#i mean one of the main themes in this show is hunger and the way it turns people into wild beasts

[beastsovrevelation]

[stardustizuku]

Unfortunately I came across a very strange and misinformed video about Black Butler.

It’s not good. Don’t watch it. Unless you wanna ruin your day, in which case have fun.

Despite it all, I watched it. What left me wondering, however, was how off the mark the person who made the video was on, well, everything.

From their insistence that the Book of Circus Arc theme or point is non existent, to reading Ciel’s character so badly they genuinely thought the Green Witch Arc did nothing for his character development.

While baffled, it also made me think on how someone could read Black Butler so badly.

Sure, you can say that there’s no real way to read or interpret something “in the wrong way” but interpreting The Hunger Games as a pure battle-royale action story would make you believe it’s bad.

“Why are we focusing so much on how the capitol preps them?” Or “Why isn’t Katniss winning everything?” Or “I wanna know more about the rebellion” All questions that miss the actual point of the story - which is criticizing (not solving or ignoring) the way that media distracts us from violence via spectacle.

The same thing applies here. While there is no “right” way to consume media, there’s things that the author makes clear they wanna focus when creating a story. Things that, if you understand, make the story you’re reading actually make sense.

And in Black Butler there’s three things that you have to understand to properly get what Yana is saying.

Sebastian is the protagonist

Ciel and Sebastian’s relationship IS the story.

And that relationship is, fundamentally, a positive one.

A quicker version of it would be:

Black Butler is a love story from the POV of Sebastian, and you have to ship it to get it

- but that’s not entirely true.

You can still look at it as a complex but ultimately positive rship and get in broad strokes of what it’s conveying. It doesn’t have to be romantic. Although, it helps much more than a platonic framing.

(That said, interpreting their rship as father and son, still isn’t the best way to go about it. Mostly because by its very nature of “soul consuming” their relationship is extremely sexually charged. And hey, if you’re into that I don’t judge. However, if you’re desperately trying to interpret their rship as NOT romantic to the point you fall back on heteronormative patriarchal ideals of nuclear familiar as framing device, I don’t think this interpretation bodes with you)

Now, having all that ground work:

Why do I say these are the key components to understand BB?

Okay so, first,

1. Sebastian is the Main Character. The protagonist.

There’s a lot of people who wanna argue against it, claiming he’s either the villain or the antagonist. Both wrong.

He does not function as an antagonist. Even if, and an emphasis on if, you consider Ciel to the protagonist, Sebastian isn’t a narrative antagonist.

If you wanna go back to Creative Writing 101, be my guest. An antagonist is directly defined by the protagonist. It’s the opposing force. If the protagonist wants A, the antagonist wants to stop them from getting A.

Sebastian’s catchphrase is “Yes, my Lord”. He never opposes Ciel, in fact quite the contrary. By the mere fact they’ve created contract, it means that they’ve both agreed in the inevitable outcome.

People want to frame Sebastian as the villain, because Ciel having his soul taken by a demon, would be a BAD END in the context of their moral compass. They see Ciel as a frail victim of abuse, who’s being tricked by Sebastian, who wants Ciel’s soul.

Which is an. Interpretation. A bad one. But still one.

The narrative (and whether the narrative fits your personal moral compass and lack of critical thinking is irrelevant) treats Ciel as an agent in his own destiny. The abuse he suffered was the moment in which he had no control. It’s only after he meets Sebastian that he can rid of both his guilt and his despair, and do what he wants.

In this case though, it’s revenge.

The famous “Asthma” scene shows this. If Ciel is taken back to his past, he becomes helpless. Swarmed with pain and memories that make it so that he can’t even react. Sebastian is his saving grace. If Ciel didn’t have him, and the power he wields to rebuilt what’s broken, he would crumble once more.

If Ciel has a panic attack, because of all the pain he has, Sebastian picks him up and says “you are not a helpless child anymore, you are not a victim anymore, you have the power to do anything. So, what do you wanna do?”

Ciel’s answer is to kill them.

A proper analogy would be to say that, if Sebastian offers a gun, Ciel pulls the trigger. They are both at fault. Sebastian, strictly speaking, is not here to directly cause Ciel’s downfall, but as a tool Ciel uses to plunge into the abyss.

If, again if, you were to frame Ciel as a protagonist, Sebastian falls closer to the “Voice of reason” character. Not a literal voice of reason, but a literary one. If you have a protagonist and an antagonist exchanging ideals, the Voice of Reason serves to engage with the protagonist on their own ideals.

That said, Ciel isn’t the protagonist. The story quickly falls apart if you interpret it as such.

Things such as Ciel’s character arc being…shall I say odd?

It’s not that his character arc isn’t there, but it’s never lineal. His goals stay the same, the only thing that happens is that we start to peel back the “why”s of his goals. Throughout the series it’s never about Ciel understanding himself better, he knows who he is, he knows what he wants, he knows why he wants it. He doesn’t ever need to uncover these, but simply remember them. Because it’s always about the audience understanding Ciel.

He knows he wants revenge.

In the Circus Arc: He knows that he needs Sebastian because without him, the pain of the abuse he suffered would be too much to bear. But WE are introduced to it.

In the Book of Atlantis: He knows that with this new lease he does not want happiness and peace, he wants revenge. The one being told this is the audience.

In Green Witch Arc: He knows that their revenge isn’t for his family, the real Ciel or guilt. It’s because he wants it. He’s angry, he’s upset, and this is entirely for him. The one being told this is the audience.

Except. Not really. The one either discovering or remembering these key moments - is always Sebastian.

Sebastian is the one who reassures him that he now holds the power of a demon to override the pain. Sebastian is the one who remembers that to override that pain, Ciel wants revenge. And Sebastian is the one who discovers that that revenge isn’t built out of grief or guilt, but for himself.

We are witnessing it all, through the eyes of Sebastian.

This is why we have an extremely vague idea of who Ciel is, Sebastian does not have the whole picture.

If you haven’t been reading this manga with your eyes closed, you’ll realize we have a better grasp at Sebastian’s character than that of Ciel. We get a lot of insight on how he thinks and what he values through light hearted dialogue he has with the servants. You even see the character development in these little interactions.

Think about how when he first arrived to the mansion he magically created food with no regards to taste, but when he meets Bard he states that food is created to see whoever will eat it, smile.

That is character development, more than you will be able to see from Ciel.

Because Ciel’s character, while not static, doesn’t go from point A to point B. Mostly, cause it doesn’t need to. He went through that when he lost the real Ciel and got Sebastian. Everything we are watching is the falling out.

Now, given the fact that I’ve told you that it makes more sense for Sebastian to be the protagonist/main character, and that he 100% isn’t either a villain or antagonist in ANY of the interpretations you can get:

Do you believe me?

If you don’t, you’ll probably believe Yana herself.

This is from the first Volume, where Yana herself describes the process of making Black Butler. The primary idea behind the creation of BB was a butler as a “hero”.

If you go back to the introductory chapter, you notice that Ciel is barely mentioned. He’s simply the one to give Sebastian impossible tasks and standards that Sebastian must find how to overcome.

Ciel is properly introduced until the NEXT chapter. The second chapter has this formula too, introducing Lizzie as a problem to overcome. Although, to Sebastian the best way to “get rid of the problem” is simply to indulge her.

The issue here being that the problem isn’t as simple as a business meeting but something directly tied to Ciel and Ciel’s past. Each time that Sebastian has to solve a problem, it chips away at Ciel. While with Lizzie he shows a persona, once he’s alone with Sebastian he acknowledges the toll it took on him. It serves to build Ciel as Sebastian’s master, and how some problems aren’t as simple as discarding a tablecloth.

The third and the fourth, are a unified narrative, with a similar premise to the first chapter. Ciel gets kidnapped and Sebastian must find a way to retrieve him without raising suspicions.

If the first chapter is to set up what Sebastian must do as a butler, the third and the fourth serve to set up what he must do as a demon.

The entirety of the volume, and up to Book of Circus Arc, is about how Sebastian tries to follow the increasingly absurd orders that Ciel has - it is not about Ciel trying to solve them.

That’s how they work, we follow Sebastian for the most part, because he’s the one having to come up with the solutions.

If anything, in early Kuro, where the emphasis was more on a slice of life conflict, Ciel is the antagonist. He’s the one creating problems for Sebastian to solve.

What’s more, in the second volume, the very first chapter is one from Sebastian’s POV. So far, we hadn’t gotten an entire chapter from Ciel’s POV. In fact, I would find it hard to point to a single chapter where Ciel is the POV throughout. The reveal of real Ciel and the flashback is the closest contender.

But once we move past early Kuro, and into Book of Circus, this set up changes.

It’s fairly easy to assume that Ciel is the main character, because from this point on the conflict of the plot sorta surrounded him. We spend a lot of time with him and with his story. The enemies start being people directly tied to Ciel and Ciel’s trauma. Rarely, if at all, we get to see Sebastian before he met Ciel.The framing device for the story, is Ciel.

This is where point 2 gets intertwined.

2.- Sebastian and Ciel’s relationship IS the story.

The story begins at the point where Sebastian and Ciel met. Who Ciel was before he met Sebastian, informs why he’s the way he is when he does. You have to know all he went through to understand why he’s a brat, why he lashes out. However Sebastian’s past doesn’t matter…because Sebastian himself doesn’t care much for who he was, before he was “Sebastian”. That’s also part of the narrative.

Unlike Ciel, he doesn’t seem opposed to revealing information from before the contract. He talks about how pets from where he is from are gross, he talks about how he knows how to dance because of other places he’s been to, and alludes to the life he's lived before.

Just that, to him, they're footnotes.

He makes allusions to a very bland, uninteresting life, up to the point he meets Ciel.

That’s why we don’t know more about his past.

As for why we focus on Ciel’s story…okay maybe we need Creative Writing lessons 102

I studied Dramaturgy for about 3 to 4 years. And something you notice is how play-writing is the quintessential story telling. It’s making it work with the bare bones of a story.

Some other mediums have more finesse, more depth, or more spectacle - all amazing things that work for whatever they’re created for. But understanding a play, how and why it works, helps understand the fundamentals of any derivative story telling medium.

Particularly, conflict.

Conflict is dialogue and dialogue can take many forms. A story, in its essence, is a dialogue between two opposing ideas.

Take Batman, for example, who embodies the ideas of justice and order. On his own, he’s not a well rounded character.

If you ONLY present him, in a vaccum with nothing else, you don’t have a character. You have a list of characteristics that you’re supposed to know.

You only know who he is when you have dialogue with another character.

I say Dialogue, but it doesn’t necessarily mean spoken language at one another. Dialogue can mean fist fighting, playing tabletop games, talking to other people about the other, or even just a competition. The idea is to simply to compare and contrast both ideas.

If you want an example on how tabletop games serve as dialogue, watch the video “Well, Someone Had to Explain the Liar’s Dice Scene” by Lord Ravecraft

Another example, were we to retake Batman, you have him fight Joker. Who’s the embodiment of chaos and randomness.

In the following picture, you get far more information than the one previously shown. While the Joke fights with daggers and fake guns, Batman only uses his fists. He doesn’t use the tricks that Joker does. His serious demeanor, contrasted with Joker’s glee at the dangerous situation. The fact that Batman has a deathly grip on Joker’s shirt, while the Joker doesn’t, which shows a desperation to catch him.

You are being shown, through a dialogue, who Batman is.

It’s so much easier and much more effective to explore a character through another character.

This is the reason why Shonen has a tendency to make incredibly good gay ships. If you want to explore Naruto’s personality, and his feelings of inferiority, you HAVE to have him interact with Sasuke.

If you wanna understand Hinata’s passion for volleyball, you have him enjoy himself the most with the only other crazy motherfucker who’s as obsessed with volleyball - Kageyama.

And I think that originally, Yana had this problem.

