#i’m like yes i have control of the plot and story direction but…

[roryka]

every time i write a fic i feel like i expect to go for a nice little 8k jog and end up wrestling a gigantic 40k monster in the woods

[androids-insides]

Another thing I’d like to explain! What can I say, I like explaining things ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Todays explanation is on my theories (I guess?) on, you guessed it:

The Stanley Parable!

(I like other things, I swear! I’m just very irrationally afraid that everyone who follows me won’t like the other things, so I usually don’t post about it :,] )

A summary, so I don’t lose your attention, is that I like to think that most theories are correct! Now, allow me to explain! (Yes there will be pictures)

Put in different terms, all endings are “cannon,” in what they imply. For example,

This is a helpful and much needed picture of Stanley and The Narrator.

From here, the story could go anywhere! From following directions, to jumping out a window, anything and everything is on the metaphorical table.

This is the Confusion Ending. Here, The Narrator had a story and a point to it all, but has lost his control to a yellow line^tm and self-contradicting revelations.

One of the few examples where The Narrator has no control. The story, the parable and the outcomes are all at someone, or something, else’s command. This is currently cannon.

This, however, is the Countdown Ending. Here, everything had gone exactly to plan, aside from Stanley’s last decision. The Narrator, seemingly on a whim, rewrites the ending in a moment, and has the omnipotence to detonate the entire facility.

At this point, The Narrator is in control of everything. Nothing stands in his way from destroying both Stanley and the story’s outcome. There is no question of who or what has altered the story, as it is most certainly The Narrator himself. This is currently cannon.

If that understands it, then let it be. In some endings, The Narrator is the only one who controls the story, in others, control is left to someone/thing else. In some Stanley has a wife and a kid, and in others he’s just a boring no-body (or, no legs at least). In some The Narrator works the boring office job and created Stanley to entertain himself, in others Stanley miraculously became part of a dark and twisted game that both gave his life meaning and took it away.

On a cosmic scale of “what is the parable and where did it come from,” I honestly think there is no real answer. It’s lazy, I know, but hear me out:

Think of it as Past, Present, Future. We, as spectators or consumers, know very clearly where the story currently is. As well as that, we know several of the ways that it ends. We know it started at some point, is currently existing, and will stop existing after that loading screen, right?

Each ending answers the burning question of “what about before this?” However because of the inconsistent variation, there can’t really be a solid answer. We arrived at the middle of the story, where Stanley works in a big office building and decides to try and figure out where his coworkers went. We don’t know how long Stanley and The Narrator have been in this loop, as it is, you can play The Stanley Parable as many times over as you want. Therefore, the beginning can really only be where we know the story picks up, which is at a time where there is no definitive answer of What came first, The Narrator or The Stanley. A question that no one can truly answer.

It’s sort of like the concept of Gender Fluidity, in a way. Where however the person feels that day is their decided gender, is as to however The Parable ends is how it begins. In conclusion, The Stanley Parable plot is a close second Gender Fluid icon, right behind Nimona.

Joking put briefly aside, I think The Parable is just a huge concept. Did/can/could Stanley talk at some point? Maybe. Isn’t The Narrator supposed to be the “physical” representation of divorce? Probably. Is The Narrator a figment of Stanley’s imagination, or the other way around? Who knows. All I can guarantee, is that the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never

[felassan]

Some more info on the Mass Effect board game, from co-designer Calvin:

"Hi all, Calvin here, co-designer of the game. I've gathered all the frequently asked questions on social media and bgg and gathered them into some answers for you. Feel free to ask more questions if yours is not answered, and if I can answer it I will. I will be updating this as more information about the game becomes available. Release info - The release date is (hopefully) November depending on the gods of shipping - Price is confirmed, the game will be $50/£40 - The team is currently working on translation deals for 9 or so languages. More details soon. - For info on pre-orders go to https://www.modiphius.net/pages/mass-effect-signup - There are currently no plans for a collector’s edition vs standard edition - It is not crowdfunded, the game is direct to retail - "If you'd like to support the game right now, there's nothing better than going into your local FLGS and asking them if they'll stock the game when it comes out. With the vast amount of great games coming out every week, retailers rely on fans asking about the game. This helps them gauge how much to buy, the more people ask, the more buzz they know there is, the more confident they are to buy enough and the more likely there's one waiting for you on the shelf when you go in :-) That feeds up the chain; the more retailers ask their sales reps at Asmodee, the more Asmodee goes, "Oh wait, let's order more, so we have enough for all the shops". Plot - The game is set on the planet Hagalaz, early during the events of Mass Effect 3 - The players are tasked with investigating a crashed Cerberus research cruiser which could have info that contributes to War Readiness and could help stop the Reapers - The game is designed so people who have never played Mass Effect can still enjoy it. Eric hasn't played the games as much as I did so he got to do what he calls “the meathead test” on all the theming and story. - We worked with Bioware on all the plot and theming. - Yes you can do calibrations in this game Basic game info - Co-operative squad tactics - 1-4 players - Included are six 32mm minis, masc Shep, fem Shep, Liara, Garrus, Tali, and Wrex - Not many other components to keep price and complexity low - 45 minute missions - 3-5 missions per campaign - Branching paragon/renegade choices + sidequests - Enough missions to replay the campaign several times without repeats - Solo play is really fun, in fact I like all the player counts equally, which is something I’m very proud that we were able to achieve in this game - Solo play is basically multi-handing, you control more than one character. - There is no legacy aspect, the game is fully resettable - There will be new original art"

[character limit text break]

"Gameplay info - Low rules complexity, but with lots of tactical depth. We aimed for an audience of Mass Effect fans who might not know anything about board games. Board gamers should still find something to enjoy if they’re into co-op tactics. - A group that just wants to turn their brain off and blast through the game should have an easy time - But a group who wants to get the best endings, complete all the sidequests, get all the level ups will have to min-max pretty heavily - The game has relatively low randomness. Planning, prediction, and preparation are very important to avoid bad outcomes - but there’s still enough randomness to avoid AP as players try to plan out perfect turns. - Important gameplay elements include positioning and combo-ing abilities with other players. - There is a tactical map. - Players will level up their characters by performing in game actions and learn new abilities. - We got all 6 Shepard classes in there. It is one of the things I am very proud of doing. - Re: alpha gamers, Eric and I do not believe it is the designer’s job to solve for jerks at your gaming table. Obviously we have designed the game so that every player has something to contribute and there’s plenty of info so that it’s hard to track. But we also recommend having adult conversations with your table partners. Interviews/Behind The Scenes Beyond Solitaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-nLGDt97i4 Topics: how we designed the game and implemented the narrative UKGE promo copy https://twitter.com/Modiphius/status/1796844231018811782/" Post last updated August 8th

[source]

New original art 👀

[onemustalwaysbecarefulofbooks]

Why I Dislike Rhysand, Part 1: Not a Martyr Like You Think

So. . this rant has been a long time coming. I finally came to the conclusion that it would be too much to include all in one post. There are so many different things I feel the need to touch on and include that I decided I’m going to be breaking it up. Enjoy Part 1. 

I also feel the need to start off by saying that I’ve been an SJM reader for nearly ten years now. I remember when ACOTAR first came out. I remember reading ACOMAF upon its release and nearly being blown over by my intense disgust and dislike for how a story was handled. ACOMAF was released in 2016, so I’ve been holding on to a lot of this for the better part of seven years. I don’t know how many of you were a part of the ACOTAR or SJM community here on Tumblr back in those days but let me tell you. . .it was something else. The fevered Rhysand obsession and worship was WILD. The fans were CUT THROAT and had no mercy. If you even HINTED at the fact that you felt like Rhys was not All That, they came for you and they came hard. I have never been one to engage in ridiculous arguments with strangers on the internet so I kept most of my feelings to myself. It’s giving me immense satisfaction and validation to see so many people begin to express things that are so like minded with how I feel. Keep fighting the good fight!

SO! We’re going to dive deep with this and go back to before the series chronologically even started. 

A huge part of why I so strongly dislike Rhysand is that I find it very hard to sympathize with him regarding his time UTM. 

Yes, you read that correctly.

Now, I realize that that sentence alone is enough to cause a lot of people to click away from this in disgust immediately. I challenge those people to keep reading and to hear me out. I try and make it a point to back everything I have to say with canon facts and logical sense. One of the fatal (or perhaps not so fatal) flaws I have as a reader is that 99% of the time, I am not able to just let things go and absorb them at face value for the sake of an entertaining story. You can sell me just about anything and I’ll be able to find some enjoyment in it. . .if it makes sense. If something exists in a scenario that is contradictory or just plain illogical, I tend to fixate on it and not be able to let it go (I call this the Ravenclaw in me). Sometimes I almost resent that I’m like this because I feel like it prevents me from just having a good time with literature, but for better or worse, this is the kind of reader I am. 

Unfortunately, the ACOTAR series, specifically many things that have to do with Rhys and the Inner Circle, are riddled with things like this. Now, it’s no secret to any SJM reader that Sarah J Maas is OBSESSED with Rhys and the Inner Circle. Like. . .OBSESSED. I’ve truly never seen anything like it from an author. She so plainly and clearly holds these characters on pedestals and believes them to be the best of the best. She also so plainly and clearly works very hard to try and get the readers to feel the same way. This is why I say that SJM is one of the most confusing and frustrating authors I’ve ever read about. She clearly feels this way and wants US to feel this way. So you’d think, if that was her end goal, that she would simply just write characters who really ARE the best of the best and deserve to be on pedestals. Easy, right? She has total control over the actions, thoughts, and words of these characters, every other character, the plot, the narrative, the direction of the entire story. So just. . .write them as being perfect saintly beings, as you so clearly view them as?? You have the power to do this?

But here’s where the confusing and frustrating part comes in: She doesn’t.

Instead of giving us these characters who truly ARE as virtuous and amazing and wonderful as she thinks they are, she instead gives us characters who do horrific, selfish, and highly questionable things across the span of the series and then gaslights her readers by continuing to hold these characters on pedestals and laud them as being The Best In Every Way. . .while their atrocious deeds are sitting RIGHT THERE on the page being completely ignored in every way. It’s one of the most unaware and bizarre things I’ve ever witnessed from an author and honestly, from a group of readers. The amount of people who just blindly accept anything SJM says as Gospel is wild to me. I really don’t understand how people just swallow this stuff and can’t see it for what it is. Open your mind to just an ounce of critical thinking and I really do believe you’ll begin to see things in a new way. 

So. . .my point in all that being: SJM clearly wanted us to have a ton of sympathy for Rhys from his ordeal with Amarantha and his time UTM. The scene is set perfectly! Valiant and selfless Rhysand volunteers himself to play Amarantha’s whore in order to keep her attention from the city and the people Rhys loves so much. He lives for 50 years having to “service” a psychotic evil woman who actively tries to bring destruction to his entire country. Horrible, right??? Unthinkable. What he went through!!! What he had to do!!! No one has a selfless heart like he does!!!!

The only problem is. . .this entire scenario has a million holes in it. Let’s explore some of them. 

So, when Amarantha returns to Prythian, Rhys heads to her little party without any backup from the IC. He plans to kill Amarantha himself but of course, she tricks all the High Lords and captures their power before this can happen. 

Sidenote: This is another thing I can’t stand about Rhysand’s power: We are told over and over and over that he is THE MOST powerful High Lord not just of the seven current High Lords, but in all of Prythian’s HISTORY. In the High Lord’s meeting during ACOWAR (top contender for my least favorite scene of the entire series), Feyre says: 

The others, who had been watching with disdain and amusement and boredom, now turned to my mate. Now possessed a shadow of fear in their eyes as they realized who and what, exactly, sat amongst them. 

Brethren, and yet not. Tamlin was a High Lord, as powerful as any of them.

Except for the ones at my side. Rhys was as different from them as humans were to Fae. 

Okay, first of all:

Second of all. . .once again, we are faced with SJM’s convenient Whatever-I-Need-To-Happen-Will-Happen story telling. She claims that Rhys is as different from all the other High Lords as humans are to fae. And despite this, he still gets tricked and overtaken by Amarantha, the exact same as all the rest of them. His powers were ripped away by that spell just the same as all the others. Being the so-called “Most Powerful High Lord in Prythian’s History” didn’t mean anything in that situation. He’s the mOSt POwerfUL HiGH LOrd iN HiSTORy, but was able to be totally overtaken by Amarantha just like everyone else. Looks like that title really should have gone to HER!

Anyway. . .as Rhys feels his powers being ripped away, we are told that in desperation, he “threw the shield around Velaris”, binding it to my friends so that they had to remain or risk that protection collapsing and used the last dregs to tell them mind to mind what was happening and to stay away”. 

What a noble sacrifice right??

INCONSISTENCY ALERT: There were ALREADY spells and protections hiding Velaris and there had been for years!!!!!! 

The first time I read Rhys’s explanation of this, I was super confused. SJM tells it like he was the one who created Velaris’s shield and protection right there in this moment. That this act was the only thing that kept it hidden and safe from Amarantha. But like. . .this is not the case!!!! 

Don’t believe me??

“Did you even think for one moment,” I said, my voice like gravel, “to extend that luck to anywhere else? Anyone else?”

“Other cities,” he said calmly, “are known to the world. Velaris has remained secret beyond the borders of these lands for millenia. Amarantha did not touch it because she did not know it existed. None of her beasts did. No one in the other courts knows of its existence, either.”

“How?”

“Spells and wards and my ruthless, ruthless ancestors, who were willing to do anything to preserve a piece of goodness in our wretched world.”

(ACOMAF, page 144)

The Velaris Wiki page states:

To preserve it, an ancient High Lord kept Velaris a secret, and so did his descendants. There are many spells on the city itself—laid by him, and his heirs, that make those who trade here unable to say anything about the city and possess the skill to convincingly lie in order to keep the origin of their goods and ships, hidden from the rest of the world. Rumor has it that an ancient High Lord doused his blood upon the stones and river to keep that spell eternal. 

And then in ACOMAF, we get:

“I used the remainder of my power to shield them all from sight and sound. I had only enough for one city--one place. I chose the one that had been hidden from history already. I chose, and now must live with the consequences of knowing there were more left outside who suffered. But for those here. . .anyone flying or traveling near Velaris would see nothing but barren rock, and if they tried to walk through it, they’d find themselves suddenly deciding otherwise. And because my powers were focused on shielding them all, Feyre, I had very little to use against Amarantha.”

So, which is it?? Did your ancestors shield and protect Velaris or did you?? 

Do you see the contradictory writing here? 

Again, in ACOMAF:

“You are safe here, and safe anywhere in this city, for that matter. Velaris’s walls are well protected and have not been breached in 5,000 years.”

According to what Sarah J Maas herself has written, the city of Velaris already had extensive wards and protection on it for millennia. The city had been a safe haven from the rest of the world and a complete secret for 5,000 years. So I was very confused as to why it was being made out to be that Rhys made this Grand Ultimate Sacrifice to shield the city and its inhabitants from Amarantha, when this was already the case before this. She wouldn't have touched it because she didn’t know about it. . .words from Rhys’s own mouth!!!! 

I’m sure in Sarah’s mind, she just needed to make a way for the IC to not come after Rhys and try and help him, so this is what she came up with. Regardless. . .Velaris already had protection on it that did not rely on Cassian, Azriel, Mor, and Amren. You’re saying that with the last shreds of his power, Rhysand undid centuries old ancient blood protection of his ancestors, created an entirely NEW foolproof protection plan, and bound it to the Inner Circle?? 

I’d also like to point out that Kallias, High Lord of Winter, did essentially the same thing with Viviane and the Winter Court. 

And in those last moments, when his power was ripped from him by that spell. . .Kallias had flung out the remnants to warn her. To tell Viviane he loved her. And then he begged her to protect their people.

So she had. 

As Mor and my friends had protected Velaris, Viviane had veiled and guarded the small city under her watch, offering safe harbor to those who made it. 

