#i love 3 because of the whole half monster half human protag and how the heart events basically get the protag

[prosebushpatch]

new otp is Gaius and Evelyn from Rune Factory 3. like, i'm sorry, he has a hard time expressing his feelings because she assumes every gift he gives her is a commission to turn it into an outfit? And she, the resident fashion designer who uses fish and fondue for her out-there fashions seems to relish the challenges he gives her? But when he gives her an engagement ring, one he made as a blacksmith meant to suit her perfectly, she considers this the hardest commission he's presented her with yet and after asking you to suss out the kind of girl he likes, SHE DECIDES TO WEAR THE RING AND WALK SIDE BY SIDE WITH HIM AS HER GREATEST ATTEMPT AT COORDINATION YET. HELLO?

[shamera]

Jan-Feb 2024 Manhwa round-up

it is MARCH so it's two whole months of manhwa that I wanna talk about I'M SO SORRY so here are the top 5 new (to me) manhwa that I read the past two months!

5. Estio

The story of a boy with the ability to communicate with animals, a power that grows and evolves into something fearsome as he grows up. It's the story of Estio's search for a meaning to his life and his powers, and to understand humanity's place in the world. (This series had me crying over a cactus at 1am, so it's earned it's place on top 5!)

4. The Way to Protect the Female Lead's Older Brother

The villainess of all time. Roxanna is the reason for 'she can step on me and I will thank her' phrases. Transmigration story, except this time the lead realises that the only way to prevent the bad end is to be a greater villainess than the original character. With an entire villain family to deal with, Roxanna will manipulate, seduce, and kill her way to take them all down and save the character whose death starts the tragic novel she's now living. (Probably discontinued, but good enough to still recommend with the chapters that are out.)

3. Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess

A 'transmigrated as the villainess' story where the original villainess was merely a victim, and every choice leads to death. Thanks to the system, Penelope knows her only chance of survival is to seduce one of the romance targets before the female lead arrives-- except they're all red flags a hair's breath away from murdering her if she so much as says the wrong thing. Her manipulations and scheming in order to survive, however, is leading her to become a greater villainess than the original ever was, and that might actually be the key to her survival... if she doesn't get murdered by her romance targets first.

2. The Greatest Estate Developer

A transmigration story where... the mc's past life is relevant?? Lloyd Frontera was meant to be a scummy noble who dies at the beginning of the story as a way for the protagonist Javier Asrahan to leave the family he was serving, but when a modern day civil engineer takes over Lloyd's life, the fantasy world he's now living in is about to get an upgrade! (An absolutely hilarious story with what might be my favourite mc and protag relationship. The ridiculous artwork is a bonus and I look forward to how much more deranged Lloyd can look with each chapter!)

The S-Classes That I Raised

I started reading this 10am Jan 1st, and I know this because I have liveblogging receipts. I literally wrote 'this one is going to break my heart' and 'BRING IT ON' and then proceeded with 79 reaction comments the first day. When I finished the manhwa, I went straight to the novels and spent the NEXT MONTH AND A HALF reading all 850+ chapters. This series has catapulted it's way to my #1 manhwa in my heart, and I posted a whole powerpoint on why. It's a story about F-ranked hunter Han Yoojin and his S-ranked little brother, Han Yoohyun. It's a story about brothers absolutely doomed by the narrative and their attempts to save each other, even if they have to save the world in the process. It's about the family you choose, and about love (not even the romantic kind) bringing people together, and how people don't need to be strong to be important. It's a story of Yoojin turning back time to save his brother, and then saving a girl who needed help, and then saving a man who needed a friend... and he continues to reach out to people who didn't even know they needed human connection. It's about a doomed world that fears S-ranks as much as they revere them, because people with that kind of power are nothing short of monsters, but they are the only possible way of saving the world. It's about a boy rejected by the world, and his brother who rejected the world to keep him safe. (And later on, it's about a man who was meant to be a protagonist, but even he can't save the world from what's coming.)

Below is: IT DIDN'T MAKE TOP 5, BUT THEY WERE REALLY GOOD! The honorable mentions~

Honorable Mentions (aka they are really good! I read through all the chapters that are out and I now check for weekly updates!!):

How to Live as the Enemy Prince

MC was the prince of a country that was invaded and conquered for a mysterious time artifact, but after he was killed in battle he finds himself decades in the past as the sickly third prince of the enemy kingdom who was originally murdered before he reached adulthood. His goal was to help his original kingdom by preventing his new brother's ascension to the throne, yet he finds out that in this timeline, the king of his previous kingdom didn't have a younger brother who fought for him, and that the time artifact disappeared when he woke in the new body.

Max-Level Player's 100th Regression

MC is part of a brutal death game that he's consistently died to, only to realise right before his final regression that the last stage of the game required teammates-- and now he's on a journey not only to survive the game, but the level up the people around him so that they can finally defeat the death game. Almost made top 5 because the art is... hnnnng. So good. Also MC has a cute little brother he's very protective of, and I desperately wanted another story like S-Classes.

My In-Laws are Obsessed with Me

Genuine Fruits Basket successor, it feels like! After being murdered by her supposed loving family, MC wakes up weeks before her death and throws herself into an contract marriage with a duke powerful enough her family wouldn't dare go against, only to eventually find out that the duke's family has a mysterious and deadly curse-- one that she's immune to (because she's already died from it before), and her immunity sparks hope that perhaps the family curse can be broken after all. Really intriguing plot as it's soon revealed she's not the only one who died and then woke up several weeks in the past, and that there are outsiders who want to make use of the family's curse for their own gains.

The Crown Prince That Sells Medicine

Set in the same world 300 years after Greatest Estate Developer! A doctor wakes up as a sickly crown prince and the system once again pulls shenanigans where the only way to live is to save lots and lots of people, so he goes to save the novel protagonist who becomes his personal guard! Less than 20 chapters so far, but it's super promising and really funny!

The Newbie is Too Strong!

A great take on the tower ascension trope and streaming sponsorships-- except rather than the gods watching, it's other players who are watching the progress! After finding out the orphanage he grew up in would only have three more years of funding, MC discovers a series of videos sent to his phone that featured himself in the future challenging the tower and decides that would be the perfect way to make enough money to keep the orphanage going. By the time he's drawn into the tower, he's ready for every challenge-- or so he thinks.

Debut or Die

Reincarnation idol series with a system! MC wakes up one day three years in the past in someone else's body, with a system that tells him he has to debut as an idol within a year or die! He ends up on an idol show using unconventional thinking to climb his way to the top. Really funny concept with a lead character who has to be the most blank-faced and deadpan debut idol I've ever seen.

Pick Me Up

What I call 'I got isekai'ed into Raid: Shadow Legends' because that is what it is. MC gets isekai'ed into the mobile gacha game he played where characters stay dead if they die in battle, and now he's a character at the whim of an unseen, unknown 'master' who summons heroes and pushes them to fight-- even killing off characters by 'combining' them with others in order to help one get stronger. He has to survive the game he was playing, and this time without control of anything at all!

I Thought My Time was Up!

Hilarious. Almost made top five this time! MC is told she has three months to live, and so she proceeds to stop worrying about everything and live her life the way she wants-- and her bucket list includes having a hot boyfriend! Thus begins her utterly shameless and relentless pursuit of a fearsome Duke, winning the hearts of everyone around her with her fearless and go-getter demeanour (which is really just a result of not fearing death at this point).

Tyrant of Tower Defense

Another 'main character gets isekai'ed into the game he was playing', except with heavy Fear and Hunger and Bloodborne vibes. In a game where the goal was to defend a city against waves of monsters, each level more impossible than the next, the MC is out to discover the secret of the world he's stuck in-- because in his previous life he barely managed to defeat the game with one surviving character, and this time he wants everyone to live. Now he's out to discover just where the invading monsters come from, and why they're here.

Hunter World's Gardener

In a hunter and dungeons world, the MC is the class 'labourer' which doesn't quite allow him to raid dungeons, and thus he opens up a general store for hunters instead. My slice-of-life pick this month! Finally, a sweet cinnamon roll MC who is 1, not struggling in his life and 2, not being taken advantage of by other people in a way that will later leave them scarred or jaded! Seriously, this series is sweet in every way: a kind MC whose kindness is rewarded in turn, and people around him who genuinely want to help him keep that innocence and ensure no one takes advantage of him! (Another around 20 chapters so far story.)

My Favorite Novel has a Weird Epilogue

MC is an olympic gold medalist fencer who gets transmigrated into her favourite novel-- except 20 years after the horrible ending! All her favourite characters are dead and gone, and now she's determined to protect the son of her OTP, which means she's definitely going to do the same thing as her favourite character (his mom), and pretend to be a boy in order to be his knight. Again, around 20 chapters, but this is shaping up to be really really funny.

Moon-Painting Alchemist

Less than 20 chapters so far, and the first bl to make the list! MC is a genius alchemist tasked with creating a spell that would show people their future spouse, but when he finally thought he had it, the spell showed him-- a man? When he fixed the spell again, it showed him a boy the second time-- a boy that he soon meets, who disappears soon after right before he meets the man he saw in his spell-- who hires him to break a complicated curse. (I'd give this one a mature rating for the Duke's dirty mind, lol, but so far it's played off as humorous intrusive thoughts.)

The Tyrant Wants to be Good

This story led me to tears. About a tyrant queen who woke up at the beginning of her life after she was executed by her country, and rather than revenge and power, she decides that this time she will live her life quietly and learn to be a good person. Starting with her as a young, unloved princess, it really explores how she went down the path she did, and her quiet exhaustion as she examines what originally led her to kill her brother for the throne, and her descent into madness as she took up the crown in the first timeline. This time around, she's resigned to a life without love so long as she doesn't cause the downfall of the people she cares for. (Every scene with her and her brother had me in tears, because he loves her so much but it took her a lifetime and a half to see that.)

The Academy's Undercover Professor

I had to debate between this series and Estio on the top 5 list, because this one is also very, very good but in a different way. Complicated world-building, factions and politics, with events that will keep you on your toes-- this is almost a Sherlock Holmes-esque story where the intrigue keeps you going and you don't know who is actually who. Set in a fantasy version of Victorian England at a magical academy, the MC is accidentally roped into a role he was never meant for while he investigates criminal organizations and searches for relics that contain a hidden power, all the while being hunted by different knight and police groups.

Series I read that didn't quite cater to me but it doesn't mean that it wouldn't be good for other people (mostly because I really couldn't connect to the main character, but it doesn't mean the story is bad)!

I'm the Queen in This Life

Regressor Instructional Manual

Necromancer Survival

Global Examination

Limited Extra Time

The Villain Discovered My Identity

The Remarried Empress

Third Wheel Strikes Back

Weapon Creator

Seoul Station Druid

Revenge of the Iron-Blooded Sword Hound

F-Class Destiny Hunter

66,666 Years: Advent of the Dark Mage

Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman

Reporting for Duty, Duchess!

Doom Breaker

Cleric of Decay

[pulpa-de-gorila]

tagged in this "ppl you want to know better"

ty @matchamabs, very enlightening read. archer is very based and jane eyre sounds really interesting :^) Anyways I feel like at metroflog lmao

1: Three Ships

That's a hard one because I'm not much of a shipper; that goes to HARDCORE FANGORL teen pulporila. Nowadays I just look at characters and just go :) then if there's chemistry w anyone else, good 4 them.

Zhanna x Soldier and/or Miss Pauling (Tf2. Them girls had a thing going on with the honey scene.)

Saul Goodman x Kim Wexler (BCS. Very recent, but I absolutely loved how they were written. Ily Kim.)

And any ship involving Gorl x Monster (boy or gorl). I love monsters, mang, they're so much better than bland human protag. Teratophiles rise up.

2: First Ever Ship

Da fireboy and water girl from that one flash game. I was very little, but I remember making a whole ass comic about them fighting against a green mud dude.

3: Last Song

Half Life's Triage at down, before writing this, 'cause I was watching this video and it hit me how valve was really cool, specially with their characters...

4: Last Film

A bug's life. I was watching it with some friends because we were laughing our asses off this video, so we decided to watch the full film. We ended up comparing the circus bugs to our uni teachers :P

5: Currently Reading

I, robot by Isaac Asimov. I'm loving this novel! Really gave me insight on how to write robots. I'm only a chapter left, but consider me Susan Calvin #1 fan.