Sebastian was the protagonist, but she had little room to develop him as a character in the confines of the manor, dealing with random enemies.

She likely tried to create Grell as someone of the same stature as Sebastian. Someone who could be this other person to engage dialogue with and show or allude to his past a bit more.

The problem being that Sebastian didn’t care for his past. Or really, engaging with anyone. He sees everyone as below him, but when confronted with Grell who isn’t below him, he doesn’t wanna talk to her.

So you’re stuck in conundrum.

How do you have dialogue with a character, that as a character trait, doesn’t really wanna have dialogue?

Well, Grell also solves the problem. Because only the moment she gets him to start any semblance of a dialogue - is questioning why he’s serving Ciel.

And this is the moment when it’s perfectly cemented that the focus of the story is their relationship.

Why is Sebastian here? Why does he stay? What did he see in Ciel that made him want this extremely convoluted contract?

THATS the dialogue.

THATS the conversation we’re having in Black Butler.

We need to know Ciel because understanding who he is, let’s us know WHY /Sebastian/ is here.

Then slowly, with the introduction with the Undertaker, we find out Sebastian’s conflict.

Which is…

He’s scared of losing Ciel. It becomes apparent with the constant imagery of the Undertaker taking away Ciel and at some point even obtaining r!Ciel’s body, that he’s worried it might happen.

But he can only be worried that Ciel might be taken away if he wants to stay near Ciel.

And that’s his character arc.

Realizing that he actually likes Ciel, cares for him and the role he plays a butler that he doesn’t want this to end.

In the first chapters, he doesn’t feel a need to protect Ciel anymore than what’s strictly necessary. Just don’t die, that’s about as deep as his involvement in chapter 4 gets.

But by the Green Witch Arc, he feels a need to protect Ciel from ANY harm.

This is why I also said

3.- Their relationship is fundamentally a positive one.

In broad strokes, Sebastian to Ciel is the person who allows him to survive. He’s not worried about giving up his soul since he’s already dead. While Ciel to Sebastian, is someone who’s making him have fun. He’s slowly becoming more and more attached to Ciel and the life he has with Ciel.

Their relationship is not that of just a predator and prey, but also of master and pet.

In the terms that Black Butler itself would call: Sebastian is a wild wolf acting like a collared dog.

Ciel is aware that the wild beast will eat him at the end of the day, but if he clings hard to leash for now, he might just be able to have Sebastian maul his abusers.

Sebastian as a dog, currently finds that he enjoys being a chained dog.

(This is demonstrated in the Green Witch arc where he quite literally says, he doesn’t wanna be a wild beast and prefers to be a butler)

And much like the actual DOG Sebastian, Ciel constantly interprets his attempts to get close and protect him, as an act of aggression.

This push and pull of Ciel’s perception of Sebastian and Sebastian’s true motives is what feeds the story.

And the briefs interludes were that isn’t the case (what other people call the “plot”, but I would refer to as the connective tissue) such as Sullivan and Wolfram, the other servant’s past, the grim reapers and the like, serve as a parallel to Ciel and Sebastian relationship. Either to signify how they care for each other, highlight their weaknesses or fears, or explore how they feel.

It’s no surprise that Sullivan and Wolfram are parallels to Ciel and Sebastian. A sheltered sickly child who seeks the protection of a cold hearted machine that only knew how to kill, but who eventually found he cared for her genuinely.

Undertaker and Claudia’s relationship being heavily paralleled with them, even though we aren’t 109% sure what they had but heavily implied it was a romantic attraction from the undead supernatural creature and a Phantomhive.

Everything is a parallel.

That’s why, like the approach of the terrible original video, is flawed.

Trying to interpret Black Butler as action scene after action scene, with mystery after mystery with the only connective tissue being the mystery of who burned down the mansion - is missing the trees for the forest.

That’s not the point.

And if you’re too much of a prude to engage with gothic horror in its gothic horror game, I see little point as to why you even bother to engage with it at all.

A lot of people, including the person who create the video, simply refuse to acknowledge Black Butler IS the story of Sebastian and Ciel as a close and positive relationship, romantically and sexually charged. The reason for it being that they’re “put off” by it.

Part of me wonders how much that is genuinely true, and how much is just performative outrage. It’s like ignoring the fact that Cersei and Jami are in an incestous relationship and try to frame it as “platonic love”, because the idea of it is THAT off putting.

But regardless of that, if you don’t like the fact that it’s as canon as canon can get, I would reccomend you don’t engage with the story at all.

As I’ve explained, the entirety of the series is about them. If you refuse to see Sebastian and Ciel as, at the very least, a duo that cares deeply for the other - you aren’t reading Black Butler.

I have no idea what you’re reading.Perhaps your own biases and subconscious stigma with British aesthetic. At that point, watch the fucking British Royalty Gossip Magazine. You’d find more substance there.

Just don’t be like the person in the video, please? Don’t play dumb. Don’t ignore the fact that Yana is a Shotacon, don’t ignore the fact Sebastian is a hero, don’t ignore the fact that the entirety of the story is based on Sebastian and Ciel’s dynamic.

Because if you do, you are ashamed. You are ashamed of what this story is about. You don’t wanna engage with the text, you want to engage with yourself. You wanna project into Ciel whatever traumas and experiences you have, for the sake a vanity project, where you come out as the morally superior.

You don’t wanna talk about Black Butler, you wanna talk about how good YOU are. How you “don’t sin” by watching it “without all the gross unholy stuff”.

Which is the exact opposite of what BB is about.

So, if you don’t want to, save us all the humiliation fetish and leave.

[writingquestionsanswered]

What's "Filler" vs What's Relevant

Anonymous asked: How do you know when something is “filler” that needs to be deleted, or if it can be kept? I often see advice saying "your characters should talk about nothing but the plot... no frivolous banter or silly arguments, because it's useless, self-indulgent, filler-fluff." But then I watch or see things and it's like, hm... there sure are a lot of things happening here that aren't plot relevant, yet the audience adores it. For example, in a popular episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, called "The Tales of Ba Sing Se," nothing relevant to the main plot (stopping Fire Lord Ozai) happens. Instead, characters shop and go to a spa, rebuild a zoo, and go on a date. Part of the episode is even dedicated to one character's running off after having a nightmare. Nothing that we learn or that happens in the episode is ever relevant again as far as I recall, yet 19 years later, people still talk about how much they love that episode. So, I’m really confused as to what counts as useless filler/fluff vs what's important information. How do you tell the difference?

[Ask edited for length...]

First, it's important to note that a Nickelodeon cartoon from twenty years ago is not a great measuring stick for how to write fiction in 2024. ATLA, from what I've heard, is an amazing TV show, full of heart and top-notch character development. But it was also a cartoon created for and written to be enjoyed by children as young as age seven (the low end of Nickelodeon's demographic at the time), so it was following different guidelines from what you'd be following if you're trying to write a short story, novella, or book.

Case in point, the ATLA episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" is what's known in television as a "vignette," which uses short, self-contained stories unified by concept and theme to explore character relationships, growth, world-building, and to expand on themes that are important to the overall story. So, while the episode may not have contained plot-relevant elements, as get a glimpse into the minutiae of the characters' daily lives in Ba Sing Se, the characters and their relationships are still pushed forward, even if in only the tiniest ways.

And, again, this is a TV show with 61 episodes, not a short story, novel, or book, all of which are structured differently than a TV show.

On the Subject of "Fluff"

I want to be clear about the fact that if you're writing fan-fiction, fluff is just fine. And even if you're writing original fiction, you can get away with a little bit of fluff... you just need to be clever about it...

Filler, Fluff, or Relevant?

If something is absolutely necessary to move the story forward or understand it, it's plot relevant.

If something doesn't move the story forward and isn't critical to the reader's understanding of the story, but it helps them understand the characters or world in a way they didn't before, it's probably fluff that's been dressed up in a plot relevant costume. (That's the "you need to be clever about it" bit from above, which we'll get to in a second...)

If something isn't necessary to move the story forward or understand it, and it doesn't add anything to the reader's understanding of the characters or world, it's filler. It's just words on a page that serve no purpose, and it should be cut.

On the Subject of "Moving the Story Forward"

To clarify, in case anyone is wondering, "moving the story forward" means advancing the plot from one scene to the next scene. In other words, to use The Hunger Games as an example, Prim's name being drawn in the Reaping moves the story forward, because it forces Katniss to volunteer in her place. It moves the story from Katniss being a bystander at the Reaping to being a tribute. Another example, using Twilight, when Tyler's van skids into the parking lot and almost smashed into Bella, it forces Edward to use his otherworldly vampire strength to save her, which confirms in her mind that he's not human. It moves the story from Bella being curious about this weird boy at school to realizing he is something else and wanting to know more.

Dressing Up Fluff to Make it Relevant

Let's say you're writing a story about a young woman who stayed in her small town and went to community college while her high school besties went off to a college she couldn't afford, and now they've returned and she's trying to maintain these important friendships while struggling with feelings of resentment, jealousy, and feeling left behind.

Now, let's also say you have an idea for a really cute scene where your protagonist and one of these friends goes to a museum together for an afternoon. And as it stands, nothing plot relevant happens in this scene and it doesn't add anything to the reader's understanding of the characters or world. It's just something silly and fun you think would be cute in your story. How can you turn it from fluff to relevant?

To start with, look at your character's internal conflict... wanting to maintain the friendship while struggling with jealousy and feeling left behind. What could happen in the museum that could play on that? Maybe they stop in front of a reproduction of the Venus de Milo and the friend starts talking about the semester abroad she and the other friends did in Paris. This is a perfect place to explore the protagonist's feelings of jealousy and being left behind. If the character talks about her thoughts and feelings in that moment, either inside her head or with the friend, it gives you a chance to expand upon these feelings, explore why they're happening, and even to add further conflict. Maybe she confronts the friend and it doesn't go over well. Or, maybe she lies about something to feel better about herself, and that creates problems later.

Another option would be to look at the next plot point that needs to happen. Is there some way this scene can be used as a stepping stone between two existing scenes? Could something be added to this scene that raises the stakes or or makes the next scene more interesting?

While I'm sure there are some scenes you just can't make relevant no matter how hard you try, usually you can find a way if you just take the time to brainstorm and try out different ideas.

One Last Note...

On the rare occasion you end up with a fluff scene that has no relevance and can't be made to have relevance no matter how hard you try, write it anyway. Then, take it out, save it someplace safe, and hang onto it. These kinds of stories make GREAT incentives for things like newsletter sign-ups, subscription perks, web site bonuses, etc.

I hope that helps! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[yanderes-galore]

I need a concept of Henryk from Fear And Hunger 2, please!

Keep in mind I haven't exactly played the game, I mostly like researching characters and lore, so I hope I get a decent character read on him...!

Yandere! Henryk Klimkov Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Stalking, Mass murder (Poisoning), Jealousy, Possessive behavior, Delusional behavior, Cannibalism mentioned/implied, Mature themes, Forced relationship implied.

Henryk is a passionate chef who enjoys cooking.

It's actually one of the main things he enjoys.

He's laid-back at times but also... insecure.

He often seeks approval for his cooking from other contestants, no doubt meaning he'd cherish his obsession's approval over anything.

He's impulsive, often a flirt or making perverted remarks.

Originally these would be directed towards Abella... but if you become his obsession, he can be crude with his compliments.

He also has a tendency to get into fights, even if he can't win them.

He's shown to be anxious as the time limit of the festival continues... which no doubt makes him progressively worse as a yandere.

His first formal encounter with you is no doubt at the Mayor's Manor.

You meet him in a trance, going insane due to Rher's influence.

He has such a weak mind.

When you snap him out of it, he's puzzled... looking around in confusion.

Then his eyes land on you... and he apologizes before asking for help with finding food.

He wants to cook for the rest of the contestants and is quite thankful you snapped him out of it.

That's how you meet... and his obsession starts.

