#i already created an analysis of it its just in the drafts lol

[quasarifxxy]

if i explode im going to make a whole buddy daddies - taylor swift analysis as we speak

[vidreview]

some thoughts on Action Button Reviews

[originally posted december 22nd 2023]

ANONYMOUS ASK: Not a recommendation because I know you've already seen it, but I remember you (this being like a year ago) calling Tim Rogers' action button reviews boku no natsuyasami something along the lines of "a triumphant demonstration of what's possible in the video essay medium". I was wondering if you could elaborate, provided it hasn't been too long. I recognise I'm blasting you from the past here lol. It was one of the few hours-long video essays that I didn't mind sitting through, though I'm still not sure it quite justifies its length. Tim's delivery helps significantly there, in a way that reminds me of Caleb Gamman's casual/improvised-feeling but thoroughly scripted shtick.

oh i still think Tim Rogers is hands down the best in the biz. i've watched the Action Button reviews multiple times, i've got a davinci resolve project with all his videos in, studied them under a microscope and taken lots of notes. i think his work absolutely does justify the length, because rather than trying to say Everything There Is To Say about a game, he instead focuses on digging into the game's relationship with his own hyperspecific subjectivity. i don't know how else to describe the Action Button reviews except as literary media criticism, using incredibly in-depth analysis as a jumping off point for discussing how these games shape us and the culture, the role they occupy at various stages of our life, and how who we are at any given moment is just as important to our opinion of a game as the game itself. sooner or later i want to do a full-on VIDREV on his stuff, probably in video essay form, but consider this a first draft overview of why i find his work so special.

there's little things. despite the length of his videos, he never fails to get to The Point (his term for the thesis statement) within five minutes of starting the essay proper. he is a talented and quick-witted tour guide, funny and clever and philosophically ponderous all at once. his work is clearly designed to reward multiple viewings, yet never fails to feel complete on a first watch. he writes with a precision of language that'll knock your socks off if you let it, especially if you're willing to go with him on his seemingly non sequitur tangents. but it goes a lot deeper than that.

i just don't think anyone else is putting nearly as much time, effort, and thought into the moment to moment particulate matter of his video essays than Tim Rogers. there are a ton of little mistakes that quite a few essayists make as a result of only doing one or two complete editing passes, or otherwise not sitting down and watching their video start to finish at multiple points in post-production. things like bad audio mixing, cut-off breaths and sounds that ought to be removed, stray frames from footage creating accidental jump cuts, flubbed line deliveries, misaligned overlay elements, sloppy compositing, the list goes on. it's no great sin to make these mistakes, mind-- no one's being commissioned, most essayists aren't professional editors, there's no quality control or review board or institutional best practices. it's the difference between giving the kitchen a quick once over with a rag and getting on your hands and knees to scrub every stain with a toothbrush. most people don't have the time it takes to do the latter, aren't getting paid enough, and the returns on putting the effort in are impossible to measure and therefore, practically speaking, nonexistent.

but as someone who tries to put that kind of work in (not always successfully), i can always tell when another essayist has done the same. longform video essays in aggregate tend to be messy, under-structured, rambling; they often arise out of an essayist's desire to say everything they could possibly say on a subject. not only is this an impossible task, it makes for a pretty dull viewing experience to boot. what i find so impressive about Tim Rogers' work is that despite their length, his videos are relentlessly structured. the attention to fine details in the moment-to-moment edit across the whole runtime is astonishing; that the script itself is so internally integrated never fails to make me furious (with professional envy). he always has a lot to say, not all of which is strictly speaking essential to the analysis, but nothing ever feels so indulgent that it drags the rest of the essay down in my estimation. he often repeats information, but he does so very strategically and in a way that's meant to help the viewer follow a thread from start to finish. i also think his presentation style goes a long way towards hiding how much effort he puts in, how relentlessly curated these things actually are in spite of their length. he's talked extensively about how much he cuts from these videos (most prominently is story 5 from the Cyberpunk 2077 review, which went from over an hour in length at first draft to, eventually, just over a minute), how he watches them back over and over and constantly makes fine adjustments. that work won't be apparent to everyone watching, but it's exceedingly apparent to me.

and then there's the cherry on top of it all, which is the fact that the Action Button reviews are constructed as being part of "seasons" that have a planned thematic throughline. taken as a whole, season 1 is a completely unique work of literary metacritical nonfiction, a series of six reviews (Final Fantasy VII Remake -> The Last of Us -> DOOM -> Pac-Man -> Tokimeki Memorial -> Cyberpunk 2077) that use specific games to talk about trends in game design, trends in gamer culture, the history of games development, all through an astonishingly earnest and open autobiographical document of Tim Rogers' own professional and personal life, which is given particular weight by his astonishing capacity for near perfect recall from early childhood. they are the clear result of a life spent thinking about and writing about and talking about games in between all the rest of his life, neither of which was ever truly separate. i know i'm throwing around a lot of superlatives here, but i really do adore these essays. i think a lot of folks doing longform games reviews try to achieve a sort of technical objectivity, limiting the scope of their analysis to strictly what's in the game (and often only that which involves numbers, leaving any narrative or thematic components to a brief aside at the very end). the Action Button method should fall into that category, and yet Rogers himself uses its technical objectivity as an anchor around which flows an endless and unquantifiable ocean of subjectivity, where game mechanics and thematic elements mix forever. each subsequent review drops a new anchor, and thus begins to compose a map whose purpose is as much a matter of self-reflection as it is pure education or analysis.

but i really do think it's with the first (and so far only) episode of season 2, his review of Boku no Natsuyasumi, that you can really see the cunning of what he's been up to all along. i often find myself thinking about his reflections on returning to Kansas ("it took me back to a place i had never never been"), on why people rewatch movies and replay games ("our memory only records the cold parts"), on the futility of trying to recapture the past ("places don't remember us"), on the screaming terror of our own looming mortality ("meanwhile our shattering animals"). i just know those quotes off the top of my head, man, that's how deep in it i am. the Boku no Natsuyasumi review is a masterpiece, and the ways it breaks from the style and approach of season 1's reviews only strengthens the choices he made in season 1, because suddenly we realize that they were choices. that's the artfulness of this series, in my opinion: it starts as, seemingly, a relatively bog-standard "i'm going to review some video games and make some jokes and tell some stories along the way" type joint, but slowly reveals to you essay by essay just how little of this project was automatic, unconsidered, arbitrary, and that its aims were never so miniscule as "tell you why a video game is good". there are themes running throughout the entire series, repeated phrases and ideas, theories of mind and play that build in the subtext, accruing like memories, subtly building mass until you look back and realize that what seemed like a random selection of topics was, in truth, premeditated with a conspiracist's attention to detail.

and yet despite all this high-minded gobbledygook, these videos are relentlessly watchable and entertaining. i don't always agree with his takes (i was particularly frustrated that his exploration of "every cyberpunk game" omitted the flood of relevant titles that came the indie sphere over the last decade, like Cloudpunk and Read Only Memories), but they're not the kinds of disagreements that would make me sour on his work overall, and anyway the experience is so much more valuable than something as rote and immaterial as an opinion. there's so much more i could say (and inevitably will say, someday), but there you go, that's a rough gloss on what i like about the Action Button reviews.

[kitchenaidmixer02]

i never want you to stop creating dude. i already commented on a lot fo your fics and your art is so. HHHBHHGSHGHGHGHGH. whenever i see your stuff i just feel a surge of creative energy coming through me because its so GOOODDDDDD AHG!!! like. finished a fic thats been in the drafts for like a month after reading your stuff. i havent gone through your full fic catalogue yet (im weak and cannot stomach much psychological torture but i will persevere for your writing solely) but ive gone insane over the ones i have !!! gahhhhhhhh!!!! especially the "glass girl" honami fic. god. god god god godddddd good lorddddddddddddd you see the vision so clear i think you are the fucking apollo's dodgeballlllllll wahhhhhhhhggghg . and masakos story? youve already seen the character analysis i wrote on her. its great. your art is great. gahhhh you have such a good grasp on anatomyyyyy couldnt contain myself to the ao3 comment section or tumblr tags. sorry. anways. i love your work. never ever stop user kitchenaidmixer02. i ahvent read your stuff before today (because i dont frequent ao3 much) but god damn its so. AGH AGH I CAN TPUT IT INTO WORDS MAN !! I CANT DO ITTTTTTTTTTTTT AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AGHHHHHHHHH WHY CANT THERE BE A WORD FOR WHA I WANT TO SAY TO YOU.

ME RIGHT NOW BTW keep writing and drawing and creating and literally anything else. keep breathing :) ill support you forever and ever and ever

UWUWUANSNSB????

ynumymumumym thank youuuu you’re so kind hhhhh

Im glad :))) I really really like your stuff too… how do draw background I don’t get it man

nnsnsna srrynidk what to say lol

thank you :)))) <33

[protectchara201x]

(ignoring all the other juicy Deltarune 2 stuff to shove Chara Talks into it lololol)

I haven’t been super active on this blog because frankly I have like, three? looong analysis/theorycrafting posts I’ve been putting off working on and it fills me with shame to log in and see them waiting in my drafts.

But.

With the release of Deltarune Chapter 2, I wanted to talk kinda in general about how I thought it could impact the fandom’s perception of Everybody’s Favorite Demon Baby, and also point out something in specific about the Weird Route that might connect back to Undertale.

Putting it under the cut to avoid spoilers and long-winded ramblings for the unwilling. Includes spoilers for the Weird Route.

(NOTE: may update later if I notice more things for to put in section II. I’d like to make a full list of parallels if I can tidy them up.)

I. Pre- vs Post-Release Thoughts (you can skip down to II if you don’t care, it is genuinely Long and Pointless)

Okay, so first off. I got SO worried like, the day before the new chapter dropped? It hit me that whatever new stuff we got out of this, people would connect back to Undertale, and. Honestly, I really do hate connecting everything back to Chara, because I do think of Kris as their own character and I really like them and don’t want to ignore everything they got going on. But, I am first and foremost a shameless Chara stan and they’re very important to me, so I kinda... did spend a few minutes reeling from all the new DR stuff as its own stuff, and then immediately started thinking about how this would reflect back on Chara in Undertale lol.

But that’s ok for me to do here because this is my All Chara, Only Chara, All The Time blog, so I am gonna only really talk about Deltarune here to talk about them lol.

So yeah, I started getting anxious beforehand worrying about how everyone would take any and all implications and apply it to mean “aha, Chara IS evil!” The fakeout with the pie reveal in the anniversary stream was a big relief, but I still got worried leading up to the release about what could be in it.

Because part of why I’ve always thought that “Chara was genuinely evil from the start” and even “ok maybe not TOTALLY evil, but Chara was still a kinda bad person” were unlikely was, even if you throw out all the other popular Chara-sympathetic theories. To me, both these takes just seemed too below TF’s talent and the way he wrote all his other characters with depth and love; a Chara like the one these theories propose just doesn’t belong in a world created by TF, and the way the Dreemurrs talk about them overall, the way TF made a point of having Chara say they were guided and repeatedly, correctly blame you the player for the destruction in Kill-All, I was sure that he never intended them to ever be as bad as the fandom sometimes tried to make them out to be.

... Like, mostly sure. Like, 80% sure? Because he never ever talks about them, so it’s impossible say for sure, and it is still theoretically possible that “Chara was and is bad” was the cold-ass take he’d intended all along. So yeah, leading up to the release, I started getting antsy that whatever new lore came out of it, either he’d directly confirm “Chara was a villain?” “*cocks gun* Always has been” or there’d be something that’d at least heavily implicate them, or could be twisted to implicate them, as a negative force. More ammo to be used against them in the Chara Debate Circles would be a drag, and outright confirmation of them as a villain would honestly break my heart and I’d be forced to disown Toby Fox, My Beloved Cool Dad.

