#i learned a lot of vampire bat facts when looking up That lore for This lore

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: A lot of bang for your buck!

As mentioned in an earlier post, the rulebook for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is on the longer side of the indie-TTRPG spectrum, coming in at about 230 pages at the time of writing this.

The rulebook dedicates about the first 90 pages to what we would probably call the “core gameplay”: That is, looking for clues, gathering evidence, drawing conclusions, talking to people, making plans, etc. as well as what each Skill and Trait does and how to create a normal player character.

The next 75 or so pages are dedicated entirely to combat.

Characters are fairly fragile in Eureka compared to most TTRPG PCs—they might even be more fragile than Call of Cthulhu PCs—and this serves to realistically and organically discourage a shoot-first-question-later style of play. However, we knew that making the PCs this easy to kill meant that we had to give the combat systems within the game a lot of depth to match, to give the PCs and their players a good degree of agency in the fight, or else they’d just be going along until wham the party is dead after one bad roll and it’s game over before they know it.

The combat rules in Eureka are deep but not overly complex. It’s less about determining the exact right turn to utilize a special ability that synergizes with the rest of the party’s special abilities, and more about positioning, planning around the environment, and striking first. This still uses the same 2D6 system as everything else—except for when automatic firearms come into play, then it’s D12s for a little extra randomness and because it’s easier to roll 10 D12s than 10 pairs of D6s—so you won’t need to really learn a whole new set of rules just to have a fight. Just keep track of the effective range of each category of firearm and how many bullets your character has left!

I’m actually personally very proud of Eureka’s firearm combat rules. They manage to create a very realistic simulation of a real shootout, organically encouraging realistic tactics and strategy without devolving into a slow grind where every character’s turn takes five minutes of math and re-checking the rulebook to resolve. After that, there’s a brief set of instructions on how to convert an adventure module not originally made for it to work well with the Eureka system. This chapter is only a few pages long because it really is that simple!  

And then the last section in the book is dedicated to making and handling PCs that are a bit...less normal. This is about 60 pages, and covers the bulk of Eureka’s actual supernatural lore, and instructions on how to use that lore to create supernatural player characters that fit into that lore.

We’ve gone into this more in-depth in another earlier post, but let me give a simple rundown anyway: There is no “masquerade” in the world of Eureka, no grand conspiracy by either the mundane government nor a secret supernatural government to cover up the existence of vampires and werewolves and fairies and the like, in fact there is no secret supernatural government. Supernatural creatures are simply so rare as to mainly just fly right under the radar of most modern science, with actual sightings being considered the stuff of tabloid trash and unscientific sensationalism by most academic minds. So obscure are these instances of the supernatural that a vampire might not even believe in werewolves, or a werewolf in vampires. They may have even never met another one of their kind in-person. As for why these individuals don’t just get on camera and tell the world that they exist... well, the ones they have the less dangerous magical powers could usually be shown-up by a mundane stage magician in Vegas. Yeah right you can start fires with your mind, I bet you just have a remote ignition switch in your pocket!

And then the ones that have more impressive magical powers, like literally transforming completely into a bat, well, those guys tend to also eat people, so it’s really in their best interest to keep that to themselves, in case anyone comes asking questions about what happened to the neighbors and all those delivery guys....

Perhaps one of the most interesting mechanics here is how supernatural characters like these must not only keep their secrets from the world at large, but the rest of the party too! These PCs’ supernatural status is a secret from everyone except their player and the game master, and they must find ways to dodge their supernatural weaknesses, exert their powers, and take a few bites out of a victim all without alerting anyone else in the party or at the table to their true nature.

Follow @anim-ttrpgs​ for updates and look for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy on Kickstarter later this year!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

hey I just wanted to thank you for making me listen to Bat Boy with your incredible art (which I literally love more than words can describe. I've never seen someone capture the essence of something like this, I'm absolutely enamoured, with all your art, but rn specifically the bat boy art, I just wanna see your Will Roland-based character design for Edgar animated or something) I'm now super into it and can't get enough of it!!!

oh shit i’m glad to hear it lmao out here like “hey, will roland really likes this weird niche musical he did once so i looked into it and then got into it” and advertising it w/ drawings b/c like, his Look in this one sacred video we have of comfort & joy (which fucks) is amazingly fun. fangs / ears / hair = i wanna draw that

here he is Aglow

like it’s kinda wild how to talk about What This Show Is Like b/c it’s really like, Such a mashup in like, themes and genre and musical styles.....this weird classic-classic-sci-fi nigh-magical-realism greek-tragedy-esque rock musical, where you listen to some songs and go “this is strange but in a fun way and these slap” and then inevitably we all go what! what!! w  h a t ! ! ! but then you go okay well then, and before you know it you’re beyond the weirdness trappings and accidentally invested in the earnestness you can find all in the midst of it

it’s cool my drawings are advertising lmao i really like, love the Design there natch, and truly the idea of this kid really just being a bat for 1/3 of the play is also really like, okay, how would a bat child they found in a cave like, move around?? that part sounds fun, being in strange positions and physically navigating environments and situations in an unusual manner. i’d like to crawl around lmao my forte......and so yeah it’s fun to draw him in that way too. actually just the other day i had that Drawing Concept, him in a weird Crouch Slouch. and animation would go exactly with all this “What’s A Human-Shaped Bat’s Movement” imagining.....god i wish that were me* (*being good enough at basic concepts of animation to do this half effectively)

anyways yeah i’m real glad we’re out here having fun and being ourselves....you go to look into what the hell will roland keeps talking about and then at some point later you realize now you’re just genuinely into it too, thanks a lot will

but it IS good lmao so why not. Oh To Have More Videos Of Will Performing This Role

[ofpineapplesanddawns]

Here’s a little Vardy one-shot with Ellie finally learning about Hardy’s bat ability.

Enjoy his embarrassment.

On with the fic!

--

It had been Ellie’s idea for the small group to eat lunch at her house. She and Alec had the day off, her eldest son was in school, and the youngest was just enjoying his life like a toddler was.

Alec wasn’t going to eat much, just the little bit of food she can actually offer him, but it was nice that she had blood for him. She said it was nearly impossible to hide it in her fridge the night before because Tom is a growing, teenage boy and wants to eat her outta house and home.

“You know, I was watching a movie the other night,” she said as she set a plate down in front of Lucian, then set down her own, “about vampires.”

“Uhg.” Came Alec’s response.

“Shut up.” She huffed, sitting down once she gave Fred his own plate. “Anyway, it brought up some questions I have for you, sir.”

“What sort of questions?”

“Well, for one, you’ve barely told me what you can actually do as a vampire. I mean, do you even know? Second, what you’ve told me is just the basics, like, the speed, the heightened senses, the fact that you can actually smell blood through people’s skin. Which is just creepy.”

“I can hear it sometimes too.” Lucian spoke up and Ellie looked at him funny, Alec just raised an eyebrow. “When your pulses increase, your blood flows faster, it’s not that hard to hear when you’re right next to someone like that.”

Ellie sighed. “You two are so strange. But still, what can you even do?”

Alec sighed, taking a drink from his cup. “Not much that I know of. I really try not to think about what I can do with my condition.”

“How about I list off cliches and you tell me yes or no?”

Alec made a face and looked like he didn’t want to. “I’m rather curious myself, I only know so much, you’ve been like this for years, you have to know, yes?” Lucian asked and the look Alec gave him was one of pleading. Lucian was not going to break, he wanted to know.

The vampire sighed loudly, running a hand through his hair. “Fine, alright, ask away, Miller.”

Ellie looked pleased with herself. “Are you affected by garlic?”

“No, but the smell can be overwhelming sometimes, but that’s normal.”

“Does salt bother you?”

“Heart-wise? Yes. Purity-wise? No.”

Ellie nodded at this. “Okay, the counting thing, are you good with numbers? Do you have to deal with an impulse to count grains of rice?”

Lucian made a confused sound. “That’s a thing?”

“In some vampire lore, yes.” Alec replied. “But no, though I am good with numbers in general, but not like that. I can count very quickly, comes with the increased senses.”

“Weird.” Ellie commented, taking a bite of food before continuing. “Can you hypnotize anyone? Mind control them with just a stare?”

Alec looked at her, unimpressed, and she laughed at this. “I’m gonna take that as a no.”

“Yeah, it’s a no. If I could, the whole force would be so much more competent,  honestly. And investigations would go a lot quicker, but that’s cheating, and I hate that.”

“Boo, you’re so old fashion.”

Lucian chuckled a bit. “There is something of the vampire cliches he can do that you haven’t asked yet.” 

Alec turned, a look of betrayal on his face. “Lucian-!”

Ellie was grinning brightly at this. “Oh, what is it!?”

“Don’t you fu- don’t you dare, Lucian!” Alec growled, actually showing his fangs, but that wasn’t bothering Lucian one bit. He really shouldn’t have brought it up, but Alec had given him a hard time this morning over actually taking care of himself, so this was Lucian’s revenge.

“What’s associated with vampires?” He asked her, ignoring his boyfriend.

The DS thought for a second before blinking. “No!”

“Yes.” Lucian said with a smile, continuing to ignore Alec.

“How!?” 

“I don’t know, but it’s something he can do.”

Ellie turned to look at her boss, who looked ready to jump out the window. “Could you-?”

Alec shook his head. “No. God, no, I will not! Lucian, you traitor, how could you do this to me!”

“You were crawling on the ceiling again this morning, I told you to drink last night, but you fought with me then and when you woke up in the hallway.” Lucian replied simply, returning to his lunch.

The man next to him looked ready for a fight, before he looked at his best friend, who was still waiting, wanting to see Alec’s biggest secret, next to his condition.

He groaned, sitting back, crossing his arms like a child would. “Not a single word of this is to get out, alright? Can’t have anyone knowing I can do this, got it?”

“Of course.” Ellie said, still smiling.

Alec rolled his eyes and suddenly he was gone. Ellie looked around confused, before Fred loudly shouted ‘bat!’ as he pointed at something on the table. Lucian reached over, lifting up Alec’s cup, showing what was hiding behind it.

There, on the table, was a tiny, light brown bat with large ears. Ellie stared in shock at Alec, who let out a chirping-like sound, then crawled across the table into Lucian’s open palm. He held the tiny bat before he felt tiny fangs biting into him. “Ow! Are you going to keep doing that when you’re upset with me?” 

There was a squeak in response.

“He’s...” Ellie blinked. “He’s really a bat.”

“Yes, it’s an ability of his, can transform at will or when emotionally overwhelmed. Or when he’s past his limit on exhaustion.” Lucian pointed out, gently petting Alec’s back before setting him back down on the table. 

“Is he... a vampire bat?” 

“No, he’s a canyon bat, according to him and Daisy. They’re a common bat from North America, so we suspect his vampire species is from there. They don’t drink blood, normally, they’re actually insect eaters, but he seems to be able to drink blood just fine.” Lucian replied, looking at the small bite on his palm, where tiny teeth marks were already healing.

Ellie made a face. “Ew, does he eat insects?”

In the blink of an eye, Alec was back in his seat, looking flustered. “I don’t have to answer that.” He replied and Ellie burst into laughter, since that clearly answered her question for him.

The rest of lunch was spent with her asking more and more questions, and Alec having to change again to show that, yes, he could fly like that. He also admitted to hiding from social events at the office by hiding as a bat under his desk or in the corner of his office. 

“You’re lucky, I wish I could do that.” Ellie commented.

“It is nice to not deal with people.” Alec nodded, and Ellie paused for a moment, before looking offended.

“Wait a second, so that means that a lot of the times when you ‘slipped out’ of your office, unseen, it was just you hiding in your office to avoid dealing with people!? Including me!?”

Alec just smiled at him and took a drink from his cup of blood. “Maybe.”

[cupidscrystals]

Hey! I hate to bother you, but I was wondering if you could expand on vampire lore behind Romulus? He’s a super interesting character and I’d love to hear more about vampires in the HP world!

