#i think the mysteries resolved all its loose plot points in about three chapters or something?

[lacnunga]

also, i finally finished the mysteries and all i can say is. it sure was a book and you sure can read it

[novantinuum]

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: T

Words: 1.2K~

Summary: His family’s not present, the third time he runs away. They never see the creature he becomes.

Early corruption AU.

Howdy. To be honest, I don’t have any more buffer finalized for this fic at the moment, but I really, really wanted to post this. Chapters 18-25 are entirely plotted out, though. (There’s some lore headcanons in the author’s notes of the AO3 version!)

If you read this and enjoy, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3 as well. Thank you! <3

____

“I’d like to thank you all for coming on such short notice,” Peridot addresses the small crowd sitting before her on the top of the hillside above the temple. Garnet and Pearl are in attendance, as well as Amethyst, Bismuth, and Lapis— the individuals who supported her in making her latest breakthrough possible. Also present is Greg, Connie, and Connie’s medical professional mother, who she doesn’t know well enough to remember the name of. Resting behind her is a double-sided chalkboard— the surface facing her audience empty— and a tall, mysterious contraption obscured under a white bed sheet. “Before we begin, I must disclose that this system has only gone through rudimentary testing, so success is not guaranteed immediately.”

“Anything’s better than nothing at this point,” Steven’s father says, loosely tugging upon the large hunks of grass surrounding him within his aimlessly flexing grip.

(Silently, Garnet places her hand on his upper arm, beckoning for him to relax, to take a deep breath and unwind.)

“Y-yes, of course,” she stammers in reply, suddenly hyper-aware of the spotlight she’s called down upon herself, and how fervently everyone gathered here desires her success. Swallowing hard, she attempts to recollect her wits. “And now, to introduce my new technology.” She yanks a sheet off of her invention, positioned beside her. “Tah-dahhh!” she intones with dramatic vibrato, wriggling her fingers towards the bizarre towering device.

It stands as tall as Garnet, long and skinny with a solid base. Attached to its top is a small satellite dish retrofitted with a plethora of navigation system components from an old decommissioned Roaming Eye. Thick bundles of wires wind around the central pole holding the dish aloft, connecting to a cluster of human computers. If one were to look inside those computers, they’d quickly realize that many of their chips and cords have been replaced with the same exceedingly common hard light circuitry that’s used in energy transfer systems in Gem settlements. It’s a glorious combination of Gem and human technology, a celebration of the radical change both species are able to accomplish, working hand-in-hand.

(And most appropriately, it’s a hybrid, much like their missing friend.)

“So how is this... thing... supposed to work?” Connie’s mother says, appearing more confused than impressed by this display. Connie herself sits in unnerving silence beside her, her darkened, hollow expression a stark reminder of what the stakes of this mission truly are. There’s far too little hope amongst the members of this audience already, so any further failure may threaten to destroy resolve altogether.

Unable to fully meet the teen’s eyes, Peridot’s gaze drops to her feet. She flushes deep. “I, um... well,” she begins, adjusting her visor as drops of sweat bead upon her forehead, around her gem. “The theory of it is essentially that, uh—“

“It’s a location tracker,” Bismuth chimes in, swiftly rescuing her from under the crippling pressure. “We think we can triangulate Steven’s exact position on any planet with it.”

“Uh- yes, precisely!”

She briefly pauses to allow hard light to refresh her form, running all the way from her core to her furthest extremities. She’s fine— it’s fine. This is brand new tech, and it’s not solely her fault if it fails to succeed in its role on the first, second, or even third run. While it crushes her to entertain the very thought, what she truly needs is to forget about Steven for a moment. Forget about the pressure. Forget about the stakes. Her job right now is simply to explain the basic principles of this machine’s operation in a manner that her audience might understand. Nothing more, nothing less.

“As an introduction to this technology,” she says, picking up a stethoscope-like device that’s been wired into the base of the tracker and extending it towards the crowd to showcase, “I have invented a method to extract precise resonant frequencies from any Gem, using this. These frequencies are a unique identifying mark amongst Gemkind... think of it almost like a Gem fingerprint. Of course, Steven has both of these things,” she states matter-of-factly, placing the extractor tool down on the top of the hollowed-out computer and slowly beginning to pace back and forth in front of her creation. “Fingerprints from his organic parentage, yes. But given he inherited his mother’s gemstone, he inherited her resonant frequency as well. This frequency... is what we’re going to track.”

Peridot pauses for only a few seconds, just long enough to allow her friends ample time to bask in the logic of her unquestioned genius. There’s no time to dawdle! She worked hard on this project, and she’s only just now approaching the crux of its operation.

“Now, what some of you may be wondering,” she charges right ahead without so much as asking for questions, “is how any of this information is helpful. Why, Steven is missing, Peridot!” she exclaims, throwing her arms outwards. “How could we ever hope to retrieve the information needed to locate him when we don’t know where he is? And to answer that, I present my most important finding.”

She clicks her fingers, beckoning Lapis to join her at the front of the small crowd. Her hydrokinetic friend rotates the chalkboard on its axle to reveal the other side, which has various graphs and schematics hastily taped to its textured surface. She gestures towards two of them, a spectrogram showing a direct read of one of her test subject’s unique frequency over time, and another showing a read of the same Gem’s frequency, but derived from a different source. The resultant peaks and valleys of this second frequency are less sharp, but still immediately familiar in shape.

“In the past few days, I have conducted a number of experiments with volunteers from Little Homeschool, and have discovered that when two Gems fuse, an imprint of the fusion partner’s resonant frequency is saved in both gems. The more frequent the fusion, the stronger this imprint is. My current theory is that storing this information allows for easier synchronicity upon successive fusions, but— that isn’t strictly relevant to this mission. What this means is that we can extract Steven’s unique resonance from any individual who has fused with him.”

“Any individual?” Connie chimes in suddenly, her hands clasped in a vice-like grip in her lap.

Recognizing how desperately the human wishes to be a pivotal part in finding her best friend, she offers her a thin, regretful smile. “Regrettably, no. I apologize for my lack of clarity. This procedure will only work with Gems.”

“Then I’ll do it,” a voice cuts in from the crowd.

Simultaneously, everyone turns to meet the speaker’s gaze. Peridot’s brow creases with surprise as Pearl stands to her feet, her posture wrapped in a shawl of hesitancy. Out of the three Gems in attendance here who have fused with Steven, she has to admit— Pearl was not the one she expected to volunteer first.

“I am, of course, the individual who has fused most with that Gem,” she says, clutching her hands against her chest. “Maybe not with Steven himself, but... it’s like you said. He inherited her frequency. Her song. And I know firsthand that its melody is unchanged.”

[wincestisasincest]

The Green Book (Thorin’s Company x Reader, Part 1)

Hello all! This is something of a rewrite for an idea that I had when I was like, 13, but I started it and it was a hot pile of ass, so we’re taking another crack at it. Basically, sort of like how Bilbo and Fordo recorded everything in the Red Book of Westmarch, this is a book where (y/n) records all of her adventures after falling into Middle Earth.

I have no idea how long this is going to be, nor if there’s going to be any more specific pairings, so feel free to shoot me one if you’d like to see something play out!

A quick note! This story is in first person, not in second person, but it is still about the reader. It is the reader’s later account of their adventures. I’m sure you’re all smart people and can figure this out, but I wanted to make that clear. 

Summary: (Y/n) falls into Middle Earth. Shocker. Somehow, she gets recruited to join a party of dwarves on their kinda crazy mission to reclaim their home of Erebor. 

Part: 1

Words: 1593

Warnings: Plot clichés, getting lost, fainting

To whom it may concern: This book is a project by myself, (f/n) (l/n), to record an official account of both my voyage through the land of Middle Earth, how it intertwined with the quest to reclaim Erebor, and what happened in between. All information here has been directly experienced by me and has been corroborated by other living peoples in Middle Earth, which shall be credited in the after section if any reader seeks to verify.

I write you, the person reading my Green Book, this letter at the beginning of the book because I want to make clear my intention. While this book shall certainly be used for historical record, and I am honored to have it serve that purpose, that is not my primary intention in writing it. I feel that, in the case of historical record, we tend to miss out on a very important element in the stories of our ancestors. Their humanity. 

Or dwarf-manity. Or hobbit-manity. Or wizard-manity. 

The point is that I have scoured many manuscripts in my years, and all of them treat those of the past as though they are sculptures created purely of dates, epithets, and conquest, and that is simply not the case. The deeds of this company are not going to be forgotten for a long time, but their personality, individual quirks, fears, loves, hopes, dreams, and heart, may fade into obscurity as their time comes to an end. 

That it what I wish to eliminate with this book. Above all else, I want you, the reader, not to remember them as historical icons, but as the caring, brave group of adventurers that I have come to love. 

No, I cannot completely fix a disconnected view of the past, but I can sure try.

***********

I got my start in adventuring at the same time I got my start in Middle Earth. And both of them were complete accidents. 

The land that I come from, just Earth, is wholly different from its Middle counterpart. There are no species besides that of the human race, which have ruled the planet for many centuries and divided into their own cultures with individual languages, practices, religions, and such. As humans are quite non-magical, however, this does also mean that there is no magic in this world. Instead, humans have conquered it through different applications of knowledge, through which they have created many a valuable devices that replace the need for magic. These devices may do things such as heal the sick, communicate over long distances, defend oneself, light up dark rooms, and so on. 

The only common trait that it shared with its counterpart was that it had no idea that there was any Earth besides itself. 

So, you can imagine that my stumble into Middle Earth was by no means intentional. 

I was a dreamy young lady of (your age) years. I had things to do that would take up most of my day’s energy, but when I did have a minute of downtime or two, I could always be found wandering in the woods. Something in its peaceful nature, in which I could not hear the hustle and bustle of the rest of society, was very relaxing to me. 

More often than not, I would recline on a large, flat rock deeper into the forest and go about leisure activities such as reading or drawing. Such leisure activities were exactly what I was occupied with on that very day that would change my life. 

I looked up from the pages of a very gripping read at an odd sound coming from the woods. Now, the woods are full of odd sounds, and to try to put a name on all of them would do the terrain a disservice, but something in particular about this sound woke up something in me. My curiosity could only be quenched by an exploration.

The sound itself mirrored that of language, as though some mysterious force were whispering words but were hidden from sight, however, the words were not from any language that I understood or recognized. Even after I had come to learn of languages particular to the land of Middle Earth, such as Elvish and Khuzdul, I still cannot specifically attribute any one of them to this whispering. 

I shoved everything that I was doing into my bright red backpack (or just pack, as they are more commonly called) and slid off my rock, walking towards the sound. One could almost say I was hypnotized, as it just dragged me in. Deeper and deeper I trailed into the woods.

At some point the whispering stopped, and I was snapped back to reality. I had completely lost track of time. I peered around, and realized that I could not recognize where I was. I whipped out my phone (a cellular device used for communication which I will expand on in later chapters) to check what time it was, only to be confronted with the fact that five hours had passed. 