His obsession, like the others, is no doubt caused by Rher's influence.

Or some other dark force.

In the game, if saved before his Moonscorch at the manor, he will appear to cook for you and your party.

He never joins directly, insisting he just helps you without combat.

So imagine Henryk becoming obsessed with the approval of his obsession, often cooking to help you and your party.

But, of course, he likes you way more than the rest of your party.

He could care less about them... not like they saved him.

Henryk would try to be charming, often flirting or making comments as he gives you food to take.

He'd probably do anything for your praise, your comfort often soothing his anxiety.

Your talks with him are often about his cooking or him trying to show his interest in you.

I almost feel like he'd be a yandere to have transference, clinging to you because you happened to be around at the right time.

Speaking to you soothes him during this festival, hearing you say his cooking is good makes his heart flutter.

It may not be love at first sight, but it certainly feels like that to him.

Henryk actually gets worried when you leave with your party to explore Prehevil.

He hopes you come back and don't die.

Even worse, what if you Moonscorch?

What if he Moonscorches.

Henryk's obsession would last for three days, he isn't strong enough to survive this festival compared to the others.

Not in the mind, that is.

His obsession would continue until the third day if you saved him on the first day.

He wishes you'd reciprocate his love...

Instead he's forced to watch you from afar as you eat his food.

To a degree even he knows he shouldn't be this fond of you within three days.

But he can't help but feel drawn to you.

When he's not cooking, he's asking others to keep track of you or even sneaking out to find you himself.

By day 2 he's stalking you like a hunter looking for a deer.

He's eying you as if you're the tastiest meal he's ever seen.

He wouldn't actually eat you... hopefully...

Yet within two days he's desperate to follow you to the ends of the Earth.

Due to his fragile mind, Henryk snaps by the end of the second day.

He moves to PRHVL Bop with the rest of the contestants, but his attention stays on you.

He can't help but hate the fact all these contestants are around you.

He wishes you'd stop taking your party everywhere, that you'd stay with him.

Everyone here's going to die anyway, he knows it.

So he snaps....

Henryk makes dinner for all the contestants, all smiles as he speaks to you affectionately.

He made a bowl of food just for you, best you eat up, love!

By the next day, you realize what Henryk has done.

Just like in the literal event by the start of Day 3, Henryk poisons all the contestants but you.

He's on the verge of insanity, chuckling to himself in the corner as you're surrounded by the corpses of your party members.

Before long his eyes snap to you, a grin on his face.

He's on the verge of Moonscorch.

"They were going to die anyway... but I didn't want them to hurt you, either...! Now, it's just us, forever and ever...."

This would end with Henryk dragging you away to the Mayor's Manor, no doubt to Moonscorch with you.

After all, your mind is dwindling too, isn't it?

You witnessed the chef kill everyone, yet he spared you.

"Would you believe me if I said I loved you? You look so appetizing... especially in those clothes...!"

You swore you saw Henryk salivating when he confessed, eyes drawn to you with a certain hunger...

By the time he drags you into the manor, locking you away in a room he picked just for you, it's over...

He'll Moonscorch and so will you...

All you can do is stare fearfully into his hungry gaze, begging for some sort of mercy as he approaches you.

"Just one taste, love... I bet you taste divine...!"

[physalian]

Color in Fiction! (Once You See it, You Cannot Unsee it)

White versus black, red versus blue, Gatsby’s green light, Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, Belle’s blue dress.

Color is perhaps the most ubiquitous motif used across both fiction and reality to thread people or objects through a common theme, or to pit two ideologies against each other beyond their verbal spats. Color is also perhaps the simplest motif, but that doesn’t make it any lesser in its potency.

In fiction, color is an easy way for the audience to learn as fast as possible who’s on whose side, and who their opponents are, and today, we’re going to look at a few.

But first: Crash course into color theory:

Warmer colors evoke passion or uncertainty, movement and excitement, happiness and warmth, but also rage, aggression, love, and lust. The cooler colors evoke sadness and serenity, but also youth and spring and winter and death.

Most of the time when a creator wants to juxtapose color in a narrative or other work, they’re going to use inverses, just google one of the hundreds of teal and orange movie posters. Inverses are whatever colors lie at opposite sides of the wheel. Blue and Orange, Red and Green, Purple and Yellow. These pairs show up either in opposition, or as an ensemble of one character or a group or team.

Part 1: Black and White

Yes it has grounds in racism, but black and white are also accepted to mean chaos and order, good and evil, death and life.

In a show like Lost, themes of black and white are constant. The black and white backgammon pieces, the colors of the Dharma station logos, the show’s main title card, God stand-in Jacob (Lucifer from Supernatural), and his unnamed brother, the Man in Black.

Black and white show up *everywhere,* in some places subtler than others. In fiction with a male and female lead, if they are coded in black and white, the man is almost always the one in black. Black means strength and mystery and this deep, almost corrupted darkness. White is purity, femininity, youth, and nurturing, when a woman wears it, unless she's the villain.

Villains in white are very often surprise villains:

The White Witch (Chronicles of Narnia)

Saruman (Lord of the Rings)

President Coin (Hunger Games)

Hans (Frozen), Mayor Bellweather (Zootopia), Auto (Wall-E)

Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean is an interesting case. She begins the first movie wearing light colors and being trapped in the pure and lawful life of the governor’s daughter. She ends her arc in the third movie in solid black (through several costumes) a badass Pirate King and wife of the new Captain of the Flying Dutchman.

Men in black are chivalrous, dark knights, or morally grey vigilantes, silent badasses, or edgy badboys. Black is also of course reserved for villains a la Darth Vader, or Severus Snape and Voldemort and a million others. The "Black Knight" is his own trope, whether he's in a fantasy setting or not.

Women in black are temptresses, or seductive badasses. Black is the color of corruption, sin, and angst in western media 9 times out of 10 unless a narrative wants to subvert it.

I could do an entire essay on black and white in Lord of the Rings alone but here's a few other contrasts: The white Tower of Ecthelion, Minas Tirith, the "White City", the White Tree, Gandalf the White. The Black Riders, Black Speech, Black Land of Mordor, Orthanc (Saruman's Tower).

But you don’t have to make your character’s entire costumes black and white, no, you can just make their hair light and dark.

Part 2: Hair

**Possibly also because racism but we don’t have time to unpack all that right now**

When you have your male protagonist and his male foil, love interest, competition, companion, lancer, or villain, most of the time (in western media where blonds are in abundance) the more noble or “good” character of the two will be blond, the other brunet, especially in a love triangle. If two male characters have opposing ideologies on any level, they will often have opposing hair. A male and female lead duo will also tend to have opposing hair, but it’s most obvious what they’re doing when it’s two dudes and not just coincidence.

Here’s a nonexhaustive list, with the brunet first (ignoring if the adaptation was faithful):

Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamnee (LoTR)

Aragorn and Boromir (LoTR)

Aragorn and Theoden (LoTR)

Denethor and Faramir (LoTR)

Thorin and Bilbo (Hobbit)

Jack Shephard and James “Sawyer” Ford (Lost)

Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar (Brokeback Mountain) *Also have opposing hats*

Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight)

Tony Stark and Steve Rogers (Marvel)

Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers (Marvel)

Loki and Thor (Marvel)

Nico di Angelo and Will Solace (Percy Jackson)

Percy Jackson and Jason Grace (Percy Jackson)

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson (the Cumberbatch one)

Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester (Supernatural)

Edmund Pevensie and Peter Pevensie (Chronicles of Narnia)

Gale Hawthorne and Peeta Mellark (Hunger Games)

Damon Salvatore and Stefan Salvatore (Vampire Diaries)

Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby (2013 Gatsby)

Caledon Hockley and Jack Dawson (Titanic)

Notable nonexhaustive exceptions:

Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter)

Percy Jackson and Luke Castellan (Percy Jackson)

Jacob Black and Edward Cullen (Twilight)

Batman and Superman (DC Comics)

Luke Skywalker and Han Solo (Star Wars)

Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars) *wardrobe makes up for it*

*Feel free to tag the ones I missed

Not every brunet on the list is a “bad” guy, nor is every blond the “good” guy, but compared to each other, the brunet tends to be the more morally grey, the more corrupted, the one who’s ideologies end up getting them hurt or killed or proving them wrong. Or, the brunet faces more demons, has a darker personality, or tends to have a “shoot first ask questions later” philosophy.

This of course goes out the window if the media is set in a region or with a cast of characters who are meant to share similar features, like how there’s no blondes at all in Last Airbender (otherwise Aang would absolutely fit the pattern).

Whether that’s Frodo getting corrupted by the Ring and Sam being his rock, Jack Twist getting murdered while Ennis lives on, or the beloved Dark Knight and his bat-black demons while Harvey’s White legacy saves Gotham, next time you write a brunet and his blond competition, ask yourself just why you’re doing it.

*Side note, I’m pretty sure Harvey Dent, when he’s animated, is usually a brunet, but he’s also usually Two-Face by then and no longer a hero*

I don’t even have time for black and white in anime or the trope of the white-haired anime boy and since natural hair colors are kind of moot, I don’t think the same rules apply. But outside of the westernized “black knight vs white knight” I do want to dig deeper into color motifs in anime at some point.

Here's some notable dark and light dichotomies nonetheless in wardrobe and/or hair:

Kirito and Asuna (Sword Art Online)

Lelouch and Suzaku (Code Geass)

Midoriya and Bakugo (My Hero Academia)

L and Light (Death Note)

Medusa and Stein (Soul Eater)

Sasuke and Naruto (Naruto)

Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Eiji and Ash (Banana Fish)

Kyoya and Tamaki (OHSHC)

Yuri and Viktor (Yuri!!! On Ice)

Dracula and Alucard (Castlevania)

Part 3: Red v. Blue and everything in between

The megalith that is the color motif extends past the white/black dichotomy.

It’s also red and blue.

If red is pitted against blue in any story, red is always the team the audience is supposed to root against, unless this is sports. Red is the color of the Sith, the Fire Nation, red eyes are seen as evil, red is blood and rage and wrath and fire. Red is the color of evil empires. Blue is the color of heroes. It’s water and healing and camaraderie, serenity. Blue is the color of rebels and underdogs.

Red versus blue is in everything from the color of lightsabers in Star Wars to the color of cybertronian eyes in Transformers, to the color of the Water Tribes and Fire Nations (with some exceptions a la Azula’s blue fire) to the colors of the pills in the Matrix. Red is the ‘dangerous’ choice, blue is the ‘safe’ choice. Unless your character is patriotically sporting the red, white and blue of the UK, USA, or France.

Villains usually only wear blue if they're ice-coded, or belong to a faction wearing navy blue uniforms.

Red versus blue also shows up between leaders and their lancers. The first one I can think up off the top of my head is Robin and Raven from Teen Titans.

Purple is also usually lumped in with the bad guys and green with the good guys, but purple and green also show up a ton as contrasting colors of the same character like the Hulk or the Joker. But both can swing either way. The Decepticons in the early cartoons for Transformers had purple everywhere and reclaimed it in Transformers: Prime. Megatron, Soundwave, Shockwave, the Vehicons, Airachnid, and the Dark Star Saber, and some G1s]. Prime also has three sets of red-blue dichotomies within their factions: [Arcee/Cliffjumper, Optimus/Ratchet, and Knockout/Breakdown].

Green is the color of more Jedi, and the Green Lanterns, but green also represents sickness or disease or generic evil energy a la Loki, Dr. Facilier (Princess and the Frog) or the Hyenas and Scar in the Lion King.

Pink is really up in the air, as is orange and yellow, especially when it comes to female characters, especially female anime characters.

But enough about color dichotomy.

Part 4: Color Singularity

Color singularly is either meant to evoke a specific emotion, like using blue everywhere to represent sadness, or it’s meant to be a bold statement in an otherwise grayscale world.