(ACOWAR, pages 410-411)

These situations are exact parallels of each other. Kallias and Rhysand couldn’t protect their entire courts, but they were able to throw shields and protections around the one city where their loved ones were. The Winter Court was ravaged by Amarantha’s troops, we know this from the story. But evidently, this one city where Viviane was remained protected. And in this situation, I have infinitely more respect for Kallias than I do for Rhysand.

Rhysand claimed he became Amarantha’s whore in order to keep enemies from looking too closely at who he really was and who he loved. He serviced her in bed and committed atrocious deeds in her name for 50 years. All this, he claimed, to protect Velaris and his loved ones. 

So please explain to me how Kallias was able to do the same thing. . .WITHOUT doing Amarantha’s dirty work. 

As I said, I know fully well that the Winter Court in general was not spared by Amarantha. We all read about the children who had their minds wiped (conveniently by some OTHER daemati who we never learn about or hear about ever again). It sounds like Amarantha tried her hardest to destroy the Court in general. But remember. . .the Night Court is not exclusively Velaris. If you look at the map of Prythian, the Night Court is huge! It’s the largest of all the Courts. We have no idea what happened to the rest of the Night Court that was outside of Velaris’s protection. Since it’s such a big deal that Velaris is such a whole, untouched city, I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that it probably wasn’t spared any more than the rest of Prythian was. So it stands to reason that both the Night Court and the Winter Court had one city that remained protected while the rest of their Court was destroyed.

Even further than that. . .it is specifically stated that Viviane offered shelter and protection to anyone who made it to that protected city where she was. Kallias begged her to protect their people and she did. It was a city of safe haven for any refugees who could make it there. (Viviane was Prythian’s first High Lady and that’s the tea). 

Rhysand KNEW what was happening all throughout Prythian during this time. . .he helped partake in it!!! Did he think to offer the same protection for innocent refugees in Velaris during this time??

We all know the answer.

I’m not saying that Rhys was obligated to do this. In a horrible situation like that, I’m sure many people would enter survival mode and adapt an “every man for himself” mindset. It’s an extremely Slytherin move to make, and I don’t really mean that in a bad way. But at the end of the day, Rhysand prioritized his friend group over every innocent citizen of Prythian. 

Kallias and Viviane didn’t do that. 

Again, I don’t entirely blame Rhysand for this!! I think a lot of people would have made the same decision!! But just. . .don’t ask me to act like Rhys’s decision was some grand ultimate sacrifice that was more than any other High Lord made. It’s not. SJM, if you want Rhys to be my fave, why are you putting characters in here like K and V who do the more noble and honorable thing?? 

Kallias didn’t have mind powers where he was able to erase the knowledge of Viviane from every one UTM who knew about her as Rhys did with the Inner Circle. There weren’t already extensive, centuries-old shields and protection guarding the city that she was in. And despite this, he STILL asked her to protect their people, and she kept the city open for refugees who could make it there. AND he remained true to his cause and didn’t do Amarantha’s dirty work for her to “keep people from looking too closely”. 

And yet Feyre and everyone else tell us constantly that “no one sacrificed as much” as Rhys. Yeah, no. My respect for Kallias and Viviane is 10000000x greater than Rhysand. Sorry, not sorry. 

And this leads me to my next point. 

One of the biggest issues I have with Rhys’s time UTM in general, is that his actions are treated by the narrative and the other characters as the MOST sacrificial out of all the High Lords. 

As I’ve expressed above, I do not buy this for one second. And I actually find it pretty insulting on behalf of all the other High Lords!!

Rhysand’s choices and actions were entirely self-serving. He did nothing to fight against Amarantha or protect citizens of Prythian in general. It was entirely about his city and his friends. Again, I’m not saying I condemn him for this! It was a horrible situation and this was what he chose to do. People do crazy things for the people they love. But that’s my point. . .it was a CHOICE. He CHOSE to “service” Amarantha. He CHOSE to do her dirty work and commit atrocious deeds in her name. And every choice he made protected no one but the people who were important to HIM. So I’m just not really sure how/why I’m expected to feel the greatest amount of sympathy for HIM, over the other High Lords, many of whom stayed in open rebellion and never aided Amarantha. How easy would it have been for any of the other High Lords to attempt the same thing he did, and pretend to sympathize with Amarantha? Maybe not “servicing” her as Rhys did, but pretending to deflect to her side, doing dirty work for her, in order to attempt to spare their Courts and THEIR loved ones??? Did anyone else do this??? NO.

Rhys says he bows for no one but that isn’t true. He bowed for Amarantha. The other High Lords did not. 

The High Lords of Summer, Day, and Winter lost their lives by refusing to submit to Amarantha. (ACOTAR, page 284). 

And I’m supposed to have the greatest amount of sympathy for Rhysand??

People talk about how horrible it was for Rhys during those 50 years Under the Mountain. I’m not here to say his life was pleasant. But what I AM here to say is that in comparison to what the other High Lords’ lives were like. . .I find it hard to have MORE sympathy for him than the others. 

“If that was what she wanted, then that was what she would get. I made her beg, and scream, and used my lingering powers to make it so good for her that she wanted more. Craved more.”

“For fifty years--whenever I was inside her, I’d think about killing her. She had no idea. None. Because I was so good at my job that she thought I enjoyed it too. So she began to trust me--more than the others. Especially when I proved what I could do to her enemies.”

Rhys is “so good at his job” of killing Amarantha’s enemies (and one assumes that Amarantha’s enemies are, you know, PEOPLE FIGHTING FOR PRYTHIAN AND AGAINST HER OPPRESSION) and so thorough in their sexual acts, that Amarantha begins to trust him. He is allowed certain freedoms that no one else has. He is not trapped for 50 straight years Under the Mountain. In ACOTAR alone, we see him visit the Spring Court three different times. Do you think any of those other High Lords saw daylight even once during those 50 years?? 

He is clearly allowed to move about as he wants to Under the Mountain. He visits Feyre in her cell several times, seemingly without Amarantha knowing. She is a prisoner of Amarantha, but he’s allowed to do whatever he wants to and with her. 

Essentially. . .Rhys lived as a member of Amarantha’s court UTM. He served as her fuck buddy and one of her main attack dogs. To our knowledge he wasn’t tortured, starved, or forced to watch, powerless, as someone or something he loved was dangled over him. High Lords were losing their lives living in open rebellion against Amarantha, while Rhys lived with a level of security that no one else had. I am NOT saying that servicing Amarantha was pleasant for him, obviously it wasn’t. But at the end of the day. . .this was a choice he made. Everyone makes choices and has consequences of those choices. Rhys chose to serve Amarantha in bed and was given a position of power and security that no one else had. The other High Lords chose to openly oppose and resist her and subsequently had to suffer and live in terror with none of the freedom or choices Rhys was given. I honestly fail to see how Rhys’s decision was more valiant than all the rest. 

Again, this is NOT me trying to say that Rhys did not suffer at all UTM. I completely acknowledge that he suffered his own type of torment. I just get very sick and tired of him being treated as if he is the Greatest, Most Suffering, and Only Martyr in all of Prythian. 

I often say that Sarah writes all of these characters and this entire story in a way that elevates and favors Rhysand, even if in doing so she has people saying and doing things that make absolutely no logical sense. Everything that happens after UTM is a prime example of this. 

The fact that the other Courts and High Lords are so quick to trust Rhysand and work so closely with him after the events of UTM is downright ridiculous and makes absolutely no sense. All of them have EVERY reason to be extremely mistrustful, if not openly hostile to him, after what they witnessed for 50 years. I myself do not understand most of his actions during ACOTAR. Let’s dive into all of THAT.

I made a post separately on this, but I’ll still comment on it here. Rhys claims that he “thought” about killing Amarantha the entire time he worked for her. However, he claims:

“I couldn’t use my powers to harm her, and she had shielded herself against physical attacks”.

There’s nothing I hate more than contrived convenient story-telling. To me, this is on the same level as Feyre not being able to have a C-section in ACOSF. We need it to be true, so we’re just going to say it’s true. . .no matter how little sense it makes in this context. 

Rhys says that he, the most powerful High Lord ever born, had his power ripped away by Amarantha. On page 520 of ACOMAF he says, “Within a few seconds, my power belonged wholly to Amarantha”. 

But does it??? Let’s take a look at all the things Rhys is able to do with his power during his time under Amarantha, without her knowledge or consent:

Uses it to enhance the sexual experience between him and Amarantha, making her beg and scream, and crave him (ACOMAF, page 520)

Broke into the minds of the three fae who cornered Feyre on Calanmai, reshaped their lives, their histories, and then made them confess to Amarantha that they were rebels (ACOMAF, page 523)

“Against my violation, my body straightened, every muscle going taut, my bones straining. Magic, but deeper than that. Power that seized everything inside me and took control: even my blood flowed where he willed it.” (ACOTAR, page 239)

“I couldn’t move. An invisible, talon-tipped hand scraped against my mind. And I knew--one push, one swipe of those mental claws, and who I was would cease to exist.” (ACOTAR, page 239)

Broke into Clare Beddor’s mind when she was captured and took away her pain, told her to scream when she was expected to, then finally slipped into her mind and ended her life (ACOMAF, page 524)

Visits Feyre in her cell UTM and heals her shattered arm completely (where was this power to save her from a C-Section???)

Mentally controls and commands the guards to stay out of Feyre’s cell and not touch her. “If you do, you’re to take your own daggers and gut yourselves. Understood?” Dazed, numb nods, then they blinked and straightened. I hid my trembling. Glamour, mind control--whatever it was he had done, it worked. They beckoned--but didn’t dare touch me. (ACOTAR, page 344)

Enters Feyre’s mind to influence and help her during her second task

Convenient storytelling at its finest. He may not have total control over the full extent of his power, but it is abundantly clear that he definitely has control of some of it! And yet we’re told that Rhys is completely unable to do anything to harm or kill Amarantha, because she holds all his power!! It belonged “wholly to her” as he said! But he’s able to do all of this stuff without her knowledge???

Forget killing her with his power!!! Lysandra killed Arobynn Hamel by slitting his throat in the middle of the night! I’m sorry, I do not find it believable that the Most Powerful High Lord in Prythian’s HISTORY was completely unable to find a way to end this bitch’s life in 50 years, ESPECIALLY when it’s explicitly stated that she allows him certain freedoms and he does things without her knowledge. I just don’t!!!! 

So if I’M thinking that. . .what do you think the rest of the people UTM were thinking??? Can you see how they might be very suspicious of him??

In addition to this. . .his actions regarding Tamlin, and eventually Feyre, make zero logical sense in the context of their situation. Let’s take a look at THAT mess.

So Rhysand is suffering in this horrible awful torment, having to play Amarantha’s whore and do evil things for her. He hates every minute of it, he grows to hate himself, he claims. 

And in this giant mess, there is only ONE road to freedom for not just him, but for everyone. And that’s Tamlin.

“Then she cursed Tamlin. And my other great enemy became the one loophole that might free us all.”

Rhys knows about the curse. He knows the stipulations and what Tamlin must accomplish. He knows that doing so will free them all.

Wouldn't you then think that he would do everything in his power to attempt to aid and assist Tamlin during the course of those 50 years?????

I know he hates Tamlin by that point anyway, due to the rivalry between their families. But, my God. . .would that really matter at this point?? If me and my entire country were stuck in the position Prythian was in, I don’t really think I’d give a shit who our freedom depended on. It could be my greatest mortal enemy and I’m pretty sure I’d still be like Okay Buddy, let’s do this. I wouldn't say I’d LIKE it. But I’d use whoever I could to get me and everyone else out of that situation. 

If Rhysand, the Inner Circle, Velaris, and every other High Fae in Prythian’s lives and futures depended on Tamlin getting a human girl to fall in love with him, I would think Rhysand would be doing whatever he possibly could to further this along and make it happen. Don’t try and say that he couldn’t do it because Amarantha would find out. Rhys WAS able to keep secrets from her and do things she didn’t know about (see my big list up there! ^^) Don’t try and say that he wouldn't risk dropping his Bad Guy Mask because it would make people look “too closely” at him and possibly target Velaris and the IC (I would have a million comebacks to that. As I’ve already said, there were ALREADY extensive shields and protections guarding Velaris and had been for years. Rhys had wiped the knowledge of the IC from the minds of everyone who knew about them. And wouldn't the safer, better option for the IC be that the curse was broken??? So if he really wanted to protect them, this was the #1 thing he should be doing!!!!)

When it became clear to us all in ACOMAF that Rhys was not in fact, really a bad guy, the very first thing I immediately wondered was, “If this were the case, why was he not trying to HELP Tamlin all those years???” If that was their one loophole and their one shot at freedom and ending the nightmare they were in, why on EARTH did Rhys spend 50 years bullying, manipulating, and tormenting the ONE PERSON who had a shot at freeing them??!?!?!? 

Rhys tells Feyre in Chapter 54 of ACOMAF:

“I didn’t know. That you were with Tamlin. That you were staying at the Spring Court. Amarantha sent me that day after the Summer Solstice because I’d been so successful on Calanmai. I was prepared to mock him, maybe pick a fight.”

Again, do not tell me that Rhys was a slave to Amarantha so there wasn’t anything he could do. That is NONSENSE. After Calanmai he crafts an entire fabricated story to tell her and brings people he’s mind manipulated into validating what he’s saying. 

Instead of offering Tamlin support, or at the very least, leaving him alone, he chooses to terrorize him and his people. He leaves severed heads on the manor house grounds, taunts Tamlin about the curse, and taunts Lucien about his mother and his dead lover. Listen to what he says to Tamlin and Lucien, before he knows Feyre is there: 

“What a pity that you must endure the brunt of it, Tamlin--and an even greater pity that you’re so resigned to your fate. You might be stubborn, but this is pathetic.”

“Little Lucien. You certainly gave them something to talk about when you switched to Spring. Such a sad thing, to see your lovely mother in perpetual mourning over losing you.”

“She’s already preparing for you. Given your current state, I think I can safely report that you’ve already been broken and will reconsider her offer.”

This is flat out disgusting behavior. This is the man you want me to have sympathy for, to view as the “better man”. Tamlin and Lucien were even greater victims at this point than Rhys was himself. They were running out of time after desperately fighting a losing battle, with the entire weight of Prythian on their shoulders. Rhys’s actions do not make sense. He is digging his own grave by behaving this way. If he wanted himself and everyone to be free so badly, I’m really not sure why he’s going out of his way to mock Tamlin, make his life difficult, and taunt him about not breaking the curse. 

But things don’t stop there! They get even MORE illogical when Feyre enters the picture!!

So once Rhys discovers Feyre’s presence, he immediately picks up on the emotional connection between her and Tamlin. In this situation, I would expect his first reaction to be glee. He didn’t know who Feyre was at that point, other than a girl he’d been dreaming about (and he later reveals that he first believed these dreams meant that she would be the one to save them all). Did anyone really expect Tamlin to break that curse?? Did anyone really expect him to find a human girl with hate in her heart for the Fae and have her fall in love with him?? I don’t think for a minute Amarantha actually believed there was even the slightest chance of this happening, just like she didn’t really believe Feyre had any chance of winning all three of her trials. It’s a mind game, nothing more. But here Tamlin is, on the very brink of meeting the very specific standards set by Amarantha. 

But what does Rhys do? Amp up the dramatics to scare Tamlin into sending Feyre back across the wall, therefore ensuring that the curse will never be broken. 

His reasoning, he tells us in ACOMAF, is:

“I made Tamlin beg--as Amarantha had made me beg, to show him how powerless he was to save you. And I prayed my performance was enough to get him to send you away. Back to the human realm, away from Amarantha. Because she was going to find you. If you broke that curse, she was going to find you and kill you.”

Um. . .if Feyre breaks the curse, that means that Tamlin gets his powers back. If Tamlin gets his powers back, Amarantha is dead. If Tamlin didn’t do it, certainly one of the other High Lords would have. If you’ll recall, Feyre DOES break the curse and when that happens, Amarantha is dead in literally seconds. Her power isn’t brute strength, it’s trickery. She is no match for Tamlin whatsoever. She literally backs away in fear and pleads for her life. It’s not even a close competition!!! She doesn’t get a single scratch on him! 