This news was even more distressing, because, if five hours had passed, then the sky should be occupied by the moon and not the sun. I ran the numbers in my head. I had been on the rock at about six, and my phone now read that it was eleven at night. But the birds still tweeted, and it was still sunny, as though it was but a pleasant afternoon. 

I attempted to use my phone to possibly communicate with someone, or find out my location, but the technology failed. Resolving to save battery, I put it away and continued to observe my location. It did seem like this part of the world had been completely claimed by nature, with no sign of any sort of civilization in sight. I would’ve found it beautiful it it did not signal my possible demise. 

In my world, a common piece of advice for those who are lost is to wait in one place. This advice is most commonly given when one is traveling with a group, which makes sense, as a group would not only quickly realize that you were lost, but could easily fan out to search for you, which would only be made easier if you were prevented from getting any farther from where you had strayed from. 

However, I was not traveling with a group. I was alone. I quickly weighed the pros and cons of staying in once place, before deciding that, when combined with how big this forest apparently was, to how long it would take someone to realize I was gone, to how long it would take them to conclude that I was in the forest, to how long that it would take them to search the forest, to the fact that I had no concept of time anyway, that I would surely die before this technique yielded any results. 

No, my best bet was to continue forward and hope to come across something eventually. If not civilization, then food or water. Either way, I would not die in the forest.

Gathering all my resolve, I continued to trek forward. 

Slowly, but surely, night overtook this strange forest-land as well, and there was no sign of any civilization in sight. I had no food or water with me, which was only made clearer by my parched throat and growling stomach. 

Against my terrible luck, a heavenly smell (or perhaps a nasty smell that simply came to me when I was hungry) wafted over the trees and to my location. I had no choice but to follow it. 

It wasn’t something that I recognized, like beef or chicken, but was definitely a sort of meat. Regardless, I would eat anything at this point. My hope was only increased when I heard what sounded like conversations passing around a campfire. Perhaps, I thought, it was a group of campers that would be able to help out a very lost and confused traveller. 

I grew more desperate. I pulled leaves and branches out of the way and nearly tripped over rocks. Though I still couldn’t make out the words that were being said, they sounded oddly aggressive and simplistic. It was intermixed with the neighing of horses, sounding very distressed, though my animalistic impulses at the time elected to ignore that. 

“...and if it don’t look like mutton tomorra!” So that’s what the meat was. Mutton. That sounded delicious.

Finally, I could see the campfire peaking through the trees. I hopped out into the clearing, not even taking the time to think of what I would say or do, just following the food. 

In front of me were three of the biggest and ugliest creatures that I had ever seen in my life. You and I now understand them as trolls, but I had never seen a troll before, though, if you had told me at the time that that’s what they were called, I would not be surprised. Their bodies were large and their heads were tiny, with layers and layers of fat making up their bulging stomachs, around which was a loosely tied loincloth. Whatever was under that, I didn’t want to think about. Their faces had crooked teeth, large noses, sloping foreheads, and very stupid looks plastered on them, though as it happened, all of those stupid looks were looking directly at me. 

“Lads, we’re eating human tonight!” The middle one shouted gleefully, raising his arms and looking at me menacingly while getting up out of his chair. 

I fainted on sight.

******

Ahhh, I just negged y’all. We’ll see the gang in the next chapter, don’t worry, but I gotta tease it first. 

Next chapter will be out soon, by the way, because that’s what quarantine is for.

Also, if you’re interested, shoot me an ask/suggestion for what the reader has in her bag! I have a few ideas, but I’m really open to anything, whether it’s a specific book, a cool trinket, a sentimental object, whatever you guys have!

You can also shoot me pairings if you’d like though I may or may not have a very unpopular one in mind already

[linkspooky]

Your analysis on shigaraki's worldview is 😍😍😍. Who's your fav bnha character btw, and what kind of manga are you into? (i mean as in genre, but my phrasing is terrible at times so idk how to put it all in the last sentence)

My favorite manga in the whole world are the manga that run in Weekly Shonen Jump. I read almost everything that runs in the magazine from week to week. I know that’s not technically a genre, but let’s not arguen semantics. 

And now because no one asked for it, my opinion on all of the manga currently running through Jump that I read. 

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba usually manga in shonen jump slowly get worse over time as they try to stretch their stories out, but Kimetsu no Yaiba is a story that continues to develop on itself and improve the longer it runs. 

The art is phenomenal and has a good balance of when to be silly and when to be drop dead gorgeous. It’s more of an ensemble piece tied together by a big brother trying to save his little sister, and because of that almost every character Tanjirou interacts with is fun and really immediately attention grabbing. 

It’s also a pretty heavy story that deals with death, grief and loss and trying to find life beyond a world that has suffering like that. I’m actually planning to make some meta of it soon, especially with the interactions between Domi and Shinobu. My only real complaint is that it’s deep but not too deep. Usually the demons are always bad and the demon slayers are always good in the end, even if sympathy is expressed for some of the demons. Once again though it does so well in the technical aspects of telling the story it wants to tell. 

My Hero Academia it’s pretty obvious that I like it. The biggest draws for me are the art style and the characters, specifically the villains. Also the idea of a reverse X men world where what are basically the mutants now outnumber normal people and dominate society is a fantastic idea for world building with a lot of options. 

I’ve actually followed Horikoshi’s work for a long time. His two previous works, Oumagodoki Zoo and Barrage both ran in Shonen Jump for a short time before they were cancelled which I find really unfortanate because they both had a lot of potential as well. 

I love both the hero kids and the villains, though sometimes I feel like the villains are more connected to the central conflict of the story than the heroes. It would be nice to see Deku evolve a more radical philosophy then just wanting to save people right in front of him, or protecting the status quo. The heroes should ideally act in response to the villains to create a better world and resolve a problem the villains brought up, but if say the League of Villains were wiped out now another League would be created later because the central problem of the story has not been dealt with. 

Dr. Stone this is a series that almost got cancelled, but was saved by a main character switch. Senku is really likable and unique as a character, kind of a mad scientist archetype who turns out to be the good guy and the hero of the story.

He reminds me a lot of Yoichi from the writers previous work, Eyeshield 21. In that they’re both laughing mad eccentrics who seem like they have little scruples for how they use and treat other people, and yet are surrounded by friends and act as the leaders of their team. They also both have a tendency for strategy over brute strength and like to outwit their opponents. 

The only thing I can say about Dr. Stone is that while the characters are a fun little group of oddballs, they rarely get any deeper than that. The most interesting thing is still figuring out the central mystery of the world and what happened to turn everybody to stone, which is why having Senku as a main character was a really smart move on the series part. 

Yozakura Family This is a new series that I actually really like and hope beats canellation at the two week mark. It’s kind of your basic romantic comedy characters get married in the first chapter promise, but also there’s some really strong character writing with the older brother. He’s one of the few examples of the obsessive and overprotective brother type that was portrayed as actually abusive and damaging for seeing his younger sister that way. 

The premise also reminds me a lot of Katekyo Hitman Reborn, just suddenly getting sucked into the underworld of spies and crimminals when you’re an unlucky loser with no social skills. If the character writing is as strong as it is for the brother I can definitely see a lot of improvement and staying power. 

The Promised Neverland the smartest written series in Shonen Jump write now with the best ideas. The Promised Neverland is all about theme, theme, theme, theme, which is why someone like me who devours stories for their nutritious value and content loves it. 

While there are only about three major characters with arcs that matter to the plot, Norman, Ray, and Emma they are some of the deepest characters in shonen jump currently and the complexity of their relationship and the way they all foil each other is superb.

It’s a story about children trying to escape a neverland where they can never grow up, and live in a world that never wanted them alive. Not only is it just about them though, it’s also about adults who are still inside the system and gave up at one point or another and decided to just live in the evil world rather than change it. It’s a deep story but it’s also undeniably shonen jump, the central theme is about not giving up even in a world that is determined to deny your existence. 

Act Age If you’ve read Chihayafuru this manga has a lot in common with that, because both of them are about very singleminded girls with complex emotions that they themselves don’t understand, finding themselves completely enveloped in a niche hobby to the point of obsession. 

Act-Age is a story that’s primarily about storytelling and the nature of stories themselves, with each arc focusing on an adaptation of either a movie made up for the sake of the story or a pre-written play ie, Journey to the West, Night on the Galactic Railroad. However, it’s also bout the nature of stories, as understood by the perspectie of an actor. 

There are only a few major characters but they all get intensely developed in their arcs. My absolute favorite relationship is that of the main character, quiet on the surface but with deep emotions that she uses for her acting talent with her rival an actress that’s much more like a pop star or idol. Rather than having deep talent she instead uses her ability to read people to appeal to them. She is cheerful and lively on the surface, but empty inside. The way they envy each other and learn to grow from each other because each of them has what the other one desires. 

Jujutsu Kaisen reminds me of really early bleach that was just Ichigo and his teenage friends fighting Hollows. This is one of the manga I definitely reccomend, because it’s one of the lesser known manga in jump currently. The art style has this scratchy look about it which really adds well to the horror aspect of the series. It’s a demon fighting anime with some of the best demon designs, more attention is put on making them look grotesque and scary then in series like KNY where the demons for the most part are pretty good looking still. 

The main trio is very solid, a reckless idiot who swallowed a cursed finger in the first chapter and is continually dealing with the consequences of that, the shadowy, quiet type cool headed one who almost never talks about his past or his true feelings on the matter, and between them the cheerful girl whose a tad on the merciless side. 

Not only are the characters good, but it’s one of the few series where the fights and lore are super interesting. Rather than dealing with demons directly Kimetsu no Yaiba style we deal with curses, which are generated from the human subconscious. 

For exmaple one of the villains Mahito is the embodiment of the fear humans have for other humans, that is the anxieties of life, and the fear and suppressed feelings that go hand in hand with humanity. Because that he’s much like a child curse quickly learning and progressing with a human intelligence. 

The fights, the powers of characters, they’re all used to further develop a really interesting world of curses and the people who live dealing with them that it feels like we’re only scratching the surface of right now and desperately makes you want to figure out the system they have in place for this entire world. 

Yui Kamio Lets Loose - I find it to be a really sweet romantic comedy about a stuck up boy obsessed with appearances and what other people think of him falling in love with two sides of a girl, the uncontrollable Yui that beat him up and constantly gets into fights and trouble, and the perfect demure girl who can only ever be helpless and kind and needs to be protected. It has a feel of a lot of classic 80s high school romantic comedies. The only real problem is that it needs to acquire a plot fast, because it’s at risk for cancellation which makes it hard for me to get invested in a series that might end soon. 