And, right now? Tell the truth, I’m SO relieved and I am SO happy. And not just because of how much depth and characterization it seems Kris is getting! (imo, because rn I just headcanon them as an unhappy teen desperately trying to keep their new friends going on adventures with them and trying to fight back against the player’s control)

I love how this chapter seems to be TF doing course-correcting based on fandom interpretations. Because Kris just isn’t evil, even if they are a knife teen, even if they are the Knight, they’re just NOT evil and that’s canon, baybeeee; it’s made clear in this chapter and the previous one that they love their family even outside of the player’s control, they care about their new friends even outside of the player’s control, they’re established as a weird creepy kid but no one sees them as scary or evil, they’re just Kris, and even in the Weird Route, TF made a point of hammering in the differences between Kris and the player in the Weird Route: Susie and Ralsei notice how distressed Kris seemed after you have Noelle ice Berdly, Noelle heard a voice that she said wasn’t Kris telling her to kill, and the FUCKING Spamton fight: “Kris called for help... but nobody came” again and again, and then “You whispered Noelle’s name”... you, not Kris.

I know TF has never commented much on fans’ perceptions of Frisk and Chara, or who exactly is pulling strings in different routes. But after all this, and especially after seeing all the little winks and nods to fandom jokes in this chapter (what comes to mind: pulling everyone’s leg by seeming to have Kris attack Toriel with a knife only to reveal that pie theory was right, Susie not liking Ralsei’s real face as much as his shadowed one, Ralsei with a gun getting referenced with the ad, Kris getting a joke fixation with knives after the fans made Chara and Kris have knife obsessions as a joke), and seeing what looks like him try to correct some things (what stuck out to me was doubling down on showing that Kris is loved and valued in their family: lots of fans came away from Chapter 1 thinking that Kris was not valued as much as Asriel, but here we see that Toriel is supportive of Kris’ friendship with Susie, and it’s stated that Asriel is the one who used the crappy controller, not Kris) -

I think while he hasn’t commented directly, while he admitted to being overwhelmed by Undertale’s success, while he tends to be pretty tight-lipped about the lore (whether that’s because it’ll be addressed by future chapters or because he prefers to let fans sleuth it out), this chapter convinced me that Toby does keep tabs on fan reactions in Deltarune, so he probably does with Undertale too and would know about all The Discourse surrounding Little Mx Pink Cheeks (and in turn, popular theories like Narrator Chara... Toby if you integrate Narrator Chara into Deltarune being a borderline creepypasta and have the narrator start talking directly to the characters or to the player or the characters start talking to the narrator I will lose my damn B E A N S).

(Kris and Chara not being demonized and the narrator interacting directly with the characters were the only two things on my wishlist going in, I was fine with literally anything else happening lmao)

I even kinda think he’s going out of his way to separate Kris and the player because we didn’t get it before with Undertale, we still insisted that Frisk or Chara was the one doing it, and he’s even using Kris to show that even if this kid can be scary, maybe even mean, and maybe they’re even the Knight (with their reasons unknown), they’re still not a bad kid, they’re still funny and likable, and they still genuinely love their family and friends - which falls in line with Undertale’s cast of complex but likable people who can be antagonists and make mistakes but still aren’t truly bad people, and imo is a direct response to some people fixating on the idea that Chara was always evil because they seem scary/complicated.

... Which is a long way to say that I came out of Deltarune with my confidence fully restored about TF’s intentions with Chara and Kris. Even if he never comments on Chara directly, now I really don’t think TF thinks they’re evil or ever intended for them to be. Deltarune convinced me more than ever that Chara is meant to be complex, yes, and able to be influenced to do horrible things, but they were never intended to be as malicious or shallow as some fans insist.

TLDR:

Toby Fox read your mean fanfiction where Chara is a bad abusive serial killer no one likes, and he made Deltarune in revenge.

... Hm? Ah, you’d like me to get to the point! Right this way!

II. Undertale, Deltarune, and The Point

While no doubt some will still take the voice Noelle hears to be Chara influencing her to turn her into a murderer (I haven’t gone looking for it yet, but I’m sure it’s already a thing because I know this fandom), since it’s made too clear by the game that they can’t blame Kris for this one, I think at this point that’s just being too stubborn to consider other ideas.

If you believe in the totally made up idea used in so many fanfics that Chara is an evil spirit trying to whisper in Frisk’s ear to kill everyone, literally (for some reason) the embodiment of raising stats, and gets more control over people who have increased LV to take over their body... sure. Could be them, they did talk about moving on to the next world and all. I mean, that wouldn’t really make sense because it’s literally never implied in the actual game that Chara encourages you to kill outside of the Kill-All Run or even wants you to, certainly not as the narrator and we get no hint of them doing this as an unseen, unheard third-party either.

Not to mention they’re NOT literally possessing you because of increased LV; they don’t control you even with high LV in any Undertale route other than arguably the Kill-All, and if you fail the Kill-All and it turns into a high-body count Neutral, Chara suddenly stops using first-person narration and showing up in mirrors entirely even though they were showing themself before, the LV remains the same or even can get raised as high as LV 19, nor do they suddenly take over in any other Neutral runs. We can speculate on why (personally, I’d place this either on Chara’s mindset, such as them sinking into shock from the trauma or becoming more assertive as the player feeds their megalomania, or as a sign of Frisk’s withdrawal, leaving Chara alone in the body to take the reins and act out the player’s orders), but canonically, no, Chara does not take over due to high stats.

In fact, there’s even more evidence against this. First-person narration also exists for fleeing your battles in Undertale, even on Pacifist runs with base stats, 0 EXP, and an LV of 1. Since Chara is established to use first-person narration to refer to themself, is the only one who canonically does so, and is confirmed to be present even in all runs through their name and memories always showing up, it seems pretty likely that Chara can take control to flee battle. That means an increase in stats is not a sign of their presence or control, in Undertale or Deltarune.

The most damning blow to the idea that Chara is the voice corrupting Noelle are the lines in the fight with Spamton I mentioned. Kris called for help, but nobody came. You whispered Noelle’s name. Well hold on. If that’s Chara, shouldn’t it be “I whispered Noelle’s name”? As soon as you’ve officially started the Kill-All in Undertale, Chara starts up their “It’s me, Chara” schtick right away, right there in Toriel’s home in the first area, and if they weren’t the narrator before, they’re beginning to speak through the narration now. If the voice was Chara, surely Toby Fox knows it’d be a way bigger “oh shit” moment if the creepy scary hidden route once again switched into first-person, scaring us the same way he did before when we first saw “It’s me, Chara” and knew something was wrong; unfairly or not, their reputation as a villain is still well established and hinting to Chara’s presence with a simple “I” would drive the menace even further, if he intended for them to simply be a demon that possesses player characters when you grind enough. But it’s still just you. The player.

The Weird Route does even more to help Chara’s case than that. Not only is it made pretty clear that Kris and the player are separate, and the player is the one responsible for corrupting Noelle and making her kill... consider how similar Noelle and Chara are, in the Weird Route and the Kill-All Route.

This “voice” that “guides” them in growing strong, compelling them to kill everyone in order to fight for them, eventually driving them to murder people they know. Chara calls themself “the demon that comes when people call its name”, and you whisper Noelle’s name to have her appear to kill Spamton. Noelle’s conflicting emotions towards Kris and the voice as she is manipulated, as she becomes more violent and sadistic, as she goes into shock; does that not sound like Chara, who flipflops between holding you dear as their partner and wanting to move on to the next world together, to be together forever, and them being disgusted by your refusal to accept consequences and the perverse enjoyment you get in killing everyone again and again? Chara, who clings to their quirky narration for much of the Kill-All, but keeps slipping up, who becomes terrifyingly cold, aggressive, power-hungry, and even sadistic, yet still calls Undyne “the heroine”, still seems to still care about their locket, still has moments where they seem to falter?

Noelle does put up significantly more resistance to the voice’s commands than Chara does, and at least much more visibly shows distress and trauma. I don’t think this is a black mark on Chara’s chara-cter either, or an indication of them being more violent or cruel.

For one, while Noelle is still herself with her own soul, it is heavily implied by Chara, Flowey, and Undertale’s lore that Chara was reincarnated without their own soul, at best perhaps attached to Frisk’s (or yours): as I speculate in one of my currently unfinished theories, while monster souls are made up of love, compassion, and hope and thus Asriel was reincarnated without these qualities, it could well be that human souls are correspondingly made up of their own multiple traits, namely determination, patience, bravery, integrity, perseverance, kindness, and justice; if true, a soulless Chara would be lacking these qualities, which would make them less equipped to resist the player’s commands or to feel as torn up about it.

Also, the player has a hold on them both as “party members” to the player’s vessels, but it is also possible that the player naming Chara and having them directly attached to Frisk also gives them a stronger connection to Chara they can abuse, similar to how Kris and Frisk (as the player’s direct vessels) have much less autonomy than Kris’ party members.

(Fun observation: We know that when the thing controlling Kris forced Noelle into becoming a killer and using her to kill Berdly, Kris was horrified and shaken-up according to Susie and Ralsei. How do you think Frisk felt watching Chara be used to slaughter the Underground and then erasing the world when they’re totally corrupted?)

And lastly... look, Noelle and Chara are both minors, but Chara is significantly younger - a small child compared to Noelle’s teen. I know it’s fiction and strong wills and determination and anime is real and all, but a traumatized young child who died two violent and awful deaths back-to-back, may have literally experienced being a corpse in their own coffin/grave for who knows how long, and then came back ”confused” only to immediately start hearing a voice relentlessly commanding them to kill everyone?? I can absolutely see a traumatized kid shutting down and just going with it out of fear at first, before the LV sets in.

TLDR:

What you do to Noelle in the Weird Route is the same fucking thing you do to Chara in the Kill-All Route.

[platalet]

You said in your tags of one show analysis that you had thoughts about the Darkling's manipulation in the books. Care to rant? All the fandom seems to angry that he is a master manipulator in the books but when I read I was like: lol what?

Thanks for your ask! I’m extremely happy you want to hear my rant!!

I will try to gather all my thoughts, but apologies in advance if it all comes out as a jumbled mess. Though in my defence, the trilogy itself is a jumbled mess too 😂

(Under a cut because I got carried away)

After reading the trilogy I also wasn’t sold on the “manipulation” narrative. At least, I could not find any effective manipulation in his actions. He’s centuries old, the most powerful Grisha in the world, and we are told he’s evil...I’d expect when he wants to manipulate someone he’d do it...well?

First, there’s the issue of the Darkling seducing Alina in S&B. This is what I disagree with the most. For the life of me I can’t see where he seduces Alina in the first book. He’s hardly in the book at all. If what he did is considered seduction, then my boy’s game is weak.

Here’s a passage from S&B after the Winter’s Fete when Alina begins to realize the Darkling’s ‘manipulation’, it really surprised me.

The first time I read this, it thought this was a sudden, overblown reaction. Going from this one would think the Darkling was playing the part of an emotionally abusive boyfriend. A boyfriend who showers you with attention, and promptly starts ignoring you when you don’t act the way he wants you to.

When in reality that really—never was the case? The Darkling’s first kiss was written as an accident. Throughout the trilogy, it’s made clear that the Darkling wants Alina against his own better judgement. Then how can the romantic tension between them be another aspect of his manipulation?

One of my biggest problems with the trilogy is that it keeps contradicting its own narrative from time to time. Because then there’s this in R&R:

Which implies his romantic attention indeed had an ulterior motive? But then he wasn’t really good at it, was he? I can think of a hundred better ways to seduce a girl (who is already attracted to you), than to kiss her abruptly once, apologise, and then run away to hunt a stag for a few weeks!

Now let’s look into his actual motives and actions. He’s a General in charge of the an army created out of a group of persecuted people, and he’s serving a selfish uncaring King. He’s an immortal who accidentally created the Fold when trying to use merzost. He has a secret plan of expanding the fold in order to gain Ravka military advantage. He needs the help of a Sun Summoner in order to do that.

