rock that those lowly subhumans only thought was a shiny rock that belonged to the lion (thus royal) tribe was actually the magic rock that makes people able to control the Bestrals (the subhumans).

We even have one rapport conversation from Joseph, that suggests that Reimann might have been involved in trafficking/enslaving/experimenting on subhumans before the game's events, as he was already trying to get his hands on Bestrals during Ilenia's reign!

Unlike Izuka though.... Reimann is betrayed by one of his "allies" - much like Gary! - who was... under his suit of armor... a bestral himself!

(Cucumber lolcalisation point : Eligor, when first met is talking to this place's Batta the Beast and at one point is pissed/haughty/upset and calls Batta a human - but in the jp!audio, I didn't hear any "ningen" mention at all. Eligor blows his cover in the us/eu script, but not in the jp version!)

Eligor is a rat bestral, and Bastorias has some sort of hierarchy/class system based on which kind of Bestral you are - cats are fishermen, owls are the "wise mayors", bears, foxes and wolves are fighters (but polar bears are selling weapons!) goats are innkeepers etc etc.

While it's upsetting that we never hear anything from the numerous NPCs around about the "rat tribe", given how Bastorias is presented we it's not that farfetched that rats were indeed seen as lesser or not as important/valuable as lion bestrals.

The Rat Tribe was captured by Baltro who used them for experiments to make them sturdier/stronger, everyone lost their mind save for Eligor who seems to be thankful to Baltro-sama to give him the means to reach his dream : become the King of Bastorias even if he is a member of the rat tribe.

As Morad (a lion!) tells him though, while his dream and ideals about making Bastorias a place for everyone to live with pride etc etc, he still tells Eligor that he resorted to stupid/ridiculous methods (aka mind controlling and sending hundred of bestrals to death fighting against each other and being a fucking member of Zenoira!) and would have prefered if they worked together, to which Eligor tells him that he dgaf, because even if it only lasted for the duration of the final battle, he finally got what he wanted being the King of Bastorias and commanding people thanks to the shiny magic rock.

No uwu sobest for Eligor unlike the gallons of tea we had to drink for Alcina though, maybe that's why i can appreciate this arc more lol

I think the nod to the reveal about Eligor being a rat and this arc wasn't the lolcalisation adding shit, but the sidequest with the... Rock Rats - former bandits Alain spared in Cornia lol - when you recruit/want to recruit the leader who's basically Robin Hood, he tells you that even if Alain started his quest with 5 people and thus isn't like the other evil Nobles (tm), you should always worry about someone who started from scratch and managed to become a leader, because they will cling to power and forget why they wanted it in the first place.

...That's basically Eligor's story, as told by another, metaphorical, rat!

Battle theme a Fleeting Dream is the general Bastorias overworld theme, with imo, the earlier feelign of something ominous being played/schemed and its climax - it's the same mystery/foreboding feeling we got in the overworld map, but with a feeling that "something is going on". A good catch for Eligor's plot and this arc in general, even if it was rushed.

Anyways after his death, more plot reveals - Morad the friendly (uhh) lion we met who acted as one of the main characters from this arc was actually a human changed in a lion with the power of the shiny magic rock, and the human girl, Yunifi, who was adopted by Ramona (owl mom) and Morad (lion dad) is very heavily implied to have been a lion princess herself, but turned in a human!

Nod to Fodlan discourse : upon finding Reimann's notes and researches about how to use the shiny magic rock to control bestrals - everyone in the cast agrees with Ramona's suggestion to burn those notes!

No "uwu censorship BaD" or "creature masquerading as a human is attempting to hide knowledge to keep humans ignorant!" -> those "researches" are basically some "how to perform mindcontrol and turn people against each other in 5 steps" lessons, so they are destroyed for the sake of everyone, the shiny magic rock will forever remain a shiny magic rock, and not a tool to control the minds of anyone else.

Gameplay wise :

The Bestrals have a gimmick where they are more powerful/get more mobility during nighttime, but some of their classes are more similar to the human ones than the elven ones.

I still have to use/play around the werefoxes and the werewolves, so far I only used the lion, the bear and the owl and while I know Yunifi has an unique class and can be built in a certain way to be completely broken...

I don't have enough medals to make more than 3 teams of 5 characters rofl - but I'll definitely try to play with some builds!

----

Oh and in general, I guess i forgot to mention in the "this was rushed" part, but while we can see the rush - I still am flabbergasted at some details the devs added like, hm, the fact that when you use a skill that summons rain in Bastorias - aka tundra land - you don't get rain but snow!

Or the completely random stuff I just noticed today (tfw after 50h you still notice and learn something knew), when you pick a squad captain, the sigil/banner for that squad in the "battle screen" is the one of the "captain" of that squad!

So yeah, even if they're fighting in Alain's Liberation army, some characters still retain their identity and banners - Gilbert's team has the Drakengard sigil, Eltrinde/Rosalinde has the Elheim one and... Travis has the Tricorns (his bandit/merc group!) one lol

*Given how Virginia is Alain's cousin and Ilenia's niece, it means Gerard must have had two kids, assuming primogeniture works, Virginia's parent, must have been younger than Ilenia which means Gerard basically left his two children and role/duties as a king behind him because he was upset that people were disappointed in him/kept on meddling with his duties as a king.