Double Taisei - One of those shonen manga that had a really interesting beginning chapter, but then failed to do anything with it. I think it would work well as a character piece between two personalities who act like brothers in the same body, but the characters aren’t strong enough quite yet to work that way. I do like the character design… 

Tokyo Shinobi Squad - It looked like a ripoff at first but the main character is actually fairly different from Naruto, and the manga itself is uniquely its own thing. I just hope it learns to utilize it’s cyberpunk setting better, because ninjas fighting in a cyberpunk dystopia is a very tropey premise and the story needs to utilize those tropes in order to work. I do like the fact that the main character starts out pretty powerful so it’s not a typical shonen formula about a main character slowly learning to gain power, instead it’s him taking in and being responsible for a kid. 

Manga I don’t read - One piece, Yuuna of the Haunted Hotsprings, Chainsawman, Samurai 8 the tale of Hachimaru, Beast Children, Miitama Security Busters. 

[hookaroo]

Vocivore, Ltd. (35 of 42?)

Also on FFN and AO3 (ListerofTardis)

Tagging @ouatwinterwhump, @killian-whump, @sancocnutclub, @killianjonesownsmyheart1, @courtorderedcake, @facesiousbutton82 <3

***THE MOST WONDERFUL, HEARTBREAKING, and BEAUTIFULLY WHUMPY COVER ART BY @cocohook38 HERE and HERE!!!!!!!!!*************

***Chapter 12 animation and art that will absolutely astound you!!!!!!!!!**********

***LETHAL Chapter 19 art in all of its BLOODSTAINED GLORY!!!!************

**POOR STABBED KILLIAN falling into the sheriff station! Ch. 7 & 23 art!!**

****KILLIAN AND HIS MASTER IN THE GORGEOUS CATHEDRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!    CHAPTER 1 ART THAT KILLS ME EVERY TIME I SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*********

*CH 34 ART! A DEFEATED KILLIAN, HEAD BOWED BEFORE HIS MASTER!!*

***AAAAHHHH!!! THANK YOU MY WONDERFUL COCONUT FRIEND!!!!!!***

Present (Friday, continued)...

Emma was mostly silent during the ride to the edges of the Master’s territory, and Jones knew she was listening. As if she could somehow keep her husband alive by monitoring his breathing. Jones saw no reason to disrupt her concentration, illogical as it was. Regardless of what she heard, and what state Killian was in when they reached him--whether it was a rescue or a recovery--Jones had resolved to go in no matter what. This monster had to be stopped.

The paved road gave way to gravel, then dirt. About a quarter of a mile farther along, they would reach the invisible border, that line where any attempts to go deeper into the forest had always been met with scores of guard slaves. Jones pulled the car over. They could drive in and see how far they got before being stopped, or if he were callous enough, faced the necessity of mowing down anyone standing in their way. But they had decided that such a move would attract too much attention and give away their intentions before they had a chance to sneak into the Master’s presence. Shutting off the engine, Jones took a deep breath.

“Ready?”

Emma’s response was to reach for the door handle. Jones snagged her elbow, saying,

“Wait.”

She turned back to him, a question in her faraway gaze. The detective leaned forward, opened the glovebox, and hauled out the length of rope he’d stashed there immediately after exiting the sheriff office.

“In case we’re being watched,” he explained, then began binding Emma’s hands together. Seconds later, intimidating knots hung from her wrists, looking very complicated and difficult to untie. But Jones lifted a trailing end of rope. “Just give this bit a sharp tug, and you’re free.”

After Emma had indicated her understanding, Jones got out of the car and went around to open her door. For the sake of any observers, he grabbed her upper arm and hauled her to her feet. She played along with a few exaggerated struggles, but eventually pretended to give in, hanging her head in mock dejection. Jones adjusted his grip on her, then pulled her forward, propelling her in the direction of the Master’s mysterious compound.

*****

Killian could not die. Not for lack of trying; he was doing everything in his power to let go. Having been through the process multiple times before, he knew that he was close. Individual points of anguish had faded to a generalized dull ache. The short, desperate gasps of breath took more strength than he had, yet kept coming despite all odds. His pulse, weak and erratic as it was, continue to throb in each gruesome wound. And every time Killian succumbed to the dark, thinking that he would at last be set free from his misery, he came back, weaker than before and cursing his continued existence.

Because there was no good reason for the prolonged suffering. Emma could not save him this time, nor would he want her to make the attempt. It would only result in her own capture, torture, and death. With no way to defeat the Master, she may not have much time herself, but perhaps someone would come up with a last-minute solution to save them all. He wanted that chance for her. And the longer he remained alive, the greater the temptation for her to cast aside reason and come after him.

He suddenly remembered the transmitter tucked beneath the bandage around his stump. Maybe that was it. Was his subconscious clinging to life in order to allow him time to hide the device within the Master’s lair? One final purpose for his time amongst the living?

Killian shifted his weight just fractionally. Even that small effort brought each of his pains roaring back to life and the church grew hazy once again. But he remained conscious. With a silent growl, he inched his forearm up his side. Pectoral muscles impaled by the dagger bulged with the work of shifting his left shoulder. He could feel a dull grinding within his chest as the blade scraped against bone. His neck, hand, and shoulder all blazed in excruciating spasms as he slowly turned his head toward his target.

The bandage was still impossibly out of reach. Tears blurred his dimming vision. He drew one more gulp of searing magma, and then, with an agonized shout, heaved his wrist up to shoulder height.

Shuddering, panting with the terrible cost of effort, Killian dug his teeth into the loose knot securing the bandage. He knew exactly where to pull, yet could hardly summon the strength to retain his hold on the linen. Once, twice it slipped free while he whined in exhausted frustration. Bloody thing, keeping him alive only to exacerbate his pain. His fingers twitched a futile attempt to help; a thousand amps of lightning leapt in crooked arcs from impaled palm to fingertips and back, down his immobile arm and out through his misshapen shoulder. A sob echoed in his ears as he tore savagely into the bandage once again, half in continued removal attempts and half as a way to contain the worsening pain.

Finally, the knot gave way. The loose end circled his arm once, unwinding of its own accord before settling gently near his elbow. Killian ignored it; his prize was nearly within reach. He could feel the small bit of metal pressing against his inner forearm, its pointed ends slightly itchy under the linen. He tugged harder with his teeth. More of the bandage came loose. His chest ached unbearably.

Despite the whistling hum in his ears, Killian heard the tiny but welcome sound of the transmitter pinging onto the cold stone at his side. Mission accomplished.

He briefly considered attempting to wrestle the dagger free of his chest. That would certainly speed up the rate at which he was losing blood and, if nothing else, might help him to slip into pain-free oblivion and not wake up this time. But even with the ring on his wrist, he would probably only end up jostling the blade, not removing it entirely. Not worth the prospect of amplified pain. Killian gritted his teeth and allowed his arm to flop back down to the ground.

Even with most head movement restricted by the screws in his neck, Killian could just make out the tiny glint of metal, the transmitter lying a few inches from where his arm had come to rest. Better hide it. Struggling to focus the double image, Killian aligned the apex of the ring with the transmitter. He managed to brush the speck of metal under the lip of the altar, wincing at the resulting flash of pain in his chest. But the technology was now less likely to be found, and Storybrooke could continue to listen in on their new nemesis in secret.

Killian thought of who was on the other end, and his throat immediately tightened in immense regret. He had the easy part, leaving. But his Swan would have to once again face life without him.

“Emma,” he breathed. He couldn't be certain if she could even hear him. “I love you.”

He tensed as an overwhelming wave of pain washed over him. After it had subsided a bit, he growled a moan, then continued.

“Should you... happen to be... victorious…”

He was finding it difficult to get more than three or four words out between breaths. The fire in his chest seemed to be shrinking his lungs, charring them into brittle, inelastic cinders.

“...and feel safe... bringing Hope home…”

He pulled several agonized, wheezing breaths and forced himself to continue.

“...make sure... she always knows... how much I love her.”

Now blinded by tears and suffocating as much by emotion as by his wounds, Killian closed his eyes and rested his head back against the gilded altar. He would never have time to express everything in his heart, anyway.

The heavy front door creaked open, its echoes ominous in the unfeeling sanctuary. Avian wings fluttered noisily in the rafters. And Killian could not contain a sob of dread.

“Swan,” he whispered, almost a whine. “Please, love…” A shudder, half terror and half anguish, wracked his broken body as the scuttle of giant crab legs grew louder.

“Please… Don’t listen to this...”

*****

Whatever Emma was hearing had her in tears.

Jones couldn’t ask her about it, of course. In fact, he tried to pretend like he knew: he was, after all, bringing a new captive into his Master’s presence. She had every reason to be crying. And now, well within the monster’s territory, they had lost the option of turning back, even if they were too late to save Killian. So they pressed forward, Jones directing Emma as she stumbled along, not really paying attention to her surroundings.

Their plot was working so far. They had encountered at least a dozen armed slaves patrolling the forest; each time, the smock-garbed men had taken one glance at Jones and his prisoner and let them pass without challenge. But he couldn’t allow the relief. Instead, he thought of Alice.

Not the exuberant, larger-than-life woman of today, but the one from… then.

Years and years spent imprisoned and alone. The last person in the world to deserve it, paying an awful price for all of his mistakes and failures.

He imagined her pacing the confines of the tower, cursing his name, desperate for love and human contact. Losing hope, sinking further into hopelessness with each passing day, week, month. Year.

All of the lost opportunities. The moments he should have had with her. The discoveries, the joys of blossoming, even the challenges of developing independent thought and rationale. Those beautiful, formative years from adolescence to young adulthood, gone forever. He’d missed them all.

Killian Jones, king of despair, walked right into the Vocivore’s presence undetected. No mental shielding necessary.

[nicolemagolan]

Books I Read In March 2019

This was a month of 3 stars reads. A range of ‘eh pretty good’ to ‘meh pretty okay’...3 star reads are always weird to review, because I have no passionate argument to why you should/shouldn’t read it. It was okay. It was entertaining. But I’ve probably forgotten most of it already.

I dived into a few different genres; horror, fantasy, science fiction, and dystopian. And of course, I had to spend some time in the Star Wars galaxy. If you’re interested in my in-depth thoughts, keep reading!

Dracula by Bram Stoker

3/5 stars

I wasn't sure how I would feel about Dracula, as I went in with a particular set of expectations due to the story’s popularity -- and I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy it. But it turned out to be a highly entertaining and engaging story. It has a gothic and spooky atmosphere which it is of course famous for, but it wasn’t as focused on the horror as I feared. I was surprised and intrigued to find that Dracula himself is not the main character. He is a figure shrouded in mystery that brings together the various cast of characters. The story is told through journal entries and letters, and the format is well-utilized. Sometimes this kind of thing can slow the pacing or drag on, but here it works well, slipping smoothly from character to character. I loved the first half of the book; the build up of the mystery surrounding Dracula was excellent. Unfortunately, once the main conflict was resolved, the book continued by rehashing the same plot line. That crisis is over? Well then lets have another one that is exactly the same and no longer has tension. Great! This time it was boring and frustrating. The damsel in distress trope was used to an unbearable extent. The long-awaited climax of the novel was over in approximately half a paragraph. I had to read it three times to be sure I hadn't missed something; I was so confused that it had ended just like that. Very disappointing. The chapters leading up to the big final confrontation felt like filler in comparison. This did not, however, lessen my enjoyment of the first half and particularly the first 50 pages of Dracula. I'm glad I read it. If it intrigues you, the go right ahead! 