He meets one after centuries, makes her a part of the Second Army, has her trained by his mother, plans to give her the world’s most powerful amplifier. In order for his plan to work he needs her completely dedicated to the Grisha cause and her newfound powers, and facilitates this by intercepting letters to her childhood friend. And for the most part, he’s right. Mal is the reason Alina represses her powers. And the first time she actively summons is after she decides to let Mal go.

Sure by modern standards this is grossly manipulative. But in the context of a war torn nation? Where oskazat’sya teens are drafted to the First Army and Grisha into the Second Army? Where the Grisha are burned and experimented upon? In the context of THAT grim and dark world all of Darkling’s actions look like war strategy, not manipulation. Alina is a powerful weapon for Ravka, no matter how much she personally dislikes that role.

The Darkling’s intention I think was to develop Alina into a loyal soldier. It’s even implied that had she not run away he intended for her to kill the stag and keep its powers for herself. How he planned to get Alina’s cooperation to help him expand the fold is something we will never know. But I bet he hoped to have secured Alina’s loyalty to the Grisha by that time.

The attraction was an unexpected hindrance, one he clearly didn’t want. I think he was too swayed by the idea of another immortal who could be his companion for eternity. I think this yearning blinded his better judgement and led him to make very dumb decisions whenever it came to Alina. At the very least he did a terrible job in actually manipulating Alina into trusting and relying on him. Because at no point in S&B does Alina trust him or rely on him. Even as she’s contemplating sleeping with him, she believes it was not more than an attraction from the Darkling’s side.

LB tried, but I simply don’t see the Darkling as the villain she intended. His motives are way too sympathetic for me to do that. As for his his monstrous actions in Book 2 and 3...they seem more like things specifically inserted for the readers to hate him than things that logically made sense for him to do as a character 🤷🏽‍♀️ But that’s just my opinion!

So in conclusion: is Book!Darkling manipulative? No, I don’t think he is. I do think he’s strategic, just as any General planning a coup on behalf of the Grisha would be.

I also think he could have been successful in his plans to expand the fold had he truly tried to manipulate Alina from the very beginning.

Which he didn’t. Sadly.

[beckybuildscosplays]

3D Printing Mega-Post (with links!)

Being a member of the maker community means I am surrounded by people who are totally in love with 3D printing. There’s no other group with whom I can have a 30 minute discussion about bed adhesion, lol. While the cosplay community is also generally supportive of the technique, every now and then I will come across somebody who thinks it is akin to cheating. Most recently it happened on a blog I really enjoy. When I read posts like that, I can only shake my head and assume that person must not really understand all the work that goes into 3D printing. Even in the best case scenario where you find a ready-to-print model and own a printer large enough to accommodate it, there is still tons of work that goes into taking a raw print from... well, a raw state to something beautiful. Hence I have decided to type up an overview of 3D printing; what it is, how it works, and all the steps it takes to create a cosplay prop. This is not a detailed tutorial; rather, it’s a high level scope of all the steps. Without further ado, here’s 3D Printing 101!

*12/20/17: Updated with new information on the latest printing technology plus even MORE links!

How does 3D printing work?

3D printing is an additive manufacturing process used to create three-dimensional objects; think of it as the opposite of sculpting where you start with a block of material and cut parts away (subtractive manufacturing). There are actually many types of 3D printing technology, but the most common for hobbyists by far is Fused Deposition Modeling—or FDM for short. In plain English, FDM means the printer head is essentially a hot glue gun that “draws” the cross-section of a model, building it up one thin layer at a time. After tens or hundreds of layers, ta-dah! You have a 3D object! You can check out this link for more info on other types of 3D printing.

The workflow for printing looks like this: find/make a 3D model, optimize that model for printing, convert it to G-code with a slicer, and send it to the printer. Once printing is complete, you need to assemble any separate parts, fill major gaps, fill/prime/sand the surface, and then paint. If any of those terms are confusing, don’t worry! I will explain them all.

Finding, Modifying, or Making a Model

Sourcing models is one of the topics where I see, “Cheater!” start to sneak in. There is a misconception that you can find just about any model you want, download, and hit print. This can be true depending on what you’re trying to build; popular cosplays like Iron Man, Halo, and Star Wars do have a plethora of models available for free, and many are already optimized for printing. Once you get outside well known characters, however, it gets much more challenging. If someone has 3D printed components in their cosplay, it’s never safe to assume the person just downloaded them.

Downloading Models

It’s always worth hunting around for the files you need even if the character isn’t well known. Even if you want to build everything from scratch, it is nice to see how someone else tackled the same challenge. There are a couple websites I like for searching for printable models:

Thingiverse: Run by Makerbot, Thingiverse is a huge collection of models designed specifically for 3D printing and all of them are free! This is where I always start my search for 3D printing files. Most come with some degree of instruction and suggested optimal print settings.

 GrabCAD: I don’t use this site as frequently for costuming since the focus is engineering, but it’s very possible to find some cosplay goodies there. Other than scaling, most models should be ready to print.

SketchFab: While this was originally a place to share 3D models, some users also make theirs available. If you need a file for printing, be sure to search through the Downloadable section. (and even if you can't download the file, a 3D reference beats 2D refs any day!)

When selecting a model, try to find something that specifies it was made for 3D printing. Otherwise, you may need to do some manual cleanup and that can be challenging. Just FYI, game models are never ready to be printed but if you want to start with them, Source Film Maker has hundreds to select from. it’s also worth Googling to see if anyone has offered ripped models for free, but be aware that these should NOT be used for profit. Steriolythography (or .STL for short) and Wavefront (.OBJ) are the two most common file types, but get an STL if you can. OBJs will often come with texture files (.mtl), but those are not needed for printing.  Aim for highest resolution you can find unless you want the low-poly look. Trust me, you don’t want to be filling in faceted planes with heaps of Bondo later.

There are a few products and processes that allow for multi color printing, but for the most part FDM machines are limited to one or two colors. If you are bound and determined to have multiple hues, you can check out Prusa’s new Multi-material upgrade, the new Da Vinci Color, or the Palatte Filament Splicer. I suspect that multi color printing is going to be one of the next major features to hit hobby printers, but for the time being most methods are either rudimentary or really expensive. It can also be fun to print with multiple materials such as combining rigid and flexible pieces, but that is best reserved for a dual extruding printer. When it comes to cosplay, I would either suggest printing in the object’s final color or preparing to paint. Even if you choose to paint, try and pick a filament color that will make sense if it is revealed through wear and tear.

Modifying Models

If something wasn’t specifically made for FDM, how do you know if it’s printable? Most commercial 3D modeling or CAD software have tools to check and correct issues with models—sometimes automatically. Unfortunately the easy-to-use, open source options in this area are a little barren but there are still ways to do it. Here are some free options for both checking and repairing  mesh issues:

MakePrintable is an online paid service, but it will let you repair a set number of models per month for free. In my experience, this is best for basic issues but it couldn’t get any easier.

Microsoft STL Repair: Similar to MakePrintable, but unlimited and free. The downside is that you have zero control in the process, and files need to be opened with Microsoft’s free 3D Builder (from there you can export as an STL).

MeshMixer: An Autodesk product that has a number of capabilities for manipulating meshes. It’s more complex than MakePrintable and Microsoft 3D printing, but you have way more options.

Meshlab: Ah, Meshlab. This program has been around for a long time, and in many ways it is incredibly capable. Unfortunately, it’s also somewhat unstable and has bad documentation, so tutorials are hard to find.

Blender: A popular open source 3D modeling program, Blender also has a 3D printing add-on with some mesh analysis tools. This is the most robust option I have tried, but Blender has a steep learning curve and it can be intimidating for newbies.

Making Models

There is a good chance that you won’t be able to find ready-to-print files, so you might need to heavily mod or even make your own from scratch. Unfortunately, you will need to jump into 3D modeling software to make this happen. There are two major categories of software types: engineering (computer assisted drafting, or CAD for short) and artistic. In a nutshell, CAD is usually meant for objects (cars, wrenches, buildings, etc) and offers tight control over dimensions, surfaces, and shapes. Artistic software can be used for just about anything from trees to characters to spaceships, but it can be more challenging to make precise mechanical objects. I use both depending on what I need to create. There are actually a ton of free 3D modeling tools, so I will list the ones I have experience with and can recommend.

TinkerCAD: This is probably one of the most popular free CAD programs, and for good reason. It’s browser-based and very intuitive to use, thus it has become popular in schools. The entire thing revolves around building objects out of primitives, so if you need something complex it might take a little creativity to get there. TinkerCAD also has its own library of downloadable objects and it can export items for 3D printing (or even send them to a printing service!).

Google Sketchup: Available in both free and paid versions, SketchUp is a lot more complex than TinkerCAD but still very approachable. For some reason, it would drive my professors nuts when anyone used this software for homework. Be sure to check out the hefty list of extensions as they can significantly increase the program’s capabilities.

Autodesk Fusion 360: I will admit that I haven’t used this one very much, but it has been getting very popular very quickly. Fusion 360 is a fully-featured, professional CAD program meant for industry use, but it is available for free to students, startups, and hobbyists. If you want to grab the bull by the horns and work with  maximum potential, get this software. It can be intimidating for someone who has never set foot in CAD before, but it is one of the most approachable fully featured CAD suites I have ever seen.

Sculptris: And now for something completely different! Sculptris is the baby brother of Z-brush, an industry standard software for digital sculpting. It’s actually very capable, and if you need to model something organic or CAD just isn’t making sense, give Sculptris a whirl.

MeshMixer: MeshMixer’s site calls itself, “a Swiss Army Knife for 3D meshes,” and that’s pretty accurate. It has some CAD capabilities mixed in with artistic tools and a few unique things to boot. It’s reasonably easy to use, although there could be more tutorial support in my opinion.

Blender: Ah, good ole’ Blender. Completely free now and forever (unlike many Autodesk programs), it’s the most capable and robust open source software I have ever used. Blender is definitely on the artistic side although it has add-ons that make CAD a little less painful. The major downside is the interface; simply put, Blender is incredibly unintuitive. Thankfully, Youtube has tons of high quality tutorials to get you started.

Slicing 

Once you finally have a printable model in your possession, it’s time to send it to a 3D printer. If you are using a 3D printing service, congratulations! You can send them your model and call it a day. The rest of us will need to use a Slicer. Remember how the printer moves a hot glue gun around to draw a shape? Well, the computer needs to tell the printer head where to move, how fast to move there, and when to start and stop drawing. It uses a language called G-code to do this. A slicer’s job is to convert a 3D model into G-code so the printer knows what to do. 

I use a free slicer called Cura from Ultimaker, but Slic3r and Repetier Host are popular options too (although more advanced). If you want ultimate control, cutting edge features, and don’t mind paying for it, Simplify 3D is considered the best slicer on the market. Cura is my slicer of choice due to its friendly interface. In the photo above, you can see how it has made layers out of a model (hence the name “slicer”). 

The first thing to do will be properly scaling your print. Cura assumes your units are millimeters by default, so you may need to convert to your original modeling unit (inches, my my case). Unless you are printing a small prop or have a very large printer, your parts will probably be too big to fit on the print bed. If this is the case, return to your modeling software and split into smaller pieces. 

When it comes to 3d printers, you get what you pay for. The more expensive models ($1500+) offer the closest thing you can get to plug-and-play experience, but even they will have failed prints, clogged extruders, and other common issues every now and then. The rest will need some degree of hand-holding. It took me about a week to get my $200 Monoprice Select Mini printing to the best of its ability, and that involved a lot of fiddling in Cura and 18 test prints. Spend some time optimizing your software for the fastest, highest quality prints; you’ll be grateful you did once you get to the sanding phase.

Update: After 10 months of regular, reliable performance, the board on my Monoprice Mini has died. At $160, I definitely got my money’s worth and other users have had theirs much longer. I am upgrading to a Prusa i3 MK3 kit, but I would still recommend the Select Mini v2 as a good gateway machine.