6: Currently Watching

Cowboy Bebop, Daria and Hajime No Ippo. They're all great, but I'm just too lazy to watch series.

7: Currently Consuming

Water #healt

8: Currently Craving

Chips with chamoy. Ñom...

I summon @porcelainoddity , @minopauro, @verawhisk and @powpowpunchout yo. I don't actually follow a lot of people because social media is kill.

[charmspoint]

What do you think about the rest of the second year students?

If I tell you my fav jjk characters in no particular order are nobara maki inumaki yuuta gojo geto and choso and that i love them all so much that they are constantly shifting places in that line up to the point where im hardly ever able to tell who i love the most would that answer your question?

I love first years but second years are my fav squad by far i wish we got more of them and im looking forward to the movie so! much! More under cut cuz this bitch got stupid long

I love Maki so much, it’s actually her story line with Mai that got me actually invested into jjk. Like before that i was liking it but when i read that i was like OWO I NEED MORE NOW. I just love like....normal siblings storylines, like legit ask me about Choso i love Choso so much for this exact reason but we are talking about Maki now. I love how her background with Mai is very complicated and you can’t really call one or the other right. Like of course Maki has every right to leave an abusive household on her own terms and Mai has no excuses in wanting her to stay in said abusive household just so they can be together but you can also understand how abandoned and thrown away Mai would have felt at that moment. Like sure theyd probs treat her a little better then Maki because she can actually see curses but they also still clearly treated her badly and as a servant because her technique is weak. You can understand how she would have felt betrayed by being left behind by the only person who should have been on her side in this horrible situation. I just really love Maki and Mai and by god i hope they get to met again and talk and work together MAKI AND MAI TEAM UP PLEASE. I’m not sure can their relationship ever be really good i feel like there's a lot there to work through but i also really want them to start working through it. Aside from that I just love her cuz shes Maki and she’s a badass. I love women who are so fucking driven and ready to fight their way to the top when the world has given them crappy cards. She’s a fighter and she’s a survivor. She’s made from tough stuff, she has survived being fuckin set on fire. I LOVE her redesign its so fuckin good like holy shit i already thought she was cool but now she looks like 10 times cooler the cape the fuckin cape. Anyway i like her a whole bunch i hope her and megumi work something out about the zenin clan and id also like to see more of her thoughts from her about that whole situation. Because she’s not able to prove herself and win over the clan like she wanted to :(. But i guess that doesnt really matter anymore with the whole situation going on. She has already proven herself to be tougher then Naobito and by god i hope she puts Naoya into the ground, actually i hope this is where her and Mai will team up and put him into the ground together.

I also really love Yuuta, like he has the same soft boy protag vibes as Yuji but he also looks fucking depressed and anxious 90% of the time which just makes it all the better??? Like i love Yuji, but Yuuta has been through so much shit, he’s been terrorized by a curse of his own making for years, Rika had probably hurt a bunch of people because of him and like you can see it in his face, that dudes a wreck, have you see his fucking eyebags he hasnt slept in 25927 years and i love him so much. He’s so kind and caring and god if i dont love characters who go absolutely stupid feral for their friends. When the fanbook came out and it was like his biggest stress atm is not being with his friends i was like ;-;. I’m just a sap, I love him, I love how much he has progressed from this anxious stressed out kid to someone who can act calmly and tactically and even offer valuable advice to his underclassmen, he has grown so much! It’s just nice to see him coming into his own and becoming more confident into himself and his power. I’m really fucking sad hes gonna be separated from the squad again after JUST saying he doesnt want to be away from everyone again. Anyway his oscar worthy performance in Shibuya really fuckin got me like, the whole time i was thinking ‘noooo Yuuta wouldnt do this nooo its gojos student they are basically step brothers by teacher he wouldnt do this’ BUT i wasnt sure! I still felt like him becoming all fuckin feral for his friend was perfectly in character and also like really thematically interesting from the stand point of two protagonists clashing together. But honestly im glad he was just putting on an act, idk would my heart be able to handle villain Yuuta for long ;-; Another thing I like about Yuuta is Rika, like man I LOVE Rika, half of my upcoming curse!Gojo au is based on what Yuuta and Rika are. I was SO fuckin hyped to see her return like I was as hyped for Rika’s return as I was for Yuutas. Sure we don’t know if that’s ACTUALLY Rika or something else but god I hope we find out soon. Anyway I absolutely LOVE Yuuta’s n Rika’s dynamic like im feral for this shit. 1. Big monster girlfriend and smol human boyfriend 2. Master and servant allusions 3. THEY ARE AN ACTUAL PARTNERSHIP. Like sure Yuuta is in control but Rika is the one lending him her power and basically agreeing to play along, he needs to earn the strength to wield her. Like they aren’t on completely equal terms and boy would I love if they were cuz completely equal curse sorcerer partnership would be so! Cool! But they are the closest thing to that. Like she isn’t a shikigami like Megumi has or anything like that, her and Yuuta feel like actual partners who depend on each other’s strengths and cover each other’s weaknesses and I DIG THAT SHIT SO MUCH. Would I have loved if they developed a truly equal partnership and that Rika didn’t have to go? Yes. Am I happy with what I got? Also yes. Yuuta monsterfucker king. That whole ‘This is true love’ bit, amazing I love him.

 Panda is the only second year I don’t passionately love ajkkjbj sorry Panda but you’re just Panda. Like I like him, I like the concept of him, I like how he obviously sees himself as not the same as the humans and doesn’t really understand them and I would love to see him explored more, his third core, his relationship with Yaga who’s basically his dad, his relationship with other sorcerers, but I’m not feral about him like I’m about Maki and Yuuta. I think he’s a neat character and a funny joke and I love when he and Toge interact they are prank bros its cute. But that’s p much all I feel about him hjvbjhbj sorry Panda

[ladyloveandjustice]

Summer 2020 Anime Quick Takes

Thanks to pandemic delays, the Summer 2020 season was slim pickins (and the fall season has been A Lot in comparison) but there were a couple titles I enjoyed!

Appare-Ranman!

Appare-Ranman! technically launched in the spring, but thanks to COVID delays, most of it ended up airing last season, and that’s when I picked it up. The anime follows Appare, an eccentric inventor and his long suffering samurai companion, Kosame. Thanks to a mishap, the pair get blown from their home in Japan all the way to America, circa...well, SOMEWHERE in the late 1800s/early 1900s, but don’t expect much attention to historical accuracy here. Kosame desperately wants to get home to reassure his family but lacks the funds, meanwhile Appare just wants to build a cool car, so both of them end up joining the Trans America Wild Race, the first car race across all of America, and get mixed up with a variety of characters.

Appare-Ranman is just plain fun and I was honestly surprised by how endeared I was by it by the show’s end. The ensemble cast’s designs are all wildly over-the-top and blatantly stereotypical of their respective backgrounds, which is fine for Appare and Kosame, Japanese characters in a Japanese production, but may sit less well when it comes to the black and indigenous characters, for instance.

While I’m not here to say “look past the designs because the characters are ~secretly groundbreaking~” (they’re not, the struggles Hototo faces as a Native American are just barely referenced and Jing goes through a very by-the-numbers arc where she faces some easily resolved sexism and that’s about it), the series does do very well making the ensemble really fun, loveable characters who play off each other really well.. Episode 9- which just has all the characters hang out and interact with each other and goof off and I deeply loved every second of it-made me realize how much the cast had charmed me. Kosame and Appare being confused by American hotsprings! TJ making Dylan feel insecure about his hair! Sofia and Jing getting a cute bonding moment! It made me realize that this show had managed to do one of my favorite things- it could feature any combination of two characters and make the audience love and want to see more of them through small interactions.

Overall Appare is a really fun adventure romp that’s cool to just chill out to and enjoy the explosion of anachronism, action, camp, and cute characters having cute interactions. The final arc did kinda pull a couple things that annoyed me- a boring villain, one of the female characters getting held hostage and the other one being put in the typical “LET’S HAVE THE ONE GIRL ON THE GOOD SIDE AND ONE GIRL ON THE BAD SIDE FIGHT” deal, but other than that, it was a thoroughly good time.

Deca-Dence

Deca-Dence follows a young woman named Natsume and her grizzled mentor,  Kaburagi. Both of them work as maintenance grunts in a giant mechanical fortress called Deca-Dence where the last surviving members of humanity are holed up to shield themselves from the constant attacks of giant monsters. The humans are protected by a weird alien looking race of warriors called Gears, and only elite humans are allowed to fight the monsters alongside the Gears. Natsume desperately wants to fight, but is told she can’t because of her mechanical arm. But Kaburagi may have more experience than he lets on when it comes to fighting...

It’s hard to talk about Deca-Dence because it executes a pretty big second episode twist that changes the entire context of the show. Without spoiling, all I can say is it does end up having some things to say about exploitative systems, things that feel very relatable in the hell year of 2020. It’s definitely worth checking out the first two episodes to see what you think.

Other than that, Deca-Dence is often beautifully animated, has an ambitious, meaningful premise,  there’s some interesting nuance to how Natsume relates to her disability that’s briefly bought up, and it features a nice amount of female characters in prominent roles- in addition to Natsume, the strongest human warrior is a woman and a wonderfully acerbic hacker named Jill essentially holds the plot together with her competence. On paper, it should have been my favorite of the season, but while it was definitely a worthwhile watch... I think I preferred the wacky racing show despite all its problems.

Part of it may have to do with the fact Natsume and Kaburagi didn’t end up being true co-protagonists. It seemed like they might be in the beginning, but the latter half of the show definitely shifted the focus to Kaburagi as protag. It’s not fair to say Natsume ends up serving solely as Kaburagi’s “inspiration” but, despite her efforts to be active, that’s still the bulk of her role, especially in the finale, and it didn’t completely sit well with me and also kind of muddied the thematic waters a bit. It was a show in part about the exploitation of humanity where humanity felt kind of...marginal.

So yes, Deca-Dence is a solid watch and I’d certainly recommend it, but its whole feels a little less than the sum of its parts.

Fruits Basket Season 2 (13-25)

The back half of FB season 2 is notable for bringing one of the best parts of the series, the Sorta Cinderella play, to life. Other than that, not much to say other than what I’ve been sayin’- solid show, some dated aspects, lots of feels. Looking forward to season 3!