:O !!! I’d love to! Here are some of the more important lore me and my good friend @meadowslittlebug came up with! Please go check her out, her art deserves more attention and she’s a wonderful person!

Vampires, Dhamphirs, and Vampire-borns

Two vampires who produce a child with the magic gene, this child called Vampire-born. This is the result of one or both parents having wizarding ancestry. If there’s no wizard ancestry in their bloodlines the child is called a Vampyr. The vampire-born and vampyr have a slow growing process, reaching the maturity of their bodies around 160 and 200 years old. They share the same traits as their turned brethren. A child of a human and a vampire or a human and a part vampire is called a Dhampir. Dhampir’s are only given to those who are at least ⅛ vampire. Some will always inherit vampiric traits such as sharp facial features, fangs, oddly coloured irises, an allergy to garlic and silver, and a repulsion to werewolves, but the rest of the vampiric traits are selected at random.

Aging

Newborns: They are newborn vampires. Their abilities are very limited.

Fledglings: They are Junior vampires a.k.a Vampires in training. A Fledgling learns how to control their thirst and hunting instincts along with gaining the ability to turn into a bat at will. Usually an older vampire is the mentor of the Fledglings and they can have more than one mentor. Mentors are usually the parents.

Matured: Fully grown vampires. They are the most common types of vampires found in the known world. They can turn other mortals into vampires.

Elder/Ancient: Vampires that are over 1000 years old, usually these ones are highly respected by the vampiric community, usually Elders hold positions of leadership. These are the ones that look less human-like and more like a real vampire.

[Picture: Top - Matured vampires, Bottom - Elder/Ancient vampire]

Vampires age MUCH slower than normal humans. 10 human years is equivalent to 1 vampire year.

Diet

Vampires can only drink blood. If they consume other kinds of food or drinks, their bodies will react violently until they expel all the contents. It was believed that human blood was necessary in the survival of Vampires, however vampires simply need blood, any kind of blood to keep their strength up. Such examples are animals. Human blood is just more nutritious and better tasting than animal blood. Vampires living on a diet of human blood will need to drink less than vampires living on a diet of animal blood.

Biology

• Vampires possess anticoagulant in their saliva that helps the blood keep flowing after the incision was done.

• Quick regeneration after an injury.

• They hiss at each other to mark dominance or as a warning sound.

• During their first few centuries they can reproduce, but after that period of time they become sterile and only can turn humans into vampires.

• Vampires can live without drinking blood for a couple weeks, but if the being haven’t consumed blood in a while, their appearance will age quickly and look more like a living corpse and more prone to act feral.

• Instead of water-based tears, vampires cry blood tears.

• Some vampires can have black scleras. Mostly the older generations, however it can be passed down.

[Picture: Black scleras]

• No vampire or part vampire has brown eyes. The only vampires that can have brown eyes are the ones that were turned. This is the #1 technique used to identify true vampires and human-turned vampires. True vampires can have eye colours ranging from blue, green, red, pink, orange, and purple. They NEVER have yellow eyes as that is a distinguishing feature of werewolves and part werewolves.

[Picture: Vampire eye colours]

• Enhanced senses.

• Enhanced strength, speed and agility.

• Being able to float and fly unassisted.

• Able to shoot plasma balls, this skill must be trained and only temporarily paralyzes prey

• Sunlight doesn’t kill them but they get burned pretty badly, feeling as if they were being burned to the bone, they can regenerate when they are in the shadows again.

• Since they are nocturnal creatures they are very sensitive to any source of light and can be temporarily blinded.

• Can only be killed by a wooden stake to the heart

• Silver is a ‘pure’ metal and makes vampires get burned or have bad allergic reactions.

• A Werewolf bite can be fatal to vampires. The Toxin from the werewolf and the venom in the vampire blood cause a reaction that makes the vampire deteriorate and die.

• Crucifixes and holy symbols is ambiguous, they produce a cringey effect in vampires but also there’s also a few that likes to see crucifixes, usually those have an inclination for liking the suffering.

• Poisoned or disease ridden blood ( sickness or toxic substances) will give the vampire a stomach ache.

Races & Branches

Humanoid: The newest generation of vampires, with their attractive features some can mingle between humans unnoticed, and some may resemble a typical vampire that it’s very obvious. Characterized for having pale skin, bright and odd eye coloration, fangs, as well as sharp features. (ex: European vampires, Jiangshi)

[Picture: 1 - Humanoid vampires, 2 - a Jiangshi (Chinese vampire) and European vampire just vibing]

Ancient: One of the oldest generation of vampires. They are older than 1000 years old. Around the age of 1000 their bodies change to a less humanoid features and have features such as longer ears, balding, bigger and longer fangs. Due to their age, ancient vampires are more reclusive compared to other races and don’t interact fully with the outer world. They wait until their prey is close enough to ambush.

[Picture: Ancient/Elder vampires]

Feral: Vampiric beast-like monsters or creatures that attack without distinction at humans and animals alike. Usually is known for attacking livestock. Some examples of these creatures are the Sasabonsam and the Chupacabras.

[Picture: Left - Sasabonsam, Right - Chupacabra]

History

Before 1811 (or early 1800s) , humans and wizards alike used to hunt vampires for sport. They mainly targeted the old and elderly vampires (over 1000 years old) and would bring home their decapitated heads as a trophy. The reason behind this was because the older vampires looked less human like than the younger generations do so it was easier for Muggles and Wizards to see them as an non-human entity. Most of the older vampires they slaughtered were of high position as they were elders, kings, queens, and other members of the royal vampire court. Because of the fact that vampires are immortal and time passes way differently in their perception, a lot of vampires today are still enraged at wizard kind because they were alive before they made vampire slaying illegal.

During the 1700s, the fear of vampires were at its highest point. People were stabbing the recently deceased with wooden stakes to prevent them from potentially turning into vampires and were insanely paranoid about them. They did all they could to protect themselves and their families from vampires. Vampire slaying was also at its peak, especially since wizarding ministries were promising people rewards of 200 galleons PER VAMPIRE slain. The vampire community combated this with trying to turn as many humans and wizards into one of their own in an attempt to repopulate and give them a taste of what it feels like to be treated badly. This is an extremely important time in history and is addressed as The Great Vampire Revolt. Again, most vampires alive in the present day were alive when all of this took place.

Given the frictions between the vampire and mortal community in the past, having relationships between both communities was frowned upon. If a vampire married a mortal, the vampire must make a choice, turn their loved one or must abandon the vampire community until the spouse is dead. However their offspring was well received, but part human part vampire offspring are pretty rare in present day. Other reasons as to why they are not common is because of the biological differences between the human and vampire causing problems conceiving or early infant hood death.

Monarchy

A Vampire Monarchy is a vampire who rules over a country. The vampires of a country form the Vampire Monarch’s Kingdom or Queendom. It is overseen by the Monarch, who also has authority over his or her vampire subjects. Although the countries are under complete reign by their individual monarch, they still remain under the jurisdiction of the Vampire Council in the Vampire Hierarchy.

The Vampire Council was a clandestine council that is composed of eight of the most politically powerful vampires in the known world. It is the ultimate authority over all vampires across the globe, overseeing matters of both religious and political purview in relation to the vampire population. It was worshiped by many and feared by even more.

[Picture: Members of the vampire council]

A vampire is granted the title of king or queen if they are in line for the throne and the current king or queen passes away or abdicated the throne. Upon the death of the reigning monarch, the Vampire Council will appoint a new king or queen. Vampires can also earn titles such as duke and duchess, baron and baroness (or thane), viscount and viscountess, count and countess (or earl), baronet and baroness, imperial knight and lady, or gentleman and gentry. by doing a very significant or impressive act to be granted a title. These royal titles can vary and differ depending on geographical locations.

Vampire Academies

Since the vampire population is much lower than the wizards there are not that many educational institutions for them to attend. The only ones we came up with so far is that there is one in Transylvania, Romania, Russia, and China.

Fun Facts

• Some may say that they have a ‘not giving a shit’ way of life and only care for their interests and brethren. For example they are not phased by murders of species out of their own kind (I mean they’ve been drinking the blood of humans since the beginning of time), one’s sexuality, or most things deemed dangerous by mortals. After all they gave bigger thing to worry about, like how they’re gonna acquire their next meal and figuring out how to enter places without being invited inside.

• Their pupils are slit shaped and the iris in different bright colors

• They can’t be killed by the killing curse, only stabbing them through the heart with a wooden stake (preferably made from wood of a peach tree. Any other wood will result in a slower death while peach tree wood will cause an instant death)

• There’s a vampire transcontinental championship where vampires from all over the world compete to see who’s the fastest flyer. For centuries, Asia has been taking first place.

• They sleep with their arms crossed over their chest. It doesn’t matter if they’re hanging upside down or in a coffin or laying on a couch, they’ll always end up in that position.

• They can hang upside down from any ceiling

Alright, that’s only a small part of what we have come up with, but if you have any questions about ANY of the lore or vampires in the HP universe in general, feel free to shoot me an ask!

Picture sources (I do not own any of these pics)

What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

Interview With a Vampire (1994)

https://pin.it/af6yidekumfffx

https://pin.it/cqa35xsnbcripc

https://pin.it/7upbmlapsy4ux3

https://pin.it/xxisghgdhy3qn2

https://pin.it/dpekjlnmh6xzfs

https://pin.it/ae2urdc3schf2q

https://pin.it/7en7bwce5uzm45

https://pin.it/kix6a5urpzq2wu

https://pin.it/nzn43moq3rypeb

https://pin.it/efm7amzuam3fle

https://pin.it/4hzqh4tzpghgph

Vampire Kingdom

https://trueblood.fandom.com/wiki/Vampire_monarch

[gayregis]

in voice of reason do you think Geralt was justified in calling Yennefer “too possessive”? what did you think of nennekes response?

ok im splitting this into two parts for the two questions!!

PART ONE: do you think Geralt was justified in calling Yennefer “too possessive”?

well, i think that sapkowski didn’t really have the lore of every single detail down-pat yet. he changes much later on - for example, in a question of price, geralt is referred to as a child surprise, but in the sword of destiny in something more, geralt clarifies to calanthe that mousesack got his facts wrong... this is sapkowski is behind the scenes retconning it.

other things also are changed, like i think it’s weird how vereena is just referred to as vereena when mr emiel regis rohellec terzieff godefroy pops up later in baptism of fire and says his name is in accordance with vampire tradition, and also vereena can turn into a bat and fly even though it’s midday (iirc... the time isn’t specified, but it’s assumedly midday?) when regis states that he can only turn into a bat and fly during the full moon, and not before midnight at that. of course vampires are such an irrelevant little detail, a footnote in the actual story, but it’s something to keep in mind that sometimes sapkowski loses consistency in his own lore inbetween books. 

i think he also stated that geralt and yennefer spent 6 months together in vengerberg, but this was later changed to a year, and then to four years... so i’m not sure how much he had conceptualized of yennefer as a character and yennefer and geralt’s relationship by this time of writing and publishing the last wish. he might have just had geralt say that yennefer was too posessive because he needed a reason for them to be broken up at this moment.

but for the sake of simplicity, let’s say that this is fully what sapkowski intended to write and convey about yennefer - it’s on the page, after all. firstly, i think that geralt is a whiny pissbaby. he just is. especially at this point in the books. he complains about everything, nothing is ever right, the entire world is out to get him and mock him. so i am inclined to not exactly believe him 100% when he complains about things being too anything, of course he would find everything too anything, he’s so sensitive, he’s geralt of rivia.

i need to analyze what it means to be called “posessive” in a relationship. and i don’t know what the original word used was, perhaps it was something more specific, as is sometimes the case with the translation. does it mean that yennefer didn’t want geralt to be looking at other women, that she wanted him to remain monogamous, and he didn’t want to be monogamous? does it mean that she was controlling of his actions? i think these are kind of both in character, i wouldn’t agree with geralt in calling her “posessive” due to the actual look at yennefer’s character that we get later on, but canonically, yennefer did want monogamy from geralt. and canonically, she did influence his behavior a lot, at least in style of manner and dress, for example she taught him how to eat chicken with a knife and fork and also dresses him for the event on thanedd. i don’t think these are necessarily negative things, it depends on how the level of willingness of geralt to be treated like this, it just depends on if he likes it or not. 