Printing

With your slicer ready to export G-Code, now is the time to set up your printer! A 3D printer’s “ink” is spools of plastic string called filament. There is a variety of plastics to choose from, but Polylactic Acid (PLA) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene  (ABS) are the most common. PLA is cheap, readily available in many colors, and is made from plant starch. For most people, it’s the go-to choice but it is not the strongest material. ABS can provide better structural integrity, but it’s a little more finicky to print and the fumes are noxious and require ventilation. This link has a good summary on various types of filament on the market.

If you search Amazon or Google for 3D printing filament, you will get approximately 82376483456978938 results. Be sure that you are searching for the proper diameter filament; most printers are 1.75mm, but some are 2.85-3.0mm. Reliable brands of PLA that I have worked with are Hatchbox, Matterhackers, ProtoPasta, and ColorFabb. Be wary of no-name brands off places like Ebay or Amazon; not all filaments are created equally and I have definitely wasted money trying to be thrifty on Amazon. 

With your filament loaded in the printer, it can be a good idea to extrude some and make sure everything is working properly. Next, verify you set the proper export settings in the slicing software. Different plastics need different speeds and temperatures, and often the packaging will give you a good suggestion. When all is ready, slice the model and send the G-code to your printer!

I always stick around to watch the first few layers of my print because most mistakes happen at that point. Bed adhesion in particular can be troublesome. My solution of choice for PLA is a layer of blue painter’s tape with a light misting of hair spray. Others have used glue sticks, but that didn’t work well for me. If you notice any problems, pause immediately and try to fix the issue. A small clog can turn into a major problem if plastic goops all over your extruder. 

When the print is done, it can be tempting to pull the model off the bed but have a little patience! The plastic can warp while it is still warm, plus your printer will still be hot. Let it cool down slightly, then pop it off the bed. 

Surfacing

Now comes the tedious part! First of all, remove any supports (or if you have a dual extruding printer, dissolve support filament) with pliers. Depending on the support type, a box knife or X-acto can be handy. I have also heard that deburring tools are handy for this. Next, assemble separate parts with glue. CA or epoxy are good choices, or you can get fancy with friction welding. If you printed with ABS, acetone can help glue pieces together and even smooth your model. 

Next you will need to fill any major gaps such as those found along seams or where errors may have occurred in the print. Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty is a popular option for large holes and epoxy can be used as well. You can also use wood filler although I would reserve this for parts that will not be subject to a lot of handing or strain as it can be a little brittle. 

Now you have to do something about all those layers. 

Your options are sanding, smoothing, or a combination of the two. In the past I have wet sanded the plastic starting from 120, 220, and 400 grit wetdry sand paper. The “wet dry” part is important because PLA will heat quickly from friction and then you have to wait for it to cool again. If I wanted the plastic to show, then I would take it to 1000 grit or even a bit higher. 220 is the minimum for a matte appearance and slightly rough feel whereas 1000 starts to approach injection molded plastic. Bear in mind that dark filaments will show scratches and need sanding at finer grits to look clean. If you intend to paint, 400 grit paper is high enough. Then you will need to spray your model with primer. Allow to thoroughly dry (no longer cold to the touch) and sand with 600 or 800 grit paper. Reapply primer and continue sanding until you are satisfied with the surface. I have found 3 or 4 coats to be sufficient. Paint will hide very few defects, so you can’t take shortcuts with this step. 

You can circumvent some obnoxious sanding by filling the layers first. Automotive filler primer works wonderfully although the fumes are terrible and it will need be to used in a well-ventilated area. Filler primer is much thicker than normal primer and with enough coats, it will fill in all those grooves. I found that 3-4 light coats built up a good base to start sanding, and then another 3 coats with sanding between each application gave an excellent finish. This might sound tedious (and it is, to be honest) but the primer sands much easier than PLA. I was satisfied with the finish 220 grit sandpaper provided. 

I have heard that CA glue is also good for filling grooves, and Smooth-On makes a self-leveling product called XTC-3D that you paint over your model. I haven’t tried either of these, but they get good feedback from others. Finally, if you have printed in ABS you can try vapor smoothing your part; just be careful playing with acetone, and don’t do it too long or you’ll melt your piece. 

Now with all that said, my experience with finishing 3D prints was with the intention of creating a production-quality model (aka something that looked like you bought brand new it from the store). Every print needed to be practically flawless when viewed at close range. For cosplay, this is unnecessary. Nobody is going to hyper-analyse your work from inches away; rather, you can rely on the 10 foot rule. Also, weathering will hide many defects 

Focus your efforts on pieces that will show the most. For Soldier 76, this means I will be spending many hours making his mask smooth and pristine, but I’m not even going to paint the brackets on his boots. 

Painting

Now you are on to the last step! Unless you wish to control texture through brush strokes, I always recommend spray painting or airbrushing. Rattle cans are available in a myriad of colors these days, but if you have an airbrush they are handy for detailed work. I had a professor who wouldn’t let a can of Rustoleum in his classroom and demanded we use Krylon, so I guess you should also use Krylon? The artists I know who use spray paint swear by the Montana brand, and they have a huge range of colors to select from.

Anyway, all your spray painting should be done outside or in an area with plenty of ventilation. I always wear a dust mask--not because I’m worried about paint fumes (dust masks don’t stop fumes anyway)--but because I don’t want to breath in teeny paint particles. Even if paint is non-toxic, it doesn’t belong in your lungs. I also like to tape down a huge backdrop so I don’t get any over-spray surprises. Your coats of paint should be incredibly light, almost like dusting the model with pigment. It will take many coats, but the slow buildup guarantees even application. I promise the effort is worth it, plus thin coats of paint dry quickly anyway. 

Sealing 

Last step! I have always used rattle can clear coats to seal my models. This step should not be skipped because your paint job can be marred very easily, but the sealer will help protect it. Always, always, always use the same brand of sealant as your paint or test on scraps first. I cannot reiterate this enough; not all products will get along together, and nothing ruins your week (or month) quite like destroying a detailed paint job. If your model will be going through a lot of wear and tear, you may consider coating it in clear resin for durability. 

Conclusion

So as you can see, there is a LOT more work to 3D printing besides downloading and hitting print. I didn’t even go into detail and the post is huge. Any of these topics will have more information if you search on Youtube or Google, plus my Ask is always open. I hope this helps somebody!

[garyh2628]

Chairman and Managing Operational CEO (Global Legal Authority Quasi-Judicial)

(Finance, planning, industry and foreign trade portfolios) Private

Head of Human Resources Finance and People and Global Head of Corporate Responsibility

Investments/Contracts/Superior/Technically Competent and Right-Hand Men

NGO - (Finance, planning, industry and foreign trade portfolios) Private

To my Pharma Hubs, Technology Hubs, Social Creative/Personal Hub, My Private Hubs, My Financial Hubs and my Health and Wellbeing/Scientific Hubs, Legal and Innovation Hubs, Hinterland Hub and to my Eastern Caribbean Hub, Linguistic/Psychology Hub, to my beloved additions and to my Institutions and Partners and Team, Pool of Potential Personal Assistants and Private Secretaries and Business Managers and also to my Fitness Hub which is an extension of my Health and Wellbeing Hub and not to forget my beloved Brooklyn Hub and my Wine/Adviser Hub, Influential Legal Cashier, Strategic Partnerships, STATEMENT OF INTENT, MY WEALTH FUND AND PERSONAL ATTORNEY and PROPERTY EXPERT GUY and THE ATTACHMENT AND MY PERSONAL BOARDROOM AND MY CHIEF STRATEGY AND INNOVATION OFFICER. The core founding support regions of this Network and Global Structure.

All Options remain on the Table applying the finishing touches to our Genius and my Genius and the Network and this Global Structure Genius. DRAFT

The Network, Strategic Partnerships and Global Structure is hot–but watch the margins

What is Gary to do wit the Network and the Economic Community and the Statement of Intent and the Team and the Suite of Companies and the attachment?  In some cases I am the legal owner, in some cases I am the Co President, in some cases in all cases I am the Legal Authority, in some cases I am the Strategic Partner  and in all cases I am the Operational CEO and I operate in a Quasi Judicial Capacity and I do not delegate.  I am the authority on Intellect and I cannot be at fault.  All of the Global Portfolios will be delivered to be across the board (Property and Officers and Private Residences) for my perusal and in order for privacy and for the requisite planning and meetings to go ahead.  Agreement has been reached in relation to a purchase that I was referring to earlier in one of my postings. All purchases will need to be delivered to me prior to payment for perusal and forensic regulatory audit and the Offices of Budget and Management will proceed further.  I only approve payments and I do not delegate.

My Personal Wealth Fund CEO and my Influential Advisers and my CEOs have given assurances about the Stimulus but the analysis and the details in relation to the Stimulus needs to be prepared for delivery to me for perusal and approval et al. We are tipping over with cash and I'm delighted with the extra assistance I am getting from the Eastern Caribbean Law Offices and Management Consultancy which will merge and have a presence in every region after perusal and ratification. Great work Strategic Partner.  I look forward for the details to be delivered to those immediate effective public Portfolios but will only become Public after ratifications.  This goes for also for my Private Hubs and the Classified Strategy Regions. The suite of subsidies we acquired in North America and in the other Strategic Regions I am looking forward for those details to be delivered to me in its entirety.  I'm looking forward to my Intellectual Carnival/Retreat.  Quest means Business.  We have eliminated the intermediaries and I am looking forward to my meetings with regards to all of the particulars that live behind the scenes.  I love you more.

This Network and this Global Structure and this Industry and I in my Public Capacity does not allow for spin off.  We are the authority on Intellect, my Quasi Judicial and Legal Owner capacity and my Official Portfolio does not allow for such.  I'm delighted that those on-towards antics were prevented.  Those associated protection, when developed and ratify by me will be extended to the relevant people via CIM.  We are  doing some great things with the Network and by the Network and for the Network.  Together we are achieving and succeeding.  Under my leadership and the prediction across the board, this Economic Community, Industry and Global Structure have grown as those completed particulars are ready for delivery to myself,  into an expansive market place, on the cusp of becoming a formidable Intellectual Institution the world over.  All of this is directly attributed to me as you view the contents of the classified bag and further attributed to the suite of programs in the pipeline.  Talk about work needs to be done, talk about achieving and talk wit Intellectual excitement about delivering the Philosophy on the further responsibility to the Environment, Health and Living your best life and we have a few intellectual tricks just for my tr4usted CEOs.  We are all going to be like kids in an Intellectual Candy Shop.

Investors reject a bid for one of my already acquired Property today and rejected access to my private attachment family home.  That's excellent work family.  It's just to be accessed by family and the processes will be developed once delivery and perusal is completed by me.  Didn't he did well.  We are winning for the set of Programs we are working on for the attachment.  I really really do love Gary and over the years I've never seen a more technically Competent Analyst and linguist or more humbled Individual.  I am on my toes with excitement for the region and its going to work big time for that Strategic Partnership, talk about Economic Prominence for the Statement of Intent and a few other regions.  It's like divinity, but in the Intellectual capacity.  Have you heard about data being added value, well the work on that has begun with earnest for my perusal, well one expert said, well what do you expect, He's a Foundation Man they are the original money people, they are serious about Intellect and the value the cost of money. Let me read you an excerpt from the archives. He's the Global legal Authority and those suite of Corporations, yes he's indeed the legal owner. Look, in a few short years, you will look back and say what was the furore all about. It's not animosity, it's Intellectual excitement lol.

