#i may end up making a comic at some point later on for this particular scene

[rain-coat-killer]

"I don't need you."

"...Do I?"

[sokkastyles]

An Overanalysis of Zuko and Food (plus Iroh)

So, I've seen a lot of meta about how Zuko appears skinnier at certain points in the series depending on where he is in his arc. During the worst parts of Zuko's time as a refugee in season two, he seems to have lost a lot of his muscle mass, but towards the end of season two, he's less muscular than season one Zuko but distinctly rounder in the face, as he becomes more adjusted to a more (relatively) normal teenage life, living under a roof and not as a captain of a naval vessel, having access to a stable food source, and letting himself be taken care of by Iroh. At the beginning of season three he's in the palace, with plenty of access to food, but appears much thinner, and several people have made the inference that it was likely Zuko was not eating as well due simply to the anxiety of being back with his abuser.

But I've also noticed several other interesting things that could indicate something about Zuko's relationship to food. In book one, Zuko is built up, he's a military leader, he's trying to fulfill his role as prince of a nation that values strength and power, and there's one scene in particular that shows him not eating, in contrast to Iroh.

We see Zuko raging over not being able to capture Aang while at dinner, and Iroh asks him if he's going to eat his food, to which he replies that he's going to eat it later, and angrily takes it away from Iroh.

The main purpose of this scene is to contrast Zuko's single-minded determination with regard to his mission with Iroh's hedonism. Even on a military vessel, Iroh is presented as the antithesis of Spartan Fire Nation military culture. Zuko shows clear distaste for this behavior, because he has learned to detest it from his father, and angrily takes the food away from Iroh, saying he's going to "finish it later." And book one Zuko looks like he probably isn't missing any meals. He's jacked, and he's probably eating a lot of protein to keep up that physic. But is he going to sit around enjoying a meal when he's stressed about finding the Avatar? Absolutely not. The food in this scene looks very inviting, steaming hot, but Zuko will eat only when it's necessary to do so, and won't tolerate uncle eating more than his fill.

At the start of book two, Zuko and Iroh are without the trappings of even Zuko's banishment. They've lost everything, and are forced to forage for food, an endeavor that is less than successful. They are fed by Song's family, and I've seen some theorize that Iroh intentionally poisoned himself in order to force Zuko to seek help, which is an interesting theory considering that given stressful and even dire situations, Zuko's inclination seems to be to turn down food more often than not.

When Zuko is later separated from Iroh, we see him contemplate stealing food when faced with starvation, but makes the decision not to steal from a pregnant family.

Later in season two, Zuko and Iroh are living as refugees in Ba Sing Se. Zuko no longer looks bone thin, and presumably has stable access to food, although not the royal trappings of a prince. He's much more filled out, but appears more round and less lean muscle. We see him visit a restaurant with Jin, and we get a close up of him pushing around his food on the plate to indicate his anxiety about the date.

(I also want to mention here that in the "Going Home Again" comic, which takes place before the start of book three, Mai says that the food in Ba Sing Se is awful and Zuko says it's not so bad once you get used to it.)

Then at the end of book two, when Zuko recovers from his sickness, he immediately is interested in the jook that uncle is making, to Iroh's surprise, who says that Zuko wouldn't like it. Zuko happily eats a bowl despite this.

This is meant to show us Zuko's newfound appreciation for life after recovering from spiritual sickness. But it's also interesting when taken in the context of Zuko's previous relationship with food. Iroh assumes that Zuko will not want to eat the jook, but one thing that is interesting is that it's a meal commonly made by adults for children or others recovering from illness. We can infer that Iroh was making the jook for Zuko, despite his assertion that Zuko wouldn't want it. I think this is consistent with how we see Zuko turn down food when he is uncomfortable or anxious, but when he's in a place where he feels safe, he will let himself eat.

Finally, at the start of book three, we see Zuko turn down food when being offered it by servants.

And finally only accepting a hot towel (used to wipe away sweat.) Despite having access to excesses, he's uncomfortable and constantly on edge.

I also have to mention Mai again here, and how Zuko, despite turning down food for himself, offers to get food for Mai, which is meant to show us how Zuko struggles to connect to the world in which Mai belongs. It's worth mentioning also that we see Zuko bring Mai food twice in the beach to try and make her happy (and failing) while eating nothing himself.

We also see Zuko offer Iroh food in prison.

Zuko says that even though he knows it's not Iroh's favorite, it beats prison food. This actually mirrors Iroh making the jook for Zuko in book two, which Iroh says Zuko does not like, but making it for him anyway. Zuko is trying to return uncle's care for him, but what Iroh really wants is for Zuko to be safe.

At the tail end of book three, Zuko seems to have gained back some of his muscle mass, and appears much more comfortable with the gaang, but he's still shown not indulging when the rest are.

The screenshot actually frames him in direct contrast to the rest of the gaang, as Aang's teacher who is strict about him goofing off during training (a callback to season one Zuko who was displeased with Iroh's hedonism). We don't know if Katara had any watermelon juice herself, but she's seen making several "glasses." (Hello, momtara and dadko.)

Anyway, I think Katara the gaang made sure Zuko had enough food and that he was eating, and that he reciprocated by making them tea in return.

[kalinara]

A long time ago, for a former blog, I did a write up of one of my favorite random little X-Men stories, specifically the backup story from Classic X-Men #41-42.

Since, nowadays, it's a lot easier for all of us to go and read random old issues, I thought it would be fun to showcase this story again.

So what's the appeal, you may wonder? Why is this going to be my first (and probably not only) deep dive into a particular comic book story for this blog?

Well, it's a backstory issue. I enjoy backstory issues. And it involves my favorite character. And there's something that newer fans, who may have gotten into the X-Men through other media, like the movies or cartoons (welcome! By the way! 616 is a trip!) may not know, and that is:

Scott Summers's backstory is fucking batshit. And this is one tiny peek into it! Enjoy!

(Warnings for spoilers for a story that came out when I was three years old.)

So what DO we know about Scott Summers's backstory before we start?

We know that, at one point, Scott had parents and one (?) brother. Eventually that total gets a little murky. But at some point, when Scott was about 8-10 years old (retelling vary), they were on a nice little plane trip. things kind of went to hell. Parents were "killed", kids went out the plane with one parachute, the parachute caught fire, and the kids fell. Alex bounced, Scott didn't.

Eventually, Scott ends up in the "care" of a dude named Jack Winters. Jack is pretty awful, using him to commit crimes, and in general is an abusive dick. I have a tag for him, if you want specific examples. Our good pal, Charles Xavier saved Scott from that guy, and well, the rest of the story is known.

This story takes place in between, and the big twist is kind of revealed from the Marvel Unlimited summary, as well as one of my tags to this post. Oops. Oh well.

Anyway, welcome to the "State Home for Foundlings" in Omaha, Nebraska. And even Claremont kind of snarks about the name:

One funny thing about poor Scott's origin is that the orphanage that makes up a big part of it was an outdated concept even as far back as 1986. It's only become more so as the rolling timeline continues on.

I love that we get a nod to that here. Let's just say, though, that there's a reason that it still works when we transplant the events of this story and others to 2007-ish*

(Insert your own time scale here. I chose 2007 because whenever anyone at Marvel is asked about Scott's age, they usually give 27-28 as a bench mark. Does that make sense? No. But that's comics for you. Sixty real life years, twelve in universe years. Huh, for once it divides evenly. I'm going to enjoy that.)

Anyway, we start out with a fight. Initially, it's between a kid called Toby and a kid called Nate. Funny coincidence that name. But our Scott is a hero at heart.

Sadly, he isn't much of a fighter. But I appreciate Toby's read of Scott having a "suicide complex." Kid, you have no idea.

So funny thing about the staff of this orphanage, I'm not sure how many of them actually...exist. You'll see what I mean later.

But we do get to meet one that almost certainly does exist, the new orphanage doctor, Robyn Hanover:

I love her, if only for her use of the phrase "sweet science of pugilism." And that she calls him a "brave young paladin."

Potential fanfic fodder here: might Robyn's profession and particular linguistic quirks have led a young Scott to be more comfortable with Hank early on? Or less?

She does know at least some of the story though, but this bit is rather interesting:

Toby thinks Nate's a creep. Even Scott doesn't like him that much. So what IS Nate like?

We might find out. But not yet, because Scott's got to have a pretty horrible nightmare:

Something interesting about Nate in THIS version of the origin story that's a little lost in some of the other peeks into the Orphanage days, is that this Nate is smaller than Scott, and blond.

It's maybe worth thinking about how, in this nightmare, this smaller, blond child is begging not to be dropped. And it's interesting how one of those faces in the fire is a man with a mustache.

We might want to come back to this in a bit.

So this is Nate. Hi Nate.

One cool thing about Marvel Unlimited, if you decide to splurge for it, is that you can actually zoom in on panels.

This is the first panel, zoomed in close. Neat, huh?

So anyway, Dr. Hanover, being a doctor, is not so inclined to take a ten year old's word for his roommate's condition:

So as an older adult reading this, I find myself noticing things I didn't necessarily notice before.

Like the homophobic tone of Toby's insults toward Nate, in particular. "Sittin' in a tree", "sissy boys". What exactly is Toby accusing Nate of?

So what IS the deal with Nate? This next part might explain it. And then raise a whole lot of questions.

So, that observation that Dr. Hanover had before? About Nate acting like he ran the place? YEAH.

It's probably worth noting that initially, Mr. Sinister's backstory hadn't been established yet. The whole Victorian scientist who spent time among the Nazis and was genetically obsessed with mutantkind and did scary scientific experiments in the basement wasn't what Claremont initially had in mind.

IIRC, Claremont's idea for Mr. Sinister was that roommate Nate was the real thing, an immortal who aged very slowly, and the cartoonish Mr. Sinister was his psychic projection. It's worth noting that even in this version, Nate was chronologically supposed to be an adult, fixated on a twelve year old boy.

And when we take Toby's taunts into account, it's still very strongly...allegorical. Shall we say.

That said, the Victorian Scientist DELIBERATELY disguising as a ten year old boy so he can be Scott Summers's roommate does make it even worse. That said, it provides a really nice explanation as to why "Nate" looks like Alex.

(Reminder: this is the guy that Xavier put on the Krakoan Council. And stood by at least once while Sinister said creepy shit to his "son".)

Anyway, Dr. Hanover is intrigued by Scott and decides to do some investigating. She learns the following backstory:

Scott was brought here four years ago.

He'd been in the hospital for a skull fracture, and spent a year in a coma.

He's never been adopted, because he's got brain damage. We're told it's a "combined effect" of the injury, plus exposure from being out on the prairie in the middle of a blizzard. This leads to my favorite panel ever:

Of course, you should have guessed. I love comics. I really do.

This is when we meet Mr. Pearson, the chief administrator of the orphanage. And I'm not entirely sure how he fits with Claremont's original idea for Mr. Sinister. Since it's pretty clear that this guy is ALSO Mr. Sinister.

I'm not going to show the whole page, but here's some choice bits.

So yeah, Mr. Pearson does not approve of Dr. Hanover's everything, it seems. And he particularly does not like that she's "focusing [her] interest on one child ... to the possible detriment of his fellows".

He gives a speech on not playing favorites, noting that the charges should be treated equally, and that he thinks of the staff and children as family.

Dr. Hanover rightfully thinks he's creepy.

Anyway, I love Dr. Hanover, because she listens to the creepy asshole tell her that she should not focus interest on one particular child and responds to it by immediately asking said child to help her set up her office.

And they even get to bond a little:

Of course, she's a pilot too!

Scott, right now, is pretty cynical about his ability to fly and confesses his pretty terrible headaches. Because optic blasts kind of suck, even before you actually have them. Again.

But they're interrupted by drama. Remember bully Toby?

He's on the roof. Nate, in the crowd outside, doesn't think this is a big loss. Scott disagrees and runs up the fire escape.

Dr. Hanover tries to talk to Nate, and it does not make things LESS creepy.

Not to excuse bullying, or homophobia, but you ever get the sense that Toby might have had a point. Because this shit is fucking creepy. Back away from the twelve year old, Essex.

So it's time for Scott to get a new trauma:

It's funny, but sometimes I think you could actually make a convincing argument that Scott Summers has some kind of very low level precognitive ability. This is somewhat similar to the fire dream above. (Another example might be the dream-execution in Fall of the House of X. Ever notice the presiding judge, sitting with Orchis issues before he joins up?)

Anyway, Dr. Hanover and Scott share a moment on the roof, while the ambulance takes Toby's body away. Scott's rather understandably upset.

Dr. Hanover's a fun protagonist because she doesn't know what the audience does. But she's starting to put some things together:

I like the lowkey horror of this cliffhanger. You're in danger, Doc.

There is an interesting note here though. Scott's apparently confided in her about his nightmares: flames, fallings, and dropping someone whose life depends on you.

We know what that means, but she doesn't. Why wouldn't Scott TELL her about it though, if he trusts her enough to tell her about the nightmares themselves?

-

So the story continues in #42. (The main, reprinted story, by the way, is the Dark Phoenix Saga. Just worth noting.)

We start this one out with a much happier twelve-year-old Scott. He's at the Sage Air Force base, with friends of hers: Rick and Trish Bogart.