Now, I will fully admit. . .this was also something I always found kind of dumb on Tamlin’s part as well. It’s seen as this grand act of love that he sends her away and puts her safety before all of Prythian’s but I’ve always been like. . .dude. You were literally A DAY away from getting out of this thing. Tamlin, as a High Lord with his full power returned, really couldn’t shield and protect Feyre in the time it would take him to kill Amarantha? Yes, he wouldn't be able to properly protect her under their current circumstances without any of his real power, but that was the whole point of the curse. . .if Feyre told Tamlin she loved him and meant it, his power would be returned. The way in which he would be able to protect her would not be the same. You’d think at the point they were at, both Tamlin AND Rhysand would be bouncing around like the singing candlestick and clock from Beauty and the Beast trying to woo a confession out of Feyre. Kallias was able to shield Viviane for 50 years while his Court was under direct attack, I have to believe Tamlin could shield Feyre for the very short time it would take him, or any other High Lord, to end Amarantha. 

Rhys later says:

“If there was a shot of freeing us from Amarantha, you were it. I thought. . .I thought the Cauldron had been sending me these dreams to tell me that you would be the one to save us. Save my people.”

So. . .if this were the case, wouldn't it make more sense to just get a happy little “I love you” out of her before the 50 years were up? Tamlin and the High Lord’s powers would return and Amarantha would be “bloody ribbons”, as SJM likes to say, in seconds. Which is exactly what happened. All the struggle and strife of her trials UTM totally avoided!! 

What I’m essentially trying to say here is that most of Rhys’s actions during this time were in direct contradiction to what he claimed he really wanted. If Tamlin was Prythian’s only shot at freedom for all those years, you’d think he would be trying to secretly aid him in some way, or at the very least, not go out of his way to torment him. If Feyre was in Tamlin’s house, clearly in love with him, and the Curse was expiring in one day, you’d think he’d go back to Amarantha and be like “Nope, sorry, nothing to report” and pray the two of them would get it together for the sake of Prythian. 

Essentially, what I’m trying to say here is that I struggle to have a ton of sympathy for Rhys during this time because I feel as if the explanations that are given for his behavior and actions are flimsy and don’t hold up against most arguments. He felt as if he HAD to become Amarantha’s lover and lapdog in order to keep her from figuring things out about his friends and trying to hurt them. . .who were concealed in a city that hadn’t been breached for 5,000 years and the knowledge of them had been wiped from every person who knew them UTM. He “couldn’t” kill or hurt Amarantha because his power belonged “wholly” to her. . .but he was able to use his powers in ways that worked against her without her knowledge or consent about tons of other things. He was so tormented and miserable in his time UTM that he. . .mocked and tormented the one person who had a shot at freeing them all. When he saw that Tamlin was right on the brink of actually breaking the curse he. . .manipulated him into ensuring that it would never be broken. All the while being surrounded by other leaders who did not have the luxury of shielding their loved ones in an anciently protected city, who worked to help all innocent citizens of Prythian, and who were losing their lives over their refusal to submit to an evil tyrant. I have a vastly larger degree of sympathy and respect for these other High Lords than I do with Rhysand. I find Rhys to be either very self-serving, or doing things that seem to directly contradict what he claims he wants. I do not blame any of the High Lords for being wary and mistrustful of him after UTM--it makes perfect sense that they would (but that’s a topic for another section of this rant!). This is a prime example of SJM self-sacrificing through her writing. I can guarantee you I wouldn't feel as strongly about this as I do after hearing it beaten into my head over and over what a noble, selfless, honorable hero Rhys was during this time. I’m sorry, it doesn’t add up to me. Too many holes, too many contradictions. Which, unfortunately, is pretty standard fare when it comes to Rhys.

Remember, this was only Part 1!! Part 2--Why Rhys is actually a terrible High Lord--coming soon! 

[kings-highway]

Hi King!!! I absolutely adore your fics my dude, I found your trapped in the wilderness fic like a year or two back, forgot about it, and then found your Daichi time travel fic. So you can imagine my delighted surprise when I looked at your ao3 account and found out this was the same author! I was like “0o0, I KNOW YOU!! :D” Suffice to say I love your Haikyuu fics they are an absolute gem to read (Time Enough to Risk it All and Paranormality are my personal faves)

I had a question for you, similar to a previous ask you got about tips on writing? Not general tips mind you, I’m trying to write a Haikyuu fanfic myself starring Oikawa, and I wanted to know if you had any writing tips regarding character writing specifically? Like, in regards to getting into a character’s head and how that influences the POV? I’m probably going to have multiple POVs in different chapters, but I don’t want to run into the old trap of, “These are two separate characters but they sound like the same person” y’know? Also want to make sure I’m avoiding OOC territory, while taking any potential plot developments and how that would change a character into account. And I know you’re good at that, all your interpretations of the Haikyuu cast feel distinct yet true to the characters at their core!

aaaaaaaaaa oh my god thank you so much 😭 I'm very glad you've liked my silly stories so much. I will do my best to provide advice for your question here...

**Keeping Characters In Character - this is VERY fanfic specific!!**

[obv. writing original work requires strong character voice but the question and this response is super focused on characters that you have source material to work with]

1. my immediate first thought, and the thing I default to the most, is **Pay Attention To How Other Characters Talk About Them** yes, its all fine and dandy to go off and say "oh theyve got these secret other side-" because yeah!! they probably do!! everyone is multiple people depending on the circumstance!! but the way other characters talk about them or act around them really will define how your character is behaving, because it shows how they are *choosing* to behave (and what can be seen from the outside) Paying attention to the relative relationships of these characters describing them matter too. Here are examples (all from Haikyuu) of how I do this:

1. Daichi

[in early season 1, when Daichi gets mad at the duo, Suga and Tanaka both start trying to fuck off out of scene in preparation; similarly, both Suga and Tanaka try to hide their secret practice from him.] = People are generally afraid of him, or aware that getting yelled at is on the table, but he's predictable. They both start acting afraid BEFORE he gets angry because they are familiar with his patterns. [Suga and Asahi comment on it feeling weird when he's nice to them, and he snaps at them to say he could be mean instead.] = His casual conversational tone isn't very complimentary. Since we dont see him being overtly mean, I asssume this means he is on the quieter side, probably very reserved, and typically speaks up to correct someone or direct and take control of a conversation. Being overtly nice is seen as a deviation is his conversational habits. [Noya acts very distinctly interested and pleased when he learns Daichi has given him a cool nickname] = People hold a lot of respect for him. Given the previous details, we can assume this is at least in part due to him often withholding such praise, but also we can use it to temper the previous notes. His "meanness" is not coming across as malice, but rather something worth respecting or justified in some way.

Application in Writing: Dialogue should be direct and consistent, use shorter sentences and have him think before he speaks. He finds annoyance and anger easier to express and will likely withhold affectionate conversations from everyone regardless of closeness of friendship level. While he comes across mean, he is not insulting, belittling or cruel, and since people have significant respect for him, he likely avoids situations that would make him look foolish, and will probably be the last to join in on the fun.

QUICKER EXAMPLES:

2. Suga [Every character describes Suga as nice and kind, there is no "bad review" of him.] = No matter his opinion of someone, Suga will use kind, gentle language with them and avoid giving them a reason to dislike him.

3. Oikawa [Iwaizumi, in voice over, says something to the effect of: "despite how he might seem, Oikawa is actually a pretty goofy guy."] = While not given the opportunity often, Oikawa is playful, unserious and silly - the word "goofy" is important to note. Its not funny. Comedians are funny. Dogs with long floopy ears are "goofy" - However he either intentionally or unintentionally chooses not to behave this way often. Either way, he has distinct "sides" to him that can be identified. However, his natural state is far more goofy than we give him credit for, so he will likely be the first to crack jokes, laugh at dumb things, or general want to lighten the mood. He doesnt like things to be gloomy and may actively resist that kind of conversation or situation.

4. Leon calling Ushijima a "super volleyball idiot" says way more about his behaviour off the court than anything Ushijima ever did. Oikawa and Kageyama and Hinata and Atsumu get to be monsters but no, Leon says its the term "we" are most "satisfied with". Did they pitch other names? They do not take Ushijima seriously at all. So his terrifying persona is probably very superficial. None of the team has ever had an actually bad experience with him, and he is very consistent in his likes and desires: probably doesnt have a (conversationally) confrontational bone in his body. "We could call him a monster but nah, he's too fucking weird for that." Like what more of a character study do you need!! Leon STOP.

This is dragging on longer than I want it to. I apologize. I could have more to say on the matter but to sum it up quick:

People, humans, are multifaceted, but ultimately are most defined by how they are remembered, and how they choose to present themselves to the world. This is will affect that "voice" that you're worried about sounding the same. Ultimately, all your characters will be the same. Everyone is insecure, everyone wants to be seen as attractive, everyone things theyre not good enough, everyone worries their lover will grow tired of them, everyone thinks they are the only person to have ever felt that way. The change, that voice, is how they want everyone else to look at them.

Using the previous notes, we can answer the question: "Oh my god, You look really good today!!" 4 ways. Internally, they're all very happy to receive a compliment because they wore a new shirt and they weren't sure it looked good. Externally...

Daichi: "Oh. Thank you."

Suga: "Ohh, Thank you! That's so sweet of you to say."

Oikawa: "I look really good today? Did I not yesterday? Ah, just messing with you - I know I looked good yesterday."

Ushijima: "I do? Good."

LAST TANGENT:

if you are NATIVE ENGLISH and youre writing fanfiction for NON-ENGLISH SHOW. IDC if youre a subtitles purist, WATCH IT IN ENGLISH. being able to (in your native language) use the characters voice in your head to read dialogue makes a world of difference. I DONT CARE if you can head Sugas Japanese VA perfectly - UNLESS YOU SPEAK JAPANESE IT WONT HELP.

Whenever I'm struggling with writing Sugawara, or a l think he's OOC, I just mentally replay the soundbite from the dub of him going "Good Grief!" like a goddamn oeanuts character and then its like "oh yeah. he's back. i know how to write him now."

I have a few of these little soundbite grounding things for some of them. Its REALLY helpful to be able hear the characters voices saying the lines (sorry if youre deaf..) and if you CANT (and you normally can) then maybe the dialogue is ooc.

WAIT ONE MORE TANGENT:

"King, you've only talked about dialogue??? what about-" Dialogue controls actions!!! if you can get a characters conversational tone and linguistic habits down, you'll have NO ISSUES keeping their physical habits in check.

thus concludes another advice corner. i am working on the other questions atm but i have limited time and cannot do more than 1 after work without my brain melting so :)

thanks for reading :) happy writing

xx

[charcubed]

Look, I personally lose nothing if Lokius doesn’t become explicit canon. And if that were to become the case, I’d also have no regrets for saying for years that that would happen in the show by the end ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I’ve said it before, but by now it would be Disney/Marvel’s loss, NOT mine. Whoever wasted or limited the potential would be the idiot, not me.

I’m simply never gonna feel crazy for noticing what’s happening in a story or silly for daring to hope it’ll be brought to fully satisfying narrative completion. That's just a me thing. Maybe this is because at heart I’m stubborn! But I’d like to think I’m not unreasonable. I can’t control whether writing stays consistent or censorship is overcome... But I just do my best to construct solid arguments, and as long as those arguments remain solid, I stand by them :)

I know not everyone would say the same, or they consider this to be "hope" or "optimism," but I see it as logic based in noticing what the text of a show/story is doing. And personally I also consider blatantly evident subtext to be "canon enough," so if we get my personal minimum, my happiness may still outweigh any potential disappointment for me.

However. Here's what I've come here to say today, in reaction to things I've seen floating around in the fandom:

While I do understand on some level why people worry that Lokius won’t be more explicitly canonically romantic because it could be censored by Disney.... At this point, I don’t understand how people can think Loki/Sylvie will still happen.

As of right now, there’s no way to argue for that in my opinion. (I'd like to see someone try.)

The show has set up a fun but very simple situation from basically the start:

They made romantic love a point of relevance in the show’s story. More specifically, they pointed out Loki's desire for a "real" romantic love, and had him learn the lesson that he doesn't deserve to be alone. They didn't HAVE to do all of those things and tie them together. They CHOSE to make romantic love relevant – and they have actively continued to choose to do that, to the point of including a mirrored dark love triangle in s2 ep3. That narrative thread simply has to be fulfilled.

So if they deliberately established that Loki wants and needs a “real” love, and his relationship with Sylvie was referred to as "fiction" so she cannot be a real love for him.... Who does it have to be?

Obviously it has to be Mobius. And of course, the whole show points to Lokius also, for countless more reasons than just this simple breakdown. But pointing this element out is the simplest argument one can make.

So either...

1. They take Lokius to full narrative completion with explicit canon, as they should and as I expect them to,

or

2. Loki's desire for a real love is left unfulfilled, open-ended, and/or made clear through subtext that it's Mobius.

Those are the options, if you ask me!

This is aside from how Lokius’ love story is now even at the core of the show’s themes and plot, which is an insanely strong vote in favor for their future canonicity.

But for the purposes of this post, I’m talking about whether we'll get explicit romance specifically, like a love confession or a kiss – and I do actually genuinely think we'll get both of those things. I'm not trying to force you to agree with me, but just to be clear, that's where I'm at with it and have been since 2021 lol.

So in regards to worrying about Loki/Sylvie...

They were never really a romance (yes, even in season 1) and they sure as hell aren't now. I can’t imagine they'll become one even IF Lokius is left subtextual.

So what actually remains to be seen is if the writers got to go all the way with Lokius, or if that central queer love story was censored on some level in the end.

My hot take is no one should be ~worrying~ about Sylki at this stage of the game. Free yourselves, people.

If the story starts abruptly going in a Sylki direction, even with only 3 episodes left, I will certainly be the first to say so lol. But I simply sincerely, truly doubt that'll happen.

(Hot take in the footer: this is not the post to get into this at length, but in case this comes up… In this house we do not use the word "queerbaiting." It is a useless, nearly-meaningless, insufferable term that devalues the legitimacy of subtext and queercoding more often than not; it's rooted in the idea that media must hit arbitrary and inconsistent checklists often set with cishet approval in mind; and it perpetuates a focus on the false and harmful myth that many creators are "cowards" instead of leaving room for nuance and the fact that industry censorship still exists.)

[stardustizuku]

The Avatar of Mestionora

~ Rozemyne Playlist || The Commoner Daughter of a Soldier turned Goddess

(This is a bit of a different playlist format. I wanted to add an explanation on why I included the songs. It’s sort of a huge post so feel free to just listen to the playlist if you’re not into that.

I’ve only read till Part5V7 so the last songs are more vague and less specific abt plot points)

Naughty - Matilda

This song is Myne at her most childish, her most inexperienced. Just as Matilda, her only context to interpret the world is through books. Referring Jack and Jill, Romeo and Juliet, or Cinderella.

She finds constant infuriation at the state of the world and desperately wants to change it - but unable to do much. Through her own “naughtiness” she attempts to change the world one invention at a time “We’re told we have to do as we’re told, but surely…Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty”

Yes, she causes trouble. But even that is a necessary evil to make her life better.

Despite it all she ends the song with a very firm ��But no one else is gonna put it right for me, no one else but me is gonna change my story. Sometimes you have to be a little bit Naughty” She will change things. Even if it lands her in trouble, she will make her books. Because if she doesn’t, no one else will.

Ponyo On the Cliff By the Sea - Noah Cyrus & Frankie Jonas

This mostly focuses on her relationship with Lutz. Or more importantly, how he sees her. It’s meant to highlight her attitude, more naive and cute - and yes. Childish. That of a well meaning but ultimately troublesome kid.

I particularly like the lyrics “Maybe I might love you, maybe I might love you. So hold on tight and hold me close, you’re my hero”. It’s mostly directed at Lutz, who she clung for so long as a best friend and ally.