**Through various supports and lines popping up here and there, we learn that while some people loved Ilenia and thought she ruled wisely and justly, some other people were very critical of her, given how she became Queen young and wasn't as battle-hungry as her dad before her : Tl;Dr, dying like a moron after ditching his throne, Gerard abandoned his daughter who had to face the same adversities - if not more - than he did, but she pulled through. I'll have to check the audio when I'll reach that moment to see if there's hidden salt, but she has a line to Alain in the True Ending where she's basically all "I'm not going to miss my son's coronation" and, well, with the knowledge that Gerard was crap, I wonder if Ilenia resented him a bit lol

[australet789]

Saw on twitter someone saying that the reason why Ryan Gosling is getting more recognizion for the Barbie Movie than Margot Robbie it's because the movie was about him, and yeah, i agree with them.

Because yeah, the whole movie was supossed to be a yell for feminity, and for moments, it has it; but the one character who has a better arc was Ken. Greta Gerwing doesnt know how to fucking write feminism and that was shown since her Little Women adaption. Because instead of wanting to appeal to all women, both movies just ended up allienating the gender, making the men more relatable at the end.

Instead of trying to reclaim what women like, the Barbie Movie went to mock these things, specially when Barbieland transforms into Kenland. The whole "but you are a doctor, you have a title, you should be better!" was super condescending, even if the Barbie President was supposed to be under "the patriarchy" magic spell.

And the only moment Barbie has development she becomes ... A human. Instead of doing like Ken who developed and stayed a Ken, Barbie had to "transform" into a new species to feel like she grew. And that's not a good fucking message.

[shitpostingkats]

Yu-Gi-Oh Review Roundup: Zexal!

Favorite main character: Astral

Yeah, I like the funny little autism alien. Everyone contain your shock.

But aside from the fact that there is a main character who is a glowing floating non-human, Astral is such a well written character. He starts with some of the barest foundations of a personality, being literally an amnesiac with no idea what is going on. Over the course of the show, you watch him slowly learn about the world around him and his place in it. Same with his relationship with his co-protagonist, Yuma! They start off very combative, but then learn to rely on each other, then a blossoming friendship, until they grow into fully loving and protective best friends. And we get to see that! All the little moments of their friendship is onscreen from day one. 

And aside from Yuma, Astral is just???? Hilarious??? He has this very dry sense of humor that is so anachronistic to the rest of his general naivety and it makes me smile EVERY TIME. He’s FUNNY. 

A personal pet peeve of mine is the assumption that autistic coded characters don’t understand jokes, and the only way to make them work in a comedy setting is to have the audience laugh at them. No!!! Astral’s just got his own wacky sense of personal humor! Even as he grows closer to Yuma, he still has his witty jabs, but this time they’re affectionate. This really is the way he talks, not just some consequence of amnesia and social bluntness. I love him. He’s clever and funny and caring and learning to love and awkward and awesome.

Also, he glows and floats. 

Favorite antagonist: Vector

Vector may not be the most consistently written character, but GOD IS HE FUN.

About 80% of my love of Vector is just in the visual appeal of his design and animation. The black and grey, almost like a gargoyle, with pink accents, plus his chrysalis/butterfly/alien duel disk? Mwah. Because barians don’t have mouths or eyebrows, their facial animation has to be really exaggerated to convey expressions. Vector’s face is made entirely of squash and stretch.

Add on top of that the dub’s pitch perfect and very fun vocal performance, and I just grin every time he comes onscreen. The actor manages to sell how this guy is a wildcard and just evil for the FUN of it. The giddiness in his voice whenever tormenting someone with evil cardgames. Every one of the barian emperors is like “And then there’s this guy. What a weirdo. We’re not 100% sure why we keep him around, but he is OUR little office chaos gremlin and he is a VALUED MEMBER OF THIS TEAM.” 

 When Shark is introducing all the emperors after reclaiming his title, his literal words when he gets to Vector are just: 

“Vector! Need I say more?” 

And even after trying to kill Nash like three times, he’s still in the final Friendship Lineup for the duel of three worlds, his monster used with complete honor and seriousness, complete with a special summoning chant and battle cry. 

THEY GIVE HIM A SPACE IN THE FRIENDGROUP AFTER HE TRIES TO DESTROY THE ENTIRE WORLD.

Favorite side character: Nistro

Check it off the Spk Himbo Bingo, everyone. 

Dextra and Nistro are honestly some of the highlights of the show for me. I love it when yugioh side characters are allowed to recur and get minor character arcs that don’t subtract from the plot but still have an overarching development. The two of them show up in the duel carnival, first working security, then resigning and entering the carnival as competitors. While Dextra, professional, focused, does not make any major changes to her appearance, Nistro seems to revel in the chance to finally wear his full length flame/fur coat. It’s a subtle characterization, but it makes his ultimate turn to WWE wrestler completely believable. 

He’s excitable, hot-headed, and values his relationship with Dextra; the two play off each other very well, somewhat paralleling the dynamic between Yuma and Astral. And, I cannot stress enough how much I loved having a male and female relationship that was just. Good. Dextra is an equal and he cares for her completely, and they work well together, both in chemistry and in their literal jobs. It’s just. Nice. To have this background duo with no drama or yugioh-female-character weirdness.

Nistro just happens to be my personal favorite because he decided the best way to confront an alien hostile was to hit a baseball at them, then casually lean on the bat and smirk. 

Favorite duel: Yuma vs. Eliphas

Basically the entire show, Astral World is this big question mark in the lore. So when we finally got to see and go there, I was excited. Like, kicking my feet and flapping my hands excited. (This is yugioh, after all. It wouldn’t be completely out of the question to just never explore this cool alien world that holds a ton of answers to questions in the plot.) Also, because at this point we had been missing Astral for several episodes, and I was ready for Yuma to have his funny alien bestfriend back. 

But first he’s got to duel for it.

And boy is it a good duel.

