#i love the forest the atmosphere and the protagonist

[eveningshowhost]

The quiet hunt

[nilsavatar]

Your fic with Neteyam and The Sarentu was amazing I loved it! Would you be willing to write a fic about the Sarentu having a nightmare about being back in TAP? I just keep thinking about our characters reply to Anufi after saving her from being tortured by the RDA “Sky peoples air, one of Hardings favorite punishments” it’s horrifying that they would do that to literal children.

The Sky Breaker: Shadows of the Past

Parings: Neteyam x Fem!Sarentu (Ateyana)

Genre/Warnings: NSFW/MDNI +18, no use of Y/N, ANGST. All characters are AGED-UP. No smut, only fluff in the end, but still this story is not about romance, even if Sarentu’s relationship with Neteyam is mentioned. So'lek cameo as a brotherly figure for Sarentu.

!DISCLAIMER! Presence of dark and sensitive explicit themes: torture through poison, child abuse, trauma. Please do not read if these topics are not for you.

Little note: Thanks a million, Anon, for your request. It resonated with me so much that I couldn't wait in writing it, surprising myself with the speed I completed it with. Like you, I too was deeply disturbed by that part of the DLC, and even more so by the protagonist's hint about the abuse Harding allegedly inflicted on the Sarentu children. I usually wait at least a couple of days before posting to check for errors with a cool head, but this time I'm so impatient that I can't resist. I hope I managed to satisfactorily touch on all the points you listed, and that the end result reflects your expectations. Thank you again for the challenge you have given me, allowing me to explore even more of the world of Avatar, even in its darkest and most disturbing parts.

@hao-ming-8 you told me to tag you in case I write about So'lek. Although this story is not about So'lek, there is a part about him that reflects the ghosts of his past. I thought you might appreciate it.

Word Count: 5k

Masterlist - Request a fic

Yana crouched in the underbrush, her heart still hammering from the chaos of the last battle. The air was heavy with the acrid tang of scorched earth, a testament to the destruction wrought by the RDA. Beside her, Anufi set silently, the blue of her skin ashen, the fresh burns on her wrists standing stark against her flesh. Her silence haunted her almost as much as her own thoughts. Anufi’s rescue had been harrowing. Finding her facing the ground in a gas chamber where humans forced the Na'vi's lungs to choke on their poisonous atmosphere awakened an old, buried terror. Her hands trembled as she wiped sweat from her brow, memories unraveling in her mind before she could stop them.

She had been little more than a child when she, her sister and the others were taken into the RDA’s TAP. The Ambassador Program, they had called it, a name coated in the syrupy pretense of goodwill. To the humans, it was a symbol of diplomacy, and experiment in ‘peaceful coexistence’. Its true nature was something far darker—a carefully calculated project to mold Na’vi children into tools for the humans’ colonial ambitions. A gilded cage, where their culture, their independence, and even their spirit were systematically stripped away.

The Sky People smiled as they handed out data pads and notebooks, teaching the children about Earth’s history, science, and culture. But those smiles always hid something colder. They’d correct a mispronounced English word with thinly veiled frustration or scowl when a child struggled to manipulate human tools with their three-fingered hands. “It’s for your own good,” they’d say when a child wept, homesick for the forests of Pandora. “This is how you’ll help your people survive.”

Great responsibility for someone who was just a kid.

Aha’ri, however, saw through the lies. She had always been the bold one, the spark to Yana’s cautious flame. While the little sister obeyed quietly, biting back her discomfort, the older one would glare at the instructors with a defiance the set her apart. Her golden eyes, so full of fire, had  unnerved the RDA staff from the start. “That one’s trouble,” they’d mutter as she passed, but for a time, they tolerated her resistance. They wanted to shape her, too, to prove they could tame even the fiercest Na'vi.

Yana, on the other hand, was more thoughtful, more fearful and aware of the superiority the humans had over them because of their technological contraptions. They were on their own turf, here the soldiers and scientists were playing at home, driven by a cruelty and avarice against which a paltry little group of children could do nothing. Moved by this, the younger sister tried to temper the elder's temper, pleading with her to stay quiet. But Aha'ri wouldn’t listen.

“Tsmuke [sister], they’re stronger than us. They control everything. If you fight them—.” “Then I’ll fight harder,” Aha’ri interrupted, her voice sharp as an arrowhead. “They won’t break me.” But Ateyana knew better. The humans’ kindness was a thin mask over something monstrous, and that monstrosity revealed itself one fateful day.

It began in a cultural lesson — one of the RDA’s many patronizing attempts to bridge understanding between humans and Na’vi. Her sister had been tense from the very start, her tail flicking in irritation as the instructor droned on about the technological advancements of Earth, their tone dripping with condescension. “And that’s why humanity’s ingenuity has made us the dominant species,” they stated, holding up a glowing data pad as though it wet a sacred artifact.

Aha’ri patience snapped. With a swift motion, she grabbed the object from the instructor’s hands and hurled it across the room. It shattered against the metal wall with a deafening crash, its pieces scattering like shards of broken pride. “You don’t want to understand us!” Her voice cut through the stunned silence, sharp and fierce. Her tail lashed behind her, and her chest heaved with rage. “You want to own us! To take everything away from us. Our families, our land, our identity!” The other Na’vi children froze, their wide eyes darting between Aha’ri and the Sky People. Yana’s heart sank as she saw the instructor’s face harden, their polite veneer cracking to reveal cold fury.

Within minutes, the incident was reported to John Mercer himself. The administrator of TAP arrived with his characteristic composure, his every movement calculated and deliberate. Mercer had a presence that muffled rooms and chilled blood — a man whose power was as much in his intellect as in his authority. He looked down at the remains of the data pas, then up at the girl, who stood unrepentant, her chin raised in defiance.

“Colonel Harding,” he said, his tone calm but devoid of empathy. “You may deal with this as you see fit.” Ateyana’s blood turned ice. She knew what that meant. Colonel Angela Harding, the TAP’s enforcer, thrived on cruelty. A towering woman with a predatory gaze, she carried herself with the detached air of someone who viewed torment as a mere tool for oder. Her punishment were as inventive as they were brutal, each conceived not just to discipline but to humiliate and break the will of her captives, to withdraw insubordination and replace it with submission. For that monster, breaking the Na’vi wasn’t simply her duty: it was a twisted form of entertainment.

As she arrived in response to Mercer’s orders, the colonel strode into the room, her boots clicking against the linoleum floor, her expression one of faint amusement. Aha’ri maintain her bolshie attitude, but everybody could see the tension in her stiff tail and the subtle quiver in her shoulders. “Ah, the little firebrand,” Harding commented, her voice dripping with mockery. “You think you’re so special because you’ve got a bit of spark, don’t you?” The girl didn’t respond, her golden eyes narrowing in silent insolence, and she chuckled, shaking her head. “We’ll see how long that spark lasts.” When the woman reached for Aha’ri, Yana acted on instinct. She stepped forward, throwing herself between the colonel and her sister. Her entire frame trembled, but she forced her voice to be steady ash she spoke. “Aha’ri didn’t mean it!” She cried, meeting her icy gaze. “She’s just… she’s just angry. Please, forgive her just this time.” “Step aside, child,” Harding said coldly, her eyes razor-sharp like knives, but she refused to move. Her heart pounded loudly in her chest and ears, but she planted her feet firmly on the ground. “Please,” she begged, turning to Mercer, who studied her from the doorway with the detached curiosity of a scientist examining a specimen. “I’ll make her behave. I promise.” He stared at Sarentu for a long time, his head tilted as if considering her plea. “Discipline,” he said finally, his tone almost paternal, “is essential for progress. If you truly wish to help your sister, sweet child, you should teach her to obey.” Tears streamed down her face as she dropped to her knees in front of him, clinging to his lab coat in supplication. “I’ll take her punishment. Just let her go.” “Do you think if she saw you suffering in her place, she would learn her lesson?” The aloofness with which he asked prevented her from answering. “You want to protect your sister, I understand that. But have you ever thought that she is putting you all in trouble with her antics? Ateyana, you are a good girl, but if you always cover for her you will end up doing her more harm than good. Aha'ri needs to learn how to be in the world.”

With a flick of his hand, Mercer signaled Harding to proceed. The colonel didn’t wait for further discussion, she grabbed Aha’ri by the arm and began dragging her away, ignoring the younger Na’vi’s thrashing and curses. Yana lunged after them, her hands reaching for her sister, but two Sec-Ops troopers blocked her path, their like iron as they held her back, ready to point the weapons hanging at their side if necessary. “Don’t do this!” She screamed, her voice breaking. “Please! You don’t have to do this!” Her cries went unanswered, Harding didn’t even glance back. She pulled Aha’ri around like a rag doll. The doors hissed shut behind them, with a mechanical finality that sent a chill through the little girl’s soul.

Aha’ri’s punishment was swift and merciless. Harding took her to one of the facility’s sealed chambers — a tool originally designed to test human oxygen systems in Pandora’s atmosphere but repurposed for a far darker use. She was shoved into a cylindrical space with reinforced glass walls, that allowed observers to watch.

Harding’s fingers hovered over the control panel, her lips curling into a devious sneer. “Let’s see how well she handles a little taste of home.” Yana pounded on the glass, her fists striking the cold surface with frantic desperation. “Stop! Please! She’ll listen! She’ll listen, I swear!” The soldier glanced at her, one eyebrow arched in fake pity. “Oh, she’ll listen. One way or another.” With that, she pressed the button. Inside the tube, Aha’ri face shifted from boldness to confusion as the first wave of Earth’s air flooded in. It was clear but carried a hidden poison — the mixture of gases that made up the Earth's atmosphere, was toxic to Na’vi physiology. And the speed with which it was being administered in the small space made its effects immediate.

Within moments, the girl staggered, her hands clutching her throat as her lungs rebelled. “Breathe, little warrior,” Harding murmured, her voice filled with wicked mirth. At first, the girl resisted, glaring through the glass as if daring Harding to do her worst. But courage and recklessness couldn’t stop the poison from taking hold. The little sister’s breath labored in sync with the oldest’s, as she watched her confident posture collapse to her knees, gasping for air that her body couldn’t accept. Her chest heaved as she clawed at her throat, her eyes wide with panic.

The sight of Aha’ri’s agony — the strength draining from her limbs, the fire in her irises flickering into fear — was more than Ateyana could bear. She turned back to Mercer, who stood silently in the corner, his arms crossed. “Stop her!” The girl sobbed, her voice raw. “Please, make her stop! You’re killing her!” The man regarded her with the same neutrality he had shown throughout the ordeal. “Killing her?” He echoed, as though the idea were preposterous. “No. Colonel Harding knows her limits. Your sister will survive, don’t worry. The question is whether she’ll learn.” Sarentu’s whines filled the lab as she could only watch her sister being tortured.

The minutes dragged on like hours. Aha’ri’s struggles grew weaker, her gasps becoming faint and uneven. Her frame trembled, on hand pressed against the glass, her golden eyes locking with her sister’s as though reaching for help that would never come. Yana could do nothing but press her palms in return, her tears smearing the surface. Then her hands closed into fists, pounded against the window until they bled. She screamed, begged, wailed, but no one came. Behind her, the other Na’vi children huddled in terrified quiet, their eyes averted.

Harding savored the scene with a vague smirk, her arms crossed as though she were enjoying a private show. At last, when Aha’ri passed out, limp to the floor, her chest rising and falling in shallow, ragged breaths, she released the seal. “Enough,” her tone almost bored. The chamber’s doors hissed open, two guards stepped inside to drag the victim out, while the colonel looked down at the motionless girl with disdain “She’ll live,” said with casual, scorn indifference. “Maybe now she’ll learn her place.”

When they returned Aha’ri to the dormitory, Ateyana rushed to her sister’s side. Her skin was damp with sweat, her breath still short, but her beautiful eyes fluttered open as she cradled her. “It’s okay,” the younger whispered, stroking her hair. “You’re safe now. I got you.” But Ahari didn’t respond. She stared blankly at the ceiling, her expression devoid of the fire that had once defined her, replaced by a hollow emptiness that she could barely recognize. Ateyana’s heart ached as she realized the truth: the sister she knew was gone, her spirit crushed under the weight of what she had endured.

From that day, she was different. She stopped speaking out against the humans, her rebellious nature altered by a haunting silence. Yana, too, carried the scars of that day — not on her body, but in her soul. She had failed her sister, failed to protect the one person she loved most.

The memory of Aha'ri’s panting breaths, her despairing eyes, would never leave her. It would follow her into adulthood, a ghost that whispered of her guilt and the monstrous cruelty of the humans she had once begged for mercy. That was the day Ateyana learned a hard truth: mercy was not something to be asked for. It was something to be taken, or forced, or denied entirely. And if she wanted to protect her people, she could never again rely on the humanity of her enemies. She would have to fight with all her might, at the risk of being stained with sin in the eyes of the Great Mother. A promise she made to herself again on the day Aha'ri was killed.

She sat on the thick root of a great tree, her fingers absently tracing the worn fletching of an arrow. Around her, the forest pulsed with life. The gentle hum of glowing flora and the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze seemed distant, muted by the storm in her mind. The memories of Aha’ri scratched at the edges of her consciousness, threatening to drag her into the darkness she had fought so hard to keep at bay.

Sarentu squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus on the sounds of the nature, the cool texture of the moss beneath her fingers — anything to anchor herself in the present. But the harder she tried to push the memories away, the sharper they became. The hiss of the cell, the anguished cries of her sister, the emptiness in Mercer’s eyes. A shadow fell across her, and a warm weight settled on her shoulder. Startled, Yana blinked and looked up to find So’lek standing beside her. His hand rested lightly on her shoulder, his touch firm bun unintrusive. 

So’lek was one of the few people she trusted completely. He had been a warrior long before the RDA’s return and had seen firsthand the destruction the humans could bring. His cheek and temple bore the scars of past battles, and his eyes — amber like a fading sunset — held the weight of someone who had endured loss and hardship.

He didn’t speak at first, his gaze steady as he looked down at her. There was no pity in his expression, only quiet understanding. A gaze that knew the pain of haunting memories. The gaze of someone who had carried his own ghosts through the years.

“You’re far away,” he stated softly, his voice low and even, like the rumble of distant thunder. She tried to muster a reply, but the words caught on her tongue, looking away, ashamed of the vulnerability she was showing.

The man crouched beside her, his hand still on her shoulder. He didn’t press her to talk, didn’t demand an explanation. Instead, he sat in silence, his presence a muted reassurance that she wasn’t alone.

“I know that look,” So’lek said after a moment, his thoughtful. “The way your shoulders tighten, how your tail moves without you even realizing it.” He paused, his warm eyes meeting hers. “You’re fighting something inside, aren't you?” Yana felt her throat harshened. She wanted to deny it, to tell him she was fine, that she didn’t need his concern. Bet the words felt pointless even before she could externalize them. So’lek’s glance held her, stiff and unyielding, and she found herself nodding, almost imperceptibly.

“I think about it too,” he admitted, his tone dropping even lower. His eyes drifted to the forest canopy, his expression longing but far-off. “The things I saw. The things I couldn’t stop. Sometimes they come back when I least expect it. In the quiet moments, when the forest is still, I feel I may be at peace once again, at least a little, they creep in.” His hand gave her shoulder a small, reassuring squeeze. “But you don’t have to face it alone.”

Her lips parted, but she hesitated. So’lek’s words reached something deep inside her, a part of her that had been hidden for so long she’d almost forgotten it existed. For years, she had carried the weight of her guilt and pain in silence, afraid to burden others with the darkness she couldn’t escape. But in So’lek’s eyes, she saw no judgment, only the quiet camaraderie of someone who understood.

“What do you do?” she asked finally, her voice barely above a whisper. “When the memories come?” So’lek tilted his head, considering her question. “I remind myself why I fight,” he said after a pause. “Not to forget, or to erase the past. But to make sure it doesn’t happen again. For the ones I lost. For the ones still here.” Yana stared down at her hands, her fingers still gripping the arrow. His words resonated with her, stirring something in the depths of her chest. She thought of Aha’ri, of Anufi, of the clans who had entrusted her with their lives. Of Neteyam. They were her purpose now, the reason she had to keep fighting—even when the pain felt unbearable.