but let’s actually look at instances in which yennefer could be called “posessive” - for me, specific scenes in blood of elves and lady of the lake pop up. the first thing that comes to my mind is that triss betrayed her and used magic on geralt to sleep with him... which, obviously, is dubious consent, which means possibly no consent at all... and so, yes, yennefer has the right to be upset at triss and, depending on the context (it’s vague if geralt consented or not) possible geralt. i don’t think this is her being possessive, saying “geralt belongs to ME,” but rather, why would my best friend and my boyfriend go behind my back to sleep together? it's just one of those things you don’t do, as a best friend. it’s disrespectful. and this tension between yennefer and triss continues throughout the series, the last hostility between them in the series is yennefer threatening to snatch her by her ginger locks if she goes after her man - which i find to be just sort of a catfight sapkowski wrote in, owing to his personal biases and view of how women interact with one another. but also, in context, yennefer has just been through hell to get ciri and geralt back and safe, and triss has already gone after ciri to steal her with the lodge, and since yennefer and geralt are actually sincerely in a commited relationship by this point, i think it’s justified for yennefer to be upset at the thought of triss trying to get geralt to cheat on her again. and also, it’s sort of humorous because of how insanely much yennefer has just been through, but sapkowski allows her to have this sort of petty drama throwaway line, it contrasts with her deep character development that she just received in these last two books, and due to that, it’s funny.

speaking of best friends... the next scene that pops into my head relating to yennefer being “posessive” is when she speaks with dandelion at the beginning of blood of elves. i think a “posessive” lover would be one to try and ruin the relationships that their lover has with other individuals: friendships, family, etc. but in this scene, she’s so nice to dandelion! she’s very respectful, even when she’s hurt. and she tells him she respects him and thanks him for being there for geralt. that’s not posessive, that’s entirely the opposite - accepting that even if you don’t really like your significant other’s friends, that they like their friends, and you have to respect that relationship. yennefer could literally just threaten or kill dandelion if she was posessive and wanted him out of geralt’s life, but instead she is grateful to him for being there for geralt when she couldn’t / in a way that she couldn’t. and, in this same scene, she says that she has gone to kaer morhen as a a guest many times, never uninvited, so that confirms that she also has a good relaitonship with the other witchers of kaer morhen, geralt’s family, and doesn’t try to limit geralt’s interactions with them. she’s quite supportive of geralt’s relationships beyond her.

and finally, let’s go to the end of blood of elves, in the scenes where she becomes a teacher and mother to ciri... in the beginning, she is actually upset because she is being possessive of geralt - she resents ciri because she feels that geralt’s attention has been divided between the two of them, that because geralt has this kid now, he’s forgotten about her... but nenneke rebukes her for this, and then she realizes that that’s an incredibly immature way to behave. and she becomes a better person, she changes from her initial petty behavior and becomes a wonderful, selfless mother to ciri. in the end, she wasn’t possessive at all.

so, i don’t think that yennefer is actually “possessive,” she kind of just wants to be respected as a human being and also as geralt’s lover. geralt, in a little sacrifice, realizes that he hasn’t exactly respected yennefer, because of his own insecurities, he believed that she didn’t really fall so deeply in love with him, and that he couldn’t love her back, but she did, and he did. so his perspective changes in this moment... but of course, the voice of reason occurs way before this, when he is still acting immaturely. yennefer and geralt as characters develop together and sometimes as a result from one another. in the beginning, they’re both incredibly insecure people and that insecurity has made them act immature. but over the course of the series, they learn and grow.

in this moment, i don’t think geralt was justified to call yennefer “posessive,” because over the course of the series we see that she isn’t, but it is in character for him to say so.

PART TWO: what did you think of nennekes response?

nenneke responds to geralt by saying she’s not his mom and he shouldn’t be voicing his relationship complaints to her, and that if he has something to say or give to yennefer, he needs to do it himself.

i like this response, primarily because she urges geralt to act responsibly and maturely. geralt is, as i said, immature at this point in the books, and also is not quite experienced in love and relationships... so he is acting indirectly, almost cowardly - like breaking up over text message, or asking someone else to ask the girl in class if she likes you. it’s just like, do it yourself! have some confidence! but this is the edge to how much geralt respects yennefer and values her... he doesn’t want to do the wrong thing and offend her, so that he does the cowardly thing instead, and ends up offending her after all - i mean, leaving a flower on the nightstand? come on, dude...

geralt NEEDS someone to be the voice of reason and tell him to snap out of it, yennefer is just another person like anyone else, and you need to be direct with her. if you’re sorry, then say sorry! don’t try to give her vague presents to make up for it. that’s not how relationships work.

what i find funny and ironic is that as nenneke urges geralt to act mature and respectably, she tells him she’s not his mother in the same breath - even though this is exactly what a mother does. i think this was intentional on sapkowski’s part, since nenneke is so obviously a mother figure to geralt, having her say “i’m not your mother” aloud is something that needed to be said, because even though he sees her as one and they have this kind of mother-child relationship, she’s not. or, on the other hand, she is, and by her denying it, it’s just meant to be ironic to the audience, who understands that she is geralt’s mother but can never admit that to him.

[chibi-mushroom]

Hey everyone! Here is day three! The story is based on a show on youtube called Monstrum, I highly suggest it. There will be a picture to go along with it when I get home from work. I figured with her wearing all white and him wearing all black, it would be cute.

*************

Today was the day.  Riku had promised that he would take her to other worlds outside their own, and he intended to do it. Sora was safe and at home now, spending his days on the sands of the Destiny Islands with Kairi. However, life had other plans for Riku. He had decided to follow in Aqua’s footsteps and become a full-time keyblade master; protecting the worlds from any remaining darkness. He himself had learned that the darkness wasn’t the enemy they had always been told it was.

Not that he was never home anymore. His mother insisted that he be home as often as he could to visit. After they had lost him for so long, they weren’t intent on losing him again. His family had been so happy that he came home that they had forgiven him for plunging the world into darkness. Now they could ask Sora or Kairi for stories anytime they wanted to hear what kind of adventures their son was getting into.  They also begged him to bring Namine home. She lived with the Wayfinder trio in the Land of Departure and kept it while they were away on patrols.

There she was in the courtyard of her new home when he arrived to pick her up. She wore clothes much different now than that she could wear something other than that white slip she had been created in. Now she had a blue plaid skirt and black v neck top that resembled the one he wore. Overtop was a long white jacket with blue plaid on the bottom and a mickey insignia in yellow on her arm. Her hair was tied up as well, which made it easier to keep out of her face while she was casting spells.

With a heavy blush, Riku accepted the soft peck on his cheek before he lead her into the gummi ship. It was such a new sensation to have her holding onto him and presenting him with varied kisses. He enjoyed and treasured each one, but was also glad that they were kept in private, when it was just the two of them and they didn’t need to worry what else anyone thought or said.

“So, where are we going?” Namine questioned as she buckled her seatbelt. Takeoff had been hard on her every other time she had gone through it, despite how much she wanted to sit with him.

“I was hoping you might have a world in mind. I’ll take you anywhere you’d like to go.”

Namine thought to herself for a moment. There were so many worlds in Sora’s memories and even more in the hearts of those tied to him. But one in particular had stuck out to her. She somehow knew the lore that went with the holiday; the spooks and the scares and the way the dead shambled back to life. It wasn’t her first choice of worlds, but the idea of going there with Riku by her side seemed  a little easier to bear than dealing with the brunt of it by herself.

“Can we check out Halloween Town?” 

“You want to go there?” Riku looked back at her.

“Yes. it might be a little scary, but Jack seemed really nice, and I want to experience the thrill of terror when I know I'm not in any danger. Terra always seemed to like it, so…”

Riku smiled. “Then Halloween town it is. I wonder what your form change will be?”

While neither said it, they were both thinking it.  She was likely going to be a witch of some sort. That was what most of the organization had called her as well as DiZ and even herself on occasions, though she was usually repeating the words of others. As for Riku, he could be anything. Sora had seemed to be a vampire of some kind, so maybe the keyblade master would be, too.

When the ship touched down, Namine giggled at the bubbly feeling that always accompanied their form changes to other worlds. As they walked out of the ship together, they took a long look to evaluate the other's change. 

Riku was wearing a dark suit and his usually tanned skin had paled to being much lighter than she had ever seen it. She noticed very small fangs in his mouth as well as the fact that his hair had been mussed up. The biggest change though was the addition of bat wings that had grown out of him. It was fitting all things considered.

Her change though was quite a bit different. She reached up to where the brim of a witch's hat should have been only to find none. Her skin had turned a deathly white and her hair had even lost its color as well. She was wearing a long white dress that may have had a couple of rips, but for the most part was quite lovely.

"Are you supposed to be some kind of ghost?" Riku asked simply.

"No, I think I would be a little more...floaty? I don't feel like a ghost." Namine responded.

"That's the thing about form changes. You yourself haven't changed, just your outward appearance."

"Like you did in Twilight town." She spoke and gave a gasp, clapping her hands over her mouth. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"You never saw me like that. To you I was always Riku." He spoke softly.

Namine nodded and gently took one of his large hands in her two smaller ones. She squeezed them lovingly and caught his gaze. The past was the past and she told him so in those very words. He had moved so far forward from that time; there was no need to drag himself back, even if it had been partially her fault that he even thought about it.

He nodded back and turned to lead them into town. He faintly remembered parts of it when he had wandered through the memories in Castle Oblivion, but he had never gotten a chance to go there properly before now. For a moment he was worried they wouldn't have anything to light their way, as it was fairly dark around here in the forest. Thankfully the overly large full moon gave them plenty of light to see by.

Town was easy enough to find, and as they walked through the gates, they were greeted by a small ghostly dog with a little lit pumpkin on its nose. It gave a happy bark and flew close around them, causing a small breeze to ruffle their clothes and hair. Namine had wanted to pet it, but since it was a ghost, she settled for watching the way it observed them.

Coming behind the dog was an unusually tall skeleton in a dark suit and spider bow tie. He looked at them, sizing them up with a smirk on his face. Both recognized him as Jack, the pumpkin king, even though he had never actually met either of them.

"Welcome to Halloween town. And who might you two be?" He bent over to get a better look at them.

"I'm Riku and this is Namine. We're friends of Sora's." 

At the mention of the boy's name, Jack's face lit up. "So you found him after all. Good for you. Tell him to stop by sometime if he wants a good scream. I'm Jack, by the way. I help make each Halloween more scary than the last."

"Will do. And nice to meet you, jack." Riku replied. "So, is there anything to do around here?"

"Sure! Lots. Why don't you and your banshee friend head over to Curly hill? It's just down the way, you can't miss it."

A banshee. So that was what Namine had transformed into. As they waved goodbye, something was tugging at the back of Riku's mind. He had heard about banshees from his time on the island. They were monsters with a horrible voice and came to attack from out of nowhere. Maybe the form changes really were random, because that wasn't anything like her. She was usually soft spoken and thoughtful of others.

She must have been thinking about it too, because the look on her face was deep in thought, and perhaps a little troubled. As they walked, he took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. That was enough to bring her out of her thoughts, as she forced a smile at Riku.

"Are you bothered by the form change?" He asked.

"I don't know. I know about the stories you, Sora and Kairi would tell whenever you went camping, but it's like what we said earlier, appearance doesn't equal the heart, right?"

"Yeah, but you should also be comfortable in your own skin. Maybe we could try another world?'

"No, I want to see Curly hill for myself. I've seen it in memory, but this will be different."