I mentioned a few at the top of the post and I’ll elaborate on them here:

In Great Gatsby, green and yellow are very important colors. The “green light” is this real object at the end of the titular character’s love interest’s dock. This light and this color are motifs that represent Gatsby’s longing for Daisy and to return to a glorious past he can never have again (it’s also the color of American money). Yellow is also everywhere in this book. It’s the color of his chekov’s car and several dresses at his extravagant party. Yellow is the color of his current life of glitz and glam and riches (and is also the color of gold). If you listen to one of the accompanying songs to the 2013 film, Florence and the Machine’s “Over the Love” recognizes the importance of yellow in the narrative.

Dorothy’s red slippers in the Wizard of Oz are hyperbolically bold, especially since the movie starts out in black and white. Color is a huge piece of this film- the Emerald City, the Yellow Brick Road, the horse of many colors. Red scientifically is the color humans tend to notice first, those shoes were made to be remembered. Color in Wizard of Oz is the symbol of the fantastical, which was really helped by the time the film was made and simply seeing so much color on screen dazzled audiences.

Red catches your eye faster than any other color, and red in a world of black and white sticks in your mind, just look at Schindler’s List.

Belle from Beauty and the Beast, along with a lot of fictional women wear blue. Blue is biblically Mary’s color, and at one time was the color marketed to women before the shift to “blue for boys”. In the original Beauty and the Beast, Belle was the only character who wore blue, because she was an outsider, and outlier, a free-thinker. Or at least, Belle is the only one who wears blue until she dances with the Beast. The live-action remake didn’t maintain this extra level of the narrative and that’s a shame.

I didn't mention eye color much above (also maybe because racism) but blue eyes, especially animated blue and green eyes, go to characters who are more hopeful, heroic, nurturing, morally just, honest, or brave than their brown-eyed counterparts, unless he's a blue-eyed Tall, Dark, and Handsome. Blue-eyed people tend to be blond, so the traits go hand in hand for the "good" character.

Weirdly enough, this also applies to blue-eyed animal characters -- your animated anthropomorphised villain is rarely going to be drawn with eyes that aren't brown, black, green, red, orange, or yellow.

Because color is also a subliminal or overt way of foreshadowing in both written and visual media as much as any other motif and recurring symbol. You can foreshadow death, or impending doom, or an eventual identity reveal, whatever you want.

You can also subvert the usual associations with specific colors. Black doesn’t have to mean evil in your world. Black can be life, too. White doesn’t have to be pure, white can be clinical and sterile and lifeless (but please no more lady villains in white pantsuits, that's its own cliche at this point). Shake it up a bit every once in a while.

So whether it’s dueling ideologies or the very forces of good and evil, a harbinger of doom or a secret tell, or community and camaraderie, or an enduring hope, you can represent it all with a careful dose of color.

[atalienart]

As a woman, honestly I am way more invested in MMC's because their stories are usually more varied and interesting; female-lead stories are almost always one of two things when you boil it down - romance or revolution (sometimes both if it's a dystopia/romantasy). Either the point of the story is to give the reader something to ship, or it's a very obvious message about one or several of the injustices of the world. And nothing is wrong with either of that, don't get me wrong, but I personally don't read because I want steam or to be preached at/reminded of real life problems. I just want a good goddamn story. And I can name WAY more books and book series I've read that actually gave me that where the main lead was male rather than female.

One of the few exceptions to this general rule is when the lead is a child, like Alice in Wonderland, Coraline, or The Wee Free Men, because in those cases the MC is too young for either romance or social justice; their goals are usually much simpler and, to me, more relatable (wanting adventure, wanting to go home, wanting to find a lost family member, etc). Unfortunately most books with young leads are also written for young readers, which, again, nothing wrong with that, but it would be nice to have YA or even adult books with child leads where the plot is allowed to be a bit more mature and dark.

Granted, most of what I've said is based on my experiences with middle grade and YA books, so take it with a grain of salt. But to me it says something (about my personal tastes at least) that out of my top ten favorite book series ever, six were written by female authors with male MC's, three by male authors with male MC's, and one by a male author with a female MC (but the name of the series is that of the MMC).

That's true, usually the MMC's stories are more personal, the FMC often fights for the greater good. I honestly can't stand the "fight the government" plot and whenever I hear "for fans of The Hunger Games" I run in the opposite direction. As for the romance, I love it, but it's usually written in a way I don't find appealing.

And yeah, I mean, real life problems can be shown in unobtrusive way but it's easier to just show a problem and say "look, this is really bad". What authors forget about is problems come from something, they have a source and have layers and nuances. Also behind the "wanting adventure, wanting to go home, wanting to find a lost family member" needs to be hiding something else too, otherwise the story would be really shallow in my opinion idk. But I agree that often characters don't have personal goals. What do they actually want? Throwing off the government always seems like an afterthought, just because it supposed to be the right thing to do. And romances are also pretty weird, the aim is just to get laid and have a baby. Also as much as I like romance plots, I also love when the characters have some other interactions.

You like YA but I wish to read more books about grown-up people. And dark themes are great but I need some hope at the end too. I'm really tired of choosing between YA and grimdark. I'd like something without the grimy roughness of male fantasy filled with worldbuilding and dry history but also something without black and white morality and always right MC who fights for everyone that's common in female fantasy.

Also, I'm super interested in you favourite books!

[panlight]

can I be anon pls? i saw an old post where you said you weren't 'shippy' and i'm just wondering, not to be rude, but what's the point of fandom if you're not shipping characters? that's like . . . the whole thing isn't it?

Not rude at all! It sure seems to be the way a lot of people engage in fandom!

For me, though, what I mean about not being shippy is that I personally tend to not get super invested in romantic pairings. Tell me the story, and then I'll decide if I like it or not, but I very rarely find myself screaming at the TV/Book/Whatever "JUST KISS ALREADY!!" If I am going to 'ship' something, it's usually me being like "oh, this Established Couple is very cute" but the "will they/won't they" pairings or love triangles don't interest me much. So in Twilight or the The Hunger Games it was never like, "omg I hope she picks Edward/Jacob/Peeta/Gale!!" I was curious about where the story might go, but I wasn't ever actively cheering for one over the other.

I really loved The Good Place, but got just the tiniest bit annoyed in later seasons when most of the mains got paired off because I liked the ensemble. But it didn't ruin it or anything, I just didn't super care about any of the pairings. I wasn't watching it for romance, I liked the unique setting, the lore, the characters as individuals and as a group.

Another example is Good Omens (what's with the 'Good' theme?). I loved the first season. Loved the lore, loved all the fun characters, loved Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship over the millennia, all great. I was kind of bored with the second season, though, because it became much more insular, much more 'the Aziraphale and Crowley show,' which a lot of people already saw it as, but I hadn't seen it that way previously. I missed the bigger plot, higher stakes and larger ensemble of the first season.

In fandom spaces I'm just generally more interested in lore, in backstory, in characters as individuals or ensembles than I am in romantic pairings. I don't dislike the romance! But I tend to prefer it as part of a larger overall plot rather than the main focus. "Why did you even read Twilight, then?" you ask. I was reading it as a vampire story, not as a romance. I sort of naively thought after the first book established E/B as a couple the other books would be more about their adventures navigating the vampire world. It didn't really go that way, obviously, but by then I was invested in the (mostly secondary) characters so I persisted, and the lore is interesting, even if I interpreted the vampires as darker and sadder than the happy ending suggests.

[maagicmushies]

Nen Talks #3 Kurapika

Hey. You got a free hour or two to spare? If not, fuck off because we're talking about Kurapika's abilities, their symbolism and their connection to his story line and this will be a yap session because he is one of the most storied characters in the series with the highest number of abilities.

So, I think for Kurapika it mostly makes sense to talk about how Nen abilities in chronological order, starting with the Dousing Chain. It's a silver chain with a ball at the end attached to his ring and while it is Kurapika's main chain for combat, the real interesting thing is that the name isn't just for show. Dousing Chain can be used to read maps and tell lies. We're already starting strong because Kurapika is someone who HATES being lied to or even having information withheld for him. All hunters are greedy to an extent, because to be a hunter means to constantly want something that you don't have. Kurapika is this with information, he (unintentionally) compromised the safety of his entire clan just because he wanted to experience more, learn more. The Dousing Chain is this hunger for knowledge taken to it's full form. You cannot lie to Kurapika, nor can you hide anything from him.

His next chain is the Chain Jail on his middle finger and no, I don't think that is a coincidence. It's a gesture brimming with spite and anger and how Kurapika binds the Phantom Troupe. There is more to say about Chain Jail, but it's better saved for a little later on. Next up is the Holy Chain, allowing Kurapika to heal himself or others. This one is almost purely subtext, but Kurapika has a lot of holy themes tied to him. He wears a monk's garb as his primary design for the Yorkshin arc and his primary adversary, Chrollo, has a lot of "anti-christ" theming going on with that evil bible, a cloak adorned with St. Peter's Cross and his twelve disciples. Kurapika is the holy soldier on a mission of righteousness while Chrollo is the embodiment of everything that Kurapika strives to avoid.

The turning point in Kurapika's abilities is the reveal of Emperor Time. It's not a chain, but instead a state he enters when his emotions reach a fever pitch and his eyes go scarlet. Instead of Kurapika being a Conjurer with 100% potential in conjuration with diminishing returns everywhere, it turns him into a specialist with 100% potential everywhere. This is the ability of someone who wants to do everything on their own. Hunter x Hunter's cast is initially set up like one of Togashi's previous works, Yu Yu Hakusho where everyone has their own strengths and no one can truly do anything on their own. However, Kurapika defies this, breaking away from everyone and trying to find any way to be his own team. It's not that he's selfish, it's just that this is HIS holy war and doesn't see the need to drag his friends into it. This aspect of Kurapika isn't just spiritually destructive, but physically destructive because late in the manga it is revealed that there is another restriction tied to Emperor Time. One second for the Emperor shaves off one second of Kurapika's life. As his search for his clan's eyes gets harder, he needs to use Emperor Time more and more. No one really knows how much time Kurapika has left. We just know that he has lost at least 6 years of what he would have had originally, and likely much more than that. After he completes his quest, that might be it. He might just fully burn out. Kurapika has acknowledged this possibility... and is mostly ok with it. Just like Gon and Killua (and his arch nemesis, Chrollo), he doesn't have a ton of self worth, that's what allows him to grab ahold to this great power in such a short time and leads well into the Judgement Chain on his pinkie. Judgement Chain forces someone into an oath with Kurapika and if the oath is broken, the chain which is wrapped around the heart will crush the heart, killing them instantly. I think the allusion to "pinkie promise" might be intentional? As said earlier, oaths and truths are a big thing to Kurapika, so this makes sense but the real tragic thing here is that Kurapika has used Judgement Chain on himself. In order to stop himself from going out of control on his revenge quest, he has made a Judgement Chain vow with himself to only use Chain Jail on Phantom Troupe members. Failure to acquiesce will kill him. Kurapika... still doesn't really know what will happen if he accidentally uses it on someone who isn't a troupe member. It's this lack of foresight and lack of self worth that keeps showing up for him, Kurapika just keeps digging down with no plan on how to get back up and seems to be resigned to the idea that he may never get back up.

The final chain and the one I likely have the least to say about is the Steal Chain. It's his index finger. It basically sucks someone's aura out of their body and then gives that aura (and the ability carried within it) to an ally using Stealth Dolphin. Steal Chain holds a similar role to Chain Jail in Kurapika's characterization, this idea that some nen users are terrible people who need to be chained to hell, having all of their godly nen powers removed. Kurapika really likes this idea because he even uses Judgement Chain to impose this on Chrollo. It fits into that religious theming that keeps coming up with Kurapika, his mission is one of righteousness or at least that's how he sees it.