So’lek rose to his feet, his hand slipping from her shoulder. He turned to leave but paused, glancing back at her with a faint smile. “You don’t have to carry it all by yourself, little one,” he said gently. “If the burden is too heavy, let someone else help you shoulder it.” She watched him walk away, his tall frame disappearing into the camp shadows. The weight of her memories hadn’t lifted, but for the first time in a long time, she felt the faintest flicker of hope. She wasn’t alone—not entirely.

The moment of clarity didn’t last long. As the night deepened and the forest grew quieter, the memories crept back in, stronger than ever, sharper and crueler than any blade. It seized her mind without warning, dragging her into the dark recesses of her subconscious where fear and guilt lurked, waiting.  

She was back in the TAP facility, a child again, small and powerless. The sterile white walls loomed around her, closing in like the jaws of a predator. The hum of machinery filled the air, a sound she had grown to dread in those years. Ahead of her, Mercer stood tall, his shadow stretching impossibly long, swallowing the room in its cold grip. His expression was impassive, the same look he had worn when he condemned Aha’ri to her punishment.   Behind him stood Colonel Harding, her fingers drumming against the control panel with rhythmic precision. Tap. Tap. Tap. Each sound reverberated through her chest like the beat of a war drum, growing louder and louder until it drowned out her own breathing. Harding’s lips twisted into a devious smile as her hand hovered over the controls.   Inside the chamber, Aha’ri yelled. It was the same scream she had heard that day, raw and primal, full of misery and pain. The sound teared at Yana’s ears, filling her with a helpless rage that burned like acid in her veins. She tried to move, to stop Harding, but her feet felt rooted to the ground, as if the very air around her had turned to stone.  

“Stop!” She exclaimed with a cry of distress. “Please! Stop!”  

Her hands moved on their own, pounding against the glass until her knuckles split, blood smearing the surface. But her cries were swallowed by the cold, unfeeling room, just as they had been all those years ago. Aha’ri’s golden eyes locked with hers through the glass, wide with terror. Ateyana’s heart shattered all over again as she saw her sister collapse to her knees, gasping for air, her body convulsing as the poisonous atmosphere ravaged her.  

Suddenly, the scene shifted. Ateyana was no longer outside the chamber. She was inside it. The walls pressed in around her, the sterile white replaced by suffocating gloom. The hiss of the oxygen systems grew louder, sharper, until it was the only sound she could hear. Her chest tightened as she drew in a ragged breath, only to feel flames sear her lungs. It was Earth’s air, toxic and alien, invading her body and asphyxiating her from within.   She grazed her throat, panic overtaking her as her vision blurred. Shapes flickered in the dimness—indistinct at first, then blinding. She saw Anufi, her body slumped against the wall, her eyes round and lifeless.   “No,” the girl breathed, reaching for her, but her limbs felt heavy, sluggish. “No, no, no!”  

Then another figure emerged, stepping forward from the shadows. Aha’ri.   Her sister’s complexion was pale and gaunt, her once-bright golden orbs now dim and vacant. She stared at young woman, her expression indecipherable, as though she were looking at a stranger. Behind her, a faint, ghostly image of the cylinder chamber from their childhood flickered to life, overlaying the blackness like a poignant projection.  

“You failed us,” Aha’ri whispered, her voice merging with Anufi’s in a disturbing, chilling harmony.   She shook her head, tears raining down her cheeks. “I tried!” she gasped, her voice plaintive, barely audible over the sound of her labored breathing. “I tried to save you!”   “You failed us,” they repeated, their voices growing louder, the words echoing in her skull until they became a deafening chant. “You failed us! You failed us!”  

The constraining darkness strengthened its grip, the air growing heavier with each passing moment. Her vision swam, the shapes of Aha’ri and Anufi blurring into the shadows. Her own reflection appeared before her, distorted and corrupted, her visage pallid and streaked with tears.   In the reflection’s eyes, she saw all the guilt she had buried for years— the guilt of letting Aha’ri down, of begging Mercer for mercy instead of fighting back, of living when her sister’s spirit had been crushed. And now, the remorse of almost losing Anufi to the same hideous tactics, the same noxious fumes.  

The reflection spoke, its tone cold and unrelenting, distorted in sounds that weren’t hers, but resembled all too closely the voice she had grown most fond of, in the endless struggle that was her life. “You think you can protect them now? You can’t even protect yourself.”  The words hit her like a blow to the chest, forcing the last remnants of air from her lungs. She kneel over, the choking poison overwhelming her. Her hands reached out blindly, her fingernails grasping at nothing.   “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry” she murmured, while her reflection took the figure of somebody else.

The darkness surrounding her grew denser, swallowing her cries and the shapes of her sister and Anufi. It was suffocating, cloying, pressing on her from all sides. She reached out, desperate for any tether to pull her back into the light, but her fingers grasped only the void. Then, she saw him.

“Neteyam?” she whispered, her voice trembling with disbelief.

His form was unmistakable — his broad shoulders, the proud set of his jaw, the way his braids swayed gently as he walked. But something was off. His movements were sluggish, his steps unsteady. Yana's breath caught in her throat as he turned toward her, his face ashen and drawn, his bright lemon eyes dull and dead. “No,” she hushed, shaking her head as alarm dig into her chest. “No, not you. Not you too.”

Neteyam didn’t answer. His lips parted, but no words came out, only a soft, wheezing gasp. Her horror deepened as she saw the friction burns on his wrists, raw and angry, identical to the ones Anufi had borne. The result of the straps with which they had taken him there. Aimed at inflicting pain and subduing resistance, as a further form of the utter contempt RDA had for them.

The light fizz of oxygen filled the air, and she realized with sickening clarity that her mate was choking, his body wracked with spasms as he fight for breathe the toxic human atmosphere. She ran to him, her feet moving as though through water. “Neteyam!” she cried, her voice cracking. “I’m here! I’ll save you!”

But no matter how fast she moved, she couldn’t reach him. The distance between them stretched endlessly, as though the murk itself were conspiring to keep them apart. He fell to his knees, his eyes locking with hers for a fleeting moment. There was no accusation in his gaze, only dread and sadness—a quiet, haunting sadness that made her chest feel like it was splitting open. “Don’t leave me!” she shrieked, tears streaming down her face unstoppably. “Please! Eywa, don’t take him from me!” As his body slumped forward, the shadow surged around him, consuming him entirely. Ateyana dropped to her knees, her cries echoing into the void.

She bolted upright with a strangled gasp, her form drenched in sweat. Her hands flew to her forehead, trembling as she struggled to shake the lingering terror of the dream. Her chest heaved as she gulped in Pandora’s sweet, life-giving air, her mind racing to separate illusion from reality. Her surroundings came into focus slowly — the soft glow of bioluminescent plants, the distant hum of nocturnal creatures. She was back in the forest, far from the sterile walls of the TAP facility.  

It took her a moment to realize she wasn’t alone. Beside her, lying peacefully on a bed of soft mats and pillows, was Neteyam. Her breath caught as she turned to look at him. The moonlight filtering through the hut bathed his profile in a silvery gleam, highlighting the strong lines of his jaw and the gentle rise and fall of his chest. He looked so tranquil, so alive. Yana’s shaking fingers reached out to touch his cheek, her fingertips brushing against his warm skin as though to reassure herself that he was truly there. The tension in her frame ebbed slightly, a wave of relief washing over her. He was safe. He hadn’t been taken from her, hadn’t suffered the horrors her mind had conjured.

“I almost lost you,” she mumbled, her voice whispery as the wind. The young man stirred slightly, his expression softening in his sleep as though he could sense her presence. Sarentu's heart clenched with a mix of endearment and dismay, her emotions swirling like a storm within her. The nightmare had felt so real, so visceral, that even now, the echoes of it clung to her. Her hands trembled as she touched her throat, half-convinced she would feel the burns of the human oxygen.

Her eyes darted to Neteyam once more. Her feelings for him were undeniable, a bond as deep as the roots of Pandora’s sacred trees. But that love came with a fear so profound it threatened to consume her. She had already lost so much— her family, her innocence, the peace of her childhood. The thought of losing Neteyam, of watching him suffer as Aha’ri had, was a pain she could scarcely bear. For a brief moment, she allowed herself to linger in the solace of him being there, her digits brushing against his hair. But the relief was short-lived.

Yana buried her face in her hands, her body wracked with silent sobs. She had tried so hard to bury the past, to lock away the pain and guilt in the darkest corners of her mind. But saving Anufi had torn open those wounds, forcing her to confront the truth she had spent years avoiding: she couldn’t run from her failures. 

As the faint light of dawn began to seep into the forest, she felt the weight of reality settle over her once more. The RDA’s war machines still loomed on the horizon, their engines a constant reminder of the battle yet to come. The nightmare was a cruel reflection of the stakes she faced every day — a reminder that every moment she spent with Neteyam could be their last.

Her gaze shifted to the bow resting nearby, its polished wood shining smoothly in the early morning. There was no room for hesitation, no space for weakness. If she wanted to protect Neteyam, Anufi, and her people, she couldn’t allow insecurities to paralyze her. Her fingers brushed against Neteyam’s cheek one last time before she stood, her movements quiet so as not to wake him. She would fight for him, for all of them. Whatever it took, she would ensure that the nightmare she had seen would never become reality.

She glanced to the floating mountains, and wiped her tears, her hands curling into fists, her resolve hardening like steel. The battle was coming, and she would meet it head-on, fueled by the love that gave her strength and the fear that reminded her what she had to lose. She couldn’t change whar happened to Aha’ri, but she could give her whole self for the future, for Pandora itself.

The past had left its scars, but it had also given her purpose. The Sky People would pay for what they had done. Yana would make sure of it. 

[twinki3zs]

Unlucky Encounter

A Masha One-Shot

[For you :) @chrzannekk ]

This one shot shows the more rivalry side of Masha :))

_______________________

Max walked through the forest as the moon lit up his path. He did this almost every night. With all the counselors and other campers bothering him, Max needed a little alone time. Especially now that the Flower Scouts were back.

Miss Priss and Mr. Campbell were gone on a cruise for nearly a month. But Campbell wasn’t allowed to stay any longer, so they cut their trip short. Meaning that the Flower Scouts came back sooner than anyone expected.

Max sighed as he tried not to think about it. He took in the atmosphere of the forest as he sat down against a tree. It was quiet and peaceful, unlike Camp Campbell. Max didn’t hate spending time with the others, but his social battery was dead. Max took out the book he brought with him. He shifted into a more comfortable position as the moon light allowed him to see the cover.

“The Charming Mr Drickton”

It was a known detective romance book and cooed over by mainly girls. Of course, there was nothing wrong with a guy reading a romance book… right? Max read page 102 with a smirk, it would’ve looked weird to anyone else, but if they were reading the same thing, they’d understand.

Max would never admit it, but he was amazed by John Drickton, the main male protagonist. He could flatter someone in a second and never stumbled with his words. He was so confident and cool, but showed it in a way that didn’t make him seem like a try hard. Max studied the way Drickton approaches and speaks to women.

“I wonder if this would work in real life…” Max quietly asked himself.

Max kept reading, letting his world drift into the one of the book. It was so peaceful in the quiet forest. Max was so lost in his book, he didn’t notice a person walking toward him. Max read down the page, adjusting his position.

He had no idea how he ended up so hooked to this book, but deep down, he didn’t regret it. Of course, Max wouldn’t dare read it in public, but it didn’t stop him from loving it. He swore to himself he wouldn’t end up like Gwen, so he kept his interest in romance books to a minimum. TCMD was the only romance book series he allowed himself to enjoy.

Max brought the book closer to his face, it was getting interesting.

“He tucked his cuffs into his blazer, looking deep into Isla’s eyes. His deep brown eyes narrowed as he leaned over the desk. Drickton didn’t dare break eye contact, but Isla thought differently. She looked away as she blushed red. His confident demeanor over powering her calm façade.”

“She gulped down her nerves, “Must you stare me down with such tensity?” Isla said gripping her skirt. If Drickton was nervous, he wasn’t showing it. He stood up straight, hands behind his back as he walked around the table. “I’d just like to know the truth,” Drickton says with a grin. “And I’m sure you do too. So, do us both a favor and don’t make this difficult. Alright, princess?”

“Hey!”

Suddenly, a familiar voice snapped him out of his daydream. Max jumped in surprise, letting out a yelp. He looked up to see a girl standing in front of him. A girl he knew all too well. She had a pale complexion and peach pink hair. Her eyes were a deep rose and her bangs draped over her forehead. Max hid the words in his book, pressing the pages to his chest.

“What are you doing here?” Sasha hissed. Max’s shocked face turned into a more annoyed one as his heartbeat began to slow down to its regular pace. “None of your business. What are you doing here? Looking for a stick to stir your cauldron?” Max smirked.

Sasha wasn’t very impressed with his comeback, but she answered his question anyway. “Actually, I’m looking for some Chickweed. Tabii’s starting to break out and I will not be seen hanging out with a blonde Pikeman.” She said looking down at Max sitting against the tree. “Great. Now go away, I came here to be alone.” Max said sounding uninterested. He attempted to keep his book hidden as he tried to get her to leave.

Sasha looked down at Max’s book and raised an eyebrow. Max didn’t have time to blink before she snatched his book from his hand. Max yelped as he witnessed his book getting ripped out of his grip. “What are you reading? Some kind of stupid spy book like The Salzburg Connection? I wouldn’t be surprised, it’s pretty popular among guys right now-“ Sasha paused as she looked at the title, “The Charming Mr Drickton.” Max’s eyes widened as he pressed his knees together, gripping the brim of his hoodie.

“No way…” Sasha said as she looked at the back of the book. She read the plot with wide eyes. She looked down at Max, who sat uncomfortably on the ground. The silence flowed through the air with strong tension when suddenly, Sasha burst out laughing. “A romance book? Are you serious?” She said with a grin. Max jumped up off the ground, grinding his teeth as he tried to snatch his book back. Sasha kept it away from him as she skimmed through the pages he’s already read.

“Damn it, Sasha! Give that back!” Max squirmed as he tried to reach his book. “No way! This is too good!” Sasha said pushing Max away. She laughed at every little sentence she read from the book, it was all so cheesy. Max’s heart pounded in his chest. He tried to get the book but Sasha kept pushing him away or moving, so he couldn’t reach it. “Give that back a**hole! It’s not yours!” Max protested.

Sasha slammed the book shut, holding it in her hand and baiting it. She put a hand on her hip as she held the book up with a smirk. “Oh, yeah? It shouldn’t be yours either! Wow, a guy like you reading a romance book, now that’s interesting.” She taunted. Max let out a frustrated growl as he stood in place. There was no point in trying to get it back, she had already read the pages.

“Ha! Is this what you’ve been so glued to? You were so into it, you didn’t even notice me standing in front of you before!” Sasha laughed. Max clenched his fists as Sasha teased him. “I’m not that into it. I just didn’t have anything else to do!” Max tried to make up an excuse but Sasha clearly wasn’t buying it.

She narrowed her eyes and grinned as she began to walk toward him, “Oh, really? Then I guess you wouldn’t mind if I told everyone about this “passing-time” book you’re so hooked too.” Sasha grinned as she watched Max’s eyes widen. “I’m sure they’d find you reading a romance book, very interesting.” She said with a smirk.

Max narrowed his eyes, trying to hide the embarrassment behind them. “I swear to god I will reign hell on your camp if you do.” Max threatened as he looked up at her. Sasha smirked at Max’s response. “Oh, I don’t know about that. If anything, I have the upper hand here.” Sasha said with a hand on her hip.

She then raised her hand and hovered it over her, then Max’s head. “Generally and physically. Now quit whining before I actually do tell everyone.” She said looking down at him. Max clenched his fists and stared down at the ground. “I’m not whining!” Max said as his cheeks started to turn a light shade of pink.

“…”

“Are you blushing?” Sasha chuckled as she leaned in to get a closer look. “No, damn it! Leave me the hell alone!” Max quickly backed away as he let out another frustrated growl. He didn’t know why he couldn’t think of anything else to say. Sasha grinned, finding amusement in the whole situation.

She held Max’s book behind her as she stared down at him. “Come on, why the blush? Am I embarrassing you?” Sasha snickered as Max clenched his jaw. This seemed too familiar, it was just like the page he was reading in his book. The bad part is, he’s Isla in this situation. Sasha let out a satisfied sigh as she took in Max’s expression.

“Here.” Sasha said holding out the book and giving it to him.