Flowers in my Hair - Wes Reeves

This is a song I’ve used in other playlist.

This is to reference the hairpins that Myne makes and then uses as Rozemyne. They’re connected to her day as a commoner and how they remind her of her sister and her mother.

“Flowers in my hair make me wish you were here” those are her hairpins. And everytime she wears them, she shall remember Tuli and when she first made them.

“I had a dream of a boy who loved me and we danced in the leaves of an orange tree […] Then I went my own way, and you crossed the highway” Its a song that represents her connection to them yet inevitably the fact she’s gonna be separated.

This is the conclusion of part 1

When I Grow up - Matilda

As I’ve said before, to me, it sounds like Tuli, Lutz, Freida and Myne talking abt how they want to grow up to achieve their dreams. All of them dreaming of silly and simple things.

Yet, this is the first moment Ferdinand is also introduced. This is through Ms Honey singing “When I grow up I will be strong enough to fight the creatures that you have to fight beneath the bed each night to be a grown up” which is how he felt at the beginning of the story. Feeling as if it’s impossible to fight off Veronica or get rid of the High Bishop.

Then, Myne replies with the lyrics interrupts “Just because you find that life’s not fair, doesn’t mean that you just have to grin an bear it […] If I think the ending is fixed already, I might as well be saying I think that it’s okay. And that’s not right” which is a callback to the very first song.

While at the beginning it was a call to make books and defend herself, it would eventually morph into smth to say to Ferdinand. A call for him to stop accepting fate and fight. Even in part5.

Quiet - Matilda

This is the song in which Myne finds out she has the Devouring and tries to explain it. I like descriptions of the overwhelming sensation she can’t control, and trying to keep it in. Just for it to end up coming out as magic.

The lyrics “I’m not sure But I wonder if inside my head I’m not just a bit different from some of my friends. These answers that come into my mind unbidden. These stories delivered to me fully written” it’s a way to symbolize how hard it is to know - is Myne weird bcs she’s Urano or because she is Myne?

Once Upon a December - Christy Altomare

This is for when Ferdinand searches for Myne’s memories of Urano. Her explaining how she misses her days on Modern Japan, and yearns to go back to her mom, although knowing full well she’ll never be able to do as much.

She would often describe her memories as “Far away, Long ago, Glowing dim as an ember, Things my heart Used to know Things it yearns to remember”

Go Tonight - Krystina Alabado & Emma Hunton

The song is about loss. About Lutz/Tuli losing Myne. This helplessness about watching someone bigger and brighter than you, be forced apart from you.

It’s mostly Lutz/Tuli’s regret about how Myne was constantly pushing for them to do things. Become a merchant, become a Gilberta Seamstress. They followed her, and her crazy surreal ideas. But at some point that someone is lost.

The parts were you hear “if we’re wanna go, we gotta go tonight” is Rozemyne trying to get them to do what they want, and dragging them along her own adventures. It’s a bittersweet memory of someone bigger than the whole sky.

“When I was your orbit. And you were my star. But now you’re a black hole and I am left numb from the loop of these memories”

Two Orugitas - Sebastian Yatra

Two Orugitas talks about how our families eventually get separated by forces bigger than us, and we have to move on.

In specific, it talks abt how two orugitas, despite loving each other so much, must grow distant - separate - in order to become butterflies.

That’s essentially what happens at the end of Part 2. Myne gets separated from her family.

“Don’t look behind you, fly ‘til you find your way toward tomorrow. Ay, mariposas, don’t you hold on too tight. Both of you know it’s your time to go, to fly apart, to reunite”

Chiquitita - ABBA

Chiquitita means “little girl”, mostly referring to how small (physically) the person is. It’s an endearment mostly used by mothers to call their young daughters.

This is a song where the singers is constantly consoling their “chiquitita”. The singer sees them cry, but knows they’re far stronger than that. They tell their “chiquitita” how much they would rather see them sing.

It’s very obvious this is about Effa consoling Myne just as she’s leaving.

“Chiquitita, you and I cry. But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you. Let me hear you sing once more like you did before. Sing a new song, Chiquitita. Try once more like you did before”

Class of 2013 - Mitski

“Mom, I’m tired. Can I sleep in your house tonight? Mom, is it alright if I stay for a year or two?”

The Milk Carton - Madilyn Mei

This song abt a lost cat, yearning to go back home. It feels a lot like Myne just after she became Rozemyne. Desperately wanting to go back home, but no longer able to do so.

“I think I really miss my bed. Oh when, oh when will the nightmare end? I had it good, I had it good and yet I left and can’t retrace my steps”

But also having to brace herself for the dangers that come ahead in Part 3, with the lyrics “You’re gonna be eaten by a coyote. Run, little one, though the pack may follow. Two quite thin, their brother fatter. You can still win, just gotta be faster”

The last sentence driving home how a false move could kill her. She has to best faster, smarter, if she wants to win this race. It’s a strange and confusing song - just like Rozemyne feels

Family Jewels - MARINA

This entire song functions as Rozemyne’s brutal introduction to the world of nobles. Expected to fit into a role she was not born for, and to treat strangers like family.

I like the lyrics “Did I beat you at your own game? Typical of me to put us all to shame” as way for Rozemyne to retort to Wilfred during their first confrontation. To highlight how she’s often blamed by him, despite always trying to help.

Also the lyrics “Welcome to the family jewels. Coal to diamond, sold to fools” A commoner to a noble, sold to people who don’t fully grasp her potential.

She Used To Be Mine - Jessie Mueller

This one’s perfect for Rozemyne at the height of her depression for being a noble and fearing losing those she loves.

The song talks abt how the person singing has lost herself. How she once used to be a positive but reckless person but now is anything but. She mourns who she used to be, and how she’ll never be that again.

It fits Rozemyne, essentially mourning “Myne”, and the life she had as a commoner, with the words “She is messy but she’s kind. She is lonely most of the time. She is all of this mixed up and baked in a beautiful pie. She is gone but she used to be mine”

Belle - Beauty&Beast Cast

This one marks the beginning of Part4 and how people see Rozemyne upon entering the Royal Academy. Essentially a beauty, but a strange one, only interested in book.

“[…] That girl is so peculiar, I wonder if she’s feeling well. With a dreamy, far-off look and her nose stuck in a book. What a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle”

I can just imagine the looks of the other nobles as she runs around doing crazy thing after the other. Plus, Gaston’s bits can be interpreted as Lestilaut’s hints to her advancements.

Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land - MARINA

I like to see this song as Rozemyne’s interconnection of her former self Rozemyne and Urano.

“What’s your purpose? Why were you put on Earth? You could be lost, but you belong to the world” is interpreted as Rozemyne wondering why she’s been put in this world as Myne. Despite it all, she has to come to accept her place in this world.

“Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, I’m trying to get back as fast I can. Back to a time before I had form. Back to a time before I was born” as in, she brings the stories from before she was born as Myne into the world of Rozemyne. She wants those inventions to help this world.

“You don’t have to be like everybody else. You don’t have to fit into the norm. You are not here to conform” is her willingness to push her strange ideas into the Royal Academy “I am here to take a look inside myself. Recognize that I could be the eye, the eye of the storm” is her recognition that she may be doing things off the book, but unable to stop - because that’s just how she is.

Téir Abhaile Riu - Celtic Woman

This is a song about arranged marriages. It’s an Irish folk song abt how a girl returns from a dance just to find her match has been made, and she debates if she should go through or not.

It’s supposed to be Rozemyne’s engagement with Wilfred.

“Go home with you, go home with you, go home with you, Mary. Go home with you and stay at home, because your match is made”

Fine On The Outside - Priscilla Ahn

This is upon losing her secret room. How had to learn how to look fine on the outside, cause never again could she let herself be vulnerable in front of Lutz and Benno inside her secret room.

“So I learned to be Ok with just me, just me, just me, just me. And I’ll be fine on the outside” to me it’s exceptionally heart breaking how she had to spend her last moments with Lutz pretending to be fine, just to stop him from worrying

How she had to learn to be alone and pretend to be fine on her own.

There’s also the lyrics “So I just sit in my room after hours with the moon And think of who knows my name” and really, who does? Is she Urano? Is she Myne? Or Rozemyne? At that point, who knows.

Francis Forever - Mitski

Yes, this is the moment she loses Ferdinand. I think it fits a lot. It’s a genuine song about yearning, about wanting someone not to leave you.

“I don’t need the world to see that I’ve been the best I can be, but I don’t think I could stand to be where you don’t see me” fits her cause she very much does not care for how others perceive her, she only wants to stay with her family. She just wants Ferdinand to still be by her side.

And I adore the lyrics “And autumn comes when you’re not yet done with the summer passing by”.

Ferdinand was set to marry Detlinde and leave Ehrenfest on Summer. But due to the illness of the Aub, he was told to leave in autumn. Alternatively, it can be interpreted abt how she was taken too soon from him.

Warrior of the Mind - Jorge Rivera-Herrans & Tegan Earley

Part 5 starts with Hartmut declaring that Rozemyne is, in fact, more than a Saint and closer to a goddess. This is the song perfect for that.

This is his exact reaction, assuring a very confused and skeptical Rozemyne, that she is the reincarnation of Mestionora.

“So let’s be honest, you are Athena! Badass in the arena. Unmatched, witty, and queen of The best strategies we’ve seen”

Idol - YOASABI

This is perfect for the image that Rozemyne portrays to the Royal Academy. An “idol” someone so perfect, but with so many secrets it’s hard to know her true intentions. “So unconcerned, although you brightly glow. Any seemingly unveiled secrets are as sweet as honey”.

Venus Fly Trap - MARINA

I love love love this one for Rozemyne - it’s literally her relationship with Dunkelferg in a nutshell.

It starts with Rozemyne clearly explaining that she does not work the same way other nobles would with “I never quite fit in to that Hollywood thing. I didn’t play that game for the money or the fame I did it my way, baby”

Then upon playing ditter with them, it shifts to “Don’t underestimate me 'Cause one day you’re gonna see you’re in a losing battle” because she throughly beat them in a game they were supposed to be the best at.

Also I can just imagine when the Aub was talking abt how much her “hobby book” was worth and Rozemyne answered with 15 large golds, this:

“I know that money ain’t important. And it don’t mean you’re the best But I earned it all myself and I’m a millionairess”

And when Lestilaut wanted Rozemyne he could only see her “I got the beauty, got the brains, got the power, hold the reins” and upon the Bride Stealing Ditter talk:

“They’ll shame you, blame you, pretend to even hate you. Take away your rights, pacify you with their lies” is how she sees the way that talk went. Dunkelferg stopping at nothing to get her hand in marriage.

Finally, the part of “Why be a wallflower when you can be a Venus Fly trap?” Is how as Urano she WAS a wallflower.

But by the time she plays the Bride Stealing Ditter, she is absolutely a Venus Flytrap.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Lorde

I like this version more than the original. The og has this whimsical tone. As if the fact that the “everyone wants to rule the world” is a childish but harmless statement. It’s way more cheerful.

Lorde’s version frames the same sentence as a selfish and cruel act. How everyone feels fit to rule, but rarely anyone fits the crown.

The most important lyrics “Help me make the most of freedom, and of pleasure. Nothing ever lasts forever. Everybody wants to rule the world” in the og, it’s very happy and dream like.

Lorde’s version it’s filled with a determination that feels akin to hatred. With the last words being almost spit out with a sarcasm undertone.

This reflects the royalty’s desire to rule, feeling as if they’re fit to do as much - but in Rozemyne’s eyes their senseless desire makes them the least fit.

Seventeen - MARINA

This particular song is on of my fav. Specially on how, Wilfred and other men start to see Rozemyne as a piece for political marriage, wanting her to marry.

But Rozemyne was raised with a mentality that refuses to bow and act like a wife. And anyone who feels embarrassed by her or cannot accept her for what she is, does not truly understand all the pain she’s gone through to be where she is

“Could never tell you what happened: The day I turned seventeen. The rise of a king and the fall of a queen”

It’s also a very good representation of how other men see her as a price but rarely seem to realize both how powerful she can be.

“You’re a rich little boy who’s had to work for his toys. You’ve got all the sensibilities of an upper class guy”

Or when Wilfred was utterly stressed out about how she kept making problem. Or angry that she wasn’t acting like a proper first wife

“Oh, you are embarrassed of me ‘Cos I use my tongue freely. Bet you wish I couldn’t speak ‘Cos when I do, you know I tell you why you’re being weak” she’s very much quick to call him out and coddle him.

My particular favorite line is when Wilfred tries to imply that she’s too bad to rule because of how she was raised.

“I felt you question the way I was brought up as a baby. Well you don’t know fuck about my family”

Labour - Paris Paloma

This song is meant to symbolize the archduke conference, and how Eglantine and Anastasuis were dumping all of the royal’s issues into Rozemyne.

The way she swallowed it all down, doing as they asked, unable to voice exactly what was going through her head…They not only tasked her to do the impossible and find the Bible - but also to solve their problems. It was a silent moment of pure rage, that couldn’t be voiced.

“The capillaries in my eyes are bursting. If our love died, would that be the worst thing? For somebody I thought was my savior, you sure make me do a whole lot of labour”

With the “love died” being the trust she stopped having on Eglatine and Anastasius after their little stunt.

Don’t Make Me - MALINDA

This is essentially seconds before her confrontation with Sisgwald. The subtle threat of perhaps not doing things as necessarily okay as she used to. It comes right after Labour since, given that Royals have successfully “killed” any affection or “love” that Rozemyne had for them.

Therefore, she decides to change the tactic towards them. Instead of simply agreeing to their demands, she takes the offense.

“I’ve tried to take you lying down. I clarified, tip-toed around. Was innocent, clear and defined. But you cross them every time” She’s telling them that she’s been nothing but nice, yet if they decide to abuse her trust - she has no issue squeezing them dry for all they’re worth. “Paradise lost, you’re fallen from grace” & “I can read you like a book and it’s getting old” perfectly reflect how easy it is for her to as much.

She keeps telling them not to “make her be the bad guy” aka letting her merchant side come out. However, she ends up being forced to do so.

Breakfast - Dove Cameron

The Merchant Saint. This is her confrontation with Sisgwald. How dealing with someone like him, is pretty easy, almost too easy - if they’re on the same level.

“Ooh, so you wanna talk about power? Ooh, let me show you power” is such a thing I can see Rozemyne thinking. Cause while, yes, Sisgwald has more power in the sense he’s royalty…

She has more mana, more money, is closer to finding the Bible they need, and she has the information to keep them on a stalemate.

To drive this home “I eat boys like you for breakfast. One by one hung on my necklace” Yes. She could negotiate with Benno. She was a cutthroat merchant capable of squeezing people for all they’re worth if she wants to.

Of course a pampered prince like Sisgwald would be breakfast for her.

After all, in the end, she won.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot - ADONA

This is mostly how Rozemyne appears in front of the royals after they’ve refused to help Ferdinand.

Threatening them with what she may be able to do if they hurt him. “Hit me with your best shot. Fire away”

The original song is a silly and upbeat song, cause that’s how Rozemyne’s POV is. This one shows the other side of the coin. As how, from the outside, Rozemyne words come off as an actually scary threat.

I mean, Sisgwald was very much scared of her during the negotiating scene.

“You don’t fight fair But that’s okay, see if I care” the Royals very much don’t fight fair, willing to sacrifice Ehrenfest for the sake of the Sovereignty.

“Knock me down, it’s all in vain I get right back on my feet again” because yes, Rozemyne is a relentless and stubborn person. There’s close to nothing that’s capable of stopping her.

Breathe - In The Heights Musical

Breathe is about her having to be adopted by the king.

I see this as Rozemyne with Elvira in her secret room, finally breaking down about how everything’s been taken from her, yet she’s expected to smile and be grateful.

The first part, when Nina is sing abt how her home, it’s Rozemyne reminiscent abt her days as a commoner, and everything she’s had to live through. Then the second part, she feels as if she’s failed to live up to what others asked of her. She’s not strong enough to protect Ferdinand and everyone criticize her for saving him.