[nbapprentice]

You said a while back that while Supergiant games (Bastion, Transistor, Hades) was mostly okay, you had some words about them. I was curious as to what those words were, since Hades' full release is soon.

okay. alright. ive been playing hades lately so i definitely want to give my two cents (or dollars by the size this is gonna get). but let’s go Step by Step

the good: i want to throw a whole Endorsement over supergiant games with the art direction and its characters, which is what keeps me coming back again and again, and what i can assume is that most people are attracted to. 

gameplaywise, they have a Format they stick to which has become their staple, not to their detriment but to their advantage, like... gameplay tropes, so to speak, that they stick to (such as the addition of special conditions that give a disadvantage in exchange for more long-term rewards)

i fucking adore that they take one concept per game, go for it, and when they’re done they are Done; they don’t bother with sequels, they don’t want to run things to the ground and i fucking respect that. They have their themes, and they stick to them (to various degrees of success).

that said, like every piece of media, they are not perfect and this has to be analysed and spoken about

CONTENT WARNINGS: genocide and ethnic cleansing, antisemitism, misogyny, homophobia, suicide, and mentions of incest, and a general Spoilers warning

bastion: touches on ethnic cleansing, and not in a way i’d say is satisfactory. our narrator and one of our Sympathetic characters is one of the men who worked on a world-ending weapon meant to use against the Ura (a group of people coded as East Asian) which after a bit of googling is literally called “the final solution” if there was ever a war between the Ura and the Cael (who feel like rly tan white people to me). jesus fucking CHRIST.

we also meet more Ura other than our two named characters and we have to kill most of them. so that fucking blows.

the game tries for “being a genocidal monster will get you fucked up and blown up” which duh, but i feel we shouldn’t have had a person responsible for war crimes be one of our friends no matter how bad he feels about the whole thing, or the people victim of war crimes become villains in the latter half of the game. zia’s father could’ve taken ruck’s role ez pz.

transistor: the weakest of their games, imo; the lore and writing are fairly flimsy and i did not come out feeling Satisfied, especially because it had this rly good build-up that did not pay off. not to mention... their villains? 3/4 were gay people. lol. two married guys (not even explicit, you only realize by their shared last names) and the ps*cho lesbian trope (iirc she wanted to kill the protagonist’s lover or something). the female protagonist also ends up killing herself to live forever in a digital paradise with her dead lover. it’s. god. 

very Aesthetic, GORGEOUS music, interesting gameplay; had potential, i do not feel like it lived up to it at least as far as the story goes.

pyre: now this one. this one’s BEEFY. where transistor felt flimsy, pyre is rich; lots to sink your teeth into, rich in lore and loveable characters, again w the beautiful music, themes of cooperation and togetherness. my favorite of the cast is volfred sandalwood, the only Black (or, well, Black-coded) revolutionary i’ve ever seen portrayed with this amount of sympathy.

onto the bad: they literally have a Class of character named “Savage”; there’s the “mystical mentally ill person” trope; there is an overwhelming amount of explicit m/f pairs (one of them being. a romance that formed in a single day and then both of the characters were somehow willing to risk it all for each other? PLEASE) while the only hints of gayness are... hints. especially when Jodariel (another of my favs) is teased to have feelings for the player regardless of gender then only gets an ending with a male character with whom she has nothing in common 🙃

hades: and now. this one. music: gorgeous. character designs: spectacular (aphrodite is straight up naked but it’s so... natural and casual, it doesn’t feel sexualized at all). voice acting amazing. character interactions charming and endearing. as a greek mythology nerd, it was nice to see them go for the obscure shit like Zagreus at all, NOT portray Persephone and Hades as a loving couple, AND portrayed the gods as the bunch of petty assholes (some more benevolent than others) that they are. imo they’re too generous with their portrayal of achilles but i’ll allow it.

and finally... it seems all those criticisms about having all the gay characters hidden in the shadows paid off, cuz we got (aside of patroclus and achilles) a bisexual polyamorous protag. Holy Shit! and it’s not even playersexual, romance whomever you want shit without the routes recognizing each other: he explicitly talks about how he’s thinking abt them both (though it’s like “yeah usually mortals take one lover but gods love many huh” polyamory is a human thing too bro!!!!!)

and this is where it all goes, well, at least vaguely downhill lol. ok so the incest warning i gave up there? well. it’s not... outright incestuous. but it has some ugly implications. i want to emphasize: the characters never refer to each other as siblings, nor do they treat each other as such (thanatos, in fact, only recognizes hypnos as his brother, and megaera only sees the other furies as her sisters), but they were all raised by the same woman, Nyx... zagreus and thanatos even grew up together (im assuming megaera didnt meet zagreus until he was fully grown).

this is complicated even worse by the fact that they tried to trick zagreus into believing Nyx was his mother. he realized pretty early on this was not true but like... adoptive mothers, anyone? granted i can believe that bc of the attempt at deception that probably ruptured any attempt at actual familial closeness, and it’s not like hypnos and thanatos saw zagreus as their brother at any point, so they were p much aware of the truth too. with the fact that thanatos even looks like goth miles edgeworth (im not kidding you can google him up right now its literally edgeworth in a cowl) i rly feel they were aiming for Childhood Friend Anime Rival Man than the “surprise kiss bc ur not actually related <3″ shit. zagreus never once refers to nyx as his mother in-game, and also refers to thanatos and hypnos as her sons, never his brothers.

so yeah, like. if one’s feeling generous, zagreus and thanatos are more of a “my father is emotionally closed off and neglects me so my best friend’s mother basically raised me” kind of situation... just pulled off in, perhaps, the worst way possible (why didnt they just say Zagreus was told Hekate was his mom, that’s such an easy fix? or that he was born of nobody other than Hades??? [gestures at athena])

but then, the gods. aaaaaaaahhhhahahahh the gods. demeter shows up! and she calls zeus, hades and poseidon... her foster-brothers. which somehow would make the persephone thing less fucking awful, apparently. they really. really really did not need to do that. she could’ve just said “my fellow gods” or whatever. or my “god-brothers” or something, to pretend it was just a weird god alliance thing??? i dont know but implying that foster family isn’t family is just... bro, the dynamics still exist.

Don’t Like That.

i even contacted supergiant games over this. they reassured me they were even trying to avoid the incest of the original myths bc they didn’t want to mess with such a heavy theme. i believe them... but i really think they didn’t think this through. compared to something like fire emblem fates this is nearly benign, but the implications don’t look good :/

tl;dr of the tl;drs: i admire their artistic philosophy and the heavy emphasis on fresh gameplay, characters and their relationships; i appreciate that it seems that they listen to criticism?; i don’t appreciate that they didn’t think to at LEAST talk to adoptees when making a game about family.

[finding-fallen-stars]

YGO Questionnaire Part 2 Electric Boogaloo

So, my gf/bf @howaboutalittlehelpneos tagged me to do this again a... good long while ago, and I had wanted to wait until I'd finished my GX rewatch before trying this again. But ouch oof I accidentally also got through all of 5Ds again before getting to this lol

But the 5Ds rewatch definitely reshaped a lot of my thoughts, so... cracks knuckles. This won't be spoiler free, fair warning~

Favorite Series: ugh the formatting killed my original essay on this but okay GX and 5Ds are pretty tied in my book, now-- I love them equally, but in different ways! GX fulfills my love for subversive coming-of-age stories with a heartwarming, humorous, and also soulcrushing touch, and I love how each season brings a new story and new characters-- it's like reading installments of a novel series, and I think the formatting works wonders for it as a whole. It has some absolutely phenomenal character writing, too-- even the characters I dislike are ones I can appreciate for what they introduce to the story! And honestly, not enough people give the first two seasons of GX the credit it deserves: they're half the charm, really. How are you going to feel the full impact of the heartbreaking content in seasons 3 and 4 if you aren't properly attached to the characters?

But on 5Ds's side of things... it fulfills my love for stories with time loops, found family, human nature, and of course, love and death and how they intertwine. I love how the leading characters are just a bunch of broken kids from broken circumstances who all find a home with each other, and of course, how it highlights class disparity and how fucked up the prison/"justice" systems are. Yea, sure, maybe it underwent executive meddling and all, but I genuinely love it for what it is and I wish more people appreciated it... my only problem with 5Ds is the untwist with Z-ONE and then the ending s m h I adore it overall and I could go off for a long while on it. Overall, these are my two instinctive recommendations for anyone getting into Yugioh!

(look at these boys they're so important) Favorite Protagonist: Oh, believe me, absolutely nothing has changed here-- Yusei Fudo is and always will be my favorite protagonist, and my rewatch only solidified that.

I just... love him so much? He's seen so much hell in his life and carries so much guilt on his shoulders, but he still has room in his heart to believe in others and to believe that anyone can defy fate and find hope even at rock bottom. I love that he's initially introduced as this quiet, brooding figure when he really just turns out to be a huge softie who wears his heart on his sleeve half the time and wants to bring about change for Satellite and its people. Plus I just really love that his greatest flaw is something that would ordinarily be a positive trait-- he's Overly self-sacrificial, to the point where he's basically setting himself on fire to keep others warm, and that's not really framed as something Heroic

Just... he makes me so happy. I have two Yusei charms that I ordinarily keep on my keys (one was a gift from Zenzen) and they're a constant source of serotonin for me. He's Peak comfort character for me. Best protag in my book Favorite Rival: Same deal here-- still Manjoume!

look at him he's so important

While he spends a lot of the anime getting the good old damsel in distress treatment (getting suckered into a cult, getting knocked into a coma, becoming a zombie, getting fucking Killed, etc), I still think his character arc is really well-written overall and I only appreciated it even more when I watched GX again. I love the fact that he's got a soft heart he buries beneath the edgy facade, and that he's simultaneously really sharp and also kind of dense lol. He's just a fun character and watching how he evolves from episode one to episode one hundred eighty is such a satisfying journey.

Plus, props to him for being such a versatile duelist-- 50 wins in a row is HARD as is, let alone with a deck full of cards he just found laying around in the Arctic. Three ace monsters, three different archetypes... he's a really good duelist and I'm proud of him for it

Oh, but honestly, I don't really dislike any of the rivals-- I'm neutral towards Revolver and Reiji, but the remaining four (Kaiba, Manjoume, Jack, and Shark) compel me. yes I accidentally wound up liking Jack Atlas shhh Favorite BFF: Honestly, I really like most of the characters who fit this archetype-- Joey, Crow, Gongenzaka, Soulburner... I still lean a little bit more towards Joey, but I really appreciate all four of them. I'm gonna say Joey again, just because I find his evolution as a character the most compelling, but I appreciate the other three a lot. Soulburner has the best design though Favorite GFF: Oh absolutely still Aki, but I honestly... really love most female Yugioh characters? I'm assuming this is lead girls only, but like. I'm dumb and gay and I love Girls so this is naturally the most difficult one for me to answer lol

Aki just resonates with me the most because she's the prime example of how trauma doesn't always manifest in palatable ways-- when we first meet her, she's angry and lashes out at anyone and anything just because she wants the world to suffer in the same ways she's suffered, and then... we get to watch her grow from that, once she's free from Divine and able to heal the way she needs to heal. I know the second half of 5Ds didn't give her character the attention it deserved, but I'm still proud of her for winding up on the path she did-- seeing her channel her power and energy into wanting to heal and help others was just so good and was one of the few things I really Loved about the 5Ds ending.

oh, but like. Asuka Tenjoin and Aoi Zaizen are very close seconds for me!!! Aki just has a vice grip on my heart Favorite Villain: Okay, it's still technically Vector-- I think he's the most entertaining, well-written, and effective villain out of all of the ones we've seen so far, but... I also want to add Takuma Saiou and then all of Yliaster as honorable mentions?

As someone fond of tarot myself, I was naturally pretty intrigued by Saiou the first time I watched GX, but my attachment to him only grew the second time around where I actually got the chance to understand his character better. Plus, like... the visuals with him are fucking astounding and he's always so interesting to watch.

As for Yliaster, I just... really love how the big bad of 5Ds turned out to just essentially be a broken man desperate to save anyone and anything and three robotic reconstructions of the friends he'd lost. I still think the untwist with Z-ONE was stupid and I much prefer the idea of him and Yusei being the same person, but I'm still compelled by the other three-- well. Paradox less so, because we don't get a lot of Paradox lore, but. Aporia and Antinomy for sure.

ugh Yugioh has some damn good villains

Favorite Card: now that I actually play the TCG game...

Stardust is always going to be my favorite of all cards because it checks every box for me (my favorite YGO character's ace monster, space theme, what more could I want), but Aromaseraphy Rosemary has really become one of my aces in my best TCG deck! I'm still mastering irl plays, but I'm happy with my progress and I love my plant gang...

Favorite Episode: alright, here's where there's actually been a Lot of change, so...

Season 0: Episode 16: "Turnabout by a Hair's Breadth - The White-Robed Crisis" -- The more I think about this one, the more I love it; there's a... lot of corruption in the medical industry, and I've seen a lot of it firsthand, so just. Seeing a corrupt doctor get what he deserved at the end was cathartic, in a way? Plus, a Jounouchi-centric episode is always a good time.

Duel Monsters: Episodes 96-97: "Darkness vs. Darkness/One Turn Kill" -- this hasn't changed, I still love seeing Marik and Bakura bitch at each other for two whole episodes LMAO

GX: Episode 152: "Activate Super-Fusion! Rainbow Neos" -- This one hasn't changed and it likely never will-- I take so much pride in seeing Judai push forward, past the fear and guilt he's carrying, all to save Johan... it's cathartic and I never get sick of watching it.