There are largely two forms of story telling done through nen in Hunter x Hunter. One form hints at a characters backstory and struggles and how they've evolved past it while the other hints at the core of who the character really is. Kurapika's skillset is a fantastic case of the latter, because you get such a vivid picture painted just by knowing what these does. His obsession with truths and oaths, his religious subtext with the troupe and his lack of self worth. It's all communicated through his chains and eyes and this is honestly a fantastic showcase of what a "main character" ability looks like for this series.

[humanradiojmp]

Murder Drones Episode 8 Blind Reaction Part 2

Contains spoilers

Cyntessa’s “kay” feels like her version of “I love doing anything.” so cocky and up for anything, but that might just be her downfall.

Guys, the nightcore song is called “BiteMe!” Can this get any better?

It actually has some motifs similar to “Uzi the Drone Killer”, arguably one of the main music themes of the series, so yes, it can.

NOOO! Not Uzi stabbing N! It’s probably a trap or a trick, but still.

Bye J

I mean, yes, but no. Or like a number of blinks and winks

Not using N’s love of dogs against him. or more like the good memories they had before this whole thing

Guys pay attention! V is fighting the abomination alone!

I like the “Let them swallow you” lyric to represent the solver’s insatiable hunger

How you like it now Cyn?

Bit of a callback to the fact they are vampires, or vampire adjacent. The burning in the sun just felt like an appropriate ending for the abomination that’s been haunting everything

Is it over?

The solver has gotten eaten. And their reaction is priceless

But won’t that corrupt/take over Uzi now? or even kill her? that’d be a tragic way to go. Destroyed the monster but you destroyed yourself in the process.

Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, e-

Oh no, she’s dead!

Nvm, we’re good. but is it over? Truly?

We really needed more Thad, honestly. So much characterization gone to waste

Heh, like mother, like daughter.

You could say their hearts are connected. Hope there’s a proper reunion. Please. Please. PLEASE! They’re literally soulmates.

OMG girl, seriously, OC?

But in all seriousness, the battle scars for what she’s gone through is such a nice touch. Her half toned eyes are there to show what happened happened, and she came out alive

And we all know everyone is going to have at least one oc with this new canon trait

It really is a hero’s journey. It came full circle. Now she’s more assured of herself, has friends, and the colony is safe.

We stan a supportive Khan. Character growth.

Not Doll’s corpse!

She’s still a chaos gremlin

Also can we just take a minute to appreciate how far the animation has come from the first episode to now? everyone at Glitch should be proud of their improvement. This series is a testament to their efforts and skills and it’s absolutely wonderful.

I really like how the end credits show everything that’s happened and how it’s changed. Like the partial solver symbol over the planet, Khan and Nori did get a reunion (YEEEEESSSS!) and N finally getting his rummy game.

DOLL?!?!?!?!

Liam Vickers 2D animation, nice touch

The funeral for Doll deserved

And the kids can be kids now. also deserved.

Honestly, everyone who’s worked on this should get a round of applause and a big ol’ “Thank You!” From the production to the voice acting, to the animation, to the sound and music, to the crazy ideas in general that happen to work so well. Thank you so much for making this series a reality. I may have gotten into it later than some others, but I love this show as much as those who’s been there day one. It is a little sad to see it’s done, but I’m also glad it ended as well as it did.

Cyn lives in Uzi’s mind now

F O R E V E R

first part

[popculturebuffet]

May as well pop this, let's try the Adult Swim cartoons. Favorite character from their initial wave of shows: Space Ghost Coast to Coast (technically started on Cartoon Network first before Adult Swim began in 2001 but it gets lumped in as Adult Swim these days), Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Seelab 2021, The Brak Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Home Movies (began on UPN but continued production under Adult Swim). Throwing in Baby Blues, Mission Hill, and The Oblongs as bonuses that began on The WB but also finished on Adult Swim when The WB didn't bother finishing airing them.

Thank you. I may gloss over some later stuff, and you don't seem as into adult animation, so I appricate this. (And correct me if i'm wrong on that). Plus I can see you like doing these. But I grew up on the shows in this block's early days and some of it's middle days, so let's cook.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast: Moltar. IT's a hard choice as the main trio as a whole are all uniquely great, but I love his awkwardness and hidden monstrosity. And his attempts at knife fights. Coast to Coast is excellent and well worth checking out if you haven't. It's funny, got only funnier with time, and a handful of it's best stuff lives rent free in my head, something common among a lot of adult swim shows. And while this did predate adult swim, Space Ghost feels like why the block happened at all and it's earliest shows that weren't taken from the WB or UPN all kinda ape the formula of taking a classic cartoon and bending it, and joined it as soon as the block formed. Without it we woudln't have all these other great shows... I mean we might but it's a razor thin margin. It had a perfect comedic trio of the egotistical stupid manchild spaceghost, the cooler but blantatly evil and self destructive zorak and the also evil but awkward as hell moltar. A true classic and I badly miss C Martin Croker who played Zorak and Moltar and wrote this classic.

Harvey BIrdman Attorney at Law: WHOSE THAT CAT WITH THE BEAKKKKKKKKKKK? This theme song is dope as hell and is the reason this got made. Okay so faviorite character is Phil. HA HA obvious choice. But Stephen Colbert owns every scene he's in as Phil and the show rolls with it as it goes, letting Phil just getting into weird fucking hyjinks, the highlight being blackwatch plad where he hallucinates several things that never existed being stolen, somehow reads harvey's thoughts and institutes code rush's seminal album moving pictures. This show was a lot of funa nd introduced me to the bulk of hannah barbera's catalogue, finding fun ways to deconstruct the classic libraries from Fred as Tony Soprano to leaning on the fact Shaggy isn't actually a stoner but really, REALLY comes off as one, while getting better as it went by expanding on it's own weird cast, with Peter Potamus in paticular being pretty great. Add in some great Stephen Colbert performances before he had to leave for his own show, a killer soundtrack and one of Gary Cole's best performances as our bumbling hero just kind of ping ponged around by his clients and zany boss, and you have a show I now really want to rewatch. Adult swim would have better and shows I rewatched more, but the power of attorney is still strong to this day.

The Brak Show: Dad. George Lowe is just allowed to go into incredibly weird places with this man and I support it. The show itself is an underated classic these days, and while I try not to be too old man yelling at those them kids, this is a show the younger set who didn't grow up with it shoudl check out as it's absurd goodness. Brak started on space ghost and cartoon planet, but was too big to contain resulting in this lovely bit of nonsense that defined what an adult swims how not riffing on a cartoon could be. I mean it still did a little as it kept brak and zorak from space ghost but recast them as a loveable teen dummy and an agent of chaos.. the same people but in a new scenario that let them go hog wild. The show even got experimental as it went with batshit weirdness like Braklet Prince of Spaceland that puts the cast in hamlet (And dad as hamle'ts dad sans pants) or all I desire is you where the cast is suddenly in a soap opera). It's good stuff with a psycho musical, an election where Dad claims his opponent is killing pets with pet bombs nad fails the instant he actually has to debate, and of course

Sealab 2021: Accidently put this one out of order but it might be my faviorite of this batch, with one other jockeying for the crown. Captain Murphy is my faviorite and while the show had a few classics after his actor Harry Goz's tragic passing, it never felt quite the same. Sealab 2021 is the first abriged series and a damn good one. While the show skidded at times, at it's peak this was just pure comedic chaos under the sea, and the cast bounced off each other amazingly. The show wasn't afraid to experiment either and out of the shows here, while brak dabbled later, seemed to do it the most and made it stand out: as early as the end of season 1 we got a waking life full episode take, an episode following the cast as actors on the show, my personal faviorite tinfins that takes this concept and applies it to the making of a movie, a backwards episode, and one repeating the same running gag with variations over and over. The show had a great ensemble, mostly anchored by goz and later his son, and cemented Adam Reed as a legend in adult comedy.

Home Movies: Coach McGurik. It was John Benjamins brekout: While Dr Katz had welcomed him tot he world, McGurik made him a star and would eventually lead him to bob and archer, and he's still one of his best roles, a sardonic drunk who bonds with kids, yet also should not be around them and once claimed BRENDON SMALL IS ON DRUGS and tried to get a bunch of children to do an intervention.

I could honestly quote McGuirk moments all day and he frankly stole the show half the time, to the point the bulk of later seasons has him in his own weird b-plot, from gambing on a boat with the host of his seminar, to buying a bunch of swords when drunk, to telling a bunch of kids to go upstairs in a hurricane because being in the same rooms mean they'll all bump into each other. The last one isn't a subplot, it's just comedy gold.

The show had an easy dry improved style: While they did put in scripts after the first season, it was still mostly "get to this point" and let Brendon Small, a voice acting and comedy legend in his own right, and co cook. The result is a funny show with detailed charcters: Narccisitc control freak at only the third grade brendon, entirely out of it jason, only sane woman till she isn't melissa and Brendon's mom Paula who alternates between voice of reason to her child and her life being a hurricane. It's one of the best shows Adult Swims ever made and they hit the jackpot pickign it up

Mission Hill: Gus. While the joke could easily be "GET IT THE GUY IS REALLY MANLY BUT HE'S GAYYYY" they let him go beyond that and while his queerness is integral to who he is, he's also funny> We also get that great subplot of a knife just.. jutting out of his shoulder for a whole episode. The show itself is pretty good and worth a revisit from me, a nice hipster's pardise. The odd couple coulld get boring but Andy and Kevin play off each other well: Andy does need to grow the hell up, and I like the reveal both of his friends, while also cooler than thou slackers.. do actually have stable jobs. not saying a 9 to 5 job is growing up, I don't have one, but more that andy needed to change as a person and the series lets him grow, while Kevin bursts out of his shella nd misconceptions. The show was too good to last and i'm sad the spinoff fell apart. It was fantastic.

Baby Blues: Carl. What could easily be just the more grumbly testorone guy to the goofy darryl is a pretty fun slob. The show itself was solid. Is it anything like the comic strip? Honestly not really, having read the strip both early and not: It does deal with the difficulties of having a baby (Something Zoey was for the early years of the strip), but it's more it's own thing and honestly finding baby blues mid, that's a good thing as the show baby blues is pretty solid. Nothing super standout, but still memorable enough to stick in the brain.

The Oblongs: Down in the Valley where the chemical spill. Pickles. it was, unbenownst to me my first experince with jean smart and it's a good one. This is a show i'll give another shot someday as I wasn't a huge fan as a kid but in hindsight. it's really good. not nearly as mean spirited as I thought.

[weirdcat1213]

Hi....If you don't mind me asking, can I ask, what are your top 7 favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series/etc) and your top 7 favorite (fictional) characters from any media? Why do you love them all? Sorry if you've answered this questions before......

Hello :D

omg i get to yell about things I like, exciting!

first im going to go with my top 7 in no special order cuz I would never be able to decide

Trigun (98, manga and stampede): I've talked WAY to much about this one but holy shit has impacted my life. The story, the characters, the pain THE SWEET SWEET PAIN MY GOD. It just mixes a lot of tropes/themes I really like. And we have 3 versions of it! How cool is that?

Steven Universe: again another classic. Discovered the show when I was young and it just grabbed my soul. Very formative and influential while I was growing up. So soft and p a i n f u l l as all thins should be :3. Plus the music is a banger. Like to this day ik songs from it. Favorite one is change btw.

Legend series (book series): no one paid attention to this series because it came out the same time as divergent and hunger games and other big titles. But I was! And it's still one of the best book series I've ever read. It totally has the 2013-2015 vibes (except for the latest one in the series, rebel) but it's....honest. not only because all the struggles in the book are real but also because the author really believes in her characters. She created them but also let them become people. Plus the writing is amazing and her description of specific moments and emotions UGH I have a huge post about it because of how cool it is. I still remember opening the first book and getting SLAPPED by the first line. Yes it's that good.