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

3/5 stars

With well woven narratives and atmospheric settings, Spinning Silver is an enchanting loose retelling of Rumpelstiltskin -- one of my favourite fairy tales. The way the elements of the original story were incorporated was quite clever and unexpected.

But here’s the thing about Rumpelstiltskin: it’s real short. And this novel is hefty. The story here is spread thin. While I enjoyed the first half of the book, at the half way point the story began to drag, and because I hadn’t been able to connect to the characters, soon I lost interest entirely. 

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

3/5 stars

Neverworld Wake is a fast paced, emotional ride. We follow a group of teens who used to be close friends but parted ways after one of them died in mysterious circumstances. They get stuck in a time loop, and their only way out is to uncover the truth of what happened the night their friend died. In typical small-town murder fashion, each character is hidjing secrets and ulterior motives. I loved the way it unravelled; it constantly kept me guessing. The science fiction aspect was not sidelined, nor did it take over the story, and I found that it was balanced very well with the drama. The plot is driven by the main character, her choices, her discoveries, her emotions. She was well-realised and I enjoyed reading through her voice. The other characters, however, came off a little flat. There wasn't a whole lot of description in this book, which made the plot move very quickly, but I had no idea what anyone looked like or how they functioned. The main character's relationship with each of them was distant, which added to the detachment I felt. The ending was handled well in terms of pacing and dramatic effect...but it was pretty predictable. Left me like, yup okay. It didn't have that emotional punch I was waiting for. A shame, but overall this was a great read. Definitely recommend if you want a quick and fun read!

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

DNF (Did Not Finish)

The concept of The Invisible Library is absolutely brilliant. Time travelling, dimension hopping librarians collecting rare manuscript from all over the universe. 

This literally sounds like the nerdy book of my dreams.

But unfortunately, I only made it 150 pages in before I had to put it down. I just wasn’t enjoying it at all, and reading it quickly became a chore. The writing style was info-dumpy and extra-wordy, making it hard to get a grasp on the setting. The characters failed to capture me, and the story was meandering. I found no reason to continue.

Perhaps this book had a great ending. Alas, I will never know.

Star Wars: Rebel Rising by Beth Revis

3/5 stars

Star Wars audiobooks are always a treat. The production quality is top notch, and Rebel Rising is no exception; great music, narration, and sound effects.

The story was one I didn’t know I wanted: a prequel’s prequel, this follows a young Jyn Erso, the lead character of the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I’m not the biggest fan of RO, namely because the characters are flat and boring. I don’t really want to have required reading before seeing a film; both should stand on their own (a problem I’ve had with many of the Star Wars novels). Remarkably, in this case they do.

Jyn is a wonderfully realised character and her arc does not pull punches. She really goes through a lot. It’s pretty brutal. Her view of the world evolves with the story, leading her to the point where she is in RO. It was a fascinating journey.

Still, I can’t give this book more then a solid 3 stars because the romance, and original side characters all got on my nerves. They were not engaging, and pulled me right out of the story. 

But on the plus side, I think this book does add depth to the film while managing to stand entirely on its own. 

The Walking Dead, Issue #189: Lines Are Drawn by Robert Kirkman, Cliff Rathburn (Illustrator), Stefano Gaudiano (Illustrator), Charlie Adlard (Illustrator), and Dave Stewart (Illustrator)

3/5 stars

The Walking Dead comics keep trucking along. This was a better issue than the last, with the current ‘commenwealth’ story line finally feeling like it might go somewhere.

Honestly, I don’t know why I’m still bothering to read this series. I’m no longer invested in the world or the characters. I guess out of obligation -- it’s been a part of my life for so very long. Though, I’ll give this issue props for including a touching moment between Rick and Carl. Those sorts of moments are what built my love for this series, and it’s good to know they’re still tucked in there.

I have a few other books I’ve already started, and so far so good. I decided to reread an old favourite and let me tell you, it was a great idea. Come back in a months time to hear about it! Here’s hoping next month will have a few higher rated reads!

[running-with-toast]

u ever see a post that just looks like someone swinging a bat at a hornet’s nest?

Yo so I couldn’t give half a shit about steven universe anymore (you took too long now your candy’s gone), but I watched the big event thing and have some Opinions

Spoiplers under the cut

So just a positive note before I get into the weeds, the whole scene where steven’s gem gets taken out was Very well done. It was deeply, deeply unsettling, really a perfect execution of a very troubling idea that’s been floating in the periphery of this show basically since it started airing. The split-screen gimmick was pretty cool, and that yell... yikes. Also, mad respect to whoever keyed the camera pan at the end of that sequence. That shit is really hard to do well, and I’m pretty sure they did the keyframes on ones instead of threes. That’s a monstrous amount of work, and they did a really good job.

Now.

I think this show has a problem with mixing its metaphors. Maybe my read of the thing is flawed. I admit I haven’t really been paying attention for a while, but here’s what I see. We started out with Diamonds As Fascism, and they stuck with that metaphor for a while. Then, somewhere along the way, it morphed into Diamonds As Abusive Family, and also at the end there Diamonds As Repressed Queerness. 

Each of those messages is worthy of being told, and the latter two even play pretty nicely with each other. I just don’t understand how they’re gonna reconcile where they’ve left us with where they started us. As far as I can tell, when they first introduced the Diamonds they posed the question “Is fascism bad?” Then, a couple seasons and approximately 8 million years later, they told us the answer was “be yourself”. The way they put it together, the question and the answer don’t really match. 

Like, I kinda see how it works? Kinda? Repression of individualism is a key component of fascism, and it isn’t too much of a stretch to characterize an abusive parent as a tyrant, and certainly abuse can be motivated in part by repressing aspects of one’s identity they perceive as ‘wrong’. I think the trouble starts when you try and put all of those ideas together. They don’t play nice. 

I think it might be an issue of scale. When you’re telling “X Is Fascism” stories, the resolution to that problem can’t be small-scale. Fascism doesn’t get dismantled by one person convincing one other person they’re wrong. Fascism is a system of power, which operates on the scale of whole communities, and requires large-scale change to resolve it. Conversely, “X Is Abusive Family/Repressed Queerness”  stories are much more on the level of the individual and interpersonal relationships, and require change on that level to resolve. While there are parallels between both of these types of story, there are fundamental differences that make it impossible (or at least inadvisable) to mix and match problems and solutions like Steven Universe does.

I’d love it if somebody more in the know could explain this to me. I’m really only looking at the macro-level of storytelling, and I really only skimmed all the in-between story, so I definitely missed some content that might make that shift in metaphors smoother. 

One other note: I wanna describe briefly my experience with Attack on Titan. I haven’t made a secret of my dislike for that series. The art is crude, the story is meandering and mean-spirited, also the author is a fascist oops. All that being said, I read like 90 chapters of the manga. Not because I liked it, but because I wanted to know what was gonna happen. Even after I’d completely lost interest in the series, its hooks were in me deep enough that I still wanted to know the answers to the questions it posed from the outset. 

Around chapter 90, all of the major plot threads had been resolved, all the minor plot threads were unceremoniously dumped, and all the big questions and mysteries from the start of the series finally had answers and explanations. By any reasonable metric, the story should have been over there. But no, it kept going. It’s still going, and from what I’ve gathered it’s even more miserable than it was before. I stopped reading at chapter 90 because everything that had originally made the series interesting had been stripped away, and what was left wasn’t worth staying for.

I’m concerned that a similar thing is happening with Steven Universe. They’ve provided answers to every lingering question, they’ve solved every mystery. They’ve achieved every goal they set out for themselves at the beginning of the series (heal the corrupted gems, found some sort of peace with homeworld), and they’ve tied up every loose end (doing all the crystal gem fusions, getting lars back to earth). By any reasonable metric, the story should have been over here. But no, we’ve got a movie and a sixth season in the pipeline, with god knows how much more after that.

Whatever follows after this is going to be thematically discontinuous with what came before it. There’s no way to continue the story using the ideas that formed the core of the show up to this point. That arc reached its natural conclusion. If the writers want to avoid just rehashing old ideas, they’re going to have to bring in an entirely new set of ideas to form the core of the series going forward. 

That’s a risky move. They’ve been telling this story for years. If they want to continue it, they’re gonna have to take a real big swing. If they hit it, they could usher in an entirely new era of steven universe’s story, and we’ll look back at this as just a step in a larger narrative. However, if they miss, they risk dividing or alienating their cantankerous fanbase, and they might lose their more casual followers completely. The writers of Steven Universe are facing a paradigm shift, and I honestly don’t know what they’re going to do about it.

[parachutingkitten]

I have... so many thoughts. I agree with this, a lot, but I also am gonna add to it and maybe disagree with some bits? Not really, but... anyway, I'll just get into it. (And I will be talking about crystalized)

First off, I think not having intense continuity, at least with older seasons, might be a good thing. Continuity is great, and it's really interesting when the whole show feels like one interconnected chain of events all tangled together, but it also makes for some of the most complex lore ever. If you've ever tried explaining one aspect of the show to someone, you know it's impossible not to go an a ten minute long rant about the history and world building of three previous seasons. That's not a great starting point for a show trying to soft reboot itself, and open up to new, younger viewers. And I don't think the episodic nature is the worst thing in the world. Self contained stories can often have the best character development because they have an end point in mind for the characters. The story as a whole feels satisfying because it leaves you with no loose threads. I would argue that MotM is extremely self contained. You could put it at the beginning of the wildbrain line up and aside from a few lines, you wouldn't have to change anything. It takes place in an entirely new location with entirely new characters, and not much reference to anything outside of it. The mystery of Cole's mom was never addressed in show, it was something built up by the fandom, and not something established as needing an answer in show. It's not like you need to know anything from previous seasons for this thread to make sense. Wu's arc could go at any point in the time line. Like, he's always been old and left behind (lol). Lloyd's harumi problem is the only thing referencing outside stuff, and even that just isn't executed well. It's less of an arc than two disconnected dots connected by nothing in between. And on top of that it has only seemed to resolve his feelings towards Vania, not towards Harumi. You could skip it and miss nothing. But, despite all this, MotM is able to immerse itself completely in this new world and do the plot lines it wants to do because it's all self contained. It benefits by cutting ties to everything because it has so much cool new stuff to fucus on. So yeah, I think the more episodic nature of it all could have worked, but they didn't really commit to that either, and I think that's the problem.