5Ds: sweats. still all of Crash Town, but also episodes 137-147-- the Ark Cradle is one of my favorite parts of 5Ds and one of my favorite YGO arcs period, and even though each duel is a fucking gut punch, I love the emotional intensity and weight in each episode... It hurts but in a mostly good way

Zexal: Episode 143: "The Aloof Duelist 'Nasch': The Destined Final Duel" -- this one hasn't changed! Still hurts, still love it, I still weep over Ryouga Shark Kamishiro on a daily basis

Arc-V: Episodes 81-82: "Our Respective Battlefields/The Ultimate Falcon VS The Black-Feathered Thunder" -- Okay, honestly, this was hard because I... genuinely. really don't like Arc-V very much at all lol (it's just not my cup of tea, but more power to those who do like it!), but I thought this duel was a lot of fun! Shun is my absolute favorite from Arc-V and I really like the friendship he struck up with Crow a lot, so here we are

VRAINS (so far): Episode 25-26: "Virus Deck Operation/Three Draws Leading to Hope" -- honestly I am so biased because I just really love Blue Angel and I loved seeing her get a well-deserved victory like this lol. I'm not done with VRAINS, so this is probably gonna change, but anytime Blue Angel or Soulburner are on screen, I'm happy

Favorite Decks to Use: Aromages will always have my heart, but I adore Cyber Angels too! I'm building my Trickstar deck, my Synchron/Stardust deck (just waiting on Dawn of Majesty...), and my Magician Girls deck, too! Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, XYZ, Pendulum, or Link?: Synchros my beloved... but also Ritual Years in fandom: I've been here for just a little over one year now! and I wuv it... I'm never looking back Who am I tagging: no one I'm too shy

[uneryx]

Renee Gets Salty About Dark Magic

This post got long, and got away from me, so I’ll tl;dr it

1. dark magic is a metaphor for consumption and materialism and is ultimately bad because it harms others unnecessarily and is not a sustainable resource

2. the elves were dicks for banishing humans but (especially if humans sucked all the magic out of the land themselves) they were kind of justified, even if it was an extreme measure

3. Eating meat is not the same as dark magic if you’re looking at things from an animistic point of view, which the elves likely do

4. it’s okay to like problematic characters and you don’t have to portray Ezran as a monstrous enfant terrible to feel okay about thinking Viren is justified in what he does.  In fact, pretty please stop doing this, everyone in all fandoms. It’s fine if you don’t like the protags but that doesn’t mean you get to say Ezran or Rayla or whoever is EVIL. It’s called Ron the Death Eater and it’s a fandom trope that has pissed me off for going on fifteen years. Deliberately misreading the text isn’t cute. Stop doing it.

5. The show isn’t over, be patient, you’ll probably get to see some comeuppance for stuff anyway. And if you don’t, there’s always fanfiction. 

6. For the love of baby adoraburrs please tag posts that go in the vein of “the writing is bad because Viren is portrayed as a classic villain/elves good humans bad/the protags aren’t held accountalbe” with “TDP CRITICAL” I would greatly appreciate it because I’m getting super annoyed with posts that deliberately misrepresent canon to uphold a favored side and it’s affecting my enjoyment of the show. Now! Actual long and discourse-heavy post under the cut!

 Ugh I don’t want to start a big ol’ argument with people because I’m still on vacation and don’t want to spend the rest of today arguing about cartoons on the internet, but this has been on the kettle for a while and I feel QUITE STRONGLY about some of these things, so just... let me express my views here and don’t come for me because I’m about to talk about religion and sociology. 

Dark Magic is a metaphor for unchecked consumption and capitalism.  1. The theory i’m seeing floating around that got my dander up is that the elves and dragons drained the western half of the continent of magic to keep magic away from humans. I think that, based on what we’ve learned from canon, this is highly unlikely and would be weaker writing than what I think actually happened. Instead, Dark magic was going on for a good solid 800 years (Rise of Elarion is 2000 years before canon) before Sol Regem faced off with Viard (1200 years before canon). The division of Xadia was another 200 years after that. Humans had a solid honking millennium of unchecked dark magic. It is quite likely that the reason the west is entirely devoid of magic, and that humans were banished there, is because they sucked all the magic out of that half themselves. Poor innocent baby humans nothing. They got a taste of power and progress and, like real world humans, let that get WAY out of control.

2. “But Lujanne eats bugs, she’s a hypocrite for saying Claudia can’t squish bugs for pancakes” I want you to go down to your local new-age/witchy bookstore and find yourself an animist that eats meat. You are going to get glared at SO HARD if you whip out the “you think animals have souls but you eat meat!” chestnut. Because here’s the thing.

Eating meat/animal products is an act of life, necessary to sustain the life of someone else. We don’t vilify wolves for eating deer. You gotta eat to live your life, and the human (or, we can assume, bipedal humanoid) diet includes a need for complex protein chains, quite often found in animal meat. 

But the reason that we find cannibalism repulsive in western society is because it’s eating another human, despite the fact that humans are made of meat. It’s eating something that we consider sentient, dignified and possessed of a soul. Of course, the taboo also derives from the fact that you can contract prion disease from consuming human meat, but people in 11th century Normandy didn’t know that.  It is quite likely, especially given what we’ve seen of magical creatures and Ezran’s ability to talk to animals, that elves view non-human/elf creatures as sentient and possessed of a soul. If that’s the case, then OF COURSE they would see dark magic as horrific.

But eating meat is not on the same level because, as we see from the assassins, death is a part of life, and sometimes necessary. I imagine that hunting and taking a creature’s life for food is an act that is done with respect. The creatures are honored or thanked before they’re eaten or turned into leather. Highly ritualized to dignify that creature’s life.  Dark magic doesn’t do that. Dark magic sucks the whole life out, without so much of a how do you do.  It’s treating a person like a thing. It’s sucking all the life and essence out of someone so you can shoot fireballs or make fluffy pancakes. Lets be real - you don’t need to do either of those things, so the creature thus died in vain. 3. “The elves are selfish bastards for hogging all the magic.” I agree. Granted, their attitudes may have cooled in the ensuing centuries. It’s a new dawn, the era of Zubeia. We might see elves getting over their uppity selves and working to help teach humans magic. We might also see the show explore that kind of prejudice as Callum learns more magic. In fact, I hope we do. However, two wrongs dont make a right.  If Japan bombs the absolute fuckshit out of Hawaii, that does not make it okay to flash-fry Nagasaki with a weapon that blights the land and its people for years and years afterward.

To the elves (who are magical creatures and therefore totally usable as spell components), that’s what dark magic is. Suddenly, haha oh fuck, the humans have a fucking NUKE that every elf and dragon in Xadia is vulnerable to.  If a weapon was devised that ONLY a certain portion of the population was affected by, you better bet your sweet bippy that people would panic and make it forbidden and illegal, and severely punish the people who created it. ESPECIALLY if those people were already marginalized. Sucks, don’t it? Doesn’t mean the writing is bad for portraying people having a realistic reaction to something that is harmful to them. The elves aren’t justified in hogging the magic, and I hope future chapters will explore that. But the elves ARE a liiiiiittle bit justified in freaking out. I hold they could’ve come up with a better solution than BANISH HUMANS, but they didn’t. Makes for interesting story conflict, doesn’t it? 4. “Humans NEED dark magic!” / “Calling dark magic a shortcut is dumb” Did they tho? Did they really? Really really? We, modern day humans, don’t NEED smart phones (which rely on several rare earth minerals and are causing untold ecological disaster in areas where they’re miend). We, modern day humans, don’t NEED coal power (which is controlled by coal companies, who keep telling us that we totally do, despite many scientists saying that renewable energy is ready to go whenever). We don’t NEED blackberries from Mexico year-round, or a whole hell of a lot of the things we have come to rely on and consider part of our every day lives. All of these things are unnecessary and shortcuts to progress.

The only - ONLY! - good, necessary thing we’ve seen in canon that dark magic was required for was using the magma titan’s heart for saving people from famine.

A lot of the complaints about sustainable energy and efforts to heal the planet as climate change become increasingly a crisis stem from the fact that doing things RIGHT, in a way that is sustainable and doesn’t strip every last resource out of our home, is that it takes time. It takes SO MUCH TIME to do things properly. Yeah, we can keep going with our coal and our gas-guzzler cars and our fracking and our rare-earth metals... but we ARE going to run out. And then what?  Dark magic is the same principle. Eventually, you’re going to run out of resources. 

5. Where I think the show is going My main beef with those (and there’s a lot of ya, so I’m not intending to single anyone out) who say that the writing is lazy for dark magic bad elfs good is that the show is not over. Wonderstorm is doing their damndest to give us the saga. And they’ve said, out right, that there WILL be books, if nothing else.

You can’t judge a story’s merits when it’s only been half told. Right now, what the show has done is it has shown us the worst and best of the elves (for example, Khessa’s purity test vs Rayla refusing to kill Ez so she doesn’t perpetuate a cycle of violence) and the worst and best of the humans (ex: Viren forcibly turning thousands of people into monsters against their will vs Viren risking his life in order to save thousands of people from famine). The show has done well to demonstrate that there is good and bad in everyone, and it’s the choices you make and the respect you show others’ autonomy that makes you a good or bad person. The dominoes are in place. The saga has only begun. Being mad that Ezran burned an army (that he likely knew from Soren was invulnerable to fire) or that Aanya shot Kasef in the face (when Opeli would have told her that Kasef conspired behind Ezran’s back to usurp the throne, which is AN ACT OF WAR btw) means you aren’t looking at the big picture. There WILL be consequences for those actions in later seasons, mark my words.

I’m sorry if you’re a Viren or Claudia stan, but they have made choices that hurt other people, and it is in no way shape or form Ezran or Callum or Rayla or ANYONE ELSE’S fault that they made the choices they did. Instead of being mad at the show for not portraying your fav as an innocent victim, be glad that you got such a wonderfully complex set of villains who, quite likely, will get a bomb-ass redemption arc. In fact, I’ll bet you anything that Viren’s walk back from the edge has already begun. The dude fucking DIED, and he’s not going to be eager to get in there and get all grabby with the power any time soon. 

That’s what good writing IS - conflict. Tension. People making morally questionable choices. We like it because every day people are hypocrites and morally questionable. You, and I, and everyone we know. Nobody’s perfect and getting cranky and painting the protagonists with the broad villain brush so you can feel good about liking a problematic fave is... some peak tumblr bullshit, tbh.  It’s okay to like characters who aren’t perfect. How fucking boring fiction would be if everyone was perfect.

Now if I can ask my mutuals to please tag their criticisms of the show that go in the vein of “the writing is bad because dark magic is portrayed so negatively/they don’t hold the protags accountable/elves good humans bad” with “TDP critical” I would greatly appreciate it. It’s getting to the degree where things are becoming very not fun and making me cranky.  Thank you, Renee out. 

[kyanitedragon]

The Tokyo Ghoul anon has returned~ Im so happy you answered ^^ Im surprised but pleased to see Mutsuki and Akira as opposed to Kaneki and Juuzou as they seem more popular in the Fandom. I personally believe Mutsuki is to hated and Akira underrated. Is it okay if I keep asking for your preferences in the TG series? Im very curious and I love this Manga to bits so Im always excited when I see someone willing to talk to me about it.

Hello again, anon! It is very okay to keep asking me questions about Tokyo Ghoul! I had a lot of fun thinking about and gushing about my favorites on the last one. I also love this manga to pieces and I’m glad there’s someone willing to talk about it too!

Yeah, it seems like Juuzou is most people’s favorite character. I’ve always considered Juuzou, Hide, and Kaneki as the fan favorite characters. (I feel like Hide’s fanbase is still alive while the Tokyo Ghoul fandom died off…) I’ve also seen Uta mentioned quite a bit.

It’s just my personal preference, but I don’t usually like to pick fan favorites and the main protagonists as my favorites. They’re too overrated imo, and I find it much more fun to like secondary characters that get less attention from the fandom. 

I feel like many times, the protagonists are too relatable and too likable and a lot of them boil down to the same traits. They have to really be something special and unique for me to consider them in my top list. (Like Rin Okumura from Blue Exorcist. He’s such a sweetheart and he sabotages his reputation to defend people weaker, and even animals being abused. Plus he’s half human, half demon and I’m a sucker for that trope)

Although, Kaneki doesn’t apply to this. He feels more like a bishounen. Or maybe that’s just because I was into Seraph of the End before I watched Tokyo Ghoul, and Kaneki and Hide are basically Mika and Yuu with their role of protagonist / best friend & minor character swapped. They both have the whole “unconditional love despite one being turning into a monster” thing going on.