They continued to walk, leaves crunching under their feet and a faraway howl rising in the air. Despite what she had said, her brows were still knit close together and she made a face similar to what Kairi did when she was frustrated.

There was a thin gate to their right and it led into a pathway in line with their final destination. Far ahead of them was the iconic hill that they were looking for, the swirl high in the moonlight. As they got closer, they noticed someone walking among the tombstones and pumpkins. She was moving at a leisurely pace, humming softly to herself.

"Oh, that's Sally." Namine smiled. She had always liked the woman from what she had seen.

"Hello there, and who might you be?" Sally asked.

"I'm Namine and this is Riku. It's nice to meet you."

"Yes, I suppose it is. Have I met you before? There's something about you that seems familiar."

Namine shook her head. She must have sensed the small amount of Sora that had been imbued in her upon her creation. Sally really must have been able to sense things others couldn't necessarily see. 

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Sally. It's not often we get a banshee around here. Not to say your vampire friend isn't welcome, but banshees are just a sign of good luck."

Riku and Namine looked at each other in slight confusion. They had never heard that version of the story. It had always been death and destruction. Where did the good luck come from?

"Banshees are good luck because they usually arrive to let members of their family know that death is coming so they have a chance to prepare. Which family are you connected to?"

"I'm not sure." Namine admitted. 

"That's alright." Sally smiled warmly in the cool moonlight.

From the gate came the same ghostly dog who had greeted them when they entered the town. He zoomed around Riku and Namine before licking Sally and barking at her. The woman bent down and patted the ghost dog on the head before watching him fly off towards the town.

"It looks like doctor Finkelstein needs me for something. I hope you two enjoy your stay!"

With Sally gone, Riku suggyest they head up the hill to get a better view of the area nearby. They sat together for a while, listening to the wind sighing and a small band of vampires playing in the distance. He could tell she was  deep in thought again, but this time, she wasn't nearly as frustrated. A contemplative look filled her face. 

"Munny for your thoughts?" Riku asked.

"Just thinking about what Sally said. I guess I just got so used to being referred to as a witch that I didn't think there could be any good in monsters outside of this world. To me, a witch was just as much as a monster as any of them."

He listened as she continued.

"But I think….I think that hearing what Sally had to say about the banshees really made me wonder about who I'm going to be and what I'm going to do. They may have called me a witch, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, right?"

"No, it isn't. After all, witch, banshee, nobody; those don't make up who you are. Only you can decide what you're going to be."

"Yeah. Maybe that's the real reason why my heart led us here today. That way I could figure this out." She caught his gaze. "Riku, thank you."

[terramythos]

Notes from my October Daye reread, #7 Chimes At Midnight. Or, "don't eat evil pie if you're planning to overthrow the government". Advanced spoilers, please read the books, etc. 

Reminder right off the bat that sweet fashion disaster May used to be an eldritch horror of the night???

-the month name in her case seems to be a coincidence? (But like. How could a name like May Daye be a coincidence. Come the fuck on.)

-Goblin fruit is super yikes. Super addictive drug that inevitably leads to death?

- Tybalt and Toby domestic shit hell yeah

Tybalt: arrested for being horny on main

- Toby: let's visit the Queen, who demonstrably hates me, about the goblin fruit problem. What could possibly go wrong (spoiler: a whole lot)

-"i may be a composite of multiple dead people, but I'm not stupid" May is nonbinary, pass the fucking tea

-The Gang Overthrows the Queen

Quentin is such a good kid! Fuck!

-I just... love the characters and how they've developed over the series. Quentin is great, Tybalt is great, The Luidaeg is great... October has changed into a more open and less depressed person. It's great! I mean, everything goes to shit over the next 2 books, but we've come so far!

-Quentin getting extremely upset that The High King didn't notice the Queen didn't have a legitimate claim to the throne? Haha. Haha. *takes another shot*

-Quentin: we could just like... TELL the High King that shes not a legitimate ruler. Like we literally could just call him up and say--

Toby: he would probably kill us and how would we do that anyway

Quentin: *silently screaming*

Have I mentioned I LOVE the Luidaeg? Shes such a great character.

-the implication that tybalt's archaic speech is at least partially just to fuck with Toby is so fuckign funny god they're so cute

GOD...

-Quentin not quite bowing to Arden, or at least not as formally as the others. That's foreshadowing. God damn it.

- The Undersea: is relevant

Me: wow I knew we introduced all that lore 2 books ago for a reason

- "Princesses aren't exciting. I've met Princesses." I am so glad I am not ACTUALLY drinking every time Quentin's identity is foreshadowed, because this book alone would have killed me by now.

- everything: goes to shit

Me: ah, there it is

- Toby becoming instantly addicted to goblin fruit and forgetting 2 of the most important people in her life has me at a severe oof. :(

- fucking props to seanan for making pie legitimately threatening.

- October Daye patch 7.1 notes: due to balance concerns, toby has been shifted back to more human.

Gameplay effects: hair is brown again. blood magic effects and self-healing have been reduced by 75%. Iron resistance increased 75%.

-Theres a line about how Tybalt should have known better than to believe anything could have gone right for very long and. Yikes in context. Yikes with knowing Tybalt's backstory.

- fun lore with the Luidaeg offering to turn Toby into a Selkie to save her from impending death. Being like... technically the Selkie Firstborn. And how much doing that would actually cost. It's certainly something to file away for later because I don't imagine we would introduce a concept like that and then abandon it...

-SUDDEN HEAVY SETUP FOR BOOK 8 STUFF. SUDDEN BOOK 1 BEING RELEVANT. Why did Evening, some random noble, have a fucking ancient powerful artifact just kinda... randomly in her possession? INDEED.

- toby: Why does the name Eira Rosenhwyr sound so familiar?

Mags: Oh she's a Firstborn

Toby: Right, that definitely explains it one hundred percent. Time to not think about it at all ever again.

- TOBY I'm aware you're kind of out of your mind right now but surely you can see the aesthetic similarity between EIRA ROSENHWYR and EVENING WINTERROSE. Ajdjenskkelbsbd

- I fucking googled it and Eira Rosenhwyr translates roughly to "Snow Rose Evening" lmfao

- Mags, continuing exposition: yeah she always had this Snow White thing where like she never stayed dead for long

Me, considering book 1's central conflict and how Evening was described multiple times as Snow White: 🙃

- I really appreciate the fact that whenever Walther shows up in a book he pretty much saves the day in a major way just by making like. A potion

- toby: magic is weird. Candy made from my blood that temporarily curbs the effects of addiction? Right

Walther: you're dating a cat

-I forgot we learn The Luidaeg's actual name in this one???? "Yeah I'm Antigone what up"

-OH THATS WHERE THE "ANNIE" PSEUDONYM COMES FROM. God damn it.

-God I love Danny and his godawful expletives "Oberon's scrotum". God

- I haven't mentioned it too much but there are soooooo many good tybalt and toby moments. They have such a good and loving relationship. Boy I die

-there's a bit where Toby consumes some of the Luidaeg's blood for Reasons and gets a brief Luidaeg-POV flashback.. which shows the Luidaeg protesting Amandine abusing Toby as a kid. So even though they don't really meet until book 1, it puts her first unofficial appearance in a new context. Just some all powerful ancient sea witch checkin up on her niece at Safeway, y'know

- god the first Cu Sidhe shows up in this one and he just looks like a glam rocker who's also sort of a dog. Jesus christ

- they just act like dogs too and it is so funny. Fucking zero attention span, super excited and happy at being told they did a good job.

- arden: there's no way you're amandine's kid. She would never sleep with a human. Her husband would be pissed

Toby: ??? My mom isn't married?

(Oh boy that's gonna be a fun one)

AND, AFTER SIX AND A HALF BOOKS OF SOLID FORESHADOWING:

We get the Quentin reveal. The alcohol poisoning ceases.

-There's some real good irony in like. THE Crown Prince getting apprenticed to Toby, who is a member of Faerie's biggest underclass. And they become fucking BFFs over the course of the series. That's some good shit

👌👌👌some GOOD👌 shit right there

-God just going back there are SO many hints. I noted a lot of them on this series reread but some of my favorites are the real subtle ones. Like Quentin in book 2 being inexplicably amused when Toby orders him to do something.

- Like?? She makes the kid do chores. She's almost gotten him killed like half a dozen times. That's just some... premium good shit.

Well the book sums up that revelation pretty well lmao

- Did... did Arden just imply Toby's mom caused the 1906 San Francisco earthquake...? That is certainly something I either missed or forgot. How is that like even a thing

- The night haunts are cool as shit and I'm glad they're showing up as bigger players. And now we have setup for Toby owing them a favor. Delightful.

ME SIPPING THAT LUIDAEG LORE JUICE

- October Daye patch 7.1.8 notes: oh god we fucked up we fucked up changes reverted

-Blood magic CPR? Canon. Then again I'm pretty sure Toby was established using blood magic to resurrect someone in book 2. So. Book 2 is still relevant

God I'm such a sucker for this angsty shit. And of course this would be Tybalt's solution, considering his backstory. God. Fuck

-I like how they went from enemies to like ridiculously sweet and affectionate lovers.. but it's not 100% perfect, they still have arguments and disagreements. But it all comes down to them caring about each other. That's some good shit right there

- Dianda being a huge badass and just singlehandedly taking out six guards while iron poisoned. a good development.

- new toby power of literally stealing someone's powers by drinking their blood. We're going like full vampire here huh

- and The Queen... who we establish actually traded her name away... manages to escape. Wonder when she shows up again 🤔🤔🤔

- ok god the fucking short story epilogue is SO GOOD. Luidaeg POV!!! Luidaeg lore is always good but this is one of the only parts we have seen Amandine. It reveals that The Luidaeg literally has just been October's guardian angel for years, which explains why some all powerful sea witch just stumbles into Toby's life???. Amandine is a fucking brat. It foreshadows fucking... SOMETHING with the goddamn month names. And it sets up Eira. God next book is going to be so good.

- There are interesting parallels between Toby and her mom. Amandine was trying to turn Toby into a human for fucking years?? As some kind of shitty experiment? Almost succeeded until The Luidaeg intervened. There's all these lines about how Amandine had stolen centuries of Toby's life, how Toby would be defenseless and Faerie would still know who she was even if Amandine succeeded. What does this say about Gillian? Toby turned her completely human in book 4 to save her life. There's no way that's not going to come back in a big way.

-What. Is with. The month names. Seriously we have not had any new ones since 3 but that's still like 5 characters. I know there are several more coming in the next few books and I still don't know why the fuck lol

-This book was mostly the final setup for next book, which is an absolute fucking bombshell. Probably the best book in the series and that is saying something. I'm excited to reread it. But on it's own this one is a good read too... love that we finally got the Quentin reveal!! The horrific Queen is gone for now! Stuff!

[vorthosjay]

Let’s Talk About Glimpse the Far Side of the Sun

Magic Story is back today with a Glimpse the Far Side of the Sun, and man is this another excellent (and vindicating) story!

As always, more after the keep reading line.

Azor, the Lawbringer by Ryan Pancoast

Angrath rolled his shoulders, bull head tipping side to side with a pop. "You just want to get to the top of the anthill and congratulate yourself on the view."

I really like Angrath’s attitude in all of this. He’s very Black-Red without being evil.

“Kaldheim," Angrath said forcefully. "Another plane. Do you understand what I mean, now?"

Alison already confirmed that this is not Angrath’s home plane. It just happens to be a plane nearby. But it’s still important! In A Whole Lotta Woad I mentioned there is lot of ‘Viking World’ art popping up lately, and the offhand mention of a random minor plane like Kaldheim seems important. Since we already had Chandra’s home/origins plane in Kaladesh, outside of her adopted plane of Regatha, Kaldheim is important to Chandra in that it’s where she fought Ramaz in DotP 2014. Ramaz being a planeswalker working for Nicol Bolas who led Chandra to the Dragon Scroll and ultimately Zendikar.