Wildbrain stuff has a lot as references to past material, but most of them are so thoroughly established now that they seem kind of commonplace. The fire chapter dives into Wu's childhood and role a the son of the first spinjitzu master as well as the history of the serpentine. He ice chapter dives into another one of the 16 realms and gives us more information about travelers tea, as well as the nature of hereditary powers. The preeminent makes an appearance, as well as a chima deep cut. All of these things are building on preexisting lore form past seasons. But they're so far in the past of the show's lore that they don't feel like relevant connections, they feel like fan service. Season eleven isn't bad because it doesn't directly result from the oni attack, it's bad cuz the pacing sucks and some of the new ideas are kinda weird. (also, season 11 isn't even really bad, but whatever) Season 12 isn't weak because unagami wasn't activated by the closing of the never portal or something. It's weak because they spend entire episodes focusing on like... dance competitions instead of building up the themes it wants to use it its climax. The harumi call back doesn't make this season stronger, it's an attempt at emotion that falls flat and ultimately doesn't matter.

I don't think season 5 is so strong because Morro popped out at the last five seconds of season four to jump scare us all (Infact, that whole ending feels so out of place, just wait until next season to show him). You could have had morro be back just cuz and I think the season would have been about the same. That connective tissue is nice, but these weaker in between connections aren't nearly as important as they might seem. It's the internal consistency that counts. Season five knows what it wants to do with each of its characters, and so gives them proper time and build up to do it. That's the most important piece to the puzzle for a strong season.

I do agree that Wildbrain needs a lot more internal cohesion in its early seasons. I'd disagree that it needs to be a 'this leads to that, cause and effect' sort of relationship, it just need to be like... present. The past seasons exist and have some amount of consequence, even if not directly related to the next big threat. In fact, I think only including that limp of a connection would be equally disappointing. I don't care if Zane as the ice emperor has nothing to do with the video game realm, but you should at least talk about it and let him process. This would be a much better place for the emotion switch arc, honestly. All of the new prime empire residents are great to see in the background, but maybe think about what a huge refugee crisis that would be? MotM has a great little reference in Seabound, and honestly that's all I really need. It would have been nice to have a line about their economy shifting away from vengestone, but them being the defacto secret kingdom to store dangerous artifacts works too. The first couple seasons just assume that no negative consequences exist, and that's the main problem for me.

Seabound really is the sweet spot here. It leans just enough on old material to feel like one world, but still is able to focus on new content.

Crystalized I feel has gone off the deep end though. Again, it's not a problem of reference, it's a problem of build up. Aspheera feels the most well connected but Pythor? Mr. F? The Overlord again? None of these people are relevant to the current story line, none of these people have had any build up, none of these people feel like they fit despite them being established longer than aspheera. Wildbrain does pull from past lore. I mean, they brought Mr. Cuddlywomp into things, they know their lore. They just do a bad job at locating what pieces are currently in play and should be utilized. And when they choose someone way out of left field to bring back, there is no build up or subtlety. To bring Mystake back, the show introduced her as an important side character in season 8, filling the same role we were familiar with, and then elevated her to main character and secret demon in season 9. Crystalized is like if the first time we saw Mystake again, she was a talking rat.

Weirdly enough, I think the one part of the Wildbrian seasons they've nailed as far as cohesion goes is Fugi-Dove. He's a one off character in season eleven, comes back into the plot in season 12, is mentioned again in the island, and gets a prominent role in crystalized. He feels like a solid part of this universe. Honestly, a lot of stuff in season 11 ends up feeling well included. The paper crew, Clutch Powers, the explorer's club, the chicken. I guess that's why the pacing of the fire chapter felt so off. They were too busy establishing all the moving pieces they actually would bother using in the rest of the show.

Anyway, long story short, I think the consistency is definitely off in the wildbrain seasons, not necessarily because there's no cause and effect relationship between stories directly, or the stories are too self contained, but that stories lack any sort of consequence, and most references that are present, come out of nowhere.

That being said, for a new crew trying to find their footing and pull off the balancing act of a half new show pleasing old viewers and welcoming new ones, they did a damn good job. No disrespect to new ninjago. We respect new ninjago in this house, y'all know that.

I think one of the things that made the original series so compelling is how interwoven everything was. Sure, it wasnt always perfect, but each season brought to the table some new connections to the lore, some character growth, some advancements in continuity. Even if a character or subplot only lasted one season, you could still feel their influence on the story several seasons later.

Chen is my favorite example of this. He may have just been the villain of season 4, but his schemes introduced a lot of information about elemental powers, his defeat initiated season 5, and his impact can still be felt as late as season 7 (foreshadowing about Ray and Maya, elemental alliance stuff, etc.) In Way of the Departed theres even suggestions that Chen had Clouse use dark magic to corrupt the Time Twins, leading to their villainy and causing not just the plot of season 7, but also Kai and Nya's whole backstory. Clouse, having returned as a ghost thanks to season 5, is responsible for conjuring Nadakhan and starting season 6.

And on the note of season 5! That season introduced us to the Sixteen Realms and the Realm Crystal, which become important aspects of season 6, and Yang's temple, which became important in DotD and season 7. It also formally introduced Ronin and turned Cole into a ghost, which are *also* major plot details going forward. AND it planted the seeds for Wu's eventual character arc in seasons 7-9. This season's impact expands past itself.

A lot of times, not all the time but often enough, whenever lore gets introduced at some point in the og series, it gets utilized much later on. Captain Soto, formerly a one-off villain from season 2, becomes plot-important in season 6. The Golden Weapon is shot into space in season 2, melted into Golden Armor in season 3, then melted down back into the weapons to defeat the Oni in season 10. The Great Devourer causes Harumi's tragic backstory. Mystake, who started out as a background gag character, became a key participant not just in the show but the worldbuilding and lore. The love triangle and subsequent rift between Jay and Nya doesnt get fully resolved until season 6. The ninja return to the burnt-down monastery in season 6, DotD, and season 7, and eventually rebuild it in season 10.

See what i mean? Everything somehow ties back to itself. Its far from perfect, but there is a solid sense of continuity that connects everything in increasingly complex ways.

I think thats a big part of what makes Wildbrain feel so different. Dont get me wrong, i love Wildbrain and i enjoy a lot of it, but it definitely lacks the cohesion that had seemingly defined Masters of Spinjitzu. A lot of their Wildbrain adventures feel less like installments in a greater narrative, and more like a series of loosely connected sidequests. Exciting sidequests that are usually really fun to watch, certainly, but sidequests all the same.

With the exception of Seabound and Crystalized, you could probably watch Wildbrain out of order and not much would change. If Prime Empire or the Island happened before SotFS, none of those seasons would face any impact from that. They are largely episodic and detached from each other in ways the og series never was. But if you tried to shuffle up the season order in Masters of Spinjitzu, youd have to rewrite a lot of stuff to make it work.

I almost wanna say thats part of why Seabound and Crystalized feel like such a return to form, and why MotM is so well-beloved. MotM introduced us to Lilly, fleshed out Cole's backstory, gave Wu a lil character arc that built on what came before it (Wu feeling useless bc the past few adventures were done without him), and finally gave some kind of resolution to Lloyd's Harumi-related trust issues (not just referencing her, but actually giving him a character arc about it). Seabound introduced us to more lore about the world's history and the backstory of the FSM, gave Nya one of the most compelling character arcs in the whole show that builds on and satisfies her past arcs, even gave her name a backstory that ties into the lore, featured relevant cameos from prior seasons (Vania, Maya, the Keepers), and provided an ending that would have lasting repercussions on seasons to come. And Crystalized...well, i wont spoil anything, but you get where im going with this.

Now, obviously this isnt the only deciding factor of whether or not a season is good. Seasons 6 and 7 are a mixed bag in terms of quality, yet have very integrated lore and character arcs. But seasons 11, and 12, which many people dislike, are also the ones that most noticeably feel like theyre happening in a vacuum. Any effect they have on later seasons, or any effect prior seasons have on them, is not as significant or immediate as in other seasons.

With the original series, there was a sort of cause and effect, almost. Rebooted caused ToE, which caused Possession, which caused Skybound, and so on. Theres a clear and specific chain of causality, and the sequence of events has a large impact on the events themselves. The same cannot be said of Wildbrain.

Again, i do enjoy Wildbrain, and there are a lot of things i even think it did better than the og. But i definitely feel like it wouldnt be half as contentious among fans if it had the same cause-and-effect plot structure as the og. Like, something in ns11 being the inciting incident for season 12, and something in season 12 causing season 13...you get the idea.

Anyway brb i gotta go rewrite Wildbrain

[ayearofpike]

The Last Vampire 3: Red Dice

Pocket Books, 1995 193 pages, 17 chapters + epilogue ISBN 0-671-87268-0 LOC: PZ7.P626 Las 1995 OCLC: 32331239 Released March 31, 1995 (per B&N)

Sita has just ended the reign of terror of a horrible sociopathic self-made vampire, but his killing spree did not escape the notice of the military. It seems they already know who and what she is, as well as her unwilling accomplice turned against his will to save his life. When he’s captured, she resolves to save him before the military can do horrible things with his blood. This mission is all the more urgent when she realizes that the scientist leading the research efforts is an old friend. Like, a REALLY old friend.

It was about here when I realized that Pike didn’t actually have a single plotted story for Sita, that he was just writing her adventures as they came to him. I might be misremembering this, but I feel like we’d been led to understand that The Last Vampire was going to be a trilogy, like Remember Me and his favorite title-drop Lord of the Rings. (I have not been keeping track of LotR references, but there’s one in almost every book. Reread @mildhorror‘s recaps if you don’t believe me.) Getting hit with another “to be continued” was sort of a gut punch.

But beyond that, the way it puts an old character in a new situation made me aware that this was becoming a serial rather than one story. This book doesn’t really do anything new to tie up loose ends. That door was mostly closed in the previous one, when she dispatched the original vampire. But as soon as she turned a dude, it created new loose ends that Sita now has to shear off before the story closes up. It’s a perfectly fine self-contained story, if a lot more actiony and cartoon-violent than most of Pike’s work, but it’s not exactly clear how it belongs to the previous storyline (or whether it even does).

Let’s see if I can find or assume some context for how this book ended up getting constructed.

In 1995, the public at large had just been exposed to Quentin Tarantino’s stylized violence, with Pulp Fiction coming off a controversial Oscar loss and becoming a sleeper hit. Seeing how this was received by the teens who were ostensibly Pike’s audience, it makes sense that he would have wanted to incorporate some gory battle scenes. Especially as Interview With the Vampire had also just come out — I have no doubt Pike wanted to differentiate his cool-young-adult vampire from Tom Cruise’s brooding Gothic.

Spooksville would start in October of this year. I’ve mentioned this series before, but its importance to Sita’s story is that it tells semi-related juvenile horror tales linked to a handful of main characters living in a town where this kind of stuff happens. That is to say: the main kids are the only real common link between the events. I expect that he’d already started writing the series at this point, and that the structure affected how he told The Last Vampire stories (and probably in turn his love for Sita helped him define the structure of Spooksville; after all, Goosebumps didn’t have the same protagonist in every book.)