Kaneki always felt a lot different from your typical anime/manga protagonist to me, and I really appreciated that. He’s introverted and selfish and pushes people away — actually, he’s basically the opposite of any shounen protag! He’s definitely a lot higher up on my list than other protagonists tend to be. Really, the only reason he’s as low as he is on my list is because Tokyo Ghoul has so many well-written and developed characters.

I understand people not liking Mutsuki, as he is very problematic, but I really never understood all the hate for him. Tokyo Ghoul has so many characters that do awful things, and they never got as much hate as he did. Was Mutsuki really any different from them? I guess it’s because he was closer to a main character and good guy than those characters were. That, in combination with your usual fandom toxicity + transphobia + misogyny.

I came into the Tokyo Ghoul fandom a couple months after Chapter 125 happened, so I came in just as all the hate for Mutsuki, Touka, and Touken had started. I’m kinda sad I never got to experience the early days of the fandom loving all of the Quinx kids. 

Although, I did somehow decide to watch Tokyo Ghoul when the chapter that revealed Hide as Scarecrow had just come out a week or two before. I got my heart broken by Root A’s finale, was in shock for about an hour, and then cracked and decided to look up the truth, and found out that Hide was confirmed alive in the manga. Then I binged all of the manga, and started reading the new chapters as they came out weekly. I have no idea how that ended up happening, but I’m really glad it did. (How did people survive 3 years not knowing Hide’s fate?! 3 years! You folks are so strong…)

[dillydedalus]

september reading

i read some things i guess! open for the last (almost) of robin hobb, more mountaineering disasters, and …. dungeons & dragons?? (i completely forgot i had this in my drafts lol)

the nickel boys, colson whitehead idk man this is really well-written, well-paced, an important story based very much on real history, the characters serve their purpose very well, the violence and abuse is written in a way that is chilling without ever being gratuitous and with the exception of a twist that i thought was a little too predictable, there’s nothing i can really criticise. it just really lacked some spark for me, and maybe it’s just that after underground railroad (which is also didn’t particularly like, but damn that had spark) it feels a lil conventional. still good tho! 3/5

the adventure zone #1: here there be gerblins, various mcelroys & cary pietsch my brain Does Not Do podcasts but obvi i’ve been hearing A LOT about the mcelroy boys & i’m like. vaguely interested in d&d* so when this was made available on overdrive i was like okay why the hell not. it’s a fun, quick read, and while i don’t really know anything about d&d the trappings of the game were included in a fun way. nothing mindblowing, but a good time. 2.5/5

assassin’s fate (fitz & the fool #3), robin hobb y’all this is it… it’s been over a year & now i’m done with the realm of the elderlings (actually i still have the piebald prince novella & the short stories). i have some criticisms of this one (the timeline & the main climax seemed a lil muddled to me) but to be honest??? loved this, had all the feelings, was superhappy to see my cursed shores kids again, fitzy & bee were heartbreaking all the time, the paragon conflict was great, when fitz got to the quarry i literally immediately started uglycrying & pretty much didn’t stop until the end, so: 4.5/5 (series rating 4/5 i guess bc fool’s assassin was a drag & a half)

die nebelkrähe, alexander pechmann this is a speculative fictionalisation of a little episode in the spiritualist movement where medium hester dowden claimed she had communicated with/been briefly possessed by oscar wilde, which is pretty fun. unfortunately, pechmann chose to focus on his version of mr v., a pretty boring mathematician and skeptic, rather than the absolutely wild shit going on with dowden, which includes oscar wilde’s ghost dunking on james joyce (who responded by making fun of the whole thing in finnegans wake) and claiming he’s like totally straight. 2/5

oval, elvia wilk a neoliberal corporate hell/psychotropics/eco-punk gone wrong dystopia in berlin so you know i’m here (i.e. in berlin lol) for it. this is about a berlin in the not too distant future where finster corp (real subtle) is buying up everything, driving up rents through ecological redevelopment, artists mainly work as consultants for corporations, and our protags anja and louis live in a finster-sponsored zero-waste eco-commune on an artificial mountain in the middle of berlin. everyone’s jobs are nda-clad bullshit, everyone parties all the time without ever enjoying themselves, homelessness and income inequality are ignored with the barest twinge of guilt, and louis is developing a party drug that chemically makes you generous. oh and the nature on the mountain (the berg -.-) seems to be eating itself. the concepts are great, the writing is pretty good even tho it tries a bit too hard sometimes, wilk, while also suffering a lil from Expat Gaze, really knows berlin. the execution isn’t perfect, the pacing is a bit off, too much time is devoted to anja and louis’ boring relationship, and look, some of the dystopian elements are a bit obvious. neoliberalism bad. okay, we know. but there’s a lot of good here, and the ending is pretty great, if a bit underdeveloped. 3.5/5

travelers, helon habila a novel about the african diaspora in europe, told thru 6 inter-connected stories, all focusing on one story of migration. these are important stories well told, and i liked how they all linked up in the end. while berlin is the central hub these stories revolve around, not all are set in berlin and the setting really isn’t as central as i’d hoped (this is obvi very personal to me & my research interests so it’s not really criticism). i’d recommend this if you’re interested in the representation of african migrants and refugees. 3/5

the uninhabitable earth: life after warming, david wallace-wells shit’s fucked: the book. starts with ‘it is worse, much worse, than you think’ and doesn’t really get much more cheery from there. good if you want an idea of what the effects of global warming might be (a pretty pessimistic one, which is the point - when does pessimism become realism?), and how we (& how we might) respond to them. 3/5

the girl from the other side, nagabe (#1-5) spooky-yet-wholesome manga series about a snazzy demon who’s adopted a little human girl who has been abandoned/cast out by her human community, which is like 100% my jam. the central relationship is super cute & wholesome, the demon designs are amazing, the worldbuilding is really spooky & intriguing (if you touch a demon you’ll be cursed & also turn into a demon & tbh who doesn’t want to turn into a weird tall slightly monster with cool horns), and a lot of it is just the demon like. badly baking pie to cheer the girl up. 

girl woman other, bernardine evaristo somewhere between a novel and a collection of short stories written in a somewhat unconventional but highly readable style. the 12 stories each focus on one woman (and one nonbinary person), most of them black, examing black womanhood in britain throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. i enjoyed many of these stories, but the observational style and the way we quickly cover whole lives left me a bit detached. there’s also a lil corniness throughout, which comes out in full force in the epilogue, and while it’s cool to have trans rep, it honestly came across as a bit clueless. 3/5

dark summit: everest’s most controversial season, nick heil did someone say high-altitude mountaineering disasters? because i’m always here for some high-altitude mountaineering disasters. this is about the 2006 season which was p disastrous in terms of deaths even tho it didn’t even have a storm (cf the 1996 season aka please just read into thin air), just people walking past dudes who were dying bc rescues are extremely difficult & dangerous. anyway this ain’t into thin air, but it’s a good one & pretty wild bc all mountain climbers are fucking nuts. 3.5/5

sense & sensibility, jane austen really enjoyed this! the pacing is a lil weird & none of the men really is all that, but it’s all very charming & witty & i love sisterhood narratives (poor margaret!). as in (tho not as much as in) mansfield park, there’s a lot of attitudes that just don’t really track but in contrast to mp i found them interesting rather than frustrating, mostly - brandon/marianne is very uncomfortable especially when you realise that he’s projecting his tragic dead first love/sis-in-law onto marianne and that we don’t really see their courtship at all, but w/e. i especially enjoyed the ferrars family drama and the hilarious resolution to it, and i gotta say: lucy steele really did that & good for her. 4/5 

anyway, i’m about halfway thru alasdair gray’s lanark, which is a great big pomo brick, half portrait of the artist as a young glaswegian, half weird visions of hell in the city of unthank & i’m into it but it’s not a quick read. in october uni reading is also going to start, perhaps for the last semester ever :(

[tumblunni]

I had a really weird dream involving Dr Maddiman. Its a shame i can barely remember any of it and also it seems i woke up before it ended? Like i just had this overwhelming sense that allll the plot threads were gonna be wrapped up any second now and then BOOM awake. So just a whole bunch of random stuff happened with no real explanation at all.

It was some sort of post apocolyptic setting i think? Humanity was in these small isolated cities fighting against some sort of invading army but we never actually saw the aliens themselves. And some part of my brain was like "it makes sense its the same rules as a hairdresser and the design takes cues from a pack of AAA batteries". I have NO idea what that means! So basically everythibg was super vague and undescribed and dream-me just had a sense of already being a long time fan of this series and knowing enough to fill in the gaps. Apparantoy this was some sort of adaptation of a thing id already seen, but id been told the ending was different and more accurate to the manga? Also i wasnt actually a person watching this show i was still the protagonist of the show yet i acted like i'd been reincarnated and relived this week a million times or something

ANYWAY the way dr maddiman comes in is that he was some sort of 'brilliant but dangerous' expert the government had hired to help our fight against the aliens. It wasnt really explained why he was.. yknow.. maddiman. Like is this meant to be that ghosts also exist in this sci fi universe? Was he a half alien hybrid instead of a yokai? Was it just human maddiman with the personality of yokai maddiman due to ptsd...? In any case he didnt seem entirely tethered to the laws of reality and nobody knew exactly how he pulled off all his scientific miracles. He was treated as the only guy who could understand the mindset of the aliens, but that also made him dangerous because he trapped in the delusion of everything being okay and fun and happy and he often did evil things by accident while having good intentions. But they didnt have anyone else who'd cracked the code of the alien weaponry so they had to put up with him. He was just sorta assigned a crack team of secret agents whose job was Be The Old Man's Friend So We Dont All Die. Dont let him realise how the world is all destroyed and such, just play along with his goofyness and try and remind him to do his important work while dancing around why its important. it was super creepy how he was locked up and gaslighted like this!! And he was all 'oh im sure when im done with my ultimate experiment i can go home to my wife and kids' and yeah it was implied here that the same backstory applied :( 'distract the old man and validate his false opinion that his family is still alive and waiting for him' :( poor sci fi madds :(

Oh also for some reason he seemed to be wearing elements of Adventure era Dr Eggman's outfit? But just the general style of the coat and the wearing goggles that he never actually uses. And he had a very warm and cuddly autumnal colourscheme

Anyway i was part of the Super Secret Grampa Cherishing Division whose job was to act as his assistant but also secretly be packing a bazillion weapons to neutralize him if he poses a danger to humanity. But i started to genuinely care for the guy and question the 'any atrocity is permitted for the sake of saving the world' philosophy of my bosses. Also it was just very weird how it was this post apocolypse alien fighting action thing yet i didnt see ANY OF IT cos this story was confined to this one laboratory. It was surreal hearing about all this stuff happening offscreen!

I think Maddiman's main project was some sort of dimensional transport thing using salvaged alien tech? It was just a door in his lab that usually led to a closet but if he got it working itd teleport us straight to the alien base and save the world. And a lot of it wasnt explained but i got this great sense that itd all come together with a great twist ending evebtually but then i woke up before i got that far. Same for the reveal of this maddiman's new sci fi backstory and soooo many other dropped plot threads. Alas!

So anyway: closet. Closet with one of those bead curtain things cos i was thinking about them when i fell asleep. It was supposed to be a teleport but when it malfunctioned it had really scary negative effects warping people's biology and stuff. I remember one of the test subjects was sent in for a five day trip to a specific alternate dimension but then when they came back itd been several years and theyd had to survive in a deadly wasteland and been mutated into a hellbeast. And maddiman had a huge breakdown because he felt like his recklessness and optimism towards this experiment had caused this mistake to happen, and he'd never realized just how awful the consequences could be. He was babbling motor mouth discussing theories for where it went wrong and there was something like 'we'd only tested it for one day trips and assumed that just programming two of them would equal two days but actually with each additional number on the screen it multiplies the days by 3" And there was something about like...the bead curtain was the machine rather than the door itself? Like trying it on a bunch of different doors around the lab to try and find a way to cure this person.