"Fourteen years," Angrath growled. For a moment Huatli was moved. She was about to express her condolences, but was interrupted by Angrath's addendum: "They'd drink the blood of your emperor with glee, idiot."

FOURTEEN YEARS. No wonder he’s so angry. And wrathful.

Imagine having your daughters grow up without you, trapped and helpless to get back to them. Return is in sight, and nothing will stand in his way.

Huatli pointed at the structure in front of them. It was covered in vines and weathered with time, and the door in front had been jumbled ajar. "There's a legend that says the bat of the East met Aclazotz . . ."

So wait, is Aclazotz an actual demon? Becuase the art book implied it was just a place where the bat-god temple is. I’m so confused...

Nearly all tales spring from truth, and Huatli reasoned quickly that the legend of the Bat of the East began with this very real vampire centuries before.

I suggested this very thing in Rivals of Ixalan: Lore and Flavor. Which makes the last bit more confusing. Is Elenda the bat-god of night?

The vampire bared her teeth. "I left the Church with the knowledge of the ritual to take on my burden, and they used that to become invaders?"

Huatli glared. "What were they meant to do with your gift?"

"They were meant to learn humility."

Huatli's jaw fell open. The Legion of Dusk? Humble?

"They were meant to search for salvation for us all," Elenda continued. "I see I must teach them what they forgot."

Elenda straightened, and a great shadow fell across her face. She stepped forward, past Huatli and Angrath, and vanished into a dark slice in the air.

A few cool things here. First, it’s nice to see the progenitor of vampires on Ixalan having a different view than the conquistadors. It gives the hope of a resolution that does not involve conquest.

Also, Elenda has some cool powers outside of the norm for Vampires. Shadow teleportation? Awesome.

(Gold scales. Sandstone. Heat. Rough sand on his lips and in his eyes and in his throat. Broken, doomed friends. He was trying to break into a dragon's mind. Sense what the dragon's plan was, stop him from doing harm, and for a brief moment, he had done it, he saw the goal, the endgame—)

Jace saw Bolas’ Endgame? If he really does get back all his memories this block, we might finally see it!

(Ugin was unfurling himself inside a great cavern. "Good fortune, Jace Beleren," he said in farewell, curling his immense silvery tail around himself.)

Jace blinked. Ugin. That name came to him easily, but the texture of this memory was strange. He felt for the conversation in his mind and thumbed around its edges, inspecting its sides with the same care he had when Alhammarret had meddled with his memory years before. Never trust your memory around anything older than yourself. Jace grimaced to realize he never would have thought to investigate if he hadn't remembered learning that the hard way.

There. A hair trigger. A line waiting to be tripped, a clever bit of obfuscating mental magic that the spirit dragon must have implanted without him noticing. The spell left behind was a simple command. If someone were to try and read my mind and find this encounter with Ugin, the memory would be shrouded, and I would be compelled to instantly planeswalk away. To here. To Ixalan.

Jace became worried. Why did Ugin need to hide my memory of him? Why command me to come here, of all places? Was I meant to be a lure?

VINDICATION! I suggested this waaaaay back in Ixalan: A First Look seven months ago, and it’s been my go-to answer for why Jace went to Ixalan ever since. TBF, Wil got there first, stupid queue.

Okay, so why did Ugin send Jace to Ixalan? Well, that moment Jace remembers? That’s not quite how we saw it back in Revelation at the Eye, but the implication is that this is from that scene (both the unfurling and saying good fortune happen then). So this is when Ugin planted the trigger, even before the Gatewatch killed the Eldrazi Titans. What did Jace learn in this meeting that Ugin didn’t want shared? I’ve speculated before it was the mere fact that Ugin was alive. He doesn’t want Bolas to know and come back after him before he’s ready.

I really love the call back to Jace’s Origin Story in this story. The way this weaves together threads that have been laid over the last three years is very rewarding.

I’m glad my image of Ugin being a cunning dragon himself, someone who COULD rival Bolas, has panned out. Ugin prepared in advance for Jace revealing him by accident.

It also means that Ugin was aware of Ixalan, and that he either wanted Jace to discover something there, or wanted to imprison Jace to keep him from screwing up Ugin’s plans. But if Ugin knows of Ixalan, and knows it would trap Jace, did he once work with Azor? In The Mysteries of Ixalan I had posited that ‘the winged beast’ being Azor wouldn’t rule out Ugin’s involvement.

Think about it. You’re Ugin. Bolas nearly kills you, and you wake up to a former pawn of Bolas that saved you, and reveals Bolas has undone your greatest work. You head to Zendikar, and Jace comes upon you in the Eye. In his mind, you find another being who helped release the Eldrazi, and whose path has crossed Bolas’s more than once. What do you do, humanely? You plant a trigger to erase yourself from Jace’s mind in case he runs into Bolas again, and if he’s trouble, you squirrel him away on a plane he can’t leave.

. . . And what did I find in the golden dragon's mind before he erased my own?

I really hope we find out by the end of the block.

Vraska stretched out her hamstrings, holding on to a golden pillar for support.

Every third word when describing Orazca is ‘gold’. Between that, the gold veins, and the golden elders, there’s something up there. Maybe an inherent feature of the plane?

Jace pulled a wave of illusion over the two of them. It came easily now, somehow even more so than before he had come to Ixalan.

(Another memory: hours and hours spent memorizing text and technique, his teenage self staying up late in bed with a lamp to study by. The hum of a mage ring outside. Millard's Procedure. Circumstantial Manipulations. Tricien's Law. Over and over until the names, techniques, and executions of psychic maneuvers came as easily as breathing.)

The implication here is that the sudden additional years of experience Jace can draw upon, plus the formal training he had in the time he forgot, has made Jace a vastly more powerful mage.

In the span of a moment, Jace was surprised at himself, and then realized his earnestness of late, of Ixalan, was not manufactured, nor was his mindfulness something he could only access in a state of amnesia. That was who he had always been. He had just forgotten.

I’m very glad we’ll be seeing more of Ixalan Jace.

(A memory: his mother, arriving home from a day at work, dressed in her healer's smock, looking out the open window at a storm in the distance with a cup of coffee nestled in her hands and a little smile on her tired face. He heard fat raindrops rattling the tin roof. The air smelled like wet concrete and home.)

Jace’s coffee obsession, explained. It reminded him of his mother, in its own way.

"Well, your best is incredible," Vraska said, turning toward the central tower and approaching a large gate on what appeared to be its back side.

Liliana never told Jace he was incredible.

Liliana would have scoffed. She would have made a dismissive joke, rolled her eyes, and called him a show-off. She would not bother to talk to him for days. She would consume the body of a demon with a crocodile's jaws and laugh over the sound of its flesh tearing off. She would do all sorts of things, but she would never call him incredible.

Oh sweetie. I’m so glad Jace is realizing just how toxic that bullshit was.

"It's a maze," Vraska said at the same time as Jace. They glanced at each other briefly, awkwardly.

Vraska gestured toward Jace. "Have at it," she said. "You're the maze guy."

UGH.

Of course Jace is the Maze guy. My gripe about Azor being behind Ixalan was that it meant Jace was solving another freaking puzzle by Azor.

Was Azor a sphinx? he asked Vraska in her mind with hushed terror.

I’m so glad they don’t know. It works better because it doesn’t retcon anything, just confirms that no one on Ravnica really knew.

He is so much like Alhammarret, Jace thought, his chest tightening with the ache of memory. He stowed his fear. He was not ruled by a sphinx. Not anymore.

I love the Alhammarret comparison, and that the art direction on Azor being a human headed sphinx like Alhammarret wasn’t a coincidence.

I guess we now see how Jace will react to Azor! He’s not a fan.

"You will refer to her as Captain," Jace said in a measured tone.

The sphinx growled and looked past Vraska at Jace. "And what does that make you?"

"I am Jace Beleren, the Living Guildpact," he said with confidence.

The sphinx's wings flinched. "The fail-safe?!"

"The pirate."

Okay, who can’t love this scene? Standing up to an oldwalker, someone who  abuses the powers you yourself hold, I love it.

Azor’s flinch is interesting. His shock that the Living Guildpact there makes it clear this was no where in his plans, ever. Remember: Azor has no way of knowing what went down on Ravnica. I’m very excited to see how this relationship evolves.

Jace’s response is equally great.

[crazyfishmaiden]

Actually feel free to dislike me if you want.

So I actually forgot how touchy people here can be about seeing things they don’t like in tags (such as different opinions), or criticism, or just someone plain old not liking something.

Look, I get it. I’m still allowed to have an opinion, and if you are a big fan of a certain book turned movie series involving vikings, and flying creatures here is a wonderful suggestion. Stop reading. Add to your block list if it makes you feel better. Honestly I’m okay with that. Granted I have people on my watch list that post things I consider cancerous, and have strong opinions about but I don’t stop following, and kind of just keep my mouth shut. That is their space, this is mind. I can turn the other cheek. It’s not like all my thoughts and ideas matter.

That said I am reposting what I wrote before with different tags, and with the language toned down a little bit.

I don’t consider Toothless a Dragon. He’s more of a precautionary tale as to why a salamander shouldn’t mate with a bat. Then again I’m kind of an idiot who feels strongly about things that really don’t matter. Like drawing mammaries on anthropomorphic dragons, and birds (can we stop and appreciate how painful it must be to breast feed something with really sharp teeth, or beaks?)

I know I’m not some dragon god who gets to decide what is and isn’t. I’m just someone who grew up highly enthusiastic about a few things, dragons and dinosaurs being one of them. I’m actually delighted right now to finally start up a collection based on the latter. Goodness knows I’ve grabbed more than a treasure trove (spot for to antique dragons, and occupied japan pieces, or pre WW2).

For some people my words are fighting words (I say this playfully) because I consider a certain movie series’s choice design for their “Dragons” to be lazy, hideous, have no attention to form, and well...just ugly. I tried, I tried so hard to give it a chance but I couldn’t keep watching after this salamander bat shows up, an I’m just like “Why isn’t this movie about winged lotls?” FYI I would probably watch a movie about flying axolotls. Unfortunately the rest of the movie’s “Dragons” are even less aesthetically pleasing, to not mention looking functionally challenged.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I can’t tell you how many customers call me crazy because I think Pop Tart looks gorgeous, and I find his cute little face cute. I find things people find ugly cute. I’m that person. 

Words have meaning though. Meaning can change yes, but meaning all the same. A chimera is different than dragon. A siren and a kappa are two different things. Vampires and werewolves are different. Each has traits that define what they are. It’s what makes each thing what it is, and what it is not.

Ever wonder how the concept of “Dragon” came to be? This is now a history lesson, so if you like to learn about dragons dial in.

Places that have dragons in their culture and histories….also have dinosaurs associated with those areas (as being where they were found).

Compare some of the major finds in places like China, to the way their dragons look. Funny that they have long serpentine dragons. There are several long neck dinosaur species finds accredited to that area. Also there are Chinese who sell ground up something as dragon bones. As a cure for something. Someone followed up on that, and found out they were digging up dinosaur fossils (often long necked ones), and that was the source. They still insisted they were in fact dragon bones.

Imagine that you lived in a time where the concept of extinction didn’t exist, and the idea of species dying out also didn’t exist. You expect that all that existed still exists, just that some things are harder to find creature wise. With that mindset imagine you found fossil remains of a carnivore relative to the tyrannosaur family. So it’s just a partial skull, some teeth, and part of the rib-cage. Now, a terrifying thought enters your mind. This creature exists somewhere. This is a dead one, and it’s been dead for a while. However, this creature exists.

That’s the start of a lot of firm beliefs through-out the ages in monsters, dragons, and other mythological creatures. People were not just imaginative, they were trying to make sense of what they saw. A lot of contemporary animals get through into the mix as people tried to imagine what it looked like when the real thing isn’t there. So at it’s core Toothless is probably the closest to a decent form. At least it doesn’t have a severely malformed jaw, unnecessary spikes, and just comically over-done. I get it t hat they had the book descriptions to work with, but they didn’t have to go with over-inflated necks and jaws that barely come together right. They could make them cute without making them look bad.