“When I was a child I stayed wide awake, climbed to the highest place on every fire escape restless to climb. I got every scholarship. Saved every dollar. The first to go to college” I can just imagine Rozemyne screaming this as she remembers how she started as Myne. Clawing to get money and influence. “How do I tell them why (Respira) I’m coming back home? With my eyes on the horizon” and finally slumping forward, tired. After all, she lost Ferdinand. The family she was meant to protect.

Still she can’t lose hope and must continue to act like a noble, “Straighten the spine, smile for the neighbors. Everything’s fine, everything’s cool. The standard reply, “Lots of tests, lots of papers" Smile, wave goodbye and pray to the sky, oh, god!”

Product of My Own Design - Artio

From here on the songs are less tied to actual plot beats - cause this is as far as I’ve read in the LN. That said, these are more a general vibe or things that I think may happen.

This one in particular is for when Rozemyne finds out what’s happening in Ahrensbach.

I Can just picture her rage upon those who hurt her family/Ferdinand. Letting out her full political power and merchant skills to breakthrough and save him.

“Feel free to have your views, don’t force them all on me. The kid I was back then would never dream of being free” it’s how she pushes back from what noble society has taught her (be it the meaninglessness of commoners or the cutting of ties to those no longer near you)

“Get on your knees and pray to me. The problem child becomes the only god you’ll ever see” a call that others see her as a reincarnation. Yet, she’s fully aware that she is a problem child. It doesn’t matter to her though, when her family is involved. She will interviene and create problems to save them.

“You made me believe that I was never mine. I made my goddamn self, a product of my own design” Rozemyne was made to believe she wasn’t a commoner. Forced to take on the identity of “Rozemyne” The Noble. She had to build herself a new. And if someone puts in jeopardy that which she cares for, she’s more than ready to use what she’s built to fight back.

No Good Deed - Wicked Cast

If something ever happened to Ferdinand, this is how I imagine Rozemyne to react. With pure fury at those who hurt himself. At fate for putting him in harms way. And using every ounce of mana she has get him better.

“Let his flesh not be torn. Let his blood leave no stain. Though they beat him let him feel no pain” is almost like the desperate prayers she always says whenever she feels Ferdinand is in danger. “What good is this chanting? I don’t even know what I’m reading I don’t even know what trick I ought to try” cause she’s desperate enough to try anything for him.

To add to this, the lyrics express how much Rozemyne blames her own naivety and foolishness for putting him in harms way “No good deed goes unpunished. Sure, I meant well. Well, look at what well-meant did”

In general, such a raw and desperate cry begging for the healing of a loved on is very Rozemyne coded.

Safe and Sounds - Taylor Swift

Just seconds or moments after the previous song - this one. Cause I just feel like while anger may over come Rozemyne, she’s someone who is in tune with the emotions of others and herself. Therefore, after the initial pain, she’d hold Ferdinand and reassure him everything would be okay.

That she would fix whatever happened. That she would heal whatever hurt.

“When all those shadows almost killed your light I remember you said don’t leave me here alone. But all that’s dead and gone and passed tonight” if someone were to hurt Ferdinand, she would be the first to say that it’s all gone now. That no one can hurt him.

I’ve always been of the idea that while Ferdinand is more powerful than Rozemyne, emotionally he’s very weak. She’s the one who can actually read him, and the only one who can actually console him. “Don’t you dare look out your window, darling, everything’s on fire. The war outside our door keeps raging on. Hold onto this lullaby even when the music’s gone, gone”

“Just close your eyes. You’ll be alright. Come morning light. You and I’ll be safe and sound”.

Queen of Kings - Alessandra

This is mostly for when Rozemyne eventually gets the Grutrissheit. Therefore, she would be the “queen of the kings” aka, someone capable of (in a way) rule over those who want to be Zent - even if she doesn’t become one herself.

I like this description cause it rings quite similar to Rozemyne’s “Got raven hair, it’s dark as night. Icy eyes, outta sight, outta sight. Her heart, in spite, is warm and bright. Her smile awakes the Northern Light”

Hair as black as night, eyes as bright as light. A kind heart and a beautiful smile.

Once Upon a Dream - Lana del Rey

I know that there’s some time shenanigans going on in the later parts of the novel. I’m guessing at some point it’s revealed that Ferdinand and Myne met before. Likely it has to do with the gods, so I picked this more somber version of the song.

“I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam and I know it’s true that visions are seldom all they seem. But if I know you, I know what you’ll do. You’ll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream”

I think of Rozemyne staring at Ferdinand eye’s realization suddenly hitting her, crying a bit. Cause yes, Ferdinand would love her once more, as he did once upon a dream.

When you’re home - In The Heights Cast

If Rozemyne ever goes back to the lower city, or to her family, this is the song I can just picture her with.

Lutz as Benny, taking her down memory lane (likely with Ferdinand watching from afar) and reminding her of all the things they used to do and promise.

I can just picture her singing and looking all dreamy at the horizons like “I used to think we lived at the top of the world when the world was just a subway map and the one-slash-nine climbed a dotted line to my place”. It’s her remembering how her apartment used to be at such a high place.

And Lutz laughing, saying “There’s no nine train now” because so many things have changed.

I like the little talk they have, abt how her father would help him hide. It sounds so silly and cute, and just how Lutz and Myne would speak about their childhood.

“And that song you are hearing is the neighborhood just cheering you along” Lutz trying to cheer her up, just for her to break down.

“Don’t say that. Don’t say that! When I was younger, I’d imagine what would happen if my parents had stayed in Puerto Rico” imagining what would happen if she had stayed with them in the lower city.

“Who would I be if I had never seen Manhattan if I lived in Puerto Rico with my people. My people!” If she had stayed with her family. Her commoner family.

“I feel like all my life, I’ve tried to find the answer. Working harder, learning Spanish, learning all I can” how hard she worked to be able to be a noble, to fit in.

“I thought I might find the answer out at Stanford. But I’d stare out at the sea, thinking, where’m I supposed to be?” Her realizing she’s far from home, having lost commoner lifestyle.

“So please don’t say you’re proud of me, when I’ve lost my way” cause she’s done so many things wrong and she’s sorta become lost in the ocean of responsibilities she now has.

Then Lutz chimes in, cheering her up with “Now listen to me! That may be how you perceive it. But Nina please believe that when you find your way again. You’re gonna change the world and then. We’re all gonna brag and say we knew her when”

It’s him telling she did everything right and that even if she feels lost - they will always be family.

What was I made for? - Billie Eillish

I like this song as a question Rozemyne asks herself constantly. What was she brought into this world for?

This is mostly here because I do believe all the trauma she’s endured reflects

[artblock-tm]

Can I get the director's commentary on literally anything you want from Shadow Rift. You can do the whole book if you want. I wanna hear your thoughts

Okay okay okay SO! Grr Shadow Rift. Me and my complicated relationship with Shadow Rift………

For those who don’t know DP Lore, Shadow Rift was a fic originally posted to a different website by a different author. The author wanted to abandon it, but I really enjoyed it, so I reached out to them and asked if I could continue it. Shockingly, they agreed, but I had to follow the original idea for their story.

Writing (part of) og Shadow Rift really dipped my toes into fic writing, and was what initially drew in some of my oldest readers (hi Marci). However, after some years of improvement as a writer with the publication of Masked, I just… didn’t like the story anymore. So I reached out to the original author again for permission to rewrite it and they basically just gave me full control of Shadow Rift.

I won’t talk about it too much since they’ve asked to remain anonymous, but they weren’t satisfied with it either but didn’t have the spoons to finish it. And that’s what brought us to Shadow Rift THE REWRITE!

Now that I think about it… I wish I hadn’t deleted my SR planning doc as soon as the epilogue was published… oops.

ANYWAY. SR is quite different from the original, both in quality of writing and character. While the plot moved generally in the same direction, some lore things were changed and the characters actually had concrete ARCS! WOAH! INCREDIBLE!

Like Hat Kid had an arc that improved her view on the world, however subtly. Although you may argue that it was the return of her soul that did this, the soul was only the macguffin. Her developing relationship with Snatcher is what made her develop as well!

Speaking of Snatcher… ugh he was so fun to write. I loved his and Hattie’s dynamic of continually butting heads. I love the parallels that originally appear as foils… AND it was great to make Snatcher an actual character too! I got to fill him with transgender allegory! Happy pride!

However, the character that drew the most evil giggles from me as I planned how to screw over was none other than Elliot. Oh, Elliot, how I love putting you through the wringer. I also had so much fun giving him a new character arc… in the opposite direction of Snatcher’s.

While Snatcher’s perception of himself merges together and he comes to accept himself and Elliot as the same person, just with changes, Elliot comes to make a distinction between himself and Snatcher. Snatcher is okay with himself, including Elliot, but Elliot isn’t.

Snatcher to me is a lot of hard edges with a softer demeanor. Even though he’s soulless, that doesn’t make someone incapable of kindness (like Hattie thought).

But Elliot is the inverse. He’s all soft edges with a sharp pointed center. And, understandably, the events he’d been through- bodysharing, getting cursed, literally mind-merging with Snatcher for a hot minute- wore his patience thin. It doesn’t help that his fate, like Hattie’s, was swiftly approaching, only his was unavoidable.

It shouldn’t be selfish to want to live, but isn’t it tragic that his actions only ended up speeding the process of his and Hattie’s death? Hehe.

Those are my thoughts on the main characters, but there are some minor ones I’d like to comment on too.

I’m sure that many readers noticed that Karmin wasn’t originally part of AHiT! Yes, I used Shadow Rift as an excuse to write her more. And if you noticed that the arc with her was surprisingly open-ended, that was intentional! You see, I did it for thematic purposes. I’m not gonna hold your hand on this one though.

More importantly, though, Vanessa.

Urgh. Vanessa.

I’ve never been able to write her adequately (UNTIL RECENTLY!! I LISTENED TO MISS MISERYGUTS BY RIP AND EVERYTHING CLICKED!! EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU TO GRACEBETH3604 FOR INTRODUCING ME TO IT!!!), but I’ve had kind of a renaissance on Prince and Vanessa characterization recently. SR!Vanessa was a way for me to experiment with a Vanessa that regretted her actions.

But don’t get me wrong- she doesn’t regret them because she’s becoming a better person- she regretted her actions because they had consequences for her, too. She lost her prince and she came to grieve that loss, but not what she did.

(Also Elliot getting cursed was essentially a nod to Gracebeth3604 also. A!au my beloved. Makes me go insane)

For those people who know the original story, they’d know that the whole thing stayed in Subcon. I thought that was rather stale, so I had the setting move to Alpine, and then to Time’s End. That was fun :)

and ummmm I think I’ve run out of things to say! Sorry I started watching a movie in the middle of writing this and for so caught up in analyzing it that I forgot everything I meant to say

[jewishrizahawkeye]

i'm here! it's a long story but i had to leave the state to attend to family stuff and royai was pushed to the backburner for a while. but i'm back and i've decided i want some royai context because i currently know

she is blonde

he has dark hair

their relationship is a secret/mostly hooking up/a headcanon/real/not real (it's confusing and depends on which fic it is)

he's her father's apprentice i think

at one point he burned her back because it has the secret map or whatever and feels guilty about it but she's glad because it gave her agency and she wasn't controlled by the map

he is army and she is smart

he has ADHD (me too king)

she is serious and he is goofy but it works

her dog (is it his dog?) does not like roy

he works for her/with her/under her/idk because royai fic authors cannot stick to a plot or create consensus they are worse than religious leaders when you ask them a direct question

riza's dad is relevant somehow (i think he's an admiral? or a general? i think roy is the admiral actually? idk man idk)

so yeah if you have a powerpoint for me or something about the royai basics that would be great because i don't know what's real or what's a very talented ao3 author projecting

oh my gosh hello!! i hope the family stuff went well and i’m happy to give context cause i love talking about them >:)

riza is blonde

roy has black hair and black eyes (though their sometimes blue in the manga depending on how the author wants the character to react. his eyes are also gray after he loses his sight at the end of the series)

their relationship isn’t canon however it’s heavily implied. they grew up together and served in war together and they both want to restore the country to a democracy so they can be punished for their actions, they’re digging their own graves. because they’ve been through a lot of traumatizing events together they’re stuck together. riza says she would follow him into hell if he asked her to and her one job is to make sure he never stops pursuing his goal. if he does riza is ordered to kill him, which she doesn’t want to do. there’s a scene where this does almost happen and one of the things that helps bring roy back from the brink of madness is him calling riza’s bluff by going, “oh yeah you’re going to kill me? then what are you going to do when i’m gone?” and she point blank says “i’ll kill myself too.” and he literally says he can’t bear the thought of a world without her in it! and during a scene earlier when riza thinks roy’s dead she is literally begging for someone to kill her cause she doesn’t want to live without him. basically they’re canonically codependent messes who love each other and however the viewer/reader wants to interpret that love is up to them. though the most common interpretation is romantic love and there’s a lot of hints that it is romantic to some extent. so when authors change it up constantly for fics it’s mainly cause you can decide however you want their relationship to be in the story. for example in my own fanfics i’m constantly changing when they’re together because they legally can’t be together cause he’s her boss. which is why is usually secret (illicit affairs coded 😔)

yes! roy learned alchemy from rizas dad! he tried to learn flame alchemy from him but he refused to teach him because he wanted to join the military. however in the most dramatic ass way her dad dies when they’re talking about it and he says for roy to protect riza cause she has the secrets (her tattoo on her back). however riza ends up giving him the secrets of flame alchemy anyway cause he talks about how he hopes to join the military to protect the people of amestris and its very naive but riza’s moved by it and wants to help so she shows him the secrets (this conversation happens at her fathers grave/funeral and they’re lowkey being awkward teenagers flirting and in one of the bonus parody chapters it’s this scene and when riza says she wants to help roy his heart bursts out of his chest cause he’s so excited). she also then enlists in the military to and is the best sharpshooter in the academy.

yes he burned her back!!! riza and roy don’t want another flame alchemist created so she asks him to burn her back and “free her” after they leave ishbal/ishval and he doesn’t want to do it but he views it as his duty cause he inspired her to join the military and he blames himself for ruining her life but riza is thankful for it and does gain her own agency and independence from it because she chooses it (implied her father forced her to get the tattoo) and she does kinda blame him but also knows it was her own choice to join.

he knows how to army she knows aristotle

so yes and no. it’s a headcanon he has adhd (and riza is autistic) and i do consider that but a lot of his “lazy” or procrastination stuff is mainly his womanizer persona because he’s trying to seem like a guy who isn’t that suspicious so he’s always going on dates and doesn’t do his work/his assistant (riza) has to babysit him to do it. however him going on a bunch of dates is actually him meeting informants because his foster mother/paternal aunt runs a brothel/is a information broker with connections in the military so the girls who work there gather info and roy’s dates are really just him getting information. and him being lazy/not doing work isn’t true cause he actually does do a lot but wants people to not look at him to much and if he’s good at his job they’ll be nosy cause he’s 29/30 and is a colonel which is like… two ranks below general i think??? idk im to lazy to grab my book where he explains this. but while i do recognize that’s why he’s procrastinating tasks i also think it’s his ADHD brain kicking in cause i have ADHD and can diagnose every character with it and you can’t stop me! there’s actually a bonus chapter that’s observation reports from his team members and they comment on how he doesn’t do stuff for hours then will clean a meeting room in 15 minutes and it’s perfect. also another part is that roy is supposed to go on a date and gets his work done on time actually because he wants to leave early and riza at the eleventh hour shows up with an ungodly amount of paper work for him to get through that he physically can’t finish before his date so he has to cancel but he finishes it in like five minutes and dips and riza goes down to the shooting range with her regular rifle and not her training rifle and starts practicing :) cause she’s totally not jealous :)

she is serious and he’s goofy cause of his facade but he also can be serious to. this one’s more amped up in fanfics i think. also something criminally underrated is rizas humor cause it’s dry and silly. like there’s a document mix up that says ed and al are in there thirties when they’re 11 and 12 and roy is like “wait no what happen why does the paper say they’re thirty?” and riza says “that paper either came through a time portal or there was a serious mistake”

she does have a dog, and as noted by my friend demi he looks like roy, and that’s also fanfic author discretion. though to be fair he is a shiba inu and those dogs are crazy smart (they’re like a tiny person cause they can learn to sit in five minutes but then learn a minute later they only have to sit if they want to because they’re smart and self aware) so i think it’s less he hates roy and is more like “you’re not in charge and i can say no to you”. hayate is also technically a military dog and has an official military rank.

riza works for him in his unit. she’s a first lieutenant and is his adjacent. basically his assistant. which allows her to follow him around all day and let’s her do her job of protecting his back and watching it

so it’s not rizas dad who’s relevant in the military it’s get GRANDFATHER who is general grumman, who is also roy’s mentor in the military and grumman asks him the marry his granddaughter (riza) so she can be first lady and roy says “you’re getting ahead of yourself”

but that’s hopefully everything 😭 i’m sorry that was so much longer than intended. i’ll also link both of my power points on then from powerpoint night that does talk about them a bit.

the royai playlist

how the great war is about royai

but i hope this helps in your royai journey.