We learn that Scott can identify WWII planes on sight, like the DeHavilland Mosquito. Rick and Trish show off another old plane that Rick flew in HIS war. Presumably Vietnam, but if we're rolling time-lining the story, they could mean the Persian Gulf, or even Afghanistan.

One of the reasons I've never minded the rolling timeline is the unique perspective it gives us about history. Have you ever thought about how easy it is to update certain storyline beats? A man in his thirties fought in a war when he was a little younger. Which war? Does it really matter?

There's always a war.

But let's ditch the bleakness for some trauma.

See, the airshow is going really well, and Dr. Hanover's friends are pretty awesome. Rick, who flew in the show, is immediately very friendly and offers Scott a ride in the plane. Scott is initially enthused but freezes up.

And then the skydiving part of the show starts. Parachuters who use smoke for a special effect. And well, Scott's got some issues with burning parachutes.

I love how no one in the crowd seems to care about the screaming child in their midst. Nebraskans are cold, man.

But it's really interesting that Dr. Hanover doesn't know who "Alex" is, isn't it?

How does that work? She's read his file. And Alex was in the crash too, adopted out when Scott was in a coma. There SHOULD be records. Unless you're in an orphanage run by a weird obsessed telepath, anyway.

It's also worth noting that Rick Bogart took special attention to the kid raving about roman candles and burning canopies and is starting to wonder.

Back at the Orphanage, Nate continues to be creepy:

Mostly I included these panels for the art. I love the creepy shadows, and Nate's face at the bottom. This is a horror comic, after all.

Dr. Hanover, by the way, still flies occasionally, and she tells Trish Bogart about Nate.

Unlike a certain bald professor, Dr. Hanover admits she's in over her head. She's a physician, not a psychiatrist. But Scott apparently really wanted to come back to the air field.

Per Trish, Rick's excited too. Apparently he loves kids. Scott's apparently with him, while the girls fly together.

I mentioned before, one of the things I love about this story is getting these outside characters putting clues and observations together. Here, it's Rick Bogart. He's talking with another air force guy, both noting that Scott apparently has a knack for preflight procedure.

And here, we get maybe some explanation as to why Scott hasn't confided anything about his backstory.

That's a little suspicious, isn't it?

Inconsistent memories make sense with Scott's medical condition, but why would he suddenly forget that he was just talking about them? It's almost like SOMEONE is fucking around up there.

Later, Dr. Hanover is violating HIPAA laws by filling her friends in on Scott's medical state. There's one bit that solves a bit of a long-running mystery throughout most of Scott's origin stories.

It's always kind of a running question as to wear Scott got the glasses he has when he's on the streets, and then with Jack. At one point, Jack claims he'd gotten them for him. (Maybe he'd gotten him a replacement pair?)

This at least gives us a basis for the knowledge. I always wonder how common ruby quartz actually is in the Marvel universe.

I do like the line about glasses being "isolating". It's funny to remember that, in the 80s, glasses weren't as common or unremarkable as they are now. I can remember so many YA books or sitcom plots of the pretty girl suddenly needing glasses and her social life was in PERIL. Nowadays, it's just sexy librarian vibes.

Also, we get proof that the records DO mention a brother. But apparently not by name. Why is Alex's NAME sealed?

Another notable thing about this scene is that Rick's been doing some digging, based on some of Scott's statements. Blackbird pilots are rare. Scott's dad was a NASA applicant, and Scott mentioned the cold.

Rick thinks he can find out where Scott came from. And well, even if not...

I love how they're wearing sunglasses indoors. Scott, we've found your people.

Let's pretend the story ends here, for a moment. A poor kid in a creepy place finds a family of sunglasses-wearers who love him, while Dr. Hanover gets to help a lot of other kids.

Or, maybe not.

So what happens now?

That, basically. Dr. Hanover is a zombie. The Bogarts are dead. And Scott remains trapped in Nate's hellish little game.

I love his smirk in that lower left panel there.

But maybe it's not entirely hopeless, as Scott is not an idiot. He resolves to get the fuck out of here as soon as he can. Aw, don't worry kid, you'll make it out...

You've got a lot more trauma ahead of you. You're just getting started.

But at least we get to end the comic with some panels that I've showcased before:

This is one of those sequences that really only works with the idea that the Phoenix is, indeed, a part of Jean Grey.

I'm really glad that they went back to that idea. Because otherwise, we'd all have to deal with the idea that this spectral entity is also possibly a pedophile.

Hey, a fun note to leave you on. Remember how Scott's kid is also named Nathan?

Yep. It's probably best that Cable never find out where his name actually comes from...

[lorei-writes]

HC: If he were to be a parent - Chevalier, pt.2

Continuation of HC: If he were to be a parent - Chevalier. Because I've developed some sort of Family AU by now, and I want to share it :)

Sponsored by the idea I had that would work best as a comic strip, but alas, I do not have the ability to make that. Extra fluffy bit below the cut, I just needed to lay ground for it first.

There may be more in the future.

Content Warnings: all things parenthood and pregnancy related

Chevalier

>>Children

Chevalier has two children, a son (eldest) and a daughter (youngest).

It isn't that they didn't want more children. However, the second pregnancy was harsher on his wife than the first one, and the delivery itself was complicated. In the end, Chevalier doesn't want to risk losing both his wife and a child, so they decided to stop at two.

The boy is named Arthur. Yes, after King Arthur. It is hard having book nerd parents. Appearance-wise, he took after his father, but he has his mother's warm eyes. However, unlike Chevalier, he isn't a prodigy child -- he is bright, and he tries his hardest, but even so, he feels that he can't measure up to his sister.

Arthur tends to be unaware of his own strengths, though. He's social, considerate of others, has some innate charisma, and most importantly: knows how to work well with others. He's fairly similar to Leon in many ways.

The girl is year and a half younger than her brother. Her name is Rosalie, and... It should suffice to say she's almost as if little Chevalier was born a girl. She excels in academics, and asked to be trained with a sword too. However, unlike little Chevalier, she has parents who care about her, so although not fluent in emotions, she isn't completely lost either. However, even so, she doesn't understand why her brother feels this way about her. Even if she was born a boy, she wouldn't want to become a king. It'd be too boring.

Clavis is her favourite uncle.

>>Morning Routine

For one thing, Chevalier gets continuously harder to wake up in the morning as they grow. First, because baby Arthur needed for somebody to take care of him. Then, because his wife was pregnant again, and Arthur was still very little. Then, because they had one toddler, and one newborn. And then, because they didn't have another child for long enough for foreign forces to realise that Arthur is the only heir to the crown that will probably be there. And Chevalier does not want for his child to be hurt, so he stays vigilant.

At this point, the Queen just lets him sleep in. She's been with him for years, she knows why he's sleeping poorly.

That being said, she also has some plans. Arthur is five at this point, Rosalie is three (and a half). First, the Queen sends Rosalie to wake Chevalier up. When that doesn't work, she asks Arthur to go and try as well.

Roughly what happens is:

Rosalie: Papa? Papa, wake up! *pulls at Chevalier's arm*

Chevalier: *opens one eye to identify who dares to wake him up*

Chevalier: *sees that it's just his daughter*

Chevalier: Five more minutes. <- an attempt at being responsible about setting an example

Rosalie: You always say that, papa. Wake up!

Chevalier: *inaudible mumbling*

Rosalie: Papa?

Chevalier: *pulls her onto the bed to cuddle with her*

Rosalie is not a morning person either, although for no particular reason. She's content to have achieved her goal, and falls asleep.

~ 20 minutes later ~

Arthur: Papa, wakee uuup!

Chevalier: *no reply*

Arthur: Come on, papa! Mom's making breakfast!

Chevalier: *the same manoeuvre as previously, this time with Arthur*

In the end, Chevalier gets between hour and an hour and a half of extra sleep each morning. His wife is the last one to come to wake him up (or well, them all up).

Her approach is very strategic. Not only is her husband (generally) unable to move freely at this point, and thus cannot pull her onto the bed. She also gets to watch Chevalier asleep, with their children cuddled into his sides. Even though he's not aware of this, he always pulls them closer as soon as he hears steps anywhere nearby.

(All that being said, the protocol of open-one-eye -> identify-the-intruder -> if:family;then:pull-in-for-cuddles is still attempted each time. Sometimes just to the laughter of his wife, though).

--

TagList: @cilokgoang @violettduchess @fang-and-feather @pathogenic

[orionsangel86]

Dream of the Endless - A Romantic Fool

After talking to @so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site @duckland and @notallsandmen over on this post I have been thinking about the reasons why I personally interpret Dream as a romantic and think that later Sandman stories have made a mistake claiming that romance and erotic fiction are all the work of Desire alone and not the actual Prince of Stories (and thank GOD Neil Gaiman confirmed those Sandman stories were not canon eh?)

Under the cut because as always it got long. Why I think Dream of the Endless is an old fashioned romantic with a soft spot for love stories.

I mentioned in the linked post that I don’t see how Dream and Desire can keep themselves completely separated when their realms blur so much and when they are canonically probably the two most similar of the Endless even above Desire and Despair (which I think is the reason they clash so much).  It’s also worth mentioning that when it comes to influences over mortals, I don’t think any particular Endless sibling has more of a sway than any other, they all influence us all the time such is their nature and I think it would be very difficult to claim only one Endless was totally responsible for certain things. This is the reason why they like to compete and play games with each other like they did in Three Septembers and a January with the Emperor of the United States (side note: this is one of my all time favourite comic issues and my absolute favourite of the stand alone stories).

So even if Desire does have influence over the romance genre and erotica, I don’t think that would make Dream particularly averse to them, because he is also very much responsible for love stories and stories about love and seems to have inspired more than his own fair share over time.

Starting with the obvious - he was Shakespeare’s patron. No matter what else you say about Dream, he is responsible for inspiring and effectively being the muse for the greatest playwrite who ever lived. Shakespeare’s repertoire includes a whole list of plays with romance and love at their hearts not least of all being:

A Midsummer Nights Dream

What is the one thing you remember most about AMND? The fairies yes? Titania, Puck, Oberon, etc. But the central theme and story of AMND is specifically about love. It is a very sweet story about four mortals who are caught in a love “square” and get lost in a magical forest where the fairies decide to get involved and fix their love problems (with some confusing mess ups in between) and at the same time, it is a story about how the King and Queen of Fairie are having a bit of a falling out and the King decides to play some tricks on his stubborn wife, before ultimately reconcilling with her. The play ends with a triple wedding.

In the Sandman issue A Midsummer Nights Dream. It is revealled that Dream commissioned this play from Shakespeare to be a retelling of events which happened long ago, as a gift from him to Titania and Oberon so that mortals may never forget the fae once they leave the realm of Earth forever. It is also revealled that Dream and Titania were once lovers themselves, though we have no other details about when this was, as Titania refuses to talk about it at The Wake. It is clear however that they are still on extremely good terms, care for each other deeply, and had a very close relationship even after they were lovers before the fae left Earth. Throughout the comics, whenever the fae are mentioned, it is clear that Dream is closer to them than any of the other Gods, Goddesses, or various pantheons we meet. Even though at one point he states that he does not trust fairie magic.

At the end of the day, whatever else you want to believe about Dream, Titania is the only lover of his that he remains on good terms with. So much so that even though she clearly has a husband, he is still gifting her love stories. There is an argument here that AMND is quite mocking towards Titania, who falls in love with a man with the head of an ass, and spends most of the play having sex with him and swooning over him whilst the other fairies look on in horror. I know some people have interpreted this as Dream being mocking and cruel towards her, but I didn’t get this impression at all from reading this issue. Titania appears to be delighted at the play and Dream explains clearly his reasons for commissioning it:

The short version is that Dream commissioned a romantic and magical love story for his ex lover, so that the mortal world would never forget her when she left Earth for good.

Pretty romantic in my opinion.

The Tempest

Keeping to the Shakespeare theme, the other play commissioned directly by Dream is The Tempest. Now, there is probably a whole other meta essay to be written about Dream’s reasons for commissioning the Tempest, not least of all how fitting Prospero’s final monologue is when viewing it as a closing statement on Dream’s own endgame. But this is a meta about romance, and Dream couldn’t even keep romance out of his self-insert human!au original fiction. Like AMND, The Tempest is also a comedy (interesting how both plays commissioned by Dream were comedies when he is so clearly living in a tragedy *sigh*) and like AMND The Tempest includes young lovers who fall in love throughout the course of the play. Whilst romance and love isn’t a central theme in The Tempest, it is still a big part of the story.

I just find it impossible to take a view that Dream would shun romance when he personally commissioned two romantic stories from Shakespeare himself.

The Sandman: Overture - Dream’s Personal Love Story

But this isn’t the only evidence of Dream’s romantic inclinations. The Sandman: Overture also includes some interesting clues to Dream’s views on love stories.

Hope asks for a story. She does NOT request a love story. She simply asks for a story with Dream, that also includes a princess. Given that Dream is the Prince of Stories, and has most definitely had interactions with many princesses over his long life, he chose to instead tell a personal story, a love story, and so we finally get the full love story of Dream and Alianora.

Even though it must hurt to relive it, even though the Cat of Dreams (not gonna spoil the twist) specifically states that they NEVER tell that story, he chooses to tell it to Hope. Not only does he tell her that story, but he ends it with a happy ending - not “happy for always” but “happy for a goodly while”.