Eliphas is a great antagonist, his archetype being based around not only being powerful, but on being levels of power far above his opponent. In one duel, we get the whole deal of Astral world: toxic superiority. His monsters are all wonderfully creatchury, tapping back into some DM era egyptian aesthetics, and just delightfully weird. Etheric Amon is also a highlight. I especially love how it calls to mind the silhouette of Monster Reborn, and the pillar fading near the base gives it a trippy optical illusion effect. 

Being the first person besides Yuma and Astral we see use Shining Draw, it’s an excellent and immediate threat that instantly ratchets up the tension. Same with the New Order numbers using exactly the same summonings and sound cues as regular numbers. The magical powers our protagonists have been slowly mastering through the entire course of the series? Child’s play. Not even anything special.

Yuma v. Eliphas also kicks off the longest chain of duels that I unilaterally love that I have so far seen in yugioh. From this to the duel on the moon, it’s just all bangers.

Favorite arc: Mythyrian Numbers War

Zexal is the first show I’ve really agreed with the general consensus on the quality curve: It gets better as it goes on. Part 2 is just exponentially stronger, and with every episode grows more into its potential. That said, I kinda like the funky monster of the week format the pre-duel carnival had.

So the search for the mythyrian numbers feels like the best blend of those two flavors. It’s basically an arc of cleverly delivered build-up for the main villains, introducing each barian emperor’s backstory one at a time. Plus, some broader worldbuilding about Astral and Barian, which after over a hundred episodes of no answers, was sorely needed. 

It gives the villainous coterie some personality. Dumon’s quiet honor and chivalry, Alito’s brash competitive streak, Girag’s raccoon-based military career. The emperors are a highlight of Zexal, and it’s in large part to this time spent fleshing out each one’s personality and past. And we still get to bounce around to wacky locations and weekly boss monsters. Then, with the mini arcs of Astral World and the three barian mercs, it just encapsulates all of my favorite parts of this series. 

Greatest strength of the series:

*points at Yuma and Astral on the cover art*

It’s them.

My controversial yugioh opinion is I didn’t really love DM. I found the pacing boring, the duels awkward, and that it never delivered on some of its strongest ideas. The basic premise, two souls in one body, one foreign and confused, contrasted by the plucky average joe? Awesome idea. How do they interact? How does that partnership develop, literally sharing a headspace? What sort of adventures do the two of them get up to, racing around the world to uncover the secrets to the amnesiac’s past?

What does this have to do with Zexal?

Yuma and Astral is everything I wanted from Yami and Yugi, and more.

While I found the number of Yami & Yugi interactions in DM frustratingly few, I liked the idea of dual protagonists, and was curious what a well written version of that dynamic would look like. Zexal makes having two protagonist really work. They’re just a delight. From the stumbled irritation of first meetings, then the unsteady alliance of companionship, to straight up would-die-for-each-other partners. They both share the spotlight, learning from each other as the show goes on, and compliment in all the right ways. Their banter feels organic and refreshing, you truly believe these two are the best of friends. When they lose each other it’s painful, when they reunite, it’s cathartic. Their bond is literally the foundation of the show, in a way that I didn’t really see in Yami and Yugi, or the criminally little time we got with Jaden and Yubel. The first time we see Astral smile is when Yuma calls him a friend. There’s a billion little moments like that. The two of them speaking in tandem the first time they work in sync. Astral’s pure delight at getting to experience food for the first time as Zexal. Yuma’s desperation when he thinks he’s misplaced the emperor's key. A massive chunk of the show goes to building up these two, and, by the end, it’s far and away the biggest success of Zexal.

Weakest Points:

A good chunk of the writing effort apparently went into perfecting Yuma and Astral’s dynamic, because other characters suffer from a distinct lack of consistency. 

Shark, love him though I might, spends 2/3rds of the plot having no real reason to be there, then hard pivots into a heelturn that’s really cool, but breaks down the more you think about it. His entire motivation for the duel carnival arc was getting back at the person who hospitalized his sister, then he helps out with the fight against the barians for supposedly the same reason? Despite them having kind of next to nothing with Rio’s injuries. You could make the argument that his hatred of the barians is motivated by suppressed memories of Vector being responsible for his sister’s death when they were humans, except the second he recovers those memories, he turns around and goes back to leading them without so much as an unkind word to Vector. 

He’s not the only villain of the series to suffer from some questionable motives. Vetrix is also a mess, wanting to avenge Kazuma and himself by *checks notes* Opposing Kazuma’s son and abusing his children. Dr. Faker is equally comically antithetical, committing warcrimes for the sake of his sons yet treating both horribly.

Yes, there’s explanations given, but nothing that feels real to the character, just last minute plot twists. Vector’s appealing because he’s a loose cannon, yes, but he has the strength of performance and writing where that’s a believable aspect. His consistency is he’s inconsistent, and takes great delight in being so. Every other main villain feels like they’re just being jerked around into the shape the plot requires of them.

Also, for how exciting it feels to get answers in the latter half of Zexal II, it’s a bit much, even for yugioh, to hold the basic worldbuilding in such a stranglehold until then. Heck, no one even asks why the barians and astrals are fighting until like, episode one hundred. Even characters where it feels in-character to ask, to investigate, they simply. Don’t. For a series this long, I’d love to see that aspect worked into a more reasonable drip-feed of information.

Most yugioh moment: 

“Pack your bags, galaxy-eyes. We’re headed to the moon.”

He says this so seriously. Does he really mean for galaxy-eyes to get its little dragon suitcase and get ready for their trip? Is this a little joke, between an eighteen year old and his emotional support piece of cardboard? HE’S SO CASUAL ABOUT JUST. HEADING TO THE MOON. They need to have a card game on the moon for the sake of the world that is the single most yugioh plot beat of all time.