And there was some sort of artificial intelligence computer with the personality of an adorable lil girl, who helped maddiman do calculations and stuff. She missed the mistake in this calculation cos her concept of linear time and the limits of human organs was kinda undeveloped. She only existed within the realm of numbers after all, and didbt even have functionality to record footage of her human friends's faces. No idea wtf a human looks like! So maddiman was lost in his desperate grief of potentially accidebtally killing or at least mentally scarring a person and the government would probably kill them now if they saw they were a super mutant. And he was sobbing and begging this AI to help, his last resort was her maybe being able to see a brainwave that he'd missed. But she was freaking out cos she didnt even fully understand why maddiman was crying let alone what to do to fix it. Eventually she did manage to find a solution theough some simple different logic thing that she had from her perspective as a computer. And that person was saved but still traumatized and maddiman had a moment of realizing just how high stakes everything was and freaking out. He was like 'whats wrong with my head, why didnt i notice that, why was i so reckless, why cant i seem to grasp basic human logic that i need right now" Having a big existential crisis of 'wait how did i even get in this lab, where's my family and why do i seem to have superpowers'. Protagonist mission: hide all the goddamn mirrors to avoid this weird ghostgramp (...aliengramp??) from realizing he's dead (..or an alien??) and losing control of himself. And everyone was running around talking about 'containment procedures' and poor maddiman didnt know that if his panic attack continued he might just straight up be killed for outliving his usefulness. So the protagonist was desperate to help him calm down and it sucked SO MUCH cos they had to lie about his past and weave the web of deception around him again for his own safety. In the end they just hugged him close until he calmed down, and all the other employees were like GASP THEY ACTUALLY TOUCHED THE EVIL DANGEROUS SUPER EVIL MAN and protag was like 'i am 1% away from slapping the next bitch who insults this grandpa'. And it was super depressing cos once he'd calmed down he seemed to start forgetting that anything bad had ever happened?? And he was really panicking and scared cos he didnt understand why he was forgetting, and he knew he had to cling onto something important but he didnt know what. And then five minutes later he was back to haha cheerful nothing is wrong and i love doing my fun science in this room im never allowed to leave. And protagonist was crying the tears that this poor gramp wasnt allowed to cry :(

Also actually i think maybe he was a ghost AND an alien? Like he was a scientist who died in some sort of tragedy back when the aliens first invaded, but along the way he'd been infected so his body got back up as a twisted combination of human and inhuman. And this was something unique to him, like he just happened to have a genetic mutation in his blood that was totally undetectable in life but happened to mix unpredictably with this alien virus to turn him into a hybrid instead of just killing him. So the government was very interested in finding a way to replicate this and create new supersoldiers, as well as just taking advantage of this dude's confused mental state that granted him a unique understanding of alien tech that made him more effective than other scientists. And, of course, also made him easy to manipulate :(

And i also had a feeling that maybe his backstory was mixed up with Adventure dr eggman? Like here it seemed he had a daughter instead of a son, and she had a similar death to Maria Robotnik where she was assasinated by the government he worked for, and it tipped him over the edge. I think Maddiman-alien-scifi-dude originally died trying to save her from being used in some sort of experiment? Like she was already dying of a disease and thats why maddiman took this job to have access to powerful government technology to try and look for a cure. But when the whole alien apocolypse happened, the evil government decided to use her for experiments cos she was 'basically dead anyway'. Theyd just lie and tell maddiman she died of her illness. So this was how they found out that this particular family's bloodline had a mutation that let them form a viable hybrid with alien dna. They were turning this poor kid into a monster in the basement while lying to her dad about her being dead! And maddiman was about to commit suicide from having no reason to live anymore, with the hell of this apocolypse world and the false impression that his kid was already dead. But somehow monster-daughter sensed this or something and broke out of containment to try and save him, and when he saw her he was able to recognise her even in her twisted state. So when the soldiers gunned her down in front of him and fed him some lies about this not being his daughter, he just completely snapped. He tried in vain to fight back and take down as many of them as possible in revenge, but well he was just a simple round dad with no ability to fight a government. So he was unceremoniously executed along with his kid and they shoved the bodies back in the lab to continue testing. "Damn that overemotional science dad, he made us execute our most valable test subject! But at least this way we can analyze his corpse to see if the mutation is passed down on the patrilineal side." But at some point during the fight, monster-daughter's blood had splashed on her dad and gotten into his bloodstream. So the seemingly dead body suddenly got up out of the morgue and started sucking people's blood or something. And this led to the current situation where they have him locked up cos he's a valuable test subject but also hey he has 100% reason to kill all of us and we're screwed if he remembers his past. Also i think the computer AI thing was his subconcious attempt to recreate the personality of his daughter even if he couldnt remember she'd ever existed :(

Anyway at some point things escalated and there was this final showdown versus both the invading aliens and the evil governmebt guys. I think there was some corrupt greedy politician dude who stole maddiman's teleporter tech and sold us out to the aliens cos he wanted money and power or something. And probably predictably the aliens just threw him off a bridge after he gave them the thing, because seriously even this evil army thinks these government dudes are too evil!

So this big actiony event was happening and Maddiman was freaking out like 'no no no i cant leave the lab everyone wpuld be mad at me, i dont even know what its like outside this room' even when he was in the middle of being attacked by aliens. He was forced to face his repressed memories to survive, and he naturally had a massive fuckin freakout! And i think maybe when protagonist character was trying to protect him he accidentally lashed out with his powers and hurt them, and he was so horrified thinking another person he cared about was gonna die because of him. Protagonist was like 'dont worry gramps its just a scratch' but he'd already freaked out and run away into the battlefield to his heavily implied death.

BUT THEN at some sort of moment of dire need, he came back all powered up and re-memoried and was like 'i have every reason to despise humanity but im not gonna let more children die because of these damn corporate monsters (and also literal monsters which are infinately less scary)" And he did some sort of great sacrifice to save the protagonist at the cost of his own life, and it was super dramatic falling from a building into a lake of fire or something. While sobbing and smiling peacefully thinkibg "did i atone for my sins? Will i be able to see my family again?" As his smiling face sunk beneath the flames and the protagonist cried out into the abyss...

Aaaaand then i dont really know what happened in the big battle and i also never found out wtf the solution was to fixing the transporter thing or how the aliens invaded or any of the million plot points that were non gramp related.

I just remember that when we all saved the day and defeated the baddies we found that maddiman had actually survived and it was a big hugs reunion. He was like "OH YEAH i totally forgot i literally already died once and regenerated from it, and this was the entire start to my story. My bad!" *shrugs inexplicably not dead arms*

So yeah in summary im glad my brain summoned up a universe where my favourite sad granddad is literally immortal now, but also why did it torment him with an even sadder plot than his original one

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

Comic Series to Read (Pt3)

+ALTERS by Paul Jenkins & Leila Liz

As the world struggles to accept the emergence of a new kind of human species known as alterations, or "Alters," a young woman must navigate the path to becoming her true self, while struggling with the complications of her civilian life and the responsibilities of her newfound power. This groundbreaking series - years in the making - begins the saga of a young woman who can only really be herself... whenever she is not herself.

Fascinating view of the world through the eyes of someone who is not only hiding their secret hero abilities, but also that she IS a she. I really enjoy this book, and all the little details that unfold the more you read on.[Trans!protagonist, violence, disabled character(s), general death and mayhem, superpowers, a few unfortunate slurs, etc.]

.

+GENERATION ZERO by Fred Van Lente & Francis Portela

Years ago, the children of the experimental strike team known as Generation Zero were taken from their families by Project Rising Spirit, a private weapons contractor, and raised to be psychic soldiers. After years of taking orders, they have fought for and won their freedom. Now, the world's most wanted teenagers have pledged to protect each other tooth and claw, while using their extraordinary abilities to right wrongs for a generation without a future... To fight for kids, just like them. One of those kids is Keisha Sherman, whose boyfriend just turned up dead after a suspicious car crash in Rook, Michigan - a newly booming tech town that sprang from rags to super-riches seemingly overnight. When Keisha makes a desperate plea into her webcam, the local high school suddenly finds itself with several unusual new students... But as word of Generation Zero's presence spreads rapidly through the halls, this volatile band of teenage upstarts is about to discover that they're far from the most extraordinary thing lurking behind Rook's stainless-steel facade...

This is one of those stories where you THINK you know what will happen, but surprise, you’re fucking wrong, it’s waaaaaaaaay better and also, way worse than you imagine. What they come to save the town from is something that takes far bigger than you can even comprehend... 

[MH/disabled protags, violence, deaths, etc.]

.

+ECLIPSE by Zachary Kaplan & Giovanni Timpano

Imagine if sunlight burned you alive. In the near future, a mysterious solar event has transformed the sun's light into deadly immolating rays. The world's few survivors now live in nocturnal cities. But a killer emerges who uses sunlight to burn his victims, and when he targets the daughter of a solar power mogul, it falls to a disillusioned solar engineer to protect her.

Actually really, really liked this one. The effortless world-building and the degree of chaos instilled by the whole world going to, literal hell. And it’s not... far-fetched, not really. I mean, in Aus it was super fucking hot three years in a row, like, unusual even for us hot... it’s that hint of ‘maybe future’ that draws you in and the story traps you. [Violence, murder, immolation, drugs/alcohol use, etc]

.

+COPPERHEAD by Jay Faerber, Ron Riley & Scott Godlewski

Welcome to Copperhead, a grimy mining town on the edge of a backwater planet. Single mom Clara Bronson is the new sheriff, and on her first day she'll have to contend with a resentful deputy, a shady mining tycoon, and a family of alien hillbillies. And did we mention the massacre? Questions swirl around not only the murder mystery, but around Sheriff Bronson herself. What brought her to a place like Copperhead? Is she running from something? Or towards something?

It feels like you want to like and hate the characters, because they feel a little too realistic; the situations may be in space and crazy alien nonsense, but some things remain the same. Definitely felt a bit slow to begin with, but it all made sense in context the more I read... [Violence, Surgery, Death, Big Spooky Bullshit Aliens, etc.]

.

+TREES by Warren Ellis & Jason Howard

Ten years after they landed. All over the world. And they did nothing, standing on the surface of the Earth like trees, exerting their silent pressure on the world, as if there were no-one here and nothing under foot. Ten years since we learned that there is intelligent life in the universe, but that they did not recognize us as intelligent or alive.

Okay, so that’s vague. Consider this, ten years ago, aliens dropped some gigantic cylinders on earth in strategic places, humanity called them ‘trees’; they don’t talk to us, we’re fleas to them, nothing alive or worth noting. Occasionally, a tree floods green sludge that annihilates everything around it. The world is broken by them.

You follow a handful of different stories that all seem to meld together somehow. Follow a research team in the ice; a young painter who finds himself in the shadow of the china tree; a young woman who seizes control of her little world through the fear the trees elicit, etc. You never know what will happen.

I, personally, loved it; but that’s just me. can’t wait for volume 3, though. [LGBPTA+ characters, violence, alien trees, gangs, violence, murder and cruelty, etc.]

.

+THE EMPTY by Jimmy Robinson 

Tanoor is a hunter struggling to feed her village in an apocalyptic world of poison and decay, but Tanoor finds hope when she discovers a stranger named Lila who has the ability to grow life from death-a power that could change the world of The Empty.

You know, when I first saw the artstyle, I was a little put off because I thought it was just someone exaggerating features for the hell of it; but you know what, the more you read, the more you realise how and why they are like that. How evolution shaped them, because of the world they had come from, and survived in.

Basic story summary? Tanoor, badass lady hunter trolling through the emptiness to find food for her asshole people, lead by foolish elders too afraid of their own shadow to take chances.  Lila, a different kind of being, ends up in the Empty and finds Tanoor; that’s when the fun really begins as they try to reverse the terrible poisoning that has created such a toxic, barren world. It was pretty engaging; can’t wait to see what volume 2 will bring, bc you really do get invested in the characters. [Violence, Death, Wasteland, Xenophobia, etc.]

.

+ZODIAC STARFORCE by Kevin Panetta & Paulina Gancheau

They're an elite group of teenage girls with magical powers who have sworn to protect our planet against dark creatures . . . as long as they can get out of class! Known as the Zodiac Starforce, these high-school girls aren't just combating math tests. They're also battling monsters--not your typical afterschool activity! But when an evil force from another dimension infects team leader Emma, she must work with her team of magically powered friends to save herself--and the world--from the evil Diana and her mean-girl minions!