The fact that the Netflix show chose to adapt on this love story further, by having it be canon that Dream carved their love story into the gates of his own kingdom - well, that only further emphasises how much he cares for love stories, even his own, even when the truth is it ended badly, and hurt him greatly. Would a non romantic person carve their own love story into the gates of their kingdom? I don’t think so somehow. Because even after all this time, even though it pains him to relive it, he is still a romantic at heart, and cared about Alianora and their love enough to carve it into the gates of the Dreaming.

A Mother’s Insight

Also in The Sandman: Overture, Dream’s time with his mother is particularly insightful. She is the one to point out how alike he and Desire truly are, even though he dismisses the very concept and takes offense (obviously). It seems clear to me that we are supposed to agree with Mother Night on this. She also raises two other interesting points - the first is when she realises Dream’s scheme to get his parents back together in the hopes that it will save the universe. She laughs at him, and mocks him, calling it “one of his stories”. Because even if Dream isn’t exactly the most self aware of creatures (understatement), she is exactly right. Dream, being a romantic, had hoped that his parents love could save the universe. A true epic love story for the ages. It is his romantic ideations that sent him to meet with his parents. Dream’s romantic nature is integral to the story of Overture working. If he wasn’t such a romantic, he never would have sought out his parents, he would have been more grounded in realism, and known that they would disappoint him.

The second point Mother Night points out, is Dream’s desire for a lover, as she offers to make him one so that he might stay in her realm with her. He declines of course, since Mother is simply manipulating him to keep him with her, but that doesn’t mean what she says isn’t true. Dream very much desires a lover. His whole family is aware of this. His love story with Alianora began with Desire sending Alianora to Dream after all. Dream’s wish for love and also romance is an integral part of his character.

Brief Lives - Motivations and Comparisons

Dream’s romantic ideations are also central to the story in Brief Lives since the only reason he agrees to go to the Waking World with Delirium is because he hopes that he may find and reconcile with Thessaly. His fantasies of reconciling with her are strong enough for Destiny to call him out and bring him once again back down to Earth.

Knowing what we do about Thessaly, it is very easy to interpret Dream’s feelings about her, and his romantic ideations about reuniting with her, as not rooted in reality. I find it very difficult to view Dream as anything other than a romantic fool when he is taking road trips across Earth on the small chance he may lock eyes with his ex lover across a street and they may fall back into each others arms like in some fluffy romance novel. He is ridiculous, and this is made clear throughout Brief Lives.

In fact, Destruction definitely agrees with me as well. He calls Dream a romantic fool directly.

Orpheus’s very existence is also a good example of Dream being a romantic. Who else could father a child who becomes famous for his poetry, his songs, and his epic tragic love story. In The Sandman, it is at least implied that part of the reason Orpheus meets his tragic end is because he is too much like his father, and the one thing that is made very clear about Orpheus, is that he is a romantic, with love being one of his main motivations.

I think adding all this together with the comments made about Dream by his own creations, the residents of the Dreaming, as well as his ex lovers at The Wake, it is clear that he is a romantic character, a character who is driven in many ways by his desire for love, and who rather fancies himself as the broody romantic hero (I just KNOW Dream was somehow involved with Lord Byron lmao). Throughout the comic, Dream often denies that he has any needs, any desires, to the extent that he denies that he is even a person, who has a life. He also adamantly denies that he has a story. Yet, throughout the comic, it is made clear that none of this is true. The reason Dream is so often at odds with Desire is because he desires so strongly - moreso than any of the other Endless siblings. It’s because of this that I think he would enjoy the romance genre possibly more than anything else. Romance is a core component of his personality. In comic canon, Dream has been directly or indirectly responsible for the creation of at least five love stories - two Shakespeare plays, the Song of Orpheus, the love story of Dream and Alianora, as well as the story that the African tribe tell their children when they come of age - the love story of Dream and Nada, the tale where their love was so passionate that every living thing that could dream dreamed of their love making.

So whilst the comics never directly state whether or not Dream is a fan of romance novels, his desire for love and romance indicates to me that he holds love stories in high regard, regardless of whether or not his annoying younger sibling has anything to do with them.

Also, not that it really counts for anything, but Tom Sturridge agrees with me. ;-)

[purseownervolatile]

Ok so the TF2 comics are finally done and it was a beautiful end and I loved it but there are some things that don't really make sense, possibly because it's an old ass series and the writers didn't know literally everything that had been written before, so now I'm yapping about that stuff on my tumbler dot com. Come join me if you like!

Part 1: The Family Photo

In 2009's Haunted Hallowe'en Special update page (now retroactively known as Scream Fortress I) clicking on Zepheniah Mann's tombstone would bring up his will. Clicking on the name of Barnabus Hale would then lead to this family portrait:

In 2010, on the Scream Fortress update page, clicking on Silas Mann's Grave led to a larger version of this family portrait

As an aside, it's worth noting that the original portrait appears to be a complete photo, given the white borders all around it, while the second one looks like it was torn in the middle for whatever reason. If you don't remember Silas Mann, I don't blame you. I myself literally found out about him today. His claim to fame is somehow being transformed into the Horseless Headless Horsemann but that's beside the point. The important thing is that, until recently, he was presumed to be Zepheniah's brother and confirmed to be a co-owner of Mann Co. in the first day of The Engineer update (which was actually the first time he was named).

Yet Zepheniah has this to say about himself in Comic #7:

So then who is Silas Mann? Someone Zepheniah did not see the need to eliminate despite having stake in the company. I thought he may be a cousin but this also seems unlikely as Ezekiel Mann lost his 3 sisters to a house fire before becoming a millionaire, which he did at the ripe old age of 17.

So then the particulars of Silas Mann remain contradictory, which is going to be a bit of a theme with this post. Perhaps he expressed disinterest in the company early on in his life? But he was still holding stake in the company for a good long while and even out lived Zepheniah. Alas, a mystery never to be solved.

Part 2: The Mann in the middle

Back to Halloween 2009, when we got to see Zepheniah Mann's Will, there was one paragraph at the bottom conveniently covered in sand. Much later, in 2012's the Mann vs Machine teasers, we finally got to see the obscured text through a mysterious (second) bloodstain that appeared on the main page.

So it is possible that this person could be Gray Mann and I think that's what most people had assumed up to this point but the 7th comic implies that the first time Gray actually appears to anyone related to the Manns is when he shows up at the manor to talk to "Elizabeth" about the Miracle Gravel. Australium.

So now this seems just as improbable. I'm assuming the writers were also aware of this as they conveniently placed soldier's fat thumb over it

But notice how low his thumb is in the image. In the previous versions of the family portrait, the obscured Mann seems to be almost as tall as Redmond, if not taller, yet here Soldier's thumb ends right above his elbow, which sort of implies to me there isn't anyone under there at all (or maybe a really short guy, who knows).

Aaaaand that's it for now! Are these retcons? Small misses by the exhausted writers? Who knows! No one cares! But I care that you read my little wall of text! Thank you and have a great rest of your day!

[a-door-to-somewhere]

Ok watched spiderverse 2 again here's some thoughts in no particular order (spoilers and long post ahead):

- peter b is reading a book called "how to talk to kids" at the very end. Presumably because may can't speak yet and Gwen and Miles were zapped away I choose to believe he was reading this so he can go talk to Miguel LMAO

- I fucken love the way spot, after he powers up, move around via just like... sliding around in the air basically with his bad posture like he's hung from strings like a puppet

- when gwen is drumming at the opening and when spot gets zapped both are intercut with frames from later in the movie and also later in the future. I'm guessing spot got a glimpse of canon events but when Gwen was doing her intro it was phrased like a retrospective- but unlike most intros it didn't have a shot of a new spiderman comic being thrown on the pile. So when was she doing this retrospective? I hc she'll pick back up at the end of the third movie

- someone needs to make procreate brush packs for each universe/character PLEASE

- ok the "watercolor" effect being a mood ring is incredible but I havent seen anyone talking about the sort of abstract animation?? It almost reminds me of like experimental film from the impressionist/dada/supremetism eras, you can see it synced to the drum in the intro and also in some of the backgrounds during her big speech

- also during the Guggemheim fight when the Renaissance Vulture was like "you call this art?" And Gwen was like "well we're talking about it aren't we" YOU'RE SO RIGHT GWEN I AM KISSING YOU ON THE LIPS

- the shaky 1st pov cam when Gwen's dad sneaks up on her both times reminded me of when Miles accidentally watched kingpin kill perfect Peter? Idk if it was exactly the same I'd have to go back and rewatch but UGH it really gets that Gwen's dad has two sides too and the cop side isn't really human almost, lurking in the shadows, silhouetted

- also Gwen's dad just being a shit cop, giving her mixed instructions, raising a weapon at an unarmed person who is trying to communicate, firing warning shots, yelling the Miranda rights over her which is not how its supposed to be given

- contrast that with Jeff who literally never pointed a weapon at anyone and went charging after spot with his bare hands, is casual with his spiderman. I mean even when Jeff was talking about Miles not capturing Spot correctly it was lighthearted and joking, he's actively not going by the book, he's keeping the squad off of Spiderman's back, he apparently talks to spiderman about his family troubles???

- have I mentioned I LOVE MUSICAL MOTIFS????? Seriously they’re always good (fuck Wagner everyone knows Toby Fox invented the leitmotif) I mean everyone noticed the horror style Prowler stinger but even more characters got some: Gwen got a Little Rock theme with a guitar lick that echoes the ‘spi-der-man, spi-der-man’ song, Miguel’s distorted synth whine, the interesting mouth and bells percussion that Pav gets (good job Hollywood avoiding the exotic Asian pentatonic lick for once), at the end when the 42 prowler reveal slowly changed the prowler stinger into a human scream???? There’s probably more but I’d have to go back and watch it again again lmao

- I really love how Miguel is kinda goofy. He’s aloof and over serious but he makes mistakes and shows other emotions despite his best efforts. His flaws are shown off in his very first interaction, with his unwillingness to ask for help despite the fact that he knows he needs it. He’s frustrated. He’s got group object leader energy. It makes it so much more lovable that he’s susceptible to quips and he also gets knocked down and messes up and shows up and has his quirks that everyone puts up with. THATS how you make an interesting, relatable, lovable antagonist. Perhaps it worked too well LMAO

- I am an Oscar isaac simp I gotta go rewatch moon knight

- when miles was swinging around with gwen he passed a truck called "redex" bc gwen rejected him lmao

- theres an 8 clearly visible in the background of earth 42? Wacc

- the Spread Your Wings, Man scene focusing on the plastic wrap on top of the Alchemax flowing in the wind like it’s an ocean?/??? I really hope they call back to that imagery later because it clearly means something and I need to know what

- I’ve got an inkling of something that specifically revealing one’s spider-dentity to a loved one is some kind of anti-canon event, like maybe it’s the thing that fixes the destabilization? I mean we’ve seen that it’s ok if loved ones figure it out themselves (or if they then die, like uncle Aaron) like it’s a clear theme that miles keeps trying to tell his parents, and then Gwen tells her dad, which causes him to quit the force, thereby averting the canon event of him dying indirectly??? Also, it’s implied that the MJ of 1610 sold out Perfect Peter Parker to Fisk, leading to his death, ALSO also, gayatri probably figured out Pav’s identity right before HIS world destabilized??? Idk lmao

- I hope spiderbite/Margo and Jess get proper intros I can’t wait

- the background spider hockey girl has my heart, I couldn’t stop looking at her during the chase scene

- God I need to watch moon knight again

- when mj moved into mays room to greet them she lifted a picture frame back up as she moved in the door? What's up with that???

- not Spanish originally starting as a too-relatable joke that Miles gets a B in despite his mother speaking Spanish at home as well, not living up to his expectations, and then 42!Miles presumably speaks more/better Spanish due to being closer to his mom because his dad died???

- not miles aceing ap physics and ap studio AT THE SAME TIME in his SOPHOMORE YEAR free my boy from grounding he’s done nothing wrong

- btsv’s main villain is gonna be the sat I’m telling you

- most importantly: what was up with the Comic Code Authority’s seal being shown after the studio logos at the beginning??

Did that happen in the first one??? Why would it be there??? The cca has obviously been defunct since before superhero movies were really a thing. Famously, the cca seriously censored a ton of content, causing Marvel to be unable to portray darker stories involving drugs and other more mature themes, which they wanted to do with many superheroes including Spidey??? Is the Spider Society secretly the cca, censoring storylines that they think shouldn’t be portrayed, including darker timelines like 42? There was also issues with the convoluted Spider-Man comic lines going through unsatisfying ‘resets’ to keep Spider-Man relatable, without evolving the character into anything too far away from the OG Spider-Man, ie young, relationship issues with MJ, nerdy, tragedies etc. this is the detail that had me wondering the most because it was so clearly displayed right at the beginning, and the cca was generally a shameful part of comic book history in which publishers submitted to satanic moral panic. Like, not really something that reads as a cute little callback to an era of comics like he use of Ben day dots or misaligned printing or the onomatopoeias??

[doubleaspectrum]

Ruby Gillman, A Lesson on Earning Moments (Spoilers)

So, I recently watched Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken. Overall, it was… well… it wasn’t particularly great. It had potential, but I would most likely prefer the fix fics that people either have written, are writing, or will write.