[novelconcepts]

One of the things I love so much about Yellowjackets and its use of sex scenes—and one of the reasons I balk at puritan culture claiming sex scenes have no place in media—is how much character gets across in these moments. The scenes are rarely, if ever, just about the sex.

It’s Van and Tai in the woods, this moment of pure intimacy, of letting someone see you when you’re at your most broken and realizing you can still be beautiful and present and whole. It’s recognizing love transcends what you look like, and that there is safety in trusting someone to really look under the mask.

It’s Jackie trying to prove something to herself and to Shauna, that she can be an adult, that she can catch up to this perceived finish line Shauna already crossed, and it’s Travis being so distant that he barely even knows where he is, that this physical act that feels like everything to Jackie is nothing to him. It’s a microcosm of that young adult fear of being left behind, of not fitting into the right tropes.

It’s Shauna and Adam in this primal, teenage courtship that is so about immaturity and spontaneity, where it’s entirely about her getting to reclaim the childhood she lost, even at her own detriment. And it’s Jeff and Shauna, where it’s entirely about trying to reclaim something damaged beyond repair, about the desperate need to hang onto something that maybe wasn’t ever yours to begin with.

It’s Natalie and Travis with this Lottie imagery hovering between them, an encapsulation of Nat trying to show him that reality is tangible, and Lottie being a symbol of hope and spirituality, with Travis being caught between. It’s building on this traumatic space they’re living in through the lens of distraction and escapism, and whether those things can be enough when real life is so deadly.

This show is so good about deploying these very human moments through physicality, and pushing the character arcs forward. Sex can genuinely be such a beautiful and painful way to explore character, and it’s such a fundamental feature of this story which is rooted in hunger and desire and collaboration. It’s so interesting to me.

[clonerightsagenda]

The aro icon poll has concluded, with Murderbot claiming the lead. This is unsurprising as I wasn't sure TMD even qualified since I think the aromanticism is intentional, but I knew not including it would result in a bunch of 'where's murderbot op' comments.

Anyway! Here is a roundup of everyone's submissions for additional iconic aro works and moments.

Keladry of mindelan, tbh. she had sort of crushes, but turns out romance isn't her thing, which she learned as she got older and is totally valid. she's also canonically aroace, so yay!

when lirael in the book of the same name spends her whole life alone and treated like a child bc she fails to develop a power that most people get before puberty. and also when someone flirts with her and she leaves/changes the subject very quickly bc she doesn't want to deal with it. she's still aro to me

lirael erasure on that poll. goldenhand is not real and cannot hurt me

when rin from the books of bayern's defining moment of using her powers Wrong is when she thinks it will satisfy her to persuade someone she's told likes her to kiss her but everything abt it feels so horrible she runs away and is miserable for years. and then reclaims her powers by using them to help and befriend people on a deeper level

The entirety of Kamen Rider Fourze #The main character is determined to become friends with everyone even his enemies #he is completely oblivious to anything romantic that may involve him #he quite literally gets stronger from the power of friendship

oh Fushi To Your Eternity's whole story #being about finding humanity and connection as an immortal demi god #and still Not Getting romantic/sexual love #despite many people trying to explain it #and also a cult that has spending 200 years #trying to help the reincarnation of their founder seduce him #and never getting past the friend zone #also barely getting in the friend zone because Fushi is pretty :/ about them #seriously pls watch To Your Eternity it is SO good

everything about jo and laurie's relationship in little women

-ME from REAL LIFE

oh also tris from the emelan books is rlly quite acearo!!

deeply unpopular opinion but steve harrington is aro TO ME #i know there are multiple ways to read his character but like. his s3 character arc is about realizing he doesnt need to be in a #relationshp to be happy and he’s trying to force it anyways bc thats what he thinks he should do! #his most fulfilling relationships are with children and a qpp with a lesbian! #he tries to ask robin out and it definitely seems like he maybe just doesn’t know the difference between romantic and platonic love because #he has not in fact ever experienced the former!! #yes i know there are other ways to interpret these things. However its my god given right to project onto characters so thats what i’ll do #i also think ophelie from la passe mirroir books is aro but presumably nobody else here has read those lol #OH and cannonical acearo rep shoutout to the fires stone haha

Seren from “Seren” being exiled from her home planet for reaching the age of 25 unmarried, and her whole entire regret is the “getting exiled” and “disappointing her family” and “failing to be a Productive Citizen of her Planet” parts whereas she never seems like she actually cares about the being married part At All

I am slapping each of these works with a celebrity book club-style sticker like this

[dorothygale123]

Time for Kuan Yin 3: This Time it's Personal

Have I been talking about Kuan Yin for 3 days straight? Yes I have and I don't care what you think because this is my house and I make the rules here, so shut up and listen.

Today we're going to be taking what we've learned and become a little speculative, trying to piece disparate stories and put them together in a way that makes sense. This is in no way me saying this is actually true, just a way to organize her lore for modern authors to work from.

Let's begin.

To start with, let's start with the idea that she's the daughter of the Jade Emperor. This idea can't be any older than 1005 AD for funny reasons I'll talk about some other time, so it's definitley not an origional part of her mythology. However, I like the idea of her being a goddess that was such a devout Buddhist that she gave up her divinity to incarnate in the human realm to reach greater perfection, and it'll make some cool parallels later so we'll roll with it.