Today and the future is a good time to call yourself an Intellectual. Unlike typical Networks and Economic Community of Companies that deal only with one Sector, ours is across Sector and we operate through a vast network of local regional and International offices Globally — a business model that has attracted some very large Companies and as such when the Offices are ready, we will be forging additional Strategic Business tie-ups.  Our model saved not only my Corporations but those of my Investors and additions.  As a result of our model and these strategic coupling and team and Partnerships and Institution  and those obstacles were seemed too big to handle and now being dealt with to make way for the delivery of the Global Particulars to myself. All of the stakeholder has now seen through the manufactured environment created by those mediocrity sympathisers and those of that order. Logistical challenges, language barriers, insufficient infrastructure, limited access to smartphones and high delivery costs are all factors we are dealing with and formidably so in order to cover the “last mile” to doorsteps.  We will win the Election, we will win for my CEOs and we will win for the delivery of winning your best life!  We will deliver for the Environment and we will deliver for this Sector and Industry.  Statement of Intent- It’s time to live your best life!

We are making structural decisions, we are not just looking at the details we continue plugging the future tranches of additional capital said my Biggest and most Influential Investor. We are making this final mile our priority across the Network and across the Global Structure and also with the Strategic Partnership and the local Statement of Intent team. We were disappointed [last year] and. . . we now also have better visibility on an environment that will be more susceptible to us,” my Intellectual Investor. “What we have seen, clearly, is a change in our perspective on the political, financial, economic environment. It is today, across all of these lines, more favourable than months ago.”  This Network and my Personal Attorney and my Personal Global CEO  expects “the revision and additional Intellectual Capital and the assumptions used in our estimates to have an impact on the ground with regards to first the delivery of the simple and most straight forward details and corroborating particulars which will be the local portfolios and Offices and also the domestic tool kits in preparation for the Strategic Partnerships and Statement of Intent, Finance Districts and Private Hubs and CEO dinner/drinks and to begin the planning for the delivery of HQ1 and Q2. Further to push back on those anomalies that is creating the appearance of chaos and uncertainty. The announcements were made as part of full-year results that saw the audit report falls in line with expectations according to my Personal Attorney and Global CEO and Property Expert Guy. We will deliver for the Economic welfare of this Economic Community of this Sector and Industry and also for all of the Companies and Corporations and Institution and Partnerships that is owned by me.  We will make a clean sweep for the Statement of Intent and we will deliver for the Strategic Partnerships and we will deliver for the Environment and Intellect.

I love you, I love you, I love you!  You and I have a rendezvous to deliver for Finance, you and I have a rendezvous to deliver for this family, you and I have a rendezvous to deliver the Environment that will stand Humanity in the best Stead for hundreds of years to come. We will win, we must win!  This family hears you, Tis Family Understand You and this family will deliver so that you can live your best life!

QUASI JUDICIAL

Chairman and Managing Operational CEO Global Legal Authority Quasi-Judicial

(Finance, planning, industry and foreign trade portfolios) Private

Head of Human Resources Finance and People and Global Head of Corporate Responsibility

QUASI JUDICIAL

[raysondetre]

U2′s Songs of Experience

Here are the things in the album and release that U2 have done that tie into this book, summarized without substantiation. I reiterate the list with substantiation below if you actually want to find out if this is going on.

Why this is important: -the book was published January 9th, 2016. Bono received the same book at the halfway mark as a draft in 2011. It was submitted for copyright April 2014 and received its copyright license at the end of that year. So you're dealing with a situation where the book can in no way have been contrived to fit U2's actions with their subsequent album, Songs of Experience. Which implies that Bono contrived his creative output in response to the book, because there are enough of them that it appears it could not have been chance. To find out why that could be of pivotal import, it would pay to read the book, but I'll give you the shorthand, -for the book's entire premise to fly, -Bono was so creatively involved he'd have to agree to its existence on some level. And this is enough to assert that he does. But to understand why that statement can be made that strongly, you'd have to understand what was in the book. Same goes for understanding why that may be so important, but U2 themselves have framed the import themselves quite perfectly by this choice quote they released on the day of the US recent eclipse, "Blackout, it's clear, who you are will appear".

1) Bono appears to have read the halfway draft of this book he got in 2011 -in terms of creating a song that manages to juxtapose finishing the book, along with what might be a reaction to the fact that I have lately published a spate of negative investigative articles about the band with regards to their philanthropy sources, -with the fact that I was on Killiney Bay in the draft right before the first time I met him personally, -a song which actually manages to tie into this circumstance three different ways (relying on the journal entry from the night prior)

2) Bono's preview interview for the album's release (the exclusive Amazon Alexa podcast) had him pulling out and talking about an incident he's practically never discussed, -the theft of his lyrics for U2's album ATYCLB on his laptop - an incident that happened right after I first met him, and was thoroughly documented in the draft he received (as well as the current book), -a theft that happened 18 years ago.

3) U2 have deliberately timed their album's release with both an eclipse (to the day) and a supermoon (which happened two days after the album's release) -both events which happened before and after the first and second time I met and spoke to Bono in person in Dublin in 1999. An eclipse happened at almost at totality over Dublin (over 98%) just days before I met Bono, and the supermoon occurred two days after I met him the second time. U2 timed the release of the album with a supermoon occurring two days after the album's release. All this occurrence was documented in both the draft and the current (pre-published 2016) book.

4) Bono snippets "Walk to the Water" in the BBC promotion of the new album's release, -a song that has never been performed and has only been snippeted four times in all of its existence (including this time). He edited the lyrics so that they emphasize the song's (female) subject, opening by her saying it wasn't cold, and how she walked down the "North Strand" to the sea, -which is exactly where you'd walk to go to U2's secret studio then (in 1999, not when this song was written). This is exactly what transpired when I met Bono the first time. Bono was in a position to know that this was exactly what transpired the first time, because I described the process of finding the secret studio in the draft, including describing which streets, -not to mention the conversation itself.

5) The new album, Songs of Experience has a bonus track, "Book of Your Heart" which actually has Bono describing having reading something given to him exclusively for his reading alone (in which he was a character), that corresponds with several appertaining facts of the book.

6) The most significant of these is that it mentions the name change I made to my legal pen name in order to publish the book. Or at least, this is alluded to as something the writer described in the song has done, and this is something I did to self-publish. This happened after 2011.

7) Prior to this, with Songs of Innocence -Bono titled track 10 after the "sincerely" line of my opening letter that presented the draft, word for word: "This is Where You Can Reach me Now". This is something I cannot document because that letter was saved exclusively to the flash drive that Bono received.

This got started as a reply, which I've kept the link to document because the reply thread is literally when I noticed, in real time, that there could have been a deliberate interplay between the song and my book draft. (As well as the embed code just in case which is not a hyperlink.) Facebook censored me from replying, which is how this analysis took flight.

Anthony: "Pamela Williams this is the stupidest crap I’ve ever read. So Bono stoled lyrics from you? Ok lol"

"No. And not insulting you back Anthony takes some restraint. The lyrics are not a quote -which is apparent to anyone literate. What is he doing by the look of it is tagging the period I was in Ireland and met him personally (and delivered an art theory to him as per lyrics with some pretty serious implications). You might register the fact that every one of these points I'm listing is in the book draft I managed to get to him personally in Chicago, -2011. The draft he got, the chapter I was in Ireland and met him personally was just being begun. I had to summarize it as a series of journal entries." So in the book draft he got:

1) I was crying on Killiney Bay the night after a Full Moon just days before I met Bono for the first time. The night before I was singing my lungs out and dancing on the roof of a Dublin Pub three stories up. -With the song "Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way". -Bono lyrically suggests to start singing, instead of 'talking' -which would suitably reference the fact that I've done a series of five investigative articles in the last year and a half or so on the band's billionaire sponsorship etc. that were deeply negative. -That's probably the reason for the 'I know the rage in you is strong" reference.

-Now when I went back into writing the Chapter on Ireland in earnest after Bono received the book in 2011, I found I'd made an error and in fact these journal entries were several days apart, -not just one day apart. So the page I put in the book footnotes (that are in the existing published book as hyperlinks) that has these same journal entries (at a higher level of detail) -they're a week or so apart instead of a day apart. The quay I was sitting on (crying) at Dalkey is on Killiney Bay. I said, "I think my heart is completely broken." In the draft Bono got the entry is only two lines and the episode on the roof (June 28th) is listed as the Full Moon the night prior. In reality the second night I listed as June 29th in his draft really took place July 6th. (Yea, I have the original volumes (handwritten journals, -seven of them), the only way this would have even been the result.)

This is not asserting that he is taking lyrics from me. It looks like what happened in the book draft may be something he chose to write a song (actually maybe three plus one deliberate choice of snippet) about. There's a (big) difference between that allegation and alleging "Bono's copping my lyrics".

-Disclaimer, I have run across this interview in The Sun that says the song was written for his sons (heard the same thing about "13 (There is a Light)" -Bono says on record in the liner notes that this is the case, listing three songs by title as dedicated to his children). However, as explained in the book itself, (and further below) -both sons appeared to have been named after the document I handed to Bono the first time I met him, so it may have a dual intention. It may fit both situations and fits this one a little better, as the book puts a host of songs into one giant, narrative uber song. PS: From what I've seen, apart from this one song out of the three I'm referencing, despite the fact that Bono said all the tracks were letters of some sort to people in his life (including fans) the ones I'm mentioning have no such attribution by Bono or the band (fans assume attribution). I'm not sure why Bono would dedicate two songs to his two sons and only one song to his two daughters, and Bono has only attributed one so far to his daughters. So I'm wondering if the song was written with a dual intention, which is not a first in terms of song analysis where Bono is concerned. PPS: I’m not the type to make an assumption about one song because that song "just happens" to fit what he received in a draft. There’s a lot else going on.

2) Bono talks about his laptop getting stolen with all his lyrics on the Alexa interview special that was a retrospective preview to the album, and only broadcast before the album's release (since this individual didn't listen well enough I checked on this interview with second source). This theft happens in the book draft I gave to Bono in 2011, -right after I documented meeting him personally in the draft. "-But [Anthony is] too dim to consider how I might possess a scan of the newsprint article that documents when he recovered it, and exists as its own page because it is an actual book footnote in a book that was already published in iBooks January 9, 2016, -which means I've already written and published this so I cannot have possibly contrived any of these pages, -nor the book's existing context to fit what Bono has since written and U2 have done in releasing this album (same goes for all the links from my book page to follow) - They all exist as hyperlinks in a previously published book." The lyrics/laptop theft is dealt with in considerable detail. Bear in mind Bono's pulling out an event that happened in 1999, -18 years ago, for this interview. -And I know I got the true skivvy on this from a taxi driver because Bono talked in the Alexa interview about negotiating through bad people to get to even badder people. Ergo, The Mirror lied about the recovery.

3) I met Bono for the first time in person less than a week after an eclipse at over 98% totality took place right over Dublin, and this is in the notes Bono received in the book draft, -very shortly after the journal entry where I was crying on Killiney Bay. (Again that's original scanned newsprint that's already footnoted into the book for this very reason.) So, Bono and Co. notify everyone of "The Blackout" (the first single release to Song of Experience) -on the day of an eclipse passing very close to where I live now, it so happens, -in fact where I live it was it was 88% totality. -A blackout is what happens when there's an eclipse, btw. They quoted one song lyric from the song in this mail out to fans in the path of the eclipse: "Blackout, it's clear, who you are will appear". (They don't mention anything about "The Blackout" even being a single release that's in the pipe with this mail-out, what you saw is what people received.) "Eclipse" as both an event and analogy that have very serious occurrences; it is an existent analogy throughout the book. (You can search the term. -In fact the one line of lyric responsible for triggering this whole book, or even traveling to meet Bono in 1999 (let alone bothering to write about it), was "You know the sun is sometimes eclipsed by a moon, y'know I don't see you, when she walks in the room" - "The Fly".)

Interestingly enough, one of the very few (two) religious essays I did for the book centered on a female theologian whose entire religious practice centered on "learning to walk in the dark" - naturally, -because her system of thought was something the book explored doing existentially. (-This was released publicly at the time of writing.)