While I get it that this is probably initially aimed at a child market. That’s fine. Spyro wasn’t meant for adults. It was a stab at getting a more child friendly game going to pull that market over to Sony PlayStation (Nintendo firmly held that market at the time). Despite how polygonal they all looked, the various dragons were not really all that bad. It will be interesting to see them reskinned with the trilogy rework.

Harry Potter was geared towards children in the beginning, and it wasn’t til after the Triwizard Tourney that it took a seriously darker and more adult turn. The dragons in book and movie were actually magnificent. Even WoW has done a fairly decent job especially with their latest models. Actually one of my greatest things I admired about Rowling was how she did appear to do some research into mythological creatures before including them in her series. Yeah she took some artistic liberty but it wasn’t over the top. So it wasn’t hard even if you had the sound muted, to identify what a HIppogriff was. Her description of the Sphinx was lovely. The basalisk was actually decent too.

When people decide that they want to turn to mythology to buff up their story (here we have attempted viking and dragon pairing) I just appreciate it more when they don’t go full artistic liberty and throw out what it is they are basing on.

I hate Twilgiht because it bastardizes the concept of Vampires. I don’t actually like vampire lore, it’s not my thing. I can still dislike how we had a bunch of tweens running around pretending to be vamp fans because of what some hack writer got away with.

Yeah I know I’m splitting hairs over things that don’t matter, and are not real but hey, I have an opinion. If you don’t like it that’s fine. I respect that. I can’t stand this series. I’m tired of seeing poorly cobbled together “Dragons” become mainstream. I can’t change it. But I can have an opinion about it.

[majingojira]

120 Years, 120 Monsters Day 23-24

God, I’m terrible at deadlines.

85) Jurassic Park (1993) - Velociraptor

It’s hard to understate the impact of this film, and the Velociraptor in particular.  The entire family of Dromaeosaurs can now be defined with the word “Raptor” and all subsequent Dromaeosaurs now get “Raptor” in their name when designated.  It added a new Dinosaur to the popular lexicon that formerly was made up of animals found before 1920 (Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, etc.  - the “Stock Dinosaurs”).  And what a dinosaur it was.

Exaggerated in size, intelligence, and ferocity for the film, it created an animal that could hunt a human down with little effort and promised a death that came to them swiftly, but that lingered over its victim for longer than they’d expect.  Alan Grant’s speech at the start set things up for them beautifully, so that when they do show up, we’re already prepped to be terrified.

Though the eviscerated cow didn’t hurt either.

The real animal, Velociraptor mongoliensis, was about the size and weight of a turkey, and probably could still kill an adult human if it wanted to. How? Well, it’d jump on you, and dig its 3-inch claws into them and then hold on. This technique is called “Prey Riding” and lets the target exhaust themselves and bleed to near death before they move in for the kill.

Which is actually worse than what the movie did to try and make them scary when you think about it!

86) The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1994) - Tyrannosaurus rex

This was inescapable.  The King of Dinosaurs had to be on this list.  The real question was what movie to use.  Because there are a LOT to choose from.  You can’t really go into prehistoric times or a lost world without running into a Tyrannosaur. There were many contenders, but in the end, I had to go with this one.  It gives the Rex more focus and a decent ramage through a city, fully displaying the power of the animal.

Plus it wasn’t killed at the end, and that makes me happy.  

87)   Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) - Gyaos

Now, you may be wondering what I’m thinking here.  Gyaos before Gamera?  Yeah, I have my reasons for it.  Gyaos is the archfoe of the titanic turtle, and a real horror when you get right down to it, especially in this version.  At least, in concept. This is a creature brought out by specific circumstances (environmental degradation among them).  And when they are, they breed rapidly and proceed to end civilizations.  

In effect, they are a zombie apocalypse on wings, with a sonic laser that allows it to cut through all but the staunchest defenses.  Fast breeding, ravenous, and able to fly, there’s no way to do a “The Walking Dead” style series with these horrors on the loose.  

Because they are far more efficient killers than any zombie.  

Plus, you just can’t beat their shrieks, especially the classic one, and the one used in their following appearance . . .

88)   The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) - Lions

At the dawn of humanity, large cats were one of the threats that haunted us all.  In parts of the world, big cats of all stripes and spots still do on occasion kill and eat humans.  There is nothing more primal and terrifying on a base level than a large cat to the ape within us all.

Which is why it’s so surprising there are so few big cat monster movies.  Maybe it’s the presence of so many house cats in our lives softening their image, but a Lion is a different beast entirely.  Also, house cats are exceedingly deadly to the point where they are responsible for quite a few extinctions just by themselves.

Still, there are movies and even TV shows that exploit the terror a big cat can induce.  This, I think, is the best of them.  Suspenseful, tense, and the roars of the beasts are chilling in and of themselves.  

But the best part?  It’s based on true events.  The Lions of Tsavo really did kill a ton of people near the turn of the last century.  And even some of the more fantastic parts of the movies (the boxcar trap in particular) is no exaggeration or hollywoodism.  

Scared yet?

89) From Dusk 'Till Dawn (1996) - Vampires

I wanted to have a movie on this list that just used generic vampires, and while these monsters were far from generic, they are a horde and they are memorable despite this.

Because there are not many vampires out there as susceptible to Splatstick.

Once the cast gets to the Titty Twister, and the vampires reveal themselves (in all their, ahem, glory), it becomes a nice little horror movie. They go over the rules in a realistic way, note how fast they turn others into more of their kind (and why they tend to dismember their victims to prevent this), and so on.  

And visually, these monsters are some of the ugliest and most unique looking vamps out there. Using upturned bat noses for many of them worked really well, especially since they drew from a variety of species, and didn’t increase the size of the nose much, just made it more bat-like.  

Props to the makeup team for that.

. . .

Okay, yeah, Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek) was smoking hot in this, too!

90) Anaconda (1997) – Anaconda

I needed a giant snake in this, as it’s a great ‘stock monster’ and this is honestly the best giant snake movie out there, but I have a love-hate relationship with it.  

It’s a great B-Movie through and through.  Great cast, good FX, and a decent enough story to get things along. I saw it in theaters twice even, it was so fun.  

But later on, I went on a trip to Australia.  Big deal, flew all over the place once there too. And every goddamned time we had a meal on the flight, Anaconda was the Mid-flight movie (back in the day when we had no choice as to what was played -- I once saw a director’s cut of Austin Powers with all the minion backstory bits included!).  So, midway through the meal, we got to see Jon Voight half-digested and being barfed up by the second giant anaconda.  Just in time to kill everyone’s appetite.

Australians are mean pranksters, man.  

91)   Ringu (1998) – Sadako

This was a hard choice to make.  Part of me wanted to go with the remake, which I think is a superior movie because of better visual effects.  But one thing pushed Sadako over Samara in my mind.

Her fingers.  It isn’t much, but her nailless fingers in this film offset so much that was underdone in it otherwise.  Creeped me right the hell out.

Anyway, Sadako is an Onryo, or Angry Ghost.  It’s a primarily Japanese concept, but it makes more sense than most ghost lore does.  See, Onryo are vengeful spirits of the dead that don’t just seek out those who wronged them, but lash out against everyone they encounter.  Their hate is so encompassing that it can only be guided to the nearest person.  So learning the ‘truth’ of the spirit and working to appease it does nothing.  It will still kill you unless you meet its demands.  

In this case, it's’ to make a copy of a video which spreads her curse further.  

One of the great things about Japanese folklore is that it hasn’t really gone away with the advent of technology.  It changes with the technological advancement.  There’s even the lore about telephone calls! And you’ve probably heard it before if you’ve seen any Japanese movie or tv series subtitled.  

In Japan, phones are answered ‘Mushi-Mushi’ -- which is “Hello” twice.  This is done because the belief is that supernatural creatures will only answer with one.

Yes, really.  That is a thing.  

92) Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998) - Alien Abductions

Alien Abductions by bulbous-headed gray skinned, black-eyed aliens was a big thing in the late 80s and through the 90s that died off with the millennium somewhat (at least, in pop culture).  But there aren’t many good ‘monster’ movies with this theme.  It fit more with television.  

But there were two big ones.  There was Fire in the Sky and there was this one.  This won out because it’s an early found footage movie that got people so involved . . . the people who promote the reality of this sort of thing thought it was real.  

That’s some Orson Welles level stuff right there.  

Ah, for the days when Found Footage was done as an intentional stylistic choice rather than “We’re low budget and need to hide that fact.”

[operationrainfall]

Title Castlevania Anniversary Collection Developer Konami Publisher Konami Release Date May 16th, 2019 Genre Adventure, Platformer Platform Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, XBox One Age Rating T for Teen – Blood, Fantasy Violence, Partial Nudity Official Website

I wasn’t originally planning on reviewing the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. After all, I didn’t receive a review copy, and mostly bought it to satisfy my own nostalgia. But the more I played it, enjoying both reliving and experiencing anew highlights in this storied franchise, I decided I might as well write something. After all, I was already taking dozens upon dozens of screenshots. And despite only being a nominal fan of the Castlevania series, I felt I had some things to share. I say nominal because I only really got into the series when Symphony of the Night revolutionized the entire thing, and you’d be accurate in saying there’s a big difference between the original games and those which came after SOTN. Hell, before this I hadn’t even beaten any of the original NES games other than Dracula’s Curse, nor had I touched upon the Gameboy or Genesis entries. So I actually had a lot of work to do in order to write this review. The question is, did I come out of it with my fandom gloriously inflamed by the Collection? Or was it just a miserable pile of remakes?

I’m going to start out by explaining how this review is going to go, since it’s not often I review 8 games at once. This review will devote a few paragraphs to each game in the order I played them, along with plenty of pretty pictures. At the very end, I’ll touch upon the visual and audio presentation plus anything extra, and finish it up with my summarized thoughts. With that out of the way, let’s start my first foray into the Belmonts’ Gameboy mayhem with Castlevania The Adventure.

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It’s easy to think of portable iterations of any popular series as quick cash grabs, and I admit I didn’t expect much of anything from Castlevania the Adventure. Luckily, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Because while the classic Gameboy wasn’t capable of the visual feats of the NES, Konami seemed to take that as a challenge to pack as much awesome into this tiny adventure as possible. Though it only includes 4 levels, no doubt due to the limitations of said platform, they are each multi-tiered and full of challenging platforming and nasty beasts. There’s everything from Punaguchi (Bone Pillars) to Mudmen to what I assume must be the ancestors of Fleamen. While falling into bottomless pits was frustrating, it was made less so with the advent of save states. I actually stumbled upon that feature, discovering it was available for all the games in this Collection. I quickly grew to love its inclusion, since you can press ZL at any time to freeze the game, and then either save or load your progress. You might think that made things too easy, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Saving at the wrong time, such as when at low health or equipped with a bad sub-weapon, made things much harder, so I grew to time my saves carefully. They were a necessity, especially when facing challenges like instant death spike walls chasing me through levels. You’re welcome to play without any saves, but that should only be reserved for the most hardcore of fans.

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The bosses in this game were also surprisingly impressive. Though simplistic, they offered a robust challenge, especially the room full of Goblins (they’re really Fleamen) jumping out of holes. As for Dracula himself, being on the Gameboy didn’t sap any of his challenge. He managed to teleport all about hurling waves of fire at me, and as if that wasn’t enough, transformed into a giant, deadly bat for the final confrontation. I was really quite impressed by Castlevania the Adventure, but felt I needed a break from Gameboy graphics afterwards. And so, I decided next to try a game that just now officially made its stateside debut…

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I had actually heard a lot about Kid Dracula over the years, but there’s a big difference between hearing secondhand and playing firsthand. What I never could have guessed was how truly weird and innovative the game was. First off, while most Castlevania games are dark and brooding, this side story is light and cheery. You play the titular Kid Drac (not clear if he’s supposed to be a young Dracula or Alucard, but that’s not really important) on his quest to oust a pretender to his monster throne. That’s about as serious as things get, and I quickly was met with how absurd this game was.