[moviemunchies]

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Mission Impossible movie; I’ve watched the first, second, and sixth. The movies come in and out of Netflix and Hulu, so sooner or later I’ll get to them all.

Oh, hey, J.J. Abrams directed this movie!

Our protagonist, Ethan, has a fairly stable life right now, and he’s engaged to a nurse named Julia, and everyone’s happy! Except then Ethan is abruptly pulled into a rescue operation to save his protege at the IMF, Lindsay Farris, who was sent to spy on an international arms deal named Davian. They do get Farris out, but a detonator implanted in her head goes off, killing her and any possible intel. To finish her mission, Ethan and his team capture Davian, discovering that he’s after something called the Rabbit’s Foot, but shortly after learning (from a message left by Farris) that Davian had a mole within the IMF, Davian escapes. He and his henchmen kidnap Julia and force Ethan to steal the Rabbit’s Foot, or else he’ll kill Julia in 48 hours.

I’ve decided that I can’t watch these movies too close to each other. Ethan is always on the run from his superiors, and always being pushed to his limits. I’m sorry, but it can get repetitive if I watched these one after the other. I would only get exhausted. It’s great that these movies are willing to go all-in on the action and the stakes; I just think you’d get numbed to it if you dealt with them in a row in a short period of time.

The biggest problem with this film is that Abrams often doesn’t show us some of the coolest parts of the story. Ethan is given a deadline of forty-eight hours to grab the Rabbit’s Foot, but the movie skips around without telling us how long he’s got left (through dialogue) until it’s only a couple of hours. And then skipping ahead to less than that. And THEN not showing us the actual heist itself. That’s a cop out! I want to know how, in a matter of minutes, Ethan breaks into a heavily-guarded facility to steal the Rabbit’s Foot and only barely escape! Isn’t that the entire point of a Mission Impossible movie?

Also pretty egregious is the final battle–when Ethan and Davian finally duke it out. Spoiler alert, Ethan wins (which you knew because Tom Cruise is in four more Mission Impossible movies after this). The way that he wins, after a brutal battle, is not due to anything he did, but a total coincidence that neither character had much control over, making it seem pretty cheap. There’s also a resolution to a problem that I don't think would have worked–and reminds me that J.J. Abrams often works on a vague understanding of how science works.

Worst, though, is that we don’t have a clue what the Rabbit’s Foot actually is. It’s as generic a McGuffin as they come because of it. One character theorizes what it might be, but no one ever says. And yes, it could be any generic doomsday bioweapon and the Plot wouldn’t change; still, I think it’s likely that, given what I know of J.J. Abrams in 2023, he didn’t want to do the work to have a clue what to do with it. I don’t know, and he never did, either.

Ethan’s team is underdeveloped, though that’s pretty par for the course at this point. I believe that the next movie is when team members other than Luther have personalities developed enough to care about. It’s a little disappointing though because it’s a great cast.

The action that we do see is very good. The fight scenes are all exciting to watch, there’s a great chase scene, and the scene where Ethan rescues Ferris is a pretty awesome showcase as to what type of agents they are and how effective they are in the field. Tom Cruise does really good action scenes, and watching the film you can tell why they keep Ethan around even if they keep disavowing him–he’s really good at his job!

Ethan also isn’t stupid, which is better than a lot of action heroes. When his team points out that they can’t just hand the Rabbit’s Foot to Davian, he explains, rather frustratedly, that he knows that, he’s planning on tagging it with a tracker before they do that so that they have a chance to get it back right after the handoff. I think that there’s a lot of action movie protagonists who would not even consider something like that, being too overwhelmed with emotion to do anything but fulfill the villains’ demands.

Davian’s a fun villain? In an understated way. He’s not the greatest of the great, but he is interesting in that he almost never loses his cool. In these movies, spies are able to buy time and leverage by talking, and Davian always shuts down Ethan by not giving a crap about whatever he’s talking about. I appreciate that. Philip Seymour Hoffman does well in this role.

So this movie’s fine. It’s fun, though there are a few very notable problems in the film’s execution. It’s good, but those problems are holding it back from being an excellent movie. I understand that some of that is perhaps time constraints. Still, I think that you can have fun watching this one if you need a loud, action-packed movie. It’s not a must-see, though, and there are other movies in the series that are more worth your time.

[therubyreader]

My Review of Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong

See a full list of my book reviews here

*Disclaimer: there will be spoilers later on in the review*

Review Word Count, non-spoiler: 697 Review Word Count Total: 1,480

After a year of waiting, we finally got the sequel to Foul Lady Fortune, and of course I need to scream about it in a long form way even though I’ve been screaming about it all week through various posts. I preordered the book on Apple Books (not sponsored), so I got it at exactly 12:00 a.m. EDT and I read it in a little over day because I have no self-control. Did it cause me to get behind in work? Yes, but that’s neither here nor there. 

Moving on! Foul Heart Huntsman picks back up after the plot twisty events of Foul Lady Fortune with Rosalind dealing with not only her identity as the nationalist spy Fortune being exposed and Orion’s absence after he was captured by his mother and his memories wiped. She grapples with how to get him back after her identity is exposed, a task that is near impossible, but under the guise of a national tour meant to inspire unity in the countryside, she manages to make it out of Shanghai to try and find Orion. But when the tour goes wrong, she must rely on old adversaries to save Orion and all of China from his mother’s chemical invention and potential foreign invasion. 

I will admit I am a little (or maybe a lot) biased since the entire Secret Shanghai series has become one of my favorites in this last year, especially the Foul Lady Fortune duology, so my thoughts on this book are mostly positive. I love Chloe Gong’s writing style so much so that I, someone that doesn’t highlight or annotate books, started highlighting my favorite quotes. There were tons of truly poetic lines in the book as well as its fair share of humor and just strong emotions in general. I was honestly amazed as to how one person could capture so many distinct genres in one book so beautifully and also tell such a compelling story at the same time.  

One of my favorite parts of this book was that despite Rosalind being the main character we get to see story arcs for pretty much every other relevant character, they all change in different ways during the events of the book which was super entertaining to read. Without spoiling anything I will say Pheobe’s arcs was one of my favorites as she grows up quite a bit throughout the course of the book and it probably near the top of the list when it comes to trauma and internal issues resolved.  

My main complaint with this book is just how quickly we jump from one plot point to another. I understand it was something that had to happen as there was a lot to cover but not enough material for a third book, which I’m grateful that isn’t the direction that Chloe took us, but it still was a bit intense. There were multiple times I had to just put down the book since I got overwhelmed with the sheer number of things happening at once, but I would rather have this than a drawn-out book just to create a third one. Because of this there were multiple points in the book where things were too coincidental, and I get that this has to happen to a certain extent in fiction, but it did feel like it was happening a lot just to advance the plot quicker.  

Despite that I had a great time reading the book and it was a beautiful conclusion to one of my favorite series of all time. I will let you all know that we had the happy ending we were promised, and it was honestly much better than I could’ve ever imagined, which I will scream about in the spoiler section. I really couldn’t have asked for a better conclusion to this series, I was screaming and crying for various reasons throughout my entire read through and was very emotional about the whole thing for at least two days afterwards. I’d give this book an “I cried about it for days but in a good way” out of ten and really recommend you all go read it if you haven’t already. 

Spoilers Below!!

As per usual I have a lot of thoughts, but because I have been very emotional about this book over the course of the past week (please scroll through my Foul Heart Huntsman tag if you want to see more nonsense) so I’m going to try and talk about new and cool things.  

First I just want to expand a little on the whole “things were too coincidental” point I made earlier. The one thing I have more of a gripe about, the rest I’ll excuse since they can be played off, but when Orion was dying, and Rosalind just so happened to take him to Lourens’ lab, and he just was there. I mean I guess you can say he wanted to see his lab one last time or whatever which is why he left Roma and Juliette’s house, but it just felt a little too plot convenient for me. I mean, I’m glad everything worked out for them, but the everything surrounding it just rubbed me the wrong way. Just a minor complaint but I’ll get over it.  

I already had my cry about Roma and Juliette being reunited with Alisa and Rosalind, which was a great moment for me, but seeing the whole gang back together (including Celia, Marshall, and Benedikt) plus Orion was one of my favorite parts of the whole series, it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Another thing that made me feel all warm and fuzzy was just all the couples. We finally saw Oliver and Celia get together, Rosalind and Orion reunion, Pheobe and Silas! I think I was most emotional about Pheobe and Silas’ kiss scene; it tore me apart just as much as Celia and Oliver’s first kiss but for some reason Pheobe and Silas hit.  

Another thing that really tore me up was how much Rosalind and Orion love each other. Despite the fact that Orion lost his memories he still loved Rosalind and while she had a bit of a struggle since he wasn’t her Orion, she still loved him a lot. They have one of my favorite couple dynamics, I love how Orion is just a giant sap and Rosalind isn’t having any of it but is secretly loving it. Also, just how they gave up their abilities and became normal people for each other was so touching. Rosalind had accepted her fate that she was going to live like that for the rest of her life, and then eventually die from it after Lourens told her that the serum he used was unstable, but the way Orion was literally dying and chose to save her. Like Rosalind said, she had wanted someone to choose her, and Orion did, he was willing to die for her and I’m getting emotional typing this.  Maybe I cried when he proposed in the epilogue, who knows.  

I also need to talk about the exclusive Barnes and Noble epilogue (there are links to read it in the notes of this post I made if you haven’t read it already). I need to scream about Roma and Juliette having a whole entire child, I cried a little when Rosalind showed Orion the little card in the first epilogue and cried even more when we were introduced to Katherina. Another thing that made me cry was just how Pheobe and Silas were together and in love and happy and when she asked him for a kiss, tears. Of course, Oliver and Celia being married made me so beyond happy, I love that for them so much. The whole wedding also made me cry because Rosalind and Orion are in love and of course there was an incident at their wedding because that’s the kind of people they are and the daffodils and the amount of love they have for each other. The whole thing was so sweet I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better ending for the series and if I think about it too hard, I’ll cry again.  

I’m going to keep this ending in my brain and not think about how like four years later China gets invaded by Japan and all of World War II, Chloe mentioned this in her authors note and now I won’t stop thinking about it. Everyone survives the war and they’re all happy, that’s cannon, I said it, I make the rules. Anyways I was, and will continue to be, super emotional about this book until the end of time. I encourage you all to please come into my inbox to scream about literally anything in this book, I love talking about it and will continue to talk about it forever so please join me!  

[notwarriorswiki]

After you finish the Po12 AU are you going to do the other series? :D

Haha well since I’ll never quite finish writing Power of Twelve, I can say I did plan everything for after it’s arc, so that includes Alderheart, Bristlefrost, and Nightheart for instance. Everything post Power of Three is pretty different with elements of their original tales, however for me the narrative and story direction in terms of overarching plot really started to devolve for me after Power of Three. I suppose it became a bit too ethereal for my tastes? Also the rules of the universe weren’t always clear, something that makes theorizing and understanding rather difficult.

An example I’ll use is Bramblestar during his possession arc. The way they wrote Ashfur essentially “digging a hole” into the Dark Forest border and how that somehow gave him more control was very difficult to wrap my head around. I think what I strived to do was write the story in a way that the fantasy elements can be used to keep those ideas, but changing them in ways to ground the story within the rules it has set for this world.

Power of Twelve was merged with Omen of the Stars as I thought both series wasted a lot of time on things that didn’t matter. Coughs on Sign of the Moon

A Vision of Shadows keeps its title but is changed a lot narratively. Darktail is still the villain but there’s a surprising secondary antagonist as well, as well as the overall plot timeline being longer so Violetshine and Twigshade (yes, she’s renamed) are a bit older by the end.

The Broken Code keeps it’s title less for changes in the narrative that reflect it, but rather due to the end of A Vision of Shadows. Ashfur is cut entirely from the narrative so major differences.

Finally a Starless Clan has a few ideas, but ultimately I’m going to wait how it plays out to determine what changes fit my narrative and what I genuinely like about it. For instance, I have no clue if I’ll actually enjoy the reason for Mistystar’s death or if I’ll be snapped out of the story when we learn the truth like I was with Ashfur in The Broken Code.

[tokiro07]

Cipher Academy ch.30 thoughts

[Kids, Could You Lighten Up a Little?]

There’s the Nisio Isin I know! An entire chapter filled exclusively with philosophy layered with subterfuge. No plot developments, no action, just two characters discussing their worldviews in as esoteric a way as possible

This is a great sign for Cipher Academy’s continued existence, cus this is the kind of thing that Jump readers do not receive well, so if Nisio is willing to write a chapter like this, he must not be too worried about the pace he can move on for the foreseeable future

Or he thinks this is vital to the story he wants to tell, even if it means getting cut down early for it. If the latter, I definitely find that admirable, I’d rather get the author’s vision in a smaller package than an extended view at an editor’s milquetoast suggestions

I don’t know how well I can talk about this chapter with the information we have available, honestly. This feels like foreshadowing for events that will come later, and the philosophies we’ve been presented will only truly become clear once we get the payoff. I am confident that the next world war that’s been referenced a few times now will come to pass within this story (if it can last long enough), and once it does, Kogoe and Zakuroguchi’s philosophies will be put in a completely different context that forces us to reevaluate what was said here

For lack of a better term, I think this chapter is meant to be Kogoe’s villain song. While she’s generally been untrustworthy, this discussion is probably at least partially genuine, even if she is keeping her cards closer to her chest than she’s letting on. I don’t know if Kogoe is motivated by money or a desire to see humanity advance, but this speech really gives the impression that what she wants is a sense of control

It’s like Metal Gear, where Big Boss wants to create a nation of mercenaries so that no veteran will ever be abused by their government again; by deliberately giving his people a constant and controlled stream of wars, Big Boss ensures that soldiers always have a place in society. Kogoe is very similar, but instead of wanting to create a never-ending chain of wars, she wants to be able to decide when and where a war will flare or fizzle to adjust the economies of those involved, regulating their ability to prosper and advance. By having that power in her hands, she ensures that she will not be a puppet strung along by anyone else, but rather that she will be the one holding the strings

I’ve definitely talked about it before, but this goal is illustrated very explicitly by Kogoe’s glove: the Earth in the palm of her hand. She’s been telegraphing that she wants to be in control the entire time, we just didn’t know to what extent or to what end. She does seem to want to make sure that people aren’t sacrificed unnecessarily, but even that wording alone proves that there’s a sinister edge to her philosophy: some sacrifices are necessary. Kogoe doesn’t just want to direct the rate of social development, she wants the power to decide who lives and who dies, she’s just dressing it up as something more noble as all good warmongers do

Like I said, I think that this conversation is just going to be recontextualized later, so I’m going to stop talking about it for now and revisit it when the story decides to (Jump allowing)

For now, I’m going to circle back around to the most immediately pressing part of this chapter: Anonymity. No, not her taking off her mask for fan service, though yes, I am serviced by that, thank you. I’m talking about her very unsettling statement that she needs to pick a side before Class A gets involved with Class F

As you may recall, Class D and F got matched up for the first round of the tournament. Seeing Zakuroguchi here, I thought for sure that this chapter was saying that Class D had won and would be facing A and B in the finals, but now I’m wondering if the winner between D and F hasn’t been decided yet. Is Anonymity expecting that F will win, or is she plotting some kind of team up for after the tournament? She said “get involved with,” so maybe she doesn’t mean in battle

More interesting, though, is that Class F is the Special Missions class, and their CLP has all of her face covered except for her eyes: sound familiar? Her design is like an inverse of Anonymity’s, so I’m starting to get the feeling that Anonymity is a double-agent for Class F and is now questioning her loyalties because of Iroha and the rest of Class A

With that bit of foreshadowing, I have to say that the Class F battle(?) is the one I’m most excited for, simply because of the possibility that I’ll get to spend more time with Anonymity. It probably won’t happen for some time since it looks like we’ll need to get through Class B first, but I’m patient

For the Class B fight, I’m hoping that we’ll get to spend some time with either the Irohazaka Alliance or the Nohime Family, I feel like we haven’t gotten nearly enough development for them yet and I really want to see Nohime do that creepy smile again. I love that aesthetic. Maybe I should restart Soul Eater...