Now, I could say what everyone else has already said, or I could go on a tangent, but how about I just try taking one writing lesson away from the movie instead?

Today’s lesson is on earning your moments, with Ruby Gillman standing as an anti-example.

You see, when I saw the scene where Brill talks Ruby out of her obligatory “My actions made everything worse, so I’ll start moping before the final battle” moment, I flipped out.

Looking back at the scene, what he said to Ruby word-for-word was, “I could never understand why [Agatha] chose to leave the ocean. Until, I saw the awesome life she created on land. And I realized, your mom chose her own path. She chose you.”

Now, this sound like something that should come out of the tail end of a character arc. It contains an admittance of bad understanding, acknowledgement of a transformative moment, and a declaration of new ideals following said moment. Overall, it’s a summation of somebody’s character development.

You see where I’m going with this? My problem is that Brill is acting like he’s just conquered his character arc, when most of his time in the movie has been:

This

This

And… you get it by now

My point is that with Brill’s comic relief antics dominating his character, he had no arc! So getting to say, “I didn’t get it at first, but I do now” isn’t earned in the slightest!

It wouldn’t have taken a lot to earn this moment either! He may be a dumb marshmallow, but he’s a well-meaning marshmallow! All we’d need is to have some moment which fits his character and still progresses him to the “I get it” moment that would justify his speech!

The solution would be either bonding with Agatha, or bonding with Ruby. I could see how either of those would be structured too!

For Agatha, all Brill has to do is express any emotion beyond “happy puppy” when he’s with her.

Seriously! She left home without an explanation and he makes it clear that he looks up to her! All he would need is a moment to say, “I missed you” and the conversation could take off from there!

Such a moment would force Agatha to respond and that could give Brill a chance to understand why she left. Heck, it would benefit Agatha too! Being confronted with the idea that her choices have harmed her family would force her to reflect on her actions! She could either go out of her way to justify her choices, or show some remorse at having hurt her brother’s feelings. It would be a revelatory moment that would show us how to see her character.

Sorry about the tangent, I’ll get back on topic.

The alternative to get Brill to his “I get it” moment would be to have him bond with Ruby.

What I’m thinking in particular is for him to act as a firsthand witness to Ruby and Grandmamah’s relationship. Grandmamah’s ideas of making Ruby the heir to a warrior kingdom is shown to make Ruby uncomfortable. If Brill was shown reacting to this, and if he took into account any accusations Agatha had about Grandmamah being a controlling mother, then it would have helped him have a “So this is why Agatha left” moment. That would validate a later claim that he understands that Agatha only wanted what was best for Ruby.

Overall, what I’m saying is that an emotional revelation should have emotional buildup. It makes the character’s actions flow in a logical manner, and it gives us a chance to determine their natures. But when you have the emotional revelation without the buildup, it’s jarring. If we can’t see how it happened, then it doesn’t make sense to us why it happened at all!

To sum up the lesson, take your time to give characters moments to have emotions and react to the events and ideas they’re exposed to. It’ll give moments to develop their relationships, character traits, ideologies, and most importantly, their character arcs.

If you give characters the time to become who you want them to be, we’ll get to enjoy watching it happen.

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things: The Other Side Review

WARNING: The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS from season 4 of Stranger Things. It discusses the comic, how parts of it might tie into the upcoming season, and possible theories that may or may not pan out in season 5.

Synopsis: The Other Side explores the week Will spent in the Upside Down (UD) between the evening of November 6th and November 12th, 1983, as he fights to survive the terror within.......

Observations:

When I'm asked to name a great Stranger Things comic, The Other Side comes to mind. Not just because the story is engaging, but because a.) It expands on Will’s character in a meaningful way, b.) It fleshes out a part of the show that audiences wanted more details on (i.e. what was going on with Will in the Upside Down), c.) It’s something that could be considered a part of the canon, and d.) There are aspects of the comic that could either constitute foreshadowing for season 5 (especially for fans who believe Will played some kind of role in the Upside Down being frozen in 1983) or simply provide some juicy theories.

I know there’s a sentiment in the fandom that the Duffer Brothers were hands-off when it came to the comics. While that might have been the case in certain instances, just based on how this particular comic was written, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out they sat down with the writers and artists for The Other Side to give them information about what Will was going through in the Upside Down, as well as particulars about how the Upside Down worked.

Speaking of which, Jody Houser is once again the writer for The Other Side. She’s also written the stories for Stranger Things: Six, it’s sequel Into the Fire, the short story The Game Master, Stranger Things: Science Camp, Stranger Things: Dungeons and Dragons, and the currently ongoing comic Stranger Things: Tales from Hawkins. Unlike with Six, there aren’t any continuity errors (at least from what I could tell) and the comic is careful to follow the events taking place in season 1.

Will gets put through hell (no pun intended), but I like how, in spite of that, the comic highlights his resourcefulness, his intelligence, and his bravery. There are several instances where he’s able to fend off the Demogorgon when it comes for him. He manages to draw it away from his mom at one point when it’s about to attack her. He attempts to come to the aid of both Barbara Holland and Hawkins resident Henry when they’re in danger (and is only unsuccessful because the Demogorgon gets to them first). He also deliberately acts as a distraction for the Demogorgon to protect Nancy when she later ends up in the Upside Down and is cornered by the monster:

Will was responsible for saving Nancy’s life in season 1 without her realizing it.

On top of that, the comic manages to balance both the Upside Down arc with Will’s flashbacks to previous D&D campaigns he had with his friends as he draws on those experiences while making choices in the UD about whether to hide, fight, run, or come to the aid of others. It also contains a great moment of Will and Mike bonding in the library over D&D and Stephen King:

They lay it pretty thick here that out of all of Will’s friends, he’s closer with Mike. In one of the later comics, Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons, Mike even goes out of his way to design a D&D campaign specifically to help Will recover from his trauma of being in the Upside Down. This has always been an emotionally gripping relationship, and I'm hoping things end well between them by the time season 5 is over.

Mike’s words to Lucas, Dustin, and Will in one of the flashbacks was also another aspect that stuck out: “It isn’t a contest to see which of you is the strongest or can get the most kills. You live as a party, or you die alone.”

It's a recurring theme in each season that every main character, from the adults to the teens to the younger kids, play a role in defeating the malevolent forces of the Upside Down. It’s always been a team effort. Vecna knows this entire group poses a threat to him, which means he will inevitably step up his game and do something to irrevocably break the group and separate them so he can pick them off one-by-one. I’m still convinced that at least one or two (or maybe more) main/recurring characters will end up dead by the time season 5 is over. It’s a question of who it will be, and how it will happen.

The Demogorgon’s behavior during the comic left a lot to think about: Unlike other victims, like Dale and Henry where it proceeded to make a meal out of them, the Demogorgon seemed more invested in trying to capture Will instead of outright killing him. There are several instances when it corners Will, which forces Will to use his gun to defend himself, only for the monster to disappear before Will can cause it any real damage:

Based on how many times it keeps appearing at (or near) the Byers house in the comic, it had to knows Will was hiding there. Just like in the show, it isn't until the very end when the Demogorgon finally succeeds in taking Will to its nest for Will to get impregnated with the pollywogs that he later vomits up after escaping the UD.

While it could be argued that Will’s gun scared the monster off during the times it tried to attack him, it’s doubtful considering other instances on the show when the Demogorgon’s been shot at and still stood its ground. For example: the season 1 finale when Nancy unloaded bullets into the Demogorgon to get it off Jonathan, only for it to turn on Nancy and attempt to slaughter her:

Or when the Russians in season 4 fired at the Demogorgon they'd been feeding, and only succeeded in pissing it off (which resulted in them all getting killed):

The reason I bring this up is because it’s questionable if the Demogorgon disappeared on its own accord whenever it was about to confront Will, or if Vecna forced it to leave during those moments and then sent it back later. There are several instances where the Demogorgon seems more interested in making sure Will is trapped where he is, and there’s one particularly tense moment when Will hides under his bed and the monster lingers as if it knows he's there. Given what’s revealed in season 4 about Vecna and the hive mind, this particular Demogorgon was likely being controlled by Vecna the entire time. Vecna knew Will was going to stay close to his house since it was an area he was familiar with, and he probably knew about the other areas Will ventured to, especially since the vines and other monsters in the UD are connected to Vecna and would have constantly alerted him to Will's whereabouts whenever he moved around.

There’s also the moment at the beginning of the show when Will is chased by the Demogorgon and runs inside his house after locking the door, only for it to unlock itself:

I used to think the Demogorgon caused this, but given what’s revealed in season 4, as well as how we mostly see the Demogorgon use brute strength in later encounters with its prey, I suspect Vecna telekinetically unlocked the door to let the monster into Will’s house.

The whole implication is that, for reasons still unexplained, Vecna not only intentionally targeted Will the night the gate was opened by El, but maneuvered things so Will would end up as a prisoner in the Upside Down for a certain period of time.

I know Will got impregnated with the pollywogs, which would later grow into Demodogs in season 2, and that the Mind Flayer (under Vecna’s control) possessed Will to use as a spy. However, I don’t believe these were the ONLY reasons Vecna took an interest in Will. Vecna had other victims (Barb for instance) that he could use to impregnate via tendrils and force said victims to grow pollywogs inside of them before letting them escape. He didn’t specifically need Will to achieve that.

On top of that, we've seen Vecna can use remote viewing similar to El when he wants to spy on people (like when he searched for potential trauma-laced victims in season 4 to reopen the gate). There's also Will having hallucinations of the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer way before it possessed him, and how he continued to feel its presence in seasons 3 and 4 long after Joyce forced the black particles out of him. Whatever connection exists between Will and Vecna, it goes beyond Vecna only wanting to use Will as a spy or as a means of spreading his monsters throughout Hawkins.

There have been some cool Tumblr GIFs circulating that draw parallels between Will and Vecna, suggesting the idea that Will is a doppelganger to Vecna, or even an alternate version of Vecna himself. I'm skeptical about the show going the route of making Will evil, but I do think Will had a role in the Upside Down being frozen in time on the night he disappeared, and I have a few theories as to how that could be:

Theory 1: The world of the Upside Down acts as a power-source/visual representation/template for a person’s broken psyche, and the terrain is able to shape itself around that. For example, Vecna's Mindscape from season 4 was shown to be a perverted version of his twisted psyche that held dark, disturbing memories from his past: The house he moved into in the 50s, the grandfather clock he used his powers on for the first time, the spiders he was fascinated with as a boy, and the mutilated bodies of his victims that he keeps as trophies. Even the way parts of the Creel House are fractured and floating around aimlessly could be interpreted as a representation of how distorted Vecna’s mind is. All of this is built and powered from elements within the Upside Down. Likewise, the twisted version of Upside Down Hawkins we currently see on the show, which may be from the last memory Will had of Hawkins before he was forcibly taken by the Demogorgon on November 6, 1983, could actually be Will's Mindscape without Will realizing it yet.

Theory 2: Vecna was trapped in the Upside Down for 4 years. During that time, he formed the Mind Flayer from the black particles he found, and used it to enslave the monsters from that dimension. He was also responsible for terraforming the place from an empty hellish wasteland into a twisted version of Hawkins based on what he could see of present-day Hawkins via remote viewing. When Will got taken to the UD, it froze the process Vecna was using to transform the Upside Down (which is why the UD is stuck in time on the night of November 6, 1983), and it’s why he later tried to possess Will via The Mind Flayer: He believes if he could take complete control of Will, it would allow him to unfreeze the UD and regain his ability to transform it to his liking.

Theory 3: Will has powers similar to Vecna, Kali, El, and the other kids at Hawkins Lab, except they've been dormant or deeply suppressed. Vecna was somehow able to sense this from Will when he was remote viewing Hawkins from the UD, hence his creepy interest in Will. When Vecna sent the Demogorgon to take Will to the UD, Will's powers were activated by the trauma of being chased down by the monster, and that surge of energy, fueled by the terror he was experiencing in that moment, changed the landscape of the UD into what it is now: Will's last memory of Hawkins on the night of November 6, 1983. Vecna wants access to whatever power Will has inside of him, and possessed Will with the Mind Flayer in season 2 to either try to assimilate that power into himself, or at the very least be able to control Will if he was unable to obtain that power for unexplained reasons.

At the end of the comic, there’s a haunting hallucination Will experiences when he’s captured by the Demogorgon and has the tendril shoved down its throat. The scene unfortunately wasn’t in the show, but it should have been:

This could just be a hallucination from Will, but there's also the possibility these really are the collective consciousnesses of Vecna/The Mind Flayer's victims that have been assimilated into the hive mind and are communicating with Will. What’s insidious is the idea they might still be alive and aware of what's happened to them, but are powerless to do anything about it. They are bound to Vecna/The Mind Flayer’s control. Vecna and Dr. Brenner even talk about this with El in season 4:

Henry/One/Vecna: They're not gone, Eleven. They're still with me (points to his head) in here.

Dr. Martin Brenner: You must understand, when One kills, he doesn't simply kill. He consumes. He takes everything from his victims. Everything they are and everything they ever will be. Their memories, their abilities.

It's eerily similar to what Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street did to his victims: He would absorb the souls of the children he gruesomely murdered, meaning they would be trapped in him forever, prevented from moving on to the next life, all the while giving him power.