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For one thing, every monster in this game is a cutesy and cartoony one. There are adorable little witches, goofy skeletons, cheerful bats and much more. But don’t let that fool you, this game is far from easy. If I had felt any guilt about using save states in Castlevania the Adventure, that completely left me here. Kid Dracula doesn’t really believe in checkpoints, so often if you get killed, it’s back to the very beginning of a stage. That’s made more difficult by the fact many of the bosses here are large threats who like to cheat. The most mellow is a happy ghost who looks creepily similar to a Klansman, and even he killed me a couple of times. Pretty much the only boss who won’t pose a challenge is the Statue of Liberty (no, you didn’t hear that wrong), since you just need to beat her quiz show to win the “battle”.

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What makes this game a treat though are all the weird combat conventions. Each time you beat one of the 9 stages, Kid Drac gets a new power which he can scroll through at will. If that sounds like Mega Man, just you wait. He can also charge all of his attacks by holding the attack button, though some of his fully charged powers double as new ways to traverse your environment, such as transforming into a bat or flipping onto the ceiling. Which is my way of saying that there’s a lot of complexity to the game, and no shortage of challenge. Turning into a bat didn’t keep me from dying dozens of times, and in a game with this many stages, you’d better be ready to die. The only thing at your disposal to earn more lives are the totally random minigames, such as guessing the color of dancing girl’s panties, stabbing a skeleton or various games of chance. If nothing else, Kid Dracula is worth playing just to see how full of deliciously crazy Japanese flavor it was. After beating it, I needed something a bit more grounded, so let’s return to the years of the Gameboy.

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Everything that impressed me about the original Gameboy outing was enhanced in Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge. It continues the story of Christopher Belmont, who was victorious, defeating Dracula in Castlevania The Adventure. But you can’t keep a good vampire down, and this story has the ghastly spirit of the Count take possession of Christopher’s son, Soleil Belmont. Symphony of the Night flashbacks aside, I was not expecting this much lore in the game. After all, the first one was pretty basic, but there’s some intense father / son drama in the game, not to mention the first true boss fight against a human in the series, serving as a progenitor for fights against the likes of Juste, Richter and Maxim later on.

One of the reasons I enjoyed Belmont’s Revenge was that it took all the things that were good about the first outing, and smoothed over the rough edges. Sure you can and still will die, but you have a bit more breathing room. And the bosses were wildly creative, in my opinion. You have an elemental wizard, a fight against two living statues, an armored demon, a creepy wall monster, a super difficult bone dragon, Dracula himself and even your son, Soleil. What gives you a fighting chance, unlike in Castlevania The Adventure, here you have access to a couple of sub-weapons – the axe and holy water. Being accustomed to the later games, I thought the water was the way to go, but to my great surprise, the axe was my go-to weapon of choice. Being able to hit things at odd angles was a constant life saver.

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As much as I loved most things about this game, there was one sticking point – the final bosses. The fight against Soleil was incredibly difficult, but not as tough as Dracula. Mostly because the good Count fired rotating balls of death, and finding a safe place to avoid them required much patience on my part. The only upside is this time there was only one phase to the Dracula fight, so it wasn’t impossible. Overall though, this was the better of the portable entries included in the Collection. Next up, we’ll go back to where it all started on the NES.

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There’s a reason I took my time getting to the original Castlevania, and that reason is simple – fear. I worried I wouldn’t be up to the task of tackling the game that started it all without the modern conventions I’ve grown accustomed to. You can’t level up and you’re totally reliant on timing and having the right sub-weapon equipped. I also was concerned the platforming would be too much for me. Thankfully, those fears were mostly unfounded. Sure, the original game is hard, but it also has some sections that are surprisingly easy. Furthermore, most of the bosses in the game are a cakewalk, with the notable exceptions of Death and Dracula, who are both unrelenting bastards.

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I learned a lot of lessons after playing the first Castlevania. First off, I learned Dracula’s design has changed wildly over the years. I always thought of him as the dapper caped gentleman with long hair, but here he looks far more ghastly and demonic (and that’s before he transforms). I also learned that the bad writing for the plot isn’t a bug, but a series feature. And that Fleamen are horrible in any game, but doubly so when you have limited evasive movement. And lastly I discovered that some of the most iconic bosses, such as Medusa and the Mummy, start out as pushovers. There are also weird discrepancies, such as Dracula’s fireballs having homing capability. That said, I had a lot more fun with the first game than I expected. But after all that retro, I wanted something a bit more updated, so I moved on with Super Castlevania IV.

Head to the SNES on Page 2 ->

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Some games transitioned to the SNES with flair, and Super Castlevania IV is certainly one of those games. They took everything that made the series iconic and seasoned it with a bunch more spice. This was the first game in the series where you could whip in multiple directions, as well as fling your whip around to block projectiles. You could also swing across gaps with it, a feature I think should have shown up in more games. But what I loved most about this entry was how huge it was. They jam packed content into this, and when I thought I was almost done, I was barely at the halfway mark.

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The experimental nature of the game was fantastic, and I loved how it really took chances with different ideas. They used Mode 7 graphics for crazy rotations and things like giant chandeliers you could stand upon. They also made it really feel like a Castlevania with lots of opportunities for a cheap death. That happened a ton in the Clock Tower, and I died several times fighting against the Mummy atop giant clock hands. They even took foes I thought of as weak in later entries like SOTN and made them a true threat. Namely, the ghostly dancers are a force to be reckoned with here. When they turned invisible and started attacking me, I nearly lost my composure. And as weak as Slogra and Gaibon were later, they were an impressive challenge here.

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Perhaps the best part of this game was the final path to Dracula. While the fight against Dracula himself isn’t my favorite in the series, it’s plenty challenging. And considering you have to brave a gauntlet of foes like Death and others to get there, it feels suitably epic. I already liked Super Castlevania IV from playing it years back on my Wii U, but after finally beating it here, it’s easily become one of my favorite entries in the long running series. So of course, my next game was one that has gotten a ton of praise as well.

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Dracula’s Curse is iconic in the Castlevania fandom, and it’s not hard to understand why. Not only did it introduce multiple characters and branching paths, it also had tight gameplay and the challenge fans have come to expect. Hell, the recently released Netflix series was heavily influenced by this game, and that wowed us fans. I had played a little of Dracula’s Curse on my 3DS, but I got frustrated by some of the bosses and hadn’t picked it up afterwards. So I figured now was as good a time as any to try again.

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Whereas the original Castlevania featured Simon Belmont, this one took place several hundred years earlier. As such, it made sense to focus on his ancestor Trevor. The curveball were the 3 other characters – Sypha, Grant and Alucard. All three have totally unique play styles and offer interesting ways to explore. That goes triple for Grant, who can hop around like a heroic Fleaman. I daresay that Symphony of the Night wouldn’t have existed without this game, and for that, I love it even more. That said, there is one thing about this game that really irritated me. Sometimes when you kill an enemy, they will drop a random sub-weapon, which I think is a feature exclusive to this game. Sounds great, except it often happens in the heat of the moment and usually gives you a sub-weapon you really don’t want. I can’t count the number of times I reloaded my save to avoid getting a shitty weapon.

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The bosses in Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse are pretty tough, and the fact that you can take a variety of paths through the game makes things interesting. While they toned down some bosses, there are plenty that will cause you grief. One is the recurring Cyclops boss, another is a fight against an evil spirit who possesses multiple monsters to kill you. Even though they mellowed out Death from the first game, he also has a second, horrific form. And while I wasn’t a huge fan of the Dracula fight in Super Castlevania IV, the one here is fantastic. I can’t say I understand why he turns from a Count into a monstrous amalgamation of brains and then an angry bird statue, but the creativity and challenge impressed the hell out of me. Frankly, we’re lucky we got this game, since the one that preceded it was highly controversial. And that one’s up next.

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I’m gonna be perfectly frank, I considered skipping Simon’s Quest. While you hear nothing but good things about Castlevania III, II is the polar opposite. It’s confusing, awkwardly written and somewhat psychotic. And yet, the more I played it, the more I found weird little charming features. For one thing, the music in this game is still amazing, no matter how much of a mess everything else is. For another, aspects like leveling up and equipping items got introduced here, and without those, I never would have gotten my first Metroidvania. They introduced Churches to fully heal you here. Also, the day / night cycle was actually really cleverly used, and it made sense Dracula’s minions were more powerful at night. So much so that I kind of wish it had made it into other games, not counting the stupid N64 entries.

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With all those nice things out of the way, let’s move onto the messy bits. First and foremost, you really can’t beat this game without a guide. Or you can, but it takes blind luck and infinite patience. I am not a fan of either, so I found a guide and got playing. There’s so much that would have been improved with just a bit more clarity in this game such as what equipped items do, clear hints on where to go next etc. And this may sound like an odd critique, but I wanted more bosses in this game. There’s a total of three, including the big bat himself. That is starkly less than any other game in the series, even the Gameboy adventures.

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They also complicated things with tons of hidden items and invisible platforms. I cannot count how many times I fell through the floor, but it was definitely more than a dozen. The game seemed to delight in pulling the rug out from under us players. Especially with regard to things like kneeling to make tornadoes appear or water levels recede. It’s bonkers this game didn’t kill the entire series, charming quirks notwithstanding. But I am glad I finally got through it, doubly so cause it let me save the best for last – Castlevania Bloodlines!

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Not to immediately contradict myself, but Bloodlines wasn’t quite my favorite game in this Collection. It did come damned close though. With just a few improvements, it would have easily claimed that title. See, I grew up playing video games, but I never owned a Sega Genesis. I had a Game Gear, but that wasn’t the same thing. So I missed out on games like this when they originally released. Which is a shame, since Bloodlines had heart and creativity to spare. Not only did it expand the Castlevania universe in big ways with two playable characters, it also took the series into modern times. That’s quite cool, and part of the reason I was so impressed by this entry. Another reason was the gameplay.

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This might sound odd, but in many ways Bloodlines almost doesn’t remind me of a Castlevania game. For one thing, it’s significantly faster than the other games. Both you and your foes react quicker and have less wind-up time, which in part caused me to get burned alive by Bone Pillars on many occasions until I acclimated. For another, it is far less focused on platforming hell than other entries. And while there is the usual gothic influence here, it just feels different. In a weird way, this almost reminded me more of a Contra game. But that’s far from a bad thing, and some of the unusual foes caught my attention, such as Minotaurs and swinging plant monsters.

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As you span the globe in Bloodlines, going from Greece to France, you’ll face some really eclectic bosses and even mini-bosses. One of the weirdest ones is a pile of living gears that attacks you in Germany. An especially interesting one is a floating, ethereal maiden who transforms into a hideous moth. And the fight against Death himself is especially clever, involving Tarot cards that force you into fighting older bosses a second time. Sadly, the fight against Countess Bartley herself is a bit underwhelming, and so is the fight against Dracula. But all in all, there’s a lot more great stuff than bad stuff here. Plus, with two playable characters, you have an excuse to play through more than once to enjoy all the sights and sounds. My only real complaint about the game is how short it is, sitting at only 6 stages.

It wouldn’t be fair to talk about any collection without discussing the controls. Thankfully, I found all the controls tight and responsive. Once you get them down, you’ll be ready for each subsequent game, other than Bloodlines. That efficiency also applies to the aforementioned options. It’s handy and quick to save and load the game, as well as check the controls at any time. I didn’t really play with the other visual filters, but there’s plenty if you’re interested.