After signifying the first single with the eclipse, U2 released the album Songs of Experience, two days before a supermoon occurred. -In the book notes Bono received I recorded how I met him personally a second time at the Octagon Bar in The Clarence Hotel in Ireland and the supermoon, which was declared by the Irish Times to be the brightest in 136 years, happened two days after I met him the second time. That is why the book also has a footnote about that as well. -This is also in the notes Bono received that were the book draft at that time. Now what's absolutely mind-blowing about this, is that the supermoon occurs in the book draft two days after I met Bono the second time where we spoke and I gave him a Christmas gift, which is the exact date spacing of how U2 timed the album's release, with the supermoon occurring two days afterward.

4) Bono deliberately snippets "Walk to the Water" in the BBC broadcast promoting this album at the end of the performance of "All I Want Is You": "Walk to the Water" has never been performed. This is the 4th time it's been snippeted in all of its existence (30 years). These are the lyrics. He drops a very sensitive quatrain about the song's subject; she wore a "necklace given to [her] by [her] father".

Rabbit Hole #1

-Bono skips that part of the song in this snippet of "Walk to the Water" to go onto the Dublin streets: she "turned left on the Northstrand, and out towards the sea". -If you know where that is, in Dublin, -you'd know that it changes into Pearse Street when it turns left and later becomes Rings End Road, -and that was exactly how to get to U2's then (1999, certainly not in 1987 when "Walk to the Water" was written) secret studio (which was on Hanover Quay on the Grand Canal, and you can google that location now as they decided to let it go). -If you turned left on the North Strand you'd get to their secret studio, if you just took two more turns at the right place. Turning left on the North Strand is the same as turning towards the mouth of the River Liffey, and the sea. Which I walked before and after meeting Andy a couple of times by chance (Guggi's brother -Guggi is practically Bono's best friend in the world)) -I followed North Strand to Rings End (Rings End was overshooting it, actually the turn off was on Pearse Street) until I came to the secret studio and sat on the bench outside and first met Bono. The book draft Bono got in 2011 goes into these encounters and the walking to get there in a lot of detail because I was in a deadline rush of sorts to sort out to Bono how I actually met him, a deadline determined by a concert ticket. How finding Bono transpired was actually sort of odd and interesting, because it took a series of things happening by chance (Andy included), -and I had to blow Andy's mind by proving that with the song "The First Time" Bono was referencing a feminine Holy Spirit (not by trying to, it was that his mind was blown that prompted him to divulge the location). It took quite a convo to tease the location out of him. So the book mentions "Pearse Street" and "Rings Road". -You can search the book for terms after you've found them on Google Maps. The book has a search option. Incidentally Bono has written a song about Andy all of two times, "Bad" in 1984 (which reappeared and became a regular in their live set after the delivery in 2011 was made), and "Raised by Wolves", which appeared on the first subsequent album "Songs of Innocence" after Bono received this book draft. -Yes, made a note of that observation at the time. (Scroll down, to "let's meet under the cherry tree".)

Now practically the first thing that happens when I relate conversing with Bono the first time in this book (which was the same in the draft) is that Bono goes into a brogue about how cold it is today and waxes apologetic about the state of Ireland's typical weather. And I had to suppress my comment about how it wasn't cold at all, -being from Canada. (For what I avoided saying I interjected the thought "Oh puleez". "oh puleez" will pull up that first conversation with Bono.) -So Bono's literally teased out this verse snippet on the BBC broadcast and modified it (by dropping half of the first verse and going onto the second) -so that it happens to fit the actual context of when I first actually met him -that again (*sigh*) -was transcribed in the book draft I gave to him in 2011 and presently exists in the actual book. -The first line in "Walk to the Water is, "She said it wasn't cold". So the choice of snippet just happens to have fit the real situation.

All of these events happen in just a few pages in the draft that Bono got. They formed the substance of that chapter then, which is certainly not how it stands now.

Rabbit Hole #2

Rabbit Hole #3

5) The album has a bonus track called "Book of Your Heart" - the first verse sure looks like he might be reading a book he received personally that is his sole edition, doesn't it? (No one's ever going to see that draft other than himself.)

The song opens "Right from the start, you put this into words, how you think we should proceed" - I began writing in reference to the matter when I was 21, the "big" concept landed at 25, and then I began writing in earnest. "Love is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way" - has "So young to be the words of your own song". - If you follow the protagonist in this book the full course, you'll find out this linking situation - (-when the protagonist exists as object in an array of songs and you put that all together for the first time as a book, that book is the first elucidation of the whole song-) -this situation of the protagonist as object actually can be traced back to when she was just thirteen years old, with Bono coming into the picture at sixteen, not that any of this was known at those ages. The watershed moment that came on like a neutron bomb happened at age 21. The really freaky part is that in terms of becoming her own song, her own self-conceived myth that ends up playing out through the book, the character she came up with that becomes this myth personae in later years, she came up with at age 12; -first writing the story's beginning at age 14.

"Write a world where we can belong" -in "Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way" -looks like an endorsement to finish writing (but that the writer is on their own). Bono got a draft that was at the less than halfway mark. And subject to some serious revision in key earlier chapters after he got it (one got added).

"Book of Your Heart" also has the lines "This is the promise that we'll stay, Through the long descriptive passages, Where we don't know what to say" -Also looks like reading a book (and first encounter, the entire intercourse was of what was not said). It's a wordy one that clocks in at 836 pages last I checked (in Word). The song also has "We are not fictitious characters, We don't belong to this world" -which again, indicates characters that exist as writ. It is very fitting for a book that centers on Bono and a protagonist between the two of them, plus an associated ensemble cast, and deals in pre-conception existence (post-death as well).

6) "Book of Your Heart" mentions a name change. When I met Bono and made the deliveries, both in 1999 and 2011, I went by a different name. The book's legal pen name is Pamela Williams. (It's right on the cover.) You'd have to be fairly aware of me, I know, to understand that I changed my name between 2011 and now to release the book, -but I did so on all my social media, it so happens. If you find this dubious, well, I decided on the pen name in 2000. It's on record in the book itself that I'm going to change my name for it -and what the name will be. You can search the name inside the book also to find this out.

[comicteaparty]

August 17th, 2017 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on August 17th, 2017, from 5PM - 7PM PDT.  The chat focused on Centralia 2050 by Michelle.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning. Today we are discussing Centralia 2050 by Michelle~! ( http://centralia2050.com/ ) For those new to CTP, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer so pay them no mind if you wish~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! Each chat a top comment will be picked and featured on an ad for this chat, so let’s have a great discussion~!

With that said, let us begin with this first question~!(edited)

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

Ravix-Strips

The video game scene with Ren, Midori, and Grey. (edited)

Deity Cali of BISHIES OF SPEEDS

pops in to say i really like the art in this

fairyfun5118

CH 3 page 5 cuz they were bonding for the first time!... i think

and Q and As cuz there cute and fun

Kabocha

Hmmmm, that's a good question. Ch3 is really good... ...I liked how vulnerable Grey was at the end of the chapter, but I mean, I also really liked the explanation in ch2 about the Lumico takeover, too...

This panel was like, oh you poor sweet child D: RebelVampire

i really liked the depiction of the blackout. everything artistically about it made me think "yup, this is a blackout all right."

Michelle

PS-- I'll be hanging out in the chat if anyone has questions about the comic! c:

Ravix-Strips

ok

Envelion

And my name is Matt. Hi there! I'm the brainstormer and co-writer of sorts with Michelle on Centralia 2050

Kabocha

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Michelle

Yeah, Matt helps bounce around story development.

Ravix-Strips

NNice to meet you two

Kabocha

that scene made me cringe a little for Midori

Michelle

And speaks terrible Japanese, apparently

Ravix-Strips

and is in the same room with the characters

RebelVampire

i think that scene made everyone cringe a little. cause even if you dont feel for midori, very clearly a poor attempt at japanese

so cringe

Kabocha

ahahaha

mathtans

I am late, but to atone I have a fave scene from each of the Chapters!

wishjacked

My favorite scene is the blackout explanation, too!!

Honestly all my favorite scenes tend to be the kinda in-between ones when the characters are walking around the city— the art is SO AMAZING at building the world up through background details.

mathtans

From the most recent chapter, when they went into VR, it was just kind of Wow (and Gray was so cute! ). From the one before, when she was on the roof and reaching up and Grey was like "don't jump" and Midori was like, "what?". And from the first chapter, when she first pushed past Grey and he was all, 'what's her problem' and then EVIL SPIDER BOTS so yeah, that's a problem.

wnqs

My favourite scene is Tomo the head-bonking robot and Lor's introduction :P

Kabocha

Admittedly, when I first read the title of the comic, I was half-expecting it to be built on Centralia, PA... which has a continually burning fire in a mine

wnqs

Always blown away with the background art and the details put into every single panel.

mathtans

Lor is cool too.

Michelle

We'll be seeing more of her in chapter 4 :>

wnqs

Woot!

Ravix-Strips

Awesome!

Envelion

Who's to say that it DOESN'T take place in Pennsylvania? >.>

RebelVampire

i actually did not know this place in PA existed till yesterday and that was only cause of reading an askreddit thread about creepiest small towns.

albeit when i heard the title i admittedly thought of the movie metropolis for some reason even tho ive never actually seen the movie

Michelle

afaik there is one in PA, and one in Washington.

mathtans

In fact, the setting isn't really something I normally go for, and while I can appreciate the artistic talent (which is so far above me, I can't even), it's not what kept me reading either. It's the way the characters react to each other, like Grey randomly tossing out info to Lor, or Midori doing her own thing despite what's going on, that really sucked me in.

wnqs

nods the character development is very well done. They're engaging and you really get a connection with them

Envelion

@mathtans I'm glad. I think a story should be defined by it's characters more than anything. Michelle and I both really try to make them all feel alive.

Feather, Duke of Comedic Timing

I haven't finished Chapter 3 but I really like the scene early on where they are on the roof :3

mathtans

It's kind of impressive that Grey's so likeable, actually, given his tendency to shut down conversation.

Ravix-Strips

@mathtans ironically.

Michelle

Hopefully when he starts talking more people don't suddenly dislike him XD

"I LIKED YOU BEING QUIET DAMNIT"

wishjacked

Yes!! I think both Midori and Grey are shaping really good characters!!

mathtans

Hahaha. No, I think Grey will still be cool. (I only wish he didn't smoke! That stuff'll kill you!)

RebelVampire

in all honestly i like grey because i feel he provides a sort of cynical realism balance to the story.

fairyfun5118

they are better together

mathtans

Rebel: Yeah, yeah, I think you nailed it there.

Michelle

Yeah, I agree, smoking's no good. D:

mathtans

I like the tongue-in-cheek kind of attitude.

wishjacked

and I also really like Grey… I feel like his character would easily read as kind of a typical edgy apocalypse guy in a different writer's work, but as is he comes off as very understandable.

He always seems so exasperated but he's also obviously kind right from the beginning.

Kabocha

Grey is surprising. He's struck me as the sorta fellow who goes along with shenanigans even if it's something he's saying he doesn't wanna do. XD It's funny to watch him contradict himself.

mathtans

Yeah, that was an excellent introduction for him. Well thought out, might not have worked if he was just in a cafe or something.

Michelle

No matter where he goes, Midori would've found a way to barrel into him

Envelion

He's tricky to write. Michelle's always like, "Does he sound too much line an ass in this one?"

Michelle

lmao

Kabocha

sometimes you just gotta let the snark pour through though

mathtans

Haha, I kind of understand that. You get latitude once he's established as a protagonist though.

Michelle

He WAS a bit too rude in the first draft of chapter 1. It took some figuring out to strike a good balance.

mathtans

I wonder what his gen-mod is.