“You can have your book back. I have to get that Chickweed for Tabii before it gets too dark.” Sasha said as she began to walk away as if nothing happened. “I’ll keep your little “passing time” book a secret, but don’t expect me to not make fun of you for it.” Sasha added, looking back at him with a smirk as she walked away.

Soon she was out of sight. Max let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he tried to return to his normal complexion. He groaned as he began to walk back to camp. What was supposed to be a relaxing night of reading turned out to be the perfect amo for Sasha to tease him with. One thing was for certain though, Max wasn’t going to let Sasha have the last laugh.

This means war.

[filmmakerdreamst]

How Lyra and Will suffered as Protagonists in BBC's His Dark Materials

Despite the cast and crews open love for the novels, and the insistent diligence to stay as faithful to the source material as possible — even trying to fill in many of the gaps in the books, as seen in all three seasons of the show — the BBC adaptation never manages to capture the spirit (the only time I felt like it did was in the third season) because of the fact that every character is altered and changed. Not just adaptationally changed either like making a character dumber, softer or harder. They’re completely different characters, separated from the source material e.g. Mrs Coulter is changed from a seductive, calm character to a feral, suicidal character. I must admit, I did like the expanded self harm element that she causes her daemon. However I felt in the novel, if she were to harm her monkey, it would be ‘to keep her lust for power at bay’ rather than shame for herself.

The atmosphere was off yet the events were similar and the complete opposite at the same time. But you can’t have similar events play out with different characterisations, at least not with ‘His Dark Materials’.

Philip Pullman’s characters in ‘His Dark Materials’ are extremely charismatic, but to put it lightly, are not very palatable to say the least. As stated in @clarabosswald’s analysis, there seemed to be this weird need to make EVERY single character digestible or palatable in some way or another in the BBC adaptation, regardless of it making sense or not. I noticed this upon my re-read of ‘The Northern Lights’ that they even humanised the doctor that sexually assaulted Lyra by grabbing Pantalaimon, which was very troubling.

Now with the opposing ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ film, they changed the characterisations to make them more sympathetic and accessible to a contemporary audience. They even dug deeper with the character Edmund which I thought was a fantastic choice. But the reason why those character changes worked was because C.S.Lewis was not concerned with building character, he was much more concerned with the place of Narnia itself. He almost used his characters to explore the world of Narnia, e.g. some characters would leave one book and come back 5 books later — which is why some of the later adaptations of Narnia didn’t do as well in the box office as the first one.

The character changes in that film enriched the story without effecting it in a way, because ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ and the other books are driven by the plot. Where as ‘His Dark Materials’ is primarily driven by characters.

Philip Pullman in total contrast to C.S.Lewis, built the world (you could say he used the world) around the characters in order for them to get to Point A to Point B. But he was not concerned about exploring the multiverse so you could see the entire picture, like with C.S. Lewis.

I heard once that he described writing as wondering through a forest on a path and the path is your story. Theres a difference between the story world and the storyline. And as an Author, your concern is the storyline. It would be easy to step away and stray from the path and explore the forest and admire all the trees, but for him the most important thing to do was to remain on the path and focus on the story rather than the details along the way.

I’m not apposed to different versions of the characters or different storylines. But with ‘His Dark Materials’, those books are driven by specific character traits. And the fact that they changed them, while still being faithful to the events in the story, the story beats either don’t land or don’t hit as hard or don’t make sense altogether.

More specifically with the main characters Lyra and Will, but mostly Lyra since she’s the heart of the story.

Lyra is first and fourmost a liar, which may seem a small part of her character but its huge. Her ability to lie and get her way out of situations is the cause of many events in the books. She’s feral. She’s wild. She’s manipulative. She’s described as a ‘half wild cat’ and a ‘greedy little savage’. She can’t sit still or behave herself. She’s impulsive. She’s a leader. She gets into fights. She gets dirty. She spends all her nights on the rooftops. She’s an extrovert. She’s street smart. She’s selfish. She’s brave.

She’s an emotional and passionate human being. Thats what makes Lyra a real girl, not just a character on the page. These nuanced character traits of hers is how she pushes everything forward in the story.

All of those negative/positive aspects of her character in the books were watered down so much in the series. To the point where alot of them were removed. Not only is that incredibly dehumanising but makes the plot points where ��she lies” not land as well or plot points revolving around her “telling the truth” make no sense at all.

The whole reason why she’s called Lyra Silvertongue is because she tricked the bear king with her lies, a trait which is consistent throughout the entire story — but completely nonexistent throughout the show. Her tricking the bear king in the adaptation came off as a lucky experience rather something that comes naturally to her. Even the ironic plot point of her being given the Alethiometer “a device that tells her the truth” didn’t hit as hard. They tried to establish her as a ‘liar’ in the second episode of season one then gave up completely as the show continued on.

But the weird thing is, those flaws were still mentioned by other characters in the show, when it was not the character they were developing. Characters would mention that she’s a liar, insufferable, selfish or that ‘she doesn’t apologise easily’ — which seemed like an over exaggeration since the show version of her isn’t really any of those things. This applied when characters such as Lee praised her for being ‘brave’ and ‘good’. I heard a HDM podcast recapping season 2 saying that “her character in the show wasn’t hitting the right emotional beats” to be a child of a great destiny that every character seemingly falls over themselves to give their lives for her.

TV Lyra hasn’t completely lost her flaws, but she’s not as nearly as flawed as she was in the books. She felt so contained, rather than passionate. Which felt so odd because yes, Lyra grows out of some bad traits such as her rudeness, due to the influence of Will. But she isn’t naturally like that.

They changed her so much, but also tried to keep her “the same” that her character growth which is huge in the books felt like nothing had moved at all. It kind of got reduced to a simple thing like her innocence being taken away. It was like she wasn’t allowed to have any sort of loud, dislikable reaction in any way. It felt like they were taking away her agency.

And I know one of the biggest reasons why they changed her behaviour in the TV Show is because they aged the character up to 14–16 at the start. I get it. Theres a huge difference between 12 and 14 in terms of maturity . It works for the Will & Lyra romantic scenes as an adaptational choice later in the story (because she’s allegedly 12–13 in the books).

I think Dafne Keen was an inspired choice for the role of Lyra, since I saw some scenes of her in ‘Logan’ and I 100% believe she would of pulled off Book Lyra given the chance, but by the time they started filming she was already 13/14. And in all honesty, Lyra just becomes odd looking older. She’s just not convincing as a misbehaving little girl who can’t sit still, she just comes off as a really strange child thats immature or lacking in social skills. For example, there’s a scene between Mrs Coulter and Lyra in ‘The Idea of North’ where she’s telling a lie, but it doesn’t come off natural because 1. They didn’t establish her as a liar immediately and 2. Part of her ability to lie comes from her spontaneous nature of being a kid telling stories and using her imagination. Dafne Keen didn’t really look that age, for it to look like something she would do.

They also made her relationship with Roger more of a focus in the show, which makes sense as her motivation in the later half of the books comes from wanting to rescue him. However, they made him ‘the only friend that she has’ which I found to be a strange decision because Lyra in the books has tuns of friends. I would say their friendship is more balanced in the series, where as in the book it wasn’t so much.

She forgets him a few times while staying with Mrs Coulter in the book where as she remembers him constantly in the episode ‘The Idea of North’ which felt like a confused choice to me. They were trying to have it both ways; have her be seduced by Mrs Coulter while also actively asking her to look for Roger.

The imbalance in Roger and Lyra’s friendship is important because it adds to the need to set things right with him in The Land of the Dead. It goes to the core of how everyone thinks she is selfish. She needs to save Roger to prove to herself she’s a good person.

In the book, when Lyra dreams of Roger in The Land of the Dead, the two of them have constant talks of how much he’s suffering. In the show, she just has alot of ambiguous flash forward dreams of Roger, with the story not prioritising them as important as the main plot of ‘Asriel’s War’.

When she brings this up to Will in the episode, he dismisses it instead of agreeing to go (like in the book) because of his daddy issues, no I’m sorry, because of Asriel’s War which makes sense as it’s one of the main plots in the season — where it was more of a distracting B plot in the book — but it just kind of adds to the idea that “its unnecessary” or “why are they doing this?”.

The desire to get to Roger and apologise in the show doesn’t hit as hard because there was more of a balance in Lyra and Rogers relationship plus the changes to her character just made it seem like “she just wanted to do it” rather than it being the most important decision she ever makes, to try to better herself.

While they go to the suburbs of the dead, Will and Pan constantly question why she’s doing this (a conflict that was not in the book — Will is steadfastly loyal to her by this point and Pan is too shivery to speak) while Lyra just snaps at them, making her seem mean for no reason. When she has a chat with her death, she doesn’t lie that an angel told her to do it (because they didn’t establish her as a liar properly), she just says that she wants to be good which is not a convincing argument considering what happens next.

When Pan and her have the argument while she leaves him on the doc, which is a great scene on its own (it made me cry), it also adds to the unnecessary nature of it all. It’s a scene that makes sense in the book because of Lyra’s impulsive nature, but because of her seemingly calculative nature in the show, it just looks odd. It’s described in the book that if Lyra had heard Pan speak, she would have folded and never would of got on the boat, but since the show did the complete opposite of that, It makes the scene more harsh and cold.

I think what the writers were trying to do was make it more of a mystery like ‘why is she doing this’ ‘its not too late to turn around’ a mission that appears fruitless at first, but turns out to be the greatest act of humanity — but again, I still don’t think that works because of how much Lyra’s entire character is changed. The act is not just for everyone else. It’s a major step in her character growth, to care about others.

In the Land of the Dead, obviously they had to cut out the whole section where Lyra literally looses her ability to lie while she’s telling lies to the harpies, then learns to tell the truth to the dead. This is the final step for Lyra’s character, finally learning the power of telling the truth instead of lies. They didn’t replace that with anything, only with her telling the dead true stories, which was heartwarming on its own, but obviously those story beats don’t hit as hard in the same way because like I said, its not presented as the final step in her character growth, its presented as a one off scene. This is one of the reasons why her character is pretty static in the adaptation.

In the Land of the Dead, its Lyra for the most part (apart from one instance) that keeps a cool head, while Will looses his — which again, the complete opposite. In the books, its Lyra that goes off the rails and its Will that keeps her centred.

Which brings me onto how the character of Will is changed in the adaptation, and how that effects the story from the second book onwards.

Will was brought in by Philip Pullman in ‘The Subtle Knife’, to represent Lyra’s other half — in another parallel universe literally, and also to help her on her quest to fulfil the prophecy. If it was just her on her own with Pan, it wouldn’t work and would fail.

Though I was taken aback by his entrance in ‘The Subtle Knife’ — as it was such a jarring change coming from the suspenseful cliff hanger where Lyra walks into the new world after her best friend Roger got murdered — he quickly but surely became my favourite male literary character of all time.

I don’t have as a big of a problem with his character changes then I do with Lyra, because there were at least a few times in the show where he was allowed to act like ‘himself’. Amir Wilson was perfect casting as Will. It was like the character had just walked off the page it was that good. But all together, he’s a completely different character — which I can understand. Out of all the characters, I feel he’s the hardest to pin down and his development is done in a subtle and subconscious way.

Throughout the course of ‘The Subtle Knife’, he’s incredibly off putting as he’s mostly angry and tired and then he’s in pain because of his knife wound. It works in a book format, because your’e in his point of view and you understand that he’s a child thats at the end of his tether. But it would be hard to portray that in a nuanced way on screen, unless your’e clever with it.

They unfortunately took the easy route with his characterisation on screen by making him softer. Not only that, the writing for his character was incredibly inconsistent at times.

Will from the books is fierce. He’s frightening. He’s stoic. He gets angry. He’s a strategist. He does whats best for someone. He likes to stay invisible. He’s sarcastic. He’s an introvert. He likes to stay hidden. He’s practical. He’s a child carer. He’s naturally aggressive e.g. He beat up a bunch of boys at school because they were hurting his mother. He hardly smiles. At times, especially in the second book, he becomes incredibly depressed. He’s pretty much a 35 year old man in a young boy’s body. He’s incredibly soft, but the reader can’t tell until Lyra brings that out in him.

I would say Will is a more contained version of Lyra, yet the complete opposite of her. They’re like yin and yang. They both have something that the other lacks, and that helps them both grow up. Lyra brings out a softness out in him, brings out his impulsive nature where as he helps her strategise and learn not to just rush out and do things.

TV Will suffers from the same problem that TV Lyra does.

Every negative/positive aspect about him is watered down. Revealing a quite mild character. I feel that they didn’t touch on the fact that he was a child carer enough, which is a huge part of his character. It just came off as ‘he loves his mum’ more in the show. Will being a caterer is supposed to contrast Lyra whom didn’t grow up with parents and got to live out a childhood that he was never allowed to experience. This is a theme. Every character trait that contrasts Lyra in the books isn’t present so much. I would even go as far to say that they’re too similar in the TV Show.

I was wondering throughout the second season why the storyline was static and wasn’t going anywhere. Certain plot points such as Will being a murderer, Lyra helping Will find his father, The fight for the subtle knife and Will becoming the bearer of the Subtle Knife felt tacked on or weren’t hitting as hard as they should.

At first, I thought it was because the novel was ‘the weakest in the trilogy’. I often see ‘The Subtle Knife’ as a bridge between both ‘Northern Lights’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’.

But since re-reading the book, I went ‘Oh my God, its because they changed Will’s character arc’.

TV Will, the more I think about it, does not suit becoming the bearer of the subtle knife. The only times we see him fighting is in the boxing ring. He expresses incredible regret over killing a man instead of brushing it off because he was protecting his mother. Even when he’s under threat, he says ‘I don’t want to hurt you’ He even has to be persuaded to fight. There’s even a moment in the show where he says “Maybe we’re better off not fixing the knife at all.” which kind of dismisses the practical nature of his character in the book. Plus the knife being a part of him, the same way as the Alethiometer is a part of Lyra. Even the remarks that Lyra makes about him being similar to Iorek the armoured Bear don’t make as much sense, because of the fact that he’s softer.

Book Will struggles with his warrior nature, and eventually learns thats not who he wants to be. But he isn’t naturally a soft person. He learns to be through his experiences and his relationship with Lyra. Which is why it was so odd to me that they included the line in the show where Will is saying to his father in the Land of the Dead “You told me that I was a warrior; That I can’t fight my nature. Your’e wrong.” I was just like, what are you talking about? That is so not the character the show had developed. TV Will had hardly been shown to fight anyone of his own free will — it didn’t make sense to me. They were trying to have it both ways. Completely ignoring his basic character traits and flaws, yet still going through the same arc (a somewhat watered down one) one e.g. idolising his dad for his whole life, realising his dad ain’t shit when he meets him, finding Lyra missing, ignoring the task his father set him etc.

Even the task that Lyra has to help Will find his father didn’t land as well because of the fact that the two of them were bonding straight away in the show, instead of it being like ‘oh no we’re stuck with each other’ to this slow process of her and Will learning to trust each other.

I understand that you have to translate Lyra and Will’s relationship alot differently in a Show format, because subconscious development doesn’t really work due to the lack of intimate point of views. Plus it adds to the narrative to flesh out their dynamic alot more on screen. The more something is changed in an adaptation, the more it stays the same.

I have openly praised the shows depiction of their relationship in another analysis I wrote (before i re-read the books) and how I loved how they gave them more soft moments. However, I will admit now that the soft moments that they had in season 2 felt off to me because they weren’t in character. I think, looking back I would of preferred more soft moments if they were in character.

Will’s initial softness towards Lyra in the show is partially to do with TV Lyra being much less feral and less of a threat. As a result their journey is warmer and far less angstier than it was in the books.

And that in turn messes with the tension.

The element of Will being slightly dismissive of her at the start, is important to how certain story beats land. It adds to the ‘OH SHIT’ when Lyra’s been taken and the task that his father set him that he’s been dreaming of his whole life suddenly isn’t important to him anymore. Thats why it’s such a big deal when he spends most of his time through ‘The Amber Spyglass’ looking for her.

But in the season 2 finale, it ends with Will going off into the sunset, presumably to fulfil is fathers wishes. Then in season 3, he finds her missing, goes ‘whoops��� and then there’s a montage of him trying to find her. Then when he does (quite easily) — he goes on about how “since his dad died he’s done none of the things that he asked him to do’ which makes him looking for Lyra within the show feel even more anticlimactic.