This leads to the horrific implication that ever since Max's "death" in the season 4 finale, Max’s consciousness is now a part of Vecna. It would explain why she’s currently “brain-dead” and why her mind was blank when El tried to read it.

If that’s the case, one of the main arcs in season 5 may center on freeing Max’s conscious from Vecna’s control and allowing Max to get back her sense of identity and self.

And then there are the conversations Will has with Mike, Joyce, and Hopper in season 2 when he discusses how the Mind Flayer operates:

From “Will The Wise” (Season 2, Episode 4):

Jim Hopper: Does he talk to you? Will Byers: No. It's like...I don't have to think. I just know things now. Things I never did before. Jim Hopper: And, uh...what else do you know? Will Byers: It's hard to explain. It's like old memories in the back of my head, only.......they're not my memories. Jim Hopper: Okay. Will Byers: I mean, I don't think they're old memories at all. They're...they're now-memories, happening all at once, now. Jim Hopper: Can you describe these now-memories? Will sees an extending tunnel Will Byers: I don't know. It's...it's hard to explain. Joyce Byers: I know it's hard but can you just... Can you try? For us? Will Byers: It's like...They're growing and spreading...killing. 

From “Dig Dug” (Season 2, Episode 5):

Will Byers: It's like... It's like I feel what the shadow monster is feeling. See what he’s seeing. Mike Wheeler: Like in the Upside Down? Will Byers: Some of him is there. But some of him is here, too. Mike Wheeler: Here, like, in this house? Will Byers: In this house and in me. It’s like...It’s like he's reaching into Hawkins more and more. And the more he spreads, the more connected to him I feel.

Mike Wheeler: And the more you see these now-memories.

Will Byers: At first I just felt it in the back of my head. I didn't even really know it was there. It's like when you have a dream and you can't remember it unless you think really hard. It was like that. But know it's like... Now I remember. I remember all the time.

Are these “now-memories” actually the memories of Vecna, or his victims? Or both? If they are the memories of his victims, is the idea supposed to be that they’re so meshed together in Vecna’s head that they’re incoherent and alien to Will when he tries to understand them? Vecna likely found a way to control the stream of memories and consciousnesses he’s accumulated over the years without getting overwhelmed by them. Additionally, he’s also erased any sense of identity from his victims by taking them into himself, and whatever power he wields over their essence and consciousness, he directs towards his never-ending goal of destroying everything and everyone. They are his slaves doing his bidding.

On another note, Will’s ability to communicate with Joyce in the Upside Down plays out similar to how it happened on the show: Being able to hear voices from the other side, communicating via the lights, etc.

Also, Will is initially able to deal with the toxic air in the Upside Down during his week there, before it begins to overwhelm him towards the end. Based on this, one could argue characters could technically spend a few minutes, or at least a few hours, inside the Upside Down without masks or biohazard suits, and still come out okay without it doing long-term physical or physiological damage. It’s probably why Nancy, Robin, Steve, and Dustin were able to be in the Upside Down for a few hours in season 4 during their battle against Vecna, as previously questioned by fans. If they’d spent longer than that in the UD though, the atmosphere would eventually take its toll.

The only exception to this appears to be Vecna. He survived 7 years (1979-1986) in the Upside Down, at the cost of being permanently mutated. Chances are if he didn’t have his powers, he would have been dead a while ago. I wonder if he ever killed and ate any Demogorgons for food? I doubt there was anything else in the UD that was edible to eat.

Overall, this comic gave me a lot to speculate on. Check it out when (and if) you get the chance. If you have any theories you’d like to share, feel free to do so in the comment section! :)

[rey-jake-therapist]

Hob Gadling's wives and girlfriends, the forgotten women of The Sandman

DISCLAIMER: the following posts contains major spoilers for Season of Mists, World's Ends, The Kindly Ones and The Wake.

A couple of weeks I told @writing-for-life my next meta would be about the women who shared Hob's life. There's not much to work on in the comics for most of them, but the fact remains that they exist and that Hob probably loved them all. And his second wife in particular, Margaret/Peggy aka Jim, had a story dedicated to her journey, in World's Ends.

Hob's canon romances always interested me because these women were all mortals, while he was not. We know he had at least one kid who died, and he saw almost all his lovers/wives die while knowing he would never follow them in the grave unless he wanted it. We didn't see it happen with Gwen, but it will, eventually.

It makes me wonder: how does he do it? How does he manage to be completely invested in a relationship knowing that the people he loves will all grow old and die, while he will stay the same and live forever? I would have loved it if the comics had him discussing that, and I still hope in the show he will. We never saw what his last conversation with Hob was, after all... I like to think that Dream stayed a bit longer than usual with Hob, and that they opened up about their respective lives and experiences with love. Audrey is still alive and probably in Hob's life at this point, it would be nice if she showed up, met Dreams and asked him embarrassing questions... but I digress haha

Before I continue I'd like to confess that not being a shipper, I don't read Dreamling fics - I rarely read fics revolving a ship in general... I prefer Morpheus x oc or non romantic fics -, so any comment I can make about the fandom is based on what I see on social media, and not on fanfic contents. I'm sure that Hob's wives and girlfriends are often evoked and maybe sometimes, even more developed there than they are in canon.

Hob's first wife: Eleanor

Eleanor's just a portrait, we don't know much about her except that Hob probably cared about her since in the show he still calls her "my Eleanor" long after she died.

She exists only to show that Hob's situation stabilized after he started making money. Also, their son's death and hers may have been the first time that it hit Hob in the head that while he could live forever, he couldn't prevent his loved ones from dying. The loss of his family affected him very much and yet, he still wanted to live. I'll probably write a meta later about how his situation purposely mirrors Morpheus', about how they both lost everything they loved at some point but reacted in a completely different manner.

Hob's second wife: Peggy/Jim

We meet Margaret/Peggy/Jim in World's End. She pretends to be a man hence why she calls herself Jim, as she did during all the trip during which she met Hob Gadling. It's quite obvious that she did it for safety issues, as she would have probably not been allowed to travel on a boat let alone work on one if she had revealed as girl without a chaperon, and she clearly enjoyed the freedom and advantages she got as passing for a man. It's good to emphasize how brave she was to do that, as if her secret had gone out it could have put her in great danger.

Hob was the only one who saw through her, but he protected her secret. He also confirmed her doubts that he was much older than he seemed, a secret she protected as well. It seems she never believed he was immortal though - see the part about Audrey - .They bonded over having secrets they could possibly not reveal to anyone else, so it's a really sweet love story.

Later, in The Kindly Ones, we learn that Peggy died in his arms, during the Blitz. If they had kids, he doesn't say, but it's obvious he loved her very much and was deeply affected by her death, as he says on Audrey's grave, in The Kindly Ones, that Audrey's the first woman he was with since Peggy died.

Now I know that certain fans want Peggy to be trans or non-binary because she disguises as a man and asks to be called Jim. It's generally not as much because they care about her character or representation,than because it would make Hob canonically queer. Now I have no problem with anyone's headcanons: there are no right or wrong headcanon, no stupid or offensive ones - as long as they're not hateful, homophobic, racist, transphobic etc. - and whatever makes people feel represented and happy is fine by me. That said, I personally believe it's a bit simplistic to reduce a woman's refusal to follow societal norms to her being a man or non-binary, but again, whatever floats your boat guys.

I personally think that Peggy/Jim was written as a strong young woman who wanted to travel and see the world, knew she couldn't do that if she was seen as a woman, so she disguised as a man, took a man's name and enjoyed the role because let's be honest: the life for white men during this period was wayyyyyy funnier and easier than for women. What do you mean, it still is? I don't understand, are you saying institutional patriarchy is still very much a thing? *pretends to be shocked*.

You can find many stories like Peggy/Jim's in modern literature, and of course, in real life!

As for Hob, he knew Peggy was a woman quite early, and when he talks about her on Audrey's grave he says "Peg' ", not "Jim", which tells me he kept seeing her as a woman. But again, that's my headcanon and I won't argue about that, I just feel like Peggy/Jim deserves better than being discussed solely regarding Hob's sexuality. Her story is one of my favorite in the comics :)

Talking about the particular subject of Hob's sexuality is immortal and even though the comics doesn't mention any male boyfriend, he seems open minded and hedonistic enough to have at least tried... I always headcanoned Hob Gadling as pansexual, because it doesn't make sense to me that a man who lived for hundred of years would be straight, simply.

I really hope that the show will give us Peggy/Jim's story on screen, she highly deserves it. I love this character, I just wish it would be clearer in the comics that she's the future Mrs Gadling... I learned through social media that the Peg' he mentioned on Audrey's grave was the Peggy he met in World's Ends. It's very confusing, the way it's written.

Hob Gadling's girlfriends

We of course don't know every girlfriend that Hob had, in the comics we're just introduced to two: Audrey, and Gwen. We learn a couple of other names in The Kindly Ones though: Lisabet and Anne.

Audrey

Audrey's another woman who's never part of the conversations, yet the panel dedicated to Hob's reaction to her death is the first panel that made Hob sympathetic to me. But whenever this panel is discussed, everything that's related to Audrey is ignored so the focus is entirely on Hob's concern for Morpheus. Before I read the comics, I had no idea that Hob had just buried his lover, and begged Morpheus to resurrect her because the pain of losing her was too hard to handle.

A bit like for Margaret/Peggy/Jim, it's not clear at all that in Season of Mists, the woman we see with Hob in bed is Audrey, the woman whose grave he visits in The Kindly Ones.

It's really in The Kindly Ones that we can see how much he cared for Audrey, as he cared for all the lovers he had before but died. The reaction he has, he admits it himself, responds to a question we probably all asked: does he ever get used to it? Become insensitive, with time?

The answer's no:

I always wondered why Morpheus visited him at this moment: was it because he felt his pain and wanted to be here for him? Or was it because he wanted to say one last goodbye and it happened to coincide with the moment Hob was drowning in his grief? Was it because he himself needed a friend, more than ever?

Anyway he certainly didn't expect Hob's request. For the first time that we know of, Hob asked Dream to use his supernatural powers. Hob, the immortal who saw all the people he knew die, not only wasn't used to it but asked Dream basically the same thing as Orpheus asked him: help him to get his lover back. It must have been very painful for Dream, but poor Hob couldn't know that. I doubt he even knew that Dream had once been married and had a son.

So yeah, afterwards he runs after Morpheus and tries to make him confide in him, he even feels his friend's death is imminent and he shows a deep concern, but that's not all that this panel is about. I think it's about saying that no matter how old you are, how many lives you lived, how many people you loved and loved you.... The death of a loved one is always painful.

2. Gwen

Gwen is Hob's last girlfriend that we know of. She's also, in his own admission, the first Black woman he dates. Considering that Hob used to be an enthusiastic slave trader who needed an ethereal entity to tell him that slavery was wrong to think that he should find another way to become rich, I find this information.... interesting. After 600 years, it was about time... did he refuse to date Black women because of guilt for what he did? Or because he remained racist for a long time and didn't think Black women were worth his attention?

I feel very protective of Gwen, first because I dislike how she was written as a moral caution for Hob, as she absolves him for his sins but without knowing the extent of his sins - she has no idea he's immortal and was a slave trader - . When she appears in the show - and I really hope she will! - , I hope she'll be written in a way that she doesn't exist solely for Hob to express his guilt while being too coward to tell her the truth about what he did.

I was going to say something very personal about me, but I'm not sure the comparison I want to make would work, so I prefer keeping it for me, finally. If anyone's interested in knowing me better they can join me in private though :)

The second reason why I'm very protective of her is that as Audrey, on social media she's generally treated as non existent by the fandom - who focuses entirely on Hob's grief regarding Morpheus' death - . I recently saw a wish regarding Gwen that made my blood boil and almost made me hit the 'deactivate' button, but I'm not here to start a war, let alone to point fingers. I just really wish some people paid more attention to what they wrote, because some stuff I've read these last days came off as very insensitive.

And I'll conclude with one last panel featuring the gorgeous Gwen:

Also tagging @violetoftheendless and @tickldpnk8 , in case you're interested in discussing this subject :)

[fatherentropy]

I know a lot of you aren't going to read this or care but I needed to get my thoughts about Veilguard out of my head so I can go back to just indulging with it's content without caring anymore so: Veilguard review.

Gonna keep it non-spoilery until it's not then I'll put a big ol warning there for you to swerve outta there if needed.

(warning for 4000+ words) TL;DR:

I think this may become my favorite Dragon Age game to play and I love these characters so much

This is by far one of the worst Bioware games I've ever played

Firstly and to be completely transparent, at the time of writing this I have STILL not been able to get past Lothering in Origins (my computer got worse while i was running a playthrough.). DAII was my first Dragon Age game and is my favorite of the series. Inquisition is pretty good, much better imo after some DLCs were added and it feels more like the full on epic it deserved to be I think. At the end of the day, I am a Mass Effect fan first and a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I'm also not terribly versed in every single development problem Veilguard has gone through except for the unfortunate canning of important developers and some notes from articles I spied.

So, you know, keep that in mind.