Signalis: newish game :D saw lesbians, saw violence and I was on board but I never thought the game would make me think and stare at the wall that much. So far I've played it 5 times and going for a 6th. It's so abstract and no one can decide on what's true or not but that's part of its beauty. Really clever and interesting game. Nothing is real, only lesbians with guns.

Our Flag Means Death: cool show that was about queer NOT IN THEIR TEENAGE YEARS??? IN THIS ECONOMY??? AND NOT ABOUT AIDS (sorry pose I still love you). Of course it won me over because of the queerness but also the characters themselves. It was nice to see myself in a lot of them, personality and racially wise. The fun gay pirates came to my house, destroyed my life and also gave me life. Easy as that.

Pose fx: don't like the main writer of the show too much but the rest of them ATE WITH THIS. A story about black queer woman PORTRAYED BY BLACK QUEER WOMEN. It deals with the aids crisis through the lenses of trans women and gay men but the thing in that show that blew me away was the love for femininity and the community they created around it. They actually took their abandoned and traumatized selves and became someone. They formed families that actual give support and I'm a sucker for found family. I've cried many times because I wanted Blanca to adopt me. 10/10 show about overcoming shit circumstances and the importance of community. What if I cried again.

Houseki no Kuni (manga and anime): weird manga that I've been following for YEARS because its so fucking good. The anime is beautiful and captivating af and honestly the whole thing needs to be analyzed by a Buddhist. it makes me want to learn about that religion so i can understand more. but yeah its sad, its hype, and once again its about gay rock MMM my favorite. you dont know the hours i spent looking for videos/animatic about it. hard to explain but i like to describe it as "human growth: the manga/anime"

Maybe it seems like I don't watch many movies and it's kinda true! I'm more of a shows person. but there are movies i like. maybe another day

Now onto my favorite characters but again I can't decide so this is in no special order. Also because I can't decide I'm giving the spotlight to characters that are not from the media mentioned above (for example if you dont see vash in here is because i yell about him enough like. 3 times minimum per month). Because I can. Because I'm normal about media and stories i like.

1.Steven (su): MY BOY MY MOON AND STARS. ok a lot of this list is about characters i relate to, but this one is the og. this mf is one of the kindest, awesome yet misunderstood characters of all time. theres so much rage and trauma in this little guy but there are many other feelings that get lowkey explored in the main show until BOOM the emotions explode in su future. its amazing how complex my son is. im so lucky that i got to grow up along side him in a way. and in another way it was nice to see myself kinda represented in him? fun times.

2.Tifa (ffvii): PRETTY RECENT BUT SHES THE COOLEST. ejem sorry. i love cloud, zach and the others from the game but tifa doesnt get the recognition she deserves. she survived so many tragedies and became stronger because of it. not only in body but also in mind. however she also became cautious and tries to not explode in front of others. she tries to be a safe place for people, even when shes scared. i think thats pretty admirable of her. i would say more but i dont want to risk spoiling the game but there are little moments and scenes where she just tries to be there for people because she has no one in her life anymore and fuck it makes me sad. also shes pretty hot-

3.Elektra (pose): MY QUEEN. shes just. evil sometimes. shes really a bitch to most of the characters but DAMN SHES COOL WHEN SHE IS. elektra knows she was born with a huge disadvantage in life so she grabs power like a mf and bites it. i kinda aspire to be that, to not let anyone get in my way. she just really speaks to the part of me that has bigger ambitions. but shes also smart and caring (when shes not being a bitch) and every time the world puts her down she stands up and kicks the world again. she's the power of femininity itself and yes i also think shes hot (i mean look at those cheeks of thunder) but shes like a fucking storm in a person and how i can not love that? We love poc people in power.

4.Phos (houseki no kuni): This fucking child (they're a child in my eyes) is so important to me for weird reasons. I got deep into hnk when I was in my sabbatical year. It was a time where I didn't know where I would go and phos seemed to be in a similar place. To this day it surprises me how ichikawa managed to create a "simple" character and then by all definitions made them human. I like their journey, the transformations they went through, the stages they went to cope or to confront their situation. Plus the design is pretty affff

5.Edward Teach (ofmd): I just.....really connected with this guy ok? The feeling of always being at the bottom so if you are going to rise your only option is to make people fear you but that's not true BOY HE LEFT NO CRUMBS WITH THAT WHOLE THING. he was just really cool when he entered the show and then it was "oh this guy is really fucked up actually" and he's so funny and MORE OLD POC QUEERS? FUCK YEAH. but i guess what puts him on top for me is how he explored himself and his needs. All that while being funny and tragic and gay. Really cool.

6.Anthy (revolutionary girl utena): MY DAUGHTER RRRRAAAAHHH. Anthy is a really tragic and complex character. to this day i cannot put together every reason why shes my favorite from utena. Shes tragic and my god the things she goes through break my heart every time I think about it but...shes also incredibly strong and funny and a weird keeping animals in her room. The creators did an excellent job showing her lack of agency and how she already had given up, but also showed her humanity and wish to retain things in her life that gave her joy. And movie anthy? That girl is a no nonsense girl. She will get her girlfriend no matter what from the people who abused her. She left that fucking school as a mature, smart and kind adult. We fucking stan.

7. Richard (requiem of the rose king): another recent acquired son. Idk why this one hit so much and honestly for how short the manga is (79 chapters) they did such a good job with him???? Banger themes and metaphors, banger character moments, banger GENDER moments. I've seen a few people not being able to take him seriously but idk, ir sounded honest and serious to me. A kid who has been told since birth they were a demon became one to survive but not really. Because no one with his wish can fully be a demon. Idk maybe it's cheesy but his quest for love and acceptance was a banger in my eyes (please read the manga. We can leave the anime behind). Also I like him cuz he's cool and is a character I CAN ACTUALLY COSPLAY THANK GOD-

AND THOSE ARE SOME CHARACTERS AND SOME PIECES OF MEDIA I LIKE :D IF ANYONE WANTS MORE PLS ASK.

[idv-news-boi]

Interviewing Fallen Stars~ [Act 1]

Ft. @idv-ask-the-showman (this has been proofread.)

Note// This is content in means to feature residents that are active in Olectus Manor :)

____

{At Laurence's Studios}

Laurence// Good morning, fellas!!! *cheers and music can be heard in the bg* Today is a new beginning once again! I'm Laurence Godfrey, your local reporter of Oletus Times!

Laurence// Welcome to "Interviewing Fallen Stars!" Show~ ✨️🎉

Laurence// The honored guest for this month is going to be....

.

.

.

Phineas// HEYYYYYYY!!! >:DD 🎉✨️<- {Phineas Smith, the Bitterfly Showman} *kicks the box that has been hiding him out of the way */ih

Laurence// Alright, my friend! Feel yourself at home. :)

Phineas// Oh yes, I really feel like I'm still sitting on my couch- *leans back on the guest armchair dramatically* But of course... THERE IS NO OTHER PLACE LIKE HOME~~ (n3n)✨️

Laurence// Well said, my man! And well, how are you doing?

Phineas// I'm doing wonderful...! Fantastic! supercalifragilisticexpialidocious~!!!

Laurence// I love your spirit! Well, here are some questions some people may like to know about you... Would it be alright if I address each of them? ^^✨️

Phineas// OH-✨️ That’s perfectly great! Hit me up, I'll do all my best to answer them all. >:)

Laurence// Excellent, and no worries! We have all day. B))✨️

...

What's the inspiration that created his circus? Like even the origin of its name?

“oh! MANY generations ago, my ancestors were poor and hardly had a penny to their name. But there were a pair of twins, a girl and a boy, who were skilled with some card tricks and dances. They put their skills into use after seeing how their parents struggle to meet their needs. They would always go at night to the public gardens and perform there underneath the moonlight for a living, surprisingly catching ppl’s attention...."

"They would talk about the beautiful girl who dance among the butterflies of the garden and the boy with the beautiful blue gem like eyes and charming smile, shocking everyone with his card tricks. By how much attention they had gotten, they earned a lot of money and managed to save their family from dying from hunger..."

"They didn’t stop after that though, and instead continued it and invited the rest of their family to join in, they decided they would open a circus (aka the Butterfly of the Blue Moon) and travel the world to not only for their needs, but also spread the joy and happiness they also feel~”

What regions did the circus used to travel in Europe?

“The circus normally stays in one place for a whole year before moving to another. It was at first limited around Europe and mostly Germany yet we managed to expand the horizons at the end! Later on, we started to go to other nations as well as we could while recruiting more people along the way. That is how our circus has many people from multiple backgrounds!”

What should the audience know you as? Either by name or occupation

“I do not mind what my beloved audience calls me, as long as it is not disrespectful!! Normally, I would like to have a closer bond with them, and if they just call me by my name!”

What does the circus offer for one's entertainment and delight?

“The Circus offers all kinds of entertainment that has never seen before! We proud ourselves by our unlimited imagination and how far we are willing to go just to draw a happy smile on everyone faces~ There is a reason why it was ranked #1 after all, so it's worth to come and see it yourself~! hehehe.”

When do performances usually start?

“hmm~ it depends, but normally we start the main shows around nighttime when the moon is high in the sky! But there would still be mini shows that start around daytime.”

Are there any times or days where you can contact Phineas for questions?

“You can hang out with me around the afternoon, where I normally be in the greenhouse and enjoy my afternoon tea time break!”

What's with the theme about butterflies from his performances?

“The butterflies were always around when the twins were performing, giving how the garden was full of them, so it became a tradition in the circus to always have butterflies fly as the crest. They fly around freely, and we make sure they are treated well. There are times you can find the butterflies roaming around, or even having the performers wear butterfly themed outfits!”

What do you like and dislike?

“I dislike heats and close tied places… it brings bad memories… I especially also dislike it when someone talk about my own death without me allowing them to. As for what I like~… hmm~ MAN, there is a lot! But you can say one of them is enjoying some theatre shows and hanging out with my friends!”

Favorite holiday? Favorite food?

"I like Christmas! The nice cold wind and the beautiful atmosphere you get when hanging out with your family, ahh~ such a priceless feeling!” “As for the food, it would be none-sugar apple pie! My nanny used to make it a lot of times for me!”

What are your thoughts when receiving gifts from fans or admirers?

“oh~ the sheer joy and happiness I get when I receive a gift from my beloved fans is just over the moon!! I would even start feeling bad since I wouldn’t have something to return the favour, so I tend to either invite them for a small mini tea party or I go out of my way to get them something, hahah!”

...

Laurence// Well, these are all the questions for you so far! Everyone, if there are any more things you want to ask to Phineas. Let him know!

Phineas// YESSS! I’m always at the certain butterfly trailer door if anyone needs me- you might find it easily, it's not so far from Laurence's door after all~!

Laurence// Thank you so much for coming over, Phineas! Want a cup of lemon tea? :DD

Phineas// Don't mention it! And you don't bother to offer... I'm already drinking from the jug~ ^^ *sipping from a huge cup of tea *

Laurence// *notices that his jug of tea in his hand is now empty* Huh...??? Oh, Oh well,,,,;;; 🤣😅

THE END

[faerywhimsy]

Vamptember Day 24 -FREE DAY

I am a huge fan of book to TV adaptations, so much so that a portion of my Honours thesis was actually dedicated to that particular portion of media.

The Hunger Games books and movies offer a perfect example of so much of what I love about it; a series of books that are from a limited 1st person perspective, then expanded out into a series of not just three but four movies to make room for perspectives that are hinted at within the books, yet given no explicit voice given the nature of the perspective choice.

But even a faithful adaptations can turn sour is when enough of the central themes of a story get overturned over the course of a longer running series. I’m thinking Game of Thrones here. That first season was almost a play by play of the first novel. Things like the Red- and Purple Weddings later occurred more or less as expected, though timelines of surrounding events were fudged. There were some really cool graphics made on this topic back in the day.

And then... well, we got the last 3 seasons, didn't we? What a disappointment (sorry Jacob, you're an actor capable of doing things that are very subtle, but that show let you down).