Also, this is more of a personal opinion that an analytical one, I did not appreciate when Lyra brought up going to the Land of The Dead, TV Will went “I saved you. I did everything I could to save you. You told me not to but I did it anyway” which felt to me like ‘Wow brilliant, of course you had to save her’

And instead of agreeing to go to the Land of the Dead with her like in the book, they had to insert some tension from ‘The Subtle Knife’ (because they messed with the tension in season 2) and have Will go on a rant about what his dad wanted him to do, Asriel’s war, dismissing Lyra’s wishes and even having him suggest maybe her dad regretted killing her friend.

This is something that Will from the books would never ever say, let alone to the girl that he loves. He’s fully aware how much her dad hurt her and he respects her too much by that point to ever suggest something like that. Even when he does think about ‘what his dad wanted him to do’ he’s still steadfastly loyal to Lyra. They were completely undermining the turning point in their relationship and Will’s character development by adding pointless drama to extend the episodes running time.

As mentioned in a very articulate post by @mamsellechosette24601 ‘the quest to find his father and fulfil his fathers wishes’ isn’t the point at all, its Will letting go of his childhood dreams, of realising what really matters is Lyra all along.

Now I’ve seen in another analysis of the adaptation that their path to falling in love in the show is alot clearer than in the books which I can understand and agree with (to a certain extent) because the books were much more concerned with philosophy than romance. This is true for the romance between Asriel and Marisa in the Book vs the TV Show as well.

The concept behind their relationship remains the same:

“Will and Lyra are very good people who learn to trust each other when they’re at their most vulnerable, they become the only thing they have in a terrifying world of enemies. By the end, when they realise they're in love only to discover they can never be together, they make the mature choice, however hard it may be.”

But their relationship is totally different in the TV Show because of their character changes.

I would say Lyra and Will have more of a enemies to lovers storyline in the books — where as the adaptation version of them doesn’t. The screenwriters clearly tried to iron out alot of the problematic elements, especially in the beginning and focus on them being “friends” more. I’m not apposed to them doing that, but the way they did it ended up muting a few of their scenes together.

I’ve actually made an argument in my other account (against the ‘His Dark Materials’ analysis saying that ‘the adaptation did a much better job at showing when Will and Lyra fell in love’) that their relationship development was a lot subtler in the books because the characters were alot younger and more immature. And that it was more ‘obvious’ in the tv show because they aged the characters up, therefore they could have more mature conversations and scenes together.

This was before I did my re-read.

After re-reading ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’ comparing it with how their relationship is handled in the TV Adaptation. I would actually argue the opposite .

In some ways, the growing romance between the two of them is much more mature (and makes more sense) in the books than in the show, at least to me. Unlike in the TV Show, their relationship never enters into neutral territory, even when they finally learn to trust each other. Theres much less emphasis on their ‘friendship’.

After their brutal first meeting — where they attack eachother — in ‘The Subtle Knife’ Lyra is immediately taken with Will and constantly thinks about him and what he thinks of her. There’s even a moment in ‘The Amber Spyglass’ where she’s trying to hide that she’s in pain while they’re walking (because of all that time she’s been asleep) because she doesn’t want to appear weak in front of him. 

The way Lyra and Will meet in the show, is reminiscent of how children meet for the first time. Though quite skeptical of each other, they instantly bond and make friends after 5 seconds, because why wouldn’t they? They’re kids the same age after all. Even though there’s still an element of mistrust there, there’s hardly any conflict between them. They don’t play off each other as much. There is one moment where he gets angry at her for making him wait, but all that is solved in a minute because of Lyra’s ‘calm nature’

Even when Lyra gives Will away by accident and says that she lost the Alethiometer, he doesn’t shout at her. There are few comments here and there but theres no real tension between the two of them.

When Will and Pan have a conversation, its presented as Pan going up to him to have a chat after he had a bad dream rather than Will finding the courage to speak to him in the book and saying ‘I think Lyra’s the best friend I’ve ever had’. This is presented more as a statement in the show because their friendship has already been established and less of a discovery (as he wasn’t reacting to her that much in the book as he had alot on his mind).

Lyra and Will even have a talk about Pan’s conversation with him afterwards in the show. But in the book, that never happened. It’s mentioned later but never discussed, because of the fact that it was a private conversation between Will and Pan.

You could say this was another problem that the adaptation had. It’s mentioned multiple times ‘YOU CAN’T TOUCH SOMEONES DAEMON’ but not emphasised why thats the case.

In the books, it’s heavily implied that touching someone else’s daemon is the equivalent of touching someone’s genitals. There’s a moment in ‘Northern Lights’ where Lyra and Iorek find Tony in the fish house without a daemon and Pan wants to comfort him but holds back because of the taboo. Thats why it’s such a big deal when Pan comforts Will and starts licking him in the book.

In the show, its quite an underwhelming scene that lasts 5 seconds where Pan strokes Wills fingers and Lyra says in a quiet voice ‘In my world, your’e not supposed to touch someone else’s daemon but you didn’t do something wrong’

And don’t get me started on the 5 second panning away shot where they’re finally touching each others daemons, instead of the moving moment from the book. It didn’t feel like they really understood the gravity of what those scenes meant and what it meant for their connection.

Again, this is more of a personal opinion. Near the end of the final book, when they enter the world of the Mulefa, Lyra and Will trust each other more than they ever have, which shows how much they’ve both grown since ‘The Subtle Knife’. Mary even describes that she never saw ‘more trust on a persons face’. But in the show, there’s this weird forced tension between them for the sake of ‘romance’. They’re suddenly awkward teenagers with each other — which was not a choice that I liked because it didn’t come naturally.

And when they have to be ripped from each other, a whole page worth of them bargaining to be together is turned into ‘I didn’t think it was possible to feel this bad.’ and ‘This is all wrong’, plus Mary and Serafina being weirdly insensitive while Will and Lyra are in different locations rather than being with each other.

This is possibly why I didn’t feel anything when they had to be forced apart because, the way it was handled felt rushed and soulless.

Overall, despite there being more ‘soft moments between the two of them’ Show Lyra and Will’s connection feels alot more shallow and simplified.

In the books, I got the vibe that even though they were very young, you couldn’t imagine them being with anyone else but with each other. They were each others other half. They were essentially the only family they had in a world full of enemies. There was never a moment in the books, where they weren’t already in love with each other to some degree. It went beyond the typical romantic duality.

In the show, it felt more temporary. This is mostly due to their character changes (they were too similar in my opinion). Like a connection between friends that became romantic at the end of the journey. And it’s something they’ll get over because “It won’t always feel like this” or “Its much more romantic to live for love than to die for it” or “It might not seem like it now but you have a future”

I think that was one of my main problems with the TV Show, it lacked emotion. Not just as an adaptation, but in general.

More than anything, the adaptation felt too confused. It was trying to reimagine the story while also paying homage to the original material. And thats why overall — despite my enjoyment for some of the episodes especially in season 3 — it didn’t work as well as it should have.

[apiculturegal]

I’ve been trying to find words to describe how freeing it’s been to write Shallow Waters and experiment with writing in general. My philosophy has changed a bunch of times since I started in May but here are my (general) notes and thoughts so far.

One of the things I’m most proud of in the fic so far is the atmosphere. Hunter is such a great protagonist to frame it through because he is so incredibly polarized inside—he takes in all of the raw scenery around him, these rugged landscapes and beaches and forests, and frames them within his internal gauge of dangerous and not dangerous. The ocean will always be wild and dark, the forests cold, the town run-down. The things he likes and enjoys will always seem warm to him, like the kitchen or Willow’s house.

To continue that vein, I’ve tried to hold off from directly saying Hunter hates or loves certain things, because I feel like the point can be better made with how he chooses to describe objects, even if he isn’t strictly the narrator.

Secondly, I’ve also tried to convey just how lonely Hunter is feeling at the story’s start. Any scene in which he is alone is automatically going to be slightly more cynical and atmospherically dark than when someone is with him (unless, of course, that person is his uncle—but Phillip is always framed by dim light, so his scenes feel so much more sinister to me).

To increase the feeling of something fantastical (and this will be clearer in later chapters), the tangible and the intangible are starting to become mixed the further Hunter is “mixed up” with faeries. Willow’s greenhouse, for example, being impossibly large inside, is just one of many ways the universe’s bounds are pushed by faery magic.

These last three chapters have been so so fun to write and as I continue to work on chapter four I’ll have more comments to make and things to share!

[zee-nery]

Seven Shadows of The Night

Pairing: JK x Reader Series

Summary:

In a world where vampires, werewolves, and humans cohabit, the protagonist, Y/N, wakes up in the forest after dozing off. Despite warnings from their overprotective father about the dangers lurking in the woods, Y/N often ventures into this supernatural realm. As they return home, the tension between the three factions remains palpable, revealing the fragile state of coexistence.

Upon arriving home, Y/N prepares to do research on the truth behind the myths that surround their world. However, their routine is shattered when unexpected intruders invade the house. Attempting to hide, Y/N is discovered and captured by a vampire with red eyes, marking the start of their harrowing ordeal.

Taken away in a car by their captors, Y/N feels the weight of fear as the journey unfolds into the unknown. Despite the oppressive atmosphere, they maintain hope for escape. The story dives into themes of vulnerability, the clash of supernatural beings, and the struggle for survival as Y/N is plunged into a dangerous new reality.

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Chapter I

Y/N POV:

I arose from my resting spot, reaching my arms upwards to feel the sweet release of my back clicking. The sun-kissed my cheeks, and I stood up, the warm weather wrapping around me like a blanket. I reached for my bag, realizing I had fallen asleep in the forest again. You see, in this era, vampires and werewolves are free to roam alongside humans. We've come so far in comparison to my ancestors. Not everyone is accepting of this way of society. Of course, they're not; that would be unrealistic.

However, just because a couple of different people decided on equality between the 3 doesn't guarantee safety. The hostility between everyone is still very thick in the air. My Dad would always warn me of the dangers of the forest, not that I ever listened. Like I said before unrealistic.

Anyway, I grabbed my backpack throwing it over my shoulder to return home. I needed to be home before sunset or my Dad would be angry. Personally, I believe that's scarier than any vampire or werewolf I would ever encounter. The autumn leaves and occasional sticks crunch beneath my feet. I can already hear my dad telling me the dangers that are out there.

"You need to be careful Y/N" "I know Dad, you've told me a thousand times today and I've not even opened the door" "Just remember what I told you"

Blah Blah Blah is all I can hear, he makes me laugh sometimes. He's so overprotective but I can't blame him. My mother unfortunately was taken away from me at a young age. My Dad tries to keep her memory alive but the horrible tale that comes with it always seems to be a hot topic. I would try to reason with him but it would fall on deaf ears. I make my way up the wooden stairs opening the front door. Swinging by the kitchen for a light snack before going upstairs.

Opening my laptop to do some research of my own. Sometimes the information I'm fed is more biased than realistic. My thoughts, however, were interrupted hearing the front door slam and multiple footsteps enter I knew something wasn't right.

Throwing my laptop to the side I slid under the bed waiting in anticipation. I saw the shadow of feet under my door, light murmurs hanging in the air until the door opened. I saw the footsteps approaching me slowly before the stranger took a big whiff of the air.

"O- sir, your favourite"

I could almost hear the smirk they wore on their face until a hand grabbed my leg yanking me out from my hiding spot. Slowly I raised my gaze until I set my eyes on a pair of red eyes staring back at me.

"I'm fucked" I thought to myself.

"Don't look so down love we're gonna good care of you" He said before I was forced out of the building and into the back of a car.

The car rumbled along the uneven road, the sound of tires crunching over gravel filling the tense silence. I sat in the backseat, my heart pounding in sync with the engine’s low hum. The interior was dimly lit, stained with shadows that twisted across the leather seats, adding to the oppressive atmosphere.

My wrists burned from the restraints, reminding me of the reality I was trapped in. I faced the window, desperately trying to piece together my surroundings as flashes of passing trees and vague outlines of distant hills streaked by. Each bump in the road jolted me, a sharp reminder of my vulnerability.

The front seat held my captors, their voices muffled by the barrier of my fear. I caught snippets of their conversation, but it was mostly indecipherable, filled with laughter that only deepened my dread. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, every second stretching into an eternity.

As the car sped deeper into the unknown, the sun dipped lower on the horizon, spilling fiery colours across the sky. It was beautiful, yet incredibly bittersweet. I thought of the warmth of home and the safety I once took for granted. I longed for the familiarity of everyday life, and the simple act of taking a car ride without fear. My mind raced, calculating my options, searching for a sign of hope amidst the despair. I focused on my breath, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly to steady my nerves. I knew I had to stay alert, to look for an opportunity to escape, or a way to signal for help when the chance arose. Each moment was a test of my resolve and determination to survive, to reclaim my freedom from the hostile grip of my captors.

The car came to a sharp halt, vaulting my body forward in the process. My mind began to race, but not too far away before a different man threw open the door with a piece of cloth in his hands.

As I was blindfolded and dragged into the dimly lit room, the sounds around me became amplified—the creaking of the floorboards, the hushed whispers, and the distant clatter of metal. The sensations of my surroundings filled my mind with dread. I could feel the rough grip of my captors on my arms, their fingers digging into my skin, as they pulled me further inside.

Once they finally stopped, I was released and staggered slightly, trying to balance without sight. The air was thick with tension, and my heart raced. A chill ran down my spine as the blindfold was removed, and my eyes adjusted to the low light.

Before me stood seven men, their faces partially shadowed but their intentions clear. Some bore rough, hardened expressions, while others looked anxious, glancing around as if waiting for something to happen. They formed a semi-circle, their presence intimidating, and I could sense the power dynamics at play. My mind raced with questions—who were they, and why had they brought me here? The reality of my situation crashed down on me, and a wave of fear mixed with determination surged within. I braced myself for whatever was to come next.

"Seong Y/N" The man in the middle spoke. My gaze never shifted just staring blankly at the man. “What’s wrong sweetness? Cat got your tongue?” another cackled.

My mind and body felt like they were in two different places, slowly drifting after every word they uttered.

“Y/N I don’t like repeating myself, that is your name, correct?” The first man spoke again, venom dripping from his words.

“What do you want” I spat. Well, that’s how it sounded in my head. In reality, it was nothing more than a squeak.

“Hostility isn’t going to get you anywhere, sweetness. Not with what we’ve got planned for you,” another rasped at me.

The number of men in the room began to make my head spin. “Not so eager now tiger?”

I averted my gaze, looking around the room trying to spot my escape. The men began to spread out around me the middle man still burning holes through my skull.

I caught snippets of a conversation drifting through the shadows. Two figures were huddled in the corner, their voices low but laced with urgency.

"We can't keep her here for long," one of them said, a hint of frustration creeping into his tone. "The longer she’s around, the more risk we take. We need to move her to the old cabin in the woods, away from the main road."

The other one, taller with an air of authority, replied, "I agree, but it's not safe just yet. We have to make sure we have everything we need to keep her under control. If she escapes or signals for help, it could ruin everything we've worked for."

I held my breath, my mind racing. The mention of an old cabin sent a chill down my spine; I had heard stories of that place, how it was a haven for those who lurked in the shadows, far removed from the prying eyes of the world.

"You think she knows anything?" the first man asked, his voice dropping even lower. "The way she reacted when we found her… she had information that could be dangerous for us. We need to be careful."

"For now, keep her quiet. Once we get her to the cabin, we can figure out how to deal with her. But remember, we can't get too comfortable. This is just the beginning."

The weight of their words pressed heavily on me. The cabin, the plans—they painted a grim picture of my fate. I had to find a way out before they moved me before it was too late.

My thoughts however were interrupted when another voice was heard. "Taehyung, Jimin grab her legs. Jungkook her arms."

My body froze in its spot, the 3 men began stalking towards me. The trio grabbed at my limbs before hoisting me into the air taking me towards a dark vault door. Another opened it as they began their journey down the hall.

My eyes began to scan around frantically looking for any form of escape even just a slither of daylight.

"In here" The man with silver locks stated.

I was thrown onto the hard tiled floor left alone with my thoughts. I slowly crawled over to the corner of the room . The shadows seemed to stretch around me like long fingers, closing in with a menacing grip. The cold seeped into my bones, turning the room into an ever-chilling hollow. I hugged my knees tightly to my chest, trying to generate warmth, but it was a futile effort against the creeping fear that wrapped itself around me.

The world outside was quiet, a stillness that felt heavy and oppressive, making every small noise feel amplified—each creak of the house and whisper of the wind set my heart racing. My breathing quickened, a rhythm of anxiety that seemed to resonate in the silence. I willed myself to close my eyes and quiet my thoughts, but images of what lurked in the shadows danced just out of reach.