Kabocha

I'm gonna guess it's got to do with mental acuity or something.

mathtans

Maybe it's why he smokes. O.o

Envelion

A genetic mod that makes smoking cool.(edited)

Kabocha

Put some shades on him and we've got max coolness right there

Michelle

@Envelion oh no, Grey has been created by Big Tobacco

RebelVampire

grey doesnt need shades. is too cool already theyll make laws about it.

mathtans

VR Shades.

wishjacked

I mean I don't know what else to say about my analysis of him except I really liked when he offhandedly told Midori to put sugar in the coffee to make it taste better hahaha

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. During Chapter 3, Midori and Grey meet and join Switch, an anti-Lumico organization. Do you think Switch is unquestionably trustworthy or do you think they may have their own secrets? Will joining Switch actually help the two find the missing people or will something happen that gets them both into trouble? How will Midori and Grey’s skills be utilized for the group?

wishjacked

and OH NO, THE WORST GEN MOD. TOBACCO MOD

Ravix-Strips

what is up with her and coffee?

it's like it's her life support and if it is, give her more.(edited)

wnqs

Swtich probably has their own secrets. It's not like they're gonna go blabbing everything to people they just meet. Whether or not they're completely 'good' is a good question, though

Michelle

@Ravix-Strips once she put sugar in it, she realized its glory

Kabocha

Switch has some issues bein' shady. But you know. Midori's a robot-smasher, so... they could use more people willing to do it lol

mathtans

No group is unquestionably trustworthy. >.< They have the same goals though, or so it seems.

wnqs

Well, Midori's mad pipe-wielding skillz will probably come in handy

mathtans

Grey builds the robots and Midori smashes them!

wnqs

Grey can scowl at the baddies and make them feel terrible about themselves

mathtans

They can be their own branch.

fairyfun5118

i feel like both will happen

wnqs

"MIDORI SMASH!" ala Hulk style

Kabocha

meanwhile, Grey's dad IS Lumico

Envelion

So much I can't say about the switch right now. But it's good stuff. #nospoilers

Kabocha

)dpm

erm

don't ask, I do this every ctp I'm in. crack theory time!

Michelle

I love crack theories XD

mathtans

I like the double meaning of "switch", by the way. Like, it can refer to a change, a switch in power, or a literal switch of turning things on and off. Which also harkens to that logo, curiously enough.

Michelle

Of course, to all theories my answer is "definitely maybe"

Kabocha

pfffft

RebelVampire

yeah everyone thought ctp stood for comic tea party. its actually crack theory party

mathtans

Oh, I have theories. We'll get to that. Curious if anyone else is thinking along the same lines though.

fairyfun5118

wwwhhhhaaaattt!?

Kabocha

@RebelVampire Damn straight!

Well, @mathtans -- time to start spoutin' them out

wnqs

I want to know more about Midori. Is she an unknowing agent of Lumico, or something designed explicitly to counter them?

fairyfun5118

i thought ctp was comic tea party

Michelle

@fairyfun5118 it is, haha, don't worry.

fairyfun5118

oooo

Kabocha

Midori and Weiss are siblings; meanwhilst, Grey's dad is the head (or IS) Lumico. And Switch needs Grey because of his unknowing ties. Much drama when plot reveal is made. >:3

fairyfun5118

thxs for telling me

lol

Kabocha

end crack theory

RebelVampire

no no it def is i meant that as a joke XD cause we usually have a lot of crack theories during the sessions.

i like the idea of grey's dad being the head of lumico

wishjacked

that's a good crack theory there, you dudes

RebelVampire

as i picture a whole darth vader i am your father scenario

mathtans

Ooh, I like the idea of Grey somehow being tied in more than anyone realizes.

Kabocha

I know, right, Rebel?

Envelion

What I CAN tell you, is that Grey's dad rocks a mad pony tail.

Michelle

Nooooooo he doesn't

Kabocha

lmao

fairyfun5118

lol

Michelle

Grey's dad turns out to be a pony-tail wearing, acoustic-guitar strumming upbeat guy, and he just can't understand his Goth Son

Kabocha

:3 Grey's dad is Grey with a ponytail? XD

mathtans

You want a crazy theory? Midori and Weiss are the same person. Weiss is artifically aged, and her hair is turned green, but in the process she loses her memory. She's now trying to chase after her lost childhood, represented by the fact that only SHE can see Weiss (like that time in the playground).

Kabocha

Also, how is Weiss' name pronounced? "Veiss?"

Michelle

"Wice"

wishjacked

(kinda going on back to the prompt I DO want to say that I like Switch but I don't trust them yet. They do give off really strong "we are an awesome rebel faction and we're the side that all protagonists rightly back" vibe…. but that isn't enough to make them flawless lol)

Michelle

In German it would be Veiss, but... American pronounciation etc(edited)

Kabocha

Right, right

fairyfun5118

i alwasy pronounced it wheez

mathtans

Wow, that got all the reactions, heh.

Envelion

I'd totally make fun of a girl named "Wheez"

Michelle

#rude

fairyfun5118

lol

sorry

mathtans

I agree with you, wishjacked.

wnqs

mathtans wins the reaction lottery(edited)

RebelVampire

yeah back to the topic of switch, i trust them as far as i can throw them. all powerful organizations have corruption somewhere within their ranks. i mean to be fair, i already dont trust them because they more or less bullied grey and midori into joining since it was a join us or we wont help you sort of thing.

mathtans

I seem to have won a hamburger. ^.^

Kabocha

well, it was a "join us RIGHT NOW" situation, too

which is worse, I think

mathtans

I'm pretty sure there's an operative inside Switch who's working against them. I hope it's not Lor, she's kinda awesome.

RebelVampire

yeah there is that too. which is pretty manipulative cause its forcing them to react more on emotion than logic.

its okay math, its probably not Lor. its the tiny robot Lor is making.

Envelion

Hmmm

wnqs

the situation may be that dire that they have to make them choose quickly

Michelle

TOMO will become sentient and seek to unravel everything.

mathtans

Phew. ... Wait, could be blamed for that though.

Kabocha

@wnqs -- well, yes, that's probably the case, but it's still not much better

time will tell though

wnqs

So, Tomo is the new Claptrap?

Kabocha

and if they start to get all cult-y....

welp.

Envelion

Welcome to Switch, Wear these robes, drink this!

wnqs

koolaid for everyone!

mathtans

I think part of the issue is, we haven't really seen what they're fighting against... like, we sort of have (seriously, anyone who uses spider bots can't be on the side of good, right?) but even Grey himself has said there's just something that feels wrong about the power company, nothing so overt. I could be wrong.

Maybe all the missing people got sent to the Bahamas.

RebelVampire

clearly next chapter is the initiation arc where grey and midori have to prove their devotion to the cult err i mean switch O_O

Kabocha

OH MAN

mathtans

They need to perform a feather dance.

Kabocha

and there's a rift between Grey and Midori over it.

Midori's all ready to drink the kool-aid and Grey's like, NO, don't forget Weiss

metaphorical kool-aid

...it's important to clarify.

RebelVampire

i demand literal kool-aid but the non poisoned kind. the refreshing sugar drink kind

Michelle

I'm sure Forrest stocks the Switch cabinets with plenty of refreshing powdered drinks

Envelion

I'll make a note, next chapter needs koolaid.

Michelle

you can't have a rebellion if you're thirsty.

Kabocha

oh man

mathtans

Here's a question: Part of the reason Switch wants them is because of how Midori doesn't seem to be categorized by the surveillance. Why not? She also has some sort of effect on Grey's cell phone, which I'm guessing is related. Is it unique to her? How does it relate to the power that's being used in these things?

(It's probably the artificial aging.)

Kabocha

Midori's the actual plant by big tobacco

Grey's her sidekick.

mathtans

Heh. "You can't use your phone. What're you gonna do now? Gotta smoke."

Envelion

plant - green hair - all makes sense

Kabocha

it's all so clear(edited)

RebelVampire

its because midori was a robot clone this whole time.

mathtans

Who would clone a robot?

fairyfun5118

?

people would

RebelVampire

scientists

Envelion

Other robots.

RebelVampire

for science

Kabocha

I would!

wishjacked

are you saying you wouldn't clone a robot?

Kabocha

gotta make data backups somehow.

Michelle

But... you don't need to clone a robot, you just build another one

Kabocha

You clone hard drives!

Michelle

R-robots don't have DNA!

ok, fair enough.

RebelVampire

well maybe someone first decided to make a robot with dna. and then the next logical step is to prove its cloneable dna

mathtans

Next chapter, Grey builds another Midori. One who doesn't ask so many questions.

Envelion

I have a question... Does anyone have a favorite switch character?

Kabocha

Grey.

RebelVampire

grey

Kabocha

lol

fairyfun5118

lmao

Kabocha

What can I say, I like my guys tall and snarky.

RebelVampire

idk if i feel i know anyone enough to pick a fave. i need to learn more about them.

mathtans

That's actually a tough question, about the fave character. Because part of what I like about Grey is his interactions with Midori. I don't feel like he'd be as captivating without her, which doesn't hold true the other way, so.... I may have to go with Midori. Because of how she named the motorcycle "Lucy".

wishjacked

same @RebelVampire

Envelion

Fair enough.

mathtans

Most of their scenes have been together. I do enjoy randomness, is the thing.

wishjacked

but Midori is my favorite character of the story thus far. I'm a sucker for those happy go lucky types. (and I do really look forward to getting to know Switch better haha!!)(edited)

mathtans

And none of the others (aside from Ren, who I'm kind of lukewarm on) have been seen enough. Though Lor is starting with lots of bonus points for her VR avatar.

Michelle

We'll be getting to know the main Switch members much more in chapter 4. :>

mathtans

Hoping I'm making some vague sort of sense there. I'm also probably not a typical reader, I can be as random as Midori.

RebelVampire

if i had to pick someone in switch id be most interested in learning about itd be Forrest cause Forrest hits my suspicion meters

mathtans

(Still like that scene where Grey thought she was going to jump.)

Envelion

Yeah, I'm excited to explore the characters more in the future too, but Forrest most of all. For reasons I can't say :x

mathtans

Run, Forrest, Run.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. So far throughout the comic, Midori has shown to have little knowledge about the nature of the city and may potentially have some level of amnesia. Who exactly is Midori? How did she wind up in the city? What is her relationship to Weiss? Why does Weiss seemingly appear before Midori and lead her around?

Envelion

why indeed.

mathtans

Okay, so here's my OTHER Midori theory. She was created by that Power Company (mebbe Weiss, mebbe genetically) in order to investigate the city on a grass roots level. But she went rogue, and maybe one of the last things she saw was a Weiss missing poster. In the end, she'll have to pick whose side she's on.

fairyfun5118

.....?

mathtans

Like, when she gets her memory back, she'll be like "damn, I'm supposed to be against these Switch people, do I still help them?".

RebelVampire

and then she decides nah screw switch and rides off with grey into the sunset

mathtans

It might explain why she doesn't know stuff, she never knew it in the first place, it wasn't part of the amnesia at all.

Kabocha

Are we shipping Midori and Grey? :3

fairyfun5118

ooh

mathtans

She tries to catch the sun!

Michelle

Oh no here comes the shipping ship

Kabocha

XD

I dunno, they seem like good friends but haven't actually struck me as shippable quite yet.

fairyfun5118

i ship Midori x gray

Envelion

I ship Grey and Forrest. Grorrest

Michelle

Forrey???

mathtans

I ship Midori and Lor. Because I always ship the pretty girls.

RebelVampire

i ship grey and eternal cynicism

mathtans

Rebel wins.

Kabocha

I just think Grey Forrest sounds like a nice place to visit

Michelle

Grey Forrest sounds like the next Silent Hill

I wouldn't go there

Kabocha

it's directly adjacent to Centralia

actually is a garbage fire

Envelion

But yeah, for the topic, I am really interested in hearing who people THINK Midori and Weiss are. Sometimes it's stuff we've never even considered, sometimes it's really close to the truth. Sometimes it's just weird.

mathtans

OH. I'm reminded (because suddenly I'm thinking of bust lines) about Michelle's comments below the comic. Those are sometimes funny as all get out. Kudos.

fairyfun5118

your comic turnded me into a shipper

Michelle

@mathtans I try ;u;

mathtans

(I don't know why the one about squeezing into the train came to mind. )

fairyfun5118

lol

Michelle

@fairyfun5118 You're definitely not alone in that, especially among Tapastic readers D:

RebelVampire

im gonna take a crack theory stab. weiss is the child of some big head honcho of lumico and midori was an artificially constructed bodyguard.

mathtans

I'm still squinty about Midori = Weiss. Though I'm pretty sure Midori's also connected to the satellite thing. I feel like that wasn't just a throwaway gag when she was talking about seeing the star. So maybe Midori's the next evolution in gen mods somehow.