For bonus points, maybe she was the SON of the Jade Emperor and his heir, but was so pious they decided to renounce their birthright to achieve true perfection. This could even tie in to my earlier post about the Jade Emperor and Queen Mother of the West's marriage history. Kuan Yin, or her original incarnation, could be the only child between JE and Tian Hou, and her/his/their decision to incarnate as a mortal could be the reason for their divorce. Such drama!

After that she went through several human lives, male and female. This can fit in several popular origins for her as different characters before she eventually is born as Miao Shan. Once again a princess whose father opposes her Buddhist faith, she goes through many trials before reclaiming her divinity on her own terms like the first-class badass she is.

I feel like this is a good arc for her. Thoughts?

Sh*tpost Masterlist

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 4.5/5

Book Blurb:

Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.

Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing. 

In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that. 

For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated. 

A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.

Review:

When her father abandons her family and her mother brings home a new man... one girl will begin to spiral and her appetite grows... and her need so does her body count. Ji-Won's entire life implodes when her father leaves their family because he has met a new woman. Her mother is fragile and begins to spiral and Ji-Won must look after her younger sister as well. Ji-won is dealing with failing college grades as well.... and something awakens in her after her mother has her eat a fish eye... as it is said to bring luck... yet Ji-Won has begun to develop a darker craving... human eye balls. Ji-Won soon begins to be plagued by darker urges and dreams, and her spiral isn't helped by the fact that her mother has latched onto a new boyfriend, a boyfriend that has suddenly moved in, has eyes on both Ji-Won and her sister, and is disgusting. Ji-Won knows that she'll have to protect her family while also dealing with her growing hunger for eyes... and when opportunities present themselves and her urges take control... soon the body count around her campus begins to grow. Ji-Won knows she'll have to find a way to cover her tracks but a certain classsmate is fixated on her... and now she has two men she'll have to deal with that put her life at risk. Can she figure out a way to reclaim control while also satiating her new hunger? Oh I love a coming of age girl spiral, I loved the horror and descent into the darker craves that was told in this. I had a fantastic time reading this and it definitely gave me RAW (french horror film) vibes and I had such a fun time reading it. Ji-Won was such an interesting character to read and the horror in this was fantastic! I would absolutely recommend this for anyone who enjoys a coming of age horror story.

Release Date: June 25,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Kensington Books | Erewhon Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[wyvernwriterarchive]

Major Characters in my W.I.Ps as Tarot Cards P2!!

Tathylia Chronicles

Formula

Character:Tarot

Explanation of their arc and why I picked the card. May include mine or spoilers.

Chris: Justice

When faced with a world filled with xenophobia, classism, and racism, Chris openly fights against it or, in other ways, hates it. He grows more willing to do it as his journey goes on, and he gets stronger, becoming a common hero of justice.

April:Strength

After learning and losing so much, April almost fell deep into despair. But she realized that she must stand strong in order to reclaim and reshape her country.

Rowan:The Sun

Despite the dangers ge faces as a dyreblod in a world that is often cruel to them, he wants to heal old wounds and bridge the gap between the races, and he truly believes he can do it with his positive attitude and smile.

Zachery:The Star

Zachery is in a very powerful, divine position that he believes he isn't worthy of being in. After learning about his countries crimes, he is even more unsure. But he is hopeful that he can use his position to bring an age of peace and wisdom to his homeland.

May: The Moon

May is motivated by fear above all else, and desperately wants to return to her normal, peaceful life...or so she thinks. To find out what she really needs, she must face her fears and fight to survive.

Azul:The Heirophant

Azul is Chris' father and cares for his mercenary company like their family. He often teaches Chris about the past war and helps him grow more confident in his abilities as a leader.

Angrboda:Death

Unable to let go or forgive humans for the crimes of their past, she is scornful of them whenever possible, often being met with the same treatment. But she does seem to be getting close to letting go of the trauma thanks to her son.

Aurelia:The Chariot

Her country is at war. Her soldiers are scared, her father won't do anything, and the nobles are trying to take power wherever they can. In this harsh time, Aurelia inspires many to move forward even in the face of uncertainty and danger, and is convinced to fight for a brighter, more just future for Vanar's citizens or Vanarian nobility.

Juvensly:The Devil

Motivated by a desire for power for his father, Emperor Cadmus,he constantly leads his soldiers to fight and die in a war that doesn't need to happen. He is ruled both by his wicked desire for conquest and his dream of being loved by his father.

[comfortunit]

ALSO also this is tangential at this point but i love to write fiction with characters who are against or outside of the gender binary and i thought like, an entire series where the characters singularly and only use It for not only the protagonist but another really important character, a fictional universe written to exclude transphobia from the outset with nonbinary minor characters thrown in at random, and you still have people misgendering the fucking protagonist and finding ways to write in misgendering it into the text. at least i could pretend people would respect my character choices when i look at mainstream fandoms but seeing the like rampant transphobia in a series that is trans itself? heartbreaking. depressing. made me want to put down my pen for a whole moment (not even getting into how much "person treated like product/who had their agency invalidated learns how to direct their own life" narratives mean to me and expecting to see people who got that theme instead of. treating it like a product to force to do whatever they want. do people not see the sad irony there. its like seeing an anime girl whos character arc is "people objectify me against my will and i fight against it to reclaim my personhood" and then watching the fandom/company turn around and only sell/interact with highly sexualized shit of her. like i THOUGHT people who were fans of something showing corporate and consumer hypocrisy would be a lil smarter! ive underestimated the average persons ability to be in denial of things and themselves however) ok ok im done sending my silly little asks i hope you have a good rest of your day