I!! wanted to start this by talking about the things I loved in the game. Because I do in fact love this game. It's just that the love gets tangled up in the things that are disappointing because I can see the big picture and see how much better it could have been and it gets wrapped up in one big ball of-not to be overly dramatic-kind of hurt? Thus me needing to talk about it so I can get back to just loving the thing and hopefully not being haunted by my regrets like it's Christmas Eve and I'm a wealthy businessman with questionable practices.

The story is pretty great and fun if you don't think about it too much but Dragon Age fans think about these sort of things a lot and if you put a little scrutiny on some of these things it's gets kinda ???? Funky.

It feels like a lot of the heavy lifting for why anybody is willing to work with you is done by Varric in whatever he was doing the past 10 years which you aren't really told. Except in half a dozen comics and books I frankly don't have the money for and should be bonus material instead of things-you-need-in-order-to-know-what's-up. Kind of spiel.

I also think a major pain point is the neigh absolute lack of contention in most areas of the game outside the bad-vs-good guy shit (and Solas) and the lack of any meaningful choice really did shoot the game in the foot. Now I do understand that choice in particular was a thing that was eventually going to get hit. There were just too many big world wide decisions you've made in the past couple of games and that shit gets kind of hard to keep track of. However, there were choices made in Veilguard that is made for the longevity of the series while also salting the earth and it severely undercut the narrative.

I think one of the things people love and adore about the series is the choices you make. Many of these aren't even about having a hold over the narrative but having a place in it. It's been a minute since I've played it, but I think even DAII has several choices that literally have no baring on anything but netting gains or loses on companions and just choose what kind of menace you're going to be. It's fun! I don't need them to be big. Maybe just if I refuse the reward or push for bigger rewards or yadda yadda yadda. It's the little things! You cannot get rid of these things entirely but boy howdy did they ever try.

I also have gripes about the choices they make you make but I can't bitch about that without spoilers so... LATER.

I wanted to talk about the lack of contention first but realistically it combos in with the choice thing so here we are talking about it after but there is just no political or social nuance in this game at all except for maybe exactly only Solas. After playing the first three games (or playing the last two and reading about Origins like me) you kinda get the impression that Northern Thedas is actually mostly fine except a little inequality and the Venatori and maaaybe the Antaam but mostly everyone's friendly and the South is just REALLY fucking violent about everything for no reason.

With the reputation grind and the narrative's insistence that you hAVE to strengthen your allies and friends this would have been kind of a great time to have quests about winning them more strength by actually kind of doing important shit? Like maybe having to make decisions about whether or not to convince factions to accept help from shady persons or forgo it knowing you'll be weaker but maintaining the faction's ethos. Maybe some negotiations between greater nevarran Mortalitasi politics and why they should let the Mourn Watch concern themselves with shit outside the Necropolis? In fighting between in-faction groups that feel one way or another about choices you've made. It all ends with them helping you in the end, just maybe not as strong or stronger but what we get is kind of some bare bones sidequests that don't always feel connected to the faction you're helping or... important?

Which I don't think I'd have a problem with if there were more of them that gave greater scope to the world but that's also not really a thing. Tbf, there's no reason to have them. You're only grinding to 50 and faction reputation and you probably wouldn't want to do all the sidquests in Inquisition to get there. I just want to have ones that matter, give more shape to the world and aren't hunt-monsters-that-aren't-even-in-this-faction's-jurisdiction. (game that simultaneously made me fall in love with Nevarra while giving me fuck all about it outside Emmrich's quests)

I think it should be noted that this is the first time we are seeing some of these people as not enemies or illusive factions from abroad.

I need you to know this is my third draft of this document and I keep having to leave and come back because I just have a lot of thoughts. So to start off with, I have to reiterate that I am a Mass Effect fan first and a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I can see Mass Effect's influence all over the game and as a Mass Effect fan I have to say: I am... upset. Which is a thing I have been planning to write about since the beginning of trying to write this document but today's dev AMA confirmed that this was supposed to be a "Love letter to Mass Effect 2" and I am no longer upset! I am LIVID.

To recap for those of you who don't care about Mass Effect but are reading this for some reason: Mass Effect 2 has one of the worst main stories in the entire series. Nothing you do actually matters in the long run because ME3 undoes all your work and everything set up for you at the beginning of ME2 you destroy yourself by the end.

Most people regard it as one of the better if not the best game in the series.

This is because the characters are fucking phenomenal and make up 90% of the game so you know this journey is about THEM who gives a shit if your mission is whatever, it's about the satisfaction of winning their loyalty, making sure they're a team so you can focus on being Big Goddamn Heroes at the end (or fucking it up and watching a few or all of them die).

This is the game that made me paranoid about doing all sidequests as soon as I got them because *I* managed to get all my companions to live BUT at the cost of my ship crew dying which I did not know was a thing that could happen and your medic's traumatized lines "I watched them die. they were processed ─ rendered down into some kind of raw genetic paste ─ and pumped through these tubes." haunts me forever. (partly because I listen to the death whispers from ME3 to feel something but nevertheless, the delivery? raw)

This may sound familiar to you if you've played Veilguard because they... tried but there's just a fundamental misunderstanding of how ME2 impacted it's players and how players impacted the world in ME2 that made it feel the way you were supposed to despite the plot being silly.

This brings me back to the lack of conflict which especially fucks over your companions and your relation to them. Yes there's like one kind of weird conflict between Davrin and Lucanis while they're going through shit and yeah Taash and Emmrich have a situation briefly but there's nowhere near the heat there has been in past games. One of your crew in DA2 will straight up tell another one that he is sad her mother died for her not because it's sad but because she's not worth dying for. And that's the game regarded as having the best found family dynamic in DA and probably a better comparison to ME2 in the regard of fighting to keep your crew together.

In ME2, what you do matters and the order you do things matter. Mass Effect has a Paragon/Renegade system which are ways you can change a scene IF you've accrued enough points in being more diplomatic or more points in being a complete asshole. Some of your companions are diametrically opposed to one another and the minute you complete both their loyalty they WILL come into confrontation and if you don't have a sufficient enough paragon or renegade score to get the appropriate response either then or after you WILL lose one of them. If you dedicate yourself to Paragon or Renegade or the other it's easy enough to get the points but if you're trying to get an optimal playthrough, doing solely paragon or renegade isn't always the best way to go.

I'm not saying I want some of your companions to hate each other. I enjoy the friendships they've developed but the moment Rook said something like "We're a family" I cringed because I realized what was happening because they just weren't putting the work in to make that believable to me. People are messy and the stakes in DAV are the biggest they've ever been so our crew should be at their worst and there is material for contention THERE but what we get the Disney Channel version of it where they almost immediately makeup and you're really not apart of it.

One of the confrontations in ME2 pits an Alien girl who's people were forced off their home planet by the own synthetic life they created and have suffered severe biological and cultural degradation because of it and one of said creations who's rebellion for autonomy caused that. The next game, they come back and if you don't (or can't which is an important distinction in it's possibility) use their work as a catalyst for peace but choose one people over the other they both express regret for the loss of the other's people despite the contention between them and stringent desire to save their own people. The kind of orchestration required to pull off peace and this dynamic feels earned and heart wrenching and that is the level of story telling old fans of Bioware expect from it's games.

The 3rd Mass Effect game was largely disliked despite the complexity of choices that intertwined and character dynamics. It was very obvious the ending didn't match up with the narrative spun by the rest of the game and was changed last minute from another which probably would have been liked less but the choice was too big and landed the series in hot water which lead them to try and do a complete divorce from the series with Andromeda which was also largely disliked because it was just a weird jump with a very weak story. I didn't actually mind it. It had no lasting impression on me so I can't tell you exactly what happens in that game but I didn't mind the leap conceptually because I understood they did back themselves into a corner with the last decision made in ME3.

So I sit here looking at Veilguard NOT disgruntled by the prospect of change. Change is usually good and made in order for the greater prosperity of the series. The problems in Veilguard isn't simple change but the lack of care that resulted in a lesser product over all. DA2 suffered in a similar respect with it's over use of previous assets in a repeated and monotonous level design and the fact some fans felt that it didn't successfully break away from feeling like a glorified DLC to Origins. But the storytelling is still done in a way that it lives rent free in many people's minds. It's not an epic, it is a story about some shlub and their crew of messy nobodies who try vainly to protect the city they all live from increasing social pressures of the world which boils over and consumes all of them no matter what you do.

ME2 is about a soldier who is forced to work with a human supremacy agency because they are the only ones that are taking a new threat seriously so without support from the usual greater forces, you seek out specialists and old friends to go on what is quite literally called a suicide mission.

Veilguard is a direct continuance of Inquisition where some random agent is made the herald of a revived religious movement that leaps up around them after an accident only to find out that one of your friends is directly responsible for that and going off to put the world in even greater danger.

Veilguard wants the found family in DA2 to fight a threat even greater than Inquisitions while honoring ME2 (badly) but also there are a bunch of disjointed small focused factions that are helping you and while I think this could have worked and been quite possibly one of the best Bioware games of all time, the ghost of its would be greatness haunts the narrative buried under the bones of development issues and missteps which just makes it hurt in a very not good way.

I don't think old fans who complain about Veilguard are upset it's not the same as what they were expecting but, to go back to my scrooge analogy, we're haunted by ghosts of Bioware past that laid the groundwork for what to expect, and the ghost of Bioware present which is incomplete and the future which can only really get worse under the capitalistic pressures that have long run the video game industry in the ground in the name of greater profits over quality. The only people producing good games at a reasonable price are indie developers who aren't really trying to produce a game with the scope that Bioware games have typically provided.

I'm sitting here and thinking my main take away from this is that I simply don't care about the new Mass Effect game Veilguard is getting abandoned for to produce. If this was supposed to be a love letter to ME2 then it just showed a fundamental inability to create Mass Effect games that would honor it's predecessors while bringing it into the new age and if it somehow manages to be good it's just another slight to Dragon Age fans and the fumbled production of Veilguard. I don't want to see Ryder or Shepard or another N7 specter at this point. I want to see Rook and their crew in a game where I feel okay leaving them in there because DA has a very specific need to abandon it's old protags and I'm not okay with that this time! I don't feel good about where any of them were left and the state of the world!

SPOILER WARNING! I'M NOT HOLDING BACK ANYMORE. GOING ON HERE'S YOU'RE WARNING.

(don't ask me about the image, it was there. it's big, has the vibes. She was iconic for that.)

POV: You are me. Your controller has some slight drift so the little laser beam managed to slip from the target and you're trying to figure out how the fuck you messed up the puzzle because there's no way to get to an island and this is how you accidentally spoil yourself that there's a secret ending and you're about to get a part of it.

Then like the genius I am I googled it again to try and figure out how to get it, skim read something that makes you think they based this off of ME2's model and go oh! Okay. I should look up optimal assignments so nobody dies.

Then I find out Davrin or Harding dies no matter what depending on you choose to lead the distraction team and you just have to stare at a wall for awhile because that is NOT Mass Effect 2 where everyone can absolutely live if you do everything right. That is Mass Effect 1, Virmire come to haunt me again.

I need you to know when I got to Mythal it's almost the earliest you could get to her give or take a side mission because I'm bad at combat and those fuckin' ogres were kicking my ass. So when Rook drops the "We're a family" line while taking to Mythal I had to once again stare at a wall because I already spoiled this for me and I was going "what the fuck are you serious? This is what we're doing?"

I'm telling this to you because I need you to know after I figured all this out I was turning over the plot while going through it looking for one specific thing and that's the narrative that would have supported the kind of storytelling that would have gained the right to kill off one of your companions. (the wording on that was labored but I really needed to say all of that like that because I meant it like that.) It just is not there. Or at least not in a way where it feels like the inclusion of that actually added ANYTHING to the narrative and honestly reading interviews under headlines that say shit like "Devs know that you had no problem leaving stroud in the fade 🤭 and made sure they were gonna hurt you this time" feels like it was literally just thrown in for shock factor rather than a conscious effort to create a compelling story and I'm just not here for that kind of garbage.

Like, I need you to understand I straight up had to save mid mission to kill Ghilan'nain and leave in order to leave and watch the last part of Arcane. I came back and immediately rolled into the fight with her and the bit where you're trapped in the fade and yeah I cried but I was feeling ever so fucking JARRED by the difference of satisfying tragedy I felt at the end of Arcane to that stupid ass bullshit in Veilguard.

And the fact this is a wind up to reveal Varric is dead is just further insulting to all three of these characters. Two returning characters and one new character who, and I hate to be this guy but I haven't seen ppl point this out and as guy who's played a lot of Bioware games, is black. Which, Bioware has historically been REALLY FUCKING WEIRD with it's black companions. (No, I have not forgiven for the shit they pulled on Jacob Taylor and I shan't ever I don't think considering they pulled this.)

I don't mind that they killed Varric. That one I picked up on almost immediately from the hints they were putting down and I was waiting for more hints and shit but the longer it went on I realized the game wasn't even interested in setting up a pretense of giving him and his fans a satisfying ending and goodbye. This man has been here since DAII. There's not enough lingering around his memory because he's competing with whoever else died.

Frankly Rook's connection to him has to be kind of made up by the player because they don't really set up anything for you except you've been traveling with him for almost a year and he's just an amicable guy which also just kind of has to lay on the laurels of having to have known him. I love the cold opening into Minrathus, it's very cool but I feel like THIS would have been the game to go back to it's roots and have a personalized opening to each Rook's origin to establish both a connection to Rook, Rook's place in the world and their connection to Varric and Harding and just had you kind of live with Varric as a leader for a hot goddamn minute making the transition of power feel more natural and not forced. It's weird.