Sounds like just another Sailor Moon style magic girl team, and that’s pretty much the mindset I went into it with; but yeah, I was wrong. Honestly it surprised me, really loved them.

And the villain is so fucking relateable, sure she’s doing a Bad, but ther reason behind it makes sense. At least half of you would take the same chances and fuck up too. Not justifying her shit, but really, you get WHY.  Love the zodiac force though, so damn cute and silly and ridiculous. [LGBPTA+ protags, girl power, violence, chaos, etc.]

.

[bryyo-data]

Okay I'm pretty sure I swore off discourse when I started planet-bryyo but hey, it's Christmas!

With regards to the Samus-out-of-her-suit discussion, it seems to be a pretty subjective matter. I keep trying to put my opinions into words, and I think I've narrowed down the issues I have. So this is JUST my personal take on the entire thing: what I like from Samus, what I think works well and doesn't work well. Feel free to disagree and even drop a comment in the replies, I'm open to a change of opinion!

(FYI I stole all my images off Wikitroid to break up the text)

Seeing Samus outside her suit is a neat reward. In the original Metroid, it lead to the very significant reveal that Samus was a girl. A lot of games tease the woman-behind-the-suit with stuff like reflections in her visor, or a view of her eyes and expression during a cutscene, so the game culminating with her completely out of her suit can be very rewarding and awesome if done well.

While I have a bit of a preference for stuff like badass suit shots or Fusion's lore endings (which I think were Japanese exclusive so I've only ever see them via the wiki) it can be really fun to see Samus just chilling in her spare time. Zero Mission does this pretty well; she dons regular outfits, goes back to civilisation, and does normal stuff like drink at bars. It's nice to see her get some down time, and hint at what her life is like beyond her missions.

On the other hand, blatant this-scene-only-exists-to-show-off-her-boobs scenes aren’t my thing. Y'know, I’m willing to say a bit of sexiness probably doesn't do much harm. I'd argue that some of the scenes we see in the likes of Zero Mission and Fusion endings (like the above) are acceptably, as youtuber ShayMay puts it, "sexy not sexualised" and detract far less, if anything, from Samus' portrayal. Samus is pretty without it being obnoxiously sexualized. And hey, we're all human, loads of us like a bit of boob. They aren't of much interest to me but plenty of people love 'em. In Metroid, though, it just feels a bit excessive and unnecessary at times, and I think it can impact how Samus and certain scenes come across.

The zero suit segment of Metroid: Zero Mission was a really interesting part of the game, with that stealth mission being challenging and fun to play. That's just about the only thing I ever liked regarding the zero suit, because almost every other instance of its appearance (including cutscenes in Zero Mission itself) is used to scream "HEY LOOK GUYS, SEXY BUTT." Personally, I just don't think those shots mesh well with what Samus is generally portrayed like. There's better ways to go about showing her suitless, like the variety of civilian outfits she's been presented in, or even simply taking off the helmet as in Prime. She can look very beautiful in these shots, without it looking blatantly sexualised and a bit ridiculous. Compare the above bar scene to this thing which always really bugged me because it's literally just butt and sideboob and the way it's posed looks really weird.

I find it a bit jarring when we go from the imposing figure of the power suit to the zero suit, which tends to be used to scream boob and not much else. For the most part, suited Samus carries this gravitas that makes her very impactful as a character. Unfortunately, that gravitas pretty much instantly evaporates when she's put in a blatantly sexy shot on screen, no matter what she's saying or doing. Note that there IS a difference between "blatantly sexy shot" and "shot where Samus is not in her suit" and the latter would be no issue. We see that in the likes of Other M's ending, where she's in civilian clothing and can look nice without the camera lingering on her rear end too long and killing the impact. I have my issues with how Other M did things, but at least IIRC it didn't derail that ending moment with Anthony by making it weirdly sexy, unlike a few other parts of the game which I'll come to in a bit.

I don't think sexiness is automatically bad- see Bayonetta for what I guess is an example of sexiness done in a good, not-disempowering or disrespectful way? I guess? I haven't played those games. But sexiness in Metroid is put in places where it feels out of place. Zero Mission and Other M are bad offenders; the latter two Primes only have like one scene of it, so it's odd but can be more easily passed over if you aren't into the uncanny valley robot tiddy look from Prime 2 that haunts me to this day.

Hunters did the out-of-suit thing quite nicely too. Hunters stands as evidence that even the zero suit doesn't have to be inherently bad (though let's be real, it was designed for tiddy and it will probably be used for tiddy until the end of its days). Hunters was actually my intro to the franchise and the first time I personally saw the face of Samus Aran. If you beat Hunters before developing carpal tunnel syndrome, and if you access the hidden ending by fulfilling the Alimbic prophecy, the monster Gorea is destroyed in its final form and the Alimbic spirits telepathically contact Samus to thank her for what she has done. There's a lack of obnoxious proportions or questionable camera angles, so the scene comes across as meaningful as it's supposed to.

Prime did well in combining the thrill of "IT'S HER, IT'S THE PROTAGONISTS FACE" with the badassery of suited Samus, giving the scene quite a good impact. People remember that scene with fondness. It's a shame that so few scenes with non-suited Samus have managed to capture the same thing- like, imagine Samus standing on a hill in a long coat or some other awesome piece of apparel, gazing over a futuristic city like a watchful guardian. That would be sweet.

I personally liked the more realistic look they went for in Prime, despite technical limitations on the face model; it suited the tone of the game and the personality of Samus better than the weird anime kinda thing in Prime 3. You can get away with that look in the 2D games where everything has that art style, but all the other humans in Prime 3 were more realistic so it just looked out of place (we don't talk about Echoes...) but that's verging on a different issue entirely.

Zero Mission is one of my favourite games, possibly my favourite 2D game on par with Samus Returns at the minute. It did really well in a lot of stuff, but it also has a degree of booty with bad timing. The moment after Samus crashes and is left with nothing should be a fairly serious one- the situation is bleak, the task up ahead is daunting. The only hope you have is Samus' confidence and skill- and your skill as a player, which, if you're anything like me, you're starting to question in a moment of utter oh shit. This is also one of the few moments where Samus actually has some dialogue, which is all pretty straightforward with a hint of her good humour and personality.

That entire scene is framed over a very blatant butt shot. Maybe it's just me and I ought to care less, but I find it a bit harder to take the scene seriously because of it. Sexiness isn't inherently bad, there's a time and place for it, but is this serious scene really the time and place? I'm not even gonna pull up big words like objectification and such, I don't really know enough to say about those things, I just think it looks really silly there. If it needs to be included, couldn't it stay as the under-five-hours reward as per usual?

I could just be really bitter about that one, though.

Buff Samus is another related issue. I've seen loads of people saying "Samus looks good as she is!" and there's nothing wrong with that. I just thought I'd try and justify my own reasons for being a bit let down with Samus' current out-of-suit design. It's not so much the design in itself, nor the fact that she's not what the fandom fantasizes her being like. It's more related to the design's history and trends of change.

Personally, I'm just a little bitter that they felt the need to change Samus from the design they gave her in Super, because of WHY they changed it. In Super Metroids manual- and visibly in-game- Samus is toned and tall. These days, the media is gracing us with more tall and buff lady characters (Zarya from Overwatch, Brienne of Tarth from GOT, etc.) but when I was a kid I don't think I could name a single muscular lady outside of joke cartoon characters. Maybe sportswomen, but even then I can't think of any popular ones whose names I haven't learned in just the last few years. Doesn't mean there weren't any, just that I never came across any widespread ones, and I'm inclined to believe there weren't many around in popular media. Which made a taller, buffer Samus a little bit more of a revolutionary concept, important for the sake of seeing varied body types and such. It's important for people with those body types as much as it is for everyone else SEEING people with those body types and lifestyles.

Basically, as far as I can tell, Nintendo decided that "sex sells" and their major lady protag wasn't good enough without the sex appeal that comes with being skinny and shapely. They decided buff wasn't attractive, so they had to do things like cut her height down, slim her waist, bring out her chest, and make her ass stick out half the width of Zebes. Everything she was allowed to be before was stripped away and swapped out for your standard sexy woman's frame so people could titillate over her.

This only increased over time. Going from Zero Mission to Other M and the Smash Bros franchise, you can see this increasing trend of Samus getting promoted in-game and in pre-release material as sexier, up to Smash Bros 4 where so many Zero Suit promotional screenshots had her bent around like the token sexygirl in a forgettable Hollywood movie poster, posed for good view of her assets, or even put in freaking bunny ears which have their own set of connotations. Then there's the whole heels debate, which I'm not even gonna get into.

Her boobs are orbs.

If I'll say one positive- Samus Returns didn't do badly. Actually, big kudos to Samus Returns. All of its ending poses were all nods to other stuff for fans to recognise and they took time to make three different out-of-suit Samus outfits. Samus genuinely looks pretty cool in each of them. I really dig it!

I think some people in the fandom have the misconception that me- and others who share my opinion- don't like the idea of sexy women, or feminine women, being badass heroines. And that's simply not the case. People bring up Bayonetta as an example of "you can have sexy/pretty heroines" and while I can't really say a lot about her, as far as I can tell, her game really works well with it and is designed around her having the appearance and personality she has. Metroid is designed around a different sort of protagonist, in a different sort of atmosphere, and the sexualisation is kind of jarringly different from the surrounding material.

If Samus had always been a shortish, big-breasted woman with a strong personality and whose ass and boobs were never/scarcely highlighted in a sexy way, indicating that they exist just because she is a shapely person rather than because people won't survive the game without a boner, that would be sweet. In fact, I could really get behind that because I'm short as hell myself. It's secretly every short person's dream to have a cyborg suit which makes you tall enough to reach the top shelves and fight off everyone you're otherwise too small and weak to handle.

(Had Samus always been a sexy Bayonetta-esque character, I think the franchise would be very different in general. If that was part of the design, it would’ve worked, I guess.)

It's not Samus' size, shape, and proportions in themselves that have the effect of changing the scenes and character portrayal; it's the blatant fanservice and the way they're framing of these features to obviously have a very sexual appeal, and to me that doesn't sit well alongside the rest. When serious scenes are played over what looks like a SFW alt version of a porn pic you glance over while scrolling down the Metroid tag, it’s hard to see any of the impact that Samus had one scene earlier in her power suit. (Okay, I'm exaggerating a little for effect, but the point still stands.)

This peaks in games like Other M (disclaimer: I'm not a fan, apologies to fans of the game) where tragic and meaningful scenes are played over shots of Samus’ butt… like, it’s obvious what they were going for here. I’ve never been a straight male member of the obvious target audience for this so I can’t attest to whether the dual boner-and-tears method works at making a scene memorable, but for the most part it just looks silly from my point of view.

When Samus loses her suit in Other M- e.g. when Adam dies- and all the subsequent shots focus in on her rear end, it really doesn't feel like just about any suited shot in any Metroid game ever, and not in a good way. Like I think I said before, it strips Samus of a degree of gravitas that is integral to her character. Then it tries to play the moment off with a degree of seriousness and dignity that framing her ass like that just doesn't quite have.

(Then again, Other M Samus' lack of gravitas comes across even in the scenes where she's in her suit; this time it's nothing to do with sexualisation or anything, just that her postures and movements don't display any confidence in what she's doing, which is weirdly different from her normal presentation but persists throughout the entire game. Some people like it, I don't think it works, each to their own.)

I've sorta lost track of where I was going so I'm gonna round off here. I'll emphasise that this is all my opinion and interpretation, I don't expect everyone to agree and I completely respect that. I think it's absolutely fair to love Samus while being critical of how her designers portray her and the wider impacts of those choices- at the end of the day, she is fictional and doesn't make these choices for herself. As the audience, we are the ones who feel those choices, for better or worse depending on your own view.

I'm a bit salty about how Samus is portrayed outside of her suit and wish the Samus on the inside was allowed to carry the weight that Samus in the suit does. That doesn't mean she can't be beautiful, but the active increase in her sexy traits and highlighting of those traits over the years is a little bit infuriating, especially considering what they were willing to do with her design early on in the timeline.

Feel free to drop comments, I'm going to try and steer clear of my own salt for the rest of the holidays but I'm keen to know what other people think!