With trembling fingers, I pushed my hair away from my face, fighting to steady my breathing. I focused on a single point in the darkness, grounding myself in its familiarity. As I began to feel the exhaustion pull at me, my eyelids grew heavy, but fear clung stubbornly to my mind.

Slowly, my body began to relax against the corner, the rigid tension in my muscles easing just a fraction, the warmth of my breath creating a small cocoon around me. I let out a quiet sigh, finding comfort in the wall at my back—a tiny fortress against the unknown.

With each passing moment, I drifted closer to sleep, despite the chill that left me on edge. The fear still lingered, like a distant echo in my mind, but I held onto the hope that sleep would provide a brief escape. My eyelids fluttered as I fought to keep them open, but the weight of exhaustion, mingled with that persistent fear, slowly overtook me.

As I finally surrendered, I embraced the darkness, letting it envelop me. I was still scared, still aware of the shadows curling around me, but in that moment of descent into sleep, I sought solace in the fragile warmth of dreams that awaited beyond.

Word count, 1.9k

Chapter II

[apostaterevolutionary]

I am not the anon who contacted you about Veilguard impressions but I would like to put some here of that is ok, I recognize your username from back in the day. I played the tutorial & tbh it's a mixed bag. It is technically well done, the action is finally snappy again (DAI was such a slog after DA2 combatwise and Veilguard is a huge improvement). The UI is good, they implemented a dodge roll that gives you a nice signal to pay attention to which is good bc I have played some action games that do not have that and they are not fun.

I actually like Rook, they get a strong introduction that tells you exactly who they are and how they do things. Unfortunately I fear they whiffed with Varric and Harding. They have a lot of "as you know" dialogue where BW frantically re-explains DAI to you. I think they were justifiably scared that players forgot hell I forgot my Inquisitor's name so yeah I get it. Unfortch BW really runs it into the ground and its only the first hour. Varric and Harding's characterizations basically don't exist, Varric is a "you did good kid!" guy now instead of the cynical romantic we fell in love with. Harding has more potential but they go too hard too fast in her first dialogue scene with Rook. Neve is handled much better and I think it's because she is a new character so BW might have less anxiety around introducing her to the audience.

Rook gives a weird impression, I was set to dislike him (I made mine a bloke) because the game does tons of "tell don't show" with him at the start with Varric going "hey remember when you did this cool thing??" But otoh you have the ability to select options where Rook is unsure and frightened and it feels like a really nice set up to a potential character arc where Rook grows into his potential which is perfect for a protagonist.

The game controls very weirdly compared to the first 3 games, I immediately spotted the GaaS backbone in it, they really had to salvage this thing from a heap. It is not an RPG as I know them. The art style I also feel mixed on like I do with Rook, it objectively is very well done and beautiful, even in the tutorial there's a lot of beautiful atmospheric shots. otoh the character models are so Pixar, Solas's character model makes the others look like little kids because they kept Solas accurate to DAI instead of remixing him. It doesn't look anything like Dragon Age or high fantasy. When you get to a stretch of forest the area looked incredibly weird and uncanny in the game's engine even though we've been to forests love forests my best friend is a forest etc.

There's a lot of parallels to be drawn with DA2 but I fear the characters won't have the same panache and rough edges that made DA2 compelling.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I’m very curious to what the impressions are from like. The kind of DA fan I am lmao. Especially in terms of details of what’s good, what’s bad, etc. rather than just ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it’. And the stupid ass culture war over it has made finding the correct kinds of opinions more annoying than it needs to be

(I'll put the rest behind a cut just to save people's dash space)

I’ve heard a lot of mixed opinions on the combat (some liking it after finding inquisition’s a drag, some disliking it for going too far in the action rpg direction rather than a crpg direction). I’m glad to hear the UI is good and they have prompts for combat actions cause it really isn’t fun when there’s too much unprompted dodge/parry/block imo. There’s very few games in that kind of genre I like (largely just respawn’s star wars games tbh, those are so good I don’t mind that sometimes the combat can get repetitive lmao). I wonder how this game compares to greedfall in terms of combat, idk if you or anyone reading this might know

I did hear some critiques about the dialogue but that’s unfortunate to hear :/ I feel like they would’ve been better off with doing a lore dump intro cinematic, kinda like the between act ones in DA2. Feels like a weird choice to put the entire lore dump in dialogue (I know it was necessary, given they’re hoping for new players with this plus those of us that did forget inquisition and didn’t replay it right before lmao, but there are better and worse ways to go about it imo). I’m hoping something like that would get better as you get deeper in? Like I hope they’re not still doing those dumps by hour 20 lmao – feel free to let me know. Ngl I was worried about Varric, also in terms of the almost no choices carrying over thing, but that’s a concerning first impression :/ It does seem people are most excited about the new companions though so that’s promising

Ngl I’m not surprised by telling and not showing with Rook, as really the only way to avoid that when the character can have multiple backgrounds is with playable origins. I get why they abandoned those, but it still makes me sad. Options for emotional depth are great to hear though cause I recall the inquisitor feeling very flat all the time imo

As soon as they mentioned loot pots scattered around I was like. Oh. The bones are still there huh lmao. I’m not surprised that there’s a lot of that still visible. I’ve also seen a couple other people classify it as ‘not really an rpg’, which makes me nervous. The art style is a bit eh to me, I don’t hate it as much as some lmao but it’s not my fave (also minor point but wtf did they do to the qunari hairlines, like damn). Sdklsd old man Solas among the rest is a hilarious mental image though. The vibes sound… interesting to say the least

Tbf the DA2 characters really were lightning in a bottle lmao. I fear no game will ever hit that magic sauce ever again ngl. DA2 parallels definitely raises my interest level though. I’ve seen a lot of people compare it to ME2 as well, which I’m not sure which is more accurate, but perhaps time will tell in that regard

Anyway, thank you again for sharing your thoughts! I’m really curious to see how opinions shake out as the game progresses and people start finishing it in the coming days and weeks. Idk how long it is, but I’m assuming the 50-100 hour range, so we’ve got some time before even the quickest completionists start hitting the end. But yeah, feel free to send me more thoughts and impressions if you like! And anyone else reading this, please feel free as well. I’m still deciding if I’m ready to risk getting hurt again and playing it lmfao

[waeirfaahl]

My thoughts about Aku from “Samurai Jack”. The Child of Sorrow in-depth

Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy. (c) Ishiro Honda As a kid I watched lots of animated films from many countries. Some of them I liked, some of them even stuck in me very deep and had strong influence. Among animated series in my childhood there were several I really enjoyed — one of them is “Samurai Jack”, of course. Unusual visual style, unique atmosphere, memorable characters, feel of threat, epicness and tragedy, humour and horror, mind-blowing setting and locations, the relatable protagonist you respect and... the antagonist, who became my favourite character and inspired me in many senses. Of course, I am talking about Aku, who is genuinely the most underrated and deprived character of the show. Very sad, but true. Here I will talk about exactly what I noticed during watching the show. Some kind of tribute for Aku and the original classic seasons, i.e. true canon. Probably Aku was the first unusual and unique creature for me, when I was a child. He had otherworldly traits, but at the same time he was incredibly relatable, he was a living being with lots of emotions and bright personality, he could be funny and dangerous at the same time. I associated him with a tree, a totem of forest spirit and alien, similar to the ones from “The Thing” (1982 film). Although Aku is a shapeshifter, in his true anthropomorphic form he has traits of a dragon, a cat, a wolf and a bat. The spikes on his head, similar to the crown and spider’s legs, are some kind of ears and vibrissae, since he moves them, raises or lowers them depending on the joyful or sad mood. Aku has a very keen sense of smell, because he easily smelled Jack hiding, and before that, he realized by the smell of blood that Jack was the son of the Emperor. His hearing is also quite acute, because even through his rolling laughter he heard the rustling produced by Jack, albeit belatedly. But with eyesight, not everything is so clear. Despite quite a good reaction speed, because of the squinting, it seems that Aku sees very small objects (especially flying and fast) much worse than large or medium ones (in "Birth of Evil" episodes as an example, when he fought against Jack's father). At the same time, he calmly measures and controls his enormous physical strength at any size (for example, he did not scratch Jack much, although his huge and powerful claws could cut or tear apart Jack easily). He takes forms of animals and insects, very rarely (2 times — Ikra and in 9 episode 4 season) humanoids, what also can hint that he likes (or at least neutral) animals (if they don’t try to attack him) and dislikes sentient beings or specifically humans. Even his army is always demons and robots, so in comparasion with humans, who used animals for battles and wars, Aku is pretty humane, surprisingly. Moving aside from stereotypical “Darkness means evil”, his colors (black, green, red and white) have ambiguous meaning. Green can represent envy and life/immortality, red can represent anger/danger or love, black can represent sadness and mystery, white can represent innocence and death. Surprisingly, but these meanings are parts of his personality (remember this moment), and he always keeps his true colors in every form. It means that he can’t change the structure of his body and he only mimics visually, from another side, it means that he doesn’t hide his true self. His biology, aside of lots magic abilities, is also pretty interesting for analyze. Aku has no inner organs, no bones, no muscules, no skin, no genitals, no dna and so on (hence absolutely no sexual reproduce and no half-breed offspring and no pregnant mortals). Aku is neither male nor female, his species reproduce, using fragmentation or budding (what we can see in “Birth of Evil”), i.e. Aku is genderless creature and genetically he is a sibling to his dead ancestor from “Birth of Evil” (yes, they are two separate creatures — Aku doesn’t know about the alien gods and their weapons, Aku sees only Jack’s sword as the only weapon that can hurt him, Aku doesn’t have memories of his ancestor, only ability to shapeshift). But his blood resembles petroleum and acid, his blood/essense easily melts iron and metal and, how we could see in the classic seasons, is incredibly deadly and poisonous and even devours a mortal to death, if his blood happens to be inside of mortal. That confirms Aku is unable to mate with mortals or other deities at all. But it doesn’t make him the evil — lots of animals from Earth (sea snail, jellyfish, fugu fish, various snakes for example) are deadly poisonous and can kill human, but they are not the evil. Since Aku sleeps at the bottom of his castle in the bowels of the earth, he likes warmth, and temperature of his body is also pretty high and hot, while frosty and cold locations make him sick (I still have no idea, how he got the flu, being immortal and invinsible creature, who can travel in space for visiting Imakandi tribe and oceans — especially considering acidic blood, which is a perfect disinfectant; and I wonder, whether he found out about Jack being infected by his blood or not — probably Aku slept and felt himself as a gamer with Oculus Rift) probably because of changes and decreases in body temperature. Another interesting moment I noticed in “Birth of Evil” and in 1 episode 1 season. I always wondered, why the black lake released new spikes after absorbing drowning beings (humans and animals). As well as I always wondered, why Aku was imprisoned as a stone tree and was free after the solar eclipse (like, Jack’s father didn’t know, what can happen and how to either destroy or seal Aku, and how he can be free again — he knew only that the sword harms and weakens Aku). The only explanation I have about the stone tree is that it was not only Aku’s prison, but also defense mechanism, some kind of cocoon for hibernation and healing after serious wounds and weakening, while the energy of the solar eclipse just helped Aku to be cured faster and be free again (apparently even his ancestor had some connection with stars in the space). Hence logically even if Jack will defeat him, Aku will be in this hibernation stage again and won’t die (although, I wonder, what happen, if Jack will pierce the sword with Aku into himself or any living being instead of ground, or if he will not pierce it into anything). About the black lake and spikes... Logically it is also a defense mechanism and a tool for investigating location, getting information about life around and killing any threat, which wants to attack (partially that can explain, where this entire “Aku (”evil” in Japanese, akuma “demon” in Japanese), Shogun of Sorrow, the Deliverer of Darkness” comes from — some drowning humans could yell these curses during death toward the black lake). Another moment I wondered — what kind of poisons the arrow had, since it somehow gave the life to Aku instead of somehow killing the fragment? Earlier I assumed that Aku was inside the fragment, which was in gestation-like stage (what also can explain lots of spikes as a defense mechanism — it protected Aku and gave basic information for fast adaptation and successful surviving in the world after birth), while the poisoned arrow forced the fragment to birth the creature before the need time, i.e. Aku is kinda premature and underdeveloped. However, what if these spikes are also failed attempts of the fragment to birth the new creature, while Emperor’s poisoned arrow had a mix of materials and substances, which helped the fragment finally to birth the new creature, Aku? (like, after interaction of the poisoned arrow with the black lake we see the two small flames, indicating the life) I.e. literally the forest of corpses, i.e. Aku’s dead siblings, which became the defense tool. Maybe it’s creepy, but very plausible. And Emperor can be called Aku’s father literally (creator is the correct word for this, but you got my point). And exactly here is the starting point of Aku’s tragedy and Jack’s tragedy (yep, when your enemy is your brother). Despite acting like a ruthless tyrant in some episodes, Aku never gave impression of absolute villain. He was a cynical, asexual and always lonely trickster, a mirror opposite of Jack (Ying and Yang thing), but they both had the same problems — suffering because of ancestral mistakes (Emperor’s mistake specifically), deprivation of free will, they were abandoned, lost and lonely in the cruel world. Since my childhood I felt bad for Aku for many reasons. Several episodes gave some hints about his past and his personality and reason for fixation on Jack, but after “Birth of Evil” episodes the puzzles finally became the single picture. In "Birth of Evil” episode, we see the ancient cosmic entity, and how the three creepy alien gods kill it (my thoughts about what this entity is and about three alien gods and about weird aspects of Jack’s sword you can read here — better if Jack and Aku finally became allies and fought together against these gods, who are the true villains, that would be awesome and epic ending). But one tiny shred of the dead entity falls on Earth, causing extinction of dinosaurs, it eats and grows. Obviously, all human generations considered the shred/fragment/black lake as pure evil and wanted to kill it. Jack's father wanted to destroy the fragment of the cosmic dead entity, but instead he accidentally created Aku and rejected him, attacking him and causing his aggressiveness and the events we see later in the story. I guess, Emperor has pretty low IQ, since he thinks it is a good idea to insult and to provoke the large and unpredictable supernatural being, which even wasn’t aggressive to him (I’d say, Aku was pretty friendly), and to tell that he wanted to kill the being. Lots of people say “If Aku was not the pure evil, he would ignore Emperor and go away. I wouldn’t conquer the entire world because of one dude who insulted me”. I guess, these people think and judge from perspective of mentally and psychologically healthy person with normal childhood and normal life. They don’t realize that it is almost impossible to meet an adequate human in the Middle Ages for such a creature — nobody would simply accept Aku, all would consider him a monster and the evil that needs to be killed (might I remind you, in ancient times some people believed that swamps and bitumen pits are den of evil spirits, while solar eclipses symbolize the arriving of evil). Under such pressure, he would have done what he has done in “Birth of Evil” anyway. The only chance for Aku to become normal member of human/mortal society in Middle Ages and further — if Jack’s father accepted him, when Aku was born. But Jack’s father subtly said to Aku “You are an accident that should never have existed and lived. You should have died. My intention was to not give life and freedom to you, I wanted to kill you” and started to attack him with arrows and sword, confirming his intentions, where the battle and imprisoning strengthened hatred within Aku toward humans, mortals and especially toward Jack’s father and later Jack (who took responsibility without knowing the origin of the conflict). And we got unwanted, abandoned, rejected and embittered creature, who never got a chance to be loved and accepted. Aku is the result of humans’ fear of unknown, prejustice, ignorance, disregard and indifference, where the one human could undo this, but in noble desire to save his family and kingdom he himself created the monster, who punishes and shares his eternal pain with all. When Aku looks at arrows in his hand and then looks at Jack’s father, for few seconds you can notice resentment, sadness and disappointment on his face before anger. Plus, Emperor’s words and deeds could be interpreted by Aku as not only insulting and rejecting, but also as “You and other world think that I am the evil from the beginning and even without knowing about me. Very well, I will be the evil, because there is no point to be anything else". Aku was born innocent, but death surrounded him before birth and became his companion, he could learn to trust and love, but anger and hatred replaced them, hence he sees it as forbidden weakness and disgrace of worthless mortals, immortal life was corrupted with envy especially toward Jack, formidable foe and the son of the fool, who created Aku. Aku is the true child of sorrow, the painful grief, deeply rooted within Aku like the poisoned arrow of the human, who could become a father to him. (I still think that the arrow is still inside of Aku — plus, in some cultures arrows symbolize war or life, so it makes sense) After this, his lines about "Once again I am free to smite the world as in the long past" and "Now, my formidable foe, you will pay for my pain in the past with your pain in the future!" toward Jack get deeper shades. The line about “to smite the world” is literally "to punish humankind” (how it happened in “Birth of Evil” episodes). The line about “my past pain and your future pain” also partially explains, why Aku didn't try to kill Jack in some episodes, but only destroyed or stole time portals, mocking on Jack. And it gets even more deep shades in episode, where saddened Jack finds his destroyed kingdom and remembers his happy childhood — like, similar feelings of pain and loneliness of someone, who was abandoned in cruel and unknown world. Aku’s line from comics “You will always be alone, samurai. But as long as I have you, I will never be alone!” is another perfect explanation. Aku sees Jack as his equal and as someone, who probably could understand him. Also I think, Aku sees in Jack not only the enemy, who can ruin his plans etc, but also he sees in Jack his father, what strenghtens his hatred toward Jack, and Aku probably feels... envy. Because Jack was a wanted child for his family, because Jack is open for world and can find friends, because Jack never gives up and stays kind person, he helps to everyone and has a hope to return home, where his family and friends loved him, and where Jack was happy. He has something Aku was deprived of (and even never had). I always wondered, why Aku calls himself a wizard instead of demon or some supernatural being. Can it be self-hatred because of unability to accept and let go the past? I don’t know, but Aku needs therapy. Aku created the multicultural society with technological progress instead of killing entire life, he didn't harm kids from the fairy tale episode (I assume, his first fairy tale can represent his hidden desire to be a hero in kids’ eyes — if he didn’t care, he’d just ignore/kill them or whatever), he used only robots and demons as his army and policy. (for some reason I recall lines from the song from Moana "Far from the ones who abandoned, you're chasing the love of these humans, who made you feel wanted").