right, and a MAJOR theme of mbd is, as martha wells put it (i'm paraphrasing), 'the 'ugly' parts of trauma that no one talks about'. murderbot is traumatized and it's a person but it is repulsed by the idea of being 'humanized'. it just wants to be comfortable after so much time spent being told what to do, what to be, everything. prescribing it pronouns other than what it itself has 'written' in its DIARIES (wow a concept... 🤯 first person pov. fucking mind-blowing, y'all, firsthand experience actually lets you know how someone thinks/feels/perceives things. i know. it's crazy), forcing things onto it, projecting things onto it, that it never opted in to... it's just more of the same. murderbot's ultimate goal is to feel like its own person, it wants to BE. it's literally a struggle for autonomy, and i'm sure humans in-universe and in the fandom alike, they just don't get it, they think murderbot is going about things in a counterproductive manner like "oh if it hates the company so much then why is it still so attached to being a secunit and protocols and all this bullshit?" like god do these people have any fucking idea how trauma works? have they ever understood the trauma of others? my guess is a resounding NO.

and re: my gripes about it being aplatonic and no one fucking caring enough to give it the decency of this canon fact in their fanfic re-creations of it; it GETS MAD at perihelion for trying to FORCE its emotions out. and people write this off!! because they want to believe this is like "aww it's MAD because it LIKES ART" like actually people who care about each other can be terrible to each other! and not everything is secretly cute and adorable! a big POINT of network effect is that ART DOESN'T GET IT; it DOESN'T know what murderbot wants, it DOESN'T know how murderbot feels. it DOES NOT GET IT. the fandom insists on smoothing everything over because the idea that murderbot might have genuine feelings of hate, or intrusive feelings that it both is internally upset with but also embraces... it's like they can't fucking handle this complexity. they can't. they act like they can and they can't fucking handle it, or i wouldn't see it represented so fucking atrociously in fanfic, lmfao.

it's fucking INFURIATING !!!! 🤝

[satoshi-mochida]

SaGa Emerald Beyond launches April 25, 2024

Gematsu Source

SaGa Emerald Beyond will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC via Steam, iOS, and Android on April 25, 2024, Square Enix announced.

In Japan, SaGa Emerald Beyond will be available both physically and digitally for 7,480 yen. A Square Enix e-STORE-exclusive Collector’s Edition will also be available for 25,000 yen, which includes an art book, three-disc soundtrack CD set, two metal monster figures, and a bag. Pre-orders are available now.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

The latest standalone entry in the SaGa franchise, SaGa Emerald Beyond brings together the very best elements of the beloved series to offer each player their own unique gameplay experience. Make use of glimmers and combos in battle; meet a diverse cast of races, including monsters, mechs, and vampires; and experience your very own story, created through your choices and actions.

Distant Worlds Woven Together

Travel to 17 unique worlds from the Junction, either led by the hand of destiny or by a path forged by your own choices. Discover the completely different cultures and landscapes, ranging from a densely developed forest of skyscrapers and a green and luscious habitat covered in plant life to a world governed by five witches, or one ruled by vampires—just to name a few of the distinct settings.

An Eclectic Cast of Protagonists

Six leading characters, all from diverse backgrounds and with vastly different goals, set out on their journey in five unique story arcs. They venture to the myriad of worlds for their very own personal reasons: One, a human on a mission to protect the barrier defending his city; another, a witch trying to regain her lost magic while maintaining her disguise as a schoolgirl; and yet another, a vampire lord out to regain his crown and reclaim the throne as the rightful king of his world. Even selecting the same protagonist for a second—or third or fourth—playthrough will lead to completely new events and stories, a completely fresh path and experience.

A Story of Your Very Own Making

SaGa Emerald Beyond has the greatest number of branching plots of any game in the SaGa series. The story branches abundantly depending on your choices and actions. Every time you visit a world, the story will evolve, allowing the protagonist and player alike to discover new possibilities. As the story unfolds in this way it becomes a tale all of your own, not only affecting the path you walk but also the multiple potential endings that await each protagonist.

Battles where a Single Choice Can Change Everything

SaGa Emerald Beyond further refines the highly strategic Timeline Battles the SaGa franchise has been long renowned for. With series mainstays such as the skill to spontaneously acquire abilities through the Glimmer system, tactical ally placement known as Formations, and United Attacks that enable individual skills to connect together to form devastating chain attacks, it offers the best iteration of SaGa‘s turn-based combat to date. The new combat system adds more drama than ever before, allowing you to support party members, interrupt enemy actions, and use United Attacks by strategically manipulating the order of ally actions. The characters that join you, the weapons you wield, your party formation, and your tactics in battle—everything is up to you!

Read more about the game here.

Watch a new set of trailers below.

Character Trailer: Tsunanori Mido

Character Trailer: Ameya Aisling

[karmicretributixn]

opinions...?!

In order to properly start off a rewrite, I’m going to start by addressing the things I did and did not like about Halloween Ends. While I have my list of criticisms for this movie, I want to establish that I don’t think it’s a terrible movie. There were some things in it that I think were done well and gave the trilogy’s ending some less expected elements (which, when working with a source material that’s been sequeled and rebooted to hell with various but fairly similar plots, is admirable to at least attempt).