But then the player just doesn't feel like they mattered to the greater story actually. Not as Rook and not as Inquisitor. Not that Rook is a bad character, just weirdly hooked into the plot. Gods forbid your Inquisitor wasn't romantically involved with baldie then they're only role is to tell you every choice you've ever made doesn't matter anymore because Southern Thedas got wiped the fuck out.

I know everyone and their mothers have been kinda leering at Taash's companion quests and like yeah they're not great. Neither is like the Rivain. Like not the map tbc, I love that map and all the maps actually. Down with empty open worlds, long live intentional map design with fun puzzles makes my brain go brrr. Kissing guy who made those on the mouth. At least I think the maps are built around the needs of the script and not the other way around unless problems arise in making the stage (which happens) because that'd be kinda silly. It's just our glimpse of Rivain is around a Grey Warden keep with some chasind stuff and Antaam. All of Rivain is kind of just not about Rivain and it annoys me deeply like where the fuck is the people who aren't Lords of Fortune. I don't even know what the culture is supposed to be inspired by besides like orientalism I guess.

ALSO I need everyone to know I had JUST got done ranting about one reoccurring trope with biracial/bicultured people in another game only to turn around and run directly into Taash's dumbass choice about making them pick between their cultures.

THAT IS NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS.

I'm a Filipino German American and I look Asian so I have to fight to be German American because that's what I fucking am no matter what anybody expects from me from my face. Meanwhile my Pinoy roots were stolen from me by a woman who came to the states with the idea that her kids would be American but that just ain't the way the world works when you're not white passing. You cannot run and "choose" the other culture. You will forever be expected to be what you aren't because you look and there's not a lot to do about that brokeness inside you but try and come to terms with it and embrace all that you are anyway.

I also just find using modern day identity labels to be boring and lazy world building for a fantasy world. Even modern day LGBTQIA+ folks can't agree on what to call our shit and we're so very messy about everything and we have been here for so very goddamn long and have had many different names. That's just a bit of a pet peeve, I'll admit.

I think the crowning moment of Taash's quest their mother's moment when she declared Taash's strengths before sacrificing herself for her and Taash's grieving over her passing but I'm also gonna attribute that last bit more to Taash's VA doing good work.

Think the weakest quests for me otherwise were actually Bellara's? Not that it's bad conceptually. Just that it feels like duct taped together oddly where I kind of lost track of the emotions and logic in any given scene. Like over all I got yeah turning people into demons bad but we go from 0 to 100 real goddamn quick and I just felt left behind. Just confusing. Like it's fine, but confusing.

Kal-Sharok should have been it's own faction and I will die on that hill. Dwarves have gotten the short end of the stick for SO long and they finally have a fairly comparable moment in the story and it's just nothin'. BYULLLShit

You know I haven't really cared for Solas. I think I was on copium for a bit during Inquisition because my friends liked him so I was like "yeah I like this guy" but nah, I've kind of considered him a poor man's Ascian after playing Shadowbringers (sorry) but they really leaned into making him kind of a fucked up dude in Veilguard and I do enjoy him a lot more. But also the Rook/Solas dynamic is so much more messier than Lavellan/Solas dynamic. I feel like it was a loss to not have a meaner romance path there if you weren't a Solavellan. Guys who are dragging each other down to hold the other accountable by the throat.

NGL I think I kinda hate endings where it's like "and the bad guys lost and everyone who lived were happy :)" endings like man I wanna know what they're all up to now so I can be sure they're good. That's probably a me thing but it does put me on Copium that they'll drag Rook and co back out to do more with them but I know I'm asking for too much. I am in pain.

I'm descending into less concentrated rambling now I think I just!! Love the game but like I want it to be good and it's not and that hurts me a lot and I'm afraid what corporate will take from this because it's never the lesson they should because everything is all numbers.

EDIT: oml I forgot the line I tied to complaints I'd have later about choices they make you make. Like it was largely about Taash but also like Neve where the Thread guy is like "yeah we're gonna help you for this" like isn't that why we're here? Why am I getting a say in this? Why is this the place I'm suddenly putting my foot down? Why don't I get to ask Neve for her opinion before I just become the most annoying person in the world about this like ayo? WEIRD

Lucanis, Davrin and Bellara at least straight up ask you for your opinion and Harding, Emmrich and Taash obvs need some help even if they don't explicitely ask for it and this one for Neve isn't even the BIG choice it's just a dialogue choice that can lock you out of being able to make the choice which is kind of cool because it's about the only way to shoot yourself in the foot with any of the companions which I'd like if it just didn't just kind of come from nowhere. It's like Rook suddenly remembered they're a person who has opinions in the middle of a conversation and it's just OK. anyway

[episodicnostalgia]

Comic Book Break: The End of Venom (but not really even a little bit)

Featured artwork Pencils: Mark Bagley Inks: Randy Emberlin

A few posts ago I talked about how it took roughly a year after my initial introduction to Venom (through the fold-out poster from the interior of “Amazing Spider-man #365”) before I would finally get to read a full issue featuring the character.  By that point I had become as well versed on the Symbiote lore as I was able to be without the aid of the internet, which basically meant I was limited to the comics my dad bought me, along with any cursory trivia he’d absorbed from glancing through back issues in the local comic shop.  But issues #374 & #375 would finally reward my patience with Spider-man and Venom’s “FINAL CONFRONTATION!”  And oh lordy, they did not disappoint. 

The story itself is entertaining enough, but it was Mark Bagley’s artwork that really left an impression on me. I mean no disrespect to Todd McFarlane here, but while he may have co-created the character, Bagley’s take was always the definitive version for me.  Bagley’s artwork just makes him look so nightmarishly intimidating, and even with ‘the comics code’ censorship guidelines, there was no mistaking with my very-active-imagination what the character was capable of.  I do remember feeling incredibly fortunate that I was even allowed to read those issues (my folks were fairly cautious about exposing me to graphic violence), especially considering this would be Venom’s last appearance ever, if the cover was anything to go by.  After all, who would just lie about something like that?

Of course, it wouldn’t actually be the last time the those two would cross paths, or even butt heads.  In fact, Venom would end up returning only three issues later for the ‘maximum carnage’ saga.  But these issues did (sort of) signal a change in the character that would shift his/their motivations moving into Venom’s turn as an anti-hero under the ‘Lethal Protector’ moniker, which I never found as interesting.  In theory, it’s a character choice that I could get behind, but sadly Venom became a victim to weak writing and oversaturation.  Of course, the irony isn’t lost on me that just as I discovered the character, his relevance in the larger cultural paradigm was about to implode.  Thankfully I remained largely oblivious to all for some time, as my continued exposure to Venom would be drip fed to me through back issues or alternative media (e.g. the animated series).

Honestly though, even though these issues were obviously being used as a cheap marketing ploy, I do think it’s a pretty solid point to ‘end’ the character’s story, and least for that particular era.  After all, that is the thing with comics books, you kind of have to decide for yourself when to come-and-go.

That’s also part of the fun.

[doctorstrangereview]

0084: Marvel Feature #1 (Main Story)

Cover Date: December 1971 On-Sale Date: July 20, 1971

Here we have it. The origin of the most fabulous fighting team of all! This is the first appearance of The Defenders so them becoming fabulous so quickly must be like the dubious "instant classic" tag. Roy Thomas, who wrote all the individual installments leading up to this point gives us a returning villain for them to face. He spends more than half the story gathering the team with a scenario that's actually difficult for them to counter. Ross Andru joins the feature for the three issues the Defenders appear in. The art isn't the clean lines we're used to from most previous artists. There's more definition, but it looks shakier overall.

We start by looking at the Sanctum Santorum from the street. Ross is better at it than previous artists but chooses to make the entrance street level with no stoop. It's an unusual feature for a New York City residential building.

The kitty-cat only figures in this panel only. Cats have a habit of not boding well for Doc stories. Moving inside, the Sanctum is very dark and Doc is enjoying a seat in front of his fireplace. Ross doesn't give Doc a cool Ditko chair with lots of gargoyles and other creatures hanging on. Instead it's this uncomfortable looking art-deco thing. On the plus side, Doc has gone back to his classic look and the mask, along with the skin tight body suit are gone. Doc hears his name called out, but Wong doesn't. The call is mystical!

Doc goes ghost to investigate. Ross honors the Ditko tradition of no cloak while in astral form. He traces the call to a particular hospital room. A team of medical personnel surround a beat up, bandaged guy.

That's our buddy Yandroth, last seen falling eternally through another cosmos. Eternity must have ended and Yandroth fell hard because he looks like crap.

Ouchies! Yandroth can see Doc's astral form so things have happened since their last meeting to increase his abilities. He explains that he fell through a bunch of other realms and picked up some magic too. He used both skills to build something called the Omegatron that will blow up the Earth when he dies. He gives one of my favorite lines in all of comic history!

Yandroth lapses back into a coma. Doc then compels a bunch of Doctors to try and save his life and keep the Omegatron from going boom before he can figure out what to do. (There's that consent thing again.) There efforts don't last long and Yandroth goes to his reward in the great beyond a few minutes later.

I doubt that the doctors would actually discuss this in an operating room where the patient just died. Or maybe things were different a half-century ago. The comment moves the plot along and Doc has a starting point to find the Omegatron. Doc doesn't immediately head to Maine. He's got to gather up his posse first. Namor is first.

Namor isn't thrilled about being asked this, but when Doc says, in flowery purple prose, that the Earth may blow up and that includes the oceans he relents. He suggests a couple of others to lend a hand. They being the Hulk and the Silver Surfer. Doc looks in of Surf-y who is attempting to escape the Earth. As in every prior attempt to escape, Surf-y go boom against Galactus's big barrier and knocks himself out. Oops!

Doc goes ghost again to recruit the Hulk. Doc finds the jolly green giant and has a bit of fun getting him on his side.

And where else would we get a sound effect like FLAMM! Doc lures Hulkie to Namor and they manage to subdue him long enough to explain the situation. Hulkie just wants friends so Doc agrees that they will be friends. Hulk goes along with his new friends. Now the trio needs to find where Yandroth has stashed his doomsday machine. Doc gives himself a spiffy, if outdated, outfit to confab with some locals.

The old couple are happy to help and tell Doc about a new lighthouse that went up which went up recently. Doc and company head out.

Yandroth has, of course, left defenses which the trio must overcome before they can get inside and try to talk the Skynet reject out of making everything go boom. Hulkie tries to go through the front door.

Namor tries going through the sea and from below.

Doc tries to force his way, astrally.

Doc makes it through and confronts Omegatron, who has Yandroth's face. Yup, our dead villain is a bit of a narcissist. Doc is surprised by the machine's ability to think and speak and explain the whole plot to Doc. Yandroth tricked Doc. He lured him, along with his very muscle-y allies there. When they attack the machine, it'll have enough energy to trigger the big boom.

Uh-oh! Doc's got a problem. Namor and Hulkie have barged into the control room and are moments away from being very violent with it. Doc attempts to reason with them, but they think he's an illusion trying to trick them into not attacking. The pair decides to attack the "Doc illusion" instead. Doc casts illusions on the pair so they attack each other. This is only a temporary fix as the battle will still charge the machine, just a bit more slowly. Doc thinks fast and casts a spell to slow down time around the Omegatron.

Doc says the Earth now has countless years to live. Don't believe it. The Omegatron will menace the us again. So will Yandroth for that matter, but that's a story for another day. The trio depart, not on the greatest of terms. Despite their misgivings, the Defenders will reunite.

Doc the hides the Omegatron portion of the lighthouse. What could go wrong?

Despite this being the first story in the issue, Doc is already back on the active roster. A backup story covers his return and has already been reviewed. I'll skip the 1950s Sub-Mariner reprint between the two.

The story itself is a bit pedestrian and functions more to gather the team and introduce friction between the members. A forgotten villain shows up and promptly dies. Doc chooses a pair of powerful, but unstable personalities. It'll make for a lot of drama over the coming years. The Defenders fluid concept and unofficial nature makes it a different beast than a formal team like The Avengers. In fact the two teams will clash in the near future. The story is functional and performs its task efficiently. Fortunately, the Defenders will evolve into a much more interesting animal and allow Doc to stick around.