In any case, it’s both drastically different from the suspense thrillers and mysteries that Pike’s mostly written to date, and game-changing in terms of what we would now expect about Sita stories. I think I already made this analogy: The Last Vampire is Pike’s Final Fantasy, an inspired tale about the end of an era that would seize unexpected popularity and spawn sequels unto eternity.

So let’s try to blaze through the recap, because there’s not a whole bunch of plot. Sita wakes up the day after her battle with New Vampire with a tube still stretching between her and FBI Dude. She realizes she’s been out for nearly 24 hours because it was midnight when the fight started and now it’s still dark but her watch says it’s just before twelve. But also she hears police cars, and knows that they need to escape before they’re asked a lot of questions. (I have one: if they knew what she was, which they probably did, why wouldn’t they come at NOON?) Sita prefers to keep a low profile, because she knows that if someone suspects her supernatural abilities, she’s going to get tested and dissected and someone is going to try to make more (like the coroner’s assistant already did). She doesn’t need to be responsible for that.

But since she’s dealing with a baby vampire who thinks he can use the government bureaucracy to his advantage, they don’t get out. Instead, they’re thrown into an armored van with five armed guards (three in back with them, two in the front) and a driver behind bulletproof glass. This within a caravan of armored vehicles and under surveillance from a helicopter. Of course Sita has escaped from worse situations. She’s handcuffed and shackled, but her eyes are free, and that’s what she uses to hypnotize the guards into pointing their weapons away long enough to break the ankle restraints and kick two of them dead. The third she kills just by telling him to die, which is when she realizes that Original Vampire’s blood is starting to give her new and stronger powers. Because FBI Dude is squeamish, she knocks out the other two guards and then learns from the driver that they’re not going to jail, but to a high-security government facility.

This is where the book turns into an action movie. Sita has the driver crank a turn into a narrow alley and then floor it. They makes it across two streets before smashing into a fruit truck, which gives her enough cover to jump out of the van and start shooting. This clears out a police car from ... unidentified somewhere for them to steal, and they lead the chase into the basement parking garage of a tall building, where they hop an elevator to the top floor. Then Sita breaks a window and jumps across the street to the roof of another building, and roof-hops along that side of the street to one with a helicopter pad on the roof. She steals one and comes back for FBI Dude, and they take off into the desert. So much for that low profile.

The police (or government agents, or whoever it is) pursue them but don’t try to catch up or engage. We learn why when, as they cross over southern Nevada, they’re set upon by two military combat helicopters. More questions: why not a fighter jet? Nellis is right there, and a jet is faster and more heavily armed than a chopper. But anyway, they cripple Sita’s chopper, forcing FBI Dude to bail into Lake Mead, and before she can crash it and escape herself they blow it up with a missile. When she wakes up she’s pinned underwater by the helicopter’s wreckage, but her unconscious mind has had the presence to not let her drown. She surfaces in the middle of the lake to see what’s up, and sure enough they’ve caught FBI Dude again and are throwing him in another armored van. Frickin’ baby vampires can’t do anything.

She steals a truck from a nearby campsite and follows the new military caravan out to some secure facility in the middle of the desert. She watches FBI Dude get trucked out and displayed to a uniformed general, and it’s confirmed that yes, the military knows what they are and yes, they were trying to take them alive. FBI Dude gets shunted into one of the buildings, and Sita takes special note of the scientist that the general talks to afterward. Just one scientist, yes. He leaves shortly afterward, and she goes to follow him, but realizes something weird as she gets in her truck to follow him.

She’s glowing.

That’s right, all y’all that were pissed about Edward Cullen! Pike did it first! Granted, this is in the moonlight and not the sun, but STILL.

She decides to worry about it later and follows the scientist to a casino, where he loses too much money and drinks too much, then to his house just before sunrise. If she’s going to use this dude to get close and figure out how to save her buddy, she needs to redo her identity again. So she gets her secretive business manager or whatever in New York to set her up with new ID, new credit cards, new hair, new clothes, the whole shebang. Yeah — from here until the end of the book we’re supposed to imagine her as a redhead, which is hard to do because we’ve already got two books of blonde Alisa Perne.

When the scientist goes to work, she follows him to see where he goes in, and then breaks into his house and sees a strange model. It looks like DNA, but it has twelve strands instead of two. She recognizes it immediately — it’s the same as a model made by an alchemist she knew seven hundred years ago in Italy during the Catholic Inquisition, a monk who she took as a lover, to whom she revealed the secrets of her life and her history when he watched her heal a kid’s broken spine. So if this guy has a similar model, they must have another vampire and have already been researching, which means Sita has more to save and/or destroy.

She goes back out to the military compound to try to plan an attack, and the glowing skin makes her curious, so she takes off all her clothes and watches her body light up and start to become transparent and feel lighter. She assumes this is another unexplainable power conveyed by Original Vampire’s blood, but to what end? She doesn’t have time to figure it out right now; there’s a scientist to seduce! They gamble for a while, then Sita buys him dinner and they go back to his house, where he tells her just enough about his research to make her feel both sorry for him and further set in her need to rescue FBI Dude ASAP.

While everyone’s asleep, Sita finishes the woeful tale of the alchemist. It seems that he drew some of her blood and used it to heal incurable illnesses in combination with crystals and moonlight. But then he went too far and tried to use it on someone healthy — the boy from before, in fact, with full midday sun streaming through. This ended up creating a monster ruled by fear, and Sita had to kill him, and the inquisitors took the alchemist and she never saw him again.

This wouldn’t be a Last Vampire book without two things: drinking blood and Seymour. She gets the first from a hapless high roller, first by beating him at the card table, then insulting him, then inviting him to what appears to be a desert gangbang, then scaring off his bodyguards and mercilessly drinking her fill. Seymour comes in because she’s not sure what’s coming next with the scientist and the military and the moon-glow, so she calls him to get some ideas and assistance. He says that the only way to be sure they don’t keep vampire blood is to blow up the entire base with the nuclear bombs they probably have on site, this being a secret military facility in Nevada and all.

So now she’s got a plan, and she needs to figure out how to carry it out. When the scientists opens up about his concerns about their test subject and what the scary general wants to do with his blood, Sita tells him everything. Like, literally everything: what her name is, that she’s a vampire, that she’s five thousand years old, that she was turned by the original vampire who she just killed this week, that she knew Krishna, the whole nine yards. In return, he tells her where they’re keeping FBI Dude and the other vampire they’ve had for a month. Her plan is to sneak into the compound in the scientist’s trunk, pose as a tech on loan from the Pentagon, and somehow break out the two vampires.

It all goes according to plan, except there’s only one vampire in the cell. At least until Sita opens the door and goes to rescue FBI Dude, at which point the door slams shut and the scientist talks to her in Italian. Yep! The other vampire he had was her, way back in the thirteenth century! He used her blood on himself, although imperfectly, so in the last seven centuries he’s aged about twenty years. And now he’s got her right where he wants her, so he can keep doing his experiments and improving humanity through vampirism.

The general doesn’t care about any of that shit — he just wants to be stronger than anyone else. This is his weakness, knowing Sita’s power and being afraid of it until he gets it for himself. So she manipulates the guards into panic (more powers she didn’t have before, being able to hypnotize someone without even seeing them) and then breaks all the lights in the cell and starts pounding on the door. So they amass a whole fighting force and open the door, but of course Sita has used her magical vampire powers to ... hide behind it. She has to kill a guard slowly and messily to keep up the fear paralysis, and then she mows most of the rest of them down with a machine gun. All the killing is starting to upset her, or so she says, maybe because of Squeamish FBI Dude, because it doesn’t stop her from planning to nuke the joint.

The general is already upstairs, trying to escape, so Sita JUMPS THROUGH THE CEILING and shoots him in the leg so he can’t go anywhere. Then she gets him to take her to the weapons stockpile and arm a nuclear bomb with a timer, supposedly long enough for everyone to get away from the blast. She has to fry his brain with her hypnosis to get him to do it, but now Science Alchemist is in command and he’s got orders from the president to not let her get away under any circumstances. (Like he might have otherwise, right?) The nuke’s ticking down, and they’re in a standoff, but she finally convinces him to let the rest of the troops get out and away, so now it’s just Sita and FBI Dude and Fried General and Science Alchemist, waiting for the bomb to go off.

And Sita starts glowing again.

This time, she lights up all the way, becoming light itself, and floats off the ground and away in the wind, saying her goodbyes to the old monk who has stolen her blood and the new friend who she turned against his will and the military leader who she has effectively lobotomized. By the time the nuke blows, she’s long gone. 

The next thing we see is Science Alchemist’s basement. No, Pike doesn’t explain how Sita reassembled her body or whatever after floating away as a being of light. No, he doesn’t spend any time on what it means or how she should use it. Yes, it would have been a perfect time to close with an epilogue about how she’s come back to Krishna and her life is complete, along the lines of the dreams she has throughout these books. But instead, she’s in a basement in Las Vegas, where there’s a complicated array of crystals and mirrors, and she’s going to turn human with Seymour’s help (and blood). So she falls asleep doing it, and when she wakes up, someone is pounding on the door insisting she let him in. And that’s it!

So, I have to say it, and you should imagine the clapping emoji between each of the words in the following sentence: THERE WAS NO PURPOSE BEHIND SITA TURNING FBI DUDE EXCEPT TO KEEP THE AUDIENCE HANGING. Seriously, his name should have been Plot Devicerson. He gave us a springboard into the third book, he gave Sita a reason to act throughout it, and now he’s fuckin’ dead. He’s not even a tie to her life before, any more than a divorce lawyer is a tie to a marriage. The whole book could have conceivably done without him, although it would have admittedly taken a little more thought to get her out to the military installation in the first place.

You know, I wish Pike would have called a spade a spade with this series. If it had been a stand-alone serial novel set called The Last Vampire, I would have been totally fine. The stories themselves and Sita as a character I don’t necessarily have a problem with. But they DO NOT FIT TOGETHER. And by now it’s too late to retcon this into another Baby-Sitters Club or Nancy Drew type of series, so he’s stuck attemping to link one unique narrative to another.

It’s gonna be another year before we see Sita again, so I have to deduce that Pike just couldn’t bring himself to kill her off even though he didn’t know exactly what she would be doing next. And it’s OK to keep that door open — if you just admit you’re doing a serial rather than a continuance. In retrospect, I think that’s what annoyed me so much about these books, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. I guess we have to wait and see if Pike can save this series as a continued story, sometime in the next ... six books GODDAMMIT.