Michelle

There's definitely a lot of little things in the comic that are foreshadowing.

mathtans

I wonder, do they have memory retrieval technology?

Michelle

If they do, it would certainly be hard to come by

mathtans

Midori might also not be a genetically age increased Weiss, it might just be that their memories were swapped or something. Like, Midori's memories are still inside Weiss, wherever that girl is, and Weiss' memories are KIND of inside Midori, but the transfer was incomplete, so she's seeking out her own memories, in a sense.

Those two are connected in some way, basically.

Like, okay, obviously, but in a bio-tech way.

I'm also weird.

fairyfun5118

we need game theroys opinion on this

RebelVampire

maybe midori was weiss' imaginary friend brought to life. i kind of get that sense cause of weiss' childish drawing and the fact was surprised grey could see her. especially the latter really struck me as an odd thing to say to someone

Michelle

Midori is definitely full of odd exclamations.

mathtans

OMG. Rebel, that's brilliant.

That's maybe the piece my brain was trying to fill in.

We never actually saw Midori in the flashback panels, right? (That's what made me wonder if they were somehow the same.)

RebelVampire

not that i recall. there was some convenient cutting off if memory serves correct

which is why to me i could believe midori wasnt real

cause its very kid like to invent an imaginary friend like that when theyre getting bullied

mathtans

So the creepy power corp is doing experiements on Weiss and accidentally activated Midori!

(I've seen "A Certain Magical Index", I know these kinds of things can manifest.)

Michelle

I wish I could imagine anything as coherent as Midori. Anything I'd imagine would be an incoherent blob.

mathtans

I feel like there's huge irony in the artist saying that.

Michelle

lmao maybe, I mean I can't stay on one thought for more than a few seconds

mathtans

That's fair.

Envelion

My imaginary friend had antenne and green skin. Would look like an alien if she suddenly appeared.

mathtans

As to why Weiss just seems to randomly appear, maybe Midori can wish things into existence, if she concentrates hard enough? (Because of how she herself was created in a similar way?)

fairyfun5118

these crack theroys are really crackin me up

end me

RebelVampire

really the answer is this is just one of the noire detective ghost situations. and weiss is a ghost trying to get midori to solve the murder

mathtans

I rarely say things that I don't at least partially believe. ^.^

Her own murder. Because she is ALSO a ghost! ... okay, no.

RebelVampire

haha i dont stick entirely with the imaginary friend but i do think the line about grey seeing her is super suspicious legitimately. the only reason for someone to exclaim that a person can see them is if they are in general used to not being seen/arent supposed to be seen(edited)

Kabocha

spooky~

mathtans

I'd forgotten about that line, at least on a conscious level. Now I totally ship Len with Weiss' imaginary friend.

Michelle

I had to find out who that was haha

but 14 is a little young for Midori!! :0

If we're following this cracktheory of imaginary friends shipping

mathtans

Derp. I meant Lor. I'm so bad with names.

Michelle

OH haha

it's funny because when I looked up that character there was something about them being not real.

mathtans

I somehow mashed it up with Ren in my head. I fail at all the names!

Michelle

So I thought that was intentional.

mathtans

I do many things intentionally. Names, not so much.

Oh well. Something to bear in mind with me.

RebelVampire

its okay math. as long as you dont fail us at math. cause its in your name.

Kabocha

I hear he's good with imaginary numbers

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. The central mystery to the story’s conflict so far is the 2048 blackout. During the blackout, numerous people went missing, and it was after the blackout that Lumico took over the city. What do you think happened to all the people who went missing? Is Lumico responsible somehow or was their rise to power a coincidence? Additionally, why did Grey’s non gen-mod father go missing when most of the missing people are gen-mods?

Kabocha

the gen mods are being used to power the city. :3

mathtans

The math I'm okay with. I liked the comment about the blackout being in 2^11. That was neat.

fairyfun5118

yes my theroy is tha during the balckout lumico kidnapped most of the gen mods and there going to do somthing with them(edited)

mathtans

Oh yeah, I've got a theory about the missing people. They're NOT missing. They were given new memories and new physical appearances. (Did anyone check for NEW people after the blackout? Well? DID they?) I don't know if it was inentional or not (there could be some common element, like they were all near microwaves or a satallite or something), but it ties into the fact that Midori's old identity is now bleeding through, she was originally one of the missing.

Envelion

damned evil microwaves

RebelVampire

thatd actually be an interesting twist. is if ppl were so busy looking for what wasnt there they missed what was there

granted i do think its more likely lumico kidnapped them.

XD

mathtans

yis. Microwaves with tinfoil hats in them.

RebelVampire

but then again maybe lumico isnt evil. maybe they kidnapped gen-mods cause something is wrong with gen-mod technology and they need to fix it

Envelion

They've been brain washed to be Lumico's janitorial staff.

RebelVampire

lumico probably does need janitors

sounds efficient

mathtans

Oh, I kinda like that angle, Rebel. Except Grey's dad wasn't a Gen-Mod, so maybe someone screwed up (or like the earlier theories, dad is in it deep).

Michelle

They're using his dad's ponytail for nefarious purposes.

mathtans

What happened to the houses and apartments of missing people? Were they repossessed or what?

Did Grey have to sell his Dad's house?

Michelle

Oh no. It's all a real estate heist!

mathtans

A real estate heist by Big Tobacco.

"Oh, your phone doesn't work AND you have no house now? Gotta smoke."

RebelVampire

maybe grey just depressingly keeps the house. visits every weekend and smokes and mopes in the corner

fairyfun5118

lol

RebelVampire

brings midori and midori is like wtf grey

mathtans

He pretends he's a lamp. It's illuminating.

Seriously though, what happened to their bank accounts and stuff too? Awkward.

Envelion

If Grey's father went missing, but Grey didn't... And Grey is a gen mod, why is he still around? Do you think they got the wrong guy?

"Yes, this is the Greyson home. Grey Greyson? No, he's not here."

RebelVampire

yes. except mostly they were lazy. were like "eh same last name close enough nab the dude"

mathtans

I'd say maybe the missing people never even EXISTED in the first place, and were somehow false memories transmitted by cell phone... except why the missing posters then? (Though I guess Ren's the one making those. Hm.)

Michelle

Yeah, Ren is behind the poster effort.

mathtans

Though Grey's dad must be somewhat responsible for the gen mod, unless his mom did it secretly. Maybe all they needed was the information.

So Ren could be making all these posters for people who DON'T EXIST. O.o (Well, except we did see Weiss in a flashback... that DIDN'T EXIST. o.O )

RebelVampire

were starting to get to everything was a dream territory O_O

fairyfun5118

yup

lol

mathtans

They're actually still in VR!

RebelVampire

maybe grey's dad wasnt kidnapped. maybe hes a super spy and went on a long, undercover mission

mathtans

Grey is actually his own dad, trapped in VR.

(Ok, now I'm not really believing the stuff I say.)

Michelle

Well, his dad and Grey both certainly have some explaining to do.

which is, as we know, Grey's least favourite thing

Envelion

It'll just take him another 3 chapters to come out with it.

mathtans

Something I just realized. Midori makes Grey's phone go weird and the bots don't register her... but she can still VR. Is it a different system?

Michelle

Naw. We'll find out something next chapter.

Midori's avatar is glitching in the VR simulation, so it isn't perfect.

mathtans

Okay. (At least they spelled her name right.)

Kabocha

Hmmm, reading a little; d'ya think grey was saved by being indoors when the blackout happened?

fairyfun5118

yes

mabye

mathtans

snaps fingers That reminds me, the bit with him climbing up all the floors reminded me of the East Coast power blackout some 15 years ago or whatever. I had a friend in that situation. Nice realism.

RebelVampire

i think grey was saved by how cool he was. they saw him and were like "im blinded by his cool snarkiness. we cant take him."

mathtans

And yeah, maybe being inside meant you weren't abducted by the aliens who are running the Lumico corporation as a prelude to invasion. (Yup, that's a new theory.)

Envelion

yes, yes... make more theories! Stray farther from the truth!

mathtans

"The others won't come out." "I dunno, give them back their power, we'll come up with a new plan in a couple years."

The truth is out there!

RebelVampire

it could be that being inside played a role. hard to say. i mean how many gen-mods are there? is there some national list of gen-mods?

i mean obviously lumico has a list of some sort for their robot spiders

but where did it come from

was it always there

Envelion

If there was a list, it wouldn't be up on genmods.gov I imagine

RebelVampire

are the spiders just that amazing

Kabocha

@Envelion -- knowing any .gov, it's probably in an access database in sharepoint

mathtans

The spiders are actually the ones in control.

RebelVampire

no i see through the lies. theres a genmods.gov and midori was the person used for the splash page

Michelle

XD

Question: What are you looking forward to in chapter 4?

fairyfun5118

EVERYTHING

mathtans

Honestly, more of the Switch people, like you said. To get a better sense of the fight, what they're actually up against. Also, Lor.

RebelVampire

grey and snark

Michelle

There Will Be Snark

RebelVampire

im pretty one track about that. more grey. and refreshing kool-aid

Envelion

In these last few minutes, do you guys have any questions for Michelle n' me? Without asking for spoilers?

Michelle

oh no now all they'll ask is spoilers

mathtans

How long does it take to draw a page? O.o Like, seriously, that's frigging impressive.

Michelle

On average, somewhere around 10-12 hours

fairyfun5118

actually i want more grey and midori bonding moments

Michelle

Though one of the blackout pages took upwards of 20 (the one with all the cars and crowds)

mathtans

Damn. I believe it.

Michelle

@fairyfun5118 We'll have some of that!

fairyfun5118

yes!!!

mathtans

Another question, have you planned everything out a lot in advance, or do characters sometimes derail the plot as you go?

Michelle

I have the character trajectories and major plot points planned out, but I like to save the details for when I write the scripts. Like, I write the script for ch 4 as ch 3 wraps up.

Envelion

I think most of it is planned out, yeah? There's specifics that usually don't get nailed down until the script is done though. For example, the VR scene wasn't in chapter 3 until right before Michelle wrote it. Originally it was just going to take place at a cafe or something.

mathtans

headbobs That makes sense, kinda suspected but nice to have it confirmed.

Michelle

Yeah, I know the "what," but I figure out the "how" during scripting.

mathtans

Ooh, glad we got the VR Gray.

Michelle

Yes, widdle kawaii Grey

Envelion

Yeah, I was working on a VR project at the time, maybe that inspired it.

mathtans

Keep being awesome with it.

Envelion

Thanks so much for coming guys. It's been a pleasure to help Michelle with the story and I love what she's done with it. I'm as big of a fan as I am a helper. I'm excited to see that people are interested in the story too!

Michelle

Thank you! You guys keep me going strong

RebelVampire

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party is now complete~! Thank you everyone so much for joining this week’s chat~! That being said, if you would like to continue discussing the comic, we encourage you to do so~! We want to give a big thank you to Michelle, as well, for volunteering Centralia 2050 for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support Michelle’s efforts. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about CTP, please feel free to PM me, or e-mail me at RebelVampire@startfaire.com.

With that said, next week’s Comic Tea Party will focus on Tangled River by snowshadow. Please use this week to read as much of the comic as you would like. Hope to see you next Thursday (August 24th) from 5PM to 7PM PDT~! Until then~!

Comic: https://tapas.io/series/Tangled-River