What I noticed — Jack’s father even didn't tell to Jack about how he accidentally created Aku, he only mentioned "This evil demonic wizard attacked my kingdom, I heroically fought and defeated him" or whatever (here is more detailed post about this moment). Hence Emperor didn’t realize what he has done. Remember the short scene in 7 episode 2 season, where Jack’s parents clung to each other, and the shadow of Aku's head towered over them — just imagine, how furious Aku was after sending Jack to the future, how he cruelly punishes Jack's parents and all those enslaved and for minutes freed people. That would be really dark and emotionally powerful scene — especiallly if Emperor finally realized his mistake and begged Aku to mercy Empress and other people, since it is only his fault, but without avail. Aku’s hatred toward Jack’s father was also hinted in two scenes — in 1 episode 1 season, where all enslaved people worked together, while exhausted Emperor worked alone and was tortured by demonic servants, and in 4 episode 3 season Aku refers to him as “your worthless father” during confrontation with Jack. Interesting... can Aku be called a mononoke (vengeful spirit, corrupted with negative emotions, caused by human)? This tragic and dark aspect of the character stuck with me for many years. The theme, where the one is a bitter "mistake" of one ignorant human, the another one was destined to destroy his father's "mistake" only 'cause of its dark origin, i.e. both were deprived of choice and free will. And there really could be awesome and dramatic epic, where the two lone characters understand each other's tragedies and through some events change. The theme, where exactly the choice is important, not origin or prejustice, i.e. something more deep and mature than banal "White savior defeats black wizard" thing. Because if to have absolutist one-dimensional worldview and to consider Aku as irredeemable pure evil, there is a chance to meet or hypocritically ignore uncomfortable question “Wait, by this logic, Aku was born that way, so he never asked to be born that way and can’t change, he is doomed from the start of his existence to be the evil and be killed only because of his origin. Isn’t that the tragedy?! He is the victim of either his nature or humans’ sins”. So yes, the best option would be exactly giving to Aku his arc “from antagonist to antihero and hero’s ally”, where Jack helps to overcome his inner conflict, healing him, and they do some heroic thing together. Surprisingly, this “kids show” from early 2000s and made me to think about pretty dark and dramatic themes.

But 5 season happened, and my emotions were “Look at how they massacred my boy!”... Here I already discussed that the father of Ashi and her sisters is unstated. Since her dad is unstated, I prefer to think that he was a random human (probably killed by her mother), while Ashi (similar to Blade from 1998 film) was only one in her litter, who got infected by Aku’s blood and survived (very rare type of horizontal gene transfer or whatever — maybe ‘cause Ashi was the weakest, so also we see some kind of sudden and unusual symbiotic relationship or whatever, ‘cause apparently exactly Aku’s blood saved her life in 3-4-5 episodes, and she didn’t die after falling from height or electricity — it reminds me the moment from “Princess Mononoke”, where Nago’s hatred curse devoured Ashitaka from inside, but saved Ashitaka’s life, when one of the women shot at him and he had serious blood loss). That’s the only reasonable explanation I have. Since I don’t consider 5 season as canon, I have some own thoughts about how 5 season and the true ending of the show should be and about characters’ arcs in it, but I’ll make a separate post about it later. 

This post is a tribute to Aku, who deserved really great story and ending, but was ruined and killed by own creator/author, who cared only about the monkey girl Mary Sue, a thief, a parasite and an impostor, who stole Jack’s and Aku’s arcs and backstories. Rest in peace, magnificent boy, and drink tasty tea with uncle Iroh and Mako, looking at sunset in valley.

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week # 149 (Year 3/Week 45):

Between 'Mean Streets' and 'Alice doesn't live here anymore', Martin Scorsese made the documentary ItalianAmerican, which is basically a home movie. It features his parents bicker and talk at their apartment, remembering the old days of their families.

🍿

2 with teenager Scarlett Johansson:

🍿 Re-watch: Sofia Coppola's Lost in translation, while waiting for her latest 'Priscilla'. "Sleepless in Shinjuko". Sad and vulnerable 17-year-old Scarlett Johansson, a 'stranger in a strange land' is having a 'Brief Encounter' moment, with less-asshole-than-usual Bill Murray. (Photos Above).

Another melancholic exploration of a lonely young woman, who finds herself captured in a privileged gilded cage. An exceptional, subtle masterpiece. 10/10.

🍿 The horse whisperer starred 14-year-old Johansson as a horse-lover who becomes emotionally stunted after a riding accident that caused her to lose part of her leg (all in the first 10 minutes of the film). It's a sloooow, traditional 3-hour-long story about healing, told mostly in beautifully-cinematic Montana. But it worked for me, in spite of the well-shot sentimentality. 7/10.

🍿

My first 2 by German auteur Christian Petzold, both with Paula Beer:

🍿 Afire - a tremendous, complex drama about a vain, immature writer on a working vacation. The little summer cottage close to the Baltic sea, is soon encroached by a forest fire, as does his self-centered world view of himself and his art. It starts at one emotional point, and skillfully moves to a completely different, tense level. 9/10.

🍿 Petzold wanted to make a series of films about the 4 elements. Undine refers to the myth of 'water nymphs', so rivers, industrial diving, large aquariums, and drowning in a pool are all part of the story. It's a lovely, simple romance, which eventually turns into a dark fantasy. My 5th film with Franz Rogowski. 4/10.

🍿

3 More of Claude Chabrol’s Hitchcockian thrillers:

🍿 “… You like meat?…”

Le Boucher, a low-key, atmospheric thriller about a single woman who befriends a village butcher, who's also a serial killer. Fantastic snapshot of the people at 'the country' (Dordogne) at this time. 9/10.

🍿 The ceremony (La Cérémonie) is a similar dark story, set in a solid bourgeoisie family. Isabelle Huppert & Sandrine Bonnaire becomes friends and eventually decide kill them all. Like 'Stanley & Iris' from last week, the protagonist is illiterate. 6/10.

🍿 The Unfaithful Wife, another terrific, low-key, civilized study of a French bourgeois household. A loving husband discovers that his loving wife is having an affair, and ends up killing her lover. I liked it so much, and thought it would be a very good candidate for a modern remake. Then I remembered Adrian Lyne's 'Unfaithful' with the luminous Diane Lane in the Stéphane Audran role. Maybe I should watch it again! 8/10.

I discovered Chabrol late, and have only seen about 10% of his 74 movies. Now I have to see them all!

🍿

Milf, another film with Virginie Ledoyen, a soft-core sex comedy. Three older women looking to hook up with boys 20 years younger. A similar concept to the Naomi Watts film 'Adoration'. I only watched it because it is directed by a woman and had 13 on the Tomato score. Better than Zalman King.

🍿

Wow! After 4 months of anticipation, the venerable bio-pic Oppenheimer finally hit my free streamers. I watched all 3 hours of it but left completely underwhelmed. This is the seventh of Christopher Nolen's praised big-budget epic films that I saw, and so far none of them had floated my boat. Okay, so I'm not a big blockbusters fan.

It's not very hip to rail against McCarthyism in 2023. Twenty-twenty revisionist vision, mambo-jumbo pseudoscience, overwrought endless, loud soundtrack, and basically the usual biography of a "Great man", which is always a boring subject for a movie. 4/10.

🍿

3 by regular Fincher screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker:

🍿 On the other hand, David Fincher’s new thriller The killer was a thrill ride that was a joy to watch. A cold blooded professional assassin, laconic and super-human, flies around the world ruthlessly killing people. Mesmerizing (but predictable) suspense with an effective Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score. I could do without the inner monologue that replaced conversations in the story. Also, a great comic book knock-out fight after an hour and a half of deliberate, slow go. 7/10.

🍿 In 2001, BMW produced 8 short films by famous directors as "Branded Content", i.e. advertisements. Called 'The hire' they all featured Clive Owen driving Beamers around the world. AKW wrote two of them:

The Follow was directed by Wong Kar-wai, and was about an aborted diamond heist.

Ambush was directed by John Frankenheimer, and was about a woman being followed by her husband.

The other shorts were by John Woo, Tony Scott, Ang Lee, etc.

🍿

5 more Danish films, 3 with Henning Moritzen (The patriarch from ‘Celebration’) and 2 with Mads Mikkelsen:

🍿 Tænk på et tal (Think of a number), a 1969 old-fashion, enjoyable Danish 'Krimi' with an enduring theme song. A meek bank teller finds a discarded note from a bank robber, and gets involved in a lethal game.

This story was later remade into the Elliott Gould caper 'The silent partner'. I love such slow and delightful dramas, and I love Bibi Andersson.

it’s funny how movies that used to be throwaway entertainment products 60 years ago, gain completely different meaning today. I should start exploring the many Danish Noir from the 40's and 50's. 7/10.

🍿 50 years later, In the Oscar-nominated short The pig, Moritzen is old and fat, and is being hospitalised for some tests. There he lays and finds comfort in a simple picture of a pig jumping over a fence. Delightful!

🍿 On the other hand, Now is another Danish short (from 2003) starring Mads Mikkelsen. But it's an artsy-fartsy, humor-less, word-less "Art film", shot in black & white, with a constant baby crying. Like 'An Andalusian Dog' but without the charm and the magic… 1/10.

🍿 I was surprised to realize just now that my favorite Danish screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen directed only 5 features and 3 shorts. (but he wrote 59 scripts!). Wolfgang is an early short of his, and not his best. Now I've seen all the movies that he directed.

I can't wait for his upcoming 'Monster of Florence' with Antonio Banderas and 'Back to reality'. Yeah!

🍿 So I took in one more viewing of his sentimental After the wedding, maybe for the 10th time. So full of emotional twists, old-fashioned melodrama, Sigur Rós score and peak Sidse Babett Knudsen.

🍿

Budapest Noir, a Hungarian murder mystery, set up in anti-semitic 1936. A hard boiled crime reporter investigates a murder of a beautiful prostitute, like a Jake Gittes named Zsigmond. Very strong 'Chinatown' vibes, including a smokey jazz score that tries to recreate its haunting atmosphere, and even the final line of dialogue "This is Budapest". 5/10.

[This is the 115th woman-directed film I've seen so far this year!].

🍿

Dumb money, the first enjoyable Reddit movie, about the 2021 GameStop short squeeze. Compelling Class War rhetoric with Seth Rogen as the billionaire 'heavy'. Up-to-the-minute updated drama of the 1% Vs. the unwashed masses. I think it will endure as another worthy addition to the sub-genre of 'highly entertaining explanation to boring real-life financial story', just like 'The big short' and 'Margin call'.

However, it used an Artificial Intelligent editing model that color-corrected the whole movie into a weird, fake, washed up look. 8/10.

🍿

First watch: Kurosawa's bleak Drunken Angel, an early post-war Yakuza film, and the first of the 16 collaborations between him and Toshiro Mifume. An alcoholic doctor befriends a young hoodlum suffering from tuberculosis. Located around an open sewer in a seedy neighborhood, still suffering under the American occupation.

🍿

Ikarie XB 1 (Or 'Voyage to the End of the Universe' as it was called in American), an influential and ambitious 1963 Czechoslovakian science-fiction saga, based on a Stanisław Lem novel. "Futuristic" space decor and story, very much in the Star Trek style. Cultish 1960's popcorn philosophy, but nonsensical and not a serious world building. Not for me - 1/10.

🍿

Thank Dog that the third season of Tim Robinson’s 'I think you should leave' was so short. The first season was outrageously different. The second season was a 'repeat on a theme'. This one was just cringey irrelevant. Absurd, awkward, confusing situations, exploding rage at small mistakes. No!

🍿

My first (and last) stand-up by comedian Nate Bergatze, The greatest average American. Average stories of 'relatable' everyday nitty gritty were hardly worth a chuckle.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here)

[thebookwormslair]

Are you still reeling from the magic, romance, and epic battles of Sarah J. Maas' "A Court of Thorns and Roses" series? Well, fear not, for I have a treasure trove of recommendations that will keep you captivated long after the final page. So grab a cup of your favorite brew, snuggle up in your cozy reading nook, and let's dive into a world of enchantment, humor, and swoon-worthy characters!

"The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black: Brace yourself for wicked faeries, political intrigue, and a fearless protagonist who must navigate a treacherous court to survive. This tantalizing tale will have you clutching your heart and begging for more.

"Graceling" by Kristin Cashore: Enter a world where some are blessed (or cursed) with unique abilities. Follow Katsa, a fierce warrior, as she embarks on a dangerous journey filled with unexpected allies, high-stakes quests, and a blossoming romance.

"Uprooted" by Naomi Novik: Prepare to be enchanted by a dark and atmospheric fairytale that delves into the mysteries of a malevolent forest, an enigmatic wizard, and a brave young woman determined to save her village from an ancient evil.

"Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas: If you haven't already dived into Maas' other spellbinding series, now is the time! Join assassin-turned-heroine Celaena Sardothien on a gripping adventure filled with action, magic, and a dash of romance.

"Red Queen" by Victoria Aveyard: Welcome to a world divided by blood, where the color of your blood determines your fate. Follow Mare Barrow, a lowly Red thrust into a world of Silver royalty, as she discovers her own shocking powers and becomes embroiled in a dangerous rebellion.

"The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss: Lose yourself in this beautifully written epic fantasy that follows the life of the legendary Kvothe. Filled with intricate world-building, captivating storytelling, and a touch of musical magic, this book will leave you craving more.

"The Bear and the Nightingale" by Katherine Arden: Immerse yourself in Russian folklore as you journey with Vasya, a courageous young girl with the ability to see mythical creatures. Rich in atmosphere and folklore, this bewitching tale will transport you to a world of wonder.

"An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir: Brace yourself for a heart-pounding adventure in a ruthless empire. Follow Laia, a slave girl, and Elias, a highly skilled soldier, as they navigate their paths in a world of oppression, danger, and forbidden love.

"The Wrath and the Dawn" by Renée Ahdieh: Prepare for a sumptuous retelling of "One Thousand and One Nights" that will sweep you off your feet. Delve into a world of romance, mystery, and secrets as Shahrzad captivates a king with her storytelling prowess.

"Shadow and Bone" by Leigh Bardugo: Enter the Grishaverse, a world where magic and darkness intertwine. Join Alina Starkov as she discovers her untapped powers, faces dangerous enemies, and grapples with matters of the heart.

There you have it, dear readers, a captivating collection of books that will transport you to worlds brimming with magic, romance, and thrilling adventures.

[thegamemaster1]

Why Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterpiece?