Reimaginings can likewise be good or bad, but they have built into them a bit more leeway. Where these usually turn sour is around the time they fully abandon the source material. This is mostly your ‘loosely inspired by’ stuff. It’s putting a name on the door that’s generated to sell tickets. I’m trying to think of a good example of this, but the stuff I haven’t liked doesn’t tend to stick in my head because I’ve usually moved on by then. At their strongest, reimaginings bring well thought out and updated content to a fandom.

BBC's reimagining in Sherlock was innovative when they brought Conan Doyal's characters into the modern day. They succeeded in doing that because what they kept sacred, at least to begin with, was the relationships between the characters and the overarching themes that came from that. By doing only those two things, they were able to reinvent satisfying ways to touch on the main plot points of the original stories.

That team also, sadly, offered a cautionary tale of what happens when such a project deviates too far from its source material.

The reimagining in AMC's Interview with the Vampire is far more ambitious and therefore complex in what it proposes, with an equal half of its story existing in a space that will be close to what was written in the books. I genuinely hope they end up succeeding with their ambition. Part of that is that it's not pretending to be any sort of directly faithful adaptation.

The first hint? The entire premise of S1: It’s 2022 and Louis invites Daniel for a second interview. That just didn't occur in the books.

This one change brings the story straight into the modern day, which is easily arguable as something needed for a series that released its first book in 1976. While I love a nostalgic- or period piece as much as the next person, I’m not disappointed by this.

This is the kind of change that’s a deal breaker. It stands to give new watchers the introduction they need into the world at the same time as giving something entirely unexpected to old fans. In other words, it’s narrative gold to someone like me.

The reasons I love it are completely different to what draws me to a straight like for like with added scenes adaptation as outlined above in Hunger Games. By changing the timeline and beginning straight out of the gate, it means that you can change everything.

And, god, they do.

Okay, obviously not everything. Character names, places, even dates on their own aren’t enough to hold the narrative cohesion of a reimagining if it doesn’t hold tight enough to the central themes of the source material to maintain that the original plot points still make sense to come to pass. WHICH S1 DOES.

I have so much interest in dissecting how they’ve so far kept hold of (most of) the themes and yet, in only 7 episodes, have already told a story with so many different details. And, if I’m gonna be totally honest, TVC is perfectly primed for exactly this kind of adaptation simply because, as a collection, these books have never been consistent (thank you, Anne for this dubious and ongoing gift).

There has been a single possible inconsistency with themes that did give me some cause for concern, but it’s also not the one that most people seem concerned by. So, let’s get into the analysis!

Armand:

I’m beginning with this character, because a supercut on YouTube I finally got around to watching made me realise we got a total of 15 minutes of Assad on screen in the 7 episodes of S1, and less than 5 of those are of him in the named character. So it’s an easy place to start.

Obviously, there is little difference that can be pointed to in those fewer than 5 minutes other than the differences in physical appearance than described (17 y/o, red hair, brown eyes) in the books, and that’s what I’ve seen a lot of discourse on thus far. That, and what on earth this Louis had on him to convince him it was a great play to pretend to be Rashid in front of Daniel. (He is a theatre kid, I guess…)

There is however a short detail in The Vampire Armand after Armand goes into the sun, however, that briefly describes his eyes as being orange (maybe amber?) as he starts to heal, and therefore the choice on making Assad’s eyes this colour in the series becomes an interesting detail to me.

Also, let’s be honest – if you’re gonna make the creative choice to have both Sam and Jacob in these luminescent contacts, but leave Assad’s natural throughout… well, I mean, what is being said on that side of the coin if that’s the choice being made?

On the side of details they kept AND CHANGED at the same time, my favourite for this character continues to be the below image that shows the physical resemblance between one Assad Zaman and, yes, a different Botticelli painting than any referenced in the books, but ultimately a Botticelli painting all the same. We're good to go!

Louis:

I don’t really want to focus too long on the obvious differences between Louis the slave owner (books) and Louis the pimp (series) except to say they are there. As are Louis’ signature green eyes.

However, that is where the resemblance ends. And I’m not just talking about physical.

In Louis’ case, the biggest difference I clocked and remarked in DMs up till now that—as a fanfic writer of both books and series fandom—Louis’ was the voice that consistently gave me most trouble to move between. I literally could not convincingly write him in any series fic at the same time as I was writing my mammoth long fic How They Get to Trinity Gate.

And it was not the fact that Louis was white in the books that tripped me up.

Another big thing is the change to when Louis and Lestat meet. This changes things for Lestat's character a bit as well, but I think it's more clear at this point the ways in which Lestat being set up as that much stronger and older than Louis on first meeting has had an impact on their story. Armand will be that much older than Louis as well, but what's a difference of a handful of decades when Armand already was that much older than Louis canonically?

As a linguist, I remain most fascinated by the dialogue changes that have been given to Louis’ character, particularly in historic New Orleans scenes. When reading Interview With the Vampire, there’s not a great deal of difference to the voice of Louis in the present vs the past that he gives to the boy interviewer. In the series, however? The difference in character from past to present is as unavoidable as it is riveting. To me, that alone offers so many details about who Louis is as a person, the disparity between Louis and a Lestat who obviously still gets to keep his book canon French accent.

In terms of how these changes effected the story as Louis relates it to Daniel, however? I mean, for the most part, the Louis I watched was equally convincing as he hit the main plot points his character needed to hit to stay true to the source material. That makes it a successful update to me!

Daniel:

Daniel is a laugh, both in the books and in the series. But, though the series has held on to the aspect of his sense of humour from the books, that humour is depicted in a completely different way.

Self deprecating, for the most part, or actually laugh out loud funny is what we see of Daniel in the books. Occasionally his anger gets the better of him, but for the most part he’s more docile—or possibly just as drunk—as many of us would be in similar circumstances. Apart from, say, when he’s calling Armand an immortal idiot.

The humour we get from Daniel in the series, though? That’s cutting. Yes, aimed to slice others up, especially when he’s deflecting from himself, but also the stuff that's made to cut through bullshit.

He’s had another 50 years to hone it, and none of them were lost to madness or absence from himself. No, this Daniel has been present every year of the 69 that have been given to him, and it shows. His wit has grown up with him, because he has grown up in a way he never got to in the books.

Something else to consider, however, is the fact that this Daniel is half David.

Actually, it's more than half. We got less of Daniel in S1 than we got of Armand. When I say this, I mean the only parts from the book canon we've got were in a couple of flashback scenes and the recording Eric listens to, then plays in Dubai in Episode 1. Only Luke Brandon Field has so far shown me anything close to a faithful version of Daniel, and I've no doubt this actor is destined to continue to follow that trajectory throughout future seasons.

That leaves me with wondering who we've got in the present from Eric? And that's David Talbot who, it turns out, is another canonical interviewer within The Vampire Chronicles. You may remember him as the guy who interviewed Armand, a version of which we're also set to see in S2.

David, when we first see him in Queen of the Damned, is someone interested in vampires not as puff portraiture but as a reality. He’s an older man coming to acceptance he’s near the end of his life and career. And he does not want to be made into a vampire.

Louis: A still hand, time to watch your daughters marry. Daniel: And divorce. And die.

Sound familiar?

Let me explain something of what I suspect went into this decision behind the scenes: The character of Daniel is underdeveloped in the books to say the least, something I’ve written about already during Vamptember. There was never going to be enough of the book character of Daniel in AMC's version to satisfy every book reader. Anne simply didn't give us enough of him, and fandom remains wildly divided in how to interpret him.

By contrast, David was a character readers got far too much of because of Anne's attempt to shoe horn us into a different romantic interest for Lestat. He's just not as popular. Imagine for a second the reception if the early promotional material had named Eric as playing 'David' instead of 'Daniel'? It's a marketing mislead, and one that's paid off.

When setting up the core "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"-esque central cast, the creative team over at AMC did something very clever, I think. They pulled over characteristics of another underdeveloped character from the same canon in order to flesh their version of Daniel out. We'll almost certainly see a body swap, and that's where the David, and Eric's, part of the story will end.

In conclusion, I will absolutely eat my hat if we see someone called David Talbot walking around in this series ever ever. And, when it comes to the eventual plot line of making Daniel a vampire, they've set up three good options in front of them (and another example where we old fans have no way to expect WHICH WAY IT WILL GO):

He'll be coerced into it (David, canonically by Lestat, but in this universe almost certainly Armand)

He'll change his mind and demand it again (Daniel in true Devil's Minion style)

He'll almost die and someone will have to turn him (Daniel, yes, but also Jesse)

Two of these methods of becoming a vampire from the early books canonically turn a Talamasca character, and I definitely have some on-a-tangent theories there, given the presence of Talamasca characters already in Mayfair Witches.

The only thing they’ll need to change from the books here is Armand being Daniel/David’s foil, instead of Lestat. And, look, they’ve already positioned Louis right there as the love of his life in the face of the love triangle that’s sure to follow in the series, as in the books.

Fareed (bonus):

This is further to my passing body swap comment in the last section, but I really wanted to add:

Why include this minor character front and centre as early as S1? Why then have him explicitly say he is not there not once but three separate times as part of his only dialogue?

Fareed: That is not my voice. And I'm not here. [...] I am not here. [...] I'm not here. [...] Pleasure never meeting you, Mr. Molloy.

Is this not explicitly designed to have the same effect as telling a person not to imagine a pink elephant? Not to mention, it's as meta as fuck. That's Schrödinger's Vampire right here.

So why do these things if not to bring to the front of people's minds not only that the entire of Anne Rice's canon is free game in this reimagining? But that Fareed in particular is a character who's the first of his kind in the Chronicles; a scientist who can and does invent a clone?

A clone that might just end up looking very much like Luke Brandon Field?

Why, also, spend so much time and promotional material on another actor we see for about the same short space of time within S1? Minute for minute, I reckon we get about the same amount of screen time here with Gopal Divan as we do with Luke.

That, and they both happen to appear for the first time in Episode 6. Just saying.

In terms of canon deviation, if there was a physical description of Fareed in the books, I honestly don't remember it. He was just one of Anne's many, many characters that were a) created to function as a plot point, and b) forgotten beyond the original purpose he was created for.

As long as they manage to keep Fareed interested in the vampiric sciences, I honestly don't see there being any problems.

Lestat:

Saving the best till last, am I right?

Lestat is Lestat is Lestat, isn’t he? The blond hair. The blue eyes. The arrogant swagger. Both the father’s anger matched with the uncontrollable laughter raging within him at all times. Completely out of control. Hedonistic, definitely to a fault. A Byronic hero in the package of an immoral vampire.

I hated Lestat and, when I read the books as a teenager, it was despite him.

I was ready to go into the series doing the same. The stories, the themes, the history, the characters (minus Lestat). There is so much richness to love in the world of the books, despite so much of it being told by Lestat. And there was no doubt we were gonna get less of The Lestat Show in a show that’s not told from his PoV and has three other main characters vying equally for that attention.

I will amend this statement now to acknowledge he does get less obnoxious by the time we hit the final trilogy, which were obviously not out when I’d made the judgement call of despising him. (Hell, Tales of the Body Thief wasn’t yet out…)

In Lestat's case, the changes that have been made aren't so much of appearance or characterisation, so much as moments. And I understand why. Lestat is iconic and, in many ways, impossible to change in any meaningful way because of it. So the choice of changing moments here and there becomes the perfect way to cast a new spin on Lestat's character.

ESPECIALLY when you have Armand right there behind Louis the whole time, almost certainly controlling the narrative.

Obviously, there was That Scene in Episode 5. That particular scene is one that never happened in any of the books. But Lestat’s aggressions, micro and otherwise, are a well known particularly in early canon, and Louis is certainly not exempt from them.

Nor is Claudia. And who among us haven’t put up with less when it’s aimed towards a person we love than what we’ll put up with aimed to ourselves?