I feel like some types of content are implied given that it’s a slasher movie, but aside from the obvious gore and violence, some other stuff that will be involved in the discussion: suicide/suicidal ideation, mentions of incest, Black stereotyping

GOOD STUFF:

Establishing attempts to move on. While it is a bit of a longer time skip than I expected, Laurie really needed to reclaim her life for her own sake and for the sake of not seeing her stuck in the same emotional arc each and every movie. From becoming a better mother figure to Allyson to finding really endearing, awkward old people love with Frank (a character we’re at least somewhat familiar with already), I enjoyed seeing Laurie learn from the mistakes her former intense state of paranoia caused her to make and try to create a life for herself. It was an enjoyable glimpse into the Laurie we might have seen if Michael hadn’t plagued so much of her life, a person outside of fear. (I found her attempt to bake the pumpkin pie as a “Halloween tradition” to be really sweet and a sign of her genuinely trying to work past the trauma surrounding the holiday.) I would’ve liked to see more of this from Allyson as well outside of finding work. However, I felt the justifications for why she struggled to return to normalcy were valid; losing your mom alongside feeling responsible for the mental and emotional wellbeing of your grandmother who you’ve known to be unstable most of her life isn’t exactly the formula to create a normally functioning young adult.

“Suicide or cherry blossoms.” Sort of an extension of the above, but the idea that there are things worth living for even when it seems like it would be easier to die. Up until Michael’s final death, Laurie struggles to feel like she should live, especially when a decent amount of Haddonfield’s community blame her directly for the man’s most recent serial killings. We see her consider suicide through several means, whether by her own hands or through allowing Michael to take her life in order to finally sate his bloodlust (or so she believes). However, Laurie finds little things to hang onto, whether that be writing her book to try and help others through their own respective hells, finding a cute boy for her granddaughter to take to a Halloween party (you tried queen

Michael taking a temporary interest in someone specifically outside of the Strodes, even if just for his own gain. I don’t entirely enjoy how the writers developed Michael and Corey’s relationship primarily because it made Michael seem really underwhelming in a movie that’s… well, supposed to be about his famous reign of terror ending. However, I like the idea of Michael having a brief period of dependency on someone else because it drags them down to his level and provides a window into seeing more human aspects of him. Not exactly in the way we’d expect from a normal person (since Michael is… at least partially a supernatural being at this point? Lore really likes to go back and forth about that lol), but it at least indicates that the parts that are definitively human are starting to catch up with him (e.g. age). While it was primarily orchestrated by Corey, I feel like it would’ve been interesting for Michael to see Corey as his pet project, if at least to get more people for him to kill in order to charge his power back up to get back to his original mission of killing Laurie. (I’m… not even going to pretend like I know what the whole “killing to become stronger/undying” thing is about. I feel like it’s okay in concept, but when I feel like the movie tries to boil it down to “Michael is just a guy in a mask” at the end I’m just like ??? sorry you literally established that’s not true like 30 minutes ago)

STUFF I DID NOT PERSONALLY CARE FOR:

Corey’s character arc was a mess. It was already pretty bold to try and fit him into the final movie of the trilogy without having anything previously established about him while also trying to wrap up the existing plot, and I feel like the time crunch really did a disservice to what he could’ve been as a character. While I can appreciate how writers tried to set him up as a new “boogeyman” for the town of Haddonfield to focus on and vent their fears onto while Michael was still at large, I feel like there isn’t sufficient time for the audience to grow to care about Corey before he starts killing. The fact he becomes almost JD-esque makes his emotional struggles as a person seem really disingenuous in favor of creating a confident persona out of nowhere that stems from him doing… more of what initially ruined his reputation? His life? He wasn’t even at rock bottom anymore at the point of coming into contact with Michael. He had a job, a father figure that (while certainly imperfect) showed at least some understanding of his struggles both at home and in Haddonfield at large and tried to give him a footing to get his life back together. While Corey still certainly had reasons to have outbursts after a lot of inner turmoil, it still doesn’t make sense to me for him to resort to killing so quickly. Even when you feel like no one will ever see you as anything but a monster, why after getting a girlfriend who is apparently your everything now and doesn’t see you as a freak would you try and make things worse? Especially by teaming up with the guy who ruined her life via his own homicidal rages? It doesn’t even make sense under the context of Michael somehow infecting him with his “evil” (however that’s supposed to work) considering Corey still shows agency over his actions and wouldn’t have any reason to lean into the whole killing thing so hard. 

Speaking of evil… I’ve struggled with this since the original Halloween, but what exactly are we considering “evil”? The lack of definition starts to become concerning when the movie begins to draw direct parallels between Michael and Corey. There could have been an interesting opportunity to distinguish between someone who believes they’re inherently evil for doing something wrong by accident (killing Jeremy, in Corey’s case) and people who commit heinous acts with ill intent and don’t hold themselves to those moral standards. Instead, the movie attempts to group Corey and Michael together as being one in the same which is…ridiculous, quite frankly, given the fact one of them is a prolific serial killer with little to no visible signs of humanity and the other being a pariah who just doesn’t want to be bothered anymore and regularly expresses that he feels awful about causing the death of another. It would have been more compelling to see Corey stoop to Michael’s level, realize he himself was never that terrible despite what others said about him, and then help our main gang stop Michael once and for all. Killing himself in a near typical yandere fashion of “if I can’t have her, no one can” over a girl I dare say he barely knew was incredibly underwhelming and unfulfilling in terms of satisfying his character arc.