[soul-dwelling]

One thing that is a bit funny is how a lot of charachters/plot elements/plot points I before only read about from second hand sources were actually a lot less impresive or significant once I actually read fire force. Like the whole chinese island with talking animals felt kinda like a nothing burger, or Amaterasu being trapped in a reactor or Iris being a doppelganger or Benimaru causing the moon to apear, or Shinra being possed, even Joker and Lichts antihero shtick etc...

I’m going to go in a number of directions, so let me summarize some points to quickly answer your questions, before going into more detail below: 

Ohkubo is better at just making visually appealing art than actually progressing character development and making a good plot. 

The Chinese peninsula arc is harmed by the stupidity of firefighters, whose job is to literally wear masks to not breathe in dangerous fumes, instead going maskless and breathing in dangerous fumes. It’s not even treated as irony, it’s just dumb. 

The talking animals thing was to set up Fire Force as a prequel for why Blair exists in Soul Eater. 

The doppelganger shit makes no sense. It is just Ohkubo’s immature response to how religious beliefs are full of paradoxes (“Can God make a rock so big even They can’t lift ti? Yes--then they lift it”)...

…Which is why we have Benimaru and the Moon thing: it’s Ohkubo writing his own creation story, in other words, his own religion. 

Viktor needed a stronger back story--and the headcanon is right there, he was a grad student, it writes itself, no wonder he turned out like this. 

It’s almost like Ohkubo’s original art posts on the shitty bird app get attention for being innovative designs, while the plotting falls apart. 

(This is one reason enough readers have wondered what it would be like if he just did the art for someone else’s story…and now we get what looks like a lackluster anime doing just that, so, monkey’s paw problem.) 

I forgot to bring this up: I think the talking animals thing was more foreshadowing of this being a Soul Eater prequel, reinforcing my assumption that the earliest Ohkubo would have decided on the “prequel route” was this Chinese peninsula arc. Shinra and the others are shocked to see talking animals--so by the time of Soul Eater, Blair is just yet another one of these talking animals running around… 

…But that has its own problems. First, Schop and the others were mostly not that cartoonish. Second, it’s just as likely talking animals became more of a thing because Shinra had zero knowledge of world history and just made shit up. Finally, even Soul, Maka, and Lord Death were surprised to see a talking cat, and Blair was the only talking animal in the series. (Yes, witches had talking animal forms, but canon didn’t really emphasize that Arachne was indeed a spider, Eruka was indeed a frog, Kim was indeed a tanuki, and so on.) 

The Chinese peninsula arc also just pissed me off in general: for the sake of dumb gags, even a teacher like Pan refuses to listen to wear a mask to avoid getting the effects of what he breathed in. I’m not saying that lets the students off the hook, but Viktor warned these dumbasses, and for zero reason given, none of them believe him. THEY ARE FIREFIGHTERS, they know breathing in fumes is a bad thing, yet they didn’t wear a mask? 

(No wonder the United States and so much of the world has a COVID problem: no one in this real world wears a fucking mask, none of these fictional characters wears a fucking mask.) 

As for the doppelganger crap: it made no sense. 

A doppelganger is how the world views a person--those are the rules within Fire Force. Someone is a pyrokinetic in full control of their faculties and flame abilities if they and their doppel are one in the same, e.g. they merge and the result is a non-Infernal, all because who they are and how people look at them is exactly the same…

…But we know that isn’t the case. Shinra is nothing like what people thought of him--yet he is not only a pyrokinetic, and not only a Pillar, but is freaking Fire Jesus. (Unless Sho is Fire Jesus--and even that makes no sense, since no one knows Sho outside of the Clads, so how would there be a popular conception of him to begin with?) 

The excuse the story goes with is that, once the physics are getting weirder and weirder, that is when the rules bend enough to allow for the doppel rule to no longer apply, hence why pyrokinetics like Joker and Kurono now have to fight their own doppels--because rule of cool, this is the final arc, break the rules, just make some action scenes. 

I get the argument that, if a better explanation doesn’t make you enjoy it more, then any explanation won’t matter, and that seems to be Ohkubo’s rationale: if I’m complaining that it doesn’t make sense, then I’m just the Yuu of this story and can be ignored, like ignoring how Arthur’s family stuff makes no sense. But that weak explanation doesn’t excuse bad writing--and this is just bad, and it distracts from any cool factor to the fights or the art. 

See also the problem of Mari and Iris’s existence: how can Mari be the doppel of the Evangelist when the Evangelist existed for so long already, and how can Iris be the doppel of Amaterasu? What, Iris existed in Adora, then was chucked out into the “real” world? And if that’s the case, then how could Mari exist as an Infernal, and Iris get pryokinetic abilities, unless their others--the Evangelist and Amaterasu--merged with them, but they didn’t, because they never did merge?!

And that leads to the Moon and Benimaru problem: the doppel thing is just a paradox, as a lot of religions have them, and you are to shrug and just ignore it. That is Ohkubo’s excuse for shit that fails in his story: he is doing a satire of religion, and fuck you for poking holes in his story, it’s all satire, he doesn’t have to answer for bad storytelling, because even my agnostic ass am tired of his anti-religion shtick. 

Hence why Benimaru doing that to the Moon just is the thing that happens: it happened because it is a creation story. Maybe it’s my perspective as a white person in the United States, as I’m not in the context of certain belief systems to give an insider’s point of view about them--but usually, when I read a creation narrative, I can understand enough about how they got to that idea (Egyptian stories about the dung beetle’s association with the sun, because it pushes a big ball of dung; stories of animals diving down into the water to scoop up mud to form the first islands on the planet; and so on). 

What is there to “Benimaru kicked the Moon really hard and it turned into that face”? Does it resemble his adoptive dad? There’s nothing here to solidify why this creation story should work--so, it just comes off as a crass attempt to link this to Soul Eater and disrupt much better headcanon most fans probably had. 

(Spoiler for something a friend and I are working on, but if it was me, re-writing this? You don’t have Benimaru kick the Moon. You have a Mirko-like character kick the Moon. Give me a character with flame-powered leg hops, powerful kicks, and a rabbit motif--boom, rabbit, Japan, Moon, that works. What the hell does Benimaru have to do with the Moon? And no, naming his moves after the Moon doesn’t count.) 

Some of this is headcanon on my part in discussions with a friend, but why not give some back story to Viktor? He was a grad student, he was pursuing research: maybe it’s my own experiences, but that is fraught with story potential. Viktor goes to work at Haijima to keep funding his research--even as he suspects their part in spontaneous human combustion. Maybe he lost parents and wanted to figure out what killed them--or, to avoid more and more “dead family” tropes, maybe he isn’t close to family, not helped by running off to do research instead of a “real job.” 

I really enjoyed Joker--by the time we got his back story. When it’s “the Joker but he’s also Batman,” that is the best characterization he got. Too bad his post-story life is hanging out with a boring sod like Burns.

[daja-the-hypnokitten]

Jukebox reviews part 45! For context, see my post “A Project” under  this same tag. If you want to see a full list of his EMCSA stories,  they can be found here, sorted alphabetically.And if you want to see some of his drabbles, check out his blog at @jukeboxemcsa

Easily Led

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3/30/2019                                     mc mf md

Aw, this one's pretty cute and sweet, for how total the brainwashing is. It's more of a view of the end of the process (or, well, *an* end, I could see how he could find new things to brainwash her with if he wanted), so it's lacking some of the parts I enjoy most, but they're definitely into each other and the process and it's almost wholesome, in a "she's been brainwashed to be helpless on her own" sort of way. 8/10 spirals 

 You Broke Like Glass

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4/6/2019                                       mc mm

This one's fairly mean-spirited. And I can kinda understand someone wanting to be mean to their boss, but even so I just don't like the mean ones. Add in using amnesia to make Wayne question his reality this way ... it just isn't my thing. The description of the process, of what's going on in Wayne's head, is amazing, but it just isn't a flavor I want. 6/10 spirals 

 S.O.S.

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4/13/2019                                     mc mf ff md ma cb

Oh, that's *clever.* Also it's a Wild Rose and Sharpe story, so you know it's going to be fun. I adore these characters so much, and seeing them in action is always a delight. The everything in play here, the new villain... all of it's lovely. The mind control itself is pretty meh, whatever, it's magic-level tech, but still, it's a good story. 9/10 spirals 

 Dolly Dagger

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4/20/2019                                     mc mf ff fd

I love the "why do you assume voodoo how rude is that" take in this story, it's absolutely lovely. That's also the  main thing I like - this is a story of magic, and also the abuse of same. There's some good subtle influence as the magic starts to take shape, but mostly it's just a story of a (justifiably) angry man and a witch who doesn't seem to have ever heard any warnings of what you do with power coming back to you, and I just don't like either of them. 4/10 spirals 

 Just Like Christmas

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4/27/2019                                     mc ff

SO CUTE! Also plenty of heat, but it's the cute and shy way Paula approaches the topic that... well, I *remember* being like her. It's been over a decade since then, but I remember all the same. And seeing Duchess going from flirtatious to serious when they start talking about consent? yes, I love that. And the induction, using Tiana as a way to help get Paula into trance, just ... all of it is good and solid and hot and I love it. This is something completely grounded in "it could happen" realism, and I love every moment of it. 10/10 spirals 

 Candy Coated

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5/4/2019                                       mc

This is a clever induction theme, using candy as a metaphor for a mind melting away... even if my preferred trance-y candy is chocolate, which doesn't get mentioned. Fudge does, but fudge and flavored chocolate are different things. And feeding someone a flavored chocolate, seeing them melt into trance as it melts on their tongue? A+, 10/10 would do again. But that isn't this induction, for all it's closely related. The way Jukebox ties the way sugar melts into melting into trance is super good, and I love it, even if I'm less motivated by the sticky "treat" of an orgasm, because I can just be Like That. 8/10 spirals 

 This Is Just 4 U

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5/11/2019                                     mc ff

Well, that's sure a place for this story to go. The way the tension of not having direction, not having a master, builds and resolves is solid, and the command at the end.... oh, this remains such a good plot. I can see it's going to be bad for 4U and her Master, probably, but all the same. 9/10 spirals 

 Remind Me to Forget

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5/18/2019                                     mc ma

... no, I totally didn't just send this link to a friend with a "you'll enjoy this, you shoudl read it", whyever would I do that? Oh, you mean the main character made me think of her, especially just how conditioned to the scent of lavender she is? Ah, well, true. Which is to say I really enjoyed this story, and was picturing a lovely, sweet, tech-y metamour for most of the story, even if the description of the gal just dosn't quite match said metamour. Doesn't matter tho, because I can so definitely see my metamour doing exactly this sort of electronics programming someday just for fun, just because she loves being a brainwashed dolly. Which all sums up to "not my usual style, but it doesn't matter because it's just that good" 10/10 spirals 

 In Your Memory

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5/25/2019                                     mc mf ff md

Ooof, this isn't a fun use of amnesia, though there's definitely power in the "you can't resist me modifying your memories so how can you resist any other thing I do" that in a different context could be really hot. But in this one it just turns my stomach a little. I'm not the target audience for this one - not with the implied betrayal, at least - but if you like someone being trapped when trying to rescue a friend, the implication that their friend is helping to bend them to the hypnotist's will, and ruthless memory modification, give it a go. 6/10 spirals 

 Quick Like a Flash

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6/8/2019                                       mc ff

This is a good story. It also makes me think of my Fae-like girlfriend who enjoys using a suggestion that gives me "the gift of perfect obedience" - her words, not mine. Or, apparently, Jukebox's words, for all this story sure has a Fae creature using exactly that same phrase towards the end. Because sometimes life does indeed imitate art. And Queen Maeve does have that perfect sort of Fae energy that can be so much fun. I could do without the "I'll use you to control everyone who watches your show" element, that's not my speed, but that's really my only quibble. And also my girlfriend got many keysmashes over just how much of a "but. but. This is? Jukebox stop using the magic prophecy typewriter already" moment it was. But that's ok, she likes seeing me flustered. 9/10 spirals

[nullset2]

Killer7 -- An in-depth Critique and Review

Video Game Auteur Goichi Suda (commonly spelled "Suda51", as in, "Suda Go-Ichi")... is a very strange man to say the least. Strange is actually an understatement. Him and his work are flat-out weird.

From his repertoire, I've always been in love with Killer7, probably his magnum opus, co-developed with Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil fame, a psychotic, psychodelic extravaganza of violence and horror, following the exploits of a gang of miscreants, the Smiths, which form the titular Killer Seven syndicate.

A word of warning, I think this is probably the hardest essay I've ever had to write, given how, again, utterly fucking insane, disjointed, abstract and weird this game is. It's full of gratuitous violence and morbid themes, it was famously rushed by Capcom, the plot is unfinished, most of the actual plot is explained in a sidecar novel which I have never read, and the game loves to fuck around. If you feel that the game is being vague in its exposition on purpose, you are right.

I am also terrible at politics and this is an incredibly politically charged game (and probably the only one I've seen with the balls to actually dare tackle this theme).

It's just a weird game.

But weird shares the same etymology with both "destiny", and "word", and that's why I love weirdness: to seek your very own destiny through the articulation of words is weird. So, what will we articulate about Killer7?

Part 1. Kill The Past...

A man from humble beginnings who used to work as a gravedigger (a profession eerily close to "burakkumin" or "unpure person" territory, according to the (yes, Japan has a caste system too) Japanese caste system), he began his career with the highly dramatic "Fire Pro Wrestling", developed with Human entertainment, which tells the story of an up-and-coming wrestler who, spoiler alert, ends up suiciding at the cusp of his career. Yes, this is a Super Nintendo/Super Famicom wrestling game we're talking about.

From here, it is clear Suda is not someone who's content with following pre-determined paths and formulas in game design. His games (usually featuring edgy, profane and morbid themes, characters and dialog, presumably derived from the close experiences with Death he experienced earlier in his life) boldly twist, turn and reshape common gaming mechanics, tropes and aesthetics, often to interesting and somewhat catastrophic results.

He's never been a big seller. He had his Capcom-five era, where he contributed direction to the creation of the game this essay is about as a part of a five-game deal where Capcom would provide Nintendo with five exclusive (famous last words right there) games in exchange for heightened promotion and distribution privileges. The Capcom Five were Killer7, together with Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil 4, PN03 and the Ill-fated "Dead Phoenix". Then he had his Punk-rock era, with the No More Heroes games on Wii, and then he had his ~sellout~, ahem, Electronic Arts era where he produced Shadows of the Damned, Killer Is Dead, and Lollipop Chainsaw, and more recently his (in my opinion) quieter GungHo/Marvelous era with Let It Die, etc.