[sireneia-a]

i have nowhere else to post up this but i feel like i definitely want to get my impressions of the fe4 fuyuki manga out somewhere and trying to put this in a tweet thread would prolly be annoying

i fully expect my opinion to change with time cause i think making judgments on something in less than 24 hours of consuming it... doesn’t usually lead to the long-lasting opinions. manga and fe4 spoilers both in here under the cut. i’ll try not to judge the manga in terms of merely deviating from the original game too much cause it’s allowed to take its own liberties, and sometimes those deviations can actually be a really good thing ( e.g. gaiden manga for the most part ). if you want to know abt my opinion on deviations, i’m still Bitter(tm) that they took out lene. this’ll be pretty unorganized cause i’m just spitting out my thoughts without revision cause i don’t intend to make this an actual literary analysis essay. 

anyway, moving forth:

my opinion isn’t really positive. might as well just get that out the gate before i get into details.

i think the main issue i have is that this manga... feels very unfocused in what exactly it’s trying to accomplish. is it a war story? they don’t finish the war. is it a love story? well, that really only came in about halfway and doesn’t focus on the euphoria of love, just the angst associated with a love pentagon. is it a coming of age story? maybe. this might be the closest answer to the truth.

the pacing definitely leaves something to be desired. we go from pretty fast action of seliph being introduced and then taking up arms and then rescuing leif, but... then it just slows down for a filler chapter with all the army members hanging around and talking about how much they like seliph but how distant he is. it’s a weirdly slow chapter that comes out of nowhere, and the mood whiplash is so great; seeing leif go from being this vengeful, frustrated teen who just realized his god worship of seliph was unfounded to leif being a happy-go-lucky guy acting pestering others and teasing them in just a short amount of time... is Very Odd. i’m not against leif being able to show a more casual persona, but i definitely think it could’ve been handled better.

ced’s introduction is as this all mighty, powerful mysterious man and... then all that buildup just goes into making him a background character. it feels wasted, which is how i feel about a lot of this manga honestly.

the manga tries to have some arcs for characters, and i think it pulls it off best with tine, arthur, leif ( in his first few appearances before filler ) but otherwise it’s kinda Meh. there’s just a ton of loose ends that just don’t get resolved at all. i’m cool with this usually, but the fact that the only thing that seemed to really be concluded was seliph’s romance arc and nothing else made it feel extremely unfinished. the other characters in this love pentagon don’t really get closure either, ESPECIALLY FEBAIL.

speaking of febail. Well. i wish he was something more than just “the love rival” character. he’s introduced to get patty/lester development and to further seliph/lana as well. it’s a shame cause febail actually is one of my favorite gen 2 characters ngl and to see him getting reduced to this is.... Hrm. larcei also suffers from this issue too, not really having a character outside of being tended to by lana ( to show that lana is a capable cleric ), to be fawned over by iuchar and iucharba, and to fawn over shanan. ulster might be even worse, really only existing to be the protective older brother to larcei, but when she barely gets any screentime, he might as well be replaced by a stop sign.

i’m not saying we need multiple chapters focusing on characters’ developments either. it functioned just fine with arthur and tine, and leif had a REALLY good arc in the leonster castle chapter. i really liked how they handled fee too! even if she didn’t get any closure. i expected her to show how capable she was at some point and stick it to her dad, but nope.

the manga really likes to focus on seliph, leif, and ares. i get it, they’re the sons of their power trio of dads. i’m not at all surprised these are the three they chose to focus on, but man it doesn’t have a good pay-off imo. ares might be the best handled out of the three despite having his character tweaked a bit ( the fault of removing lene, i suppose ) and i actually liked his progression with the inner conflict of living in isolation. 

leif took a nosedive for the worse when he somehow began revolving his life around seliph despite the fact his first appearance was all about how he should not be heralding him as a god amongst men. leif was that character had a weird duality between being the “shounen best friend” trope for seliph, telling him to never stop believing in himself and reminding him how great he is amongst giving cheeky hints about the romance plot, and being his own character filled with angst. leif brings some nice laughs a few times i’ll admit, and even if it’s pretty ooc for him, i was okay with it i guess; the issue i had was just how his status as seliph’s best friend seemed to also come along with removing all of his initial character development. 

i’m not a fan of how leif’s last bit in the manga is admitting that he didn’t know what he’d do without seliph. leif’s got all this buildup of trying to take on travant because he wants revenge, and he’s shown himself to be capable before this. i think my issue with this is less about leif’s competency ( i really do think though leif’s whole thing of being a pretty horrible lord unit and then turning into this master of all trades in fe4 is super good ) and more about how we don’t really see seliph helping leif out much at all. leif is a pillar of emotional support for seliph, but it doesn’t ever get conveyed that it’s mutual even though the manga WANTS you to believe it is. when seliph goes to check out on leif, it’s always leif talking out his own feelings and coming to conclusions himself without any input on seliph’s end. when seliph does say something, it’s just to scold leif and remind him that they’re friends and that seliph can help him, but i... honestly didn’t want seliph to help leif defeat travant. it felt more like seliph was meddling more than anything, and i could easily see this being fixed with just some dialogue tweaks of seliph saying he wishes to support leif or doesn’t want to see him die. but it’s just “we’ll kill him together!”

seliph is just a standard protag who understands he needs to grow and he closes off his feelings. he is compassionate, charismatic, and he goes throughout the story changing people to ally themselves with him. this is most notable in how he convinces through sheer pacifism for iuchar and iucharba to join his side even though originally their role in the game was all about making a choice between one of the brothers.

speaking of the brothers, they also got shafted quite a bit. i mean, true to the game i suppose, but still. they both had pretty interesting characters when they first get introduced as sons who disapprove of their father but come out to fight because it’s what they’ve learned and been told to do. they don’t understand seliph but feel a sense of wavering conviction because they want to do the right thing. but... then it just goes to nothing, this beginning of a mini plot, because they meet larcei and since larcei barely gets a character in this manga, neither will these two. they fall head over heels for her and then lose their characters entirely. i don’t even know what the point of recruiting the BOTH of them was if they weren’t even going to do anything with them. like, sure, show that seliph is a good person. but they were going to show that seliph is great without this incident anyway. 

the fact that julia gets reduced to just a healer hopelessly in love with seliph is sad. she has this crucial plot importance and it’s hinted at with the chapter involving ishtar and julius, but it really goes nowhere because the manga decides halfway through its main focus is going to be the romance between seliph and lana, so we’re going to end the manga in the middle of chapter 9 instead of actual endgame. julia’s just a slightly upgraded form of febail’s character in this lbr. she’s a love rival character meant to inspire angst within lana. woo.............. she gets brownie points i guess for helping along ares’s arc, but eh.

altena was fine. i think they stuck to everything important about her: her devotion to thracia, her dilemma with leif, etc. the arion and altena plot was okay. hell, even though i really like coirpre’s close relationship with altena in the game, i thought how he served as a voice of reason for her in this without the two knowing each other was actually done really well! just. wish coirpre got recruited. but that’s just me being salty, and i really don’t have an actual valid complaint about coirpre’s writing and minimal involvement in the manga. he served a purpose and he did it pretty damn well.

overall?? i thought this manga was a poor adaptation, and i really don’t recommend it as a way to understand fe4 gen 2′s plot at all nor its characters. but it serves its function as supplementary material, and i heard it’s like infinitely shorter than oosawa if you want a shorter read! it’s got its good points with certain characters like i’ve said before ( the tine and leif recruitment chapters are VERY GOOD and i loved fee in this too! ) and the fact it got a few laughs out of me is something i didn’t expect coming into it. i’m personally okay with the art, though i do wish characters didn’t appear crosseyed as often as they do.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE SERIES: My Favorite One Piece Arc with RogersBase

  I love One Piece and I love talking to people who love One Piece. And with the series going on 23 years now, there is a whole lot to talk about. As the series is about to publish its 1000th chapter, a true feat in and of itself, we thought we should reflect upon the high-seas adventure and sit down with some notable names in the One Piece fan community and chat about the arcs they found to be especially important, or just ones they really, really liked.

  Welcome to the inaugural article in the series "My Favorite One Piece Arc!"

  My first guest in this series is RogersBase, a Nintendo Brand Ambassador. For my chat with him, he chose the Zou arc, in which Luffy and his crew head to an ancient civilization that sits upon the back of a giant elephant.

  A note on spoilers: If you haven't seen the Zou arc yet, this interview does contain major plot points. Watch the Zou arc starting RIGHT HERE if you'd like to catch up or rewatch!

    Dan Dockery: In one sentence, could you sell me on Zou?

  RogersBase: Okay, here we go — Mystery, romance, and a little bit of the Mammoth Boyz. I think that’s the perfect way to describe the best story arc in the post time skip era of One Piece.

  The best? Really?

  Yeah, by far. For me, at least. 

  Yeah, I feel like post time skip has been a certainly interesting array of storylines. I think my personal favorite is Whole Cake. So much of the back half of it as soon as the wedding goes awry is great, and the entire Katakuri fight is a masterpiece. 

  I think Whole Cake is a totally reasonable answer, and I think you probably like it for the same reasons that I like Zou: the characterization and the drama that isn’t centered around the characters saving a kingdom. The kingdom of Zou has already been destroyed. There’s no saving it at this point. The only thing they want to save is Raizo. So you don’t have to deal with the villain hierarchies and families of say Dressrosa or Wano. And the nice thing about it is that since it’s a shorter, condensed story arc, it really hammers home the motivations of the characters and gives us this terrifying villain that’s not even present for most of the arc.

    I really like Jack. He only appears in a flashback for the most part and he’s a scourge of the kingdom. And then he comes back, only to be hit by that elephant. And that’s one of those things at the beginning of the arc, when I saw this massive thing, I thought “Aw, man. I wanna see what that elephant can do. I hope it hits something” and then IT DOES. I flipped out. It was so satisfying. Did you know that Zou would be your favorite when you finished it?

  Yeah, I think I did. All the arcs up to that point had really high highs, but some of it just didn’t land with me. So to have Oda move away from these long story arcs that end in big one on one fights and go to this shorter, mystery-focused arc: What’s going on with these minks? What’s atop this elephant? Is Raizo still alive? What is The Voice of All Things? What connection does Luffy have to these giant creatures? And with so many great designs and characters, too, with the Minks. It’s really fascinating, and you have bits and pieces that lead up to it, but there’s so much here. 

  I feel like the Minks might be Oda’s purest expression of side characters because he’s playing with all of these animal figures that are both interesting to look at and emotionally evocative. It’s him flexing his muscles as a character artist. And the landscape of Zou as well - It’s beautiful to behold. 

    Especially when you think about the amount of content that’s there in a short amount of chapters or episodes. There’s so much that’s told about the overall world, the Road Poneglyphs, the relationship between the Minks and the Kozuki Family, the Beast Pirates, so much gets touched upon that will expand in later story arcs. There’s beautiful, immediate payoff there and later. 

  It has such a comparatively goofy start, too. They’re climbing this giant elephant on the back of a cartoon dragon that Robin thinks is adorable. And I’m glad she gets a little bit of focus here because, with the Poneglyphs, Zou is a really big set-up arc for Robin. So her role in One Piece’s endgame has exponentially increased. 

  Also, the focus on characterization. In earlier, post timeskip arcs, you have these epic clashes that take down kingdoms, but here you get a cute moment with Robin. It’s so refreshing to see her in a natural element where she’s comfortable.