Allyson and Corey’s romantic relationship was awkward, rushed, and did not at all feel organic. The fact that Allyson was almost immediately and visibly interested in Corey upon meeting him literally made me cringe, it just really gave off “boy character meets girl character so obviously they will date!!”. Their following interactions also felt really sloppily put together and didn’t really generate a lot of meaningful chemistry outside of establishing a mutual hatred of where they live and, uh. Liking motorcycle rides at night and kissing. Considering they are both outcasts in their own right, it would’ve been nice to see them actually get to know each other and understand their respective struggles beyond just the obvious ones related to killing. (Corey and Allyson both also had family struggles regarding their mothers, but that literally never gets brought up aside from ragging on Laurie whenever possible.) I feel like their connection would’ve been better embodied by friendship and possibly misplaced romantic feelings sourced from feelings of isolation in their homes and community. The idea of a really sudden romantic relationship from Corey’s end also feels strange to me because... while I feel like it was a really extreme bomb to be dropped without elaborating on it much, it seems to be implied that he’s a victim of covert incest (overt when we see it at its height)? While that in itself doesn’t mean Corey should never have a romantic relationship, I feel like it was somewhat insensitive writing in light of that to give him a female partner that escalates their relationship fairly quickly. Not that it’s not mutual, but Allyson definitely seemed to be more of the leading force in initiating the romantic and physical parts of the relationship whereas Corey was initially more hesitant. (Maybe I’m reading too much into that, but it feels odd to me without them having more onscreen platonic chemistry leading up to that)

I noticed the movie tries really hard to recycle tropes typical of 80s movies and fit them into a movie set in 2022. First, you have the typical high school bullies that drive around in Rich Dad’s fancy car to harass our classic outcast on the side of the road (why are high schoolers bullying a 25 year old like he’s one of their peers? Not incorrect but definitely odd in execution). A radio station making inflammatory statements about happenings in the town also gives off that vibe. Then, you have the more obvious good boy-gone-bad with the motorcycle and survivor heroine duo who both think the place that hurt them needs to burn (cough Heathers cough). I feel like chances to incorporate some modernity were underutilized in favor of emulating the aesthetic created by the first Halloween movie. I think the most modern thing I saw was an iPhone, and even then, they looked like the ones from 2015 LOL

Whether by accident or not, many of the Black characters in this movie are portrayed as aggressive towards the main white characters. It’s never really a good look when a large portion of Black characters in a film display little personality outside of being an asshole, and the few who manage to not fall under this category are still found victim blaming white characters with what little screen time they have. Let’s round out their personality traits to make them more of a whole person with their respective place in a story rather than just an agent of physical/emotional conflict for other characters.

if you read this far. i am staring at you with beady eyes. i have more thoughts but i figured 2000 words might already be a lot for one post LMAO. let me know what you think or if you have any additional thoughts! (just be respectful pls)

[libertyreads]

August TBR--

August is going to be the month of SciFi apparently. This is because I was given access to an ARC of the new Murderbot Diaries novella that comes out later this year. Which means I need to speed up my reread of this series. I’m also continuing with my reread of the Skyward series in preparation for the final book later this year. But I’m going to try to leave a lot of my reading open for the month so I can have less pressure on myself and the ability to mood read books from my physical TBR and the TBR I have with my library. Let’s get into the books I plan on reading.

1. Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan-- This was sadly the only book in Fence that I couldn’t find at my local library so I had to purchase it instead. This book is based on the comics from C.S. Pacat about a group of boys who fence at a boarding school. The comics were great on their own but I had such a good time reading the book that comes before this one. I am sad, however, that this is the last work about these characters that I have left to read.

2. Sunreach by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson-- This is the first novella in the Skyward series. I’m rereading the entire series in order to prep for the final book coming out in November. This follows Spensa who wants to become a pilot for her country’s military but her father’s reputation as a coward holds her back. This comes after the first two books in the series so I won’t dive too far into the synopsis. I will say that this one follows a secondary character and keeps us in the loop of what’s happening while Spensa is being a badass.

3. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells-- This is the fourth book in the Murderbot Diaries. You all have heard me go on and on about this series so I’ll keep it short. We follow a SecUnit that has hacked their governor module. They can do anything they want now. But it seems like what they want to do is keep saving stupid humans and keep watching their serials. Murderbot is anxious and socially inept (but who am I to judge really?) and they also keep finding themselves falling head first into conspiracy after conspiracy.

4. Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells (Kindle)-- This is the only currently published Murderbot that I haven’t read yet. This is a 12 page story following Dr. Mensah and the events of Exit Strategy. A human perspective on Murderbot? I’m interested. It’s listed as #4.5 in the series so hopefully I didn’t NEED to have read this before the full length novel.

5. Network Effect by Martha Wells-- This is the only full length novel in the Murderbot Diaries and it’s still following our favorite SecUnit. If I remember rightly, this also has one of the most heartwarming scenes in the series in it. So I’m really looking forward to rereading. I’ll probably read this closer to the middle of the month while the other two will probably be read back to back.

6. The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood (Kindle)-- Csorwe has always known how and when she will die. She’ll climb the mountain, enter the Shrine, and become a sacrifice. But on the day of her foretold death, she is given a new fate from a powerful mage: to become the wizard’s sword-hand--stealing, spying, and killing to help him reclaim his seat of power in the homeland from which he was exiled. From the GoodReads: “Csorwe and the wizard will soon learn--gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.” Let’s freaking go my dudes. I love it. I hope the part about the gods is really about some gods who she has to defeat some how. I’m excited to throw some Fantasy in the mix with all this Sci-Fi.

7. Moorewood Family Rules by Helenkay Dimon (Library)-- I saw this one on my library app and I’m really hoping I can get a chance to read it this month. I keep seeing it pop up as available and then unavailable the next day so I’ll have to keep an eye on it. This one was pitched as Kives Out and Ocean’s 8 meets The Nest. This one is about a woman who returns home from prison to her dysfunctional con artist family and tries to get them to go legit. (Okay, is that ringing The Company You Keep bells for anyone else? Just me? Okay.) I’m excited to see where this one goes. It’s listed as both a Mystery and a Romance so that could be good, as long as it’s done well.