Red Dead Redemption stands at one of the best and loved games of all-time, Developed by Rockstar Games, this American old-western open world took the world by storm in it's release in 2018. it gives another look to people to the open world, inviting them to take a ride into a journey with heart racing moments, breathtaking views and narrative that gets traditional gaming experience to a whole new level. I will be explaining the points of Red Dead Redemption 2 like gameplay mechanics, storyline and amazing biomes.

Immense Open World

The open world of Red Dead 2 is nothing but a masterpiece, going to several regions, every area has an unique detail being designed. it shows forests, mountains with snow, deserts and the city of Saint Denis - every place brims with life, having a unique flora and fauna to the biome and habitats.

2. Unforgettable characters

In Red Dead 2 what most attract about this game is the characters, that after playing the game they stay in the player's heart's forever. the main character Arthur Morgan, is the anchor of the masterpiece that is today. by playing him every minute of the game he grows as a person and inner self, able to makes choices on his own.

The Van der Linde gang, led by Dutch Van der Linde, has his family of outlaws who little by little got bigger. he got his wise friend Hosea Matthews, and the loyal and endearing Lenny Summers, each member has his own personality and backstory. among those characters there's John Marston, whose we see him transforming to the protagonist of the first Red Dead Redemption.

3. An enthralling narrative

Red Dead 2's narrative is epic, emotional and complex. the first moments of the game players find themselves engulfed in a thrilling tale that navigates themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the pursuit of redemption. The story has character-driven arcs and themes that resonate deeply with the players.

As Arthur Morgan, you go from place to place with the Van der Linde gang, (in Dutch's perspective)he's in search of a place that they can be free without being chased or with a needle on their throats. The Wild west is changing, believing that their only way for now is marching to modernization, seeing that the gang find it hard to adapt every time they move.

4. Visual and spectacular details

Red Dead 2 has a beautiful and spectacular game graphics and auditory that it's a feast to our eyes and senses. the attention to the details extend the game graphics, which are breathtaking.

The game's soundtracks are inspiring. From orchestras compositions to acoustic melodies, the soundtrack gives emotional impact of the key moments in the game. Whenever it's peaceful moments, hauntingly melodies or adrenaline high-action sequences, the music is a feast to the player in the game atmosphere.

5. Players decisions and consequences

In Red Dead 2 the game makes you take decisions in main story, even in side missions that impact the story. The Honor tracks the players action and determines Arthur morale like acts of kindness or selflessness that will lead to high honor, while doing violent and malicious acts lead to low honor. The honor system on how you have it high or low will depend on your ending in the story.

Thanks for stopping by and read my article if you have any questions comment and they will be answered!

[cocrante]

A Shadow in the Night

trigger warning: blood, dead animals

summary: in a peaceful mountain village is hidden a dark secret, which will be discovered by the hands of three overly curious boys

note: this is a story that I wrote when I was 17 years old and happened to refound. It was my first horror story, and I wanted to translate it :) I hope I haven't made any mistakes, and that everything is written well

THE MORNING SUN HAD TAKEN ITS PLACE IN THE CLEAR AND CRISP SKY. Only the continuous rush of water from a stream at the bottom of the forest served as background noise, along with the chirping of birds that playfully chased each other on the highest branches of those green trees on the hill.

In the nearby village, the church bells were ringing for a wedding, their sound carried by the wind to the highest peaks. It was a special day, a young couple deeply in love had decided to seal their feelings in a pact of eternal love.

The whole village was in great celebration. Dances, songs, and laughter were the protagonists, accompanying the newlyweds throughout the day. At least until the arrival of the evening.

The air grew colder, and in the sky — mingling with the evening's fire — bright stars had already appeared. With their arrival, a family decided to stop in that mountain village, to breathe pure air, far from the noise and frenzy of city life. They had three children, not too different in age and with fair cheeks. Three boys with hair as black as night. Only one was already in high school, the other two still in middle. They took a room at the little but cozy hotel in the center of the village. Their suitcases were still full, just a quick change of clothes, a visit to the bathroom and then all of them fell under the sheets.

The following morning arrived imminent, the sun kissed the room a gently spring breeze danced, causing the curtains to sway, carrying the sweet fragrance of flowers. The mother couldn't help but wrinkle her nose as the breeze brushed past her. The children had already dashed outside, eager to explore every nook and cranny of the little village. To them, every street seemed new and full of potential discoveries, but nothing caught their attention too much. It was a small town, like many others they already visited, although there was still something unknown to them lurking behind it.

Driven by the curiosity to make that place no longer hold any secrets for them, they unanimously decided to climb the nearby hill, ascending even further into the dense forest. Their parents, upon waking up, paid little attention to the disappearance of the three children. They were accustomed to exploring the places they visited and might return only after the sun had set.

Meanwhile, the three children climbed swiftly, staying close to the trail, gradually distancing themselves from the hustle and bustle of life below. They entered the heart of the forest, surrounded by the chirping and rustling of tree branches. They ascended further until they reached what appeared to be a small, ancient little cottage, made of stones and now overgrown with annoying vines. The door was barred with several beams, now riddled with termite holes. A push from the eldest brother sent it crashing down with a resounding noise.

The interior, shrouded in darkness, reeked of mold and urine; there was something rotten that tainted the atmosphere — a horribly strong and acrid odor. Even the windows were barred with beams, denying even a glimmer of light entry. It was like someone had intentionally concealed the house and sealed it off from the outside world. Nevertheless, the three boys mustered their courage, pressing on into the small, creaking parlor, illuminating their path solely with the light of their cell phones. They swallowed hard at the sight of dead rats and desiccated spiders. Some rats, still writhing in death, oozed warm blood from their bitten bellies. The younger ones huddled behind the eldest, taking great care with each step they took.

There was absolutely nothing in that terrifying house, but they felt a chilling grip on their necks, and before it could tighten to snuff out their lives, they ran out as fast as they could. The sky was unusually dark, as if a mysterious eclipse was occurring. The moon was devouring the sun, and swiftly, before it could fully consume it, they descended the hill, retracing their earlier path. In the distance, a branch snapped, and flocks of birds that had been resting on the trees scattered as if frightened. A chilling wind swept along the bodies of the three boys, who ran swiftly into the village. They didn't utter a word, and they didn't look anyone in the face. What they saw up there remained a secret among them. In the square, everyone was watching that spectacle, exclaiming in pure astonishment, and then, when the sun returned to illuminate the land, the villagers resumed their usual work, unaware that old house had been opened.

Strange rumors circulated about that house, the most well-known legend was that a man, whose name and face were long forgotten, centuries ago had made a pact with demons. Weary of aging, he gave them his heart and soul in exchange for the gift of eternal life. But the ritual was interrupted. When people discovered this, they condemned him to the stake for heresy and for being a loyal servant of the Devil. Before he died, he swore vengeance and that one day his body would walk the earth again, reclaiming what had been taken from him. Out of fear, the early inhabitants buried all the remains beneath the man's house, sealing it with ancient prayers in the hope that his evil, vengeful soul would never escape again. But inside the house, strange occurrences began to take place, with noises and moans echoing throughout, even though it was completely abandoned.

The seal was then broken, and the soul returned, roaming in search of blood, claiming the lives of the descendants of the villagers, feeding on their souls and their hearts, which would grant it a new form and the immortality it had long coveted. Forever becoming a lurking shadow in the cold and mist of the night, finding no peace except for resentment and vengeance.

That night, a gray veil descended, a strong wind hissing loudly, only the round moon illuminated the somber village. It crept through windows, spreading throughout the room, seeking out anyone residing within. A chilling scream echoed, and then silence fell. On the bed lay an unmoving body with a hole in the chest, from which still flowed warm blood, pumped by the now-stilled heart. Lights flickered on, and others arrived, screaming together, and before expiring, they saw its shadow slithering inside them. Before taking their final breath, its cold, bloodshot eyes watched them collapse to the ground and then vanish into the thin air.

It became a ghost town, and even now, if you listen closely, you can hear the cries of despair from those specters who will find no peace and desperately implore to cross the boundary that will lead them into the afterlife

↬ masterlist

[hislittleraincloud]

🕸️🕯️HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOU DRUG-ADDLED MADMAN!🕯️🕸️

Without you, we wouldn't have Nevermore or our Raven Wednesday as she is. We would have had to rely on a culture without your poems and stories, and I can't imagine growing up in a world without masterpieces like Annabel Lee or The Telltale Heart. I would have not have won my 6th grade horror story writing contest that creeped everyone out without your influence, and I thank the gods for my introduction to your work three years prior. I would not have snatched up lovely 1890s copies of your poems for the love of my life, since she too had been obsessed with your work from an early age. (An 1892 Thomas Crowell and an 1895 Henry Altemus, according to my ancient eBay receipt.)

And now I must hijack your birthday to bemoan something inextricably tied to you and your work. (But alas, it has done it in just a superficial manner so far.)

Your presence as the basis for Wednesday's setting is why the show is Gothic Horror, not Horror. The complex emotions explored in the whole of the series sets it apart from the fear-evoking terror and violence of straight-on horror, which is perhaps why I am dismayed by the young actress's comments about nudging the show towards horror, since horror deals in terrifying the audience rather than taking them on an even more damaging tour of the various terrible emotions that make us question human morality.

Allow me to quote an L.A. Times critic who reviewed The Following, a show revolving around a Poe expert and a Poe-guided serial killer and his cult:

When we’re meant to observe the creepy gothic horror of [Poe's] stories, it’s the sense of inevitability or fate that gives the reader a frisson, not the gore: someone is buried alive, or dissolves in a moment.

This needs to be explained, considering the news that the show's S2 will 'lean more into horror'. Allow me to defer to Daniel Blackwood's excellent breakdown of the genre (picking out the features here, but all should watch the video for deeper insights):

Emotional Turmoil: "Antagonists are often personifcations of the protagonists' misdeeds or endured tragedies re-emerging as the physical or the metaphysical manifestation of emotional turmoil. In defeating or by sometimes being consumed by these presences ultimately concludes the inner and outer dilemmas of the characters."

That is literally this:

Though no one really talks about this, Sheriff Galpin is a background protagonist (he is in every episode) antihero, because he lacked the courage to face the truth because he loved his son and feared that his suspicions. He is, actually, a main character, and without him, the story loses the greater tragedy that is Tyler Galpin.

Mystery & Suspense: "The genre is pervaded by a threatening atmosphere, usually unseen and felt on an instinctual level. Protagonists may apply logic and rationale to otherwise supernatural happenings or vice versa. This is enhanced by the emotional turmoil suffered by protagonists, which makes for truly engrossing tales as the reader or viewer, much like the protagonist, attempts to make sense of the things around them. "

Again, literally**:

There's just something wrong about this place. And not just because it's a school. ~ Wednesday, Ep 1

Also, Sheriff Galpin knew something at the very beginning, and Wednesday pinpointed that in the second episode (in the previous episode, he and Santiago chat about the murders and how they were to be perceived as bear attacks). Noble also makes mention of bear attacks as well. **I edited this, because I had originally meant to use Wednesday's intuition as the example for Mystery & Suspense.

Ancient Prophecies: "Often connected to the very geography of the story, for example a castle or a forest, prophecies are usually unwittingly brought into fruition by the protagonist's actions or lack thereof. Prophecies are mostly obscure partial or deliberately confusing."

Once again, directly*:

My dear Wednesday, you are the key. Your arrival at Nevermore set the chubby wheels of my plan in motion. ~ Laurel Gates, a.k.a. Thornhill, Ep 8

Metonymy: "Metonomy is a subtype of metaphor, in which something like rainfall or lightning is used to communicate something else such as a mood, for example a thunderstorm being used to communicate impending dread, or using rainfall to denote sorrow. It's used so commonly in the genre that it's now a major staple, and you'd be hard pressed to find a gothic novel that does not use this to some degree."

Wednesday is checking all of these boxes, isn't it:

At least it's turning into a beautiful day. ~ Morticia Addams, Ep 1

Inexplicable Events: "Often supernatural in nature, events such as a knight's helmet falling on a character without logical reasoning or a glass being held at the protagonist by an unseen presence are extremely commonplace in the genre. In some ways these events are explained logically, and in others are indeed supernatural."

Xavier saved Wednesday from being crushed by the gargoyle, which 'inexplicably' fell (but at the end of the ep is revealed as Rowan's work). There are other examples of this throughout the season, like when Wednesday was attempting to summon Goody and the candles were blown out.

Mortality: "The Victorian Era was rife with an obsession with death, so much so that historians have dubbed this era and its people The Cult of Death; with this in mind, it stands to reason why many of the genre's works possess a morbid fascination with human mortality. Many of the genre's works attempt to romanticize the passing of human life while others simply lay bare its effects on those still living."

That is probably the most glaringly obvious and fitting characteristic of our main protagonist's core personality. Wednesday is death-obsessed. She sleeps like that because of it (and we love her for it). Honorable mention is her nap in the morgue.

Human Nature: "Many gothic novels and short stories aim to display the underlying sinister motivations of human nature. They depict the deep desires and passions that lie beneath the façade of socially engineered morality. This is usually done through the use of metaphors."

(No words needed for that one. However, Gates's half-baked actions could also be a metaphor for Wednesday's, which is only part of the reason why "Thornhill" tells Wednesday that they're a lot alike.)

დ

There is zero question that Wednesday (and Burton's other light-hearted work, if we're being honest) is a Gothic Horror Comedy.

It was never meant to be overtly scary or bloody/gory, and Edgar's works more than inspired the show's plotline and its very existence (as thin and clumsy as it was with its handling of the 'mystery'). I shall be bereft if it is cheapened because of a misunderstanding or deliberate dismissal of genres, though we are all hoping that it turns out well and that the change of tone doesn't weigh its comedy roots down (the hope is tenuous, given the near abandonment of satire...Pilgrim World's existence might be the first season's saving grace on that front).

TLDR; Gothic Horror (with emotions and relationships explored within an Old World 'horror' setting, its themes revolving around the complexity of human nature) is not *Horror* (aims to evoke fear in its audience, with terror being its main objective), Wednesday is Gothic Horror, Happy 215th Birthday Mr. Poe 🐦‍⬛🎂🎉

[aliashborn]

Natasha's Symbiote in Marvel: CH 1: A new start

<guys, I've made subreddit so that we can post any pictures about the MC's of my fanfics or the love interests. Go ahead and join MajestysJourney! here's the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/MajestysJourney/>

The sun had set, and the darkness of the night had enveloped the entire world. Well, not the entire ENTIRE world, just earth.

The earth of the Marvel multiverse, to be exact. But even though it was the earth of another multiverse from the protagonist's previous world, there weren't really any noticable differences.

The same beautiful starry sky was there, while the darkness of the night kept many on their toes, fearful of what might come out at any given time.

Suddenly, there was a twinkle in the sky, and in a closer look, it was actually a small boulder coming down!

The small asteroid which was enveloped in flames came crashing down on earth. However, even though it was barely the size of a table, it's size didn't reduce at all from the moment it entered Earth's atmosphere!

As for the reason why, well, there seemed to be a barrier of some sort around it, protecting it from the flames.

Finally, the asteroid crashed down on earth, in a forest, and the barrier completely disappeared. From the barrier, you would expect it to be some kind of a magical rock or a high technology one. But no. It was just a normal rock. However, there were holes inside it, making it look rather interesting.

But what was even more interesting, was that something come out of one of those holes! Or rather, it spilled out of it...

As for what it was, it was some kind of a goo. a jet black, liquid that seemed to actually be alive with how it moved! However, it seemed to have difficulty in moving, cause it took it a while to get out of its small spaceship.

What was the black goo? It was our protagonist, Ali Ashborne that was reincarnated as a Symbiote, or otherwise known as a Klyntar!

Ali crawled <?> out of the rock that it had travelled in with extreme difficulty caused by not being used to his new body and frowned internally :'fucking hell...

I seriously have to get used to this new body... Hey, it could get worse. Omniverse, thanks for putting that temporary shield around the rock so I wouldn't die.'

Ali was previously a normal teenager with a normal life, however, he died one day and met an actual omniversal being.

However, he didn't know how died. The omniversal being explained that it deleted the memory because it didn't want Ali to possibly be traumatized.

And well, then it said that since it was extremely bored, it had decided to reincarnate a random being with wishes.

It also explained how it had nothing to do with Ali's karma and whatnot, just for its pure fun and amusement.

After all, in the infinite number of universes in the infinite number of multiverses in the endless omniverse, you think people with good karma and shit are unique?