    What did you think of the Mink tribe’s living situation? The giant white whale tree and the treehouses and all. Do you have any favorite parts of Oda’s worldbuilding here? Not just as a story designer, but as someone who crafts actual places where races and species can live.

  It’s cool to see the animals he chooses for the Minks, and how he constructs the power structure and who controls the land at what time, with the dog during the day and the cat at night. The big pineapple trees and the ruins that you see in the Jack flashback, he created a full-blown, believable civilization. It’s always a pleasure to see Oda working in jungle vegetation-type areas. He really excels in this in Skypiea and in his color spreads. So it seems like Zou is something that he’s wanted to do for a while. And how much effort he puts into it is why you feel so attached to the Minks at the end.

  That’s really cool. There are a ton of anime side character animals, like Kakashi’s pet dogs and the little animals that hang out with Goku and pals, but Oda really lets loose here with a whole species. And as you said, we should’ve kinda seen it coming with all the work he’s done with anthropomorphic animals. But then, you have the big Jack flashback. And the stereotype of the One Piece flashback is “Oh boy, it’s ‘bout to get sad.” But Zou’s feels like an epic piece of mythology, and Jack is just this being of pure cruelty without any kind of sad backstory. How did you feel about it? Did it surpass your expectations?

    Oh, absolutely! To see a character as violent and ruthless as Jack was something needed, I think. He’s an overall threat, not goofy. And his Devil Fruit is fascinating, as you finally see the return of the Prehistoric Zoan type fruit after you last saw it with Drake turning into an Allosaurus. So it’s cool to not only see that Jack can turn into a Woolly Mammoth, but it’s a Woolly Mammoth fighting on top of a giant elephant. And with the way he gets teased leading up to his appearance in the flashback, I remember thinking “How cool would it be if there was a Woolly Mammoth fruit!” and sure enough, there it is! Jack feels like a fulfillment of the promise of the New World — It’s not going to be a cakewalk. Your opponents will be devastating and Jack is so determined, coming because he knows Raizo’s there and then coming back because he STILL KNOWS Raizo is there. He’s like “You can tell me all you want that he’s not here, but I know, and I will crucify you and cut off your limbs. I don’t know why you’re trying to defend this one ninja, but I know he’s here.”

  Zou is kind of a double feature. We have Raizo and the Minks and the lore, but we also have the stuff that leads to Whole Cake with Sanj and Capone. Now, I see Sanji’s whole arc here sometimes referred to as Robin 2.0, because it’s a lot like Enies Lobby on the surface. Guy gets taken by the bad guys and is like “Don’t follow me because they’ll kill you, etc.” That’s always felt a little hollow to me because Sanji is not Robin and they don’t have the same motivation.

  No, absolutely. And I’m glad you mentioned it because it’s phenomenal how well Zou has aged. They manage to give these characterization moments to Robin and Sanji and the crew while introducing all this stuff and managing to make us care about all of it. There are people that are like “I can’t wait for Carrot to officially join the crew,” and it all stems from this story arc. 

    In terms of characters that get done so well that even though their time with you is brief, they still stick with you for a long time, I think a good example is Pedro. He joins everyone and he’s this stoic, mentor figure, a character type that usually doesn't fare so well when it comes to surviving anime series intact. And obviously, RIP Pedro. But it’s a testament to what you’re talking about because he just joins the crew and you’re like “Yeah, sure. Gimme fifty more chapters of him.”

  He’s got this cool eye patch, he has a beef with Big Mom, he knows about the world. And he’s the one who’s sort of the most hesitant to trust the Straw Hats at first after the disaster with Jack and all. But by the ending, he knows that the Straw Hats are the guys that he’s been waiting for. This is the crew that will bring upon that new dawn. And we haven’t even talked about Pekoms yet! He has those ties to Big Mom and to Bepo and to Zou and to Pedro and to Capone, who shoots him. 

  What do you think of the Poneglyph system? It’s both indicative of the Straw Hat endgame, but it isn’t like this magic map. What do you think of it as kind of a quest marker?

  It’s great because you learn that there are a definite few that mean something and that they’re all being held at various places that are run by Emperors. So trying to find them gives you an actual reason to fight these Emperors of the Sea and heading into their territories. They don’t really need to be fighting Kaido in the grand scheme of things, but the Poneglyphs add to the direction of the series. 

  ONE PIECE LIGHTNING ROUND!

  Favorite character?

  Trafalgar D. Water Law.

  Favorite Straw Hat?

  I go back and forth between three, but Sanji.

  Favorite villain?

  Doflamingo.

  If you could live on any One Piece island, where would you call home?

  Dressrosa without Doflamingo would actually be pretty nice.

  Favorite One Piece fight?

  Luffy vs Lucci.

  One Piece moment that made you sob the most?

  “Raizo is safe!” I was so overwhelmed with emotion, seeing the resolve of the Minks.

  One Piece moment that made you cheer the loudest?

  Sabo getting the Flare-Flare Fruit in Dressrosa.

      Stay tuned for the next installment of "My Favorite One Piece Arc" as we speak with Official One Piece Columnist for Shueisha and Toei Greg Warner about his favorite One Piece arc: Arlong Park!!

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daniel Dockery

[woohooligancomics]

Webcomic Whimsy: Boston Metaphysical Society

Welcome to the Woohooligan Weekly Webcomic Whimsy! I've given a couple of interviews in the past, but this is my first experience with reviewing. If you have any suggestions for improvements, feel free to leave a note. If you're a webcomic author and would like a review, you can see my announcement and review rules here.

Title: The Boston Metaphysical Society

Author: Madeleine Holly-Rosing • Facebook • Twitter

Site: The Boston Metaphysical Society • IndieGogo

Genres: Steampunk, Supernatural, Mystery, Suspense, Horror

Rating: PG, T for Teen

Updates: Completed - Six Chapters

Synopsis: (from the About page) The year is 1895. Our world has developed along the lines of Steampunk technology, but with a modern twist. Here exists steam driven rudimentary computers and electronics. And dirigibles rule the sky. But with it comes social and political upheaval as not everyone is comfortable with change. In fact, many people fear it.

That fear and the violence that followed caused a psychic rift to puncture the veil of space and time allowing the entity known as “The Shifter” to escape. And the only people who stand a chance in hell of destroying it are: Samuel Hunter, ex-Pinkerton Detective; Caitlin O’Sullivan, Medium and Spirit Photographer and Granville Woods, Scientist Extraordinaire. They are the Boston Metaphysical Society.

"A steampunk X-Files" is the shorter synopsis Holly has been using to describe the Boston Metaphysical Society and it fits. While the BMS team is a little larger and none of the characters' personalities quite match those of Mulder and Scully, the overall feel of this story is fairly similar to the X-Files. There's plenty of mystery and suspense, ghosts and other supernatural creatures, steampunk inventions, and while there is some action, those scenes are few and far between, in favor of a largely dialogue-driven narrative. The strength of this story, like any good mystery, really lies in it's slow pacing that gives the reader time to wonder what the sparse clues really mean.

The story opens on one of its few action scenes:

At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Boston Metaphysical Society is the team of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and Harry Houdini, who are introduced at a dreary funeral on page four.

That group however is called BETH (Bell, Edison, Tesla, Houdini) as opposed to BMS. The BETH group with it's flashy, high-profile names, is seen throughout the story, building machines and trying to hunt down "the shifter", a supernatural creature they believe is killing people. But thanks to their massive egoes, they spend most of their time bickering amongst each other and not accomplishing much. For me, this feels like a fun parallel to the Lord of the Rings, where the flashy big-name characters, the Fellowship's princes and kings are off fighting orcs, but the real work is being done in the shadows, far from the battlefield, by a couple of unknown hobbits. In this case there's some back and forth between the members of BETH about whether or not they should work with BMS. They're never actively hostile, just dismissive of a former Pinkerton's abilities, whith Houdini being the first exception, later followed by Tesla.

The story makes sure you know that supernatural creatures are real pretty early on, showing friendly a ghost in no uncertain terms on page six. But while Caitlin knows that ghosts can be friendly, all the men are much more cavalier, treating them as "its" rather than "whos", the only contention being whether spirits should be studied or simply destroyed on sight. Caitlin is able to prove her point with the help of BMS third member, Granville Woods, in chapter three. While "women talk, men shoot" is a bit of a trope, it feels appropriate in this context. Victorian-era Boston was fairly chauvinistic and stories from that era tend to reflect that, so by having only one female protagonist, Boston Metaphysical is simply in-step with its genre.

Much of the story's personal tension revolves around the relationship between Sam Hunter and Caitlin O'Sullivan. Caitlin is the daughter of a medium named Andrew who worked for Hunter until he died on page two. With her father gone, Caitlin needs money, so she approaches Hunter to take her father's place. This is a problem for Hunter in part because Caitlin's father already died in his employ, but also (and possibly more importantly), because Caitlin reminds him of his wife who he believes was previously killed by the shifter.

I have very few complaints about the art in Boston Metaphysical. Yes, the interior art style is a bit loose and scratchy in places, but I feel like it does a good job of setting the mood and is mostly pretty straightforward. There are only a handful of places where I find it confusing, like on page eighteen where a ghost is being trapped in front of Caitlin and then suddenly the ghost's hand is groping her shoulder from behind. My guess is that Caitlin turned around for a moment but at the end of that page I found myself wondering if there were actually two ghosts and had to conclude that there weren't because there's no further mention of additional spirits on following pages.

Also minor problems are the fact that it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between Houdini and Edison, a problem that, as an artist myself I know is sometimes hard to resolve, and that the letterer's dialogue balloons sometimes have very little contrast from the background art. Neither the character confusion or the lack of contrast are deal-breakers for me. The dialogue contrast is only mildly irritating in a few places and it was never so bad that I couldn't figure out who was speaking. Page twenty-one shows a few of the more notable examples on Hunter at the top of the first panel and then on Caitlin in the final two panels. There is one specific page where I'm not sure if I'm seeing Tesla or Hunter's father-in-law, which is a little unfortunate because it's a plot-reveal, but I'm willing to let that slide as knowing his identity at that point in the story removes a bit of the mystery anyway.

Holly had originally emailed me a dropbox link for the digital trade (PDF), which also has an extra ten-page airship battle story... but I was a dummy and didn't notice it was a dropbox link and didn't go download it and it expired. :P But at this point I feel like there's plenty of material for the review, so no harm no foul. If you're interested in the dueling dirigibles, I hear you can get your hands on the trade (digital or physical) from the Boston Metaphysical IndieGogo page.

So there's my pitch. If you enjoy steampunk, supernatural and mystery, give Boston Metaphysical a try!

If you are a webcomic author and are interested in a review from me, you can check out my announcement and my review rules here.

If you enjoy my reviews and would like to help ensure I'm able to continue publishing them, you can contribute on our Patreon or if you're short on funds you can also help me out by checking out and sharing my own webcomic, Woohooligan!

Thanks! Sam