[yunomagic]

Every single way Luz Noceda and Movie Sonic are similar (and why i think they should be besties)

These two are genuinely my moods, my kins, and my children and i actually do think they would be besties and its all gonna make sense in a minute i swear. Do be warned that this may be incoherent cuz I am like that, and that some things might’ve been said wrong. The elaborations are in no particular order and some explanations may be longer than others. ALSO this contains spoilers for both The Owl House and the Sonic Movies so if you haven’t watched one or both of em please do so when you can and come back to this. anyways Here we go:

Both resemble the archetype of a bubbly and kindhearted goofball of a protagonist that can be naive and/or impulsive at times during the time they first debuted

^^^ As they get older and as their stories progress, they start to mature and learn from what they experienced on their adventures

Both have dealt with a form of parental loss during an early part of their childhood ( Manny Noceda for Luz, and Longclaw for Sonic )

Both use escapism methods as coping mechanisms to compensate for their traumatizing childhood

( Luz indulges in TGWA books or fiction in general, and it’s implied she also does amvs and art, which can be interpreted as both hobbies and stress relievers. As for Sonic, he indulges in comic books like The Flash and pretends to be a part of Tom and Maddie’s family so he doesn’t feel so alone )

Both children were alone for a majority of their life and didn’t have any real friends until they found them in different worlds ( In the Boiling Isles, Luz ends up finding Eda, King, Gus, Willow and eventually, Amity. On Earth, Sonic ends up finding Tom and Maddie Wachowski, b4 meeting Tails and Knuckles later down the line )

Both strive to feel appreciated and accepted, and they execute it in similar ways

( Luz making grand gestures and extreme antics [like the snakes and the spiders in ep 1] to try and impress her classmates and Sonic trying to be a hero to make Longclaw proud, and to possibly gain acceptance from other humans )

^^^ As a result, both of their methods are seen as reckless and dangerous

Note: At this point in the ramble, the mobile version of tumblr won’t allow me to add more images cuz of a 10 image limit and I can’t figure out how to add more on desktop. So any evidence I provide is gonna be in quotes, parenthesis or paragraphs of elaboration. I’m so sorry there’s gonna be no visual flavor, if anyone can help me find a loophole that’d be great. Anyways back to the show:

Both pin the blame on themselves for things that weren’t their fault, and push themsleves to right what they believe they did wrong… by rushing into immediate danger ( can also be seen as some form of people pleasing behavior )

Both of them also refuse to accept any sort of help from the people who care about them

^^^ When Eda got captured trying to save Luz near the end of season 1, Luz’s plan was to straight up rescue her while being fully aware of the risks. This repeats again in season 2, episode 1 with the entire premise of the episode being that luz feels like a burden and is the cause of Eda losing her magic and everyone in the owl house financially struggling. Going all out to fight a selkiedomus in order to free Eda and king.

While Eda talks to Luz about it, the behavior doesn’t stop. Carrying over to Hollow Mind, and the episodes after that. If you know what happened in Hollow Mind, we’d know that Luz is now adamant on stopping Belos and the Day of Unity. While still being aware of the risks, she believes that she’s the sole reason for the Day of Unity happening, therefore she continued to risk her life in order to save others

“Please try to understand, Eda was in the situation because of me. Because of my stupid choice, I have to make up for it.” - Young Blood, Old Souls

“Because you stuck with me you lost your magic, you almost got turned to stone, and now you can’t even afford your apple blood because you’re worried about what I need to eat.” - Separate Tides

“I am NOT hiding, I’m going to stop Belos from completing the draining spell.” - O Titan, Where Art Thou

In the second act of sonic movie 2, Tails gets knocked unconscious by Robotnik and Sonic narrowly saves him in the nick of time b4 an avalanche could envelope them. Near the beginning of the movie, during the boat scene, the blue blur had a talk with Tom about how being a hero meant to take responsibility for other people. As Sonic accidentally caused chaos in Seattle for trying to stop a robbery and be a hero. It’s also implied that this has been happening more than once. One of the things Tom said to Sonic was, “You put people in danger and that’s not what a hero does.”

^^^ This statement indirectly affected Sonic’s way of thinking. While said with good intentions, as a result of what happened to Tails, Sonic believes that he needs to make up for what he did wrong by pursuing Knuckles and Robotnik for the master emerald. Thus, he thinks he’s automatically no longer a hero once a new friend of his almost died

( It should be worth mentioning that there was some visible regret in Tom’s face when he realized that he made sonic think that way. It’s also possible that Sonic blames himself for Longclaw’s death, the first movie also explicitly states that Sonic’s number one fear is hurting people because of being himself. Making the boat scene, what Tom said, AND what Sonic says next, extremely deep and depressing )

“You see that little fox over there? He came all the way across the universe to meet his hero, and what did his hero do? I practically got him killed! You were right, my moment came, and I blew it. I’m no hero.”

Key takeaways of these moments is that this is the kind of mindset both these kids have is somewhere along the lines of, “I accidentally made a mistake = Everything is my fault and I should take the blame and all responsibility for it no matter what other people tell me.”

^^^ This kind of thinking is reminiscent to people pleasing behavior and is v self-destructive. While Luz is undoubtedly a people pleaser, Sonic seems to be more of a subtle kind of people pleaser

Both kids may be afraid of rejection and/or abandonment due to past trauma

Both kids were forced to be sent away at some point in their childhood. The reasons and the circumstances differ, but the incidents were similar. In the end, it resulted in both Sonic and Luz not liking the idea of being sent away, even if it’s for their own safety

Both kids feel the need to become something or someone else in order to feel accepted by other people ( Luz wanting to become a witch in season 1 and Sonic wanting to become a hero in sonic movie 2 )

Both kids were forced into thinking that they are the problem or that they are a burden and danger to everybody around them. Just because they are being themselves.

^^^ Thus, they think that the solution is for them to either leave permanently or to never exist at all ( Luz initially planned to stay in the human realm and was vocal about her possible suicidal thoughts. Sonic planned on leaving Earth because that’s what Longclaw told him to do and he believed he would cause harm the longer he stays )

^^^ Luz says, “Who cares, about the RIPPLE effects? He was just a pawn in someone else’s game! A-And he was NEVER smart enough to realize it! If his friends and family knew about his existence… they’d know that their lives wouldn’t be in danger if it weren’t for HIM! They should hate his guts! And it would be better— if he literally, never EXISTED!” - Season 3, Thanks To Them

^^^ Sonic says, “I don’t wanna go, but I can’t stay. As long as I’m here, I put everyone in danger… I can’t do that.” - Sonic The Hedgehog 1

They’re both ridiculously selfless to the point where they won’t hesitate to sacrifice themselves under any sorr of circumstances

In the season 2 finale, King’s Tide, as the Boiling Isles is torn apart by the Collector, Luz intended to leave herself behind to keep the portal open with plant glyphs so Amity, Gus, Willow and Hunter can go through to the human realm. Luz also wanted to go find Eda, instead of heading for safety

On the other hand, during the final battle with Robotnik, Sonic wanted Tom and Maddie to get away from him in exchange for THEIR safety because he knows what Robotnik wants. It’s also possible that Sonic wants the Wachowski’s to get away from him because he can’t handle the idea of them dying because of him. The same way Longclaw did all those years ago

What both of these scenes have in common is that there’s this whole thing with families trying to stick together and the kids trying to participate in altruistic sacrifice. Which is very dark imo

Ultimately, the core of both of their stories and characters is that they both long to be understood and accepted by the people around them

OKAY— so i believe im done here, but there’s definitely more and i just forgor about it, and that there are some parts that are missing or i havent explained thoroughly. And it is getting late and this thing has been sitting in my drafts and i wanted to get this posted. But i do believe that these characters would get along super well, as they both have the similar demeanors and similar stories. (Insert that one barbie song /jjj) If these two met, they would either ramble, read each others comics, or commit crimes together /hj. I gave no doubt that ever met, their friendship would be instantaneous and strong. Anyways, imma head to bed, you guys can do whatever you want with rhe info i provided. Nighty night

[miloscat]

[Review] Syberia (PS2)

A graphic adventure, emphasis on the graphics.

Another pick from my monthly retro game club, Syberia is a game I only knew by reputation. While it was developed by Microïds' Canadian division, it was creatively spearheaded by the Belgian comic artist Benoît Sokal who instilled some unique flavours into it. Exploring some similar territory to his earlier game Amerzone, this is a point and click adventure set in a slightly askew version of Europe.

To spare my wrist from pointing and clicking, I opted for the contemporary PS2 port, which has you directly controlling protagonist Kate Walker with the analogue stick, with interactable hotspots getting highlighted as you pass them. Unfortunately the lower resolution does a slight disservice to the visual design of this game, although not as drastically as the DS conversion (which bizarrely, the later ports were based on, I've been told).

The game makes heavy use of prerendered backdrops to depict the melancholic locales, with some clever FMV insets for motion, and 3D models layered on top only for the sparse few characters. It's all in service of building Sokal's imaginative world, a world of faded glory populated by eccentrics, all touched by Hans Voralberg, the object of Walker's quest. Her mundane task of finalising a contract for the sale of a factory transforming into an unexpected steampunk adventure is ripe for drama, although the game doesn't capitalise on it as well as it could have.

Kate's personal journey is supposed to be along the lines of a buttoned-up lawyer being challenged to embrace the passions of life, but this only vaguely bubbles along in the background so she just ends up coming off as rather bland. Occasional phone calls home are meant to flesh out her arc, but they only served to make me annoyed at her shouty boss, shallow friend, overbearing mother, and worst of all her nagging, whiny fiancé. On the other hand, Kate's companion on her trip is the clockwork automaton Oscar, a standout character who mechanically exhibits a soulful blend of fussy and sassy.

But the story really revolves around Hans, the savant syndrome genius inventor. His influence is felt at each of the stops in your journey, where you talk with those whose lives he has touched, and try to tinker with the mechanical marvels he left behind. His intricate clockwork creations have been integrated in the sleepy French village of Valadilene, the majestic Barrockstadt university, the ex-Soviet industrial wasteland of Komkolzgrad, and the Eastern European hotel at Aralbad. Truly the locations are the star of the game, each seemingly stuck in a bubble of the past, the rich detail making them feel real even through an aura of the surreal.

These places do get let down somewhat by often muted colour palettes, although arguably that ties into the theme of decline that permeates each. A bigger issue is the awkwardness of navigating them, with sometimes unclear traversal options, not to mention the pause between each flip screen as the next one loads. Sometimes the direction you're facing is completely inverted as you move between screens, such that your continued move input turns you around and may even move you straight back. I suppose this is a problem unique to joypad controls... Kate also gets around very slowly (even with the run button), and goes through laborious animations to line herself up with interactables, so the pace of gameplay can feel plodding.

Broader pacing issues are present to varying degrees. The first two chapters in particular have quite drawn-out and convoluted sequences of puzzles and fetch quests. It never gets as challenging as Myst or obtuse as Starship Titanic (two other adventure games I've played with a similar sense of style and prerendered graphics), so I never struggled too much but an occasional nudge from a guide was needed when I failed to see eye to eye with the designers. Dialogue scenes also slow things down with overly wordy prose that you have to comb relevant details out of.

So there's some flaws, but my biggest issue was with the scope of the game. It just doesn't tell a complete story, ending rather abruptly as Kate meets Hans in a location you've already been to. It feels like the decision to split the story up into two games left this one without a satisfying conclusion. Hans' (and the game's) mammoth fixation and the driving motivation to get to Syberia are utterly unpaid-off; Oscar doesn't even get to meet his creator before the game ends, despite that being brought up numerous times! It's simply half a game, and from what I've read the sequel has its own problems with failing to make Kate a compelling protagonist after completing what passes for her character arc, among other things.

But you know, no game is perfect. I still think there's a lot to love in Syberia. The atmosphere is thick and there's always striking visual design waiting around the next corner. Every location feels distinct and fascinating, and each has memorable characters and setpieces. It brings up some interesting ideas, even if it doesn't quite grapple with them as much as I wanted it to. If anything it makes me curious about Sokal's comics, although from a quick look I'm not sure any of them have been published in English! Sacre bleu!

[radioactive-earthshine]

YJ!Animated TimBart was actually probably the first gay ship I thought about as a kid, something about how in the show whenever Tim was absent from something usually Bart would speak up instead of Cassie just had my confused closeted kid brain thinking "Bart would make a better girlfriend for Tim than Cassie I think" and then I read them in comics and I've always been a little partial to them but honestly comics Bart reads so Aro to me (though he totally thinks most of his friends are hot and is a little in love with them in an aro way) and I have fallen deep into TimLonnie as my #1 Tim ship, but still I think that Young Justice Animated would be able to do something really cool with them and idk it'd heal my inner baby gay

Oh goodness that's a fun story thank you for sharing it.

Bart as aro/ace/aroace in the comics is SO REAL honestly - there's some great evidence to point towards that even if Waid has said that his reasoning for not having a love interest until much later in his series was because 'he was still developing' (paraphrasing). This is sort of a death of the author situation though so we take what is shown in the comics and from what is shown there is precedent for Bart being on the aro/ace spectrum.

As for Animated TimBart I'm not entirely sure if that will come to be (we're still in limbo for a 5th season) but anything is possible until we're shown it.

On one hand I can see them going that direction - it would be surprising and fresh and would get people talking and it would involve a Bat which is DC's cash cow. Tim is canonly queer in the comics, Titans and in Gotham Knights so it's very likely he is queer as well in the cartoon even if we do not see him with anyone. Bart is already heavily suspected to be queer and there's been implication that in the animation he is gay. They have history together, are around the same age and are close in the comics so there's no particular reason they can't be dating.

On the other hand Tim is with Bernard now and even if season 5 was technically written before Tim came out Bernard is a permanent part of Tim's history. They may feel that it is improper and inviting a type of drama they don't want to start by making Tim date anyone else - even if this is an elseworlds and is not connected to the comics in any way. There's also already evidence to suggest that Bart and Ed are dating even if it is not shown explicitly.

I guess at the end of the day we all know Bart is queer in some way, and we want to see some representation.