Anyway, Ali decided that since he had hit the jackpot, he will make the most of it. So he made some ridiculous ass wishes.

Which the omniversal being agreed to actually grant, if the omniverse itself agreed to it since Ali's wishes were a little over the top.

What were his wishes? Well, mainly three. That's low, right? Just three, how over the top can they be?

Well, the first was that Ali wanted his soul to be turned into many, MANY pieces so that each piece could go to different multiverses!

Meaning that with just a single wish, he was able to travel to whichever multiverse he wanted to!

But these soul pieces weren't really separated. They could sense each other, and could fuse again.

The second wish was, being a living paradox... In case you don't know what that is, it's basically you won't be effected by anything time related.

Being a living paradox means that the present Ali is completely separated from the Ali from 1 second ago Ali or just the past Ali, and the future Ali!

So if a strong guy was like :"oh, I will just kill his past self so could never even be here now!" He wouldn't succeed.

And the third one, is that every soul piece can make his own wishes... That was the part where it was mostly fucked up.

Anyway, won't enter too many details. Omniverse agreed and granted all of Ali's soul pieces' wishes!

This soul piece, was the Ali that wished to be born in marvel as a Symbiote! Why? Because Symbiotes are the best and baddest aliens there are!

After he finally came out, he took a moment to rest as he looked around. Well, he didn't need to turn to do such a thing, since Symbiotes had 360 visions, he could see everything around him without turning to other directions.

Ali awed at the new vision as he looked watched everything around him without even moving :'whoa, this is sick...

As someone who need to wear glasses before because of being near sighted, this is a work of difference!'

After he enjoyed the new vision a little more, he internally frowned :'but why the heck am I in a damn forest?

I'm definitely sure that I asked the omniverse to send me to a place where my perfect host, Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow was.

So why am I in a random ass forest?! Is she perhaps on a mission or something...? Oh wait! Is she perhaps with Hawkeye's family right now?!

That should probably be it, since I don't see any other reason as to why she should be here other than these two reason.

But... How am I supposed to know where to find her...? I don't think she will just come here... Maybe the asteroid will catch their attention...? Can I... Sense her...? Let me check, maybe I can...'

Ali couldn't close his eyes to focus better since he literally didn't have any, so he just tried to focus on something, anything, as hard as he could.

But unfortunately, he couldn't find anything. He continued for a little while, but nothing happened. However, just when he was about to give up, he actually fel a link!

He hurriedly focused on it, and actually senses something like a rope that had one of its ends connected to him with the other end leading into somewhere else!

Ali physically could smile, however, that didn't stop him from being extremely excited internally :'yes, yes!

Fuck yes! I actually succeeded, baby! Leave it to the plot armor of the protagonist to solve all of your problems!

Now, let's go and see dommy mommy! Wait for me, my Natasha! Ali, your Symbiote, is on his way to bond with you and set the way for you to become the greatest creature in the marvel multiverse!'

And so, our Symbiote protagonist made his way to his future lover and host, Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow aka mommy!

Well, at least he tried to, but again, he had some difficulties moving since he wasn't used to his new body at all.

After a few hours, he finally managed to see light from where the link was leading to. So since he had gotten a little used to it, he hurried towards the light!

He had actually seen a few small animals like racoons and squirrels and shit that he could bond with temporarily, but he didn't.

It could've made it a lot more easier to reach here, but he still didn't. Why? Because his dumbass didn't want to lose his "symbiotic virginity" to anyone but Natasha...

And so, it took a lot longer to reach his destination. But he still felt happy as he hurried towards the house :'mhahaha!

I've finally arrived! Just wait a little longer!... Hold the f up... I seriously have to do this ninja style if I want to bond with her...

Normal people wouldn't just let a slime like alien touch them, so I have to do this venom from spider man 3 style.'

And so, Ali slowed down a little, even though he wasn't making any sounds while moving, and moved towards the house.

Ali gently and sneakily moved towards the house and to its door before he frowned internally :'oh of course it's locked...'

However, he glanced down to see light coming from under the door, so he hummed with curiosity :'can I perhaps...'

Instead of thinking if he can or can't, he decided to try it out instead. He was liquid, so he didn't see any reason as to why he couldn't.

And so, he moved towards the door and tried to squeeze under it, where the light was coming from.

It took a little bit of trying and focusing, but he finally sensed himself passing through :'ha ha, bitches!'

As he moved in quietly and hid under a table, he heard a few voices :"aunt Natty, are you planning to stay?"

'Natty?! My Natty?!' Ali gasped internally as he eavesdropped to hear a beautiful voice :"hahaha yes, but only for tonight.

Me and your dad have to leave tomorrow for the avengers tower. After all, who is going to save the world otherwise?"

'avengers tower? So the avengers have been formed and the tower is in place. That's good to know since I will technically be part of them.'

The little girl who had asked the question with excitement sounded depressed :"aww, can't you stay just a little more?"

But the chuckle of the gorgeous superheroine sounded again :"I'm sorry, but I can't. Duty may call heros at any moment, so even though it sucks a little, we still have to be ready most of the time."

The little girl sighed in defeat and reluctantly agreed :"alright, fine. Good bye then, aunt Natty, come visit us again!"

Hearing the sounds of footsteps, Ali tried to hide even better as the children ran into where he was and ran towards their rooms.

While trying to squeeze himself, he accidentally found out that he can shrink :'wait, I'm liquid. I can just get smaller and attach to her when I'm small enough!'

Natasha chuckled amusedly before she bid farewell as well :"alright, good night then, you two. Don't oversleep tomorrow, Clint."

The sound of a laughter of a man came from inside :"when have I ever overslept? I'm Hawkeye, my eyes are more open than anybody else's!"

Natasha sighed as she walked towards where Ali was :"yeah yeah, whatever you say. Good night."

Ali had shrunk to a ridiculous size, the size of the nail of a pinky... But he still didn't act rashly. After all, even though he shrunk so much, there was no telling if Hawkeye could spot him or not.

So he waited patiently. But when Natasha walked out, his thought process completely stopped. She was simply... gorgeous...

Her beautiful legs in a sweat pants, her big ass which was completely visible even though the pants were baggy, her tiny as fuck waist, her breasts that women would kill to have, her mesmerizing red hair that reached her neck, and her exquisite face, all of them would have made Ali's eyes go wide if he had any!

He could hardly keep himself at bay to not just take his chances and jump on her to bond with her.

But well, he still held himself back and waited for the best moment to make his move. However, seems like the beginners luck was on his side, because that chance immediately arrived!

Natasha actually walked towards the table to grab an apple! So seeing that she was out of Hawkeye's line of sight, he immediately jumped on her pants!

Natasha didn't notice the nail sized creature in the dark and just took an apple before taking a bite while walking towards the room that she stayed in.

She opened the door and walked in before she closed it behind her. However, just when she threw the apple that she finished into the trash can in her room, a raspy voice sounded inside her head :"hello, Natasha."

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Prince of Prohibition. By Marilyn Marks. 2023.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Genre: romantic historical fantasy

Part of a Series? Yes, Fae of the Roaring Age #1

Summary: Adeline Colton was cursed. Everyone in Georgia knew the devil walked her farm, and maybe they were right, because each month she had . . . dreams. Visions of a dark prince and a shadowed forest. A creature so wrong, temptation lurked beneath her skin.

So after escaping to New York City, it’s no surprise when her bad fortune follows. Only this time, it’s in the form of Jack Warren: millionaire bootlegger, infamous gangster, and criminal who makes Addie his fervent obsession.

Jack is everything Addie should avoid, but the more she resists his pull, the deeper she’s drawn into his extravagant world. Lured by a life of freedom and desire, Adeline must make a choice: heed her family’s warnings or follow Jack into the dark. But when fate binds them together, Jack is revealed to be something else—not man, not beast, not even the devil, but a creature much, much worse.

***Full review below***

Content Warnings: blood, violence, graphic sexual content, racism/targeting by police

Overview: I came across this book while researching something or other, and since I'm continuing my streak of picking up random books without context, I went ahead and got a copy. At first I had high hopes, fairies in the 1920s seemed like an interesting premise, and I was curious to see how fae lore complimented the decadence of the Jazz Era. Unfortunately, this book became way too quickly stuffed with too many things, and the plot didn't build in a way that kept me engaged. Because I also didn't really connect with the protagonist and I found the prose wanting, this book only gets 2, maybe 2.5 stars from me.

Writing: While I don't necessarily think the prose in this book is bad at a sentence level, I do think altogether, the writing primarily suffers from repetition, poor pacing, info dumping, and a lack of atmosphere.

For repetition, I often felt like the author would use some of the same descriptions over and over again (like Jack's serpent/amber colored eyes) or else saturate her prose with swear words in order to make the narration and dialogue feel more edgy. I'm not against characters swearing, but when it's overused, the prose starts to feel pretty stale. Unfortunately, that's what happened here (at least for me).

As for pace, this book is over 500 pages long and so much of it could have been condensed. There are quite a few details or scenes that didn't have much bearing on the plot, so eliminating them could have gone a long way towards making the pace feel more appropriate.

As for info dumping, a lot of information is withheld from the reader until about the 20% mark, at which point all the worldbuilding and contextual information is dumped on the reader. The characters simply explain everything to our confused protagonist, and this happens every time there is some new information that is needed (though the author would not craft a scene where that information could be shown or integrated more naturally). Personally, I don't enjoy it when books do world and plot building this way because it makes information hard to absorb in a meaningful way. I would much rather have the author dial back the worldbuilding and really think about what is needed for the story and what feels like is beyond the scope of the narrative.

Lastly, I felt like Marks could have done a better job at making the setting feel more atmospheric. Though this book takes place during the 1920s, I don't think the setting gives the story much flavor aside from the stray mention of a speakeasy or Jack's bootlegging. Given that the 1920s are known for decadence, I would have loved to see how the fae took advantage of that and how the aesthetics of the 20s can be integrated with fae tropes. (As a side note: the lack of atmosphere/setting is even more apparent when the author fails to correct basic historical references. For example, Addie calls the war "World War I" which wouldn't have been the term for it in the 1920s. Also, Jack is said to wear boxers as underwear, which would also strikes me as unlikely as they weren't invented until 1925 and this book takes place in 1926.)

Plot: The plot of this book follows Adeline Colton, a girl with the ability to see through faerie glamor and who is forced to move from small town Georgia to New York City. While in New York, she encounters a number of strange figures, including Jack Warren - her mysterious landlord and a major employer. Addie is inexplicably drawn to Jack and learns that they are tethered together by a magical bond from Addie's childhood. As a result, she finds herself drawn into a plot to aid the fae against the evil plans of an immortal druid.

The plot of this book was... a lot. Not only did we have Addie's personal journey of uncovering her past, but we had a huge narrative about the conflict between exiled fae and one particular druid. On top of that, there were references to a whole bunch of magical creatures (like wyverns) and an alternate history of the Knights Templar that just made the worldbuilding overwhelming. In my opinion, there was too much to wrap my head around, and I had a really hard time feeling invested in any of the individual plot threads because so much was being thrown at me all at one time.

On top of that, it takes about 200 pages for the meat of this plot to really get roasting. The first section of the book is primarily focused on Addie growing up, moving to NYC, and then encountering Jack and the fae. While not a problem in itself, the fact that it took so long to get to the magical plot meant that I was already pretty exhausted as a reader by page 200. If the first part had been condensed, I think I would have had the mental bandwidth to get more excited for the main plot.

Characters: Addie, our narrator and protagonist, is a bit of a mixed bag. The times I liked her best were when she was thinking about her family and how she felt about them. Most of this occurs within the first few chapters, which I maintain are some of the strongest. I really liked the blend of "old world" superstition and small town Christianity, and I loved the way the author describes the effect of World War I on Addie and her brother.

However, once Addie is thrown into the world of the fae, she got a little irritating. Because she's in over her head, she doesn't make good decisions, and she lacks a lot of agency. While somewhat understandable, I wish more was done to show how Addie could use her wits to navigate unfamiliar territory; instead, it felt like she was making mistakes that we, as readers, knew were mistakes (like mistrusting Jack), which in turn made me less likely to sympathize with her. Granted, this gets better as the book progresses; she becomes more agentive and a lot of her character growth involves her learning to assert herself. However, it felt a little unbalanced to have Addie basically stumbling her way through each major plot point while surrounded by much more competent magical beings.

Speaking of Jack, I personally found him to be a little bland. He doesn't have much personality, and even though we're told over and over again that he's a bootlegger and a gangster, he doesn't have that edge to him that would make me think he's dangerous. As a result, Addie running away from him and disliking him so fiercely seems foolish.

Other supporting characters were fun, and some of them even had touching moments with Addie. It seemed like all the other fae in Jack's circle had more chemistry with Addie than Jack did, which made me enjoy the moments when they were interacting more than the romance. Lillian and Violet were perhaps my favorite, as they had more screen time, but I didn't really find fault with any of the side characters.

Romance: Though I wouldn't call this a romance novel, I have a few things to say about the romance between Addie and Jack. The two are magically bonded through something called a "parallel bond" which is not only rare and contains a lot of magic potential, but also means that the two share a soul and are soul mates. The bond also makes them incredibly horny for one another, no matter how hard Addie tries to fight it.

These types of magical bonds aren't my favorite kinds of tropes because I feel like it deprives characters of romantic and sexual agency. Without the bond, there's little reason for the two of them to fall for one another aside from Jack being obscenely attractive, so I felt like the bond was inserted to avoid doing the work of showing the two coming together.

TL;DR: The Prince of Prohibition is a book with an interesting premise, but ultimately lacks the storytelling craft needed to pull it off. Between repetitive prose, overwhelming worldbuilding, a main character who is overshadowed by her companions, and a lack of atmosphere, I couldn't connect with the story and ultimately, have little interest in continuing the series.

[messy-and-bi]

hey, i saw your tags on the wikipedia post. care to share some iyashikei or slice of life anime pls?

Wait, this post? My dear nonnie, you have no idea what you have unleashed ^O^/* I'll divide it into categories so it's easier to browse. Also, IDK how many of these fit in the iyashikei category, but they're all slice of life.

Comedy

Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun / Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: high school protagonist confesses her love for Nozaki. He's a dumbass and ofc he misunderstands, revealing that he's a mangaka. They start working together on his shoujo manga :D

Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku / Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: nerd fujoshi* comes out as a nerd in the office where she works. She makes friends with her equally nerdy colleagues. *think slash shipper, but for manga

Ouran High School Host Club: cute girl who is poor breaks a vase, ends up working as a male host not prostitute! in her high school.

School Babysitters / Gakuen Babysitters: it takes a village (or in this case a high school) to raise THE FUCKING CUTEST BABY I've ever seen.

Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto / Sakamoto desu ga: Sakamoto is the coolest guy. That's it, that's the plot. If you like cracky wacky stuff this is the perfect show.

Saint Young Men: Jesus and Buddha are friends and they live in Japan. Yes, really.

TOO ADORABLE FOR WORDS

Sweetness and Lightning: single dad vs. learning how to cook for his cute daughter.

How to Keep a Mummy / Miira no Kaikata: girl receives a strange package from her dad. Inside the package: a tiny sentient mummy that is so adorable I spent half the first episode making high pitched noises at it.

Supernatural(-ish)

Mushishi: white haired protagonist helps people with their supernatural problems. The supernatural creatures have great designs IMO and the atmosphere is super immersive.

Hakumei and Mikochi / Hakumei to Mikochi: adorable tiny people live in the forest with talking animals. They're not lesbians canonically, but they are lesbians in my heart.

Cute girls doing stuff

Yuru Camp: high school girls go camping.

Hanayamata: high school girls learn how to dance.

Urara Meirocho: magical girls attending witch school.

Is the order a rabbit?(?) / Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka: teenaged girls working in a cafe.

Tsuritama: anxious teenaged boy learns how to fish. Also there are aliens.

Slightly more serious stuff

Barakamon: a professional calligrapher finds love in his art again and gets new friends, mostly weird children.

The Great Passage / Fune wo Amu: a show about writing a dictionary NO BUT I SWEAR IT'S REALLY GOOD PLS WATCH IT!

Bunny Drop / Usagi Drop: single man in his 30s adopts his grandfather's illegitimate daughter because their relatives are all cunts.

March Comes In Like a Lion / 3-gatsu no Lion: depressed shogi player grows as a person and creates meaningful relationships.