None of those games are staples in the gaming mainstream. In fact, his games tend to sell poorly and review badly: they come full of jank, horribly short draw distances, low framerates and weird control schemes. He has never produced anything which controls better than a 2006 Xbox 360 game, even to this date. Yet he must be considered by the gaming enthusiast if they dare appreciate the medium in full just out of the fact how utterly batshit insane his stuff is sometimes. You will not find a similar brand of insane anywhere else.

Cue the predictable comparison to "The Tarantino of Gaming", which he'll gladly accept but which I actually think is a disservice to Tarantino as much as I love his stuff. Like him or not, he is present in the gaming collective unconscious, and he's here to stay.

(I'm sorry Suda-san. I love you and GHM).

(But please stop producing games with jank).

Beginning with 1996's Twilight Syndrome, a game unpublished in the Americas, we're introduced to Suda's "Kill the Past" series, which is the moniker given to a series of action-adventure games loosely tied together with recurring motifs and themes in a common world (Perhaps, egad!, predating the newfangled multiverse thing y'all dang kids love so much with your Marvels and your DC's and your endless molochian media spirals).

"Kill the Past" comprises several different games, of notice, including the very recently localized Silver Case, Flower Sun and Rain (FSR) Killer7 and the No More Heroes series. These games share a common theme of events in the past coming back to haunt the games' characters and them needing to move on by destroying something from that past, enveloped in violence, crassness and even some comedy. Add a couple fourth-wall breaks, cel shaded graphics and commentary about gaming and the gaming industry while we're at it.

Common elements in "Kill the Past" are the Moon, Death being apparently meaningless and reversible in the Suda-verse, systems of analog televisions or appliances causing static fuzz and people somehow gaining strange powers through them, 8 bit aesthetics, and Assassins being either the main characters or prominent in the stories (the Smith syndicate is a bunch of Mercenaries, Travis Touchdown goes on a killer rampage to get laid, and so on and forth). Other recurring elements are the company Ishizaka (labelled ISZK in appliances and elsewhere in the game world), characters reappearing in different series and even meeting each other, and severed heads (in paper bags). Kamui Uehara, a character very important to this series, appears in Travis Strikes Again and No More Heroes 3 as part of the plot, but I haven't actually played the game where he's featured the most, The Silver Case, and I hated TSA. I did complete NMH3 though (and I hope the No More Heroes movie by Takaashi Miike truly does happen, Suda).

Anyway.

Part 2. ...Shoot the Future

Killer7 follows the adventure of the Smith Syndicate, a vicious, bloodthirsty group of eight mercenaries all sharing the Smith last name: Harman, Garcian, Dan, Kaede, Coyote, Con, Kevin and famed luchador "Mask de Smith", covertly employed by the goverment of the USA to do their bidding. Their characterizations are perfect, and some of the very best I have ever seen in games, even if the game is not very complex otherwise.

Notice the interesting correspondence between seven and eight to begin with. The two main currents of mysticism, let's call the first "Mesopotamian" and the second "East Asian" mysticism (even though these umbrella terms may be a bit of a disservice to them, but bear with me), both define their own mystical numbers in their mythos: from "The One" of henosis comes two (male and female and other polarities) because one was lonely; from two came four (the four cardinal points, the four elements) because they were fertile and full of life, and from four came everything, and this is where things branch: from four comes seven (planets, seas, continents, days of the week, cardinal sins...) in Mesopotamian mysticism, and from four comes eight (the eight sides of the I-ching) in Asian mysticism. It is no coincidence of course, that both 7 and 8 are considered lucky, or rather, holy numbers in their respective cultures. Also, notice the beginning of a certain theme of correspondence between both polarities: the political East and West, America and Asia, Sun and Moon, Right and Left.

The game is composed by several different chapters revolving around political tensions, each revolving around taking out one certain target: mythical Heaven Smile terrorist group leader Kun Lan, Politicians Toru Fukushima and Jean DePaul, Religious Cult Leader Andrei Ulmeyda, Curtis Blackburn, someone who Dan Smith has still an ax to grind with, mysterious Comic Book author Trevor Pearlharbor (lol), minister of education Benjamin Keane and Kenjiro Matsuoka, Prime Minister of Japan.

The plot begins after a terrorist attack on the United Nations in 2003 by an infiltrated member of the Heaven Smiles which leads to devastating effects. The Heaven Smiles are a group of strange, zombie-like kamikaze beings which communicate in grunts and hysterical laughter. They're can blow themselves up upon contact among many different superhuman abilities, such as teleportation, flying, producing blinding sights, or instant breeding en-masse, and are invisible to normal people; the Smith syndicate are the only ones who can see them after scanning them with the Killer eye (and ability which only the Smith syndicate possesses and that was inherited to them through their original progenitor, Dimitri Nightmare, who Harman Smith passed it down from --but more on that later, since I played this game when I was in college and I had no idea that such a character even existed because this is explained in the complimentary novel, "Hand in Killer7", by Goichi Suda). Many different sub-species of smiles are presented in the game world. No matter their kind, all smiles have a weak point seen as by a cluster of golden particles after scanning them the Killer eye. A critical shot to this weak point will immediately kill the creature, yielding its blood.

Blood collection is one of the very few mechanics in Killer7. You cannot even move freely. The game has been patently called "an on-rails game" but I don't agree with that denominator. It's not on-rails like a gallery shooter; instead, movement is controlled not by your directional stick or pad, but rather by pressing A or B: A advances down a certain pre-established path, which can branch at some points, and B makes your character turn around 180 degrees to run the opposite way. The directional stick chooses a branch once you hit a juncture. At any moment you can brandish your current Smith's infinite-ammo weapon using one of the triggers, in a way that's reminiscent of Resident Evil: Dan sports a revolver, Kaede uses a sniper visor on a revolver, Coyote uses a pistol, Con uses dualies, Kevin uses throwing knives and Mask de Smith uses a grenade launcher. A will shoot while you aim; the other trigger will scan with the Killer Eye. The secondary controller stick reloads.

Yes, I know, controller schemes were weird in early 2000s Japanese games.

If you hear a Heaven smile, try scanning around for them. If you see their weak point, try to hit it, otherwise it's shoot to kill. If they come too close you can use a special takedown, the "down attack", triggered with Y, which will display a cool animation. Kill an enemy and collect its blood, which will decant into thin and thick: thin blood will fill vials, which can be consumed for health restoration or to trigger each of the Smiths' special powers: Dan can shoot a big fireball, the "Collateral Shot"; Kaede can split her wrists to invoke a spirit, the old BDSM partner of trusty sidekick Iwazaru, which will reveal new paths. Coyote can steal shit, jumping massively high and breaking locks. Con goes superspeed, Kevin turns invisible and becomes undetectable by security devices, and Mask can destroy walls (which is kind of meh, because Kaede has the exact same ability, but eh, who am I to judge at this point).

Thick blood will be collected to upgrade your Smiths' abilities: trade it at save points for increased attack power, better health or to unlock new down attacks over time. I'm sad to say though that the metagame here is pretty shallow, but I don't think the game is going for depth anyway, so I forgive them.

The main gameplay loop consists of Resident-Evil style exploration, gunplay and light puzzle solving. In every map, you will run into a variety of non-playable characters which will guide you on your path, providing hints or additional items for your quest: of importance you have psycho Susie, a beheaded girl who used to assasinate people yandere style, who will provide you with a variety of "rings". A certain ring will have a certain effect on the environment on a given place: if you're next to a smoke sensor and you activate the fire ring, the sprinklers will rain. If you have the time ring and a destroyed mirror is nearby, you may be able to return it to working condition. It's all very simple, though, and, again, mostly played for style than anything, reminiscent of classic Silent Hill puzzles or the like.

There's also good old Travis, which some fans believe to be the spirit of the Travis Touchdown, or related to him somehow, a friendly spirit who chills around and provides additional backstory and hints as to how to proceed. Since it was actually 100% confirmed that No More Heroes and Killer7 actually happen in the same timeline and game world, I wouldn't discard this idea, but it has never actually been confirmed by Suda.

Upon performing certain tasks in the game world, you will obtain a variety of bizarre artifacts; of importance, the "Spirit Shells", bullets of a weird nature which can be traded at the vinculum gate, a weird extradimensional dimension where a mysterious gatekeeper will take your shells for entrance. Every level has a different requirement of shells, once satisfied, you will be allowed into a liminal space, a single, simplistic, straight corridor where "Rave On", pretty much the very best music track in the game, will play for a few seconds. I think there's some kind of symbolism, some ironicism, to constraining your very best piece of work to a single corridor which will be ignored by most players, but the nuances of it escape me. After this, you will end up at the Battleship Island, invariably of your location, an artificial island where the boss fights, somehow, ensue.

Through your adventure, the story exposition of each chapter will be related in wildly varying styles: some chapters rely on in-game cutscenes, some play pre-rendered cutscenes, and others, somehow, fallback into showing you story bits in anime style and American comic-book style. You will fight several different bosses, all commandeered by the Heaven Smiles and their leader, Kun-Lan.

Kun Lan, in my opinion, is a metaphor for, again, "The East". I insist, I am terrible at politics, so, I am so, so sorry that I'm going to get this wrong, but the main theme in the, plain and simple, is the constant opposition and collaboration between both forces: America and Japan, Occident and Orient. One cannot survive without the other; yet, one is continuously at odds with the other, vying for dominance, challenging it, and sometimes even being dangerously comfortable in bed together. One has to delicately negotiate against the other for their mutual, continued existence. This is perfectly laid down with the introduction of Kun Lan and Harman Smith in the first chapter, where "a never ending conflict, a wheel which will only keep turning" is presented on top of the Seattle Space Needle, and with the depiction of the Heaven Smiles as dangerous, foreign invaders.

The Killer7, thus, are the Strong arm of the USA against the opposing forces; through Resident-Evil style files and other recourses, little by little, the fact will be introduced that, somehow, the Smiths seem to be multiple personalities of a single person: Harman Smith. Even though he's shown to be an elderly man with a mysterious, dark past of assasination, he will take over by force in certain critical elements of the plot. Dear and near to him is his disciple Garcian, who he took interest in from his High School days, when the old Harman Smith worked as his principal.

Eventually it is revealed that Garcian Smith is the real main playable character in the game and the true commander of the personalities. You see, if you're fighting and your current Smith dies, Garcian Smith will jump into the fray. Armed with a humongous, human-sized attache case, he's the only one out of the eight Smiths capable of collecting and reviving the corpses of the other Smiths, represented by a severed head on the ground inside of a paper bag. In his own words, he's a "cleaner". This is introduced as a very stylish way to not have to recur to a classic Game Over screen and return to checkpoint penalty, like most other games do.

Killer7 does use a checkpoint system, though. Spread around the game world, random rooms will lead you back into "Harman's Room", a mystical otherworldly room inhabited only by Iwazaru and Samantha, the maid of the Smith syndicate, which eerily reflects the room of the actual Harman, who lives wheelchair-bound in a trailer in the outskirts of Seattle, Washington under the care of a rowdy teenager named "Samantha" and Garcian.

Every time you visit Harman's Room in-game, this will serve as a checkpoint, the next spawn point where Garcian will spawn if your current Smith dies. In Harman's room, you can also save your game and re-awaken Smiths by using blood, if still dormant, by using the TV; you will also be able to switch personalities here, even though the ability is contextual and always available to the player from the pause menu. Not every Harman's Room is the same, however --some of them will actually be copies of the real version, and you will not be able to save your game in those. Why? Your guess is as good as mine, but I thought we had already forgone any possible semblance of this game making any sense by this point.

Part 3. Vote Falsification

"Hello Mister Smith: the election is drawing near. Have you decided on your vote? If you haven't please let the Republic Party make the most of your precious vote. Thank you, and have a nice day."

You will listen to this robocaller spiel at the beginning of most episodes in Killer7. The Republic Party (not to be confused, but perhaps alluding to the Republican party) is the most influential political party in the world of Killer7, and it's implied that they're calling the shots. The Killer7, driven by the unconscious, are actually moving its agenda forward by the strategic elimination of their targets: kill a Japanese politician, and you ensure that whoever the goverment of the USA wants in power there ends up in the post. Kill a Cult Leader, to avoid an insurrection. Kill a Comic Book author whose plotlines actually come true in real life to ensure hegemony.

But it is succintly revealed, little by little, that the goverment of the USA is a facade, instead being a puppet to a deep state: where do elections take place? In schools, and who handles the organization and execution of an election? The Ministry of Education, which is shown to be infiltrated by the Japanese, as part of the ongoing ploy for dominance which both sides have against each other. So the Ministry of Education is who actually holds the power in the world of Killer7, since they get the leverage to manipulate elections at whim. One of the last fights in the game occurs in a school, next to the ballots.

The Japanese-infiltrated Ministry of Education is also shown, little by little, to have a covert program to create assasins for the aid of the Japanese goverment: Japanese handlers train and mentalize certain gifted children in the US, MKULTRA style, into becoming cold, bloodthirsty killers. Their methods open the third eye of the kids and create multiples in their minds, which are inhabited by the souls of the people they assasinate.

Garcian then realizes his part in this. Late in the game, Garcian Smith goes rogue due to the assasination of his trusty informant and friend Mills, and he finds the file of a child by the name of "Emir Parkreiner" in an old school, by playing Russian Roulette with Benjamin Keane, one of the targets. Emir is the latest child of a certain family of notoriety, who then murders every person in his school including the Principal after a psychotic episode, who was an incarnation of Harman Smith. Realizing that he had a third eye, Harman takes interest in him and takes him under his wing, and then was absorbed as one of the multiples.

Emir was then recruited and his past was covered up by the goverment of the USA, who hired him to ambush the Killer7 syndicate at the Union Hotel (a location which occurs later in the game, which is an allusion to another Suda Game, Flower Sun and Rain), from which he gained their personalities as multiples and later suicided on the roof to avoid the suffering.

Garcian then realizes, obviously, of course, that Emir is... Himself. This realization is represented by the reopening of his third eye in a certain scene. Even though he's an American, Garcian somehow exhibits Japanese demeanor and habits, like traditional bowing and the like --a remnant from his Japanese handlers. He has flashbacks of killing the early Harman Smith, Kun-Lan and the killer7, which were actions he took as Emir Parkreiner. Lastly, once he reaches the roof, he finds an effigy of the early Emir Parkreiner, a younger version of himself, with an open third eye. The game concludes once you kill him, perfecltly tying into the Kill the Past theme, with Garcian snapping out of it in the middle of a nervous breakdown. He opens his suitcase for the first time, to reveal that all of the weapons of the Killer7 were always inside all along, which proves that in reality, it was always merely Garcian who you controlled, and the personalities were illusions.

Part 4. Epilogue

The game concludes with a visit to Battleship Island, which is a man-made island set between Japan and the USA in the Pacific accessible through an inter-continental highway, a theoretical development in the world of Killer7, kind of a metaphor for Hawaii and Japan. Missing his Killer eye now and using the same Golden Gun he used to kill the Killer7, Emir visits the Island to put an end to the Heaven Smiles. The last one of them, which may or not be Iwazaru and who is revealed to be, of course, Kun Lan, lies in a room guarded by the Japanese Prime Minister, Kenjiro Matsuoka.

Your access to this room depends upon your answer to a dilema, in the ultimate conclusion to the game: do you Extinguish the Japanese empire for good through the assasination of Kenjiro Matsuoka, or do you let him live to fight another day, so that the true Imperialistic intentions of the East are fulfilled?

I will conclude this most brief essay with a declaration of love: I love this game and when I originally played it, I was oblivious to most of it. Due to the incredible work of the developers, the game has recently been re-released for PC, in High-Definition, to showcase its beautiful visuals in all their Glory. It's like Resident Evil but by sick fucks, for sick fucks. There is no way, and I insist on this, no way at all that a game like this, with sex scenes, blood everywhere and a cuss tally, would ever be released in today's day and age, and that makes me both sad, yet happy that this weird little gem exists --so definitely, give it a play as soon as you can.