While I won’t cover the aesthetics for each of the 8 included games, I will discuss the art for the series on the whole. It’s my opinion that Castlevania started out great and only got better with age. You’d think the NES games would look ugly and blocky now, but the game has always had tons of personality and conveyed dark themes well. That’s in large part due to the color palette, which has lots of browns, reds, blacks and other dark colors, such as dark blue and forest green. Whenever they had more to work with, they managed to improve things dramatically, such as the huge character sprites in Super Castlevania IV or the complex visual effects such as bleeding fountains in Bloodlines. And perhaps one of the things I love most about the series are all the great monsters. Ranging from bone tossing skeletons to hulking Axe Knights to floating Medusa heads, there’s a ton of diversity on display. Some of the more eye catching visual effects were swinging from your whip, rotating chambers, shifting towers and even a cool mirrored effect at the end of Bloodlines. Hell, even the Gameboy games were visually appealing, and they only had two colors to work with. If I wasn’t already impressed with the art in the series, I certainly am after playing through all 8 of these games.

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Musically, this series is even more impressive. Even when they only had a few tones to work with, they managed to orchestrate complex melodies. The tunes range from hard rocking to gothic songs, and everything else in between. While there are the more iconic tracks like Bloody Tears, Theme of Simon, Vampire Killer and Wicked Child, I also liked some of the lesser known stuff. From the Gameboy games, I was fond of New Messiah and Revenge. From NES, I enjoyed Mad Forest and Silence of Daylight. From SNES, I really was impressed by both The Library and Treasury, while from Genesis, Iron-Blue Intention and The Discolored Wall stuck with me. As for Kid Dracula, the music there was totally unlike everything else, being cheerful and upbeat. A good example of which is Hop and Step Above the Clouds.

As much as I enjoyed the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, there were a couple glitches and one letdown. One glitch occurred when I exited from Simon’s Quest. When I returned to the game select screen, there was a loud static sound that muted all the music. Thankfully, restarting my game seemed to fix that. Another happened during the original Castlevania in the underground grotto level. It was a loud, recurring ding sound not unlike the ticking of a clock. Once I got past that level, it never returned, but it is worth noting. The more serious concern I had was that this collection inexplicably doesn’t have a music select which seems odd, for a couple reasons. For one, Castlevania is known for the tremendous music. For another, there is a companion called Book of the Crescent Moon, full of interviews, strange secrets and behind the scenes looks into the development process, as well as some great sketch art. While you can certainly hear all the wonderful songs while you play the game, this game absolutely deserved a way to listen to them at your leisure.

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Honestly for $19.99, it’s hard to go wrong with the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. It’s packed with great retro gaming, easily 10+ hours worth, and tons of lore about the series. It should put a smile on the faces of many fans. I definitely feel like more of a true fan after playing it, and gained new appreciation for what Konami accomplished back in their glory days. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned glitches and frankly inexcusable lack of a music select, I couldn’t give this a perfect score like I wanted. But if you’re a fan, old or new, of Castlevania and want a handy collection on any current console, you have plenty to sink your teeth into with this.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

Review Copy Purchased by Author

REVIEW: Castlevania Anniversary Collection Title Castlevania Anniversary Collection

[gayregis]

blood and wine rewrite au basic layout

i already posted something like this before but i cant find the post so im just rewriting all of this from the top of my head

everyone’s repurposed roles:

geralt - he’s still a witcher. he’s geralt of rivia. obviously. i don’t have time or interest to think about how to rewrite the entire witcher 3 game to be lore-friendly, but i assume there would be less triss and more dandelion involved in it. for this let’s just take him as geralt having done everything in tw3 but with the personality of geralt from the books because geralt from the games doesn’t have much of a strong personality good for writing or thinking about.

regis - a bitch. nah jk. he’s same regis but just what he was like 100 years ago when he got his head cut off. he’s less spiralling-into-doom than he was then, and is less desperate and hopeless overall, but is slowly getting there once again. he doesn’t remember anything about learning from his mistakes and becoming a good person, because this regis didn’t get any of that. to this regis, it’s like no time has passed at all since he died, and he’s ready to start partying again without any thought of the consequences. he’s moved to toussaint because everyone’s already tipsy there and the north is plagued by war so it’s not a really great source to be drinking from (like if there was a sewage leak near the vineyard you sourced your wine from). he doesn’t remember anything about maturing up or about becoming a surgeon or about the hansa, so that sucks.

dettlaff - not a fucking maniac. actually a character geralt will likely spend a good amount of time talking to. total character overhaul because he does not have a personality in the actual DLC. he arrived in toussaint because he had heard that regis had returned and wanted to fix things wih him, he had previously left him.

syanna - not a fucking dumbass, yet still naive in her own way due to being blinded with the promise of power. in this, she is planning to stage a coup on the duchy (because she is the older sister, so it IS her right by law) and she supports regis’ slow dive again into uncontrollable insanity because it helps her prop up rumors that her sister’s reign is ineffective against real threats and is cursed. but this alliance does not go as she planned...

orianna -  in this, she is the owner of a gladiatorial school (instead of an orphanage), and is still like in canon a wealthy and influential individual of beauclair, yet reclusive from human society. she is regis’ best friend and goads him on, because she never fixed her own issues with alcoholism and now is elated to have him back and forgetting that they had disagreements which drove them apart in the first place. they’re best friends (NO romance) and it’s just good to see how insanely different orianna and geralt are because they’ve both been regis’ close friends at different points in time.

the purpose of this:

fix regis’ relationships with the vampires. he slowly drove all of his good friends away by going off the deep end and many are likely wondering whatever happened to him. but books regis would never consider partying like that again, so we bring the party regis back and then slowly de-escalate him into normal books regis again, and we finally get closure with him and his old friends.

cool dramatic stereotypical vampire shit. i’m talking about a final battle or conversation in a giant dark castle with large open windows and billowing drapery.

regis’s hairstyle

give syanna actual agency as a character and give her motivations that extend beyond pure revenge (although they are related to revenge) and make her more unique so she is not just a ripoff of renfri. 

demonstrate anna henrietta and geralt’s relationship as it was in the books. he was genuinely intimidated by her and i interpret him as being jealous of her relationship with dandelion, so he in practice was quite withdrawn around her as she was her overemotional and embellished self

give dettlaff an actual character, holy shit. i hate how sorely underdeveloped he is in the game. i understand why because it’s not meant to be writing, it’s meant to be a video game, but come on. i hate having the vampire with the cool character design be the ultimate villain of the whole narrative. in this, he’s someone geralt can talk to and sees himself in. he’s emotionally mature and doesn’t mix with the other vampires. since we already know what regis is like, we don’t have to sit through dettlaff making excuses for him and trying to describe what his character is like. we also get a better view of regis’ past through dettlaff’s lense. 

give orianna an actual character, holy shit. i hate how they didn’t even try with her and just used her as a “surprise, she is quite evil!” gimmick. have her actually have a larder for blood that is lore-friendly yet still jumps out at the audience as morally wrong.  give her more personality and development.

examine regis’ backstory without actually getting into every single year of those 4 centuries. we can examine how it started good, turned bad, went worse... there’s a lot of loss involved and i think this would be nice to process it.

roughly what happens (under cut because if i ever do write this fic out, this is spoilers, literally the synopsis of the whole thing):

anna henrietta sends envoys to geralt. they establish that the duchess has no conflict with geralt and that her conflict was with dandelion, only. she has requested his help because he effectively dealt with many monsters while he was in beauclair and established a trustworthy reputation (also, he’s famous, and toussaintoirs are superficial). instead of the beast of beauclair killing particular victims, it’s the countryside which has been plagued by vicious attacks of the devil knows what.

geralt arrives and examines the scenes of the attacks. the sincere majority of the victims are alive, so he speaks to them. they remember nothing, but woke up with their village fucking absolutely trashed and with vomit everywhere. they all have wounds on their necks. geralt thinks he knows what’s up, but is reluctant to deal with it because of his memories of regis, who he misses

damien de la tour is assigned to geralt as a sort of backup. they argue and geralt manages to get him to stay put in beauclair while he rides to a village they believe will be attacked next. it’s not even a full moon so the vampires don’t even come out in their bat form (disappointing) but instead just mesmerize their way in in humanoid form. dettlaff sneaks up on geralt who is (ahem) staking out the situation, and is like hey dont kill regis hes not evil hes just misguided!! and geralt is like REGIS? EMIEL REGIS? THTS WHO’S LEADING THEM? i ..... i know him.... and dettlaff’s like what the fuck how... then they get caught and regis is like oh hey dettlaff who’s this guy and geralt feels very left out :( and also sad bc regis doesnt remember shit and geralt even lists the hansa members by name and regis is still like O_O ok yeah im just going to hypnotize you to get lost ok goodbye! but dettlaff prevents him from doing this and they both get thrown out of the party.

after the party geralt is a mess and is like wtf so hes back and what... how... huh... and dettlaff doesnt know how he returned or why he returned either but they compare geralt’s knowledge of how regis died with dettlaff’s knowledge of how regeneration works and they figure out that regis just regenerated from his past body and that’s why he doesn’t have any of his memories from when he turned good.

then they eavesdrop a little more and find out that syanna has been talking to regis and making deals with him (its... not really like she thinks, regis really hasnt been doing anything he doesnt want to. shes just like “hey can you attack this village here” and regis is like yeah i was gonna host a party there tomorrow night ...) so they are like who the fuck is this woman and track her down to her base of operations, and then they find out that THEY got followed by damien de la tour, who identifies her as sylvia anna. geralt is a little miffed on behalf of dandelion that damien seems to be so close to anna henrietta but i digress.

geralt reports his findings to the duchess but does NOT mention regis because the duchess knows who regis is. then we get the same vampire talk from canon b&w where the duchess and damien are sorely misinformed on every single thing ever.

geralt is defeated and has no idea on how to fix this and hes looking hard into a mirror by candlelight and then decides to go to bed so he turns around and regis is right behind him like hey. cue ‘holy shit what the fuck’ moment and freaking out. regis explains himself and says that he doesnt remember him but the fact that he gave so many specifics weirded him out and he kind of wants to know more out of curiosity. also he wants to talk to dettlaff but feels too bad about how he argued with him like 3 centuries ago that he cant just ask him directly.

so they talk and geralt is all :(( and regis is like ok well. i kinda want to get these memories back because they sound pretty significant and also im pretty miserable. but also im not going to stop partying bc its the only thing that makes me feel alive rn. so long!

geralt and dettlaff talk to orianna and she dislikes them both but still talks to them and then regis materializes and also begins bothering them and its quite civil but this scene just serves to demonstrate how annoying they are as friends lol

there’s scenes where you can either save damien / syanna from being unalived by the vampires’ / regis’ hand, only if you let syanna die will the duchess be mad and accuse you of being heartless like dandelion is and then geralt and the duchess actually get into an argument bc of that comment but geralt ofc loses bc hes scared of her lol

no matter what you get regis his memories back but your decisions to either continue helping him or not is what makes him change or not. even after he gets his memories back (or because he gets his memories back?) he decides to raze beauclair bc hes just so fucking miserable and geralt has to talk him down, if you are harsh and not understanding and shame him etc then he doesnt change, if you condemn his actions but still offer your support then he does.

if you offer your support > geralt talks about the hansa like For Ever and regis then adds in everything and yay regis is back to normal. theres like a wholesome montage of geralt being like “just TRY to sew up a wound i promise you you will be good at it” and regis does and hes splendid at it. regis and dettlaff finally make up and are bros once again. we help orianna with her issues and she realizes stuff but is still going to have a drink once in a while. if syanna is alive she doesnt hate on any of this but just decides to make up with the duchess and then become captain of the guard (damien gets fired for being a dumbass).

if you do not offer your support > regis goes to cry in a delapidated creepy old castle and you have an epic fight (geralt is backed up by dettlaff) and he turns into a bat and geralt almost dies, they manage to decapitate regis again and put him in the ground and set a timer for 50 years

if you redeem regis then there’s an ending scene where the duchess is like “oh regis i didnt know you were in town” and hes just like <:) ahaha... yeah...

cue crying about milva/cahir/angouleme For Ever. maybe link this with the fic where geralt and regis bring them all back as ghosts/real ppl and then they have to deal with those consequences