[crossgartered]

P5R liveblog (8/?)

(Makoto arc end)

[[MORE]]

Oh, hey, Chihaya.

Idk if I'm remembering the timing right, but it looks like they took out Ryuji's interaction with those two entirely. I told him to wait outside bc of his uniform and he said he'd kill some time somewhere until I was done

It really does seem kind of awful of us to volunteer Mishima for this, especially without him knowing.

OH HERE THEY ARE

Oh, hey, they think he's interested in drag bc of how he was looking into Crossroads. They want to help him out. Still sucks that this supposed to be something funny, and that they're dragging him off without his wanting to, but it is better than it was.

UGHHHH MISHIMA IM SORRY

Oh, this translation seems different. A bit more natural, I think. Still really harsh, though. Sae...

Makoto...

FUCKING PRIESTESS LISTEN TO YOUR INNER SELF THIS IS JUST DOING SOMETHING FOR THE SAKE OF DOING ANYTHING PLEASE PULL BACK AND THINK STRATEGICALLY INSTEAD IF GOING ABOUT THIS SO EMOTIONALLY

Honestly her charm stat is in the pits. It's kind of hilarious since you need high (max? Idr) charm to progress past rank 5 with her.

Huh, if she had social stats... High knowledge, low charm, good guts, not totally sure about proficiency & kindness but I'm leaning towards okay-low proficiency and middling-decent kindness.

Now, the others...

Ryuji would have low knowledge, good guts,

Listen, I'm having trouble with quantifying their kindness. Because, they all have differing levels of what I consider personal-kindness and general-kindness

Wait. Do I really want to get on this tangent right now? ...Not really. Hold that thought. Back to the game.

GOD this was so dangerous I am honestly amazed that she got out of this okay.

GOD THAT IS SO DANGEROUS I AM HONESTLY AMAZED THAT HE GOT OUT OF THAT OKAY

Honestly I'm kind of surprised Kaneshiro doesn't have a doorman or anything.

Jeez, Kaneshiro's face looks off compared to everyone else. Like, on its own, it's a decent face, but it looks like it doesn't belong with the rest.

Huh, I wonder how many of them actually have mommies and daddies to beg money from. Let's see... Makoto is being raised by her prosecutor sister. Parents dead. Ryuji is being raised by a single mom. Dad left a long time ago. Canonically poor. Yusuke was being raised by Madarame. Mom dead. Dad out of the picture, idr how. Canonically poor, with poor money sense. Ann has parents. Successful fashion designers that she doesn't see half the year. And the protag has an ambiguous family situation. Of course, I have my headcanons, but that's nothing. Anyway, if we were going about this the way Kaneshiro wanted us to, Ann would probably be able to provide the most, followed by Makoto. (Again, leaving Ren out of this).

Guh, thinking about it like that feels shitty.

...can you even imagine an ATM with Ann's pigtails though? I mean I know the other ATMs don't have any distinguishing features but still

Anyway

Godddd, I really love when people are given reaction shots when something another character is saying is resonating or otherwise meaningful to them

Makoto: "A lot happened after we lost her father three years ago, so it's just us living together... But I'm still a child, so all I am is a burden to her..."

Yusuke: *cut-in* "......"

Me: *chef's kiss*

...it happens at other times in this game (and other stuff), too, but I just wanted to point it out. Especially bc you kind of have to infer a lot of the time when it comes to Yusuke.

OHHHDJDJSJDJJDS HE LOOKED SO SAD WHEN MAKOTO CALLED HIM A CANINE

"IT'S FOX" HE SAYS

Both Makoto and Ann called him specifically a monster cat. I wonder if the Japanese calls him a cat ayakashi or something.

What property damage did any of us cause?

Why is Shadow Kaneshiro purple anyway?

JOHANNA IS SO FUCKING COOL GODDAMN

I love Makoto's awakening ngl

But honestly, is there a /bad/ awakening in the bunch? They really killed it with the game aesthetics, you know?

"No weaknesses. Our only chance is to make them confused" or whatever she just said about confusing them. Idk if I just tune her out or if that's a new thing

Didn't Makoto have Flash Bomb or whatever that multi-phys + chance of Dizzy skill was called? Maybe she gets that at a higher level

*heavy sigh* Okay, Makoto

"I will crush him like a fly" I see what you did there

It really is nice that they're bringing up the advisor thing instead of just her doing it herself. I still feel like there should have been a little more talk about it amongst the 5 of them instead of just the 3 human-shaped guys but w/e

The references to English songs and memes is a little jarring, ngl

Man, Sae's gonna flip her shit when she hears what Makoto did to get here.

Awww Ann & Makoto are bonding

*sigh* listen, I like Makoto, I even dated her in my first playthrough of vanilla p5, but I really dislike how they just keep shilling her around this time. It's a little off-putting. I think it's a thing Atlus likes to do.

Hmm? Is the man getting joint pain on rainy days going to affect his Mementos fight?? Interesting.

Ughhhhhh Queen choosing her name and then the """strategy""" thing is exactly the same. Like her being there even changes anything about how we go about things. And we do think about what we're doing, actually! Well, mostly Morgana bc Phantom thievery is his whole schtick. But like, outside our usual plans, we successfully pulled off the heist in the Madarame Palace, for example. We also opened the locked door and dealt with that. We go about the palaces with intent! Blugh.

"it's my role to be the brain of this team and give out orders" BLUGH

And then Ryuji & Mona are into it... -_-+

I hate this part. It's awkward and dumb. There are better ways to make her their advisor, Atlus

Also someone mention that I am field leader pls. I know you did in vanilla p5 do it now as well

I wonder if they've changed her s.link abilities? They at least have to have given her 1 more thing due to the baton pass thing

I WONDER IF EIKO WILL HAVE A SPRITE NOW?!?!? I hope so ^u^

GUH I love Makoto's Queen outfit.

Oh, whoops, I forgot about that conversation. Maybe I should have put Morgana in my party.

But heck yeah, let's do a finisher! I wonder how to get these for people.

RYUJI WANTS TO DO A SHOWTIME WITH FOX "We could call it Art Run or something" I LOVE HIM

SHIT WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I SAVED

Ugh, it's really frustrating that they're trying to get me to showtime w Ann & Morgana when all the enemies here are weak to Zio & Bufu (with a little bit of Psi & Gun thrown in for good measure).

Okay, have reorganized my party so I don't have to use an Agi-weak persona to go after enemy weaknesses. That was so embarrassing.

Oh, neat! My sleuthing instinct kicked in! ... Makoto's abilities have to have changed.

YOU MEAN SHOWTIME CAN KICK IN EVEN WHEN ONE OF THE MEMBERS IS NOT IN THE PARTY?!?!?! AHHHH

Maybe even both, idk. Morgana seemed like the best choice to heal/lucky punch so he's in my party rn but maybe when he gets swapped out later I'll find the answer to that

...this is being surprisingly easy. But I don't think I'm overleveled... Jeez, I haven't bought weapons since Kamoshida's Palace. And they give you so many clothes in this game... And accessories! Really!

But yeah, I finished that security guy in 3 moves. Morgana - Garu (absorbed), Yusuke - Bufu (inflicting Freeze), Ryuji - Headbutt (Technical) -> All-Out Attack. I remember it being a lot harder in the original. Idk.

Okay, the next one was slightly harder. It took two All-out-attacks to beat it. But hmm.

Maybe I am overleveled, though. Apparently that miniboss (??) Was only level 21, and I am 23.

Oh, I'm getting Sigma feelings. Ann's counting down for opening the vault-like door.

I don't think I've ever noticed before how neat Kaneshiro's palace music is. Well, at least the Laundering Office, anyway. What is this, exactly? It's some version of Price - that's the same melody line, but the instrumentation is all different. That's not to say that Price isn't good; it's just that I'm weak for strings & orchestra instruments in non- orchestral songs. It sounds darker and more intense. I love it

Oho? That gold vault door seems new.

Or maybe I just don't remember it.

Anyway. I really do appreciate that Morgana mentions Shadow personalities in negotiations. Like, I read the tutorial on it, but it's nice to have him like "what's this one so happy about? Well, guess we'll play long for now" or whatever he says for an upbeat shadow. It's pretty neat.

"I wonder what it'd be like if we had Palaces instead of Personas." SAME, RYUJI, SAME 👀👀👀👀👀

Hmm, I know Joker Palace has some fics, and I think I remember seeing a Crow Palace fic, but I wonder about the others...? Hmm 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

I don't want to accidentally spoil myself, though. I'll go through the archive after I finish this.

"Your Palace would definitely be a beef bowl shop." ANN OMG

"Why'd you gotta give a straight answer right off the bat? I can't argue with that!" Ryuji pls ;u;

Why do Will Seeds all look like that? I know there are those death things with the hollow eyes like that, but is that what it is? It just seems so out of place in this technical setting. I'm kind of surprised they don't change appearances to suit their Palace. Tbh, it doesn't really look like anything that comes from Mementos, either. But I suppose it must...

WHOA, why did the Velvet Room door turn red? "I have an uneasy feeling" Same, protag, same

WHY IS THE VELVET ROOM ON HIGH ALERT

A fusion alarm? OH COME ON IT HASNT BEEN THAT LONG SINCE I FUSED ANYONE

Is this because I still have Jack Frost with me? But come onnnn I already had most of this palace's inhabitants alreadyyyy

By /fusing/ them

Could this have come at any time? Or was this scripted for now? Oh, wait, I overreacted, this says that my Personas will be stronger if I do it during a fusion alarm. Kind of incentivizes him to slack off, though, doesn't it? Lol

Oh, interesting. Look at all those accident possibilities. Nvm.

Orpheus... ;-;

Huh, I didn't realize the Picaro versions also were not just dlc

"You would like me to become your mask? Well then, let us search for the answers of life together."

*lie down* *try not to cry* *cry a lot*

Anyway.

I need to go to Mementos and find an Eligor. Gotta get that Flauros.

YES FINALLY MY GUTS INCREASED

Aww, the newspaper club girl is rooting for the phantom thieves. She's so angry at akechi rn

Oh, speaking of! Hello, Akechi!

AHHH RYUJI AND MAKOTO TEAM UP IM SO PSYCHED

Oh man it's bc of the motorcycle ISNT IT, RYUJI : DDDDDD

JDSKSKXNXJKS

The voice acting there was. Wonderful. Omfg

Actually, now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense that Ryuji's tried to suggest team ups twice now, ever as soon as he learned they were a thing. He was on the track team, and the team aspect of that was very important to him. He likes cheering others on and being cheered on by others. Specifically by training and sweating and testing limits together - by fighting together. Of course ryuji is interested. Of course he is.

Man, I wish I had better context for the "you filthy fly on dirty money" line - I mean, obviously he's Beelzebub, who is apparently in charge of gluttony, but like, is that a phrase? Is this just a Beelzebub reference or is there more to it bc it feels like there's more to it and I don't understand bc cultural reasons

Blegh I don't want to give up my expensive items...guess I'll do this the tedious way.

Ah, here we go. Let's see how these hired guns are. Hopefully I can see the Makoto & Ryuji showtime? :3 ?

Wait, Bael? Not Beelzebub? Really? Huh?

YES IT'S SHOWTIME

HOLY SHIT I LOVE IT

I wonder why that briefcase was related to his distorted desires. We really know so little about Kaneshiro, relatively

Yusuke's kinda on the ball today.

...*snerk*

Wow, damn, Akechi was potentially onto us since the Kaneshiro calling card? He gave a list of potential candidates, maybe we were on it...

Makoto, really, it was unfair of everyone to put the burden of resolving the Kaneshiro issue on you. You really can't be blamed. you know that, right?

Oh, hey look, it's 'Gaudy Student' there in the background

Hhhhhhhhhhh there are so many choices I have 5 potential social links to do tonight. I could start Kawakami, Ohya, Chihaya, or Hifumi, or I could level up Yoshida since it's Sunday

AHH KASUMI IS SO CUTE. FUCK!

BWAHAHAHAHA justice rank 3 is. Amazing.

"I've seen everything. A vision of you groveling on the ground..." IS THIS THE THING IN DECEMBER SHES TALKING ABOUT