Despite it not following an actual canon event, it held intact location, characters and central themes all together – the summation of most important aspects when we have an adaptation and hope it will continue to hit the major canon plot points in its reimagining.

We saw Lestat, Louis and Claudia all moving towards an event we all knew was coming, and what ended up being the climax of S1.

What I don't see being talked about anywhere near so much is the beginning of Episode 3, as Louis begins to commit himself to becoming a nuisance to the feline life of New Orleans.

Lestat: Say we come upon a murderer planting a flowerbed, thinking only of flowers. How long do we wait before his bloody deeds reveal themselves? Louis: As long as it takes. Lestat: You haven’t thought this through, Louis.

The charitable view, of course, is that Lestat is just not wanting, in this moment, to encourage anything Louis wants to say. If so, it would hardly be the only time Lestat shuts Louis down. Louis says he doesn’t want to feed on humans anymore so Lestat’s immediate response is to push as hard in the opposite direction. I would be satisfied with that.

Equally, I would be satisfied if, come S3, Lestat is revealed to remember this conversation completely differently. It would make sense. Of COURSE Lestat wants to feed on the evil doer and only the evil doer. What else are monsters like them supposed do? This would speak perfectly to their being many things in The Vampire Lestat that are different once Lestat takes the reigns of the books and supposed pen name.

The more I think about it, the more I won't be terribly surprised if they decide on one of these—or even a secret third option (Armand, I'm looking at you)—being the way this moment washes out later. The repercussions of deviating from Lestat only feeding from the evil doer are far too detrimental to the canon they seem intent to create.

Basically, their Lestat holding fast to this opinion for any longer than this scene would leave them struggling to hit more than one major plot point in future seasons.

Anyone who's read the books knows Lestat has already come across Marius before he meets Louis. He's heard Marius’ treatise on only eating the evil doer, and understands why his mentor holds to that tenant. Likewise, Lestat has prior to that come across Armand—something that has all but been confirmed for the series, again in the S2 trailer—and, after meeting both fledgling and maker, Lestat is able to pull together for himself an ethical stance he will take into the rest of his immortal life.

Lestat doesn't have to figure out what his code is gonna be, or whether he's gonna have one, like he way that's depicted for Louis in Episodes 2-3. This ethical stance informs him and carries through from there to the time in the future where Lestat’s made Prince of all vampires.

We'd have a very different looking future seasons ahead of us if Lestat were to abandon that code. It would make Episode 5 look tame.

But Sam knows those books. Rolin knows those books.

I love these monsters. As unreliable as Anne was with her famous lack of editing, this was something even she never flipped back and forth on. And a bunch of monsters with a code is still what we are seeing in S1 just from the fact that Daniel has survived this far into the interview in 2022.

They were and continue to be monsters, her characters, but they aren't that monstrous. There's a line for these serial murders. Honour among the thieves of mortal life.

That’s what makes them so enduringly interesting in all the variations we see for them.

@vamptember

[labyrinthofsnow]

ACOTAR: Marxist Lens (page 104-Chapter 30)

Despite A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas being a fantasy book and analyzing it further might take away from all of the fantasy, it is undeniable that there is an alienation between the humans and fae, the fact that any high power positions within the lands is often tied to others how others view them and treat them, and how far High Fae are willing to go just to obtain power. For those who have read the book I will be analyzing the book from page 104 to chapter 13. Those of you who have not read the book I encourage you to do so, it is an easy read but you will never want to put the book down. However, to give a summary of the pages identified above; Feyre is now becoming accustomed to living in Spring Court and learning more about not only the land, but about the history, the other fae that live on the lands and begins to develop a relationship with her captors. By the end of chapter 30 the books begins to reach to the climax when Feyre is being sent away because the “blight” that has been poisoning the fae land has began to reach Spring Court where she lives and it is safer for her to live once again with the humans and stay off of the Fae lands. 

The alienation of faeries and humans causes conflicts and confusion on how to act within the Spring Court mannor. This alienation leaves both Tamlin and Feyre with warrieness around each other, more so on Feyre side mostly out of fear of what Tamlin may do to her, or her family. In a scene where Tamlin approaches Feyre to ask if she needed help, she takes offense to this because she believes him to be insulting her. ““How can I trust a faerie? Don’t you delight in killing and tricking us?” His snarl sent the flames of the candle guttering “you aren’t what I had in mind for a human…trust me” (Maas 118) This helps further understand the time period the world is set in, it has not been modernized and has stereotypes of other species. Due to these stereotypes it causes tension between characters of different species. 

The high lords of all seven courts in Prythian identities are directly linked to their position and how they treat others. This can be seen from Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court. He is not only known for being powerful but brutal and siding with the fae who fought against the freedom of humans. During a scene in the study of Spring Court mannor Feyre describes the Night Court as “lethal beauty”. When formally introduced to Rhysand by name for the first name he threatens Feyre, Tamlin, and Lucien and uses his power positions to make Tamlin and Lucien bow to him. “Tamlin pressed his forehead to the floor, his hands sliding along the floor toward Rhysand’s boots. -Lucien’s face was dark, but he lowered himself to his knees, then touched his head to the ground” (240 Maas). Rhysand further shows that due to his power position others are more fearful of him and in a way submit to him. Onto that faeries often highly dislike Rhysand but are often afraid to express their own opinions out of fear. 

Lucien’s upbringing is spoken about by Tamlin to Feyre. Within the fictional world of Prythian High Lords, Sons often will do anything to be the next High Lord even if it means killing their family members. This is exactly what happened with Lucien and his brothers. “Brothers see each other only as competition, since the strongest of them will inherit the title, not the eldest.” (160 Maas) “-his brothers thought to eliminate one more contender to the High Lord’s crown. Three of them went to kill him; one came back” (161 Maas). Power is commonly sought over to the point of murder. This hunger of power has slowly destoryed the High Lord’s families both in how the connection between siblings lay and also who lives. 

The themes of power are not a main point of the book however, it does play quite an important part including when the discussion of how everyone obtains power, their power and how it directly linked to how others treat them and view them, and how the alienation of people often leaves them wary in regards to their power.

Art Links

prythian map - Search Images (bing.com) (Artist Unknown)

Rhysand by Tami | A court of mist and fury, Rhysand, Sarah j maas books (pinterest.cl) (Artist Unknown)

Steffani - Digital Painter on Instagram: “Day 4 - MYSTERIOUS Here’s my portrait study for day 4 of Lucien from The ACOTAR series by @therealsjmaas. Only a week until the next one…” (Art By Steffani) 

Reference

Maas, Sarah. “A Court of Thorns and Roses.” New York, Bloomsbury, May 05, 2015. Paperback copy. January 10, 2023.

[pynkhues]

What are you hoping to see from Yellowjackets S3 to get the show back on track

Yellowjackets s2 is sort of a funny case to me, because so many of the plot points and the characters and themes should have worked, but they didn't, and I've been percolating on why since you sent me this ask, and ultimately I think it comes down to the fact that there's no conflict.

Sure, there are things that look and sound like conflict - there are kidnappings and police investigations and cannibalistic chases through the snow - but it's all set dressing. The kidnapping is immediately resolved by Natalie and Lottie rebonding, the police investigation is immediately resolved by having Jeff and Callie become completely, unfalteringly complicit in Shauna's crimes, and the cannibalistic chases through the snow is a narrative cocktease because Javi falls through the ice. They might make the decision to kill Natalie, but nobody does the act, which means they're back to circumstantial choices as opposed to having characters make choices that tell us more about them and drive story and character arcs forwards.

The characters are, in that sense, only really making choices that ultimately compliment everyone elses', meaning they don't have authentic conflict with each other, none of the girls show any deep internal conflict over what it is they're doing, and while you can make the argument for the pack mentality in the past timeline, it reveals itself as a narrative flaw when it's literally the same in every other aspect of the show this season.

Even when characters do occasionally become points of conflict, they're written out of the main narrative or done away with entirely. Crystal dies accidentally the second she finds out Misty broke the box, Ben's lost to hunger dreams that made him narratively functionless until he burned down the cabin in the last episode, and Taissa almost kills her wife and then just seems to completely forget she and her son exist.

Even external conflicts such as the survivors versus the weather is currently without any sting (pun, ha), because we're told they're starving, but with the exception of eating Jackie and the dream sequence where Shauna couldn't breastfeed, the show, in my opinion, fails to actually explore what that means or feels like. It flirts with cabin fever, with starvation, with the freeze, but it never actually leans into it in a way that generates narrative tension or authentic conflict.

Season 1 did have genuine conflicts, and ones that usually made for the most interesting dynamics and scenes of the show, so I'm hopeful that they can find their way back to that. I think what really needs to happen is for them to look at all these points of tension and push them hard enough to break - break relationships, break characters, break some narrative conventions, because right now, we're being told things are bad, but without internal, interpersonal and external conflict, the story isn't moving forwards in a way that carries any meaning.

[cooking-mama-meshi]

(Sorry in advance op I ment to write a small response to the comments/tags of this funny post and ended up writing abit of an essay)

Man the Shuro hate I’m seeing here is really unfortunate- and is kinda rubbing me the wrong way. I’m not even a huge Shuro fan, but I feel like there is some simplification and reduction happening here.

Obviously ppl are allowed to like and dislike characters as they please- I’m not policing anyone’s personal opinion on a fictional character. However it feels like a lot of ppl are demonizing him, therefore ignoring one of the main themes of the entire story. There are no “bad guys” and “good guys” in dungeon meshi. Most ppl don’t deliberately want to harm others. Even the main antagonist, the Winged Lion, is simply acting on the base desire of *hunger*. However it’s by persuing their desires, people are put in positions of conflict. They have to make difficult choices, and miscommunication happens.

Over all, miscommunication is a very difficult trope to pull off in writing, and can often be very frustrating for an audience if not done well. But when miscommunication and misunderstanding happens in Dungeon Meshi, it’s my favorite parts. Because it feels so human.

The way Ryoko Kui writes makes the world of dungeon meshi feel *incredibly* life like and relatable in a way not many pieces of media are able to capture. I feel like it is a disservice to Ryoko Kui’s effective and deliberate writing to reduce Shuro to “Neurotypical + bad.”

I understand the impulse, especially as someone who is Neurodivergent. The big fight between Shuro and Laios hit very close to home and is very relatable as someone who was often on Laios’s side of the argument. But it’s also probably one of my favorite moments in the entire series. Because it’s written *so* well. While yes, Shuro should’ve voiced his growing frustration with Laois before it boiled over- it’s hard to communicate!! Especially when you know said person isnt trying to be rude (and racist)! Especially if that person is ur coworker! Especially if that person is the brother of the girl you love! And *especially* if you’ve been raised in a royal court where every interaction has more weight and meaning. It’s hard!!! It’s a very real and human interaction and to call Shuro a bad person because of it is kinda reductive.

Next, I want to discuss shuro’s proposal to Falin. A lot of ppl in the tags dislike him for proposing/ “getting in the way” of Farcille. I am a huge farcille shipper, I love their dynamic- I could write a book about those lesbians. BUT, I actually really like that Shuro proposed to Falin. It shows how different his culture is, compared to the Toudens. It also is an example of how Falin’s autistic traits are seen by others vs Laios’s traits. It’s really interesting!! Plus he’s not getting ‘in the way’ of farcille, because Falin literally isn’t interested in the slightest. And I love that! I think it’s a really interesting story beat for Falin, who is a huge people pleaser, being put in a position where she has to voice her own wants!!

TLDR; I just think there is a lot more depth to Shuro than general fandom wants to acknowledge- and every character Ryoko Kui writes.

The funniest part about seeing a bunch of Marcille x Falin on tumblr and then reading the manga is you get absolutely whiplashed by the fact that apparently there's a man who's desperately in love with Falin and is also trying to rescue her. A man that literally no one in the fandom ever mentions lol